Tales from Toril- The Ironfang Eight: Book One, Chapter Four, Condensed

Ironfang Deep

Dramatis Personae:
Liavara Kayne, the Aasimar Warlock of Neifion, the Lord of Bats, librarian extraordinaire, Magister of Ironfang Deep
Nigel, Lia's sprite familiar who dies almost as much as the monk
Iona, the Wood Elf Monk who can't stay alive
Shump, the Half-Orc Cleric who keeps Iona from permanent death, and replaced Ishir after his untimely demise
Keh-Tee, the four-armed Mad Catter Warlock of Y'Chuk, Lord of Ironfang Deep
Lady Orhialla "Nya" Tarnash, the Teifling Sorcerer and Lady of the Zhentarim
Teegan, the Dragonborn Sorcerer of Many Faces
Orvu, the Human Rogue who loves shinies
Franklin, the one armed, one legged human ranger, who later regrows both limbs
Ishir, the Dragonborn Fighter who met his end to the Deck of Many Things; and now inhabits a dwarven golem and guards Ironfang Deep

NOTE: Anything in italics is written from Lia's (and sometimes Nigel's) perspective.

       The group saw the path up to the Keep, a winding little road, lined in orbs that appeared to be faerie fire of a different color than anyone had seen before, with steep cliffs surrounding it. It was getting dark, so they decided to head back down the mountain a little to set up camp for the night.

***** Lia

        In the morning, I decided to send Nigel to scout ahead while the rest of us finished getting ready to travel. He was instructed to look for traps along the trail, any spaces where enemies could potentially lurk and spring out at us, and if he could- he was to attempt to gain entrance to the Keep. Nigel left as he was instructed, and I stayed with him, watching through his eyes, until he went out of the limited range of our connection. I again wished my Lord would grant me access to the ritual to create a homunculus, they do not have the limits Nigel and I do; and it may keep my sprite alive more often.

***** Nigel

        I flew off to investigate the path for my mistress, looking for anything out of place. The strangest thing I saw was the orbs of wrong-colored faerie fire. Being a fae spirit, I am curious by nature, so of course I had to get a closer look at the orbs. I zipped up to one and began examining it. It looked exactly like faerie fire, aside from being the wrong color, and since faerie fire is not harmful, I touched it. With a flash of searing pain I found myself in Darroch Castle once again- the home of our Lord, Neifion. 

       Our Lord finds it amusing when I die, since I seem to do it so often, so I went to him quickly, knowing my mistress would soon have me back at her side. I filled the Lord of Bats in on what had happened to Mistress and her companions since I had last died, and he too was curious about this Keep. With laughter in his eyes, my Lord instructed me to give him a full report the next time I died; which would probably be very soon, I seem to be good at dying. 

***** Lia

       The moment Nigel left, I began preparing the ritual to bring him back. He has a terrible track record for surviving the scouting missions I send him on, I would stop, but he is excellent at finding things, and I would rather him be hurt than one of us; Nigel we can bring back easily, the rest of us require a powerful spell from Shump. At the exact moment I felt Nigel die, I set to work casting the spell, and eventually he was at my side again. He told us everything he saw and the conclusions he had drawn from his brief mission; when he finished we all prepared ourselves to leave, and started the hike back to the Keep.

*****

       When the group began their hike up the winding path to the Keep, they began getting peppered with arrows; apparently their new home was occupied, and they were seen as invaders. The group fought their way up the path and made it into the main hall of the Keep without much injury. They were not prepared for what awaited them inside.

       In the main hall of the Keep, they found a huge spider statue- it appeared to be a shrine to Lolth. It would seem that drow had claimed Ironfang Deep as theirs. Aside from the shrine the hall was completely deserted. They selected a random hallway to go down, and ventured forth, ready to fight for what was now theirs. After checking a couple of seemingly empty rooms, the party ended up in a large room with a set of stairs on one side, being the only room thus far to have multiple entrances. Suddenly they found themselves surrounded by goblins, a common slave race for drow; frequently used as kill fodder so the drow can whittle down their enemies before they have to face them personally.

       While goblins are easy to dispatch of, there was wave after wave of them, flooding the room from both entrances. The group fought hard and they eventually were left with the goblins only using a single entrance to attack from- the one the group had used. Everyone was exhausted by this point, Lia and Keh-Tee were out of the energy needed to use their warlock powers, and Shump had reached such an exhaustion that if anyone died he would not be able to raise them. Keh-Tee remembered a spell in the Tome of Terra that would let him bring a stone wall up over the entrance, sealing the group in so they could recuperate. The Tome had a special property that would allow the spells within it to be cast as scrolls, which is how a thoroughly drained Keh-Tee was able to throw the wall up. This also gave their adversaries eight hours to rest, and their enemies knew the Keep and how to set it up to be defensible in their favor.

        After everyone had rested for eight hours, the group opened up the wall again, and found the hallway beyond to be covered in spider webs. The drow were alerted the second the wall came down, from the webs vibrating. They slashed their way down the hall, and eventually came upon a room with a small pool in it, and a group of drow dancing. That fight was almost as grueling as the one against the goblins had been- even though it was only a few drow instead of wave after wave of goblins. Eventually that taxing battle ended, and the group found that they once again needed to stop and rest. They sealed off the entrance and once again gave themselves some time to recuperate... giving their actual adversaries, whom they had yet to meet, more time to prepare.

       Another day of fight, retreat, fight, retreat occurred, and the group had to again barricade themselves into a room to hide. This time though, they decided to use a teleportation spell that Teegan knew to send Keh-Tee back to town to go shopping; he took Franklin with him, so he could get his limbs back- he was dropped off with Orvu and the money required to pay a temple to perform this service. The time they had spent in the Keep had spent most of their supplies, they had few healing potions left and were constantly on the verge of death and defeat. Everyone put forth money to help Keh-Tee get supplies, since there was no point holding onto their personal wealth, and after several hours, Keh-Tee returned, with as much as he was able to purchase in his short time in town. They resumed their mission of claiming their Keep.

       The next day gave the group a slight change in the tides- they finally saw who was running this place: a Brass Dragon, who had been corrupted and turned evil. The battle that ensued was the most difficult yet; they had to face the Brass and her half-drow children- several priestesses of Lolth, and twin boys, one an accomplished wizard, and the other a skilled fighter (you know them as Pharin and Andolin, members of Oryn Talus' Bane of Vecna). This fight ended with the party being forced to retreat, using some illusion to distract the drow long enough to get away; they barred a door on the hallway in hopes of detaining the drow for a few seconds once they got past the defenses the group had used. Teegan requested one minute, to throw a teleportation circle together, if he could get it up in time, the drow would end up stepping on it the moment they burst through the door; It worked, almost exactly after Teegan finished his circle, the drow burst through the door and were sent through a portal to the Underdark.

       The group dashed into a room they had thought to be empty, and found a hidden door. Inside the room they met a dwarven woman, and a dwarven golem. The pair had been hiding in this tiny room for centuries, they were there when this Keep belonged to the dwarves still, and after hearing the group's story, and seeing the deed was authentic, they agreed to help purge the drow from the Keep. The dwarf claimed to be Nameless, though they later learned her name was Stryx, and the golem was Strax, who had once been her brother. They spent the night in the room, while they came up with a plan to defeat the drow, with their new allies help. Stryx said that the group needed to get to the Keep's vault, and there they should find what they needed to finally dispatch of the villains- the problem was that they had to fight their way to the vault, but it wasn't terribly far away.

       They had to fight their way to the vault, but eventually the group arrived... only to find that they couldn't open the damned thing. Their new allies were not helpful in opening it, Stryx claimed she couldn't do it. While they attempted to find a way into the vault, the group noticed Stryx had a wish ring on her finger, with one wish left. She had been given the ring, as a contingency plan for if she ever needed to use it to cleanse the Keep. With this new information, the group realized what they could do with that wish: they could make the brass dragon good again- fixing her alignment would be an easier feat than trying to kill her, all of her half-drow children, and every slave they threw at them. It took some convincing on the group's part to get Stryx to let them use that wish, but eventually they prevailed.

       It worked! The wish went off, the dragon was cleansed, and many of her children perished; but her twin boys made it through a portal that brought them to Oerth. They tracked the newly cleansed dragon down before she could leave, and attempted to make an alliance with her, but after spending centuries evil, and suddenly getting a conscious again had made her a little odd. She wanted nothing to do with the party or their Keep, and took her leave during their conversation.

       The Ironfang Eight spent the next three months setting up their Keep, and its new town.

Tales from Toril- The Ironfang Eight: Book One, Chapter Three, Condensed

The Journey to the Keep

Dramatis Personae:

Liavara Kayne, the Aasimar Warlock of Neifion, the Lord of Bats, librarian extraordinaire, Magister of Ironfang Deep

Iona, the Wood Elf Monk who can't stay alive

Shump, the Half-Orc Cleric who keeps Iona from permanent death, and replaced Ishir after his untimely demise

Keh-Tee, the four-armed Mad Catter Warlock of Y'Chuk, Lord of Ironfang Deep

Lady Orhialla "Nya" Tarnash, the Tiefling Sorcerer and Lady of the Zhentarim

Teegan, the Dragonborn Sorcerer of Many Faces

Orvu, the Human Rogue who loves shinies

Franklin, the one armed, one legged Human Ranger, who later regrows both limbs

       On the walk to Alaghon, the group encountered a pirate ship and decided they needed to possess it. They attacked the ship and after slaying the crew, they claimed it as their own. They arrived in Alaghon in style, aboard their new ship. The group began looking for maps to find exactly where Ironfang Deep was located; it was an old dwarven keep, that has been "lost" for a very long time. Keh-Tee informed all they met that he was the Lord of the Keep, but no one believed him since the keep had been lost for so long. After a couple of days, a message was sent to the group's room at the inn they were staying at, inviting Keh-Tee to a special room down below. Of course the cat is curious, so he went- but they would only admit him and two guards. While the other began deliberating over who should accompany Keh-Tee, Orvu and Lia volunteered and the three left.

       Upon entering the room they had been invited to, they met a gnome... it was Teegan. He had also been collecting old maps of where the keep was believed to be, and he and Lia planned on comparing them to current maps to figure out exactly where this keep was. They began gathering traveling supplies and left within a couple more days. Orvu had been left in charge of their newly acquired ship, so she remained in Alaghon while the rest of the group began their journey.

       After a couple days of travel, the group arrived in the town of Nonthal, a town that despised adventurers. They had a supernatural occurrence happening just outside their town that attracted many seeking treasure and glory. Keh-Tee announced himself as the Lord of Ironfang Deep, not an adventurer, and while they were leery of him, they allowed the group to stay the night. Nya made the mistake of identifying herself as an adventurer and was denied a room. Lia attempted to help Nya, which got her denied a room as well, but since they weren't sure if she was really an adventurer, or just being nice to the tiefling, she got to stay in the hidden room in the stables. She also suggested to the townsfolk that they use their tunnels to their advantage, and do something like the Yawning Portal. Then they could get revenue from the adventurers instead of having them simply be leeches.

       The next morning the group set off toward the Orsraun Mountains in search of their keep. They lost all but Teegan's horse a couple of days into the journey; a dragon from Tiamet's cult found them. The group was hounded frequently by the dragons, and began trying to conceal themselves as best they could.

       One day the group happened upon an outpost in the hills; it looked to have been used fairly recently, but the place was completely deserted. They decided to stay the night at this outpost, and enjoy having real shelter. The next morning the rangers who inhabited the outpost returned, and the group explained who they were and what their mission was. They learned that higher in the mountains there were yetis, who had attacked the group and claimed several of their people; Franklin, their leader and the man who knew these mountains best, was among the missing. The rangers explained that Franklin had gone the highest up the mountains, and if anyone would have an idea where the keep was, it would be him. They ended up spending a couple of days at the outpost with the rangers, making new healing potions and scrolls. When they finally left, it was in search of Franklin and the keep.

       After a few more days of travel, they came upon some tracks that led them to a group of yetis. The yetis seemed to be mostly out hunting, so there was only a small group of them to contend with; but there were a few small dragons there as backup. That battle was long and painful, but eventually the group won, then ventured into the yeti's cave in search of Franklin. They found the ranger missing one arm and one leg, they healed him as best they could, but regrowing his limbs was beyond Shump's powers. They took Franklin with them, attaching Teegan's broom of flying to his hip to give him an awkward quasi-leg.

       The group traveled for a few more days, fighting various yetis and the occasional dragon, when they saw a large blue dragon circling overhead- it was certainly looking for them. Their single encounter of a blue dragon, back in Greenest, when Lia shot it once with her eldritch blast, gave the group a false opinion of blues. Teegan pointed out to the group how wimpy blues are, while Keh-Tee used the mind powers of Y'Chuk to wipe his memory of what exactly he was doing; Keh-Tee's plan worked, the dragon completely forgot about the cult, its mission to find the group, all of it. They didn't see the blue again for a few more days.

       When they saw the blue again, it demanded that the group pay it tribute for being in its territory. Of course they didn't want to, they had worked hard, and killed Iona and Nigel (Lia's familiar) several times, for their treasures. This of course became a fight, dragons are as greedy, if not more so than the group. This was one of the hardest battles the group had faced yet- the blue managed to kill Iona and fly off with her before anyone could stop him.

       Iona awoke chained in a cave, with the blue in front of her. He informed Iona that she was to be his eyes and ears among the group, she would keep record of everything she saw and eventually he would come collect the information. She could not resist his commands, he had her soul in a gem. He completely wiped her memory of their encounter when he finished breifing her, so she would still carry out his commands without realizing what she was doing; this also kept Keh-Tee from figuring out that her memory had been tampered with. The blue put Iona back to sleep during the memory wipe, and when she woke again she found herself in the cave, unbound, and the stage was set to look like a fight had happened. Iona quickly made her way toward the group.

       Eventually the group made it to Ironfang Deep. They were low on supplies, and tired from their trek to their keep, and wondered what surprises were in store for them now.

The red line on the map marks the route the group took in this chapter.

Tales from Toril- The Ironfang Eight: Book One, Chapter Two, Condensed

From Waterdeep to the Keep

Dramatis Personae:
Liavara Kayne, the Aasimar Warlock of Neifion, the Lord of Bats, librarian extraordinaire
Iona, the Wood Elf Monk who can't stay alive
Shump, the Half-Orc Cleric who keeps Iona from permanent death, and replaced Ishir after his untimely demise
Keh-Tee, the four-armed Mad Catter Warlock of Y'Chuk
Lady Orhialla "Nya" Tarnash, the Teifling Sorcerer and Lady of the Zhentarim
Teegan, the Dragonborn Sorcerer of Many Faces
Orvu, the Human Rogue who loves shinies
Ishir, the Dragonborn Fighter who met his end to the Deck of Many Things; and now inhabits a dwarven golem

       At the inn the Ironfang Eight lodged at during their stay in Waterdeep, there was a pit that had different chambers, always changing called the Yawning Portal. Sometimes people didn't make it out at all, sometimes they barely survived, and sometimes they came back with a small fortune. The patrons of the inn made bets about every group that went down, about who would come back, when they would come back, etc. One day the Eight were approached by a group who issued a challenge: the two groups would go into the pit, each leaving one person behind in the inn, and they had eight hours to return; the group that came back with the most money received half of the other groups winnings. The Eight gladly took the bet, and leaving Teegan behind to gamble, the group ventured down into the pit.

       The Eight took a different route than the other group, so they would not be likely to bump into each other. The first chamber the group entered was a small, inviting kitchen with the table set for dinner... Except that everything was on the ceiling. They used their brooms and flight spells to investigate the kitchen and found that they could not move any of the furniture. One person took a loaf of bread from the table, and while it did release when grabbed, the moment the grip on it loosened, it floated back to its original place on the ceiling. The group was baffled by this room, but decided that it wasn't worth wasting anymore time on.

       The party next entered a room that had an acid pool beneath it, with something that would allow it to drain. While examining it, they triggered some sort of alarm that caused them to be attacked by several jellies. The battle was difficult, but the group prevailed. They knew it would take time for the acid to drain enough for them to investigate, so they moved on to a room that had a throne, and a strange green orb that was suspended in midair. Ishir's impatience caused a trap to be set off, and suddenly Iona found herself trapped in the orb, while the rest of the group was now facing a dragon. They defeated the dragon, and freed Iona, and after gathering their treasures they moved on to another room.

       A corrupted angel awaited the group in the next room they entered. The battle was grueling, it even took Iona's life. Had they not been able to cleanse the angel of its corruption, bringing about guilt about it slaying Iona, she may have died her final death. Fortunately for the monk, the angel felt guilty enough to resurrect her. Finally the group went back to the room where they had faced the jellies, and found the acid to be drained. Under the acid was a deep, dark pit, with levers on one wall, and two doors of metal bars, like jails have, flanking the levers. Ishir once again was a bigger threat than the actual enemies, as he decided to play with the levers... He released something dark and twisted from one of the doors and the group was forced to flee before it could end them. They got away, but Iona again sustained injuries due to Ishir's impatience. Finally, the group decided it was time to head back to the inn to learn the results of their expedition.

       Instead of finding the way up though, the group found a well dressed man alone in a room. The man had the Deck of Many Things, and wanted to play. Everyone drew cards, with greedy Ishir taking three, and slowly revealed them in turn. Keh-Tee received two wishes and the deed to Ironfang Deep. Nya received a mortal enemy and the ability to undo any one event that happened at any point in time. Lia got a bag with $50,000 in gems and the vizier card, which lets her receive the complete truth in answer to a single question, and she was given one year to use it. Ishir met his end with his second card; his soul was put in an orb and sent somewhere in the Underdark where the group couldn't go. Orvu received three wishes, and later used one to obtain the orb with Ishir's soul; with as many times as she was injured from his carelessness she found it to be poetic justice. After parting with the man, the group headed back up to the inn. The results of their riches were tallied, and they managed to win the bet with the other party. The group was happy with their prizes.

       They spent a couple days shopping before they were told it was time for them to travel. When they arrived at the teleportation site, they were greeted by Shump. He told the group that his God had told him to come to them, and with losing a member they seemed like they could use another person; they readily agreed. Had Shump not joined them, Iona would have likely died her final death soon after. The spell could only send six people, so the group had to leave Teegan behind in Waterdeep.

       Arriving at their destination, they discovered that they needed to get to a floating city- that was what the cultists were using to travel south. The group snuck onto the city with no trouble, though after takeoff the cult was made aware of their presence. They approached the white dragon who was aboard the city under the guise of making a tribute, and with Keh-Tee's persuasive powers, they were able to gather some information. They found out the location of the priestess' quarters and made their way there. Keh-Tee and Lia both donned the robes of priests and knocked on her door... They did not take into account that the leader would know all of the other cultists who were high enough in rank to wear the purple robes. The fight was a struggle, but they prevailed as usual. After several fights with the cult, they managed to completely purge the floating city of the cultists. The giants who owned the city thanked them, and offered to take them wherever they wished. They were dropped off a day's walk from Alaghon, a coastal town near the mountains where they believed Ironfang Deep to be.

The red line across this map shows the group's journey from Waterdeep to the coast of the Sea of Fallen Stars