The Monestary of St Maevvian Forgewright

General Summary

The party and Samealine woke in a room given to them by the Abbess of the monestary. They set off in search of food and someone they could talk to.   The monestary was built into the side of the traveling tunnel's wall, so some rooms actually have windows looking out onto the traveling road. On the opposite side of the monestary is a natural cavern, and other rooms had windows looking out onto the cavern and workshops. The result is that the abbey is relatively narrow and long, with many stairs at unintutive places leading around. The group followed some clerics who were all walking in the same direction, and saw them going into a chapel for morning prayers. Lingering outside the chapel, a tabaxi lounged and counted each dwarf as they walked in.   The tabaxi introduced herself as Fragrant Cloud, a fellow traveler resting in the abbey. She looked travel worn and dressed in all together too many layers, but when she heard the party had had strange dreams lately, she offered to read those dreams over breakfast.   In the large communal dining hall, the tabaxi listened to the dreams they'd had. The dream about Mathair's Hearth she said fortelled great danger, and to avoid any strangers wearing green hats. The dream about the goose and the train she said spoke to an inner conflict, and the promise of a great sale to be made in the future.   The party was... less than convinced in these readings, but asked more about what brought Fragrant Cloud to the depths. She said she used to be one of the Faithful Quartermasters of Vanir, but the changes in the work lately pushed her into an early retirement.   When pushed on what was different lately, Fragrant Cloud seemed mostly bored by the topic. She said that normally they had more interesting orders- traveling to new places, making specific trades, perhapse swindle someone who had offended the Quartermasters. Instead, they were now disrupting the orders of Alfadir, transporting goods to various non-human groups, and railroad maintenance, of all things. It was boring, and not what she signed up to do (manual labor, can you imagine), so she left. No, no one tried to stop her- they're an association, not a cult.   At the end of breakfast, they asked if Fragrant Cloud knew where they might find the Abbess. Promptly, Fragrant Cloud gave directions they could follow to the Abbess's Study, saying she would be there all morning.   The Abbess welcomed them into her office and listened fully to their account of the attack in the tunnel. She said she had already sent clerics to retrieve the body for examination, and was deeply troubled by the account they gave. When Guy showed the Dwarven Freedom Army token they had found on the body, the Abbess explained that the Church of Mathair was not in support of the DFA. The DFA was the cause of too many bystanding dwarves maimed or killed to be supported. When the body was brought back, the Abbess assured the group they could examine it, and they could investigate more into what it could have been.   The Abbess welcomed them to stay as long as needed; Samealine was off organizing the next leg of their journey, and they could wait for Samealine and the body here, and rest as much as needed. She asked only that they never went to the workshops alone. There had been dissaperances for months in the workshops, usually craftsmen working late at night and alone. The buddy system had been implemented, and since then no one with a partner or group had gone missing. They were still unsure what the root cause was, but for safety they should stick in groups.   After that, the group split.   Guy and Tethrys trecked out to the workshops, where there was equipment for any kind of craft that could be imagined. Forges, wood working, silver smithing and book binding, organized in different warehouses. Any dwarf they asked was happy to stop and explain what they were doing while they worked, waxing on about the different techniques they were using, and encouraging Tethrys and Guy to pick up tools and create something themselves. Tethrys tried her hand and forging a knife, and Guy explained in detail the workings of a steam engine to a dwarf engineer who was trying to replicate one based on reports from the gnomes. He excited wrote down everything Guy told him, convinced he'd be able to make great progress.   They met book binders working on a large commission of empty spellbooks, and Guy was taken step by step through the process. After he put the book in a book press, the encouraged him to come back tomorrow for the pressed, finished product.   Tethrys also walked around the edges of the cavern, looking for a place where the disapearing dwarves might have gone. She was able to find a large crack in the wall, too narrow for a dwarf or gnome or orc to get through, but still seemed to go quite deep into the cave wall.   Bayleaf and Murtagh went to the library to search for information on Vanir and what their mission was meant to be. After pulling out books on the human god pantheon and the expansion, Murtagh had an epiphany and rushed to tell the group as a whole:   The human expansion exploded in speed after Dreka, the goddess of Industry and trains, was born. Human texts and accounts called it 'harnessing' and 'utilizing', but reading between the lines, Murtagh realized that Dreka had been captured and subjugated. The prodding and needling from Vanir have been to push people into freeing his daughter.   The items the party is looking for (hammer, anvil, tongs, and fire) were brought together to bind Dreka in the first place, and need to all be used to break her free of her chains.

Notes

At this point, the party requests a bit more rail roading on the part of the DM