Stone Chapel

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Enoch
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Stone Chapel

#1 Post by Enoch »

A round stone chapel with an angled thatch roof stands on one side of the town square. While many dwarves honor Moradin, this is instead a chapel to Gwanwen, founded in the dwarven town by Casper White. The chapel is hung throughout with banners honoring ancestral dwarves of the Blackhelm clan and services there allow Casper to educate the dwarves on the passage between lives and the honor they can provide to the dead in Gwanwen's care.

In addition to religious services, Casper White provides insight into the dwarven history of the Northlands to those that come to him. His deep study of the chronicles of dwarven historians found on expeditions into the Northlands help him provide insight into the great personas of the final era of the Dwarven Kingdom, insight into the locations and histories of various dwarven settlements, and more.

PCs may approach Casper here as an NPC and ask questions to spur further expeditions/exploration, to identify dwarven artifacts,
or to pursue historical knowledge. A sacrifice to Gwanwen must be made and a donation to the church's mission, and then three days must be allowed for research per question asked.
Shadrach, Demon-Hunter - Dust to Dust

Rusty Tincanne
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Re: Stone Chapel

#2 Post by Rusty Tincanne »

Phooey. I just lost my post! In short:

Clay returns to see Caspar when he is supposed to and asks for more information about the Spiral Vault. How and where to find it, how to access it, etc. He then appeals to Caspar to join him in the quest to intern it there, pointing out that Caspar was present when they found the orb and witnessed it's effects first hand. For the honor of the dwarfs you minister to and the health of the land we live in, join me again, please.

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Marullus
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Re: Stone Chapel

#3 Post by Marullus »

Previous posts:
viewtopic.php?f=437&t=6086&p=351168&hil ... lt#p351168
12 August 2021
Rusty Tincanne wrote:Clay and Clarabelle, along with their animal escorts, walk from Gaul to Idmi d'dum. The more time the pair spends together, the easier the conversation flows between them, and on this walk their discussions bounce between her parent's tavern (being constructed near Beith's Watch), the spear she is having crafted by the dwarfs, what it means to be a follower of Beith, and what it is like (and how to) talk to birds. They spend the night sleeping among the bushes and low trees on the roadside, part way to Idmi d'dum. Clay offers Clarabelle lessons on meditating. Basically, you sit still and focus on breathing and trying not to think.

They arrive at the Artificer's Forge on 12 August, and locate Thanrir, whom Clay greets the old dwarf as a friend. He introduces Clarabelle, allowing her to decide if she will discuss the circumstances of how the pair met, instead just complimenting her for her kindness in being a human face for him, and for carrying things. Being a badger is pretty neat, but there are times I really miss pockets and thumbs. But that isn't why I'm here, of course. I have a few things to discuss with you. Clay lays out the dragon fang and 20 molars, explaining Calrabelle would like a spear and 20 arrows for her long bow made. Stories abound that you and your kin can craft things while allowing the natural energies of the dragon teeth to be preserved. If that's true, what would you charge, and how long will it take? Afterwards, when they are alone, Clay presents the orb.

This is the Orb of Endless Suffering. We found it at the same time as the Horn of Jarkul and all those other heirlooms from your clan - where Beith's Watch is now. I've heard that Caspar the White has a book that will tell us more, including how it was used against your people, but what I do know is that it's a piece of the negative material plane, somehow trapped inside this glass ball. I paid Pierpont, the mage, to study it and he confirmed a few things: it spoils the land and the soul if left in one place for too long; it raises the dead spontaneously; and it can magnify necromantic spells. He told me the best way to deal with it is a Wish spell, but no one in the northlands has such power that I know of. Short of that, he mentioned burying it or tossing it in a volcano, but the land at Beith's Watch was fouled from it's presence, and he wasn't sure what destroying it would do. Clay pauses with a heavy sigh. I'm open to any suggestions you might have. I want to prevent the Red Robed Mages of Monoc from getting it. And I certainly don't want it near any cemeteries.

If he mentions getting Caspar, Clay is open to that and will present all the pertinent information to him.
Marullus wrote:"Well, if you just need it modified, I can handle the arrows for 100 gold and the spear for 60," he offers. Clarabelle agrees and pays from her recent earnings. "Come back in a week."

When you explain the Orb, the Artificer spits in the dirt and crosses himself against the evil eye. "Sorcery and black magic! Never trust a will worker." He doesn't have any suggestions for Created items and is Keen to have the accursed object out of his workshop.

He does, however, accommodate calling Caspar White to talk about his ancestors. "The dwarves wrote of a secret location called the Spiral Vault, where they intended to deposit it with other goods too dangerous to be found. I can try to determine where to search for it from their records but it will take time. Do you wish to pursue it?" If so, he also agrees a week should be sufficient.
19 August 2021
Casper Welcomes back the badger and his human ward a week later. "Finding the Spiral Vault is difficult, as they intentionally do not write details of it. I can surmise that it is east of the river from here, on a jut of the southern mountain range halfway from the river to the dwarven citadel from which Jarkul ruled. They placed the vault so that they could deposit the dangerous magical items there without bringing them into their main holdings further east. It appears that Jarkul's citadel should be about 25 miles east of the river, so that is a guide to finding this hidden vault."

"Of course, the entrance to the vault will be hidden. But it will also have an 'ancestral lock' upon it. You best bring dwarves with you to help you in your duties, as it will try to recognize its own before it yields and opens. I am afraid I will be of no greater use to you in that than your human companion, here." He smiles.

(I'm not comfortable allowing Casper to be recruited as an NPC, as there is still a likelyhood of his player's return.)

Rusty Tincanne
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Re: Stone Chapel

#4 Post by Rusty Tincanne »

Marullus wrote:...it is east of the river from here, on a jut of the southern mountain range halfway from the river to the dwarven citadel from which Jarkul ruled.
So just head East from Idmi d'dun, cross the river and continue further east?

I thought Jarkul ruled from the mines whet the Goblin King lived. Where Scatha is. He had a different seat of power and his realm extended all that way? The badger wrinkles his nose and shakes his head in disbelief.That seems more than anyone could ever use. Like it would lead to a lot of sorrow, always worrying over it all.

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Marullus
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Re: Stone Chapel

#5 Post by Marullus »

"Oh, no," corrects Caspar. "The place where you woke the dragon is the Mines of Vuldun. That was where they discovered a rich lode of gold and silver for the manufacture of electrum, which was minted to coin and shipped back to Jarkul's realm. It wasn't the seat of Jarkul himself. The journals of Umrik the scholar speak mostly of those mines, of course, but also of trade and resupply with an ancient settlement under the Dark Mountain to the north of here, which apparently was subsumed into Jarkul's kingdom, and with his primary Mountainhomes to the east. As a chronicler of dwarven heroic deeds, Umrik was primarily concerned with the sieging of evil wizards who lingered after the dwarves arrival - there is passing mention that it is the dwarves who razed the city to the ground that was previously on the same site as Gaul, securing the riverford where the Frogmorton's now live, and he chronicles in detail the siege of the Dreadlord Zhint who ruled the city to the west."

"The spiral vault," he says, changing back to the original subject, "is, of course, hazardous. As I said, it is meant to be secure from all but righteous dwarves, by whatever 'ancestral locks' are. By building its subteranean vaults along a corkscrew passage, it can ensure that so much bedrock lies between each chamber and the next that magic is of no avail, and they've done their work to contain whatever enchanted items they placed within. Though he doesn't speak of what they entombed, he just couldn't resist bragging a little bit about their dwarven ingenuity in this." He smiles.

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