Session 6 - Battle Below Gauntlgrym

Session 6 - November 12th 2019

Recorded Stream: Part A

The session starts with the party enjoying breakfast, having spent the night at an Inn in the Iron Tabernacle. Following the advice of Bruenor Battlehammer, they set out to find Ghelryn Foehammer in the Lesser Forge in hopes of improving their gear a bit. Stats stops off at a butcher on the way and buys a bunch of meat for the Griffons.

The party goes through the Vault of Kings again, and into a tunnel built into the side of the cavern, soot and acrid smell of industry wafts from the chasm and the party heads through, to find a large elevator-type platform surrounded by a handful of dwarves dressed in soot-covered overalls. Seeing the party approach, and noticing Drork is a bugbear, one of the dwarves advances, and asks what business the foreigners have in Moradin's Pipe. Told that they're looking for Ghelryn Foehammer, and that they've been given permission by Bruenor Battlehammer, the dwarf says they can pass, but beware the "orange one, he likes foreigners even less than I do". He says the next shift is going down and the party is welcome to join them.

The party joins a group of dwarves on the elevator and it begins lowering down into the chasm, the cavern extends in darkness for miles and has fungal forests branching out here and there, sometimes off of the walls as though the forests have no idea which way is up. Stats engages the dwarves in conversation and he says lately there have been some scares of late, where graceful beasts float in and attack, and one of the dwarves' brother Morris had been recently killed in such an attack. While talking, two of the beasts attack the party and the dwarves say "look out! cloakers!"

   The Cloakers come in from both side, and the party does their best to defend the dwarves and fight them off. Stats summons a storm cloud and calls lightning down on the creatures, and then turns into a bear again to join the fray. Raloric and Drork lay about with their weapons and they hear a loud moan from the Cloaker that has not yet reached the platform, and the dwarves seem terrified of it. They make pretty quick work of the first Cloaker, but the second one uses some strange illusion magic and manages to knock one of the dwarves off the platform before being dispatched. Stats, meanwhile dives off of the platform to attempt to rescue the falling dwarf, and succeeds, with the help of his Ring of Feather-falling.

Reaching the bottom of the shaft, the dwarf that Stats saved thanks Stats and cries in his fur a bit. Looking around, a fungal forest towers around the group, and there's a campfire with a spit and some sort of roasting beast. One of the dwarves, named Warts approaches Hammerfeet and points the way to the Lesser Forge, a bit of the way through the underdark fungal forest. He describes some of the mushroom trees, Mirkwood -- which is harder than oak and burns a great deal longer than traditional wood, Ripplebark -- a mushroom with wavy undulating bark, and Barrelroot -- which contains fresh water. He says the forest path is fairly save, but to be wary of the "orange one." Asked about who or what the "orange one" is, the dwarf kind of deflects the question, and says you'll have to meet him, and that's he's mostly harmless.

Drork decides to harvest the wings from the Cloakers in case they can be useful for something, and Stats asks the dwarf he saved to tell great tales of him to all his friends.

The party heads down the path a bit and encounters what looks like a floating orange ball, with tentacles and eye stalks and a large central eye stalk. He says "Aren't these trees just the best? They're UGE, the best! Nobody has trees like these!" When Stats asks if he's a beholder, he says "no, i'm a dwarf! the best!" "sometimes you just gotta grab life by the mushroom and go to town on it". Not really knowing how to deal with this delusional beholder, the party tries to just kind of walk away, and the beholder offers them a riddle to let them pass.

"A house has four walls. All the walls are facing south, and a bear is circling the house. What color is the bear?" The party can't quite figure it out at first, but Raloric figures it out - the answer is "white" (because the house is at the north pole... and therefore all walls face south, and if a bear is circling a house at the north pole, it's a polar bear, and therefore white. The beholder is appeased and lets the party go.

Following the path, the party finds a tunnel that eventually leads to the Lesser Forge, where there is some magma flowing into the chamber, where there are some forges and anvils. Several workers are working on anvils, and a group of 5 dwarves is standing guard, who look at the party as they enter.

Hammerfeet greets them and says they're here to see Foehammer. He explains that Bruenor Battlehammer sent them to get some equipment upgrades. They are led to where Ghelryn Foehammer is, passing by a number of other dwarves, one of which is a woman who seems to be taken by Hammerfeet. The party re-explains their purpose to Foehammer and he asks what kind of equipment the party is looking for.

The group accepts a few armor upgrades, with Drork and Raloric both upgrading to breastplates, and Hammerfeet taking a suit of splint armor. The party also grabs some additional weapons and ammo. Meanwhile Stats wanders over to talk to a human, Sirac of Suzail who's working on some rose-colored spectacles. He says he came here from Suzail, and found religion with Torm, and has been pursuing his craft ever since. Stats also asks Foehammer if he can make some studded leather, and he takes one of the cloaker wings as material for it.

Asked if he has any magical armor, Foehammer says that he doesn't have any magical gear but that Sirac of Suzail might be able to help them. Sirac of Suzail says he could make a wand from an orange beholder eyestalk, and Drork asks if he could make anything from the Cloaker wings, and he says he could try but it would take a little luck. The luck was not to be had, unfortunately. He reveals that he's the son of Artus Cimber - who was a legendary Harper known to possess some sort of magical ring.

One of the dwarves comes up to Raloric, introduces himself as Oren Yogilvy and says that he's never seen an elf before. He sings a song about visiting the elves.

The party takes a long rest and waits for Stats leather to be completed - Stats lingers a bit and talks to the dwarven woman, Augrek Brighthelm. She asks Stats to deliver a note to Hammerfeet, that basically says "I can tell by your beard that you're experienced".

Stats talks to Hammerfeet in the morning and delivers the letter from Augrek Brighthelm, and Hammerfeet teases Stats, saying that he wrote the note.

Booming footfalls suddenly come from the tunnel, and three pale, gaunt giants appear, the leader of which has a bunch of stuff embedded into himself. The dwarf guards take up their arms and ready for a fight, which the party joins in on immediately without any deliberation. The main giant introduces himself as Dreamwalker and threatens that we will all become part of him, as he is part of the earth.

Drork starts off the fight with a well placed javelin on one of the lesser giants, who says to Dreamwalker "The dreams hurt!". The giants and dwarves exchange a few blows, with some heavy crossbow fire from Augrek, and Sirac and Oren not doing a whole lot. The giant that took a javelin to the shoulder takes a boulder and rolls it bowling-style at the party, doing heavy damage to Hammerfeet and Drork. Hammerfeet strikes back with a level three Guiding Bolt, blasting the giant Feldstin in the face with radiant fire, and blinding him. Dreamwalker reaches down and touches one of the dwarves, turning it into some kind of rock monster, Stats summons some bears who help by tearing into the giant named Plug.

Plug, surrounded by bears manages to bash one of the them into oblivion amidst the fray. Augrek misses some attacks, too flustered by the presence of Hammerfeet. Sirac throws a dart successfully. Drork takes another heavy blow from Feldstin, and manages to avoid a second blow, thanks to his new armor. Hammerfeet blesses Stats, Drork, and Raloric. Raloric lands another couple blows on Feldstin, and Dreamwalker turns another dwarf into a rock monster. Drork finishes off Feldstin with a few more greatsword blows and he falls into the Magma along with a reckless dwarf who had climbed on top of him.

*But Plug*, in response to seeing his ally go down, smashes into Ghelryn and knocks him unconscious. Oren and Sirac make another round of ineffective attacks. Hammerfeet tolls the dead a few times on the stone monsters, and Raloric casts Magic Missile on Dreamwalker. When it hits, both the stone monsters crumble to the ground. Dreamwalker retaliates by throwing a boulder, nearly creaming Raloric, but fortunately Raloric manages to dodge away from the brunt of it and only take moderate damage. The remaining bear does some more mauling and Stats hits Plug with a crossbow bolt. Meanwhile Ghelryn recovers miraculously from being unconscious and goes super Saiyan with rage, Drork starts wailing away on Dreamwalker with his greatsword, and Plug annihilates the remaining bear and goest to step over the dwarves toward Oren and Stats, but takes a greataxe in the crotch from Ghelryn and a Guiding Bolt from Hammerfeet and he goes down.

Raloric pumps himself up with a Second Wind, steps up to Dreamwalker and uses Shocking Grasp, an Action Surge, and then scores two critical hits with his Longsword, causing him to stumble into the Lava a bit. Dreamwalker then hurls a rock at Hammerfeet, crushing him. Stats heals him and then summons another round of bears who form a bear-icade and start attacking the giant. Ghelryn calms down enough to realize running in is suicide at this point and lets Drork close with the giant instead. Sirac approaches from across the magma and gets Dreamwalker right in the eye with a dart, blinding him. Oren throws another dagger and misses, cause that's what he does apparently. Finally, Hammerfeet and Raloric unleash a last few blasts of magic with Raloric's magic missile finally taking down Dreamwalker for good.

Session ends here, but some information was put out via discord about the NPCs that were saved and some rewards and quests that they have to offer:

* Oren Yogilvy’s Quest:

> Oren is spooked by rumors that giants are rampaging throughout the North. He asks the characters if they could check on his sister, Lily, who works at the Happy Cow tavern in Luskan. He also wants them to deliver a hastily written letter to Lily that tells her he’s doing fine, and would she please send him some more money. He also gives Raloric a music box. The music box is a magical item – once per day it can play anything that you have recorded into it when a condition is met. (the item is now a handout in roll20)
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* Augrek Brighthelm’s Quest

> Augrek asks Hammerfeet, her recent fling, to meet with one or more representatives of the Brighthelm clan in Ironmaster and ask her clanfolk to send reinforcements to Gauntlgrym. She warns the characters that the dwarves of Ironmaster don’t allow non-dwarves inside their lands. But, she says, if the characters travel toward Ironmaster, stand next to one of its menhirs (tall freestanding rocks) and wait, some dwarves will eventually approach them.
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* Sirac of Suzail’s Quest

> Sirac is happy to find heroes to take the fight back to the giants. He imparts the magical Rose Coloured Spectacles to the group. He also mentions that the spectacles may be the only way to find his father, Artus Cimber, who is protected from Divination magic. (the glasses are now a handout in Roll20)
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* Ghelryn Foehammer’s Quest

> As a reward for their efforts, Ghelryn writes the characters a letter of recommendation (see the “Marks of Prestige” section in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide) and suggests they present it to King Morinn or Queen Tithmel should they find themselves in Citadel Felbarr.
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