Session 44: Titanus Ignis

General Summary

The party flees into the caverns on the far side of the Black Loch and makes camp for the night, where Qedan Shadowhame and Kayl play music together and Gurgleglark continues to berate himself for slipping up with the Eyes of the Spider before mentioning that the party can keep the artifact for now, and that he is going to return to the Myconid Homeland to lay low for a few decades. Qedan also tells a "ghost story" about Zolthur the All-Seeing, a local scary story about a beholder who used to rule the Underdark but was betrayed and left for dead by the Drow until he sold his soul to a higher power and gained the gift of foresight. Upon finding the entrance to the Dragonsteel Mines, the party finds the passage caved in, littered with the bodies of Dragonborn and Dwarf alike. Through investigation they sumrise that the Dragonborn pushed the dwarves back and used explosives and magic to collapse the tunnel on them and seal the mine off. They follow Qedan's map around to some air shafts and descend into the mine, discovering a room with a hatch leading down and a door. They pry the door open and follow the path to the main Dragonsteel mine, a massive construction of smelting furnaces, forges, and mining equipment in front of a large bore hole through a massive metal wall with the draconic words "Titanus Ignis" emblazoned on the side. Exploring around the area, Kayl peeks into the bore hole and finds a vast empty cavern beyond, hundreds of feet wide, deep, and tall with multiple superstructure braces interspersed. However, with his dazzling light and noise, he attracts a lone, small, insectoid-draconic looking construct. The metallic creature is golden with skittering legs and a pointed tail crackling with lightning. Kayl backs up hastily after trying to communicate but finding no success, as more begin to appear. The rest of the party investigates the Overseer's office beneath the forge and finds a journal detailing the discovery, construction, and attempts at mining the Dragonsteel. the journal takes a darker turn a few weeks before the known date of the Fall of Forgehammer as the Overseer mentions constructing weapons out of Dragonsteel to fight the approaching Dragonborn hordes. Eventually, cut off from Forgehammer and trapped on all sides with Dragonborn closing in, the journal states that they are going to make one final push to flee into the Underdark, but the tone is not optomistic as the entry cuts off with "They are coming. There are thousands of them. They want us dead. They are coming."