Deagon's Fall

**Deagon's Fall** is the 10th session of the Valour Haven Arc. The Six delve into the dangerous depths of the Fort Jerosant gateways designed to repulse attackers and intruders. This session marks another great cost to the party.

## Recap

Encountering a strange observer in the Jagged Lands, the Six manage to identify a survivor of the Halassey Legion from the Battle of Grille. This survivor, Dagmar, joins the Six on their mission to Fort Jerosant to uncover the nature of the threat that slew Lord Halassey and the majority of his legion; the same threat that continues to overshadow Valour Haven.

## Summary

The party managed to correctly adjust a mechanism in the first chamber which was partially submerged by water. Delving deeper, they find that the caverns lead to further chambers with a very familiar setup. Always there was a chamber with a mechanism, a chamber with a sluice gate and a chamber that lead to a descending tunnel.

After passing the second chamber as the waters continued to recede, Tore notices that the mechanism in the chamber is shifting on its own. Moving fast, Tore moves to hold the mechanism in place and to prevent it from shifting but fails. The chamber's sluice gate opens and the drain closes causing water to flow and build up. With help, the Six manage to shift the mechanism back to its "Drain" position but with no knowledge of who or what is shifting the mechanism. The party begin to wonder whether if other rooms have the same mechanism then perhaps each of them can be used to manipulate the others and shift ALL chambers to a "Flood" position or any other.

Working together as they descend, each of the party play the roles of scouting ahead, monitoring the mechanism and others investigating for further hints. They manage to keep a strict routine with those holding the mechanism occasionally fighting against the unknown perpetrator who continues to attempt to shift its alignment. The Six eventually reach levels such as the "Dungeon" level and another level which seems to be holding "Strong Rooms" .

Deagon using his book and relying on his understanding of Dwarven culture and history is able to relay hints about the place including the methods to its madness with Dagmar's help in discerning where in his book may hold the relevant information.

As they reached the lowest level they discover its tunnel does not lead much lower but to one final room with one massive gate. The gate is made from finely chiselled and formed stone. The way to open it is unknown to them and they take hours trying to uncover its secrets from Deagon's tome. Talking it through with Dagmar it becomes clear that the mechanism to open the door lies within the fortress, which if true means they have no means to enter. But the Dwarven scholar behind Deagon's book had left a theory in its pages. Dwarves are not ones to leave such a flaw that they could not undo. In fact, Dwarves built a failsafe in such an eventuality. This fortress is no different, there is in fact a mechanism that is magically visible only to Dwarves in the chamber and only a Dwarf can successfully operate it.

Now entirely reliant on Deagon, the party walks through the process to opening the mechanism that required three things. One, the keys must be assigned in order of most to least important, to speak the order in Dwarvish by a Dwarf and then the sliding mechanism shifted by the same Dwarf. Thankfully, Deagon discerned that in his culture the most important begins at the bottom. After talking through the order of the slots, Deagon goes and slides them into place. As they complete, they glow. Deagon excited, looks back to the hallway and yells "It's glowing. It's glowing!" and then moves to slide the mechanism.

Having mistakenly speaking the wrong thing and done things out of order, Deagon watches as the entryway of the tunnel is closed by spikes. There is an eerie silence only broken by Tore moving to break down the spikes but it is too late. The floor beneath Deagon opens and with a sudden scream he falls. As Tore breaks down the spikes, he sees the floor open and widens the opening enough for Vandor to rush through. Vandor summons his wings and flies down with as much speed he can muster.

In the darkness as they both fall, neither are able to see much. Not even with Vandor's magically enhanced sight. Vandor desperately calls to Deagon through Sending but Deagon has no way to direct Vandor to him. Not wanting for his friend to die with him, Deagon tells Vandor "Save yourselves" and closes his eyes; accepting his fate.

Vandor flies down for long enough he finally reaches sight of the bottom and sees bodies piled over years and amongst them, Deagon. Tore moves to block the floor from opening again and desperately fights against the mechanism as Vandor flies back up. Dagmar and Tore desperately sacrifice weapons to keep the floor open just long enough for Vandor to get through.

Devastated, Vandor informs the party that he was too late. With no other way to enter the Fort, the Six in their grief, quit the mission and opt to return before their losses increase.

## Featured Characters

### The Six

* Sir Davion Phylund
* Deagon Sunseeker
* Tore Wolfram
* Tully Tanglefoot
* Vandor Tah