I met Quasi, Vroc, Thagmar, and myself got together after a night of
drinking, deciding as a group, it was time to return to the Mount and continue
our exploration. We made it down to level 6 where our companions had last been
and found the level pretty much as they had described it. There were several
areas that looked as if combat had occurred recently, blood splatter, bits of
flesh, and several dreugar corpses piled up on the floor.
We decided to track down the foreman, Erdack, making sure they did not
need our help and ensure that they had not been overrun by the dreugar. As we
progressed through the level we noticed how square the walls were, smooth and
glossy the floors, and the strange panels that ran across the ceiling. This is
a building that would appeal to any dwarf’s design aesthetic.
As we traveled along through the level, we marveled at the construction
until we went past the empty barracks and came upon a makeshift guard outpost
and found the corpses of 5 dead dwarves. It appeared they had died in combat,
there were no corpses of what they had fought.
We traveled through a very long and winding hall until it broke gently
to the west and saw two dreugar guards. Combat began in earnest. Quasi and
Thagmar made exceedingly quick work of the guards, slaughtering them quickly
and with minimal noise. After a quick search of the corpses that turned up
nothing we waited at the intersection to see if other guards had heard the
combat, much to our relief we heard no response.
Kills – Quasi I, Thagmar I
We headed to the south, in search of the foundry and answer to what had
happened to the dwarves. As we opened the door we found a massive room at least
20 feet in height, some type of machine dominated the center of the room and a
destroyed furnace along the eastern wall. The room had been converted to
makeshift barracks (10 bunks), scattered throughout the room. A thorough search
of the room revealed that two of the bunks had recently been used, the others
not for awhile.
We continued on our route to the foundry, exiting the room through the
door to the south. Inside we found a large room dominated by a large oak table
and various carpentry tools. However, the room was occupied by six dreugar who
appeared to be guarding the room. Battle began quickly as Thagmar cleaved one
of the dreugar in twain with his massive two-handed sword. Quasi bounced around
the room, sliding across the table, slashing and stabbing in a chaotic flurry
of blood and death. The battle ended as quickly as it started, with our small
group the victor.
Kills – Thagmar II, Quasi IIII
After patching up our wounds, the group did a quick search of the dead
and the room, coming across nothing of value or interest on the dwarves. We
decided to head to the west following the path our companions took earlier in
the hope that we would come across the missing dwarves. As we exited the
carpentry room we followed a short corridor into a room filled with massive
pillars made of what appears to be crystal. As we approached the entryway into
the foundry, Thagmar brought to our attention that a single druegar sentinel
was guarding the entrance. The group quickly attacked in the hope that we
silence the sentry before he raised the alarm.
Kills – Quasi I
Swift as the wind, Quasi sprinted behind the guard and ran him through
with his rapier, killing it silently and quickly. I advised the group in as
quiet a tone as I could, that we should scout out the room. Quasi, quietly
approached the end of the hallway and found three enlarged dreugar and standing
upon the dais on the far western wall were two humans. The dreugar began moving
towards the hallway where we were hiding. Thagmar gave the command to charge
and the group rushed in to meet the villains in combat. As the Vroc entered the
room, there was the sound of a trumpet blast and a bright light filled the
cavernous room. His god favored his champion, stunning all enemies in the room.
Our group rushed the enemies and battle began.
Kills – Quasi II (Female
& Male mage), Thagmar III
A search of the wizards and the dreugar revealed 80 gold pieces and a
thin metal rod that is similar to two others that we have that allowed the user
to open a few magical portal doorways that we encountered on a higher level. We
returned to the entrance to the level and decided to rest and recover from our
last battle.
After a long rest we decided to search the level more thoroughly in the
hope we could find the foreman and the rest of the dwarves still alive. We left
the entrance through a door heading to the east, we found a large room that is
filled floor to ceiling with rusted metal implements, armor, cooking pots,
plans, etc. As we started searching we noticed two rust monsters that were
happily devouring the metal in the room. We decided to leave the monsters alone
and head through a stairwell leading to the west. Inside was a room with four
pillars with a center niche (size of vial/potion) and inside the niche a
circular metal plate at the top and bottom of the niche. Quasi pointed out that
we have four vials that might fit the niche in the columns but they were left
at the fort. A search of the room revealed nothing else of interest.
We left the room and headed into a stairwell leading to the east that
ended at a door, after a quick listen we did not hear anything so we entered.
Inside the room we found a large table bolted to the floor, the shattered
corpse of a dwarf, and empty damaged built-in shelves. A door leading out of
the room was a lead hatch with a diamond like glyph in High Sulian, Vrok took
out a piece of paper and sketched the glyph to show Roland when we return to town.
We decided to leave the room since we did not understand the glyph. We
returned to the entrance and headed to the south and tried the door to the
south. We opened the door and found a long hallway to the south that connected
with a passage we had previously encountered. So we decided to continue to the
east, we opened the first door we came across and found a closet. On the
shelves we found 23 sheets of adamantine 1 foot x 1 foot x ½ inch, they were
too heavy to carry so we left them for later.
We decided to carry on and come to a hallway leading to the north and
the room with the rest monsters. There were two doors in the hallway before
reaching the rust monsters, so we opened them and to the west we found a closet
that contained more of the adamantine sheets and to the east a small room with
a statue of a dwarf and a large metallic cylinder. As we searched the room, the
dwarven statue came to life and attacked Thagmar, scratching the barbarian.
With a shout the team attacked the statue. Thagmar swung away with his great
sword (Blood Drainer), landing a massive blow on the statue. However, as the
blade made contact it shattered sword into thousands of pieces. The barbarian
howled in rage and attempted to attack the statue with his bare hands. Vroc shattered
the statue with a guiding bolt and a still raging barbarian stomped the
crumbled remains into a powder in anger.
Kills – Vroc I
We picked the cylinder and took it with us as it appears like it would
fit in the niche in the room with the four pillars. The group decided to go
back to were the dreugar had been and recovered a shield and war pick for
Thagmar to wield as a weapon. After recovering a weapon and shield for Thagmar
we headed to a large room that was just to the south of rust room. Inside we
found a large amount of smashed furniture, broken machinery, and a relatively
undamaged mahogany table. Finding nothing of interest we decided to move on.
As we are exited the room, Vroc noticed a room to the south had light
filtering out from the hallway. Hoping to find the dwarves, we headed toward
it. We found a massive and empty room, except for humanoid made of dirt, two
duergar, and a single human. The enemies stood on the opposite side of the room
ready for our attack. After a prolonged battle against the Earth Elemental,
mage, and the two dreugar we were finally able to defeat them in a true team
effort.
Kills – Karn II (druegar and
mage), Quasi I (dreugar), Vroc I (Earth Elemental)