Author: Paul G.

IN OUR LAST SESSION(s)…

…our heroes moved to take on Zanzibar and (presumably) Eyebite. Throm led the way out of the Vault of the Throne, and back through the great Hall of History. Along the way, Tiresius, the Secretary joined the party.

The militia, with their increasing retinue (Alamein, the centaur; Attickus, the ranger; Throm, the Seguran dwarf and Tiresius) followed Throm’s direction back along their path to the great chamber where they had previously slipped past the line of Orc drummers. The heroes dispatched the drumming group who had been frantically pounding away prior to their demise.

Throm led the group further. At the end of a hallway, a large steel door was being guarded by an ogre and orc in chainmail. The heroes dispatched the orc and Throm, in Stone Giant shape held the ogre at bay and tossed him clear once the party was through the steel door. The door was then secured from the inside.

Beyond the door were two similar passages, each festooned with murder holes and capped by a similar steel door. As the heroes made their way down the passage, an oddly uniform series of attacks began: crossbow bolts fired at those who passed, with an interval of clicks and clacks and then another volley of bolts would be unleashed. The militia sustained some damage, but managed to make their way through. The Warden’s Key, once again, proved crucial.

A single chainmail-clad orc spotted the opened door and dropped the rods he bore in either hand, linked by fine wires to some mechanism on each side of the hallway. The orc attempted to flee, but Tia pounced and struck him down before he could take more than a step or two.

The rods were in some way tied into crossbows mounted to platforms in spaces behind the walls of the hallway, positioned in front of the murder holes. Each crossbow was fed via a steel “magazine” and the firing and reloading process — part mechanical, part magical were controlled by the rods held by the orc. The following hallway was configured identically. However, the militia devised a tactic whereby Tia, made Invisible by a spell from Norm, crept down the hallway and surprised the orc operating the automated firing platforms. The orc was quickly overwhelmed.

Throm warned that the path now lead to an ever-broadening passage that emerged into a wide stone stair leading to a “Control” area (per Tiresius) and side stairwells that descended into the mining operation proper.
Norm had made contact with the Kruthik swarm, which was nearby and awaiting his instruction. He could see through the creatures’ eyes that ten or so orcs commanded a few dozen dwarves in two areas at the base of the descending stairs. The militia planned to advance, take the rightmost stairs down, and with help from the Kruthiks, defeat the orcs and free the dwarves on that side, then repeat on the other.

However, as the militia approached the staircase, they realized that a small orc contingent was holding the stairs leading up and would be an obstacle to descending either the left or right staircase. The heroes were able to close within 50 feet of the nearest orcs and unleash attacks before spotted. A volley of arrows and spells, followed-up by charging attacks from the speedy Tovlakov and the galloping Alamein, with Dain astride, crushed this orc force with hardly a blow falling the heroes’ way.

Next came twin assaults on the orc forces at the base of the stairs. However, as the militia carefully advanced on the now-alerted foes downstairs, Norm unleashed the Kruthiks, who boiled forth like an unstoppable tide and within moments had killed the orcs and begun to feast.

Many of the freed dwarves joined the heroes, as did the Kruthiks. Those dwarves too feeble to shape-change were left behind to assist the wounded dwarves lying about in the mines.

This new juggernaut task force, the militia, twenty-or-so Seguran dwarves in Stone Giant form, Attickus, Alamein, Tiresius and the Kruthik swarm moved up the stairs to a great set of double doors beyond which, if the incessant drumming was any omen, the remaining enemy force had gathered in defense.

IN OUR LAST SESSION…
… our heroes faced the necromancer Eyebite and his master, Lord Segur. Eyebite immediately began to animate the skeletal and rotting remains of the many corpses piled near the great doors of the Vault. Segur reached out and magically drew the Warden’s Key from Tia and used it to open the doors.
A great battle then began, with a score of zombies, including some reanimated ogres advancing towards the heroes and holding them in place while Segur made for the great Throne.
The militiamen first targeted Segur, then as he passed out of sight, they moved to focusing on Eyebite. For some reason Uddar and his team held back.
In the mean time, Tovlakov used his superior speed to rush around the growing wall of undead, and to zoom past Eyebite in pursuit of Segur.
The militiamen had their hands full trying to fight their way through the zombies and skeletons. They sought to move past the front ranks of relatively small fry to get to Eyebite. The greater zombies, however, were able to hold the heroes at bay for a while. Eventually, Eyebite, who during this time was a target of repeated attacks seemed to draw sustenance from his undead such that the bolus of damage he took seemed to have little impact.
The heroes’ continued threat, however, did drive Eyebite back and through the great doors. The militiamen followed.
Tovlakov had continued to pursue Segur, despite his significant head start. It soon became clear that Segur could not outrun Tovlakov down this massive hallway with a long strip of red carpet stretching toward an enormous stone throne.
Segur warned Tovlakov not to try to reach the throne. “I don’t have any reason to want you dead,” he said, hinting at some unidentified threat. Segur then met Tovlakov and attacked him with a vicious concealed knife. The two fought, one-on-one. Tovlakov, though, had been worn down in his many travails since falling from the great bridge, and was dispatched by the Count. Segur then set out once again for the throne.
Only the speedy Alamein could stop him. The centaur rushed forward and confronted Segur. The two fought, and once again Segur came out on top. He closed the distance to the great Throne and perched upon it.
All seemed lost. Then Segur seemed to fumble about for something, tapping around on the Throne as if he might have lost something. With no warning, the great dark head of a massive, ancient dragon descended from the depths of the ceiling and snatched up Segur, swallowing him in one bite.
Eyebite disapparated.
After a moment, the great dragon descended on the throne, perched atop it, far too large to be seated. The great wyrm then transformed into a Giant-sized dwarf in armor, with a glistening crown at his brow.
This was the King of Old. This entire dwarven complex had been ruled by a dragon, those many generations ago.
The King, after introductions, indicated that he might wish to rebuild the long-lost relationship between the Dwarven stronghold and Rankford. He asked that the heroes help by freeing the Dwarven slaves still held inside the mine.
Throm indicated that he knew where Zanzibar and his forces kept the slaves. The heroes agreed to free the slaves, to defeat Zanzibar.
The ancient prisoner, who Dain now realized was a physical manifestation of his deity Ilmater, had one final discussion with his cleric, and disappeared.

IN OUR LAST SESSION…

… our heroes made friends with some dwarves led by Uddar, priest of Berronar Truesilver. The dwarves had been trying for some time to get through the door leading to the Vault of the Throne. So far they have been unsuccessful. Uddar helped the heroes to identify the creatures heard the previous night clomping through the hallway: kor!

Uddar and crew had helped the heroes up in to the space above the hallway, and participated in the fight against the flameskull. The heroes had hoped to perhaps use the kor’s ability to teleport to pass through the door.

Their other new friend, Jermiah, who they had freed from the previously-explored vampire spawn lair, seemed to feel that the militiamen had it within themselves to open the door. Once the attempt to use the kor’s teleport ability seemed infeasible (or would take too long), the militimen, accompanied by their Segurian dwarf allies Strom and Throm, Jeremiah, Uddar and his three associates, the centaur Alamein and his ranger friend Attickus, the heroes all pushed on the door together…

“You strain, your party members sweating alongside. Dust and plaster fall into your hair. Your muscles burn, tendons stretch and threaten to snap. Your breath is hot and increasingly ragged against the cold stone of the door. Through gritted teeth you urge your allies on for one last push, and the door begins to creak and then with an audible crack and a rush of air, the door gives.

The scene is simultaneously spectacular and spectacularly gruesome. As your brain attempts to take it all in, Strom beside you lets out a heart-rending groan of misery at this tableau, and, simultaneously Throm draws the longsword provided to him by Dmitrov from its well-oiled sheath, and in a single, effortless gesture,slices it through the neck of his brother, such that Strom’s head momentarily hovers in mid-air as his body, now beginning to fountain blood, slides sideways and collapses with a crunch to the flagstones, before the severed head itself thuds wetly alongside.
Throm now turns the shining sword, slick with the blood of his fellow inward. His intent is clear: he means to disembowel himself.
A scant instant before he can complete that task of self-mutilation, there is a flash and a pop and an odor of brimstone, and near the great doors, a foot or so before that hellish pile of deceased, two forms blink into view. One lavishly dressed, his longe blonde hair uncharacteristically unkempt, a smirk on his unshaven face, the other dressed in black robes, white paint on his face, his dark eyes red and manic. “Too late,” Segur says with some cheer to Throm.”

And that’s where we left our heroes.

IN OUR LAST SESSION…
… our hero Tovlakov, separated from the rest of the milita due to clumsiness and gravity, sought to find his way back to his militia friends. After tumbling into darkness, he had arrived at a wide passage with options to head back towards what seemed to be the orc drumming line the heroes had seen from Segur’s entrance to the lost mine,and another heading into darkness.

As he moved, Tovlakov ran into the wererat members of the local thieves group. Tovlakov met up with a stout holy warrior named Dmitrov, and together they vanquished some of the wererat menace, and following a hallway with many doors, they freed the priestess of Gond, Pearl who had been held captive here, as had Dmitrov.

Together they continued and eventually the hallway led through a heavy door spiked open and another wererat who the party dealt with. Beyond, a wide passage swept downwards, and a scaffolding, mounted to the near wall, led in a similar direction, but at a consistent height. Tovlakov and his new friends mounted the scaffold and followed it.

After some distance, the heroes observed that the scaffold led to a rough hole in a wall, with just the plank extended a few feet through the opening. Beyond suspended by ropes attached to pitons in the stone ceiling was a small crew of four of these curious grey dwarves, a member of which, it seemed, Dementia Lancaster had been, toiled, attempting to open a hole in the naked stone.

Far below, presumably at the base of the downward sloping passage the team had eschewed, was a small force of various races, urging the dwarves on.

Very quickly a shout arose and the dwarves attempted to surge back onto the scaffolding, chased, as it turned out, by a young adult dragon. The wyrm snatched up one of the dwarves, then quickly returned and made off with a second.

Tovlakov’s crew questioned these dwarves, who only spoke an ancient variant of the dwarven tongue. They indicated that they did this work because Zanzibar demanded it of them. They understood that they were supposed to cut an opening in the ceiling here that would lead to something known as the Vault of the Throne. That this Vault (or, more likely, the Throne) was what Zanzibar and his master or masters were truly seeking down here.

Tovlakov and crew, now with two dwarven additions, retreated. They deduced that the force at the foot of the sloping path would certainly send someone to encourage the dwarves to return to their work. Tovlakov and team set an ambush for this messenger, and managed to nab him, a runner, as it turned out.
Tovlakov just wanted to find his way back to his militiaman party. Through threats and intimidation, they convinced the runner to lead them to another hole that had been cut by the dwarves. This route lead, via an arching passage up a very steep staircase to a hole guarded by elven archers. The party overwhelmed the archers and then descended through the hole to a great dwarven promenade that the militia had previously navigated, lead at that time by the dwarven ghost Mudron Voon.

The party now was lead through this landscape by the grey dwarves, who by a direct passage delivered the party to the Guardian, the great, snake-like Naga who secured the massive doors leading to the bridge from which Tovlakov had stumbled.

The Naga healed the injured among the party and ultimately allowed them to pass:  all except Pearl and Dmitrov. “Only the living may pass,” the Naga pronounced, halting the progress of Tovlakov’s new friends. Tovlakov and the grey dwarves continued on.

The militiamen, having retreated to a previously expolored room as a temporary sanctuary, rested. During his watch, Norm heard a clumsy banging of several creatures passing through the outer hallway.

Once fully rested, as the militiamen emerged into the hallway once more, they discovered the sound of heavy chains moving. Attickus was asked to investigate. He proceed back down the passage towards the bridge, guessing that the sound was of the great chains that raised and lowered the drawbridge leading to this place. Attickus, then, came face-to-face with Tovlakov and his new grey dwarf friends.