Death on the Rocks

King Skalrag's throne room in Forge

Something's going on in the Dwarven Kingdom. The party sets out to investigate the rising tide of necromancy, and gets much more than they bargained for.

## Story

### A Strange Note

Whilst the players are in Concord, Laurie receives a note from her father, the Emperor, instructing her to investigate reports that old necromantic ways are finding new favour within King Skalrag's court in Forge.

Talebot is given separate instructions to meet with Governor Rhith in Drakkenhall to learn what she knows of the devils and report back to his father. The Emperor uses the opportunity of his message to Laurie to pointedly instruct Talebot not to get carried away with his 'latest fling' (i.e. Demeter). Talebot instructs his servant Joyles to accompany Laurie in order to avert 'reports' getting back to his father, and Demeter travels with the Prince to Drakkenhall.

### Anvil and The Undermarch

The players travel by Laurie's airship across the Fangs to Anvil, meeting with King Skalrag's brother and Governor of Anvil, Lord Grimnir. Lord Grimnir expresses sympathy for the players' concerns about necromancy, and is concerned for his brother's safety, telling the players to be on their guard. The players take the steam engine on its underground ratcheted railway through the Undermarch to Forge, and Alina takes a turn at driving the engine.

### Forge, Feasts, and the Caves Beneath

The players arrive at Forge to much ceremony and fanfare, welcomed at the gates by Captain Khanddolyn, Battlemaid and Captain of the Palace Guard. During his welcome in his throne room, King Skalrag reveals his knowledge that Alina is an Elven Princess of Idir and welcomes her as such. Gifts are exchanged.

Morgrim is humiliated by the King for his prolonged absence and alleged dereliction of kinly duties. Morgrim subsequently meets with his father and prominent dwarvish thane, Lord Tevet, and is ceremonially stripped and banished. Morgrim's subsequent whereabouts remain unknown, although rumours persist that he is now a silent monk residing within the Great Dwarven Library in Forge.

The players meet with the Imperial ambassador, Baron Tendarrion, who appears to be a cavorting buffoon bringing dishonour to the name of the Empire. The Baron's manservant, Eslake, is a member of the Drakevakt and provides the players with useful knowledge about reports of Forgeborn going missing, and rumours that the clerics of the court, led by the High Cleric Gerdus, are dallying in necromancy as a way to combat their fears of devil possession amid theories that Forgeborn are particularly vulnerable to their control. Eslake explains that the chief runecaster, 'Runelord' Rheingold, is deeply opposed to the return of the old, forbidden dabbling in necromancy, and that High Cleric Gerdus has recently returned from the dwarven frontier town of Ingot where it is suspected he has somehow relearnt the old necromantic ways.

A feast is prepared in honour of both princesses, replete with competitions. Harper battles with half-dwarf Balin, with Balin emerging victorious; Laurie duels in knife-throwing with the Court Jester, Nobblin, and wins; and Alina engages in a drinking competition with King Skalrag, with the result being that both of them are drunk under the table.

The players meet with King Skalrag and his inner circle - the Runelord and High Cleric - to discuss the Imperial concerns, which Skalrag dismisses out of hand. Follow-up discussions are held with Runelord Rheingold to investigate his disquiet with necromancy, and at that meeting it is observed that he is crafting a runeforged (i.e. biomechanical) arm to replace Nobblin's arm after the jester's humiliating failure in the knife-throwing competition with Laurie.

Acting on a tip from Eslake, the players investigate a recent Forgeborn disappearance in the poor quarter of the city, which leads to the discovery of tunnels beneath the city, a small band of troglodytes with a communications orb, and a small orcish weapons cache. The players report their findings to the King, suspect foul play within Forge, and decide to head north to discover the source of the weapons-smuggling. During that meeting, the court jester Nobblin, now with his new arm, accidentally chops off one of the King's fingers whilst preparing his food.

Skalrag agrees to keep their mission secret for several days so as to not tip off any conspirators within Forge.

### Travelling North

With Balin's aid, the players follow the trail north and encounter more troglodytes within Dwarvish lands, with a captured troglodyte describing being commissioned to smuggle weapons by a mysterious humanoid named 'Dallis'. They rescue an orcish prisoner from the troglodytes, Toreg, of the Tauresh clan, and promise to return him to his lands as they travel north.

A red dragon is occasionally spotted in the air far away, predominantly by Alina. Encountering local dwarvish villagers, an escalating confrontation is averted by Laurie's offer to visit their village elders and provide a reasonable account of their passage through their lands. Alina takes the opportunity in the evenings to doggedly pursue the topic of Laurie's love life, or the lack thereof.

The players eventually reach the border between dwarvish and orcish lands, threading a short pass within the mountains itself. The players fight back a monstrous tentacled beast within the chasms of that pass, and Alina recovers a blood-coloured orb within an alcove. Toreg and Balin (remembering the latter's half-oricsh heritage) suffer greatly from the dwarvish wards that seek to prevent orcs from using the pass.

Emerging in the orcish lands on the other side, the players encounter a bloody scene of animal slaughter within the forest. Soon thereafter they encounter a local orcish goatherder of the Sassanen Clan who claims that the slaughter was a result of his flock having been eaten by a dragon, and that he barely escaped with his life. However, the goatherder then disappears when the players overnight in a cave. Suspecting treachery, the following morning the players are pursued by Sassanen orcish reavers and a red dragon is again seen overhead, but closer, in the middle-distance. The players manage to escape the attentions of the dragon by sheltering within a rocky outcropping, but are then surrounded by the reavers. They unexpectedly break free and a wild chase ensues as they manage to escape to the relative safety of the Tauresh town, the main encampment of Toreg's clan.

### Civil War between the Clans

The players are given a warm welcome by the Tauresh Clan, in part due to the safe return of their clansman Toreg, but predominantly in awe of Alina in dragon form whom they know by reputation as 'the Green' from her previous visit to orcish lands. Alina's companions are presumed to be her entourage, an interpretation that Alina does nothing to dispel.

The Tauresh speak of the rapid rising power of a rival clan, the Sassanen, under the control of a powerful warlord and his shaman companion, Dallis. They are drawing together forces of several clans and the Tauresh fear they will be the next to be targeted and subsumed within Sassanen plans to unite the orcs and make war upon the dwarves again. The Tauresh chieftain has been captured by the Sassanen, and despite misgivings at becoming involved in orcish politics, the players reluctantly agree to free him for the Tauresh as a means of investigating the motives of an elusive Dallis.

Under cover of night, the players ambush a Sassanen scouting force and Alina deploys a ritual to gain them the appearance of those scouts. Now bearing the visage of Sassanen orcs, the players enter the Sassanen town and manage to locate the Tauresh chieftain imprisoned within the basement of a small stone tower at the rear of their encampment. However, the players find not only the Tauresh chieftain, but also another prisoner - Alina's father Ranu, magically shackled to the wall and in orcish form. Laurie melts away a magical dagger to free Ranu of half his shackles. Ranu convinces his daughter Alina to 'spirit link' with him to lend him the magical power he needs to break free of the remainder, leaving Alina magically weakened. The spirit link also creates a loose spiritual bond between father and daughter that enables them to loosely locate each other, and also call out to one another in times of need.

The players emerge from the tower to find themselves surrounded by Sassanens, led by none other than the Sassanen chieftain and his shaman Dallis. Despite his wounds, the Tauresh chieftain challenges the Sassanen chieftain to a duel but is ultimately killed. Balin takes up the challenge in his stead. As it becomes apparent that Balin will defeat him, the chieftain shapechanges into the red dragon that has been dogging the party's movements for some time. Ranu transforms into his green dragon form and drives the red away from the Sassanen town, whilst Dallis escapes into the tower with Laurie close at his heels. Dallis escapes into a portal and Laurie follows him, glimpsing two further portals - one of the High Cleric's chambers in Forge, and one of what is later recognised to be the catacombs beneath the Cleric's temple in Ingot. Dallis escapes through the portal to the Ingot catacombs, and Laurie only just manages to escape the pocket plane back to the Sassanen tower before all of the portals close.

The players use the general confusion amongst the Sassanen to escape and return to the Tauresh encampment, encountering and defeating a 'sliver worm' (remorhaz) out on the intervening icy plains. The death of the Tauresh chieftain allows for the election of a new chieftain, and Balin leverages the honour he gained in driving off the Sassanen chieftain to secure his position as the Tauresh clan's new chieftain. He sends letters of trade in all directions, including an offer of peaceful trade with the dwarves.

The players, sans Balin, take their leave and journey towards back towards the town of Ingot on the frontier of the dwarven lands.

### Ingot and its Catacombs

At the walls of Ingot, Dalsa emerges from a portal to join the party, but is close to death until quickly healed by Harper.

An altercation with the Ingot guards, sceptical of Laurie's Imperial lineage and the party's arrival from orcish lands, leads to the players' temporary imprisonment until matters are later resolved between Laurie and the town governor.

Finally free to their own devices, the players investigate the clerical temple in Ingot, leading them into the catacombs below. There they encounter a lich with a small undead host, but ultimately prevail. Alina realises she - by happenstance - possesses the lich's phylactery, the blood red stone from the alcove in the mountain pass, and she destroys the phylactery and thus also the lich.

Believing Dallis to be destroyed, the players continue to explore the catacombs and encounter an ancient library. Alina's servant bard, Gyles, reads an ancient book only to be sucked within its pages, leaving Alina deeply angry and - perhaps - distraught. The players continue their exploration and enter a large room, encountering Dallis in orc form. Dallis tells the players that he and his red dragon brother will overcome the players' interference, and with the aid of their dwarven cleric acolyte necromancers, restore their power and ambitions. However, it remains unclear what those ambitions are other than a naked grab for power.

Dallis changes form into a large bone dragon lich and draws forth a large undead host, and battle ensues with the players. Barely defeating Dallis and his host, the players locate the portal in his chambers and emerge from it into the High Cleric's chambers in Forge.

### Finale: The Throne Room Clash

Rushing to notify King Skalrag of the nefarious intentions of his High Cleric, Eslake informs the players that the King has been behaving increasingly erratic.

Bursting into the throne room and denouncing High Cleric Gerdus to the King, the players are shocked when King Skalrag responds with paranoid accusations. He appears to be twitching weirdly from a runeforged finger, the replacement of the finger cut off by Nobblin some time before.

Runelord Rheingold and his allies take the opportunity to turn upon the clerics, and verbal arguments quickly descend into an armed clash between forces loyal to High Cleric Gerdus and those loyal to Rheingold, both of whom appear to be attempting a coup. Skalrag, for his part, lashes out semi-uncontrollably at anyone nearby. Laurie dispatches Rheingold's lackey, Nobblin, whose arm dissipates in black devil ash, and the players manage to aid High Cleric Gerdus to defeat Rheingold, who also dissipates into devil ash. Skalrag regains control long enough to slice his own fingers off with his axe, including his devil-possessed runeforged finger, which also turns to ash, thus thwarting the devil's attempts to possess him. In his subsequent rage, Skalrag dispatches High Cleric Gerdus with a single furious blow with his axe, thus putting an end to both coup attempts.

In his great appreciation to the players, King Skalrag presents each of them with a special gift [*Cascaded, maybe you can remember what they were? :)* ]

## Characters

### Player Characters

* Laurie Basorium -- played by Hinchy58
* Alina Heartsoul -- played by Theliotrope
* Harper Swyn -- played by Cascaded
* Morgrim Tishri -- played by Hurage
* Balin Mah -- played by Hurage
* Dalsa Quaradeth -- played by Hurage

### Non-player Characters

* Gyles Dermund
* King Skalrag
* Runelord Rheingold
* High Cleric Gerdus
* Lord Grimnir
* Baron Tendarrion
* Eslake
* Captain Khanddolyn
* Joyles
* Toreg
* Dallis
* Lord Tevet
* Nobblin