The party spent the night in one of the towers outside of the Dwarfhold before continuing the next morning. They made their way back down to the bottom of the ramp. Kaldric cast Comprehend Languages in order to read the Dwarves signs. He found that from left to right they read; “Temple”, “Throne Room”, “Forge”, “Mines”, and “River”. The group discussed which path to go down, and chose the path labeled “Throne Room”. They lit a torch and followed the path for well over an hour. They assed over a couple of bridges that gave a good view of other parts of the Dwarfhold. They eventually came to an intersection, with what appeared to be doors to the throne room. Kaldric and Aria back into the side hallways as Kai cast Invisibility on herself. She knocked on the doors, but found that the stone did not pass the noise very well. She then opened the door and slipped in. She found herself in a room that was about 100 feet long, and 50 feet wide. There were 2 rows of statues of former Dwarf kings that ran the length of the room. She heard some noises in the far end of the room, and it sounded like grunting. She was able to discern 3 figures, an Orog, a Human, and a Goblin. The Goblin eventually went to check out the doors, but found nothing. Kai slipped back out of the doors and told her companions what she found.
They decided to set a trap an try to lure the figures out into the hallway and ambush them. They readied themselves, but when Kai went back into the room she found the figures gone, likely down a passage they had been standing near. The party moved into the room. Aria and Kaldric hid themselves behind two of the statues. Kai went down the passage which she found to be 50-60 feet in length. She found it led into a massive forge. Three of the forges were in use being worked by Dwarves. There were 4 Dwarves working at each forge. There was also 2 Orcs watching each group of Dwarves. Kai found that the Dwarves were chained together by the ankle, and appeared to be being forced to work. She reported back to Kaldric and Aria. They were concerned that Human was working with the Orcs and Goblins, and concerned about the sheer number of Orcs. They decided to have Kai watch from the passage, as Kaldric and Aria waited just in case something came down the passage.
After several hours, Kai watched as the Human stepped forward and flipped through a book reading something. He stowed it and began to cast a spell. Upon conclusion 2 portals appeared in the room. Kai could see that one showed the woods, but could not see what the other showed. The Goblin went through the one Kai could not see and led several Goblins back through. There they all grabbed a spear and went into the one that led to the woods. Once all of the Goblins were through, the Human let the portals disappear. Shortly after the Human, Orog, and Goblin approached the passage. Kai sped back to her companions and hid. Right after the Orog and Goblin entered the room,
Aria fired an arrow at the Orog and Kaldric cast Flaming Sphere right were the Human was. Both the Human and Orog were caught by the sphere, but the Goblin was able to jump out of the way. Aria’s first arrow and Kai’s sling stone went wide. However, Aira’s second arrow caught the Goblin right in the eye, and he fell immediately. The Orog charged into combat against Kaldric, though his swing went wide, as Aria fired more arrows. with all missing their target. Kai attacked the Orog from range again, but missed. Kaldric fired Magic Missile at the Human as he fled. The party was unable to see the outcome as the passage went out of sight and the Human had been retreating. Kaldric and the Orog traded blows until Kaldric fell after two massive strikes from the Orog’s sword. Aria fired arrows at the Orog until Kaldric fell at which point she stepped into melee combat, but was unable to land a hit. Kai cast invisibility on herself, and ran after the Human, finding him dead in the passageway. She took the book he had been looking in before he cast the spell that created the portals. She came back into the room and found Aria in one-on-one combat with the Orog and Kaldric laying on the ground. She rushed over, and poured a healing potion down his throat, thus reviving him. She then cast Sleep on the Orog, and the creature succumbed to the spell, falling fast asleep. The group was then able to end the creature.
They were getting ready to retreat when Aria heard someone yelling from the other room for help. She could discern that it was a Dwarf yelling. The group decided to help. Kaldric hid in a small antechamber while Kai and Aria went to the forge room. They found 2 groups of the Dwarves had managed to free themselves and take down 3 of the Orcs, through they had lost half of their number already. One of the Dwarves was working on breaking the chains of the last group while the 3 Dwarves were doing their best to hold off the Orcs. Kai cast Sleep again causing the remaining Orcs to all fall into a slumber. The Dwarves quickly dispatched the Orcs, before helping to free the remaining 4 Dwarves.
The party was then able to take a few minutes to rest and speak with the Dwarves. They found out that one of the Dwarves was Halzar Goldbound. He led the incursion into the Dwarfhold to try to retake it for the Iron House, the rightful rulers. They were captured and enslaved over 30 years ago. They said that when they were first captured, they were making more general items for a different set of Orcs. About a year ago a pair of Human mages came in and took over the slave operation, killing the previous set of Orcs and putting the Orog and Goblin in charge. At that point the Dwarves began exclusively making spears. The older Mage was not around after the coup, leaving the younger mage to help run things. They did not get a good look at the mage other than to say that he was older. He does not believe there were other Orcs in the Dwarfhold, and had not heard about other things that might be dangerous. He did admit that while the hold was his ancestral home, he was not born there. He said their next steps were to let Ghellin of the Iron House know that the Dwarfhold had been retaken so he could come back and rule. He asked the party to go with him to make sure that he was able to make it safely. Ghellin is currently in the Far Hills, which is a couple of weeks from the Dwarfhold on foot. Kai asked about the Emerald, and Halzar showed it to her, and at that point the party found that it would not have been easy to retrieve. It was mostly encased in stone and not easy to move around.
The party discussed their next steps. They are not sure if they should leave the Dwarfhold and head back to Hillsfar to let Auron know about the Emerald and the fact that the Dwarves will be reigniting the forges and coming back to Tethyamar. The other option they saw in front of them was to go with the Dwarves to let the rightful ruler of Tethyamar know about the victory and to bring them back to the Dwarfhold. The party spent several days in the Dwarfhold so that Kaldric could recover while they decided.
During this time, Kaldric and Kai spent some time casting read magic on the spell book they took from the Mage.
DM Recap
The session went really well. It felt like the best run session so far from my point of view. I have gotten some good feedback from the players as well. It was unfortunate when Kaldric went down, and there was as real worry that the character might die. Fortunately for him, the blow only took him to -1, so he had some time before he truly died. It made the decision to go help the Dwarves more difficult because Kaldric was not in a state to do anything. Fortunately nothing bad happened, and all of the party members are still alive. However, the amount of time it will take Kaldric to heal will show just how difficult things are without any magical healing available to the party.
Loot and XP
The party found 100 silver across the bodies which Kai took. She also found the spell book that the Mage had and was using along with a wicked looking dagger. Since the Dwarfhold is safe for the moment, I am awarding XP to the party.
Orcs x1 - 15
Orcs x3 - 45
Orog - 65
Goblin - 15
Mage - 120
Spellbook - 1500
Story Award - 7500
The XP for the 3 Orcs will be split 4 ways since the group of Dwarves helped with them. The rest of the XP will be split 3 ways. That is 3085 for each character, and 3393 for any character with an XP bonus. This will cause all characters to go up in a level. They will all be required to spend 4 days with research and learning before they are awarded this new level, but that can all be done in the Dwarfhold.
