The date is Friday, 30th June
The time is 4:00 PM
We decide to leave the charmed/mushroom-infested Grimlocks alone and explore the last areas of the southwest corner of the
3rd level of the
dark dwarf home. Chi summons the shadows around himself and we move carefully move deeper into the complex.
We discover more areas looking the same as elsewhere. Broken furniture and broken down dressings. Nothing of value seems to remain.
In one room we discover something slightly of interest: The floor of this chamber is covered in litter (dust, excrement, bits of bone, fragments of cloth etc.). Slightly away from the back wall is a large, old, oak chest with a simple iron clasp. As we look at and behind the
Chest it begins to open!
Fyren blasts it with a tiny ball of fire which enters the chest's mouth and explodes! Incredibly this does not appear to have destroyed it.
Idris calls holy fire upon it but does not have a clear line of sight and the flames lick the dusty floor.
Sigmund then unleashes his staff upon the chest, smashing into the chest where it sticks! He starts pulling on the staff but is unable to release it. He leaves the staff stuck in the chest and retreats.
Chi draws forth his wand and blasts it with magical missiles. The chest then grows legs and rushes at Sigmund, mouth snapping at his torso!
A follow-up mini-ball-of-fire from Fyren hits the side of the chest and continues to singe it. Idris calls upon the gods and blasts the chest with holy flames. The chest is looking quite charcoaled now. Sigmund taunts the chest, weaponless. Chi uses the wand to blast it again and the chest collapses, destroyed.
Sigmund is able to recover his staff, though it is a bit of a struggle. Looking into the chest, it's clear that it is not really a chest, but some sort of strange aberration. The rest of the room is utterly empty.
We continue to explore this corridor finding more empty rooms. We appear to have searched the entire level, apart from the domain of the myconids.
We move back to the chambers of the sorceress and take a well-deserved short break to lick our wounds.
We head down the deep spiral staircase with the waterfall dropping loudly down the middle of it.
As we descend the stairs the sound of rushing water grows louder, with the rhythmic sound of a large wheel, slowly turning and the deep breath of a blacksmith's bellows. The place stinks of Grimlock.
We come out into a room with a waterwheel which is driving a huge bellows blowing air into the wall to an undisclosed location. Beyond the waterwall a huge waterfall drops and drives it.
A short flight of stairs leads east into a natural-looking cave.
The cave is full of
Grimlocks! At least half a dozen are in the room, many of them huge ones.
Idris takes advantage of our position of surprise, due to the shadows summoned by Chi and rushes into the middle of the room. He calls upon the ancestral spirits of Hunterton and blasts the whole room with radiant light! One of the little Grimlocks doesn't survive. Chi pole vaults over Sigmund's head, lands agiley on his feet and impales one of the large Grimlocks, dropping it. He then rushes onwards, kicking one of the other large ones in the knee. Sigmund follows him, cracking the same one over the head with his staff and moving beyond Chi to take up a position in the middle of the chamber. Fyren blasts the injured one with a fire bolt but it stays standing.
Idris calls down flames on one but misses. That is enough to make an opening for Chi who impales it on his spear. He then rushes forward, leaping the stream into melee with the shaman and huge Grimlock there. He punches the shaman on the chin but it stays on its feet and calls upon its evil gods for aid. Sigmund follows Chi, jumping the steaming stream and smashing the shaman to the ground. He follows up with a spinning attack on the large brute at the back. The Grimlock staggers but stays up. Fyren stands at the top of the stairs calling "Die in flames!" and blasts the Grimlock fighting Idris. Unfortunately, it doesn't and instead smashes Idris with its great club. The huge brute across the stream then turns its attention on Chi and smashes him to the ground, breaking his shadow summoning.
Idris blasts the last remaining big Grimlock, other than the huge brute. Chi seems angry to have been hit and unleashes a barrage of strikes and spear thrusts on the final Grimlock and kills it. Combat is ended and we are able to look around.
This large, natural cave is filled with the sound of rushing water. To the west, a short stairway leads into a tower. To the north, a large pool of water some 10' below flows off into the darkness, it is fed by water cascading down and over the waterwheel. To the east, steamy water flows out of a small opening bringing with it the smell of rotten eggs, it drops over a small fall to join the main pool. To the north, a bridge spans over the flowing water and leads to an opening.
On either side of the passage where the bridge enters the rockface, a stone dwarf stands guard.
We search the bodies and room but find nothing of value.
We begin our exploration of the level, heading for where we think the forges might be.
Ahead is a dim orange glow, the air is hot and acrid, and the walls are caked with small, sharp yellow crystals. You can hear a slow bubbling that reminds you of one of Asami's stews on the fire, even if the smell definitely doesn't. It smells acrid and sulphurous.
As we enter we see a huge pool of burning, liquid rock. To the left is what looks like a metal house with a single large door in it and a chimney on top. The pool begins to churn and a great fiery figure rises up in the centre, its head moves from side to side as if trying to get a better look at us.
We carefully move into the room. Sigmund approaches the creature whilst Idris goes to look at the giant furnace - the door of which is open.
As Fyren enters the room, a puff of embers leaves the fire creature and embraces him! A smoky creature coalesces nearby and begins to speak with us.
Fyren talks with it. It mentions the dark stone that Fyren is carrying and suggests that we leave it behind as it will bring us nothing but bad luck and many will turn the world upside down to gain it. Fyren is disinclined to do as it asks. The creature strongly suggests we give the stone to its master (the elemental).
He suggested that the king of the fire giants, for example, would be keen to get his hands on it if he learned about it.
Sigmund asked what the elemental would give us in exchange for the stone but he says he had nothing to offer us except knowing the stone would be safer with him and safe passage through this lair.
The soot creature was called
Ash and his master the elemental was called
Shimmer.
We asked about the creatures that came to earth with the stone, but Ash and Shimmer knew nothing about them. Shimmer told us he could sense the stone from a very long way off (confirmed to be a measure of yards, not miles).
We asked if Shimmer was bound here but it said it was his home. Apparently, he had been here for hundreds of years and helped the dark dwarves with their forging. He was here even before the dwarves. He also said he knew there were mind flayers around somewhere but he rarely sees them. Apparently, the Azers sometimes use this forge, coming here from the plane of fire.
Finally, Shimmer dissolves into the magma and Ash disappears.
We moved off to another area to the west of the furnace and into another huge room.
The walls and ceiling of this large room are blackened. In the centre, upon a raised platform, are four mighty anvils, each with a forge, worktable and quenching trough. The smiths' prized tools lie scattered over the tables and floor nearby, their once gleaming surfaces showing signs of rust. Statues wielding hammers guard the entrance.
A great gate hangs on its hinges, and broken barrels and debris litter the floor. The broken racks and shelves indicate that this was probably once a storeroom of some sort, possibly of rare metals. In the southwest corner, a corridor leads off. Rusty streaks of dried blood lead down the corridor, the air is heavy with the smell of rotting flesh.
Piled to the left of the entrance is a pile of rotting carrion, largely grimlocks. Most of the floor of this circular room is covered in small bits of broken wood and straw. A single stone pillar holds the domed ceiling aloft, many dwarven faces look down, and the images have faded with time.
Also in the room are three large creatures which we recognise to be
Carrion Crawlers.
Idris reacted instantly, pulling some bat poo out of his pocket and uttering some mystic words. A small pea-sized flame shot out, hit the central pillar and erupted into an explosion which filled the room! Three crispy and very angry crawlers moved in.
Sigmund slapped at the first one but his staff was tangled in its tentacles. Pulling it free he ducked as the tentacles reached over him and flailed at Idris. It also then chomped on Sigmund.
The others moved in and flailed at and bit Sigmund too. Chi blasted one with his wand, discouraging him from coming in - for now. Sigmund beat on the least injured one, setting them up for a fireball from the half-elf. Which duly followed. The great tactical combination killed all three.
We quickly searched the room but nothing was in there. So we moved on to another room off from the main work room.
Many stone workbenches stand against the walls. Felt-lined trays and tiny tools lie scattered about. On each side of the entrance is a mosaic, both are missing many tiles. On the left, a fire giant seated on a throne, bearing a huge, flaming sword and on the right, a frost giant, seated on a throne, wielding a two-handed blade of ice. The mosaics are made of semi-precious stones, the missing tiles are of key features like the eyes or a belt. Here and there on the floor, your light causes glints of various colours.
Idris cast a Detect Magic ritual as the rest of us searched. There was no magic in the area. Fyren noticed that the statue in the middle of the southern room appeared to have been moved in the past. So we tried to shift it, which we managed, and beyond Idris suddenly detected magic past the statue. He noted Evocation, Conjuration and some other school of magic coming from beyond a door which was revealed past the statue. Sigmund opened the door, revealing a small treasure room!
This small room is littered with coins that have spilt out of pots, and a couple of small chests. In the middle of the south wall, about 3' up is a brass dial with 10 runes around it. The dial is currently pointing straight up.
We collected and shared out the items. Then Sigmund turned the dial one point to the left, anti-clockwise. As soon as he did so the room rapidly filled with a yellow-green gas. Sigmund tried to turn the dial back but the damage was done. The people in the room started coughing and Fyren started to be sick. They left the room rapidly as the cloud moved out of the room.
Sigmund returned to the treasure room and tried all the other numbers but nothing happened. We all gathered in the small treasure room to rest up.
We determined that the magical necklace we found was a
Periapt of Wound Closure which we agreed was best pinned to Tinnan's collar.
Continuing to explore we moved deeper into the complex. Sigmund found a place where it got increasingly cold, very rapidly - cold enough to really hurt. The rest of us had gone different ways so we were quite split up. Sigmund retreated quickly.
Meanwhile, where Chi went he came across a large plaza. This large square is adorned with frescos of dwarves crafting all sorts of goods, weapons, jewellery, furniture, and clothing. Four massive arched entrances lead into the square and a granite waypoint marker stands proudly in the northwest corner. It's easy to imagine dwarves here haggling, exchanging goods and ideas.
Elsewhere we came across a corridor with many doors off it. One was locked with a padlock and another was open. All the others were shut when we arrived. The door to this chamber is wide open, fresh gore covers the floor, and a strange slurping noise can be heard from further in. Idris carefully moved into the room, seeking out the source of the noise.
A Grimlock lies bloodied and sprawled on a table, a strange creature stands at the far end gorging itself on the Grimlock's brain that it is holding in its hands! A
Red Slaad!
Idris blasted the slaad with bolts of fire, causing it to smoulder. Chi ran in and smashed it in the frog-face with the butt of his spear, stunning it. Fyren used a cold spell on it, but it shrugged the effect off. Sigmund then ran in, staff whirling and bludgeoned it heavily.
Idris called magical flames upon it again then Chi ran in and finished it off with his spear, before it recovered from the stun.
Further down the corridor, the heavy door to this room is closed and locked from this side with a shiny padlock.
Sigmund unslung the heavy maul from his back and started laying into the door. The noise reverberated around the area but he soon had the door smashed down.
Beyond was a room. The large room is empty except for a few sealed crates stacked up to the left of the doorway.
We entered and began searching. The crates contained wax-sealed earthenware pots which contained pickled brains. 18 brains in total. Yuck.
The next room was empty. This room is empty except for some debris on the floor. The vaulted ceiling has a few odd-looking rocky nodules. Booted tracks could be seen in there. We noted that neither grimlocks nor slaad wore boots. Suddenly it went pitch black.
All hell broke loose in the confusion of magical darkness.
Something swooped down from the ceiling in the darkness and tried to engulf Idris. It covered him utterly but Sigmund, using his devil-granted sight decided to smash Idris' head anyway. Fortunately, the creature appeared thick enough that Idris was not hurt by the blow. Then another one fell, this one just missing Sigmund.
Fyren blasted the one on Idris with fire, killing it. But a third dropped down and replaced the one already on Idris. However, Sigmund smashed it into pieces, being able to see perfectly in the darkness. Chi hit one on Idris but didn't finish it off, so Idris pulled a knife and tried to cut his way out of it.
Then Fyren blasted the last one with fire and it shrivelled up and died. The magical darkness faded and we were able to see once more.
We moved to the next door.
A heavy wooden door with a black iron knob closes the passage. The door is aged but solid, its higher portion scarred with fresh, deep, claw marks.
It was stuck as it was barricaded from the inside and needed Sigmund to batter it down with the maul. Battering it didn't work so we had to shoulder-barge it open.
A terrified giant Grimlock stood backed into the corner but attacked as soon as we opened the door.
Fyren threw a fire orb at it which exploded in its chest. Sigmund went in and unleashed a barrage of damage on it with his staff. Then Chi ran in, leapt into the air and stuck his spear point through the Grimlock's eye, killing it instantly.
Moving to the next room, this large room stands empty, except for the remains of some broken furniture and the debris of time. The opulence of the faded decoration gives a sense of power and wealth. Sigmund noted a loose stone in the wall which he removed to discover a letter. He handed it to Fyren and he opened it. It was written in dwarfish.
