35

Devils in the Forge
The duergar warlock Xardorok Sunblight has slipped into a hopeless fervor, according to Olpha Muzgardt. He has gone to obsess over his chardalyn creation. With the Muzgardt crew hiding bloodied bodies to buy the party time, the heroes tread towards the forge level. As they await the east elevator, the upper floor's ice gate clamors open and the chardalyn dragon enters, roaring down the fortress's central shaft. Descending below, they encounter a red-eyed duergar in a temple of Deep Duerra. The priest reveals himself to be a devil servant of the Lord of the Nine Hells. Circling through hidden passages to scout the best approach to the forge itself, our heroes rely on brawn and shadow to work their way through the stone halls. We leave off with their looting of Sunblight's treasure room.

Sunblight Fortress: Towards the Forge

#ADuergarPlot It seems that Xardorok Sunblight had left Olpha Muzgardt in the dining room, storming off in a religious fervor, maddeningly focused on his chardalyn dragon. Olpha saw little salvation in Sunblight's eyes, commenting that appears a possessed man. With soldiers due to dine in the bloodied mess hall in a few hours, Olpha and her guard Ulkin encouraged the party to continue, as they themselves began to instruct the kitchen staff to hide the bodies. Time of the essence, the party told T-Rex and Sensei to hang back while they moved towards the forge level.
#ADuergarPlot Approaching the east elevator, the party did look into some rooms. The first door was locked. The second was open. The room belonged to Nildar Sunblight, the myconid obsessed duergar they killed at his outpost near Kelvin's Cairn. It was a moldering room with many heads and trophies mounted to the walls and a dreary chest at his bedside. The furthest room was that of Morin Sunblight, whose desk was littered with journals of his foolish brothers and his own supremacy within the Sunblight clan. The fastidious room contained a chest of well packed garments and a decorative ruby-encrusted saber.
#battle #ADuergarPlot While others probed the bedchambers, Oona glared warily at a set of armors in the training quarters near the east elevator. The armors looked alive. Tetro lit the room with faerie fire, catching several aglow. They were indeed alive, but left alone they stayed inert. In the meantime, the elevator descended, and on it was a witless duergar who fell to the party. Looking up and down the elevator shaft, as well as out through the arrow slit windows, the party suddenly froze as the clanking of chains began on the floor overhead. The top level's ice gate was open. What then sounded like a freight train of glass and iron roared through the central shaft of Sunblight Fortress, descending into the forge level below. There was no doubt in their minds. This was the dragon. With the elevator taking off, the group committed to descend.
#ADuergarPlot The chardalyn smoke was taking its toll on the party, Oona and Fern felt paranoid from chardalyn corruption. To prevent further setbacks, the party decided to imbibe Muzgardt's quieting angel brew, leaving Oona retching from the noxious ingredients.
#battle #TheDevilYouKnow #TheSignal #ADuergarPlot Duergar hammerers with spring-loaded reactions awaited the party at the elevator's base. The party battled through, knowing the forge was certainly near. Busting in the next room in a rage, Oona spotted a vivisected mind flayer chained to a tall statue. She demolished its brain, causing Tetro to reel as his telepathic link flashed memories of the mind flayer's tormentor: a grinning duergar priest named Klondorn with ruby red eyes. Calming down, the party noted that they were in a temple. The statue was a depiction of Deep Duerra and the mutilated mind flayer appeared to be an offering. There were several doorways here, and behind soot smeared stained glass, they saw the glow of the forge. Using Jarnathan the familiar to explore, it became clear that they were being observed. As the rat crept under a back room doorway, it locked eyes with a red-eyed duergar priest in a miter hat.
#battle #TheDevilYouKnow #ADuergarPlot Tetro's firebolt seared a hole through the wood door, causing the priest to jump back. Collecting himself, he grabbed the burning remnants, flesh unharmed, and approached the party. Pleasantries were barely exchanged. Hostilities ensued. The priest doffed his miter, transforming into a barbed devil. After considerable punishment, Klondorn remarked that the will of Baator will prevail and vanished with a puff of smoke. The back room where he was lurking was filled with 92 stone tablets, whose text on touch rearranged into Infernal. Fern took a look. Each tablet was a prayer to Asmodeus.
#ADuergarPlot The duergar temple otherwise housed several storerooms with common sundries and weaponry. Notably though, a goliath's axe and scrimshawed horn were among the possessions, possibly those of the captive goliath Kapanuk Talltree. Oona picked both up.
#battle #ADuergarPlot Following a secret passage, Jarnathan the rat witnessed two duergar mind masters torturing a duergar woman tied to a table in a room filled with compellingly sharp implements. The rat was grabbed by a mind master and put on the victim's chest under a tin cup, which was then heated. Fern snapped the familiar into its pocket dimension, and the party charged the room, fighting the psionic duergar pair. The tortured woman was identified as an evil duergar captain. Oona massaged her neck and severed her spine.
#ADuergarPlot Walkways leading to the forge were now visible from a long hallway. Several paths went to guard towers, and another went to a guest chamber, where Tetro received both a poison dart to the neck and took a yeti rug to wear as a cloak. It appeared the guest chamber had been in use by Olpha, given the mushroom ale casks present.
#battle #ADuergarPlot Stealthing by patrols and staying away from the forge level's barracks, the party fought past two more hammerers before barricading themselves in Sunblight's treasure room. Outside they hear chatter from duergar patrols, one of which greets the Muzgardt princess. As Fern fuddled with the complicated vault locks, Gadget recalled the passphrases they found in Xardorok's chambers. And so the party looted the fortress.

XP

Total XP: 16301

1000 ~ Raided Sunblight Fortress

Loot

a decorative ruby saber, valued at 75 gp ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ Fern
Hat of Disguise ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ Fern
Talltree's Griffon Horn ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ Oona
Yeti rug ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ Tetro
12 stoppered gourds filled with rare fire lichen liquor ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ party
a gold Drow mask, valued at 750 gp ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ party
a silver Drow chalice with an obsidian eyed spider, valued at 250 gp ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ party
350 gp ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ party
Wand of Web ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ Gadget
Cloak of Elvenkind ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ party
an amber headdress with pearl inlays, valued at 2500 gp ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ party
a false eye made of moonstone, valued at 75 gp ~ Sunblight Fortress ~ party