Jan 26, 1885
It was a long trek north to Stilwater, with no decent transportation available beyond simply walking. It took us the better part of two weeks to complete the journey. Stilwater was a small town which had once been large – sustained by trade with the dwarves of Black Mountain. Now its primary claim to fame was “the Stilwater Giant” – a ridiculous mythical beast rumoured to prowl the area, but which somehow always evaded serious scrutiny. The occasional “true believer” still wandered into town on the quest to capture it, and the locals did their best to pretend to be wide-eyed believers. But the lack of enthusiasm was palpable.
We checked in with the local blacksmith, and noted that he did a brisk business selling “Stilwater Blades” – swords with minor summoning magic. I asked out of curiosity how he enchanted them, and he said a local hedge wizard named Cyrus embedded the spells. But Cyrus had not come into town in some weeks and he was beginning to worry. He asked if we could look in on him in his cottage north of town. That didn’t seem too big a request, and he promised an authentic “Stilwater Blade” in return.
But when we arrived at the cottage, it had been ransacked! The door was torn off its hinges, and there had clearly been a violent struggle inside!.
We searched the cottage for clues, and when we widened the search to the area outside I found large tracks leading off into the hills..
The tracks eventually led us to a rather ominous looking cave, with humanoid bones scattered in front…
Inside we found Cyrus locked up in a cell. The poor man was so frightened he could barely speak.
But we quickly realized he was trying to point behind us…
At which point we found ourselves in a desperate battle with an angry Ogre!
Afterwards we freed Cyrus, and led him back to town. The ogre had apparently been known as Drog Black Tooth. He had rarely made trouble, but the town had always steered well clear of him. Apparently hunting had been poor enough that he had decided to expand his diet… and Cyrus was quite thankful for our fortuitous arrival!
Jan 29, 1885
After resting the night at the Stilwater Inn and spending a day properly outfitting ourselves for our expedition, we headed up towards the mountains to find the former mines of the Black Mountain Clan. It didn’t look particularly threatening from the outside, but Gilbert Bates had sent multiple teams to explore the place – and none had returned.
As we explored the tunnels we began to discover why At first it was merely bands of kites – odious little beasts which often claim abandoned habitats..
Then we met packs of roving granite rats – rodents of unusual size and particularly thick hides.
We were beginning to feel confident in our ability to tackle the dangers of the mines when we learned we were quite mistaken.
A huge rocky creature burst upon us from the walls! An Ore Golem!
It seemed almost impervious to our weapons, and I took a solid blow slamming me into the wall of the mine!
We eventually beat it down, but discovered two serious problems with our approach. First, Virgil could no longer consistently heal me! It seems my investigations into electricity and chemistry had taken me far enough down the technological path that I was becoming actively resistant to magick! He could still heal himself and Sogg, and indeed had grown more proficient at that than when we had met. But he could do little for me and nothing for Magnus. He was quite apologetic, but I waved it off. It certainly wasn’t his fault.
Secondly, our weapons had taken a beating attempting to damage the golem. The electric sword I had designed for Sogg had broken, and Magnus’ axe was also looking rather worse for wear. My rapier was bent, and even Virgil’s magick sword was worn. We returned to Stilwater to rethink our strategy.
Jan 31, 1885
Back in town I bought bandages and salves to help Magnus and I, and we added blunt weapons and a few other specialty items to our kit. While I was healing my bruises, Magnus got to work designing something special for Sogg on such occasions… reinforced battle gauntlets!
Feb 2, 1885
Once we were prepared, we headed back to the mines. And our next encounter with a dreaded ore golem went quite differently.
In the heart of an old dwarven forge we met something even worse… a seething mass of molten metal – as if an Ore Golem had been smelted! Fortunately I had brought a supply of acidic flasks – for use in softening hard targets. And Sogg’s new gauntlets were insulated well enough to protect his hands from the heat!
We eventually made our way to the former living areas of the dwarven colony. All indications were that they had not left quickly, but neither had they taken along most of their belongings.. It seemed quite peculiar.
Magnus was particularly affected by the abandoned area. He had always wanted to find a clan to which he belonged. To walk through the abandoned remains of a once proud stronghold was a lot for him to take in.
Unfortunately the area was not entirely uninhabited. Were-rats prowled the corridors, and ambushed us as we explored! Fortunately I had brought a silver dagger and a supply of wolfsbane-laced antiseptic when we had stocked up.
Even worse, there were Molochean Hand assassins waiting for us! They appeared to know we would be exploring the mines, and were actively searching for us!
Eventually we came to a long, winding tunnel leading off in a haphazard direction. A tunnel covered in a bewildering array of traps!
It took Magnus and I a very, very long time to find and circumvent all the deadly mechanisms.
At the end of the tunnel we found on old dwarf who had apparently been living on his own for a long time. He was not able to communicate very clearly – as it appeared he had not spoken in some time. He gave his name as Gudmund Ore Bender. He said that the Clan had been banished! Exiled by the Wheel Clan at the behest of… elves? But he refused to go with the others, as he refused to submit to the judgement of elves. It made little sense, but he could not explain clearly. He gestured towards a carved stone monument behind him.
And upon reading that, it began to make terrible sense. The carvings relayed that King Loghaire Thunder Stone of the Wheel Clan, at the behest of M’in Gorad of the Elves, had found the Black Mountain Clan guilty of leaking advanced technology to the humans and allowing it to spread. As a consequence, the entire clan had been banished to someplace called “The Isle of Despair”. This would give Mr. Bates the answer he was looking for, but it would not be an answer he liked.
Feb 16, 1885
As expected, when we returned to Tarant Mr. Bates took the news very hard. He blamed himself for the clan’s fate, and I could not in good conscience tell him any differently. He wanted us to travel to the “Isle of Despair” and see if anything could be done. And he offered the services of his man-servant Chukka to assist. But first, he would have to find a captain willing to sail us there.
In the meantime we resolved to clear up a few loose ends and fill one more apparent need. We returned to Dernholm to give Sarah Toone the news that we had acquired the deed to her mother’s mine. And while there I wanted to investigate a rather different lead.
While speaking with the professors at the University of Tarant earlier I had heard of a promising young correspondence student living in Dernholm. A student trying to develop scientific medical skills in a land that was deeply hostile to technology. And we had an apparent need for a healer who could operate upon Magnus and I.
Her name was Jayna Stiles, and I felt an instant rapport the moment we met. I knew just what it was like to try to learn in a place that resented your existence!
Jayna was eager to show me some of the compounds she had developed, and was quite talented as a surgeon, herbalist, and pharmacist. I felt her skills would be an excellent addition to our burgeoning team!
Author’s Notes:
I hadn’t originally intended to pick up Jayna, or we might have swung by the first time we were in Dernholm. But I hadn’t counted on how quickly focusing Cass on tech would invalidate Virgil’s ability to patch her up. Fortunately I had been keeping some skill points in reserve, so I could bump up Cass’s charisma and Persuasion a little more to be able to take on another companion without having to let anybody go. I’ll be taking Jayna in a bit different direction, and trying to make her into a technological archer as a side talent to her other skills. Guns or grenades don’t seem like they would be her bag, and melee is pretty crowded already. Given where she grew up its easy to justify her having had some training with a bow. And Arcanum has a few crazy tech bows if you find the schematics for them just like everything else.
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