1.3 Volundr Forge

The objective of the journey the party has undertaken. Following up their clues from the Firebase, the party travels to the mining site in the Gulch to the northeast. When they arrive, they are introduced to Siviks, who is competing with them for access to the Forges. Pushing past both his initial forces and the Cabal, and exploring the tunnels the Cabal have constructed, the party finally manages to uncover the missing Volundr Forge. But it cannot always be that easy, as the Cabal are not likely to give up their newly discovered superweapon without a fight.

Plot points/Scenes

1. Travel to the Gulch
2. Encounter with Siviks in the Gulch
3. The Tunnels
4. Find the Forge and defeat the Cabal force that has uncovered it
5. Leave after investigating the area and encountering Siviks once more

Structure

Exposition

The Gulch

Siviks has set his eyes on The Gulch as his point of entry for the Volundr Forge based on information he gathered from Vault Ebisu. He brought a small expeditionary force and will leave all but a few in the Gulch to die so that he can find another way into the forge, trying to speed past the Lightbearers.

The Tunnels

The tunnels are large enough for Goliath tanks and other heavy machinery to pass through, including partially-constructed Mining Landers and Injection Rigs. The tunnels branch in many different directions, almost like an ant colony.

Smidur's Cavern

Val Ghalak has been overseeing the security of the Forge site as well as the investigation of the various computers and mechanisms. After the computers were repaired, the engineers were able to extract information from them regarding how to activate the forge mechanism. The mechanism needs to be fed a specific type of fuel material, which records indicated had been delivered in crates not long before the record was generated. Their efforts have mainly been focused on excavating further in an attempt to uncover these fuel crates, and the renovation of the B4 and B5 sites has been put on hold.

Inside one of these crates, Val Ghalak discovered a Jotunn, which is the weapon the blueprints mentioned in the internal affairs report would create; the "FIRESPITTER" that the project took its name from. He now wields this weapon as his own.

The Mysterious Box can be found near the computers, and the computers will contain information that can produce a blueprint code to make a key with the Forge.

Siviks will appear once the key has been made and taunt the party that he will finish his plans and get the box before they can.

Falling Action

Siviks will appear after the party has defeated all the Cabal and spent time with the computer interface & managed to make the first key. His objective is not to fight, but to extract the forge and keep it away from the Cabal. His ship's cannons use the "Planet Cracker" attack roll from the Cabal Goliath monster sheet if the players attempt to attack him. He does know how to permanently kill Guardians by destroying their Ghosts, and tells the party he will do so without hesitation if provoked.


He will speak with the party in Common, telling them of his objective and offering them the freedom to extract as much information as they can from the computer uninhibited if he can retrieve the forge mechanism. If the party has destroyed or damaged the forge, he will state that it makes no difference to him since he could return to this place later and fix it (DC 20 Insight reveals he doesn't seem entirely sure that he can). If the computers have been damaged or destroyed, he is completely indifferent.


If the party presses him about what he plans to use the forge for, he will tell them that he has been studying the forges for some time now and needs to diversify production beyond the one he already controls.


At any mention of Project Niobe, he will feign ignorance and tell the party he hasn't heard of such a thing (DC 17 Insight reveals he is lying). If caught in his lie, he will tell the party that he is on the cusp of finding what Niobe truly is, and the rest of the forges are his key to finalizing his plan. He refuses to elaborate on this plan further.


His attitude to the party is one of pity, as he sees them as little more than ignorant and out of their league compared to his experience with the technology. He genuinely does not want to fight them at this juncture. Instead, he simply wants the forge to get it out of the hands of the Cabal and will either take it now peacefully, kill the party and take it now or return later for it since the party has disrupted the Cabal at the site.

Resolution

Rewards

• Mysterious Box
• Auto Rifle T3: Hip Fire, Elemental (solar), Shield Breaker
• Light Machine Gun T3: Elemental (void), Army of One, Crowd Control
• Shortsword T3: Elemental Shot (Arc), Surrounded, Adaptive Frame
• 3,300 glimmer
• 3 enhancement cores
• 1 Jotunn
• 1 Superior exotic engram

Relations

Protagonists

• Arifaris Radelt
• Bentley Fender
• Ernesto Fettuccini
• Judge-17
• Kasgisk "Cloak", Baron of House Light
• Zelle Phim

Competitors

• Kell's Scourge
• Siviks, Lost to None

Adversaries

• Red Legion
• Ghalak the Colossus

Backdrops

Locations

Getting to the forge requires the party to pass through 3 distinct areas; The Gulch, The Tunnels, and finally Smidur's Cavern where the forge is located.

The Gulch

• The Gulch is an open area where the party has a license to explore.
• The area is occupied lightly by Cabal in the immediate entrance - a party of sentinels - and then mostly empty until the entrance of the Tunnels.
• The party would enter from the northwest, separated from the entrance to the Tunnels by a raised cliff face on top of which they would find a Red Legion campground.
• The middle of the area is a massive boggy gulch, apropos to the name given to the area. The boggy areas are considered difficult terrain for all creatures that do not possess a hover speed.
• The entrance to the Tunnels is built into a cliff face running laterally along the northern portion of the area. Access to the clifftop campsite mentioned before is an inclined pathway that leads away from the tunnel entrance.
• The physical entrance is a cavern large enough to fit a Gargantuan creature size 40x40 or less. There is a more intense Cabal presence near the entrance, including Interceptor vehicles.
• The southern side of the area is comprised of a wider cliffside that can be accessed by way of an inclined path starting at the northeast. This path connects to a segment of ruined industrial highway that travels from the east back to the west along the top of the cliffside.
• The southern cliff wall is split in two, leaving a gap of about 30 feet that runs down to the boggy swamp level. Inside this gap is a small Cabal campsite, outside of a naturally occurring cave.
• At the time the party arrives, there is a Fallen skiff hovering in the wide-open central area. This skiff belongs to Siviks, and he is introduced to the party at this time. Upon the Lightbearers' arrival, though, he will leave his ground troops behind and say he is going to find another way inside.

The Tunnels

• A series of tunnels that branch off into mining projects and dead-ends with Cabal enemies scattered about. For the most part, these enemies are totally avoidable and there is only one instance of combat that is even close to required.
• The main tunnel exists in the western hemisphere of the map and leads in a minorly meandering fashion to the center. In the center of this map is a large underground industrial garage-type compound housing tanks and Interceptors, as well as power generators. This area is significantly more populated with Cabal combatants. Players enter this area from the south, and at the northern side of the area is another large tunnel that leads north to the Sunken Isles.
• Along the eastern wall of the underground garage is a smaller door labeled "B Sites". Combat can be avoided with stealth as the party (hopefully) navigates over there. Assuming they have read the security information they hacked from the Firebase computers, they would recognize the B Site as the location of the Cabal project focused on human artifacts.
• The B tunnels are empty of all Cabal, and as the party explores deeper the architecture changes from the robust Cabal aesthetic to a sleeker, black style. This culminates in the tunnel opening up to an exposed cliffside. This is where the players enter Smidur's Cavern.

Smidur's Cavern

• The entrance to Smidur's Cavern is a large open area of excavation, incomplete and haphazard. A pond is visible, and the main area that connects back to the rest of the tunnel system is separated from the next area by a chasm of deadly stalagmites. The ruins of Volundr Forge are across this chasm and have been partially excavated.
• The pathway into Smidur's Cavern descends to a bridge that has been destroyed. This bridge was destroyed by Val Ghalak when news of a Fallen raiding party was sent to him by Psions at The Tunnel entrance. Visible from the bridge is a lowered rock shelf that can be used to traverse the chasm easily.
• The party has two choices when they reach this rock shelf. The first and most obvious is to climb to the forge ahead of them across the chasm. The other less obvious path, which should be made noticeable by map design, is to double back to the crumbling entrance of a small natural cave. Inside this cave is a Black Armory crate embedded in the rock wall. If the party manages to free it and open it, they will be rewarded with weapons and engrams.
• Climbing to the forge, the party enters from the southwestern corner of the map. They find themselves standing on top of a metallic platform where the Cabal have set up their research materials. They chose this location as a number of human-make computer terminals are protruding from the rock face next to it. It stands roughly 5 feet higher than the dirt floor of the area.
• Walking further into the area, the west side of the area opens up to a large makeshift landing platform where several Cabal are processing materials from a supply delivery. This area wraps around to the north, forming a large circle around a rock pillar in the northwestern corner.
• In the center of the area, the massive Forge mechanism dangles inert from the ceiling like a stalactite. Cabal engineers are performing some sort of troubleshooting task on the forge under the supervision of Val Ghalak. This area is also littered with Scorpius Turrets. There is a small earthen platform that raises the center of the room up from the rest of the floor, level with the metal platforms by the computers.
• The eastern portion of the room is raised roughly 10 feet from the ground floor, and split into a north and south section by a series of thick stone stalagmites. In this area, Cabal soldiers are excavating and opening Black Armory storage crates. These crates store the fuel needed to activate the forge mechanism.

Encounters

• Combat / Engagement
• Investigation
• Daring Enterprise

Past Events

Written correspondence between members of the Kell's Scourge detailing the location of another forge, as appropriate for the current time of the arc.

The party will speak with Siviks directly, he will mention returning to Nessus as he parts. 

Written correspondence between members of the Kell's Scourge discussing the Insurrection Prime project, as appropriate for the current time of the arc.

Siviks once again will provide this information to the party himself. He will say that he believes the box holds the key to move his plan to the final stage. He declares his intent to secure this forge at a later date, along with the others that remain and obtain everything he needs to immediately open the box when the time has come to step out of the shadows.

Data logs from the appropriate Clan matriarch that explain how to solve their layer of the puzzle in Niobe Labs.

Puzzle 3: Reference https://www.xfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bypass-Level-3.web Work in Helga's conversation with Henriette about Project Niobe & the use of Exos.

Flavor text about the Black Armory, possibly from the Black Armory Letters?

An email from Helga Rasmussen to Henriette Meyrin talking about the amount of money that the Russian government was willing to pay to have her forge put onto the Exodus Black can be discovered in the computer's email logs.

Plot type

Scene: Blacksmith's Legacy

Parent Plot

1. Blacksmith's Legacy

Related Characters

• Siviks, Lost to None

Related Organizations

• Black Armory
• Kell's Scourge
• Vanguard Operational Fireteam PS2-1T6

Related Locations

• Smidur's Cavern
• The Gulch
• The Tunnels
• Volundr Forge

Related Session Reports

• Session 23
• Session 24