Game Session Sixteen

Game session Sixteen: Saturday June 8, 2002

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The game session started the evening of Reaping 19, 3080 YE. The party was outside the dungeon at the end of the orc tunnel. They were recovering from the beating they took killing the troglodytes in the caverns.

They spent a total of three days outside, healing up and regaining spells. Ulfgar took this time to enchant Cebo's master work greataxe with a +1 Enchantment. After resting and re-spelling the party went back in, deciding to find out what was behind the iron door they saw in the great cavern with the fungus.

Travelling back into the caverns they followed the same path as before through the patches of strange fungi, tall capped stalks, and glowing puffballs to reach the path that ended at the iron door. As they were walking along the path they passed under a tall ledge. As they passed underneath long tentacles reached down and attacked Cebo and Rhino. The party attacked back with Cebo killing one of the loathsome monsters with his first attack. The remaining party members tried to attack also but either all missed or saw their attacks bounce harmlessly off the monsters. Once Cebo had another chance he killed the second one also.

Climbing the ledge the saw a passage that led to a cave used as a lair of the monsters. Checking it out they discovered a scattered collection of coinage, which the gathered up.

Returning to the path they soon came to the iron bound door. The door was small but sturdy looking, made of iron plate, about 5 ft. tall and 4 ft. wide. Thee were heavy rivets studding it's surface and a tarnished silver rune - Durgeddin's smith-mark - gleamed on the door's rusted face. There were no hinges visible and the lock looked well made. Having no rogue handy since Eldon died, both Rhino and Cebo took a crack at picking the lock. Both of them failed. It ended up being Ulfgar who finally opened the door with a knock spell. Behind the doors was a short corridor that led to a set of stairs which went downward.

At the bottom of the stairs was an octagonal chamber about 30 feet across. The floor was inlaid with cracked, dusty blue tiles and the walls were dressed with polished marble. There were large doors of ironbound oak on the northeast and northwest walls. The room was dominated by three cast bronze statues almost 10 ft in height standing on the west, north, and east walls. Each statue was of a dwarven fighter armed for battle. The statues on the east and west walls carried axe and shield, while the statue on the north wall held two axes overhead. The ceiling of the chamber rose to a dome about 30 ft from the floor.

In the distance they could hear a faint ringing of hammer on anvil.

Cebo entered the room alone and checked out the statues and doors, looking for traps (even though he really had no idea what he was looking for). Finally he tried opening one of the iron bound doors. As he did so two of the statues dropped their axes right in he spot he had been standing. He managed to jump out of the way without being hit. Behind the door was a blank wall. Figuring that the second door also had to be a trap, Cebo rigged up the door to be opened with a rope. Sure enough, that door was trapped also. Behind that was another blank wall.

Figuring that somewhere there had to be a secret door, Moss came into the chamber and searched the walls. Sure enough there was a secret door behind the east wall, he was also able to hear the sounds of hammer on anvils clearer here. Once the door was opened a short flight of stairs leading upward was revealed, at the top was a stone door carved with a glowering dwarf face.

The party started upwards, and as Cebo reached the 13th step a magic mouth appeared on the stone door above calling out loudly in dwarven "Alert! Alert! Intruders approach!". Realizing that any surprise was now lost they opened the door.

The door led to a mighty dwarven hall, fully 100 feet long by 50 feet wide, lined with ten great pillars carved into fantastic images - giants and dragons straining to support the massive vaulted ceiling, thirty feet above. Guttering yellow torches set in sconces 10 feet above the floor illuminated the room, and a mighty throne sat on a dais at the opposite end. The wall looked to have once been covered with tile frescoes, but have been long since smashed into tiny fragments and replaced with Orcish graffiti. The party could see five doors not counting the one they were standing in.

There was a fire smoldering on the floor in front of the dais, and a half-dozen sleeping pallets lay empty there, surrounded by packs and supplies. They could hear hammers ring on metal somewhere beyond the doors to the south.

As they stood looking into this room a harsh voice called out from the shadows of the pillars in common: "Go back the way you came! This is the only warning you'll get!" Looking around the party could see no one in the shadows. Flairian used a spell of invisibility to check out the room. Walking around it he could still see no creatures. Going to each door in turn he could easily hear that the hammering came from the large double doors to the southeast. Checking out the stone throne on the dais he decided to peek into the doorway behind it. Cracking the door open enough to squeeze through he entered a large room that looked to have once been a council chamber. There was a large table consisting of a single stone slab that dominated the room with several old rotted tapestries still on the walls. On the opposite wall was a single door with the image of the fierce dwarf that had been seen elsewhere. Standing watch next to the door was a gray-skinned dwarf (of normal dwarf size) in chainmail holding a crossbow. He didn't seem to notice Flairian, so he carefully sneaked back out.

The party decided to cross the Great Hall. As they had entered the hall half-way they were suddenly surprised by arrows as two creatures suddenly appeared and started shooting crossbows at them. The creatures looked like really big dwarves, man-sized even, with grey-skin and looking emaciated. The party attacked back when one more of the large dwarves appeared behind them shooting. After some exchange of fire the odd dwarves were dead. When they died they also shrunk back down to "normal" dwarf size. The party then went on to check out the dais with the stone throne.

As they started walking up the dais the door behind the throne suddenly opened up and out poured another gang of these dwarves, followed by a particularly large female wielding a two-bladed sword. This fight proved to be a bit tougher as the party was surprised and had a hard time bringing them down, taking some damage in the process. Checking the bodies they found only a potion of cure light wounds and a couple scrolls in addition to loose coinage on the bodies.

They checked out the rooms behind the dais. The room beyond the council chamber proved to be a fairly Spartan looking bedroom. There was nothing of value to be found here, though Moss did find a secret door in a closet. Checking out the secret door they discovered that it led to a narrow passageway the went north and south. They went to the south end and could hear the sound of rushing water from beyond the door. So they opened it and looked beyond.

Beyond the secret door was a good-sized ledge overlooking a great chasm. There were two streams running into the chasm creating a roaring waterfall. At the edge of the chasm is an old chain ladder leading downward.

Deciding to check out the room where they had heard the hammering, the party backtracked to the great hall and the double doors to the south.

Throwing open the doors they saw that the doors led into a barrel-vaulted foundry about 40 feet across and 70 long, with the eastern edge continuing into a large dark cave obviously leading the chasm they saw before. There was a stream of water running down the center of the room, crossed by two stone bridges. They could count several forges on both sides of the stream. Directly across, on the other side of the stream they could see five lean, grey dwarves working at a roaring forge, beating a white-hot blade into shape on an old anvil. The party managed to get surprise and moved into position. After a hard fight, with one of the gray dwarves casting illusions and spells through his familiar, the party managed to kill them all.

Searching the chamber they found that the stream, and the chamber, went all the way to the chasm waterfall. They also found stashed in one of the cold forges a goodly quantity of coins, along with a necklace and a magic potion.

Deciding they needed to rest and respell the party retired to the ledge overlooking the chasm, beyond the secret door and spent two days recovering.

The game ended here on Reaping 24, 3080 YE. With the party at the end of the secret passage, camped on the ledge overlooking the chasm and waterfall.
Link to next session:

Unanswered Questions:

• You have finally found some forges, but no more of the fabled master work weapons made by Durgeddin the Black
• Somewhere there must be more weapons lying about, where could they be?
• Who, or what, were those strange gray-skinned dwarves that you were battling?

Session Sixteen Experience

Page Last Updated Monday, July 08, 2002