What in the black hells? Moving rocks?…..ok, let me back up…

My name is Khazrik Cinderbrand, proud member of the Blackfume Brotherhood in the great mountain hold of Axeholme. Aye, that’s right, I’m a Great Mountain Dwarf and proud of it. Blackfume Brotherhood you ask? Well, most of it is a secret, and we are its guardians–the black blood of the mountains, the power of coal. But I’m bound to the Oath of the Black Breath, so shall not share more (although, all will be shared in our upcoming Dwarves of the Dragonback Mountain book). Nevertheless, this is me! Ya, I carry a lasso…my pops was a renowned rope user–don’t worry about it!

I was ordered to travel to Coppercore, with several of my brothers and sisters. Our goal was to harden and forge special chains. Ya see, there is a great trap door below the human town of Coppercore that leads to the “unknown”. Ahh, you caught the quotes, eh? well, so most of us dwarves know a little what’s below there….a great dwarven temple and city….but as most dwarven establishments, it was overrun. So yes, we want to help open the trap door to regain a foothold, but at the same time, some dwarves want to keep it closed to keep the horrors within. Its a long feud.

But I didn’t even get to work on it. Ya see, my traveling band was ambushed by damn bandits along the Trade Way. I barely escaped, with just my rope, forge cleaver (battle axe) and a random shield. I wearily made my way to Coppercore, only to find myself in the midst of a great debate. Should we help with opening the trap door? We got too many working on the chains? We got….bah…its all boring. To sum up, I was out of a job because of waiting and I spent my last copper. Luckily, I made a friend of Ghemel…or at least enough of a friend that he was willing to buy me some chain mail armor if I was to join him on a quest with some strange folk.

I accepted of course, as I was low on coin and mayhaps this would lead me to finding these bandits that ambushed my initial group on the road. Our quest was to follow some boy…Jorn, or Yorn…bleh, the humans all look alike, but for whatever reason, Ghemel and gang wanted to follow this boy to a cave that had ‘moving rocks’ within….uh…ok.

Well, we explored the place. Evil dripped everywhere. I mean, our theory was that some poor sap warlock dwelled here and summoned some sort of banngeist, ya know–an evil ghost demon thing…and well, we found the warlock impaled by a spear of stone. Of course…this was discovered after fighting some crazed rock demon that ambushed us as a cloud of dust with pebbles pummeling us before it formed into a rocky humanoid creature with baleful eyes. I was a bit surprised….errr, not at the demon of course…I have hardened instincts for survival and danger don’t ya know…but was more surprised that most of our party fled and scattered. Ok, maybe not that surprised..they are humans after all, but Ghemel and I held our ground. Some type of wizard…or warrior? I don’t know, he carries a shield, but he cast some sort of inky substance that made the creature slip, and then he threw a torch and made it burn. Strange fellow…but sorta useful? Anyways, the creature fled and then we were left with finding the other teammates that had ran off in different directions to explore the cave. Feels like a solid group!!!

After finding the others and exploring the cave, we met the rock creature once more. It was on a cliff, throwing rocks…as well as creating these stony hands to erupt from the earth to grasp us and hold us fast. I was lucky as I got close enough without getting held. There we were, trying to figure out a way to get up the cliff to fight this thing and no one had any options…until I thought of my Pa….I grabbed my lasso and with a VERY lucky…err..skillful throw, I was able to trap the creature and pull him off the cliff!

Anyways, with a few powerful blows with my forge cleaver…and sure..some help from the others, we were able to take this creature down. We found a valuable ore vein, and Ghemel and I set to work while the others continued to explore the cave and get into trouble.

A successful quest and I was able to pay Ghemel back most of the coin I owed him. But I still owed 40 gold…so I had to keep tagging along. A short stop at Farholme before the group decided to go to the Willowmere and seek out some rumors of bandits wearing red boots? Sounds bizarre to me. I don’t really want to go…but I owe 40 gold! We were about to set off, but some miner named Larvin or Marvin or something asked if we would guard him as he set claim to a mine. I love mining!! 2 gold per day! Well, the group decided that since it was along the way, that sure, why not!

Imagine trying to get a wagon and a donkey up through the mountains. It sucked. Wagon kept getting stuck, we had to keep blazing a trail….and it was raining!

Bleh…well after the 2nd day or so, we did get some excitement! The Crimson Legion attacked us…a ragtag group of orcs, hobgoblins, and other ugly creatures. We fought hard, and I was tagged several times with arrows. I barely saved Larvin…Marvin? who knows…I healed him quickly as Draven set fire to his greasy spells and one of our warriors…I forget his name..Vegiepeel or Vegiemeal or something? Anyways, he is pretty skilled with a 2-handed sword…and we fought them off!

We found a magic shield off the leader, but our wizard friend, Draven argued with Ghemel as he wanted the shield. Shield and quarterstaff…eh? I guess Ill be hiding behind our mage from now on.

As our journey progresses, we come upon a battle scene. Dead corpses of the Boar Clan as well as the Fenrites. The battle seemed to be over one of the Boar Clan burial mounds. Ghemel, prayed to his gem god, and was able to find a beautiful dwarvish crafted mace…which he promptly traded to the wizard so he could get the shield…WHAT? I’m not happy about that…nor am I happy that our archer in our group wields a dwarven forged hammer. These weapons will probably lose their luster in a human’s grip. But hey…I still owe 40 gp..err..38 gp, as one day has passed.

Hopefully we can find Larvin’s mine, then go beyond to Oakvale, and finally into the Willowmere on our important quest of finding those that wear red boots. Honestly, not sure if the chain mail and debt were worth this quest…