K45 - Poking a sleeping Balrog

Taking care of business

The viceroy, Bain Stonetongue, resumed his command of the expedition and immediately dispatched the ragged remnants of Battlegroup-West to recuperate away from the Balrog's curse. A "lot" from Bronze-Attack was moved forward to keep an eye on the mutinous Mithril-Attack dwarves and the mercenary dwarves of the Adarcer-Attack. 

Bain promoted Roghel MoonOath, Attack-Lord of the Silver, into the inner circle. This was a fitting reward for showing such loyalty during the mutiny while he had been slated by the rebels to become the new viceroy. Bain also covertly entrusted to Sanddan Shieldcrusher, Lot-Herd within the Mithril-Attack, to hound and expose all of the leader of the mutiny such as to sanitize the Mithril into a reliable attack-unit again.

Food for Deema

Khazek had fathered a very live son with an ambiguously alive bride. He returned to Deema, hidden in a lost dwelling off the Hall of Trees. She was well, but getting hungry. Khazek went back to the East Gate and seeked the loremaster. Gesdrek was beyond caring and, althoug capable of speaking with the wraith, ignored his plea. Khazek then proceeded to convince Thordar to follow him and stock up on food. Thordar got a bit nervous when Khazek lead him to leap over the endless chasm by hanging on miner's chains: a setup virtually identical as the moment of Khazek's death where Thordar had been suspected to murder him at the time.

Thordar eventually met with Deema and agreed to bring food on a regular basis. The obsessive curse for Deema had been lifted, and honestly Thordar couldn't fathom quite why he had behaved so irrationally with respect to the bride.

Trolling for a soul

The Viceroy and the inner circle met in his study to decide on the next course of action. With the slaughter of the ancestors at the hands of Battlegroup-West, the loremaster was worried that much of the Balrog's soul had gone back to his reposing corpse. The question was: where could the body be?

Thordar suggested to sacrifice one more ancestor soul and entrust to Khazek the task to shadow the soul on its journey back to the Balrog. Khazek did just that: he flew across the chasm, slew an ancestor and followed its soul down into the depth of Khazad-dum.

Thifaim Chertfoot and the Flint Attack

Soon after Khazek's departure, messengers from the Flint Attack arrived to announce the arrival of the last component of the Emerald Unit. Thifaim Chertfoot was the Flint's attack-lord. The viceroy filled him in on to the situation. Thifaim proved eager to get into the action. He unloaded months worth of food and carts full of tools. His fresh troops showed a marked disdain for the Mithril-Attack and their mutinous reputation.

When Gror reported back for duty, Bain sent him to the 4th deep to scout ahead and find out more about the siege of the Infernals on the Durbagash orcs. Thifaim immediately volunteered to be part of the expedition.

Settling into the 4th Deep

Gror was released from its cell when his father returned and uprooted the mutinous elements. It took him a few days before he returned to duty. Gror insisted to command the scouting and occupation operation on the 4th deep. They descended down to Halin's mine and established a base camp. Gror then sent two lots to explore in a sweep from the East and heading into the city.

Meanwhile, Thordar smelled opportunity and requested his leave from his duty as the viceroy's butler. Bain released him so that he could infiltrate the Flint-Attack. The hitch was that Thordar was already infamous with the Flint-dwarves, much to his surprise. Thordar has offended much of the NCOs in the units in the past, and there he was today, beardless and disfigured: a huge slash across his neck and an unhealing wound caused by blighted corpse in recent past. Each dwarf in the Flint would have gotten out of his way to get Thordar in trouble.

Thordar approached it professionally and linked with the officers in his official position as the viceroy's right arm.  What really normalized his relation with the dwarves was his ability to laugh it up and be one of the boys. Thordar, through professionalism and his natural carousing demeanor had managed to be accepted, although not particularly liked.

This would come handy soon enough.

Flicking a booger on the Balrog

Khazek followed the soul down to the 6th Deep. He passed by richly decorated areas which he assumed to be near Durin's palace. He had to dodge into the dark near the ceiling to avoid detection. He encountered more and more units of infernals busying along the main highway. He passed the endless stairs, but the soul was accelerating and he didn't have much time to explore. 

He followed up until he got to a large hall where a 6m diameter well was spewing hot air and sulfurous fumes. The soul of the ancestor evaporated and got stuck at high speed into the well. Khazek dove as well and suffered a grievous wound from the arrow of an infernal sentry. He went down into a huge cave, some thousand yard below. The cave was filled with steam and a river of lava was flowing from North to South down below. 

Khazek wandered for a while and decided to follow the river of lava to the North. Time passed, hours, maybe days. Until he managed to arrive into a gigantic chamber.

The Balrog's tomb

At the far end of the cave, which spanned maybe a mile long, was a lake of lava. In the middle of the lake, a hill protruded and on it lay the body of the Balrog. Khazek flew over the cave, bypassing a number of infernal priests and approached the body. Up into the vaulted ceiling, he hid between a number of suspended iron chests. 

The priests were performing some kind of ritual while the Balrog's body was laboriously breathing fire. It was, however, not moving. Khazek floated over the maiar and, true to his old living self, got the urge to spit, pee or flick some kind of bodily fluid on it. The Balrog was half alive, struggling to open his eyes as Khazek flicked his fingers overhead. A burst of fire filled the place, Khazek nearly got roasted in the blast. The priest got excited and started to shout as Khazek understood that it was good time for him to leave the place and head up. 

A powerful earthquake shook Mount Silvertine. Thousands of yards above, as the ground roared and the stonework rattled, Bain and the other had a sinking suspicion that Khazek had something to do with this.

K44 - The long and painful march of Battlegroup West

Life beyond the gate

Bain and Thordar were last pushed out of the East Gate Hall by a mob of mutinous dwarves from the Mithril Attack. Bain had been injured at the hip by a bolt, Thordar was still grievously wounded during the battle with the infernals and was still on the mend. Some 25 loyal dwarves, unarmored and pockmarked from the brawl made for a jolly company.

They descended to the 4th deep to find weapons and a place to rest. Down into Halin's cave, they found old tools and weapons. They rested and launched a number of exploratory scouting parties in all directions. They decided that the gold mines to the South bored the best chance to break into new territory. They explored south but discovered nothing by a fraying network of caves and mines, and no real evidence of a fresh gold vein.

Bain traveled in dream to the surface and found his son, Gror, whimpering in a jail cell. He figured out that Deema was probably dead by then as there were lots of dwarves set on getting rid of the witch. Bain snapped Gror back into the old grumpy and mean commander that he is and took his leave. Work in the real world had to be done.

There was some noises coming from up above into the Endless chasm. Hungry, tired and weary of the growing curse on them, Bain lead the dwarves back to the 1st deep to meet their fate.

Meanwhile in Hatchet Dwelling

After repelling the dwarves that came for the "witch", Khazek figured out that he had to find out that was going on at the Gate. He found Deema behind the door, a silver hatchet in hand, ready to smite the next living dwarf to invade the room.

Khazek approached the dwarves through the Endless Chasm. He found some Adarcer dwarves guarding the ruins of the bridge of Khazad-dum. They were discussing of a mutiny going on. Khazek slipped into the shadows overhead and set out to find out about the mutiny.

In the East Gate, he found two groups of brawling dwarves. One of the group was protecting Bain and Thordar while a group of armed ones was attempting to arrest the viceroy. Khazek intervened by showing himself and sowed terror to anyone watching. It disrupted the brawl such that it became possible for the viceroy and his supported to withdraw beyond a large gate. His attention was drawn to a group of going North to get to "the witch". Fearing for his bride, he left Bain and Thordar to their fate and flew ahead of the withc hunters.

They crossed the Endless Chasm using the miner's chains. Ironically, the very same kind of chains that had costed Khazek his life. Beyond the chasm, they found dwellings that had not been deflied by orcs over the years. Khazek was satisfied that Deema and their unborn child would be safe there. Then, they fell asleep with the sleep of careless child and didn't pulled out of slumber for what looked like days.

A mutiny suspended

Thordar was sent ahead of the dwarves to scout near the East Gate. Instead of an organized hunt for them, Thordar found a feverish scene bordering on panic. There were dwarves from the Ardacer, the unit on garrison duty, begging for guidance regarding what was going on into the Hall of Trees. Thordar was spotted, but nothing came out of this. Thordar figured out that there was worst on their mind than the misguided impulses of the mutinous dwarves.

Bain arrived with Thordar and descended to the Hall of Trees where the source of chaos seemed to emanate. There, he found Drolf ordering volleys of crossbow across the chasm. Gesdrek the Loremaster was there, carefully observing something in the depth of the Hall.

Bain approached Gesdrek and asked for a report. Gesdrek cued them to listen for the sound of war drums. The dwarves from Battlegroup West had made it all the way through and were fighting the ancestors at the far end of the Hall. A faint light from torches could be seen amidst the rows of pillars. All present understood that dwarves killing ancestors was a bad thing for it was slowly releasing fragments of the soul of the Balrog back to its body.

Going in

They resolved to cross the chasm and link with Battlegroup West to order them to stop. Messages using war drums remained unanswered. They piled combustible on a cart and wheeled it on the beams, across the chasm. A Lot (50 dwarves) was tasked to block while the Viceroy and his entourage would advance beside the burning cart.

The ancestors were frenetically engaged against Farin's dwarves and didn't interfere with the party until much later. The order was to strictly push back without "rekilling" the dead until the cart had reached the line of Battlegroup West. It became quite clear that by then, a lot of damage had been done on the precious ancestors. Thordar went ahead to locate the commander of the force while Bain busied himself to order a withdrawal.

The BG-West dwarves had been distorted into ragged shells by the curse and the continuous fighting since their entry in the city, some 3 weeks ago. They were barely controllable, but the Viceroy's legendary leadership prevailed. Thordar found the leader and "convinced" him to order a break from assault. Farin was apparently long-dead, only 300 or so of the 900 original dwarves were still standing.

As they pulled out of the Hall of Trees, Khazek roused from his sleep and ran into them as they marched back across the chasm. Gesdrek told them that he feared the most for the fate of the Balrog as much of his soul had been released back to it by now.

Time was getting short, assuming that he is right, for if the old King of Moria was to rise again, Khazad-dum would be lost for another 1000 years.

K42 - Much ado about a bride.

Summary of the campaign so far

The date is June 24th of the 15th year of the Fourth Age. We are approximately three months since the expedition to reclaim Khazad-dum left Erebor. Since, they visited Thrandhuil hall and chaseda wraith there. They then entered Mirkwood, fought off orcs, killed a sorcerer, discovered a way to the underworld and were humbled by blighted-corpse. Thordar got cursed and knows that he will, in turn, become a blighted corpse upon his death. They made friends with the new elf Queen of Lothlorien, entered Moria and found it littered with the animated bodies of generations of ancestor dwarves. They fought off hunting orcs, delved to the 4th Level to discover that the ancestors had been animated by a race of canine creatures known as the Infernals (The infernals were released in Middle-Earth upon the slaying of the Kraken by Gandlaf, Elphir of Dol Amroth, Beorn, Gwaihir and Quickbeam during a side quest). There, they pried the mythical mother of the 7th incarnation of Durin from the clasp of a black pudding. Deema (aka "The Bride") unwillingly (?) bewitched all dwarves who set eyes on her. Mayhem ensued amongst the accursed dwarves. Their loremaster discovered that the ancestors' souls were harvested to revive the Balrog. 

On their way to the 4th deep, they ran into Durbagash orcs and an important goblin prisoner. The prisoner was a prince of the Snagaii kingdom of goblins. A deal was struck to cooperate to defeat the orcs and the infernals festering in the depth of Khazad-dum. While attempting to rescue the viceroy's butler, Khazek, a dwarf secretely  prophesied to sire the 7th incarnation of Durin, plummeted to his death in the endless chasm. The expedition to recover his body met the ranger's wandering soul, and ran afoul of a small number of infernals. 

Elf-sorcery

Roghel MoonOath, reluctant coup leader.

Bain, the Viceroy of Khazad-dum, was pulled out of his dream travels through the old city by an aide. Attack-Lord Roghel MoonOath was demanding an audience with him. Bain made him wait in silence while his aide pulled together a breakfast and a huge mug of coffee.  Roghel explained that the dwarves were weary and rumour was that they were slating him as a replacement for Bain's failing command. Roghel confessed that Bain was seen as too close to elves for the dwarves' taste. He demanded that Lathmelen be expelled, that he gave up his elven amulet, and cleared the rumour about a witch clouding his judgement. 

Bain use a straightforwards approach and explained in details the reason why the elf was useful to the expedition. He also explained that the amulet was critical to speak with the spirit of Khazek, and that anyone seeing the witch would be prey to an irrational obsession. Roghel was most satisfied by Bain's diplomacy, and felt privileged to be now included in the viceroy's inner circle. 

They decided to rotate the troops such that Mithril and Silver attacks would stand down to recover from the curse. In their stead, Drolf's Adarcer-Attack, Drolf's private army, would move forward to keep the approaches from undead and orcs alike. 

Little murder between friends

Thordar and Gror were laid side by side in the infirmary to recover from life threatening wounds. The cuts, made by infernal blades, reluctantly started to scar with the help of elf magic from Lathmelen. A disease was growing in the mind of Gror. He was convinced that Thordar had killed Khazek during his rescue so as to eliminate romantic competition for the heart of Deema. His rumination grew until Gror reached the tipping point. He slipped out of his bed and climbed on Thordar's. He began smothering the butler with a pillow. 

Thordar tried to fight back while he still could. He eventually managed to stun Gror using an ear clap (good thinking here, son). He tossed him to the ground and regained his breath. Gror convinced the orderlies rushing in that Thordar was a murderer. The orderlies did not even paid attention to the protests of the butler and isolated him into another room. 

When informed of the event, the viceroy met with both dwarves. He forbade Gror from approaching Thordar. He then ensured that Thordar had done nothing wrong once more. Thordar suspected that his liege had a hand into the attempted murder. The viceroy made a concinving case against this delusional belief. 

Beardless in Khazad-dum

Thordar was in a terrible shape. A eunnuch, he spent the best of his life compensating with outrageous machismo. But now, his false beard had fallen in the endless chasm, revealing a unhealing wound to his cheek where the blighted ghouls had tore his flesh. He felt exposed, weakened. 

A walk to the dining hall didn't help. Dwarves were laughing behind his back. He could feel now that the respect due for being the viceroy's string man had somehow vanished. For the first time in his life, Thordar felt weak, his legendary and foolhardy self-confidence melted away. In an audience with the viceroy, his request to be released was turned down. Bain explained that his wild ways weren't the reason why he was his butler, and that much work was to be done to unravel the leader of the Putsch against him. 

Bain just knew which button to press and Thordar felt better about himself. The survival of the viceroy depended on his ability to find and eliminate the threat. Who else would be able to do this?

A wedding since death do them apart

Deema the irresistible.

Khazek wandered away from the living as they hiked back to the Eastern Gate of Khazad-dum. The torches, the chatters and the living folks were grating against his better nature. He set out to visit Deema. Although he was dead, his attraction to the mother of all dwarves was still strong. 

He found her quarters by flying through the endless chasm. The guards were clearly instructed not to approach and were playing dice on the floor at the other end of the atrium. The place, a former dwelling for surface farmers, was quiet as a tomb. He hid his elven sword on a high ledge, and entered her room through the front door. He found her quietly sitting on a chair, cross stitching. 

She was visible and audible as her body existed both in the real and the world of the shadows. Unlike in the past, she was relaxed and pleasant. She asked many questions to Khazek, and revealed that she knew that her husband would reveal himself as a spirit rather than a dwarf in the flesh. She insisted that Khazek's body be given a proper burial and be laid to rest on the 4th level when all this madness was sorted out. 

Their souls and their hands touched as another page in the history of Middle-Earth was being written. There would be no need for fanfare nor large ceremony. Their communion was sufficient to ensure that the last of the Durin was to rule once more. 

They were both happy, peaceful.

The inquisitors

Peaceful that is until a loud knock on the door interrupted their private time. Khazek poked his head through the door and sent half a dozen running in fear. The light of the torches was irritating, but Khazek was capable to see enough to act. He reached for the chest of two of the nearest dwarves. His icy wraith hands chilled their hearts and the two dwarves fell to the ground either stunned or unconscious. The other dwarves got so frightened that one of them fell from the balcony to the ground a story below.

Khazek recognized the insigna and identified the dwarves as part of the Mithril attack. All now seemed quiet, so Khazek returned to Deema.

A wheel set in motion

The session ended as Gror was consuming liquid courage (we'll roll for your inebriation level next session) so as to pay a visit to Deema himself. He was sure that she would choose him now that Khazek was dead and Thordar disgraced. This is when a group of Mithril battle-guard burst into the dining hall, spouting that the witch was real and had killed many dwarves. A general call to arm was raised. Terror and panic had come to the dwarves from within.

K31 - Dear Diary...

This session continues on the dungeon delve involving all PCs deep into the 4th level. They left to find out more about the curse of the Balrog. They found it. The following is the narrative as recounted by the mysterious bride that just got rescued.

K30 - The Love Polygon

The bride of the unborn reincarnation of Durin had to be put away into a hidden chamber of Khazad-dum until the day of her wedding would come. The viceroy saw her in a dream, and so the Royal party left the Tomb of Arvin in a quest to find that pretty needle in a wraith-infested heystack. What they found was a giant black pudding guarding the sarcophagus of the bride where she lay, at the threshold of bonified death. 

Both Khazek and Thordar saw in her eyes what they interpreted as the promise of true and everlasting love. 

The black pudding is playing with its food

But hey, the job wasn't done. Khazek pulled the bride from the sarcophagus. She was frail, pale and shivering. Her knuckles raw from beating from within the stone receptacle. Khazek pulled her gently and huddled her, careful not to smear her with the acid burning through his heavy chain. He gently kissed her, she was gasping for air. Was this passion? Thordar, boiling with rage lunged forward and punched Khazek in a mad hope to make him drop the bride into his hands. Khazek avoided the blow and misinterpreted it as an overenthusiastic offer to help carrying her to safety.

Lathmelen stumbled while jumping over the pudding, she fell feet first into the caustic mud. Her boots were now smouldering with a brown smoke, but her adarcer shin protector remained unaffected. A foot slipped out, but the second foot stayed stuck. The wraith that was wrestling her for the sword wandered off as she became invisible to it once that she let the sword go. A second attempt to free herself sent her face first to the ground with one foot still mired into the muck. The black pudding rolled over her body and began burning at her clothes and hair.

K29 - The dwarf bride

In the previous episode, Interview with a tombstone, the intrepid royal party has made their way to the crypt level of the old city. Bain, in a dream, can hear the plight of a young female trapped in a sarcophagus. The dream is true alright, as he is wearing the Eye of Irmo, which lets him travels around during his sleeping hours. 

The party is made of 13 dwarves: Bain, viceroy of Khazad-dum (PC ); Thordar, right-hand of the viceroy and daredevil-fencer-rogue (PC); Khazek, irreverent ranger-extraordinaire (PC); Lathmelen, Niece of the Elf-Queen of Greenwood (PC); Gror, son of Bain and frontline commander; Gesdrek, Maiar loremaster; and 7 dwarves from a Battle-guard of the Bronze Attack (Nalik, Rogi, Helg, Kelvar, Volkvak, Rakmir, Nordan). 

Delving silent, delving deep

Gror "butterfinger" faces off with the pudding while a wraith
prances around with Khazek's elven blade.

The night was long for the dwarves as they bunked deep into Arvin's crypt. There was whimpers, and Volkvak certainly lost sleep and looked terrible when the delvers woke up.

Bain explained to the other how to get to the Bride's crypt. The party ate a bit and set out along a major artery to the West. Khazek demonstrated an almost prescient sense of direction and lead the dwarves soon into a side passage in order to keep as close as possible to the description provided by Bain. Lathmelen stayed close behind, as ever impressed by the "young prince".

They wove deeper to the the far reaches of Khazad-dum. Khazek had a close encounter with a wraith and swing wildly into the dark. The wraiths had started to accumulate on their tails, both repulsed and attracted by the dwarves' torch light. The wraiths were particularly interested in Khazek's Ghost Blade and Lathmelen's glowing sword. It occurred to Bain that, after seeing Khazek nearly trip and struck down by a wraith (a pissed one), that if their guide was to go, they would be prisoners of an impossible labyrinth.

Bain's pulse quickened, he started to stumble. He was acutely aware that the minds of his dwarves had started to fade because of the Balrog's curse. He became agitated, jumping around to dodge the real and the imaginary wraiths of his ancestors. Khazek picked up on this and became agitated as well. The other dwarves grew concerned, but did their best to sooth the torment of their friends.

Lathmelen kept a steady eye and found a hidden passage which concealed entrance had been damaged in the past. They wondered about the architectural patterns, but none of the party member could identify details. They proceeded inward to eventually enter a large hall.