(I was the scene master, and I randomized “help the clan atone for angering the gods” in a “monster lair.”)

A greedy group of explorers from Clan Caskbound found their way to the Temple of Six Doubts and stole a fist-sized ruby, the Heart of Kyber, from deep within. Now the clan elders realize that the ruby was a key, turned in the lock of Prince Fasaash, a demon prince, who will be released if the ruby is not replaced by midnight tomorrow. The temple is defended by the People of Dust, masked sand elementalists.

Four dwarves volunteered to go. Tancred (Shaun), The Dan (Simon), Korvask (Michael), and Barteus (Andrew). They piled into a rowboat and headed for the island, unsure of what they’d find, with only the semi-coherent story of the surviving dwarven thieves to guide them. Korvask carried the Heart of Kyber.

Scene One. (Shaun. Crystals, Homestead. Hunting Monster.)

They saw a dock, and pulled the boat up onto the sand near it. There was also a tower and a house by it. The dwarves talked with an old man in desert robes and a turban and face wrapping, who was humanoid if not human. He told them if they fetched a book from inside the temple, thus transferring ownership of it to him, he would give them crystals that would ward off the monsters that would otherwise haunt their steps to the temple. They agreed, and as they followed the path they saw massive sand worms at a distance that did not approach.

Scene Two. (Simon. Vent, Redoubt. Hunting Monster.)

They came up to a 20 foot wall that stretched on both directions. Barteus threw a grappling hook and rope up to it, but a goblin popped up and told them there was an easier way. He led them 20 minutes down the wall to a goblin settlement with all sorts of goblintech, and told them he’d show them a better way in if they could trash his refurbished guardian that the last group of dwarves walked all over.

He activated a metal construct that operated on mystical fuel pumped into its back via cables, and the construct used its gripper arm and firehose arm to fight them. After being torched and battered, they knocked the metal monstrosity apart, featuring The Dan’s brutal berserk fury and annoying the goblin. Still, the goblin did show them a metal tube down into the ground, under the wall, so they could continue.

Scene Three. (Michael. Corrupted, Disputed. Hunting Monster. We decided not to honor any more hunting monster results after this!)

Following the pipe-like sewer-like tunnel, they came to a stinking room with big vats of waste. As they crossed the room, lumbering sewage constructs loomed out to fight them. They held forth against one of them, and tried for the exit when another emerged and they barely escaped. They found a mine cart on a track powered by goblin tech, and scooted on their way.

Scene Four. (Andrew. Dread, Fangs. Environmental Hazard.)

They drove the cart along the rails until they reached a place that smelled better, and Korvask successfully deciphered writing in big signs that warned they were about to need protective gear they didn’t have. Tancred managed to bring the cart to a halt, and he scouted ahead. His body experienced fear, and he saw translucent teeth in the darkness, attached to very unpleasant mouths. He retreated back to the cart.

Korvask’s education prepared him for this. Those things were the Formless Dread, a cosmic outsider attracted to where powerful otherworldly beings touched the material world. They were probably near the tomb of Prince Fasaash, and this was a guardian. He used his enchanting to make blood runes for armoring their life force to resist supernatural intrusion, and that was enough to hide them from the monster that was attracted to delicious fear. This cost about all his Resolve, and The Dan shared drinks and bolstered their resolve before they attempted the bridge. They passed the elementalist-built bridge with its goblin tracks (noting some goblin corpses along the way) until they passed through a massive gate.

Scene Five. (Shaun. Ice, Cache. Environmental Hazard.)

They came to an area locked in receding ice. They noted how the flame that always danced in the center of the Heart of Kyber drew heat from the environment here as it had back in the clanhome as they studied it. They found a square column with four holes, and Korvask studied the holes and discovered two were traps, and of the remaining two, he guessed which one was right. He put the gem back in place, and it sealed the Demon Prince in. The temperature dropped further, and it was time to escape; they scrambled up the ladder as fast as they could, ice swelling over everything far below.

Scene Six. (Simon. Ectoplasm, Transforming. CLIMAX)

They found a dead desiccated dwarf missing his name weapon, an with a moment’s thought they realized they were going backwards of how the escaped dwarves described their route. The other dwarves crossed a river of souls, then down to where the gem was, across the bridge, through the sewers, past the goblins, and down to the coast.

They came to an intersection, and followed the path with the greatest energy, hoping to find a way out. Instead they found a room with the spellbook described by the tower-dweller on a bookstand, chained in place. As soon as Korvask touched the book, he was locked in place as though by an electric current. The door to the room slammed, and a thirty foot ectoplasmic giant took shape with an axe, ready to kill them all.

Korvask struggled to vent the energy away from himself to not take damage while he was stuck to the podium. Attacking the podium just got shocks, so the dwarves took some of Korvask’s healing potions and turned their attention to fighting the giant. It walloped the dwarves around some before The Dan’s relentless assaults led the way to putting it down. Only name weapons could hurt it, as they were connected to their owners.

Tancred struck the killing blow, and as he stood in a swirl of luminous ectoplasm, he wrapped his wrench-hammer name weapon in it and gave up a permanent Resolve, so the weapon became supernatural and able to ignore normal armor.

The door creaked open, Korvask and the book were released, and the dwarves left the battlefield in search of an exit.

Scene Seven. (Michael. Foundation, Rapids. Movement Hazard)

As they approached what appeared to be the exit, a number of robed and masked figures leaped out at them, brandishing snakes from their sleeves. Pitched battle ensued, with The Dan plowing ahead and the rest of the fellowship killing off those he injured first. Gaping holes opened in the roof as the ownership of the temple shifted to the ones bearing the book, and the People of Dust fought back hard, even employing an area of attack snake-splosion. Still, the dwarves won free.

Conclusion.

They went to the tower by the coast and gave the strange man the grimore they liberated from the temple, and returned their guardian crystals. Then they boarded their boat and returned to the ship.

This was a Historical mission (it really happened) and everyone got 5 ledger except the Bearer of the Heart, Korvask, who got 6.