Session Six: A Trapped Soul

The Blacksmith slowly started to come to life for the first time in centuries, every movement was laboured at first but eventually he found his rhythm again. After being questioned by the party, he revealed that he’d once been considered the greatest blacksmith in the Pagdon empire and as such had been brought into the service of the Emperor. After decades of service, his body started to grow weaker as his body succumbed to the wrath of time. Not wanting to lose his greatest asset, the Emperor had the blacksmith murdered and his soul trapped within a giant iron body, unable to leave the forge below the city.

As time went by his grip of who he had been slipped, he knew only one purpose. Emperors came and went but his service remained, until there was no empire anymore. Nobody dared to enter the city below anymore and he was forgotten, left to run down his energy source.

As such, he made a deal with the party. If they could free him from the attachment to the body, he would reforge the gauntlet. He also asked whether they could put his soul to rest.

Lesras examined the iron body, having heard of such magic before, and located a series of seals within the body that kept the soul stitched to the armour. As a show of faith, he erased the seal on the left arm of the giant and for the first time in centuries, The Blacksmith felt freer. With this gesture he felt that the party would keep their word to him and he started to reforge the gauntlet with Lesras helping wherever he could.

As the gauntlet was reforged, the party - without Lesras - explored the rest of the tunnels. As they checked the north west tunnel, the walls started to get thinner due to an apparent rockslide. Thuradin squeezed through and found himself face to face with a mindflayer, the tentacles around its mouth flapping hungrily. Thuradin managed to hold off the mindflayer for a bit as the rest of the group attacked where possible.

The mindflayer wasn’t the only creature there however, as a night hag disguised as Xaljin snuck up on them from behind. They figured out the rouse just in time to fight off the two creatures from both flanks and returned to the forge to find the gauntlet completed.

The gauntlet in hand the party held their end of the bargain and detached the soul from the warforged body, allowing The Blacksmith to leave the confines of his iron prison and join his friend Geoffrey in an attempt to keep each other sane.

Finally back together, they checked the tunnel to the east and discovered it had been blocked by a cave in. Greenfoot took an hour to move Earth, piece by piece, to unblock the tunnel and found that it took them back to the Drow town, this time to the north west of the town. Thuradin recognised this entrance from his dream as the one that the escaping two Drow had used and subsequently collapsed as his former self lay dying.

A long rest was required within the confines of the mansion. A discussion broke out about whether or not they should go back up the stairs or whether they should use a secret exit that Cybille had discovered. While they ended up deciding it would be safe to travel back up the stairs, Cybille still had to check the exit that she suspected would lead to Black Mask’s quarters in Madran’s Favour, a place she’d been many times before.

Her impulse was true, a part of the west wall rotated and behind it lay the unoccupied quarters of Black Mask. Cybille wrote a note to him to let him know of the passage, amongst other things, but was slyly pocketted by Lesras before they left.

Once above ground again, the party went to speak to Head Mage Blunderbuss. Blunderbuss was delighted and insisted that they move quickly to put it on the Duke’s hand. As they were discussing this, they suddenly realised that Starflight was nowhere to be seen, and hadn’t been seen since exiting the stairs. They questioned Blunderbuss about this but he was confused, he’d never heard of a trainee called Starflight and completely blanked at the description of the red-skinned tiefling. Blunderbuss insisted that he’d sent somebody else to collect them at the thieves guild, calling in a female halfling cleric called Leegte.

Leegte recounted details that only the person escorting them would have known and treated them like old friends, telling them that she was relieved they’d survived the trip despite her doubts. Confusedly, the party went on to find the Duke...disguised as guards and prisoners.

The guard/prisoner trick didn’t work for long as Yagharek accidently referred to the Duke as the King when questioned by another guard in the waiting chamber. A fight broke out with a few of the guards that had witnessed this. The group would overcome them, as Greenfoot transformed into a quokka, and prepared themselves for the next room. Only the foyer to go, then they would be up in the Duke’s chambers.

As they entered the foyer, a lone large figure stood in the middle of the floor. “I told you little mousies that I’d get you eventually”, Captain Stolt said through a smirk and suddenly started getting even larger. His skin turning green. His eyes yellowed. Claws started piercing through his flesh, and before them stood Stolt’s true form, an adult green dragon.