The Glitterhame

(Khundrakar, 20^th September, 1600)

[9] Revising their earlier decision, the group returned to the first level and investigated the secret door found earlier. Following the passage, they reached an identical door at the end. Opening this, they discovered a chamber of finished stonework about 30' by 15'. The room was cluttered with crude furnishings and the air was hazy with the smoke of a small cooking fire. Dozens of yellow skulls were suspended from the ceiling by fraying ropes strung through holes punched in the bone. Three female orcs, dressed in ragged black robes, looked up sharply as the door opened. The nearer two simply looked surprised, but the one at the far end snarled in fury and began to move her hands in the patterns of a spell.

Burdug's lair

A wash of magic rippled out - and Vollun Crusher screamed in panic, turned, and started to push back through the party towards the exit. Sack, trying to prevent him escaping, swung a punch which missed and a knee which didn't, and the young dwarf sank to the ground with a groan.

Surya and Hildraft charged into the room, Surya headlong down the room at the shaman and Hildraft angling off to the right after one of her acolytes. The sword and the axe claimed their victims in a trice, leaving only one assistant on the other side of the table. Sack tried to tip it over on her, but was surprised to find it was heavier than he thought. He was just trying to sign "leave one alive" to the others when Kobort's crossbow bolt sang through the air and pinned the last shaman to the wall through her eye.

The shaman Surya had slain rose, Returned, ready to serve the Sword of the Dead Legions; as no instructions to fight were forthcoming it stood idly. In aggravated frustration, Surya kicked it and demanded that it talk to him. To his amazement, a creaky, agonized voice haltingly answered him. It wasn't, however, coming from the risen corpse but the one nailed to the wall by Kobort's quarrel. The others watched uneasily as Surya interrogated the corpse, demanding to know if it knew the whereabouts of Mergil, what lay further down in the depths of Kundrakhar, and why it was talking to him in the first place. It replied that it had no idea what Mergil was, the level below was occupied by the "stinking lizards", and that it had been called back by the power that he held, addressing him as "Master", and begging in agony to be allowed to return to death.

He consented, and the body sagged.

The Glitterhame - click for larger image

Descending again, they moved through several caves until they reached a large one with a barred wooden gate at one end, and a smell of animal wafting through it. [21a] After a moment, Sack recognized the smell - bear! Approaching the cage, he verified that there was indeed a large cave bear imprisoned inside, snarling and snapping at anyone who came near it.

Quickly, the ranger worked his spell of Animal Friendship. Immediately, the bear's demeanour softened, so Sack let it out. About then, Hildraft noticed five figures across the south side of the cave, watching them. He and Surya recognized them from prior encounters as Troglydytes - so that was what "stinking lizards" had meant! Both were readying weapons, when Sack looked up into the bear's eyes and gave it permission to do what it really wanted to - exact vengeance on those who'd imprisoned it. With a glad roar, the bear charged forward, pursuing the panicked trogs back down the passage and out of sight.

A quick check in the northern passage [B] revealed a cool breeze bringing the smell of fresh air - obviously an exit, and probably the one that the invading orcs used when they broke into Durgeddin's fortress.

Unhindered, then, the heroes explored a little more, and arrived at a quiet side cavern that caught their eye. [22] A trickle of water seeping down from the hillside above reached the cavern, nourishing a profusion of fungus - weird puffballs, tall caps and patches of fuzzy mould in a variety of colours. A golden-brown carpet of mould covered an old skeleton in rusted mail in the southern part of the room, and a narrow passageway led to another small room beyond this one. A surprisingly bright hand-and-a-half sword gleamed in the skeleton's bony grasp; Kobort's suspicions were justified as his Detect Magic revealed it to be a strongly enchanted weapon - something he'd coveted for a long time. Nervous of the fungi, the others retreated to the passage, and Hildraft and Sack actually scouted off down some of the other passages a bit while they waited. Surya posted himself as a guard in the passage down which the trogs had fled.

Yellow Mould and sword

Kobort pondered for a few moments; then, knotting a noose in a long piece of rope, he used Mage Hand to steer it into the cave, across the floor and into place around the sword's hilt. Safely looped, he pulled. For a moment, the sword didn't budge; then it suddenly shifted, raising a cloud of deadly spores into the air. Kobort, right over the other side of the cave, was easily able to back out of harm's way. Once the cloud subsided, he was able to retrieve and clean the weapon.

Troglydyte

Still admiring it, he stepped back into the passage, and was somewhat surprised to find it covered in blood and gore, and Surya cleaning his blade. Five trogs had doubled back and attacked the Tellaran. That settled, the party continued down the passage, emerging into the vast main cavern of the Glitterhame. Immediately, their eyes were drawn to a door at the far end, and they went to investigate. Cut into the stone wall, the door was small but very strong-looking, made of iron plate and about 5' tall by 4' wide. Hildraft, looking at it, was aware that it was the work of an absolute genius. Heavy rivets studded its' surface, and a single tarnished silver rune gleamed on the rusted surface. They'd seen this rune before, on a letter in Elverandil's forge. It was Durgeddin's personal sigil.

The first order of business was to get the door open, of course. Sack got his tools out, and twiddled around inside for quite some time, establishing a) that the door was locked and b) that it was likely to remain that way. Surya tried shoulder-charging it; winded, he signaled Sack and Hildraft to come and help him. It took three good shoves from the frightening combined strength of the three to break the door in. Beyond were stairs leading downwards. The stonework from here on was noticeably superior.

Descending, the group came out in an octagonal chamber about 30' across. [35] The floor was inlaid with cracked, dusty blue tiles, and the walls dressed with polished marble. Large doors of ironbound oak exited northwest and northeast. Three cast bronze statues almost 10' high stood at the west, north and east walls. Each represented a dwarven warrior armed for battle; the east and west carried axe and shield, and the centre statue was armed with two axes. The ceiling rose to a dome almost 30' above the floor. Somewhere in the distance, the faint sound of a hammer ringing on an anvil could be heard.

The party didn't trust this an inch. Kobort, using his cloak, went up the wall and to the top of the dome; odd bits of the marble came away under his hands, but without dislodging him. Sack experimentally cobbed a brick at one; a magnificent shot, it splattered on the statue's forehead, showering brick dust all over it, but without other effect. The others, with immense care, ranged back through the dungeon and scrounged up all the wood they could get; then they bound this between the statues' splayed feet with all the rope they could get hold of. Finally, Sack and Surya used long ropes to open the two doors.

As expected, both opened onto blank walls - and the statues lunged forward, trying to attack the band. Unable to balance, all three fell over. One, discarding its' weapons, attempted to crawl up the stairs towards Hildraft, another threshed futilily and the third attacked the tiled floor with its' axe. Sack sprang nimbly onto the back of the crawling one, and started looking for weak spots on its' back. Kobort pounded the one trying to dig holes with Magic Missiles, and Surya brought his sword carefully down against a joint on the third and pushed on it twohanded with all his might.

Suddenly, the resistance gave way, and Surya's sword punched into the statue. Blood-like, a cyan blue viscous fluid began to pour out across the floor, and the statue's movements became first spasmodic, and then slowed and stopped. At the same time Sack managed to locate a stopper in the back of his statue, and ripped it out; the shower of fluid that drenched him marked the end of another one. The third was easy after that.

Searching behind where the eastern statue had started, they found another secret door, and, opening it, were unpleasantly surprised at the discovery of stairs upwards. They climed them. Half-way up, a Magic Mouth spell went off, startling the hell out of everybody, bawling "Alert! Alert! Intruders Approach!" in Dwarvish five times before shutting up.

[36] Opening the unsecured door at the top, they found a mighty dwarven hall, 100' long by 50' wide, lined with ten great pillars carved into fantastic images; giants and dragons straining to support the massive vaulted ceiling, 30' above. Guttering orange torches burned in sconces 10' above floor level, and a might throne dominated the room from a dias at the opposite end. The walls had been covered with tiled frescoes, but these were almost completely gone, replaced by vile Orcish graffiti. Five exits - not including the one they had just opened - were visible. A small fire smouldered on the floor in front of the dais, and around a dozen sleeping pallets lay empty nearby, surrounded by packs and supplies. Hammers rang loudly somewhere beyond the southern doors.

Suddenly, a harsh voice called out from the shadows of the pillars; "Go back the way you came! This is the only warning you'll get." Hildraft was startled; the speaker was speaking Dwarvish, and without the usual accent that humans used, but with an accent he'd never heard before. It reminded him of something he'd read once...

As the party made no effort to retreat, a hail of crossbow bolts announced the opening of hostilities...