Session 96: Gotta' have Faith

General Summary

26th Unndilar 836PD   Orlando searches through the Master Forger’s room and finds five potions of fire resistance, and keys that open cupboards in the apprentice forge filled with precious metals. Raven and Raphael investigate further in the forge room, and the group eventually deduce that both cranks on the wall have to be turned at the same time to open the doors. Seemingly a precaution in place to stop a lone individual going to the World Anvil by themselves.   Traveling down a short staircase they find themselves in a grand chamber of stone and metal, runes and dwarven script adorn the surfaces. Two giant runes cover the base of the chamber, Orlando translates them as ‘Protection’ and ‘Destruction’, and in the centre lies the World Anvil itself!   However, the Anvil and the chamber seem dormant, Simeon’s true seeing interprets that the Anvil’s power has been ‘caged’. Orlando notes that the chamber’s forge runs on the flow of lava, but the stream has dried up underneath. Simeon finds a secret door to the side, and they see a towering construct of fire and metal standing guard by a tunnel. Next to the Guardian Iron Golem is the dead body of the Master Forger, killed after serving his purpose of getting Tharizdun’s forces into the Anvil.   Orlando approaches the Guardian, but Simeon sees a powerful veil has been placed on the construct to not recognise the faithful from the foe. Simeon tries to dispel and even call on his Lady, the Moonweaver, to remove the Betrayer’s magic on the Guardian, but it is too great.   The group decide to try to distract the Guardian with Pluto’s wildfire spirit and sneak through the tunnel. Simeon tries to pull the Golem away from the tunnel, but the heavy iron is unmoveable until it registers the Unbroken’s approach as a threat and moves to engage with its heavy sword.   Orlando shoots at the golem, whilst Raven lays down a fog cloud to provide cover for them to escape through the tunnel, unfortunately the Unbroken can’t see through it either! The golem moves through the fog and releases a poisonous gas around Raphael, Orlando and Pluto. The Couatl’s last protections save Raph and Orlando, but Pluto feels the full foulness of the construct’s corrosive breath.   Raph blasts blindly into the fog, whilst Pluto tries to move himself out of any danger as he realises his druidic flames would fail to assail the golem. Orlando runs through the golem’s legs; Raven fires off some arrows as they manage to tumble around and head down the tunnel that was guarded.   The Guardian steps forward out of the fog cloud, its giant heated blade slices heavily into the Winter Knight, who retaliates with the cold Frostweaver. Pluto takes the opportunity to tumble around the golem blocking the tunnel and makes their way to it. Orlando and Raven pepper the golem from the back, but it still has Raphael and Simeon as its targets that it can see out of the cloud.   Simeon feels the Guardian’s blade slice and cauterize his body, knocking his true seeing vision out. Orlando focuses his guns on where he’s been firing toward the golem, places his faith that they will find their target, his Thoughts and Prayers are answered with the piercing sound of metal, followed by the thunderous thud of a collapsed construct!   With the Guardian defeated, the Unbroken move down the tunnel, as they go deeper the heat of the stone increases to a point where it begins to burn. The party take the potions of fire resistance and find large double doors at the end of the tunnel. Runes etched on the doors read “The Forge of Creation is powered by life; death; belief; fire and passion. The Greatest is passion”.   Orlando presses the rune of passion on the doors and they open into a small room, in the centre a chest and one corner of the room is destroyed, revealing a river of magma. Several mounds act as stepping stones across the magma, leading to another chest.   Pluto’s primal magic detects abjuration magic on the chests, but whilst the chests are being investigated Raven triggers a fire rune on the next set of doors. If only Buzz was still here to help him spot the traps, he muses, but the fire to the face doesn’t knock his ability to find a secret door in one of the walls.   Before they explore anymore rooms, they decide to try to find out what is in the chests. The party wait outside the room, whilst Simeon hides behind a pillar and mage hands to open the chest in case the abjuration is a trap. As the invisible hand flicks the latch on the chest, a roaring ball of fire explodes across the room, but Simeon can’t leap out of its way!   Clear of the fire, Simeon’s mage hand picks up a metal flaming key which starts to melt. Orlando rushes in and uses his holy symbol to try and mend the key, but as he presents his symbol the key solidifies and the glyphs inside the chest abate. Orlando skips over the steps to the other chest across the magma, and with the presence of his amulet defusing the abjuration runes, he safely opens the chest to reveal a second key.   Raven picks the lock of the secret door, and finds another chest which Orlando opens to find a third key. Each key is made of different metals, and when combined together the filigree on the keys form the runes of “Passion, Strength, Belief” that read atop of now one complete key.   The party open the doors that Raven triggered and find a corridor that is split in two with a large gap over the flowing magma. On the floor before the gap are runes that state “Those that pass with a leap of faith, must not look back”. The distance is too far for anyone to jump completely, but Orlando takes the lead to try. He holds onto his amulet, a symbol of his re-forged faith in Moradin, his legs tense and with belief he leaps across the drop…   …his feet land on something solid, an invisible bridge!   Orlando continues on down the corridor, passing several dwarf statues and at the end he reaches a final plain door. The three-fold key opens the doors to a floating platform hanging over a pool of magma, a central gem and various controls on the platform seem to the operate two large magical doors that are blocking the flow of the magma.   Tharizdun’s weakening the World Anvil shackle by withholding its power source, now the Unbroken must have faith that they can fix it in time…