Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Endur" data-source="post: 2451930" data-attributes="member: 3346">While Kerwyn, Lenya, Lylamwyn, and Toriah are receiving their quest from the Orcish Warlord, Belaver, Craven, Raner, and Xaod are talking to the dwarves.Rerrid Hammersong tells the tale of how they ended up enslaved."Och, the tale of how we ended up swearing an oath to serve our enemies is a sad one."I gathered up 77 of our relatives.  As the Seventy-Seven Dwarves, we thought we would have the luck necessary to defeat the Demon of Fire and Shadow and reclaim Mount Stalagos."When we arrived at the Mount Stalagos where our family once delved for diamonds, we discovered that the terrbile Demon was no longer in the mines.  Instead humanoids and evil humans had taken up residence."Raner is too young to have seen Mount Stalagos, so I will describe it to you.  Thousands of years ago, the Mountain erupted in fire and lava and smoke and ash.  The top of the mountain was blown off.  The inside of the Moutain has collected water from rain, and a lake has formed inside the Crater.  There is a second crater inside the first, where perhaps the mountain erupted a second time.  "Our ancestors created two great gates into Mount Stalagos, on the Southern and Western faces of the mountain.  Between the Southern and Western gates, our ancestors lived.  We tunneled all the way around the mountain, chasing after diamonds and other precious metals.  We also built bridges across the lake to allow us to carve tunnels through the central crater in search of diamonds."As Raner must have told you, our wealth was our undoing, for it drew a Gargantuan Demon of Fire and Shadow to become the doom of our clan.  The demon slaughtered all who would fight it and scattered the survivors.  "We thought we had the magical might to face the demon and the protections from fire that were necessary to survive its flame.  Then we discovered that the Demon was no longer present.  There were squatters in our ancestral home."There are two great gates to the Mines.  The South gate and the West gate.  The South gate is larger and lower to the ground.  The West gate is higher up the mountain.  "We decided to attack the South gate.  We sent a force to blockade the West gate and prevent it from being opened.  Then we knocked on the south gate and told the squatters to leave or be destroyed.  Our plan was to draw the enemy out of the mountain and destroy him at the gate.  We didn't want to knock the gate down, since we planned to live in Mount Stalagos after defeating our enemy."After spending all day making repeated taunts at the enemies lurking inside the mountain, the evil ones emerged at nightfall."Their first wave was undead.  After the undead, they sent the bigguns at us, Giants, Ogres, and Trolls.  Their leaders were fell priests and black knights riding terrible creatures."For all that, we would have won.  Our shield wall was set.  They could not penetrate it.  Weapons that had been enchanted to slay a demon of fire and shadow worked quite well against lesser creatures."But we were attacked from above.  A Flying Army descended upon us.  One hundred flying creatures flew over the crater of Mount Stalagos and descended upon us.  Evil spellcasters rode the creatures and dropped horrible spells in our midst.  Worse, the flying creatures picked dwarves up, flew up over the crater, and then dropped dwarves into the lake.  Even if you survived the fall and managed to shed your armor in time to avoid drowning, you were too far away from the battle to do anything."Several different types of flying creatures made up the flying host of evil.  Their leader rode a red dragon of huge size.  Demons and Gargoyles.  Many giant bees and wasps.  Other foul creatures I do not know how to describe."Many of us were slain, but most were taken prisoner.  The evil ones didn't want to kill us in battle.  They just wanted to beat us down and then sacrifice us on their altars.  After several of your cousins were sacrificed, I made the offer to serve in exchange for our lives.  I could not bear to see another dwarven soul sacrificed on an altar to an evil god."We swore an oath on the honor of our ancestors and our gods to serve honorably in exchange for our lives.  We promised to not attempt to escape or to resist.  The oath included a provision for our being ransomed as the only way to end the slavery contract.  Ransom is the only way we can be freed."The Dark Priests still didn't trust us in our ancestral home, so they sold us to the orc Kreugna.  Kreugna allowed us to build this Temple of Moradin because she thought it would help us forge better."I do not know why this happened to us.  Moradin's will is hard to see.  And yet weapons and Armor forged upon the anvil still bear Moradin's blessings.  He has not forgotten us.  Or forsaken us."After the party rejoins together and talks about what they learned, they set out towards Mount Stalagos and the Temple of All Consumption, a three hour walk.(Is the party in disguise?  Is the party traveling together or in multiple groups?  Which gate are you approaching, the Southern lower gate that has signs of much traffic on the road including wagons and giant-sized footprints or the Western higher gate which appears to receive less traffic)</blockquote>

Verification