Around Yule, the mysterious Invisible Man came to see Yspadadden. He had a commission for the Dwarf from Gamesh, the orc chieftain who had previously sent unsolicited gifts to Yspadadden for slaying a rival (Galendor – F22). He would pay a fair price for the forging of a morning star. Yspadadden scowled – he only ever charged a fair price – and he didn’t work for orcs. He said as much to the Invisible Man. Whereupon the elusive entity revealed that obtaining the weapon was part of a long-term endeavour on his part to infiltrate Gamesh’s warband and bring about his downfall. He also knew that it was in Gamesh’s thoughts at some point to take Dingradur, if only to succeed where his rival Zargon had failed.
Yspadadden had no pressing work at the time and had never made a morning star. He did not generally work to the ultimate detriment of a customer, but he was an orc who ultimately wished him ill. Perhaps he would stretch a point and undertake the work and see what arose from it. The commission came with some detailed instructions for foul black magic rituals with some evil smelling herbs for quenching the weapon after forging. These Yspadadden tossed contemptuously aside. He would make the best weapon he could but he was not going to taint it with this nonsense. He retired to his forge. When he emerged, some weeks later he had a morning star wrought of an alloy rich in adamantine. He thought it good work, amongst the best he had ever produced. He called it Thunderheart.
The negotiations over price were long and hard. It was ever thus, out here in the wilderness, where normal rates of exchange did not always hold. However, Yspadadden obtained a price with which he was satisfied. The Invisible Man brought the agreed trade items. “I grow weary of Gamesh, his petty rages and his cruelty,” he said. “If you will join me in my enterprise against him, I can bring you and a group of companions by secret ways to his stronghold so that you may slay him.” The dwarf said he would gather his comrades and put it to them. He had no doubt that they too would agree. Before he relinquished Thunderheart, he marked it with a secret, invisible sigil, that meant it would fly to his hand if summoned.
It was not difficult to gather a band of heroes for the task. It seemed that the Chittagong princeling with whom they oft-times adventured, had found himself a kingdom. Instead of planning great deeds of exploration and arms he was now busying himself with politics, administration and other dull matters of statecraft. So Wilf, Ubaron, Trevillion and Girindor came swiftly at his call. Wilf, ever keen to buy a new weapon bought a two-handed blade from Yspadadden named Death Glance, a blade as swift in defence as it was keen in attack. They equipped themselves with orc-killing arrows of his manufacture. Ranulf, of course, was ever keen to slay orcs. A famous warrior, a huge man called Smerlas who was sworn to William the Marshall, also joined the party at Yspadadden’s invitation. He owed the dwarf a service, it seemed.
Gamesh lived in the citadel of an old Dwarven stronghold named Thangoria. The Invisible Man provided a map and the intelligence that there was a secret door into the complex that the orcs had never discovered. Yspadadden and Girindor flew up into the mountains to reconnoitre the door. They found it easily enough. Surprisingly, although dwarf wrought, the runes upon it were elvish. Yspadadden recognised it as Friendship Door – a relic of a more trusting age when elves and dwarves were closer. The password was easy to determine (a variation on the old “speak friend and enter”) but it required moonlight to activate. It opened onto a passageway that ended in a hidden dwarven door that just pushed open but was probably hard to detect on the other side. They did not open it, lest they give themselves away, and returned to Dingradur.
They agreed an auspicious night when the moon was high and bright. The Invisible Man said that he would be on the inside and doing all he could to cause confusion and distraction to ensure that the orcs responded slowly to the incursion. Girindor flew the party to the door in the mountainside. He certainly found the mountainside. Fortunately, no-one was badly hurt and they hauled themselves up to the secret door. They took a brief rest in the passage beyond to warm up after their surprise roll in the snow, then Yspadadden pushed open the dwarf door. The dwarves stopped briefly to locate and familiarise themselves with the opening mechanism before allowing it to close silently behind them.
They turned to the right along a broad, featureless passage, followed by a series of steps leading downwards, until they came – as shown on the Invisible Man’s map – to a narrow span across a wide and bottomless crevasse. Ubaron and Yspadadden cast Fly spells, and crossed the chasm. There was a Gate there that was partially open. They flew through and surprised two indolent orcs who were supposed to be on guard. They slew them quickly. One fell against the gong they were supposed to bang if they detected intruders, but it was hardly a resounding alarm. The rest of the party crossed the bridge unmolested and they hurried on into the heart of the Citadel.
They cut their way through dozens of orcs all told. Many of these were of quite unusual size. There were also an uncommon number of female orcs, most of whom proved to be sorcerors, and a number of great wargs. They made their way to a huge cavern, dominated at the far side by the gatehouse they understood to be Gamesh’s lair. There they fought a great battle and put those of their foes who were not slain to flight. Gamesh did not come out of the tower to fight with his folk.
After the battle, Wilf sniffed out an evil fane and set off in that direction, followed by Trevillion. The rest made their way to the gatehouse. There by a mix of Girindor’s sorcery and the brute strength of Ranulf with his a battle hammer and Smerlas who had had the forethought to bring a great siege axe, they set about the main door. They first managed to knock a hole in the portal. Girindor peered through and cast a wall of fire to prevent interference as they worked further on the door. He then gave a cry and staggered back as he was blinded by some kind of black magic curse.
Smerlas was first through the door. Alone amongst the party, he did not wear a protection from fire, but Girindor had rectified this with a spell. There he encountered an orc of truly stupendous size. Smerlas was himself a very large man but this orc overtopped him by two or three feet. Gamesh – for it was he – wielded a huge double handed mace. He fetched Smerlas a mighty blow that staggered him back. A black magic curse took hold of him, and he found himself bereft of all his luck. Ranulf sprang into the gap he left.
Yspadadden had a sheaf of orc-bane arrows and shot one over Ranulf into the giant orc. The ancient magics that he had wrought into its head were so deadly that the merest scratch would kill an orc stone dead in seconds. He had slain Gamesh’s rival Zargon with such a dart, merely by stabbing him in the leg with it. It was a good shot, but Gamesh seemed hardly to feel it. Yspadadden was dismayed. Gamesh certainly had bloodlines other than orcish in his veins – was he immune to the orc-bane? A second well-aimed arrow had as little effect as the first.
Meanwhile Ranulf exchanged blows with Gamesh and manoeuvred so that Ubaron could join the fray. Gamesh struck Ubaron hard. Again, Gamesh seemed unharmed by the counter-blows of Man or Dwarf. Ubaron pulled out a wand and blasted Gamesh with an ice storm so ferocious in its effect that Ranulf, caught in its periphery, was badly snowburnt and left with iclicles in his beard. Still the giant orc stood. Yspadadden shot his last orc-bane arrow and hit Gamesh right between the eyes. He stood there motionless for a second and then, like a mighty tree falling in the forest, the great orc crashed to the ground. Yspadadden, taking no chances, leaped forward, to lop Gamesh’s head from his body.
A cursory search of the gatehouse had found it devoid of live hostiles. They did however, find the corpses of two more large orcs – both female. Neither had a mark upon their bodies. Yspadadden began to have an inkling of the reasons for Gamesh’s uncanny resilience. Wilf and Trev arrived, with a naked and extremely emaciated dwarf in tow. They reported that they had found the fane, slain its attendants, including another huge orc, and smashed and desecrated the shrine. They found the dwarf, who gave his name as Nari, in an adjoining cell and struck off his chains.
The party set about securing the gatehouse. They lowered the two portcullises to secure them against interference from those outside the citadel. Girindor (freed from his curse by Yspadadden) was set to undoing the damage he had done to the fixings of the door through which they’d entered. Ubaron conjured magical Stone Walls to secure other exits.
Once they felt themselves secure. Yspadadden fired up a wand of detection and he and Trevillion began a thorough search of the gatehouse. Yspadadden’s wand detected magic and hiding places, while Trev’s practiced eye provided a useful mundane backup. Many interesting and valuable artefacts were discovered by the two of them, including a small library of spell-books and runesticks. One of the latter confirmed Yspadadden’s hypothesis regarding Gamesh, who was plainly a black magician of some power, for it was for a spell called Woundlinking, that allowed the caster to pass on physical damage to another linked being.
The top floor of the gatehouse was clearly reserved as Gamesh’s penthouse suite. It spoke volumes about the creature. There was living room replete with luxuries, many of them plainly originating in Chittagong. There was a similarly equipped bedroom. Another room appeared to Yspadadden’s untutored eye to be equipped as a torture room, but Trevillion recognised it immediately as a sex dungeon. Yspadadden was shocked at Trevillion’s detailed knowledge on the subject. A further room, similarly but more sparsely equipped, housed a five chained human women. They were all of exceptional size and one was heavily pregnant. All were visibly traumatised and only one was capable of coherent speech.
While the search was underway, the Invisible Man made a brief “appearance”. “They are coming soon,” he says. He says that there is no more he can do now, and he will meet them in Dingradur. Wilf and Girindor keep watch on the Great Cavern, and take shots whenever they see orcs. There are plenty of arrows in the Gatehouse.
The liberated prisoners, six in all including Nari, presented something of a problem. The original plan, at this point would have been for Ubaron to teleport the party out, with Yspadadden who could teleport himself and one other as a backup. However, Ubaron could not, even with Yspadadden’s help, take the party and the prisoners in one go and did not have the power left to make two trips, without many hours to recuperate in between. After much discussion, it was decided that Ubaron would take the prisoners, Smerlas and the loot back to Dingradur and leave the others to fend for themselves until he could return. The rest of them prepared to defend the gatehouse.
While they were doing so, Yspadadden had a paranoid thought. He had anticipated that Gamesh would be wielding Thunderheart when they encountered him. Instead he was using an admittedly effective but crude mace. Why? Thunderheart was not the sort of weapon one would buy for a sub-ordinate. If it were not for Gamesh himself, the Dwarf reasoned, it must have been bought as a gift for an ally or tribute for an overlord. Whoever had it must be at least as powerful as Gamesh himself, if not more so. What if that entity lived elsewhere in Thangorrim and was on its way here to avenge Gamesh (or profit from his death)? It was a troubling thought. He shared it with the others and they decided that rather than prepare for a siege against unknown forces, they should just make a run for it, back to the “Friendship Gate”.
So they left the Gatehouse as speedily as they could. Yspadadden cast a Fly spell and carried Ranulf, the most heavily armoured and slowest of them, as they retraced their steps back to the span across the cavern. They met little resistance en route. Yspadadden closed the gate behind them and Wizard Locked it. There was a little sporadic arrow fire as they crossed, mostly concentrated upon Trev and Girindor, who were limned with ghostly light by curses cast upon them. They took little harm and the party were soon making their way up the stairs and into the broad passage by which they had arrived. Everything went swimmingly until they turned a corner they did not remember and saw torches burning redly ahead of them and a barricade thrown across the passage. A brief foray by Wilf found it to be stoutly defended.
Yspadadden realised that they must have missed the secret door. He dashed back along the passage and bade Gore Raver, his truculent speaking axe, to show him its location. With a sneer, the axe tells him where the door and its mechanism lie. He opens the door and shepherds the party into the passage beyond. Then he rushes back to where Girindor has stationed himself as rearguard, pouring a succession of exploding arrows into the barricade. As he arrives he can hear a roaring coming from beyond the barricade and guesses that they have brought up a Cave Troll. “Time to go,” he says to the elf, and tosses an alchemical smoke crystal into the barrier. Thick choking smoke roils around the barrier. The elf turns and runs back to the door. Yspadadden retreats more slowly, dropping two more smoke crystals as he goes. He wants this door to remain a secret. Once out on the mountainside, Girindor summons the wind and the party is back in Dingradur, long before Ubaron has recovered sufficient magical power to return to Thangoria.
The loot is counted and divided and everyone is satisfied with their lot. The Invisible Man turns up for his share. Nari settles down in Dingradur after 30 years as a slave to Gamesh. Yspadadden and Ulfenir do what they can to heal both his mental and physical scars. After their immediate health needs are taken care of in Dingradur, Ubaron teleports the women to Telemark where he sets up a small hospital for their care and enlists the aid of the temple of Isis in their rehabilitation.
A few days later Yspadadden stands in an isolated cavern beneath Dingradur. Wilf, Ubaron and Ranulf are there, weapons drawn. A Morning Star wrought of dark metal appears in his hand. Nothing else happens and everyone relaxes and sheaths their weapons. Yspadadden reports a brief impression of green and the smell of herbs. It is not at all what he expected. Ubaron says that if Yspadadden wants a buyer for it, he knows just the man. In truth, Yspadadden is quite keen to get it off his hands. So Ubaron arranges its sale to the King of Telemark for an eye-watering 25 talents in gold.
G-28
OE Date: Winter 696
Characters: Yspadadden, Ranulf, Ubaron, Wilf, Trevillion, Girindor NPCs: The Invisible Man, Smerlas
Real World: March 2013; Where: Surbiton
See also Ubaron’s Diaries