Session 21: Assault on the Gatehouse

As the party contemplated their next move, Kiki noticed movement on the other side of the bridge. Terlis used his arcane abilities to disguise their small dinghy as a cloud in the brewing storm and they moved over to investigate. As they got closer, the party could see that several Frostbeard dwarves were lying in the snow on the other side of the bridge, trying to remain out of view while they performed a scouting operation. As the rising snow flurries of an incoming blizzard reduced visibility, the dwarves got up and prepared to leave.

At this point, the party decided to intervene. Clancy telepathically messaged their friendly intent while Terlis dropped the illusion and settled the dinghy down in front of the surprised dwarves. Initially suspicious, the dwarves were convinced that the party was no friend of the hated duergar. The lead dwarf invited the party back to their warcamp to meet with their commander. The dwarves then encircled the party as they headed down the steps. They eventually reached a cave. Within this cave, about 70-80 dwarves were busy preparing for conflict of some sort. Many were drilling and others sharpening axes. Some dwarves were also putting the finishing touches on a large battering ram.

The party’s appearance caused a stir among the dwarves. They were introduced to Commander Tomi, a middle-aged female dwarf who looked tough-as-nails. She was also quite suspicious of the party, as it was nearly impossible for non-dwarves to reach this high up into the mountains. However, she also realized an opportunity when she saw one. She explained that her clan was seeking to take back one of its ancestral homes, Deephold, from the duergar who had recently occupied it. Clancy explained that they were interested in eliminating a group in league with the duergar and suggested a joint operation to assault the duergar stronghold. Tomi indicated that her dwarves would be exposed to crossbow and ballista fire from the two guard towers as they sought to break down the front gate. If the party could use their “flying boat” to eliminate opposition on those towers, they would also find gears to operate the portcullis inside.

The party agreed to this plan and preparations were made. The party returned to their dinghy, moved it into position in the cover of the blizzard, and awaited the warhorn of the dwarves to initiate the operation. At that sound, Terlis accelerated the dinghy. PPP, Kiki, and Riya leaped off the dinghy and onto one dinghy while the dinghy continued to the other tower where the remaining members of the party jumped off and began their attack.

The duergar guarding the tower were surprised by the initial attack and didn’t survive long. With the towers pacified, the party began moving down the trapdoor into the interior. As they did so, they suddenly moved from the frigid cold of the blizzard to a practically balmy warmth.

Riya was the first down and she engaged several more duergar who were getting up from their off-duty positions to handle this new and unexpected threat. As the rest of the party moved down, Riya moved further into the fortress. She saw several more duergar stationed at murderholes that looked out onto the interior hallway, ready to kill any intruders who made it past the gate and portcullis. Running along the ceiling past these foes, she entered a large room. In this large room was the end of a giant conveyor belt. Hanging from the iron cable of the conveyor belt were giant buckets, some of them filled with dresium. The conveyor belt entered through a hole in the far wall and exited from another, although it was currently stopped. Curious, Riya sprinted to one of these holes. On the other side of this wall was a giant chasm at least 400 feet wide and at at the bottom of the chasm she saw the flow of lava. The conveyor belt extended across the chasm and entered through the walls of another dwarven fortress on the other side of the chasm. Riya also saw to her right what appeared to be the beginnings of a bridge that had been destroyed. To the right of this bridge was another conveyor belt. It appeared that the party was currently only in the gatehouse of the dwarven citadel and that the main citadel lay across this chasm of lava.

Returning from the edge of the chasm, Riya could see that a large number of duergar were lined up at one end of the room, ready to meet the intruder in battle when they finally burst down the doors. Beyond these duergar, she saw that there was a large hole in the wall and that beyond this hole, a fairly new tunnel had been recently excavated. Curious, Riya sped past over the duergar’s heads (taking a few javelin shots as they noticed her) and started running down the far tunnel.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the party was securing the tower rooms. while the dwarves were busy trying to bash down the exterior gate. After dispatching the duergar in both rooms, the party noticed two wheels that could be used to pull up the portcullis. Zhang began turning one of the wheels while Clancy turned one on the other side. Zhang was so ferocious in his efforts, that Clancy mostly had to keep up with his wheel to avoid getting injured by the spinning wheel. The portcullis began to rise up. Meanwhile, the remainder of the party began to assault the duergar stationed at the murderholes.

The party had now gained the attention of the large group of duergar at the other end of the gatehouse. Seeing that the dwarves still had some way to go before breaking down the gate, Torg used his extraplanar senses to become ethereal, allowing him to walk through the walls into the inner gate area. There he opened up the gate from the inside. The dwarves cheered and charged to meet the duergar. Torg and the remaining members of the party joined the fray. Fighting was vicious but the superior numbers and the help of the heroes quickly turned the battle and the remaining duergar broke and fled down the newly excavated tunnel.

Commander Tomi called a halt to consolidate their position. As the party surveyed the lava chasm that Riya had seen earlier, Tomi noted that her clan had destroyed the bridge themselves several generations ago. When pressed for more information, she revealed that the Frostbeard clan had fled Deephold because their mining had unintentionally released some ancient evil deep within the mountain. They had blown the bridge to prevent it escaping. If the duergar were here now, it indicated that this ancient evil must now be gone. When pressed for more information about the nature of this creature or force, she could provide no details as the event was only hazily remembered from prior generations.

As the dwarves and the party contemplated their next move, Riya returned from her scouting information with valuable information….