Evil Green Rock and Ironhead Station

A day or two before they get back from the Widower's Wood, Michelle notices Berard lurking around the door to her shop. Having noticed that Michelle forgot her lunch that day, her mother drops by to feed the young mechanick, and Berard smoothly sweeps her aside on the way in. He spends a bit of time enthusiastically explaining something to her, which she grows more excited about herself as the bard works his charm on her. Then sweeping into the shop and dropping Michelle's lunch on her desk, her mother exclaims, "I just had the most wonderful idea! I just had a talk with a nice young man about Rafe..." Berard managed to talk her into letting Rafe apprentice with James, who isn't officially affiliated with the military, as a way of "letting it work out of his system."

Unnoticed by her mother, Berard gives Michelle a huge grin and a thumbs-up from the doorway.

Ian tells Islene, who has just been confused by Corvis's new high priest of Menoth. Dorvan Wessel is a stout, jolly man who pats people on the head and gives them grandfatherly advice. Islene, Ashley, and their parents find this just about the strangest thing they've ever experienced. Still, he has apparently opened Ashley's eyes to new and wonderful vistas, as Islene discovers when she stops by to tell her sister she has to leave to put a stop to a slave ring. "Good!" Ashley declares fiercely, then shows Islene a manuscript copy of a book written by Therin Lenard, entitled Man's Place. "It's magnificent scholarship!" Ashley eagerly explains. "It's incredible, I've never encountered such thoughts! Everyone needs to read this! If he's written more, I have to see it!" Lenard has apparently just collected himself another acolyte.

Braydon tells Boomtongue. Boomtongue falls silent for a couple of minutes afterward. "What is it?" asks the Scharde.
"I'm thinkin'," Boomtongue rumbles absently.
"I know," Braydon quips with a grin. "I can see the pain on your face." "Hur. You need a refresher on how it feels?"

In fact, Boomtongue is thinking about the problem ahead. He suggests they ought to take the "witch with the tools" (that would be Michelle), and "the monkey guy. I just like the way he jumps. Whooeee! We should try to get him to make that noise. Whooeee!" "All else fails, you could make it for him," Braydon suggests, expecting that he's just put Ichabod in for a hard time.

Ian slips by Himerald in an argument with another priest about who'll do the ceremonies at Ian's wedding. "You think he'd choose the Primarch over me?" he asks the other man, halfway between plaintive and arrogant.

Cyrus' comment upon receiving the report: "And nobody died? Well, this explains the message I got from Pendrake. It didn't make much sense..." He cautions them about the Dwarves. "They're not really volatile. They're actually kind of...docile. But they can be dangerous if you rile them up. Now get out of my office! You've given me more paperwork."

Taking Boomtongue's advice, Braydon visits Michelle's shop to ask her along. "Oooooo, Ironhead Station!" she says gleefully. We have stuff we need from there. I have to make lists..." She turns around to see all the other mechanicks holding theirs up to her. "We may need to revise plans..." Braydon mutters, a little thrown off.

Having dealt with the Rhulfolk more than most of the others in the group, Michelle is able to give them some useful information. "Dwarves are used to Trollkin," she reassures him. "They'll expect a certain amount of...joy d'vivre." "What?" blurts Boomtongue. "That's Rynnish for 'jackassery,'" Camden explains helpfully. Michelle and Camden share their knowledge of Dwarves, and Michelle talks about her admiration of their skill. Boomtongue sums up, "Ian and Islene will blend in with those disciplined types. You (meaning Michelle) speak their language. Braydon's accepted everywhere for his good looks."
"Everybody loves my pretty face," Braydon deadpans.
"And the sneaky types..." Boomtongue continues.
"Eeeyeah," Michelle finishes with a twinkle. "Try not to do that in front of people."

They follow Boomtongue's earlier advice and pick up Ichabod.

"Till they get used to us," Boomtongue adds, "somebody respectable should stay with Braydon. It's not really a Scharde-traveled place."
Braydon agrees. "Most places aren't if they aren't on the coast and burning."

James is still obsessed with trains, so they add some gifts for him to Michelle's list of purchases. As per his orders, they stop to see Cyrus on the way out of town. He gives them a sealed message for Ironhead Station's authorities, and train tickets. Camden doesn't like trains. He complains that they're loud, fast, smoky, shaky... Boomtongue shares some stories about notable train wrecks, and Michelle explains how trains work (which involves vivid descriptions of controlled steam explosions).

Entering the tunnels into Ironhead Station is like coming out into a night sky. The city is build into the caverns under a mountain. Homes and walkways are carved into the living rock, gaslight torches glimmering up the curving walls of the great chamber and across the scaffoldings and walkways that crisscross the upper areas. The caverns are steamy, smoky and roaring with the voices of the great trains and thousands of bustling inhabitants. The flickering blue glow of the gaslight that's everywhere casts strange shadows, which leaves Braydon, especially, on edge. Michelle thinks it's magnificent.

She shows them the way to Viscount Camler Raltheigh's office, the man who's in charge of the Cygnaran barracks here. Apparently expecting them, he gives them another letter for the Dwarven Conclave liaison. Making their way there, the Dwarves in the office (who are also expecting them) introduce them to Petra Stonechild, a security agent for the Conclave. She leads them back to her office along a narrow path around the lip of a chasm where they can talk.

Once they turn over the letter, the Ogrun's documents, and tell her the story, she's very concerned, and tells them she'll schedule an appointment with Ironhead Station's Clan Lord. Meanwhile, she arranges lodging for them, and they go poke about around the city.

Some of the group have been to Ironhead Station before, and they know Viktor Melgravta, the blind sculptor and priest who serves at the chapel of St. Sambert. He welcomes them happily, but can tell them nothing unusual. People go missing sometimes when they explore the deeper mines, but that's only to be expected.

Grigori catches rumors that more people have vanished than usual down near the Dwarven shafts, including a few very experienced spelunkers and explorers. Ian and Ichabod visit the local constable, whose initial impression of a clam loosens up once Ian shows him his knight's ring. The constable confirms the disappearances, but says they have no evidence that it's anything other than an accident. Still, he maps it out for them.

Michelle takes Boomtongue and Islene down to the Dwarven market to shop. The Dwarven market is held in the wide space of a high-ceilinged cavern, making the lighting shivery and sporadic. When Boomtongue asks what they're buying here, Michelle reads the first page of the list to him. "Oh man, I'm carrying this back, aren't I?" he laments.
"Only if your obnoxious," she teases him.
"Aw, man."
"To me," she clarifies cheerfully.
"Aw damn."
And then he calls her a witch again, which of course offends her. Boomtongue tries to defend himself by explaining that humans with magic are witches. "Islene's a witch too, but she shot me once so I don't call her that."
"How about a giant wrench?" Michelle asks quellingly. "Or a power drill?"
Boomtongue doesn't stop, so she shoves a roll in his mouth. "Insulting gets tasties!" he declares.
"I need to have a girl-to-girl talk with Islene when we get back," Michelle sighs.

Boomtongue charms the shopkeepers out of some further gossip, and Michelle hits up the local Steamo's Union house to arrange for the disposition of her goods, where they gossip, if possible, even harder than shopkeepers. The SWIW is practically a mafia in Ironhead Station. they learn that Steelwater Rail and Caspian Railways hate each other, and are indulging in a slightly seedy feud, and the Union workers are convinced that something is going on: workers have seen strange sights in the tunnels, and have heard of the vanishings.

When the group gathers together to compile their fairly sparse information, Boomtongue points out that there could be evil Dwarves. The notion may be outlandish, but there's always an exception. "Look at Braydon."
"Yeah," says Braydon. "I don't-" and cuts himself off before he adds 'kill people.' Because he does, occasionally. Speaking of surprises, Boomtongue mentions that he expected Hellstrom to end up backstabbing them when they first met. Braydon agrees. "What?" laughs Michelle. "Hellstrom? He's so honest he makes the walls seem wobbly. It's like saying Leto's a psycho."

"Dresses like a woman sometimes," Boomtongue mutters.
"What?!" Michelle stares at him, wondering what she just heard and whether she should be offended.
"Hooker down at the docks," Boomtongue adds quickly.
"Most hookers dress like women," Braydon points out.

Boomtongue makes some comment to Braydon that "You glow green in the dark."
"Do I?" Braydon asks, halfway between curious and concerned.
"Only because you're drunk," Ian says.
"I don't drink anything that makes me glow green!" Braydon protests.
"I meant Boomtongue," the priest reassures him.

The next day, Petra gives them the full tour. Heading surface-side, she shows them the great Dwarven fortress of Ironhead Station, rising from the mountain as if grown from it. This is how Dwarves establish their settlements, she explains. They build the fortress and begin cutting downward into the rock, expanding its walls from the stone they cut out of their tunnels. The Conclave's head council and ruling clan live here in the fortress, and the other dwarves live underground. The humans come up here often for sun, she tells him, finding it strange that they should be so desperate for sunlight and cold air. The Viscount particularly comes up quite often. He likes to look at the stars. He's a member of the Fraternal Order, so Michelle wonders if he has work relating to astrology. Petra cautions them on wandering in the Dwarven tunnels unescorted.

Islene has Michelle and Ian commission a handcrafted working stone train. Michelle also purchases a few tools and components she thinks James would find useful for his recent prosthetic work. Ian buys a stone pocket watch for Alicia's father. After lunch, they meet with Petra so she can lead them to their meeting with the Clan Lord.

Guards rush past them about a block away from the Clan Lord's offices. Possessed by a bad feeling, the group starts looking around. Ian spots a suspicious-looking man muffled in dark clothes trying to skulk away. Ichabod trips him and stuns him. Braydon catches the man's sword, which he notes is bloodied but not envenomed. They hand both over to the guards while Petra steps away to gain details from their officers. The Clan Lord was wounded but will be fine. They decide to wait until he can get around to seeing them.

It takes about an hour. The Clan Lord comes out, followed by a dwarf in white full plate embossed with a crest of the Dwarven Fathers. He's one of the Rhulic Paladins. The minute they come out, the terribly confused guards arrest the paladin on suspicion of conspiracy. The assassin gave them the paladin's name as his employer. The paladin finds it ridiculous, but politely complies with the guards.

Islene thinks this stinks like week-old fish. She gets Petra to take her and Ian in to see the assassin, who's being held in a permanently-etched Zone of Truth circle. The baffled and frightened would-be assassin tells them that he was hired via letter, never saw his employer's face, and agreed to go along with this because he was down on his luck and needed the money to care for his family. when Islene points out to Petra that the signature on the letter could be a forgery, Petra hands over the document for Grigori and the others to look over.

The paper is extremely fine, with Clan Softshadow's watermark imprinted on it. Petra is outraged by that, as Clan Softshadow owes fealty to Clan Ironhead. It's easy enough to obtain the paladin's signature on another document. The signature on the paper looks nothing like his.

The assassin is originally from Caspia. He was sent to Ironhead Station for 'community service.'
His daughter is sick, he tells Islene, and he had no other way to raise money for her medicine. He used to serve in the military, but he has no other marketable skills... "Why are we talking about this?!" he frantically asks her then. "I tried to kill somebody!"

"Well, if we can get you turned over to our custody..." she answers him, a little annoyed at his attitude, "Or maybe the Dwarves will press you to death with stones. But my parents have a trading company, and they always need caravan guards." When she queries the dwarves on his fate, Petra scoffs. He's an idiot. They're more concerned with the mastermind behind the attack. "See, it's not all doom and gloom," Islene tells him.

Clan Lord Gerrol calls them in for their meeting. He's puzzled over the watermark when they show it to him. Fingering the paper, he turns to his adviser, Dragar. "This...is yours, isn't it?" The adviser, taking a closer look, agrees with great confusion, then finds himself under arrest. The Clan Lord remains stoic. When they tell him about the slave ring, he asks, "How are you at ferreting things out? You look a little larcenous." "We're the Heroes of Corvis!" Boomtongue replies, seeming perhaps a little needled (probably at the thought of Braydon and Grigori being taken for the group's face-men). "Oh," Gerrol says. "Then if someone tries to kill you it won't be a problem. Either you'll figure it out or you won't," he adds, shooing them off to their work.

On the way out, they spot a very nervous Dwarf, apparently fretting over whether to go into the offices. Michelle approaches him gently, not wanting to scare him. He apologizes, says he was just going to talk to Dragar, who is also the Conclave's mine foreman, about something he found, but he knows someone else he can talk to about it. He hurries off.

Petra receives a report that Dragar's signature matches the one on the letter. It seems wise to look through Dragar's office to see if they can find anything either incriminating or otherwise. A black book of confidential notes hidden under one drawer describes disputes with Deep Venture Mining, which is trying to talk the Rhulfolk out of some of their land; the rail companies fighting over tunnel expansion (again); and Holder Lugrow, one of the mine overseers, wanting to see him about something important.

Petra confirms that Holder is the nervous Dwarf Michelle talked to before.

But when they hunt down Holder, he's dead! They come upon the scene down in one of his mine shafts right after the rope to his life broke and sent him crashing to the bottom. While Braydon investigates the rope to find that it has been cleverly cut, Michelle casts a spell and floats down to the bottom to help the dwarves in the shaft. One of the old miners grumbles to her that the mine is cursed. Ichabod gets another miner to take him to Holder's office. This dwarf tells him the overseer was acting "squirrly" recently. He opened this new shaft, then closed it shortly after, and said he needed to speak to Dragar.

Islene gets Gerrol to give her custody of the would-be assassin. Boomtongue, Petra, and Ian speak with Foreman Dragar about Holder. He doesn't know what the overseer wanted to show him, but he permits them to look through the rest of his papers. They skulk back to his office to do just that. While most of the others do a terrible detective job, discovering a note about a ham sandwich that they find dreadfully significant, Ian discovers that about 100 years ago, the dwarves started to open that shaft, then stopped after digging a short way after something (specifics unnamed) spooked them. "Let it go," Braydon tells him after he notices the others clustered over the lunch order. "We'd better get dinner soon."

Time to sightsee down in the shaft and find out what it was, exactly, that had the dwarves so spooked. But when they get there, there's a big chunk taken out of the end wall and no clue to exactly what it was. Ichabod asks about it to the dwarf who showed him Holder's office, who is shocked that somethign ws removed. If Holder spoke to anyone else, he tells the monk, it'd probably be Rothrock, the head geologist. But Rothrock tells him he doesn't know. Holder never came to see him.

At a loss, they decide to try Holder's house. After Petra lets them in, they find a red notebook hidden under Holder's desk: his journal. The last few entries describe the feeling of discomfort they had when they opened the shaft; how, after he he ordered the others out and found a strange mineral, he closed the mine; and how after Dragar was arrested, he thought he'd better go see Rothrock.

"We've been lied to," sums up Boomtongue.

They break into Rothrock's office. There are no notes or any hidden compartments, but Braydon notes signs of a hasty exit. "We're not chasing a geologist through the tunnels," Petra declares. "That'd be suspicious." Narrowing her eyes, she continues, "We'll find out where he's going and catch up to him."

To Grigori's inquiry, Camden replies that he doesn't feel anything menacing here now, but there's a strange residue to the air...nothing he can put his non-existent finger on. Braydon mutters quietly, "There's one mineral I can think of that'd make someone uncomfortable to be near it." "Necrotite," Grigori nods. "You mentioned it before."

Locating Rothrock is the challenge. Thinking on his feet, Grigori remembers that the geologist was wearing a badge. He has Camden use his spells to locate that object. The trail takes them deep into abandoned tunnels.

"How does he know where we're going?" Petra wonders at one point.
"The sword is enchanted," Michelle explains.
"That's an interesting sword," Petra notes, seeing how Orgoth glyphs are glowing just an inch or so above the blade's surface.
"I am," Camden says to Grigori.

The tunnel opens up on the side of a cavern. Spread below are people in chains mining ore, watched over by no fewer than six Black Ogrun. There are also a few Cephalyx, and lots of their drudge slaves shuffling about. Rothrock is some distance away, arguing with one of the Ogrun who seems to be in charge (at least, if one goes by the size of the hammer he's carrying).

Islene casts Silence on her gun, and takes aim at the Black Ogrun the dwarf is arguing with. The shot rocks him. The characters sink down into the shadows so the Ogrun can't spot them, but he sends two other Ogrun and some of the drudges up to their general area to look.

Boomtongue takes a deep breath and lets out his stunning call, shaking the drudges and Ogrun. Braydon throws his Orgoth knives, ripping through the vital points on one of the Ogrun and felling it where it stands. They return to him dripping with blood, which quickly gets absorbed back into the dark steel. Camden hisses at them. "I see you, looking at me." "You should get that checked," Michelle tells Braydon, a little unnerved by the blades.

Michelle casts Spider Climb on Islene, who casts Haste on herself then steps out to walk along the wall of the cavern while she snipes at Ogrun. Three shots drop the first Ogrun, and another two speed toward one of the Cephalyx, to little effect. He has layered himself in protective spells. Ichabod leaps down off the ledge to stun another Ogrun.

The drudges mass to attack at the Cephalyx's orders. Boomtongue howls a Fell Scream at them, followed by Michelle's lightning bolt, which does for them. Ichabod spots Rothrock making a break for it down a side tunnel and jumps after him. The dwarf manages to shake off his tackle, then shoots a lightning bolt at the monk, who simply bends backward to avoid it.

One Cephalyx calls the slaves to it, surrounding both Cephalyx in a living wall of hostages, while the other casts a Scorching Ray spell at the fighters. Boomtongue shouts again, stunning the slaves without doing any lasting damage.

Petra leaps off the ledge, body slamming an Ogrun. While Islene snipes six Cephalyx (apparently several more crawled out of the woodwork to help their beleaguered brethren), Braydon leaps on another Ogrun. Michelle casts Scorching Ray on the last Ogrun, which goes down after Grigori hits it with Camden. "Wow," he marvels. "It's actually fun to smite evil." "Isn't it?" Camden agrees. Then everyone has to dodge a Chain Lightning spell from the last Cephalyx. Islene takes out the final Cephalyx and the other three Ogrun with another round of hasted sniping.

Ichabod catches Rothrock again, rocking the dwarf with a series of quick hits, then pulls his halberd on the angry geologist. "Surrender."

"No!" snaps the dwarf. "You think I'm afraid of you?" Ichabod shrugs, and stuns him with another punch, then cards him back to the others, where he's shocked to see the fight is over already. With him in Petra's custody, Ichabod runs back to take a message to the other dwarves.

He returns a little while later with paladins.

Rothrock was carrying an unusual ore sample, but Petra waves it off, saying it's just one of the more valuable ores they mine down here. Not worthy of his special attention. So what was it he found? "Well, if he didn't have it on him," Michelle reasons, "and he didn't give it to any of these guys..."

"Either someone else is involved or it's at his house," Islene completes the thought. And it's not at his house.

Interrogated by angry paladins, Rothrock finally confesses that he framed Dragar, and reveals that the stone was a strange green-glowing rock that he planned to sell to a buyer in Five Fingers. It's not the usual Cryxian ore; it's nothing like he has ever seen. The stone is already on its way to the infamous city.

Islene writes a letter of introduction for the poor failed assassin and sends him to her parents. The others arrange for travel to Five Fingers. Grigori sends a message ahead to his contacts there.