Adventure 3: Dwarves of Stone and Fire

### Summary

A swashbuckling adventure that will forever change the face of the Palma Archipelago and its people. For levels 8-11.

### Story Overview

A case of mistaken identity related to their stolen ship, the party is pulled between forces competing for possession of the **Staff of New Dawn**, which will be used to unlock a dormant power for island dwarves. The only catch is that the staff needs to be used by someone in the royal family of an ancient island dwarf family. What a coincidence! The party has been traveling for some time with a mute island dwarf girl.

The IDCP is after the staff and the girl, Hannus Willo is in possession of the staff, and also wants his ship back, and the party has no idea what's going on.

The party will need to negotiate their safety on the cosmopolitan island of Black Rock, navigate their way through a naval blockade, and enter into the heart of a volcano through the ruins of a dwarven seaside town. But will that be enough to safe the archipelago?

### Adventure Summary

Hundreds of years ago the ancient island dwarves of the lost island of Cerae produced two objects of remarkable power: One, a large polished sapphire, that could contain the great beasts of the elemental planes. Another, an ornate staff that could grant them dominion over the elements of fire and earth. In a dramatic twist of fate, the stone was stolen long ago, and replaced with a replica. When the island dwarves attempted to summon the goddess of their volcano, it exploded, throwing pieces of the island into the sea, and the staff was lost. The stone eventually found its way to the sea elves, who used it to seal away the Olhydra, the living wave, and kept the stone close.

Many years later, the Sahuagin came across the staff in the ruins of the ancient island dwarf kingdom on Cerae. They experimented on Dolce Cove, and found that though the relic provided them with remarkable power over the earth, it also cursed them with a plague, and was abandoned under water. In their hubris, the Sahaugin didn’t know that the relic of power needed to be activated by a descendant of the ancient island dwarf royal family, which the island dwarf girl the party has been traveling with happens to be.

The Island Dwarf Coastal Patrol leadership wants both the relic and the girl, and they know that Hannus Willo, the elven pirate captain, whose boat the party has stolen, is looking for the relic. They also know that the pirates have the island dwarf girl after the battle on the El Presidente. They will try to collect both of them so they can harness the true power of the ancient dwarven relic; to unlock dormant power in all island dwarves, which is dominion over earth and rock, so that they will become masters of the sea.

Hannus Willo has recovered the relic, but he has lost his boat. He’s annoyed at that, because he now has an object of immense power and no way to move it around besides the party's abandoned row boat. The party has the island dwarf girl, but don’t know what her deal is or where she’s from. He wants to get the relic and dispose of it in a volcano so no one can ever use it again. He doesn’t know that the staff was the cause of Cerae's destruction; throwing it into the volcano will destroy the relic, but will also destroy the volcano and the archipelago, and scatter the island dwarves.

### Chapter 7 - Denouement and Parting Ways

In the immediate aftermath of Palma Noor, it's unclear what the ramifications are. However, there is a power vacuum in the region, and several prominent pirate groups vying for dominance.

Notes

*Themes:*

1. *WE MEET OUR HERO AND THE WORLD HE/SHE/THEY LIVE IN. (p. 1-10)*

The party has been sailing for some time, and they finally reach the port of Black Rock, the last stop they’re going to hit before the long sea journey to port royal. The port is a little more cosmopolitan than they’re used to, and they can go shopping with their newfound wealth. While resting at an inn they are handed a letter and told to meet some people.

1. *INCITING INCIDENT AKA SOMETHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY HAPPENS TO YOUR HERO (p. 10-15)*

The people they meet are mercenaries hired by the IDCP, and they think they are associated with someone named Hannus Willo, and they demand that the party tell them about the location of the staff. Fighting their way out, they see that the island is now surrounded by IDCP ships, and around town, everyone is looking for someone named Hannus Willo. Their ship is also under watch by a garrison of island dwarves under the command of Captain Begolorf, a former elven adventurer turned member of the admiralty.

1. *YOUR HERO IS LAUNCHED INTO THE STORY (p. 25)* *ACT TWO — Action, Climax, Triumph*

*The crew must find ways to break through the blockade, and they must free their ship from the guards. (Side quest(s) on Black Rock)*

1. *THINGS GET WORSE (p. 45-50)*

*After escaping from the blockade they are approached by a pirate ship. One of the pirates on the ship is Hannus Willo. He tells the party that he needs his ship back immediately, at which point the other pirates attack him. The captain of the ship has been paid off by the IDCP. He escapes with his crew in a submarine.*

1. *SOMETHING EVEN WORSE HAPPENS (p. 65-70)*

*The party learns about the Sahaugin and the relic of power. And though lots of questions are unanswered, it’s strongly suggested that the island dwarf girl may be connected to this. He proposes that they infiltrate the island dwarf stronghold at Palma Noor, retrieve the relic, and throw it into the volcano.*

1. *THINGS GET AS BAD AS THEY CAN POSSIBLE GET (p. 70-80)* *ACT THREE — Resolution and Denouement*

*Arriving at Palma Noor’s old side, the island dwarf girl is kidnapped. The IDCP now has both objects at their disposal.*

1. *WINNING IS GONNA BE EVEN HARDER THAN WE THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA BE (p. 80-90)*

*Infiltrating the seat of IDCP power, the party arrives and finds that they are too late. The island dwarf girl has been charmed, and is under control of the IDCP leader, who is using her to finalize the spell.*

1. *THE CLIMAX AKA YOUR HERO WINS! (p. 90-100)*

*The party must find some way to defeat the IDCP leader, and to throw the object into the volcano.*

1. *YOUR HERO WALKS OFF INTO THE SUNSET (p. 100+)*

*The island blows up. Hannus Willo is killed, his first mate joins the crew. The party is able to escape into their ship, but they witness the devastation of the island chain that many of them called home. They sail off towards Port Royal, knowing that there is nothing that can stop piracy anymore.*

*Hannus Willow’s Revenge*

*Docking at a small port, someone hands them a note, saying: Sir,—Though you don't know me, I know you, and I tell you this: if you will be at Pratt's Ordinary on Harbor Street on Friday next at eight o'clock of the evening, and will accompany the man who shall say to you, "The Royal Sovereign is come in," you shall learn something the most to your advantage that ever befell you. Sir, keep this note, and show it to him who shall address these words to you, so to certify that you are the man he seeks.*

Such was the wording of the note, which was without address, and without any superscription whatever.

Pratt's Ordinary was at that time a very fine and well-known place of its sort, with good tobacco and the best rum that ever I tasted, and had a garden behind it that, sloping down to the harbor front, was planted pretty thick with palms and ferns grouped into clusters with flowers and plants. Here were a number of little tables, some in little grottoes, like our Vauxhall in New York, and with red and blue and white paper lanterns hung among the foliage, whither gentlemen and ladies used sometimes to go of an evening to sit and drink lime juice and sugar and water (and sometimes a taste of something stronger), and to look out across the water at the shipping in the cool of the night.

It was not far from half an hour after the time appointed in the note, when a rowboat came suddenly out of the night and pulled up to the landing place at the foot of the garden above mentioned, and three or four men came ashore in the darkness. Without saying a word among themselves they chose a near-by table and, sitting down, ordered rum and water, and began drinking their grog in silence. They might have sat there about five minutes, when, by and by, Barnaby True became aware that they were observing him very curiously; and then almost immediately one, who was plainly the leader of the party, called out to him:

"How now, messmate! Won't you come and drink a dram of rum with us?"

"Why, no," says Barnaby, answering very civilly; "I have drunk enough already, and more would only heat my blood."

"All the same," quoth the stranger, "I think you will come

[46]

and drink with us; for, unless I am mistook, you are Mr. Barnaby True, and I am come here to tell you that the *Royal Sovereign is come in*.”

They sit down together, compliment the party on sitting down. Say they have mettle, and they ask to see the note.

"'Tis all right and straight as it should be," the other said, after he had so glanced his eyes over the note. "And now that the paper is read" (suiting his action to his words), "I'll just burn it, for safety's sake."

And so he did, twisting it up and setting it to the flame of the candle.

The devil is ashore. —though you don't know what that means—and if he gets ahead of us we’re all in trouble. Get on the boat, and come with us . If you don’t want to, we’ll head out and you’ll never see us again.

All the same, no one in all the world means you less ill than I, and so, if you have to use that barker, 'twill not be upon us who are your friends, but only upon one who is more wicked than the devil himself. So come, and let us get away."

*Two pirate captains bury their treasure while they wait until the admiralty stopped worrying about them, fight over how to split their buried treasure. Kill each other, and then one of their friends kills the other one. Now no one knows where the treasure is.*

it is only a little spot of land, and as you look at it upon the map a pin's head would almost cover it; yet from that spot, as from a center of inflammation, a burning fire of human wickedness and ruthlessness and lust overran the world, and spread terror and death throughout the Spanish West Indies

The story then has it that they fell a-quarreling about a future division of the money, and that, as a wind-up to the affair, Captain Malyoe shot Captain Brand through the head, while the sailing master of the *Adventure* served the gunner of the *Royal Sovereign* after the same fashion through the body, and that the murderers then went away, leaving the two stretched out in their own blood on the sand in the staring sun, with no one to know where the money was hid but they two who had served their comrades so.