Now that the lantern is burning, the cellar feels much as it was the first time you were here.  The papers are pretty much like you remember them.  Not a lot has changed.  It is more crowded with 10 of you down here now as opposed to 4 last time.

The big table is low and solid and strong, much like the dwarves themselves.  You push aside some of the paper and clear space to put Dunmeal's body on the table instead.



"Glory days.  Tales of adventure.  These days its all him sneaking around watching folks."

Bhandrid picks up a paper and looks at it.

"...and drawing them, looks like."



"House Simiran.  They're up to nasty business, but if you're not part of it they leave you alone.  Folks don't get involved.  Dunmeal, you know he was in their business.  Look how that turned out for him.  They left him for dead.  No one expects..."  Bhandrid is at a loss for words.

He turns to Holly and Sunna.

"Who are you?  Clan Priestesses?  Pelorites?  I don't see the sun symbols."



"I'm what you'd call a greenhorn on The Flats, so this ain't the gospel, but most of your typical slickers like me steer clear of two parts of the flats on two different accounts.  On the aces there's The Warrens where your apt to end up with a pox.  On the deuces there's this gully where you're bound to run into a chiseler or curly wolf.  Just askin' for a pistol-whipping.  Not so bad as your friend Dunmeal got it."

"I don't know the straw bosses, but we're going after the head of the snake, ain't we?"

"Adventures... " Sunna smiles.

When Bahandrid mentions House Simiran Sunna sighs and shakes her head. Just what she expected. But what do they know about Dunmeals plans?

"I'm a bard of Clan Triplefang. I've studied the art of healing as well as telling tales."

Ragnar nods, then picks up a paper and takes a look at it.

Sunna turns to Oscaronius. "Head of the snake. I like the way you put it into words. Yes, that's the idea." She regards the still unconscious Dunmeal. "I really dislike having people like them who did this to him running around freely, to do more harm."

The first paper Ragnar picks up is all in Dwarvish.  So many dwarves in Sloss Hinterplatz speak Clantongue you can sometimes forget they have their own language.  He sifts through a couple more before finding a wider sheet with sketches on it.  There are drawings of armed dwarves, three of them.  There are close-ups of the faces of two of them.  Who are these?  Guards?  Enforcers?

Sirrot stays in the shadows, not wishing to raise an alarm.

Mord frowned in concentration, but figured he caught the bulk of what Oscar  had been putting out for explanation.

"I think the idea was to bloody his nose in a big way.  Gather what we needed, help Dunmeal gather what he needed, and some coin for all parties to help.  A big flipping off towards the snakehead, and cost him in the city power struggles.  Of course, if we're lucky, and he's foolish enough to stand in our way... then we are blessed to deal with things more directly.  I didn't like the cowards when we met them. Didn't like when Dunmeal talked about what they had done.  Didn't like when ye mentioned their bullying of folk.  Certainly don't like their behaviour on Dunmeal.

"And I do like directly.

"Ye know... what happened to Dunmeal, what you talk about the skulking done to folk here - makes me wonder if something happened to Beindra.  Holly can manage the special movement needed by Beindra, but I wonder about her, especially with all the searching we did.  No one had seen her, and that is troublesome, now that I hear from Bahandrid and Oscar.

"Sunna, Holly - how long do you think until Dunmeal recovers - at least enough to wake, I mean.  I know he'd be dead but for your healing powers, so I don't expect him up to dance a jig.  I'd like to find out more about who did this - he mentioned some skilled warriors working for the snake.  At any event, I'd think it nice if he was up to feel a part of things.  Hmm.  I think he mentioned some other things he was going to discuss - hate to miss a step of his big plan.  Unless it means we deal directly with things."

From the shadows, Sirrot makes slight hand gestures to get Ros's attention.

Ragnar picks up a large sheet.  It looks like a very detailed diagram of a mechanism, and it also looks like a map of sorts.  Someone put a lot of work into this.

Ros slides over to Sirrot.
"Yes?" she says quietly.

Holly examines Dunmeal.  He's breathing, alive, and stable, but can't wake up.  She's seen something like this before.  A hunter was like this for almost a whole moon cycle.  They said the spirit was wandering.  They kept her warm, gave her water, and let her rest.  One day her spirit came back and she was OK.  Just like Dunmeal that hunter had a serious head wound.  There's no telling how long Dunmeal's spirit will wander, but you'd sure like it to be less than a moon cycle.

Holly wishes Snow was here.  She knew things about the spirit realm, and said she could travel there.  Maybe she could find Dunmeal's spirit and bring it back.

Sirrot say quietly "that sheet that Ragnar has...it is too far away to make out details, but it looks like a close-up of two dwarves. I'm a local, and the reincarnation didn't remove my memories. I may be able to identify those faces, but I dare not come out where that 'bystander' can see me. Also, I heard you seek an acrobat? I have no such training, but this body I have inherited is far more flexible than any dwarf ever born."

All this while Adiel has been closely examining the papers.

"We can safely assume that House Simiran doesn't know about this cellar hiding place.  Otherwise they would've burned or stolen all these notes, maps, and sketches."

"I think I can piece together Dunmeal's plan from what we have here, but it'll take time.  Sunna and Mord, what can you remember of what Dunmeal told you of his plan?  That will be where I'll start.  Of course we're going to have to improvise some too.  I think that it's important that we stay on our timetable and go after the plate and mirror tomorrow during the holiday.  Mord, you said something about Holly's abilities compensating for the loss of the acrobat?"

Adiel finally looks up from the papers and locks eyes on Bhandrid.

"If you don't want to get involved in House Simiran's business, now would be the time to leave."

Bhandrid looks around at you, not yet sure what to say.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:20, Mon 10 Feb 2020.

Ros muffles a giggle.

"I'm sure you're very limber, just a bit too big to slip down a chimney." she wispers.

She then scoots over to Ragnar and scoops up the paper he just set down.

"Wanna leave those to Adiel?"  She says of the detailed diagram.

Ragnar blushes a little and hands the paper Adiel-ward.

Ros slips back into Sirrot's shadowy corner and hands him the sketches.  From their garb and stance they do look like Brazmird Hall guards.  No one he knows personally.  They're certainly not Exalted.  Why does Kadrick need so many different guards and enforcers?  There are also notes on the page about times and places.  Guard schedules?

Mord caught up Bhandrid's gaze.  "If you didn't hear him, it's time to decide if you want to hide your head, friend, and present innocent deniability.  Or, you take big risks, and join the venture for big reward.  Some folk like danger, some don't; some folk like coin; some don't care.  There is a good chance of people being hurt, possible of death if the elite mercenaries we hear about encounter us, and certainly don't forget the risk of traps.  Mord believes in being direct, friend.

"If you would rather be gone, have out the door, and we'll tell Dunmeal that you stopped to help him.
-Or you could take him home with you, and tend him, and trust in him to share a portion of his share with you in thanks/reward.
-Or you join us, take the risks, share the coin.

"Either way, we need to have detailed discussion on the plan, so we need to know if you are in or out, and whether we're discussing the plan in front of you, or you aren't here, so you don't need to say anything if asked.  Fortune doesn't wait, it just provides opportunity - choose."

It doesn't take too long for Bhandrid to ponders his options.

"It would be mighty fine to have a grand tale of adventure of my own to tell over ales, but I have to live here in Sloss Hinterplatz.  It's no time for me to go to war with House Simiran.  I'd be failing my duty to my family and house if I ended up dead in the streets."

"Besides, who knows if I'd be any help to you if I joined you."

"While we're lip-flapping on the subject.  How exactly is this Buckaroo here," Oscaronius asks, pointing to himself with a thumb.  "Supposed land a hand?"

Bhandrid looks at the animal trainer and then back to Mord and Holly.

"I can look after Dunmeal until he can get around on his own.  I owe him that much.  He and I both are safer if he stays here.  I'll check in on him on the regular...  Bring him an ale...  have some one-sided chats."

"You can count on me to stay hush-hush.  Safer for everyone if I play dumb about the whole thing."

Mord thumped the friend on his back, congratulating him on a wise decision, then lifted him from the cellar and set him outside.  "There ye be.  Did you need me to rough you up a bit, or just head home right now?  Safe journeys, and don't forget to check regularly on our friend, here, right?  Good fellow."

Absent interruption, Mord waved Bhandrid on his way, then closed the cellar doors after a look both ways for hopeful violence?-no, sad that- and sliding the lock shut before taking a position atop one of the banded chests, where he could respond to violence from the doorway, but also see what's happening.

"Adiel, Sunna - you correct me if I have this wrongly.  We have Dunmeal's plans somewhere in these documents.  The maps: the furnace vents to use to reach the outside door, which outside door the outside people head to, route to the vault, what we know of the stuff inside.  Anything about guard routes?

- We head to Simiran's building at festival time, when the furnaces are off.
- Stealthy person twists and turns around the vents, opening the door from within.  Holly and her special talents fill in for Biendra.  Sirrot - I don't know you, or what you can do.  How 'bout you help fill us in, there. Stealthy body - does it, or you- have skills of use?
- We remove a clear path, if nessessary, to the vault.
- Oscaronius uses his little fellows to open the vault and the chests and locks inside.
- We collect what we need, and walk back out.  Magicked bags to hold as much as possible."

Sirrot smiles. "Moradin's beard, yes. Outside of the forge I'm an accomplished hunter. Excellent with a bow, and no stranger to moving stealthily. In fact..." , and here his grin widens in anticipation, "if I were to leave behind some sign that the dreaded 'elf' had been harbored within its walls, I can't help but be amused at the probable consequences for House Simiran."

Mord's grin was very, very wide, and his gave the dwarf-elf a mighty guffaw before sweeping him up in a crushing bearhug of laughter.

"Oh goodly gods above, I do like this fellow's humour.  Well said, Sirrot, well said.

"So a hunter, good with the bow - good that.  Ragnar has been trying to shoulder that almost by himself."

Bhandrid is flabbergasted by his instant and unexpected ejection.  He takes a startled hop backwards when Mord offers to rough him up for appearances sake.  The coast in the back alley is clear.  No one ever seems to meander this way.  Mord shuts the cellar door quietly anyhow, disappointed to see there's no bar or lock on the inside.  He shrugs it off.  The entrance is well hidden, especially with the cellar door closed.


Oscaronius gives Sirrot a strange look, particularly when he says "elf".

"Now who's this sidewinder?" he asks, but Adiel interrupts before anyone can answer.

"Yeah Mord, there's a lot here.  Guard posts, pictures of the guards, rotations, places they go when they're off duty, notes on their gambling habits.  There are all manner of details.  But there's more than just guards.  Dunmeal crafted a big chunk of the plan around avoiding one master dwarf, and its not Kadrick or the lieutenant you spoke with.  He calls him Exarch Gotrig."

Adiel pauses dramatically.  There's a long period of silence that somehow lets the gravitas sink in.

"Exarch means Demigod or...  Archangel.  Dunmeal is scared to death of him.  He's a complete plan-wrecker.  And there's a note."

Adiel holds up a page pointing to some dwarven words.

"He says 'The Exigent is our only hope.'"

"Exalted...  Exarch...  Exigent..."  He looks at Oscaronius and Sirrot.  "Help me out here guys.  You're both dwarves.  Who are these guys?  How's it related?"

Oscaronius takes off his hat and scratches his head.

"What?  Him?  He ain't no dwarf I ever seen."

Sirrot answers Oscar "born a dwarf. Died from poison. Brought back to life by Moradin's wisdom for a purpose unknown to me."

Sirrot turns to the others. "Gotrig is one of the Exalted. Damn near indestructible from what I hear. He could slaughter the lot of us without breaking a sweat. Any of the Exalted could. Can I see that paper? Maybe I could translate it better or notice some nuance that your background wouldn't notice.

He addresses Mord. "If I'm to help you, it might help if you can get me some leathers, a bow, and some arrows. And if we get the chance, I need to get to the deep pens. If I'm going to be leaving, there's a friend I dare not leave behind."

"Smells of hogwash if you ask me," mutters Oscaronius.

"More like a resurrection curse," says Adiel handing a sheet to Sirrot to read.

As Sirrot is reading, it dawns on him that he could kill two birds with one stone by visiting his sister, Fady before the assault on Brazmird Hall.  He could get his gear and make arrangements to bring Kurk into the deep roads with him.  Sirrot had been planning to wait until Zanbar Kelvyn, but now he thinks he should move his timetable up.  Maybe he should go tonight, or maybe the humans could wait until he concluded his visit tomorrow morning.

Sirrot says "in this context, 'Exigent' means a vital person. One needed to counter Exalted Gotrig. But it gives no clue to whom that might be." He goes on to explain that a visit to his sister might be of paramount importance before attempting the raid.

It takes close to an hour, but eventually Adiel pieces Dunmeal's plan together.

"Alright," Adiel says, organizing some papers in front of him on the table.  "Dunmeal planned to have four people go into Brazmird Hall - Himself, the acrobat, the trainer, and the exigent.  The Acrobat was to be Beindra.  You're the trainer," he says to Oscaronius.

Adiel displays the drawings of Ocaronius and Beindra.

"and he didn't know who the exigent was going to be.  However, this person was vital to his plan and would be a possible counter to Gotrig.  I believe he's referring to Sunna.  He told Sunna he needed her to recruit the other two, and her persuasive nature might somehow allow her to talk this unbeatable Exalted warrior into not opposing them."

He shrugs a little.

"The Exalted are honorable sorts, maybe he could be made to see the heroic nature of Dunmeal's quest to free his friend from the mirror."

"So that's the who of the plan.  Next come the obstacles inside Brazmird.  He needed a way in, a way past the guards at the main staircase, a way into the vault and lockboxes, and a way out."

"His plan was to have Beindra climb up, into, and down the furnace chimney and let the other three in a delivery entrance where fuel is brought in.  There would be no deliveries, guards, or fires going that day on account of the holiday.  That door, a heavy metal shutter cannot be opened from outside.  He had some concerns as to whether Beindra would be strong enough to work the mechanism, but decided she could do it.  Once they were all inside they'd quietly make there way to near the main staircase."

There's a sketch of what the metal shutter door looks like from the outside.  It looks heavy and durable.

On a map of the ground floor, Adiel points out the furnace/forge room and the path they planned to take to the main staircase.

"Beindra, who is a celebrity and known to the guards, would tell them the boss sent them Ligig, a traditional sour alcoholic drink served on Zanbar Kelvyn.  She would pass out drinks spiked with a knock-out potion to the guards.  Dunmeal hoped this would take out all of the guards, he estimated two to six of them, but he knew dwarves' mighty fortitude can sometimes best even the strongest of potions and they might need to quickly and quietly ambush a straggler or two.  They would then shackle and gag the guards."

Adiel gestures to the shelves that line one of the walls and half of another, and the various barrels and crates around.

"This was one of the places he was worried about meeting up with Gotrig, even though he thought the chances were very low unless an alarm was sounded.  Dunmeal didn't have much faith in a potion working on the guy."

"We'll probably find the potions, ropes and hooks for climbing, maybe even a tiny harness, cuffs, chains, leg irons, and gags on the shelves or packed away."

"The vault is in the underground tunnels below the hall."

Adiel traces a route with his finger from the main staircase to the vault on a much less detailed map with sections missing.

"Strangely, there's no mention of any guards at the vault, on the holiday or otherwise.  Dunmeal had the tools and the skills necessary to work the vault door lock open, although he listed some other possible methods of disabling the lock."

Adiel shifts some papers around, sliding a diagram of the vault lock and a drawing of part of the vault door where the lock is located, so that the paper covers the drawings of Beindra and Oscaronius.  The vault door is small and not very imposing.  There's another much more involved mechanism diagram sitting nearby.

"The real security of the vault isn't the door, but the lockboxes.  There are several of them in the vault.  The lockboxes are warded against magic and incorrect tempering with them releases a diabolic miasma that instantly kills everything in the vault!"

Adiel's eyebrows rise.

"I'd be more concerned with THAT than The Exarch.  Instant magical death.  That's serious."

"The lockboxes are rooted in place somehow.  Immovable, and too large to fit through the vault door anyhow.  Dunmeal planned to use a magical monocle to find the lockbox containing the mirror.  Then Oscaronius would use his trained miniature nuglets to safely open the lockbox.  Dunmeal notes that there should be enough loot in that lockbox to make everyone happy, but doesn't list any specifics.  He does, however, note that opening a second box would be time consuming, dangerous, and greedy, but not impossible if absolutely necessary.  I sure wouldn't want to take a second chance of triggering the instant death if I didn't have to."

"Here's a drawing of the inner workings of the lockboxes," Adiel says, handing a large paper with several folds in it to Oscaronius.  "That part is all up to you and your nuglets, Oscaronius."

"The way out was pretty simple.  They would just backtrack up the main staircase, past the still knocked out, or at the very least bound guards, back to the forge and out the way they came in.  Once again he hoped they wouldn't run into Gotrig at the stairs.  Anyone else he was willing to fight his way past to get out."

"That was how Dunmeal was going to do it.  Clearly, we have some problems using that plan exactly.  We don't have Beindra to open the delivery door from the inside or serve the knock-out drinks to the guards.  We don't have Dunmeal to get the vault door open either.  Additionally, I think we have some ways to improve on his plan."

Adiel rubs his hands together and claps them once.

"Let's start with the way in.  There's the front gates.  This has a few obvious disadvantages.  It throws stealth right to the wind from the very start.  It would be more heavily guarded than the staircase.  Fighting our way in is almost certain to trigger an alarm and draw Gotrig.  Maybe we could talk our way in."

"There are shuttered and barred windows on the second and third floor.  These might be easier to get in or out of than the chimney and the delivery door.  For example, Ros or one of the others of us might be able to get them open from outside.  There could be guards on the second level near the main staircase too, which would mean getting past two sets of guards to get underground."

"There's also an underground waterway used for smuggling and for drinking water in times of siege."

Adiel points the waterway entrance out on the poorly detailed underground tunnels map, and shows a path to the vault from there that doesn't pass the main staircase.

"The current along this route in is strong and the distance is too far for swimmers.  It flows through an underground channel with few if any places to come up for air.   Humans or dwarves would drown before getting to the tunnels under Brazmird Hall.  There is a grate at this entrance.  The mechanism to open it is tricky from the waterway, but it's not locked or guarded.  If someone could get there, getting in wouldn't be too hard.  Since we'd already be underground this would bypass the guards at main staircase.  On the other hand, if just one person got in this way they'd have to get to one of the other entrances to let the others in.  The waterway path downstream of the entrance leads out of Sloss Hinterplatz.  It's not likely to drown anyone who is going with the current.  Dunmeal thought that swimming against the current from outside Sloss Hinterplatz would be impossible too, so he disregarded this entrance."

"It's likely we'll have to get past the guards at the staircase twice, once on the way in and again on the way out.  We don't have Beindra to serve them the spiked drinks.  Other options include a very quick and quiet ambush, a distraction to lead them away, fascinating them with harper songs, talking our way past, spells to render them helpless, or sneaking by with invisibility."

"We'll also need a way to unlock the vault door.  I don't think any of us has the skills necessary to open the lock with Dunmeal's tools if we can find them.  Dunmeal mentioned a key to the vault door in Kadrick's quarters on the third floor.  That comes with an increased risk of encountering guards, Kadrick, and Gotrig.  He also mentioned some sort of 'pop putty'.  I don't know if he secured any here.  Acid would be an option to destroy the lock, and unlike the lockboxes, the vault lock is not warded against magic."

"We're not going to need Dunmeal's monocle to find the portal plate or the mirror.  A simple detect magic spell should do the trick.  If we're lucky they'll both be in the same lockbox.  More likely we'll need to open two boxes to get both."

Adiel stops.  He takes a long breath and looks around at each of you.

"Now I'm just talking pragmatically here.  While we owe it to Dunmeal to get the mirror so he can free his friend, we NEED the portal plate to save the world from Kramishir."

He gives that a moment to sink in.

There's a long awkward silence, but before Adiel continues Oscaronious chimes in.

"Whoa Nelly, we're in a peck of trouble here.  Mayhaps I can train the critters to handle this," he says shaking the complex plans to the lockboxes.  "In two fortnights, maybe three!  In just one sundown and sunrise?  Impossible."

Sirrot asks "the lockboxes are warded against magic? Does that include jolts of electricity or acid splashes? Because it might be possible with these plans to target a specific linkage within the lockbox to free the contents."

"What are the lockboxes made of - materials?  Can we smash through them if we can't use something on the hinges or locks, like Sirrot's suggestion?

"It's a shame we can't open them underwater, with the current washing away magic clouds of bad.  Or like blowing away breath of someone who had onions for supper."  Mord nodded to Sirrot's suggestion of acid.

Adiel ponders the questions for a little while.

"Magical wards are a lot harder to trick than mechanical barriers.  I think smashing, blasting, or splashing them with acid would certainly trigger the instant death miasma even if it does crack the box open.  We should still consider those ideas for the vault door.  It's not magically protected and we still need to get through it."

"As for the lockboxes, we'll be a lot better off if we can work around the nuglet training problem.  Help us out here, Oscaronious.  How can we make this work?"

"I don't rightly know.  These critters ain't tiny dwarves what we can just whisper instructions to.  A steed must travel a trail a dozen of times to take you the right way by heart.  We don't got a rider to guide this horse and we don't got time for a dozen practice trips," the trainer says, shaking his head.



"There might be some way to block the waterway and flood the underground tunnels."