Rel's Faded Glory Campaign (Thank You Old One!)

New Companions and New Directions

*In this section, I'll include the write-ups that I handed each player before the session to provide the exposition of what happened in the couple days following the negotiations with the tribal chieftains. I should also note that I forgot to mention earlier that Rhys used the two identify scrolls that he found in the wizard's tower to ID the wand and candle they also found there. The wand was a Wand of Detect Magic (with about 8 charges) and the candle was a unique magic item. It could be used a total of 12 times to produce either of two effects, both of which required 8 hours of uninterrupted meditation (if the meditation was interrupted, the charge was lost but no effects were produced). The effects were (1) Identify cast at caster level 3 (up to 3 items could be ID'd per use) or (2) All spells prepared for the day received the benefit of the Extend Spell metamagic feat. The trick with the candle was that only Rhys could use effect #1 because Identify wasn't on Speaks' spell list and only Speaks could use effect #2 because Rhys was a sorcerer and didn't prepare spells.*

Info for Speaks With Stone
The afternoon after the negotiations have concluded, the shamans who are present in the village ask to meet with you. You withdraw some distance from the village and rather abruptly the group of them sit down on the ground in a circle. For a while, nobody speaks and Krusk, shaman of the Coritani passes a pipe around. Eventually, Uthrus begins to ask you a number of questions concerning your beliefs and practices.

When they learn that you are trying to protect as much of the wilds from incursions by the Imperials, they seem surprised and pleased. They speak some of what their customs entail (most of which you have already learned from Wamic). Talk then turns to magic.

They have heard tales of the things you are capable of and wish to learn some of your magic. They ask if you are willing to teach them the secret of the "grasping roots" that they have heard about through Ilrath. (I assume that you are willing, based on our earlier conversations. However, if I recall correctly, you didn't have it prepared for that day.) You explain the idea behind the spell, which they seem to grasp readily enough. You promise to provide a demonstration on the following day.

Uthrus offers to teach you some magic in return. He has noticed that none in your group can speak the barbarian tongue. He says that his people have a way to draw upon the wisdom of their ancestors who have spoken many tongues over the years. When the proper invocations are said, you can hear the voices of the ancestors speak words you understand, even when someone is saying them in an unfamiliar language. He and the other shamans will teach you these invocations in exchange for your teachings about the "grasping roots". (In effect, you can add the Comprehend Languages spell to your available spells to prepare. But, due to the source of the spell, you can only understand the spoken word and it only functions in the lands of the barbarian ancestors. You have no idea how far those lands extend. But the shamans can assure you that they range at least as far north as the Stone Tooth and at least as far east as Glynden.)

While they teach you the way to call upon their ancestors, you talk of other things. They learn of your fondness for brewing. They explain that they too enjoy a good beer at times. They also talk about the ways that they can imbue some of their drinks with magic. You say that this is a practice that is common among the druid order you come from and that although you are interested in it, you have never done it. They agree to show you the ways of magical brewing in the hopes that you will come back and teach them more of your magic after you return from the dwarven mountain.

With that, you part for the evening and walk back to Rilaga. There, Hrongar speaks to the gathered warriors about the agreements that have been struck with you and the others from Glynden. He speaks about your journey to bring the dwarves into the battle on the side of the barbarians (this especially excites the Brigantes). All of the other chiefs who have signed the "treaty" make speeches too. There is much drinking of beer and banging of swords and axes on shields. All in all, more people and hoopla than you are comfortable with. You depart the village, seeking solace in the woodland night.

As you depart the firelight, a hand grips your arm and you turn to see Orthula's face in the moonlight. Wordlessly, she leads you deeper into the woods. Eventually you are far enough from the village and close enough to a stream that the sound of the water drowns out the sounds of the celebration. There on the bank of the stream she offers herself to you.

(If you choose not to accept her offer, skip the next paragraph. Oh hell, read it anyway. You might as well at least know what you're missing. Either way, just look over at me and shake your head yes or no so I know your answer.) *He went for it!*

(I figured you'd go for it) Having never known the touch of a "civilized" woman, many of Orthula's ways of lovemaking are unshocking. But when she is fully taken in the moment, her…ferocity is such that you are briefly reminded of your encounter with the Wood Wife many years ago *GM Note - This was an event described in the character's background where he was tricked into losing his virginity with a woodland spirit*. Afterwards, you lie together wrapped in her heavy fur cloak. You sting from the welts and cuts left from her teeth and nails but you sleep a peaceful and exhausted sleep that has not been yours in quite some time. Here in this untamed land, lying in the arms of a clearly untamed woman, you almost, almost feel at home. It is only in the dark hours of the morning that you wake alone and cold. But your shaking is not from the cold. It is from the dream that awakened you. A dream where blackened tongues raised inhuman howls to the sky and dark figures danced in the light of giant bonfires that boiled huge iron kettles.

In the next couple of days, you spend nearly all of your time in the woods away from Rilaga teaching and learning. Despite your earlier encounter, Orthula is civil but hardly flirtatious. You learn a great deal about the ancestral hero worship of the barbarians and the totem spirits that their heroes embody. As the time draws near for you to depart for the Stone Tooth, Orthula visits you again. Again there are no words exchanged but this time she leaves you with a pouch containing the herbs necessary for brewing your own magical potions (200gp worth).

As you depart for the north, you cannot say that your spirit is at rest. In the distance, dozens of axes can be heard, biting the forest as the barbarians prepare the poles for their palisade. Whether the trees of this largely virgin forest are destined for barbarian fortresses or Orcish bonfires you cannot say. But the bitter wind whispers in your ears that this land will never be the same.

Info for Krase
You spend most of the next three days and nights in the almost constant company of Ilrath. He is able to serve as translator for you in trying to get the other tribesmen to understand your instructions about building fortifications.

At times you find yourself pausing to reflect on how much you distrusted Ilrath when you first met him. Your grandfather would never have believed your story had you told him that someday you would be companion to a barbarian. Had you told him that the folk of Glynden would be fighting a war on the same side as the barbarians, he would have beaten you for drinking all of grandfather Wakenzaki's beer. *GM Note - An old dwarven friend of Krase's grandfather was a close friend to the family and helped raise Krase. The dwarf bore the rather odd name of Wakenzaki and was renowned for his excellent beer*.

But here you are, trying to get the barbarians to understand how to build a fortress. Never before has such a sharp line been drawn between your grandfather's generation and yours.

In your spare moments, you teach what you can remember of the fighting techniques that Wakenzaki taught, should you ever meet an Orc. It isn't much, but it keeps your hands busy. Hands that would far rather be plunging one of your gladii into the belly of the Gnolls left on the homeward shore of the Fodor. You will return to deal with them soon enough. For now the Orcs will have to do.

Not soon enough, you find your friends, including Ilrath, and yourself with your feet on a path to the north. The day is clear and cold. Behind you as well as eastward are those who depend on you to do your duty. Before you are allies to be made and enemies to be slain. You can't think of a better way to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

Info for Rhys
With Speaks With Stone occupied talking to the tribal shamans and Krase and Ilrath spending all day talking to the other barbarians about palisades and fortifications, you find yourself at loose ends. To be certain, you feel a sense of accomplishment at having secured the oaths of three of the tribes who wish the aid of the forces of Glynden. You look forward to locating and negotiating with the dwarves of the Stone Tooth where warm hearths are sure to be in greater abundance. But for now, you are somewhat bored and frustrated.

There are a few girls about and it is clear that they are curious to get a look at the outlanders (no doubt especially the one who moves with the grace of a cat but speaks with a tongue of silver). But your lack of understanding of their language provides a barrier to any meaningful conversations. And any hopes of communicating in the "universal language" are quickly dampened by the presence of a couple hundred uncivilized berserker warriors who all seem to have been born with an axe in their hands and a chip on their shoulders.

For the first time you can recall in a long while, you are alone and have nobody to talk to.

Your thoughts turn to the arcane ritual that you spoke about with Speaks With Stone. *GM Note - Rhys had just leveled to 2nd and was now a full fledged Sorcerer (instead of a 0/0 apprentice level Rogue/Sorcerer) and as such wanted to summon a familiar which would require 100gp worth of materials and a full day ritual*. In the morning, you see him wandering into the village with a confused and concerned look on his face. His back is probably killing him from sleeping on a bunch of tree roots somewhere since he certainly wasn't in his bunk last night. No matter. After a brief conversation with him, he directs you to speak with Krusk, shaman of the Coritani.

Krusk seems anxious to return to whatever Speaks and the other shamans are doing, but he listens to your request for the ingredients required for the ritual. He tells you that the herbs, incense and candle necessary are rare and hard to find. He asks if you have anything in trade.

Casting about on your person for anything of value, you come upon the pair of spiked gauntlets that have been tangled in the bottom of your pack these last few days. (If you don't want to trade the gauntlets, you don't have to. But you will need to provide something of approximately 100gp value to give for the ingredients. If you decide not to trade the gauntlets, just let me know and skip the next paragraph). *He opted to trade the gauntlets*

Krusk examines the gauntlets and notes the smith mark on them. He tells you that he cannot trade the ingredients for the gauntlets because it would not be fair to you. He then asks you to wait. He leaves and returns in a few minutes. In exchange for the gauntlets, he offers you the ingredients you request as well as a "magic writing" that was captured on one of the many raids against the people of the northland villages. The "magic writing" is a scroll that includes the spells Detect Undead, Grease and Levitate on it. You accept.

You stash the scroll in your gear and gather a few items from your spartan quarters including one of the smaller braziers, some unburned coals and a hunk of fresh venison. You then seek an area outside the village that isn't occupied by barbarians felling trees at the direction of Krase and Ilrath. Although you had to walk more than a mile, you manage to locate a clearing, free of any distractions and with grass thick enough to provide a comfortable seat. You begin your ritual.

You carefully crumble the herbs into a coarse powder and then walk the perimeter of the clearing, sprinkling them as you go. Returning to the middle of the clearing, you sit in the middle for a time and go through the process of relaxing each muscle in your body until you are almost in a trance. With your body relaxed, your mind has no choice but to follow. You then begin to place the coals in the brazier, one at a time, holding each one for a moment, feeling its shape and texture. With the coals in the brazier, you place the incense among it and ignite the candle and in turn use the candle to light the coals. The scent of the incense, pleasantly sweet, reaches your nostrils. You close your eyes.

After an indeterminate time you reopen your eyes to find the coals glowing a uniform orange. You stare into the coals, timing your breathing and begin to feel words building behind your lips. You accept them as they come and begin to chant. As each word comes forth, you do more than speak it, you cast it far out into the wilds.

Finally the stream of words dries up and exhausted, you rest. When you feel that you can stand, you rise to your feet and walk to the edge of the clearing and place the venison on the ground. You return to where you sat, legs feeling like lead and sit again. Now you wait.

Sometime later, a rustling in the leaves at the edge of the clearing causes your eyes to slowly open. A small slender form perches by the venison and watches you. As you gaze on, it takes a small bite of the venison. It appears to be a weasel or civet of largish size and female. It takes another bite of the venison.

Presently, you "feel" rather than hear, "What is it you want?"

"I want your companionship," you reply.

"And what do you offer in return?"

"I offer long life and fresh red meat without struggle. And I offer my friendship."

"And what do you ask in return?"

"I ask for aid in my endeavors, such as are in your power. I will ask for wisdom, and I will ask for your friendship."

The weasel pauses to consider and takes the opportunity to tear another shred from the venison. Then, "Done."

A smile comes to your face for the first time in hours. You reach out on the link you've established. "Thank you. I swear that you will be my dearest companion and I will never put your life in danger."

In reply, the weasel sends, "I am a trickster, just as you are. Your hollow words do not offend me, but neither do I believe them. For such as we, seldom will be the nights when we are not in danger. Nevertheless, I swear to be your dearest companion and to aid you in your hunt."

"But I am not a hunter."

"You will be."


The following day passes quickly for you as you begin to grow used to the new presence in your mind. You decide on a name for your friend *He ultimately decided on Tavis* and begin to consider what it will be like to have someone to whom you can never lie be your constant companion. You find your spirits high as your companions and you put your feet on the road to the north. Regardless of what dangers lie ahead, you know that you will never be alone again. And you suspect that it won't be long before you will wish you were bored again.

*GM Note - I stole a lot of the familiar summoning ritual from the book Jhereg by Stephen Brust. If you haven't read it, you should.*

NEXT: A Momentary Lapse of Reason

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

The party made their way northward out of the lands of the Coritani and into the lands of the Brigantes. They passed near a few small villages along the way and occasionally stopped to re-supply with smoked meat and barley cakes that the villagers were stocking away for winter. Ilrath also occasionally made a brief side trip to gather any news from the villages they passed near. During one of these trips, the rest of the party decided to seize upon the opportunity to have a particularly stupid argument.

It had now been twelve days since they had left Glynden and (presumably) whatever forces Kyndalyn had managed to prepare for the journey would be leaving to head for the Fodor soon. The party had still not used the bird feather token given to them by Uncle Claudius to send a message back to the village in order to update them on what the party had discovered in the barbarian lands.

Speaks with Stone commented that it would be best if they sent the message as soon as possible so that any special equipment or people who needed to be brought in order to erect fortifications in the barbarian lands could be gathered for the ten day journey. After all, he contended, they knew that the Brigantes specifically wanted any dwarves from Glynden to participate and they would probably be among those who knew most about building defensive fortifications.

Rhys and Krase on the other hand were not quite satisfied that they could totally trust the barbarians. After all, they said, the party hadn't actually seen a single orc yet. They mentioned that part of their mission was to determine how big a threat the orcs were.

Speaks brought up the fact that the number had been reported at around 1,200.

Krase argued that the barbarians could have made up that number and the actual number could be larger or smaller.

Speaks argued in return that if the number was smaller, it made absolutely no sense to inflate it. And if the number was larger, why not report that the orcs only numbered a few hundred to make it more likely that the forces of Glynden would sign on.

Neither Krase nor Rhys had an answer to that but both said they would feel more comfortable if they had actually seen an orc before they sent the message.

Speaks pointed out that they were still several days from the Nervii lands and it was very unlikely that they would see an orc in the next couple of days. If they waited longer than that, they would be past the date that Kyndalyn was supposed to have left Glynden. That meant that Kyndalyn would either be waiting to leave until he got their message, wasting valuable days. Or Kyndalyn would have already left town when he got the message and might have to waste twice as many days going back to town to retrieve any supplies or people necessary for defending the barbarian lands.

Krase stated that it was likely that Kyndalyn would be delayed from leaving town because "many" of the council were against the whole operation and would do whatever they could to slow things down. *A fine bit of revisionist history if ever I saw one*.

In the end, Speaks was outvoted and Krase and Rhys decided to wait another two days (thus bringing them to exactly 14 days after they left town which was the approximate time Kyndalyn said it would take to ready the men to march).

Speaks pointed out that it was highly unlikely that they would see an orc in the next two days and further asked if the bird summoned by the feather token was supposed to teleport back to town or if some amount of travel time would be involved.

Krase and Rhys considered this briefly but, never ones to let reason stand in the way of rigid planning stuck to their guns.

Two days later they still hadn't seen any orcs and the message was sent updating Kyndalyn as to the results of the negotiations and the "reported" numbers of orcs and barbarians. They also requested that they bring whatever materials and people would be necessary for constructing fortifications. With a good deal of eye rolling from Speaks with Stone, the bird was conjured and let fly with no more information than they possessed two days before.

NEXT: A Not-So-Chance Encounter

[BA Not-So-Chance Encounter[/B]

A couple more days passed and they found themselves well inside the lands of the Nervii. Most of the villages they encountered were abandoned and they spotted several groups of refugees who were headed southwards. Not a single dead body was spotted in any of the villages they passed. Nor were there any freshly dug graves. These sights caused the party to look at each other with resignation.

As they made camp one evening a raven was spotted in a tree nearby. Speaks with Stone had been seeking an owl whom he might befriend in order to gain some information about the area. He supposed that a raven would do. He cast a spell of animal friendship on the bird but it took flight, apparently having resisted the spell. Speaks shook his head in frustration and took his turn at watch.

The next day, they spotted another raven perched on a branch that took flight as they drew near. Krase was becoming a bit worried by this phenomenon but was assured by the others in the party that such birds were common anywhere there had been battle. They continued on their way.

That afternoon they crossed into a glacial valley that was broad and flat and strewn with huge boulders. Far off in the distance they could see the upthrust spire of what must be The Stone Tooth. They guessed it to be around two days distant.

As they made their way among the boulders and trees of the glacial valley, Ilrath saw movement among the rocks and called out a cry of warning. A raven flew from the top of a nearby rock formation. Moments later, an outlandishly dressed orcish bowman stepped from behind a nearby boulder and fired a shot that glanced off Krase's armor. He wore a suit of studded leather armor but had little else in the way of clothing. He was adorned with a variety of brightly colored feathers that could have come from no bird indigenous to the area. Time to speculate on ornithology later, the party decided.

Ilrath spotted a brilliant yellow headdress just on the other side of a narrow space between a pair of boulders. He figured there was a good chance that beneath it was an orcish head that needed cleaving in twain. He hustled over and took a hack at the lightly armored orc but the narrow space between the tall boulders provided cover to the enemy and he missed.

An orcish warrior, also dressed in many colorful feathers - and a chain shirt, charged from cover and attacked Krase with his halberd, lightly wounding him. Another moved to pin Ilrath into the narrow crevice where he fought the orc in the headdress but missed the barbarian with his warhammer. The orc wearing the outlandish headgear raised a fairly innocent looking stick at Ilrath and loudly cried "Asharak!" at which point a jet of flame spurted forth engulfing Ilrath and blistering his skin.

Krase cut at the orc wielding the halberd an inflicted a serious wound with one of his short swords. Speaks with Stone pointed at the archer behind the boulder and gave Arc the order to attack as he stepped behind the warrior fighting Krase, flanking him with his long spear. With his attention divided between the Ranger and the Druid, the orc let his guard down and took a fatal thrust from the long spear.

Rhys had loaded his crossbow and taken a moment to cast his magical armor spell.

The orcish archer fired a point blank shot at the wolf that bore down on him but only scored a grazing wound.

Ilrath swung again through the narrow space between the boulders, this time scoring a hit on the orcish shaman but not one powerful enough to fell him. In turn, the shaman again raised his wand and shouted "Asharak!" once again, a word that would ever be burned (hehe) into Ilrath's memory. Another gout of flame washed over Ilrath and while he still stood, his beard would be weeks in recovering.

The warrior behind Ilrath took another swing with his warhammer but it bounced ineffectually off of the armor the barbarian wore.

A moment later, Krase moved in behind the warrior who was now a flankee instead of a flanker. A couple of cuts with his short swords left the orc standing but wounded.

Speaks with Stone moved over to attack the archer with his long spear but in an effort to avoid hitting Arc, he missed his target.

Rhys stepped forward and fired a shot at the warrior standing between Ilrath and Krase but his bolt missed the orc and shattered on the boulder behind him.

Seeing that the tide was rapidly turning against his team, the archer turned and fled at top speed with both Arc and Speaks taking parting shots at him but missing.

Ilrath, sorely wounded and afraid of another flame attack from the shaman stepped away from the crevice and hacked down the warrior behind him. This reprieve was welcome to the shaman who took a moment to heal the worst of his wounds. But his relief was to be short lived as Krase charged around to the other side of the boulder and delivered a vicious stab with his right hand blade.

Rhys reloaded his crossbow again but found himself with not a target in sight. He moved around the opposite boulder from the one that Krase had just attacked the shaman, seeking to possibly flank the shaman. Speaks and Arc took off in pursuit of the archer with Arc outdistancing the Druid as he quickly closed the distance on the fleeing orc.

Ilrath stepped back to the narrow opening and took another swing at the shaman but again the rocks hampered his swing and he missed. Hoping to induce the Ranger to back off, the shaman used his wand against him this time. Krase was scorched and angry but still had plenty of fight left in him. He drove forward and scored hits with both blades, sending the shaman to his eternal rest.

Just then, Rhys rounded the other boulder only to find that again he had no target. He raced off in the direction he had seen Speaks and Arc run.

Deciding that it was impossible to outrun the wolf, the last remaining orc drew his scimitar and hacked at Arc, scoring a minor hit on the wolf. But Arc leapt on him viciously dealing a nasty bite to the foul tasting orc. Speaks continued to race to catch up with his wolf friend and their quarry. Again the orc sliced at the wolf, but this time his aim was off and he swung wide. Arc attacked low in an attempt to knock the orc to the ground where he could be more properly mauled to death but the orc danced free of his jaws. Unfortunately for him, Speaks with Stone came charging in with his spear and used it to remind him not to fool with mother nature. The orc slid to the ground where Arc promptly ripped his throat out.

As Speaks and Arc stood over the slain orc, Rhys came running up, panting.

"Damn! I'm just a couple seconds too late to kill anybody today!"

He and Speaks took a minute to rummage through the belongings of the orc and drag him under some bushes. They discovered that he carried a sack of meat that looked all too human. Rhys also noted that the studded leather armor the orc wore seemed exceptionally well made. He however had no intentions of wearing the armor of a stinking orc. They returned to the scene of the ambush.

Meanwhile, after recovering from the initial shock of his burns, Ilrath noted the fine chain shirts the orcish warriors wore. He set about stripping one of the suits off the body and trying it on for size. Clearly he had fewer issues with looting the orcs of armor than Rhys did.

Krase had made a startling discovery. The orcish shaman wore an amulet that was almost identical to one that his grandfather (not the dwarven one) had left him and which he carried in his pack along with his grandfather's journal. He asked Rhys to examine the newfound amulet and tell him what he could about it, but he didn't reveal to the rest of the party that he carried a similar one.

Rhys was only too happy to assist in the looting of the orcs and quickly laid claim to the wand the shaman had used. As he had a fairly good idea of what it did and had heard the command word several times during the fighting, he saw no need to identify it further at the moment. His spell of magical detection also uncovered a pair of scrolls in a tube on the shaman's belt that turned out to be healing magic.

Krase opted to eschew the chain shirt handed to him by Ilrath. But he was interested when Rhys mentioned the high quality studded leather the archer wore. He decided to recover it before they continued northwards. As they left the scene of the ambush, a raven could be seen winging its way to the northwest.

NEXT: On to the Stone Tooth

On to the Stone Tooth

That night, as the party camped, Speaks wandered a short distance into the nearby forest and followed the hooting of an owl. When he located the creature, he cast his spell of animal friendship and this time was successful. With the owl riding his shoulder, he strode back into camp. He now had two faithful animal friends, both of whom regarded Rhys' new familiar, Tavis, as a potential snack.

As the dim light rose on their camp, a light snow began to fall. They looked at each other somberly, knowing that it wouldn't be long before the snows would reach as far south as the Coritani lands and that would likely mark the start of the orcish offensive. They pressed on towards the Stone Tooth.

In late afternoon, they were starting to seek a safe camp for the night and were passing between a pair of rocky ridges. Ilrath suddenly stopped and said, "Do you hear that?"

Without further warning the snow at the base of the leftmost ridge burst open and a large white centipede burst forth, spines on its back glowing a dull red. (Note: I know, I know. You're thinking "Holy crap! He threw a Remmorhaz at those poor 2nd-3rd level characters! He instantly qualifies as a Rat Bastard DM ™. Remain calm. It was a juvenile that I toned down for this party. Still, it could easily have killed the lot of them had things gone poorly.)

Without thought for his own safety, Ilrath let out a battle cry and charged the beast and scored a devastating blow with his great axe (crit for 39 points of damage). In return, the creature gave Ilrath a vicious bite that nearly staggered him. Krase charged in but failed to damage the creature on his first attempt. Rhys hit it with a crossbow bolt while Speaks summoned a badger to attack it from behind.

The great bug launched a terrible bite at Krase who suffered a nasty wound. The next round of attacks nicked away at the beast, but it was the vicious bite of the badger that sent it into oblivion. The creature toppled over with a hissing sound as its red hot spines melted the snow on the ground.

After a few moments to recover, the party explored the cave the beast had shot out from. Inside they found little of value save a somewhat damaged set of banded mail. But the cave did provide excellent shelter for the party. They decided to stay in the cave for the night and throughout the following day. The extra time gave them a chance to rest and heal. It also meant that Speaks had a chance to brew a couple healing potions which he gave to Rhys and Krase (Note: In my campaign, you can scribe a number of scrolls or brew a number of potions up to a maximum of your spellcasting stat bonus as long as the items stay under the 1,000gp cap.). This also gave Rhys time to use the Identify aspect of the magic candle to ID his new wand and the amulet they found on the shaman.

(The wand turned out to cast the Burning Hands spell at caster level 2 and had 38 charges left. The amulet allowed someone to send a message up to 20 words to anyone else with a similar amulet who was within 1 mile per character level, one time per day.)

When Rhys announced the function of the amulet, Krase rather bashfully admitted that he had another similar amulet in his pack. This drew a derisive glare from Rhys who pointed out that it would have been helpful if he could have identified it along with the other items. Some quick experimentation proved that among any other abilities, Krase's amulet also had the ability to send a receive a message once per day.

The party spent the next night in the cave and at dawn, headed once more towards the Stone Tooth. Speaks with Stone provided all the humans in the party with spells to help them resist the cold and it made travel much easier and more pleasant.

No more orc patrols were spotted that day and by dusk they arrived at the base of the mountain. They decided that it would be wiser not to climb the mountain at night and made camp under a rock overhang.

(NOTE: FROM HERE ON OUT, I STARTED A HEAVILY MODIFIED VERSION OF THE FORGE OF FURY. IF YOU DON'T WANT THAT MODULE SPOILED FOR YOU, DON'T READ ANY FURTHER. I WILL POST ANOTHER MESSAGE WHEN THE PARTY HAS LEFT THE FORGE SO THAT YOU CAN RESUME READING, BUT THAT IS WHERE THEY WILL BE ADVENTURING FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT SEVERAL SESSIONS. YOU WERE WARNED.)

After another uneventful night, the party quickly found a path up the steep mountain. Throughout the early part of the day, the party climbed the path that wound up the mountain, periodically exposed to the wind and snow that blew in from the north and sometimes in the lee of the mountain. Always they had the steep side of the mountain on one side and a steep drop off on the other as they made their way along the ledge.

In early afternoon, they rounded the mountainside into the wind and snow again. A few steps later, Rhys spotted a pair of figures who appeared to be standing guard on a ledge up ahead. A moment later, he realized that these were not the squat and sturdy forms of dwarves, but in fact the tall and muscular shapes of orcs. Further, in the whiteness of the snowfall, the brightly colored feathers they wore stood out clearly.

Rhys quickly grabbed the others before they were spotted and they retreated back into the lee of the mountain. He told them about the orcs and they decided to retreat even further down the path to discuss what they should do.

It was quickly decided that more information was necessary to plan their next move and Tavis was dispatched to get the lay of the land. She moved along the edge of the path and determined that near where the orcs stood guard, it ended at a crevasse that ran into the mountain. Following this she found that the crevasse led to a large room with a pair of doors leading to the interior of the mountain. One of the doors was open somewhat and she crept inside.

Beyond the doors she found herself on a wide ledge that ended in a deep pit. A rope bridge stretched off into the darkness and she could see no further than that. Rhys recalled her and on the return trip, she noticed a series of holes that looked down into the crevasse that could be used for observation. She crawled up the outward side of the crevasse and along the mountainside back to Rhys.

After a brief discussion, there was no question that some kind of attack needed to be initiated on the mountain entrance. The dwarves they were sent to contact could be trapped in the lower levels and freeing them or causing enough of a distraction to allow them to free themselves would not only be the right thing to do, it would virtually assure their cooperation against the orcs in the future. In addition, if the orcs felt that their hold on the Stone Tooth were slipping, they might send more troops to reinforce the mountain and that would be that many fewer orcs attacking the barbarian lands and the forces of Glynden.

The first assessment the group made was that they wanted to be freshly rested before making an assault on these orcs. They withdrew some distance back down the mountain until they found a wide spot on the ledge along the leeward side of the Stone Tooth. They put up their tarp and huddled inside from the dampness of the snow (They weren't cold thanks to Speaks with Stones Endure Elements spells). The decided to spend the night there and attack in the morning when the spellcasters had a fresh compliment of spells.

Throughout the afternoon, they debated the best way to gain entrance to the complex that would put the party in the most advantageous position and make the best use of their spells. Fortunately for them, no patrols left from or returned to the mountain that afternoon or night. In the morning, Speaks with Stone communed with nature to gather the carefully selected spells the group had planned for.

NEXT: Assault on the Mountain Door

Assault on the Mountain Door

They made their way back up the path until they were just out of sight of the orcs lookout post. There, Speaks with Stone cast a spell on Ilrath to give his skin the resiliency of an old oak tree. He then picked up a small rock from the path and cast a spell of illumination on it. Krase tucked this stone into his jerkin so that he could later pull it out on short notice. Rhys used his magic to grant each member of the party the ability to cling to the cliff walls like spiders. Unfortunately this required direct contact with the stone and each member of the party had to remove his boots and gloves. Needless to say, the group was anxious to get on with the attack so that they could once again have warm feet.

Speaks gave Arc the command to guard the path until he whistled for him. Then the party began to climb up and over the ridge of stone that separated the path from the crevasse. They moved as far into the crack in the mountain as possible in order to remain concealed from view of the arrowslits on the opposite wall. Once down inside the crevasse, they split up. Speaks with Stone climbed along the wall that contained the arrowslits until he was above them, remaining very quiet in order not to alert the two orcs who stood guard as they were now in view. The rest of the group crept inside using their spider climbing ability to remain on the ceiling.

Speaks positioned himself just above the outermost arrowslit and waited tensely. He was hiding right out in the open and had to count on the fact that the orcs probably weren't used to seeing a druid clinging to the side of the mountain.

Inside, the rest of the group noticed that there were another pair of arrowslits on opposite walls of the antechamber room. They crept quietly across the ceiling and into the alcove where the door was, carefully crawling through the partially open door and into the chamber beyond. In the faint light of the morning that managed to penetrate this far into the cavern they could just barely see that the rope-bridge extended around 30 feet to the other side of the pit. Beyond that, all was darkness.

They crept further across the ceiling trying not to look down into the gaping blackness of the pit. Just as they were above the opposite side of the pit, a voice called out from the darkness in a guttural language that Rhys recognized as orcish. They heard the thrum of bowstrings and the clattering of arrows off the ceiling around them.

Krase quickly dropped the light stone on the ground and then leapt to the ground himself. As he did so, he activated the amulet and sent a message to Speaks who still clung to the cliff face outside. The message was, "Go!". Rhys and Ilrath quickly followed Krase's lead, leaping to the ground and stepping forward to engage their enemies. A moment later Krase drew his short swords and stepped forward to attack one of the pair of orcs they could now see on the ledge. The orc died with a single thrust of his gladius. Ilrath quickly closed with the other bow-wielding orc and laid him low with a devastating cut from his great axe.

Meanwhile outside, Speaks crept forward the last few inches until he could see inside the arrowslit. He then unleashed a fiery sphere inside the archery gallery and sent it rolling along the interior toward a group of orcs gathered in a guard room. The orc panicked at this entirely unexpected turn of events and ran screaming into a nearby hallway where the sphere quickly caught up and burned one to death.

The other three orcish guards who had been manning the arrowslits hastily opened a secret door that opened onto the ledge opposite of where the other party members had been fighting. Speaks was rapidly loosing sight of them and sent the ball rolling out the door where it burned another orc, knocking him down the pit.

All of this commotion had, of course, alerted the two orcs on guard duty outside. The quickly ran over and noticed the druid clinging to the wall, peering through the arrowslits and probably causing the screams of fear and pain they could hear from inside. Unfortunately for them, they were not armed with any missile weapons and were unable to strike directly at the druid. They quickly decided to go inside to offer whatever help they could.

With his flaming sphere expired, Speaks saw that the orcish guards were about to go inside. Not knowing what the status of his friends inside was, he decided that he should prevent those orcs from coming to the aid of their fellows. He whistled for Arc and moved down the wall to flat ground where he could engage the orcs with his long spear. Seeing that they now had a reachable target, the orcs doubled back and attacked the druid.

Back inside, the rest of the party was engaged in a very one-sided ranged battle with the orcs who had escaped the onslaught of the flaming sphere. The party had discovered that the side of the pit they were on benefited from a pair of large, floor to ceiling natural stone pillars that offered them excellent cover while the orcs on the opposite ledge had no such advantage.

Ilrath hurled a hand axe in the initial moments but then moved back to guard the pair of doors that lay at the rear of the chamber, lest the party be assaulted from behind. Krase had switched from his swords to his short bow and Rhys was effectively firing away with his crossbow. In moments, one of the two orcs was down.

Just then another secret door opened opposite of the first one and yet another orc scurried out onto the ledge with longbow in hand. He was quickly downed and the last surviving orc looked briefly back at the secret door where the flaming sphere had come from. He decided that while there might be another deadly ball of fire waiting in there for him, to stand and fight on the ledge against ranged attackers with good cover was certain death. He ran for the passage to the archery gallery.

Seeing that the enemy was on the run, Ilrath gave chase by climbing along the wall of the chamber using his recently granted spider climbing ability. Krase and Rhys were not far behind and elected to use the ceiling and walls, eschewing the possibly unsafe rope bridge.

Outside, Speaks downed one of the two orcs he faced with his first spear thrust. The other one was proving difficult, however. Even though Arc had arrived and attacked the orc from his flank, both of their attacks were seeming surprisingly inept. Fortunately for them, the orc seemed to be having similar problems. (Note: For four consecutive rounds, Speaks, Arc and the orc rolled nothing above a 6 on any of their attacks).

Ilrath had raced down the archer gallery in pursuit of the orc. At the end he found a small room with an open door that contained a stairway leading further up into the mountain. Unfortunately it was quite dark in the stairway and he knew that he wouldn't be able to fight effectively in such darkness. He stayed in the dim light afforded by the arrowslits and yelled out, "Need Light!". To the credit of the rest of the party, none of them offered an anachronistic product known as "Bud Light".

Krase and Rhys both skidded to a halt in their tracks at Ilrath's plea and then gazed across the chasm to where the light stone provided by Speaks lay where Krase had dropped it. Rhys immediately began scrambling across the rope bridge after it, reaching it moments later and tossing it across the pit to Krase. Krase raced down the archery gallery to where Ilrath was already engaging an orc with other beginning to pour down the stairway toward him.

Ilrath began to down one orc after another while his armor and bark-like skin protected him from most of the damage being sent his way by the opposition. Krase was frustrated at his inability to engage the orcs on the narrow stairway until he realized that the elevation would allow him to fire at those at the top of the stairs with his bow.

An orc near the top of the stairs noticed this and feeling that turnabout was only fair launched a javelin down the stairwell at Ilrath. Unfortunately for him, the javelin merely sunk into the back of the orc Ilrath was currently fighting, killing him. No further attempts were made to throw javelins down the stairs.

Ilrath, thanks to the help from the orc, had fought his way to the base of the stairs and found himself face to face with one of the veteran fighters among the orcs. This orc wielded a large steel shield that warded off blow after blow from Ilrath's great axe while his finely crafted handaxe found its way through his defenses a couple of times. Finally, Ilrath brought his axe down so precisely and with such force that it crumpled the veteran orc to the ground in a single blow. Atop the stairs, the other orcs nervously waited for the barbarian.

Rhys had meanwhile stationed himself at the secret door that lead to the guard room and archer gallery to keep watch on their rear. Before he positioned himself there, he cut through the guide ropes of the bridge to make crossing it a very dangerous proposition. Sure enough, a group of orcs soon entered the opposite side of the chamber through the double doors there. Although Rhys couldn't see far enough into the darkness there to attack effectively without the light stone, he did manage to keep the orcs pinned down by shooting any that stepped to the front of the ledge.

Finally having dispatched the last orc guard outside, Speaks took a moment to heal himself and then ran inside. Rhys heard him approach and got his attention, directing him to where Ilrath and Krase were fighting at the other end of the archer gallery. Speaks hurried off in that direction along with Arc while Rhys noticed that the orcs seemed to have retreated from the opposite ledge, back further into the complex.

They soon reappeared however, in the room that Ilrath and Krase were assaulting, bolstering the forces there. Ilrath made the top of the stairs to find himself surrounded by half a dozen or more orcs. He cleaved through a pair of them and stepped into the room. Krase who had put his bow away again, was now able to attack across the threshold of the stairway at one of the orcs that flanked Ilrath. They began to gain a measure of confidence when they heard a deep voice bellow, "Who dares challenge the Great Ulfe!?" Of course they weren't too shaken since they couldn't speak orcish and had no idea who Ulfe was in any event. Still, it was said with authority and the fact that the voice appeared attached to an enormous, barrel chested orc with a great axe in one hand and a pair of wolves on chains in the other did much to get Ulfe's message across in the universal language of fear.

Ulfe cried havoc and unleashed the wolves of war as he charged in with his great axe. Krase managed to down the orc that he had been cutting at around the corner of the stairwell and timidly stepped into the room to face the wrath of this mighty orc. Ilrath in the mean time managed to cleave through another of the orcish defenders and cut deeply into one of Ulfe's wolves. Fortunately for him, Speaks with Stone was just arriving at the bottom of the staircase and didn't see this brutal assault on nature's beauty.

Krase launched a series of cuts at Ulfe that were unable to penetrate his mighty armor while Ilrath managed to kill the last of the other orcs in the room and finish off one of the wolves. He then turned on Ulfe as Speaks with Stone entered the room and began to entreat the remaining wolf to attack it's master.

Ignoring the puny and ineffectual human wielding the pair of overgrown butter knives, Ulfe rounded on Ilrath and dealt him a devastating blow from his greataxe that could easily have felled anyone else in the party. Drawing on his inner rage, Ilrath swung back with fury and scored a minor wound on the giant orc. With Ulfe distracted, Krase managed to land one of his blades as well, scoring mild cut on his axe-wielding adversary.

Speaks with Stone was unable to convince Ulfe's pet to turn against him and decided that if somebody has to commit a sin against nature, it might as well be the druid. He sicced Arc on the other wolf and moved into position with his long spear. Moments later, Ilrath saved him the trouble by cleaving through the wolf and scoring another wound on the mighty Ulfe.

Ulfe was not quite as stupid as he looked and seeing that the last of his allies was down and that although heavily wounded, his opponents were still fighting hard, he decided to beat a hasty retreat, risking whatever attacks they might launch as a result. The party failed to connect on any of the several swings they directed at the fleeing Ulfe and he made it into the hallway beyond the door on the other end of the room.

Ilrath was too exhausted from his primal rage to give chase and none of the rest of the party felt much like fighting the mighty Ulfe at the moment either. Speaks used a bit more of his healing magic on Ilrath and for just a moment, they were able to breathe easy.

To Be Continued…

The moment of peace was short lived however. Far at the other end of the archer gallery from the room the majority of the party occupied, Rhys began screaming. Nobody in the rest of the party knew what he was screaming about and, oddly enough, neither did he. He only knew that he was suddenly filled with the most overwhelming fear he had ever experienced. He ran from his post by the secret door back through the guard room and down the archer gallery as fast as his feet would carry him.

The rest of the party members had meanwhile spread out throughout the large room the bulk of the battle had taken place in. Ilrath was closest to the stairs when they heard the terrified cries of Rhys and he moved as quickly as his fatigued body would allow toward the main entrance. Rhys dashed passed Ilrath with his face a mask of terror. Krase stopped to ask Rhys what caused his fear and, receiving no coherent answer, went after Ilrath again.

Ilrath arrived at the secret door and had time to peer beyond to where a pair of orcs were just beginning to crawl their way across the single strand of rope that remained of the bridge. That was all he saw, however because he became very sleepy all of a sudden and took a nap right in the secret doorway.

Moments later, Krase arrived in the doorway and found the orcs on the rope across the pit. One of the orcs was very nearly across and another was halfway. Krase took careful aim and fired an arrow, not at either of the orcs but at the bridge rope itself. Miraculously he struck the rope and all but severed it, the weight of the orcs snapping the remaining fibers a split second later. (Note: This was the first time we had used the "damage to inanimate objects" rules and looking all this up was starting to break up the flow of the combat. Then Krase's character said, "I'm just going to shoot. If it doesn't work, fine, but that's what I'm doing." He rolled a natural 20 and did 8 points of damage to the rope. It was one of the highlights of the campaign so far.)

The orc who was midway across the rope tried to hold on but he was slammed against the far side of the pit and plunged to his death. The orc who was nearly across however managed to grab the ledge and hang on. Krase yelled back over his shoulder, "They're coming this way!" and fired at the orc who was clambering up onto the ledge, missing.

As that orc got to his feet, the orcs on the other side of the pit yelled something at him and he turned and fled out the front door. Krase quickly ran to one of the arrowslits to fire a parting shot at him but failed to spot him in the dim light of the crevasse. Afraid that the orcs would find another way across the pit, he ran back to the secret door.

At the other end of the archer gallery, in the orcish barracks, Speaks with stone heard footsteps retreating in the hallway that Ulfe had run down. He stepped through to investigate and heard a click sound. Spinning around, he got a face full of greenish gas that emanated from the mouth of a dwarven statue. He suddenly felt the strength fade from his limbs and he quickly retreated back into the barracks and warned Rhys of this danger.

Krase had returned to the secret door and observed that the orcs had once again taken cover behind the pillars and showed no signs of attempting another crossing of the, now bridgeless, pit. Krase took the opportunity to wake Ilrath from his slumber just as Speaks arrived behind him. Krase explained that he had had to shoot the bridge down and Ilrath and Speaks were both privately impressed by his marksmanship. Speaks explained that Rhys was back in the room they had fought the big battle in trying to find a way to jam the door shut. Krase departed to help him while Ilrath and Speaks stayed behind to try and find a way to secure the secret door against intrusion by any other orcs that somehow crossed the pit.

Krase entered the large barracks room and saw Rhys trying to jam a javelin through the door handle. He approached from behind just as Rhys had withdrawn a small hammer from his pack to pound the javelin securely in place. Suddenly, the javelin splintered as the door was ripped open by Ulfe who promptly swung his axe at Rhys, missing by the smallest of margins. Ulfe alone would have been enough for Rhys to run from but seeing that he had a trio of other orcs behind him put the matter far beyond question and Rhys ran back to the stairway at the other end of the room. At least this time he was certain what it was he was terrified of.

Krase was quick to arrive at the same decision and dashed back to the stairs which were now blocked by Rhys. Krase, secure in his masculinity, was screaming not unlike a little girl as he repeated, "Down the stairs! Down the stairs!" over and over again in an attempt to hasten Rhys.

Meanwhile Speaks had decided to explore the secret door opposite of the one they had been defending. He was afraid that it might offer another route deeper into the mountain that the orcs could attack from. Instead he found that it was a dead end and was returning back to the ledge.

Ilrath had heard the sound of the door crashing open and had once again returned to the area of the barracks stairway, arriving just in time to block the path of Rhys.

The orcs that were with Ulfe rushed past him and raced across the barracks arranging themselves across the top of the stairway in such a fashion that all three could attack Krase at their next opportunity. Ulfe moved in behind them.

Rhys saw an opportunity to strike at the lot of them at once. Instead of obeying Krase's litany of begging him to descend the stairway as fast as possible, Rhys edged in behind him. In one fluid motion, he drew forth the wand he had taken from the orcish adept, pulled aside Krase's long cape and thrust the wand beneath the ranger's legs yelling, "Asharak!"

The screams of Krase and the orcs blended into one as a huge gout of flame shot forth from the ranger's crotch to engulf all four of the orcs who had arranged themselves in a neat 10 foot radius. One of the orcs could no longer take the pressure and ran in fear. Pushing down his fear and humiliation, Krase struck at another orc that was within reach but his aim was ruined by the Rhys who, after all, was pressed right up against him and had a hand between his legs.

Ulfe stepped into the opening left by the fleeing orc and bore down on the ranger who found himself unable to move very well due to the aforementioned compromising position. Krase took a blow from the great axe, but it was not nearly the equal of the one he had seen Ilrath receive earlier.

Seeing that he was missing all the fun, Ilrath ascended the stairs to directly behind the cramped (and intimate) area occupied by Rhys and Krase. Seeing that little has changed from a tactical standpoint apart from the flight of the one orc, Rhys sees no reason not to shout, "Asharak!" again and engulf the three remaining orcs in flames. This time, the fires overcome the two lackeys and Ulfe once again remains alone.

Having had just about enough homo-erotic fun with his friend Rhys, and wanting to put some distance between his groin area and the magical flame-thrower his friend was wielding, Krase steped over the bodies of the orcs and slashed at Ulfe. One of his blades found a way through Ulfe's armor and wounded him again.

Ulfe slashed again at Krase but missed. Ilrath bulled his way past Rhys and took a swing at Ulfe but the wall at the top of the stairs prevented him from connecting. With the room once again crowded with his friends, Rhys reluctantly put away his wand and loaded his crossbow. Krase stepped part way around Ulfe to allow Ilrath to come fully into the room and drove in again with his blades and once again one found its way through.

Again Ulfe struck at Krase and again missed but Krase wondered how long his luck could hold out. Ilrath stepped fully into the room and swung his mighty axe but his luck was no better than that of Ulfe. Then Rhys slid past Ilrath and moved to position himself so that he could get a clear shot at the enormous orc. His bolt flew true and struck Ulfe sending him to the ground at last.

In a rather odd turn of events, Krase leapt atop Ulfe and immediately began trying to keep him from dying. Ilrath and Rhys looked askance at each other but figured that perhaps Krase wanted to question the orc. Unfortunately for Krase he was unable to staunch the flow of blood and Ulfe took any secrets he had with him to the grave. But Krase did happen to notice that Ulfe was wearing another of the mysterious amulets like that given to him by his grandfather.

While these events were unfolding, Speaks with Stone has been having an unusual encounter of his own back in the pit room. As he emerged from the secret door that lead to the arrowslit looking into the antechamber, he noticed a curious sight. Crawling across the ceiling in a fashion very similar to the way his own party had been, was an orc dressed in simple leather armor.

Speaks moved out onto the middle of the ledge and sent his recently acquired owl companion to attack. The owl moved in and clawed at the orc, scratching him. The orc, who was presently unarmed crawled as quickly as he could toward the exit, suffering a jab from the druid's long spear in the process as well as continued harassment from the owl. He managed to finally crawl back out to the crevasse and start up the wall.

Once clear of the low ceilinged antechamber and out of reach of the druid (or so he thought), he drew a dagger and slashed savagely at the owl, wounding it slightly. But in doing so, he did not notice that Speaks had dropped his long spear and drawn his cudgel, climbing the wall to within reach of the orc. The orc turned in time to slash at the druid as the owl flew away to safety. Speaks smote him with nature's own might and finally tipped the orc into unconsciousness, which sent him crashing 20 feet to the ground below.

Speaks swiftly descended to the ground below and hustled back to where he heard the dying sounds of combat. He did not notice the body of the orc he had just slain begin to smolder and smoke. (Note: The shaman hadn't found anywhere to use his flasks of alchemists fire and when he fell one of them cracked.)

Rhys passed Speaks in the archers gallery where he informed him of the demise of Ulfe. Speaks mentioned his encounter with the orcish spellcaster and Rhys went to inspect the body hoping to find some more magical booty. What he found was instead a conflagration as the body of the orcish adept was consumed by the alchemists fire. All that had escaped was a few bone fragments and the dagger that had fallen nearby.

The group gathered together and congratulated themselves on a hard won battle. For the moment at least, no more orcs were attacking them.

NEXT: Information and Exploration

Information and Exploration

In the aftermath of the battle, a head count indicated that the party had killed 21 orcs and the pair of wolves. Two orcs were unaccounted for: The one that had barely made it across the rope bridge as Krase had shot it down and the one who had fled (understandably) from the "Groin of Fire" incident at the top of the stairs in the barracks. The first of these orcs had made it out of the mountain and would presumably make his way back to the main orcish army to report what happened. The other had retreated further into the mountain.

Of all the orcs they had fought, only one remained alive and they bound his wounds, tied him up and dragged him into the dead-end archer post on the south side of the pit chamber. Krase then began to systematically strip each of the orcs of any weapons or armor that they might save to give to the dwarves or barbarians.

Having been warned by Speaks about the trap beyond the barracks, Rhys examined the area, identified the pressure plate and marked the edges of it with ink from his inkwell. Then he and Ilrath searched a short distance down the hallway beyond. They located a set of stairs atop which was a door left ajar. They investigated this room and discovered that it was mostly bare with the exception of a cot. Rhys was sure that it must have a secret door to the other side of the complex but was unable to locate one. He did however find a sack beneath the cot that contained a large number of silver and gold pieces and a magical rapier.

Satisfied with this loot, Rhys and Ilrath returned back to the barracks and collected Krase (Ilrath also collected a masterwork handaxe from the corpse of the veteran orc he had fought). The party decided that their need to rest and recover outweighed their desire to explore further that day (it was still just an hour after dawn). They holed up in the dead end archer post where they could observe anyone who passed through the antechamber. A few hours passed and their captive finally regained consciousness.

They learned that his name was Thark and he seemed very articulate for an orc. But then again, none of them had ever questioned an orc before. Rhys began to ask him questions of a rather general nature such as where exactly the orcs had come from. Up to this point, the party had assumed that they had invaded from somewhere in the southlands because Speaks could positively identify that the brightly colored feathers they wore were found only on birds indigenous to warmer climes. Thark dispelled this notion however by revealing the astonishing fact that the orcs hailed from the fabled City of Endless Summer. The party asked where this city was located and Thark informed them that it was far up in the Blackpeaks and would be impossible for anyone to find it without falling prey to the predators of the mountains or the orcs who were now banded together.

Thark, apparently feeling that he had given enough information without benefit of some consideration, asked if they planned to kill him. Rhys told him that they hadn't decided yet. Thark informed them that if they intended to kill him that he would answer no more of their questions. He did offer that if they would spare his life and set him free, he would tell them everything he knew of The Stone Tooth. Rhys agreed (although there were already considerable doubts about whether he would keep his promise before the words left his lips).

Thark, true to his word (at least as far as they could detect), gave a lot of information about the orcs presence at The Stone Tooth. He confirmed that they had slain the vast majority, if not all, of the orcs stationed there. He indicated that Ulfe was their leader and that their task was to guard the Mountain Door against any intruders. But what they were guarding came as a huge shock: They were guarding the dwarves that dwelled in the caverns below so that the dwarves could busily turn out superior weapons for the orcs to use against the barbarians.

Krase, who was partially raised by a dwarf, flatly refused to believe this could be true. Rhys carefully questioned Thark on this point and while Thark admitted that he himself had never spoken to or seen the dwarves, he knew several other orcs (now deceased) who were in the party that initially made contact with the dwarves several weeks ago and confirmed their presence. The party members were shocked that this could possibly be true and decided that since no dwarves they'd ever heard of would have anything to do with orcs, these dwarves must be under some sort of magical compulsion or had been fooled by some kind of clever trickery by the orcs.

Thark also revealed that there was little contact between themselves and the dwarves because the grand staircase to the lower caves was infested with "bane biters". After he described what these creatures were, Speaks was fairly sure that he referred to what they called "Stirges" in the Empire. He noted that they were like a combination between bats and mosquitoes but that he had spells that should render them docile enough to pass.

Rhys and the rest of the party wanted to talk about their next move but didn't want Thark to hear any of their plans. So Rhys (in the bonehead move of the night) decided to put the orc unconscious again using a quick Ray of Frost. He shot the helpless captive at point blank range and POW - max damage. Thark departs the mortal realm (The party didn't know that he had stabilized on his own at -7HP. If Rhys hadn't killed him with the Ray of Frost, Speaks with Stone's natural 1 on his healing check would have done the job nicely.)

Krase became very upset at the fact that Rhys had just killed a captive prisoner (not to mention their only source of information). It was apparently against everything he believed in (Note: Krase as it turns out was Lawful Neutral! I didn't closely monitor the character alignments when they made them and I had just been under the assumption that Krase was Chaotic or Neutral Good. Learn something new every day.)

Rhys explained that he had no intentions of killing Thark (which was true at the moment) and that it was a careless accident. Krase sulked a bit but was somehow able to put Thark's demise behind him. Speaks helped with this endeavor by dragging Thark's corpse outside the secret door and tossing him down the pit, muttering something about embracing the Earth Mother on impact. It was as close to a decent burial as any of the party's enemies have had and showed that they were a bit closer to spiritual enlightenment.

The party spent the rest of the afternoon and night resting and healing and awoke prepared to delve further into the depths of the Stone Tooth and discover what could be motivating the dwarves to aid the orcs. (GM Note: During this time, Rhys Identified the rapier they had found. It was a +1 rapier. He also Identified the amulet that Krase had and the one that Ulfe wore and determined that they were identical in function to the first one they found on the orcish shaman.)

It took the party little time to explore and determine that there were no more orcs to be found in the passageways on the upper level. The party did make a number of unfortunate discoveries, however. In the central cavern apparently used by the orcs for storage, they found a large pile of snow along the north wall. Packed in the snow were a variety of human body parts, mostly arms and legs. Many of them were too small to have been cut from barbarian warriors. Ilrath was enraged but was helpless to do anything but vow to avenge those who had fallen to the orcs.

They also found a small side cave with a crack in the ceiling to vent smoke from the caverns. Below it was a burnt out cookfire and a large cauldron with some rather thick looking stew in it. Again, the party assumed the worst and Ilrath's knuckles went white on the haft of his great axe.

The group finally made their way to a small chamber of worked stone in the south of the complex. Hanging from the ceiling of the room by rough twine were approximately a dozen skulls, yellowed from smoke. Three hide pallets were spread out on the floor and in one corner was a small brazier with a pot on top of it. Nearby lay a sack of coal and two small bags of various herbs. Speaks was able to determine that these herbs typically grew in warmer climates and that they could be used as potion components.

On the north side of this room was a sturdy door. By now the group had evolved a standard procedure for opening doors: Rhys would listen at the door, check for traps and (assuming he found none) open the door. He did so with this door.

Beyond the door was the largest room they had yet encountered. In the center was a large rift in the floor with stairs descending into it. The far wall was not yet visible. As they stood there, Speaks and Rhys heard the flapping of wings overhead. Speaks quickly cast a spell up along the ceiling that put the stirges into a trance and the rest of the party moved toward the opposite end of the room.

Along the west wall they spotted a gate that had many hides and rags stuffed into it, presumably to prevent the stirges from getting into other areas of the upper floor. At the end of the room was another door, opposite of the one they entered through, with the face of a glowering dwarf carved on it. Rhys approached the door and listened to it. Hearing nothing from the other side, he proceeded to check it for traps and found none. He turned to the rest of the party and gave a thumbs up. Then he opened the door.

There was an immediate clicking sound and the squeaking sound of pulleys accompanied by a strong smelling fluid gushing out of several spouts located around the door. Sensing danger, Tavis sprang from her normal spot on Rhys' shoulder and scampered back toward the rest of the party some 20 feet away. Rhys was not so quick on his feet. The liquid burst into flame on contact with the air and Rhys was instantly engulfed in an inferno. Those "Groin of Fire" jokes seemed far less funny now that it was his own groin that was threatened.

Within the first seconds of the conflagration, Rhys crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Seeing his friend in trouble, Krase heroically dashed into the fire and grabbed Rhys from the Flames. He was slightly burned as he dashed back out of the flames, but not nearly as badly as Rhys had been. Speaks stopped concentrating on his spell that kept the stirges at bay, counting on the fire to handle that job, and rushed over to use one of his minor healing magics to stop the worst of Rhys' bleeding.

A quick (and fateful) decision was made that Speaks would carry Rhys back to the room of skulls and care for him while Ilrath and Krase would explore the stairway to find out what awaited them below.

NEXT: Into the Depths of the Glitterhame

Into the Depths of the Glitterhame

Krase led the way down the stairs and found that, after a short distance, they leveled off a bit and turned to the east. A few feet later, the passage branched where a small stream had carved its own passage due east. Krase opted to follow the stairs instead of the stream passage. Then the stairway opened into a sizable cavern with the stairs descending along the northern wall. As they continued to go down, they heard a familiar fluttering of wings and suddenly a stirge darted out of the darkness toward Ilrath. He ponderously swung his great axe at the tiny beast but to no avail. It landed on his shoulder and dug in its needle like nose. Ilrath immediately began to feel weaker.

Krase prepared to go to Ilrath's aid, but before he could act, a trio of stirges swooped at him. He managed a swing at one of them as it dove toward him but, like Ilrath, he missed. He too began to feel drained as the stirges quite literally sucked the life out of him. Ilrath quickly drew his dagger and stabbed it into the one that was attached to him, nearly killing the creature and certainly giving it second thoughts about where it should be getting its meals.

Krase likewise struck at those that were leeching him but only dealt one a minor blow. Ilrath finished his off before it could drain any more of his life blood and hurled the corpse to the ground, crushing it underfoot. Krase then successfully slew one of the beasts on himself as the others continued to drain him ever closer to doom. Ilrath then stepped close to Krase and stabbed one of the two remaining blood suckers on Krase with his dagger. The blood of Krase and the creature mingled on his armor as it died. The last of the stirges had sated itself on Krase and withdrew to fly away. Krase swung at it half-heartedly as it flew away, but it made good its escape.

Krase was so weakened, he could barely stand and Ilrath quickly scooped him into his arms and hurried back up the stairway. Fortunately, the stirges in the room above still seemed to be cowed by the smoke from the earlier fire. Ilrath successfully brought Krase back to the skull room where he related their ill fated and brief attempt to penetrate the lower caverns.

With half the party badly wounded and Krase so drained from the vicious stirge attacks, they decided to rest for a couple of days before descending the stairs again. (GM Note: Ilrath got off lucky, losing only a point of constitution. Krase on the other hand was drained from his normal Con of 12 down to 4. Thanks to the two days of rest and a few Lesser Restorations by Speaks with Stone, the party was back to full potential in just a couple of days.)

During the two days of recuperation, Ilrath stood guard at the front entrance to the mountain to assure that they would be aware of any returning orcish patrols. Speaks with Stone took the opportunity to brew a couple more healing potions, one of which he gave to Ilrath and the other which he kept for himself. Finally rested again, and armed with further magics to calm any more stirges they found, the party again entered the grand staircase room.

NEXT: Into the Depths of the Glitterhame Redux

Into the Depths of the Glitterhame Redux

Within seconds, the sounds of wings were heard above and Speaks cast his spell. He urged the party onwards since his spell would only last a few minutes. Although they hadn't determined what was behind the door that triggered the fire trap, they decided it wasn't worth finding out at this time. They went down the stairs.

As they reached the same point Ilrath and Krase had before, three more stirges flew out of the darkness and attacked before Speaks could cast his spell. Rhys sliced one out of the air as it attacked him, using his newfound magical rapier for the first time. Two more of the stirges flew at the unfortunate Krase. He wounded one of them slightly as it attacked him. But only one of them managed to successfully sink it's beak into him. Ilrath hurled a hand axe at the one that missed and did not succeed at hitting the stirge or Krase (although it was a near thing with Krase). Speaks with Stone used his long spear instead of his magic and missed the one that sat on Krase's chest. In an act of pure self preservation, Krase killed the one that clung to him before any more of his companions could stab or hurl pointy objects at him in an attempt to kill the thing. Ilrath then hurled another hand axe that came close to hitting Krase and connected with the last stirge, killing it with a single throw.

Krase glowered at his companions and said something along the lines of "Who needs enemies?" The group continued to descend the stairs and once on the cavern floor set out to explore and retrieve various items that had fallen during the melee on the stairs. Ilrath quickly found his hand axes. Speaks located one of the fallen stirges and stabilized it with his healing skills. He wanted to start a nest of them back in his home forest to provide protection from marauding gnolls and woodcutters. How he planned on keeping it alive until the return trip to Glynden remained to be seen. For now, he put it in his pocket.

The group quickly ascertained that a small stream flowing across the chamber must be the same stream that they crossed coming down the stairs. It flowed out of the south side of the cavern through an iron grate that had been placed across the passageway. Another passage to the southeast had, at some point in the past, been closed up with mortar and stone. The only unobstructed exit from the room was to the northeast and they cautiously took it.

Some 70 feet beyond was another irregular cavern. There were two exits to the south and one to the northeast again. The opted for the northeast corridor. There they found an area that had obviously been recently mined as evidenced by tailing piled on the floor and pick marks on the walls. They also spotted two separate veins of a silver metal in the walls. There being no other exits from the chamber, they returned to the previous one and proceeded through one of the southern exits.

It was quickly found that the two southern exits merged into a single southward passage after a short distance. On the west wall was another passage whose entrance had been 2/3 filled with mine tailings. They bypassed this passage and continued south.

As they proceeded, Rhys, who was out in the lead, raised his hand, indicating that the party should stop. Up ahead, he and several other party members noticed a faint bluish-green glow emanating from the passage. He crept forward to find himself looking out at a magnificent chamber filled with phosphorescent fungi.

The rest of the group formed up in the alcove and noticed a pathway of crushed stone made its way southward. Rhys offered to scout the path while the rest of the group stayed put. He and Tavis proceeded south until they came to a well defined east-west path. Looking beyond the new path, Rhys could see the continuation of the crushed stone path amid the tree sized mushrooms. He crossed the east-west path and continued. He soon found the path he was on curving eastward and then northward again, forming a large semi-circle and coming back to the east-west path. To the east, he spotted a dark rectangular passage.

He approached the worked stone passageway to find it blocked with a stout iron door. The door was built in such a way that the hinges were not exposed. He further noticed a lock on the door. Deciding to alert the party of his discovery, he sent Tavis back along the curving gravel path while he took the more direct east west path.

Moments later as he walked along the northern side of the chamber, he spotted a pair of large, snake-like creatures with multiple tentacles climbing down the wall toward him. True to his character, he ran west along the path to where it intersected the stone path, calling for Tavis to rejoin him. She did, catching up just as he ran north back to the alcove where the rest of the party waited.

He hastily informed them that he was being pursued by "snake things" as he scurried past them back into the narrow corridor they had come down. They didn't have to wait long for the snake things (gricks) to appear. They came up the path and engaged Ilrath. Krase immediately began to call for the party to fall back to the narrow passage where only one of the creatures could attack at a time. Speaks hurried up the passage after Rhys, followed by Krase. Ilrath disengaged as well and followed the rest of the party, but not before suffering a crippling series of blows from the eight tentacle rakes coming his way.

They reach a place where the passage began to widen again and Krase stepped in to hold the line as Ilrath rushed past. The first grick came up the passage and Krase slashed at it with one of his short swords. Although he struck it, he found that his blade would not bite into the rubbery hide of the creature. Then it flailed at him with its tentacles as he cried out that the creatures couldn't be beaten with the weapons they had. Again he called for retreat.

Hearing his pleas for help, Rhys offered Krase his magical rapier but Krase refused the weapon and indicated that he would only hold them back for a few more seconds and that they should run. Ilrath gulped down his healing potion and took the rapier from Rhys saying that he would fight on if he could get some more healing.

Speaks had already begun his retreat but hearing that Ilrath would stand and fight, he hurried back to the melee, pulling out his pair of healing scrolls as he went. Krase yelled in frustration as none of the rest of the party was obeying his order to retreat. Deciding that he could no longer hold back the impervious gricks, he attempted to tumble past Ilrath and Rhys who crowded him from behind. Unfortunately he mistimed his attempt and tripped himself leaving him prone in front of the grick. Rhys was kind enough to drag him out of harm's way.

The first grick slithered forward to engage the barbarian again, but Ilrath was ready and slashed mightily at him with the feather-light rapier, leaving a deep gash in the creature's rubbery hide. A moment later, Rhys let fly with a ray of frost that was enough to send the creature into unconsciousness. Krase, still feeling powerless to do anything fled back up the corridor some distance to await the outcome of the battle. Speaks cast one of the healing scrolls at Ilrath and bolstered his pitifully weak health.

And a good thing too. A pair of tentacle slashes brought Ilrath to the brink of unconsciousness. The rapier tip dipped toward the ground as darkness began to creep into Ilrath's vision. But a second later, Speaks cast the second healing scroll and Ilrath slashed the life from the final grick as the healing power restored strength to his limbs. He took a few moments to hack at the carcasses to assure that the fearsome creatures were dead. Then the group followed Krase back to the mine to hole up and consider their next move.

(GM Note: Speaks and Krase had a lengthy argument about whether Krase should be giving orders to the rest of the party or whether each member should act in the way they see fit. I won't relate the entire thing here and it did not detract much from the fun of the evening as the argument was entirely in character. But suffice it to say that the two of them have different philosophies about how combat decisions should be made in the party. Krase ultimately decided that he would not attempt to give orders any more and Speaks has some doubts about Krase's reliability.)

The party once again found themselves battered and bruised and generally unable to continue without risking certain annihilation from the first kobold to happen by. Rather than have to retreat back beyond the grand stair again (and face another possible encounter with the stirges) the group opted to remain in the mine area since it appeared free of any predators and had no other exits.

They spent another long afternoon and night resting and healing by the light of some phosphorescent mushrooms they had gathered and generally wishing they had brought a deck of cards. Ilrath expresses that although he does not wish to jeopardize any of their lives by pressing on when they are wounded, he is starting to become afraid that every day they rest brings his people a day closer to possible destruction. It is agreed that the party will make all due haste toward finding any surviving dwarves and striking a bargain.

When they were again healed and ready to go, they proceeded back to the huge natural cavern and again followed the path of mine tailings south to the east-west path. This time they went west looking for any signs of the dwarves in that direction. In the distance ahead they spotted a low cliff rising from the cavern floor and in the dim light of the fungi, they spotted some stalactite shaped forms moving around on the ceiling above the cliff. Speaks with Stone was able to identify these creatures as "darkmantles" and the party opted not to ascend the cliff to avoid an encounter that they didn't think would bring them nearer to the dwarves.

They also spotted a set of stairs rising into the southern wall and beyond the stairs could hear the sound of rushing water. Krase made an attempt to locate any tracks near the stairs and although he found some curious markings, unlike any tracks he was familiar with, they were definitely not of dwarven make. The party decided to go back and investigate the iron door that Rhys had discovered earlier, which seemed to hold the most promise of having dwarves behind it.

As they cautiously made their way down the east-west path again, they noticed that the cavern wall the gricks had climbed down from was in fact a 20 foot cliff that led to a ledge above. Rhys, never one to let a potential treasure elude him, sent Tavis climbing up the wall to investigate. She reported the mangled corpse of an orc and a few scattered coins. That was all the encouragement that Rhys required and he quickly cast his spell of spider climbing and went up the wall to the ledge.

He located the orcish corpse which appeared fresh and furthermore, in a brilliant flash of memory (Natural 20 Intelligence check) he recognized the orc as the one who had fled during the "Groin of Fire" ™ incident. It appeared the orc had escaped certain humiliation and death from the flaming phallus to a far more noble and heroic death as a grick snack. Wasting little time on such sentimental reminisces, Rhys set about looting the ledge and scraped together a fair few silver and gold coins, leaving the copper for the orc to pay his way across the Styx.

He descended the cliff to the waiting party and they shortly found themselves back in front of the iron door. Seeing no other way around it and with lock picking not being one of Rhys' strongest talents, they opted to simply knock.

NEXT: Who iiiiis it?

Who iiiiis it?

As the party waits expectantly, Speaks with Stone can't help but notice that something is wiggling in his pocket and it isn't his hand. He reaches in and withdraws the tiny struggling form of the stirge he put in there a couple of days ago. He manages to keep a hold on the creature in such a way that it cannot bite him (in effect he "pinned" it - stirges have a 3 strength). Ilrath offered to stomp it to death if Speaks would hurl it to the ground. Speaks declined and instead attempted to communicate his good intentions via Animal Empathy. His efforts seemed fairly ineffective and he excused himself to release the stirge back in the caverns to the north.

By the time he returned, nobody had answered their knock and Ilrath offered to knock more loudly. The party agreed and Ilrath gave the door three firm thumps with the butt of his great axe. They waited some more.

After half a minute, they heard the rattling of a key and as dwarf opened the door, muttering in orcish, "What is it now?" as he did so. His eyes went wide with shock when he saw the party standing there and he attempted to slam the door shut, even as Krase gave a warm traditional dwarven welcome. Ilrath managed to put his shoulder into the door and stick the blade of his axe in the doorway to prevent it's closure. The dwarf beat a hasty retreat (provoking attacks of opportunity that the party decided not to take advantage of) while the party stood at the door.

"He's probably going to find someone with the authority to negotiate," said Rhys.

(??!)

The party again patiently waited as Krase warned them not to cross the threshold because it would be a violation of dwarven custom to enter without being welcomed (Someday I've got to put together a list of these made up "facts" his character spouts.). Minutes went by as the party waited and became more and more uneasy about the whole situation.

Ilrath, who was standing a good ten feet back from the door, heard a noise behind him and whirled around, noticing a mushroom being flattened under an invisible boot. "Foul trickery!" he yelled as he swung his great axe at the ambusher. His axe glanced off something invisible as another voice called out, "Now!" in dwarven.

In less than a moment, a huge dwarf appeared next to Ilrath having fired a bolt from a crossbow at point blank range. One after another these "giant" dwarves became visible until four of them had either fired crossbows or attacked with axes. Totally taken off guard by this attack, the party withstood several wounds in the process, especially Ilrath.

The party launched a series of counterattacks at the dwarves - all of which missed. As they did so, they could hear the sounds of even more dwarves moving amidst them invisibly. The dwarves that were visible moved expertly into flanking positions around Ilrath and Krase and unleashed even more brutal strokes with their battle axes (These would have included a terrible critical hit on Krase but he decided to spend a Hero Point for a reroll and I rolled a miss the second time.).

Ilrath and Krase did manage to land some minor blows against the dwarves but things were looking very very bad for the party. As Rhys stepped to the attack, he shouted, "I can't believe we killed half the orcish army trying to free these bastards!" His attack also failed to find its mark.

Above the din of battle, Krase heard a female voice call out in dwarven from the passage beyond the iron door. "Hold your attacks until I give further commands!" Then in common, the same voice commanded, "Drop your weapons and step back and we can talk!" Krase urged the party to accept the offer. Nobody in the party dropped their weapons. But except for Ilrath, they did step back. Ilrath held his attack and then, after a few more moments, moved away to where the rest of the party stood.

A lengthy dialogue then ensued between Rhys and the invisible female who identified herself as Nimira. Much was revealed and much was concealed during these discussions. Rhys asked why the dwarves had allied with their traditional enemies, the orcs. Nimira indicated that they had been suffering hard times and needed help in guarding the mountain. The orcs were willing to do so in exchange for weapons to aid them against the barbarians.

Nimira was under the impression that the orcs must have misrepresented themselves because they had told her that they were certain to defeat the barbarians whom they vastly outnumbered. She assumed that the barbarians had an army outside that had defeated the orcs at the mountain door and that the orcish army had been defeated. How else could these barbarians be standing before her.

Rhys let her go on believing the majority of these falsehoods but did mention that most of the party members hailed from Glynden. This seemed to convince Nimira even more that the orcs were defeated. Her reasoning was that the orcs hadn't counted on involvement from the Northern Provinces of the Empire.

In response to the reason the party had come, Rhys told her that they had hoped the contact the dwarves to enlist their aid against the orcs and that when they found them "besieged" by orcs, they slew the orcs to release the dwarves. Additionally, they were hoping to acquire some orc-slaying weapons to use to "finish driving the orcs back into the Blackpeaks".

To this, Nimira responded that she did not have enough men to spare in attacking the orcs but that she would make the same offer as she had to the orcs: If the barbarians would guard the upper layers of the mountain, the dwarves could focus on mining and forging weapons to aid them.

Rhys said that he would have to send a message to the leaders of their "army" (cough cough) to determine if they would agree to such an arrangement. He asked if, in the mean time, they might bargain for some of the orc-slaying weapons as a show of good faith on the part of the dwarves.

Nimira responded by saying that she gladly would if only she could. But alas, the weapons they sought were out of reach for the moment. She further explained that the majority of the weapons had been given as tribute to a dragon that dwelled in the caverns below their forges. It seems that this dragon had moved in when she was but a whelp and the dwarves saw no problem with her staying since her presence tended to deter other creatures from the "Underdark" (to which there were passages connecting in the lower levels) from attacking the dwarves. However, as time has gone on, the dragon has demanded more and more tribute to keep her satisfied.

Nimira knew of one other likely location for an orc-slaying weapon. She told the party that long ago, one of their priests went mad and raised a number of their fallen warriors from the dead (an abomination to their faith, she said). He was attacked by a number of the other dwarves but his undead minions struck them down. The other dwarves had no choice but to barricade them into the chamber they occupied. The undead still existed on the other side of that barricade and at least one of the dwarves who fought against the priest was thought to have an orc-slaying weapon.

Lastly, Nimira mentioned that she had struck a bargain with the dragon that her folk would not attack her if she left them alone. That being the case, she offered that if the party could slay the dragon or destroy the undead that plagued her people, they could recover one or more of the orc-slaying weapons and aid her people in the process.

Taking all of this into consideration, Rhys and the party withdrew to consider their options. None of them relished the thought of fighting a dragon or a bunch of undead. However, they were committed to trying to retrieve the orc-slaying weapons and ultimately decided that they would tackle the undead first and then make a try for the dragon.

They conveyed this to Nimira who seemed pleased that she would likely soon be relieved of one of her problems: The Undead, the Dragon or the Party. Rhys asked her if they had anything else in their possession that might aid them against the dragon or the undead. She responded that she would not lend them any aid against the dragon as that was a violation of her oath but she would check and see if they had something that might prove effective against the undead. She then asked if the party needed further time to prepare. They said they did.

Before the party departs the negotiations, Nimira inquires if any of them are skilled at arcane magic. Rhys replies that he is and Nimira gives him a scroll that one of her advisors has indicated might be helpful against the undead. Unfortunately, after Rhys takes the scroll, he once again gets lost in conversation with Nimira and forgets to look at it until much, much later (after the fight with the undead).

The party spent the next couple days healing and brewing potions (Speaks was rapidly using up the ingredients given to him by Orthula). Speaks also released the owl from his Animal Friendship spell but asked that he perform a service and act as an Animal Messenger to carry a note back to Rilaga. The note indicated that the dwarves would not be coming to the aid of the barbarians but that they were making a try for the orc-slaying weapons.

As instructed, the party then returned and, once again, knocked on the door to the dwarven chambers where they would do battle with untold creatures of the unlife.

NEXT: Battle for the Shrine of Moradin