Tradden sat back and collected his thoughts.

‘Cool heads win the day,’ he said softly to himself, repeating a mantra often told to him by Mr Ironfoot. It was one which he suspected his friend, now breathing an uneasy, wheezing, unconcious set of breaths beside him would probably agree with.

That epiphany reached, Tradden coolly stood up, picked up the torch, still smouldering on the floor, and had a tentative look around. He wanted to establish whether there was any likely remaining danger from other creatures.

He also looked to whether there were any other entry or exit points from this chamber, or just the one they had used to come down.

The light was not bright, but perhaps a brighter light was not required now — hardly condusive to sleep!

Content that the immediate danger was over, Tradden went over to the table. He methodically and carefully picked up each item and placed them on the floor to one side, as close to how they had been laid out as he could.

He then took his time dragging the table to the entrance way where they had come in, and tipped it on its end, pushing it to barricade the bottom of the stairs as best he could. It wouldn’t stop anything determined, but it would at least stop anything, or anyone, sneaking in or surprising them. He didn’t intend to sleep for the next few hours, so he would be ready.

That done, he spent the following hours investigating the chamber and tending to Khalin. Thankfully, the dwarf didn’t seem to be getting any worse, and there was no sign of fever or infection. He was just sleeping very, very soundly. The young fighter actually cheered up when the warlord started snoring loudly, as he took this as a good sign.

Anyone looking on at the chamber over the next few hours would have observed, in addition to Tradden tending to Khalin from time to time, him doing many small chores. The first was to inspect the alcoves, containing the flames that gave the room its eerie glow, and also, he assumed, gave off the heat. These were not his forte, but he never knew what he migh find from some insight or clue upon the way.

He then carefully checked through the pile of garbage on the floor — he figured it was the remains of the bizarre creature’s previous mealtimes. It clearly had a fancy for metals, but perhaps it had left non-metal items that might be of some worth? He had heard, for instance, of various types of armour that were not metal, but were just as strong. Books and parchments might also be mixed up in the detritus — he had time to make a thorough search, as distasteful as it may be.

Tradden then went back to the items taken down from the table to see firstly if there was anything that was apparently and obviously of use now, but also for items that might interest the others back at town.

The ypoung fighter then pondered over the bookcase, or cabinet, to see if it had any books or items that matched the description given by Kireth, or that might otherwise be useful. He did quickly move on when he saw a copy of “How To Excel With Sword And Shield”.

Tradden also looked to see if there were any hidden compartments within the chamber.

He poked around the body of the creature a bit with his boot as well — just because he was getting bored at one point.

He also collected up as many pieces of Khalin’s armour as he could, as well as his dagger and hammer. Ensuring that no pieces touched any unnaffected bits of his own metal possessions he took off his cloak and made a make-shift bag to keep them all in. Hopefully Caldring could do something with them, but the young fighter feared the armour would be too far gone.

Finally, he went over to the strange gate-looking thing. He had been putting this off as it gave him the creeps, but he forced himself to have a look.

Eventually, he rested, had lunch and waited to see if Khalin was going to wake. He hoped he would, if for no other reason he didnt fancy dragging the heavy fellow up the stairs, onto the boat and rowing back with no assistance…

Healing Surges and Hit Points
Healing Surges are regained.
[Khalin has ? healing surges and is now on ?/? hit points]
[Tradden has ? healing surges and is now on ?/? hit points]

Encounter and Daily Powers
All encounter and daily powers are recharged.

Milestones
No Milestones achieved. Action Points reset to 1.

Khalin propped himself up gingerly on his hands. ‘Mind you, that was quite a smite wasn’t it?’ He inspected the bracers on his forearms, they looked like they needed a polish but seemed otherwise undamaged. Then looking once again at the slightly scruffy but nevertheless effective bindings across his chest, he added, ‘Thank you again, my boy!’

The dwarf tried to get up, but winced at a pang of pain. Taking it a little more slowly he pulled himself to his feet. ‘Now then, what have we got here?’

Tradden quickly brought his comrade up to speed on what he’d found.

Khalin inspected the carcass of the beast. He showed it grudging respect — an impressive beast, and a fellow subterranean dweller and appreciator of fine metals that it was.

‘Interesting,’ the dwarf mused. Khalin headed over to the table to inspect the various items there.

Khalin then inspected the bizarre selection of detritus piled on the floor.

Finally the warlord studiously appraised the array of books, muttering about maps, runes and what have you.

Tradden geared up for the trip back to the boat whilst Khalin did his own inspections of the various contents of the chamber.

As he did so, his gaze kept being drawn back to the lever next to the strange gate thing…

The young fighter was also much heartened to see Khalin not only back on his feet, but excited about the contents of the room. He had grinned to himself as the dwarf flicked through some of the books, murmuring to himself about “Maps, Maps of the Mainland!”

In short order the two started to plan their journey back and what would be taken, their packs and makeshift sacks filling up with the things they had agreed to take back with them, always mindful that the boat was only going to take so much!

‘Ahem!’ Tradden cleared his throat. ‘This lever…’

‘Hehe, all in good time, my friend,’ chuckled Khalin knowingly, looking forward to reminding Tradden that it would be his turn to go first given the dwarf’s lack of serviceable armour. ‘First I have a little theory about this beast…’

Khalin was feeling better already, almost as if he’d grown a little from taking on such a magnificent creature (even though it’d nearly been the end of him).

The warlord quickly brought Tradden up to speed on the rumours of old regarding rust monsters and the potential gift that may lie inside. The dwarf rubbed his bearded chin thoughtfully, trying to work out quite the best way to approach the problem, given the rusting effect that had manifested itself earlier — not to mention where the beast’s stomach or stomachs might be.

Whilst that was going on, still curious about the lever, Tradden took a closer look at the lever mechanism to see if there was any clue as to whether it had been used recently. If there was soot and grime around, presumably that would allow for indications if it had been scraped or touched. There might even be foot or hand prints.

Indeed, it seemed prudent to check for signs of any recent humanoid activity around the chamber — had this “Rust Monster”, as Khalin called it, been here on its own for sometime? Was there dust over the various things left in the room or any signs that someone had been here recently? Tradden remembered that the way they had come down did not seem like it had been disturbed recently…

Khalin’s brow creased into a now all-too-familiar scowl at the lack of treasure within the rust monster — his latest dream of gold popped. Still, it took a lot to keep the gregarious warlord’s spirit down, and presently, having wiped the goo and gore from his limbs, he rose and joined Tradden by the lever.

‘Let me have a look, lad,’ he said as he peered at the mechanism, looking for clues as to whether pulling it would turn out to be a wise move. ‘Heh, this would be child’s play for Mister Nothing no doubt…’

‘Oh, well, we’re just going to be wondering if we don’t pull it aren’t we?’ Khalin concluded, before stepping back well out of the way, and slightly to the side, then raising his shield.

‘Off you go then!’ he quipped, smiling as Tradden’s eyebrows rose for just an instant in what might be interpreted as surprise.

Tradden drew his one remaining blade, tossing it from hand to hand for a moment, unused to just having one sword on the go.

When he was ready, he used the other hand to pull the lever, and then stepped back, and to one side.

Anyone watching from the viewpoint of the gate would have seen Khalin’s head appearing at about chest height to Tradden’s side, peering around his better-armoured fellow to see what might happen…

With all haste the pair started to ensure they’d gathered what they had found. Selected tomes from the bookcase were put into sacks alongside the strange chain mail wrapped in some of the larger pieces of leather from the rubbish pile.

The parchment map was rolled and wrapped in some of the softer, more supple, leather from the rubbish pile and added to the sack.

Tradden handed a sack containing the remains of Khalin’s armour to the dwarf, almost apologetically.

Khalin safely stowed some of the prentice pieces, including the odd wired one, into a further sack and then the pair looked at each other.

‘Ready?’ offered Tradden.

‘As I will ever be,’ responded the dwarf.

‘Right, let’s get out of here,’ sighed Tradden, and kicked the barricade away from the bottom of the stairs, and headed up back into fresh air. As he exited, he had one wry glance over his shoulder at the now covered again forge. ‘Caldring’s gonna love me!’ he said to himself, unable to suppress a grin.

‘What?’ came dwarven tones from the stairs above.

‘Nothing!’ said Tradden, following him up.

It was late, so The Bronze Lion was fairly busy. By now the townsfolk knew the group of adventurers, or at least knew of them, so perhaps it was to be expected that after an initial bunch of looks-over-shoulders and stares, most folk went back to their drinks.

However, many eyes stayed on the young lad and dwarf — the sight of them lugging various bags and items into the inn piqued many an interest. Any tension was quickly diffused by one of Tradden’s more inspired moments: he dumped his own bag on the table occupied by Zero and today’s young lady, and exclaimed to the room at large. ‘Hark! Another successful trip into the wilds for the benefit of the good people of Blackengorge!’

Seeing one of the guards, clearly off duty but still in uniform, the young fighter turned to address him. ‘Pray, my fine fellow, send word to the Council that we should meet with them at once, should they still be up at this hour — we have important business with them!’

Words like ‘hark” and “pray” were wholly unnecessary, and only really made Tradden look like a berk, but the folk in the inn seemed to accept what he was saying generally. The guard gave him a “who in the nine hells are you?” look, but quaffed what remained of his ale and sloped out, likely to find Valino and report what the annoying adventurers were up to now.

Whilst this had been going on Khalin had sat down on the other side of Zero, and surreptitiously bundled the package of books for Kireth at the feet of the rogue. ‘These need to find there way to the polite young mage, no doubt upstairs in his room practicing his comedy routine,’ hissed the dwarf to the human.

Zero, whose eyes never left his goblet of wine, nodded almost imperceptibly. After a few seconds, he stood up. ‘My dear…’ he held out his arm to his female companion who giggled ferociously, and acted perhaps more drunkenly than he actually was. ‘I tire of this company almost immediately, and the rigours of the day call for a good bath — would you be so kind as to accompany me? I find it very hard to reach the middle of my back.’

The two laughed and cavorted in a playful mood all of the way across the room and up the stairs, the rogue managing to flick, wrap and billow his cloak around the girl as they moved. Many an eye was raised to the ceiling — they had seen this kind of behaviour from Mr Uhlit before, so it was getting old news — however, none of them noticed that in all the fun, the package of books had been expertly hidden from view the whole time, and it also made its way up the stairs with the two lovers.

Skillet, at the bar, a trained eye, perhaps saw more than most as to what was going on, but could only guess at what the group were up to. He did his duty by making sure that a set of drinks were taken over to the boy and the dwarf, including an extra large tankard for the warlord — the halfling was good at his day job.

Tradden’s previous guess was right — before too long Valino and the first guard entered the inn. The Guard Captain marched coolly up to their table and gave them a suitably uncomfortable silence before speaking.

‘The Council,’ Valino spat, not appreciating being a messenger boy, ‘will see you now.’ And with that he strode out.

With impeccable timing, Kireth, Celestia and Zero, now without anyone on his arm, and not looking any cleaner (although only Skillet noted it) came down the stairs, the former two roused from their rooms by the rogue. Together the five adventurers went forth to meet the Council, lugging their new items with them.