The deepest crag

A few minutes of following the mine track and a few weak goblins leads to another fork in the tunnel. Tlax slithers forwards and leans to the ground, searching for tracks, but a cheery voice comes from behind you.

"Ah, ah, ah, detective Mary is on the case! Sources say..." The angel steps forward dramatically, closing her eyes, and her finger swings back and forth before landing on the right path. "That way!"

"Sources?" You raise an eyebrow.

"Why the daemon lords of course, who else?" Mariel smirks and puts her hands on her hips. "You didn't think I was some two-bit oracle reading the clouds or something, did you?" Last you checked she's only communed with daemon lords the one time, but you aren't about to argue with results so you shrug and set off in the direction she suggests.

The passage sinks deep into the mountainside, and unlike the previous, bare tunnels you've largely walked through, this one glistens with black ore. A quick stop on your way out should get you more than enough black iron for your needs, and maybe enough to refit some of your minions with new gear as well, but that can wait. You know for a fact the goblin barbarian and rogue are still on the loose, and you can't afford to let your guard down while they could ambush you. Besides, the manasilver is the main thing you're here for, and you haven't seen any sign of it yet.

"Well, Tlax, how's your first adventure outside the lair as a gorgon?" Sera chats with her new friend as the bland scenery goes by.

"It'sss... sssimilar. I wasss hoping to try my new tracking ssskillsss, but your sssissster ssseemsss to be much better than I am." The snake woman looks a bit dejected.

"Mary? Oh, she's hopeless. Don't let her lucky streak today convince you otherwise." The younger angel sticks out her tongue at her sister. "You'll get your chance to track something sooner or later." You raise a hand to hush them as you notice a faint glow coming from ahead.

It's subtle at first, only around as bright as your makeshift torch at its dimmest extent, but the light gradually grows brighter and brighter as your group tiptoes around each corner of the winding passage. Finally the tunnel straightens into a high cavern from which a blazing light and baking heat emerges. You pause for a moment, letting your eyes adjust. The wall in the back of the cavern is made of a silvery ore that you recognize as raw manasilver. The heat comes from a forge cobbled together in the centre of the room, several sweating goblins hauling lumps of ore to it and then taking processed metal out of the other side. Somewhere in the distance, the sound of a hammer beating against metal rings out.

"Well, looks like we've found our manasilver. Say, Ari, can you snipe the goblins carrying the refined metal out of the room? Let's see if we can't let them do a bit of work for us." She nocks and arrow and launches it, and if the goblin makes any noise as he dies it's inaudible in the cacophony. Ari shoots a few more goblins and the ingots start to pile up, until finally she stays out a bit too long and a goblin points in her direction and opens its mouth.

"Darn it!" Ari frowns at her mistake.

"Don't worry, it was good while it's lasted. Let's go!" You launch a fireball which engulfs the room, toasting most of the goblins, and the last few fall to your three archers' arrows. Enemies dispatched, you move into the room slink down the hallway through which they were hauling ingots, no longer ringing out with the clanging of metal. You peek around the corner to see a flash of silvery metal formed into what looks like a rib cage, then a cloak is thrown over the cart it's on and two wolves start pulling it away. "Get out of here, ya gits!" The black-clothed goblin you recognize as Zigrag directs the cart down a wide passage then turns to face the tunnel in which you're hiding.

"Come out, come out, wherever ya are!" You shrug and step out into the open. "And yer whores too, why don'tcha?" You nod and your four champions follow. The goblin juggles a dagger as he speaks, his gravelly voice and scars distinguishing him from his kind. Shadowdagger stands to one of his sides, and Feathers sits astride her wolf on the other. Zigrag leers at Mariel. "Mmm, I love what you've done with your wings. You think they're as blue inside as the rest of you?" He cracks an evil grin and licks his rusty blade.

You start channelling a huge fireball and he lets out a sharp whistle before hopping behind Feathers on her wolf. "Adventurer, deal with these monsters." You loose the spell and a sphere of golden flame rushes towards your enemies.

"It'd be my pleasure." Shadowdagger responds and vanishes into a puff of smoke as the warg bears the two goblins to the far exit, whimpering as the golden fireball expands and washes over it. Sera's blade rings out as she blocks the teleporting rogue's stab, and the rest of you chase after the singed and retreating goblin boss. Suddenly, a roar shakes the cavern and a hulking form stumbles into the room.

The monster in front of you is huge, green-skinned, pot-bellied, and wears only a loincloth. Tongues loll out of each of its two heads as it drags a huge, wooden club behind it on the ground.

Ogre: Level 36
Monster, Ogre, Explicit

"ME SMASH YOU!" You jump to the side as its club moves with a speed you would never have expected, sharp rocks stabbing into you as the ground where he hits explodes into a burst of dust and stone. Tlax slides between his legs and slashes his back with her two scimitars, but he barely seems to notice and spins his club in a circle, knocking Mariel away with a sick crunch.

"Mary!" Her sister dashes to her limp form but yelps as Shadowdagger's namesakes stab into her back. Ari rushes back to help, and you circle the hulking monstrosity, dodging its wild swings as you pepper it with firebolt after firebolt, seemingly only making it more angry. Ari finally reaches the rogue and takes a wild swing, but he vanishes into smoke and materializes over Mariel's crumpled form, raising his daggers high. Poof He vanishes again just as Flame Tongue lashes his recent position, holding his back to the wall as he waits for a new opening.

"Tlax, switch with Sera and Ari. You're best suited to deal with the adventurer, go!" She gives a short hiss in acknowledgement and darts past the giant's powerful swing, wincing and lurching as a large chunk of rock bounces off her back. Seramiel pours a red potion into her sister's mouth, helping her disoriented kin to her feet as Ari does the best she can to block the teleporter's relentless ****. Once Mariel regains her bearings, she draws back her bow to form a scintillating arrow of freezing mana, launching it at one of the ogre's heads and eliciting a roar of pain. Her sister lashes out around the club, giving it a tug, but instead goes flying as the ogre flicks the huge chunk of wood in response, slamming the seraph into a rocky wall. It readies a massive swing to finish her off, but you distract it by bringing down a huge pillar of heavenly fire upon its head and it roars, clutching its heads with its hands as its club falls to the ground with a crunch.

"Oh, I've been looking forward to this, freakshow," Shadowdagger teleports around Tlax as she hammers his daggers with her scimitars, her head surrounded by a halo of hissing snakes. Despite his bravado, the sight of her monstrous form gradually saps his strength, and each block comes a bit slower than the previous one, each teleport a bit less precise. You launch a firebolt at him and it singes his skin, his vanishing act coming a moment too late.

The world turns upside down as a massive hand closes around your ankle and picks you up, and the next thing you know you're dangling upside down in front of the two-headed giant. You barely manage to pull yourself up in time as the club whooshes below you, groaning at the exertion. A second swing comes, and this time you feel it graze a few strands of hair. You aren't sure you'll be able to dodge the third.

"Hey, fatso, over here!" Mariel has dropped her bow and channels a huge orb of frost between her hands. The ogre drops you on the ground and you scramble out of the way. "Mary, look out!" The ogre lurches forwards, massive log held aloft, and brings it down over her head. The two of them are engulfed in a veritable blizzard of snow and ice as the club crunches to the ground, and when the storm clears the ogre pants in pain. Mariel, however, is nowhere to be seen.

The older seraph lets out a roar of anger and jumps on top of the hulking monstrosity, several nasty stabs leaving circles of blackened flesh before the huge greenskin swats her off of her perch with its massive hand. Ari peppers it with sickly arrow after arrow, the beast starting to look like a pincushion on the side nearest to her. You let loose a cone of yellowish flame at the ogre then turn when you hear a gurgling behind you.

Tlax has the rogue locked in a tight embrace, her tail curled around his lower body and her head over his shoulder. It would almost look affectionate if not for the huge fangs buried in the rogue's neck and the angry snakes biting anywhere they find purchase. He gurgles for a moment and she releases him, his body falling limply backwards, then vanishes into a small heap of valuables. "Hssssss" Tlax lets out one last angry retort at his vanishing form before turning to face the remaining enemy.

Sera guzzles her last remaining healing potion as she holds her ribs, and the rest of you keep your distance, peppering the ogre with fire and arrows. He only moves at a normal pace after so much exposure to your weapons and Tlax's aura, and when he nears you Ari releases a huge pulse of green energy, knocking the giant to his knees despite his heroic fortitude. With a leap and a yell, Sera glides in and finishes him off, and you collapse to the floor along with Ari and Sera. Tlax rushes off in the direction the goblins fled before turning to look at you.

"Let them go, Tlax. They're long gone, and we need a break." You groan and toss back a mana potion as you feel power return to your body. After another minute's rest, you stand up and start collecting manasilver and black iron ingots until you've taken all your group can carry. The gorgon looks annoyed at the rest of you, thumping her tail from side to side.

"We should head back to the dungeon and regroup. But first, why don't you show us where they retreated to? We can head back there once we pick up Mary and take a break." Tlax smiles and ducks low to the ground, tracing tracks that are too faint for you to make out.

"Thisss way." The trek out of Deepcrag Mine is uneventful, the goblins seemingly all gone, and your group trudges in relative silence. After a while the cave flattens out you can see the evening sky glowing into its mouth, a gorgeous pink sunset on the horizon. Tlax leads you halfway back to your dungeon, occasionally flicking out her tongue to taste some scent or other in the air that you can't smell, before taking a turn up the mountain. Shortly thereafter a popup appears in front of you.

Dungeon: Zigrag's Place

You dismiss it, not much caring about the details for now, and make your way back to the lair. Planning can wait, but that was an exhausting day and there's a soft bed with your name on it.