(Following: Wave Echo Caves (Part 2))
Repeating: lots of credit to Game Night Blog for ideas and materials! (Cave Map used: here).
Toward the Forge of Spells
It's important to keep in mind the factors preventing Nezznar Baenre from already reaching the Forge. Despite having been inside for days (perhaps weeks), he has been stymied by being unable to get past both the shroom room's poison clouds and the flameskull sentry. Looking at the map, you can see another possible path along the shores of the crashing waves (but I submerged that path, and made the wave-crashing much more violent as a deterrent). But a more crucial deus ex machina here is without those puzzle-key pieces, there are enchantments in the caves that disorient explorers and magnify the threats posed by the defenses left by the original owners (and that history of the original owners becomes very important relative to the Forge - as we will describe further below.) |
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Flameskulls and Skulls on Fire
Deterred by the fungi-spore-attacks of the shroom room, the party has decided to take the Flameskull head-on, holy water from Phandalin's Shrine of Tymora at the ready to keep this guardian down.
The fight occurs in the old ore refining smelter at the center of the mine, its blast furnace once powered by an enormous bellows, pumped by the flow of water through a canal cut into the cave floor. The canal is now dry after the earthquakes shifted the flows of water.
There are many zombies in the room as well, including freshly-made ones out of the corpses of the bugbears that had been locked into their room the last time in the caves by the party wedging their door shut. The other door opened to the flameskull and zombies and they were forced to try to fight their way out. (And it seems did not make it!)
The flameskull held nothing back, in fact it seemed out of its mind psychotic, even detonating a fireball on itself and its zombies, but heavily scorching the face of Ujio in the process - incurring severe (unhealable) injury. It was ultimately defeated, as were the zombies that kept fighting even though torn apart, Ujio was healed as best they could. (This would become the hook to the next adventure seeking a powerful healer in Reidoth the Druid).
Wraith of the Machine
The party moves cautiously toward the area they believe to be the Forge of Spells , and sees a ghostly Unknown draining the life from a Drow warrior, who is believed to have been Vhalek. Vhalek falls dead at its dark hands, and his body shapeshifts to reveal what Mon-Kei identifies as a Doppelganger.
Perhaps out of courage, or stunned at the killing without pity, the party engages the wraith in conversation, learning the creature (calling itself Mormesk ), does not even realize he is dead, only that he has to fight off the orc invasion - still fresh in its mind. Perhaps the presence of a High Elf (Belcoria ) gives the wraith reason to doubt the group is allied with the orcs, and it retreats through a wall into its study, wearing a saddened expression even for so haunted a creature.
Noting a square receptacle of just the right size, Belcoria assembles the puzzle into the square solution with the symbol of The Netheril , unlocking the Forge of Spells. Belcoria and Willow go to speak with Mormesk while the rest of the party enters the Forge of Spells and faces the final guardian, a floating eye creature, left behind from ages past just like the Flameskull. The party would later learn this guardian was likely have been a “Spectator” (a lesser form of a truly horrifying guardian called a “Beholder”). Though rapidly defeated, there were a few very tense rounds when members of the party had turned their attacks against each other!
Meanwhile, Belcoria and Willow visit what is a dusty book-filled library where Mormesk is unable to even turn the pages of his books, he feebly pantomimes the motions: frustrated, confused, and desperately lost. The paladin and ranger calmly, truthfully speak with him and assist him in understanding what has happened, consulting his dust-encrusted tomes, and finally in making a plan to seek out the deep ores of the mines to try to restore himself.
He insists that Belcoria take a particular book of his, which turns out to contain a historic overview of the Netheril - and later you discover the cover that wraps the old tome is in fact some kind of map! The last seen of Mormesk (in this form) is his dark shade drifting off toward the sounds of the crashing waves, as Belcoria and Willow join the others in the central vault housing the ancient machinery.
Instrument of Sorcerous Science
As the high elf paladin and half-elf ranger women enter the room, the men are in disarray, having traded blows and more than a bit shaken by the guardian's powers. Without explanation, Tallon the Tall casually walks to an even darker corner of this darkened room, followed by the sound of pounding a stake (is he raising a tent?) then finally the all-too-familiar sound of his hero-sized release of urine. Returning from the gloom, he returns to the group - who have become accustomed to shrugging off such strange behaviors.
The Forge of Spells is a grand magic-machine constructed by dwarves and gnomes and the magics of what increasingly appears to have been wizards descended from The Netheril .
Full version: (Google slides here ) or (PowerPoint here )
Reacting purely on instinct, Mon-Kei leaps into the air and thrusts both hands against the bed-like vessel in a Ki-fueled strike that releases the jam and mercifully quiets the room, with the awful noise still echoing in everyones' ears. The vessel gently opens - exposing a pair of bracers the monk then puts on, never to be removed, as they claim him as theirs and them as his. These are symbiotes in a way - an extension of the monk himself in their purpose. (See Kinetic Bracers ).
Re-examining the instructions, Our Party now considers what they may have with them that is considered of "superior quality" for the machine to enchant (uncertain of how many times it can be operated!) At this time, Tallon the Tall finds two items that had been put aside long ago - a paladin's morningstar rune-named "Novastrike " and a pair of purple undershorts stitched with "Taro Tama Nooie " (meaning "Big Boy Pants"). The barbarian, with typical lack of modesty, immediately tries his on, while tossing the weapon to Belcoria . The pants fit nicely and he very much likes the feel!
The exquisite material and masterful craftsmanship in the feather staff found in the armory at Cragmaw Castle becomes the first candidate - and Willow 's quarterstaff becomes the Feyhawk Bow-Staff (with the party learning two important things!)
- this was the first of three remaining uses, looking at the "capacitor tanks" left and right of the console
- there was an important warning in there to "respect maximum operating height limit" (recalling the operators were likely gnomes and dwarves, and the bolts of energy travel over their heads to the vessel!)
Next, Yeet Longshade enchants his finely-made gnome clockworks toy into the Clockwork Gizmo . Then last, Ujio carefully, daringly places his precious sword - his only tie to his mentor Askelon , into the vessel - where it becomes the Seeing Sword . As each item is created, it also draws energy from the operator - and all but Belcoria and Tallon are drained of all mana (MP/SP) and hit dice - exhausted and needing to rest! With the last of the magical fuel used by Ujio, the room again glows very dark - but not quiet. A ripping and cracking sound can be heard from the corner where Tallon did his mysterious something earlier, and the barbarian looks around satisfied before announcing with a bellow, "Time to leave - NOW!"
Back in Phandalin , Daran Edermath smiles softly as one of his trees shrivels in the orchard. The Order of the Gauntlet has been successful this day in preventing untold conflict and hardship by destroying the ancient enchantment engine.
Before the hasty exit, Ujio has the presence of mind to make an initial use of his sword's new power - inscribing a symbol to allow him to later see into the room. Our Party rushes through the hallways and caverns as tremors shake the earth. From the safety outside, the Seeing Sword, shows the spike Tallon had struck into the earth in the chamber, then watered with his own body - has become a rapidly-growing tangle of roots, prying apart the walls and floor and ceiling, bringing the mountain itself down upon the forge, the mine, the caverns. Just before all goes dark, Ujio sees an enraged and terrified Nezznar Baenre dash into the room, screaming on realizing the treasure he had been seeking was being destroyed - and burying him with it.
(Concluding: Lost Mines of Phandelver) next: Divine Contentions: Leilon