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Dunmari Frontier - Session 86

Elemental Liberation: in which an ancient elemental is freed

Featuring: Seeker, Delwath, Kenzo, Wellby
Companions: Faldrak
In Taelgar: Jan 08, 1749 DR
On Earth: Monday Oct 16, 2023
Drankorian ruins

The Dunmar Fellowship frees an elemental from ancient bindings in the Drankorian ruins, and learns its storied past.

Session Info

Recover the Elemental Forge Hoard from the Drankoian ruins

Summary

  • The Dunmar Fellowship explores the ruined Drankorian Elemental Forge
  • They communicate with a boy named Lucius via a found in the ruins.
  • The party uses ‘Speak with Dead’ to learn about the elemental’s binding from a Fides Lucarismember’s skeleton.
  • A battle ensues to free an elemental being, with each party member contributing to the effort.
  • Faldrak plans to use the brief remaining magic of the forge to enhance items before its power fades.

Timeline

  • Jan 08, 1749 DR, afternoon: Uncover mystery of the ruins, free elemental.

The Mirror of the Past

Narrative

We begin in the underground Drankorian ruins, in the antechamber of the elemental forge and workshop, as the party contemplates three doors: one, an elegant bronze door leading to the forge itself, where a manacled skeleton lays on the ground; another, a rotten wooden door leading to living chambers; and the third, a solid stone door. Deciding to explore before entering the forge chamber, the party first scouts the living quarters.

The living quarters are mostly decayed away to nothing over the thousand years since this set of rooms were occupied, with very little left to find. Seeker and Faldrak find themselves quite distracted by a crack in the wall of the storeroom, through which they can see a tunnel leading away from this area, with some strange out-of-place rocks on the ground, while Wellby and Kenzo search the other rooms, finding very little except for a small book (entitled “The Enchiridion of the Occulta Ludum”, otherwise blank, and clearly magical) and a silver water pitcher, also magical. Delwath manages to keep the Dwarves from venturing down the tunnel, and the party regroups to discuss in the storeroom. Delwath also notes a magical stone chest, in which 1000 year old venison is perfectly preserved.

Seeking more information about this place, and hoping to avoid dangerous and unexpected encounters, the party leaves the tunnel and heads through the stone door, which leads to a workshop. This is clearly a well-maintained and well-stocked jeweler’s workshop; not only are there tools but there are a number of strange components that appear to be materials used in the construction of magic items, in addition to mundane tools and materials.

Searching for secret compartments, Wellby finds a hidden shelf in the wall that contains a lead box. Inside are a number of magical items, including a spellbook and wand; a vial of universal solvent; a sending stone; and a magical cloak.

The party has a late lunch while Faldrak identifies the items. After a short break, the party shows the sending stone to Mirror of the Past, seeing a vision of a woman using the stone at several points. Concluding that the woman who carried this stone must have more information (and is probably now dead – the skeleton in the forge chamber), the party decides to try communicating with whomever has the other pair of this stone, now. They reach a small boy, maybe four or five, named Lucius, who lives in the village of Luminatia near Lake Valandros, and thinks the voice is his imaginary friend, Benji. He lives with his mom, Livia; his dad, Claudio left and he just barely remembers him. Lucius found the stone in his dad’s stuff after his mom kicked his dad out – he doesn’t really remember, it was a year ago, he says. They do okay – his mom runs the only inn in town, but there aren’t as many travelers these days, Lucius says.

After some more discussion, the party decides the next step to sorting out the mystery is to speak with the dead skeleton in the elemental forge chamber, using the scroll of “Speak with Dead” the party has been carrying for a while. Preparing for anything, and stepping through the door, the party finds the elemental forge, connected to the ground with four wires of silver thread, two of which have been destroyed, hanging loose. Approaching the dead body, Seeker reads the scroll and the dead body animates. The party questions this woman, learning that she was a member of a Drankorian secret society, the Fides Lucaris, and came on a mission to this place to free the elemental being trapped by the wizards of the Occulta Ludum, who cared only for power, not the feelings of the creatures they bound. She failed; she was bound and killed by Drusilia, presumably the caretaker of this place for the Occulta Ludum, but not before destroying two of the anchors that held the elemental in place. Now prepared to continue the mission of the Fides Lucaris, they ask if the dead woman knows how to decipher the Enchiridion of the Occulta Ludum. She answers no, but that the elf, Elandrial, was working on this.

At this point, the party prepares for combat as the elemental storm that has been rising through the floor erupts. Wellby, with the universal solvent, focuses on dissolving the two remaining silver wires connecting the forge to the floor. Meanwhile, Seeker uses Psychic Lance to keep the emerging elemental storm incapacitated, while Kenzo communes with the creature to attempt to calm it, and Delwath handles the elementals that emerge from the dissolved silver threads. Although Seeker is nearly knocked unconscious, the party manages to free and calm the elemental.

In the aftermath of the battle, Kenzo reaches into the mind of the elemental, and glimpses bits of its story. Long ago, many hundreds of years, it was living on the Elemental Plane of Air. A vision of an impossible staircase of clouds, stretching to infinity, children of air and cloud running, throwing bits of cloudstuff at eachother as a game. A vision of a palace made of lightning, a creature studying in a grand hall, images appearing in the crackling electricity. A vision of a creature of air and smoke, exploring a strange landscape of dark mist and ash drifting through the sky, with three companions. Finally, a vision of the same group of air creatures encountering Humans, flying through the air; one of the Humans speaks in Drankorian, his words taking on an impossible tone as reality is reshaped by his very commands, and at his wish silver threads appear and bind the elemental. And then the elemental drifts away, a last parting jolt of energy charging the forge. As it vanishes, it whispers it’s name: “Sh’shethis”.

With the elemental freed and gone, the magic of the forge only lingers for a few days: enough time for Faldrak to enhance his stone bird, improve Seeker’s glove, and construct two improvements for Vindristjarna. We end as crating begins.