We found ourselves standing in front of a mining cabin, set against a sheer vertical cliff face. The top of the cliff was 60 feet up, and another cabin stood atop it. The two cabins were connected by a sort of shaft that ran up the cliff wall. The cabin at this level had two entrances: a single door near the front, and a set of double doors at the side. The double doors were barred from the inside.
The front door had a rusty lock, which Ash easily picked. This led to a small 10′ x 15′ room. Along one wall was a set of double doors, and next to it, a curtain. Behind the curtain was a tiny bedroom, containing little more than a cot and a pair of boots. Hidden in one of the boots was a punching dagger, which we took.
The double doors from the entrance room were locked, and again Ash picked the lock. Behind this door was a large room with a dirt floor, containing ore processing machinery. The floor was a few feet lower than the doorway, so a ramp led down from it. The air in this room was putrid, and we saw the shadowy figure of Silas Vekker, a dwarf without any eyes, crouched in the far corner. He was scooping handfuls of gold dust out of a chute, and eating it. When he saw us, he said “You have to try this! It’s delicious!”. Gulnyr stepped into the room, and was suddenly compelled to crouch down and start eating dirt. Suddenly, Silas exploded, and then disappeared. A moment later, Gulnyr’s compultion wore off, and the gold dust that the figure was eating was now ore dust.
This room had another set of double doors, which Ash unlocked. As soon as she did so, the figure of Silas Vekker reappeared. Takar tried to hit him with a flame blast, but it went right through without effect. Zacartas tried to dispell him, but failed, and Gulnyrs attacks went right through as well. Finally, Thord channeled energy at the figure, which dispersed it.
We went through the doors, and found ourselves at the bottom of the shaft that we had seen running up the cliff wall. A set of wooden stairs spiralled up against the shaft walls, and a long chain hung down the middle, hanging from a winch that was attached to the ceiling at the very top.
The back wall of the cabin was the stone cliff face itself, so at this point Takar decided to investigate the next room over by going around the side wall of this room, by stepping into the stone. This took him to the room that was behind the barred double-doors on the side of the cabin. It was filled with mining equipment, and nothing else of note, save for the fact that the door was barred from the inside, with no other entrances present. Takar unbarred the doors, and reported back to the party. Zacartas cast Detect Secret Doors to see if there was a hidden way from this room to the equipment shed, but found none.
We ventured up the stairs, with Zacartas and Roy flying up the middle of the shaft instead. Part way up, the stairs suddenly collapsed out from under us. They did not break or fall; rather, they were rigged to fold down, as a trap. Gulnyr fell to the ground, while the others on the stairs managed to catch themselves and hold on. Also, the chain suddenly became animated, and attacked Zacartas and Roy. The two of them quickly flew to the top of the shaft, and the chain then attacked Devin, knocking him to the floor. It then grappled Takar, who had begun flying after the stairs collapsed. Meanwhile, Thord continued to climb to the top, and once there, he and Zacartas attacked the winch that held the chain, until the chain became no longer animated.
We regrouped in the room at the top of the shaft. This room had a single door, behind which was a corridor that led to a kitchen with a dining area. In the kitchen was a painting of some dwarves, and we recognized one of them as Silas Vekker. We suddenly experienced pangs of hunger, followed by an urge to start eating each other, but we all resisted the urge, and it subsided a few moments later. Searching the kitchen, Thord and Ash found a dwarf tooth in the cauldron.
A door in the kitchen was stuck closed; Thord opened it using a crowbar. This led to a room containing a pile of dwarven bones. Thord noticed a skeleton in the pile that resembled himself, and it even wore a ring on its finger identical to Thord’s own. Suddenly, he found himself attacked by some invisible force that caused his body to become covered with bite marks. A few moments later, the effect stopped, and the skeleton in the bone pile no longer seemed to resemble him.
The corridor that led to the kitchen had several doors, and at this point Ash used her gloves to look through one of them. Behind it was a room with bunk beds, a coal box, weapon rack, lantern, and wooden chest. This room also had a closet. We opened the door, and Thord searched this room, and found a hook attached to some kind of mechanism. He pulled it, and this caused the collapsed stairs in the shaft to return to their proper position.
Another door in the corridor led to a closet containing various odds and ends, including a few pairs of snow shoes. We then returned to the first room at the top of the shaft, and Zacartas cast Detect Secret Doors here. He found a secret locked door, which Ash unlocked. Behind it was a study, containing a desk with a ledger, and seven burlap sacks on the floor. Two of the sacks contained gold nuggets, and the rest contained gold dust. Behind the sacks was a coffer containing 14 uncut gems. We looked at the ledger, and found that the last few pages were missing.
We returned to the kitchen, where there was one more door we hadn’t yet investigated. It led outside, to a porch area. Gulnyr and Roy spotted a figure standing out in the snow, who shouted, “Run! They’re going to eat you!”. Gulnyr then became panicked, and fled out into the snow, and Takar chased after him to try to bring him back. Meanwhile, the cabin started shaking and sliding, as though it was going to fall off of the cliff. We all suddenly started seeing images of ravenous dwarves at the edges of our vision, but never directly where we were looking, and we felt hunger pangs as well. Devin and Thord channeled energy to suppress the haunt, which stopped the cabin from shaking, and dismissed the images.
The figure of Silas Vekker appeared once more before us. He warned us to abandon our quest, lest we end up like him. We told him that we were seeking Xin-Shalast, and he said that he could tell us the way, but we must first bring the remains of his brother, Keravec Vekker, to him. He pointed us in the proper direction to find his brother.
We followed his directions, and came to a cliff that was 2,000 feet tall. Ash, Roy, and Zacartas flew up the cliff face, and found a shelf-like ledge about 1,900 feet up. They returned to tell the rest of us what they saw, and after casting Fly on Thord and Gulnyr, we all ventured up, with Devin and Takar being carried. As we explored the shelf, we were suddenly attacked by a giant one-eyed white worm, which emerged from the ground. We fought it, and as we did so, a dwarven ghost emerged as well. It let out a moan, which panicked Ash and Roy, and then it telekinetically flung Gulnyr over the cliff edge. Since he was flying, he quickly rejoined the battle , and he and Takar finished off the worm. It exploded when it died, knocking out Devin. Meanwhile, the ghost attacked Takar, draining some of his constitution and charisma. He tried to move away, but the ghost knocked him out. Thord then healed Devin allowing him to regain consciousness, and Devin destroyed the ghost by channeling energy at it.
We regrouped after the fight, but Ash was not with us, having fled far away while panicked, and unable to find her way back in the snow. The rest of us found an area with some gravestones, including the grave of Keravec, and obtained his remains. Unable to find Ash, and with the weather getting worse, we retreated to the base of the cliff. By the time we reached the bottom, a full blizzard was in effect. We set up a tent, and rested for the night. During our rest, Thord had a nightmare in which he had become a cannibal, and was eating the rest of us.
The next morning, we returned to the top of the cliff using Wind Walk, and found Ash by using two Locate Object spells.