A Journeyman's Tale, Exploring Birch Vale - Part 6

A Journeyman’s Tale,
Exploring Birch Vale

Part 6 – 29th March 2022

The journal of Bori Ironhelm, cleric of Moradin and master of the forge.
Journeyman in the Explorer’s Guild.

Previous - Chapter 5

Out of the Mine

We felt justly satisfied with ourselves as we woke in the guest lodgings of New Mine. Only four days out from Birch Vale, and we had already begun to uncover a nefarious plot against the town, saved these dwarf miners from the clutches of an evil goblin shaman, and were well on our way to find the shadowy associates of that dastardly necromancer we had encountered in the tunnels beneath the gorse-filled ruins. Surely Cydor would be more than happy to endorse our full membership of the Explorer’s Guild after all this running about, then perhaps I could set up a respectable forge with backing from the organisation. Though, it must be said that I was enjoying myself. Our hosts had put on a proper feast the night before – even Grimnir had his fill of ale before we turned in! I knew we had to make the most of any brief reprieve, as we needed to leave for the frozen land to the north as soon as possible, before the weather turned sour. I didn’t expect there to be much merriment or relaxing until we found some answers and returned south again.

Day five – 09.00, departure from New Mine

We got moving nice and early – Omratin had also got up and prepared us a fine breakfast, while his fellows continued snoring. I couldn’t blame them, they had been through quite an ordeal as prisoners of the goblins and their spider minions.

As we walked through the great gates and into the morning sun, Omratin followed us out, calling a few pieces of last minute advice for us. What a fine friend he had become, a dramatic change from the grumpy dwarf who greeted us at these very gates with loaded hand crossbows! He reminded us that the map we had was inaccurate; it would take us only about 2 hours to reach the path that led to the ranger station (given the good weather), and another 1 to the standing stone by the ice sheet. However, he advised that we shouldn’t waste our time searching for tracks at the base of the ranger path – the ground was too rocky. Instead, if we carried along the main path a little further, we would cross a stream that itself came from the higher ground near the ranger station. The soft mud surrounding the river would be a much better place to look for tracks, and possibly give us a clue as to whether we should divert ourselves to the ranger station or not. We had no need, now, to head to the ranger station as we had all the supplies we required, so the only reason to go there would be if there were signs our foe had found the hidden watchtower.

We thanked Omratin for his hospitality and wise words, then were on our way. He called out one last reminder about the dwarf supplies in the frozen tower – to get a correct bearing from the standing stone at the edge of the ice sheet and, once we found the tower, to look by the southern wall of the second floor of the tower for a loose floorboard. I looked back as we marched up the path and it seemed to me that Omratin was a little reluctant to go back inside the mine. I fancied that part of him wished he was going with us on our adventure.  

Our map of the frozen lands to the
north of Birch Vale

Day five – 11.10, ranger path turn-off 

Well, Omratin was right – the ground was far too rocky at the base of the ranger path. Not even Merla’s keen eyes could find a useful track there.

We proceeded up to the stream – sure enough, plenty of mud there to preserve footprints. Even Grimnir could make a good job of reading the tracks, they were so clear. Mule prints and the unmistakable heeled boots of the necromancer headed south on the main path, across the river and through the mud. There was no indication that the evil wizard had any idea that the ranger station was there, he must have come from the ice sheet and headed straight down towards Birch Vale to start causing trouble.

There was no need for us to investigate the ranger station, so we pressed on.   

Day five – 12.00, standing stone

We stood on a promontory overlooking the ice sheet, our backs to the tall standing stone. The wind howling off the ice sheet was biting – although Merla’s magic boots kept her warm, it was certainly time for me and Grimnir to don the furs we had acquired in New Mine!

Though it was bitterly cold, the weather was in our favour. For now, at least. We could see some large, dark clouds on the horizon, which looked like they heralded the storms we had been warned about. It looked like we had perhaps one or two days to cross the ice before the storm hit.

After we had carefully taken our bearing from the standing stone, we sat in the shelter of the rock to eat something before descending onto the ice. There was no shelter down there for as far as we could see, so we would have to get to the frozen tower before we would get any respite from the chill wind. Thinking of respite, I mentioned to Merla how fortunate we were that the goblin shaman and his orc bodyguards didn’t attack us the previous day when we entered the large cavern and were shot at by goblin archers from all sides. I had thanked our lucky stars that we had some respite in that case, but my halfling companion pointed out that in all likelihood, the shaman was keeping clear because he expected us to succumb to the spider venom that the goblins laced their arrow heads with. As we had all drunk an anti-venom potion, the vile poison had no effect on us and we were immune to the debilitating effects. I shook my head – why hadn’t I noticed that! She was an observant one, Merla was. She continued by saying that, in all likelihood, that is what happened to the dwarf miners – they had been rendered unconscious by the arrows that had been dipped in spider venom, then trussed up by the giant spiders for later. It was fortunate we had got there when we did and found them alive. Of course, it made perfect sense; the cowardly goblins would much rather fight an unconscious foe than one who was still on his feet. It must have been quite the surprise for that shaman when we strode through the hail of arrows and slaughtered his vile minions!

With one last check of the bearing, we descended from the rocky promontory and took our first steps onto the ice sheet, doing our best to remain true to the path. This was easier said than done, with the lack of visible markers on the ice. A combination of the cold air freezing our bones and the difficulty of navigation meant that our walk to the frozen tower took longer than it might have done, but about around 6 hours we found ourselves standing in front of a rocky incline that seemed to be the entranceway to the tower. 

Day five – 18.00, entrance to the frozen tower

A steep, rocky incline in front of us lead up to a 10ft x 10ft opening, some 40ft above the ice. Beyond this entranceway, we could see a huge wall made of rock and ice – it must have been 200 feet tall. This imposing edifice stretched far away to the east and west, as far as we could see. At the time, we were too cold, tired and hungry to consider the implications for continuing our journey beyond this barrier; though, I suppose the dwarf miners made their way to the other side somehow, so we should be able to. Strange that Omratin hadn’t mentioned the huge wall though. Still, it was a problem for later – our prime concern was to get inside, light a fire and thaw ourselves out a bit.

Despite our desire to get inside as quickly as possible, we remained cautious. While the dwarfs would have warned us about their own traps, it was entirely possible that the necromancer (or one of his agents) had left a little surprise if he had travelled this way. Merla therefore searched the entranceway for traps while I divined whether there was any magical effect in the area. Once we were satisfied that it was safe, we entered the frozen keep.

Where we entered was open to the elements, the cold wind howling in through large gaps in the stones. There wasn’t even a proper roof here, but there were some stone stairs that led down into the gloom. We did have quite a good view to the east, west and south from this position, but the huge stone and ice wall blocked our vision to the north. Needing shelter more than anything else, we descended the stone steps to the next floor down. The room was 40ft x 40ft, with a floor made of age-blackened timbers. Although ice glistened on the walls, it was instantly a relief to be out of the wind. Quickly, we found the dwarven stash, just where Omratin told us it would be, and set about building a fire on a nearby flagstone that had clearly been used as a hearth many times in the past.

Our mule seemed much happier by the fire, and after we’d warmed our hands a little, we thought we should look around more. There was another set of stone steps leading down to another floor, so we investigated. Nothing much to see down there – some rubble, some ice, no obvious way out or any further down. At least that meant we should be able to rest in the floor above with only one entrance providing a chance of anything attacking us in the night – if there even was anything moving on the ice in the freezing night air!

 

Day five – 19.00

We were dead tired from the trudge across the ice, so it was a relief to be secure in the tower. We had eaten some of our own rations, not wishing to deplete the emergency stores that were hidden in the tower, and we had fed the mule as well as the two birds we carried in cages on its back – the pigeon from Cydor and the necromancer’s raven. I sat down next to the fire to examine the magical arrow that we had found in the chest behind the waterfall in New Mine. It was a wondrously delicate object, clearly made of the same magnificent star metal that my warhammer was made of. However, despite my best efforts and the use of an Identify spell, I was none the wiser about what enchantments lay upon it. I stowed it back in my pack – it would need someone with greater expertise than mine to determine what the arrow could do.

As I turned back to extinguish my torch before going to sleep, I noticed the flame was flickering, as if from a breeze. This room seemed weatherproof, so it was a mystery where this draft was coming from. It seemed like it was coming up from the room below, which was unusual as it seemed to be completely sealed. I nudged Grimnir and the pair of us descended the stairs, leaving Merla to rest by the fire. Carefully, I placed the burning torch in the centre of the room, jamming it into a crevice between two flagstones. The pair of us held our breath as we watched to see if we could tell where the draft was coming from and, sure enough, the flame guttered and danced in the slight breeze.    

I looked over to the corner of the room and noticed a small hole about 6 feet or so above the floor. It looked as if one of the bricks had been removed. This could be the source of the mysterious draft. Of course, I could not see into a hollow so high up, so I had to get Grimnir to give me a boost. I placed my hands on the lip of the opening and began to lift myself up when, all of a sudden, the entire wall pulled away and fell towards us! Fortunately, we managed to leap to one side (I surprised myself with my acrobatics!), but instead of a rain of heavy stones it was simply a false wall made of wooden planks that fell forwards.

We called up to Merla to come and look at this curiosity, as there was a tunnel behind this false wall. It appeared to be bored through solid ice, heading downwards and towards the north (perhaps underneath the huge wall?). We could see nothing in the tunnel, other than a pile of donkey dung a few feet inside… perhaps our necromancer had travelled up through this secret tunnel?

There seemed to be no movement of any kind, so we decided that it was best to get some sleep and work out a plan in the morning. We guarded the tunnel in shifts through the night, just in case, but other than that managed to get some decent rest by the crackling fire upstairs. 

Day six – 07.00, into the secret tunnel

The night passed without incident. It was surprisingly cosy in the frozen tower, so we felt good when we breakfasted in the morning. Our small party was of one mind – to explore the secret tunnel we had uncovered. That decision was reinforced when the mule appeared to recognise the way down the ice tunnel. Whether it would lead to the other side of the huge ice wall or to some other place… well, we’re Explorers after all, so we had to go down!

I must confess that I was impressed at how precisely the ice tunnel had been bored. Of course, I am familiar with the various methods for digging through and working with all sorts of rock types, but ice was unfamiliar to me. It must present a different set of challenges, but whoever had performed this act seemed up to the task. Yes, I admired the workmanship… it may have been the efforts of our enemies, but I can still appreciate the work of a good craftsman when I see it.  

I led the way down the tunnel, for it wasn’t wide enough for us to walk more than single file. We heard rushing water coming from up ahead, and before long we saw a wooden bridge spanning a fast-flowing stream of meltwater. We carefully crossed, one at a time, and examined our surroundings. There was a fissure in the ice ahead of us, and a huge ice column to the right. Beyond that, much to our surprise, was some sort of castle or keep, with a drawbridge lowered over the stream (which acted like a moat). Surely Omratin would have told us about this if he had known it existed?! 

We could see no reason to explore the fissure, not when there was a mysterious castle, so I cautiously walked towards the drawbridge. Not cautiously enough it seemed, as a shape detached itself from the pillar and slithered towards me. The creature was a familiar shape to me, though its colouring was odd. And I never expected to see a Carrion Crawler this far north. There must have been some abundant source of carrion to attract the scavenger to this frozen cave… Still, there was no time to consider the behaviour and eating habits of monstrous pests, as this one was trying to make me into its meal!

I fended its mandibles off with my shield and smashed my magical hammer into the side of its body with a squelch. Before the creature could recover, Grimnir was charging in at its side, great axe swinging with blinding speed. Merla followed up with a pinpoint-accurate crossbow bolt into one of the monster’s eyes. Though it makes me sound like Grimnir, it was almost a relief to be fighting at this point; an opportunity to warm our frozen selves up. Just as I thought this, I heard a muffled scream from Merla’s direction – a huge blue toad had leapt upon her and was trying to devour her whole!

She managed to wriggle free of the toad’s grasp and run to safety behind the ice pillar just as Grimnir and I finished off the carrion crawler, and my cousin ran then launched himself at the toad. He wrestled with the beast, but it managed to free itself from his grasp with a croak. Apparently it did not enjoy the tables being turned, and it hopped across the ice and over the edge, landing with a plop in the stream below. Merla only had minor injuries, which were quickly restored with a healing potion, so we continued towards the castle.  

We were wary of the drawbridge, but as Merla was examining it for traps, we heard sonorous metallic footsteps coming towards us. A huge humanoid figure emerged from the doorway and stood, implacably, upon the drawbridge. It didn’t appear to be aggressive, but the implication was clear – you shall not pass.

I was fascinated by the construct. It looked ancient, I fancied something from the pre-calamity times some 3,000 years prior (just as my warhammer head and the arrow we had found were). It was holding an enormous mace that Grimnir had his eye on, though I was absorbed by the exquisite craftsmanship of the armour plates and how they interlocked together. 

Given that it wasn’t threatening us, just standing there, I was reluctant to engage the construct in combat. I tried everything I could think of to get the thing to move, but to no avail. When I moved closer, it took a defensive stance, and when I moved away it relaxed. It clearly didn’t want to let us through. Eventually, I tried to simply run past it, but it swung at me with its heavy mace. That was it. I turned back and struck a ringing blow with my hammer, wincing as I could see some of the armour plates denting slightly where I hit it. Grimnir came to my aid and we swiftly dismantled the construct – I was glad that I had imbued his axe with magical energies that morning, as otherwise I think it would have glanced off the armour just as easily as Merla’s crossbow bolts were turned aside.  

I was distraught at destroying something so beautiful, but my pain was as nothing compared to Grimnir’s when he saw that almighty mace slip off the drawbridge and land in the rushing water below. He cried out in dismay and was close to diving into the freezing water after it… I tried to tell him there was nothing particularly special about the mace other than its size, but he wasn’t convinced. He was always on the lookout for more implements that he could use to smash, slash or otherwise assault his foes. Causing the mace to fall was a fairly awful thing for the Gods to do, but I think he was perhaps a little more emotional about it than the situation warranted.

Once Grimnir had composed himself, we entered the castle. Thick ice covered much of the ceiling and walls; it appeared that the interior had once been filled with ice and someone had mined out the interior of the keep by chipping away at the ice. Incredible. Either side of the entrance, we found rooms that had old, rusted chain mechanisms for lowering and raising the drawbridge. The chains were broken, but the ends hanging from the walls showed significant wear – someone had been using them without the winches to move the bridge. Curious. There was also a trapdoor in one of the rooms, which seemed well oiled. We peered into the trapdoor but couldn’t see much below, other than another room partially cleared of ice just like the one we were standing in. 

A larger room ahead had more ice, and clear evidence of efforts to chip it away as blocks of ice were piled inside the room. We could see a glow, as if from a fire, emanating up through a break in the floor that had been covered with ice. We decided to descend the spiral staircase in the corner of the room to investigate further.

Day six – 09.30-ish, there's life in the old castle

Merla used her stealthy movement to sneak around a huge lump of ice in the centre of this large chamber, while Grimnir and I stayed back. She crept back to us to relay that she had seen a strange woman in front of a fire, polishing metal objects on a table. She didn’t seem to be too threatening, but I still asked Merla to go forwards with caution and keep her crossbow trained on the woman while we followed and secured the area.

The woman didn’t seem overly concerned about our appearance in the castle, instead blurting out a stream of words, the most notable of which was to offer us a beer! Of course, we gladly accepted. It seemed that she was here under the auspices of a university professor, excavating ancient artifacts from this keep. She had been the one to hide the tunnel from the tower, though she claimed to have no knowledge of the necromancer… it was all very curious, and I can’t say that I entirely trusted her. But I could barely get a word in, until she asked me what happened to ‘Clanky’, which I took to be the animated suit of armour that we unfortunately had to destroy. I tried to break it as gently as possible that we had to break it to make our way in, but she wouldn’t listen to my explanation and ran off saying she would get the professor. I don’t know why we stayed behind, must be something to do with the kegs of ale and warm fire, but I really was not happy about letting this woman out of our sight. 

While she was gone, I had a poke around the objects on her tables. All clearly old, pre-calamity as she had said. I used a Detect Magic spell to see if there were any truly exceptional pieces… perhaps she could be persuaded to part with something, if we were lucky. There were a pair of exquisite bracers that had a landscape of mountains and trees carved on them. I nudged Merla, as they looked right up her street, and they were glowing with magic to my eyes. There was another object, encased in ice, which radiated magical power, but I couldn’t make out what it was. Nothing else on the table seemed to be enchanted, but there were some lovely looking artifacts.

Grimnir and I were on our fourth mug of beer when an old, wizened dwarf bustled into the room. He introduced himself as the professor the girl had spoken of, and said she was going to secure the drawbridge as we had destroyed their protector. I offered my services in repairing both Clanky and the drawbridge mechanism; he said I lacked the magical aptitude to animate the armour, and that the girl could handle to drawbridge chains by herself. That was a disappointment, I had thought the armour was moving through some clever artifice, not simply the magical will of a wizard. Oh well.

The old Longbeard gave us a tour of their operation. He seemed old and sickly, but willing to walk around and talk to us about what they were doing. They had excavated this entire keep (I don’t know how they could have done this between the two of them), which had been filled with storm water which later froze solid. The inhabitants had been caught unawares by the storm, so amongst all the wondrous artifacts that they had uncovered, they were also exhuming a significant number of bodies… or body parts… which they dumped into the moat outside. Hence the attraction to carrion crawlers.

We stood by the trapdoor back in the main chamber, and he showed us his rope that incorporated seal fat and spider silk to make it work better in subzero conditions. It wasn’t the most remarkable dwarven invention I’ve ever seen, but certainly useful up here. As we were looking down the hatchway, a snow leopard padded down the spiral stairs, scaring our mule off! The dwarf scholar angrily told us that it was our fault that we had dangerous animals roaming the keep, as we had destroyed their guardian! Well, I didn’t think we needed to kill a hungry cat, so Merla and I began to move towards it to see if we could persuade it to leave, but a sudden commotion pulled us up short. The professor had suddenly moved behind Grimnir and tried to push him into through the open trapdoor! Apparently, the wizened old dwarf hadn’t quite counted on just how difficult it was to move my massive kinsman. Nor had he counted on just how quick Grimnir could be. The barbarian’s hand shot out and grabbed hold of the old dwarf’s wrist before he could run away. What was going on?   

Day six – 11.00-ish, a game of cat and mouse

The damned professor refused to answer Grimnir’s questions, trying desperately to wriggle out of his iron grip. By the time I looked around to see that the snow leopard had disappeared, there was blood pouring from the old dwarf’s nose where Grimnir had punched him. I was about to try a more tactful method of interrogation before my kinsman threw the old dwarf through the trapdoor – Grimnir is very much an ‘eye for an eye’ sort of dwarf, and the longbeard had tried to push him down. We heard him thump onto the stone floor below, but I still wanted answers. Merla and I rushed to the stairs, while Grimnir leapt out and grabbed onto the rope to slow his descent. I think he was hoping to land on the professor, but the old codger had run off. We knew he couldn’t have come back up the stairs that Merla and I were running down, so we headed along the corridor in pursuit. This seemed like the ground floor of the castle, being flagged with stone, and there was a stone well in one room, filled with solid ice. He hadn’t gone down there.

We ran on and found another room, with a sarcophagus standing in the middle of it. There didn’t appear to be anything else in the room. Merla investigated the sarcophagus, but could find no levers or buttons, no false bottom… it seemed solid. She then explored the wall, which was covered in a fresco of gods, including Mielikki. Again, nothing there. Then we heard it.

“DINNER TIME!”

Echoing down the corridor, the bellow was incredibly loud. It couldn’t be the old dwarf, surely. Besides, it was coming from behind, and must have been hiding here somewhere. Wasn’t he? We had to break off the search as the bellowing was getting closer…

“JANE TOLD ME I COULD EAT YOU, SO IT'S DINNER TIME!”

A huge, misshapen monster came lumbering round the corner. Grimnir roared with excitement and charged straight at the ogre, swinging his axe with gleeful abandon. This was a foe worthy of his time. I stood back to assail the ogre with spells, partially to keep guard over Merla (as we still didn’t know where that old dwarf was), and partially to keep out the way of Grimnir’s wildly swinging axe!

There was a look of surprised horror on the ogre’s dumb face. It had not expected the level of ferocity that can be delivered by a berserk barbarian dwarf slayer. I also don’t think it was expecting the crossbow bolts that Merla was able to fire so accurately past the bobbing and weaving orange hair that topped Grimnir’s rage-filled face. Ultimately, it was a bolt from Merla that pierced the beast’s throat and dropped it to the ground, but Grimnir moved in and gave it a few extra kicks with his iron shod boots, just in case.

The ogre didn’t have much of value on its person; a couple of garnets and 1 gold coin. But it did have ten hexagonal tokens of polished steel, whatever that meant. I took them as they must mean something to someone.  

With the ogre defeated, we continued searching for the old dwarf professor. We couldn’t find him anywhere. Nor could we find his young apprentice. She had evidently closed the drawbridge but had left no sign as to where she had gone. We ascended to the top floor of the keep, where we found a cart and a large number of tracks. There was a gap in the wall, leading down to the moat far below. It seemed that we had found another ice ‘mine face’, and based on the size of the footprints it looked like the ogre had been providing muscle to excavate the keep. I guessed that the cart was being used to dump excavated ice and exhumed bodies through the gap in the wall and down into the moat below. We found some freshly-chipped ice faces (with body parts poking out), but no sign of either of our ‘hosts’.

Returning to the main floor, where the artifacts still lay on the tables and the fire was spluttering in the hearth, we saw that someone had interfered with our mule. Our belongings were strewn around the floor, the pigeon Cydor had given us was dead, and the raven we took from the necromancer was missing. I cursed myself for not keeping a closer eye on the ass.

We gathered up what we could and took the most promising-looking artifacts from the table. I ensured we had the magical bracers and placed the other item in a tankard over the fire to melt the ice around it. Peering into the chest behind the tables, we found some well-polished pieces of armour. They were clearly made of star metal, that wondrous material from the pre-calamity days. It was unlikely we were going to be able to carry it all out with us, much as I wished I could, but I took one or two pieces to place on the mule’s back.

At this point, we were totally mystified as to where the professor and the girl had gone. And that snow leopard – that was odd. Merla and I did wonder whether the girl herself had transfigured into the big cat… after all, we had seen the necromancer perform such a trick, and it could be that these two were in league with him. As we were pondering what to do, we heard a noise from the bottom floor of the keep and so rushed to the stairs. 

Day six – 13.00-ish, the mystery deepens

We found a black feather at the bottom of the stairs – the professor must have got behind us, taken the raven and fled back down here. Wily old coot! There was a crumpled note near the sarcophagus, the same one we had received when the raven had returned to us. So he must have gone that way… we took another look at the sarcophagus, prodding and pushing it, and eventually we pushed it in just the right way so the entire plinth it was standing on glided to one side. There was a tunnel beneath it! Oh, why hadn’t we found that earlier!

We descended into another stone chamber. There was a large set of double doors ahead of us, which we cautiously pushed open, expecting a fight. Instead, there was a familiar sight in front of us – a stone portal, just like the one we had found beneath the temple, that had taken us to that strange, steaming jungle! I tentatively took the hieroglyph amulet from my pocket and crept towards the portal… sure enough, it began to glow brighter with every step I took towards it.

Well, it looked like we would be taking another trip through a magic portal. And perhaps we would catch up with that damned professor and find some answers.