The abandoned Rill's Mouth Mines are located in the Dwendalian Empire a little over an hour and a half to the east of Alfield, and north of the Rillway Road. It served as the lair for a cult of Yeenoghu.
The lair's entrance was located among a series of large, rolling hills, topped with broken shale, and surrounded by vibrant green grasses and tall weeds that varied from knee to chest height.
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History
In Sydenstar 835 PD, the mine served as the lair from which a group of gnolls coordinated an attack on Alfield. After the attack on Alfield the gnolls, cautious of being followed, hid their lair's entrance by deliberately sweeping and dusting their tracks around the mineshaft yard with dirt. They also camouflaged the location of the entrance with a 12×12-foot blanket of interwoven grasses.
The party that would become the Mighty Nein ventured into the mines to eliminate the gnolls.
" The Howling Mines " (2x06)
When the Mighty Nein followed the gnolls to their lair they found, in the mineshaft yard, three carts that the gnolls had used to haul captives and spoils from Alfield. Three guard-hyenas were gathered around and licking the dried blood splatter on the carts.
In the Common Area Nott failed to notice a trap and sprung it, which caused a log to loudly slam against the rock wall of the shaft and thus alerted the gnolls deeper in the mine. After defeating two gnolls, Jester searched the room and found a "Boom-Boom Stick" and a sledgehammer.
Nott partially explored the left passage and found no traps, so the party chose to further explore the right passage with the expectation that the more important sections of the lair would be trapped.
When the party entered the Ritual Altar Chamber there were six gnolls gathered around the altar, along with a priest of their god Yeenoghu. As the gnolls were conducting a ceremony to Yeenoghu, the priest placed several hearts onto an altar and gave small, muffled barks and yipping sounds. After saying a prayer in broken common, the gnolls around them yipped in unison and then tore into and devoured the hearts. The priest thought that a manticore was a boon from Yeenoghu, and that by feeding and growing one, a manticore would provide strength to the pack and thus more meat and power in the future.
After the ritual to Yeenoghu, the priest left, along with two of the gnolls and the now visible pack leader. The party killed two gnolls before the creatures had a chance to act. When the remainder did react, two hyenas were immediately killed by Fjord's Armor of Agathys. Fjord and Molly carved through the third gnoll while Jester and Beau took out the fourth, and Molly and Fjord killed the last two hyenas as they were attempting to flee. Nott used Hideous Laughter to prevent the last gnoll from leaving the room before finishing it off with her short sword. There the party found a medicinal supplies chest containing:
- 2 healer's kits
- disinfectant herbs and fungi (enough for two uses)
- When applied topically, the herbs and fungi could remove poisons if quickly applied to the wound that was poisoned.
- a small, leather hand pack that contained 4 glass vials
- 3 vials were shattered, and the last vial contained a greater healing potion.
After hearing a muffled explosion in the distance and what sounded like a low vocalization, cackling, and eventually the scream of a woman saying, 'No, my baby!', the party gave chase.
" Hush " (2x07)
The party followed the mineshaft tunnel down towards the woman's voice they had heard. They eventually found a second large chamber containing two hyenas, a skeletal gnoll, and two regular gnolls bickering over a small human child. An explosion from nearby made the group pause before Nott, Fjord, Jester, and Molly initiated an ambush. Just as they were firing off their first attacks, a loud boom shook the interior of the chamber, causing dust and rocks to fall from the ceiling. A cloud of dust and smoke came billowing out of the right passage, followed shortly by a new figure entering the room: the cleric Shakäste, who had also come to help rescue villagers.
Together, they investigated the room. Alongside another “Boom-Boom Stick" and a number of bodies they found a woman, Herma, who turned out to be the mother of the young boy, Jules; and a half-elven man, Petrov. They brought the living and seven of the dead back to the surface, where Shakäste had a shelter with four more survivors.
Shakäste sent his familiar, a hummingbird called the Duchess, ahead to scout the tunnel beyond the second chamber. Learning that there were more gnolls, Nott and Fjord took point, sneaking ahead. He and Nott killed a gnoll quickly, but not before it signaled the rest of its pack.
Three more gnolls came to investigate, prompting another scuffle. They were shortly joined by their pack leader, which charged ahead to kick Beau into a well in the floor. Shakäste held the leader at bay so that Jester and Nott could take him down. Beau climbed out of the well. With the largest threat eliminated, the remaining gnolls went down quickly. Jester found 13 gold and three silver pieces with a two-handed glaive on the gnoll pack lord.
The next, and final, chamber of the mines contained two bound, human captives, some manner of humanoid priest wearing gnoll bones, a mother manticore, and her newborn cub. The manticore consumed a human captive before anything could be done.
Nott tried to sneak in and free the captives, but before Nott could finish untying the captives the manticore saw them entering the cavern, and combat was joined. A single strike from Nott's sword killed the cub and attracted the mother's full wrath.
Beau ran in to drag Nott out of the manticore's range, although a final parting bite knocked Nott unconscious. Meanwhile, the priest took Jester out, and Shakäste broke the priest's concentration on the spell paralyzing Fjord. This allowed Fjord to use a healing potion to revive Jester, who in turn revived Nott. Nott then used Hideous Laughter to momentarily incapacitate the manticore.
While the manticore was helpless with laughter, the party focused damage on the priest. Caleb struck the killing blow with a Fire Bolt, and the sight of the priest's burning head triggered a flood of memories that made him withdraw into himself. Shakäste landed two final blows on the badly hurt manticore, finally killing it with a bolt of radiant flame down its throat.
The Mighty Nein found the following loot in its nest:
- A skeletal hand that had been mostly chewed through, though on a single fleshy finger it held a beautiful silver ring with a blue gem. Caleb later identified it as a Ring of Water Walking.
- A refined and well-carved stick, which Caleb later identified as a Wand of Smiles.
- Large chains attached to a set of unlocked manacles.
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