Chapter 17: Into the Volcano
17.1 Back to Windmere
Upon returning to Darktower, the party spent a few weeks relaxing, recovering, and training. They had a meeting with Jimmy, who revealed that they would have to be excommunicated from the Thieves' Guild as a result of their direct combat with the Assasin's Guild members. Jimmy had apparently had a meeting with his superiors in the guild, and had spoken in defense of the party. As a result, there would be no more severe repercussions. Jimmy was pretty certain that the assassins would be excommunicated from their guild as well.
When it came time to remove the party's guild marks (through a painful process involving a magical branding iron), Hork expressed her displeasure with Jimmy by pinching his arm and leaving a nasty bruise. Jimmy flashed a knife against her throat and asked politely (but with a bit of a grimace) that she let go of his arm. Morgrim spent the rest of the evening trying to make amends with Jimmy.
When they were fully recovered from their recent weeks of adventuring, and had completed their training, the party teleported to Windmere City. There, they reunited with their old comrade Hirum, and attended a feast in their honor with the king and his nobles.
The king talked long into the evening with Morgrim and Magnus about his plans. He laid out the details of the mission again (the party was to clear out the orc/ogre/giant lair at the top of the volcano, so that the Windmere military would be free to launch an attack on Hailstorm Tower (and the other mountain passes linking Windmere to the orcish lands to the north) without worrying about being trapped between two hostile forces. If the Windmere military could hold those mountain keeps, it would be much easier to defend their lands from future aggression from the orcish horde.
The king also had designs for the volcano lair, as he suspected that it held rich gold deposits. Ogre mercenaries that Windmere scouting parties had clashed with had all been carrying gold nuggets; presumably the fire giants were paying them with the bounty of the gold mines hidden somewhere in the area. If the party was successful in clearing the region of the fire giants, the king planned to settle the mountain with a community of dwarven mining experts (recruited by Magnus and Morgrim) and human laborers from Windmere. With any luch, Windmere could transform itself from a poverty-stricken city-state to a wealthy little kingdom on the proceeds of the mine.
After a shopping trip to Arcturus, the party returned to Windmere and were escorted to the base of the mountains to the north by a company of Windmere's knights. The knights wished them luck, and then returned to the south, leaving the party facing the menacing volcano alone.
17.2 The Initial Incursion
The party made their way up the mountainside. Before reaching the summit, they stumbled upon an orcish warcamp. The orcs were torturing a human captive over a fire. Unfortunately, Daergel had left the rest of the party a safe distance away while he scouted the camp, so there was no time to save the man. The party resolved to return later and exact vengeance.
They continued on, bypassing an ogre-garrisoned gatehouse by judicious use of Magnus's Fly spell, and approached the keep at the volcano's summit.
The made quick work of two azers and a fire giant warrior at the front gates. Within, they found a room full of sleeping azers, who were quickly slain. The also discovered a treasure room, which the fire giant had been guarding. It held two giant chests, both filled with gold nuggets. Morgrim estimated there was around 3,000 pounds of gold in all. Naturally, Magnus had a bit of an episode at the sight of this much wealth, and had to have a few drinks to calm himself down. He urged the party to teleport the gold away to safety, but Morgrim convinced him it would be safe here while they swept away the remaining defenders in the keep.
The continued on, slaying several ogres, an orcish warlock, several more azers, and another two fire giants. At this point, Daergel heard a commotion from upstairs. Upon investigation, he saw a gang of orcs cheering gleefully while a muscle-bound ogre in black leather armor tortured a human in a torture chamber. Another eight humans were locked in cages in the room as well. Daergel explained the situation to the party, at which point Hork charged up the stairs (before anyone could form a plan). This nearly cost her dearly, as she was paralyzed by a spell from the ogre (who turned out to be a cleric or shaman of some kind), and was wounded severely by the gang of orcs. However, the rest of the party quickly brought down the orcs, and then the ogre.
The party let the humans out of their cages and healed the wounded one on the table. Unfortunately, Hork got bored at this point and wandered off to open another door, interrupting the dinner of nearly a score of orcish warriors, and landing the party in another skirmish. This one was close, but as usual the party survived and slew the orcs. The last major room on the level proved to be a large barracks full of sleeping orcs... about 30 of them. Daergel killed about a dozen in their sleep before the rest awoke. However, without any armor, they were even easier to dispatch than usual, and the party made quick work of the rest.
The party returned to the freed human captives. The learned that the captives had been soldiers of Windmere, members of a patrol that had been ambushed by ogres just south of the mountains. Many of their cohort had been killed in battle. Those that lived were brought here to be tortured for the amusement of the orcs, then eaten. As they figured out an escape plan, they heard a loud banging on the gate downstairs, which the party had closed and barred shut after entering the keep.
17.3 The Emissary of Mog
Outside was a abnormally large ogre leading a band of about a dozen others. They were well-armed and armored, and pulled two carts with them. It quickly became clear that they were here to take possession of the two chests of gold the party had ransacked earlier. Their leader screamed that "Mog will have Krognak's head!", indicating that they were the lackeys of some powerful being named Mog, and that the leader of the fire giants was named Krognak.
After a few healing spells, the party rushed downstairs to once again delve into battle. This time however, things did not go their way. They slew several of the ogres and wounded more, but the ogres used intelligent tactics and things started looking grim. In the nick of time, Magnus managed to teleport the party to the safety of Darktower.
17.4 Return to the Keep
After recovering and stocking up on healing wands, ice bolts, and other magical gear, the party returned to the keep. The made their way downwards, slaughtering fire giants along the way. Before long they reached the communal hall of the fire giants. There, they waged battle with no fewer than five fire giants. One of these was a huge warrior who seemed to be their leader, but when he was grievously wounded, he yelled for help, calling out Krognak's name.
Krognak turned out to be a female fire giant and a truly formidable warrior. Between her magical plate armor, protective rings and such, thick hide, and defensive skills, the heroes had exceptional difficulty hitting her. Meanwhile, she slashed them with brutal strokes of her bastard sword. It was a close fight, but thanks to Daergel tumbling into a flanking position, they eventually brought her down.
They cleared out the remaining fire giants (most of whom the roused from slumber), and returned the captured soldiers to Windsmere.
With the keep wiped out, the party attempted to slaughter the orcs at the war camp below, but were nearly slaughtered themselves, and only survived due to another well-timed teleport from Magnus.
17.5 Meeting Mog
Back in Windsmere, the heroes decided their job was not done yet. As Windsmere's army marched to the mountains to drive their way to Hailstorm Tower and take it by force, the party teleported back to the keep... or attempted to, at least.
Instead of popping into existence at the keep, they wound up in a magical cage in what was clearly the hall of some giant. Strange, burly creatures guarded the cage, and when the party appeared, one left to summon their master.
Their master was an eldritch giant, standing 30 feet tall, dressed in half-plate and with a bastard sword strapped to his back. He introduced himself as Mog.
He explained that the fire giants had worked for him; they sent him 3000 pounds of gold every two months, and were free to keep the remainder to themselves. Mog did not seem overly concerned that the party had slain his underlings, but made it clear he did not wish to see this source of income dry up. He also did not want to spare the time to personally seek vengeance, since it would take time away from his "research".
His offer to the party was essentially that he would let them live, and not seek vengeance against them or Windsmere, if in return, Morgrim's people would work the mine, under the same arrangement as the fire giants: a shipment of 3000 pounds of gold every second month. It was clear the party was no match for Mog (and became more clear when Mog lazily almost cut Daergel in two with his mighty sword, to shut the gnome up).
Morgrim agreed, conditional on the King of Windsmere accepting the deal. Mog told them he would send an emissary to the keep in two weeks time, to hear their final answer. With that, he teleported them away, and returned to his research.
17.6 The Aftermath
Back in Windsmere, the King quickly saw that starting a fight with Mog, while trying to wage war against the orcs as well, was not a sound strategy, so conceded to Mog's demands. Preparations were made to have Morgrim's people (led by his wife Olga) populate the keep and start working the mine as soon as possible.
Before the Windsmere army was to arrive at the mountains, the party once again teleported back to the keep. Again they attacked the orcish war camp, and again they were almost slaughtered. In the end, Morgrim was the only party member not on the verge of death, but his steady hammer finished off the last of the orcish warriors in the end.
The next several months passed quickly, with the keep at the volcano quickly being transformed into a traditional dwarven hall. It was named Morgrim's Hall (Olga's idea) and Morgrim was granted the title of Duke by the King of Windsmere, and tasked with the duty of protecting the keep from harm. Magnus, Daergel, and Hork were knighted. (Hork insisted on the honorific "Sir" instead of "Lady".) Gnomish engineers were recruited to develop machinery to cool the mine enough for it to be worked by dwarves, and hundreds of laborers set to work. The mine was slow to ramp up production, but at least managed to output enough gold to pay Mog's emissary on time.
Meanwhile, Morgrim and the gang decided to make another visit to the Troll Hills north of the dwarven lands, and south of the home of the halfling plainsmen. While Morgrim's Hall matured, the party slaughtered trolls by the hundred, harvesting their blood for sale at Arcturus, to be made into healing potions by the many alchemists there.