The date is Sunday, 25th June
The time is 5:00 PM
Searching for tracks reveals
Goblin footprints going to/from the door to the north and generally avoiding the southern part of the room near the
Yeti lair.
Shove the door aside. Ahead an orange, flickering glow reveals that the passage opens out into a chamber, the air is clouded and heavy with the smell of wood smoke. Find an unoccupied side balcony leading to the arrow slits we saw. Move on.
A large brazier dimly lights and warms the room. The high vaulted ceiling is held up by six carved rock pillars. Various odds and sods litter the floor, including scraps of burnt paper. The walls are adorned by frescos showing dwarves at work, smithing, mining, gem cutting, trading etc. Again the faces have been removed. A number of crude mattresses made of skins and straw lined the walls. A wide road leads to the south, a broad staircase heads east and a low, narrow passage goes north. All of the exits are gloomily dark beyond.
No immediate sign of creatures, other than goblin and
warg footprints.
Tinnan sets off a dart trap but it otherwise remains quiet. Decide to head out the passage to the north - hear two wargs growling ahead of us somewhere, perhaps alerted by our light. They charge us, we fight in close confines and cut them down in short order.
An arrow whistles past out of the darkness - a goblin warg handler.
Fyren returns fire and blasts it dead. We then investigate this area of the complex.
A set of shelves fill the south wall of this room from floor to ceiling and an old, low table stands on the other side. Fragments of crumbled paper and scrolls litter the floor.
Broken shelves line this room and crumbled old parchment litters the floor. On the east wall is a fresco depicting an open window through which can be seen a battlefield with dwarves overcoming elves.
Sigmund finds a hidden pressure plate, when pressed it makes the window in the fresco open, revealing a door beyond. It seems to have been sealed since dwarven times with the goblins unaware of it. No sign of any magic in this area.
As the door opens, you sense a change. In the room beyond dust spirals up as the air is disturbed for the first time in centuries. Everything in the room appears dull and grey as it is covered in a thick layer of dust, and weapon racks line the walls.
We detect a magic maul and a case of magic crossbow bolts.
Close the secret door so the goblins don't know where we've gone and then set out to explore the long-sealed dwarven chambers of
Faern-Ol-Endar. Follow a long passage until we reach what seems like the inside of another secret door. Quiet beyond so we open it, revealing a staircase heading down.
The air in here feels stale; a long gallery descends into the dark; expertly crafted out of the rock, smooth, worn steps hint at its age. A thin layer of dirt lies mostly undisturbed - something has been this way recently, not a goblin or animal but unsure what.
Jam the secret door open as we can't work out how to activate it. Bar the double doors alongside. Proceed deeper, wondering what made the tracks... It goes deep, deep down.
From the passage ahead can be heard the sound of falling water and another sound like heavy timbers groaning under strain. The passage opens into a vast natural cavern, and the ceiling and walls vanish into the darkness. To the south is a large brick dome and to the west a brick bridge. The floor of the cavern slopes gently from west to east.
As it seems quiet we leave this area for now while we follow the tracks.
An archway opens off the main stairs to the east, at the limits of vision something seems to cloud the way ahead - incredibly thick spiderwebs, which we burn.
The passage opens into a huge room with 30' high vaulted ceilings. Several massive pillars support the roof. On the walls are carved scenes of everyday dwarven life. On the ground by the closest pillar are several dried Goblin corpses.
We advance into the room and start burning the webs. An enraged
Giant Spider appears and squirts web at us. We return fire and kill it. As we venture further in, several more spiders approach, all clinging to the ceiling. A swarm of spiders burst out of a goblin corpse and badly hurt
Tinnan. We eventually prevail. The rest of the web-infested room is quiet. A passage connects back to the cavern with the dripping water.
We retreat into the passages protected behind the dwarven secret doors and get some decent rest.
Venture back out. All seems quiet and as we left it. We sense no magical auras. Check out the watery cavern. It contains a whole series of dwarven kilns, long disused. There's an aqueduct, a water wheel and many mechanisms, tools, wheelbarrows, etc.
Something mysteriously assaults
Sigmund's mind. We spread out warily. It happens again. Spot a strange, oily, grey mass stuck to the underside of the aqueduct. Sigmund kills it with a bow. We have no idea what it was but the psychic attacks have ceased. Keep on investigating.
The brick domes are giant kilns. There are two doors into each, a lower door and a higher door reached by a short stairway. In the lower section of the kiln are the ashes of coal fires long since extinguished. Above this is a thick iron grate, and piles of dried clay bricks are arranged on them.
In the south of the room is a waterwheel powered by water from an aqueduct. Nearby are various intermeshed wheels connected by teeth, besides these are a great heavy chain disappearing down a passage to the southwest and then there is a great leaver set vertically.
