Expedition 27: An Uneventful Mountain Stroll/Finding a Nuke

### Summary

Marzipan and Nexrin gather cooking ingredients in the Inkwells, and come across an abandoned forge. Returning to Vrall to get Uzmir and Calliope, they find a puzzle room in the forge. Calliope meets the god Durn and receives a powerful coal.

### Detailed Writeup

#### Part 1

Marzipan and Nexrin head out into the Inkwell mountains early in the morning to gather exotic cooking ingredients. They are both hale and hearty and have no trouble climbing the slopes. They look around for herbs and Nexrin finds an especially pungent rare one, which he proceeds expertly to pull up so that it can be replanted. Marzipan notices a structure built into the side of the mountain. The two look into it and see that it might once have been a forge. Suspicious of traps, the two decide to tell others about it when they return rather than brave it themselves. Nexrin then happens upon some animal tracks, which he follows easily to find a family of giant rabbits. Though Marzipan is ready to kill only 2/3 of the adults in order to be a good steward of resources, as he thinks Nexrin would want him to, Nexrin casts Spike Growth under the rabbits to which they all immediately die. Laden with giant rabbit corpses, the two continue looking around for herbs and Nexrin comes upon a plant that reminds him of one from his home. Its berries taste strongly of mint. He also finds the relevant herbs to make a healing potion. Having found 3 different exotic ingredients, the two feel their expedition has been successful so they return to town to tell Uzmir and Calliope about the forge they found.

#### Part 2

Uzmir and Calliope have little trouble climbing the mountainside. When Nexrin and Marzipan show them the structure, Calliope’s investigation reveals a trap door under the anvil. Uzmir reads the text, which is in Dwarven.

*Halo of water, tongue of wood, skin of stone and long I’ve stood. My aspirations reach to the sky, inside my heart men live and die. What am I?*

Calliope promptly replies, “A castle!” Once Uzmir has repeated this in Dwarven, the trap door swings open to reveal a staircase that leads to a hallway hung with four magical paper hangings. At the end of the hallway is a large ironwood door with a huge iron knocker and an inscription explaining that it will open only for those who passed a test of might. Marzipan identifies the paper hangings. They are paper soldiers, and will animate when the knocker is struck. Uzmir strikes the knocker, the paper soldiers animate, and the door opens to reveal another door inscribed “Might to survive, not might to destroy.” Though his companions have engaged the paper soldiers, he tells them not to destroy them but to wait. Scrolls hang down from the mouths of the soldiers and riddles are written on them—but only Uzmir can read them. While Calliope, Marzipan, and Nexrin bear the brunt of the paper cuts, Uzmir reads the riddles aloud so that Calliope can help him think about them and answers them in Dwarven, which causes the paper soldiers to unfold.

*I have a golden head, and a golden tail, Beware how you use me, or you'll earn a golden flail. What am I?*

Calliope: a gold coin

*She who makes it doesn’t tell it. He who takes it doesn’t know it. They who know it will give it freely. What is it?*

Uzmir: counterfeit money

*What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?*

Uzmir: M

*What stands on one leg with its heart in its head?*

Uzmir: a cabbage

Finally, the second door opens, revealing a room hung with ornate (but not beautiful) weapons, one of each martial type. In the center of the room is a stone box and it emits strong white light. Marzipan backs into the hallway so as not to blind his robe and Uzmir and Nexrin close their eyes. Calliope covers her eyes with her kerchief and her helmet, and then closes her eyes for good measure, before removing the lid of the box. She pulls out a silk thread and a coal, then the party head home.

Back in Port Vrall, Marzipan identifies the coal. If burned slowly in a forge, it blesses that forge: all crafting checks made there gain a +2 bonus, and all metal gives an additional 20% support. If crushed in the hand, the user chooses a number n and nd6 damage is done to everything within 5n miles. Realizing the terrible power in the coal, Calliope immediately blesses her forge with it.