The Mountain Door

(Khundrakar, 20^th September, 1600)

Moving down from the ridge and onto the plains surrounding the mountain, the intrepid heroes worked their way across the scrubland towards the Stone Tooth. Sack, ranging out in front, came on a set of tracks; four orcs, heading along the same roadway the group were on, had passed that way less than a day before. They carried on until they reached the edges of the forest mantling the mountain about a quarter of the way up. There, the ranger found tracks from two more groups of orcs, six in total, coming in from either side of the forest's edge. They met up with the first four and pressed on into the forest without deviation. Following them through, the group came out of the forest at the bottom of the path leading to what had to be the fortress door.

Kundrakar

[1] Climbing the path, they came to the last bend visible from the outside. The path climbed one last steep switchback toward a bare shoulder of rock. The hillside climbed steeply on their right and dropped away preciptously on their left. Debris and rubbish lay scattered over the last hundred yards or so of the path - discarded waterskins, bits of charred bone and splintered casks or kegs discarded carelessly from the path. Up ahead, the path opened up onto a wide ledge and then doubled sharply back into the mountainside. Two orcs in scale armour were standing - occasionally pacing - on the ledge near the corner. They appeared bored and inattentive...

Sack thought for a moment, and then went cautiously back to Hildraft, gave him a small stone, and indicated he wanted Silence cast on it. Next, he borrowed Kobort's cloak, and swung himself down off the path, climbing along the cliff edge under the ledge the orcs occupied. Choosing his moment well, he leaped back up onto the path, skewering the orc guard facing away from him with a single stab of the Blade of the Sun, simultaneously, lashing a vicious backhand across the other with his shortsword. Both orcs fell dead - noislessly, of course - and Sack, unwilling to present too easy a target to the arrow slits he could see commanding the path, dropped prone and hugged the ground, waiting to see what would happen. Nothing did. At this point, the others came up the path the conventional way, to see what looked like a disaster; three slain bodies. A quick wave from Sack eased their fears.

Reasonably satisfied that no-one had observed the killings, Sack then cunningly stuffed the silent stone into one of the bodies' pockets, before shoving them off the path. Down the mountain they toppled, bouncing from rock to rock, the metal armour banging and bumping, before they pitched into the trees below. Without a sound, of course...

A quick dash across the path saw the party with their backs placed to the rockwall. Fifteen feet above, the arrowslits opened menacingly, and faint orcish conversation could be heard coming from them. Sack clambered up to have a peep in; he could make out the basic structure of the area inside, but no details. Descending again, he worked along the path as it changed into a cave entrance, mounting the stairs until he came to the corner.

[2] Around the corner, he saw a broad entrance carved out of the stone. Marble steps cracked with age and veined with green moss led up to a strong double door of carved stone, eight feet wide and almost ten feet tall. Two more arrow slits high on the north and south walls commanded the area. The doors stood temptingly open.

At this point, the party made a conscious policy decision. Stealth had served them well so far; but as they entered the underground sections, they would have to choose between having the human half of the group blundering around blind, or being spotted immediately wherever they went. Obviously, leaving Kobort and Surya behind meant losing half their front-line muscle and all their arcane firepower. So they elected to abandon stealth and make a frontal assault.

[3]Boldly ascending the stairs, then, they lit torches, opened the doors wide, and stepped through. The door opened onto a large hall; from where they stood they were overlooking a deep, dark crevasse that cut the room in two, completely obstructing passage to the other side. A dangerous-looking rope bridge, frayed and thin, spanned the gap; water gurgled and rushed somewhere far below (the dwarves reckoned between a two hundred and two hundred and fifty feet). Two large copper braziers burned brightly either side of the door, illuminating this half of the room. The dwarves and half-orc, with their Darkvision, could make out, among the far rougher rocks of the far ledge, five orcs, armoured in scale and hefting bows, lurking in wait and watching the bridge.

Hildraft, who happened to be carrying Kobort's cloak, swung it around his shoulders and swarmed up the southern wall, starting to work his way over the chasm from above. Surya stepped boldly out onto the bridge, a rope secured and a lit torch in his hand.

Progress was slow; the bridge was horribly unstable, and he had to stop frequently to prevent the wobbles from pitching him over the side.

Things were not at all helped by the waiting orcs. When the Tellaran reached half-way, four of them started pelting him with shortnow arrows; the fifth unhooked a short axe and started running towards the bridge, obviously intent on cutting it and dropping the warrior into the chasm. Surya's only hope was Hildraft.

Reaching the far side, the dwarf dropped to his feet, drew his two-handed axe, and with a full-blooded battlecry, charged screaming across the cavern towards his ancient foe. Right at the bridge they met; the orc adjusted his position to use his axe on the dwarf rather than the bridge, but Hildraft swung a mighty stroke, sweeping the orc's head off clean as a whistle.

In the next moment, Surya was across, and the two set to work engaging the remaining four orc-guards. Three fell in a few seconds; the last one turned to flee, but was neatly brought down by a well-placed - and probably extremely painful - arrow from Sack, who'd been waiting for just such an eventuality. The orcs gone, the party crossed without further problems - except for Vollun, who fell off the bridge and had to be hauled up on the safety rope.

[5]Passing through the far doors, the band found themselves in a natural cave, with carefully smoothed walls and floor. Wet stone gleamed, and they could see at least four exits leading in different directions. Red coals gleamed in the darkness of the far-right passageway, and a crude wooden cage barred the closer right-hand passage. The room was littered with orcish sleeping furs, loot, and rubbish.

[6] Behind the rough-hewn tree trunks of the cage cave, two filth-covered prisoners were waving frantically at the adventurers. Desperately trying to attract their attention, one cried out; "Thank Pelor! We're saved!"

The group gathered at the cave mouth and considered this. Kobort was unsure if they might not be a plant; Sack was more practical, feeling that they'd draw unwelcome attention if allowed to wander off. As a compromise, he went back to the Rift Hall, gathered up a scale shirt, sword and bow each, and pushed them through the bars. The prisoners, a bit nonplussed, set to work on the lock with their new swords.

[7] The next cave turned out to be the orc's kitchen. There was a distinct draught drawing the smoke up through a rough hole in the ceiling of the chamber. Aha! The source of the smoke visible from the outside of the mountain.

[8] From here, they progressed to the orc living quarters; equally foul and unpleasant, stacked haphazardly with crates, sacks and barrels of looted foodstuffs and so on. A well yawned at the south edge of the room, with a variety of other exits scattered about. Sack discovered the secret door to the south, and noted that it was in regualr use as there was no dust clogged in the cracks; Hildraft managed to open it quite easily. They took one look at the narrow, dark passage, its' walls covered with orcish grafitti of an unpleasant and arcane nature, and decided to go the other way.

Using his cloak's powers, Kobort swung down the well and climbed down to the waterlevel. The dank depths gave away no secrets, but as he climbed up again a loose stone dislodged under his hand. Behind it was a small cavity, wherein he found a small, locked box. Tucking it into his belt, he climbed on up. At the top, he handed it to Sack - let the expert dare the trap! - and watched expectantly. Sack's approach was something of a surprise; he pitched the box hard against the nearest wall, and fished the few gold coins it contained out of the fragments. The sad splinters of nicely-moulded glass and the clear, wholesome fluid soaking into the floor showed that the bottle of Holy Water stored in there as well hadn't survived the process at all well.

At the north-east end, they found a high stack of crates, obviously hiding something. Pulling them aside, they found a metal gate, every chink blocked with sack mattresses stuffed between the bars. Odd!

Pulling the blockages aside, they could clearly hear a strange, low-toned buzzing sound from the other side. Looking through, they could see a large chamber with a high ceiling, a jagged rift in the floor and what were possibly a couple of bodies lying on the floor. After a little thought, a memory surfaced, and they recognized the buzzing noise. Stirge wings!

Confident in the technique they'd used on those long-dead ancestors of these creatures, the group quickly deployed; Kobort remained at the gate, and the others retreated back to the well area, where they'd have room to manoeuvre. When everyone was ready, the nomad uncapped the gate and rattled a dagger against the steel bars, attracting the stirges on the other side. Around half-a dozen streaked through and hurtled down the passage towards the rest of the party before he blocked the gap again; muffled thuds told him there were more to come.

Striges haven't evolved much in 900 years..

Sure enough, the heroes massacred the flying pests, sending showers of blood and feathers in all directions. Once the last one was down, Kobort let the rest in, and soon the stirge threat was eliminated.

[10] Opening the gate and moving through, the party found themselves in an impressive chamber, with a soaring 30' ceiling, and walls covered in carvings of dwarves working in their forges. Two large stone doors offered exits to the north and south, and several old skeletons - probably Orcish - lay scattered near the northern door. In the centre of the floor, a natural rift descended sharply. Dozens of stone steps led downwards into the darkness.

Disdaining the doors, the party descended the stairs. The narrow crevasse wound down quite a long way, twisting and turning. The floor had been cut into hundreds of shallow steps, but the walls and ceiling were still made of natural rock. About 60' down, a rushing stream, a couple of feet wide and about knee-deep, spilled from a narrow crack to their right and crossed the stairway, disappearing into a narrow, twisting tunnel to the left.

The map. This shows the progress so far; bear in mind some areas marked as solid may not be as the PCs haven't been there! The numbers in [red] in the text refer to the labels on the map.

Session 1 map