Dolcral's Forge

Seeing Elessar step out, Ahmok got edgy and stepped out right after him. Both get escorted to the trollish encampment. With the tension time was as if it had slowed down. A minute was as if an hour had passed. After 15 minutes or so, what seemed an eternity, we see Ahmok and Elessar coming back. A sigh of relief leaves my spine as they both come unharmed. As soon as they regained their breath all of us started questioning what happened. Elessar tells us that we will have to venture in Dolcral’s forge, the one I had found earlier, and from it recover three discs. Apparently these discs are used to forge legendary weapons. We are to recover and handover the discs in order to get the books.

As son as he says so we quickly head to the forge and start studying the door so as to open it After about four hours we find out that to open the door we have to turn the cogwheels and form the sentence “This door has been closed to keep what’s within sealed forever”. We opted to rest as we were all tired now that we knew the combination we could easily go in the day after.

I went in first totally enchanted by the awesomeness of the place. As soon as I go in the first couple of meters darkness engulfs me and I had o light a torch. Venturing further in crushed bones where crumbling under our feet the result of a battle done long before. Whilst watching the different passageways and rooms we all notice the different traps there have once been now all activated.

As we venture still on a large door closes our way. At a closer inspection though we see a crack on the upper part, that enabled us to pass through. We continue heading forth and come to junction which we recognize being the road that led to the closed door found earlier. We opt to go and open the door. So we do but in doing so we make a lot of noise. After we opened it we opt to continue on and so we do.

Down the corridor odd noises started to be heard as if chains where being dragged. Silhouettes of humans started to be seen moving slowly towards us. When near we see that they are not humans but constructs made up of a jumble of different weapons. Two of them engage me in combat. Pieces if weapons start to scatter on the floor when the creatures are hit and sparks flew with the clashing of the weapons. Concentrating on the battle, I spin round my hammer and hit the creature on its bare chest and send it scattering to pieces on the floor. Almost simultaneously Ajisha shoots and hits the other construct in an eye socket crumbling him to the ground as well.

Jarl went down on the floor and with fear in his eyes tells us that these are definitely horror constructs. We opt to go back and close the door once again so as no one to leave this place. When venturing further in we find three rooms what might have been the leader chambers. We continue on and headed to the other corridors. One of the corridors led to what might have been a presentation chamber of some sort. An altar was clearly seen at the lower end of the room. On two opposite sides we see six weapon constructs three painted black and three red. All fighting against each other, as soon as they see us however they stop, turn and head towards us menacing. They manage to pin me not allowing me to retreat. Blows where flying from every angle, as three of the constructs on me! I managed to hold on and dispatch two of them. Ajisha’s keen eye also dropped down two as her arrows hit critical places of the constructs’ body. At last we managed to dispatch them. At a high cost though as I am hurt badly.

of a Desert Mission, voices in one's head and an old old Forge

from the journal of Jarl!!, elementalist and more.

Silence descends in the safehouse. The screaming, shouting and sickening thuds and rips as blows and dagger stabs were exchanged finally fade out. Fastar lays battered and limp at the bottom of the stairs, her body broken and very close to death. I observe her for a few seconds while I recover myself, I am heavily wounded as well, but alive; upstairs her companion's body is already cooling.

We search both our assailants, again, and retrieve an Esparga cloak and some silvers. The cloak goes to Ivor after a quick random call. We contact Varadi Farion through the speaker stone, while outside Ahmok informs us we being watched by an elf who quick disappears when we spot him. We have to wait some time before Varadi Farion sends his man to cleanup, and we settle in. Elessar asks the rest of us to leave him with Fastar alone to do some nethermancing ritual and we oblige. He soon returns back bloodied and explains that she died. A heated discussion ensues as Elessar had broken one of the Flames' tenets of not killing a helpless opponent. Elessar confesses it was the voice in his head that made him do it, not very reassuring as we previously only knew this as a harmless quirk of our mysterious nethermancer. We decide to let this one go after several stern warnings to Elessar and reassurances from him.

We leave to Varadi Farion after his cleanup man, an interesting character with a wolf pelt on his back and shades, takes over the situation. Back at the embassy Varadi is still eager to continue on the plan and asks us to go on a mission to spy on this meeting at Blackrock ridge. At midnight we board the airship. The voyage for myself passed like in a dream, I sleep heavily and recover my wounds, the next day I spend focusing on my spell matrix talents. The heat of the desert brings me back to our mission, Blackrock ridge looms huge below us and we land next to it. As the airship leaves we remove any excess items we had and start exploring.

With a stroke of luck we spot a hidden entrance in the ridge, the passage looked man-made. Inside a wall covered in runes read 'Behind these runes is the inner sanctum of Dol Kral'. Immediately upon hearing the name, our weaponsmith Ivor blurts out excitingly the story of Dol Kral, a great weaponsmith of old. His name is steeped in legend and revered almost as a Passion amongst the weaponsmith. After the temple of twelve and the second book of Harrow, this is another huge find indeed. We rest in the shade of the entrance and try to figure out the message. Suddenly it dawns on me and, almost unheeded, I press the wall at certain points and it slides back. Inside is a chamber, names carved in runes cover a wall, the rest of the room empty except for a hugely intricate locked double-doorway, embedded with cogs and wheels and inscriptions. Doubtlessly behind the doorway's riddle lies the Forge of the great weaponsmith. On the walls the runes were of the men and women who manned the forge through the eons. It is pretty clear this riddle will take a lot longer to solve than the previous one, and we decide to leave it for now and prepare hideouts to observe the meeting.

Hours pass, and we are drenched in sweat and nerves are fraying. The meeting hour comes and goes and nervousness besets us. Suddenly the sky darkens and a huge Crystal Raider ship passes over us and lands heavily. Trolls in full gear emerge and secure the place with military precision. We lay hidden. The trolls sound an arrival horn but no-one replies. We wait with them.

The minutes pass by like hours and the hours like days. We look at each others in our hideouts, each of us in slow agony, the heat sapping at our strength and the waiting sapping at our will. Suddenly a familiar voice rings out in the silence, and unbelieving i turned round to see Elessar walk out of his hideout shouting to the trolls that he arrived. The trolls turn to face him. I stare in disbelief and press my back more in my hole.

As Safe as Safe Houses

We manage to subdue Fastar and her companion. Carrying their unconscious bodies as best we could we exit the room to find ourselves in some kind of sewer system. In an adjacent chamber we find all our possessions, and we all breathe a sigh of relieve.

The first exit from the underground tunnels alighted near the Ogre & Ogre, not exactly the best part of Travar. Before going very far we were spotted by a couple of city guards out on patrol, and they didn't buy our story that the two bodies were just drunk troublemakers. Not wanting to cause trouble ourselves, we let them take us for questioning.

We are questioned separately by Captain Skee of the guard, and each of our stories matches the truth. Jarl is silent. In spite of this we are locked in until the story can be verified and ambassador Varadi Farion contacted to vouch on our behalf.

In the middle of the night Jarl and I are awoken by approaching footsteps. Two guards are accompanying a robed figure, who Jarl later makes out to be a woman. They stop in front of the cell of Fastar and her companion, she recognises them, and to our horror they are set free. Jarl cannot take it any longer and makes a lot of noise and fuss. His efforts are rewarded by a sound beating by the guards, during which he continues to spite them. I heard the words "your mother" repeated often, but the sound of falling blows masked much of everything else.

The next day saw us being freed after the ambassador was finally contacted. It seems that the woman who came during the night claimed to have been the ambassador's own envoy, and had some sort of papers to prove it. It was very worrying that The Hand managed to track them down so quickly, but then again the watch house was the first place to look for missing persons...

We meet up with Varadi Farion and recount what we learned about the upcoming meeting at Black Rock Ridge. It was decided that we should go there to intercept / disrupt the meeting. As we are discussing this news reaches Farion that a safe most probably used by The Hand was discovered in Travar. Not wanting to take direct action, he turns to us. Of course we say, it's time to pay back for what we endured in the sewers.

The ambassador arranged for a diversion to draw away the attention of good- and ill-intentioned onlookers. We sneak inside the house. The ground floor is deserted. We climb up the stairs to check the other floor, while Ajisha scouts the roof and looks out for incoming trouble. I'd rather she'd been watching my back, as I was the last in line and suddenly feel a dagger embed itself in my back. Half in rage and half wondering why the cloaksense brooch failed me, I turned round to see Fastar grinning there. Mayhem ensued.

We outnumbered her, of course, but she used the doorways and passageways to her advantage. It takes us a while, but in the end we overpowered her, again. The bitch should have learned the lesson the first time round. She seems to be hanging on to life by a dwarf's beard hair, which I'd very gladly cut, but we restrain ourselves. This time we want to get some answers out of her.

The Hand takes off the glove

From the Journal of Ahmok Silannas, Swordmaster.

After the dealings with Varadifarion we all went separate ways, each in pursuit of private goals and and the same time looking for clues on 'The Hand'. I went to Clearview to help with works in rebuilding the village and tending the fields. My first task there was to talk to Enora, the village spokesperson. I unveiled my idea of starting a militia unknowing that her son, Colimar, was overhearing. Enora didn't like the idea of a militia so I let it die and instead offered to help with buying seeds for the fields when I get back to Travar. I also commissioned the building of two small shrines to be dedicated to Garlen and to Upandal. The latter is payment for Ivor's working on my sword. I will commission some statues as soon as I get back to Travar and send them over with a merchant.
Later during the evening I am silently approached by Colimar and two of his friends. They want to learn to fight to defend their village. Their noble streak and honorable words strike a chord and I agree to secretly teach them the art of fighting during the early hours of the night right after work and dinner. Colimar seems to have quite an aptitude in the art of sword fighting, his moves are fluent and his strikes powerful yet accurate. I will need to recommend him as an apprentice if he is to learn more for my duties will rarely see me go to Clearview.
After a few days in Clearview I travel to a merchant outpost called Jura to look for clues on activities of 'The Hand' but this poves useless. Jura only deals with local merchants and does not send caravans up north towards Daiche.
Back to the city I meet the rest of the Group where Ivor hands me my reforged blade. The workmanship is impeccable and it is even finer than before. Ajisha seems to be making a name for herself after touring the local taverns and singing a well made song about two mages and a weaponsmith outsmarted by a few windlings.
A day later we are contacted by a man who claims he has information on 'The Hand'. He meets us in a small abandoned house. He acts paranoid, as if someone is after him and tells us that they are looking for us and that they want the book. He also mentions he has maps and that we are not safe in Travar. Unfortunately it turns out as a trap for us. His paranoia is a ruse to fool us in thinking he is a good guy. A strange smell permeates the room and it too late when we realise that it is soporific gas.
We wake up. We are all tied to chairs, backs to each other and Ajisha is tied in a corner.
There is a guard holding a torch and soon after an elven woman in a cloak joins him. She immediately starts asking questions about the whereabouts of the book to Ivor. Ivor does not answer and she slaps him heavy handedly. I intervene but all I get after my witty comments is a dagger through my thigh and the bitch leaves it there. She then turns to Elissar who promptly uses a frighten spell on her. She runs screaming from the room and the guard follows her.
I take the opportunity to slide the dagger off my thigh with my mouth and dropping it in Ivor's hands behind my back, he starts to cut off his bonds. Meanwhile the elven slut is back and soon embeds her dagger in Elissar's eye and turns on Ajisha threatining her to rip off her wings. Then an old acquaintance of ours, Silas, joins us in the room and takes the elven woman aside. Ajisha makes out a few words of what they are saying by lip reading. The woman's name is Fastar and she has to meet with Silas in five days time at Black Rock Ridge to get an artifact. Silas wants the book badly. Apparently there is a route inside it that he needs. She tells him that it will be no problem and
as soon as he is leaving she turns to Ivor and puts a dagger at his throat and addresses Ajisha. She asks her where the book is and seeing the dagger draw Ivor's blood the THAT LOUD MOUTH NO GOOD THIEVING KNIVING LOOSE EXCUSE-FOR-A-WINDLING WINDLING* spills her beans and tells her the full monty, well almost.We tell her the book is already safe in Throal and there is no way they can get it back. At that point Elessar cuts his bonds and leaps for Fastar.

* - Registered Trademark, Jarl