Session 5 - Adventures in Gauntlgrym

Session 5 - November 5, 2019

Recorded Stream: Part A

The session begins with the party near the forge in Gauntlgrym still in conversation with Gritty. They ask him how to get an audience with Bruenor Battlehammer, and he says that the warrior king was himself an adventurer, and would love to hear from the group. He advises that the party heads to the throne area within the Vault of Kings, north of the Iron Tabernacle. Drork asks about the Iron Tabernacle, and Gritty says it was once a massive complex of temples, but it is now essentially the city of the dwarves in Gauntlgrym.

They take the cars to the Iron Tabernacle - the town is fairly busy, with many dwarves going about their business. Many of the temples have been converted into homes, businesses and other things, and many passages are yet uncleared, with statues in disrepair and such.

There are dwarves milling about, selling wares, going to and from shifts, kids playing in the streets, and all sorts of activity. Stats approaches a newsie and buys a paper. (for way too much). The paper mentions Grizelda and Moriarty's wedding, some temple vandalism, and some classifieds. Looking through this section as the group travels towards the Vault of Kings, he finds something interesting about a fortune teller. Meanwhile the party heads towards the minecarts to head to the Vault of Kings.

Party heads to Vault of Kings to find Bruenor, and see some guards around one of the buildings and guess that this is where the throne room would be. After talking to the guards briefly, they're allowed entry and told that Bruenor will see them. The party walks through to a mighty hall with the king on a large Throne. Bruenor welcomes them and asks about what kind of rumors are being spread outside his city. Raloric mentions they could help clear out the library and also look for information on the giants. Bruenor grants the party access to the caves below the Iron Tabernacle and Bruenor says if they do manage to clear them out, keep an eye out for some maps of the Underdark that are rumored to be there.

The king's aid Specules mentions an Iron Flask that can contain any creature against its will, and suggests this is a way that Maegara could have been stolen, and that the drow could have access to this kind of thing.

The party also fills Bruenor in on the news of the giants causing trouble around the area, and Bruenor seems to do something magical for a moment with the throne and puts his hand on Drork's shoulder and decides that he's telling the truth. The party also asks Bruenor about what is needed to clear out the cave to the library and Bruenor warns of spiders, drow, undead, and other dangers. They also ask about the throne, and he says it was the throne of Moradin. Hammerfeet tells the party a bit about what he knows about Moradin, mostly that he's one of the high gods of the dwarven pantheon.

Bruenor also gives the group a sending stone to be able to communicate with Specules, and tells them where they can find the opening that heads down to the floor that needs to be cleared.

The party heads back down through to the Iron Tabernacle and finds a large staircase down into the caves and comes upon a small guard post with a group of 6 dwarves playing cards. The party lets them know their plans, and they say that their protection only extends to the staircase so the group is on their own. Asked what to look out for in particular, one of the dwarves says "If it gets too quiet, something's not right."

The party finds the floor they're looking for and head in, the sound of dripping water and the stench of dust and decay hanging in the air, with some rooms branching off to each side, and a couple statues of dwarves holding up tankards of ale. They explore a few rooms full of sarcophaguses and see a number of them seem to have been busted open from the inside. Raloric uses his enchanted pocket watch and determines that undead are nearby, so the party prepares for a fight. Finding a room full of bones, the party notices that they can no longer hear the dripping sound, and the piles of bones animate. A bunch of skeletons appear and a fight breaks out. During the fight a small number of spectral creatures appear as well and (fortunately) fail to succeed with any of their life-draining abilities, and the party succeeds to clear the threat fairly easily, but they did take some damage, so they decide to head back up to the town and find a place to take a breather.

-- short rest --

in town the party goes to see the fortune teller while they're here, and ask her a number of questions:

"Are we going to find anything good in that thing downstairs?" Yes. (well worded, Stats)

"Will we find a lead on the Giants in Bryn Shandar?" Yes.

"If we go into the library, will we find exactly what we're looking for?" No.

"Is this a scam?" No no no no

She bids the party farewell saying she needs to rest, but also "what is it about good soothe-saying that makes you need to take a crap?" the party laughs and heads out.

So... back into the dungeon, the party loots the fallen skeletons, finding a number of golden broaches with a family crest of some sort showing a sheaf of wheat on top of a rising sun. The party heads south past the dwarven statues, noticing that their stone tankards are now only half full. Heading deeper into the tunnels, they encounter a pair of rust monsters, and they corrode Drork's greatsword a bit, but ultimately are defeated thanks to a Chromatic Orb from Raloric and Drork switching to his maul which they don't seem interested in corroding. Hammerfeet manages to harvest one of the corrosive sacs of acid from one of the creatures.

Further down this tunnel, the party finds a large chamber with pillars and a reflecting pool in the far end. Hammerfeet casts detect magic and sees the pool itself light up. Drork dips his sword in, and it comes out seeming to be magical itself, and the damage from the Rust Monster is repaired. The rest of the group takes turns dipping various weapons and pieces of armor in the pool, just in case the effect is permanent. However, there's dwarven writing on the arch over the door they entered through that says "Blessings near but not far." Upon preparing to leave and explore the rest of the caverns, Drork notices some drow approaching, and the group sets up an ambush. The two drow are caught unawares and get fairly well trounced by the party, they fight back hard, including a lightning bolt that knocks Raloric unconscious, but in the end the drow are overwhelmingly outnumbered and do not last long.

Investigating the bodies of the drow, Raloric finds a patch signifying that they were members of the Bregan D'Aerthe and a small notebook of written orders, saying to burn down the library, but also to fetch some of the special water from Moradin's well, "while we take him to the giants." The party rests a bit before exploring the rest of the caves, but not before Drork fills up a small keg that he had with him with some of the water.

--short rest --

They sneak back the other way and find the library to be in almost complete ruin, learning that there was an adjoining cave that connected to a lake of acid or something, had been allowed to flow through the library, and the majority of the bookshelves and everything else is pretty much destroyed.

They do manage to find an ancient cartographical map of the underdark, a partial map of the dark lake, and surveys of the different aquifers of various liquids, including the acidic water that likely burned this stuff. The have no luck finding any intact books with any information about the giants, however.

The party heads back to visit Bruenor, through the Iron Tabernacle to the Vault of Kings. They report that they cleared out the library, and request another audience with the King. Specules is there as well and they report that the library area has been cleared, but that the library has been mostly destroyed. He hands over the partial maps found regarding the Underdark. They also hand over the written orders they found implicating the drow in the destruction of the library as well as allusion to taking the Dawn Titan to the giants.

Bruenor reacts with surprise, wondering what the giants could possibly want with the Dawn Titan, and Specules has a theory - he knows of another great forge. The ancient & legendary ruined forge of Ironslag.

Drork hands Specules his sword and has him cast identify, and he reveals that it's a temporary enchantment, and tells them of the well they found, and Specules refers to it as Moradin's well. Bruenor offers to fund the party's stay at the inn here compliments of the treasury, and asks what else they are up to in town. He also mentions that the party might go talk to Ghelryn Foehammer down at the lower forge to see what he can do.

The party heads to the inn, gets a room, and takes a rest.

Previous Session: Session 4 - Donald crashes the tower

Next Session: Session 6 - Battle Below Gauntlgrym