But first, a few points. I'm no writer, so apologies for the style and the overlong prose. Reading back it seems all about Tharnak, while it's true that this was his character arc, all the players got lots to do. My note taking may have focused on him, but in play it was very much a group effort. I didn't take many pictures, mostly because we were all concentrating on the game. There are more of the minis and the scenery in the relevant posts.
Also, the structure is technically a foundry more than a forge, but the name stuck. Apologies if this bothers you (it does me, a little).
Now, read on...
Background
The party were investigating why the northern branch of the dwarf paladin's clan were considered anathema.
To answer this question, they explored the abandoned furnace and forge of the clan, situated in a flooded cavern.
Previous sessions showed them that they needed to open some valves and shut others to drain the cavern, and in a previous foray, they actually gained entrance to the uppermost levels. Here they were met by the bizarre site of many of the clan, turned to stone! What's more, they seemed to have undergone the process willingly.
The Heroes plus Hangers On
The heroes consist of;
Harrow, tiefling cleric of The Raven Queen
Kei, dragonborn wizard
Roland, half elven paladin of Bahamut
Tarryn, elven rogue
Tharnak Thunderforge, dwarven paladin of Kord
Timbers, gnome bard
They are accompanied by Kluku, a construct built in the form of a small dragon, Tordek and Lonar Deepdelve, father and son and Clan chief and heir of the Deepdelves.
Kluku was adopted by the party (especially Harrow) when they met him trying to sell them merchandise in the abandoned Thunderforge market. He has proven useful with his knowledge of Clan individuals.
Some of the Heroes of Nentir Vale can be seen in one of last years' posts.
Draining the Cavern
The first stage was to drain the water; accompanied by Tordek, Chief of the Deepdelve Clan, they were able to enter the room containing huge metal pipes with tarnished wheels, presumably some sort of tap? Water pooled around them, but Harrow was eventually able to open one valve. When Roland joined in, the puddle rose up and attempted to engulf him. Fortunately, the group soon dispatched the creature.
It was a simple matter then to open the second valve, causing a drop in the water level in the cavern.
But water was still gushing in through the ceiling.
Earlier, the heroes found a room above the cavern with similar pipework, but with no apparent control, only a blue crystal set in the wall. Time to go back and check further.
Tharnak's use of the Thunderforge motto seemed to bring the crystal to life; glowing runes appeared in a language none of the party understood. Tordek was annoyed; these defences were supposed to require at least two Clans to lift, the ancient Thunderforges were clearly keeping secrets from his clan.
Harrow mollified him; surely the Deepdelves also had clan secrets?
Kei used his magic (comprehend languages) to try and read the writing, but when he touched the stone, his eyes lost focus and he slumped. His mind was elsewhere, where a strange watery presence demanded to know what he wanted.
Questioning revealed that it was an elemental creature of water. Despite it's alleged great power, it was compelled simply to control and direct water for the dwarves. Kei asked it to turn off the water, but the dragonborn was no dwarf to be obeyed without question, what could he offer in exchange?
Quickly Kei asked what it wanted. Would it like the blue crystal? With delight, it seized the thing binding it to servitude and vanished, shutting off the flow as it went.
The players thought this rash. Without the elemental would the forge still operate? Was Highpeak doomed to a dry dusty future? As Kei's consciousness returned, this was something to ponder.
The water now drained slowly out, revealing a lower wooden bridge, another door in the side of the forge, and a series of mine tunnels leading from the cavern. The Deepdelves suspected that this was a section of their mines that had long been flooded.
The Fate of the Forge Master
The heroes then persuaded Tordek to remain outside. He was a leader, but no warrior. He agreed, providing his son Lonar accompanied them. At Tharnak's insistence, dwarves were placed at intervals so that the alarm could be raised if needed.
The doors opened at Tharnak's whispered words. "More Thunderforge treachery" Tordek muttered as he took up position just outside.
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| Entering the Master Forge |
The doors had leather seals to keep out the water, and the place was warm and dry. Pillars supported the ceiling and steps led up to doors, presumably the doors that had proven impossible for Tarryn to open in a previous session.
In one corner a cylindrical feature rose floor to ceiling, a faint reddish glow emanating from it.
Both a ramp and a shaft led below and various tubs and crates littered the room, filled with rubble.
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| Entering the Ore Floor |
A shuffling sound behind the pillars alerted the heroes. What could be moving after 300 years?
Tharnak concentrated; as a paladin, he could sense the undead, and there was an undead creature there. It slunk forward, hissing and licking it's dry lips. It was, or had been, a dwarf.
Still wearing the remains of its apron and work wear and clutching a metal staff topped by a miniature anvil it approached.
"Ah, rescue, at last. But why did you abandon us for so long? Deepdelve doings I'll wager".
Tharnak, Roland and Harrow watched its approach, the tiefling mentally preparing the blessing of the Raven Queen that should send it to it's rest. But the creature seemed to want to talk, so the heroes questioned it.
In between complaining about how hungry it was, and it's shame at what it had had to do to survive, it revealed that it was Goran, the Forge Master, and son of the Clan Chief. When asked, Kluku recognised him, confirming his tale.
At some point (he seemed confused by the time he'd been shut away) Highpeak was attacked. There were reports of Grey Dwarves in the depths. All dwarves mobilised, but Keldrick, the Thunderforge chief suspected the Deepdelves were behind this.
He withdrew as many of the Clan as possible to the Master Forge. A great battle was fought in the cavern outside (where, incidentally, the bravery of the Deepdelves proved they were innocent of collusion with the dvergar at least). When all seemed lost, Keldrick triggered the defence mechanisms, flooding the cavern and the lower mines.
With a supply of food and drink, they settled down to wait. With the dvergar washed away, surely the other clan chiefs would drain the cavern and release them?
But no help came.
Keldrick issued instructions to his son to lead the apprentices in the regular rituals that kept the forge running and stable, then ushered the rest of the Clan upstairs. A short while later he returned, pale and shaken, locked the doors and sat, sword in hand guarding the stairs.
Now Goran became very upset as he recalled how they ran out of food. Flosi, the youngest apprentice, fell ill and passed away, solving the food problem for a while.
Eventually, only Goran remained, he glossed over what happened to his father, but did mutter that "he didn't stand a chance against all of us".
His anger at being abandoned returned and he prepared to attack, exuding a foul stench which caused the paladns to retch.
"They couldn't help, there was a dragon. It attacked and drove everyone away" pleaded Harrow, staying the creature.
He remained suspicious at the timing, but Tharnak commanded him to stand down. Recognising, perhaps, the Thunderforge blood, he declared his watch over, bowed and offered up his staff, begging the adventurers to save the foundry which he feared was dangerously unstable. Harrow offered to finish the undead creature's existence, but Tharnak took that responsibility.
Searching the area revealed that the round structure in the corner was the top of a furnace. Peering in, the heroes were surprised to see it was still lit (and very hot).
Rummaging through the various tubs and bins, the heroes found they contained ores of different kinds. Strangely, some of the more valuable pieces accidentally fell into Tarryn's pockets.
Disturbingly, there were also gnawed bones, among which was a fine sword, a key and a ring.
The sword had clearly had three gemstones embedded in the hilt, though they were now missing. The ring matched the ghostly ring the ghost placed on Tharnak's finger when they first arrived in Highpeak, and the key opened the doors at the top of the stairs, to Tarryn's delight (they had previously tried to open this from the other side, but the poor thief only rolled a 2).
Descending the slope, the adventurers reached a mezzanine level. Wooden flooring partially concealed the floor below, flickering flames near the ceiling illuminated the area.
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| Descending to the mezzanine level |
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| View from the other end of the room |
But as the heroes explored further, the flames moved! Three bat like creatures wreathed in fire flew at the intruders.
Roland swung at one with his glaive, cutting it in half caused a burst of flame. Seeing this, the heroes resorted, where possible, to ranged attacks.
Lonar was determined to prove his worth and charged towards one of the bats but slipped and fell (natural 1). As he recovered, the characters were assaulted by more of the bats. They made quick work of them with arrows, magic missiles and, where necessary, glaive and the Forge master's staff. With the creatures destroyed, the party were happy to tell Lonar that he had finished one of them off.
During the fight, Tharnak discovered that the staff protected him somewhat from fire and seemed especially effective against the elemental creatures.
(This encounter made the most of the partial nature of this level, and being able to place the two levels on the table. Sadly no proper picture of the encounter in play, but the next picture does show three levels with the heroes on the mezzanine in the middle and Lonar sprawled on the floor).
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| Fighting the Fire Bats |
In haste to get to the heart of the forge, the heroes quickly looked around, then descended the ramp to the floor below.
The forge had a spout angled towards the centre of the room, which was covered in sand. Investing this revealed that the sand was of some depth.
It also disturbed something.
A vaguely humanoid figure formed out of the sand and attacked. No chance to parley, it only wanted to destroy.
Despite it blinding Tharnak with a storm of sand, the heroes proved their worth. Roland's use of his glaive at distance proved especially useful, and the Forgemaster's Staff walloped lumps out of the thing. Shatter spells seemed less effective against it's sandy nature, but it soon collapsed back onto the floor under the combined assault.
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| The Sand Thing attacks |
The party were surprised when opening the furnace door released a stream of molten metal. The foundry was still operable after all these years, though they could find nothing that looked like it could stabilise the forge.
But there were steps down, so down they went.
The bottom of the foundry was a large octagonal pillar supporting the cylinder above. Wooden walls surrounded the central area and a lift platform rested below the square shaft. The adventurers tried to get this working, but whatever mechanism drove it didn't respond.
But their main focus was the foundry base.
Like the water room high up in the forge, there was a crystal engraved in Primordial, but this one was red.
When touched, a voice asked if they wanted to access 'The Chamber of the Tooth". Of course the party said yes, and found themselves transported to a room the same size as the basement.
A rainbow swirl of colour lit the place and many of the party felt a strange itch or buzz as the energy in the chamber was intense.
The only features here were six large crystals and, corresponding to the foundry, a large tooth thrust through the floor.
Coloured energies swirled around the tooth.
The crystals spun on their axis, four were irregular shapes and glowed red. Their spin was erratic. A fifth was similar, but a much paler colour. The ghostly shape of a dwarf could be seen trying to control it. The final crystal was regular and shone with a clear light. Another dwarf spirit was controlling this.
Tharnak recognised the latter as the ghost that had treated him earlier, the party was sure the other spirit was that of the Forge Master.
Kei quickly deduced that the crystals controlled the flow of energies from the Elemental Chaos. Presumably the tooth somehow let them through?
Four of the crystals clearly needed attention. Kei and Timbers could use their knowledge of arcane procedures to do this, but since the whole device undoubtedly referred back to the Dawn War, the cleric and paladins could too; different path, same destination.
Tarryn elected to stay on watch, and, after brief consideration, Tharnak joined her. He did attend classes back in the temple, but the finer points eluded him and he felt he could add little to the crystal work.
Before the heroes began, Harrow (I think) called on the Raven Queen to bless their work. Then they set to.
As soon as they began the energies around the tooth coalesced and two fiery spirits appeared. Tharnak and Tarryn tackled these, and they were soon dispatched. As the rest of the party concentrated, their crystals began to loose the angry red colour, but they needed more attention to stabilise them, alas, Harrow took longer than the rest, giving more fire spirits the chance to attack, but they were no match for Tarryn and Tharnak.
As the last crystal turned clear and spun smoothly, the energy from the tooth flowed pure and clear.
The ghost of the elder dwarf bowed to the party and turned to Tharnak "you are a true Thunderforge" he said.
And that's pretty much where we left it, time was passing, and many of us had long journeys.
Some more story was revealed as we packed away. The tooth was that of a Primordial (presumably a dead one!) that pierced the veil between the Elemental Chaos and the material Realm. The dwarves didn't know where it came from, but it allowed them to access very high temperatures for the foundry and forge, and control them too a very fine degree. This was the Secret of the Thunderforges. Keldrik (the last Clanmaster) had found out the Deepdelve secret, and it wasn't anything to do with the dvergar. He didn't feel it appropriate to divulge it though...
I'll finish by thanking my players for turning up and making this an amazing gaming experience.
Look out for more posts showing the minis and the terrain, and I may even waffle on about some of the choices I made.
So was that a 6 player party, quite a large group to handle, but it looks and sounds like you all had fun. The 3-D nature of your scenery must have made the experience more immersive for all. Great stuff, very jealous, would have loved to play.
ReplyDeleteThanks. We've grown from five to six players, and they are a great group.
DeleteThree of the players were pretty much new to the game when we started.