The Ragath Mountain Campaign
With another loud thunderclap the party teleported back in time to see Redbeard drop his warhammer and jump back. He quickly picked it back up and tried to look nonchalant.
"I'd use a two-handed grip on that," remarked Dagmar.
The party told Redbeard what happened in the bedroom and Dagmar gave him the iron heart for safekeeping. They told Redbeard to wait at the teleporter again and to turn it off if they didn't return before nightfall in about four hours. Arranging themselves for combat once more, they jumped through the teleporter. This time there was no thunderclap and they found they remained in the laboratory. They tried again with the same results.
"Maybe it needs to recharge," suggested Xendra.
They explored the remains of the laboratory while they waited. They turned over a few barrels of unholy water and burned a few more decomposing bodies in coffins they had missed in the eastern side of Albereth's laboratory complex. When they returned to the teleporter and tried again, they found it had in fact recharged and they once more were looking at the hacked body of Grikk in the bedroom.
They then went through the second teleporter across from them in the bedroom and, after their vision returned from the flash, they found themselves in a small cabin.
The cabin was tidy and held four beds, a table with four chairs, and a fireplace with a blazing fire. Outside the windows, which were mostly covered with frost and snow, they saw three other cabins and many tents. Three of the beds were empty, but under the fourth someone was sleeping. The party quietly arrayed themselves around the bed with weapons ready and Jacen pulled back the covers. Much to their surprise they found Grelj!
It wasn't until after shaking him and trying to wake him that they realized that he wasn't asleep but poisoned and unconscious. They searched the cabin further and found a small iron chest under the table. The party looked at Triblet who rolled his eyes and headed for the chest.
"Wow, you don't see these everyday. Real gnome craftsmanship, copper springworks, four-gear mechanism. This might take a while."
Suddenly they heard a cough from outside the cabin and they all froze. The party sneaked over to the door and listened carefully. They heard two voices speaking in Orcish over the howling wind outside. Xendra made wiggly fingers and they heard a thud outside.
"Grep, Grep, what's wrong?" they heard one of the orcs say as Jacen yanked the door open. The orc, who was bent over his friend was caught by surprise as Dagmar's battleaxe crashed down on his spine and Jacen's longsword severed his head. They quickly dispatched the sleeping guard as well and dragged the bodies inside the cabin.
The party resumed their search of the cabin and after nearly an hour Triblet managed to open the locked iron chest. Looking inside, the party found a small blue-silver hammer.
"Mithril!" said Dagmar, her eyes suddenly wide eyes as she examined the hammer carefully. It weighed about a pound in her hand and was well and plainly made and (thankfully) not evil. Xendra confirmed that it was magical. Dagmar put it in her pack and went over to Grelj, who still lay unconscious on the bed.
Dagmar fetched the flask of antitoxin from her pack and poured it into Grelj's mouth. Almost immediately his eyes opened and he sat upright.
"Thanks," he said quietly, "where are we?"
The party told Grelj what they knew from the time the four in black absconded with him.
Jacen handed Grelj back his longbow and some arrows and Grelj took the scale mail from one of the dead guards. The party also took some skins from the bed to give Grelj something warm to wear and left the cabin. As soon as Xendra and Triblet walked out, their black cloaks burst into flames and fell to dust in the snow. Jacen's cloak, however, did not. Feeling the cold chill air, they returned to the cabin for more furs.
Once in their tatterdemalion mix of clothing and bedding, they left the cabin and saw that there were three more identical cabins and ten tents scattered on the side of the mountain. They also saw that there were three long ropes heading up to the top of the mountain and half-obscured footprints in the snow all about them. They investigated the other tents and found cooking supplies, firewood, and crude clubs. The cabins were mostly empty except for a half-eaten goat hanging from the ceiling and a few barrels of water.
The party proceeded cautiously up the mountain via the ropes. As they climbed, they could hear the sounds of metal striking stone up the mountain above the howl of the wind. After climbing for an hour, they peered over the ledge and saw a massive mining operation. A hundred or so orcs were digging into the frozen rock in a large crater in the center of the mountain. As they watched they saw three familiar figures in black conferring with Albereth and pointing to a map.
"We'd better let the clan know about this before we proceed," said Dagmar.
They climbed back down the ropes and returned to the cabin. The five of them arrayed themselves, stepped through the teleporter, and were greeted with the familiar thunderclap and blinding light. They had learned to close their eyes to keep from being blinded by the flash this time. When they opened their eyes, they found that Xendra had not made it through.
"What happened," asked Redbeard, "and who is that?"
"This is Grelj," said Dagmar and he explained to Redbeard what they had found and that they were going to look for the entrance to the vault and that he should wait here again.
"If we're not back in half a day, we're probably not coming back and you should turn the teleporter off and head back to the mines to warn them," said Dagmar.
They then returned to the cabin through the teleporter to a waiting Xendra.
Using their maps from the hidden library in the mines as a guide, the party circled the mountain to the south and found the general area where they thought the entrance should be. After an hour or so of searching, Dagmar found some discolored rocks entombed in snow and ice. They quickly set to work on digging out the well-hidden door and after an hour they were rewarded as the door swung open onto a long corridor heading down into the mountain.
Jacen took out his light coin and they proceeded down. The walls were stone and after walking two hundred feet they came to an iron door which swung open in front of them to let them pass. Once inside, they found themselves in an immense circular domed room 120 feet across with doors in the compass points. The walls were decorated with incredible stone and gem work. On the east wall, a short dark figure covered in a cloak was reaching a skeletal left hand toward a crowd of cowering people in the throes of agony. On the south wall, a large dragon and a huge barbarian were leading an army. On the west wall, a half-orc was holding a staff with a large ruby, his sword was buried in a dragon's heart. On the north wall, a grim dwarf was being handed a shield by the barbarian and a scroll by the dragon. In the center of the room a magic circle ten feet across engraved on the floor .
As the party approached the circle, an image flicked to life. A beautiful bird announced in a soothing voice from the heavens:
This is the Vault of Ragath, built by the noble dwarves to protect the northern lands from what the vault contains. The soul of Norda, ice lich, minion of the maimed one, and destroyer of the northern kingdom is held in this mountain and is not to be disturbed. Only the greatest of heroes shall endure the trials to finish what we could not. If you do not proceed, tell no one of this place.
If you do not succeed, I hope that your suffering is short and merciful.
Carefully looking at the doorways they found each was numbered in several different languages. The one of the east was labeled "1 Fire" and as they approached it more closely, it opened on its own accord.
Looking down the corridor they saw a mammoth iron double door which was slowly opening as they approached. Carefully, they looked into the room. It was a small circular room. At the far end of the room a large statue of a cloaked figure glared down. Xendra quickly went through her backpack and found the scrolls from the library and picked out the one for Summon Fire Elemental. Jacen told Triblet to hold back in case of trouble. Dagmar, Jacen, Xendra, and Grelj tentatively walked into the room. As they cleared the threshold, the double doors began to close slowly. A worried Triblet watched from the other side.
The doors closed with a echoing boom and a large clank as the double bolt closed. Just as they noticed the bits of charred bone, melted metal, and scorch marks on the floor the stone statue raised its right hand, and rasped, "Fire is the friend of those with hearts of ice!" and started a mechanical chant.
Xendra quickly started reading the Summon Fire Elemental scroll, being careful to negate a few runes to produce the counterspell. As the statue's chanting stopped, so did Xendra's and, after a few silent seconds, the double-bolts slid back and the giant doors swung open.
The party filed out and recounted what had happened to Triblet.
They proceeded to the second doorway and suddenly Triblet fell back on his rear. After he got up, he found that he could not pass through to the second corridor. It was as if what was air to the others was a wall to him. After a few more bruising attempts, Triblet said he would guard the magic circle in the center of the room.
Again the party entered a small circular room with a statue and consulting the construction diagrams. Xendra pulled out her Summon Air Elemental scroll and the party--minus Triblet-- filed into the room. This time Xendra was more confident and again her counterspell worked, releasing them from the room without a battle.
They succeeded similarly in the third room where she countered the summoning of a water elemental.
The fourth room, "4 Earth," summoned an earth elemental according to the diagrams of the vault. Unfortunately, she did not have a scroll that would counter it.
"Looks like we fight this one," said Jacen.
They stepped into the room and the doors closed. After listening to the chanting, an eight foot tall humanoid body grew from the ground. Jacen and Dagmar charged immediately and swung sending a shower of dirt and rock from its body as they struck. The elemental lowered its shoulder and slammed into Jacen knocking him back while Grelj swung his battleaxe and missed. Xendra's magic missiles struck true as always.
Dagmar took a quick swing and hacked a leg from the monster. The leg instantly became a pile of lifeless dirt and rocks. Jacen swung again after recovering from the elementals onslaught but missed. Grelj, hit however, and his mighty swing shattered the elemental's body into dust and pebbles.
Dagmar laid on hands to heal Grelj and Jacen and, covered in dust, they went back to the magic circle in the center of the room. Once there they met back up with Triblet and the vision of the heavenly bird appeared again:
You have been tested by the elements and succeeded. You must now face the wrath of Norda's power to proceed. You may turn from these trials solid in the knowledge that your power is great, but not yet great enough. Or you may step into the circle to proceed.
They all stepped into the circle and the old circular room dissolved into a large square room with doors in the compass points once again. Looking around they found the door marked "5 Lightning" and entered. Unfortunately, Triblet was once again unable to enter the room and went to guard the magic circle.
Xendra easily countered the lightning of the fifth room and they proceeded to the sixth labeled "6 Arrows." Again, there was no counterspell for this room. The party entered and the doors closed and they were pelted a hundred arrows. While the pain was great, they lived.
"That wasn't so bad," said Jacen.
"That's because the poison on the arrows seems to have lost its potency," said Grelj rubbing the black powder from one of the arrow tips.
The seventh door was once again thwarted by a counter spell for Fireball by Xendra. The eighth and last door, however was labeled "8 Traps" and they were once again without a counterspell.
"Too bad Triblet can't join us on this one," said Xendra.
They party filed into the room and the doors closed. Slowly wooden stakes protruded from the walls, floor, and ceiling and the room started to shrink in on them as the walls started to close in with a horrible grinding sound. They quickly ran to the center of the room and tried to knock that statue over to use it to stop the closing walls, but it was too heavy and firmly stuck in its foundation. The spikes closed in closer and closer. They started hacking on the spikes and soon realized that the wood was rotten and splintered easily under the blows of their weapons. They cleared the spikes well before the walls reached them but the walls kept coming. Suddenly with a foot and a half to spare the walls stopped and reversed themselves. In a few minutes more the doors opened and they returned to the magic circle.
Again the celestral bird levitated before them and said with angelic voice:
You have faced the powers of Norda. May the gods give you the strength to finish Norda himself.
With that, the magic circle glowed green and as they all stepped into it they felt their injuries heal themselves. Xendra suddenly recalled spells she had cast, Dagmar felt a surge of positive energy renew her ability to heal, and with a metallic "clink" the cursed ring fell from Jacen's finger. They found themselves standing around a large fountain filled with a silvery liquid in an octagonal room with twelve doors. They also noticed the sounds of dozens of hammers striking stone above them.
They investigated a door on the west wall first. The door was marked in Draconic and Dwarfish with the word "Taalis" and it opened for them as they approached it. A sixty foot corridor continued on to another heavy iron door which also opened as they approached. In the circular room was a smaller fountain with the same metallic looking fluid.
Dagmar confirmed that no evil emanated from the fountain and surprisingly Xendra found no trace of magic. Triblet, relieved to be once again able to pass through a doorway, checking the fountain for architectural and mechanical features of interest, but found nothing. Jacen stuck his sword in the fountain and felt something small and solid in the center. Jacen managed to guide it to the edge of the pool with his blade and after examining his sword for damage, stuck his hand in and pulled up a large ruby the size of his fist.
Dagmar could immediately feel the evil radiating from the gem a reflexively took a step back.
Xendra took a closer look at the gem and saw what looked like swirling smoke inside.
"I don't think you guys really need me to detect magic on this, right?"
They quickly went through the rest of the corridors retrieving rubies. Triblet dutifully recorded the names from the doors as the rest gathered the gems.
At the last door Xendra called to the party, "I think you'll want to read this one."
On the door was written "Talbarth" in dwarfish and below that in Draconic, "Albereth".
The door opened with a great deal of screeching and grinding on stone. The room had completely caved in and the fountain was buried under huge boulders. They could feel the cold air coming in from outside. Sunlight managed to reach the floor in a few places. There was some evidence of excavation in the room from broken picks and shovels. The back of the door and the area around it looked like it had taken a great deal of punishment, but it was not damaged.
"I don't think we're going to find a ruby in here," said Xendra.
They returned to the center fountain and Jacen used his sword once again to fish out a gem. This one was a huge diamond and Dagmar shuddered at the evil within it.
"We must destroy these now," said Dagmar.
"Uh, destruction girl, remember how well that went with the heart?" said Xendra.
They thought about it, but in the quiet of their thoughts the clanking of picks on stone above weighed in.
"Okay, I see your point," said Xendra.
Jacen handed Dagmar the stones and the dwarf brought the mithril hammer down upon one. With the sound of cracking glass the gem shattered and a thin gaseous form swirled above the stone.
"One down, eleven to go," said Dagmar.
Jacen picked up a stone from Dagmar's pile and admired it, "It's a shame we have to destroy these."
"They must be worth 20,000 gold apiece," said Triblet with a sad frown.
Dagmar shot them both a glance and Jacen handed the stone over. The hammer struck again with the same results.
"Uh, guys," said Grelj, "this doesn't look good."
Grelj pointed to the now solidifying form of half-orc in plate mail.
"Has Norda risen to lead us?" the figure asked Jacen who was holding another ruby.
"Uh," said Jacen.
"Are you ready to join us?" he said while looking at Jacen.
"No." replied Jacen with as much courage as he could muster.
"Then you must all die," he said, pulling a greatsword from his back, and, with a quick leap, brought his sword down on Jacen.
Jacen dropped the ruby he was holding and rolled away in pain as he unsheathed his own sword. Triblet went to the left of him and tried to circle around as Dagmar snatched up her greataxe. Xendra sent a sphere of flame rolling toward the orc singing his clothing. Grelj closed the distance between himself and the orc avoiding the flaming sphere, swung his greataxe, but struck nothing but air as the evil warrior dodged him.
The evil warrior swung his blade at Grelj and sliced him deeply across the chest. Grelj fell to the ground clutching his chest. With a second swing he narrowly missed Dagmar's head. Jacen swung his longsword and struck the warrior in the arm as Dagmar's greataxe struck through his armor and found flesh. Triblet's dagger thrust bounced off the warrior's plate armor and Xendra's flame sphere continued to burn, igniting the warrior's cloak.
The plate-mailed warrior used the butt of his great sword to strike Triblet in the face and knocked him to the ground. He then swung the massive blade at Jacen, wounding him with a gash. Jacen staggered and missed with his longer sword, but again Dagmar heard the crunch of bone as her battleaxe connected with the warrior's shin. Xendra concentrated on keeping the flaming sphere against the warrior while keeping a safe distance from his sword and Triblet shook his head and leapt for the warrior's back, planting his blade in the warrior's visor.
The warrior let out a horrific scream and swung his greatsword toward Dagmar, but with a final blow from Jacen he fell to the ground.
The second gaseous figure was starting to solidify and Xendra quickly moved her flaming sphere directly under it. The gaseous figure tried to evade the ball of rolling flames, but could not move very quickly in its gaseous form. Finally a tall elf in crimson robes solidified, but just as it tried to cast a spell, the blades of Dagmar, Triblet, and Jacen cut it down.
Just as they ran to Grelj to revive him, a rock fell from the ceiling, followed by two more. Dagmar healed Grelj quickly and gathered the dropped rubies. They headed for the magic circle, which was once again glowing green. As the old room dissolved, they found that they were once again in the large domed room. They quickly fled down the southwest corridor and were startled by the bright sun and blowing snow. They circled the mountain to the east and headed back for the cabin.
They barely stopped running as they flew through the door and headed for the teleporter. With a loud clap of thunder they were through and ran right into Redbeard who once again dropped his warhammer.
After that they gathered themselves up they realized that Xendra had been left behind. They all quickly turned and went back except for Jacen and Redbeard who found the teleporter would not work for them. After an hour they realized the rest of the party wasn't going to return and they took the other teleporter back to the laboratory. After waiting a little longer, they finally decided the best thing to do would be to return to the mines and let them know what was happening. They turned the teleporter in the laboratory off and took a boat back to the mines.
Meanwhile, back in the cabin, the rest of the party found Xendra who was looking panicked and frustrated with the teleporter. They found that none of them could make it work again.
"We're going to have to walk," said Dagmar spreading out one of their maps, "the mines are under this mountain here. If we hike eight hours a day we can be back in three days. I figure we've got at least a few hours head start until they find the guards and Grelj missing before they figure out what's up."
Dagmar healed the party as best she could and they gathered their gear and headed north for the mines. The day was waning and a large moon was overhead giving them light. Xendra sent her owl above to look out for trouble around them, but with the snow it was difficult to see very far. After a couple of hours tracking through the snow, the sun had gone down behind the mountains to the west making it hard to see a path. They could still follow the stars although the clouds made that difficult at times as well.
Just after midnight the sky cleared and they saw a long line of what looked like torches following behind them. Then Xendra noticed a strange shimmering of light around Grelj.
"Scrying!" she said with a curse.
The shimmering sensor hovered around Grelj who tried to swat at it to disrupt it with no effect. It hovered over the rest of the party and then disappeared.
"Well, they know it's us and they probably know where we are," said Xendra.
"We've got to march on," said Grelj.
After an hour or so, the party reached a rocky ridge and looked back to see the line of torches still behind them. They then saw a white hawk flying above making slow circles.
Dagmar knelt in the snow and prayed to Moradin for divine intervention. As she prayed the sky slowly became more overcast and heavy snow started to fall. Soon they were wandering in a blizzard.
As they fumbled in the freezing blinding snow, Dagmar wondered if her call had been heard or that if she had asked out of place for intervention. The weary company was exhausted.
"I just want to lay down and sleep," said Triblet, "I can't go on like this."
Yet they trudged on. Xendra fell in the snow and Dagmar and Grelj picked her up and carried her for a while before they too were exhausted. They stumbled down another mountainside like snowballs and felt they couldn't go on any longer.
"One more step, one more step, one more step," the exhausted Triblet kept mumbling to himself.
Suddenly Grelj fell through the snow. As they tried to dig him our from his snowy grave they noticed the hole he had fallen into had warm air coming from it and that it was in fact a cave opening. When they heard Grelj calling out for them to follow him, they found themselves in a dark but dry and warm cave.
The party immediately fell asleep and only woke when the sun was shining through the small opening above them.
Carefully they climbed out of the cave into a brilliant sun and stark white landscape. After searching the sky themselves, Octavious was let loose to survey the area. When the owl returned having seen no trace of their pursuers, they continued their trek to the mines. The party continued and at noon they ate the last of their frozen iron rations and drank icy water. After another four hours they were once again tired and hungry, but not near death as before. Far ahead of them they saw a black figure heading toward them. Quickly they hit the ground and covered themselves with snow. The figure kept coming directly toward them and they noticed what appeared to be something clad in white behind him.
Eventually the figure stopped about thirty feet in front of them looked at the ground where they were hiding and threw back his hood.
"Hey guys," said Jacen.
They rest of the party sprang up out of the snow and headed for Jacen. The figure in white behind him finally caught up and lifted its white fur hood to reveal a tangle of red hair.
"Redbeard!" said Dagmar, "I see you made it back too. We were all worried about you guys making it back."
Together the rest of the party headed back to the mines following the path in the snow left by Jacen and Redbeard.
"How did you know we were hidden under the snow?" asked Triblet.
"Well, your footprints lead all the way down the hill and suddenly stopped. It wasn't exactly divine insight."
When they returned to the mines, much to everyone's surprise they were greeted by Neygrim.
"I thought you were dead!" said Dagmar.
"I was, but fortunately you brought back my heart and Harran was able to patch me back up."
After a happy reunion, Grelj told the party that he needed to return to the Sable Woods to warn his father what was going on. No amount of discussion could dissuade him and finally Redbeard agreed that he would accompany him to plead the dwarves' case for aid in defending the mines.
"Farewell," said Grelj with sadness that he would once again leave the party, "I will return, and hopefully with help."
"Ay'll miss ya Dagmar," Redbeard blushed as he got uneasily into the boat with Grelj.
The party waved as the boat was carried down the river. Meanwhile, the dwarves prepared for war.