The Dwarven Hold

[venger]

[venger]

Traversing the waterflow from the "Chuul-pool" lead to a dwarven watering hole, long-since abandoned. Unknown mine tunnels connected it to the Crystal Caves and a confrontation with pale basilisks was carefully avoided. The second golden door marked with dwarven runes opened to a great chasm spanned by bridges above. Descending the edge of the chasm to its rocky floor, our heroes entered a cavernous underworld. Following an underground river downstream, the party was beset by a legion of goblin bat-riders who fell before their spells and arrows.

One captured goblin proved moderately useful as a guide and source of information.

Staker, goblin bat-rider:
Stereotypically untrustworthy goblin captured by the party to use as a guide.

Another encounter with the chuul left the party's cleric nigh unto death, but the shelled monstrosities were laid low before the parties' blade.

Descending the great dwarven dam, a barely-intact structure with inscrutable control levers was found. None were pulled.

From atop the ruined gates of the dwarven city, an undead figure descended to meet the party's attmpts at parley. He conveyed information about his undead curse, the dread Bonelord and points of interest in the ruined city.


Balkrag, heir of Krimhold:

The foul Bonelord summoned Balkrag’s spirit back from death, imprisoning it in the Dwarf ’s remains. Though he was powerless to stop his return, he was too strong of spirit to allow the necromancer to control him. He escaped from the Hall of Bones, vowing to destroy the dread necromancer before again returning to the sleep of death. Balkrag wanders the ruins of his ancestral home, trying to find the help he needs to defeat the Bonelord. His condition as an undead has obviously made this difficult. He is four feet tall, wields a two-handed axe, and wears no armour. He appears to be a skeleton, but his face is gruesome to behold, with rotting flesh still clinging to his skull and his orange spiked hair rising from the top of his head. He sees this as only a minor inconvenience, believing fully that the Dwarf gods will send him help to vanquish his sworn foe.

Sensing the characters are motivated by treasure, he speaks of the great riches the Bonelord must surely have accumulated after all these years.

[Ginger]

At this point, I'm thinking we stop going deeper and start cleaning up the first floor. The obvious target is the ogres. We can either hit them in the forge, or in their lair. I suspect the forge is better populated, but the chief is probably a tougher than average ogre.

My proposal is to invade the upper level and hit them in their great hall. If we are clever, we can get one or more of the gunpowder barrels from the sealed storage room and knock them down the tiers in the room and blow them up with a firebolt.

[Ginger]

Can we get a recap of the last session? Especially an overview of the treasure. I recall a magical hammer and gauntlets of ogre power.