Prologue
Carn and Miles travel south to the great library of Candlekeep, using Belak’s book on druidic lore to gain entry. They spend a few days researching the history of the legendary dwarf smith, Durgeddin the Black.
Orcs drove Durgeddin’s clan out of their ancestral home in the Spine of the World two centuries ago. Beneath a jagged hill known as the Stone Tooth, northeast of the city of Mirabar, the survivors built themselves a new home they named Khundrukar.
For the next one hundred years, Durgeddin forged mighty weapons of war, and his people ushered forth from their hidden stronghold to strike at the hated orcs time and again. The protracted conflict came to be known as the Smith’s War.
Unfortunately, the Spellplague struck, and in the ensuing chaos, a host of orcs found Khundrukar. They lay siege to the fortress and, after finally breaking through its defenses, wiped Durgeddin’s clan from the face of Toril.
Even so, stories of the Smith’s War and the weapons used to wage it still surface from time to time …
Back in Waterdeep, Carn and Miles relate what they’ve learned to Sev and Elvraema over drinks at the Yawning Portal. As they make plans for an expedition to the North, a beefy gold dwarf with dyed blond hair overhears them. Approaching their table, he introducing himself as Armstrong. It turns out he’s heard of Durgedding too and would quite like to join their little expedition to find Khundrukar.
The five adventurers sign up with a caravan headed north on the Long Road. Carn gets a job as a scout, while Armstrong and Sev both find work as bodyguards. Miles pays his own way, while Elvraema travels in comfort, certain that Daddy will foot the bill.
Along the way, the cleric outlines a plan for a short detour to Yartar. Elvraema claims to have received visions from her mistress, Eilistraee, who desires her servant to eliminate a Yartarran nobleman named Tholzar Brenner. A retired officer of the Shield of Yartar, he now secretly works with various drow houses to track down and capture or kill runaways. Since her own mother was one such runaway, Elvraema feels quite strongly about stopping Tholzar.
Everyone except Miles agrees to help, so the party leaves the caravan (and Miles) in Triboar and heads east along the Evermoor Way. Once they pass inspection and cross over the bridge into Yartar, Elvraema starts asking around for one Nareen Dhest, a member of the Hand of Yartar, the town’s notorious all-female thieves’ guild. After an hour and a few gold in bribes and drinks, she is directed to a tavern named the Wink and Kiss.
A server ushers the group into a back room, where they meet Nareen. Elvraema offers to pay Nareen 200 gold to set up a meeting with Tholzar. Nareen accepts the job, and the two outline a plan: Elvraema will pretend to be a runaway drow who’s been captured by bounty hunters (Sev and Armstrong) who want to hand her over to Tholzar. The meeting will take place in the graveyard the next night.
Just as the party is about to leave, a window smashes and a crossbow bolt buries itself in the back of Nareen’s neck. Her two guards draw their weapons, thinking the adventurers are behind this, but Elvraema leaps forward and calls on the Dark Maiden’s power to heal the thief. The guards relax as Nareen opens her eyes.
Examining the bolt, Nareen indicates it was poisoned with wyvern venom. She shrugs it off. Just a rival trying to take her out. Yartar is a chaotic place. Nothing to do with them, the party is relieved to learn. Nareen thanks Elvraema for her help and instructs the half-elf to leave payment with the bartender on the way out.
The following night, the party finds itself in the graveyard. Elvraema is disguised in a cloak, flanked by Sev and Armstrong, while Carn hides in a nearby building. Soon enough, Tholzar arrives with his six bodyguards. They spread out around the cemetery, some armed with maces and others with crossbows. Tholzar himself appears unarmed, but he is clad in full plate armor.
As Tholzar approaches the “bounty hunters”, Armstrong nods his head subtly. Carn takes that as a cue to start shooting and fires at one of the bodyguards. Tholzar roars in anger at such treachery and conjures up a massive sword out of thin air.
The party is able to handle the bodyguards easily enough, but Tholzar is a tough customer. Once the fight becomes four against one, however, Tholzar doesn’t stand much of a chance. Shortly after he is knocked unconscious, Nareen and her lackeys show up and take the nobleman off the party’s hands. No longer will he trouble the citizens of Yartar.
Feeling pleased with themselves, the party heads back to Triboar, where they are reunited with Miles. Carn, Sev, and Armstrong are all able to find work as guards again on the next caravan bound for Mirabar.
When they arrive, the adventurers are all impressed with the great fortress city. Its walls at the base are as thick as a city block in Waterdeep. Armstrong spends some time visiting the dwarven caverns beneath the surface, while the others gather supplies and hunt for more information. They are able to obtain a map showing the location of the Stone Tooth, a few days east of the mining town of Blasingdell, in the foothills northeast of the city.
The party also makes contact with a local human nobleman, Baron Althon, who is something of a collector of rare dwarven artifacts. He shows them a broken axe blade bearing the mark of Durgeddin the Black. Having caught wind of their expedition, the good baron offers to pay them handsomely for any weapons they find in the ruins. He also offers to pay them for detailed maps and information about Khundrukar.
In Blasingdell, the party learns that orcs have been troubling the region ever since the War of the Silver Marches scattered the tribes of the Kingdom of Many-Arrows. One such group has been raiding from a base somewhere around the Stone Tooth. The town’s mayor, Sir Miles, is offering a bounty of 25 gold per orc, dead or alive. He is hopeful the adventurers will be able to deal with the orcs.
As the party nears the Stone Tooth, they spot a trail winding up the side of the hill. There’s also some smoke coming from the saddle between the hill’s two peaks. Thinking the smoke might be coming from the orcs’ camp, the party decides to head that way. Although the hillside is heavily forested and it is difficult to keep the pillar of smoke in view, the party has little trouble making it up to the saddle, where they are surprised to discover that the smoke is emanating from a natural chimney in the ground rather than a campfire.
The fissure is large enough for them all to fit through, so naturally the party decides to investigate. Using ropes, they climb down into a cave that someone has been using as a makeshift kitchen. There’s no one about, but the area reeks of orc.
The group decides to press on, moving through a narrow passage into a larger cavern with smoothed floors and walls. Armstrong recognizes dwarven work. Multiple passages lead out of this room.
One of these passages is blocked by what looks like a makeshift cell door. As the adventurers peer through the bars, two ragged halflings come into view and beg to be released. They introduce themselves as Geradil and Courana and explain that the orcs had kidnapped them from their family farm. They think it’s been a month now, although they can’t be sure, since they’ve been locked up in the dark most of the time. Their family was unable to pay the orcs’ ransom, so they fear they will ultimately end up in the cookpot.
Courana warns the party about the orcs’ leader: a nasty ogre named Ulfe who has two dire wolves as pets.
The party frees the halflings and escorts them to the kitchen and tells them to wait at the top of the chimney. Once they’ve finished exploring and killing orcs, they’ll come back and escort the halflings home.
As the party heads deeper into the stronghold, they pass through a larger cavern full of stolen goods before coming into another worked passage that ends at a stone door to the east. They bust open the door and kills the orcs lurking in the room beyond. None of them have much that’s of interest.
Turning around, the party heads down the passage to the west. Along the way, they come to short flight of stairs that leads up to a door with a skull mounted on it. This turns out to be Ulfe’s room. The cranky ogre makes a good effort to repel the intruders, but once his dire wolves are dead, the adventurers gang up on him, and he doesn’t stand a chance.
Searching the room, Carn finds a magic rapier in a chest. The blade bears Durgeddin’s mark as well as runes that spell out the name “Pigsticker” in Dwarvish. The rogue decides to keep it for himself.
The party returns to the corridor and follows it around a corner to the north, where it ends at an alcove in which stands a larger than life dwarf statue. The statue turns out to be a trap, but the poison gas is old and has lost most of its potency. Only Sev is really affected, and Elvraema is able to cure him easily with her magic.
This is not a dead end, however, as there is a door to the left of the statue. It opens into the fortress guard barracks, now inhabited by orcs rather than dwarves. The contingent of orcs here is led by an older, bigger orc wearing full plate. Although he is wily and tough, the party ignores his underlings to focus their attacks on him, taking him down swiftly before turning on his minions and slaughtering them all in due course.
A thorough search of the barracks reveals a secret door in the back wall. As evidenced by the lack of footprints in the dust on the passage floor beyond, it would appear that the orcs never knew about this secret way. A second secret door at the other end of the passage opens into an empty room at one end of a long corridor heading south. Some natural light filters in through narrow slits in the west wall at various intervals.
While the others wait anxiously in the empty room, Carn slips quietly down the corridor, taking note of the arrow slits looking out over what can only be Khundrukar’s front entrance. It’s a good thing we didn’t try a front assault, the rogue thinks to himself.
Carn finds some orcs on guard duty in a room at the southern end of the corridor. Since none of the others are within reach to stop him, he nocks an arrow to his bow and takes aim at one of the orcs …
TALES FROM THE YAWNING PORTAL 