Cleaning his pipe at his shoe Ulfgard takes a deep breath and smiles. "Aye, happy to be here. I really missed the smell! Can you tell us a decent tavern with beds for longlegs and not to pricey but with good ale?"
The guard yells down, "You are at the Temple of Dargoth, no taverns here. State your business." The air does smell of hops though.
Unsure of how non-dwarven visitors are treated, Cyrus stands with the others behind the dwarves allowing them to drive the conversation.
[b]"Any kind of guest-house?"[b]
"Who said we are going to let you in? State your business elf!"
"We are here on business. The church will want to talk to us, trust me. In fact, take this to the elder," Hagrym says as he reaches into his pack and pulls his part of the holy scepter, passing it to the guard, "after he figures out what that is, I expect he will want us brought to him post haste."
"Open the gate and escort them to Ashenchisel." They open the gate and two dwarven guards escort you to the high priest's house (area K). Burns scar the priest's face and arms, and his gray hair and beard lie singed upon his chest. He turns to the guard piering at the broken scepter and a look of horror comes over him. He is stunned speechless.
Finally, he gains enough composure to speak, "Woe is on the world if the scepter is among us again. Why do you bring it to us?"
"We don't know much about it, to be honest. My church of Dwerfater told us a bit about the history." Hagrym then tells them everything he found out, which they might already know. "I guess what we need to know if how do we fix it up again? And if we can get it fixed, can you help us find the Vampire so we can hit him with this again? If he's as bad as the legends hold, we've got quite a problem on our hands."
"Fix it? By Dargoth that would be impossible, but perhaps if we had the whole scepter we might forge a new one, if only...." The old priest's voice trails off.
Ulfgard looks at Lucky and makes a, come on, give him the other half motion.
"Well, this is going to sound strange, but today might be your lucky day. We have procured the other half of that as well. I don't know how it shattered like it did, but we have both ends."
"The scepter was forged here long ago so with both halves we could use it as a model to forge another. The temple’s most sacred ritual, the Ceremony of Forging, involves the four elements: earth to yield; air to bellow; fire to shape; and water to temper. Dargath deems each step important to the complete forging process. For that reason, the shrines to the deity’s four elemental aspects encircle a large ancient anvil within a central chamber. These temples to the elements sit at the cardinal points of a compass around the central anvil shrine, with fire opposing water, and earth opposite air. Of the four, the earth temple is the most lavish.
The elemental shrines each hold a sacred relic that the dwarves believe was a gift from Dargath himself. The fire shrine holds the Flame of Dargath, while the earth shrine contains the Soul of Dargath. The water shrine is the resting place of the Tear of Dargath, and the air shrine was built to house the Breath of Dargath. Unfortunately, the Breath of Dargath, a small bronze nozzle, vanished many years ago during a gnoll invasion before Anvil Plunge had constructed its outer wall. Dargath’s followers to this day seek any information about this most holy of relics. Fortunately, the Breath of Dargath is not needed to complete the Blessing of Joining Flame and restore the Scepter of Faiths. Most of the work is done in the fire shrine using the Flame of Dargath.
Herein lies the problem. the Flame of Dargath recently vanished from the guarded temple. Searches of the grounds and the surrounding land have yielded no clues."
~Vanished no doubt shortly after the vampire began roaming the earth again. I doubt any creature would want to allow the one thing that could destroy it to be easily reconstructed.~
Remaining silent, as he did not want to disrepect the dwarven priest by speaking, Cyrus pulled out the other half of the scepter and placed it on the table for the older priest to reach.
"You must be weary from your journey." He tells the guard, "Have Dilgetta bring refreshments for our guests."
"First the Breath disappears. Then the Flame disappears. Doesn't sound like a coincidence to me, if we could find a lead on the flame, we could try to put the scepter back together."
"If you able to retrieve it, yes I believe we could reforge it but without the Flame of Dargath, the forge in the Homage to Fire shrine may cease to burn so we need to get it back soon. Even Gizzard Bumgut’s vaunted tracking skills uncovered little. Divination magic revealed that the relic was stolen and is no longer close by."
A dwarven woman brings in nine liter steins of dwarven ale and serves you and the high priest one each. "This is my own special brew I make for visitors," says Dilgetta with a warm smile.
Hagrym smiles at Dilgetta. "Ah, a brewer? And you can carry nine steins at once? You are a woman truly after my own heart. I might have to take you out some evening!". The dwarf takes a long pull of his mug.
Taking a mighty swig of the strong brew,
"My goodness this is fantastic! Dark and bitter with a mild aftertaste, what is that I am tasting... I cant quite put my finger on it..."
Intrigued more by his drink the the talk of various elements and broken weapons.
"First the Breath disappears. Then the Flame disappears. Doesn't sound like a coincidence to me, if we could find a lead on the flame, we could try to put the scepter back together."
"Chaos is forever pulling at random threads in the Great Tapestry. Perhaps these events are linked, perhaps not. Either way, it is mystery that gives me a sense of purpose, and we are on to a great and terrible mystery it seems...ah, dwarven ale. I would gladly plumb the depths of these cups all night."
Hagrym smiles at Dilgetta. "Ah, a brewer? And you can carry nine steins at once? You are a woman truly after my own heart. I might have to take you out some evening!". The dwarf takes a long pull of his mug.
"Master brewer, sir. That would be the barley. Will that be all father?" inquisits Diletta Ashenchisel.
"Well, that one plays hard to get I see. There'll be time for courting later, assuming we succeed in getting this scepter back together."
listens as he contemplates the way things are headed
"It disappeared sometime in the last week. Our divination magic reaches to the edge of the temple and a few hundred feet beyond."
Turvijagal is just listening. Doesn't feel like talking much after that frosty reception at the gate!
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Nodding to the others Ulfgard speaks up."Was there a visitor or an acolyte missing or leaving during that time. Maybe it was replaced by a fake or an illusion to buy himself time. And also where could it be brought to? And do you have carvings or anything else of those missing relics?"
"Our ranger Master Guard Gizzard Bumgut can show you the trails, but so far he has found nothing. I suspect that half-orc druidess Trawla, but cannot prove it. She has been taunting us for quite awhile now."
Turvijagal is just listening. Doesn't feel like talking much after that frosty reception at the gate!
"I will have a talk. A thieving druid is really, really hard to catch, but maybe we are lucky. Well and can we replenish our rations here?"
"Hard to find; but can she fight?"
Sipping his drink, Cyrus listened to the theories of who could have taken the item and where it could have gone Cyrus wondered if perhaps the solution was a bit simpler to explain, but finding it would remain as elusive as ever.
"What if it is masked, not by a spell but by a metal? Forgive my lack of knowing the size of the Flame, but a box lined with lead will mask all but the most potent of divination spells."
Wondering if perhaps this question seemed too outrageous, Cyrus sought to clarify his reason for asking it.
"Let us assume the reawakened Vampire knows we have the scepter, but it has the luxury of knowing our moves before we can even make them. It however is severely weakened and adjusting to a world far removed from what it last witnessed, so it has to act quickly and possibly crudely while it regains its strength. What if it simply found a soul motivated by fear or spell to hide the Flame in plain sight hoping we would run in circles trying to find it?"
Shrugging as he finished, Cyrus took a sip of his drink and sighed.
"Just a thought and nothing more."
"Let's go sweat that druidess then. I'm not met many half orcs that I'd trust, and it doesn't sound like she'll make that short list."
Nodding his head at Naomi's plan, Cyrus resisted the urge to finish his beverage before pressing forward. While the dwarven brew was very nice, Cyrus had managed to avoid over indulging on alcohol since he was exposed to the power of Zors firsthand in the chambers of the undead.
"Thank you Master Brovok for the ale and information."
"She lives in the Mire so even finding her is no easy trick. Not a place for dwarves in heavy mail. We have had some run ins with her in the past but they have all stalemated. We searched the the inner sanctum and the Homage to Fire shrine but found nothing."
Looking to Hagrym and Ulfgard, Cyrus hoped they knew where this Mire was located.
~We shall see soon enough.~
"So, back to the Mire with us, eh? Well, it doesn't seem the most hospitable spot int he world, but we should be able to find our way around, I hope."
The mire is not a place for heavy armor and Anvil Plunge has no boats but they will assist you in cutting down trees to make a couple of rafts. That and at the moment you have no idea where you are going yet.
"A mire. Lovely. We should make sure that we are tied together with some rope, at least in groups of 2 or 3, to avoid losing someone in a stinking hole. Just a thought."
splish splash great a mire!! just what i wanted.
Hagrym swaps out his more comfortable scale mail with the chain shirt he was provided. "I feel half naked, and this damned thing is really tight," he grumbles as he pulls on the armor, trying to get it to expand just a bit around his girth. "Bah, let's be off, so I can get back me normal armor as quickly as possible."