Part 7: The Burden of Dwarfheim
Session 28: The Work Fog
??? High Summer, 498 CE
- The party, having learned that they arrived in Dwarfheim yesterday, went to re-enter the city again.
- They recieved a map from Seigagar.
- Their only lead being the aetherite crystal found on the Wanderer.
- RED SHIFT - They started by heading to the Middle Ring.
- They first traveled to the Helforge, to see where the Aetherite was smelted.
- The party met Grim Glumson, the Forgemaster.
- Grim told the party that they had just discovered the process to create Aetherite.
- They sussed out that the Aetherite was created through physical process, and was made up mainly of mithril.
- When asked what they do with the aetherite, Grim told them that the dwarves don't have a use for it yet.
- They just stockpile it in the Warehouse for now.
- Next, being stuck in the Middle Ring until the end of the shift, Revana wanted to check out the Botanica.
- They met Bjurna Hildendottir, the head botanist.
- She asked the party what they were doing there, and they convinced her that they were there to help.
- Bjurna told the party that a couple of trees had become sentient and were disrupting lumber collection.
- Revana and co. headed into the underground forest to find the treants to calm them down.
- Revana cast Speak with Plants, where she heard all the plants chanting 'grow, grow, grow!'
- She also heard a couple trees howling in pain, exclaiming that the voices were too loud.
- Revana was able to calm the treants down, turning them back into regular trees.
- Bjurna was very happy with this development.
- GREEN SHIFT - The party then decided to head to the Upper Ring.
- They went to the Temple of Duergamiir, thinking maybe the dwarven religion could point them towards Burden.
- They caught a sermon being delivered by Stonemother Gunhilda Starolfdottir, the priestess of the temple.
- They learned about Duergamiir, the Dwarf God.
- At the end of the sermon, they talked with the Stonemother for a while.
- Eventually the conversation was broken up by a couple of rowdy forgeworkers.
- The forgeworkers were hastling some of the priests, wanting them to switch shift crystals with them.
- The party broke up the commotion and told the party to take it up with the Forelady.
- BLUE SHIFT - The party, wanting to get some more info on what was going on at the forge, returned to the Middle Ring.
- Sanglant attempted to use his Wind Walk ability, but was stopped by a Guardian.
- The party then decided to check out the Bindery.
- The found that the dwarves there were all working really hard, as their actions in the Botanica had solved their lumber shortage.
- Deciding to go have a rest, the party went to the trams to head back to Old Dwarfheim, but before they could, everything suddenly went black.
- They arrived back in Old Dwarfheim with no memory of what they had done the previous day, only learning about it through Ekhart's journals.
- Apparently they lost 3 days.
Session 29: Little Enemy
??? High Summer, 498 CE
- The party, having just lost their memories again, talked with Remy and Seigagar.
- Remy has apparently been keeping busy by learning to dance.
- Revana decided to keep track of time by growing plants in Old Dwarfheim.
- Uun popped out of Sang.
- He asked what was happening, complaining that his memory was being destroyed and he didn't like it.
- He told the party, after some discussion, that it appeared as though Burden was using the people of Dwarfheim to steal the party's memories.
- He told them that to stop their memories from being taken every day, they would need to help the dwarves.
- Apparently, Burden was using the excess energy from the dwarves that were not working to create the work fog.
- Uun theorized that he was doing this specifically to target the party for some reason.
- Everyone decided that they should check out the Lower Ring to see what is causing the Mithril shortage, and to check out whatever was in the Warehouse.
- RED SHIFT - The party headed down to the Lower Ring.
- They started by traveling to the Mithril Mines.
- They met Svart, a dwarf with glasses, directing people to different tunnels.
- Svart told them that the entirity of the Western Tunnels had to be barricaded due to kobold raids.
- The party offered to help, and Svart directed them to the barricade.
- As they ventured deeper into the caves, they noticed several petrified dwarf and kobold statues.
- They heard the rumbling of kobolds and a basilisk.
- Revana prepared a tidal wave, and managed to knock all the kobolds back, and free the basilisk from its bondage.
- Next, the party went to the Wearhouse.
- They met a courier there named Hrist.
- They asked to see the aetherite storage, but she told them they they would need permission to see it.
- They told her that they had permission from the Forgemaster, Grim, to inspect the aetherite.
- She gave them the go-ahead to enter, and directed them to a service elevator in the back of the warehouse.
- As the party descended down, suddenly they lost their memories and regained conciousness in Old Dwarfheim again.
- The party returned to Remy and Seigagar, and caught up on what had happened.
- According to Ekhart's journal, the last thing he wrote was that they went down the elevator.
- Revana noticed that the plant's she grew to try and keep track of the passage of time all wilted and died.
- This time, the party decided to wait in Old Dwarfheim until Green Shift before entering.
- RED SHIFT - The party waited in Old Dwarfheim.
- GREEN SHIFT - The party headed down to the Lower Ring.
- Revana went back to the mines, and helped clear out the kobolds again.
- Afterwards, the party went to the Office of the Foreperson, to talk to Seigagar's daughter.
- After waiting in line for a while, they decided they did not want to talk to her, fearing that she would know they had stolen/illegal shift crystals.
- The party then made a plan to head to different spots in Dwarfheim during blue shift.
- They went to the bar, the Lonely Wanderer, to kill some time before blue shift started.
- There, they first met the bartender Brand.
- The bartender referenced the monks of Cel'Edor and the elves of the Loridael, but had never heard of the country of Voltana or the Naverian Empire.
- The party also met Halldor, a courier, who appeared to be sulking in the corner of the bar.
- Halldor mentioned that something strange was going on in the warehouse, and that the aetherite was going missing.
- The party confided in him that they thought something weird was going on as well, and they all became friends.
- Halldor offered to take Sanglant to the Warehouse to show him the aetherite storage.
- Revana and Ekhart decided to leave for a different ring while Sang went to the storage.
- As Sang and Halldor went down the elevator, suddenly everyone lost their memories and regained conciousness in Old Dwarfheim again.
- In Ekhart's diary, he wrote to himself “nice try, little enemy”
Session 30: Wrench in the Engine
??? High Summer, 498 CE
- Revana, Ekhart, and Sanglant at this point have a pretty good understanding of what is happening to them.
- Burden, the Elemental of Earth, is using the discontented dwarves to mess with the party's memories.
- They decide what they need to do is fix the dwarves' problems so that Burden can not manipulate them.
- RED SHIFT - The party decides to split up so they can cover more ground. Sanglant goes to the Lower Ring, while Ekhart and Revana go to the Upper Ring.
- In the Lower Ring, Sanglant decides to head to the Office of the Foreperson to talk to Maria Seigagardottr, the Forelady.
- Maria sees Sanglant's broken shift crystal and chalks it up to the ineptitude of the Consulate.
- She gives Sanglant a working All-Shift Crystal so that he can go to the foreign embassy to get the proper paperwork.
- With the All-Shift Crystal, and unfettered access to the trams, Sanglant decides to try his best to fix the shift completely.
- Sang starts by heading to the Mithril Mines to clear out the kobold infestation.
- He handily defeats all the kobolds with a single blow of his new handwraps.
- Sanglant then heads off to the Upper Ring to meet up with the others.
- Meanwhile, in the Upper Ring, Ekhart and Revana head to the Record Hall, hoping to find out more about Dwarfheim.
- There, they meet Sigvaldi, the Record Keeper, and with his help manage to find several useful books.
- Ekhart learns about aetherite, and that apparently they had been manufacturing it for hundreds of years.
- Revana learns that the last contact the dwarves have had with the outside was over a thousand years ago.
- Sanglant meets up with Revana and Ekhart, as all three of them arrive at the Foreign Embassy.
- They meet Jofrid, the Consulate, who appears to be the first lazy dwarf they have met so far.
- When they met her, she was taking a nap after eating a bowl of crackers.
- The party asks her about how foreigners are supposed to gain access to Dwarfheim, and she explains that visitors would be given an All-Shift Crystal when they arrived, and that typically they would send the crystal along with an invitation.
- She also mentions that she, personally, has never had a single foreigner visit Dwarfheim in her lifetime.
- They ask her to fill out the paperwork to allow them to get All-Shift Crystals from the Forelady, which she begrudgingly does.
- Sanglant tells the party that he believes that they need to enact their plan this loop, before Burden can somehow get these crystals from them.
- They travel to the Middle Ring, before the end of Red Shift.
- Revana helps out the Treants.
- Sanglant and Ekhart got to the Helforge, to talk with Forgemaster Grim.
- They manage to convince him and the rest of the Dwarves to stop producing the aetherite today, and that a fresh shipment of mithril would arrive tomorrow.
- Ekhart, Revana, and Sanglant return to Old Dwarfheim to retrieve Remy.
- The four of them travel down to the Lower Ring, where they get their All-Shift Crystals from Maria.
- They talk their way into the Storehouse, and descend the elevator.
- As they descend the elevator, they find the aetherite storeroom.
- The storeroom appears to just be a big, empty open cavern with nothing inside.
- Suddenly, they hear the low, booming voice of Burden.
- Burden tells the party why he is torturing them;
- Apparently, Sanglant is the reincarnation of Lenna, whom burden refers to as “The Little Monk.”
- Burden said that the Little Monk helped him when he had been possessed by a demon.
- In return, he made her his champion.
- Some time after that happened, the physical world and the Faerealm split apart, making it impossible for Burden to return.
- Burden then bode his time in Dwarfheim, until eventually they discovered aetherite.
- Burden realized he could use the magic of the aetherite to build a bridge home.
Session 31: Burden, the Earth Elemental
1st Low Summer, 498 CE
- The party battles Burden, eventually defeating him.
- Afterwards, Burden accepts defeat and tells the party that he will grant Revana as his Champion, and that Sanglant isn't the champion of Wind.
- It turns out that Cidmuir made Ekhart the Champion of Wind, without knowing.
- Burden agreed to let the party be his champion, in exchange for them trying to find a way to bring the worlds closer together.
- Burden agrees to stop messing with Dwarfheim, and will not use the Aetherite to attempt to get home.
- The party leaves, and outside of Dwarfheim, they find Laef and Cidmuiur.
- Apparently, Cidmuir has been getting his brother's messages in the Twinned Book, but his replies were not being received.
- Cid and Laef have been trying to break the barrier and enter Dwarfheim for the past 3 weeks, which is how long the party had been trapped there.
- During this time, Cid was able to build a Teleportation circle outside of Dwarfheim that is linked with the Teleportation Circle of the university.
- The party decided to take a break and head back to civilization.
- While at the University, the party discovered several things had happened while they were gone.
- The Empire was, indeed, in the middle of a civil war.
- High-ups of the Voltanian Government had stopped the distribution of the wanted posters of the party.
- Ortelai had allied with Fairwyn against Voltana and Naverus.
- Apparently, news of the elves of Loridael have suggested that, for some reason, the elves had allied with Fairwyn.
- While at home, Ekhart also found a note from his mother, and a gift of Delrune's Tiny Travelling Laboratory.
- Ekhart also returned the two Polished Quartz he had, and instead got the Umberwood Staff from the Archives.
Session 32: Prince Daedrin
25th Summer Prime, 498 CE
- Confessor Bokaj arrived at a meeting called by his boss, Confessor Lafidel, early.
- Bokaj had a conversation with Illuminator Loroch, where they talked about the massacre at the Crimson Temple.
- Facilitator Igthorn met with his Holiness, Duke Joesphet.
- He told his Holiness about the meeting and the two of them left for it.
- Inquisitor Iban was interupted from his work to be called to the meeting by Sister Delmount.
- At the meeting, everyone talked for a bit, until eventually Confessor Lafidel finally arrived.
- The Confessor brought up two issues;
- Those who perpetrated the massacre at the crimson temple must be held accountable.
- The Confessor suggested that given a war with Naverus seemed inevitable, they could use this opportunity to seek vengence by attacking the University.
- Inquisitor Iban volunteered to run the war with Voltana.
- The second issue being the Church's eventual plan to have Brother Daedrin ascend to the throne as the next Emperor.
- Apparently there was news that a plot to kidnap him was underway, and the Prince needed protecting.
- Bokaj, Ignroth, and Iban all volunteered to keep him safe in a distant church, while having a decoy stay in Ortello.
28th Summer Prime, 498 CE
- The party, along with Brother Daedrin, traveled to an old abandon church in the middle of no where.
- The church was a few days travel in the northern part of Ortelai.
- While surveying the area, Confessor Bokaj met a few pig farmers that were wondering the country side.
- Facilitator Igthorn became close with Brother Daedrin, who seemed interested in his ability to play chess well.
- Inquisitor Iban set to reinforcing the church.
2nd High Summer, 498 CE
- On the third day of watching the Prince, the party was assulted by the Lion Troupe.
- After a grueling battle, the party managed to win:
- Egren was killed.
- Bayden was taken hostage.
- Tavian managed to escape.
- The prince was also kept safe.