Road to Kelvin's Cairn 3

The session started off with the party determined to follow Maulnar that night to see what if anything he was up to. They had no reason to suspect he was up to anything, but decided more information was always better. Gareth and Nefresil hid where they could see Maulnar’s house and waited. He eventually emerged, and left. Nefresil stayed to watch the house, while Gareth chose to follow. Gareth was able to stealthily follow behind Maulnar at a safe distance, while he headed down an abandoned mine shaft. After walking down the mine shaft for awhile, Maulnar turned down a smaller passage. This passage ended in a stone door. Maulnar went through the door, and while it was open Gareth heard chanting inside the door, but could not see what was in the the room. After several hours, Maulnar emerged from the room, and Gareth overhead him say, “The time is almost here.” This was followed by some hissing noises, but Gareth was unable to see who or what made those noises. Maulnar then returned to his house, and Gareth related everything to Nefresil.

The next day, Nefresil, Gareth, and Dymar went back to the room and found that the key that Gareth stole from Maulnar earlier opened the door. What they found inside was a large circular stone room about 100 feet in diameter. There were several iron braziers around the room. There were also many dead bodies in various states of decay scattered at the perimeter of the room. In the center were some markings on the floors that the party knew to be a summoning circle. However, they had no idea what was being summoned, but based on the dead bodies, they did not think it was anything good.

Nefresil was able to convince Dymar to help the party the next night. They planned an elaborate trap that would have them break into Maulnar’s house and await his arrival home. They would then surprise him with a non-lethal attack, and tie him up. At this point he would be questioned. The party setup the ambush, and when Maulnar arrived home, they sprung the trap Nefresil and Gareth were able to grapple Maulnar, and instructed Dymar to tie his hands. When Dymar went to tie Maulnar’s hands, he was struck from behind, and rendered unconscious. This is when the party small a small reddish creature with wings and a tail, which they correctly guessed to be an imp. Nefresil took over tying up Maulnar, and holding him at sword point, while Gareth cast Magic Missle, and felled the beast. Once dead, the imp’s corpse turned to ash and vanished. Nefresil healed Dymar, who went to check on King Malagar. His thoughts were that whatever was happening with Maulnar were controlling the king, and that now that the imp was gone, the king would be restored. Nefresil attempted to question Maulnar, but the dwarf chose to take his own life on Nefresil’s blade rather than talk.

Nefresil suggested going to the room where Gareth heard chanting earlier, to see what if anything would happen there that night. They went into the room and hid at the far end. Not too much later 5 dwarves entered the room, and began to light the braziers. Before getting close enough to the party to see Nefresil cast Fog Cloud to obscure themselves. They waited on Dymar to show back up, hopefully with the King and his guards. As the spell was about to end Gareth cast Sleep on the dwarves, and the pair tied them all up. Soon the king arrived, and without much pomp, had his guards execute the traitorous dwarves and left. Dymar assured the party that the king would come around and would stay upset at them. He stated that the king did not take kindly to the meddling in their politics by the party.

The next day Nefresil and Gareth were summoned before the king in an intimate reception chamber. The king thanked the pair for their help. He gave them a key to the dwarves hold and instructed them how to use it. They knew this was the same type of key that Baelnar used to get them into Kelvin’s Cairn in the first place. In addition, he gave Nefresil, an adamantine long bow. Nefresil could tell that this long bow was exceptionally well balanced, and significantly heavier than his current bow. Gareth was gifted with an adamantine light cross bow. The stringing of the bow was masterfully done. Clearly both weapons were masterpieces, and no ordinary weapons. Finally, the king offered to escort the party through the mountains to the dwarf hold in Mirabar. He knew of the fighting at Fireshear and suggested that this might be a safer path home. He stated that Baelnar was welcome to join them.

The group spoke with Baelnar and all agreed to head to Mirabar, with the group’s work for Baelnor ending upon them all reaching Mirabar.

DM Recap
I thought this session went well. The group explored various paths to figuring out what was happening with Maulnar, and ultimately chose one that did not put them in too great of danger. The imp was able to knock Dymar out in one hit but doing so ended its invisibility. This allowed Gareth to be able to kill it. At the very end of the session the party decided to head to Mirabar as traveling to Fireshear was not appealing without being able to raise an fighting force from Ten Towns.

Loot and XP
The players received the key to Kelvin’s Cairn, an adamantine long bow, and an adamantine light cross bow. In addition, they will collect their XP for the session. Each player earned 137 XP, broken down as follows:
Imp - 200 XP
Maulnar - 25 XP
Acolytes - 10 XP x5

This is enough for both of the players to reach level 4. Leveling up will take place before the next session.

Road to Kelvin's Cairn 2

After the battle with the second group of Orcs, the party made their way towards the mountains in an attempt to steer clear of Fireshear and the Orcs. They made a several mile arc around the city, and made their way around and back to the coast where the camped for the night. The next day at midday they stopped to burn Morian's body before continuing.

After several days the party stopped about a day outside of Ironmaster. There, Nefresil noticed a rock that seemed out of place, but could not quite figure out why. After racking his brain he remembered that certain Dwarven groups would use this type of marking to signify their territory. The next day not far outside of the town, the group encountered another Dwarf. He asked the group if they had come by way of Fireshear, and if they knew what was happening. The group relayed what they knew to the Dwarf who did not seem surprised. He informed the group that an Orc had managed to unite 4 different tribes (The Black Claw, Bloody Skull, Greenhaven, and Thousand Fist tribes) before ransacking the city. This Orc was said to be extremely blessed by Gruumsh, and had plucked out both of his eyes to show his devotion to Gruumsh. However, being blind does not stop him from being a fearsome warrior. He said that the Dwarves of Ironmaster were going to raise a force, and go meet the Orcs head on. He said that since they were not certain if the Orcs would strike at Ironmaster or Luskan next they would take the fight to Fireshear. In addition, the Dwarven settlements south of the Spine had been notified so they could be prepared should the Orcs decide to move south.

The party was allowed to spend the night in Ironmaster being continuing on to Kelvin's Cairn. The party decided to go to Kelvin's Cairn and perhaps raise a group of fighter's to bring back to Fireshear to help the Dwarves. The remaining trip to Kelvin's Carin went quietly. When they arrived, Baelnar led the group to an unremarkable part of the mountain, at which time he produced a key. He stuck the key into the mountain, turned it, and a door appeared and opened for the group. Baelnar stated that there were other ways to get in that were not hidden, but it would take longer to get to them.

They went to the Golden Hammer to acquire rooms. Baelnar introduced the group to the owner of the inn, Rogath. They talked with Rogath about what they learned in Ironmaster, most of which Rogath was familiar with. He told the party that Kelvin's Cairn would not be sending help to Ironmaster. He stated that these types of problems were what happened to Dwarves when the chose to live on the surface. He also told the party that the Dwarves of Ironmaster are xenophobic, and would rarely help others unless it was in their own benefit. The had dinner, and went to bed for the night. The next morning, Gareth awoke and found a note in his room. He shared it with Nefresil, and it read:

Master Magician,

Time is of the essence so I must be quick. Your help is required to deal with a rather delicate situation. The good King Malagar has become corrupted by something evil. I implore you to help us end this corruption, and see the king brought back to his right mind. If you wish to help speak to Rogath and ask about his iron wine.

The party decided to go to Ten Towns to see if they could raise some interest in an expedition to Fireshear to help the Ironmaster Dwarves. They got a similar story to what Rogath told them. No one seemed willing to go to battle with the Ironmaster Dwarves. With the recruitment being a dead end, the party decided to go back to the Golden Hammer, and see what the cryptic note was about. Gareth went to Rogath alone, and he led him to the back room, and showed him to a tunnel down to a secret meeting room. Gareth stopped and said he would go only if Nefresil came as well. Rogath assented, and bade Gareth to continue to the room. Rogath, then went and got Nefresil, and showed him to the tunnel.

Upon descending the tunnel the party found a group of 6 Dwarves talking. Immediately, Nefresil's presence was questioned, but the leader of the group, named Dyrnar, said that they had voted to have Gareth help, and that if that meant working with Nefresil, then so be it. They told the party the story about how King Malagar had been acting strange of late. One of his councilors has taken control of the council, and is effectively running the kingdom. They learned that these 6 Dwarves used to be on the council, and in fact Dyrnar was next in line to become the king. All of that was before Maulnar took over. He was not always power hungry, but of late it has been getting worse. The party wondered if that was due to some sort of supernatural power. They agreed to help these Dwarves. They suggested breaking into Maulnar's house to see if there was anything odd there. The Dwarves told the party where and when to meet them the next day. At the appointed time, the Dwarves picked the look on Maulnar's door and the party searched his house. Gareth discovered a key in his drawer. It was a typical looking Dwarven key, but with spines on it in various spots. In addition, there were multiple other copies of the key. The party agreed to take a copy, and leave.

That night they told Dyrnar and the group what they found and suggested following Maulnar to see what, if anything, he was up to that might be suspicious. The plan was to set up that night to follow him.

DM Recap
The session seemed to go really well. The players were engaged with the story, and were getting really into it trying to guess what was going to happen. It was as lot of fun.

Loot and XP
The players loaded all of Morian's possessions onto the cart with the rest of their loot. They now have a set of chainmail, a rapier, short bow, 2 daggers, 12 arrows, and a set of thieve's tools. In addition, since the party made it safely to Kelvin's Cairn XP will be awarded for the previous session. Since Morian did not make it to a safe spot, his share of the XP will be awarded to the party. The total XP earned is 950, which is 475 for each player. The breakdown is as follows:

Orc 100 XP x 5 = 500XP
Orog 450 XP