December 28, 2002 – IV, Tim, Lisa, & Rick

Having decided to investigate the City of the Black Caverns in the Hestmark Highlands, the group heads back to Malwander to gather any information they can about the city from Nori. Unfortunately, Nori is only able to tell them that the city is located near a large rock outcropping that resembles a crow or raven. He has not heard of any such landmark, but guesses that if the group finds a village in the foothills, the locals should know of such a prominent geographic feature. Armed with that information the group starts the weeklong journey to the highlands. Luckily, the trip is an uneventful one, and the party manages to find a village in the foothills relatively easily.

Deciding that a guide or hunter will probably know the area the best, the group talks to one of the village’s trackers about the landmark they seek. The man knows what they are referring to immediately, calling the place Rook’s Roost. Many, many years ago a cave system near the base of Rook’s Roost housed a large gang of bandits who terrorized a vast area surrounding the hideout. However, one day, all one thousand of the bandits just disappeared. No one is sure what happened to the bandits, but many rumors have spoken of them discovering a gateway to the Abyss, which released a fiend into their lair, killing them all. For the most part, people avoid the area around Rook’s Roost with the exception of the Dungard clan of dwarves, which moved into same cave system about the time the bandits did all those years ago.

After having been given detailed directions to the location of Rook’s Roost, the group thanks the guide for his help and makes their way towards the landmark. From several miles away, the group spots the formation they’ve been looking for. It resembles a large crow with its head cocked at an angle, giving the impression that it is watching something on the ground. It stands at least 60 feet high and is perched on the lip of a small bowl shaped valley. The valley is only an indentation in the earth about ½ mile in diameter and only sinks approx. 40-50 feet below the level of the surrounding hills. Now that they can get a closer look, the group notices that the outcropping appears to be looking down directly at a large cavern. Outside of the cavern entrance, a huge camp has been erected and the group immediately notices the Bonesnappers standard flying over the camp.

This puts the group on edge as they watch the camp more closely. One of the first things they notice is the sheer size of the camp, which appears to house at least 200 Bonesnappers. Two groups of orcs, each accompanied by a larger humanoid the group does not recognize at this distance, march back and forth along the rim of the valley nearest the cave entrance. Obviously, the patrols must be avoided if the group wishes to attempt to sneak into the camp. A short time later, the group notices groups of slaves pushing large carts out of the cave and into a large tent. While the carts are covered, it is still obvious that they hold something of value beneath the large tarps. The carts appear to be emptied in the tent and then moved back into the cavern.

While observing the camp, the group suddenly hears something, and realizes that a large force of dwarves appears to have materialized around them. The dwarves immediately take an aggressive stance and move the group towards a large outcropping of rock. One of the dwarves moves toward the rock, speaking something in a language the group guesses is dwarven. Suddenly, the face of the rock changes appearance, and a large stone door covered in strange carvings appears in its place. The dwarf places his hand upon the door and again speaks something in a strange tongue. Suddenly, the ground around them begins to shake slightly and the door slowly swings open. The group can see rough stairs carved into the base of the opening revealed behind the door. The stairs lead down into complete darkness.

The dwarves force the group forward and down into the darkness. Isach informs the dwarves that none of the group can see in darkness and gropes for something to use to guide himself down the stairs. After what seems like an eternity, the group sees a pinpoint of light from far below. As they make their way further and further down into the earth, that pinpoint of light grows until the party can make out a passageway leading off of a small room at the bottom of the stairs. As they enter the passageway a large hall stretching off into the distance greets them. Large braziers are set into the walls at regular intervals, obviously meant to provide warmth more than light. Large columns support the ceiling overhead and are decorated with elaborate carvings of various things, ranging from simple vine and leaf motifs to more detailed carvings of strange creatures none of the group could even begin to guess the origins of. The floor is covered by a highly detailed tile mosaic, which appears to herald the deeds of several dwarven heroes.

As they are moved along the length of the hall the group notices doors spaced regularly on each wall, lead away from the main hall. As they reach the end of the hall, it opens up into what looks like a small audience chamber. Here an elderly dwarf sits upon an elaborately carved stone throne. Near the base of the throne a group of 5-6 dwarves are having a highly animated discussion, the details of which are lost upon the group. After a moment, the room goes silent and one of the dwarves that has been leading the party steps forward and addresses the dwarf on the throne. They exchange words for a few moments, and then the dwarf upon the throne turns and regards the group, “What are you doing in our mines?” The group realizes that the dwarves think they are part of the Bonesnappers and begin to try and convince them that they are not in fact part of the humanoid group, but oppose them. After several minutes of going back and forth, the small group of dwarves at the base of the throne erupt in all forms of accusations, to which the group answers each one in turn.

Throughout the entire exchange, the dwarf upon the throne sits quietly, studying the group intently. After a few moments, he speaks up and quiets they rest of the room down. “I became the leader of this clan a long time ago because of my ability to read people. I am not exactly sure why, but I believe you. My name is Arngard and I lead the Dungard clan.” He then goes on to talk with the group about how the Bonesnappers overtook their mines shortly after they discovered an ancient city carved out of black crystal. The group explains that the city is the reason they are there as well, and formulate a plan with him on taking whatever items they can retrieve from the city before using a scroll the dwarves have purchased to destroy the main support column in the city, caving it in. The dwarves will attack the camp at the cavern’s entrance to pull the guards out of the city to allow the group to sneak in. The only problem is Kasera, who the group spotted in the camp. Because of her, the dwarves were unable to withstand the Bonesnappers attack on the mine in the first place. As long as she is in the camp, the plan will most likely fail. Luckily, Arngard informs the group that Kasera has left the camp on a few occasions, and if they can wait, they can time the attack to coincide with one such sojourn.

After waiting for three days, the dwarven scouts report that Kasera has finally left the camp and the group is lead to the secret entrance to the City of the Black Caverns by a dwarven guide. They make their way in with little resistance, but are suddenly faced with a troll found wandering the city. A battle ensues and our intrepid adventurers come out on the winning end. By now, the attack on the camp has drawn the remaining guards to the camp, leaving only the slaves behind. The group tries to get the slave to safety before exploring further. Once they are sure the slaves will be clear of the city, the party makes their way to the mausoleum in the city and finds a few items left behind by Kasera. The bloody remnants of various rituals performed using the items remain as reminder of her attempts to free Tharizdun. The items are a large bowl carved from the same crystal as the city itself, a small stone wand topped with a multicolored quartz crystal, and a small green stone cube with a small hole in it. Lirrim investigates the items closely and discovers that they all emanate magic to some extent. Deciding to wait until Nori can help them identify the items further, the group heads back out of the city and prepares to use the scroll the dwarves gave them to collapse the cavern. Lirrim and Isach are able to read the scroll, which turns a large portion of the column to mud, in turn causing it to collapse. They are able to dart out of the city and into the secret passage with only a few minor scrapes from falling debris.

The dwarves have managed to drive off the camp above, but the Bonesnappers set fire to the items pulled from the city that remained in the tents. The group does manage to retrieve the three items from within the city itself, but who knows what Kasera was able to take with her, and what information was contained in the books and scrolls lost in the fires. Regardless, the group joins the dwarves in a large celebration before heading back to Malwander to confer with Nori on what they found.

Nori inspects the items carefully and informs the group that the small, green cube can be attached to an item after speaking a command word. As long as the cube is attached to the item, anyone touching that item without first speaking the command word again will trigger an incredibly loud, and shrill alarm to be sounded from the cube. The small, quartz tipped rod allows you to speak a command word and the quartz at the tip begins to glow brightly, lighting a 30 foot radius around it. Finally, the bowl appears to drastically enhance any spell of the divination school cast over it. In the course of the discussion, Nori mentions the City of the Black Caverns in the Gloriole Mountains. As he speaks the name of the place in the tongue of the People of the Black Caverns, the bowl suddenly shows an overview of the city. After several tests, the group confirms that the bowl allows them to view any of the Cities of the Black Caverns, including one mentioned in one of the book Nori has translated that the group does not know the location of. Thinking that they can use this to their advantage the group attempts to teleport a lantern into one of the cities. However, this test, and several others fail, bringing Nori to the conclusion that while magic works normally while within the cities, they must be shielded from magic from the outside, a fact that may explain how so many of them have remained undiscovered up until now.

The implications of all this still swirls through their heads as the group now contemplates what course of action to take next.

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Chapters - Find out what's happened so far.

Chapter One – Shapeshifters in Our Midst

Chapter Two – A Prophecy Fulfilled?

Chapter Three – The City of Black Crystal

Chapter Four – Poachers? No, Murderers!

Chapter Five – The Vast Swamp

Chapter Six – Delivery for Quarion

Chapter Seven – Evil Afoot in the Menowood

Chapter Eight – An Item in Naerie

Chapter Nine – Back in Malwander…

Chapter Ten – A Journey Into Madness

Chapter Eleven - Serpent Isle

Chapter Twelve – The Return of Maj

Chapter Thirteen – The Hestmark Highlands

Chapter Fourteen – A Spy Among Us?

Chapter Fifteen – The Bonewood

Chapter Sixteen – Return to Rook's Roost