Rewards and Escape of Dragon Key: Game 29

General Summary

The Company of the Furies: Eumenides plundered a mage and alchemist laboratory and experiment room, interrogated and negotiated with a devil (pit fiend), defeated a number of demons, discovered a teleportation room to Hellgate Keep and the Underdark, and passed up the opportunity to clear out the dungeon deciding to leave that up to the Hammerfast guard. The shadow monster like creature that the Company was pursuing with the Dragon Key fled into the teleportation room fleeing toward Hellgate Keep.

Loot and Tortured Devil

The Company traveled through passageways with low quality bas reliefs of men with bestial heads and ultimately discovered a room that included a mage, alchemist and/or scientist experimental laboratory similar to what they found in Siege of the Gnoll Rock Fort: Game 2 and The Devil's Rescue: Game 3. There were two greater pit fiend, one of which was lying injured on the floor, and the second cut and crudely sewn open with black ooze draining out of cuts and dripping acid from the ceiling burning into his chest, which healed each time after it drips. This tortured pit fiend was pinned down with iron stakes in its arms, legs and wings, and is named Ciriatto. Guilhem de Quéribus kills the first greater pit fiend, and the party negotiates and strikes a deal with the second. The Company made off with numerous potions, oils, ointments, incense, dust, beads and books. The Company fought a trapper, lurkers above, and smaller demons before locating secret doors to an inner chamber.

Teleportation to Hellgate and Underdark

The final room was a teleportation room to Hellgate Keep and the Underdark, similar to the room in Adlerweg Keep, which was discovered in Arrows of Slaying and Adlerweg Keep: Game 13 and Adlerweg Keep Clearing the Top: Game 14, and could teleport to Sentinel Fortress and the Fire Giant volcano.

Learnings: Hellgate Keep and the Dragon Keys

Hellgate was an ancient elven keep, originally founded as Ascalhorn. This ancient elven city on the northeast edge of the Edhel Forest that was overtaken by demonic forces and eventually destroyed at the time of Arrival of the Great Worms and The Rise of the Undead. In the years following its destruction, the site of the Keep's ruins came to be known as Hellgate Dell, and was inhabited by demons and dragons. The lands were far to the north and east of Fultar and generally did not pose a threat to the civilized human lands, although some believe they may have been responsible for the Bloodspear Orc Invasion and the rallying of humanoids that fought against High Queen Tegwedd when High Queen Tegwedd is Elected at the Great Kingsmoot.
The Company learns from the pit fiend that, only months ago and around the same time as the party slew the lich necromancer Yarlzedd and his great two headed black dragon Calastryx there was a great explosion at Hellgate Keep wrought by the Gatekeeper's Dragon Crystal. This destroyed much of the Keep and unleashed an array of wild magic, and left both wild magic regions lingering throughout the surrounding area, as well as several layers of dead-magic zones nestled between them in the central ravine created by the explosion. In devil informed the Company that, in particular, all magical tomes, potions, and spells that granted the ability to fly would not function in the area.
The Gatekeeper's Crystal was (or maybe still is) a powerful magical device, which, according to legend, had been created by a powerful lich. The pit fiend tell you that, in truth it originated from the Kara Tur, having been carried by a mysterious being called the Gatekeeper, who was a member of the Order of the Five Elements. The Gatekeeper's sole duty was apparently to guard a crossroads of gates across the planes and spheres, preventing anyone who wished to restrict access to it from blocking the travel of others. It was stolen, and when in heard music from the Earth Shaker, a great lute called Tar Eneemena, it opened the portals of darkness that allowed chaos.
The Dragonkeys were forged by the original elven refugees from Ascalhorn to protect towns and cities from Dragons, if they were ever unleashed again.

Mystery Solved?

Amid the tensions of hill dwarven immigrants and refugees from the Sua Hills, the Company investigated the murder of Tathik Glodreddi, the town’s chief tax collector, one of if not the only dwarven follower of Mithras and member of the Katheroian, had the right and responsibility to investigate the murder of any member of the Katheroi faith. This fell to Eberwin of Shorfeld and his assistant Almabister, who promptly delegate the responsibility to Gui. The Company investigated the murder, tied Tathik the tax collector to Carthain's gang of smugglers, and ultimately tied the murder to Quila Stoneshield(the offical Hammerfast Guard record keeper and daughter of the the Lord Commander Tenkar Stoneshield's daughter and her lover, Gerrek. Gerrek was the true villian and actual murderer, and a member of the Circle of Stone, a group of hard core priests of the dwarven god Moradin who wish to rid Hammerfast of all non-dwarves and even most Suan Hill dwaves. The Company knew that the "Circle of Stone will cause the Cult of the Dragon to destroy Hammerfast unless the Circle can be redirected." After uncovering the murder, the Company the local law enforcement focused on finding and arresting the members of the Circle supporting Gerrek, which led them to pursue a shadow monster that was disguised as the silversmith's assistant down into another crypt. Shadow monster fled with the sacred Dragonkey, which has protected Hammerfast since the Arrival of the Great Worms from a return of evil Dragons. The Key has been taken to Hellgate Keep, and the great and powerful magics will not longer protect the dwarven from the powerful and ancient worms.
Much of the infighting and politics in town seem petty given the once in a millieum risk to the complete and utter destruction of the one of the three last great dwarven towns left eastern Fultar.
What does it matter if the anti-immigrant Circle of Stone trimph,
Or if Alvis the Allwise and Grond Silverstar can properly manage the priest of Moradin,
Or whether the forces of justice (i.e., Judge Beldrin Longbeard are able to maintain law and order,
Or the proto-capitalistic local merchants in favor of bringing the wealth of foreign lands into Hammerfast (i.e., Norrinir Goldspinner and Marsinda Goldspinner),
Or the jealous and monopolistic merchants (the apothecaries Thortha Deepmine and Thar the Bevilian) can maintain their dominant positions,
Or if Frelda Blacksheild, the head of the Craft Guild, will ever repair her broken relationship with the Priest of Moradin Grond Silverstar,
Or if Dannis Lawguardian, Thanhilla Farsight and Henduhra Lawspeaker will be able to find a new home for the Sua Hill dwarves in Hammerfast,
Or if the local halfings are law abidding members of the community under the loving hand of Dara Swiftriver of the Swiftriver Clan or if they are ruffians engaging in petty criminal activities as some accuse Tharn Swiftriver and Hugo Swiftriver,
Or if Alzar Scrollkeeper can maintain order the Hammerfast Great Library,
Or if, Auran Deepmine is able to use his vast wealth to acquire all the great riches of the fleeing Sua Hill dwarves at bargain basement prices,
Or how any othe subplot is resolved,
IF the whole town is burned the ground by evil dragons.

by Wereldmuseum

Report Date

19 Apr 2024

by mountainamoeba