The Lost Forge

Scribe Notes

Summary

GM: Bernard
Season: Spring 820 WK
Night: Wednesday
Location: Online
Level: Medium-Highish, please use the 1.4 level assessment or consult with GM if unsure.

GM is unlikely to be around for Guild Meeting due to work, please Email or use alternative contact at or after Guild Meeting time.
If there is not a party of this level, may be possible to do a different level adventure with different plot.

Party

1. Aaron L - Military scientist
2. Sabastian D - Party Lawyer and scribe
3. Pierre_the_Halfling D - breakfast cook and responsible user of magic
4. Rayne L - Cloud summoner
5. Grizelda D - Dinner cook
6. Jaycey D - Food taster

Employer

Belgond du Beorht. A travelling dwarf

Mission

To follow up on clues Belgond has discovered to an old dwarven stronghold in Thonia in the hopes of recovering some family & cultural artefacts.

Payment

10,000sp each, reasonable preparations covered before leaving by negotiation, a fair share of recovered artefacts & value.

Scribe Notes

Summary

The mission is to recover dwarven smiths research from a lost Dwarven hold in Thonia. The party fly to Thonia and obtain caliphants as transport to the hold.

Travel through the desert for a week and discover valley with lost hold. Find small settlement of Jackal tribe and notes about downfall of hold

Travel up valley for 1 1/2 days, fight undead near barrows. Swim up river to gain entrance to dwarven hold.

Examine cavern, signs of chaos magic. Pierre dies by reverse gravity. Scale dwarven defensive wall.

Exploding locates Goblins entrenched in a bridge. The rebuff peaceful communication and attack. Many deaths, including two part members.

Explore bridge. Two day walk part chaos warped creatures. Dwarven city inhabited by goblins. Infiltrate using illusions.

Details

Getting started

Belgond , and his two companions Astroc and Jorga, meets us in the guild tavern. As Pierre picks up a second wheel of cheese form the mound of food Belgond explains, after years of researching, he believes he has located a lost Dwarven hold and is seeking to recover the works of three famous master smiths, whom he has familial and clan ties. His research has not identified the layout of the hold or where the workshops are located within the hold.

The party, through mouthfuls of food, show great interest in the mission and Jayce even stops eating her third loaf of bread to approve. Sabastian, over the next hour, masterfully negotiates a contract with Belgond. Belgond has rights over the notes and specialist items from the master smiths and the party can obtain the rest. The party may negotiate to obtain copies of notes or prototypes. The Dwarven party depart once the deal is agreed in order to conduct some trading. Pierre, Jayce and Sebastian create a mountain of empty plates as the party we complete the guild paperwork and planning. Over the rest of the day supplies are purchased, spells and rituals cast and other preparations completed.

Thonia excitement

The bleary eyes party and the Dwarves depart on Reynes Cloud the next morning. The three days of cloud travel pass without incident, other than Sabastian flying through lighting, and the party arrive in the lands of Thonia and land outside a tent city that is many miles wide, various birds (some clearly illusions) fly up from the market to briefly examine the party. Belgond explains the market is neutral ground for the local tribes, where they trade, negotiate and exchange information. Belgond leads the party through the bustling market, different languages fill the air as the seller hawk their huge variety of wares, and we eventually meet our desert guide at the centre of the camp in the Sharmen tents. The Shamen tents are surrounded by a strange magical field and we learn the Sharmen have recently completed their ritual of Spring. The party sensible don’t play with the unknown magic but another foolish member of the camp accidentally summons a hell hound, which is welcomed by a camp. The party shake their heads in disappointment, none more outraged that Pierre with the irresponsible magical experimentation. The shamen use their magic to duplicate Jayces desert goggles, so all the party have a set.

Our guide explains the land warps and changes, so we much travel on land and at low speeds. The route is precarious; there are rumours of dragons in the mountain and vicious goblin tribes that roam the planes. It will taken about a week to get to our destination and we will be travelling on caliphants, monstrous creatures that are a cross between and elephant and camel, that large enough for a platform and tower to be build upon their backs – anyone threatening the caravan will have a fight on their hands. We make ourselves comfortable on the platforms as the caliphants are lead to the river to drink, for over an hour, before we depart.

Desert Travels

We travel the desert trails for week, passing through sandstorms and avoiding various creatures, including a dragon and sand worm. Fortunately, our guides are prepared, and we avoid the dangers. We do pass a Wyvern tribal village, but they are simple and ignorant people, so our visit is brief.

At the end of the week we travel off the trail and encounter many distance distorting folds, and a few days later we locate a wide valley mouth blocked by an enormous serpentine wall, it looks heavily besieged and sand dunes rest against the wall. The doors of the 100 ft wide gatehouse are open, with one hanging off. There is a small trail of smoke rising up behind the wall (inhabitants) and we can see a 70 ft tower rising behind the walls. The corridors of the gatehouse are layered in sand and all the iron work rusted, the masterwork traps we encounter are broken.

Past the wall there an abundance of plant life in the valley and a small settlement of people, the Jackal Cry tribe who are masters of illusion, live there. The valley is filled with a noxious iron thorn bushes, the vicious spikes are sharp enough to pass through most armour. The tribe welcome us in and explain they have lived there for many generation, as they are in the deep desert they don’t travel much due to the dangers, and the valley allows them to be grow what food they need. They have very few visitor, some Adventurers arrived many decades ago and went up the valley, but never returned. Sabastian spends the evening mending their broken goods and Pierre examines the nasty plant life.

Golem Tower

The next day the party decide to explore the tower. There are two 6 ft iron golems guarding the entryway that block our passage. Fortunately, Pierre is fluent in Dwarven and explains our mission, the mention of Belgond and the dwarven master smiths obtains us entry. The building, like the rest of the structures, is masterfully made, and we later discover it’s a non sentient golem. The basement is empty, anything there has long perished. Higher in the tower we locate an office and, after disarming some masterwork traps, discover a few remaining notes. It talks of the troops retreating and the release of the Destroyers(!). The walls at the top of the tower have been made transparent and the walls offer a magnificent view in all directions. Rayne discovers the spirit of a dead guard and we learn that the Destroyers are dwarven constructs that seek out and destroy anything offensive; siege weapons, people in armour with weapons, mages etc. Most of them don’t discriminate between friend and foe, however the guards on this building do.

Grizelda and Sabastian spend the rest of the morning divinating the golems on the gate and we learn they are immensely powerful constructs that would be fearsome in combat. They can also be possessed, but this is a skill that is granted by a power/avatar. These golems have also been effected by elemental chaos (not part of the original construction) and now contain powerful elemental magics

Skeletal Surprise

The following day the party departed the Jackal camp and travelled up the valley, weaving through the iron thorn bushes. The journey came to a halt a day and a half later as they encountered a wall of iron throne than crossed the entire valley, it was almost 80ft deep and extremely high. Following some expert application of blackfire, meteorite shower and some labours hours with axes a path was calved through the wall and the party emerged in a part of the valley that matched Belgonds notes.

Working our way around more iron thorn and through a shallow river the party spotted an old barrows, and a number of insubstantial and skeletal figures. Our opponents fought very intelligently, pinning up down with arrow and meteorite showers. They eventually retreated as their losses mounted, with the skeletal figures exploding into toxic gas (our vapor breathing saved us) and black spirits flying back into the burial mound. Investigating further we found there were two mounds in his part of the valley. Nothing remained of the skeletons that were defeated or exploded.

Hold ahoy

Following some investigation, we decided the barrows were built by goblin some hundreds of years after the hold was abandoned, so probably weren’t the entrance to the hold. Which was good as the inhabitants were tough! Belgonds notes indicated we needed to follow the 'Smooth way' to access the hold. Following some hours of carefully examining the valley wall, with no discoveries, we decided in investigate the river the went into the valley wall with Aarons wizard eye, it followed the river for 30 ft then hit a scry guard. Grizelda and Jaycey were able to water breath and explored underwater further, finding an opening to a large cavern 100ft up the river. Too far for most of us to swim without magic, the party mechanician build a crude device that would act as an air pocket and allow the party to all make the swim. With the party assembled we began out exploration of the dwarven hold.

Disaster Strikes

Finding ourselves in a large cavern we locate a dwarven crypt, the doors barred so we respectfully leave it along. There is little else, although dust, mould and water seem to be tainted by chaos magic. Pushing further into the cavern our progress is blocked by a wide chasm, there are remains of a bridge. Exploring ways to cross, Grizelda tries to summon an effreeti but instead a salamander appears (chaos magic influence?) which is quickly dispatched. Pierre changes to a hawk and begins flying over the chasm so he can secure ropes on the other side, we have unfortunately not located the increased gravity and is pulled into the cavern – we try desperately to save him but cannot stop him plunging to his death.

Sabastian and Rayne, the best flyers, use shadow wings to reach the bottom of the chasm and retrieve Pierre body. Once we have returned to the party Rayne is able is resurrect Pierre with a powerful artifact she owns. The party takes no chances and, following a round of counter-spells and shadow wings, fly over the chasm. We rest recover from the exhaustion.

Dwarven Defences

View from wall

We find a magnificently built wall blocking our way, it’s a masterpiece of defence and also covered in an illusion. It proves impossible to climb or tunnel and many permanent wards protect it, including a TK rage that would throw people into the chasm (and get sucked down by the increased gravity). We locate a small, and magnificently made, stone tower outside the wall and, while examining it, Jayce causes it to topple and is doomed to die in a month. Climbing the wall, using Pierre illusionary staircase, and push through a wall of fire ward that is powerful enough to kill a normal person – but Aarons ablative armour protects us. We locate what appear to be grappling hook marks on the inside of the wall.

There is a second, much smaller, wall is 150 ft is beyond the first and 30 ft tall. Our view allows us to see deep into the cavern, this small town is overgrown with a rainbow of moss, lichen & cave creepers. The sound of a waterfall echoes through the rapidly descending cavern, blocking out most other noise. We find there is no door in the large wall, is purely defensive. (against what?). There are two sealed building between the walls, and these are barracks – themselves highly defensible positions. The trees tell us of larges spiders and the things that kill them. We retreat into a barracks building and rest for the night

Exploring

The next day, over breakfast, we compare watch notes and decide the sounds of wind we all heard was too regular and that was probably voices. Our exploration is blocked by the curtain wall, it has a gate with iron bound doors and a closed portcullis. The portcullis is electrified so Sabastian and Jayce climb the wall and operate winches to open the portcullis and door.

Buildings cover the area beyond the wall, the buildings we explore are empty with no signs of life. There are some overgrown plants in the area, including mushroom (if we need food). The road runs south away from the wall, which we follow until we encounter an area under an antimagic spell, it’s a gigantic circle and we follow the edge of find another chasm that has an even stronger reverse gravity magic across it. From the edge of chasm we can see a bridge, with watchtowers, crossing the chasm and the antimagic appears to be centred on that. There are also a Skull and crossbones banner handing from the watchtower. While discussing our next steps we are peppered by arrows and we see figures in the watchtower, hoping to avoid combat we call out to them and were fired on again. We try to cast a call across the bridge entrance but the antimagic area stops this.

Deadly Combat

Casting in the area will be exceedingly difficult in the antimagic area, and its too far for us to effect them, so we retreat and buff up outside the area and head in to fight. As we approach they try to bock us with forbiddance walls, we see a dozen goblins and three Destoyers. A deadly combat begins, Aarons magical scales save us from taking a lot of damage but we are being worn down as we slowly kill the goblins, one of their mages appear to absorb spells that we do mange to cast. The Destoyers are dealing out significant damage and shattering our armour with each blow. Jayce and Rayne start throwing invested fireballs to try and turn the tide and things get really exciting. We learn that the signs of chaos are throughout the cavern and a powerful cast (triple effect) has all its effects enhanced – everyone in the fight is covered in deadly fire; all but one opponent are instantly killed (one destroyed runs away) but, tragically, Grizelda, Jayce and Aaron also die (we manage to bring Jayce back with her powerful artifact). We retreat to the secure gatehouse with the bodies to heal and resurrect people. We discover Rayne has been death cursed – doomed to help the Whispers of the Flame (goblin religion/mages?)

Dangerous looting

Goblin Journal

Returning after resting for most of the day we pick through the ashes, there is little remaining from the fireball. The two towers provide on the bridge prove interesting, one has a pressure pad (so well made we cant disable) and the other a safe with masterwork traps. Pierre tries to open the safe and traps are set off; the bridge washed in silver fire, rock spikes with poison and teleporting over the chasm. Fortunately, Pierre has the right items to save him from certain death. The safe contains gems, a hymn book (unknown language), a silver chalice (Sammael?) and an especially useful journal with entries over many hundreds of years. It appears something was dug up (chaos creature?) that caused great fear and they have been fighting this ever since – once the dwarves were driven off a small group of goblins took their place. It appears the goblins that ambushed us thought we were chaos creatures and might not be evil.

Bright torches, Big city

Dwarven (goblin) city

The road from the bridge leads west (where goblins that attached us retreated) and right, toward the underground city. We walk for two days, encountering twisted and warped creatures – everything here has been affected by chaos. There are ancient signs of fighting. We encounter a goblin warband that we easily kill.

On the second day we find the main city, which now supports 20-30k goblins. We leave Belgond and his companions hidden and, with Pierres powerful illusions, head into the bustling city. We pass many mushroom fields with workers, and hunting parties that venture out to fight the chaos. We need to find the entry hall, which will have a local map and will identify the ancient forges.

Into the frying pan

We find our way into the area of the city with the Entry Hall, is still sealed with powerful dwarven magics and the goblins have not managed to get in. The marketplace outside the Hall is packed with goblins, there are many making speeches, vying to be the leader for the surface invasion!!!

People and places

• Belgond - dwarven employeer • Dethak vel Grimstnzhadn vel Hoar vel Peak vel Belgond du Beorht
• Astroc - companion of Balgon
• Jorga - companion of Balgon

Lost Dwarven hold

Situated in valley, vast wall protects valley entrance. Everything we encounter is masterwork level.

Dwarven Masters

• Master Helecia (f) - master armoursmith
• Master Bostnal (m) - master armoursmith, not fond of plate
• Master Hadmac - master weaponsmith
  
  

Tower of Waygeth the Giant form
A huge tower and military post located at the head of the valley, its also a non sentient golem. A high mana zone

Goblin Barrow
Two goblin barrows near the underwater entrance to the hold. We think they were build hundreds of years after the hold was abandoned. There were undead consisting of insubstantial figures, skeletal archers and skeletal warriors. The insubstantial figures uses modified celestial magic, and fought very intelligently. The skeletal figures were all controlled, and when retreating they exploded into very toxic gas and their spirits flew back into the hold. Considerations: as they are highly intelligent maybe we can talk to them.

Destroyers
Iron Golems that are dwarven constructs that seek out and destroy anything offensive; siege weapons, people in armour with weapons, mages etc. Most of them don’t discriminate between friend and foe, the guards on this building do. Have weapon of destruction - amalgamation of shatter (bard), Disintegrate (binder) and disruption (mind) that do massive damage and break through most things, including walls. Effected by elemental chaos after creation (an accident?) that provides them every elemental beneficial spell permanently.

Whispers of the Flame
Goblins living in the hold appear to have religion, can operate destroyers. An organised military group with well trained archers and warriors. Have rune and namer mages, have non standard magic allowing them to absorb spells and damage. Worshipers of Sammael?

Goblin City
The dwarven city is inhabited by 20-30k goblins. The Entry Hall is still sealed (R40 Rune Locks, magical attacks if you try to dig through the walls)

There is a definite class structure;

• Scum - poor and weak
• Lower class - Crafter, Warrior
• Upper-class - stone works and weapon makers
• Ruling class- shamans and captains
  

Elemental Chaos magic effects
The hold is tainted with elemental chaos magic. The following actions cause people to absorb this;

• Being resurrected
• Casting elemental magic
• Pulse casting

The more chaos absorbed, the more likely their spell casting will be effected by a chaos effect.

Known chaos effects;

• A different spell effect i.e. summoning an Efreeiti instead summons a salamander
• Enhanced effect i.e. a triple effect fireball - instead of enhancing just damage it effected all all aspects of the spell

Goblin Journal

This Journal is written in Goblin, though it is well maintained.

It appears to have been written over a long time by many different hands, judging by the fading of the ink and yellowing on the pages.

Upon translation you determine that this Journal appears to be the records of the Goblin Captain, with each successive Captain taking over the Journal. Most of the entries while interesting give little insight into things.

Some particular entries you make note of however, dates are from when the Journal was started.
To paraphrase these entries.

• Y0 (Zresb); There has been a great summoning of the tribes, the Dwarves have uncovered the "Untranslatable 1".
• Y12 (Zresb); We have breached their halls from the "Untranslatable 2", they flee towards the surface, leaving a rear guard to hold the Bridge.
• Y179 (Sreakt); Finally we have taken the Bridge, as their last Forge Priest fell he cursed us to hear the whispers of the Flame.
• Y181 (Creld); The Flame speaks of disaster should the "Untranslatable 3" escape, I have seen what one has wrought to the valley, Sreakt would not listen to reason, so those of us who saw were forced to act, we will hold the Bridge against the "Untranslatable 3"
• Y395 (Ulvalk); The situation is tense, the Hobgoblins come down from the hills, and the Tunnel Lords will not assist, claiming we have broken faith with the "Untranslatable 4".
• Y396 (Kreesz); We have held the Clans off, though we were forced to burn the lift to the outside when their Shamans entombed their dead, and sent them at us again and again as the unkillable.
• Y789 (Krelk); Humans have broken through the unkillable, destroying the temples before they were stopped. The Tunnel Lords seek our destruction, we must hold the Bridge.
• Y1392 (Uldvar); Humans have again broken through, this time however they controlled the unkillable, bringing them with. We will meet them at the walls.
• Y1392 (Sriogz); Most of us are dead, the Women and Children did not survive, only thanks to Uldvar destroying the outer bridge and slaying their Shamans did we save the day. The Forge is lost. The last Humans have fled the cave followed by the enraged Unkillable. We know not how we will hold the bridge, may the Flame bring us long life such we can hold as long as we can.
• Y1425 (Sriogz); Foz has again sighted Humans in the outer cave, this time with Dwarves and Halflings, all covered in the scent of chaos and foul summoning. I fear this is the end but we shall do our duty to the Flame one last time if it is. They stay north of the second wall over the surface night, we pray to the holy sword to send his deliverance.

Mil-Sci

Daily pattern

‘’How much time does the party spend sleeping, eating, traveling, doing rituals, etc each day’’

Aaron needs at least 2 hrs to renew any enchant armour/weapon spells usually I do over night.

Travel Magics

‘’What travel magic options does the party have, how far per cast/or per day if duration is longer than usual travel time.’’ ‘’Can the party eat/sleep/etc on the mode of transport.’’

• Rapid Road (Pierre) + 17Mph road speed, 390 minutes, approx 130 miles per cast

• Thigh high club (ogre club) (Aaron) travel 30 mph use plus Milsci rk squared followers

• Shadow Wings (Sabastian) - R14 44mph 7.5 hrs

Watch Order

Day Watch. ‘’Used when stationary, or on a larger transport such as a ship’’
First - Grizelda, Pierre
Second - Jaycey, Sebastian
Third - Aaron, Rayne

Night watch
First - Grizelda, Pierre
Second - Jaycey, Sebastian
Third - Aaron, Rayne

Deaths

• Pierre - Flying over a chasm and plunged to his death when effected by a reverse gravity.
• Grazelda and Rayne - hit by a rank 20 triple effect fireball.

Marching Order

Skirmish Formations (Front)
Double File Rayne, Grizelda Sabastian, Pierre Jaycey, Aaron	Single File Grizelda Rayne Sabastian Pierre Jaycey Aaron

Buffs

General Buff Notes

Buffs listed in the table don't need to be detailed, other buffs not on the table must be mentioned at the time they are cast.
Y means always on, N/- means never on, 'Sit.' means when the party has time for buffs before a fight.
Weapon Spells which weapon/s it is going on normally should be noted also

Long duration buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	A	S	P	R	G	J	?
Disguise (Pierre)	16	????	17H/ 8 Days	?	?	Y	?	?	?	?
Enchant Armour (Aaron)	14	30 def +1 Armour	7.5 Hours or 21 days	Y	?	Y	?	?	?	?
Enchant Weapons (Aaron)	10	11 SC +4 dam	15 min or 21 days	Y	?	?	?	?	?	?
Greater (Aaron)		+15 per area	Seasonal or 21 days	Y	?	Y	?	?	?	?
Vapour Breathing Ra?)	9	????	5/9.5 Hours	?	?	Y	?	?	?	?
Waterproofing (Ra)	8	????	27 Hours	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Rune Shield (Grizelda)	12	+17 def +2 FT protection +2 EN protection and small round shield of force	13 Hours	?	?	Y	?	?	?	?
Greater Heart Rune (Grizelda)	6	Heals 6 EN	7 days	?	?	Y	?	?	?	?
Willow Healing (Grizelda)	7	Heals 3 EN per pulse for 9 pulses	14 Hours	?	?	Y	?	?	?	?
Name (??)	##	????	? Hours	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

Short duration buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	A	S	P	R	G	J	?
Invisibility (Pierre)	17	Invis	90 Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Witchsight (Sabastian)	20		10.5 h	?	?	N	?	?	?	?
Strength of Darkness (Sabastian)	11	7 str	2 hr	?	?	Sit	?	?	?	?
Scales (Aaron)	12	44 pt ablative physical	22 Mins (32 enhanced)	Sit	?	Sit	?	?	?	?
Smite (Grizelda)	12	One D10 counts as 10 for 5 attacks or casts	17 Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Shadowform (Sabastian)	9	20%	5 hr	?	?	N	?	?	?	?
Invisibility (Jaycey)	10	????	55 Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Heroism (Jaycey)	10	11% Def on Target, 11 to fear checks in line of sight	100 Mins	?	?	Sit	?	?	?	?
Arrow Flight(Rayne)	6	+7% SC, +2 DM, 5 Targets, Weapon must have an R(##) use.	11 Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Create Rune Weapon (Grizelda)	6	Additional D-5+2 acid damage for D10 pulses	11 Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Enhance Enchantment	10	up to 10 ranks to....	60 sec	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
?? (??)	??	??	?? Mins	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

Loot and Expenses

Party Carrying Capacity

‘’How much loot can each person in the party carry, and by what means’’

Strength of Darkness R11 - +7 str

Pierre-- With Itemisation and cart building a few substantial pieces. Otherwise 20 or 30lbs

Sabastian - 14 str. Also has itemisation

Aaron - leather bag of holding plus a handy haversack probably got 100 lbs spare.

Jaycey - Handy haversack (100lbs spare space), Small cart plus 5 horse's (350lbs each) and a donkey (250lbs)

Grizelda - Handy Haversack

Calendar

Spring
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	Candlemansa
Thaw (10)
			1	Guild Meeting	2	Cloud travel to Thonia	3	Cloud travel to Thonia	4	Cloud travel to Thonia	5	Desert Travel	6	Desert Travel - spot dragon
	7	Desert Travel - sandstorm	8	Desert Travel - sandstorm	9	Desert Travel - Sandworm, Wyvern village	10	Desert Travel - off trail, many folds	11	Desert Travel - off trail, many folds	12	Desert Travel - off trail	13	Desert Travel - find valley
	14	Examine tower	15	Travel up valley	16	Travel up valley. Fight undead. Find hold. Pierre dies	17	Explore city. Fight. Grazelda and Rayne die.	18	Travel - see chaos	19	Travel - locate goblin city	20
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
	28		29		30
Seedtime (11)
							1		2		3		4
	5		6		7		8	Rites of Thunor	9		10		11
	12		13		14		15	Equinox	16		17	Eostre	18	The Seagate Spring Ball
	19		20		21		22		23		24		25
	26		27		28		29		30
Blossom (12)
											1		2
	3		4		5		6		7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21	Floralia	22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30	Walpurgisnacht