Campaign2/Synopsis
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Assynt 16, 1022
A message from Grey-Firth, a dwarven citadel in the Ardgour, has arrived in Cromdale with a request for help and an opening of trade, diplomatic channels and normalized relations. This is the first official message received from a dwarven citadel since the war of 1005. The dwarven messenger was part of a 4 member delegation sent to open a passage to the surface and make contact. The other three members died en-route as the result of attacks from unseen enemies, and the messenger succumbed to his wounds, despite all the healing efforts of the local mage corps. The path taken by the emissaries from Grey-Firth is unknown.
Assynt 17
Darien Chaise, Baron of Cromdale, puts out a request for volunteers to brave the underground and reach Grey-Firth. A messenger is sent to Calum Gournay, Baron of Stonehaven (and heir to the throne of Hebridonia, should King William II perish), to request assistance and advice.
Assynt 18 - 20
Volunteers are screened and ranked. Suitable candidates are instructed to return on the 21st for final selection and instructions.
Assynt 19
A messenger returns from Baron Gournay and instructs Baron Chaise NOT to send a mission to Grey-Firth.
Assynt 21
Ten people, the top choices for the mission to Grey-Firth, meet with the Baron and his supply sergeant. After full details of the mission are given, three of the recruits back out, and after a brief heated exchange are allowed to leave. The Baron suspects that they may have been spies for Gournay, who is opposed to the mission. The remaining members of the team are:
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Elana Hart - A Tier 3 geomancer with the local mage corps
Bertram - A woodsman and hunter familiar with the foothills and mountains of the Ardgour
Vexen - A bounty hunter
Corporal Wilson - Military cartographer
Numex - A stone mason, to help assess the safety of any bridges or structures in the underground
Sinien Fortibus - The Baron's emissary to the dwarves
Eolis - A priest and healer
The team confers with with the supply sergeant on goods that they will need to mount the expedition to Grey-Firth. He indicates that he will do his best to assemble the requested materials in time for their early morning departure.
Before dismissing the team, the Baron reassures them that they should not be intimidated by Baron Gournay's men.
Assynt 22
The team meets the supplies sergeant at day-break. Almost all of what was requested is present, though in well-worn condition. Through careful inspection, they find that one of the ropes has a defect at one end that they will have to be careful with.
They depart through the Ardgour gate, and work their way into the foothills along a neglected road. By mid-day they rest at the edge of the gap, and note four horsemen riding toward the gap from the northeast. Without waiting for them to arrive, the team presses on into the gap, and are overtaken by Gournay's men about an hour later. They are hailed by Urik Scyler, who identifies himself as Baron Gournay's second-in-command, who tries to convince them to turn back and leave the dwarves to their fate. The team is undaunted by Urik's thinly veiled threats, and while watching their backs, break off and head further into the gap. Urik and his men ride back the way they came.
By late afternoon, they reach the ruins of the gatehouse which serves the passage to the underground dwarven settlement of Black Morok. Even with much of the stone missing or shattered, it is clear that intense magical forces were used to breach the gatehouse, as indicated by the warped stone near the base of the towers. The team enters after inspecting the towers, and follows the passage 1000 yds into the mountain to the chamber that once held Black Morok. Nothing but gravel from the original structures are still present, but a tribe of Kolah (mountain primitives) has taken up residence with makeshift huts. The Kolah initially hide from the team, but become bold when it is clear that they mean to continue deeper into the mountain. They manage to befriend the Kolah, and Eolis tries to hypnotize their leader with a glowing coin to get more information, but another Kolah steals the coin right out of Eolis's hands.
The Kolah are not happy to hear that the dwarves are looking to establish ties with the surface. They are afraid of eviction. After a palaver with the Kolah where Sinien convinces them that they won't be evicted, the team proceeds deeper into the mountain. Though difficult to measure time underground, the team decides to make camp at a fallen bridge, with the intent of crossing the fissure in the morning. Elana decides to flow the stone from the sides of the fissure to form a temporary bridge across the fissure. The spell succeeds, and Elana slumps on her bedroll, thankful that she'll be able to rest before marching further.
Assynt 23
The team crosses Elana's bridge, and continues to plunge deeper underground. After passing many forks and small chambers, they come across a pit room that was apparently used to trap trespassers. From the nearest pit, the party discovers an undead Kolah who has been trying to climb out for a LONG time. The walls of the pit are smeared with gore, and most of its digits are worn away. Upon seeing the party, it begins to moan, and is quickly joined by other undead trapped in the other pits! Corporal Wilson barely overcomes his fear of the dead, and makes it across the pit room without losing his breakfast.
The morning continues with unpleasant surprises when Corporal Wilson becomes trapped on a folding bridge that reconfigures itself into a hanging cage. The other team members manage to get him free, and they continue onward.
By lunch they reach the bridge to the dwarven citadel of Gortyna, It is clear from the damage on the gatehouse that the city was breached by the Demarians during the last war. They cross the bridge, and two stone statues at the far end attack them. The statues ware apparently golems that have been instructed to guard the bridge. With some quick thinking and clever tactics, the party manages to destroy both golems by knocking them into the precipice beneath the bridge. Worried that the noise of the fight has announced their presence to other undead lurking in the city (or worse, Demarians that might still be in the city), the team hastens along the main thoroughfare to the other gatehouse on the far side of Gortyna. They enter another passage that should lead to Grey-Firth without further altercation.
Finally, after another half-days travel, the party reaches Grey-Firth, where Sinien Fortibus presents his credentials, and negotiates the terms of a trade, protection and cooperation agreement that will re-open formal access to the dwarven realms to Hebridonians.
(End of Adventure)
Back to Hebridonia II main page.
Back to the Campaign Campaign2/Introduction.
Commentary: The adventure was only designed to be a one-way trip, with the assumption that a friendly response from Cromdale would be enough to make palatable the commitment of forces needed to re-take the passage to the surface. This adventure was a great example of how the players used tactics to avoid confrontations that might jeopardize the mission. While the dwarven emissaries to the surface were unable to swallow their pride and sneak through their own city, the human characters had no trouble doing this and thus saved alot of trouble.
