The Sound of Bells

General Summary

The party hurried into the night, away from the creepy DFA basement. They immediately decided they needed to get back to Bayleaf. They made their way across the city, mindful of being followed. Guards yelled at them to obey a curfew, more concerned with getting people off the streets than actually arresting anyone. When they got to the inn in the human district, Bayleaf hurried them into his single room.   They filled Bayleaf in- they'd "joined" the DFA, the DFA wants to throw out humans and non-DFA dwarves, and they'd "know the signal when it came," whatever the hell that meant. Murtagh wanted to talk to the governor, and they debated on what the DFA had accomplished in the last year, and what they might do next.   They finally slept on it, and Bayleaf woke them all up very early to go talk to the Church and give their report. High Priest Runemace took the news poorly, if calmly, making it plain he expected violence to come. The church and it's priests would do what it could to prepare, but there was no way to know how much time they had to do it. Murtagh asked how they could evacuate civilians, and was told the Governor would need to spearhead that charge- the most the church could do was start moving small groups out in secret, should they agree.   They left the church, intending to go to the governor's office.  

A horn blasts distantly, high above. It lingers for a moment in the air, drawing your attention up to the edge of the volcano looming above. Silhouetted figures appear on the lip. They rise into view in a terrible silence, and suddenly the city bells begin to toll, loudly and without stopping.   Murtagh, you know these bells- every dwarf knows from the youngest age what this pattern means. Cave in- collapse. Run.   The dwarf citizens don't hesitate. You see adults pick up children and start to flee, not stopping for goods or to find anyone in the crowd. This is a drill they all know to follow. Some of the humans look puzzled, and meander. Every single uniformed town guard, human and dwarf, begin to run in the opposite direction, pushing harshly through the crowd. You can see them pushing outwards, to the edge of the city, on each of their shoulders is a flashing red stone.

  The group immediately chose to run after the guards, hoping to help somehow. The guards they ran with turned to yell at them to leave, saw their weapons, and swallowed their protests. They raced to the northern end of the city, where the materials being left out had clearly been formed into barricades one dwarf-story high. The party took stock- them, and 10 martial dwarven fighters, against whatever was coming. From the red gems on each guard's shoulder, the voice of Frida Northridottir called out orders.  

"Extra support to the North East line is coming, just hold on. Every second you give us we get someone else out- just hold on."

  Murgagh was able to see many dwarf shapes above, and some misformed shapes that could only be more of the monsters they'd fought in the Deepfoot tunnels.  

From behind, more dwarves are coming. These are in cleric robes, and without asking or confirming, they fall into a second line behind the guard line, clutching holy symbols and magical components.

  Murtagh made sure to tell the mages of the monstrositiy's weaknesses, and then the hoard descended from the volcano's peak.   Waves of dwarves, strange corrupted blood priests looking like Father Trueson, and monstrosities like the ones from the Deepfoot tunnels swarmed up the barricade. From the rooftop, Guy targeted the corrupted blood priest trying to take him down. Murtagh stood with the guards, attracting blows and the anger of the monstrosity. Tethrys called lightning from the sky, trying to slow the oncoming hoard. From behind, clerics would grab the defenders and force healing energy into them and keeping as many defenders on their feet as possible.   The part of the line they were holding was the main road between Dearig's Green and the human district, and despite their efforts, they were slowly, painfully pushed back. Slowly the DFA fighters were worn down. The corrupted blood priest forced Guy off the roof tops, behind the line of guards. Murtagh picked up the last standing DFA fighter and threw them into one of the monstrosities, sending it off balance and confusing the absolute hell out of it.   When they were pushed back further, they could see the Hall of Clans in the distance, with a blue shimmering field descending from a spire and circling the walls. A figure stood at the front, arms held out and forming a gap in the wall. Civilians rushed into the hall, and a moment before the enemy army reached the shimmering wall, the figure stepped back, letting the wall complete and seal the Hall of Clans away.   Over hours, they were pushed further back. Long after the DFA fighters, who looked young and inexperienced, fell, the monstrosities and corrupted blood priests pressed on with intense furry. The clerics were laying hands on any guards they could get their hands on, but when a guard fell and the enemy pushed the line back, the clerics couldn't reach them. After being pushed through the residential district, in sight of Hallbuilder's Bridge, the remaining guards turned to the party and yelled for them to run- "We'll hold them off, go!"   Murtagh and Tethrys took off running, and before Guy and Bayleaf could follow, the clerics yelled to the guards "Out! Now!" Too tired to argue, the remaining guards, Guy and Bayleaf turned and ran. The priests stood, holding the last line of defense, while two peeled off and followed the retreating group. At the gate, Governor Frida stood, waiting for the last of the people to get out of the city. When she saw the clerics holding the line, she called out "No! We're getting you all out!"   The priests running with the group said "No, this is our city. You've done enough," and pushed the last of the retreating group onto the bridge. They each stood by the pillars on the side of the bridge, and after a moment a blue shimmering wall came up around the city. Frida slammed her hand into it, impassible, and yelled "We were going to get everyone out!" Murtagh collapsed against the barrier, crying, and Guy sat silently, looking into the city. No sound crossed the barrier, and from where they stood, they could see the silent battle waging across the city, against Mathair's devoted and Mathair's lost.   For a long moment, they all stood watching, locked out of the city in the very sudden stillness. Frida moved first, visually pulling herself together. She took her secretary's hand, and marched to follow the mass of refugees still making their way off the bridge. Several more long moments passed before the rest moved. As Murtagh and Guy began to stir and look around, all four of them saw a red headed figure appear.   A short dwarf with frizzy red hair, a craftsman's apron, sleeves rolled past the elbow, and tears streaming down her face. Brigid came and sat with the party, grabbing their hands. Guy started to say "I'm so sorry," but Brigid shook her head. "I'm so proud of you. Even before you knew it was coming, you were asking how to keep people safest. You've done so much- you helped save so many people. I'm so proud of you."   "But we didn't stop it-"   "Neither did I. Nothing I made, nothing I enchanted, nothing I did stopped this or got one more person out of there. But you stayed- you stayed when you didn't have to, to give people more time. You didn't do it for power or glory- I saw you. I can trust you with these." Brigid pulled off her gloves, revealing mangled, burned, disjointed hands, and pushed the gloves into Guy's hands, ignoring Guy's protests. Brigid took a last moment to give everyone a comforting squeeze of the hand, before standing and walking through the impassable magical field, into Mathair's Hearth.   Left alone, again, the party slowly started making their way down Hallbuilder's Bridge, towards the rest of the evacuated. By the time they reached the end of the bridge, back at Midway Island, they had caught up with the slow moving mass of people.   Moving through the crowd, Murtagh heard people talking among themselves about what they saw when fleeing the city. People claimed to see Tishri The Warrior moving along the defensive line, rushing in to help bolster a failing line until the governor's reinforcements arrived to hold the line. Others saw the headless Krammiir the Illuminator stand outside the Illuminator's Archive's, urging civilians inside to take shelter, before sealing the scriptorium from the outside.   Guy saw the familiar, bald head of Dom Vogson moving through the crowd, and peeled off to investigate.  

Frida stands at the back of the column, watching the city burn on the other side of the bridge. She seems to have aged half a decade in a single day. Her secretary is standing beside her, the dwarf reaching up to hold her hand, watching his home burn.   Dom Vogson materializes out of the crowd, eyes narrow, focused entirely on Frida. He approaches slowly, like he's trying not to spook an animal, and when he's directly behind her, says "Well, Governor Notirdottir. It seems you've lost us this battle."   "Not a battle, a rescue mission." Frida tears her gaze away to look to Vogson. Some realization settles over her, and she nods. "You're here to hold me accountable, Oracle."   "You've lost a foothold of the empire. You allowed this to happen. This is the single greatest disgrace the empire has ever seen. Notirdottir, did you think you would not be held responsible?"   "Of course not, Oracle. How lucky for us all that you were so close at hand." You can see the secretary squeeze her hand when she steps forward, trying to hold her back. Notirdottir tries to smile at him, but even at this distance you can tell it's forced and exhausted. "It's alright, we knew this was coming"   "We were supposed to have time to-"   "Don't worry about this. You need to stay here, and help keep the Clan heads together, for them."   You see the secretary snatch something from around his neck and shove it into Frida's hands. She takes it without comment, and allows Vogson to lead her down the road, hands in chains. You watch as they start to disappear into the crowd, when in a moment, Dom Vogson makes direct eye contact with you.  You know he sees you, but his grim face doesn't really change. After a beat, you can see him mouth something over the crowd of dwarf heads. He says "I'll be back for you", then turns away and shoves the Governor ahead.

  Guy came back to the group, telling them what he saw. Bayleaf reacted strongly to the word Oracle- he claimed Oracles were a boogie man type of story told in the Shattered Lands

Missions/Quests Completed

Completed: Dwarven Freedom Army Rumblings & Finding the Anvil of the Underdark