Eberron Adventure Journal: "Shadows of the Last War" (3)

Barrakas 10-14, YK 998

Part Five: Whitehearth

The adventurers approached the entrance to Whitehearth, allowing Pel to make a cursory check and determine if there were any traps. After deciding it was safe, they entered the cave, which was an entirely darkened abandoned mineshaft. Using the light from their everburning torch, the adventurers moved in and found a series of 4-foot wide adamantium hatches at different points in the floor, each with a "key slot" that seemed to fit the blue keycharm they had been given by Lady Elaydren. Pel checked one for traps, gave it the all clear, and stood back to allow William to open it.

William got an unpleasant jolt of electricity from the trapped (and fake) hatch. Pel was nominated to open any doors he had checked for traps from then on.

After discovering a couple more trapped fakes, Pel found the entrance into Whitehearth. The hatch opened into a circular metal shaft with a ladder running down, and a few feet down, it was obscured by a wall of darkness. Dropping a sunrod down confirmed that it was a magical darkness. William descended the ladder, passing into the darkness, and the rest of the adventurers followed. They discovered that the ladder descended about 30 feet, depositing them in a very unusual room.

The room they were in was lit by a flickering everbright lantern, and was a perfect metal sphere 20 feet across. There were no visible doors, just a pedestal in the center of the room which held a metal plate. On the metal plate were a variety of keycharm slots of varying colors: blue, brown and green. It took only a few minutes for the adventurers to realize that by inserting the blue keycharm into one of the slots, the entire room would rotate so that it's only opening would point to a new corridor.

From this point on, the adventurers used the keycharms to rotate the room and explore the sunken, abandoned facility of Whitehearth. They found a magical laboratory that had been destroyed when the wave of energy that caused the Mournland hit. Everything from a magical laundry to magically-regenerating pools for baths pointed to a perfect use of magecraft. However, they also found more than a few dangers lurking in the abandoned facility.

The magical energy released on the Day of Mourning had created living spells in two parts of the facility. The adventurers battled a Living Flaming Sphere and a Living Color Spray at two different points. The most interesting encounter on the first level, however, took place with some wolves.

As they walked into what had once been the support barracks, a large dire wolf emerged into the corridor. Before the adventurers reacted, she spoke. "Hail, adventurers! I am Rorsa. I would like to speak to you." The adventurers learned that Rorsa and her pack, made up of two normal wolves, had been living in Whitehearth since the facility was destroyed four years ago. It became clear that Rorsa had been awakened by the events of the Day of Mourning. Since then, she and her wolves had survived on the ever-clean pools of water and the magically regenerating corpses in this barracks. She longed for word of the outside world, and indeed wanted to explore it, but she didn't want to leave the rest of her pack.

Rorsa explained that the majority of her pack was held captive in the kennels, guarded by some kind of stone wolf that she had been unable to defeat. If the adventurers would defeat the wolf and rescue her pack, she offered to give them her green keycharm and pearl of power. The adventurers agreed, and followed Rorsa to another rotator room and on into the kennel.

After Pel scouted the area out and saw the stone wolf, a bizarre golem-like construct, the adventurers attacked. William, as ever, was in the lead, and the first to be affected by the stone wolf's slow ability. The ability didn't help much, however, as the adventurers made short work of the golem. It's obsidian teeth tore into some of them, particularly Pel and Brand, but with the help of construct bane enchantments from Tock and their usual brand of teamwork, the adventurers managed to bring down the stone wolf without any casualties. They freed the seven remaining wolves, who went with Rorsa back to the barracks.

From there, the adventurers found their way into a third rotator room, and on into the machine chamber, which held the schema they were looking for. They previewed the room via a magical scrying chamber elsewhere in the complex, so they knew that it was hot and contained some sort of hydra-headed molten glass machine, as well as a crystalline chest that held the schema they were looking for. They didn't know that the fire elementals once bound to the machine were loose in the room, and a battle was joined. With their various enchanted weapons and special abilities, the adventurers had little trouble defeating the fire elementals, and soon they had the rewards found in the chest. These included not only the diamond-shaped schema they were seeking, but an exact replica, a creation pattern that had room for two other schema beyond the ones they had recovered, and potions and scrolls.

The adventurers made their way to the surface, accompanied by Rorsa and her newly-reunited pack. When they reached the exit, however, they were in for a surprise. A wall of Emerald Claw soldiers and skeletons stood waiting for them, and the misty form of their vampiric leader barked out demands.

"Well done, adventurers. It is futile to fight us. Give me the third schema, and I will let you live. Oppose us, and I will take it from your corpses, and then raise your bodies to serve me."

There was very little debate before the adventurers decided to charge into battle. Through a combination of William's tactics, Tock's human-bane crossbow, Lysander's encouraging songs, Rorsa's pack and the battle prowess of Pel and Brand, the adventurers made short work of the Emerald Claw forces, and the vampire once again fled in a cloud of mist.

Rorsa and most of her pack asked Brand for directions to the Eldeen Reaches, and they headed out in that direction. Brand gave Rorsa the name of his mother, and told Rorsa to seek out her help in the Reaches. Rorsa decided to leave one of her pack with Brand as a companion, and then she and the rest of her pack headed out into the Mournland. The adventurers found Failin, got into his cart and rode back to Rhukaan Draal, where they found Lady Elaydren waiting for them.

Elaydren was pleased to recieve the schema (although the adventurers didn't tell her about the copy, or the creation pattern), and gave the party a 2000 gold reward. She offered them another 1000 gold if they would accompany her on her journey back to Sharn as her escort and bodyguards, and the adventurers accepted.

On the way back, Pel suggested that the adventurers adopt the name "The Wandering Wolves" to a general agreement.

XP: 1900