1/8 - Down to the Dwarven Depths
General Summary
The party headed from their guildhall in Groundbreak towards the desert city of Qadis, a weeks-long journey they've made countless times before. After their uneventful travel they met with Yamerual, former mayor of the destroyed town of Bigtarhir, to discuss the town's destruction by House Theyralana and the worshippers of Ghaunadaur. Yamerual provided directions to the ruins of Bigtarhir where the party could begin their investigations, informing them that they'd need to travel past the dwarven city of Boulderdust in the Upperdark, through the Woven Way, and down into the Middledark before arriving at their destination.
Travelling down into The Underdark through a small entrance south of Qadis, the party encountered little in the form of resistance from the giant spiders and lost denizens of the desert unfortunate enough to lose themselves in the twisting caverns. After traveling down serpentine paths of stone for the majority of a week, the party were relieved to see faint torchlight in the distance. Pushing on farther, the party arrived outside the dwarven settlement of Boulderdust, an imposing fortress of brick and wrought iron built into a dead-end cavern.
The party hailed the two dwarven guards manning the outer of two heavy portcullises protecting the city and requested entrance. After being ushered into the antechamber lined with arrow slits and capped by the two portcullises, the party were led into a side room to be evaluated for access to the city. A paladin of the city's holy order, worshippers of Barranor Truesilver wearing gleaming white plate mail and wielding magical warhammers, interviewed each party member to document their information and determined if they should be granted access to Boulderdust. While the party were handling paperwork, Duo questioned the paladin about the city's views on different cultures, religions, and deities, discovering that the dwarven settlement was primarily composed of dwarves and worshippers of dwarven gods, but that there was a population both of non-dwarven citizens and worshippers of non-dwarven gods.
After their entrance interviews, the party were escorted through the second heavy portcullis and allowed access into the city proper. As always, the party's immediate goal was to investigate the shops available in the market and peruse the wares both mundane and magical, where they discovered that Boulderdust's market was ripe with magical armaments. Vendors were stocked with ample uncommon weaponry, and some even possessed significantly rarer arms. Finding nothing of immediate interest in the market, the party headed for the stronghold's library at the opposite side of town.
As they traveled across the city, the din of civilization was broken up by the distant pinging of a blacksmith's hammer on metal, a noise that rang especially in Darnath's ears. The bugbear assassin, wearing the "Nine Lives Stealer" on his sword belt, felt the repeated pings of metal-on-metal as sharp pains in his ears and could also feel some form of resonance from the mysterious magical blade he had discovered in Undrieg 's hoard. Darnath chose to keep the newly found reaction a secret from the party for the time being, and the group continued onto the city's library.
The heavy library doors swung open, flooding the silent building with the din of the city and the raucus music from the nearby tavern. A shocked librarian's aide stammered a welcome to the party as they entered the small library, closing the doors behind them and sealing the room off from the noise outside. The librarian's aide, taken aback by the presence of new patrons, struggled to put together much of a greeting, but asked the party how he could be of service. The party, through both direct request and feigned interest in related subjects, attempted to glean as much information as they could about Moander, Ghaunadaur, House Theyralana, and the prevalence of high quality magic items in Boulderdust.
The party cemented their existing knowledge about both Ghaunadaur and House Theyralana through the available tomes in the library. Both the noble House Theyralana and all other worshippers of Ghaunadaur within Drow society were cast out for turning against Lolth, driven past the fringes of the Drow lands within The Underdark. While this information did not point to any exact known location for House Theyralana currently, Sylvie was able to piece together their relative location within the Underdark, given that they had razed Bigtarhir within the last few years and were unlikely to enter into Drow territory, severely limiting their possible location of settlement.
Through research into gods both large and small, Duo was able to discover additional links between Moander and Ghaunadaur, as well as answer questions originally exposed through Thovak's communion with Akadi in the months prior. Moander and Ghaunadaur, as the god of rot and the god of ooze respectively, were allied against the Drow goddess Lolth, placing them at odds with a great many dieties across multiple pantheons. Moander's killer, a mortal according to Akadi, was discovered to be Finder Wyvernspur, an ancient hero turned god-killer turned demigod. Finder's ascension to godhood explained Akadi's confusing revelation that Moander's mortal killer was somehow still alive, given that the death of the god of rot happened thousands of years ago.
Duo also questioned the librarian, a young female tiefling named Valqine Arialith, about the city's prevalence of quality magic items and their origin. She explained that an ancient lineage of dwarven smiths called the Ironhands once served as Boulderdust's forgemasters, crafting some of the finest arms and armor seen by dwarf kind, including the gear used by the Paladins of Truesilver and their leader High Priestess Secta. The greatest smith of the Ironhands, Felicior Ironhand, was an unparalleled craftsman but destroyed the good name of the clan by emigrating to the surface to work as the royal blacksmith of a high elven kingdom, an act viewed as traitorous to his dwarven compatriots and the leadership of Boulderdust. Though viewed as a traitor by his kinsmen, most of Felicior Ironhand's masterworks are still in circulation throughout the Underdark, their uncompromising quality leading to their an incredible longevity.
As Duo questioned Valqine Arialith on the fate of Felicior Ironhand and the Ironhand clan, Darnath was wracked with another bout of severe tinnitus. Each time Felicior's name was spoken, Darnath's ears would flare with another pierce of phantom pain and the sword at his side would rattle in its scabbard, imperceptible to anyone but its wielder. Again the bugbear chose to keep this reaction of the magical weapon hidden from his party.
Leaving the library, the party headed towards the city's tavern and source of the raucus music filling the streets, The Pig's End. As they entered the open doors of the establishment they were blasted with a wave of sound from the dwarven band playing aggressive, drum-heavy music. As they were pounded by crashing waves of music, the proprieter of the tavern escorted the party to a table and Darnath placed a pouch of gold into the man's hand, ordering food, ale, and lodging for the group. The party found respite in a night of live music, drinking, and piles of pulled pork sandwiches.
After the music died down and many of the patrons left to return home for the night, Darnath broached the topic of the "Nine Lives Stealer" and his recent pangs of hunger and the bolts of pain in response to the hammering and the name Felicior Ironhand with the party. Though concerned, the party supported Darnath's continued investigation into the magical item, as thus far none of the symptoms were severely detrimental.
The dwarven band packed up their equipment and introduced themselves to the party, now the only patrons remaining in the tavern. The band's drummer Thundertop Ironbeard, its second drummer Raben Stoneshadow, and their vocalist and lutenist Glimmerstone Hammerharp, shared a round of drinks with the adventurers and traded stories of travels.
With the "Nine Lives Stealer" still sitting atop the table, the dwarven drummer Thundertop Ironbeard asked if he could take a look at the weapon, noting the interesting construction of the rapier. Darnath offered the sword to Thundertop, who quickly took it up and began to examine its craftsmanship. The three dwarven musicians began to clean and polish the magical sword, paying special attention to the large, round pommel. After some time the dwarves huddled briefly, and then presented the sword back to Darnath. This sword, they claimed, was crafted by none other than Felicior Ironhand as one of his post-exile works, as evidenced by the Ironhand sigil inlaid upon the pearl pommel.
Travelling down into The Underdark through a small entrance south of Qadis, the party encountered little in the form of resistance from the giant spiders and lost denizens of the desert unfortunate enough to lose themselves in the twisting caverns. After traveling down serpentine paths of stone for the majority of a week, the party were relieved to see faint torchlight in the distance. Pushing on farther, the party arrived outside the dwarven settlement of Boulderdust, an imposing fortress of brick and wrought iron built into a dead-end cavern.
The party hailed the two dwarven guards manning the outer of two heavy portcullises protecting the city and requested entrance. After being ushered into the antechamber lined with arrow slits and capped by the two portcullises, the party were led into a side room to be evaluated for access to the city. A paladin of the city's holy order, worshippers of Barranor Truesilver wearing gleaming white plate mail and wielding magical warhammers, interviewed each party member to document their information and determined if they should be granted access to Boulderdust. While the party were handling paperwork, Duo questioned the paladin about the city's views on different cultures, religions, and deities, discovering that the dwarven settlement was primarily composed of dwarves and worshippers of dwarven gods, but that there was a population both of non-dwarven citizens and worshippers of non-dwarven gods.
After their entrance interviews, the party were escorted through the second heavy portcullis and allowed access into the city proper. As always, the party's immediate goal was to investigate the shops available in the market and peruse the wares both mundane and magical, where they discovered that Boulderdust's market was ripe with magical armaments. Vendors were stocked with ample uncommon weaponry, and some even possessed significantly rarer arms. Finding nothing of immediate interest in the market, the party headed for the stronghold's library at the opposite side of town.
As they traveled across the city, the din of civilization was broken up by the distant pinging of a blacksmith's hammer on metal, a noise that rang especially in Darnath's ears. The bugbear assassin, wearing the "Nine Lives Stealer" on his sword belt, felt the repeated pings of metal-on-metal as sharp pains in his ears and could also feel some form of resonance from the mysterious magical blade he had discovered in Undrieg 's hoard. Darnath chose to keep the newly found reaction a secret from the party for the time being, and the group continued onto the city's library.
The heavy library doors swung open, flooding the silent building with the din of the city and the raucus music from the nearby tavern. A shocked librarian's aide stammered a welcome to the party as they entered the small library, closing the doors behind them and sealing the room off from the noise outside. The librarian's aide, taken aback by the presence of new patrons, struggled to put together much of a greeting, but asked the party how he could be of service. The party, through both direct request and feigned interest in related subjects, attempted to glean as much information as they could about Moander, Ghaunadaur, House Theyralana, and the prevalence of high quality magic items in Boulderdust.
The party cemented their existing knowledge about both Ghaunadaur and House Theyralana through the available tomes in the library. Both the noble House Theyralana and all other worshippers of Ghaunadaur within Drow society were cast out for turning against Lolth, driven past the fringes of the Drow lands within The Underdark. While this information did not point to any exact known location for House Theyralana currently, Sylvie was able to piece together their relative location within the Underdark, given that they had razed Bigtarhir within the last few years and were unlikely to enter into Drow territory, severely limiting their possible location of settlement.
Through research into gods both large and small, Duo was able to discover additional links between Moander and Ghaunadaur, as well as answer questions originally exposed through Thovak's communion with Akadi in the months prior. Moander and Ghaunadaur, as the god of rot and the god of ooze respectively, were allied against the Drow goddess Lolth, placing them at odds with a great many dieties across multiple pantheons. Moander's killer, a mortal according to Akadi, was discovered to be Finder Wyvernspur, an ancient hero turned god-killer turned demigod. Finder's ascension to godhood explained Akadi's confusing revelation that Moander's mortal killer was somehow still alive, given that the death of the god of rot happened thousands of years ago.
Duo also questioned the librarian, a young female tiefling named Valqine Arialith, about the city's prevalence of quality magic items and their origin. She explained that an ancient lineage of dwarven smiths called the Ironhands once served as Boulderdust's forgemasters, crafting some of the finest arms and armor seen by dwarf kind, including the gear used by the Paladins of Truesilver and their leader High Priestess Secta. The greatest smith of the Ironhands, Felicior Ironhand, was an unparalleled craftsman but destroyed the good name of the clan by emigrating to the surface to work as the royal blacksmith of a high elven kingdom, an act viewed as traitorous to his dwarven compatriots and the leadership of Boulderdust. Though viewed as a traitor by his kinsmen, most of Felicior Ironhand's masterworks are still in circulation throughout the Underdark, their uncompromising quality leading to their an incredible longevity.
As Duo questioned Valqine Arialith on the fate of Felicior Ironhand and the Ironhand clan, Darnath was wracked with another bout of severe tinnitus. Each time Felicior's name was spoken, Darnath's ears would flare with another pierce of phantom pain and the sword at his side would rattle in its scabbard, imperceptible to anyone but its wielder. Again the bugbear chose to keep this reaction of the magical weapon hidden from his party.
Leaving the library, the party headed towards the city's tavern and source of the raucus music filling the streets, The Pig's End. As they entered the open doors of the establishment they were blasted with a wave of sound from the dwarven band playing aggressive, drum-heavy music. As they were pounded by crashing waves of music, the proprieter of the tavern escorted the party to a table and Darnath placed a pouch of gold into the man's hand, ordering food, ale, and lodging for the group. The party found respite in a night of live music, drinking, and piles of pulled pork sandwiches.
After the music died down and many of the patrons left to return home for the night, Darnath broached the topic of the "Nine Lives Stealer" and his recent pangs of hunger and the bolts of pain in response to the hammering and the name Felicior Ironhand with the party. Though concerned, the party supported Darnath's continued investigation into the magical item, as thus far none of the symptoms were severely detrimental.
The dwarven band packed up their equipment and introduced themselves to the party, now the only patrons remaining in the tavern. The band's drummer Thundertop Ironbeard, its second drummer Raben Stoneshadow, and their vocalist and lutenist Glimmerstone Hammerharp, shared a round of drinks with the adventurers and traded stories of travels.
With the "Nine Lives Stealer" still sitting atop the table, the dwarven drummer Thundertop Ironbeard asked if he could take a look at the weapon, noting the interesting construction of the rapier. Darnath offered the sword to Thundertop, who quickly took it up and began to examine its craftsmanship. The three dwarven musicians began to clean and polish the magical sword, paying special attention to the large, round pommel. After some time the dwarves huddled briefly, and then presented the sword back to Darnath. This sword, they claimed, was crafted by none other than Felicior Ironhand as one of his post-exile works, as evidenced by the Ironhand sigil inlaid upon the pearl pommel.
