Events+of+Zarantyr+22-26,+998+YK

=**Events of Zarantyr 22-26, 998 YK**=

"Unfinished Business" Update
With a new day came a new try at reaching the mountainside entrance to the Goblinoids' lair. Jho stayed behind in the cave to watch the remaining horses, and the other five worked their up the narrow, snow-covered footpath. Three hours passed before they reached the entrance, a ruined colonnaded corridor worked into a natural fold of the mountain. The walls on both sides included friezes depicting Dwarves in all manner of activities...and Goblin graffiti, including black hand prints in various sizes.

The entrance was guarded by a couple of Worgs, three Goblin archers, one Hobgoblin archer, and a Goblin spellcaster. There was a brutal fight, in which the defenders used Thunderstones, Bloodspikes and Sleep Arrows, but the party prevailed. Just inside the entrance, up some stairs, they found two malnourished Heavy Warhorses bearing House Vadalis brands, and the skinned, dressed and partially-eaten carcass of a third, near a cookfire. Two defenders got away, presumably to warn the rest of the complex.

Moving into the former Dwarf hold, they found a foyer with a fountain of clean water, with the walls radiating warmth. Being injured and already spell-depleted (despite the half-dozen healing potions they found on the fallen Dark Hands), they decided to rest here, hoping to defend the foyer from the expected counterattack.

After a couple of hours during which Alfred regained his Bard spells, the group gingerly pressed on. Through a set of counterweighted stone doors, they found what may once have been the Dwarves' burial vault. But it was hard to tell what with the crates and barrels on the floor and the crude shelving units loaded with mundane items, located all through the room. The Goblins had clearly turned the vault into a storeroom...and had somehow also guarded it with Skeletal Dwarves, equipped with Dwarf-made Battleaxes, Breastplates and Large Steel Shields. The fight was tough, given the very confined space, and a lot of things fell over. Empty sacks, waterskins, hobnailed boots, mundane Goblin and Hobgoblin spears.... IN the end the party won, and found such things as Blessed bandages, Alchemical items and still more potions.

Pressing on, they opened the last set of double doors from the room with the Dark hand painted on the floor, and found a hallway leading to a long alcove filled with crude bunks, stacked two and three high. At the end was a pit the Goblinoids used a a latrine. The bunks were empty, the bedrolls tighly wound as if for transport.

Turning away from the alcove they came upon another set of double doors. These, however, had an alarm spell cast on them, so when Brak touched the doors the alarm went off -- CAW! CAW! CAW! Going in, Brak and Dona found another room converted to bunk space and storage. Barrels had been set up as barricades, and the Goblin and Hobgoblin who had escaped the first fight were using the barricade as cover, firing arrows at the party. Dona, circling around, encountered a blueskinned Goblin -- a Telepath who hit her with Mind Thrusts that forced her to retreat. From the rear, Thomas, Nina, Nina's Wolf and Alfred...

Anyway, the barrels were full of flammable oil. The party was able to oget out of the room and shut the stone doors before the barrels exploded, taking the Goblin and Hobgoblin...the Blue escaped.

From there, there was a fight in the next room, a hall filled with statues of Dwarves in niches, and storage cubbyholes. In one of these, they found a Human male, battered, bruised and nearly naked. This turned out to be Colden Torbald. The real Colden, held captive for almost a week here after being abducted in New Cyre. Given equipment, Colden proved to be a valuable asset in the final battle for control of Frostsilver Hold.

In the Chapel/Meeting Hall of the Hold, the new party faced a foe of the old party -- the adamantine-bodied Warforged traitor known as Plow. The Blue was there, as were all surviving Goblin and Hobgoblin soldiers, the ragged remnants of the so-called Dark Hand Goblinoids. And, behind an illusory curtain of black, was another. Human, probably; insane, almost certainly. And proficient with the use of alchemical grenades and bloodspikes, as Dona could attest. In the end, the Dark Hands were dead, and Plow, the Blue and the Human escaped down a secret corridor, which they collapsed behind them.

Fortunately, valuable clues were found in the unknown leader's alchemical lab and magic item workshop, atop the stage at the front of the Hall. Alchemical vials, potions, two Eberron shards infused as Mourning Stones -- and an ancient flat piece of runecarved metal. This last turned out to be the schema used to make the deadly grenades that had killed the Murnies and harmed the first party.

Elated, the party gathered everything they could carry, recovered the missing warhorses, rejoined Jho with the other horses, and skedaddled back to New Cyre. They reported their findings to Prince Oargev, and gave him the schema and a live Mourning Stone as proof. This is the first piece of evidence that The Mourning could be recreated or simulated, though at a tiny fraction of the cataclysm's power. Oargev gladly reached into his dwindling personal fortune to pay out the reward money (after deducting the costs for the horses and other supplies they'd used...still came to a nice chunk of change).

Meanwhile, in Sharn...
Upon their arrival in Sharn, Draco, Crest, Stend, Dashiell and Faye followed the directions provided by their grateful benefactor, Baron Curzon ir'Dorn, to his residence in Sharn, located in a slender tower in the Mithral District (in the Upper Wards). The place was fairly small by nobility standards, but well-maintained. The only member of the staff they saw was a Bugbear //major domo// with gleaming fur and a shiny breastplate.

The next day, Dashiell and Stend traveled to the Sovereign Host Temple to check in and see if they could learn anything, while Crest and Draco accompanied Faye on her appointment.... Tasteful decor, darkwood paneling, understated but elegant furnishings. The Sharn offices of Noçeon, Zimmall, Zuñiga & Nayazaki had all that, and more. Located in a set of upper floors of Czervanth Tower, NZZN seemed to have little in common with a band of Goblinoid mercenaries reformed as a "Clan" last seen seven millenia ago.

The company contact was a Dwarf bedecked in copper rings, on all the fingers of his left hand, and holding the braids of his long brown beard in place. The Dwarf, after some cajoling, accepted that Faye Dwarfhammer was in fact Kostas Knyarri's protege, to whom the Duergar smith had taught the secrets of forging //byeshk// metal. Faye was given a stipend and set up with forge space in The Cogs deep underneath Sharn.

Meanwhile, Dashiell Kaplan was given the chance to resume his duties as figurehead Project Manager of the Boldrei Temple reconstruction site in Fallen. Upon arrival, he found that work had slowed greatly because several workers had disappeared, and the others were scared. Following a lead from Lucan Stellos, the party found itself in The Cogs, and eventually in an abandoned area that had been taken over by horrid Roach Thralls, which had abducted the missing workers, killed them and were wearing their skins. In the middle of the fight, Faye was struck down and nearly killed by an evil-looking Choker, who struck from above using an Eldritch Blast. The party survived and apparently solved the mystery.

After this, the original party split up. Faye and Dashiell settled into their jobs; Stend did not return to the group; and Crest and Draco took needed R&R on the Baron's crown (the name for the copper piece in old Galifar). Faye, for her part, was provided with tools, an anvil, sufficient //byeshk// to begin the forging...and an assistant of sorts; a living, self-aware Flesh Golem called Fedder.