Chapter 12: Into Dwarven Lands
12.1 Daergelton
After parting ways with Rubinius the Bard at first major village outside Shepherd's Cross, the party headed south along an old cart path to Daergelton, fulfilling Daergel's promise to visit his mother. They stayed for several days and enjoyed Daergel's mother's fine home cooking. Hork had trouble telling the difference between her Daergel and all the other Daergels, and was a little unnerved. Magnus and Morgrim became good friends with Daergel's younger brother Mortimus, who had stayed in Daergelton to run the family store after Daergel had skipped town a year ago. Mortimus is a bit of a drinker, and shared his collection of gnomish brews with the two dwarves. Daergel annoyed his brother with tales of how exciting his adventuring life was compared to staying in Daergelton.
After staying long enough to appease Mrs. Daergel, the party took their leave of Daergelton. However, about five miles outside of town, Hork felt something moving in her backpack. She ignored it, and after a few more minutes a small gnomish head popped out of the top of her pack. It was Finnigan, Daergel's nephew, who had listened to Daergel's tales of adventure, and decided adventuring was the life for him as well. He had stolen weapons and armor from one of the local shops, and hidden away in Hork's backpack.
Daergel argued for bringing Finnigan back to Daergelton, but eventually the charismatic youth convinced the party to let him tag along, at least for now. The excited youth was ecstatic. Over the course of the next few days, as they made their way to the town of Crossroads (the last Gnomish town before the long road up into the dwarven mountains), Daergel did his best to teach his nephew how to use the crossbow he'd stolen. As the party later learned, these lessons were not completely successful. Morgrim and Magnus's 'drinking lessons' for the young gnome were also unsuccessful, as he became quite hung over after only a few strong drinks on his first night as an adventurer.
12.2 The Road to Stonehome
While the party was resting (and drinking heavily) at the inn in Crossroads, they were approached by a stocky gnomish caravan master. Hork had been spending the early part of the evening telling tales of her many adventures to whomever would listen, and her assertion that she could fly had interested the caravan master.
He explained to Morgrim and Magnus that he was running a caravan up to Stonehome, and due to recent rumors about travellers coming under attack from goblin raiders riding flying beasts of some sort, he was unable to hire the regular mercenaries he relied on for guard duty between Crossroads and Stonehome. He figured about the best defense against airborne attackers would be adventurers with the ability to fly, and asked if the party would be interested in some quick mercenary work escorting his caravan to Stonehome. After briefly discussing it amongst themselves, the party agreed.
The next morning, despite Hork's hang over, the caravan left bright and early. By midday, they had put the foothills behind them and were climbing up into the majestic mountains of the dwarven homeland. By late afternoon, they were surrounded by snow, and were nearing the altitude of the low banks of clouds that drifted between the mountaintops. They remained unmolested by goblin raiders, and shortly after sunset arrived at the aptly-named 'Outpost One', a well-defended dwarven garrison that guarded the passage into the dwarven lands, and offered room and board to caravans and other travelers. Morgrim started feeling more cheery now that they were back amongst his kind. (The dwarven mead didn't hurt either.)
The second day the caravan crept higher into the mountains, slowly making it's way towards Outpost Two. By midday, they had risen above the low clouds. Hork, as is her habit, sang orcish songs loudly as she walked. She was impressed that the mountains were singing along and seemed to know the lyrics. Unfortunately, in early afternoon, her booming voice caused an avalanche which blocked the road ahead. The caravan master dug out shovels, and the adventurers and merchants spent the next couple hours clearing the way enough to squeeze the wagons through. As a result, it was close to midnight when the caravan finally reached Outpost Two.
By now, Hork had become slightly bored, so she began challenging the dwarven guardsmen to unarmed combat. Soon enough, one of the dwarves, a mid-aged veteran, stepped forward, and before long some space had been cleared and bets were being made. Everyone in the party, even young Finnigan, put down some money on Hork.
The dwarf was an expert grappler, and quickly picked Hork up and slammed her on the ground. After they exchanged punches, he managed to pin her arms and beat on her for a while while she struggled to get free. After taking quite a beating, she did escape, and they traded punches and elbows while the dwarf attempted to pin her again. Hork managed to hold him off though, and with a last few power punches, knocked the dwarven veteran out (and winning some money for herself and her companions). A few seconds later, she passed out herself. When the two combatants came too, everyone had a few rounds of drink to celebrate. It seemed the dwarves, stationed at the lonely outpost, quite appreciated the brief entertainment.
12.3 The Goblin Raiders
The next morning the caravan began the final leg of the journey to Stonehome. The dwarves at outpost two had warned them that this final stretch had been the location of the previous goblin attacks, so it seemed that if an attack were to occur, it would be today. Sure enough, in late afternoon, Daergel spotted two dots in the sky to the north. The caravan stopped, and the caravan master positioned the wagons into a defensive fortification around the pack animals. Soon enough, the flying dots had approached close enough to be seen in more detail: two manticores each with three goblin riders (two archers and a strangely-dressed goblin wielding a wand). When the manticores were almost within combat range, Magnus gave each of the party members the power of flight (except Finnigan, who was convinced to fire his crossbow from the cover of one of the wagons) and gave Morgrim and Hork a holy boost of strength.
The initial volleys from the manticores and goblins took the party by surprise. The manticores each fired six spikes from their tails, the goblin archers let loose three arrows each, and the wand-bearers blasted the defenders with five magic missiles each. However, after the initial onslaught, the battle was one-sided. Daergel severely injured one manticore with a freezing crossbow bolt to the skull, Hork almost finished it off with her axe, and Morgrim beat the wand-bearer on the other manticore rather severely with his battlehammer. Soon, the first manticore had crash-landed amongst the wagons, where Hork finished it and the two goblin archers off in a flurry of steel. Daergel had charged at the goblins as well as they dismounted the injured manticore, and had lost his magic crossbow while switching weapons mid-flight. It was sent plummeting to the valley floor below.
The other manticore did it's best to evade Morgrim, but he eventually caught up and with a few powerful swings of his battle hammer, sent it spiraling quickly towards the valley floor, one wing badly smashed.
Hork gave chase, letting the power of flight go and free-falling to catch up to the manticore and it's riders. She intercepted the manticore about forty feet from the rocky valley floor, and finished it off with a deadly stroke of her axe. The manticore and its riders were left smashed and broken on the rocks below. Unfortunately, Hork didn't manage to re-establish control over her ability to fly in time to avoid a similar fate. Somehow, she survived the two hundred foot fall, but was left unconcious and bleeding badly. She survived thanks to some quick healing from Magnus and Morgrim.
After collecting the remains of Daergel's crossbow, and the two wands used by the goblins, the party rejoined the caravan, and they continued towards Stonehome, arriving a few hours after sunset.
12.4 Stonehome
The party was awed by the sheer size of the entrance hall, lined with 100' tall statues of dwarven heroes throughout the ages. The main gates were opened to allow them entry, revealing a large, silo-shaped cavern, with a 200' wide ledge encircling a central open shaft over 1000' across. The walls of the cavern were dotted with inns and other businesses carved from the granite surface, and the occasional street-tunnel leading away from the central cavern. Torches lined the walls, and low, ambient light spilled from the great domed ceiling of the chamber. As it turned out, there were three more stories of ledges below, each lined with businesses and street-tunnels. The constant sounds of hammers striking anvils, wagon wheels creaking, and dwarven chatter filled the air. From the bustle of activity, it was clear that Stonehome was a major trade center.
In Stonehome, the party immediately split up. Daergel got his crossbow fixed and sold one of the wands; Hork picked up a friendly half-orc gentleman; Magnus and Finnigan hit the local gambling house with their share of the purse from the caravan master, and Morgrim settled in at the inn and appreciated the local mead. Later that evening he was rejoined by Magnus and Finnigan, who celebrated their winnings at the gambling house by buying round after round of beer for everyone in the common room.
The next day Morgrim went to the armorsmith he had been directed to by the gnomes of Arcturus. He was in for some bad news. The armorsmith, one Cedric Ironbeard, had returned to the ancestral halls of the Ironbeard clan to contribute to the war effort against the goblin raiders. He was expected back within a few weeks, but there was already a backlog of work awaiting his attention. It seemed Morgrim would be waiting at least six weeks before the upgrade to his armor could be done. In the meantime, one of Cedric's assistants was tasked with maintenance repairs of the armor. That evening, the party met to discuss what to do in the meantime.
As they talked, they were approached by a middle-aged dwarf who had been heard about their exploits defeating the goblin raiders on the way to Stonehome. He asked if they were interested in a little extra mercenary work. He explained that he was of the Ironbeard clan, and had been sent to Stonehome to find some assistance in dealing with the goblin problem. Specifically, the goblins had run the Ironbeard dwarves out of their mithril mine, one of their chief sources of income. The Ironbeards had been fighting the goblins as best they could, but it seemed that for every goblin they slew, two more took its place. Now, many of their warriors were nursing sicknesses brought on by the goblins' poisons, and it was clear they would need some extra help to defeat the goblin menace... and they were willing to pay handsomely for it. The party discussed the matter amongst themselves, and finally agreed to help.
While the rest of the party bought equipment and prepared for the upcoming adventure, Daergel managed to get himself kicked out of the inn and insult every dwarf within earshot with his constant complaints about 'dwarven hospitality'. Finally he found a gnomish inn where the staff were willing to listen to him (although the price of drinks rose steeply over time.)
12.5 The Train
The next morning the party gathered with their dwarven patron (who finally introduced himself as Gavin Ironbeard) and were led up a long spiral staircase to a section of the city they hadn't seen before. It was a large, wide platform with a set of metal tracks along the ground on one end. A series of connected metal cargo containers sat on the tracks. At the head of the chain of containers was a passenger compartment and a control car. Gavin herded the party into the crowded passenger compartment, paid for their tickets, and supervised the loading of some cargo. When all the passengers were aboard, the train started slowly rolling away from the platform. Over the next half hour, the train picked up speed until the torches spaced 100' apart along the walls of the tunnel were flying by at high speed. Hork, already uncomfortable in the crowded, confined space, didn't like this very much. She gripped the chair in front of her so tightly that it tore off in her hands. Startled, she tossed the slab of wood out the window, as the dwarf seated ahead of her fell back into her lap. Of course, the chair back bounced off the wall of the tunnel back into the train, smashing a dwarf a few rows back in the face. Morgrim healed him with his wand, and apologized for Hork.
Within a couple of hours, the train began to slow down, and eventually came to a shuddering halt next to a platform that looked very much like the one in Stoneholm. They had arrived in Gordarim Station, a central transportation hub with underground highways leading to the ancestral halls of many dwarven clans. Hork didn't realize they had gone anywhere at first, and wondered about the point of the train ride. Gavin supervised the unloading of the cargo, paid the train operators for the trouble with Hork, and commissioned a few mule-pulled wagons for the next leg of the journey to Ironbeard Hall.
The underground highway turned out to be unbelievably uninteresting to everyone but Morgrim and Magnus, who got a little drunk together along the way. It became quite clear that Gavin was questioning his decision to hire this particular party of adventurers.
After what seemed like an endless journey along the featureless underground highway (but was in reality a 8-9 hour journey), the party arrived at Ironbeard Hall.