While the adventurers slept off the prior day's brow-beating by Grum'Glum, Dugan was notified by the staff at the Golden Coin of a development in the theft of his prized ring; the remains of the lockbox had been discovered in a bush outside the establishment. Dugan decided to grab breakfast and wait for the two to come downstairs to discuss the issue at hand.
Fhasys and Talos joined Dugan for breakfast and a bit of stern talk, but Talos' attention was soon drawn to a pair of townsfolk at the other end of the bar. The two men were talking about some old "haunted" mine nearby and goading each other on about how neither of them were man enough to go explore it. The Embershard mine was established during the founding days of Lehren and had initially provided a sizable surge of capital, but the money soon dried up as miners began to dissapear one by one into the depths. Soon after, Embershard was all but abandoned and now plays host to god-knows-what types of evil vermin.
Dugan gave the party a subtle warning to turn the ring back in, and when it appeared that they weren't going to cooperate, he ordered a search of their belongings. Fhasys had initially planted the ring in Talos' pack, but with this warning looming overhead she decided it'd be best to point out to Talos that he'd in fact stolen it. Summoning his mage hand, Talos decided it'd be best to get the ring out of both of their possessions and dropped it in the rooftop gutter of the Golden Coin. Needless to say, Dugan's search came up empty-handed... which, of course, only intensified his suspicion.
Shortly prior to this whole ring fiasco, Dugan had asked the duo to dispose of the giant ogre head--still laying in the dirt and tethered to a pony outside of the Golden Coin. Children had gathered around the decaying head and an old man was drawing sketches of the scene for tips. Talos, seeing an opportunity to immortalize himself, took advantage and obtained one for himself. Shortly thereafter, he hired the stable boy at the Golden Coin to haul the head off to a dump somewhere.
While they awaited the stable boy's return with Talos' pony, the duo went down to the local stables to speak with a young assistant who'd once paid a visit to the old mines. The boy nervously recounted his story to the best of his ability and provided basic directions should the party want to investigate. He obviously had zero desire to ever go back and sobbed at the memory of his childhood friend who never made it back from the exploration with him.
Using the intelligence gifted upon him by the Gods, Talos realized that they were now one pony short and decided to see if Dugan had another to offer. He did not. The stable boy (who was to dispose of the ogre head) was also nowhere to be found, so they decided to go find out what happened.
Riding off into the forest just SE of Lehren, they stumbled upon a small rock quarry with said pony standing all by his lonesome smack in the middle of the pit. Closer inspection revealed some blood-spatter trailing up the far ledge and missing saddlebags. As the two investigated the scene at the bottom of the pit, it became obvious that they were being watched... Climbing back out, they decided to try and sneak around the perimeter of the quarry to get the drop on whomever was spying on them, but the gnolls got the first shot. Fhasys took a glancing blow from a spear that was hurled out from the treeline and combat ensued. Eventually, the party disposed of four gnolls and discovered the eviscerated remains of the stable boy nearby. During the combat, one particularly ravenous gnoll decided to have some raw pony flesh for lunch so the duo, once again, rode back to town on a single mount.
Talos delivered the bad news about the stable boy to the barkeep at the Golden Coin (who said he'd notify the family) and then the two turned right back around to go find out what all the fuss is about at the Embershard mine. Though a bit difficult to find, the mine was right where the folks at the tavern had said it was... some 15mi along the Deepvine river heading SW toward the coast. The going became quite difficult as they approached the mine, forcing the party to dismount and walk their ponies along a crude, ill-maintained path. After a lengthy search, Fhasys finally found the opening to the mine overgrown with vegetation and they crawled inside.
The mine entrance was dark and the air stagnant as expected for a long-since abandoned tunnel. Fhasys took the lead just outside of Talos' well-lit sword's light radius and she quickly came upon the first signs of life... A pile of rubble with a smashed body beneath. Fhasys also discovered the makings of a tripwire and post jutting out of the rubble, so the two decided to do a bit more "active" searching as they descend further into the mines. After finding an old dusty ladder descending down to the next level, Talos decided to use some rope to try and secure their climb down... just in case. Fhasys nimbly slid down the latter with little commotion, but Talos lost his grip and came crashing down on top of Fhasys at the bottom of the ladder.
The second floor's layout seemed fairly straightforward--a simple main shaft with branches at every 20' or so--and Talos did his best to map their findings. In their exploration of the first set of branches, the party found a small group of kobolds and dispatched them without too much trouble. In the second set of branches, they again found a couple more kobolds ripe for the picking. In the third set of branches, the not-so-subtle sound of snoring could be heard.
Fhasys approached cautiously and, in the grainy monochrome light of her darkvision saw a human sleeping behind rusted bars on a crude hay mat. The prisoner, badly beaten and emaciated, seemed quite traumatized and feared the return of "them"... the "things from below". The man rambled on (somewhat hysterically) about having had lost his friend and having been imprisoned by the beasts of the mine, and he pleaded to be set free. Using Fhasys' handy-dandy crowbar, the two managed to apply enough leverage to break the gate open and the prisoner scurried away to safety.
Talos and Fhasys, slightly bruised by the kobold encounters but not at all dissuaded by the prisoner, decided to take a short rest before they press on.
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