By the time Saliq has finished his tale, a thousand tiny lights dress the trees in the surrounding woods.  Almost silent during the telling, although at one point, there is a gasp.  When he is done, for many moments there is silence.  Then, the three fly over near to the master illusionist.

"Your magic is different than ours but quite beautiful.  A story full of memory, pride, excitement, loss, and sadness as well.  A real story, it deserves as much. anyone else before we start??".

Inas shifts a little closer to Saliq; more as a show of solidarity than in an attempt to protect him.  Clearly, he's not going to try to contribute anything.

Nemble leaned in, fascinated by the illusionary story that Saliq wove in the air.

"I had no idea."  He said with admiration, as the wizard finished his tale.  "Quite the adventure."

He spared a glance to his recently un-maimed hand, contemplated sharing that story ... but opted against it.  Instead, he turned toward the assemblage of fair folk and awaited their contribution.

Rath had a story, but it wasn't a story to tell. If the fey-folk strapped him down and started pulling out his teeth, he might tell it.

Given the quiet response, the three fey tell their story.  As they begin describing a forest with an open space where the moon shines down onto the smooth forest floor.  There, a single seed takes root.  The words seem to fade and a picture forms in your minds, as if you are seeing it, or dreaming it.  The seasons change and the seed puts forth a sprout, which grows, and grows.  Seasons rush by, the sprout grows into a small sapling that is nearly killed by drought, nibbled by deer, whipped by wind and snow, goes dormant and returns to life each spring.  Decades pass and it grows large and strong, putting off great branches of thick leaves.  Small faeries move into it and begin making it their home, as do many birds and squirrels, insects and all manner of creature.   Years and years pass and you notice there are several leaves that have turned brown, the rest are still green, but the faeries gather around the dark leaves. Concern on their faces.  They later gather near the tree and perform a ceremony, small lights rise up and vanish into the air, heading off in all directions.   As the weeks pass, the brown creeps deeper into the branches, and one affected branch snaps off in the wind, to dangle and twist.  It is yet another week gone past when a great bird flies down to land in the tree.

An Eagle!  It inspects the tree before using its great claws to pull the broken limb free and then flying down to the ground, and there transforming into a brown robed man, one Saliq, Inas, and Rath recognize, though he looks older and more worn about the edges.  Again, you hear a gasp from the many fey in attendance.  The Great Druid lays a hand upon the tree, and gold light flows into it.  Several of the brown leaves fall to the ground, but mostly return to green.  The tree is healed.

As the images fade, the say, "As you can see, we are already allied".

'Truly your magic is a thing of beauty and wonder noble fey,' Saliq said, acknowledging the three tiny beings before him with a nod of his head. He smiled. 'It is an honour. I imagine no dull witted orc or greedy brigand would last long against your skills. And it is good to know our friend is your friend.'

"We were surprised when he appeared in your own story, but we cannot claim him as a friend, we commonly protect these woods, and so are allied, but we can't really imagine he has any friends.  Now, we continue the story....".

The sun rises, its a warm morning, and it gets uncomfortable sleeping through it.  Yawns follow dry mouths, and tugging needs to visit a bush and relieve the pressure building on bladders.  No one is on guard, but everyone is well rested.  It hours past sunrise.

"Shit," Rathmus muttered, rousing the others even if they were already starting to open their eyes. "Saliq. Inas. Get up." He staggered to his feet. "Nemble. Cragspire. We slept."

Rath quickly checked his gear, to see if he was missing anything, and then he hustled off to take a pee before doing more to figure out their situation and what to do next.

A quick check of the camp finds very little different about it.  There are few packs, or pouches with draw strings where the strings/latches have been tied shut with elaborate knots, but nothing is missing or damaged.

Breaking camp, it is a short trip to the sight of the golem attack.  It has been nearly a week since that day, so many of the signs of battle are already gone, but there are several large trees knocked to the ground where the monster emerged from the forest.

Inas scouts around for tracks and finds a lot of them, many deer tracks and other smaller footprints, perhaps the creatures who rode the deer,  they seem to range all over the place, as well as those of the golem.  It seemed to be in this area for some many days, as if going in circles.

Rath checks his compass and sees it is now facing south-east, directly towards the higher peaks of the Iron Mountains.

Inas sighs.

"Southeast, then?"

The leader in the wild, Inas' suggestion is about the only sensible one.  The party moves out and continues along the dwarven road that leads higher and higher into the side of the Iron Mountains.  Shortly after a short stop for a lunch, the entryway to higher roads comes into few.  Where there left it a week ago, it was an elegant archway guarded by rather casual dwarves.  Now, its rubble, and a dozen stout dwarves wearing heavy mail are guarding it.

Inas greets the dwarves.  Assuming the party is not attacked, his greeting includes the obvious question:

"What happened here?"

One the dwarves recognizes Inas from earlier in the week.

"Last night, jus' past dark, a big ugly giant came stompin' outta the trees and knocked our gate down like it was a toy.  Hurt a few of the guards too, but went straight up to the main road that runs through the Heart of the Mountain.  It tore down another gate on its way up there so, since it didn't seem to want to fight us, we jus' opened the rest of the gates and let it go.  We weren't 'aving any luck hurting it.   It entered the deep road, but it ne're come out tha' other side. Round midnight there was a minor quake, so we think the rock trolls might have stopped it".

Saliq frowned, less certain about the 'rock trolls'. Still no sense causing a panic.

'We have a little healing magic if your men need it,' he told the dwarf who had spoken up. 'We're trying to destroy that giant thing before it does anything worse.'

Nemble followed the dwarves' gaze as they mentioned the deep road.  Suppressing a shudder, he tried not to think of what a quake might have done to the stability of the caverns and tunnels within the mountain.

"It seems," He said. "The only way out is through."

"Ah, well, thank ya' fer the offer, but our healers are well on'it, tha' injuries were all from the crumbling of the gates, tha' damn thing ne're raised a hand to hurt any ov us, naught even to defend itself.  Course', we couldn't put a scratch on it.  Follow the midlin' roads that lead up to the great stairs, gotta' go up to the main entrance if you want to use the road through the heart ov the mountain.."

Doc was never one to dally with fae.  Nope.  That was something that never ended well.

However, when they met up with the others who'd been harrowed by the giant he wondered how things would proceed.  In time, his companions would learn more about him and why it was good that he was joining them on this hunt.  He just hoped that he didn't have to hurt the big guy.  Sometimes, very rarely, giants were just as intelligent as smaller folk.  But, most of the time they weren't and needed to be nudged in a more befitting way towards less populated areas, or put down.

"Glad to hear it.  But, if anyone as the worst of it and needs a hand...know it is offered."

Inas nods. "And tracking won't be hard."

From anyone else this might be thought to be a joke.  But Inas isn't smiling.

To say the dwarven mason's are masterful would be an insult.  As the party makes it way up through the steep mountain roads, finally coming to a long and very steep set of stairs, rising up the side of the great mountain, time and again their breath is taken by the artistry, sheer effort, and amazing views.

Doc, although not a native of the Iron Mountains, has visited their great Halls before.  The great city of the dwarves lies farther to the south, but all these roads, and the three highways that cut through the mountains to connect east and west are built for commerce.  You can spend weeks trying to go around the mountains, facing weather, dangers, delays, or cut through the mountain, in a safe and quick way, for a small fee of course.

The highway closest to the dwarven halls is called the starry road, the one to the north is known as the keyhole pass, and the one you are travelling is called the starless highway, it is the only one that crosses into the Heart of the Mountain.  A place of lore amongst dwarves, as being enchanted or haunted, depending on the story.

By the time you reach the top of the stairs, your legs are feeling mighty jelly like, but as your crest the top and see a great entry with fifty foot statues on either side, images of a dwarf king and queen book ending a passage that is a full twenty feet high and wide.  The stairs end at a wide flat space, clearly there are other ways to arrive at this place, likely with horses and wagons as well.

There is but a single visible guard, who waves you over,  "Five gold each to pass through the Starless Highway.  Take all the time yeh want but dunna linger in the Heart, straight in and out ov that chamber if ya know wots good fer you!".

Saliq nodded. Not a cheap price exactly but they could afford it.

'Thank you master dwarf,' he said. 'Do many humans use this road?'

The guard looks a bit surprised by the question, or any question.

"Turmgal Steelhammer, ov tha' clan of steelhammers, forgive mah manners.  Too long at tha gate.  This road is mostly used bah humans and Sea-elves, the bounty of the sea doesn't last long, so ships docking full ov' bounty, moves thar' wares quickly this away to thar' customers inland..."

Rath strikes a rather casual stance and checks his compass, and sure it enough, it is pointing straight towards the entry to the mountain.   He hands over his five gold, and with a grim look, heads into the Starless Highway.

Twenty feet wide, smooth as glass on the bottom, with the top and sides just rough hewn, the road leads down rather steeply.   There is a single checkpoint about a hundred feet in, with just two guards, each standing next to a single lever.  They do not question you and simply wave you forward.  You see no gate, portcullis or other device, but surely the levers do something to shut down the passage if need be.

For the next mile, you move deeper and deeper into the mountain.  Occasionally there are passages to one side or the other, they are also 15 to 20 feet wide, but these are only 4 to 5 feet high.   Doc explains that most connecting tunnels in the dwarven kingdom are designed that way, easy for dwarves to fight in, miserable for taller foes.

The air remains fresh but grows warmer the further you go.  The passage slowly levels out, but it is unremarkable other than the endless darkness.  Without a light spell, the gloom would soon become unbearable.  After several more hours of walking, the passage ahead grows lighter, a deep red glow, and there is a low rumble that throbs through the stone.

Coming out of the tunnel, you enter a huge cavern, hundreds of feet across, with a single fourty foot wide fissure across the entire length of the room.  Straight ahead, a sturdy stone bridge crosses the fissure, and from below, is where the red glow and ebbing rumbling seems to eminate.   You can see on the far wall, the highway continues on the opposite side of the cavern.  This must be the heart of the mountain.

As you eyes adjust, you notice five large boulders just on the other side of the bridge, sitting on a raised mound of dirt.  One of the boulders stands up and turns your direction, it is generally humanoid, but as wide as it is tall, about eight feet of both! it just stands there unmoving.  As your eyes adjust to the new light, the creature comes into focus.

"Stone giant?  Golem?  Earth elemental?"  Doc looks to the others to see if anyone knows the answer.

'I don't know,' Saliq admitted. 'But probably not of dwarf make. As I'm sure I don't need to remind you Durnin dwarves are near incapable of not leaving their mark on stonework and this being seems a little crude to be such work.'