Reclaiming the Forge

The minutes passed as we waited in the dark, weapons readied and prepared to swing at any signs of the skull. Listening intently, to our south a squishing sound emerged from the hallways, conjuring memories of giant slime cubes creeping over stone, mindlessly devouring what stands before them. To our relief, the sounds moved further away. As the squishing ceased, we all eased up a bit. Still, no green shimmer was approaching. As we sat together, Archie under his breath began contemplating whether creatures like the skull might have been or may still be used for fuelling apparatuses as they produced endless magical flames. He argued, if the skull was caught and secured within a smelting oven, that might allow for overcoming natural hinderances in a variety of forging processes, none of which I had ever heard of before, but which apparently are quintessential to the strength of processed steel. Whilst this certainly holds some academical merit, I doubt that one would be able to trap a flaming skull in such a way. And judging by their reactions, my friends seemed to agree with me on that part.
The issue remained, if the skull returned, how were we to prevent it from simply reforming and attacking again? Kyla, in her vast knowledge of undead finally remembered reading at some point about a banishment ritual, that would require holy water. And she seemed confident that after some time to gather the required strength, she might be able to consecrate one of our water skins to be prepared for our inevitable confrontation. Before we went to rest however, I offered to gather some more intel regarding our immediate surroundings and possible the eastern most part of the mine to scout out our situation. Thus, I reached out to find the underlying hum of reality and match my bodies vibration to that particular frequency to appear invisible to the naked eye. I snuck out, first angling south to catch a glimpse of the room from which on our first visit we saw some green light.
As I stepped into the respective tunnel, the shimmer was still there, a steady light, slightly more blueish than the one the skull emitted. After my last adventure of sneaking around invisibly and running into a giant spider, I tried to take additional care by occasionally conjuring subtle tremors in the grounds and walls a couple of feet in front of me, holding my breath and waiting for any reaction. Yet none followed. And without any encounters, I stepped foot into what appeared to be a quite large cave, tinted in that blue-greenish light I had followed so far. A light that, as I saw now, irradiated from clusters of mushrooms that grew in the cracks of stones on the floor and walls all around me. With another small tremor, I provoked a few of these fungi to emit a cloud of fine spores which slowly settled to the ground. My instincts and limited knowledge of such things made me flinch back even further and keep as far away from these mushrooms as possible. Is this what had killed Tharden? If so, how did he manage the way back to the entry of the cave? Maybe it takes time for the spores to suffocate or poison whoever has inhaled them, if indeed that was what had happened to him. In any case,
I did not dare to proceed on my way through this cavern and instead went back the way I came, past our current spot of resting, with only Nysqwen’s head slightly lifting as I cursed myself for my loud steps. This at least was a more or less safe way of checking my own stealth, which without a doubt could use some further improvement. But I continued my path, this time with even more care to silence my steps, and went east of the room containing the huge furnace. The bendy hallway lead into another huge hall. As I stepped out into the room, I felt something brittle beneath my foot and as I looked down, I saw the whole ground littered with skeletons. This was something I really did not want to deal with alone, given the numbers of undead we had seen so far, and I did not want my friends to get concerned about my whereabouts. Hence, I made my way back, but not before getting a glimpse of what appeared to be a house built into the opposing side of the cave, apparently made by and for humans.
 
Upon my return I shared the gained intel with the others. After learning about the building and the possibility of having found the location of the forge, Archie grew quite restless, yet agreed with us that we all required some respite before heading out again. Thus, we did what we could to fortify the small storage chamber by barring the door and, in the case of Archie, setting traps with Gundren’s and my crossbows. Archie once more distributed three small glowing pebbles in the room to spend some light before we allocated watches.
When Archie woke me to my shift, he had a strangely troubled expression on his face. He seemed to relax quickly but something was laying on his young mind. As he did not say something, I did not want to pry and instead wished him to sleep well, proceeding afterwards to my guarding duty with Kyla. We exchanged only few words to not alert any nearby monsters or undead, however, the night passed by delightfully uneventful until it was time to pass the watch to Grum and Gundren.
The next morning was ushered by a quick but hearty breakfast, after which we soon set out to explore the north-eastern cavern, I had discovered yesterday. Much to our relief, there was still no trace of the ghastly flaming skull anywhere and we even dared to light some lanterns as we entered the hall. The light revealed even more bodies all around us, mostly of human and gnomish descent with far less heavy armour and weapons lying about. Instead, the air was saturated with brimming magical energy as if huge bursts of such force had once been released here. In addition to the building I had seen the day before, a second structure was outlined further south at a lower level of the cave, connected by a flight of stairs.
But the most breath-taking vista in the cavern was its ceiling. Myriads of gemstones reflected the light cast by our lanterns creating the illusion of a star-studded sky hundreds of feet below the ground. It was probably the most magnificent and simultaneously the most unexpected spectacle of nature I have ever seen. The yellow light hitting a variety of minerals was transformed into specks of almost blue to deep red colour, blinking with every movement of the light bearer. As we entered the hall, we all together paused for a few heartbeats just taking in what unfolded far above our heads. And through the silence, I could almost hear how Mystra whispered in my ear a new melody, re-shaping the visual phenomenon into sound, something that might allow to bring the beauty that was trapped under this mountain out into the world for other hearts to rejoice at its splendour. It was a moment in which without actively crafting something, everything fell into place, seemed to make sense in its purity.
 
Archie was the first to move again, as he tapped his boots with the staff we had found on the black spider. He walked up to the wall of the cavern and just as the spider had done, began striding straight up to the ceiling. He inspected the minerals briefly, yet without the possibility to take a sample, he quickly returned. Then we turned to the house opposite of us. The fighting that no doubt had taken place in the space around us had marred the façade as well, black stains were visible on every wall and both doors hung askew in their hinges. Nysqwen and Kyla stepped forward and with their combined strength, they managed to push the slate of stone open so that we all could enter the room behind.
The room was illuminated by a green flame that danced lively in a brazier positioned at its centre. The walls were lined with workbenches, tool racks and various leaning objects; manufactured goods, halfway in the process of making were scattered all about. On the opposite side of the brazier, five eyes looked directly at us and a voice echoed in my head words of greeting and asking about our intent. One of the eyes peered from the centre of a floating, green, spherical creature, the others protruded on four tentacle-like appendices from its body. On the face of my companions I could see that they had heard the same voice. I did my best to regain my manners as quickly as possible, introduced myself, mentioned we were here only to prevent someone else from taking control over the forge and asked the being for its name and purpose. It replied delighted as if not having had a civil conversation in a long time that its name was Barakas, who centuries ago had been tasked with the protection of the forge by a gnomish mage by the name of Alvin, who to the best of Barakas’s knowledge resided in a tavern to the south. Despite him being pleasantly surprised by the conversation, a strong feeling of distrust that swung in his answers was clearly noticeable. This notion seemed to grow as we asked if it was possible for us to have a look around the forge and stated that would only be possible with Alvin’s approval.
Although Alvin still being alive seemed nigh impossible, the only house that might be a tavern anywhere close to the mine could be the other standing structure in the south of this very cave. Thus, we took our leave with the intention of returning once we would have spoken to this mage. Opening the crooked door to this second building the house turned out to be something more resembling sleeping quarters rather than a tavern. On the far wall, two ancient beds were positioned, against the walls stood several bookshelves and another door led to an adjacent room to the south. At the foot of one of the beds stood a chest. The moment Kyla stepped foot into the room, grey mist seemed to rise from the floor, constringing into the shape of a human man in robes, warning us to leave him and his gold alone. The apparition introduced himself to be the wizard Mormesk who was keen on using the forge to his own benefit. To this end he asked us to deal with the watcher of the forge, whom we had encountered earlier.
Upon hearing this, all of us silently seemed to agree that the notion of helping an obviously mad ghost was not one, we were particularly fond of. Yet, to hopefully get a better understanding of the ghost’s intentions, I tried to imbue my question regarding these with some magical energy. Which failed horribly. Instead of treating us with a little more ease, the creature uttered a terrifying howl and slashed at Kyla’s face. Seeing her flinch in pain resonated with me heavily as I had only to blame myself for this sudden onslaught. I still have to apologize to her for not giving at least a word of warning, although I could not anticipate such a violent reaction. I still feel incredibly remorseful for her enduring this pain and also me being responsible for it. Hence the first thing I could think of doing was shouting to Nysqwen that a magically enhanced sword might suit the occasion better than her glaive while I handed her my last potion of healing to pass on to Kyla.
 
Maybe it was the thunderous crashing of the second door Nysqwen and Kyla opened, maybe something else entirely, but right as Mormesk started his attack, a familiar menacing green glow appeared above the forge as the flaming skull reappeared. As to not being caught between two fronts, Grum whirled around his trusted Shillelagh which connected with an audible ‘thunk’ with the ghost’s head. Nysqwen wielded the longsword Talon in both hands cutting away fraction after fraction of the translucent figure while Kyla summoned her spiritual weapon and healing herself a little bit. And from behind, Ori, as freshly summoned by Archie, landed the final blow against the wizard straight in its chest only a few heartbeats after its first attack.
Grum and Gundren were able to dodge out of the way partially, but the fireball spit forth by the undead again crushed in our midst and doused us all in fire. While for once my damned heritage proved to be quite the advantage, I heard my friends scream in agony around me, as the magic flames burned away. Our best shot was to close in with the skull and take it out as quickly as possible, before it would attack again and again from the distance. Here it proved that having equipped Gundren with a crossbow back in Phandalin was probably the best investment we had done over the past weeks. He managed to send the skull reeling back over the top of the forge with a bolt that crushed right through its frontal cranium. Simultaneously, Kyla cupped her necklace, tormenting the skull with her holy energy. Archie tried to once more scale the wall to circumvent the height difference with the skull, Ori close behind him, yet found that in order to catch up with it, taking the floor would end up being faster. In the meantime, Nysqwen had found in her backpack the potion we had found so long ago, drained the flask in one motion and rose into the air. It truly was a frightening sight to witness the huge dragonborn rush through the air, the greenish light reflecting on her scales, fierce determination written on her face and her glaive glowing from the stone, Archie had embedded in its shaft. Would we have faced a mortal enemy, it likely would have run at this point.
While we now charged at the direction of the forge, trying to get some cover from the head’s flaming attacks, Grum fell to his hands and knees mid-sprint, four more legs popping out at his side and his whole body transforming into a giant spider that swiftly climbed along the wall of the building. As the skull appeared again at the edge of the roof, we answered its attacks with bolts and magical assault yet every time we seemed to receive more grave wounds. As I reached the shadow of a cliff, I winked Nysqwen down towards me to try a different approach. She seemed to hesitate briefly as every muscle of hers wanted to go after the skull, but the moment passed, and she descended just enough for me to touch her. And just as I had done to myself the day before, I managed to make her vanish from our eyes. I could not think of a better way to contribute to this fight, other than to send in an invisibly flying dragonborn. The smile of understanding, Nysqwen offered me as I touched her ankle, I took as a sign of hopefully having the right idea.
Kyla was the first of us to scale the forge, while Gundren tried to move around to get a better shot at the skull. Yet, just as she stood on the roof, ready to strike our foe, I saw her engulfed by green flames and dropping hard, apparently unconscious. Grum in his spider form and I also reached the top, but there was no trace of the skull anymore. Gundren’s steps in the tunnel beyond however revealed that it seemed to head for the underground lake we had seen yesterday, probably with also Nysqwen in its wake. Knowing that I would not be able to help in this fight, I did my best to stabilise Kyla. Her face was a burned mess, some of her hair was gone and the armour hot to the touch. I did what I could for the brave woman, which seemed to stabilise her enough to give Archie time to reach us and heal her most dangerous wounds and take her from the edge of death. Only a few heartbeats later, a triumphant cry sounded from the tunnel ahead and both Nysqwen and Gundren returned. Gundren had managed to fatally shoot the head, but only because Nysqwen with only the safety of our party in mind had entangled him in melee combat and granted the dwarf such a perfect shot. We all felt quite sure that if the head were submerged in the currents, even if it returned to life its flame would immediately be extinguished again and thus it no longer posed a threat.
 
All of us gathered around, following Kyla’s invitation. As we sat down on the ground, she bade us to close our eyes and listen to her words. With that she started to pray. She thanked the Raven Queen for our success over our enemies and for preventing all of us from passing into her realm and bade for her aid to strengthen us for what was yet to come. I felt a calm within me, accompanied by relaxing muscles and dwindling pain. All of us felt invigorated as we stood up again and proceeded to explore the house of Mormesk.
The chest we had seen before was unlocked and contained the gold the ghost did not want us to lay hands on. Next to it, three small diamonds could be found within as well as a wooden pipe. The latter featured beautiful platinum inlays on its head, resembling some form of tendrils. Among the books in the shelfs four were still in a readable condition and seemed to be magically preserved against the touch of time. Three of these tombs contained tales about the mine we found ourselves in, the phandelven pact over the forge and the lost elven kingdom that once had dwelled in these lands. They might teach me some things regarding the history of the province, I shall read them if time allows. I am quite sure, Archie has read through all of them by now. The fourth book however contained a map of another system of caves together with a description how to reach them. In line with this, the caves were located somewhere in the surrounding mountains. What one might hope to find there could not be deducted but if a map exists of the place, it certainly must be of some importance. This will be something, I am sure, we will return to at some point. Suddenly, Archie drew in his breath sharply as he recognized the name of the author, a dwarf by the name of Osrik. The same name, his old master in Neverwinter bore. Judging by the age of the book, they could not be the same person, however, an interesting detail, nonetheless.
 
One more task remained for us to accomplish, if the black spider was not showing up again – the forge was still under the watch of Barakas. As we re-entered the workshop and told him about our victory over the flaming skull and Mormesk, the being appeared rather unimpressed but I was able to convince him that we had Alvin’s approval to take a look around and see if everything was in order. Begrudgingly the creature floated aside so that we were able to inspect the room properly.
The most interesting things we could find in our quick search through the room were two obviously finished pieces propped up in the corner of one of the workbenches. Here, we found a Mace with the name ‘Lightbringer’ engraved on its hilt and a shiny breastplate in which a gorgeous dragon motive was inlaid. As she carefully eyed the two items, Kyla’s excitement was clearly visible, her trembling hands running along the cudgel of the mace. I did my best to distract Barakas’s attention from her approaches as he clearly grew more and more restless, the longer we stayed. Thus, I asked him about the combat that had taken place in the hall just outside and his role in all of this. Nysqwen’s curiosity got the better of her then and she asked how someone like him was able to fight.
Upon hearing that, one of the eye tentacles turned into her direction, staring at her without any sound. And suddenly, Nysqwen ran screaming out of the room. Kyla and Archie dashed after her, shouting what was going on and that they would keep her save in the darkness. Gundren, Grum and I remained to see Barakas mouth twist into a grin that revealed extremely sharp and pointy teeth. As to not anger him to avoid further combat, I just commented that I saw his impressive power and was convinced that he did a great job in his protection of the forge up to this point. Too late I realised what I had done as I added that I could also see him continuing that task in the future as his grin faded into anger and another one of his eyes seemed to look right at my soul. I was unable to avert my gaze as I felt stiffness taking hold of my entire body. Unable to move, I toppled over and was unable to properly see what was happening afterwards. I just saw Grum’s feet transform into huge toad legs and heard the noise of battle. A heartbeat later, Nysqwen, sober again, Kyla and Archie reappeared and joined the fighting. It only lasted for the blink of an eye, before I heard the toad swallowing something huge and the felt a sharp pain between my shoulder blades. And once more, everything went black.
 
It probably were only a few moments yet it felt like forever. The darkness gave way to scenes of my past, faces rushing past, turning away. The overwhelming feeling of betrayal and solitude, an outcast to all but a few. A knife in the back. And then it was over, I could open my eyes again, see in front of me Kyla’s face who just let loose of her necklace with an expression of relief. Behind her shoulder I could see Nysqwen’s face, contorted into regret and sorrow. As Kyla drew back, the dragonborn came forth begging for forgiveness. At first I was unable to comprehend what had happened, yet it became clear that Nysqwen, under the influence of Barakas’s magic was unable to control her own raging swings and buried her glaive in my back just before Grum killed the watcher. Her remorse was obvious and I more than most can understand how others can be bent to one’s will, removing their control over their own body. There was nothing she could have done, nothing I am willing to accuse her of. It speaks for her great heart that she did not even try to blame the responsibility on anything else and only promised herself to improve her resistance to such attacks to prevent her friends from harm. I understand her feelings in that situation and could only promise her that I think no less of her and there is nothing to forgive. True friendship shall not fail at the sight of an illusionary compulsion, forced upon one of the participants from an external source, especially not if the remorse afterwards is as real as it was for Nysqwen. All of us together had achieved the purging of the mine and in the process had grown closer than any of us might have imagined at the beginning. Nothing will break that.
After laying aside any potential for quarrels, Kyla finally was able to claim the breastplate and the mace that still lay on the workbench. While she donned her new equipment, Archie examined the green flaming brazier in the centre of the room. It still emanated large amounts of magical energy, but he concluded that much of that must have been lost over the centuries. What once was concentrated to permanently imbue crafted goods with additional power now merely was enough to do so temporally. It still was the most powerful artifact, I have ever seen and showcased how skilled and knowledgeable its builders must have been. How many such secrets might still be out there waiting to be found? How many are lost forever? Likely, nobody will know an answer to these questions. As for our purposes, Gundren concluded that such a forge will greatly benefit the mining business he and his brother would now be able to establish.
 
With the forge now hopefully liberated of the influence of malicious creatures, the last cavern that was left for us to explore was the mushroom-filled space to our south. We approached the fungal patches with as much caution as could be mustered, Kyla immediately was able to identify the spores that covered the floor exhibited some kind of toxic effect, should they be inhaled. Her attempts to burn some resulted in the mushrooms slowly shrivelling and hissing, as they appeared to be rather wet. With the aid of his small metal hand, Archie managed to collect some of the fruitbodies for further analysis. Maybe there is some value in brewing an antidote from them.
And thus, it was done. The mine and forge were secured, all of us still alive with only the stain of the black spider still being free. With this realisation, all of us sank to the floor of the sleeping quarters, suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the last days and the constant tension that had accompanied our way through the mine. Gundren mused that the gems used as eyes in the statue of Dumathoin might prove valuable enough to give him the necessary seed capital to start his mining business. Kyla expressed her adamant aversion to the plan of desecrating a holy statue like that and instead we offered to pay him the money if in turn we would share in his profit. This satisfied the dwarf as well. We decided that Kyla, Archie and Nysqwen would stay behind to watch over the mine, keep the black spider from returning and start to clean up the hallways while Grum, Gundren and myself would travel back towards Phandalin to get the required paperwork settled at the Miners’ Exchange and hire some prospectors to start mining. Additionally, Kyla asked me to fetch her some silver and diamonds she would need for some of her prayers.
Before we left, Nysqwen approached me with a remorseful look and asked me to take her necklace for our journey with the promise that I shall bring it back to her. It must have once belonged to her brother or been gifted to her by him, as she said, she hoped he would watch over me. I understood this being a gesture after her smiting blow against my back. And if the streets have taught me anything, you never decline a gift of friendship if it is offered wholeheartedly. With great respect I donned the chain. I appreciated the gesture more than she can possibly imagine and I promised to bring it back to her as fast as I could.
 
So, we departed and reached Phandalin yesterday evening. Today, Gundren went to the miner’s exchange to receive the rights to his mine while Grum and I visited Harbin to get the necessary silver for Kyla. After some bargaining, we managed to get a solid conversion rate and continued on to the Exchange for the diamonds. Fodl already was busy with a knot of people who all had heard that the claim of the Stoneseeker brothers was real and the mine had been found. After retrieving the stones, I went on to sister Garaele.
The kind woman listened patiently to my tale and paid special attention to the books we had found. In particular the descriptions of the fallen elven kingdom of Illefarn made her sit up and she asked if she might by chance have a look at the book. I promised to bring it to her when we all would return as it currently was still in Archie’s hands.
It is evening now, a late hour as I am sitting on the remaining roof of Tresendar manor. Grum and Gundren are already asleep and I too will soon seek out my room. Everything seems so peaceful. Only the animals of the surrounding woods can be heard, no sound of steel being drawn, no horrible monster that charges around a corner. I hope we all will find ourselves in safety soon. But I don’t know if there ever will be a way back into the life, I had known a few weeks ago. And to be honest, I don’t know if I would want to turn back. I do not wish to part ways with the companions I have found here. If they accept me, I will ask if they would be willing to continue our journey. What better way would there be to repay Anataea, than to bring peace and shelter into a world that mostly knows death and deceit? Oh, Anataea, I wish you could see me now. I will put an end to what has befallen us. Would you be proud of what I have become?