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9 Hammer 1371
Dear Master Zorthaster,
My confidence and courage is much renewed today following the successful
completion of our mission in the dwarven safehold. We cleared out
the evil monsters that had made their home here and discovered the
telstang, still safe in its vault. Now we are on our way back to
Daggerfalls to report to Gadlyn.
As my last letter indicated, the battle between our small band
and the white wyrmling left me badly injured, both physically and
emotionally. I was not sure I could go on. I am now rather ashamed
to admit that in the morning after the battle I counseled returning
to report to Gadlyn about our findings, arguing against exploring
the deeps of this complex. My companions, expressing sympathy for
my condition, urged us onward though. The bard was particularly
persuasive. Within a few breaths of hearing his quiet, early morning
songs of great adventure, I was at least willing to arise and get
on with the new day. We collected what scraps we could of the wyrmling's
scaly hide and bundled it up with the two wolf pelts the ranger
had recovered. I spent a brief glass or two in study, preparing
my spells for the day, and then we were off.
Our first stop was to examine the entry ramp for new footprints.
The ranger was able to discern a few more details in the morning
light. The footprints were clawed and were made by the feet of different
sized creatures. It was impossible to determine just what kind of
monster left the tracks, or how many there were, but it was clear
that there was more than one, likely at least three.
Next was the elevator. We discussed briefly the idea of waiting
in ambush for the creatures to come up, but not knowing what they
were or how many we would face, we decided against it. The only
other course of action left to us was to descend into the dark passages
below. My courage almost left me, but again, the strength of my
companions and the encouragement of Kerith's tales and songs bolstered
me. The elevator seemed noisy and slow, and I was certain, by the
time we saw the lower chamber start to appear, that we were walking
into a trap. When the lantern illuminated the room, however, it
was empty save for a lever much like the one above.
Aramil began to scout ahead of the party, heading down the corridor
to the north. Almost immediately he hit a pit trap that dumped him
into the darkness twenty feet below. The floor sprung back up and
we could no longer see him. The trap had barely closed when Kerith
leapt ahead to pry open the dangerous flagstones with his staff.
As he was doing this I dug out my rope and secured it about Xanthalus.
Oskar, Cedric and I anchored the rope. Kerith held the doors open
and Xanthalus quickly descended to give aid to the fallen rogue.
He was barely alive, broken and bleeding, but the half elf was able
to stop the flow of blood long enough for us to haul him out of
the pit. Once out, Cedric quickly called on the power of her god
to heal the other elf.
While the priestess was busy with her healing spells, the rest
of us searched the room for some means of deactivating the trap.
We eventually found a cleverly hidden trigger to the left side of
the exit from the room, just about shoulder height for a dwarf.
It was formed of stone just like the rest of the walls.
When we were ready to proceed, the rogue again led the way, scouting
ahead, looking for traps along the way. We next came to more broken
down doors, doors with deep claw marks in the shattered wood. One
way led to a ransacked room containing benches, a bellows, anvil,
forge, water trough, and other evidence that this was a room for
forge work. There were no tools or anything else of obvious value.
Across the hall was a corridor that ended in a huge stone door
marked with Moradin's symbol. It appeared to be in very good shape,
undisturbed by the clawed door breakers. There was no key hole that
we could find. Our key would not get us into the room behind this
door. Down the hall the passage split. To the northwest was a wooden
door. It was stuck but the monk kicked it open. Inside we heard
a scuffle and a bump then silence. My companions moved in to the
sounds of a rousing dwarven battle song belted out by Kerith. We
found ourselves fighting a six-foot tall gargoyle-like creature
with deep blue skin and fiercely glowing red eyes. This monster
had enormous, batlike wings and big, sharp claws on the ends of
its fingers and toes. It fought with those claws, creating great
rending tears when it hit and causing a bone chilling cold feeling
that further injured its victims. I had never seen anything quite
so terrifying, but I watched as my companions hacked it to pieces.
It spilled crimson blood across the cold dwarven flagstones when
it died, proving that despite its terrible appearance it too was
made of flesh and bone. This room was the creature's lair. A rude
pallet was made from broken beds and bedding. There were trunks,
a fireplace and water trough, but no sign of either telstang or
other treasure. After a bit of healing, we all retreated to the
passage running to the northeast and continued our explorations.
We encountered another of the dark skinned, muscular, bat-winged
gargoyle demons in a room off the main corridor. We were trying
to open yet another stuck door when this one burst through a side
door. I hit it with a magic missile, contributing a bit to the fight
that brought it down. I was watching more closely this time and
noticed a black aura about its fierce claws when it struck one of
my friends. This appears to be the source of the deep cold that
is felt when the creature strikes. This one was similar to the other
in its size and muscular build. It was a dark violet color to the
other's midnight blue though. In its lair we found a shrine to Moradin.
The shrine was untouched and it appeared as though the beast was
staying well away from the altar even while using the room for its
lair.
As we examined the room, we straightened it up a bit and decided
to make an offering to the dwarven god. Oskar brought up a stack
of twenty pieces of gold and placed it on the anvil-shaped altar.
A ghostly hammer, hovering in the air above the anvil swung down,
striking the gold and taking away the offering. A far-away look
came into the paladin's eyes at that point and he stood unmoving
for a few breaths. When he shook off the effect, he smiled and told
us that he had a vision. In his vision he saw the safehold as it
once was, a bustling hive of activity where dwarven weapon smiths
worked to create fabulous blades. He saw a corridor with statues
and a hall decorated with a list of names. He saw the master smith
doing something in a room off the hall. The result of the master's
efforts was to open the stone door with Moradin's seal. Behind the
door was the vault where the smiths kept their store of telstang.
When we pressed on we came to the corridor with the defaced statues
of dwarven heros. Beyond this was a door. Again the monk opened
the door. This time we were greeted with a strangely accented outburst
"Godslaves are here!" There were three of the winged monsters
in this room. Arrows flew and I took cover around a corner while
others darted behind statues to fire on the monsters. There was
a flurry of missile fire and I stepped out into the corridor, spotted
a monster which had taken cover behind an overturned table and fired
my last magic missile spell. It hit solidly, but the monster did
not fall. Our party moved in, taking advantage of what cover we
could find, firing bows as long as we were able. I tried to hit
one of the creatures with a ray of frost, but was not able to hit
the thing as it tangled with Shane in a blurring melee.
My spells were spent before the fight was done so I just tried
to stay out of the way as the warriors finished off the demonic
brutes. Our caution and use of missile fire paid off as the monsters
were badly weakened by our ranged attacks before we were forced
to close to hand to hand combat. They fell after a savage contest,
doing some damage to the warriors, but not killing anyone. Kerith
swung into a dwarvish victory chant that had us all feeling triumphant
almost at once.
The room in which we found ourselves was a large chamber. One wall
was covered with the names of dwarven master smiths. Amongst the
dwarven names was Shrayven, the famous human weapons mage. The dark
creatures had clearly been using this room for some months. There
was no debris anywhere near the wall of names, however. Some fear
of the dwarven gods must have influenced these beasts to keep their
distance from the shrine of Moradin and the names of his favored
ones.
We searched the room for the secret door we knew had to be there.
In the search we found a small horde of coins in sacks. There were
1000 lions, 200 falcons and 8000 thumbs in all. Eventually we found
the masterfully worked trigger that opened a door in the north wall.
Hidden here was an undisturbed room, quarters of the chief weapon
smith we surmised. On the wall was a lever. It had to be the means
to open the vault. It could wait til morning though as we all needed
to rest and recover. While our battles went well today, we still
sustained several injuries that needed to be cared for. To prepare
for the night, we reset the pit trap and spread ashes from the forge
room across junctions in the corridors. If anything snuck in and
bypassed the trap, we hoped at least to be alerted to their presence
by tracks in the ashes. Finally, we tucked ourselves away for the
night in the secret room and rested.
By the time the priestess and I had prepared ourselves with spells
the following day the others were ready to move out. While one stayed
behind to pull the lever, the rest of us headed up to the vault
door. Before long the top of the door started to lower down and
outward. The door was a full two feet thick but had a stone lip
that formed a convenient step up so we could cross the back of the
door to get inside. Once there we found fifty bars of telstang,
each three feet long. Each one must have weighed thirty pounds or
more. Since there was nothing else in the vault, we closed up the
door, reset all the traps on our way out and tried our best to erase
any signs of our passage. By mid morning we were once more above
ground in the snowy wilderness, headed back to Daggerfalls.
I am still feeling a little like a victorious dwarf today Master,
so I say to you,
Axe High Friend,
Cedar
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