HP 55/84
AC 23
Fort +14, Ref +13, Will +12; sonic resistance 3
Hero points: 3
Infused regents: 5
Thermal nimbus: fire resistance 6 in kinetic aura (10-foot emanation); enemies take 3 fire damage
Effects:
Brijetta is far too mild to be filled with spite, though the forge spirits around her continue to burn the naga and now the wight. She blasts the former with another spray of metal shards, then spins, summoning a hammer from the metal bits swirling around her to strike the undead.
Uhe's blue eyes widen in suppressed excitement at the drumming the Nagaji takes from his friends!
No be any pressure den...ha!
The Investigator sizes of the Nagaji!
Uhe begins to use Word of Faith, but then recalls that Skysunder is lying on the ground 10' away....
Instead, the annoyed dwarf glares Intimidatingly at her!
Mal mauls the naga while Brijetta slashes her with shards and Uhe fires an arrow into her body. Gig grazes the wight while Brijetta delivers a critical hit, badly damaging it.
Hissing in pain, the naga lets the summoning spell go, the wight crumbling to dust. She casts a spell to give herself sanctuary and try to ward off further harm. "Enough!" she calls. "You are obviously more formidable than I had anticipated. I propose a cease to hostilities. I will offer you all the treasures I have gathered here in exchange for my life!"
"We'll take your treasure and leave you your life," Gig offers. "Can you cooperate and tell us what is going on in this fortress? We thought that it was abandoned."
Uhe inches forward to pick up his Skysunder. Backing up again, the dwarf is seen wearing a stupid grin and giving a thumbs up.
"It was abandoned when I got here," the naga hisses. "I've made it my nest for the past several years. But now I suppose I'll need to find a new lair." She slithers off, leaving you to dig through her sizable hoard.
Piled haphazardly in the southern corner of the room are 123 gp worth of loose coins (copper, silver, and gold), a suit of +1 low-grade cold iron splint mail with a ready rune etched into the gorget, a spellguard shield, and assorted gems, jewelry, weapons, and art objects worth a total of 200 gp. She also has multiple pages of Kalmaug’s Journal scattered around her hoard. Combined with the pages you've recovered, you are able to complete the first chapter, transforming it into a powerful relic!
If you use the grimoire during your daily preparations and are capable of preparing spells of the appropriate level, when you cast a non-damaging spell prepared from this grimoire, you can Step or Stride up to half your Speed after Casting the Spell. To scribe additional spells into the grimoire, you must provide additional silver plates at the cost of 10 gp per spell when Learning the Spell.
Forming the Bond: The PCs locate and bind together the silver plates for Chapter One.
Advancing the Bond: Locate additional chapters of the journal and bind them together.
Minor Gifts ease burden, word of faith
Major Gifts underground bounty
"Wow," Brijetta breathes, "I can't read it, but it feels powerful. And look at all this treasure! Uncle Royken would be jealous if he knew I'd found all this!"
Uhe finishes assembling, reading and wishing he were a proper Wizard, before the Archeologist happily helps gather all the loot!
You move on from the watchpost. After several more days, you reach a crossroads. This is where you must decide if you're returning to Highhelm or following Narseigus to Hagegraf. The route to Highhelm turns southeast, leading upward and eastward to connect to the same tunnel you left by. The road to Hagegraf requires a diversion straight north to the legendary Long Walk just a few miles west of the city gates.
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"Well, I wouldn't mind a rest, but we won't get to the bottom of this cult unless we follow Narseigus," Gig considers. "What do you think?"
"Yeah... I reckon we should see this through."
Uhe begins walking.
Be a Long Walk it is!
Brijetta quietly nods, then cocks her head as if listening to something else. She follows along with the others.
You follow the way to the Long Walk. Ahead, the road is partially blocked by a trade caravan that has stopped in the middle of the road. A trio of pack lizards stand in the road, piled high with bags and crates, while several xulgath drovers stand idly by. A kobold wearing well-made clothing yells angrily up at a rugged xulgath, with a half-dozen kobold warriors adding their voices in support. The xulgath tries to reply to the kobold but is interrupted by their continued tirade. A lanky human leans against one of the lizards, patiently listening to the arguments and looking annoyed.
"What do we think they're fighting about? And why do I feel like it's going to be about us soon?" Brijetta murmurs.
"I don't know, but I really really should've learned Sakvroth..."
Gig walks up, hoping to resolve the dispute so that they can get by: "What seems to be the trouble here? Do you expect to be stopped for much longer?"
Uhe walks up to the blockage with Gig. The Investigator seems ready to pronounce the proper etiquette in such situations to the boisterous kobold....
The human man turns towards you as you approach. "Oh, hello there. Don't mind us, the others are just being stubborn."
"Speak for yourself!" the kobold snarls. "I'm telling you, it's better if we stay here and let them come to us."
"Madness!" the xulgath hisses. "If we don't move now, we lose out on potential business!"
"And I've already told you, it doesn't matter!" the human says, throwing up his hands.
After a bit of conversation, the crux of the argument becomes clear. The caravan is bound for Hagegraf and they are debating whether to break camp or press on to the city.
The xulgath, Truki the Pale, has a contact in the court of King Orgukagan, a minor functionary who deals with external trade. She has offered the xulgaths their top choice in contracts if they sign up immediately on arrival.
The kobold, Draxacca, knows of a group of kobolds living in the city, who are open to business dealings with outsiders and rumored to be some of the finest trapsmiths in Nar-Voth, but they’ll be more eager to sell their wares if they have to sit and wonder if the caravan will show up.
The human, Chalmer, is the only one of the three who has been to Hagegraf before. He knows that business is busy enough in the hryngar city and none of this arguing matters.
It's clear that Truki is starting to lose her patience and things may come to blows without intervention.
"Now, now: I'm no merchant, but I'm from a busy city myself. You won't make any money just sitting here on the side of the road! It might earn you a bit better deal in some places, but you are costing yourselves any opportunities that might pop up in the meantime," Gig argues.
Uhe points down the road to Hagegraf.
He appears to be pointing at a wall ...
Uhe then notices that it's a Caravan.
Gots any Runes? Me weapons and armor need sum.
With a bit more encouragement from Gig, Draxaca begrudgingly gives in to Truxi's urging to move on to the city. The kobolds and xulgaths begin to pack up their camp to prepare to move out. Chalmer gives you a grateful smile.
"Thanks for breaking the stalemate, friends. Say, would you care to travel with us? If you're going to Hagegraf, we'll be able to get you through the gates without issues. They normally don't take too kindly to dwarves like you."
"Ah, that would be very appreciated! Please, tell us about the city," Gig asks. "We haven't been there before."
Uhe glances at Gig, shrugs his shoulders, totally trusting in the Bard's superior knowledge of people, and smiles friendly like.
Be we disguising ourselves? You be selling hats and sunglasses?
"Are we going with them?" Brijetta asks. "I don't want to be rude, but I think one of them doesn't smell very good."
"Hagegraf's a city of tax and toil," Chalmer says. "Its official state religion is Droskar, and the hryngar there adhere closely to the Dark Smith's edicts. They used to be very isolationist, but they've recently become more accepting of non-hryngar residents, making it a new market and destination for explorers. So long as you've got the coin to pay the taxes, you can find almost anything you need there, though often the price comes not in gold but in future undisclosed favors and a percentage of your findings.
"They still are extremely prejudiced against dwarves that aren't hryngar, though. You should either disguise yourselves or keep your heads down as we ride in with the caravan."
Uhe smiles at the not duergar.
We be masters of disguise. No be worried.
Later the dwarf is seen looking the same, except there seems to be some fresh mud dabbed on his face ....
"I can hide, but people don't usually notice me," Brijetta says quietly -- and likely without notice.
Mal looks a little green around the gills. "I can only stay shifted so long, but uh... maybe I go through the gate as a rat or something?"
"I can disguise us for long enough to get through the gates and ask around about what is happening in town. We'll have to rely on our wits about after that," Gig offers. "A bit of magic is excellent for costuming and make-up, and I think I've finally mastered disguising a whole group."
You travel onward with the caravan onto the Long Walk. The rough tunnel emerges into a roadway unlike any other tunnel. A cobbled road, flat and straight and a full 40 feet across, heads east and west from the intersection. The edges of the road are lined with short stone walls like those on a typical bridge over a river. The ceiling is vaulted and at least 25 feet above the road level. Outside the road, the tunnel walls are rough and vary in width, sometimes opening into large caverns and sometimes right to the edge of the road wall. In certain places, the floor drops away, the road being supported on huge columns that reach down into the depths.
As you continue to the east you pass a series of small guard posts built into the northern wall, which double as toll booths. Despite these tolls, the road is full of traffic: hryngar patrols, xulgath, kobolds, orcs, and humans move goods and people in both direction. A few miles further east, you see a huge set of stone gates standing open. Through the gates, the lights of a major underground metropolis twinkle in the darkness—Hagegraf!
Part 2, Chapter 3: City of Toil
An enormous stone gate house fills the roadway ahead, its two giant stone doors standing partially open. From the battlemented walkway and tower roofs, hryngar soldiers peer down on all who would enter the City of Toil. From beyond the gates, the unmistakable music of hammers ringing on metal of a hundred forges fills the air.
Hagegraf closely controls who comes and goes—not just for security, but also for profit. Gate guards search visitors and their baggage to calculate an entrance fee, usually neglecting to mention the exit fee that often doubles that rate. Bankrupt visitors often find themselves trapped in the city, forced to work off their unexpected municipal debt.
The base entrance fee is 1 gp. The hryngar arcanists check for strong magic auras to assess security threats and additional fees. All the while, guards search a random assortment of containers for contraband and to calculate how much money they can overcharge.
Gig tries to put on a good approximation of a well-dressed hryngar merchant and talk the caravan's way through the gates.
"We have much to do--don't delay us. Time is gold," he dismissively tells the guards as they question the caravan.
Uhe checks, double checks, triple checks his mud, so not a deugar disguise. Nodding contentedly that his mud blemishes are exactly where he placed them (his initial attempt had dropped down into his beard), the Investigator begins to Pursue a Lead at the gates, as they await their turn at fleecing....
I say, that Article 145.6432-32 most definitely prohibits that type of searching!
The Investigator even Clues In whomever seems to be struggling a bit with their charade.
Mal opts out of having to get through an uncomfortable social interaction, turns into a bat and takes to the skystalactites!
Brijetta shrinks down, hoping to avoid notice, which is something she doesn't usually need to do (hope; it seems to come naturally to her).
Gig manages to get in with paying only 1 sp, while Uhe and Brijetta each are charged 1 gp. Mal slips past in bat form.
Once past the gate, you find yourselves in Long Gate Square. Temporary vending stalls and carts fill this square as bustling merchants hope to get their wares to visitors before anyone else. Chalmer suggests you check in at The Silent Forge, a decommissioned workshop-turned-inn that is a well-known hangout for foreign traffic. The place is operated by a caligni named Dhorri who shields visitors as best she can without outright defying Hagegraf's laws. Dhorri doesn't ask too many questions, and she provides comfortable room and board for 5 sp per person per day (almost a criminally low rate in a hryngar settlement).
Once you are settled, it's time to start seeking some leads as to Narsiegus and his goals...
"I can provide us some cover as we search," Gig offers. "Let's ask around about Narsiegus."
Brijetta thinks about what Uncle Royken would do or say or know about life in a place like Hagegraf.
Uhe smiles weakly at the guards, as the dwarf deposits a gold coin into the tax box. The Investigator is seen fighting the urge to fix his mud placed, so not a deugar disguise.
Nodding his gratitude to Chalmer, the Investigator begins heading the path to The Silent Forge. He begins to make inquiry about Narsiegas as he makes his unobtrusive way ...
Mal squeaks with relief that everyone else seems to know how to immediately make friends or connections in a new, hostile city.
You head out into the city to learn what you can. Hagegraf is divided into three main sections. The Forge District in southern Hagegraf is a sea of workshops dotted with factories that tower over the smoggy streets like craggy islands. The Crescent arcs around most of the city’s perimeter (save the southern Forge District), containing markets, fungus farms, and rickety housing erected with no sense of zoning laws or building codes. At the city’s core stands the Clock Quarter, whose grander buildings house corporations, political administration, magical elites, and other influential inhabitants. Though it’s no longer exclusive to hryngars, anyone traveling to the Clock Quarter is subject to heavy scrutiny and can even be turned away if they lack business inside.
Thanks to Brijetta's and Uhe's streetwise skills, you are able to blend in with the inhabitants, ensuring that your pointed questions don't raise suspicion. You are able to pick up several leads:
Deciphering the Everywhen Map: Most hryngars you ask about decoding a map point you to the collector Durruzzin, owner of The Lighted Lamp, a book and antique shop. Durruzzin is always interested in curious items and mysteries that need solving.
Smith Poaching: In Hagegraf, earning wealth is often less about what you toil on than who toils for you. An expert smith named Rorbek has recently fallen on hard times as rumors say Narsiegus offered lucrative metalworking contracts and lured away all her students.
Strange Artwork: Narseigus recently commissioned a mysterious statue from a sculpting workshop in the Forge District known as the Infinite Quarry.
"Perhaps we visit this antiques dealer?" Gig suggests. "I'm anxious to find out the secrets of the map."
Uhe will practically race to the antique dealer! He seems excited.