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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 797084" data-attributes="member: 143">Book VIII, Part 12 The tenday passed swiftly for the two groups of companions.  Fixed on their preparations, they tried not to think about what awaited them at the end of that stretch of days, but in hung over everything they did and said regardless of their intentions. Dana and Benzan returned to Waterdeep.  Dana was willing to accompany Benzan on the visit that had drawn him back to the City of Splendors, but when he hesitated, suddenly uncomfortable, she understood and let him be.  Part of being there for someone, she’d come to understand, was knowing when that person had to be alone, and giving them the space they needed. So they parted for a few days, with Benzan spending some time with his infant daughter, while Dana traveled quickly to the nearby community of Greenfields, and the temple of Selûne there.  Her friend, the aged elven cleric Seral, welcomed her warmly, and when she shared the nature of her impending mission with him, the priest immediately offered both a friendly ear and the resources of his church to her.  Dana spent the next few days in contemplation and prayer, but also took the time to collect ingredients for a few potions, combining her clerical experience with the lore that she’d collected since she had started walking the path of the mystic wanderer.  She also spent some time at Seral’s scrying font, and finally attended to one further task, something she’d promised herself that she would do as soon as they’d decided upon their current course. Cal and Lok spent their tenday equally busy.  They traveled first to Berdusk.  While Twilight Hall was warded against teleportation magic by all save those who knew the inner secrets of the Harpers, Cal remembered several other locations in the city well enough to travel there with his spell.  Cylyria was once again unavailable, off as she often was on some undefined business of the Harpers, but Cal left a message for her with one of the priests of Deneir.  After a quick night’s rest in one of the local inns, the illusionist-bard transported them to the vicinity of Lok’s urdunnir community, to a cave where the four of them had spent some time recovering from a violent encounter on their first visit to the region.  They could have hazarded a direct transport, but Cal knew that the Underdark had a strange effect on such types of magic, and they risked a greater delay in the case of a mishap.  Their fears were misplaced, as they arrived safely.  They found the shaft that led down to the urdunnir town easily, for although the season had changed since their last visit, the course was seared into Lok’s memory as if they had made that trip just days past rather than the better part of a year.  To their surprise, however, some things had indeed changed since that trip.  The crevice that led to the shaft had been widened, and a marked trail that had clearly seen recent traffic led into its depths.  The twisting crawlspace they recalled had been replaced by a narrow but easily traversed descent cut with stone steps, and at the bottom of the crevice, rather than the empty depths of the shaft they’d expected to find, they instead encountered an elaborate lift, attached to the roof of the shaft by a heavy pulley assembly.  The work was of quality; Lok examined it and nodded to himself, reassured.  Unsure of what they would find, the pair boarded the lift and descended into the shaft.  The winch that operated it responded easily to Lok’s strength, and in a short time they had reached the level of the urdunnir city.  There, finally, their questions were answered. The urdunnir had not been idle in the time since Lok had left them.  A heavy stone gate warded the tunnel at the bottom of the shaft, but it swung readily open as the two wayfarers reached it, granting them entrance to the underground community.  The urdunnir greeted Lok and his companion warmly, and by the time that the two entered the town proper, a goodly portion of the town’s inhabitants had gathered to meet them.  Cal was surprised to see a number of shield dwarves among their number, and even more so when one greeted him by name.  That familiar figure turned out to be Gaera, a priestess of the dwarven goddess Berronar Truesilver that they had met in their liberation of the fortress of Caer Dulthain from the ogre armies that had taken it.  The orcs and ogres had departed following the destruction of the ghour demon that had dominated them, and the shield dwarves had returned to reclaim their outpost.  To their surprise, it had been the urdunnir who had established the first contact with their surface kin, demonstrating how significant Lok’s impact had been upon the normally isolationist stone-dwarves.  Or perhaps, it had been their subjugation at the hands of the duergar that had taught them the lesson that they could no longer afford to seal themselves off from the surrounding world.  In any case, the relationship between the two groups was a cordial one, and mutually beneficial.  The urdunnir, using their special gifts of working with stone and metal, had greatly speeded the restoration of Caer Dulthain, while in turn the shield dwarves had generously provided supplies to aid in the recovery of their underground neighbors.  With the lift in place, transit between the two communities was fairly easy, and each side maintained ambassadors with the other.  After the initial greetings, Lok and Cal were invited to meet with the surviving elders of the urdunnir community.  Gaera attended this meeting as well, testifying to her status as an important guest here.  Most of the more powerful clerics and mages had not survived the experience of slavery under the duergar, and her talents were particularly precious given the real threats that still lurked in the treacherous Underdark.  Lok’s initial mood was one of embarrassment, for his departure from his homeland had been sudden and swift, leaving even his personal possessions behind here as Benzan’s accidental wish had drawn him into Undermountain.  But the urdunnir only dismissed his apologies, saying that they had known all along that he was well, and would someday return. “Gol Stonefinger told us that you had been called away on an important quest, and that your work here had been completed,” the elders told him.  At his look of evident confusion, one added, “Ah, we had forgotten, you departed before Gol was touched by the hand of the Keeper of Secrets.  Come, we will show you.”The two adventurers were brought to a small but warmly adorned chamber, where a stout dwarf waited for them.  The broad figure was bent with age, his still-thick arms and his bald skull crossed by the scars that were a memory of the harsh experience of slavery.  He looked up as they entered, and they saw that his eyes were thick and milky, evidence of blindness.  “Gol,” Lok said, softly, kneeling at the old man’s feet, clasping his arm softly with a powerful hand. “Lok,” the old man said, his voice cracking like old stone under a weight.  “I told them you would come.”  He coughed, and it was clear by the sound that his life clung reluctantly to the shell of his body.  Lok glanced up at Gaera, but the cleric only shook her head. “I survived the ordeal of our people, but my strength is now depleted,” the old dwarf said.  “I did not know why I was spared, when younger and stronger dwarves perished by the score, but now I understand.  He had one final task for me.  I did not know when he first called, but now I understand.”“Understand what, Old One?” Lok asked. “You have been touched, my boy,” the old dwarf said, and such was the intensity of his stare that it seemed that he might indeed see, despite his obvious blindness.  “You rescued your people from their plight, but there is still a greater task marked for you, a test that lies beyond the liberation of a single soul.”Lok shifted his gaze to Cal for a moment, but the gnome looked equally puzzled.  “How do you know these things?” the genasi asked.  The old dwarf coughed again.  “He spoke to me in dreams, told me to await your coming.  I told them, told the elders that you would come on the eve of a great and perilous journey.  They did not believe me, not at first!”  He laughed, and the sound trailed off into another stale wheeze.  Gol smiled, though, animated by the fruition of whatever strange mandate had driven him.  “But when I went to the forges, and took up the old hammer of Koth Kot’chorlok, then they believed!  Even as my eyesight faded, my blows struck truer, and I felt the power flow through my hands into the metal...”Gol patted Lok on the arm.  “They are in your chambers.  Take them, and use them well.  We have done all we can.”The old dwarf leaned back, sagging as exhaustion came upon him.  A younger dwarf, clearly an attendant, eased him back into his bed, and ushered him out of the chamber.  “What did he mean, ‘they are in your chambers?’” Cal asked, when they had left. “Your weapons and armor,” one of the elders said to Lok.  “Gol speaks truth; we thought you would have wanted us to use them, but he insisted that they be kept for your return.  And we know not how Gol did what he did, but rest assured that your gear is even more effective, and will protect you well against whatever it is that you must face.”The two adventurers enjoyed the hospitality of the urdunnir that night, but in the morning Cal memorized his teleportation spell once more and transported to Silverymoon, promising to return for Lok at the end of the tenday.  Lok spent his time working with his people, learning of the deeds they had accomplished since his departure, and sharing his own stories with them.  He visited his old forge, and tested his old axe and mail, finding that Gol’s words were true, that his equipment was better than it had ever been.  He also spent time with Gaera, whose own drive and commitment to her people were in many ways a reflection of the genasi’s own personal philosophy.  Cal, meanwhile, went quickly about his business in Silverymoon.  The hasty arrangements he’d made on his departure had left his old laboratory intact, if dusty.  Silverymoon was a city well-accustomed to the presence of powerful mages, and he was easily able to locate the resources he needed.  For several days he spent dawn to dusk working at his old desk, scribing scrolls and crafting a new magical wand.  Thus the four companions spent their time engaged in those final activities that they needed to complete, and the days followed quickly one upon the other.  Finally, as the appointed time for their reunion approached, they turned their thoughts more directly to what lie ahead.  And the night before Cal’s departure to recover Lok, a voice spoke within his head, bringing a message, and a change of plans.</blockquote>

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