Standing in front of the doors our heroes were able to see into Ironslag. They immediately saw a fire Giant, whom Mitsui recognized as Duke Zalto, a group of 8 drow, and 2 vicious, fiery dog-like creatures known as hellhounds. Upon seeing the group, Duke Zalto asked Mitsui what she was doing back, and, not receiving a response he liked, promptly uttered a command phrase as the doors started to shut once more. The unconscious fire giant our heroes had used to open the door was now a headless giant as the doors crushed his head. Seraphina’s quick thinking and reflexes allowed her to sneak in, undetected, just as the doors finished closing.
She then had a bit of time to explore the area. The first thing she noticed was a staircase going up, which she quickly climbed, coming up to a dimly lit second floor. She followed the wall and came to a portcullis which she easily fit through. The new room contained a number of slaves, or at least she assumed they were slaves, in cages, with some hobgoblins keeping watch. She snuck behind the cages and into a hallway. She saw two armored ogres watching a group of slaves who were turning a wooden wheel, which in turn turned some iron gears.
She snuck along the western wall and saw an opening with a fire giant inside. She noticed a set of keys attached to his belt. Even sitting however, they were too high for her to reach, so she continued on until she came across a door. The handle to the door was 9 feet above the ground, so she had no hope of opening this door. She also noticed some empty buckets moving along a railing. Sneaking back around, she came to a room which contained more hellhounds. Getting out of there quickly, she snuck up and followed the wall and then the rails, leading her back to her original room. Unfortunately, she came to nothing but dead ends, so she decided to head back downstairs.
Still sneaking past Duke Zalto, a room to the east had either a huge greatsword or a small dagger, depending on whether you were a tiny halfing or a large giant, stuck in the table top. Seraphina ignored this and went through the northern passageway. Another set of closed doors stood in her way, but there was a passage east. Following it, she came to the feasting hall, where 30 goblins were working away at cleaning the hall. Seraphina noped out before going back to the main entrance; following the north wall she came across a large room. Looking up, she noticed a platform slowly descending. She quickly got on as it started going back up. It stopped at the floor she was on before, then continued up to a much darker area. She got off, and in this area filled with tunnels, went and tried to find her way up. After a long time, she finally managed to find an exit to the outside. She then began looking for a way to descend the mountain.
Meanwhile, her companions were bashing at the adamantine door with all their might. They tried asking it to open. They tried heating it up. Mitsui even tried tricking it by climbing into the dead fire giant’s body and shouting the passcode again. After a while, they gave up on the door and decided to try the stairs leading up the mountain, hoping for another way in. It was only a measly twelve thousand steps they needed to climb after all. About three quarters of the way up, they came across a small cave within the mountain filled with bones. Mitsui got some healing ointment from within the remains of some long dead creature. They then continued up.
At the top of the stairs was a village, a rope bridge with planks, a rotten away broken bridge, and a waterfall. While deciding what to do, Mitsui went and observed the waterfall. As she was looking on, she happened to see across the cavern a nimble Seraphina rushing along a turning water wheel and then through it. Telling her companions what she saw, they knocked on the east village doors. Seraphina hid on the other side as a couple of humanoid yak creatures came to the door. They opened it and introduced themselves as yakfolk. Zesh quickly let them know that she was looking for their companion, Sera before catching herself and deciding against giving the full name. When she described “Sera,” the yakfolk told her he didn’t think there was anyone here that matched that description but would be happy to take her to the chief to see if he knew anything.
One of the yakfolk led Zesh to the other side of the village, opening the gates there and bringing her to the hut in the center of town. He greeted the chief and explained the situation before heading back to the other side. Zesh was shocked to see 3 nakes elves in the chief’s hut. The chief introduced himself as Kartha-Kaya, and hearing a description of “Sera,” he took Zesh to the northern fields where some halflings were working. None of these however were Sera. Zesh asked about the naked elves. Kartha-Kaya explained it was just to make sure they were not carrying any weapons or anything while they served. Zesh asked why they were serving, asking if it was their job, to which Kartha-Kaya indicated it was their job, although Zesh had her doubts. Zesh thanked him, and he invited her and her friends over to dinner.
Meanwhile, Seraphina hid behind Mitsui while she was talking to the yakfolk. They conversed a bit before being rejoined by the one that had lead Zesh to the chief. Mitsui, hinted to Kida to do something to help Seraphina get out unseen, and they had some very awkward movement that they claimed was a tortle dance. Getting out with Seraphina, and then meeting back up with Zesh, they decided to head back to the bone cavern and discuss their plans, including the naked people and workers.
Arriving at the cavern, they were attacked by a 3 headed beast known as a chimera. One head, a dragon, started off by breathing fire on the party. Mitsui was unsure what to do as she didn’t want to fight a dragon, since they are good. The party did start fighting however, and as the beast was being wounded, it picked Zesh up. Luckily, she had her Boots of Flying on that she had borrowed from Seraphina, and after killing the beast, just flew back. The party agreed to have dinner with the yakfolk while Seraphina scouted around.
Going back up, Zesh spoke with Kartha-Kaya again, who happily introduced himself and his two wives to Kida and Mitsui. Mitsui fell in love with a gong in the southern side of the hut, but Kartha-Kaya warned her not to ring it as it was used to alert people of danger. He had the elves bring him and his guests food.
During this time, Seraphina was getting a layout of the village. Each of the huts contained a humanoid race that were working away. The group started to eat and drink, but MItsui insisted on only eating if the elves would eat, to which Kartha-Kaya eventually and reluctantly agreed. Kartha-Kaya and his wives were also smoking from his pipe, which he offered to his guests as well. Mitsui applied the ointment she had found after she finished eating. All of a sudden, Zesh fell asleep. Kida, suspicious, was able to fight off the sleep and confronted the chief. A fight quickly ensued, as the chief cut Kida with a flaming greatsword,and then Kida smashed Zesh into him, knocking him onto the ground and waking Zesh up. Mitsui stunned both wives, and thus time came to a standstill, as the Yakfolk village was being invaded by our heroes.