Session 27
| ← Session 26 | Session 28 → |
| August 3, 2012 – Stoneforge Redemption | |
- 14 Decitis 1444 - The exiles encampment/Blackiron citadel
The Story
The night before the assault on the Blackirons, Merg lays out the exile's battle plan. All of the exile's forces will engage the Blackiron army in the city. As this is happening the party will use the attack as a distraction to gain entry into the council chamber from which Engmar Blackiron now rules. The exiles have already tunneled as close to the council chamber as they dare, the explosives they have been preparing will be used to breech the chamber from the tunnel. The party is tasked with killing Engmar and displaying his head to the city to show that he has fallen.
Sometime in the early morning Oona, apparently, woke up strapped on his armor and took most of his equipment and left for a distant seldom used part of the cave system. When it was discovered he was missing his teammates tracked him to a large natural cave with pools of lava. Oona was in the midst of some sort of non-verbal conversation with (what Adran identified as) a devil of some unknown variety. As soon as the party arrived the humanoid devil vanished and the more bestial devils attacked the group, which seemed to start to pull Oona out of whatever trance he was in. As the fight begins to resolve Oona notices that the head of his trident has been glowing with a deep red glow, barely perceptible but to his dwarven eyes like the glow of an almost completed weapon out of the forge but deeper.
The group has serious concerns about what happened here tonight. It comes as a shock when Adran identifies the creatures in the cave as some sort of unknown devils. This does give Oona pause, even his limited knowledge of devils is enough to know that anything they offer is going to cost much, much more than they lead their victims to believe. Returning to camp, Quodus offers to use his magics to cool off Oona, and at that point Oona suddenly realizes that his gear (especially his armor) is hot enough to make it uncomfortable for anyone to just be near him. Oona does note that his trident still has the deep red glow that he noticed earlier.
A near panic had arisen in the encampment during the parties absence, the disappearance of the most powerful warriors on the eve of the most important battle tends to have that effect. The return just in the nick of time calms the panic enough to get the dwarven rebellion into a semblance of order. As soon as the party can be herded into position the main attack begins.
The breech is secured by the explosives, and Engmar is surprised on his way to lead the battle out in the city. He wastes no time calling upon gargoyle protectors, but none of this deters Oona from closing with Engmar and battling with him and two of his gargoyles at the side of Adran. Meanwhile Norvaan, Laphane and the wizard Quodus hold their own against several more of the gargoyles. The fight was long and limits were reached and exceeded, but in the end Oona managed to land a lucky blow as Engmar raised his hammers to strike the upstart Stoneforge down for good. In retribution the two remaining gargoyles struck in unison and knocked Oona unconscious, something that the repeated pummeling from Engmar and his gargoyles could not do before.
The rest of the party handily defeats the few remaining gargoyles and revives Oona. Then Oona completes their assigned task and presents the severed head to the city from the balcony of the council chambers. Shouting that the reign of Engmar Blackiron is over and that those following him are to obey his rightful successor Merg Blackiron. The revelation causes some Blackirons to lay down their arms, and some dwarves originally of other clans rally to the exiles side. The tide has turned though the actual fighting still goes on for quite some time.
After the battle is finally resolved and a semblance of order has been restored Merg calls a conference with Oona and announces that he is dissolving the Blackiron clan due to it's tarnished honor. All those once called Blackiron will now be Stoneforge. Oona accepts the role as patriarch of his reborn clan, and places Merg as the Stoneforge representative on the newly restored dwarven council. His only request is that as soon as possible efforts are made to find and repatriate the remnants of the original Stoneforge clan. As Oona is leaving the council chamber Merg calls to him running towards Oona. Merg brings Oona a shield that was found in Engmars personal quarters, it is the shield that Vundin Stoneforge wielded (the last patriarch of the clan Stoneforge), the Shields of Stoneforge.
Treasure Acquired
- 600gp as payment for their services; Oona and Norvaan decline to be paid
- Greater Storm Sheild (Shields of Stoneforge) -- Oona
- Targeting Greatbow -- Norvaan
- Supreme Skirmisher's Greatbow - Laphane