usir | March Event Log B: Einjar Excursion

🜙 Mod Note

The Einjar Excursion's resolution is dependent on the choice of players who are participating in it. After you have read through this post, if your character is going to be part of the Einjar Excursion, please respond to This Comment as soon as possible with the choice that best matches the one your character would choose. The resolution is not dependent solely on players choosing one side over the other, but also on the actions they choose to take.

🜙 Preparation March 8th

Einjar's population is small in modern times, but the people who remain in the vast cavern city to maintain and protect it are usually in constant contact with Preciposte via falcon. None of the falcons Preciposte has sent to Einjar have made it back in months. The round trip to Einjar and back will take at least 8 days in total and no one is certain what they will find there or if they will even be able to get through the massive, heavily warded doors that can only be opened from within. But if something has happened to the people of Einjar, the threat needs to be discovered before it progresses to Preciposte and Krimnos.

It is sure to be a harrowing adventure for those willing to brave the treacherous cliffs to reach Einjar but the kobolds and dwarves residing there might be harboring even more secrets than anyone expected.

The excursion organizers recruit a company of Knights from Krimnos, as well as a variety of volunteers to fulfill multiple roles on the journey. Supplies are gathered and divided out among the large company before the journey starts out on foot, and three densely wooled llamas are loaded up with the spare supplies. The excursion team consists of*:

⤛	16 Knights of Krimnos, kitted out in their full armor and well-armed. Eight of the Knights travel at the back of the line while the other eight travel near the front. Twelve elves, three dwarves and a young snow leopard beastwoman.
⤛	6 Preciposte residents (3 tieflings and 3 dwarves) who are acting as guides and trackers for the mountain paths and Einjar respectively.
⤛	Healer & Cook: Christine
⤛	Hunters & Trackers: Katsa, Lauralae, & Robin
⤛	Survivalists & Scouts: Katsa, Trevor, Jon, Lauralae, Majima, Strange, Allen, Nike, Daud, & Robin
⤛	Guards & Defenders: Alucard, Katsa, Trevor, Jon, Majima, Allen, Daud, & Robin
⤛	Stealth: Alucard, Majima, & Lauralae
⤛	Linguists: Daenerys, Nike, Robin, & Tony
⤛	Wards & Trap Removal: Christine & Strange
⤛	Animal Specialist: Daenerys & Lauralae

*Other player characters can still be added to the team, multiple roles both listed and unlisted are filled by multiple characters.

🜙 A Journey's Beginning March 9th-12th

The trek through treacherous mountain paths is a dangerous and difficult one. The high altitude and freezing temperatures require the company to make frequent stops to rest their lungs and the llamas. Camp is made each night in five shared tents. The Knights split up between two tents, the Preciposte citizens in a third, and the excursion team split among the fourth and fifth tents. Meals of hot stew and stuffed breads are shared around several small magical fires before everyone hits their bedrolls for a rest. Night watches are broken into four rotating shifts so no one is out in the night cold for longer than 2 hours.

The night of the 11th the company makes camp atop the impressive ruins of the ancient temple of the mountain giants. The sheer scale of these ruins is humbling and daunting. Scorch marks from dragon fire still mar some of the marble and stone pillars. The descent down the mountain has brought the company to a lower altitude and the ruins themselves are devoid of snow or ice, almost warm under the midday sun.

The height is still dizzying and the land is a little more open than is comfortable. The company will have to fend off and defend the camp from cliff hawks, a tribe of porcupine-like carnivorous cave spindles, and a colony of six-foot-tall venomous cave spiders that make the ruins their home, all to get past the ruins to the massive stone and metal doors that bar the entrance to Einjar.

🜙 Friends in High Places March 12th

During their journey through the ruins, the company is ambushed multiple times. One elvish knight is lost to a cave spindle attack, one of the Preciposte tieflings and one of the llamas are carried off by cliff hawks, a Preciposte dwarf loses his footing on some unstable rocks and disappears off the edge of a cliff with the second llama, and another elf knight is severely injured during a cave spider ambush. With only one llama and two tents left and night quickly approaching things begin to look bad for the company and only get worse once the sun sets. A pack of dire wolves appears from within the ruins, distant howls making their numbers impossible to guess but making it quickly evident the company is surrounded by predators still out of sight. As the oversized pack of dire wolves closes in to attack, a family of kobolds armed with slings and small hammer axes appears from the cliffs above. Their ruckus of calls and the metal-banging noise of their hammer axes against their shields drive back the hunting pack.

The kobold family scampers down from the caverns above the ruins and joins the excursion company, inviting them back to the warmth of their cavern home, breaking bread with them and sharing a friendly conversation. One member of the family is a strange sight among the short kobolds, towering above his siblings, but the entire family seems to be cheerfully good-natured and happy to share what is theirs with the excursion company. They don't know anything about the recent silence from Einjar, but they offer to lead the company along a safer path to Einjar's doors in the morning.

The knights seem uneasy in the cavern, keeping to themselves and discussing maps with one of the regularly sized kobolds. When questioned by one of the elf knights on what exactly he is, the taller kobold gives the company a confused look.

"Isn't it obvious?" He asks, head turning almost vertical with a wide, toothy smile and a confused expression. He clasps a hand on his four-foot-tall brother's shoulder, towering above the smaller creature by a full three feet and thinking nothing of it. "I'm a kobold of course." And were it not for the genuine pride on his tongue it would seem a bold-faced lie even to a half-blind dwarf.

🜙 The Doors to Einjar March 13th/14th

The next morning the kobolds press on through the mountain path leading the company of strangers after them with cheerful conversation and horribly off-key dwarvish mining songs. Several of the knights fall behind exchanging hushed whispers between them. Conversation around the campfire that night is tense and muted by all but the cheerful family of kobolds passing around mushroom and egg drop soup and a savory mushroom grog with a powerful, fiery kick. Distant animal sounds are heard throughout the night, along with occasional roars of a larger beast, but nothing attacks the company.

The taller Kobold's name is learned to be Monty, and he explains that their family hasn't lived in or even been to Einjar since shortly before the war due to a distaste for the rising demand for crafting armor and weapons and a disagreement with the dwarves that ruled over the city. They consider themselves artisans and jewelcrafters rather than smithies and call themselves 'people of the wild mountains'.

At dawn, the company realizes the doors to Einjar are within sight, and less than an hour's distance away. However, It is discovered that sometime during the night the remaining dwarves from both Krimnos and Preciposte have disappeared.

🜙 Open Sesame March 14th

The doors to Einjar are behemoths of metal and stone, built to keep dragons out of the massive mountain cavern city. A river runs at a high force out from beneath the stone doors in two channels, roaring over the cliff in a waterfall not far from there. Stone bridges cross the rushing rivers on either side of the path to the doors, eroded but sturdy. The doors can't be open by force and are covered in ancient dwarvish runes. The dwarves who built Einjar preferred working with their hands and tools over magic, and the Gates to Einjar were no exception. Usually opened from within, they remain silently shut to the excursion company.

A large circular depression in the door matches up to a pieced together symbol on the ground before it. Heavy pieces of a solid iron shield broken into seven segments sit in a depression on the path before it. Each is the same size and shape and can be slotted into any of the seven slots on the door.

The segments are labelled with the dwarvish runes for Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Birth, Sanctuary, and Death. To either side of the large door are two armored dwarf statues. The one on the left is a female dwarf standing on a carved rocky platform, wearing a winged helm and carrying a shield in her right hand. The statue on the right is a male dwarf holding a blacksmith's hammer and an axe in either hand, the platform beneath him is worn away by the rushing river. The runes around the depression in the doors reads down from top to bottom:
Within
Cycle
Horizon
Beneath
Below the depression is the symbol for "Pair".

🜙 Einjar's Halls March 14th/15th

Once the puzzle is solved the doors open to reveal the empty, silent city of Einjar. The great bellows and roaring furnaces are silent and cold and the halls are empty. No bodies, no sound, and no living souls. Food is left untouched and cold on tables, weapons half forged remain on anvils or partially melted into cold furnaces. Everything is left as if abandoned in the midst of a day of work.

Deeper in the caverns beyond Einjar's main city buildings, kobold mining tools are scattered about and carts partially filled with raw minerals and gems are overturned, footsteps disappearing unexplainably mid path. An open cavern recently blasted open sits in the deepest point of the mine and within it is a bizarre scene. Dust and lime covered life-sized statues depict a battle between much smaller dragons and very short dwarves with many of the faces carved into expressions of deep rage. At the center is a deep, black pool of water, devoid of reflection or ripples. Around it are the bodies of the missing dwarves that had disappeared from the excursion company earlier in the trip.

The depth of the pool can't be measured with sword or stick, and an uneasy sensation overcomes everyone within the excavated room. The beastwoman knight touches the liquid, attempting to examine it, and in that moment a low, ringing sound builds in the room. Chaos breaks out as the elves and the kobold family that unwillingly escorted the company into Einjar burst into a full-scale violent assault on one another, the origin of the sudden fight impossible to determine.

The water stills from the rippling touch several minutes later and the fight is broken up, but with both parties convinced the other side started the fight. The elves claim the kobolds know more than they are saying, and the kobold family insists they have never set foot inside of Einjar. The arguments escalate until one of the knights accuses them of harboring a dragonborn, pointing to Monty. They say that Monty needs to be taken back to Krimnos for questioning, to which the kobolds bare their teeth and threaten that Monty will only be leaving with them over the entire family's dead bodies.

Whatever decision is made, the overall agreement is that they need to leave Einjar and return to Krimnos with their findings before anything else happens.

🜙 Journey Back March 16th-19th/20th

Following the discoveries within Einjar's halls and some free exploration by the excursion company, everything is divvied up between the survivors and the trek back to preciposte begins. The trip back is tense and uneasy with larger night watch groups and tighter rations. Hunting is necessary to feed the company, and new tents are made from fabrics taken from within Einjar.

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Christine nods along with his assessment. The idea that he's half-dragon also crossed her mind, but to be one and not completely feral is rare.

"Whatever the case, having a connection with dragons is enough to make me uneasy, whether he's harmless or not." Both because of the general public's feelings on dragons and Christine's own struggles since her awakening. She no longer holds the fanatical pride in her city that she once had, and she knows it's because she's free from the dragon's influence.

"Though the way the knights are acting, it seems I'm far from the only one thinking that."

"We aren't," Daud acknowledges, "But they'll have to continue simply thinking it. It doesn't change that without their intervention, this expedition would be missing a few more heads."

Less permanent for them than for the all too mortal knights of Krimnos, that much is certain, but still an inconvenience.

"They wouldn't be so friendly if they knew what we are, either." It isn't condemnation; just a statement of fact. Daud's got little love for dragons himself, but at this point, he doesn't doubt they probably have more in common with them than anyone else in Idan right now: ghosts of a past that should be long buried.

"That's true." She's so used to hiding it that she doesn't think further to what people would think of someone like her. It wouldn't be anything positive — that's for sure.

"This is just one more mystery to add to the pile of them we've come across so far."

"More than we could hope to answer at once," Daud agrees. "Some mysteries take precedence over others. If he isn't an immediate threat, we should turn our attention to the purpose of our journey here -- and surviving it. I'd like to know if there's anything here that might be tied to the attacks on the cities."

"Mm, right. With all the possibilities of what's happened to this city, I doubt the finger of blame can be pointed at one individual. At the moment, he's someone who may have a connection to dragons who may be lying. I doubt he ties into everything else." That doesn't mean she's suddenly at ease, but focusing on him will take away from seeing the larger picture. It's a good thing Daud's reminded her of that.

"We should probably be on the lookout for any gears or clockwork like what was in those soldiers, or anything that reminds us of that cult."

"Dwarves and kobolds are known for tinkering," Daud agrees. "It's possible some of the parts that went into those soldiers may have originated from here."

He pauses to take another mouthful of soup or whatever it is they've managed to scrape together for a meal, though he doesn't really taste it. It's just something to provide energy, at this point.

"And I could see the people who built those parts being silenced for what they knew." A longshot? Maybe. But better to speculate than go in blindly.

"Have the kobolds here been theorizing on what might have happened to the city? Since they know this area well."

"Not that I've overheard," Daud responds, shrugging. "Given that they seem to know this area like the back of their hands, I have a hard time believing they wouldn't notice something amiss." Whether they would have done something about it or not, now that is another story. Kobolds aren't naturally altruistic -- in this case, Monty's intervention was a welcome one.

"Einjar was in regular contact with Preciposte until some months ago. Whatever happened to the city, we can place it within that time." Daud pauses, tapping a finger against his thigh. He is, perhaps like Christine herself might be, thinking about the various things that have happened since their awakening, a relatively short time all told -- certainly nothing he would have thought about twice before. Now it seems so much is changing, and quickly.

"I suppose it's too much to ask for the kobolds to know more than they're telling, though the paranoid part of me wants to believe they do." Her gaze goes unfocused as she ponders what little they know so far.

"Why rescue us if they get nothing out of it, right? Do you think that's fair to say?"

"It is," Daud answers, without rancor, only certainty. "If they've survived this long in the wilderness, they aren't naive -- at least not the adults. The younger kobolds, on the other hand ... that may be a different story."

He pauses, reflecting on that, then continues. "I don't expect any of them to tell us a thing unless we can earn their trust."

As for how they do that, well, that's another story altogether.

It seems to be an unspoken question hanging in the air — how do they earn the kobolds' trust? Perhaps saving their lives the way the kobolds already saved theirs? That's the sort of thing that may or may not happen. Of course, there's another option, though Christine doesn't want to put everything into that possibility either.

"It's clear the knights distrust Monty, and if we side with him, then that would be a good way to earn trust. However, I'm not sure blindly siding with him is the way to go either. Perhaps if the knights make some sort of move against him, we can show the kobolds that we aren't on the knights' side." But that doesn't necessarily mean she's on the kobolds' side either. She heard once that inaction in itself is a form of action. It was meant to be a biting remark against the undecided in any conflict, but Christine doesn't take it as such. She uses a great deal of caution in her day-to-day life and that's not going to stop any time soon.

Trust, unfortunately, just isn't something Daud is well-versed in. At least not when it comes at the point of a blade.

"You have the right of it," he agrees, simply. He's a suspicious, wary man by nature, after all, so what she's saying makes perfect sense to him as an assessment of the situation. Though he'll also, after a moment, point out something more calculating, though in a neutral enough tone.

"Mountain life can't be easy. Their parents are aging." And likely plagued with all the predictable maladies of such. "If we have any salves or medicines to spare, perhaps they'd accept them as a token of our thanks." Though that's all firmly Christine's purview, since he has little idea what state their medical supplies are in after what we've seen. Though an offer to mend aches and pains may work just as well, considering.

"It's a kind thought. And they have already earned it by saving us." Their supplies were for their group, but the kobolds and Monty have been absorbed into their group now.

"It's a start."

"And a start is all we need." Something they could grow into something more. Daud pauses to set aside his now-emptied bowl, silver eyes catching the flicker of what light they have.

"You should get some rest. I doubt things get any easier from here."

Ordinarily Christine would argue that she has to check on everyone first. Her instinct is to think everyone is hiding how badly they feel and it's up to her to root out the problem and cure it. But even as he speaks, her eyelids are drooping. Maybe she should rest before she's no good to anybody.

"True. Get some rest too." But with that, she'll move to lie down for awhile.

March Event Log B: Einjar Excursion

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