Episode 4: Ruins of K'har

General Summary

28th of Harvesttide, 1283 Dyeri Cycle

Our heroes have come upon another set of dwarven ruins. Seeing the tops of the doors, they decide to scout out around the ruins trying to see if there is some way for them to line up the current landscape with the landmarks on the map they had found previously. It was very clear to Silva that a rockslide of some sort covered up these ruins and the landslide was at least two hundred years old or more. She is unsure what caused the landslide to shift and reveal the ruins, but she does figure out the mountains are still pretty similar and starts to make some guesses about the map. Meanwhile, Halton looks around for tracks and only finds animal tracks including fresh tracks from a mountain lion. Andal does a bit of searching around and figures out the lay of the land and not much else. They then settle in for the night making a fire and taking watches. The moon Firdaeg rises after midnight and Andal notices some clouds slightly obscuring it foretelling the possibility of rain the next day.

29th of Harvesttide, 1283 Dyeri Cycle

Waking to overcast skies in the morning, our heroes eat some breakfast made by Halton before getting to work excavating the doors of the ruins. It takes about an hour to reveal a bas-relief on the doors of dwarves and some kind of subterranean creature. The rock removal also reveals some bones. Morgoth looks them over and figures out the bones are very dwarf-like. Halton calls out for Silva who had been surveying the area. Silva takes a look at the bones as well trying to determine the age of the bones, but she is unable to figure any more than Morgoth. However, Andal figures the bones are really, really old. Silva takes some of the skeleton bones and stores them in her pack.
Morgoth gives the door a shove and it falls inward revealing a large main hall with some broken statues and rocks strewn about the floor. Silva enters to the room to find several piles of bones with a strange grey fungus growing on them. Silva determines it to be a form of a common mold. Looking over the bones, the fungus tends to be covering the skull, eye sockets, and spinal column when present. Andal looks over the fungus and determines it is a grey fungus and that when it is distilled it becomes a poison. He cautions them to not breathe in the spores. Andal also notices a strangely unrusted shield in the pile of fungus and bones. He picks it up to find a light shield with a button near the handle and a place to put those magical spheres. Inside already are two spheres of pale white translucency with crackling energy around them.
Silva opens one of the doors to the north revealing a turret-like chamber with a stone stairwell in the center and rubble all over the eastern side of the room. Silva then moves across the main hall and opens the doors to the south which reveals another turret-like room with the eastern side collapsed, but no stairwell and some more doors to the west. Andal continues to look around the main hall for secret compartments housing more of the magical spheres but is unable to find anything.
They all move to the south turret chamber and Andal looks over the doors searching them for traps and finding none finds it locked. Unfortunately, it takes some time and while he is fumbling with the lock Silva notices a cold section on the south side of the turret. She pulls out her goggles and starts to adjust them when Andal unlocks the door. After getting everything adjusted properly, she looks through them to see just a normal chamber. Silva explains why she is was doing this and now everyone notices that it is colder on the south side. Looking around the wall, Andal determines the coldness seems to be coming from the floor where they find a skeleton under some rocks with the fungus on it.
While Morgoth lights a torch, Andal opens the door to the west revealing what looks like it might have been an armory of some sort with racks of weapons, several crates in the middle, and a table with what looks like a ledger sitting on it. Silva picks up the ledger and parts of it fall apart. Looking it over, it is written in dwarven and is probably some form of inventory for the room. Andal looks over the racks and finds chain shirts, war hammers, daggers, javelins, and crossbows (without strings but could be restrung), but none of them look like the magical weapon from the previous ruin. Andal looks around the room for more secret compartments but finds none. However, he bumps against one of the crates and only a rustle is heard from inside it. Opening one of the crates, he finds it to be full of straw. Rooting through the straw he finds a six-inch tube and a gun-like item. Looking in the tube, Andal finds a small white ball that is cold to the touch while Silva looks over the gun-like item. She determines it is not a gun, but it has many similarities to a gun although the barrel holds a series of crystals.
Andal and Morgoth open the other three crates to find three more of these pistol-like weapons and tubes. The tubes however hold different spheres. One holds red spheres that gleams with its own light, another holds pale blue transparent spheres, and the last holds white transparent spheres that crackle with energy. They distribute the items amongst each other and make plans for coming back for the mundane weapons.
They had back to the northern turret chamber and spend some time clearing out the stairwell so they can continue up. While they are clearing out the stairwell, Silva notices something brush past her pantleg, but she doesn't see anything as she looks around. After confirming no one else felt it, she looks around the room finding nothing. It takes about an hour to get it cleared enough to be able to use the stairs and they head up to the next level of the ruin where they enter the upper level of the defensive tower. This room is in better condition than the one below with timbers barring the doors to the south, and they find two dwarven skeletons sitting up against the northern wall.
Looking over the skeletons, they find chain shirts and war hammers, but no fungus. Andal heads over to the doors in the east and finds them to be locked. Looking for traps, they seem to be trap-free and so he unlocks the door with his thieves' tools. Morgoth then opens the door revealing another armory that seems to have been mostly emptied of its inventory. Andal finds a small box in the desk in the room. He unlocks the box and finds a small metal tube with five multicolor spheres that vibrate slightly when touched.
The group moves to the barred door and Andal loads two of the red spheres into the gun-like item. While he does that, Silva looks over the skeletons again and finds that one has a silver necklace with a blue gem on it and two rings one with a blue gem and the other is gold with an insignia on it. When silva handles the necklace, the skull clatters to the floor and she feels a coldness pass through her. They also find gold around that skeleton and silver and copper around the other one. Andal and Morgoth look at the ring and are unable to determine what the insignia means.
They unbar the doors to the south and hear the shifting of rock on the other side. They move to either side and Morgoth unbars the door and they hear more rock shifting on the other side, but it still doesn't open. Andal pops open the latch and the doors burst open. Andal and Morgoth both dive out of the way as rock and rubble fall into the room. Looking outside it looks like the landslide has covered what was once a parapet with another set of doors about sixty feet further south. The group slowly moves across the parapet as they gingerly pick their way through the rocks. Finally reaching the other door, they find it to be buried under the rubble. They spend another hour excavating the south door.
Pushing open the door with some effort, it falls into the room and they see movement in the room as some greyish creatures rise from the floor. These strange creatures look vaguely mushroom-like with fungus holding together dwarven bones to make a humanoid-like creature. The creature moves forward into the light and cringes before moving back into the darkness of the room. Andal fires his shortbow at one of the creatures and the arrow passes through causing parts of the creature to fall off and spores to be released into the air. At the same time, Morgoth fires his shortbow at the same one it sails wide of the creature. Silva pulls out a strange-looking wand and a bolt of fire streaks to the same target and with a high-pitched noise the creature bursts into flame and burns to ash in a matter of seconds. Halton shoots another one with his longbow and it sails over its head.
The creatures lurch forward as if they haven't moved in centuries and attempt to strike Morgoth, but their attacks clatter harmlessly against his armor. Andal pulls out the pistol-item, aims it at the creature on Morgoth, and pulls the trigger. The lenses in the barrel seem to glow with a red-orange light and a bolt of flame flies out of it and at the creature. The fiery bolt slams into the center of the creature and again the high-pitched noise is heard as the creature bursts into flame and burns to ash. Morgoth drops his bow and draws his sword as Silva points her strange wand at the creature and another bolt of fire streaks across and hits the creature with a glancing blow and harms the creature but not to the extent of the last bolt. Halton maneuvers to hit the creature, but swings wide.
The last creature again tries to strike Halton, but it is clear the creature is affected by the sunlight and it swings wide. Andal fires again with the pistol-like item, but the bolt goes wide as his aim seems to be off. Morgoth swings with his sword striking the creature and slices through the creature at the neck and it falls apart.
Looking inside, they see the walls of the room are covered with grey fungus. Covering their face with bandannas, they enter the room. Silva takes a sample of the spores and stores it in her gear. Looking around the room, Silva sees three piles of armor that seem to have been disturbed recently. She heads back out of the room and the group discusses their options about dealing with the grey fungus. Deciding that covering their mouth and nose is the right approach, they mask up and head inside.
They spend some time looking around the room and specifically at the armor/bone mounds where they find some silver and copper. The fungus lightly covers the walls and the ceiling and also in the piles of bone. Andal moves over to the doors and opens the door revealing a long hallway covered in grey fungus. They see some alcoves every so often with what looks like a fungus-covered statue. Spores gently float in the air. Morgoth moves half-way down the hall to a door where he spends time listening at the door. Hearing nothing, he opens the door to find a small room filled with the fungus and a desk in the middle, and a tapestry on the wall. Silva looks in the drawers in the desk where she finds some papers and a vellum scroll. She gingerly opens the papers to find dwarven script on them. She is able to decipher and learns this is an outpost which was a forward garrison against some warlike humanoids further to the east as well as that the main citadel, called del'Torak is no more than two days away in the mountains, but not exactly where. On the vellum is a set of orders that speak of some troubles in the citadel and the garrison needs to send back troops and the special weaponry.
While she was looking at the papers, Silva noticed a fungus-covered iron chest. Pointing it out to Andal, Silva heads over to the tapestry to look it over but finds it is too decayed to be of any use. Andal tries to open the box and a small dart flies out grazing his hand. Turns out the box is locked and he unlocks it with his tools revealing a mound of gold pieces. All of the coins found so far are square-shaped with dwarven runes and what is likely some important dwarf on the reverse side. They decide to leave the chest there for the time being while they explore the rest of the garrison.
Andal heads over to the door on the other side of the desk and checks to see if it is trapped. Finding none, he opens the door to a room with the remains of a bed, a table, and a wardrobe. Looking around the room, the table has nothing on it and is falling apart. Next to the bed, a mound of rotted wood is found with the remains of rotted clothes and a set of goggle missing its leather strap with an iron tube next to it. In the tube are five ink-black spheres that seem to swirl. Holding the lenses up to his face, Andal finds he can't see through them at all, but he does find a spot in the silver casing that can hold one of the spheres. Andal continues looking around the room and finds something odd about the wardrobe. The wardrobe has deteriorated and it is clear that there is a compartment in the back of it. Looking in the compartment, he finds a suit of studded leather armor and three iron tubes. Each tube contains three spheres, one with a green sphere in wax paper, another with a small sphere that is cold to the touch, and the last contains red spheres which gleam. Andal takes some time and switches out his armor for this new armor.
They head back out into the hall and come upon a larger portion of the hall where they encounter more of the fungus creatures. Andal reacts quickly and moves up to a creature and swings at it with his shortsword, slicing into it causing portions of it to fall off and spores to fly. Morgoth reacts just a little bit slower and gets to the other side of the creature, striking it with an overhead swing, cutting it in two. Silva utilizes her wand again and a bolt of fire streaks out and strikes the creature immediately burning to ash.
Heading to the end of the hall, Morgoth finds a bas-relief on the wall and a stone table in the center. Silva wipes away some of the fungus on the wall and something seems familiar, but she can't figure it out. Andal is also not sure what it is, but Morgoth looks it over and figures out it is a map of the region that matches up with the map from the other ruin, but with more detail including more outposts and a better idea of where the main mountains are. Morgoth and Silva spend the better part of an hour recreating the map onto a sheet of paper. Looking over the table, they discover another version of that map stained into the stone itself. Silva also finds some metal items on the floor that look to be metal markers like castles and knights and others. Realizing this was probably a war map, Silva takes the items.
Looking around, they find some double doors that upon opening they find some stairs leading up to another floor. The fungus seems to be even thicker than before on the stairs. Silva questions if they should continue, but they feel it is safe enough to continue. Morgoth again suggests lighting everything on fire, but Silva demurs as she feels it may destroy more than just the fungus. They climb the stairs to the next level...

Rewards Granted

They find 50 sp and 100 cp in the main hall.
Andal finds a light shield with two translucent pale spheres crackling with energy in the main hall.
4 gun-like items, 10 small white spheres which are cold to the touch, 10 red spheres that gleam with their own light, 10 pale blue transparent spheres, and 10 white transparent spheres crackling with energy in the crates in the armory. Each of them takes one of the guns, and Silva takes a second one. Andal takes the red spheres, Morgoth takes the cold spheres, Silva takes the other two.
5 multicolored spheres that vibrate slightly when touched (Andal is holding) in the second armory.
Silver necklace with a blue gem, a silver ring with a blue gem, and a gold ring with a rune insignia (Silva is holding) in the 2nd floor northern tower
15 gp, 30 sp, and 20cp in the 2nd floor northern tower
25 sp and 15cp in the south turret room, 2nd floor
iron chest filled with gold found in the commander's office
Goggles ground in commander's bedroom with 5 ink-black spheres (Andal holding)
Studded leather armor in commander's bedroom with 3 green spheres, 3 cold white spheres, and 3 red spheres (Andal)
Map recreated from the bas-relief in the map room (Silva)
Silver war markers from the map room (Silva)

Missions/Quests Completed

Quests Completed:

• None

Quests Continued

• Found more strange magical tech items in ruins
• Found more information to make a map to find del'Torak.

Character(s) interacted with

Halton Forest - ranger from Raventhorp, a friend of Yon.
Grey Fungus - strange grey fungus creatures

Created Content

Ruins of K'har

Notes

Silva has some dwarf bones that are at least 500 years old.
Morgoth uses two torches.
Loading a sphere into the gun-like item takes a bonus action for 1 or a bonus action and an action for 2 and they can hold up to 10.
Andal uses 2 red spheres in the pistol-like item and then loaded 2 more after removing the spent grey spheres.
Silva takes a small sample of the grey fungus spores.
Commander of this set of ruins was named Magnus Hammerstone.
Silva keeps the papers and orders from the commander's desk