Splat!

I've never run so hard in my life, and I've never felt so much pain (but the time with the fire elemental was close). My impulsive jaunt to save Barricade went more smoothly than I anticipated, right up to the point where two boulders crashed into my back in rapid succession. When I regained consciousness, we were miles away and riding hard for safety; they tell me that I was near death, and Borrow stuffed me into his bag of holding to save me. I am again amazed by Malakar's healing magic -- my continued life and my mobility are testimony to his skill.

Back to the beginning: the cave wasn't at all what I'd expected. I thought we'd find a repeat of the Temple of the Undying Flame, with Borka working for another of Nassiral Hate's thugs to question Barricade and regain the artifact. But this time around her crew was tougher, and her employers weren't after the artifact, just slave labor.

We met Borka just as she was leaving, riding a Griffon into the sunset (everybody around here seems to have flying mounts, except us). She shared her usual sardonic taunts, told us that Barricade was inside a nearby, and offered to trade for information. Nobody was terribly interested in taking her up on it. Mostly I was glad she didn't choose to attack; we weren't prepared for an aerial assault, and we never planned to meet her force head-on in the open.

We approached the cave cautiously as Borka flew off, and then sent Borrow in, under invisibility, to investigate. After waiting tensely for four or five minutes, I suddenly heard his whispered alarm "you guys better get in here". Rushing in, we found ourselves face to face with two angry frost giants. Fortunately, only one could fit into the entry tunnel to swing at us, and the other threw javelins from behind to little effect. Even with that tactical advantage, Malakar and Ili took a beating from the resiliant giants in a long battle of attrition, before we finally defeat them with fire and steel.

Borrow never told us how he raised the alarm; I'm surprised, given his invisibility and his natural stealthiness. At least he was able to silence the alarm bell; there's no way we could have faced the rest of the giants at the same time.

Continuing to investigate, it became more and more apparent that this was some kind of mining operation, controlled by front giants using slave labor. Defeating the giants didn't appear to be an option, given our difficulty in getting past the two at the front gate. Impulsively, I decided to attempt an invisible dimension door directly to the location of Barricade's posessions. I found myself in an unusual chamber, noisy with the brutality of a frost giant leader trying to whip Barricade into submission. I quickly scouted around, grabbed Barricade's possessions (and a couple of extras) off the giant desk, and got into position for the key maneuver. I tried to time my movement between the lashes, but as I reached for Barricade I got swiped too. Fortunately, he didn't struggle and I was able to dimension door us back to the others. From there, it turned into a hectic chase.

We made it outside, and spent what spells we could to accelerate Malakar and Barricade, so Borrow and I were bringing up the rear. When the frost giants reached the entrance, they started to pelt us with a hail of boulders, and that's when I went down.

On the whole, I think we were successful: we saved Barricade, we retrieved the artifact, and we delivered them safely to New Goldenaxe a few days later. Malakar and Ili were insistent that we couldn't let the slavery continue, but fortunately Gnorrow Yar assured us that a dwarven force would take care of it without the need for our involvement. Our long journey seemed to be at an end, but then Yar asked us to accompany a column of dwarves back to the cavern where we fought the dragon to assist in establishing their stronghold there. From the sounds of things, Dragon Keep will be a large fortification enclosing the entrance to Kor's cavern, and give the dwarves a vitally-needed presence outside Deverenia. Yar has hinted that he might grant us space within Dragon Keep to establish a keep of our own, and that suggestion has caught my imagination: Malakar and I have stayed up late into the night debating the possibilities. Borrow is demonstrating his typical lack of enthusiasm for organized group activity, but even that can't temper my enjoyment of our current success and status.