Session 02
General Summary
The party decided to take Jenya up on her offer of 2,500gp to seek out and return the missing
orphans to their home on Lantern Street. Deciding this was a good place to start Morgan and
Harley set out there whilst the others finished their cheap lunches at the Drunken Morkoth. The
paladin and rogue arrived at the orphanage, and after a brief confusion at the door where Morgan
thought Gretchyn, the elderly halfling woman who runs the place, was a small boy, they were let
in.
Questioning Gretchyn they were able to find out that the locks were all made for the orphanage by
a gnome locksmith called Keygan Ghelve and that he had charged them a fairly large amount of
money for them. Harley had a professional check over the locks and decided they were all made
by the same person and were in good working order. They had certainly not been forced.
From there the group collected together at the Drunken Morkoth and discussed plans. On the way
back Harley dropped into Keygan Ghelve's shop to get a feel for what the gnome was like. He
seemed friendly and gregarious enough and his prices seemed expensive but not unreasonable.
Back at the inn, it was agreed that Morgan and Braken, the paladin and cleric of St. Cuthbert
would question Keygan in an official role as they were representing the Church. At the same time
Harley and Camero would go to the library and see what they could find out the malachite hold
mentioned in the Divination.
Within 5 minutes of clever and insightful questioning by Morgan and Braken the pair had Keygan
shaking and near tears as he burst out that he was really sorry but they had captured Starbrow, his
rat! Calming him down they managed to get him to explain in whispers what had happened.
Strange creatures from the dark places below had burst out of the secret door in his shop, taking
him by surprise and they had captured his familiar, the rat called Starbrow. They threatened his rat
with death unless he helped them. This was 3 months ago. He had been forced to make the
creatures 3 skeleton keys which gave access to all the locks in Cauldron which he had made. The
three keys were on a silver keyring held by one of the "tall ones". The trouble was one of the "tall
ones" was keeping watch in the backroom.
Braken quickly went a few doors down to the Academy and collected Camero and Harley and the
four of them burst into the backroom but could see no creature till it lept on them from the balcony
above. They quickly laid it low, hitting it over the head into unconsciousness. Packing it up in a
chest for removal to the Church they questioned Keygan some more.
He explained that the entrance to Jzaridune, the abandoned gnome complex, lie in his shop under
his staircase. The party decided they would need to head down into Jzaridune to find the children
as Camero and Harley's research in the academy lead them to believe that the malachite hold
which the Divination spoke of was actually the Malachite Fortress, built by dwarves to protect
Jzaridune from the Underdark. So they would need to travel through Jzaridne to get to the
Fortress.
Interrogating Keygan some more they managed to get a rough map of the place from him and he
explained that there was an elevator shaft which connected Jzaridune with the Malachite Fortress.
He pointed its location out on the map to them. He had never been down there but knew that
dwarves still lived there when Jzaridune was abandoned by the gnomes 75 years ago.
Morgan and Braken took the body of the creature, which was identified as a Skulk by Harley who
knew something of these cameleon creatures, in the trunk provided by Keygan all the way across
town to the Church of St. Cuthbert where it was placed into Jenya's hands and she was told what
they had found out. She said she would give them till sun rise to find out what they could before
she would have to let the town guards know. Collecting Gotrek from the Drunken Morkoth the
group assembled back at Ghelve's Locks and prepared to enter Jzaridune.
Inside Jzaridune, armed with Keygan's map and folling tunnels burrowed roughly into the walls of
the complex, the group managed to bypass all the strange circular doors they came across. They
encountered a few more skulks in the complex and were attacked by a strange mechanical
automoton which they surmised had been used to dig the tunnels which bypassed the doors.
Before too long and without much event other than a strange room which had been magically
made to look like a forest and contained a secret door which was a short cut, they found their way
to the round door which they believed led into the elevator room. They had no choice but to go
through it so Harkey checked it carefully for traps and was able to ascertain that it had some sort
of electrical field protecting it. He tried to disable it and figured that he had succeeded. However
when he opened the door, using his picks and tools, the door slid open and suddenly an electrical
field sprang up in the doorway!
Beyond the field was an octagonal room, with a wooden floor supported by many chains - clearly
this was a plaform which could be used to descend into the depths. There was even a lever which
looked like it would be used to lower the platform. And stood in front of the lever were two large
viscious looking hobgoblins who threw their javelins wildly at Harley as he stood in the doorway.
Seeing this Gotrek charged into the room, completely uncaring about the electrical field which
crackled in the doorway! He came through it singed but otherwise okay and this also brought the
field down, meaning the others could pour through. They made light work of the hobgoblins.
As Harley was checking the lever over to see if it was safe Braken heard a strange squeeking noise
coming from another area nearby behind another one of these dangerous round doors. The group
figured this was possibly Starbrow locked up but as Harley refused, at least for the moment, to
risk himself opening another dangerous door, and as he pointed out that the lives of the kidnapped
children were far more important than the rat familiar of someone who had helped the children get
kidnapped in the first place, it was agreed to head down the elevator first and come back for the rat
later.
The group assembled on the platform and Harley threw the lever. With a judder and the sounds of
mechanical cogs and wheels crunching the platform began to descend...
Report Date
11 Apr 2024
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