The Virtue of Being Rash

Strategic blundering has become a hallmark for our Heroes, enabling them to foil plots foul and sinister through a combination of dumb luck and bull-headed arrogance.  When last we left our heroes the group had discovered the ancient dwarven ruins but appeared unable to reach the doors to that ancient vault.  A mostly sheer cliff stood between our heroes and their prize.  Undaunted, the Elf Lorenot sensing trepidation on part of his dwarven and halfling companions took it upon himself to climb up.

When the ridiculous bath towel caped elf made it to the top, the jailer Anika soon followed and eventually, by a reluctant Axel as well.  Only dour Grim stood at the bottom unable or unwilling to trust his fortune to the dangling rope and dubious strength of his companions.  "Nay," he declared, "A proper dwarf tackles such things with engineering and cunning!"  Some half day later, with the assistance of a wandering elven scout, Grim had constructed himself a ramp of rubble enabling to clamber up to the ledge with body and dignity intact.

In the meantime the others had explored the great vault discovering first a gleaming bronze door replete with some symbol whose provenance turned out to be entirely unknown to any of the three members of the vanguard.  Unable to read and not caring much for matters scholarly anyway, all three charged through only to discover a volcanic flood had claimed portions of the ancient stronghold.  Slow moving rivulets of lava and crusts of cooled material created a zig-zag path that tested the heroes sorely.  Indeed, so paralytically slow was their progress that grim and the scout managed to catch up by the time they had navigated their way to the far end.

Upon reaching the first of the main caverns the group saw the remnants of a surface market.  Stalls with goods still very much in evidence lay abandoned as they had some millenia earlier when the ancient place had been abandoned after a particularly savage Greenskin raid.  The market had truly once been a wondrous place serving as a trading spot for rare and precious metals as well as quality dwarf-make metal goods.  The group plundered what few salvageable items were to be had with Grim making note of the remaining bits for later use in crafting.

Several caverns lead off of the market cave and, knowing that lava and dusty old tunnels inspire a powerful thirst, Lorenot charged down the tunnel ostensibly marked as a "tavern".  He was sorely disappointed with the offerings through Anika seemed more than happy to drain cask after cask, double-fisting tankards in so doing.  Further explorations revealed that some of the doomed dwarves had made their final stand here.  Trestle tables lay up-ended and bones and debris lay scattered about.  The heroes were especially pleased to discover that the defenders had held their position with the use of three blunderbusses.  A small store of shot and powder remained enabling the party to make use of the hand canons at least a few more times.

The group continued to wend its way deeper into the tunnels locating a secret store of documents.  The greater treasure, however, was found beneath secret panels.  Unfortunately, the group's ability to disarm traps was perhaps not entire up to the task.  Fortunately Grim was able to use his body shield to protect himself from the worst of the blasts on those rune-secured cabinets he was unable to efface.  The treasures within yielded a few more choice goods while the party stumbled upon n even greater trove.  A secret panel revealed an ancient armory, presumably belonging to the ancient ruler of the dwarven city.

Encouraged by their discoveries and armed to the teeth the band pressed onward.  Another secret door led the party into a portion of the stronghold still swarming with the descendants of the Greenskin horde that had taken the city so many centuries earlier.  The door was cleverly concealed as evidenced by the fact that the southern half of the stronghold had not been plundered quite so thoroughly as had the goblin infested areas.  The band tracked the goblin raiders back to the old king's throne room and blanched at the goblin town that had grown up within its borders.

Rude huts scattered across the great cavern and bands of lazy goblin warriors lounged idly, evidently unaware of their approaching doom.  Knowing that the Greenskins possessed superior numbers, Grim proposed that the goblins be lured into the tunnels where the narrow passages would impede and constrict their attack.  The heroes would unleash the fury of their new blunderbusses on the packed horde, retreating when necessary to reload.  Grim also boldly recommended that the fleet footed elves kick off the celebration by poking the goblin king full of elven arrows.  That, he surmised, ought to get their attention.

By some mystery of circumstance and astonishing good fortune, the plan came together like a well-oiled halfling.  The packed goblin ranks were decimated by concerted blunderbuss fire as the dwarves held the front lines chanting "It's Hammer Time - You Can't Touch This" even as the elves rained arrows on the mob and Axel steadily reloaded the blunderbusses. 

By the time the smoke cleared and the last of the warriors had fallen Grim's blood-rage was up.  he and Anika rushed forward putting the remaining survivors to the hammer though Anika spared a few by binding them with her trusty manacles.  Appalled at the slaughter but powerless to stop it, Axel could only look on in dismay.  the elf scout likewise stared on in horror at the savagery of the dwarven duo while Lorenot contented himself plundering the dead.

Just what new adventures, feats of barbarity or stunning incompetence the gang gets up to next, who knows?