Chapter 9: Lair of the Fire Gods
9.1: Getting to Know Arcturus
The party enlisted Balthazar to do some research to find out what Crane was up to with the various items he had them retrieve. He required several important books in order to conduct his research. He was able to track down copies of most of them within Arcturus, but one book he had to order from Skullport (one of the free cities on the coast of the Western Sea) via an airship caravan between the two cities operated by the gnomish merhants' guild of Arcturus. It was expected to arrive within a few days.
The party found an inn, and Magnus began training in wand-making with a gnomish wandmaster, who happened to be Daergel's great-uncle twice removed. He sent Daergel to convince his uncle to lower his teaching rate. It turns out Daergel had pickpocketed his great uncle the last time they had met, and things didn't get off on the right foot. This resulted in Daergel spending 100 gold on expensive drinks, and getting quite drunk with his uncle. The sheer volume of alcohol eventually changed the great-uncle's tune, and he agreed to lower his rate.
While they were waiting, Morgrim decided to ask around town and find someone who knew more about Oglibyet. Someone at the adventurer's guild directed him to the Dark Quarter, a part of the city inhabited by sorcerers, warlocks, and others known for dabbling in the dark arts.
The trip was rather unsuccessful, but led to two memorable encounters: a bartender responding to Morgrim referring to him as "my good man" by telling him "Well, clearly you are a terrible judge of character, but I'll help you out for 10 gold", and an encounter with a 7-foot-tall, deep voiced doorman of some dark sage, who offered them an appointment "the night after the full moon, two weeks hence" before slamming the door in their faces.
Morgrim's second excursion in those few days was equally unsuccessful: he went to visit the temple of Moradin, which he discovered was deep in the Gnomish Quarter. Since the dwarven population of Arcturus is so small, the dwarves don't have their own quarter. After resisting the temptation to punch annoying gnomish children for a half hour, he finally arrived at the temple, to find it run by claness dwarven priests. This was too much for Morgrim, and he left to return to the inn and drink.
9.2: The Flying Machine
A few days later, Balthazar came running into the common room of the PCs' inn, coughing and wheezing. The gnomish airship was under attack by the Blackfeather Orc clan, several miles to the west of Arcturus. Balthazar climbed onto Hork's shoulders, and led the party through the city to the gnomish quarter. There, they climbed many stories up one of the twin towers (two towers, each standing around 200' tall; a famous landmark of the city). The tower is the headquarters of the gnomish merchant guild, and the dock for the airships that ply their trade through Arcturus.
About halfway up the tower, they stopped to speak to a group of agitated gnomes who were taking turns peering through a telescope on a balcony. They allowed the PCs to look through the lens, revealing the airship under attack several miles away. The airship was burning and slowly descending towards the ground below. There wasn't time to convince the authorities to launch an expedition to save the airship crew and cargo, and because it is such a safe and expensive city, few adventurers make Arcturus their home. The PCs were the adventurers easiest to find and convince to help on short notice, since they had a stake in the unfolding events: the book they needed was on that airship.
Once they agreed to help, one of the guild authorities rushed them up another dozen stories to the roof of the tower, where several gnomish engineers were feverishly working on a rickety winged apparatus; a gnomish flying machine. The flying machine was only way to make it to the western shore of the lake in time.
The party piled into the cramped cockpit with the gnomish pilot. The device shuddered and clattered as it rolled down the runway ramp and began soaring across the city. Bolts and cogs occassionally popped out of place and fell to the city below, making Morgrim quite uneasy. Hork, of course, was gleefully excited about the new experience.
After a brief stop by the lower city to retrieve the party's weapons and other gear (and another shakey takeoff) the party was soaring across the lake to the west.
9.3 A Little Too Late
Since the flying machine wouldn't be able to take off again if it landed, everyone grabbed tightly onto Hork, and when the flying machine reached the shore, Magnus cast his flying spell on her, and she jumped out the door of the cockpit with everyone else hanging on for dear life.
As they flew towards the crashed remains of the airship, they saw that they were a little too late. Several ogres and orcs milled about the battlefield, preparing the seige engines to be rolled out. To the west, a larger group of ogres were hurriedly hauling wagonloads of stolen loot and captured gnomish merchants towards the mountains to the north.
Hork began flying over the battlefield and towards the escaping ogres, but one of the ogres near the crashed airship clipped her with a thrown boulder, dislodging Morgrim and sending him crashing to the ground below. The rest of the part landed to get him, and were soon forced to stop following the retreating ogres to deal with the warband of ogres and orcs from the crashed airship. A fierce battle ensued, and the party came out victorious, but injured and short on spells. Nonetheless, they continues into the mountains after the retreating group.
Unfortunately, the ogres were too fast, and the party couldn't catch up with them before they arrived at their destination: the peak of an smoking volcano several miles to the north. Hork was familiar with the volcano from her childhood with the Demonwolf Clan; it was known amongst the orcish clans as the home of the Fire Gods. She was reluctant to continue until Morgrim convinced her that the "Fire Gods" are friends with Moradin, and therefore friends of the party. This drew skeptical looks from Magnus and Daergel, but they continued on.
9.4 The Hellspike
Daergel scouted ahead as they approached the summit. Beyond the swirling smoke, he found a small crumbling keep amid pools of bubbling lava. The deafening sounds of a forge emenated from the keep, making it easy for him to sneak around undetected. Within the were several creatures that looked like dwarves except for their fiery hair and bronze skin, and a fire giant, working a large piece of metal on a giant anvil. Daergel continued looking around, and saw several shirtless orcs bringing fuel for the forge. Beyond the keep he heard gnomish screams.
He returned to the party, and together, they skirted the keep and approached the area that the screams had come from. They arrived at a smoky plateau bordering on the open mouth of the volcano. Near a strange altar overlooking the mouth of the volcano stood some orcish cultist, chanting strange words and holding a bloody knife high above his head. On the altar was one of the gnomish merchants. The other merchants were corralled nearby by several orcish warriors, while an ogre stood watch nearby.
While the party began composing a strategy, three orcish berserkers appeared out of the smoke nearby, from the direction of the keep. Hork charged at them while the rest of the party approached the altar to save the gnomes.
The battle was bloody, but all the orcs were soon slain. Daergel sent the ogre fleeing with blood pouring from him after sneaking behind him and stabbing him through the groin, striking several important arteries. However, they were too late to save the gnome on the altar, and after completing the sacrifice, the orcish cultist launched searing balls of flame at the party throughout the combat. When the last of his lackeys were about to fall, he engulfed himself in a sphere of darkness before the party had a chance to retaliate. From hiding, he continued his attacks while the greiviously wounded adventurers escorted the gnomes to safety. When it seemed there was no way to stop the orc's onslaught, Magnus said a quick prayer to his deity for luck and charged into the sphere of darkness. A few seconds later, he appeared out of thin air near the rest of the party, his forearms and chest covered in still-molten lava, and collapsed.
Hork and Morgrim scraped the cooling lava from him, and Morgrim used his last healing spells to bring Magnus back to consciousness. Magnus thought he had managed to knock the orc spellcaster off the ledge, but the sphere of darkness was still there, so there was no way to be sure. The party quickly made their way down the mountain (during their descent, Hork fell down a 50' cliff and was rendered unconscious, but they two clerics were able to bring her around, and they scrambled the rest of the way down out of the mountains.
9.5 Windmere Keep
After stumbling, half-dead, down through the hills along the western edge of Windmere Lake, the party arrived at the small walled city of Windmere. After explaining their recent exploits to the guardsmen at the gate, they were escorted to Windmere Keep, the castle overlooking the city. They were appointed guest apartments, baths were drawn for them, and their clothes were repaired. That evening they were summoned to join the king for the evening feast.
They were given a brief lesson in Windmere etiquette on the way to the feast hall. Hork wasn't really listening, and proceeded to break all rules of court etiquette. After the noble seated next to her ended up with bits of chicken in his hair, Hork was escorted out of the feast hall and brought to the soldiers' mess hall, where she ate and drank with the veterans of Windmere's never-ending war with the orcs.
Daergel technically obeyed the rules of etiquette, but annoyed the nobles seated near him to the point where he was also escorted out. He ended up visiting with the gnomish merchants for the remainder of the evening.
Morgrim had been seated near the king, and they got along well, chatting throughout the meal. The king questioned Morgrim about the details of what they had seen to the north, talked a bit about his adveturing days (before his father was slain in battle and he was forced into the throne), and told Morgrim about the history of the region.
Windmere, although technically one of the "free cities" has little in common with it's neighboring city-states. Most of the other free cities thrive on trade; the cities on the western coast welcome trade vessels from all over the world, and Kharanos and Arcturus to the east facilitate trade between the coast and the inland regions. The residents of Windmere scrape by by fishing Windmere Lake, and on the nominal tax paid to them by the other free cities for preventing legions of orcs from spilling out of the mountain passes to the north. The conflict with the orcs ebbs and flows, but never completely ceases, and has become the focus of Windmere culture.
The next morning, the party was escorted to the docks, where a boat had been prepared to ferry them to Kharanos. They made the trip across the lake, rested in Kharanos for the night, and then returned to Arcturus.