Duchy of St. Cuthbert Session 4

The Cast:
Mars the Wild, 1st Level Wood Elf Ranger and his pet wolf, Praxis.

Tesla, 1st Level Tellurian Rogue.

Gronk, 1st Level Half-Orc Fighter.

Zeus Sunderstorm, 1st Level Demi-God Fighter.

Crisper Milleus Lafontaine IV, 1st Level Cleric of Pelor (came late).

• After finding the Idol of Perrin and Rektor the Warden Hammer, Bludenhare's Mine began shaking violently. And while trying to escape, the group defeated a fire elemental and fought two azer warriors. They defeated one warrior and the other surrendered, telling them that they needed to escape whatever foul magic was trying to bring the Mine down on all of their heads.

• As they moved back into the Holy Forge, they spotted a salt drake lurking in the hallway. Amidst the falling stones and tremors, the group battled the salt drake, even getting the azer's aid. While the beast flowed around them like water, they prevailed and reduced the monster to it's salty bones, including a large diamond embedded in it's skull. Finally, they made a hasty retreat out of the Mine to safety.

• Once outside the azer told them that a great evil was uncovered here, nearly 700 years ago and they had burned the evil back into the earth, keeping watch over it ever since. The fiery warrior ask that they take a scroll to the dwarf librarian, Bertram the Bookish, at Golen's Hall. He then bid them his farewell.

• While all of this was going on, Zeus began to examine the diamond taken from the salt drake and felt the presence of someone or something gazing at him through the gemstone. He quickly put the diamond away.

• The group quickly made their way to the library at Golen Hall and waited close to an hour to see Bertram, as he had a special project taking up most of his time. They showed him the scroll and the skull and diamond from the drake, further, they explained about the slaying of an ember and shadow drake, as well. Bertram was concerned and offered them the possibility of further work after he spoke with his High Priest, Klangorr Heatblast. He also gave them meal vouchers and told them about the Chroma, a cult dedicated to Nilat the Corrupter. Bertram felt that the presence of a white, red, and black drake was a bad sign and was certain that blue and green drakes would soon appear in the Duchy. He asked them to return in a day or two to see what he might have for them.

• The adventurers then went to Shorwald Keep to return the Idol of Perrin to Verilous the wise. He was much more accommodating this time, almost friendly and they received their reward easily. Feeling they could trust him, they shared their experience with the salt drake with him. Verilous may have been even more concerned than Bertram and asked to hire their services, in case more drakes or the Corrupted showed up. He offered to put them up at the West Wind, the finest inn in nearby Newhom for at least 7 days, regardless of what occurred. The group agreed, but explained they had a meeting tomorrow.

• Wanting to relax and unwind the group made the short journey to the West Wind, where 3 rooms were waiting for them. Most of the group mingled in the tavern on the bottom floor after dinner and met the Elders, a society of the most successful citizens of the Duchy, who were having a meeting that night. The Elders thanked them for their work and bought them drinks.

• Zeus went back to his room after dinner and began exploring the simple, yet elegant room he shared with Crisper. While looking out the small window in his room, he was shocked to see a man draped in black silk from head to toe, clinging outside his window right above the fighter's head. Quick thinking on the Zeus's part blocked a powerful blow from his assailant and hurled the man 3 stories to the road below. The warrior attracted the attention of his group and those left in the tavern, as he rushed outside to check on his attacker. As the fighter inspected the corpse, he found a tattoo of crossed femurs on his inner right left wrist and hidden stilettos sheathed to his right hand. Sheriff Wiggins arrived to check in and have the body hauled away and one of the Elders recognized the strange tattoo as the brand of the Brotherhood of Bones and Teeth. The Brotherhood, plagued the Duchy a few hundred years ago and their ranks were believed purged from this part of the world.

• The group finally got a good night's rest and headed to Golen Hall early in the morning. Once again, the waited for close to an hour for Bertram to tear himself from his project. The librarian was glad to see them and asked if they'd used their meal vouchers. He then said that his High Priest had given him permission to hire them to help with the Chroma and the Mine. Bertram shared with them that Garvin the Shadespeaker's use of the Idol had not uncovered a hidden vein of precious metal, but an underground river known as the Drudge. The part of the river under the Mine was home to fish men and their demoniac ceremonies to their lobster goddess. Blundehare's dwarves dug to deep into the fish men's territory and fell under the lunatic spell of the fish goddess and "spawned with her children". When word of this reached Jarl Golen, he prayed long to Moradin for help and guidance.

• Moradin answered by offering the Jarl help from fire dwarves or azer of the elemental plane of fire. The azer were oathsworn to Moradin to destroy any incursion of the fish men and their goddess, who lurks in the Murky Depths of the elemental plane of water, onto the prime material plane. However, Moradin required Golen Hall's High Priest, Fero Kilnheart to take several sacred objects on the crusade with the fire dwarves to bolster the mission. The azer and Kilnheart invaded the Mine and were left with no choice but to purge the survivors of the Mine, as they had been tainted by the fish men and had become creatures abominable to Moradin. During the purge, Fero, who carried the sacred objects, was separated and fell to the fish-tainted survivors, but not before hiding his sacred charges away in a secret chamber with his dying breath. The azer found the opening to the river and used mystic wards to seal the fish men off from the surface, though the wards were weakened without the presence of Moradin's sacred objects. The fire dwarves then kept vigil of the Mine for the next 700 years.

• Bertram asked the group to find the opening to the river and destroy it, to this end, the group was giving "old dynamite".

• The group took a wagon to the Mine, but spied a sapphire drake lurking around the opening. The group attacked it with dynamite, but the monster split into 2 smaller monsters before the explosive could detonate. After a long, hard and vicious battle both monsters fell to their magic and weapons. The group diligently began picking up the shattered sapphires that littered the ground.