Harshnag's Cave

Year: 1491, Month: Tarsakh, Date: 26th

Harshnag's Cave

I arrive somewhere in the cold, pitch dark.  I lift my hands but I cannot even see them in front of me.  "Leo! Leo!"  Before I have chance to make a move, something bangs into my side.  I reach for my sword..."Move you great lummox!"...and I am shoved forward.  It is Enya.

It is so dark wherever we are. Celery must also be here, as I hear her quietly mumbling to herself.  I can't clearly make out what she is saying, but I hear the word light and three brightly lit globes materialise from nowhere to light the chamber we are in.

I find myself in a circular shaped room inside what appears to be a natural cave, although the walls have been roughly hewn.  Celery, Leo, and Enya are all here, but no sign of Chello. The roof has been heightened to about 15' into a dome.  The portal that we arrived through is in the centre of the room.  This must be Harshnag's cave!

There is a large opening covered with a heavy hide curtain, and to one-side, five sets of winter clothes are lined up neatly in a row.  Does Harshnag know we are coming, or did Larael prepare these for us?  

I peek around the hide curtain, but it is pitch black beyond and I can see nothing. "Light!", yells I as I bring my head back into the chamber.  

It's very cold in here, we clearly are going to need warmer clothes.  Luckliy, some have been provided for us.  I begin the slow process of carefully unbuckling my armour, donning the winter clothes, and restrapping my plate mail over the top.  The rest of my companions do likewise, but they are all ready long before me.  

There is still no sign of Chello.  Did she decide not to come through the portal, or has some magical accident befallen her?  Maybe the portal didn't quite work for her, and what occurred to Celery when we portalled to Waterdeep, and she ended up arriving displaced from the portal and falling from the tower we were supposed to arrive in, has happened to Chello?  We might find her outside.  Outwardly at least, Enya doesn't seem distressed. 

While I am still carefully rebuckling my armour together, Enya goes through the hide curtain.  Moments later she returns saying she has seen a ghost!  She says there is a roughly hewn corridor through the curtain, off of which are three exits - two to the right and one to the left.  We seem a little confused, and undecided as what to do.  I finish dressing.  "Let's go" I say, and I push the curtain aside and step into the corridor.  I don't see any ghost!

I walk along the corridor to the first exit on my right, the others following close behind.  To my right is a storage room about ten feet long.  It is empty, although it does not appear to have been ransacked.

We continue along the corridor, to the next exit which is on the left and go in.  This one is a bed chamber.  There is a huge bed made of tree trunks.  I would say a giant sized bed.  It has a huge mattress, which looks lumpy and uncomfortable.  To one side there is a massive storage chest that looks professionally made.  It is the quality of workmanship the craftsman of Neverwinter produce.

There appears to be nothing else here, and certainly no threats, so I leave the room and go to the final exit.  This one opens out into what looks to me like a living space.  There is a huge stone hewn seat and a firepit in the middle of the room.  The room is clean, but very cold - it seems the fire has not been on for a while.  At the opposite side of the living chamber is yet another hide curtain.

I draw the curtain carefully aside and look through.  On the other side there is a much wider corridor.  About 30' away is a glowing humanoid shape.  It must somehow sense me, as it turns around and starts groaning and moving slowly and deliberately towards me.

I step back through, draw my sword, and shout a warning to my companions.  I leave plenty of space for the creature to enter the room, and wait.

Eventually it comes straight through the curtain, and has a sheepish expression on its face.  Another corporeal form follows quickly behind.  This one though has an annoyed look on his face.

I tighten the straps on my shield and begin to step forward.  Before i can react, the annoyed ghost makes an apology for his groaning companion and introduces himself as Emerick Dragonheart, and his groaning companion is Pallin the Humble.

I still have my sword drawn, but say, "We're looking for Harshnag the Giant." "Looking for Harshnag?" "Yes, we are" "Well he's not here! He left months ago" "Where did he go" "Something about a Giant problem outside."

As there appears to be no immediate danger, I sheath my sword, leave the others conversing with the ghost to go and investigate the storeroom more thoroughly.  The search is over quickly, as there is nothing to find.  Next I return to the bedchamber and check the chest.  It opens, but just contains folded clothes in size extra, extra, extra large, and several giant sized weapons. 

I return back to the living quarters.  The two ghosts still milling around, they seem to live here with Harshnag.  May be they told their tale to my companions, but I am keen to move on and strike out form the cave.  We bid farewell to Emerick and Pallin, and head up a steep incline out of the cave.  As we go further, it get progressively colder and more blustery, and shortly we arrive at a massive entrance.  It's definitely on the windy side of the mountain.