Jahnas’ Journal Day 19 – Kythorn 30 1497 DR/139 PR – Full Moon

After resting Magda removed her stone barrier and we moved further into the stronghold. I truly did not know how deep the dwarves really delve. With a little creative spell casting we were able to more easily defeat the duergar here, and found that the interior was what would have been nicely furnished living spaces for the dwarves who called Glitterhame their home. Unfortunately, time and the presence of evil magic seems to have corrupted many of the things in their old quarters. We were attacked by animated furniture and carpets, among other things. Magda swiftly dealt with some of the undead ghosts and wights which wisped out of the woodwork.

In one room we found a strangely attractive woman who called herself Idalla. My memories of her are foggy, but I do remember that she was very nice. She had been unfortunately imprisoned here through magic, and I freed her from the imprisonment. Her laugh once she was freed still echoes in my head. Unfortunately, she used some magic to whisk herself away as soon as she was freed. The others think I may have made a mistake in freeing her so readily, but I know that I did the right thing.

All of our paths lead to a chain ladder extending down even further into the depths. Again, a glance around and we steeled our resolve to see this through to the end, one way or another. It was almost another. At the end of the ladder we found perhaps where the lake entrance led underground. Perhaps not, but certainly Glitterhame and the Stone Tooth are situated in a place with a lot of water. A young black dragon had made its lair down here and began attacking us out of the water. We found the wherewithal to defeat the dragon, and I did find a thrill in that victory. This travel into Glitterhame seems to have changed something between Dask, Magda, Fox, and myself. I do not know what, but the triumph over that black dragon has bonded us into an even tighter group. I feel like we could take on anything now. The dragon’s hoard, though not immense because it was young, will certainly be a boon to Armbard’s Pass and the entire community.

Almost as an afterthought on our way out we saw a side passage to a sinkhole area that we had left alone. A lone roper lived there. Getting rid of it took some ingenuity, but it was worth it. The find of this travel for me was a ring which let me significantly expand the number of spells I can cast each day. A truly exceptional find!

Our way out of Glitterhame and back to the surface was mostly uneventful after that. We tried to convince Magda that we needed to climb back out of the chimney to go out the way we came in, but she didn’t buy it. We begin the journey back to Armbard’s Pass in the morning. It will be nice to return to town as champions.

Jahnas’ Journal Day 18 – Kythorn 29 1497 DR/139 PR

I feel a great deal better after the others let me get a full night’s sleep. My spells restored, my body nearly restored, and a little mending on my robes has gone a long way. Again we head towards the way deeper into this stronghold. We were ready for the stirges this time and took care of them with ease. We managed to steal some nice looking equipment from a caustic mold, and we have come across a wand of light which will be very helpful.

This was clearly a dwarven stronghold, given all of the dwarven architecture, but if that wasn’t enough, we also stumbled across a dwarven tomb. We opened it, I think more to determine if there was danger than anything else. Inside was an old dwarven warrior, interred with a dragon-shaped ring and a warhammer. We left them in the tomb out of respect. Further down we found an iron door which Fox unlocked. Over the door was written, “Durgeddin’s Foundry.” We don’t know what that means, if it means anything other than the literal. Before going through this iron portal, we again decided to continue exploring this level. Unfortunately, it was large and seemed split because of the water running through. A large white lizard was across a stream and guarded some potions which aid physical abilities like jumping and swimming.

Our biggest challenge came after meeting up with some koa-toa at the bottom of a descent near a pool of water. Initially, they ran from our long range fire. They were just luring us further into their lair where their large chieftain resided. We prevailed, but it was an extremely difficult fight. We almost added all four of our skeletons to this increasingly awful place. We discussed turning back after this fight, considering that we had successfully dealt with the upper levels where the goblin raids were initiating. However, once the suggestion was voiced aloud, we all looked at each other and knew that we had to continue. It wasn’t over until we could say for certain that no danger would be found in this place. It wouldn’t be finished until we could tell the nearby settlements to try and reclaim this stronghold and keep it from falling into the wrong hands again.

It does seem that there must be some connection to the Underdark here as well, with the drow, a koa-toa tribe, and now this duergar problem. As I write this we are resting behind a barrier of stone that Magda has magically erected in front of the iron door. After the koa-toa fight, we returned to the iron door and opened it, thinking it may be a simple forge room. Instead we were greeted with a large area with huge dwarven statues holding up the ceiling. A harsh voice warned us to go back and we were attacked invisible. Dask scored an incredibly lucky, or maybe it’s skill now, hit and decapitated one. That sent them reeling, but with their invisibility, we were stymied. When they started to cast spells at us, we retreated and Magda barred the way. We will rest as we think of a plan to deal with them tomorrow.

Jahnas’ Journal Day 17 – Kythorn 28 1497 DR/139 PR

Today proved to be a bit more exciting than I may have anticipated. As I weakly patted some still smoldering patches on my scorched robes and applied a poultice to some rather large mosquito bites, I read over my entry from yesterday and reminded myself to always be thankful for the quiet times.

It all started off quietly enough today. Early on we reached the imposing Sword Mountains and found a hidden but heavily trafficked path indicated on our map. We were wary, but fortunately encountered no other creatures on the path this day. The path emerged from the mountains into a completely sheltered valley. In the middle of the valley is what I can only assume is the Stone Tooth; the tall peak which we think holds the dwarven stronghold of Glitterhame. We scout the area and manage to find three separate entrances.

The first is obvious: the front door. We are still on guard, as we assume this is the source of the increased goblin raids in the area, and decide that walking up to the front entrance might be a bad idea. There is also an entrance across a dark, mirrored lake. Unfortunately, we would have to swim or wade. I’m not the best swimmer, and we decide we don’t particularly like the look of the lake itself. I actually spotted a thin wisp of smoke from what looked like a chimney on a fairly easy to reach portion of the peak. We made our way over to the chimney and saw that we could probably lower ourselves down on a rope and sneak into the stronghold without attracting too much attention. All went as planned, save for a small mishap when Magda fell near the end of her climb. Fortunately she only ended up a little sooty and embarrassed, and not seriously injured. We thought that the clatter of her falling armor would likely wake the dead, but it seemed, at the time, that we were fortunate in this as well.

Almost immediately we had success and managed to rescue to prisoners from Blasingdell: Geradil and Lourana. We sent them up the rope with some help and had them head back to where our horses waited. They were instructed to wait a while, but then head back without us if too much time passed.

As we explored the area, we encountered some hobgoblins which we dispatched. There is a considerable amount of storage and basic supplies here. It is not hard to make the connection to this being the staging ground for some raiding forces. There seems to be something much more sinister at work than simple goblins, however, as we also encountered and dispatched a group of drow. Nothing good can come of their involvement.

As we reached a large hall with a rift leading down, we were set upon by some large, almost mosquito looking creatures. One of them bit me and sapped my strength, but after getting rid of them we chose to continue at least exploring this level of the stronghold to ensure that no enemies were behind us. Almost immediately upon deciding to continue, I was lit on fire by a trap. It would be nice if I could learn to stay behind Dask and just let Fox do his disarming work, but the mechanisms are almost always laced with magic and it is tempting to see how they work.

We headed back to the rear of the front door of this place and our strategy paid off. Hobgoblins, more hobgoblins, a bugbear, and even an ogre fell to us as we surprised them from the rear. They were all anticipating an assault from the front. Two wolves which were with the ogre ran away, but they seemed running in fear rather than anything else. We found what wealth we could, and then returned to the way down. Almost immediately more of the mosquito creatures emerged and bit me again. After consultation, we believe they are called stirges. I am now weak enough that I had to ask the others to hold back from pressing on and rest here on the level we have cleared. The only thing remaining here was a sad looking bear in a holding pen that I believe the hobgoblins were using for sport. We carefully freed it and it went on its way out of the stronghold. We found a defensible spot for a rest and have hunkered down to allow me to regain some strength. I should put this book away and actually take advantage of this time.