Session 7 Report- 2022/12/03
General Summary
Leave No Trap Unturned
Knowing that there was a trap in the last room of The Mountain Door, the party could not resist checking it out! The party could clearly see that the door had many nozzles that sprayed out fire when activated, but they weren't sure how it worked. Upon further inspection they realized it was probably tied to the door. Byjorn smartly used his rope to open the door and avoid the dangerous fire. Upon activating the trap, the door stayed propped open.... temporarily.The party inspected inside the small room and found two 20 gallon tanks that supplied fuel to the nozzles. With a quickness about him, Byjorn made 1 flask of Alchemists Fire, but spoiled 3 others. The party learned a valuable lesson today; sometimes there are traps just for traps sake... yay D&D!
Delving Into The Deeps
Sending Bjoyn in as a Scout (with extremely good vision, and extremely BAD stealth!), he led the party down the stairs and into the cavern below. Through some solid investigation, the party managed to determine the stairs were more travelled so decided to take the stream to avoid detection. Through their efforts, they did manage to delve deeper into the cave before encountering "the locals".However, Byjorn eventually swung around into a larger cavern where the stairs met the stream again, and his lack of light-footedness roused up some Stirges that needed to be dealt with.
The party easily dispatched with the Stirges, as Camzel and Farlen had dealt with them before in The Yawning Portal Inn, but Byjorn was absolutely shocked at what he saw. Courana was almost in awe; she had read about the creatures before in books but never thought she would see them in real life!
The Dwarven Tombs
The party decided to take the path that had absolutely zero traffic on it. What they found was spectacular:
The party gazed into an extremely large cave faintly lit by natural phosphorescence. Its ceiling rises fifty feet high in places. Crystals glimmer softly in the eerie light. Weird, beautiful flows and structures of delicate stone grace the chamber. The western portion of the great cave is separated from the rest by a steep bluff; the ceiling here is half the height of the rest of the chamber.
A couple dozen large stone sepulchers line the cavern walls, each carved with intricate reliefs and designs and marked with Dwarvish runes. Upon further investigation, you count Twenty-three sepulchers standing here. The lids are carved in the likenesses of grim dwarves in armor. Dwarvish runes on the front of each tomb appear to represent the names of the occupants or the intended occupants.
Three of the stone coffins have additional runes carved into them (In Dwarvish, which Byjorn reads for the group):
The additional runes record the occupant’s date of death and the great deeds the Dwarf performed in life. Also carved into these three coffins is a warning that doom awaits any who dare to defile the honorable dead. The names on these three sepulchers are those of Borgol the Old, Gharin Orc-Doom, and Numik the Unlucky.
You learn from Courana:
- The upper portion of the great cavern was intended to be the final resting place of Durgeddin’s clan. Durgeddin and his followers feared that their war against the orcs would ultimately claim them all, so they built their own tombs during the first phase of carving out the stronghold. Ironically, only a handful of the dwarves were ever interred here; the rest lie where they fell when the orcs stormed Khundrukar.
- Durgeddin's tribe worshipped the stone. They were not often buried with riches and treasure, but with stones (usually worthless) that meant a lot to them in life
Byjorn couldn't help himself, so he checked one of the tombs for loot. Courana assisted him, but unfortunately they found only old boring stone, as per the legend.
The Glitterhame
As the party looks over the cliff that the Dwarven tomb rests on, they see a large and cavernous area that Courana surmises must be where the Dungeon level get it's namesake, "the Glitterhame".This great cavern glimmers with a faint phosphorescence. The ceiling is almost fifty feet overhead, and bright flecks and gleaming stone formations are visible in the distance. Patches of strange fungi dot the floor, including capped stalks standing as tall as a Human and glowing puffballs almost a yard wide.
High ledges rise fifteen to twenty feet above the floor on The North, south, and west walls. Narrow passageways lead off to The North and the south, and a flight of carved stone stairs descends from the western ledge to a path that meanders through the center of the chamber toward a small iron door in the eastern wall. A trickle of water seeping down from the hillside above reaches this irregular cavern, nourishing a profusion of fungus—weird puffballs, tall caps, and patches of fuzzy mold in a variety of colors. Audible throughout the entire chamber is the sigh of a soft, cool breeze that rises toward the surface far above, which brings in a cool, fresh breeze free of stench.
To check the safety of the Fungus and Puffballs, Farlen Eldor threw a Strige body into the mix to see what happened. Luckily, nothing did, and Farlen is reminded of his upbringing in the Forest of Telthir to conclude that the Fungi are not dangerous and are likely edible. However, he cautions the party that there COULD be dangerous plants in the vicinity as well.
A Close Call
While the others were exploring the Tombs, Camzel was checking out the physical location to understand it better. She found a mud and waddle door (think like a beaver dam) made of Stone and Mud. She cleared a peephole away and found another area that had a deeper pool in it.. and the smell was even worse coming from beyond the door. She asked Byjorn for help to investigate, which he did by making a stone shine with bright light and threw it to the bottom of the pool. This experiment concluded that the pool was about 10 feet deep, but it had a very strong current.Byjorn decided to jump into the pool and hold the rock face to scout to the west. He got onto dry land but then stopped when he hear multiple, relatively large footsteps further out in the darkness. Upon inspection, he could tell that the cavern he was a "slaughter house" of a type where carcasses were stored for consumption. He also concluded that the stream was the same one that the party had seen before, so he went back and described the situation to the group. He decided that he was going to explore the other way, but was swept up in the stream, much to the surprise and concern of his fellow party members. Byjorn did take some damage, but luckily avoided the very large waterfall that he could have fallen down!
While they were deciding (if?) and how they were going to go after Byjorn, he found an alternative path and popped up behind them... whew! Byjorn did decide to go up the stream the way he fell down just to check out one more area... where he found a Giant Subterranean Lizard chained to the wall and and then he was ambushed by 2 Troglodytes!
The party fought the Troglodytes (luckily the DM forgot about their most annoying ability!) and then noticed the 2 Iron Chests behind the Giant Lizard. Farlen, wanted to tame the beast, came up with a great idea to feed the Stirges and Troglodytes to the Giant Subterranean Lizard. The plan did work to make the Lizard tired and less aggressive, unfortunately he did not want to befriend Farlen.
While the Lizard was occupied, Camzel snuck around and got the sweet lewtz out of the Iron Chests on behalf of the party.
The party checked out the Waterfall and send Byjorn down the stairs to scout. They decided they might come back later, but pressed by Courana, they really wanted to find the entrance to the Forge of Fury.
Foraging and Searching
After all of the action, the party really wanted to try and see if they could get some food from the Fungi in The Glitterhame cavern. They managed to forage multiple rations, and they also made note that the Stirge that Farlen Eldor threw down there was untouch. They did take a moment to stop and take in the beauty of the entire cavern.
A Breath of Fresh Air Through The Orc Tunnel
Upon further exploration, Byjorn found another passage to explore before the party attempted to go through the Iron Door. He came across a small enclave with a dead Dwarf covered in mold, which had a shiny blade in his hands.
Again- he was doing this exploration quite loudly, so he attracted the attention of 2 Troglodytes who jumped him! After the party dispatched with the Troglodytes, they realized that the dead Dwarf had a set of Scale Mail (which Byjorn put on), and a Healing Dagger of Lies (which Farlen equipped).
The party determined the area was a guard station, and that there was a tunnel to the outside that was being used by the Troglodytes for hunting. Courana shared with them some more information about the tunnel from her notes:
About a century ago, a member of Durgeddin’s clan was captured by a powerful orc tribe during a raid, and the orcs learned of their enemy’s hidden stronghold. The orc chieftains raised a great army and marched on Khundrukar. In a hard-fought siege lasting months, the orcs tunneled around the dwarven defenses. When they finally stormed the place, they put all within to the sword, then carried off wagonloads of booty.
Clearing out a Camping Spot
The party had one last spot to investigate, and of course, it was infested with bad monsters. This time, they came across two Gricks!
After defeating the two Gricks,
THE PARTY TOOK A LONG REST
so that they could be ready next time to take on... THE FORGE OF FURY!
