The Stealer of Children

In the last session, I was not certain which direction the players would go so I had several adventures ready. One of the toss in short encounters was a modification of "The Stealer of Children" from Small Niche Games written by Peter C. Spahn. The adventure was written for levels 1-3 of Labyrinth Lord but because of the nature of the adventure, I found it quite easy to modify the adventure for levels 5-10 for Swords & Wizardry. The adventure involves a single fey antagonist who has resistance to most attacks.

The adventure went very well. I think the players enjoyed the change of pace. It is more of a thinking player's adventure. The final solution that came up with (in the next session) was not what was intended but it worked out.

Session 95: The Stealer of Children

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Domago (human fighter), Flora (elven thief), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC).

After a day Alayna has identified all of the potions the Company found in the cave of the mad alchemist. Lakima decides he has some of his own potion-making he wants to do. He heads over to the Mages Guild to make use of the alchemy lab. He is out when Lantosh brings up the issue of recovering Aashdoshan’s body. Domago says he regrets leaving the body behind but the building was collapsing. Eathwund agrees to go with Domago and Lantosh and Fenris gives Lantosh the Spade of Excavation.

Traveling outside the town to the south the three men arrive at the cemetery. They find that the Tower has completely collapsed and is now just a large heap of rubble with a few standing segments of walls. A pair of members of the town watch stand guard (or are actually seated on some stools rescued from the rubble). Lantosh scouts the rubble and gets the spade of excavation digging in the area he thinks is where the upper floor would have collapsed. After an hour the spade has uncovered a large area and they find Aashdoshan’s skeletal remains. An intact coffin is found in the rubble and it is used to remove the body from the hole. Eathwund pays a passing carter with a wagon 20 gold to haul the coffin to the Apothecary shop in Edgerton (likely years pay or more for the carter). Malyn takes charge of the remains and places a golden Mask of Peaceful Repose over Aashdoshan’s “face”.

The three make their way back to the Manor House. Outside they see a fine horse and carriage awaiting with footmen wearing the colors of the Town of Edgerton. Inside the Manor they find Baron Lucien Vorloi waiting for them. The baron swears them to secrecy and tells them that Earl Stefan of Lockeland has been missing for a year – taken in the middle of the night by the Creature of Rhyl. A mysterious beast that has been hunting livestock and the occasional villager during the night in Lockeland for the past ten years. This attack is different from the rest. Rather than a simple hunt for food, it seems more directed. The beast took Lord Stefan and two powerful magic items from the treasury. These are not the actions of a simple beast. The mages of the Ducal Court suspect that the wizard Astylis is behind the actions of the creature.

The Baron tells them that several companies of mercenaries and a cohort of the knights were sent to the location of Astylis’ complex and none returned. Recent divination confirmed that Duke Stefan is still alive so Duke Robert asked his court for suggestions. The Baron explains that he suggested the Company of the Black Dragon be hired. He is counting on their improving his standing with Lord Robert and on their discretion. So far, Lord Robert has been keeping Earl Stefan’s disappearance secret. Eathwund tells the Baron that they cannot agree to the terms (payment of 8,000 gold coins) without consulting Lakima who is busy. They promise to let him know before the sunset of the day.

Eathwund and Domago head over to the Mages Guild and disturb Lakima working on creating Healing potions. Lakima listens and agrees to the deal. A map is laid out and the distance to Leandra’s Row is plotted. It looks to be a journey that will take a few weeks. But Lakima tells them to send a note to the Baron that they will take the job and they will be in Leandra’s Row in 2 days.

The next day preparations are made for the journey. Lakima studies maps and asks Domago (who is from Lockeland) if there are any bridges in Leandra’s Row. Domago goes to Cromly’s and is shown the artisan’s latest creation – Cromly’s Marvellous Sling bullets. He is selling the explosive sling bullets for 100 gold each. Domago asks to buy all 20 that have been produced but has to borrow gold from Eathwund to do it.

The group hires a riverboat and spends 2 days traveling to the Dolm ferry. Lakima, Eathwund, Domago, Alrix, Flora, Fenris, and Lantosh are on the journey. From the ferry, they head north and then east into Kingswood. As the trees begin to close in, they meet some Elven Rangers. Once the rangers realize that they are the Company of the Black Dragon, they let them pass. Shorty, thereafter they arrive at the Bridgeway and greet the Custodian of the Bridge, the wizard Ezmeraldan. Lakima greets the old mage and asks for a portal to be opened to Leandra’s Row. The mage agrees and sets the crystals in the portal. The adventurers then cross the bridge and step off one end at the Cherry Creek bridge in Leandra’s Row, magically transported by the portal magic of the Bridgeway.

As soon as they find themselves in Leandra’s Row, the group sees a young farmer running toward them yelling.

“Help, help, he is trying to kill me!”

They see another man clad in rusted, old plate armor clumsily chasing the farmer. Without a whole lot of time to get an explanation, the adventurers move to protect the farmer who hides behind Lantosh. Eathwund, Domago, and Alrix move to block the knight. Alrix sends his dancing sword to attack. The knight is struck several times breaking off pieces of armor and they see that the armor is animated by a skeleton. After a few more blows the skeleton collapses. The adventurers ask the farmer for an explanation and he explains that he was chopping firewood from a downed tree when the knight exploded out of the very tree. Lakima insists the farmer show them the tree. They travel 20 minutes into the deep woods and find a large oak tree in a clearing. The tree has been split in two by a lightning strike and is badly damaged by fire. The tree grows out of a low mound of earth. A large, flat rock rests over a hole beneath the roots. Eathwund asks if they should move the stone, but they decide to the village and report what they found.

Leandra’s Row is a small farm village along Duke’s Road. The road passes through the village linking Lockeland with Thurmany. There is a tavern with a few rooms named “The Red Smile” and a nearby Abbey. They learn that the land and the village are managed by the sisters of the order of St. Leandra. The town is known for its cherry trees. The village warder, Arlen Travers, has the body of the knight taken to the abbey. Sister Allisen tells them that the heraldic designs on the knight indicate he was a member of Lansing House. The former Lords of Leandra. The Lansings died out hundreds of years ago. The last Lord Lansing was killed in a fire that destroyed Lansing Manor.

The adventurers go to the Red Smile tavern and meet their contact, Sir Angus Goblinbane. Their contact turns out to be a very old knight of some repute. Sir Angus shows them on a map where the location of Astylis’ complex is suspected to lie – about 2 days ride north.

The party spends the night in the tavern. They find they have to sleep on the tavern floor as the tavern has only 2 rooms for rent and Sir Angus has taken the larger one. The next morning there is a commotion in the village. They learn that a child went missing during the night. Disappearing from home with no signs of disturbance. The adventurers do head over to where the villagers have gathered to organize search parties. Arlen Travers is doing the organizing. Lakima tells Arlen that if the Company is paid in gold they will look for the missing child. This angers the warder who asks them to begone from the village.

While walking away from the village gathering, Lantosh stops and tells Lakima that he will return and help the villagers find the missing child. Domago agrees and also turns to leave. Lakima calls them back and tells them that he thinks the child was taken by a fey creature and that the key to finding the child is investigating the lightning-struck oak. He is convinced that it is a fairy mound. Lakima suggests they investigate it immediately.

The entire group heads out of the village and into the Tanglewood forest. Soon they arrive at the clearing with the lightning-damaged tree. Eathwund tries to move the boulder without success. He also tries with Lantosh’s aid and still fails. Finally, Lantosh taps Domago on the shoulder and the two manage to lever the stone to one side. Below the rock is a large hole dug in the ground. Fenris slides down into the hole and calls up that there is a tunnel below. The entire group descents. Lakima provides light with his glowing staff and Lantosh lights a lantern. Flora and Alrix take the lead using their superior dark vision.

The tunnel winds through the earth continually descending. Finally, they arrive at an intersection and see a pair of chambers dug out of the earth. The nearest chamber is full of detritus including some disturbing items like children’s clothing and toys. Lakima enters and looks around and is attacked suddenly by three tiny 1-foot-tall fey creatures. One of them bites him on the leg. Lakima releases the efreet Khisa from its bottle and orders it to erect a Wall of Fire. The fire springs up blocking the creatures from the group but it also fills the small tunnels with smoke. Domago blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla summoning a cohort of berserkers to appear on the other side of the flames. They hear some screaming and then quiet. Coughing, Lakima tells Khisa to drop the wall of fire. The flames vanish and they see three hacked-up corpses of the tiny fey. Eathwund searches through the debris and finds the ancient skeleton of a child with a silver locket about his neck. They decide to take the child’s bones and place them in the Bag of Holding.

In the next chamber, they find a disturbingly large number of human bones. All of the bones are clearly those of human children and most are very old. Some have almost disintegrated. The newest bones are at least a few hundred years old. All show signs of having been eaten.

Armed with this knowledge the group moves deeper into the earth following the tunnel eventually arriving in a large cave bisected by a swiftly moving stream. Lantosh leads the way cautiously holding his lantern out in front. Soon the light falls on a fey creature resting on a bed of children’s clothes, dolls, and toys. The creature stirs as the light falls over it. The fey creature is short in stature about 4 feet tall with green skin, short horns, and long hair. The creature rises and taunts the adventurers in gibberish muttered in elvish. Its sentences end in gurgling laughter and the phrase “grombel… grombel… grombel..”

Disgusted by the creature, which claims to be eating the missing child, the group attack. Eathwund and Lantosh strike at it with their weapons and Alrix send the sword of dancing at it. All of the attacks miss. Domago blows the Horn and two berserkers appear and attack but they also miss. Then the creature turns into a cloud of cold mist and slowly drifts over to a dirt wall and passes through it.

The adventurers wait for a short time but the creature does not appear. A slightly rattled Fenris keeps repeating that they need to leave. Finally, Lantosh suggests they check the other passage. This passage leads to a wooden wall with a door in the center. Eathwund moves to the door and Fenris joins him. Fenris listens and tells everyone he can hear a human child crying. Domago cautions that this could be a trap.

Eathwund swings the door open and they see a crudely constructed child’s bedroom. A crying girl of around 5 years of age rests on a bed. Lantosh rushes forward and picks up the child comforting her. Eathwund checks the chamber for magic but finds none.

“We need to get her out of here,” urges Lantosh.

The group immediately leaves and heads back through the forest to the village. The child’s parents eagerly come running once the word is spread that the adventurers found the child. At first, the child is unable to speak but eventually, the young girl tells her parents that a creature appeared in her bedroom and she was frozen with fear. Then it picked her up and they floated through walls and through the air to the bedroom beneath the ground.

Arlen Travers arrives and thanks the adventurers calling them heroes and telling them he was wrong to doubt them. Later he asks them to meet Mother Mills with him at the abbey. The skeleton of a child they found is identified by one of the nuns as Evan Lansing. The locket he was wearing shows the Lord and Lady Lansing, the last Lansing family members to rule the area. Sister Allisen identified the child from the research she had done on the history of the area. The heroes are not certain how this all connects. Lakima is still wondering if this is somehow connected to the Creature of Rhyl. A mission that they need to get started on soon. In the meantime, they return to the Red Smile tavern.

Golem amok

This session was something that came together quickly. The players deftly avoided some travel encounters by risking using teleport from the end of the last adventure directly to their home. I had nothing ready. I did have a former character for a player that left the group due to scheduling. His character, a necromancer, had been gradually sliding towards chaos and the player suggested to me that his character get taken down by his own undead minions. Since the character is carrying an artifact that is central to the overall plot I had been running him as an NPC for a few sessions trying to figure out what to do with him. The need for a quick adventure for the week was the impetus to come up with an idea. I took some location maps that were already done and added a free-willed golem created by a Cursed Manual of Golem creation.

Session 94: On the trail of the Monster

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Domago (human fighter), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC).

The adventurers spend a week resting and recuperating at their Manor House in Edgerton. Eathwund checks in on the tavern he owns and finds everything running smoothly. Alrix goes to merchant Clearwin and commissions a device that will make his physical attacks magical – at a cost of 1,800 gold. Domago speaks with Clearwin and then commissions Cromly the smith to make him magical sling bullets that will explode with fire on contact with a target – for 1,500 gold. Domago also asks Cromly about elemental sling bullets.

Lakima prepares magical protection circles and releases the Efreet Khisa again. He bargains with Khisa. Khisa offers the location of the arch-mage Keraptis’ tower in exchange for his freedom (an obvious adventurer hook). Lakima successfully gets Khisa to agree to the year and one-day standard agreement of service with the promise that he will break the brass jar when the service is complete (so much for that side quest).

After eight days of quiet, breakfast is interrupted by Sergeant Frans of the local Watch. Frans asks to see Aashdoshan but the latter is not around. Frans explains that a Tower appeared overnight in a field near the cemetery south of town. There must be some strong necromancy involved because some of the dead have risen from the nearby cemetery and are preventing the watch from investigating. Frans asks the adventurers for help.

Lakima agrees to help on behalf of the group. Frans tells him the watch will escort him to the tower. When Lakima dismisses the escort Frans insists. The watch is needed to keep locals away. Eathwund, Alrix, Domago, and Lantosh get prepared for some fighting. Flora, Fenris, and Aashdoshan are missing from the Manor. Lakima does go in search of Aashdoshan in the cellar but finds the chamber empty.

Sergeant Frans leads the adventurers south of the town along the Dolm river. Soon they make out the shape of a square tower with a wide base resting crookedly in a field where no tower stood before. Trees and dirt are tossed aside around the base of the new tower. Lakima immediately realizes that the tower is the same shape and form as Aashdoshan’s Tower in a Book that they have used so often. This one is made of stone and not paper. This confirms his suspicion that something must have happened to the Infinity Glass in the tower while it was in Aashdoshan’s possession.

A group of a dozen zombies can be seen standing idly around the base of the tower. The tower has no windows and only a single door where the zombies are the most concentrated. Domago steps forward and presents his Holy Symbol to the zombies causing several to stagger away toward the cemetery. Lakima unstops the efreeti bottle and releases Khisa. He tells the efreet to raise a Wall of Fire to keep the zombies at bay. The men of the watch are terrified of the flaming efreet but Lakima puts their fears at bay.

The adventurers and the efreet enter the tower one at a time. They find themselves in the familiar waiting room of the Tower in a Book confirming their fears. The adventurers make their way through the tower finding many doors open. On the second floor, they encounter some zombies which Domago turns. On the third floor, they find the iron gate torn off its hinges, and in the prison, they find the door of one cell knocked to the floor. They also discover Fenris, badly injured and hiding in a locked cell.

Once released Fenris tells them that he was doing a job in the cemetery with Aashdoshan last night. As they approached the cemetery Aashdoshan cursed and tossed the Book of the Tower to the ground. A moment later the tower appeared with a crash. Aashdoshan ordered Fenris into the tower with him. On the top floor, they encountered a berserk Golem made up of human body parts. Aashdoshan clearly recognized the creature and tried to calm it down but the creature grabbed Aashdoshan by the neck and snapped it. Fenris decided to run but he was struck by a hurled table. He managed to get to the prison cells and locked himself in. He heard the creature pass down the hallway many hours ago.

On the top floor of the tower, the adventurers find the workshop in shambles. Lying near an overturned table is Aashdoshan. Not only dead, but he has rapidly aged to a skeleton. They also find a shattered Infinity Glass and the Manual of Golem creation lying on the floor. Lakima takes the Manual and Aashdoshan’s Staff of Undead Command. Eathwund picks up Aashdoshan’s duffle bag. Domago takes the time to pray over Aashdoshan’s remains but tells the group that Aashdoshan’s soul is gone. He cannot be raised from the dead.

The adventurers leave the tower and begin searching the grounds for footprints. Their activity attracts the attention of several zombies. The zombies all walk into the Wall of Fire and are burnt to ashes. Lakima finds giant footprints leading west from the tower through farmland toward the nearby forested hills.

Lakima tells Sergeant Frans about the escaped Golem and that the tower belonged to Aashdoshan. Frans asks several questions about the responsibility for the golem. Lakima convinces him that Aashdoshan is to blame and not the Company of the Black Dragon. He tells Frans that the tower is unstable and should not be entered. As if to punctuate this point, the tower settles and parts of one wall collapse. Lakima tells the group that they need to follow the trail of tracks. Lakima asks if everyone is ready to leave and Fenris says that he is too injured to join them. Domago casts healing on Fenris removing that argument. Fenris still says it is more important to clear the tower first. Since no one wants to go back inside Fenris goes on his own while the group speaks with the watchmen. He emerges a half-hour later dragging a large sack he has filled with Aashdoshan’s belongings. Lakima forces Fenris to hand each item over one at a time and place them in the Bag of Holding. Domago suspiciously asks Fenris several questions about his motives – seemingly convinced that Fenris is under a charm or up to no good. Finally, the group sets off following the trail of large footprints.

The trail leads through several farms. The adventurers question locals and learn that the creature has gone this way and has stolen a live cow. The trail leads up into the hills to the mouth of a cave on the side of a hill. A rotted rope hangs from a nearby tree.

The adventurers enter the cave and find a recently killed bear lying in a pile of leaves. Beyond the immediate cave is a chasm that cuts across the path. A crude bridge formed by logs has been pushed down in the chasm. At the bottom of the chasm, they spot giant fire beetles moving about. Eathwund tells everyone that this is the Alchemist’s Cave that they explored a few years ago. Lakima tells Khisa to lift the logs out of the chasm to reform the bridge. He descends and with some effort manages to lift the logs into place. Fenris runs quickly across. The logs prove to be slightly unstable so the rest of the adventurers are ferried across by Khisa. He sets everyone down in a large cave with another exit. Half of the cave is flooded with the freshwater of a spring. Khisa looks curiously into the pool and sees a ripple of colored water moving toward him.

A Potion Weird, twenty-feet tall, erupts from the pool and bites Lantosh. The heroes slash away at the weird until it settles back down into the pool and dissipates. They leave the cave and continue on entering the large cavern where the mad alchemist carried out his experiments. Pools of liquid are scattered across the cave floor. A few of the pools are dried up but most of them still contain some liquid. Fenris carefully walks out amongst the pools and the rest of the group starts to spread out.

“Careful, it must be here, there are no other exits,” Lakima warns.

With a loud roar, the golem strides from the shadows and swings at Eathwund with a fist the size of his head. The punch misses, and Eathwund quickly counters with his sword, cutting deeply into the golem’s side. Blood and viscera splatter onto the cave floor. Domago blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla summoning two berserkers to the fight. Alrix attacks with his Sword of Dancing and Lakima strikes the golem with his staff of striking. The staff seems to misfire but the other attacks strike the golem – which appears clumsy and easy to hit. The golem does manage to punch Lantosh in the shoulder knocking the fighter down, but soon the sheer number of adventurers slash the golem to pieces until the light in its eyes is extinguished.

Lakima orders Khisa to return to town and come back with many glass containers. The rest of the group sits about in the cavern waiting for several hours for the efreet to return. Eventually, Khisa does return with a sack full of mismatched glass bottles. Lakima rebukes Khisa for taking so long.

“I had to steal them from several different shops,” Khisa replies.

The adventurers drain the remaining pools into glass containers and then leave the cave. They return to the tower near the cemetery and let Frans know that the monster has been killed. Then they return to their Manor House. Alayna agrees to identify the potions.

The Foundry

A few weeks ago my Swords & Wizardry Campaign players manage to recover the 3 holy relics beneath White Plume Mountain. This was my own version of White Plume Mountain. I retained the essence of the plot and a few of the iconic scenes but not much else. Everything else was changed to fit my campaign.

Primarily I was concerned that such a well-known adventure as White Plume Mountain would have been read several times by my players. After the session, I did ask about this and I was surprised to learn that none of them had ever had a chance to play the original. This suggests that I might be able to run other classic modules without a whole lot of changes.

Session 93: The Foundry

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Domago (human fighter), Flora (elven thief), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC), Aashdoshan (necromancer NPC).

Perched on an edge of an underground lake filled with boiling water the adventurers investigate the stone obelisk and orb that is placed on the floor near the edge. Lakima tries pressing or removing the crystals on the side of the pedestal and nothing happens. But when he places his hand on the orb it glows with an inner light. Soon, they hear the sound of rushing water in the cavern. A narrow pathway begins to form through the boiling water. Seemingly held back by invisible walls the water drains away to form a dry path across the lake. But the path is 50 feet below them and they have left all of their rope in the cavern with the mud pits.

Lakima asks Alrix to investigate the cavern. Alrix argues a little but then agrees and flies off into the darkness in his native form of a winged serpent. The cavern appears to be about 200 feet in diameter. The dry path leads to another ledge and another obelisk on the far side. Alrix returns and hears the flapping of a swarm of bat wings. Ahead he spots a cloud of what at first, he believes are bats but which on closer inspection are a swarm of stirges. Yelling a warning Alrix lands back on the ledge with the group. Lakima throws a fireball at the swarm of stirges. Most of the stirges are incinerated. The few that survive, flee away into the darkness.

Fenris and Flora climb down the slick cavern wall to the path and proceed ahead. Alrix flies above them alert for more dangers. On the far side, Flora and Fenris climb up to the ledge and find another tunnel headed deeper into the mountain. Fenris puts his hand on the orb and it lights up. But nothing seems to happen. Alrix flies back to the rest of the group leaving Fenris and Flora on their own. They all decide to all get into the Tower in a Book and then have Alrix carry the book in his mouth to the far side. This is accomplished and soon everyone emerges from the pocket dimension of the tower on the far side of the lake.

Once safely on the other side, the group heads a short distance down the tunnel when they come to an intersection. One tunnel heads off into the darkness and the other leads into a cave. Lakima shines his light into the cave and they see the stone statue of a Dragon. A few moments after their light falls onto the statue, it begins to move rapidly toward them in crashing steps. Alrix casts magic missile but he sees the magic dissipate when the missiles strike the stone dragon (golem). He shouts a warning to everyone that it is immune to magic spells. Eathwund strikes it solidly with his sword and sees a few chips of stone fall off. Domago blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla and three berserkers appear and begin striking the dragon doing no damage at all. The stone dragon stretches to its full height and breathes out a cloud of poisonous gas over Eathwund and Alrix but both manage to avoid breathing long enough to get out of the gas cloud. Lakima yells at Eathwund to use the power of Wormbane. Eathwund strikes the stone dragon again and uses the sword’s power to negate its magic resistance temporarily. Lakima waits a moment for Eathwund to nod that it is done and then he casts Magic Missile. This time the missiles blast parts of the dragon apart and it collapses into a heap of broken stone. Eathwund searches through the pile of stones and he finds a glowing red gem.

Flora has been further up the tunnel on guard throughout the fight. Now she hears the sound of men talking urgently in common coming toward her. They are guards that have heard the noise of the fight. She signals to Fenris to hide the two of them and wait for the men to approach. Two men come into view, dressed in leather armor and holding swords and torches. One of them shouts in alarm as he spots Domago, but Flora manages to silence him with a strike from behind. The other man tried to run but is cut down but Flora. He does manage to shout out a warning.

Flora and Fenris try to sneak up the tunnel that the men came from but they encounter a number of men waiting and alert. There is a brief battle, and the men are chased back into a man-made portion of the dungeon. Stone block walls, floor, and ceiling are decorated with faded paintings. In a large hall, they fight and defeat ten men.

The hall they are in has several piles of wooden crates full of food and barrels full of water. All of these supplies are clearly new. The walls are painted in faded images of a Wizard working slaves in a foundry. The paintings look to be very old – hundreds and hundreds of years. Several doors lead from the Hall to a crude sleeping area, a forge, a storage room, and the sleeping quarters for a boss. Here they find a shrine dedicated to some evil god, three empty wooden crates full of packing straw, and three locked iron chests. Between Fenris and Flora they manage to open all of the chests and find some treasure – gold and silver coins, gems, jewels, a scroll tube, a potion, and a bronze jar. Everything is quickly stuffed into the bag of holding.

Leaving the hall, they travel down a smaller hallway that Alrix finds is very tight. Turning a corner, they see that the hallway has pairs of metal pools extending from floor to ceiling every ten feet extending its length. This clearly looks like a trap. Fenris checks and is unable to find anything indicating a trap. Lakima asks Flora to check as well but she also finds nothing. Lakima then asks if anyone has anything they do not need. Eathwund hands him a grappling hook. Lakima tosses the grappling hook underhand down the corridor. It lands and then slides for several feet. No trap is triggered. Lakima then looks at everyone and asks for a volunteer to proceed down the hall. Domago steps forward.

Domago walks slowly and carefully past the first pair of poles, then the second, then the third with nothing happening. But as he passes the fourth pair, a trap is sprung, and lightning arcs between poles and up and down the corridor. Domago leaps to one side but is still electrocuted. He gets up and runs for the far end of the hallway getting struck by lightning again. Lakima casts the Wall of Iron spell as quickly as he can extending the length of the hallway along one wall. This seems to stop the lightning trap. Or it could be that Domago reached the end of the hallway. As they debate this, Domago examines the room he has arrived in. The room is empty but for a circular passage entering one wall. The passage out is a cylinder of grey metal that appears to descend at a slight angle. An ominous red glow shines from the far end. As the rest of the adventurers start down the lightning-trapped hall, Domago carefully steps into the cylinder. Immediately, the cylinder begins to slowly spin, and Domago realizes the surface is coated in slick oil. He desperately tries to keep upright on his feet as he slowly slips toward the glowing end. Meanwhile, Eathwund is leading the way down the hall. As he passes the fourth pair of pillars, the lightning trap activates again – but this time it is grounded by the iron wall. He runs quickly to the far room and spots Domago slipping and sliding in a cylinder. Eathwund reaches out with his quarterstaff and Domago is able to grasp it. He is pulled to safety.

Once everyone is in the room, they do a careful check of the walls and floor but find no secret switches of doors. The cylinder slowly stops spinning. Looking down its length they see that it appears to lead to a cave filled with red-hot lava. Lakima declares that this is odd because one of the men they killed tried fleeing in this direction. He was sure that there would be a passage to somewhere safe. They return back to the large Hallway. Domago suggests checking the walls of the lightning trap hall before the first set of pillars. Flora checks but is unable to find a door. Lakima takes out the Wand of Secret Door detection which quickly finds a doorway and a switch to operate it. Fenris presses the switch and the door swings open. Flora goes ahead into the darkness as Lakima shields his light. She peers around a corner and spots two more of the armed brigands they have met. This pair of men appear at ease, having not heard all of the noise from the fighting. She and Fenris come upon the pair, surprising and killing them. The passage is lit by the glow coming from a large cavern. The glow coming from a lake of lava.

They see a huge iron structure sitting on stone pillars just above a lake of lava. In the center of the structure is what looks like an enormous ladle. Small iron winches and urns hang from chains near the ladle. A descending series of iron platforms held aloft by chains leads to the structure. At the end of the platforms, three humans in dark-grey robes wait expectantly. Apparently having heard the most recent fight with the brigands. Two of the men are hooded but carry no weapons, while the third man stands behind the other two. This man is unhooded, his bald head reflecting the light of the lava. He holds a staff in one hand and a mace in the other. On the platform, they also see, three dwarf-sized figures clad in bulky iron suits that cover their entire bodies. They have closed helms on their heads. Flames occasionally shoot out of vents in the front of the helms. The three creatures are working on strange mechanical devices directing the operation of the foundry.

They take in all of this strange scene, the iron devices and foundry suspended in a large cavern over a lake of lava. Lakima spots an iron chest with glowing runes on its sides, and he immediately guesses that this holds the holy relics they seek. Eathwund and Lantosh step onto the first iron platform which is thankfully very steady. Alrix spreads his wings to prepare to fly up into the cavern, and then the man speaks.

“Halt! Why do you disturb this place!”

Lakima tells the man that they have come for the Holy relics that were stolen.

“Yes – we took them. But they are needed to save our people. To forge a device that will smash the Cursed Ward of Valen!”

Lakima tells him to hand over the relics.

“You are too late; we have melted them down!”

Domago yells in anger at them and runs out onto the iron platform. Lakima yells at everyone to get out of the way and then he casts a lightning bolt right down the platform striking all three of the men. All of them are knocked down but they stagger to their feet.

Moments later, Eathwund, Lantosh, and Domago are upon them. The two guardians fight well but they are unarmored and use only their hands. Domago is struck solidly twice but both of the opposing men are killed. They then move on to the leader. He casts a spell at Eathwund making the fighter’s limbs feel heavy – but Eathwund manages to shake it off and slash the man. He discovers that the man is wearing chainmail under his robes. Before the man can strike back, Domago strikes him in the side of the head killing him.

The chamber continues to be filled with loud hissing from the lava. Lakima yells for them to grab the chest. The three dwarven creatures continue working the machines seemingly ignoring them but blocking their way. Alrix flies over to the largest machine being worked by a dwarf. Lakima yells at all of them to smash the machines. Eathwund brings his sword down on a large metal box with levers on the front of it. The nearest dwarf reacts and strikes him with his metal hammer knocking Eathwund back. Eathwund then turns and swings his sword at the dwarf but he finds that their armor is incredibly hard. Alrix reaches out with his tail to smash a machine and a dwarf swings his hammer at him. Lantosh moves to aid Eathwund.

At this moment they see three more dwarven creatures emerging from the lake of lava. They step up onto a set of stone steps leading up to the iron platform.

Lakima pulls a gem from his pouch and concentrates on it speaking words of magic and he slumps down on the iron platform, his eyes rolling back and his mouth hanging open slackly. Fenris rushes to Lakima side and yells for help. Aashdoshan standing nearby tells him not to worry that it is part of a spell.

Domago blow his Silver Horn of Valhalla and summons four berserkers on the iron platform near the stairs into the lava. The berserkers bravely, and futilely try to stop the advance of the dwarves coming up out of the lava. One by one the berserkers fall. Aashdoshan helps out by striking one of the dwarves with multiple magic missiles. The dwarf, already injured by Eathwund, topples off the iron platform into the lava.

One of the dwarves leaves the fighting and moves over to the iron chest covered with magic runes. In a feat of incredible strength, the diminutive creature lifts the chest up and starts walking stiffly toward the iron platforms leading off the foundry. It passes one of its fellows, who bellows strange, crackling speech at it. It steps over the dead man and moves onto the platform coming toward Lantosh.

“Let it pass!” yells Aashdoshan.

The dwarf keeps walking stiffly up the platforms approaching Fenris, Flora, and the comatose Lakima. Fenris readies his sword but again Aashdoshan waves him off. Fenris watches in disbelief as the dwarf sets down the chest carefully in the stone hallway. Then it turns and walks back down the platforms toward the foundry. Lantosh and Fenris look at it in astonishment.

“Let’s go, we have what we came for, let’s go!” Aashdoshan shouts.

Eathwund and Domago slowly retreat from the platform. The stiffly moving dwarf passes them and stops at the last platform. It strikes each of the chain mounts in turn causing the iron platform to tilt and then fall into the lava with the dwarf upon it. The small platform and the dwarf sink into the lava. At that moment Lakima comes to his senses, shakes his head, and pockets the gem. He gets to his feet and shouts for everyone to leave. Alrix who is furthest away knocks the dwarf he was fighting into the lava. Then he sees two columns of fire approaching the platform across the lake of lava. As they get nearer the remaining dwarven creatures form into a protective circle. He sees that the columns of fire have a roughly humanoid shape – they are fire elementals.

Bracing for more fighting, the adventurers are surprised to see the elementals attack the dwarven creatures. As Alrix flies into the tunnel they all move to leave.

“It is not our concern,” says Lakima.

They hear the sound of combat behind them. Alrix hears what sounds like someone calling out for help. But they all ignore it and close the secret door behind them.

The adventurers regroup in the large hall again. The iron chest is easily opened. Inside is a worn, wooden cudgel, a plain-looking mace, and a battered shield. Domago immediately realizes that the mace is the one that was used by St. Aleena. He picks it up with reverence.

“Lantosh, Domago, you two had better be the only ones to touch these holy relics,” Lakima says. Lantosh nods and picks up the shield and the cudgel.

Lakima tells everyone that they could start planning how to get past the lake of boiling water, the pool of boiling mud, and the maze of lava tubes again, or they could rest. The adventurers elect to rest. A long, quiet rest is spent in the sleeping quarters that the brigands were using. Eathwund checks the corpses and finds some gold coins. He also finds the tell-tale brands that indicate that these were a band Iron Choke Slavers.

The next day Lakima suggests he teleport everyone in the book all of the way back to their manor in Edgerton. A few of the adventurers are nervous about teleporting but it has to be safer than climbing over the mud pit again. He casts the teleport successfully and he arrives in the manor house's main hall. Popping into the book to tell them he was successful, then everyone steps out of the book, startling their manservant Henley who was just setting the dining table for breakfast.

Later in the day, the group takes the Mace of St. Aleena to the Church of St. Aleena. The abbess thanks them and suggests they take the Shield of St. Poul to the Church of St. Cuthbert when they drop off the Cudgel of St. Cuthbert. She also asks Domago to stay. Domago and Abbess stay back to talk. She asks Domago if he will return to his parish in Peake’s Crossing now that his task has been completed. After all, there is no longer any need for him to keep an eye on the Company of the Black Dragon. Domago tells her that he enjoys their comradery and that he will stay with the company for now. He tells her that he reasons it will be good to keep an eye on them. The abbess advises him to keep a careful eye on the necromancer. She then hands him the Mace of St. Aleena.

“I feel confident that she would have wanted you to have this.”

Domago is shocked, but the abbess explains that the shrine in Aleenton is destroyed and there is no safer person to hold the relic.

“Return it when you have no more need for it,” she says.

Meanwhile, the Cudgel of St. Cuthbert and the Shield of St. Poul are handed over to Abbot Marta at the Church of St. Cuthbert. Marta insists on their staying for lunch, and he has some of the holy casks of ale opened. Marta talks with them about new measures to protect the Cudgel in the vault beneath the Church. They will send messages to the Church of St. Poul in Dolmvay to send knights to get the shield.

The next day Lakima uses Identify on some of the stranger items that were found in White Plume Mountain. The brass jar turns out to be an Efreeti jug. He prepares a summoning circle and opens the jar. An efreet who calls himself Khisa appears in a column of flame. Lakima demands that the efreet serve him for a year and a day, but the efreet has other ideas.

He tells Lakima he will ponder his offer.