dwarvenhomeland-blog

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Inside the southern tunnel, they find a winding passage with many rooms. Looks like this is where they live, for the most part. There are a few storerooms with not really that much in them. Pretty much subsistence for these folks.

At the very end of the tunnel, they hit open a large, open area. It's got pillars in it, and there's a small bit of the Svartur that flows through the back. And sitting inside the river is a big black cube, about 4'x4'. But they don't get a chance to check it out because the three remaining creatures who were defending the chief's throne are here, pickaxes ready.

But the thing is, they're at the very back, standing in front of fourteen others, all of whom look like noncombatants in some way: too old, too young, too sick, too wounded. It's tense. They stare each other down.

AMROTH: You can leave if you'd like. We will let you leave these caves forever with your lives, but you must drop any weapons you have.

That's a threat. He bombs the check. They creatures are overcome with grief and rage and fear. They charge into the front ranks. Eymund stabs the closest one in the neck.

GM: He goes down like a floppy blood fountain.

And Amroth engages the remaining two warriors that are charging him. Crits.

GM: You take the head clean off one, and the other's lying there with your axe still on his shoulder. He's out of his mind and not in a position to fight.

But, just then:

GM: ASBJORN, you see one of the creatures, half burned ala Twoface, dripping with black water, lunging for EYMUND's neck with a golden ceremonial dagger. He's in the air as we speak.

Asbjorn tosses his axe at the guy and yells for Eymund to duck. Eymund leaps out of the way just barely in time, but the creature lands at Asbjorn's feet; his dagger goes sliding across the room; and now he's using those powerful frog-like back legs to spring up to Asbjorn's neck, prepared for fang insertion. Asbjorn wants to punch him in the face to knock him out. He does:

GM: His face warps slo-mo style; incisors go flying; and he crumples. Goodnight.

So now they have to figure out what to do. No warriors seem to be left. One of them is unconscious and quickly bound with ropes. The fourteen others are in no position or mood to fight. They're cowering and crying. It's discussion time.

Eventually, they figure (led by Eymund and Amroth), that they can use these people as, well, maybe not slaves but, well, servants who really don't have a choice about what to do. It feels kinda icky, but they go with it. This is their homeland after all, right? Right?

They figure the device in the corner is a water purification system. Nasty water enters a slot in the bottom and comes out pure from the top slot on the other side of the cube. But these creatures just have the clean water dumping back into the nasty Svartur river. Durr. It weighs a ton, though; so they're going to have to make preparations if they want to move it later on.

They also figure out that the shiny little stone cube they picked up earlier is a two-axis compass of some kind. It's pointing up and southeast: toward Heim, they reckon.

They wake up their captive and interrogate him. He's cooperative. The language barrier is kinda rough, but they figure that the bones everywhere are their ancestors. The captive claims that the bones are the bones of his ancestors, but the company notices that none of the bones have those distinctive long, thin legs. Or the fangs.

And the fresh blood they found on the other side of the river? Captive says it's from the "life-giver," whatever that means. They figure it's some cannibalistic ritual.

They get the guy's name too: Kana. That happens to be the same word in dwarven, and Eymund says it means "Ears." So now they've got a captive named Ears. (And he does, actually, have big radar ears, pointed like a bat's.) He's got a big diagonal scar on his chest, and he's a eunuch.

Ears tells them that the statue in the shrine room is the "goddess of the race." When it comes out that she spoke to Eymund, Ears looks at him funny. He asks where she touched Eymund. Eymund points to his liver. Ears reaches out and touches Eymund's torso, then falls on his face. "Really you? Really they have come?"

"Yes," Eymund says, not having any idea.

And Ears just starts running back to the filtration room, whooping and shouting "They have come! They have come!"

When he returns, he's got a few of the children with them, and they show the company the ways back out: the river, the rails, and the tunnel where Asbjorn picked up the Heim compass.

After grabbing a few vases of the fire salts so that Eymund can brew up some more firebombs, they start back for town.

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Expertly rendered map of the throne-shrine-residential area of the Hjorfell tunnel.

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In the temple/shrine room, everyone is forced to back away by some kind of mental/spiritual/weirdo impulse coming from the sacrificed children. Everyone except Eymund, who takes a look around the room while the priests keep up their droning. Nothing special around: knives, censers, incense, tongs, etc.

But he hears something, like a whisper, coming from the statue. As he gets closer, the priests tense up, but the voice becomes louder. It's a woman's voice, and it sounds like it's in (the forbidden language of classical) dwarven.

But Eymund doesn't want to do anything too spooky with the priests around; so he backs out into the hallways, whistles, and tosses his last Heim cocktail in there. The priests just sit there burning and slump over, one by one. No screams, nothing. When the fires die down, Eymund tosses a blanket over the sacrificed babies and approaches the statue: "Come look at this!"

He can't resist putting his ear to it. And it speaks to him:

These have failed me. You will avenge me and my people and restore our name. I give you a blessing.

GM: And the statue turns to you and sticks its right hand inside you. It pulls out your liver. And then takes it inside itself. You can see it traveling up its throat. And she spits your liver back into her palm. But now it's black stone. And she stuffs it inside you again.

"Go," she says, and the statue crumbles.

GM: It feels cold inside you now. Cold but awesome. What do you do?

EYMUND'S PLAYER: Wigga wuhhh?!?! I need liver dialysis.

With that done, the company heads for the southern tunnel. Map forthcoming.

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They're low on torches now. Maybe about an hour of exploration before they have to head back to the surface. Unless they can find some torch-substitutes down here.

Eymund suggests making a rope bridge for later so they can cross that gap like a boss. Nods all around.

They decide to press on. It's more of the same, but they think they can hear whimpering ahead. After about fifteen minutes, they find a side room with some interesting junk in it. It's full of old dwarven vases. Eymund figures they might fetch a decent price.

But they best thing is? They've got this white powder leaking out of a few of them. It looks like the creatures busted into a couple and got bored with the place. Eymund tastes it, smells it: fire salt, y'all. He grabs some and makes a mental note to come back later.

Heim Cocktail Ingredients (1/2)

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GM: In any case, [the northern tunnel]'s a rough-hacked thing. Doesn't look ancient. Looks like they did it with their pickaxes. Droning gets louder. There's incense and crap smeared on the walls. That pattern is everywhere. And then you wind up in this rectangular room piled with bones. Like, bone-carpet. And there's this really old and beautiful statue of a woman. It's thin and elongated, but you can tell it's a dwarf woman. And it's lodged in a heap of skulls. And there are four people around it, chanting and burning their fingertips with candles. They look just like the ones you saw earlier, except these look old. Really old. Gollum if Gollum were a dwarf. They take no notice of you. Oh, and those wriggling little white babies you saw earlier? They're in the brazier, their charred bodies are. Everyone check Fire. [Rolls] Everyone but Eymund, y'all back away. You can't bring yourself to come closer. Y'all feel what they call in the Bible a horror of great darkness. Meanwhile, it's silent outside, and the four priests(?) just keep on with their thing.

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GM: Y'all rushed in with Eymund hurling a Heim cocktail over your heads. You just sliced through the front ranks LOTR battle scene style, while the dudes in back peeled off with the chief stumbling after them. Then he got two axes in the back, courtesy of Amroth and Asbjorn (throwing axes, of course). And there he is, on the ground, half-conscious, crawling while dudes are burning and bleeding out everywhere. Although the main tunnel extends beyond the throne, the throne-cart forms a T-intersection with tunnels leading north and south. The three survivors ran into the southern tunnels. There are drums to the north, and this droning chant. In that northern tunnel is the only place where there's light beside your torches and the burning bodies.

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Amroth's player crits on his threat, but the best they can get is for the creatures to get smacked down without retaliation once. It's a free hit basically. And man do they get hit.

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The chief/king guy says "Give propitiation. One man, many wounds. After, leave."

And the players get it into their heads that this means "Beat up one of your guys and then leave."

But of course that's not what it means. Amroth asks just to be sure, but the king just gives him this look like really?

So they figure it's just time to throw down.

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AMROTH: While your offer is tempting, it is our singular focus—the retaking of our kingdom. Vacate your throne, or we will vacate you kind from the darkness and the deep.

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ASBJORN'S PLAYER:

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AMROTH: Oh respectable creature, we see your hold on these tunnels is strong and your position is fair. We, however, must kindly ask you to find another mountain under which to dwell. This is our homeland, the homeland of our fathers, and their fathers. It is our destiny to live here and prosper.

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There's a bone staircase leading up the middle of the cart, to the (naturally) bone throne. And 12 pickaxe-wielding things are standing guard in front of it. And someone's sitting on the throne. It looks like the rest, only it's bigger, with these nasty cuts all over its chest. There are tunnels to either side (the north and south). The cart-bone-throne forms a kind of T-intersection, although the main tunnel does continue on behind it.

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ASBJORN: We've come to reclaim the might of the dwarves.

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GM: As you head forward, you hear louder and louder breathing. Sometimes there's a scrape like nails on a chalkboard. Then, all of a sudden, you come up against another huge cart. This one's filled with bones too, but they're painted yellow and red and lashed together to form a huge throne. EYMUND'S PLAYER: Oh no, a throne. ASBJORN'S PLAYER: I hate thrones.

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GM: You can hear metal scraping the ground outside down the tunnel, like many little points simultaneously. EYMUND: Wait . . . what's that noise? Shh. GM: After a minute or so, it stops. ASBJORN: We should head back to Grensk and resupply now that we know a bit more. Days worth of torches or an alchemical solution first. Then rations. AMROTH: We've made quite an investment to have come this far. I am more inclined to press on across the rails and explore the tunnel. We can burn these bones and light our way. What say we vote on it? ASBJORN: You're the leader of this outfit. I will follow you.

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AMROTH'S PLAYER: I rummage through his pockets. GM: He's naked. AMROTH'S PLAYER: I rummage through my own pockets.

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Since things were quiet now (except for the dying thing just on the other side), the company followed Asbjorn across the rails. They tried to talk to the dying guy, but he was too busy dying. When they got closer, they saw he was a hermaphrodite (all these things are naked), had long claws, and nasty fangs. But, other than that (and the albinism and long legs), he looked pretty dwarfy.