Last we left off, our unlikely heroes had ventured out of the city of Hupperdook. They had made the perilous climb up the mountainside and found a secret cave behind the Silver Falls. Bullwak had killed another kobold, Oren a goliath, and Gold Salt had managed to outwit a hippogriff on the hunt. Warryn, more than once, considered if he was fighting for the right side, but knew he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. One by one, they woke from their rest and prepared to enter Stahlmast’s lair.
Entering the lair
The remaining kobold from the fight against Sken Zabriss was tied up. They knocked it out before leaving the cave and venturing into Stahlmast’s lair and Gold Salt made sure to leave enough rations in case they were gone for a while. With a roughly drawn map, courtesy of said kobold, and a well devised plan, they moved the table out of the doorway, picked the lock, and poked their heads around the corner.
Roguish antics
Gold Salt went first, quietly padding her way down the dimly lit cavern hall. There was a mysterious contraption in the room to the left, a large crossbow outfitted with gears sat, imposing on the cavern floor. Recognizing the design as the same as the kobold’s crossbows, Gold Salt was overcome with tumultuous rage. She dashed in, somersaulting to the other side of the room, and expertly let an arrow loose. It struck home, burying itself in the main gear.
Hearing the commotion down the hall, and slightly worried that Gold Salt had sidestepped their plan, Bullwak ran after her. His large frame and bulky shield didn’t allow for as much grace as his tabaxi companion. Bullwak’s feet found many-a-puddle and his footsteps echoed off the walls. When he entered the room with the crossbow contraption, the machine moved slightly to face his direction, but the arrow lodged in it prevented it from firing. Gold Salt crouched, a grin on her face. Satisfied with the security of this room, Bullwak quietly called for the others to follow.
Down another passage they found a supply room, holding generic weapons, but also barrels full of blasting powder. “Nah uh,” Oren held his hand out to Warryn, “that looks like an explosion waiting to happen if you step in there.”
More kobolds to dispatch
Further still into the mountainside, the adventurers heard scuffling and shrill voices. There was a group of kobolds up ahead all gathered around a table, cards, dice, and coins splayed across it. Bullwak nodded to the others, Gold Salt snuck around one side, while Oren and Warryn stepped to the other. The large tortle barrelled in shouting, his flail swinging over his head.
Caught off guard, two of the five kobolds were easily subdued. The others made a run for it, a couple of them got away towards the outside world.
Finding Yinra Emberwind
“Hey!” a voice from up a small carved hallway echoed. “Help!”
Kobolds in the area dispatched, and the four investigated the voice. It belonged to an elf they had met before. “Oh ho!” Oren goaded, “looks like you got yourself into some trouble!”
“Ya, ya,” Yinra rolled her eyes when she saw who her potential saviours were. “Are you going to help me out of here, or what?”
“First, we want to know what you’re doing out here.” Oren was still full of confidence after his performance dealing with the goliath.
“I told you, I was doing the same thing as you, investigating what the heck is going on here. Why someone would break out a prisoner of war?”
“Well, we dealt with the goliath,” Oren smiled smugly.
“And now you’re going to deal with Stahlmast? Look, get me out of here, and I can help you out. I’ve already explored much of the lair. Plus, if I can find a bow, I can provide you some cover.” She looked at Bullwak with the last part.
A second jailbreak
They agreed to work together, and broke Yinra out of the jail cell. It was actually quite difficult and took a lot more effort than they thought it would, but eventually, Gold Salt warned everyone to stand back and placed one of the blasting powder pouches at the base of the prison cell bars. “Light it up wizard,” she looked at Warryn as they crouched behind a stone wall.
A small explosion rocked the cell, and pushed some of the bars off their connections. Yinra was able to exit her cell only slightly smoky. “Thanks.” still unimpressed.
“I think there were some weapons you can collect back up one of the passages.” Bullwak suggested.
They recovered Yinra’s belongings, including her rich velvet cloak, bow and quiver of arrows. “His quarters are this way.” And she led them further into the cave system.
Stahlmast’s bedroom
The room Yinra led them into was much more expansive than anywhere else in the lair they had yet seen. The walls were smoothly carved, adorned with rich carpets and ornaments. A large four-poster bed sitting atop a platform in the center of the room. They searched it top to bottom. Stahlmast’s closet was full of fancy robes, and in one of the pockets Warryn pulled out a peculiar looking stone, smooth, and about the size of his palm. Gold Salt found a chest under the bed. She was able to easily pick the lock, finding a handwritten letter, two small bottles, and gold pieces inside.
Gold Salt and Yinra went over to Stahlmast’s mess of a desk on one side of the room. “He has some hardcore plans.” Yinra grimaced.
Large maps, small scraps of paper, and rolls and rolls of plan drawings were scattered across the desk. The drawings depict monstrous automaton constructs, weapons, and the utter destruction of Hupperdook.
“Better take some of these with us!” Gold Salt and Oren collected some of the papers and stuffed them into their travel sacks.
Then they turned to the note that had been locked in the chest, but none of the adventures recognized the strange letters, and were at a loss to what it might read.
Pocketing the goodies. They gathered at one of the walls, where a thin outline of a doorway lead to a secret entrance to the next room.
The final showdown
The secret door opened into a large cavern filled with warm orange light, high ceilings and almost a hundred feet across. A large forge, burned on one side where a grey dwarf stood at a workbench. And a scrawny human working on a large mechanical suit of armour stood nearby. Stealthily positioning themselves, they announced their entrance with a firebolt exploding a pouch of blasting powder over their heads.
Alerted the party’s entrance, the man hopped into the large mechanical construct he had been working on. “I’ll give you this chance to lay down your arms and join me in the fight against the Empire!”
The Stahlmaster
Uninterested in this crazed inventors offer, they all engaged in battle.
“The Empire wants you to think it protects the people, but they’re just like all the rest. Power hungry… blood lusting… At least my inventions would have provoked a battle of the minds! My masterful designs would have allowed hundreds, thousands, of soldiers to keep their lives. My creations would have forced the Dynasty to surrender their lands, or else suffer my iron fist!”
“Your methods seem, not so good.” Warryn offered, thinking about the exploding kobolds.
“The Dynasty… growing up in the Empire they always seemed barbaric, evil, but now that I’ve met some of them I realize the truth. They, like me, appreciate the power of knowledge and intellect. They understand what it’s like being an outcast.”
“Outcast or no, makes no excuse for hurting others.”
Bullwak waded in to melee range, between Stahlmast and the grey dwarf wielding a heavy hammer. Oren followed suit with his rapier, spells and abilities spent.
Gold Salt and Yinra shot arrows at their foes from the perimeter, and Warryn threw his firebolts.
They all took hits from the “Stahlmaster”. Using the automaton’s metal body, Stahlmast slammed down into them. For range attacks, a small crossbow popped out of his shoulder, shooting bolts at them around the walls of the cave.
Surrender or death
Near the end of the battle, a battle-crazed Yinra dealt a killing blow to the grey dwarf, and Gold Salt jumped out of hiding and to place a perfect shot. The arrow found it’s way between plates of metal and into Stahlmast’s human body. The automaton fell apart, launched it’s wearer out of it, and crumpled to a pile of scrap on the ground. Stahlmast landed heavily on the ground, bleeding, and shaking. He begged for mercy.
Bullwak agreed to stand down, speaking (mostly) for the group.
Tied up and subdued, the group began questioning Stahlmast. He tried bargaining, first offering gold, and then information about the Kryn Dynasty if they only cooperated with him. When Gold Salt and Oren found a hidden stairwell going curving down a dark passage, he offered up information about the Underdark which the tunnel allegedly lead to. Bullwak and Warryn could not be convinced by the gravelling Stahlmast. He was going to the city Watchmaster, and there was nothing he could say or do that would change their mind.
Displeased with the intel they were getting, Warryn pulled the goggles Stahlmast was wearing off of his brow. They had green lenses, gold-coloured rims, and a leather band similar to a pair of pilot goggles. He peered through them, not noticing a discernible difference, before offering them up to Bullwak. The tortle held up one of lenses to his eye, and was immediately taken aback. He could now pick out the details of this dim cavern, it was magical.
Aftermath, goodbyes, and future adventure hooks
Underdark intrigue
The hidden stairwell was dark, except for a few luminescent fungi attached to the sides of the stone walls. A stale air hung in the entrance. Stahlmast warned them of the dangers of the Underdark. There were unfathomable, dangerous creatures and obstacles they could meet. The now-dead grey dwarf, who lay on the ground nearby had come from there. Unbeknownst to the party, so had one of Stahlmast’s drow minions.
Gold Salt, always intrigued by the prospect of exploration, tuned out Stahlmast’s warnings and entered the stairwell. The bard, Oren followed her in, absently plucking mushrooms off the wall as he followed, deeper and darker into the tunnel. They had wandered about 20 feet down, when Bullwak, his newly found goggles equipped, stormed after them to bring them back to the task at hand. This adventure would have to wait for another time.
All threads lead to the Assembly
Ready to leave the lair behind, Warryn considered if they should go back the way they came or not. He investigated the other entrance to the room, the door held a large brass knob in the center. “No traces of magic…” Warryn mused, “but I do remember learning about contraptions of similar design, long ago.” The knob was connected to a series of brass tubes that ran along the ceiling to a furnace and then into the next chamber. The invention triggered a memory for Warryn, many years ago, he was just a boy at the time. His mind slipped into a daydream for an instant. A well worn textbook, the monotonous droning of a professor, images of metal forged contraptions, inability to pay full attention, and pain. He snapped back to reality, “It seems like trap. Let’s not mess around with it.”
Back in Hupperdook
The journey back down the mountain was fairly eventless. They did not come across any of the kobolds who had been tied up. But blood scoured the area where they had left three tied in their makeshift cave from the first night on the mountainside. The hippogriff was nowhere to be seen.
At the bottom of the waterfall, they were able to find the lifeless and bloated body that used to belong to Sken Zabriss. “The Watchmaster said to bring her back. Alive, or dead.” Bullwak swung the goliath atop his shell.
Watchmaster Gulchswattle was easy enough to find at the barracks in Lower Hupperdook. Bullwak dropped the body of Zabriss outside the building, and the Watchmaster ushered four of his guards to deal with both it and the tied up Stahlmast.
“What will you do with him?” Warryn wondered at Gulchswattle.
“That is not for me to decide.”
“We also found these!” Gold Salt produced some of the dangerous design drawings from Stahlmast’s lair.
Gulchswattle was perplexed. “This deserves another reward! You are keeping the city safe!” He declared, promising them even more gold.
One last shot of ‘fuse’ together
Oren, Warryn, Gold Salt, and Bullwak gathered around a table in the Infamous Lantern Bar. Here they had met the Watchmaster, who brought their payment and some extra. He paid for a buffet of food, which Gold Salt pounced at immediately, and a final round of the brown liquor ‘fuse’ which Oren drank excitedly. Just the four of them again, they mused about what would be next.
Warryn took the opportunity to thank them for the excitement. The three from the Menagerie Coast asked him if he would continue to journey with them.
“It was good to work with you, but I cannot go with you.” Warryn was sober.
“Why not?” They all wanted to know.
“For one, I have job. But for two, look at me. People like me cannot go willy nilly around the Empire.” His ashy appearance was now normal for his friends, but Warryn shook his head solemnly.
Oren, Bullwak, and Gold Salt were alarmed. “Well, what if we kidnapped you?!” Oren tried.
“If I were to leave, against my will or no. They would hunt me, and by association, anyone with me would not be safe too.”
With that, this Hupperdook Adventure came to an end. Warryn took his leave. He left the tavern, and down the street the other three saw him fall into stride with a large dragonborn. His raven familiar landed on his shoulder, and then they were out of sight.