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Recap 49.1 Supplemental: Mimir's Furnace

October 8, 2011


Meet Bolin Braveaxe

The story left off last with the Motley Crew managing to survive a battle with the Oblivion King in Altar. Gloiterwome's physical body was destroyed by Vain. Fast forward to some unknown time in the future. The Crew is crossing the Rockholme mountains when they are accosted by a dwarf messenger sent by Duke Renkhan Silverheart. He needs help on the front lines with the war effort against the undead, and he's hoping they can provide it.

The duke has second problem he'd like them to deal with, as well. A group of dwarves led by another dwarf named Pol Destine are traveling through Rockholme to find something called Mimir's Furnace. According to legend, Mimir was a dwarf who created a forge that could produce and combine magickal weapons. What Mimir didn't know at first was that the forge drew power from the Elemental Plane of Fire. Continuous use of the forge would result in the world being incinerated. When he realized what was happening, Mimir shut the furnace off, and it has never been used since.

Pol Destine, under the Oblivion King's command, intends to reactivate the forge. At one time a good dwarf, he was tricked one day into putting on a crown that corrupted him. Now he uses that crown to enthrall dwarves, forcing them to be his followers.

Bolin Braveaxe, Destine's brother-in-law, can lead the Crew through the underground caverns to the forge. Once there, they are to stop Destine and destroy the furnace. As a reward for their assistance, any treasure they find is theirs. Also, they may make use of the forge before destroying it to combine any of their magickal weapons into greater weapons. However, time is of the essence. If the furnace is not shut down within the next four hours, the world will burn.

Oliver, Malouf, and Klute offer to go deal with the undead. They leave taking the mirror with them. The rest prepare to confront Pol Destine. Before they leave, the duke asks one last thing - for the Crew to not kill any of the charmed dwarves. There is some grumbling over this from Flerm, but Snow (giving each of the party members a stern look) assures Silverheart that everyone in the group will make sure to only use non-lethal force against the dwarves they encounter.


Don't Wake the Dragon

Bolin doesn't appear happy to be in the company of so many elves, especially a drow, but leads the way, nonetheless. Walking near a chasm, Bolin warns them to be quiet. Legend has it that a dragon sleeps at the bottom. It would be best not to test the accuracy of this particular legend.

umber hulk Tiptoeing down the path as best they can with half of the party in full armor, they are surprised by three umber hulks bursting through the walls. One charges at Flerm and Alana, pushing them over the ledge into the chasm. Josy knocks the umber hulk back with her mace. It slams painfully into the wall. Lieralyn follows up with swift strike, cleaving its head from its body. Flerm teleports beneath Alana, catching her, before slowly levitating them both back to the top.

The second umber hulk attempts to entrance Lieralyn, Josy, and Bolin with its mesmerizing eyes. Bolin rushes forward, swinging his axe in an upward arc, catching the umber hulk under the chin, clipping its knees on the backstroke. While the umber hulk staggers from the attack, Bolin tackles it to the ground, finishing it off with his axe.

Snow takes care of the last one by the time Flerm and Alana get back to the ledge. Hearing nothing stirring from below the chasm, the group quickly (and quietly) make their way through the rest of the passage.


I'm Familiar With Underground Construction!

They come to a boarded up section of the cavern. Bolin easily tears the boards out, keeping the spikes (just in case). The tunnel opens up and branches off into three paths. To the east is a well made corridor, the walls carved and smooth. To the west is a twisted, narrow tunnel with roughly hewn walls. To the north is another twisty path, natural stone steps leading down to a cavern emitting an eerie, red glow.

Bolin knows that Mimir's Furnace is nearby but is unsure which direction they should go at this point. Brecaryn sends Nightshade to investigate the west corridor. As he flies further in, Brecaryn starts feeling disoriented. She's certain something in this area is the cause, so recalls Nightshade and immediately feels better as his distance from the west corridor increases.

bounderBrecaryn then sends Nightshade to check the north tunnel. Inside the cavern is a large, smooth rock radiating heat. The room is filled with small, lizard-like creatures lounging around it. It is hard to tell if the lizards would be hostile, but there are so many of them that the party decides it's best not to disturb them unless necessary.

Josy leads the way down the east corridor. Snow and the rest follow closely behind. A few yards into the tunnel the ground beneath Josy collapses, dropping her into a 20 ft deep, spike-lined pit. Luckily, her diminutive size saves her from becoming impaled. She is scraped up, but otherwise uninjured. Bolin rushes up immediately, but is ineffectual at providing help. Snow climbs down to retrieve her.

Bolin feels extremely guilty about Josy's fall. Especially once he and Flerm realize that their familiarity with underground construction would have alerted them to the pit trap. It's decided that these two should lead from now on.


We Don't Have Enough Rope For All of Them

At the end of the corridor, Bolin enters a room where a dwarf is lying in wait. Bolin grabs the dwarf, slamming him to ground. Snow knocks him out. Bolin uses the spikes from before to pin the dwarf's clothes to the ground and keep him from getting up.

This all happens so suddenly that some of the party are still back where the tunnel branches off.

Lieralyn, closest to the west corridor, is so focused on what's going on ahead that she doesn't notice anyone is behind her until she takes a blow to the head. Turning, she sees a minotaur scurry back down the west tunnel. Not wanting to get too far from the rest of the party, she doesn't chase her attacker, choosing instead stand guard in case the minotaur returns.

While, Bolin is securing the dwarf, Snow investigates the room. There is a single iron door on the north wall. Brecaryn greases the hinges so the door can be opened quietly. It turns out to be a good idea because they manage to catch the three dwarves inside by surprise. Alana fires off two arrows, pinning one to her chair.

Alana: I am AWESOME!

As the Crew moves in to subdue the dwarves, they hear a voice in their heads speaking in their native tongues.

Voice: It has come to my attention that we have visitors. You won't be staying long.

Despite this threat, they dispatch these and several more dwarves in other rooms in quick succession. After much discussion on what to do with the dwarves, the group decides to lower two into the spike pit (at their height, they would need at least three dwarves in order to help each other climb out) and to tie a third one up. They use a supply room to hold the rest.

Nightshade, still keeping watch of the corridor where the passages branch off, sees the minotaur pop its head around the corner then duck back in. A moment later, it starts creeping towards Lieralyn. Brecaryn shouts a warning.

Extremely irritated from the previous attack on her person, Lieralyn runs at the minotaur, screaming a battle cry, and slices it open. Flerm follows closely behind and finishes it off. Unfortunately, the ruckus has garnered the attention of the lizards. A hissing can be heard coming from the room.

As Lieralyn and Flerm rejoin the group, Nightshade sees the lizards are emerging from their cavern and making their way to the group. Luckily, the pit trap is too wide a jump for them to make so the group never has to find out if the lizards are hostile or not.


I'm One of You. Really.

Moving on, they come to a set of locked double doors. Movement can be heard on the other side of the door. Several attempts are made to open the door, to no avail. An idea occurs to Bolin.

Bolin Uh...hey! We got the intruders. Open the door.

Murmuring are followed by a sliding sound. The door slowly opens, revealing two dwarves peeping out. Alana fires her arrows with lightning speed, knocking them down. The two are disarmed and tied up to keep them from getting in the way again. However, the Crew is not without some compassion. They kindly make sure to lay them down comfortably on the couches in the room before leaving.

Through the door and down the steps, they are greeted by a mildewy stench. Looking at the circular room carefully, Bolin notices the dwarves' footprints show they walked along the wall, avoiding the center. The floor also slopes slightly towards the middle. He warns the others, and they cautiously follow his lead to the door on the other side.

As expected, when Brecaryn makes it to the halfway point, Vain strides into the room, right through the center, and promptly sinks into wet muck. The sands start sliding towards the middle of the room. Josy grabs Alana's legs to keep her footing. Luckily, they are close enough to the wall that nobody gets pulled in by the shifting floor, so they head quickly to the door.

vaardig

The moving sand reveals a round ball of muck standing on chicken legs. It starts blasting Vain with goo from its tentacles. Vain is not bothered in the least. While the muck ball cannot escape the pit, Vain casually hops up on the other side and waits patiently to follow Brecaryn into the next room.


Give Me Your Gems!

As soon as they walk in, they hear:

Voice: Oh boy! I smell something good! Someone's got adamantine!

Two xorn appear and head straight for Lieralyn and Bolin.

xorn

Xorn 1: (eats Lieralyn's necklace) Oh, that's good stuff. That's good.

Xorn 2: Oh, you wouldn't believe it. This guy's just covered in good stuff. (eats Bolin's armor)

Brecaryn begins casting a spell, but is suddenly overcome with dizziness. Looking at her shoulder, she sees a dart sticking out. Josy rushes over to help her. Alana looks around and sees a secret door. Pushing it open, she encounters a dwarf with a blow dart. Alana easily subdues her. So easily, in fact, she almost subdues her a little too much and ends up having to bandage the dwarf in order to keep their promise to the duke.

Bolin flings his axe behind him to both distract the xorn and protect his weapon. Reaching for his crossbow, he shoots an exploding bolt directly into the creature's mouth. The xorn pauses and lets out a smokey burp. Snow comes up behind it and smashes it to pieces.

Bolin climbs up onto the xorn's remains, desperately looking for his armor as tears stream down his face. Snow looks at the distraught dwarf with a raised eyebrow before turning her attention to the rest of the room.

Flerm takes down the second xorn before it can eat anymore of Lieralyn's belongings. Lieralyn is not happy.

Bolin, done with his weeping, retrieves his axe. He rapidly dons some armor taken from the dwarves before they proceed through the next door.


Guess Who Gets Possessed Again

Inside, they see eight dwarves and four clay-like creatures. On a throne sits a wizened and sickly looking dwarf wearing a crown. In the far corner is a large furnace, a flaming statue behind it - Mimir's Furnace.

Once again, Pol Destine speaks telepathically to the group.

Pol Destine: Well, I see that you have made it here after all. Bolin, you've resorted to consorting with elves. I am ashamed of you.

Alana responds by shooting an arrow at a dwarf, rendering him unconcious.

Pol Destine: I see. Very well.

Snow runs up to the dais, intent on taking out the dwarf wizard. As she nears, she runs into a shield and gets blasted back.

Brecaryn: *nods* Yeah. I figured there'd be a shield. There's always a shield.

Testing the limits of the shield, Snow throws a shuriken at the wizard. The shuriken pierces the shield with no resistance. Unfortunately, Snow's aim could use alot of improvement. She misses Pol Destine completely.

Pol Destine: *sigh* You are all.....fools? The Oblivion King has granted me great power. Observe.

In a flash, he transforms himself into a large lizard, the crown still sitting on his head. The lizard charges at Brecaryn and Lieralyn, rears back, and blasts them with his breath.

While Bolin distracts Destine with an exploding bolt to the head, Lieralyn jumps on the lizard's back and makes a grab for the crown. When she touches the crown, there's a flash of light, and Lieralyn is thrown to the ground. Two of the clay golems surround her. Brecaryn puts her phasing ring on and makes a quick escape back to the xorn room.

Alana, using the doorway as cover, fires an arrow at the crown hoping to knock it off. Not only does the crown stay securely in place, the impact causes the arrow to bend instead. She switches tactics and shoots two fire arrows right into his mouth.

Josy waves her hands and Pol Destine is back in his own body. Snow knocks him out before he can cast any other spells. An oddly disturbing phenomenon occurs. Although his body has gone limp, the crown keeps him upright. Deciding magickal problems are best left to the magic users, Snow grabs the unconscious, but floating, body and hands him off to Brecaryn.

Snow: I don't know what to do about this. You do something.

She runs back to the fight just in time to see all of the golems lean back and start humming before they rush towards Flerm and Bolin.

Lieralyn: Kill the interlopers! (running at Flerm, sword in hand)

Flerm teleports around the room as Lieralyn continues to pursue him, taking out a couple of dwarves along the way.

Flerm:Lieralyn's crazy! Should I kill her?

Group: NO!

Flerm shrugs and kills a golem instead. Bolin is severely injured by another golem, falling to the ground. Snow flies through the doorway, exploding one with a kick and pounding a second until it crumbles before moving on to the third.

The remaining dwarves are held in place by Josy's spell. Josy also manages to dispel the charm on Lieralyn before she catches up to Flerm.

A revived Bolin examines Pol Destine. The only way to remove the crown would be to melt it off his head. Bolin manages to do it without killing the him.


Mebbe Someone Needs to Use an X for Blacksmithing

With time left before the furnace needs to be destroyed, Flerm and Alana start telling Bolin (who just happens to be the only blacksmith around) what weapons they want him to combine. Already inclined to dislike elves, their demands rub Bolin completely the wrong way.

Bolin: All the elves have to pay me if they want me to forge any weapons for them.

Flerm: (turning to Alana) We should kill him.

Snow: Flerm!

Flerm: What? *grins*

Bolin: Alright. Sheesh. I'll do it if you replace my armor.

Flerm agrees easily. If it's one thing Flerm has plenty of, it's armor. While Bolin is working at the forge making weapons for Flerm, Alana, Josy, and Lieralyn, Snow and Brecaryn investigate the railing all along the southern portion of the room.

There is a 20ft deep chasm on the other side of it. Buttes are spaced around the chasm and, to the east, there is a cave entrance. Floating above one of the buttes, seemingly asleep, is a beholder. It's not clear what is keeping it in stasis, but Snow and Brecaryn are grateful for it. Though, Snow does still have that beholder fork...

Further back, they spot the the lounging lizards. If the Crew had taken the north path instead, they would have had to fight their way through numerous lizards only to come face to face with a beholder. All in all, dealing with dwarves was definitely the better way to go.

Once the weapons are forged, they destroy the furnace and prepare to make their way out of the caves. Alana is severely distressed because without the mirror, much of the treasure will have to be left behind. She tries to come up with several strategies for carrying it all out, but eventually has to admit defeat. They take what they can carry and leave, bringing the injured dwarves with them.


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Tags: Alana, Bolin Braveaxe, Brecaryn, Duke Renkhan Silverheart, Flerm, Josy, Lieralyn, Mimir's Furnace, Nightshade, Pol Destine, Snow


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