A Journeyman's Tale, Exploring Birch Vale - Part 7, the end is nigh!

A Journeyman’s Tale,
Exploring Birch Vale

Part 7 – 9th June 2022

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

Previous - Chapter 6

Departing the Icy Keep

We stood in front of another portal, the runes glowing as I approached it with the hieroglyph amulet gripped in my mailed fist. It seemed that this magical key would work for multiple locks, not just the one we passed through beneath the temple that the Necromancer had been excavating with his band of reanimated foresters. It appeared that the old dwarf we had been chasing through the frozen keep must have fled through this portal, and I wanted answers. Something was off with him – he had looked fair but felt foul, as the old saying goes. Merla stood beside me, her consistent bravery and level-headed determination continuing to impress as well as surprise me, being so different from all I knew of halflings before meeting her. 

Nothing about my cousin, Grimnir, surprised me. He was almost frothing at the mouth to charge through the portal and find the old dwarf, not feeling that the insulting attempt to push him through the trapdoor had been fully repaid. I think my kinsman would have likely dived headfirst through the un-activated portal if Merla and I weren’t stood beside him. He’d probably have made quite a hole in the frozen wall on the other side, too.

This adventure had taken many twists and turns, but it felt that we were now standing on the precipice of discovery. And I was glad to have my two companions beside me.

We stood ready, well stocked with healing potions

Day six – 13.00, through another portal

I stepped through the portal, my companions close behind. We were less shocked by the strange, cold sensation as we were translocated to somewhere that could be many leagues from the icy keep. We emerged into a large chamber, with smooth flagstones underfoot and smart brickwork on the walls. It felt to me that we were underground – my dwarf senses were tingling.

Five doors led from this chamber, and a rack of winter coats was placed upon one wall. This place didn’t feel cold at all, so we figured these were perhaps intended for anyone passing through the portal to the icy keep, which certainly was cold (as the name implies!). There was a cage in one corner, while in the opposite there was a large, metal torso, hanging by chains. 

The magic portal and fascinating construct behind

Five doors led from this chamber, and a rack of winter coats was placed upon one wall. This place didn’t feel cold at all, so we figured these were perhaps intended for anyone passing through the portal to the icy keep, which certainly was cold (as the name implies!). There was a cage in one corner, while in the opposite there was a large, metal torso, hanging by chains. 

We examined the metal torso first. It was fascinating, a real feat of engineering. Merla kept me from getting too close until she had confirmed that there was no danger from traps, which was appreciated. Up close, I could see this was dwarf-craft – who else could make something so robust and fine? Elves? Humans? Don’t make me laugh!

It seemed to be some sort of half-finished construct, designed for mining or siege work. It had enormous shoulders, very heavy duty, and seemed to have been worked on recently. A leg lay nearby on the stone floor, looking like it would take some serious strength to pick up and attach to the rest of the construct. I would have loved to study the wondrous automaton further, but we were short on time.

The cage in the far corner was some 10 feet square and around 6 feet high with a strong roof on it. We could see a cow skull and what appeared to be a thigh bone from a dwarf, half-buried in straw besides a bowl of water. Perhaps some creature had been kept here until recently? It was Merla who identified a few stray hairs as belonging to a snow leopard – the same cat we had seen in the frozen keep. So, it had never wandered in from outside at all, it had been taken through the portal from this end… curious.

A closer examination of the winter clothes hanging on the pegs revealed they were the right size for dwarfs. There were 20 such white and buff-coloured parkas and 20 pairs of furry boots. One final peg held the cloak we had seen the woman wearing in the keep, Lady Jane. So, she had come through the portal before us. The mystery kept deepening.

Investigating the rooms leading from this main chamber, we found a filthy room that had the unmistakable stench of ogre about it. The monster we had slain in the keep must have lived here. I could just imagine it squatting in this squalor, picking its teeth with splintered bones… like the leopard cage, there appeared to be a number of dwarf bones littering the floor of this chamber. It was becoming apparent that, although the warm coats suggested there were 20 dwarfs here at some point, it was likely that number had dwindled significantly over time… perhaps we wouldn’t even find any survivors to rescue, which would be a tragedy.

Another room was much cleaner and far less smelly, though no less chilling. A black desk held bones and other necromantic accoutrements. Dribbly candles had oozed their wax down and onto the desktop – I always wondered if wizards spent hours making their candles drip just right. I suppose that wasn’t really important right now. What was important was that it seemed that we had FINALLY found where our evil wizardly ‘friend’ had originated. This was the source of the man who had started this whole adventure by poisoning some foresters and reanimating the corpses to use as free labour. Perhaps we would find some answers here!   

We had finally found the origin of the necromancer

The other two chambers leading from this main one were a latrine (no need for further investigation there!) and a prison. Iron chains were attached to spikes driven into the stone walls and blood splattered the floor. There was no sign of any surviving dwarfs here, feeding the fear that we had when we examined the ogre’s quarters. I couldn’t imagine the horrors our kin had endured here and could feel the rage building in Grimnir beside me. My cousin was clearly deeply affected by what he saw. Someone was going to pay.

 

Day six – 13.30, up the winding staircase

We had fully explored the rooms surrounding the portal chamber. Directly in front of the portal, a door led to a small chamber with a trapdoor in the ceiling above – far too high for us to reach, but clearly someone had been dropping something down into here. The final door, behind the portal, led to a spiral staircase that wound upwards and ended with a short ladder leading up to another trapdoor. We cautiously opened this hatch and looked out. There was a plush rug pushed to the side that seemed to have been covering this trapdoor, keeping the portal room and associated chambers below hidden from inquisitive eyes.

Entirely different to the bare stone chambers below, this room was richly furnished. A couple of pews faced an altar that stood before a glorious stained-glass window, with warm sunlight streaming in. We certainly weren’t in the frozen north anymore. This appeared to be a chapel and, based on the familiar ornamentation, it was dedicated to Eldath.    

In the Chapel of Eldath

We cautiously crept from the chapel and into a grand reception room. Judging by this hall, we were in a substantial manor house. It was poorly lit, not that this bothered myself or my cousin. There were some double doors ahead that were slightly ajar. We could hear voices from beyond so we stood back while our stealthy companion, Merla, tiptoed forwards to have a closer look. She was, however, not on top form and ended up clattering into the door when she tripped over her own bow… Grimnir and I held our breath in anticipation, but we were lucky and the voices continued their discussions beyond the doors. Merla looked back at us sheepishly, clearly embarrassed at her clumsiness. 

Creeping through the grand reception hall

Given that she hadn’t disturbed whoever it was, we figured that we might as well peek through the doors as well, so we crept over to join Merla. Through the doors stood a motley collection of thugs and ne’er-do-wells, discussing the need to hunt down two dwarfs and a halfling. Clearly, that was us! Someone in the group mentioned that we were in the large town of Eastport. Once again, we had been transported many leagues by the magic of the portal.

We listened to a little more of the chatter. These ruffians clearly thought highly of their skills as they were talking about how easily they would cut us down. They wouldn’t find us such easy prey! We considered retreating to set up an ambush for them when I noticed that one of the loudest and roughest voices in there appeared to be coming from a short fellow, who the others called Delgar. When he turned his face to me, I saw familiar features, similar to mine and Grimnir’s, but his skin was ashen grey. He was a Duergar, a Grey Dwarf, an evil counterpart to our noble race. Both myself and Grimnir were fuming with rage at the sight. Duergar were known slavers, and there was every possibility that he had orchestrated the capture of our kin for imprisonment in the chambers below. Our fury turned white hot when we saw the Lady Jane addressing the warriors in a superior tone. Her bearing was different to when we had seen her in the frozen keep – much more commanding, clearly ordering these ruffians about. She seemed to radiate authority and power and made it clear to the thugs around her that she could destroy them with but a word. She was a mage! The shy and retiring scholar act had been all just a, well, an act! Her real name was Felicia. We didn't see the old treacherous dwarf scholar, but he'd be bound to be here in the manor somewhere...

A group of ruffians were prepared to hunt us down...

Prudence told us we should be cautious. Merla whispered that we should hide. Grimnir’s opinions were always the same, always blunt, and always involved solving problems with his axe. But he had just enough self-control to look to me for guidance.

“We kill them all,” I said grimly.

Merla was taken aback, but I could tell the brave halfling would fight alongside us to the end. Grimnir just grinned wickedly. He wanted to kill that Duergar as much as I did.  

Moments before my cousin booted the door in, I cast a zone of silence – I didn’t want to hear any more honeyed words from that lying woman, nor did I want her casting her evil spells at us! Lady Jane, sorry, Felicia, turned in surprise along with her ruffian companions as the door was kicked off its hinges by Grimnir. Their mouths flapped up and down wordlessly thanks to my zone of silence, making them look like fish gasping on the deck of a fishing boat. It would have been comical if we hadn’t been about to fight a vicious battle. 

The element of surprise certainly aided us. Grimnir charged into the room, swinging his massive axe wildly. His rage was visible on his face such that I thought he might overcome the magical zone of silence through sheer willpower alone and make his roaring audible! As it was, he cut the female wizard down with a few vicious chops, and was moving on to attack more opponents before her body had even hit the floor.

I had my eye on the Duergar, Delgar. I smashed one thug out the way to try and reach the Grey Dwarf, channelling my cousin’s battle rage as best as I could and hammering with all my might as if I was standing at my forge. My magical warhammer glowed as it crushed my enemies, pulping them on the ground. They were not prepared for such an onslaught, which was added to by Merla’s pinpoint shooting from behind us with her magical crossbow.

It didn’t all go our way (we were wildly outnumbered, after all), and both me and Grimnir received injuries from the ruffian’s blades. Their resistance was weak, though, and the fight left them once Delgar and Felicia lay stricken on the floor. We killed them all and stood in the devastation of battle, panting. We would have to look for clues as to what was going on, as there certainly wasn’t anyone left in here to tell us about it. 

...they never had the chance

Day six – 14.00, exploring the manor house

We searched the bodies. The rank-and-file thugs held nothing of great significance, but Delgar the Duergar had two swords made of glittering star metal, and an iron key about his neck. I took these from him – he wouldn’t be needing them, and anything made of star metal should be considered a valuable artefact as the methods of working it are long since lost to time.

Felicia had a magical star metal sword and a magical mace, not that she got the chance to use either of them. She also had two keys, one brass and one silver, and round her next was an amulet that I recognised had a similar feeling to the one I had used to control the portals. In her satchel was a spellbook, monogramed ‘Duchess Felicia Kendall’, and next to it was half a book on creating metal golems. So, she was a Duchess and had also been working to assemble that wondrous construct in the portal room below? Fascinating. The half-tome that I held in my hands might help in finishing off the golem, but I would need to find the rest of the book to really have a chance at completing it.

We left the dead bodies and went to explore the rest of the manor. We wanted to find out what these three keys opened – we’d already found some wondrous artefacts so could only imagine what they deemed worth locking up! It was possible there were other guards in the house, though it seemed most likely that she had gathered all her armed men together to hunt for us. Still, we kept our wits about ourselves.

Following our noses, we found the kitchen. There was an enormous boar roasting over an open fire. Our mouths were salivating at the smell when the cook shouted at us to stop – we weren’t to ruin our appetites! Her name was Zara, and she immediately assumed we were part of the Duchess' party of guests. We didn’t correct her. She said that the boar would be ready for eating in a couple of hours, and to let the Duchess know. I decided to push our luck and told Zara that the Duchess had left on business with some of her other associates, but that the three of us would be staying at the manor house that night. She looked a little suspicious until I took the brass key from my pocket and asked where the door was for it – she was immediately impressed that I had been trusted with this particular key, and even more impressed when I said that we were travelling scholars who had come to evaluate some of the special finds for her mistress. Grimnir was our bodyguard, of course, as he didn’t really give off a scholarly vibe. The cook obliged us by saying that a meal would be ready in a couple of hours for the three of us, and that she would prepare accommodation in the guest cottage for us. We were at liberty to wander the house and grounds until dinner.

Zara the cook

Near the kitchen, we found a forge, though it was like no forge I had ever seen. Star metal ingots lay on the floor nearby – was it possible that the Duergar had figured out the mystery of working star metal? This made me simultaneously excited and angry. Proper dwarfs should be the ones working the wondrous metal, not those grey bastards. There was a trapdoor in the floor, which must have been the one we had seen from next to the portal room – perhaps they had been forging pieces of the golem up here and lowering them through the trapdoor for assembly? I decided that we had better dispose of the bodies in the entrance hall, to avoid any unnecessary questions from Zara the cook (who seemed innocent of all wrongdoing) and any potential visitors to the manor. This trapdoor seemed a good way to dispose of them, so I made a mental note to return once we had finished exploring the house.

A storeroom and corridor led to a door that could be opened with the brass key. This opened onto a walled garden, very peaceful. We could faintly hear the bustling of the busy port on the breeze, but it sounded like the manor house was situated some distance from the town centre. Returning to the interior of the manor, we found a room that was half armoury and half bed chamber. This must have been where Delgar had slept. The weapons were a fine collection, though all made of regular steel – no star metal. If he had forged these himself, he had some skill when he was alive. Not the best work I’d ever seen, but not bad. There were a few jewels that Merla pocketed and a few more ingots of star metal, but other than that it wasn’t worth taking any of these weapons. We moved on.

Along the corridor, we found the Duchess’ bed chamber. It was an opulent room, dominated by a huge four-poster bed. I couldn’t find anything of consequence for us, though there was a small door leading from the bed chamber. We entered and found a room that was the stark opposite of the bed chamber. Where the previous room was warm and bright and comfortable, this was dark and foreboding. It stank of evil magicks, reminiscent of the necromancer’s quarters we had found earlier. There was a pentagram chalked on the floor, and a desk piled with parchments and dark tomes. A dresser stood in the corner. As we began to riffle through the pages, we heard a creaking noise behind us and a crack of splintering wood. Turning, in alarm, we saw that the dresser in the corner had warped and disgorged an evil fiend from within its depths! The demonic figure had a huge, distended mouth and long, gangling limbs that reached out for us.

Before we could react, its claws were raking us. Fortunately, Merla was standing behind us, so my armour and Grimnir’s hardy constitution took the brunt of the surprise attack. The creature’s strength, however, was prodigious – if we didn’t put it down soon, we might have found ourselves overwhelmed. Fortunately, Grimnir’s ave was up to the task, and he chopped the creature down, leaving the dresser in splinters over the floor. Though he was bleeding profusely, he grinned back at me, revelling in the challenge brought on by such a beast. Slayers, such barbarians! But handy in a tight spot.  

A demonic presence emerged from
the dresser to surprise us

With the monster dealt with, we had time to examine the pages on the desk. There was a letter from Thora, High Priestess of Eldath, thanking Duchess Felicia for access to her chapel to see the altar. The letter went on to discuss the ruined shrine north of Birch Vale and thank Felicia for the money she donated to the Sisterhood. So, it seemed that Felicia had duped the sisters into unwittingly helping her with finding the shrine that her necromancer minion was excavating, in an attempt to find the portal beneath no doubt. She had a front of legitimacy about her work, presumably similar to her scholarly excavations at the frozen keep. But what was it in aid of?

Another letter, this time from a Drogan Drashig, addressed the ancient relics. Apparently, they were worth a lot of money. The more interesting letter, however, was the second one from Drashig that discussed a book that he anticipated should be able to complete a book she already had in her possession. He wanted 20lb of gold and proof by way of the letter and enclosed signet ring in order for him to hand over this volume. Surely, it could only be the other half of the golem manuscript? I put the letter and signet ring away carefully in my pack – one day, I should very much like to visit this Drashig and get hold of the rest of that book. To be able to finish making that golem would be a fantastic achievement. I still didn’t understand why Felicia had been building it, at least not until I delved into a stack of jumbled parchments covered in scribblings and rough drawings. These appeared to be Duchess Felicia’s diaries, perhaps the disorganised nature of them reflecting her own disorganised mind. I didn’t have time to fully analyse them, but they did not describe a well woman.

It seemed that Felicia had been having visions since she was a young child. Visions of catastrophe, accompanied by a fiendish voice that promised magic and power to her. This is what had set her on the path she was on – a journey to find the source of this voice in her head and acquire the power that she now believed was hers for the taking. She admitted in the journal how she had influenced and manipulated people her whole life, making note of Gerald Hunter, her father’s estate manager, who she seduced after her father’s mysterious death. This Gerald had helped her make best use of the funds and estates she had inherited from her father. Who knew where he was now.

The journal made mention of the black pyramid that we had seen in the land of the lizardfolk. She wanted to reach this pyramid, which is why she had send Torvsen (we finally had the necromancer’s name) to excavate north of Birch Vale. She had known there would be a portal there, leading to the pyramid. The voice compelled her to go to the pyramid. It seemed unclear why she was drawn to it, but I couldn’t imagine it was for any good purpose. We had felt the evil emanating from that place throughout the steaming jungle.

And that brought us to why she was building the golem. It was going to help her excavate the frozen keep more efficiently than her dwarf slaves, to extract more artefacts in order to fund her expedition. It was also bigger and seemed more dangerous than ‘Clanky’ who we had destroyed when we entered the keep – presumably that construct had been a prototype for this new golem, which would be a more formidable guard for her. It would be a strong ally to take into the black pyramid. Aside from my fascination with the construct, this might be a compelling reason for Cydor to allow me the time to recover the rest of the manuscript and complete the construction of this metallic monstrosity. If we could turn it to our own purpose…  

The entire explored manor house of
Duchess Felicia Kendall

Our favourite places in the Kendall manor -
the forge, armoury, and kitchen!

Day six – 16.00, journey's end

We had finished ransacking the manor and had dropped the corpses through the trapdoor in Delgar’s forge. Perhaps we would take them through the portal and stash them in the frozen keep to avoid any unnecessary aromas notifying Zora, or anyone else, about the secret corpses in the basement. It seemed prudent to keep our presence here as quiet as possible – we didn’t know if Felicia had any other allies in Eastport, so we wanted her sudden disappearance to be remain a secret for as long as possible. At least until we had returned to Cydor and allowed him to mull over what we had discovered.

The cook was oblivious to all of this. She served us a fantastic meal of roasted boar and plenty of ale. Even Grimnir had his fill! It surely felt like a glorious end to a long adventure, but as I lay that night in the most comfortable bed I think I had ever slept in, I did think to myself: is this only the beginning?

Epilogue

In the morning, Zora returned and fixed us a stupendous breakfast. With our bellies full and wraps of cold boar meat stuffed in our packs for the journey home, we bid the cook a fond farewell and departed through the chapel of Eldath. We ensured that we covered the trapdoor with the rug again to hide it; it seemed unlikely that Zora or any other servants would know about the secret entrance. We put our cold weather gear back on and strode through the magic portal and back to the frozen keep.

We carried as many star metal artefacts as we could, well knowing their value, but we were limited to our own strength as we found the mule’s carcass, clearly eaten by the snow leopard. There was no sign of the cat itself. We departed the keep and retraced our steps across the frozen lake, back towards New Mine. We were eager to get back to Omratin and his fellows as quickly as we could to relay what we had learned before heading back to Birch Vale to report to Cydor. The food and rest in the manor house the previous night had done wonders for us, as did the expectation of a fine feast with Omratin, so we were making excellent progress. 

I knew that Omratin and his kin would give us a warm welcome and that we would be able to properly mourn the deaths of the dwarfs and celebrate the slaying of a Duergar. Many a cup of ale would be downed in that worthy cause! Perhaps Omratin will have heard news of dwarfs being taken by slavers, though from what I had heard of Eastport it was notorious for slaving, being a hub where ships from far off lands (where slavery was legal) would often dock. There were rumours that some members of the council there were in the pocket of the slaving guilds. Certainly, Delgar the Duergar would have means to find and capture dwarf slaves and, given the use of magic portals, they could have come from anywhere. It was a long shot to hope Omratin would have news of dwarfs from far off lands but, no matter where they were from, dwarfs were dwarfs, and we would toast our fallen kin. 

I was thinking about the vintage bottles Grimnir had clinking in his pack that he had pinched from the manor and how they would make a worthy toast. A small smile was creeping across my lips when I was suddenly shocked from my reverie – we were ambushed! How had this happened? A tall man, his face hooded, stepped into our path from behind a boulder with his sword drawn while similarly garbed men surrounded us with loaded crossbows. I cursed my lack of focus; I had thought our journey was nearing its end and had dropped my guard. It would appear that there were more adventures in store for me and my companions…

 

THE END… OR NOT! 

Next - Chapter 7b - Interlude