Episode 64: The Ancient Armory

The Heroes of Bingle continue their exploration of the mysterious dwarven foundry where magical weapons were created more than 300 hundred years ago. Could some of these wondrous items have been left behind by the craftspeople who abandoned it? And what secrets are being protected by the powerful golems still inside the ancient armory?

#### **DM/GM Intro**

*It started as a simple dungeon run…*

*5 adventurers who delved into an abandoned dragon’s lair, and emerged with a most unusual item: The Secret Keeper’s Amulet.  A relic of immense chaotic power, that allows you, the Watchers of the Time Stream to bestow forces of good and evil upon them, as you see fit.*

*It has also given the Heroes of Bingle unique insight into a time lost to history.  300 years ago, the great War of Ideas was won by a group of champions who sacrificed everything to become the Wardens - mighty beings of elemental energy that protected the Realms of Ain for generations.  But these Wardens have gone missing, captured and imprisoned in dangerous locations.*

*The team has so far found and freed two of the Wardens - the Storm Warden and the Inferno Warden - and they believe a third is held captive inside Skyscorcher Peak, a towering volcano at the base of the Nelrim mountain range.  But the only way to get to the heart of Skyscorcher Peak, is to go through the Dwarven Fortress of the Four Former Forges - the ancient foundry where wondrous items of the Aureate Age were said to have been created.  A sacred - and sealed - structure inside the mountain city of Dalto Thum.  But even the dwarven leader of Dalto Thum - the king of Cragborn Clan - was unable to gain entry.  It was only through a seemingly useless Force of Good, activated by the Amulet, that the Heroes of Bingle cracked open the doors of the Fortress for the first time in 300 years.*

*But they had been warned.  Seeking counsel from dwarves old enough to have been alive when the Forges were operating, the Heroes of Bingle learned clues about the dangers waiting inside.  Although unable to recall anything from the time before the War, the mere mention of the Fortress triggered a strange response in these “Addled Elders”.  An enigmatic diatribe of alliteration that, among other things, suggested only dwarves were allowed inside.  So the team asked a young dwarf named Donquil to join them as they attempted to gain admittance.  But the passageway, carved to look like the gaping mouth of a solemn dwarf, blasted lasers from its eyes when any of them got close.  Luckily, Donk stepped forward, standing between the team and the trap, and managed to cover its eyes, allowing the Heroes of Bingle to pass through, even as the portal’s mouth slammed shut, preventing Donk from following.*

*And so the heroes progressed down a long dark tunnel, where they forfeited their fortune to ride in a suspended mithral cage over glowing lava.  It brought them to a beautiful complex of white-carved stone, illuminated by glowing molten rock, flowing behind its very walls.*

*After traversing aqueducts that moved lava throughout the structure, they arrived at a chamber marked with the dwarven rune for the number one.  Inside, a large iron golem sat at the end of a long room filled with magma.  A broken platform led to an austere stone arch at the back of the cavernous chamber.  James and Fahima attempted to fly over the crumbling walkway, but were attacked by Thoqqua - vicious lava worms that leapt out of the steaming magma and slammed them to the ground.  At the same time, the golem seemed to magnetize, pulling metal objects from their hands, and trapping Siv and James by attracting their studded leather armor.*

*After a heated battle, Fahima was able to pry open a hatch on the golem’s torso, finding a strange marbled-green ore inside.  Extracting it, the golem seemed to power down, and the team was left standing before a raised platform under the arch.  Stepping on the platform triggered some mechanism to lift an anvil up from beneath the stone floor. Written on the anvil were two lines, in ancient dwarven script: Approach each of these forges, four; Assemble the word to unlock the \_\_\_\_\_*

*As we ended last week, the team decided to place the mysterious marbled ore on the surface of the anvil.  Uggo brought out his hammer, raised it above the ore, and struck.*