Session 26 – September 8, 2007
Waterday, 4th of Harvest, 721 IA (continued)
We strip the priestess of her clothing, and Vincent fondles her breasts while we cast zone of truth on her. There is some discussion of how wrong this is, followed by a stream of rape jokes, which Nanaia does not find at all funny. We then interrogate her, and learn all we can about Zachean, and discover that should he be hurt enough to have to turn into gas to get to his casket, he would be almost out of luck. We descend into the tomb, via the elevator that is the dias. Gotrek jams the mechanism so that we don't have to wait for the elevator to descend, should we be in a hurry. We methodically investigate several false tombs, one of which holds four extremely tough summoned bears. Gotrek gets trapped in a fake sarcophagus while Vincent and Slyph fight them, increasingly desperate. They retreat into the hall behind a wall of force, and then into a rope trick as the bears start to destroy the very walls in order to get at them. They then dispatch the bears with missle weapons and spells.
They go down into the next level through another elevator, the mechanism of which Gotrek also jams. We discover two gorgons (Bull shaped creatures whose breath turns you to stone) guarding the gate into the tomb. This, more than any fight, was a group effort, as Slyph and Vincent were both turned to stone. Ianthe used a scroll she was saving to turn them both back to flesh. Slyph, angrier than ever, insisted that we press on into the tomb.

The next door we opened was airtight. There was a dias, with a dwarven skeleton on it, brandishing a scepter and a rod. While some of the party expressed some doubt and a call for caution, others stepped into the room. The dias, filled with gunpowder, exploded, taking out walls, and injuring some of us badly. After a lot of rueful 'we should have known' talk, the door out got sealed again, so no air could go through it, effectively trapping anyone who might turn to gas. We then continue on to confront Zachean and Soveliss.

Vincent once again takes on the monk, while Slyph confronts Zachean directly. Using dogged determination, we manage to nearly kill Zachean, who uses the wishing glove to remove himself and Soveliss. There is much swearing and great anger. We attempt to scry on them, and are unable to. Ianthe calls Mythlore, who tells her that the Stone Lost dwarves are coming to take back Dwarvenhearth, after much debate. We teleport out, get our various captives, our belongings, and announce to as many places in Dwarvenhearth as we can, that the main gate is now open. We make many plans to return and get as much information as possible, knowing it will take the Stone Lost some time to go through the entirety of Dwarvenhearth.

Session 25 – August 25, 2007
Airday, 3nd of Harvest, 721 IA (continued)
We leave the apartment with the two rogues, Murlash, and Savage to watch the dwarven child. As we are crossing Cathedral Cavern, we are attacked by hiistiche swarms shaped as dragons. The party proclaims its undying hatred for these fucking bugs as we fight them, finally dispatching them. We are beaten enough that we are forced to rest immediately.

After this, we head back into the city, on the way to the outer Tombs. We come upon a huge cavern. At the far end of it, blocking our entrance to the tombs, are several giants with boulders, waiting for us. They begin throwing rocks at us, and Ianthe, after casting haste on the group, starts to run up to the giants, invisibly, with some kind of plan or another. As she runs along the wall, an arm pops out and punches her in the head, knocking her down. The arm belonged to Soveliss, waiting for us in ambush here. Vincent then steps up to fight him, keeping him at bay by using his chain to knock him down, over and over. Soveliss is fast and deadly, and Vincent has his hands full. During this, the giants continue to devastate members of the party by throwing boulders. Ianthe puts a wall of force around them, and Vincent sends his Shadow companion to drain strength from them. Vincent begins to get the
upper hand, causing Soveliss to use a powerful monk ability to dissapear. Then there is a small skirmish with the giants, most of which have been drained of much of their strength. Two of the giants flee, and one with next to no strength is interrogated.

We discover that the giants were drafted into this by the Dark Elves, who make routine attacks on their home. They were promised that this would help diplomacy between the two groups. Over Vincent's objections, the giant is taken to the basement of Rosegate house to recover his strength, so he can go home.

We all rest, and go on a shopping frenzy to prepare us for a big fight with Dark Elves, and the two vampires. Ianthe sends dozens of tiny eyeballs into the tombs to bring back intelligence. Then we go into the antechamber of King Stardelve's tomb, where they have prepared for us.

There are summoned creatures, and what looks like overwhelming amounts of Dark Elf soldiers. The two vampires stand on the dias, examining it. The two remaining giants are also here, with boulders. Vincent and Slyph wade into the army of Dark Elves, and, even though they are surrounded.. and perhaps especially because they are surrounded... make mincemeat of them all, Vincent with an extra big killing grin on his face. Gotrek uses a scroll of silence (With his special knack for using magical devices), and runs up to the vampires on the dias, keeping Zachean from casting spells. The Dark Elf high priestess drops from the ceiling in front of Ianthe, who prepares to run, but Vincent's Shadow companion appears and drains her strength. Ianthe then begins shooting at the two vampires with her bullets that have been silver sheened (vampires can only be really hurt by magical silver weapons). Eventually, Zachean and Soveliss escape by turning into gas, and slipping into a crack in the dias. We capture the priestess, a giant, and a footsoldier.

Kingsday, 2nd of Harvest, 721 IA (continued)

We then enter the temple of Herkan, goddess of stones. The walls were covered with runes. Ianthe and Gotrek determined that they were a magical trap that would summon something. Ianthe postulated that they would summon earth elementals, and attempted to dispel them. She managed to dispel only one. Gotrek stepped into the room, and six huge earth elementals appeared, which we dispatched while fighting still in the doorway. Ianthe watched behind us into the cavern, but saw no one. Inside the temple, we find more Aethel stones, and more marlite.

Upon our exit, we get jumped by the evoker that we fought earlier, and a whole new group with him. He, as usual, flies invisible, and casts devastating damage spells at us while we fight. Ianthe sets herself and Nanaia up inside a globe of invulnerability, preventing him from damaging them, while Vincent, Slyph and Gotrek continue to kick fighter and paladin ass. Ianthe, in desperation to defend herself from a fighter coming straight up to her, raises the paladin as a skeleton, and orders it to fight, which it does. Nanaia destroys it out of principle. Their people beaten, the evoker and the necromancer dissapear, again, irritating everyone deeply. We return to the apartment with a captive rogue, to heal and rest and interrogate him.

Airday, 3nd of Harvest, 721 IA
We interrogate the rogue, and find out that the evoker, named Endril, had been recruiting people to fight us, promising freedom from Dwarvenhearth, that we had that secret. After talking to the rogue, we raise his brother from the dead, and make a deal with him, saying that if he stays here until we're done, we will bring them to the surface with us. He is to provide all the intelligence he can to us about the layout of the place and people. We discover that many of the people in Dwarvenhearth just want a way out, having been born here, and hating it intensely. Food is the biggest currency here.

We scry on Endril and the necromancer, who are having an argument in their pajamas. Ianthe teleports Vincent, Slyph and Nanaia into that room, and while they are fighting, Ianthe puts a wall of force in front of the door out, as it is being chopped down by Endril's friends on the other side, desperate to get to him. We drop the fire elemental gem there, and tell it to kill everyone, then teleport out just as the wall of force drops and they start to enter the room.

Session 23 – August 4, 2007

One Week Break (25th of Toil to 2nd of Harvest)

We intend to spend over a month in item creation, but decide that we can't spare the time, because the Vampires and Dark Elves are looking for this wishing glove. We do wait one week, however, for various projects.
Vincent, Ianthe, Gotrek and to some extent Slyph work out the logistics of the zombie pit fighting, eventually talking to Nagrus of the Balacazar about hosting it, as well as running it and providing the security. Slyph purchases a house in The Warrens, one that had previously contained dark elves that we drove out, and the land beside it (which contained the entrance to the old Dark Elf temple). She uses the house to create a soup kitchen for the children in The Warrens, and pregnant and nursing mothers. The land she uses for a garden. She also summons an animal companion, a dire rat, which she calls Savage. Murlash fights at the Arena, both for practice and for extra money. Gotrek translates the book we found with the Orrery, which explains how to become a god, using it and the special equipment, in which to place each of the Seven Jewels of Parnaith. It is a process that should take centuries, but there is a back way.. a shiny (disco-like) ball that will bypass all the hurdles involved, and take you directly to the end.
The glove in which to place the jewels is placed in a safe box.

Kingsday, 2nd of Harvest, 721 IA

We go back into Dwarvenhearth, and discover the hijstiches (demon bugs) trying to get to a hidden dwarf girl. We dispatch them with much swearing and grumbling, and rescue the child from her hiding place in the floor. After talking to her for a while, we realize that we actually killed her family, earlier. There is some heated debate on what to do with her, and Slyph finally insists that we have her moved out into the country to be raised by dwarves there. Ianthe uses a spell to contact Rechel Pattemon (Slyph's superior in their Ranger group) to ask her for assistance in this, via a dream, as she is not on the thought stone network. We leave Murlash in our apartment to watch the girl, and leave Savage with them. Murlash becomes very protective of her.

We go towards the Cathedral Cavern, which is in line to the palace of the Day King, the Night King, and the tombs. We fight more soulless dwarven defenders, and two cannon golems here, and continue into the caverns. This cavern is too huge to see from end to end with our dark vision, but we decide not to light a light, not wanting to attract all the bad attention we're going to get, all at the same time.

One by one, we start entering temples. Since the retreat from Dwarvenhearth was extremely orderly, all the temples were sealed, or set up with defenses. One of the first temples we enter is the temple of The Brothers. In the centre of this place is a raging smithy, fire constantly going. There are several soulless here, who do nothing to stop us. We leave them alone, and start searching. Here we find a giant altar on wheels, with places to put combatants.. a holy tank, that is to be driven by the most holy person riding it (must be a cleric). We let out cries of triumph and amusement, and begin to play with it, having Nanaia (who does this with pursed lips and a small attitude) drive it around the altar in a circle. A huge fire elemental attacks us, and the Soulless paladins stand in front of the door, coming forward to fight only when we defeat the elemental. After this, still in good spirits, we drive the altar back to our apartments, and rest.

While resting, Ianthe is reached through her thoughtstone by Doraedian Mythlord¹ who asks the party's help in stopping Zachean (the head vampire), and tells her that the Stonelost have blocked our walking entrance into the mines, and taken our peons captive. He tells us also that Soveliss² is with Zachean.. something that makes those of us there in the beginning grind our teeth, and spurs a promise to help. He also offers vague promises of a reward, and not so vague promises of political help (which we are often sorely in need of). Ianthe goes to verify that the Stonelost have done what was claimed, and finds the entrance into the lava lake collapsed. There is much talk of attacking the Stone Lost dwarves head on, and destroying their city. Everyone is convinced that the peons will be hurt in some way. Ianthe, Vincent, and Slyph teleport back to the city to check on the Ugly Child Lane house, and make sure it was not looted in any way. As Slyph resupplies, Ianthe talks to Doraedian, and is reassured that her people will not be harmed, and the most likely outcome is that they will be returned, minus the items we gave them from Dwarvenhearth (which is in fact, what occurred). We return to Dwarvenhearth.

Back in Cathedal Cavern, we enter more temples. In the temple of Yorubbos,we find a scroll that details how to create the soulless, and find a chamber, where lie many many ceramic plates that contain the souls of all the soulless we have fought, and potentially will fight later. There is some amount of debate over what to do with the plates, including more spiteful plans for the Stonelost. We move on, and go into the Temple of Ummon, and discover a Ghost there, of the priestess who was to seal this temple, but died before she could. Gotrek assists her in her ritual, sealing the temple and helping her move on.

*

Theoday, 24th of Toil, 721 IA (continued)
And suddenly, the fight is over. We collectively shudder and gather ourselves together. Some of us are hurt very badly, and Murlash is nearly dead, and frozen from the last of Ianthe’s Cone of Colds spells. We pull one of the frozen, dead bugs from Murlash’s nose, and realize that his mind has been completely destroyed by the horror of having these bugs crawling into his body through his ears and nose, and their attempt to hollow out his brain. Nanaia restores his well being with a blessing from her goddess, and we proceed to search our surroundings.

We are in a small complex of higher end apartments. The one we were fighting in was very lavishly appointed, the furnishings destroyed by looting, demonic bugs, and several Cone of Cold spells, and a Fireball. In the rest of the apartment, however, we find several things that are well hidden, including a pair of pistols that have got to be someone’s lifetime master work., made of mithril and darkwood, and elegantly carved, in a beautiful box. We also find here a key to Dwarvenhearth. A front door key, a valuable, and rare object, that would get us unceremoniously killed by many angry dwarves, or greedy delvers in the world outside.

We notice that some of the other apartments here have not been looted, and we proceed to rectify that, finding a few odds and ends in the surrounding apartments. We pick one we like, and set up camp there. The furniture is still intact (without the cushions, but we make plans to rectify that, as well, on our next trip in), and we once again discuss living down here while we search.

After resting, we head out for Cathedral Cavern, as described and mapped for us. Along the way, there are suddenly several people in our midst, attacking with lightning speed. Ianthe is brought down immediately (though healed soon after, she never gets off the ground, and spend the entire combat throwing spells while on her belly), and the others start fighting for their lives. While fighting, a reckoning of their group becomes apparent. Several Rogues, a Blackguard, a regular Fighter, a Necromancer on one end of the hall, and a powerful invisible Mage someplace on the other end of the hallway. Nanaia, more concerned with helping her comrades than herself, is killed. Ianthe is finally able to cast See Invisibility, and whispers to Vincent that the mage is on the ceiling, before crawling to safety. Gotrek, irritated that he can’t see the Mage, pulls a bat from his magical Bag of Useless Animals. He commands it to find the Mage, counting on its sonar to locate the man, knowing it won’t be fooled by illusions. He trains his cannon on the spot the bat goes to, preparing to shoot, and the Mage hastily casts Dimension Door. We take stock, and realized we are badly pummeled, and that Nanaia is beyond our help. Ianthe shrinks Murlash, and we teleport back to the surface.

Kingsday, 25th of Toil, 721 IA
We sell the necromancer’s staff to get the money to resurrect Nanaia. Ianthe tries to get a discount from both Maeda and the angels in the tower, but is unable to get a discount. The angels offer to use Raise Dead on her, which would leave her ‘diminished’, and we don’t want that. They also lecture Ianthe on her slipping (and quickly) away from her Good tendancies. We pay Maeda the full price, and she resurrects Nanaia.

Vincent and Ianthe start joking about ways to make money to bring Nanaia back. True Resurrection brings your body back the way it was before you died.. including clothing, spell slots, everything. The joking leads to a discussion of zombies, and then to a plan to start illegal underground zombie fights for betting, as some of the rest of the group look at them in horror, and others in amusement.

We sell our loot, most of which goes through the fence. Then we realize we have enough to pay our taxes. Vincent objects to doing so, and we decide to go to our lawyer. Denoss Firth says that he can most certainly file paperwork to split the 60,0000 between the 6 of us, and if Vincent does not want to pay his portion, it would fall to him to pay the price. Everyone but Vincent pays their portion of the taxes. Vincent repays some money to Ianthe (for the massive loan she gave him to buy his Ring of Blinking), and she pays off 3,000 of his taxes for him.

Nanaia gets inspired, and purchases the empty temple of the Ebon Hand (we killed all its members, earlier in our careers), and turns it into a Temple of Tevra. There is much discussion about how to clean it, decorate it, and what to do with the entrance to the underground, and the magic death maze room. Ianthe promises to attempt to bombard it with various magics to make it go away, and Vincent suggests Wall of Stone to block off the underground entrance.

We leave it there, meaning to spend a long time in (yet again) magic item creation, and other activities.

Session 21 – July 21, 2007
Present: Ianthe, Nanaia, Vincent, Slyph,Gotrek, Siannodel,
Airday, 28th of Blessing, 721 IA
Immediately following the last encounter, the heroes continue forward, leaving Slyph in a Rope Trick, having pulled a muscle. They enter a large square, with many mighty pillars. A glow to one side alerts us to the presence of something or someone. Vincent sneaks forward, and sees a group of many dwarves gathered around a warmstone, waiting to ambush us. One of them bears the symbol of a chaos demon, and is obviously a cleric. Ianthe sends a cloud of killing gas at the group, and then they attack. A hidden sorcerer flings fireballs at the group. Vincent made a miraculous leap upon one of the dwarves’ shoulders to attack the cleric who was airwalking. Ianthe dies amid a barrage of fireballs.

Out of the shadows walks the last dwarf, who holds his arms up and asks to parlay (No end of Pirate jokes ensue) with the party. His name is Karamis, and he relates that he was sent undercover with the Dark Elves, and that they were all killed, so he fled, and joined with these people. He really just wanted to get out of the place. Siannodel asked if he could draw maps of this place, and he complied. He then changed his shape several times, perhaps in an attempt to show off for her. The remaining party bring him, blindfolded, with them to the surface, and gather money together. They manage to get enough to pay for a True Resurrection, and Maeda brings Ianthe back, as she was.

The bulk of the equipment retrieved from the dwarves brings everyone many many riches, and we outfit the group of adventurers we’ve begun to call ‘the peons’ with equipment we do not sell. Siannodel buys a Ring of Evasion with her share, and trades her Ring of Protection for an Amulet of Natural Armor.

Three Week Break (29th of Blessing to 24th of Toil)
The group takes a three week break for various magical things. Ianthe orders a Lesser Rod of Empower and Maximize (Dubbed the ‘boom stick’>, and makes a Belt of Giant Strength for Slyph, writes as many Teleport scrolls as she can, and learns Detect Scrying and False Vision.

Theoday, 24th of Toil, 721 IA
Then we are served a tax bill for 60,000gp. Apparently we were supposed to register all our finds, and pay taxes on it, something almost no one does. We realize that our rampant and reckless selling of items with certain maker’s marks on them have brought the attention of the StoneLost dwarves to our party, and what it’s doing. Ianthe brings Siannodel and Slyph along when she goes to see a lawyer, one Denoss Firth. He promises to get an extension, but feels that we probably can’t get it to go away. He also promises to find out who is gunning for us, and using red tape to do it. Vincent mentions that perhaps we need to get a fence for these things, and (after getting the male of the two Barbarians to distract Nanaia with surprise sex) we go to Halgrim Fatherstone, a dwarf in the Balacazar crime family. He will take 5% of anything we bring to him in exchange for fencing these items. We realize that we may not have a very long time to keep DwarvenHearth to ourselves, and so make plans to fight the dread wraith that we found within the only shop on the square that wasn’t looted. Slyph gives us another way to get into that area of the underground. Nanaia shows up with some holy bullets that she got from her network of Extremely Good People. We buy massive potions and scrolls to keep us safe from the wraith’s deadly touch, and head into Dwarvenhearth. Ianthe puts up Detect Scrying, and False Vision, a spell to give an entirely different thing to whoever scrys upon her, and forty feet around her. After a suggestion from Vincent, she puts up a vision of the Mystic Lotus having a particularly detailed and vivid orgy.

We enter the shop, and fight the wraith, Nanaia destroying it with a shot from her pistol loaded with her holy bullets. We go through the shop, discovering that it is an electricity shop (making Gotrek and Nanaia nearly climax with joy). Within, we find a generator, and half of an electrically run golem. A secret door leads us to the back of his shop, where we find an orrery with the addition of several small doorways. We realize that when we turn it on, we can set a date and make it show us the alignment of planets, and these doorways. It cannot work, because the electricity from the generator isn’t on. We find a book, “Seven Jewels of Parnaith” which details a way to become a god, using these portals. Gotrek does not want to make this work, believing that something bad will happen. After a small argument, the group decides to head towards Cathedral Cavern, and investigate where Karamis said his group was killed.
We discover a room filled with tiny little striped green bugs, called Hiisithe, demonic insects that kill, and then walk the corpses around. We fight, and fight, and fight the bugs, the zombies kept in check by a Web spell. Murlash, driven mad with fear, is nearly taken over by them, but Nanaia forces them from his helpless body with a Remove Curse. Finally, we triumph over them, and regroup to figure out what to do.

Session 20 – July 14, 2007

Three Week Break (6th of Blessing to 27th of Blessing)
Iblis disappears, leaving the party.
Nanaia spends three weeks making a Wand of Cure Serious Wounds. During this time Ianthe crafts a headband for Slyph made from the dragon’s teeth, and a fire opal we found in its hoard. The headband will allow her to spit fire a few times per day. Ianthe , still obsessed with maps, also creates a book that will map wherever they go.

Gotrek spends some time at the Steam Foundry to learn how to make airships. There is some excited discussion about having an airship moored at Rosegate, and the irritation it might provoke in the nobles. We also discuss making it out of Heliotrope (the floating metal).
Vincent, with a massive loan from Ianthe, commissions a Ring of Blinking, and has his spiked chain enchanted to hit even while he is ethereal.

Ianthe purchases the Ugly Child Lane house, and immediately rents it to the guards guarding the apparent stretch of wall that in fact houses the hole that leads to the mines. She continues to work on her moving map of Ptolus, in the living room.

As a gift for saving his life, the barbarian King gave us two of his followers (whom we refer to as ‘the barbarians’. Probably only Nanaia knows their names.), and they have been keeping our house. Tired of pig roasts and a dirty home, we hire a housekeeper to cook and clean for us. Halen is just happy to be working in the Noble District, and is of the opinion that people of our class are have eccentricities that are to be tolerated. She does not know of course, that none of us are, in fact, nobles. Someone drops to the barbarians that they can have her, and there is some joking on our way into the mines, that we’ll come home to find her exhausted in her room, and some satisfied barbarians. We of course, hope she’ll have our dinner ready as well.



Kingsday, 27th of Blessing, 721 IA

We continue into Dwarvenhearth. In a guard room, we discover rust monsters, bloated on metal like ticks. Vincent and Gotrek make short work of them, relying heavily on their special gloves that render them immune to the destruction of their armor in this way. This foresight brought about, of course, by the party’s encounter with them earlier in the ancient laboratory. We find in their nest, a few eggs, and an adamantine great axe. We file the axe in a bag, and then have a rousing argument over the eggs. Gotrek believes that the babies are trainable, and several of us want to sell the eggs, or train the monsters ourselves. Slyph, having a hatred of all abominations, wants only to destroy them. Ianthe grumbles about not being allowed to raise undead servants either. We decide to table the discussion until later, and turn our attentions to the room across the hall.
This room is protected by a trap that promises dire consequences if anyone of a chaotic nature approaches it. Gotrek decides not to disable the trap, leaving the bulk of the party unable to come near the room, and opens the door, which is not locked. Within the room is a well. On the wall are dials that tell how full the well is. Gotrek goes into the room to look at the dials, and is then attacked by the black pudding which lives within the empty well. It hurts him, hurts Ianthe, who is standing nearby, and then grabs Gotrek and drags him into the main body of the pudding, dissolving him completely in acid. Murlash runs towards the room, setting off the trap, which deafens and slows everyone who is not lawful in a large radius. Ianthe touches a piece of Gotrek’s skeleton, and dimension doors herself far back near Murlash, and away from the pudding. Then they wait for the effects to wane, and she takes care of the pudding, using a great deal of her spells to fireball, freeze, electrocute, and otherwise fry the pudding into nothingness. We all decide to take Gotrek’s corpse, and go home.

Nanaia informs us that she cannot cast Raise Dead on him because he is only a skeleton, and the spell requires that most of the body be intact. Gotrek will need either a True Resurrection, or a Resurrection spell. The former would bring him back as he was, the latter would bring him back again having forgotten much of his newly learnt skills. Only one person that we had access to could cast True Resurrection, and that is Maeda, High Priestess of Teyune, the goddess of technology.

Ianthe and Nanaia go to her to discuss a bargain. Maeda and Ianthe have a discussion that ends in raised voices, about whether or not the group is in Dwarvenhearth or not. The price ends up being that Gotrek disseminates all technology that he ‘invents’. We can do what we want with whatever we find in the course of our delving, of course, but Maeda and her friends (who turn out to be incredibly vicious gangsters that we have pissed off consistently since coming to this town) have agendas, and high aspirations to remove the theocracy (leaving Ianthe gritting her teeth, as she is a staunch Lothian.). We agree, as it is the only option we have, and in any case, affording a 35,000 gp diamond for the endeavor is beyond our means. She attempts to raise Gotrek, and succeeds. He is less than thrilled at the price we’ve negotiated for him, but he decides not to spitefully stab himself in the eye and negate it. We return home to re-provision ourselves. Siannodel sells our rust monster eggs on Dweomer Street for us. We go back under the city, and into Dwarvenhearth.

Continuing down the hallway, we come upon a bastion with a deep trench dug in front of it. There are several dwarves manning the outpost that act as if they are clockwork.. but are not machines, nor undead, nor really act alive. They fight with precision and no sound. They have rifles, cannons, and a drop ceiling with boiling oil. Ianthe takes out the cannons with a Wall of Force, and then drops an ice wall so that Gotrek and Vincent can get to a mezzanine, and fight the guys there. Slyph combats the guys in the ceiling murder holes by tossing bombs into them, and Murlash, having been rendered twice his size, does his best Godzilla impression, drawing most of the fire. We eventually fight our way into the bastion, and every one we kill turns to dust, leaving their items behind. After some spatial issues inside the monstrously close hallway right inside the bastion, we manage to get into Dwarvenhearth proper.
The city is built with economy in mind, and is nowhere near the arching and monolithically built place we were expecting. We continue down the street in a lower, worker class residential area. The city is silent, and abandoned. We discuss what sorts of places we want to go to, and the need for a map or something, to tell us where to go, since we suddenly realize we have no idea where we are going. As we explore, we realize that this place has been recently visited by people, and discuss the information given to us by Iblis shortly before his departure about Dark Elves breaking into Dwarvenhearth, looking for an astoundingly powerful artifact. We walk down central avenue, and encounter two Golems. One is made of stone, and has a rune carved on each fist; ‘Fire’ and ‘Cold’. The other is brass, with cannons inset into its arms. Murlash, finally able to attack something, makes a beeline for the brass Golem with his adamantine axe, while Slyph attacks the stone Golem, bearing on her a golembane scarab, allowing her to hit the creature and actually do any appreciable damage. Gotrek fires the cannon the group has appropriated from the bastion, while Nanaia casts ‘Lock and Load”, allowing the cannon to be fired and magically reloaded, as long as she touches it. Ianthe casts “haste” on everyone, and then goes invisible.. she is no good in this fight, as Golems are invulnerable to every spell she can cast. The stone Golem beats the holy hell out of Slyph, who ends up defeating it, and Murlash destroys the brass Golem. We decide to stay the night in one of the residences, and discuss our strategy for continuing.

Session 19 – July 7, 2007
Fireday, 3rd of Blessing, 721 IA
The lake of magma and the column of fire in the middle of it was too intimidating for us at the moment, so we retired to our home for a day or so. Suspecting that there would be something big coming from either the cave or the column of fire, we buy an immense amount of potions and scrolls. Nanaia, while being a well meaning and good woman, has no grasp of tactics. We spend a great deal of time helping Nanaia understand her spells and their martial applications. Then we travel to our destination.

We step onto the ledge next to the magma lake. As we spread out on the basalt beach, Ianthe took a long hard look at the column of fire. She determined that the column was a gate from the elemental plane of fire. In Ptolus, all gates into the world are one way, the exit being sealed off with with powerful magic. There is a cave on one side of the cavern, and from it flies a Red Dragon, being ridden by a Fire Giant. After a long and exhausting fight, both the dragon and the giant lay dead. We are unable to recover anything but the dragon's head, as its body sinks into the Magma, too heavy to move. Since most of us are already flying, we go to the cave, and loot it. The cave is small, with a small amount of treasure. It is also a dead end. We do see that across the magma lake, that there is in fact, a small hole in the wall. It becomes obvious that the fire giant had been excavating there, due to the rubble. As we are out of spells, hurt, and tired, we decide to sleep overnight in a small hut conjured by Ianthe.

Queensday, 4th of Blessing, 721 IA
As Nanaia's spells are regained at Dusk, we wait until the next evening to venture forth. We decide to cast airwalk on Merlosh, have him carry Ianthe, who will cast floating disk, and everyone will sit on that as if follows behind her. Iblis decides to fly. We enter through the hole, and into a mine. After some examination, it becomes obvious that the mine is a very rich mithril mine. We stone shape some raw mithril out of the mine and stick it in our bag. Slowly we realize that we have in fact.. found a way into Dwarvenhearth's mines, and so into the city. We begin to navigate our way out of the mine, towards an ore smelting plant. On our way, we meet a rock eating monster (Sadly, called a Delver, which causes some ooc confusion), who tells Gotrek (who speaks his language), that there is a large earth elemental guarding the exit out of the mines. Thus warned, we press on. At the exit from the mines into the smelting plant, there is indeed, an earth elemental who stands there. Gotrek goes up to talk to it, and the rest of the party decides to attack it instead. It becomes apparent that it will make way for dwarves, as it steps carefully around Gotrek to return the attack. Everyone with an object or hat of disguise makes themselves look like dwarves (Vincent making himself look like Gotrek.. a disguise he does not remove, and still has not), but continue to fight it, eventually to victory.

We continue into the smelting plant, and meet .. yes... even more Mephits (earth and fire) coming from the smelting chamber. The party agrees they are officially tired of Mephits. We explore this place, and discover in a warehouse-like room, piles and piles of every kind of metal we can think of, in a raw ore state. This includes a metal called "Marlite", which is 'magically dead', meaning that no spells work on it whatsoever. We get enormously excited by this, but leave the ore where it is for now. We go to the other chamber here, and find a fortune in giant ingots of all the same kinds of metal. Munching on these ingots with alarming speed, are several Xorns. We fight them, and almost lose, but eventually we finish them off, with heavy wounds. We bemoan our dallying speed, feeling that we could have saved more ingots if we were just faster. We decide to rest in this room.


Theoday, 5th of Blessing, 721 IA

We rest for a long time here, Ianthe learning the teleport spell from her scroll. It takes some time, but she gets everyone home again.


Kingsday, 6th of Blessing, 721 IA
We sell the ingots, and the gems and Aethel stones we retrieved from the dragon's lair, and pick up Ianthe's stone of alarm that she's had made for the entrance to our new section of caves. Vincent, since he's been a member of the Delver's Guild for a long long time, decides to try to register this section of underground for himself (Dripstone farm).. meaning that no other delver can go there without being in serious trouble. It also comes with some guards.. delvers who need money.

Gotrek scours the city, and finds a house of ill repute in the Warrens who has an ogre prostitute. He treats Murlash to her favors for the evening, along with various pastries.

We wait three weeks so Nanaia can craft her wand of cure serious wounds.

Our Heroes Rest
The Lotus takes three months off after saving the world, and averting all kinds of other disasters. Ianthe spends it both learning the giant mountain of spells from the countless spellbooks captured during the last adventure, making many many magic items for her Order members, and joining the Inverted Pyramid. Occasionally, she sees the light of day to play Dragonscales (a chess like strategy game). She finds that her team mates still don't trust her, and isn't bothered by this.

Merlosh the troll (a troll we had rescued during the last adventures, and turned in to be 'rehabilitated') came to us (now chaotic good in alignment), and mourned the loss of Graak. After being given a headband of intellect made by Ianthe, he is now capable of conversing in semi sentences. He spent the three months fighting in the gladiatorial arena, and picked up the knack of fighting with armor and weapons. Gotrek took him as a body guard, since no one else seemed able to come up with a use for him. He now guards the store. And Gotrek.

Nanaia spent the three months in an existential quandry, often talking to Ianthe about it, which only gained her more quandry, as Ianthe is not at all comforting with philosophical discussions, and believes Nanaia worships a demon, and that there is only one true god.

Gotrek spent the three months selling several evil weapons in the undermarket with Merlosh and Slyph as his bodyguards. He made a fortune.

The rest went delving a bit, and came across a tunnel that was not on the map they had gotten in the Delver's Guild.. which looked like an entrance that had been sealed, and then smashed open. We all met together to check it out.
***
( Session 1 )
( Session 2 )
( Way Down In The Hole )