The dwarves of Clan Caskbound were asked to go on a dangerous mission for the clan! Who answered the call?

• Vecna Sorrenvaas: vanguard, diplomat, chef.
• Alexander Sorel: leader, brewer, athlete.
• Castlebar: support, adept, alchemist.

I used the delightful “Forge of Fury” map for the adventure, partly because I’ve played through the scenario in multiple systems with my group before. Some of the same members are in the playtest, and they have both mapped it and have memories of playing through. Therefore, I can say they remember when they’ve been there previously in their long lives. Of course, now things are overgrown and different, after the site was shuttered about 40 years previously.

BACKSTORY

Khundrukar was founded by Durgeddin 158 years ago. He was a smith for Clan Bastion (under the Thunderforge shield) and he wanted to become a forge master, something he could not do at another master’s forge. He took his family and allies and carved out a settlement in the mountains. He also sought to connect the dwarfroads of the mountains with the human lands, easing trade to the local human city state Rothveldt.

He chose a site at the far end of the Caskbound Pocket, the haunted twisted wilderness that spawned around the ancient disaster of the Armageddon Ale bomb in this area. Khundrukar is at the end of the Basilisk Road, 36 miles from Whiskey Forge (the clanhome of Clan Caskbound.)

About 40 years ago, a necromancer named Kryaldi led the Weeping Death into dwarven territory. He was barely stopped, but the dwarven clans called on all hands to fight the menace. Khundrukar was shuttered and left with only a few caretakers, and Durgeddin’s warband took such heavy losses in the fighting that they could not return to their new tributary forge.

Clan Bastion’s clanhome is Coldstream Falls, about 50 miles away. They are allies with Clan Caskbound. They are currently embroiled in their own troubles, including a new clan moving in on their territory. Clan Vaultcracker, under the Stonebreaker shield, is planning to move into the area and claim Khundrukar as a mercenary fort. From there they will hire out to the humans and whoever else can afford them, and that will bring down the tone of the neighborhood, as they are violent and very un-diplomatic. It seems certain their presence would damage trade agreements and local goodwill.

They cannot move into Khundrukar if others get to the master forge and claim it for their clan first. So, with  a twenty day  head start, the dwarves of Clan Caskbound set out to claim Khundrukar!

ADVENTURE!

Three intrepid dwarves closed in on the main doors to the forge. Vecna remembered there was another way in, and did not want to use the front door. She remembered that in a spore-addled weeks-long celebration Durgeddin’s people proved they could dig a passage to human lands by digging a passage from the interior of the proto-clanhome to the chamber beyond. They could find that entrance and bypass the front door.

So they roamed the shroom-coated wilderness of the mountain flank, triggering spore clouds and by and large resisting their effects. However, the mule Alexander brought along was not so lucky, and struggled with paranoia. That was a real problem when they disturbed a massive (and high) caterpillar. They tethered the mule and left it to distract the caterpillar, pushing on with two massive casks on their own back instead. (They didn’t want to be caught without drink this expedition.)

Entering Khundrukar

They eventually found the vent into the lower halls of Khundrukar, and they cautiously followed the vent down. After a long hike, they entered a big chamber resonant with massive croaks. They found a broken gate, and beyond it, a frog as big as a horse, covered with psychotropic skin venom. They put it down after a fierce fight, but three more jumped them.

Using a combination of firebombs, steel, and magical bolts, they downed one and drove the others off. Unfortunately, in the battle Vecna was sprayed with the skin venom, and she thought she was a penguin for a while. (It wasn’t pretty.)

After she pulled herself together and everyone agreed to never speak of this again, they continued on, following Vecna’s memory into the deep. After a few twists and turns they came out in a massive chamber, the Glitterhame.

Vecna unerringly led them into the towering fungal forest full of psychadelic wildlife, ignoring blissed-out centipedes writhing across the path and groovy massive caterpillars that hung out on the mushroom caps.

Sporehounds Attack

As the path led them by a rocky cliffside, they were attacked by four spore-hounds–once human, these twisted creatures were transformed by fungal rot into something horrible. They attacked ruthlessly, but the dwarves put them down after a savage clash. Bruised and bloodied, the dwarves grimly pushed on to the impregnable door leading to the master forge.

They rested and got some strength back, also studying the door. It was covered with snippets of holy text, glyphs of the lineage of master smiths of the clan, and other decorations, surrounding a stylized face of Durgeddin himself. Enough of the door had interactive elements that they realized they might need clues for how to open it. The most decorated part of the clanhome, according to Vecna, was the burial ground at the other end of the chamber. The stone coffins had many markings and might bear a clue.

The Open Crypt

The coffins were in a peaceful balcony overlooking the Glitterhame. As the dwarves approached, they saw a massive frog-mount with a goblin champion mounted on it; she was high as a kite, and had two spiked chains implanted in her forearms and laid across the frog’s flank to pick up the hallucinogens. They tried to scare her off with a flashbang, but she hallucinated that they were a beholder, and she attacked savagely. They managed to balk her mount and knock her off, and the frog hallucinated that it could fly, leaping out over the Glitterhame (and not flying.)

They killed the champion properly, and Castlebar tore her spiked chains out of her arms (noting they were elven make.) Then he stood guard while Alexander and Vecna tirelessly worked on the caskets, using a keg of ale to help clear the frog excrement from the stone to look for clues.

Due to her extensive diplomatic background working with Clan Bastion, Vecna realized the order of the master smith glyphs were out of order.

Conclusion

They returned to the door and solved the riddle, opening the door to the Master Forge area. However, it was dank and dark, and they figured it might be best to return to the wilderness outside to camp before tackling it.

(They got 3 Ledger each, enough to get an upgrade!)

The dwarves and elves of Lost Anvilis were restless and excited. In a week, the legendary elven performer Pricey would come and perform to a sold-out crowd, and fans were filtering in from all over.

One district warden approached some tough adventuring types to see if they could help; the Stefani shrine was on one road to Lost Anvilis, and it would look bad for the clan if crime continued along that road. Something was lairing there and attacking. Undead? Bandits? Reports from survivors conflicted. Anyway, they agreed to go and stamp out the threat so the road would be unmolested before the big concert.

• Thrustin Magroin Timberlake. Mauler, Gunsmith (changed to Engineer), Merchant (selling guns and gems.) Name weapon is a spring-loaded stiletto he calls “Spike Lee.”
• Rebecca Blacksmith. Skirmisher, Healer, Alchemist. Name weapon is an axe she calls “The Ballad of Friday.” She uses a crossbow with tranquilizing poison on the bolts.
• Anvaland. (Just one name, it’s artistic.) Vanguard, Enchanter, Performer. Name weapon is a big axe called “Seventh String.” It has the string from a famous performer woven into its haft.

They traveled to the shrine (I used this map drawn by Dyson Logos) and in the entryway mounds of refuse disgorged a dozen attackers. The dwarves mowed them down with extreme prejudice, and discovered they were goblins who burrow and wear bone, hide, and meat trophies from their kills. No wonder people mistook them for undead.

Moving in they found a weedy underage troll, who was surprised to see them (even after the ruckus outside; the goblins fight all the time.) They did mighty battle, passing around the torch that Anvaland had the forethought to bring. They brought the troll down after it grievously injured Thrustin. They seared it enough times it could no longer regenerate.

By that point, there were LOTS of goblin spectators. Anvaland intimidated them, so they were in a bit of a stalemate. A champion came forward, named Rhysel, and said if one of them would fight him in single combat then the goblins would leave. Otherwise, the dwarves would go in the stewpot.

Anvaland took on the rabid goblin champion and cut him down, not taking so much as a scratch himself. The cowed goblins, led by their shaman, left the shrine. But the shaman warned them there were other things here besides goblins, and they would not go.

After the goblins left, the dwarves rested. Rebecca tended Thrustin’s wounds. They kept searing parts of the troll corpse to try and keep it from rising ever again. Anvaland looked around and found the main shrine, and in another direction, a room filled with dead brush and boobytraps. They barred the door that went deeper into the shrine, and the next day returned home and reported on what they found. The shrine was cleared enough not to bother the upcoming concert and travel for it. They each got 2 Ledger.

The clan and character generation took 63 minutes. The rest of the game took about 90. I got a lot of great streamlining and clarification ideas, too.

I used “The Road Home” adventure because it is cool and also because I wanted to try it out and see what adjustments it may need. So, they were returning to the clanhome Whiskey Forge with signed documents initiating a trade agreement. I had five players.

• Vecna Sorrenvaas [Kristy]: vanguard, diplomat, chef.
• Sorel [Gary]: leader, brewer, athlete.
• Devron Leveler [Mark]: berserker, chosen, mason.
• Korvask Wryt [Michael]: vanguard, enchanter, scholar.
• Castlebar [Simon]: support, adept, alchemist. (Used an empty pistol to channel his adept bolts.)

Battle of the Bridge

They started by crossing the Bone Bulwark bridge and facing 25 goblins on the other side. Half the goblins engaged in melee while the rest peppered the Fellowship with arrows from a safe distance, jeered on by their leader. While the adept hung back and fired on the goblin leader, killing him, the rest of the Fellowship got stuck in and made short work of the goblins (though most fire concentrated on the berserker, and he was getting worn down.)

The two vanguards flanking him kept the attacks bearable, then the leader and support cleared off the stragglers in melee so the rest could charge the shooters without getting hit leaving melee.

Shortly afterwards four surviving goblins escaped into fissures in the stone, beyond reach; the Fellowship traveled a bit before tending their wounds, because goblins tend to return with reinforcements. (Nobody got a proper Wound, just Vitality damage.) The berserker kept the goblin leader’s head (and its fancy helmet of bat skulls stitched together) as a trophy.

Minotaur Ambush

The leader picked up on the bovine stink of minotaur, then the Fellowship was rushed by one in an underground area of the road. The leader and support hung back firing, and just as the rest of the Fellowship put the minotaur down a second one charged from behind and smacked the ranged dwarves for a couple actual Wounds each. They scurried clear as the rest of the Fellowship descended on the second minotaur and wiped it out in short order.

The chef and alchemist harvested the horns to make magnificent drinking horns as a gift to the archon. Then the chef butchered the minotaur and they had great steak for supper. The chosen led a worship to give thanks for victory. They got some Resolve back from the victory and the steaks, but not from the service; the chosen was out of practice. The chosen stacked the mutilated minotaur heads, put the goblin leader’s head on top, and left it as a warning to others that would despoil dwarven roads.

Troll Attack

They were threading through the Garden of Lights when they noticed a patch of fungus ghosting them; it was growing on the back of a troll, and the berserker charged it. They put it down easily enough, but it kept getting back up; fortunately the alchemist “remembered” he had some torches in his pack, and they got those fired up and managed to burn the troll so it was no longer regenerating. The alchemist and chef harvested some of its best bits for later use, and they left the rest.

Ogre Attack

The Fellowship approached the outside, and rested while still underground. (This time the chosen’s service did restore some Resolve.) During the last watch the lookout saw three ogres returning with a big sack of plunder; they tried to wake and pull back without attracting notice, but the ogres spotted them and charged.

They used the relative choke point of the area where they camped so only two ogres could come at them at once, and pitched battle was joined. Before the ogres went down, one pounded the berserker for a Wound proper. When all the ogres were dead and the sack examined (it had some dead sheep in it that an ogre was digging out to use as a missile weapon) they found the stairs up to the gutted tower where the ogres laired, and the mason found a hidden trap door.

They found a safe place, and spent a day there resting and healing for the last leg of the journey. (One reason they waited was because there was a blizzard on the outside road, they wanted to wait it out.) Traveling the snowy road, only one dwarf slipped, and his Resolve saved him. They made it home safe, with minotaur horns as a gift to the archon as well as the signed trade agreement in hand. Job well done!