Knowing it was important, we spent a small amount of time studying the large cauldron in the middle of this room. Right from the start, we could tell two things about it: It was EVIL and born of some seriously powerful magic. Silvir, from reading the runes around it and such, was able to find that this was how they were creating an army of the rune-covered giants, which seemed to have innate magical abilities tied to the runes on them. He also was able to glean how to destroy it. Sadly, the means were not anywhere within our capabilities.

We had to leave the cauldron be, for now.

The next room was a dusty, spider-web filled room that contained a number of “empty” suits of armor. One of which seemed to be missing a head. We all just stopped at the entrance, wary of ominous feel of the room. One of the casters, I can’t remember which, tried to detect any magic in the room, and found that the headless statue was magical. Go figure.

Pile wanted to destroy one of the suits, so he started whacking away at the closest one. Important note: At this time, none of us had actually stepped into the room. Seoni decided she wanted to try and strip one of them (I’m still not sure why. I think she may have some weird fetishes.), and as soon as she stepped into the room and touched it, six of the suits, including headless, sprung to “life”.

I’m just going to put this out there right now; this was one of the funniest moments in my life. Seoni took a hit from the zombie occupied suit of armor and then Silvir opened up a pit right below the headless one, who in turn fell 50 feet down into the put below him. Seoni backed up towards us, and the other six zombie-suits hobbled over to us. One at a time, they each fell into the hole. From that point, we just picked them off one by one from up top, then grabbed the loot when the pit dispelled some minutes later. I still chuckle when I think about that.

Past that room was just a hallway. But of course halfway through the hallway, the talking furnace jumped up through the ground to attack us again. This time we were ready for him though.

Pile was able to grab a hold of him, and somehow hold him down while stabbed him from behind until he collapsed, dead. I’m so glad that was over. I was NOT looking forward to running around the rest of this stronghold having to worry about him popping up on us.

Further on we came to yet another hallway, one leading to some smashed in hallways and a door, and the other to a big fancy-looking double door with no discernable lock. It also reeked of magic something fierce.

Figuring something HAD to be on the other side of the door, with no keys, we decided to try and break the door down. Turns out, this would be later known as “The Mistake”. Once Pile rammed into the door, some bright ugly undead looking thing burst out of nowhere, screaming it’s head off, and next I knew, everything was black. My eyes were open, I was just blinded!

Fumbling back to where I knew the rest of us were we thought it best to high-tail it out of here. Silvir whispered the words to a teleport spell to me, and I was able to use one of his scrolls to get half of us out of there, the other half went with Silver. Unfortunately, we had to leave one of the dwarves behind. One bravely volunteered and ran back the way we came. Never to be heard from again.

I ported back to Magnimar, and I’m assuming that everyone else went to Sandpoint. The next day, those of us who were affected by the blindness spell were cured. We rested, resupplied, and ported ourselves back to Jorgenfist.

It was time to end this.

*Archivist’s Note: Several entries have been lost due to the author’s unfortunate habit of recording on loose sheets crudely bound with less than adequate materials. While the later journals become more regular and complete, these records can occasionally be lacking. We are are constantly in search of these missing pages and endeavor to complete the journal if possible.

We had come north to Rimeskull. Called by a riddle written through ages of madness, we came looking for keys. We found them in a circle of stones on the edge of a lake. They rested in the stones and were loosed by magic. The gnome and bard know the how of it, the sin and spell. I just know what it woke.

With each key revealed the earth shook. It was the gnome who noticed it first. He called warnings and cast spells and the rest took cover. I stood alone in the center of stones and roared defiance.

The sky was silent.

The wurm swept into being and I saw the awful size of the thing; the way it’s limbs slashed at the air as if searching for purchase before it loosed it’s breath, the way wings worked in flaps like great sails. White as pearls the scales shone in the weak light from the sun. It didn’t scream as it passed, just let go that blast of grave-cold air and was away, snow curling up in spirals from the air desperate to get out of it’s way.

This was death that walked. Death that flew. Sudden and absolute it came upon you. You could not reach it. Could not touch it. It knew you could not and if you saw those hard blue eyes you knew it reveled in it’s power.

In that instant I stopped fearing the journey to Gorum’s halls. I figured out why I felt him close many times since starting this journey. He was not waiting for those who fell. He was drawn to the valor in the contest. I would give the Lord in Iron a show worthy of his attention.

I drank a potion and followed the retreating wurm. I could not match it’s speed, but I hoped to make myself an offering.

It went after the gnome instead. Scooped him up in it’s jaws and shook him like a dog shakes a rabbit and then dropped him, breathing that same white cloudy breath over him.

I followed as i could, hitting as I could to try and get it’s attention.

The third pass it came for me, plucking me from the air as a hawk taking prey. I tried to force it’s jaws open, to beat at it’s teeth or smash it’s scales, but it didn’t care. It’s breath was strong with old rot and carrion. I felt the rough wetness of it’s tongue push me out as it opened it’s mouth and it bathed me in the frost from it’s lungs. As i fell clear of the breath, the northern air felt warm suddenly and the roaring of the wind welcome.

The bard’s arrows finally drove it off and it roared then, a long bellow that sent ripples across the lake. It vanished back into the air as if it had never been.

We tracked it to it’s lair in Rimeskull. A cave it had carved out of the rock and coated in ice. A wall of perfect blue covered the entrance. We had no fire so we used muscle, chipping and bashing away at the ice. The sound of our blows echoed loudly off the surrounding mountains.

I was the first to break through and the beast roared a challenge, the pressure of it loosening rocks from the roof. I felt it pull at my mind as I slipped to the floor, but it couldn’t hold me. We spread out from the opening to avoid it’s breath and suddenly I was alone. Another wall of ice sprang up behind me and the others were on the other side.

I faced the scaled head of the wurm and thought it smiled, savoring the moment. I edged forward, waiting for a swipe of the claws or a blow from it’s tail. The gnome, bard and stabber all appeared behind me just in time to catch it’s breath. When we recovered, the gnome had conjured a glowing arch and hid behind it. The stabber vanished and the bard fired arrows as fast as she could and they sprouted in the dragon’s flesh.

I edged closer and again found myself alone with the wurm. It seemed to call the ice effortlessly, willing it into being.

Now it looked grim. Ready to eat and be done with these warm things.

I closed and swung the weight of my hammer in quick arcs but only one landed. It responded with all the ferocity of an avalanche. Claws and teeth snapped past me, one laying open a wound in my shoulder that spurted blood and steam.

It licked the air and rumbled deep in it’s throat.

It attacked again, claws gouging into the ice of the cave as I dodged back and snapped my hammer around to catch it under the jaw. It’s mouth closed with a crack and it howled as a gob of flesh fell to the ground. I grabbed the wet section of tongue as the wurm scrabbled backwards and I pressed my attack. The weight of my hammer hummed through the air and it skittered against the thing’s scales. I swung again and again, unable to land a solid blow but I knew that it was over. The wurm’s glamour was broken. I knew that I was it’s death, not it mine.

It swiped at me again, forcing me back but I whipped my hammer down, catching it’s paw and was rewarded with the sound of a wet crunch. It pulled back the ruined meat left on the end of it’s leg and tried to retreat. I felt my mouth pull into a grin as I charged.

It turned to the side, favoring the injured paw. I brought my arms up for an overhead blow, and as it raised the other paw to ward me off, I reversed my swing. The weight of my hammer hung in the air and the chain went slack until the momentum caught up, jerking it taught and whistling into an underhanded throw. Both weights and the length of chain hurtled under it’s guard and thudded into the creature’s throat. I was right behind, my armor screeching as I slid across the icy floor. I snatched my weapon from where it fell and spun to slam it into the scaled throat again, scales splintering at the impact. Blood began seeping between the broken scales. First a trickle and then a rush. The wurm took a final swipe as it fell, but it was a feeble scratch against my armor.

The thing lay dead before I noticed I had a bad habit. I didn’t ask lizards for their names.

After, when we had dug through the walls and found the horde I convinced the gnome to help me skin the thing. I wanted to take the head, but there was no way to carry it out and no way to bring it back. The horns or the teeth seemed a poor prize for such an opponent. Scraps of bone to show the size of it, but not the moment when it first came white from the sky.

We cleaned the corpse quickly and then set camp in a cave farther inside the mountain. The others lay before the fire and were asleep soon enough. I left them to their dreams.

The corpse was still a match for the sight for any arena. The scales stripped away exposed the meat and the muscle of it and the waiting power they had held.

I came back to the beast’s side as I had been first thrown onto the sands, naked and with the weights of my hammer looped around each of my hands. I thought I would have to smash at the corpse to loosen some frozen bits, but when I touched it the flesh was warm still. Even so, the muscle was tough and only yielded slowly under my hands. It was red work, and my arms and chest were soon slick with gore. It ran down the chains of my hammer and dripped from the weights to pool on the floor.

My shoulders and arms were inside before I felt it. The hard knot of muscle in it’s chest twitched as I made contact. I grabbed at it, but my fingers couldn’t find a good hold. When I did grasp it, it wouldn’t pull free. I had to remove it with my teeth, gnawing through arteries and clinging meat.

The heart sloshed as it came loose.

I took it out quickly and held the warm vessel while I unwound my hammer and dropped it to the floor. It landed with a dull chink. I tore a hole in the heart then and the blood spilled from it in thick rivulets. Like honey it fell slowly and coated the chain and weights of my hammer in glistening red. It seemed endless.

When it was empty I tore chunks free with my teeth and swallowed them. The heart was cold by then and grew tougher with each bite. I finished chewing red pieces of ice.

While I ate, the blood hardened to a solid red mass around the hammer. It came away from the floor with an easy pull when I went to lift it. I carried it out to the mouth of the cave.

The night was old and the stars littered the sky like the fires of hosts gone before. I placed my icy burden at the top of the stairs and sat behind it with my legs crossed. I waited for the sun. I could not feel the cold. I sat and must have passed into dream for I saw visions: lights of green and red raced across the sky, the stars wheeled and turned like burning chariots as if the hosts as one sprang to attack. I could hear the call of horns as the wind howled through the cave behind me. Dark shapes fled the lights and the fires into the empty corners of the sky. I felt the weight of a hand on my shoulder. It only lifted as the first rays of light came with the dawn.

Quickly I stood and held the shapeless knot of ice in these beams. I shouted Gorum’s name and swore to follow his red path across the world. I slammed my hammer to the ground and shards of ice flew away.

I raised it again and named those I had felled in battle. After each name I drove my hammer to the ground, shearing ice from the block in chunks.

I named the kobold Fall. I named the dragon Winter.

With the final strike I named my hammer.

The ice fell away leaving it polished and shining. The weights glowed briefly, as if running red with blood, but slowly faded like sun shadows in your eyes.

It was Fjær Wurm Breaker. Name earned in dragon blood and cast by Gorum’s hand.

So wait… where were we? Oh yeah, trolls trying to stab me in the face.

I quickly made everyone aware that there was a threat present, as I’m sure they saw me jump suddenly anyway. Seoni rushed to my aid and was rewarded with a spear to the face as well, from behind the skin on the other side of the hallway. The holes in the wall were big enough for the spears to fit through, but other than that, maybe only Ziqo could. This was going to present a problem, so Ziqo took it upon himself to fix that problem.

He opened up a nice doorway right next to one of the “murder holes”. Pile immediately rushed in and started wailing on the troll there, as he called out for his friend. By the way, I don’t remember what exactly was said, but these two trolls kept up quite the amusing dialog all through this fight. It was fairly obvious that the skins on the wall had more brain power than the two of them combined. Thankfully, the skins weren’t the things attacking us.

Pile rushed into the hole, and the other troll (at a cry for help from his friend) came at us through the doorway on the other side. Silvir put up a pool of grease on the floor causing the attempted rescuer to fall. Unfortunately, Ziqo was still close enough for him to grab, so he did that, and tried to eat him.

Initially I was helping Pile with the one behind the newly made doorway, but after hearing Ziqo’s yell, I ran out to help him. Imagine my happy surprise to find the troll sprawled out on the floor (although by this time, Ziqo managed to escape), that makes hitting their vital spots SO much easier.

At this point, it didn’t take long for us to get them unconscious, keep them that way, and burn their bodies. We searched the area, and found nothing of interest. Before continuing down the hallway, we thought it best to at least check out the chanting from the smoke-filled corridor.

After taking a peek at what was down there, I quickly returned to my companions, and emphatically suggested that we continue in the direction we were going. When asked why, I simply said, “Two lamia’s, two dragons.” At that point, everyone agreed.

As we went along the hallway, our surroundings gradually turned from “cave” to “stone-worked”. Eventually we came to another fork in the proverbial road, and I scouted to our right first. This room was easily one of the weirdest rooms that I had ever seen. I couldn’t really get a good feel for it, as the size seemed to constantly be changing, there was one stone giant in there, and he seemed to grow larger right before my eyes. The constant wall moving motion caused me to lose whatever it was that I had eaten most recently.

When I relayed that to the rest of the team, they suggested we at least see what was down the other hallway first before taking that one on. Oh, apparently there was some spell on that other room, as when I returned to them, I was more Ziqo’s size than anything else. Silver cast a spell on me to reverse that.

The other hallway consisted of a cave-in, and a small off shoot room that was empty. Or at least it was at first. As I was standing there looking around this large… what I can only describe as an animated furnace emerged from a wall and took a swipe at me. I of course ran back to the rest of the group. It did not follow. Pile went to investigate, and whatever it was appeared to have vanished. Great. Now we have some weird thing that can walk through walls out there somewhere and it knows we’re here. This was not going to be good.

As one, we entered the room, and everyone basically shrunk like me, a few threw up as well. The stone giant in there however did not stand a chance, and he was quickly dispatched. There were a few caved-in doorways here, but only one other exit, so we went that way and were relieved to be out of the shifting room experience.

A short hallway led us to another decent-sized room that housed a HUGE cauldron, and a stone golem that was guarding it. This battle went a little longer than the other, which was expected since anything that was magical seemed to not be hurting it. It was not, however, immune to my blades, and after a minute or so of me poking it in just the right places while Pile distracted him, with Seoni hailing arrows upon it as well, it fell.

As it collapsed to the ground, and Pile came out of his angry stance, the furnace reappeared behind us all. He said something about wanting to hurt the pretty mage, but didn’t stay around long once Pile charged him. His running away every time was going to be seriously annoying.

From there, we took some time to inspect the cauldron, which seemed to radiate evil.

To be continued….

Leaving the dead bodies of the creepy spiders behind, we entered a fairly expansive cave-system. We spent what had to have been about three hours running this way and that through the caves, fighting red caps occasionally, until finally we found what appeared to be an exit.

Silvir and I scouted to the hole and saw one kobold that seemed to be on guard. Not wanting to alert everyone, we thought it best to take the guard out quickly and quietly. I dusted off my bow, and let loose an arrow at the creature, thinking to take him out in one shot. They ARE fairly weak creatures after all.

But no, that’s not what happened. I hit the thing square in the shoulder, and it got up and ran screaming. Once again, thinking I could just take him out quickly enough, I vanished and snuck up on him and struck. My rapier didn’t exactly hit the area that I was looking for, and I knew finally that I was in trouble when it roared in a fashion much like Pile does when we get into fights. That explained SO MUCH. So I did the only I could think of.

I vanished.

I hated to leave Silvir out in the open, but when it comes to my neck or someone else’s… well. You know. He promptly disappeared as well (I’m assuming he did that blink thing that he does which puts him in a place he wasn’t just a moment before), and I heard Pile roaring down the tunnel.

The kobold, knowing I was there somewhere, continued to try and swipe at me until Pile burst from the tunnel and engaged the enemy. The battle didn’t go much longer from there, but it was definitely a lot more of a fight than I expected it to be. After all was said and done, I just looked at everyone and shrugged. How was I supposed to know he wasn’t JUST a kobold?

Either way, we pressed on.

I continued to scout, and eventually we came to a hallway that extended into three rooms. Going from one to the other, I found one room that contained three ogres, and looked like some sort of tannery, another with two stone giants that looked like a smithy, and lastly a room that had a lot of dirty bedding in it (and sadly, nothing of value). Oh yeah, and in the smithy room, there was a number of dwarven prisoners that they were using to pump the billows for the forge.

Two quick battles later, and we found ourselves with three dead ogres, two dead stone giants, and a number of newly free, but badly beaten dwarves. We used what healing we could on them, and armored them as best we could (which was just a peace of mind precaution, as they were in no shape to fight whatsoever), then continued on.

Next was a hallway that split. Down one corridor was a lot of smoke and chanting, and the other had some kind of animal skins hanging on the walls. I wanted to take a look behind one of the animal skins. And that was when I found the trolls…

To be continued…

We considered the downed dragon a win, and despite leaving an unseen assailant behind, we were good with that. Another night spent in the extradimensional rope-space lead to another plan. We wanted to try and waylay a patrol, and see if we couldn’t capture one of the giants and press them for information.

It took two days before we found a patrol that was “suitable” to attack. And believe me, I use the word “suitable” very loosely. The patrol we planned to ambush consisted of 1 of the Seer giants, 12 of the rune-covered giants, and 3 dire bears. We didn’t think that the odds were in our favor, but with an ambush, maybe we would be able to take out a few quickly.

So we placed ourselves accordingly, and launched our attack. We wanted to concentrate on the Seer, as they could apparently naturally see through invisibility and they posed the most threat to our tactics. Once launched, it was clear to see that we did in fact catch them by surprise! Good!

Not so good. Not seconds into the fight I suddenly found myself visible, and now completely surrounded by rune-covered giants and dire bears. Not to mention the seer, which I had positioned myself behind. Beautiful. This was not going to be pretty for me. As I frantically searched around for a way to remove myself from my unfortunate predicament, I suddenly realized something. We were back at our camp.

From what my companions told me, not long after it was realized that our main tactic was defeated, Silvir cast a web on the group that was behind me, and then a confusion spell in the area that I was in. That explained my loss of memory. We stuck around long enough to take out the seer, and then we were ported back to base.

It was fairly obvious that the “question a giant” plan wasn’t going to work, so I suggested that we have Silvir’s familiar scope around Jorgenfist proper, and see if there was any other way in. Thankfully he spotted two caves which we could choose from. Using various forms of travel, we opted to plant ourselves in the cave with the smaller entrance, as we expected that to be the least likely to be guarded by more rune-covered giants.

We were right. Delving deeper into the cave we found a few undead spiders with a sickening air about them. It didn’t take long to return them to their proper state of “dead”, and we pushed on.

To be continued…

The room with the cauldrom in it has a magical liquid in it that would kill us if we drank it. It is used to create rune slaves. If we could find a willing good Giant and 10k gp in ingredients, we could destroy the cauldron and every rune slave created by it.

In the next room, we come across a bunch of undead, and a headless armored statue. A well placed pit, caused the Headless King the fall into the pit, followed by all the other zombie as they tried to charge us.

The next room we came to is very large with a 100 ft vaulted ceiling. The Forgefiend came up from the ground. Pile grappled the forgefiend, and was able to stop him from escaping so we could kill it.

From there, we went to the next room, and a shining child came out of a set of bronze doors. The child blinded most of the party. We told one of the Dwarves to run, and teleported out with the remaining dwarves. Jet and the Dwarves to Magnamar, and the rest of us to the hideout. After we rested, we scryed Jet and met him in Magnamar. We hired a cleric to cast remove blindness and decided to resupply before returning.

We collect sneaks. Things that fear to stand and see death coming for them. You can only delay that day, but never evade it. The elf speaks of ways sometimes, but they are unnatural magics. The dark and wrong things lurking in bones and decayed flesh.

This thing that follows us now, the gnome called it elemental. Something from beyond our world. It walks through the earth as easily as upon it, and it damaged my armor with it’s claws. Not a simple scratch or dent from the blow of a weapon, this carved a deep gash in the metal. I agree that my can is ugly and too shiny, but it has saved me already since I’ve worn it. Should this thing from the planes break it, I would feel Gorum’s breath on my neck with every fight.

There are other things in this cave. Strange rooms that do not stay one size. Things made of iron that act alive, but are not. There is too much here that has been wrought with mystic powers and the . . . wrongness. . . has sunk into the rock. We have found the Cauldron that the gnome spoke of, guarded by the iron thing. The gnome and the elf and the bard are studying it now, but I just want to smash it. Nothing good will come from the thing.

I can feel the rage in me lessen as we go. My strength and my stride fading slowly. I hope to wrap the chain of my hammer around the throat of the master of this place and wring him from the world soon. The longer we take the further away it seems and the closer the red path into the ground.

She was a kobold. Slight in stature, but with the heart of a fighter. She gave into the rage as I do, but she could not hold it. She died like so many others; nameless and forgotten after the body has cooled. She would have been respected in the Hole, after she tore someone’s arm off if not before. The Old One would have liked her.

She died in my arms and I watched the light fade from her eyes.

The ranseurs were used by Trolls. We opened up a hole in the wall, and dispatched the trolls. Jet scouted out the next room, and found 2 Lamia and 2 Large Dragons. We decided to go a different direction. One room has a runed giant in it (Jet comes back small). In another room we encounter a forgefiend. Forgefiend: Earthglide, and breath’s fire. It can eat armor. We enter the room with the runed giant. Most of us end up nauseated and shrunk, but pile shakes off the nausea and kills the giant. The Forgefiend jumps out of the wall in the hallway. I teleport away from him, and Pile turns the corner. The Forgefiend turns to me and says I have something for you little mage." and then turns and spits a slag breathweapon at pile.
In the next room, we found the cauldron, guarded by a stone golem. Upon killing the golem, the forgefiend pops out again.

Finally reached the top of the Storval Steppes. A guard post with two stone giants and a shamanistic Tiaga giant were fairly tough to take down. The two lesser giants had strange glyphs marking their body which they said the “cauldron gave them for failure and are symbols of shame”.

Reach the keep shortly after, they are already on high alert. Two red dragons are circling above and large groups patrol the area. Movement in and/or out of the keep strangely does not occur. Decided to pick off the smaller dragon, ‘Longtooth’, to weaken their scouting capabilities. The fight itself wasn’t too hard; in fact, Pile appeared to lavish as the dragonbreath washed over him. However, there was a great deal of trickery caused by an elusive illusionist toying with us during the encounter inciting paranoia more than anything. Killed Longtooth and recalled to safety right as the big dragon showed up; or seemed to show up. Unfortunately, now they know what we look like and we are vulnerable to scrying.

With Longtooth down they are mad. Patrol squads have increased in size and frequency. Pile wanted to send another ‘message’ as he says by taking down a squad, also to get intel regarding sneaking into and what resides in the keep. Well, said patrol roughed us up pretty badly and we had to retreat. Fortunately the mephit found us two side entrances on the river’s face. We’ll take the smallest one and hopefully remain inconspicuous.

I do want to learn more about this cauldron, also Mockmurian is probably close…I’m scared.