Journal #13 - Aldandun

Some of us considered burying Tybeerian here, but I didn’t think it fitting. The new mage, who called himself Korrigash, suggested we would need the corpse as proof of claim, and to see us through the gates of Pylanthia. I rolled it up in the carpet, after stitching on the head once more, and carried it on my back.
 
We decided to quickly look for clues and useful items prior to going down after Arlo. There was an entrance into a cave system we assumed would take us there. One orc had left alive, fleeing into the opening. We feared he would sound the alarm. We grieve for Tybeerian, recover our strength, peruse the camp, and after a short time prepared to pursue into the fortress. There was an ancient elevator which the orc had taken down the side of the mountain, at an angle down under where we had fought. We re-wound the elevator and took it town on its shallow axis down the cliffside.
 
A dwarvish wall had been mined out, leading into a tunnel.
 
It was blocked by a magical ice barrier. It kept expanding, and caught my arm when I tried to test it with a pick. We got through it with a reduction spell and some fire magic. As soon as we did, we were set upon by orcs. We slew five of them.
 
The tunnels spread apart into three routes. The western route had a fork with each path similarly blocked by ice which we presumed to be magical. The route in front of us was where the biggest orc was retreating, and after I took his head I kept going down. There was some sort of campsite there, a rest area. Fire, some storage and a weapons rack.
 
The eastern track was explored by Lug as a bear.
 
The camp area had mining equipment, nothing of serious value. I suggested we empty the barrels and crates and use them as fuel to burn down the ice. The first we put against the ice was absorbed in the cold. Ahhh we should’ve waited til we could set it afire right then. I kept the other crate I had near the ice but not touching it.
 
I heard a deafening boom and the cave shook. Apparently at the end of the eastern track, an orc was disguised as an ale tap, which in reality he had been wearing on his back. He uncorked it and flung ale around the room which he set afire. Lug pierced the ale barrel with his flaming dagger and it ignited the remnants, turning the orc into a living bomb. A shame we didn't have more of it to burn down the ice blockades.
 
We heard cracking ice, a strange creepy noise. It turns out a break was forming, and out of it some icy monster seemed to lurk, wrapped around the cave itself. It was a giant frost salamander, sprouted out of the walls and wreaked havoc among us.
 
The salamander caught us all in its giant icy breath, and several of us went down, frozen into pillars – Firefly, Domino, Orlando. After this, Ghiravont provided an opportunity for me to counterattack, but I failed. In that moment I saw the speed of its dodge, and how close we were to failure. I charmed the creature with a slow rhythm (Slow), and countered its counterattack of its tail; I leapt up the slowly moving tail swipe and nearly beheaded the creature, which fell dead to my axe.
 
We burned down the smaller of the western ice blockages, and found a deserted room with some loot in it. There were a host of coins - ancient crude copper coins bearing the chalice symbol of the mountain peak, as well as deep blue electrums, and a variety of gemstones. Bloodstones, onyx, carnelian, jasper, quartz, citrine, chrysoprase, star rose quartz, and zircon. It was an amazing collection for such creatures to have.
 
The next, larger barrier was broken down with a Shatter spell. It led into a dwarven hall, the depths of the real stronghold. A great hall with immense pillars rising hundreds of feet into the air, a ceiling beyond sight, marching off to the horizon.
 
We were told the mortar holding these stones together was made from silver dust. Pylanthian silver ore is blue; we can see seams of it in the walls. The scale is massive. Light from our torches and lanterns etc., does not even reach the knees of the great statues carved into the pillars reaching up out of sight to the ceiling. Domino tried to Send to Arlo again, and was rebuffed once more. She realized that the fortress itself, with its silver walls, was blocking magic. Arlo was not under the effects of a spell.
 
In the second age, the forsaken fortress was once called the Great Fortress of Aldandun. But actually, it used to be called Aubrador, after its lord. Used to be a great walled city, with a hoard of wealth. It was forsaken by Aubrador himself, because of a dragon drawn to the wealth. The Brine Dragon of the Valley, Aldandun, for whom the fortress came to be named in the next era. It's said only a blade forged in pure gold can pierce its scales. The king of Aubrador refused to give up a single coin to forge such a weapon, and so it was lost. After time, they tried to reclaim it, but failed. They chose to sink the fortress down instead, to try to keep the dragon contained from damaging other cities. The dwarves never returned. It was buried beneath the ice.
 
Firefly claims the value of the fortress is not in its plunder, but in its architecture. I could appreciate that, it was awe inspiring. Although, both things can be true at once. Surely there was plunder here.
 
In the great hall was a depiction of an Ancient – a nameless, god-like creature which has depictions in certain societies and religious circles. This may be the very first such depiction.
 
Dwarves were not created as other races, simply discovered in their mountain halls. This could be one of the first Dwarves found in the mountains, before life was found elsewhere in Hy’dera.
 
We split up, between two fountains and the large statue in the middle. These fountains were hundreds of yards apart. I went with Ghiravont. The fountain was encrusted with precious gems; Ghirvaont tried to pry one off and was knocked unconscious by a defensive force mechanism which emitted a loud sound and the eyes of all the statues temporarily glowed blue; he was thrown back 40 feet, I brought him up with a health potion.
 
There seems to be a locked door here. There are dwarven runes on the fountains. An ancient form, Pylanthian Ancient, the first of all written languages. “To open you must find the gem which points true north.” No such gem exists, it's an alchemical creation of four other gemstones. This must be what the orcs have been trying to solve, and why we found so many gems earlier.
 
We decide Arlo isn't over here; the orcs don't have access to this area yet themselves. We had gone one of two ways into the hall. We decide to backtrack and take the other route, and quickly come across the sounds of orcs, approaching…