The Shackled City!

[airwalkrr]

Chapter 1, Part 1
In a remote corner of Xen'drik is a community that is not well-known to the rest of the world. Several hundred years before our story begins, a number of pirates laid claim to the ancient city of Stormreach, using it as a base of operations for raids into the Thunder Sea. But unbeknownst to many a scholar there was one group of travelers to Xen'drik who did not seek to use Xen'drik as a mere staging ground for villainy. Led by the legendary Surabar Spellmason, they traveled further inland, over 200 miles beyond the "safety" of Stormreach to the wild jungles of Xen'drik and founded a community which they called Redgorge. Spellmason had a visionary objective to build an idyllic new center of civilization within the jungle continent that would be free of the Code of Galifar and where free-thinkers and adventurous spirits such as himself could seek their fortunes.

When the demons attacked, it was a devastating blow to Redgorge. But the cunning Spellmason managed to organize his colonists into a powerful fighting force that could rival even the great armies of Galifar. With these forces, he drove the demons back and established a defensible base in the caldera of a dormant volcano. This fortress would eventually come to be known as Cauldron, and it was here that Spellmason's vision would eventually come true. For several hundred years the industrious peoples of Cauldron, humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings and more tamed the wilds of the Xen'drik jungles, building great plantations of coffee and other tropical crops, as well as mining the mountain range surrounding Cauldron for a number of metals and stones that were rare finds in Khorvaire, including dragonshards. From time to time caravans would travel north to Stormreach, escorted by the drow tribes with whom the Cauldronites had made peace, and trade their wares for countless valuable goods that they brought back with them at great profit.

And so it was that the region around Cauldron prospered while the continent of Khorvaire was plunged into a century-long civil war. Few Cauldronites even knew the Last War occurred, nor did they care. Although they were beset at times by demons from the southwest, giants from the southeast, undead from the north and gnolls from all over, the citizens of this brave new world steadfastly rebuffed any encroachment on their lands, slowly taming the wilderness and making it their own. It is here where our story truly begins.

Three Cauldronites, Vislor, cleric of the Sovereign Host, "Psycho," a ranger who had spent some time training with the nearby drow tribes, and Valen, a scout who had trained with the local militia all gathered together one fine evening in the Tipped Tankard to discuss their hopes and dreams. They had grown up together, and were fast friends. They excelled among their peers and quickly realized even in their youth that they were destined for more than the simple distributing of alms or patrolling the countryside. They considered a number of possible adventures. The allegedly abandoned keep of the frost giant Jarl Khurok was proposed as a source of treasure, but the logistics of getting there were challenging as they would be forced to combat high altitude and extreme cold. It was also proposed that perhaps they could seek the fabled Spire of Long Shadows, which was said to the be the source of the undead who periodically ravaged the land, but the mysterious location of the Spire led to complications of its own. Venturing into the Demonskar and ridding the land of the demonic presence was an admirable goal, but not one which seemed to hold much chance of success. Even the great Surabar Spellmason could never do more than drive them from the lands around Cauldron. And so they settled to investigate a local matter, that of a string of disappearances, kidnappings it was said, that had been occurring throughout town over the last few months.

As they discussed how they might proceed to investigate the matter, who should enter but a group of adventurers from far-away lands, who had gathered together in Stormreach for various reasons and set out to Cauldron to seek their fortunes. Fate had smiled upon them, for here were ready allies to assist the three in their venture. There was Diego, a wizard of no mean skill and his companion, a kalashtar who said little about himself; both had come from Adar seeking greater enlightenment. Then there was Grim, a dwarven fighter from the Mror Holds who had come to Xen'drik to test his mettle against all manner of foes. Finally, the half-elven warrior Mordicai of Aundair who had seen some action in the Last War and had set off in search of future battles to prove his worth. Together, the two groups were a potent team, and so they decided to combine their forces and solve the riddle of the kidnappings in Cauldron.

The three locals were leading the new arrivals to a local inn where they could pad down for the night when a fortuitous event occurred. As they walked through the rainy night a piercing scream echoed from ahead. They quickly rushed up to investigate, only to find a man being beaten in an alleyway by a group of thugs. The toughs had painted their faces, half white, half black, and warned their victim to stay away from the Lantern Street Orphanage. A short scuffle ensued, as the adventurers tried to assist the beleaguered victim. Although they managed to capture one of the thugs before the rest fled, Psycho spotted a woman clinging to the wall above the alley as a spider might. She, too, fled from the scene, but not before warning that the victim, a priest of the Silver Flame as it later turned out, was only alive because she wished it so, and left a final warning to stay away from the orphanage.

The priest, one Ruphus Laro thanked his saviors and explained that his church would be greatly indebted to the party for their heroism. After interrogating their captive, he proposed that they come with him to the Temple of the Silver Flame to meet his superior, acting High Priestess Jenya Urikas. Unfortunately, the captured thug proved to know little. He had been bribed a tidy sum to assault the cleric of the Silver Flame and warn him to stay away from the orphanage, but the thug did not know why, nor did he care. He was unceremoniously dumped at the local jail in the hands of one Lieutenant Dosh, who assured the party that their role in this matter would be noted and passed along to the Captain of the Watch, Terseon Skellerang.

Escorting Ruphos Laro back to his temple, the party was tiring at this point, but Brother Laro was most insistent that they meet his superior and see what she had to say. After all, it seemed most fortunate that their interests and his were the same. He had just come from the Lantern Street Orphanage after counseling the headmistress regarding four children who had been kidnapped just three days before.

At the Temple of the Silver Flame, the party was warmly received, given blankets and tea while Brother Laro went to report to the high priestess. Soon the party found themselves face to face with acting High Priestess Jenya Urikas, who graciously received them and thanked them profusely for their benevolent actions on Brother Laro's behalf. She also inquired about the party's interest in solving the mystery of the disappearances and the two quickly came to the conclusion that they had much to gain by collaborating.

As it happened, Jenya had already been investigating the matter herself. She had taken advantage of the power of a mighty church relic to divine how best to proceed with locating the children. Though she had been reluctant to use the relic because it ought to be for the true High Priest to decide (one Brother Sarcem Delasharn, who was away on extended business in Stormreach), she felt the situation was escalating out of control and made the judgment that it was a truly worthwhile cause. The divination she performed provided a hint that the locks of the doors of the orphanage were key to locating the children, and so she suggested the heroes start their investigation there. She also offered to use the resources of the church of the Silver Flame to aid them in this endeavor and even offered a 2,500 gp reward if the children were returned to the orphanage safely.

The next day, the party went to the orphanage, where they interviewed the staff and children regarding their experience. The four missing children were seemingly whisked away at night from their beds without any of the other children hearing or seeing a thing. They simply woke up to find them gone. The headmistress of the orphanage further explained that she was the only one to carry the keys of the orphanage and that the entire place, including the childrens' dormitories, were locked up tight every night. A careful investigation showed that the locks had not been tampered with, but a telling piece of information came to light. The headmistress informed the party that a well-respected gnome locksmith known as Keygan Ghelve had fashioned each of the locks in the orphanage.

Seeking to get to the bottom of the matter, the party bore the divination's riddle in mind. If the locks were the key, then the locksmith was their next stop in their investigation. The party made their way towards Ghelve's shop, which was not far away, but as they traveled, Valen and Psycho noticed that they had a shadow. A pair of cloaked figures was following them throughout the city, maintaining a careful distance, but sticking with them every step of the way. Attempts to shake them failed, as did attempts to confront them, for they always dashed out of sight at the last minute, only to show up again not long after. The party decided to keep a careful eye out but that their mission must proceed. While Psycho and Valen went looking for the two figures (an errand which never bore fruit) the rest entered Ghelve's shop with the intention of finding the truth.

Wild accusations began to fly almost immediately as the party attempted to catch the locksmith off-guard. Mordicai in particular would not relent in his determined interrogation and insistence that Ghelve, as the crafter of the orphanage locks, must somehow be involved in the disappearances. The gnome balked at such a claim, but both Vislor and the kalashtar detected that there was an uneasiness in the gnome's voice and a shakiness when the subject was broached. Eventually the kalashtar forged a mindlink with the gnome to get him to reveal the truth when it became apparent that Ghelve was being watched carefully. Ghelve admitted to the telepath that he had been coerced into providing strange creatures with a skeleton key to all the locks he had ever fashioned, but offered to cooperate if the party would agree to release the hold the strange creatures had over him, for they had kidnapped his familiar, Star.

As Ghelve "closed for lunch," he passed the kalashtar the key to his shop and crossed the street to watch from afar as the heroes went about their work. They entered Ghelve's shop and quickly made their way to the back room where they suspected the strange creatures Ghelve had referred to were lurking. The creatures had an uncanny knack for hiding from sight, even when a normal person ought to be plainly visible and tried to launch a surprise attack as the party entered the back room. But they were outnumbered and soon outflanked. To make an example, the sinister wizard Diego dealt a death blow to one of the creatures which lay dying while the party revived the other (now manacled) and interrogated him.

The creatures were skulks, creatures that lived in the depths of Khyber and abhorred the light. Diego, as it happened, had studied these creatures before and knew of their stealthy abilities, as well as their uncanny talent for leaving virtually no trace of a trail wherever they went. This information, combined with the admittance of Ghelve to providing them with a skeleton key to his locks, finally began to create a clear picture of the forces at work.

As Ghelve later explained, the creatures came from Jzadirune, a gnomish enclave beneath the city which had been abandoned almost a century ago in the wake of a terrible magical malady known as the Vanishing, a disease which caused its victims to quite literally vanish from existence over the course of a few days. He had thought the city abandoned, but when the skulks captured his familiar and blackmailed him into helping them, he discovered that it was not quite so abandoned as he thought. Also, it seemed, Ghelve's shop was the site of one of the only remaining passages into Jzadirune from Cauldron above, a hidden door concealed behind a portrait of his father in his workshop. The captured skulk refused to talk. And so it seemed that in order to learn more, the heroes would need to venture into Jzadirune itself to seek more answers as to why the skulks had been kidnapping the citizenry of Cauldron.

 

[texasgamer]

Well something is afoot...

 

[airwalkrr]

Chapter 1, Part 2
Presented with a daunting challenge, a journey into Jzadirune to find the missing children, and perhaps others, our heroes set about planning for the excursion carefully. After all, as they had been warned by Keygan, and as the good cleric, Vislor knew all too well, the former gnomish enclave was said to be a cursed place. It had been 75 years since the place was abandoned after the Vanishing claimed the lives of a number of gnomes. Vislor's own parents, though not gnomes themselves, had been residents of the place at the time and witnessed firsthand the terrible malady that is the Vanishing. The very thought of even entering the place caused him no small amount of trepidation. So our heroes went about ensuring their trip to Jzadirune would be a quick and efficient one. The mission was to find the missing children, and that was what they would do.

Several members of the party went out into the streets of Cauldron to see what information they could drudge up on Jzadirune. Some consulted libraries, others asked the locals. Everything they learned brought them back to the same conclusion: entering Jzadirune was a fool's errand. Yet the very existence of the skulks and their smaller allies, whom the party had yet to encounter, begged the question, could it be possible that the Vanishing had somehow come to lay dormant? It was a question to which that the party would have to seek an answer.

As it turned out, our heroes were not the only ones looking for missing townspeople. When the half-elven fighter and scion of House Lyrandar, Mordecai went in search of a master to begin teaching him the ways of arcane magic, he came upon a traveler to Cauldron who had come from Stormreach. The traveler called himself Tyro Amberhelm, and in exchange for teaching the half-elf the art of wizardry, he requested that along with the missing children, the half-elf go in search of a half-elf wizard named Elethor Ashstaff who had gone missing three weeks ago. Clearly the matter of disappearing people was beginning to grab the attention of more than just the Church of the Silver Flame. And so it was that the following day, Keygan opened the door in his back room leading down into Jzadirune, and our brave heroes descended into its depths, not knowing what they would find, but hoping that the kidnapped townsfolk could be found and their kidnappers brought to justice.

Armed with a map given to them by Keygan and the information they had obtained around town, the heroes began their journey. The long stairs descended down several flights and landings before coming to rest in a strange room where the chirping of birds and singing of gnomes could be heard. Clearly the result of gnomish illusion, this large room bore a number of masks crafted in the visage of smiling gnomes spaced evenly around the room. When one of the heroes stepped to close to one at the far corner, it opened its mouth, looked down upon him, and spoke this greeting:

"Welcome to Jzadirune--behold the wonder!
But beware, ye who seek to plunder.
Traps abound and guardians peer,
Beyond every portal, behind ever gear."

A magical warning laid long ago by the gnomes themselves, this greeting did little to ease the tension among the group. As they looked around the room they saw a passage to the west and two perfectly round doors to the south. Upon each door was engraved a letter in the dwarven script. The door to the southwest was closed and bore the dwarven letter "J." The door to the southeast however lay open, partially moved inside the wall as if it had rolled back. It bore the dwarven letter "A" and around its circumference were the teeth making the door appear to be a giant gear. Even curiouser, a faint light was emanating from inside the room. The group gathered around the door to investigate.

As the dwarf fighter, Grim, the half-elf fighter, Mordecai and the human scout, Valen crept slowly into the room to investigate the light, they were suddenly beset upon by attackers in the darkness, skulks! How many of them they could not initially tell, for the creatures were masked in unnatural shadow and struck fiercely and quickly from dark corners of the room. After inflicting a few painful jabs upon the intruders, Grim finally struck one of them with his axe, felling his foe to the ground. The other, for as it turned out there were only two, hastened away after his companion had fallen, rushing out of the room via a tunnel that had been bored into the wall in the south. Although the group tried to pursue the skulk, they quickly became lost as the tunnel winded and forked in several directions. There was no trace of tracks and so the search was given up.

The dying skulk was given a clean death and the group proceeded to search the room. Of interest first was that a second tunnel had been bored into the east wall as well. But it was long and dark and the group hesitated to explore it. The room itself appeared to have been once a barracks of sorts. There were many empty cots with similarly empty chests at their feet. This room had been picked clean by the skulks. The light that the group had seen had been created by a sunrod which lay in the center of the room. The party decided to make use of it, for in this dark place extra light seemed to be useful.

The tunnels that had been bored into the walls of the barracks room were dark and mysterious. Exploring them seemed to be a dangerous option. So the party decided to proceed down the hallway to the west of the main landing at which they had arrived in Jzadirune. After following the passage for thirty feet they arrived at a T intersection, one hallway going south, the other turning north. All along the hallway were various round doors with dwarven letters upon them. Z, D, N, I, and E were clustered in the north hallway and seemed to hold some promise for investigation, so the group headed that way. But the hallway dead-ended and none of the doors were open. Having seen earlier that the two doors in the main landing had magical wards upon them likely triggered if the doors were opened without the right key, something they had no idea how to acquire, the party decided to search the hallway thoroughly and discovered a secret passage leading north. Depressing a hidden pedal along the north wall caused a section of the wall to pivot around a central axis granting egress into some sort of alchemical lab.

The lab was in disarray, as if it had been sacked long ago. But there were some promising pieces of equipment lying around. Unfortunately, before the party could closely examine any of it, a pile of rags in the corner animated into a raging whirlwind and flung itself at Grim the dwarf. Surrounded by choking rags, the dwarf gagged and tried to free himself while his friends and allies attempted to strip off the rags or destroy them somehow with their weapons. But soon the rags had wrapped Grim so completely that he could hardly be seen and his countenance changed. He suddenly saw his allies as enemies and began swinging his axe at them indiscriminately. He was under the effect of some powerful mind-affecting magic.

"Why it's nothing but a common raggamoffyn!" exclaimed the human wizard Diego, but his knowledge of such creatures was limited. He had heard tales of magical constructs that take the form of common objects like clothes that can take the control of the minds of those that wear them and it seemed this was just such a creature. It was a great and pitched battle as Grim's friends attempted to strike down the creature without hurting their ally, but Grim barely managed to escape with his life. Between the raggamoffyn's choking grasp and some poorly-aimed strikes at the creature covering him by his allies, Grim was gravely wounded by the time the creature was destroyed.

Thankfully the magics of the Silver Flame were plentiful that day. After a short trip back to the surface to request assistance from Jenya, who was only too willing to heal Grim's wounds, as well as some other minor scrapes the group had endured thus far, the party was ready to return to Jzadirune.

They had made a careful examination of the lab after defeating the raggamoffyn and had taken many alchemical supplies as their booty as well as their very first key. It was engraved with a dwarven letter "U" on one end and they surmised that should they come upon a door with such a rune they could open it without setting off the magical ward. They had also noted a large fan above the room, likely used at one point to circulate the air of the noxious chemicals used in alchemy. In addition, they detected a tunnel had been bored into the west wall of this room as well. Clearly Jzadirune had been tunneled through all over. It quickly became evident that Keygan's map left much out. He had hinted there were secret passages all over that the map did not show and that the creatures that had recently taken up residence might have made some modifications. It was now clear that this was indeed the case. A thorough search of the room revealed another secret passage on the north wall of the lab, and it was decided that this would be the group's next heading.

The secret passage led to a hallway heading east and west containing several gears that could be activated by levers along the walls. Activating the lever nearest the secret door they had entered by caused the fan in the alchemical lab to spin. Those with magical inclinations in the party surmised that bound elementals were likely the power source for these mighty fan contraptions, but the two westernmost contraptions had been scavenged for parts, and its elementals possibly let free. On the east end of the hallway was a sturdy wooden barricade that seemed to have been constructed from their side; the group thought it best to leave it be.

Rather than follow the hallway west, they followed yet another secret passage they discovered on the north side of the hall. It led to a secret library that had been infested with monstrous centipedes. The heroes made short work of the centipedes and investigated the room. It also held a fan and many shelves where one imagined books might once have stayed. But the books were now gone, and the tunnel on the west wall of this library hinted at the notion that the library had been long-since plundered. Still, the keen eyes of the human scout, Valen discovered yet another secret passage on the east wall, and it was there the party searched next.

The secret passage led to an octagonal sort of classroom with a lectern, benches, and a chalkboard on the southern wall. Another hole was seen bored into the north wall, but little else of interest was discovered in the room besides a few pieces of chalk. A round doorway with the dwarven letter "I" stood on the east wall, but it was unopened.

The heroes backtracked to the hallway with the gears and decided to head west. At the end of the hall they found a room with smashed tables and chairs littering the floor. Two enormous inactive fans hung from the ceiling, but the most interesting object in the room was a massive thing, over five feet tall, covered in a large cloth in the center. Uncovering the cloth revealed an incredible masterwork of artifice. A quadrupedal machine with large drills for arms. It seemed the heroes had discovered the means of all this tunneling. The wizard, Diego, being obsessed with all things mechanical rushed over to examine the gnomish words upon the thing, and said aloud the first words he found written, "Thrymbryl," which of course is gnomish for "Activate." The machine roared to life and turned to Diego as if expecting instructions. The thing was an automaton, more specifically known as a pulverizer, an ancient creation forged using patterns discovered among the ruins of Xen'Drik. The originals had been creations of the giants, but here was one quite possibly crafted by the gnomes of Jzadirune using the giant patterns. It was damaged, and not quite up to its full potential, and it had a penchant for failing to follow instructions perfectly, but it would prove to be a useful tool in the coming trials.

Although there was a tunnel leading north out of this room, to the south was a passage with stairs leading up. Still feeling wary of the tunnels, the group proceeded up the stairs, which led to a winding hallway which eventually brought them to a round door with the dwarven letter "Z." Clearly though, someone had already encountered a similar difficulty, and a tunnel had been bored into the west wall of the hallway here, as if to go around the door through the rock. True to their theories, the tunnel did indeed wind back around and into the room beyond the Z door. Therein they found a tortuous thing. In a workshop with a partially constructed pulverizer a skulk which had been dominated by a raggamoffyn leaped from the shadows to attack. It fought fiercely and was a challenging foe to overcome. In inflicted great harm upon Grim and Mordecai before finally succumbing to their blades, but in the end, succumb it did. And what should they find in this room but a door with the dwarven letter "U" upon it. Finally a door they could open!

Beyond this door was a magnificent throne room upon which rested a slumbering gnome. When the heroes attempted to rouse the gnome, he only muttered in his sleep:

"Betrayed we are by our own magic,
One by one we fade away--
Jzadirune's lost! Oh, how tragic!
We curse the vanishing day."

Before the throne was a two-tiered stairway with a landing in the middle. At the bottom of the stairway along the east wall was a door with the dwarven letter "I" and to the south side of it another tunnel had been bored. Mordecai couldn't help but investigate the landing, as he noticed a gnome-face mask looking out towards the door to the east. When he stepped on the landing, the mask sprung to life saying, "If you wish an audience with the king, place your finest coin in my mouth."

He placed a gold coin in the mask's mouth and it vanished. Curious to his own detriment, he triggered the mouth again by walking up the stairs then back down. The mouth repeated its saying, but this time, Mordecai foolishly placed a copper coin in its mouth. "Miser!" the mouth cried, "What a paltry tribute! I curse you with clumsiness!"

Dark magic enveloped Mordecai, but the half-elf fighter was lucky that day and his will was strong this moment. He shook off the magic, but not without great strain. He hopped back up the stairs, content to trifle with the mask no more. As it turns out, a secret compartment in the throne was found to contain 75 gold coins of gnomish mint, as well as Mordecai's coins, plus two more keys, these engraved with the runes of the letters N and E. Now the party was getting somewhere.

Along the south wall of the throne room was a door with the dwarven letter "N" upon it. Having just discovered the key, the party used it to open the door without incident and proceeded into the chamber beyond. The next room was rather long and rather bare. Two short flights of stairs led up from the east to wide octagonal gallery. Although there were many pedestals about the room and indications there had once been tapestries upon the walls, these treasures had long since left the room, taken by the gnomes as they left, or perhaps plundered by the skulks. The south wall of the room had a door with the dwarven letter "J" upon it, so further progress in this direction seemed to be stymied. Still, Valen the scout nosed about and turned up a secret passageway along the southeast wall. It led to a secret vault that first appeared to be empty, but upon further inspection was discovered to merely be concealed by powerful illusory magic. Beneath the illusion was a great treasure trove of gnomish art!

By this point our heroes were very tired. They had delved far and explored long. It was time for a trip back to the surface the way they had come to recover their strength and heal their wounds.