Session 70

# September 22nd, 2021 - Battle of Khaz Falduhr

## Dwarven Desperation

The session began as the Champions were awoken in their beds by guards of High Lady Silverhand. The lady had requested their presence in her council chambers immediately, there was some sort of emergency. The wood elven Princess Alleria was still with Rufus, and accompanied him to the meeting. Her father, King Melandrach, was not present.

When the High Lady entered the room, she was walking with the dwarven Ambassador Brawnanvil, who looked very distraught. The Ambassador quickly tried to relay what he had learned via a *sending* spell from the dwarven capital of Khaz Falduhr. Somehow, a small army of cultists and mercenaries had made their way to the foot of their capital mountain undiscovered. Normally, even a small army like this wouldn’t bother the dwarves, who had held off major bands of orcs for generations. However, this army had at its head Old Snarl, the ancient red dragon scourge of the Worldspine Mountains.

The dragon had already swung a number of small skirmishes in the cult’s favor, and has been destroying their watchtowers and emplaced defenses, regardless of their ballistae. The dwarven king had ordered an evacuation and called for reinforcements, and the ambassador was here to request aid from the Lord’s Accord, specifically from the dragon-slaying Champions. Ambassador Brawnanvil said that the city's wizards had erected a magical barrier preventing teleportation into the city; however, they could get inside via the secret underground rail system between the capital and Khaz Thorum - where the party's tower was being built.

After the ambassador left to carry word that the Champions had accepted, High Lady Silverhand requested that in addition to providing whatever support they could, she wanted them to discover what the cult was really doing in this attack. She couldn’t believe it was merely to murder dwarves or assassinate their king, as the cult could easily attack one of human coastal cities which were far less defended. The Champions tried to obtain any extra support from the High Lady, potions or other magical aids, but she regretted that she didn’t have anything ready. She was preparing support for their final assault on the cult, but nothing was yet on hand. Then moments later, the group was assembled outside with Thia’s current dragon, Maximus, who was now almost as tall as an elephant.

Thia’s dragons had been seemingly growing exponentially, now nearing one year old they were almost as big as dragons at least a decade older. Since they did not know of any teleportation circles in Khaz Thorum, and their tower had not yet been completed with one, the group’s only rapid travel option was having Alburt *teleport* the entire group. The dragonborn wizard was casually familiar with the location, having been there once before. And so, the group anxiously awaited as Alburt cast his spell and the entire group, including Maximus popped out of thin air and appeared outside in snow covered mountains. The wizard had missed the mark, but using Maximus to scout they found where they were and made their way to the gates of Khaz Thorum. The trek on foot only took a couple hours, and the dwarves rushed them to their underground rail terminal.

The populace was certainly scared of Maximus, this good sized black dragon walking casually through their streets with a band of rough-looking non-dwarves. In the terminal, there were lots of refugees and dwarves milling about in tons of activity. Soldiers were filling in, and boarding the steam powered train. The Champions got onto one tram, and Maximus filled a second all his own. Two more were filled with armored dwarven soldiers, and then before they knew it they were rushing through the dark tunnel.

The only lights were from lanterns in their trams, and there was clearly anxiety in the air. The dwarven soldiers were restless, rushing towards a mighty dwarven-eating dragon. The Champions took a short rest and did their best to prepare, and after two hours of train ride they pulled into the brightly lit terminal station at Khaz Falduhr. The place was a scene of utter chaos - it was packed with dwarves clamoring to escape, guards trying to keep order, and the cries of children. As the Champions got off their tram, dozens of dwarves pushed and swarmed past them to get on the train, while others screamed in terror as Maximus slowly walked off his tram.

## Battle of Khaz Falduhr

The dragon cleared the path for them as they walked out into the Khaz proper, the largest dwarven city built into the sides of an enormous undermountain ravine. After talking with one of the senior longbeard guards, the Champions made their way to the king’s throne chamber. They could see nearby the large promenade that led to the massive iron front gates that were currently closed, with thousands of armored dwarves in rank and file formation behind it. The guard told them the cult army had wound their way up the pass leading to the gates, with Old Snarl having been flying around and destroying all of their guard towers and pushing the dwarven forces back to guard the gates themselves.

Upon entering the throne chamber, the king lit up in excitement, having heard stories of the Champions. The king was surrounded by his six gold-plate-armored, longbeard honor guard. Rachen asked why he thought the cult was here, and the king was single minded in believing they were here to kill him. Why else devote such resources to breach their capital? - many hundreds of miles from where the cult was amassing their forces... In the rear corner of the throne room, there was a small rear exit, which the king said led to his emergency escape tunnel west into the mountains.

The party discussed their options, and how they could help. They settled on trying to draw the dragon away from the Khaz, to give the dwarves the best chance to beat the cult army in a relatively fair battle. The mountain shook again, as the massive dragon passed over or slammed into another structure outside. The party asked for one of the honor guards to stay behind, and they all volunteered. Alburt cast *minor illusion* on one of them, transforming him into the dwarven king. Understanding what was happening, the true king prepared to flee with two of his guards - leaving the others behind to follow the party and the ‘king’. However, before anything else transpired, a sound like a massive explosion was heard at the front gates.

Old Snarl burst through the iron gates, crushing waves of dwarven soldiers as he breathed his massive dragon fire. The party watched through the throne room entry as thousands of dwarves were incinerated, and hundreds fled and screamed as the massive dragon stampeded past deeper into the city. The cries and metal clanging of battle followed, as the cult forces swarmed into the city and engaged the remaining dwarven soldiers. The scene quickly turned to chaos as the dwarven line was broken and the cultists pushed them back. The party was preparing to take flight and flee out the front gates with the illusionary king - hoping to attract the attention of Old Snarl - when a group of cultists blocked the entryway.

There were only four armored cult soldiers in their full regalia, but six black robe wearing spell casters. These were the same type of shaven head with tattoo spell casters the Champions had seen before - Night Wizards. None had the purple robes of a cult leader, but one that gave the aura of authority stepped forward with a large rune carved cube. Some of the party recognized this Night Wizard as the same that they killed a simulacrum of in Count Blagothkus’ cloud castle. Everyone looked prepared to launch into a battle, but this lead Night Wizard first put the cube on the ground, and then he touched it with one hand.

Immediately, there was a bright white flash and the world stopped - *time stop*. Somehow, the party could see the world in super slow motion beyond the throne room, with massive waves of magic rippling out of the cube. A second wave from the cube materialized a shimmering box around the party, Maximus, and the dwarven honor guard and illusory king - *forcecage*. Then, a third different colored wave from the cube resulted in a portal opening on the floor inside their trapped space - *gate*. As the party snapped back to real time, as they fell through the gate, a fourth final wave of magic from the cube filled the forcecage with a green *sleep* gas that rushed down through the portal with them.

Most of the party, aside from the elves, blacked out instantly and crumpled through the gate in the floor into the space beyond. Thia and Lachlan were conscious to see everyone fall into a large, dimly lit stone room. And watch helplessly as the portal to Khaz Falduhr above them snapped closed. Leaving them in silence. The only light was from a few torch scones on the bare stone walls.

And that is where the short session ended, with the majority of the party, Maximus, and the dwarven honor guard, magically asleep in an unknown location. It was midday of the two hundred and seventy second (272nd) day since the raid on Greenest.

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