Further Clanbuilding

The clan was founded in 1173, that’s when they broke off from Thunderforge in negotiating the Clearwater Compact. (The current year is 2129.)

The Keenblade family has traditionally defended shrine sites.

Beardfall has three notable tributaries we discovered this time.

• Arkaig. They focus on digging coal. They have one of the first dam constructions of the clan, a reservoir to smooth the depth of the river for easier water travel. They sluice mines. They have a big dam.
• Ettricks. They focus on farming and logging, famed for rangers and topsiders.
• Crosswaters. They manage the river traffic between the other two tributaries and Beardfall. They have a river lock system, and they manage a garrison that keeps the river traffic safe.

We also learned of a haunted forest near Crosswaters known as Mirar Modena, the Watchwood. Trees can get restless if the renewable lumber harvesting gets too aggressive. The woods currently occupy the attention of Crosswaters’ militia.

The cast:

• Slyn Keenblade. Skirmisher, Gunsmith, Delver. Name weapon: trench knife.
• Landon Crackstone. Berzerker, Chosen, Brewer. Name weapon: maul.
• Blane Keenblade. Support, Adept, Mechanician. Name weapon: pistol.

A decade after the last adventure, we rejoin our heroes. In the interim they had built up 5 ledger, and also been given mithril-laced armor or a mithril-laced weapon in gratitude for their service. (The clan’s 50 finest warriors are outfitted with mithril-laced gear.)

The clan experts talked to Sobelthek, learning how to work mithril in record time. He wants to be put down, and the council is likely to allow it. Meanwhile Sobelthek’s forge is still corrupted, though enchanters are working on it.

The clan recently welcomed the Onyx Arm family after a period of years petitioning. They bring about 50 more adults, and a couple accomplished enchanters.

The Journey

Archon Keenblade summoned the fellowship to have a private conversation. His friend Overseer Torfal managed Arkaig, a tributary to the north, and he wanted some help with a mysterious problem. Keenblade sent the fellowship to help if they could.

They traveled to Arkaig on a steam barge piloted by Dorn Kassarock with a crew of 12, armed with a number of cannon. They were on the water for 4 days, with a stop in Crosswaters. During the trip, they were interrupted by giants hurling boulders at them (they shot some giants, and even shot one boulder out of the air.) Also ogres with torches rushed the barge, but were summarily gunned down with grapeshot.

The Rune

They reached Arkaig and met with Arias, the Overseer’s daughter. She took them to Torfal, who told them that the engineers noticed part of the dam was beginning to deteriorate; that should not be possible, as there are powerful runes put in place by enchanters of past generations that should be impervious. Torfal had to go into the sealed records to see if there were any clues about what could have done this. He did find a map to the site of the foundation rune, one of six in the dam, that could be the problem. This was strictly need-to-know! So the dwarves solemnly swore secrecy, and headed out with Arias as a guide.

The rune location was buried in stone, supposedly. But the stone had an open gaping wound, like acid had melted it. Guarding the way was a mud-beast with a glowing stone at its core, powering it! The fellowship tackled the creature, pulling at the stone and generally laying waste to it, but the monster was tough. It hardened to stone, but was knocked to pieces and its power source shattered.

The fellowship went on to discover a questing path had been melted, wandering but insistent, and the rune was uncovered. It was inverted; what had been a rune of protection was now a rune of destruction, and it was slowly damaging the dam!

The fellowship traveled all night to get this sobering news back to the overseer. He lifted their obligation to the vow of silence, and they agreed to go talk to their archon and see if they could get some of their finest engineers back here to figure out what could have gone wrong.

First they checked to see if they could figure out who did it. Who was the tributary’s last enchanter? They checked his work for similarity to the damage at the dam, and checked his grave to make sure it was all peaceful. All seemed well.

So they traveled back with their grave news, seeking the clan’s help with the puzzle.