Ghouls and Goblinoids
The party explored the blast furnace room, uncovering little of value among the scraps of corpses remaining. The furnace was long cold, but looked like it was masterfully crafted with a bellows powered by a water wheel. Passages leading south, west, and north exited to cavern. The previously flaming skull had a faint glow to it still, and though cracked, it was evident that the skull had healed from cracks before. The party threw it into the underground lake to be rid of it.
The faint sounds of rustling and crunching came from the south. The west hallway terminated abruptly in a heavy door covered in scratch marks, with a passage leading southward just before the door.
Moving to investigate the door, the blazing rapier in Kronk's hand shed light down the long passage southward. Two icy blue eyes reflected back at him. The sound of wet flesh striking stone was closely followed by an unearthly howl. The howl was repeated 1, 2, ... 5 times from that direction and the party realized they were in for it.
Retreating quickly to a defensible position on the other side of the channel in the blast furnace room, the party made a stand against the undead that rushed at them. Bolts flew, arrows sung, blades cut, and some of the creatures exploded in puss and gore. The party was victorious, but narrowly. Kronk had to administer first aid to the unconscious Torrfig and Hada before finding their way back to the Forge of Spells, barricading the entrance, and waiting.
11 hours later, the party was feeling like themselves again. An irregular and faint tapping of metal against some other material, possibly stone, possibly glass, pervaded the forge of spells during this rest. Its source seemed most closely to be coming from the northern workshop room, though no source made itself apparent. It stopped and started at irregular intervals.
During the recovery Hada heard a group of humanoids talking in a language he recognized as goblinoid outside the doors. The faint sounds of tapping stopped. Tense minutes passed as they first tried to open the door to the forge, then moved southward.
Presumably they opened the doors to Mormesk's chambers, and he greeted them. A blood curdling scream emanated from that direction and pounding feet ran back the direction they came from, crunching ancient bones underway. The tapping resumed its ponderous and abnormal pace once the footsteps faded.
Curiosity piqued, the party tried to see if Mormesk was behind the sound. Calling out was greeted with no response, and Torrfig reminisced about ancient dwarven ways of dealing with hauntings. Stuu took up a slightly less destroyed piece of wood and whittled a wee duck out of it. Mormesk made his opinions about these acts known in a sudden but direct manner. No further conversation with the previously-living wizard was successful.
The miffed, the party set out to examine that door again. Kronk quickly realized its locking mechanism was toasted, but the door didn't seem ready to move easily. Faint mumblings could be heard through the thick door, but no details could be made out. After brief consideration, the party voiced the option that maybe whatever is behind the door was also an enemy of the undead in this room. Kronk knocked on the door, saying "Hello? It's ok, you can come out now. We killed them all."
The mumblings stopped. A pregnant pause ensued. Then something heavy and wooden scraped against stone on the other side of the door. It opened, just a crack. Yellow hobgoblin eyes peered out at the party, then went wide with recognition. It yelled something and threw the door open wide, jumping back into a defensive stance. Commotion broke out in the room as a tall, slender hobgoblin started barking orders.
Kronk used his grappling hook to latch the door and pulled it closed again. Just before it closed, the party saw a hobgoblin disappear out a back door and run northwards up the hallway there. A short moment after Kronk pulled the door shut, the same heavy wood against stone sound reached them over the now muffled commotion.
The party retreated. Thinking first to run northward up the channel from the blast furnace. Shouts were heard and the party did an abrupt u-turn. Running instead down the channel towards the underground lake, Hada rounded the corner and a familiar screech was heard, followed shortly by a bolt of fire right in the chest from a newly regenerated flaming skull hovering out over the lake.
We left our party there, on the verge of danger. Their hearts pumping fast as they try to think how to handle this pickle they've landed in.
