GoCorral

This session was attended by Trajan, Jamie, Will, and Ben. We had the session over Google Hangouts as normal.

River Refugees

The Alliance Council discussed what they should do about the refugees discovered on the Delain River. Leaving them to float downriver would result in them going out to sea. The threat of running out of food existed as well. A forced march to Dalleer or Shalerton was suggested. Dalleer was closer, but not a member of the Alliance yet. Shalerton would work, but the Council suspected it was next on the Xorian hit list. Terroc put forth the idea of using a teleportation circle to move the civilians to a different city such as Bradel Fields or Jipangu. That solved the problem of the civilians dying enroute due to exposure and lack of food. It also got the refugees to a safe allied city. Amalius suggested Jipangu as a better location and Arendil, the Council leader and senior representative from Jipangu, agreed.

Teleportation circle scrolls are hard to come by. Preta and Shez went to Greshendale as it was the only place they were sure would have it. They got two scrolls as the Council thought one might not be enough to transport the thousands of refugees.

The rest of the party organized about a hundred assistant staff to teleport in with them to the refugees location. Preta, Shez, Terroc, and the two other mages can all teleport. Additionally, the party could stuff people into bags of holding to get past the limit on extra people tagging along for a teleport. The hundred or so officers arrived and directed the refugees off of their rafts to set up a temporary camp by the river. Once everyone was off they were quickly directed through the two teleportation circles to Jipangu. Arendil went along with them to smooth over their transition into life in a new city.

Prior to Arendil’s departure it was decided that the new base of the Alliance would be at Bradel Fields instead of Jord. The senior members (Kig, Titandra, etc.) were teleported to Bradel Fields. Gradorian went to Jipangu to train the refugees who were willing to fight into a strong mercenary contingent. The away team decided it was time to check in on the dwarven political situation.

Dwarven Politics

Long ago the different dwarf races were united. Hill, Mountain, Deep, and Duergar all lived under one dwarven king with the Fierce Axe of Dwarvish Lords as their symbol of office. The last dwarven king was called Cogard. He had quadruplet sons known as the Cogardes. After King Cogard’s death his sons fought for the crown and tore their people into pieces. During the Dwarven Civil War the Fierce Axe was lost. The dwarven races remained separate ever since.

The Fierce Axe was recovered centuries later during the First Alliance War by the dwarven warrior, Atreides. He was led by visions to a giant’s cave. He slew the giant and claimed the Fierce Axe from his enemy’s treasure trove. He used the Axe during the First Alliance War to oppose the Xorians and the Rages. Unfortunately Atreides died in the fighting and the Fierce Axe was claimed by the Xorians. The dwarven nations might’ve united behind Atreides, but they were forced to wait four decades before the Axe was reclaimed during the Battle of Phoenix.

Today the dwarf kingdoms are separated in location. The Hill Dwarves rule the city of Jord and little else. The Mountain Dwarves live within the Terror Mountains. The Deep Dwarves live underneath the Terror Mountains. The Duergar lived underneath the Xorian Empire’s lands in the west. About forty years ago the Xorians started raiding the Underdark beneath their Empire for slaves. The Duergar were forced to retreat and sought refugee with the Deep Dwarves. The two kingdoms have been living together for the past thirty years or so.

The Fierce Axe of Dwarvish Lords would have to go to one of the dwarven kings, but which of the four kingdoms deserved to rule over the other three? The kings had decided to meet at the Mountain Dwarf capital, Highhold, to hash it out. The Alliance favored King Dainlin of the Hill Dwarves as he had already joined the Alliance. Terroc scried King Dainlin and found him having dinner with another dwarven lord. The away team (Terroc, Preta, Shez, Amalius, Tagenadi, and Torin) teleported in to talk to Dainlin.

King Dainlin told them he was taking his time getting to Highhold. He was stopping with every lord on the way and staying with them for several days to curry favor if the issue of who should wield the Fierce Axe came to a vote among the Lords. He estimated that his journey to Highhold would be complete in four months, or if given teleportation assistance for him, his family, his servants, and his guards, only forty days. Dainlin said he’d prefer not to teleported directly to Highhold as it might be viewed as a snub to the lords he hadn’t visited yet. He expressed pleasure that the Axe had been recovered, but he knew it was best that one of the dwarven kings not possess it until it was decided who would wield the Axe and become the High King.

The party teleported next to Highhold. They told a servant of the Mountain Dwarf king that the Fierce Axe of Dwarvish Lords had been recovered and was in Jord at this very moment. The servant was shocked, but quickly realized they were speaking the truth. He said a brunch could be organized with the three kings for the next day and the away team agreed.

Bloody Fountain

Not wanting to “waste a day” the away team set off to explore more of the Tomb of Kruk-Ma-Kali. They went to the room with the three demon statues first. They hadn’t explored the two rooms off the side of it yet. The west one was explored first. Going down the stairs into the room set off a spear trap. A net of spears shot out of the walls around Tagenadi. He managed to jump forward before they clanged together, escaping them. The spears did not retract into the wall, so the party cut them up with Amalius’s adamantine dagger.

The room below contained an elf statue in the middle of a fountain of blood. The blood oozed and spurted out of various wounds upon the statue’s body. A basin below the statue collected the blood and recycled it through the statue. Around the edge of the spherical room were writings and carvings. Amalius translated them as an embellished version of Kruk-Ma-Kali’s campaign against the Elves of the Valor Forest. Every defeat the hobgoblin king had suffered was turned into a “strategic withdrawal.” Every elf killed miraculously multiplied into a dozen elf bodies upon the ground.

Realizing that the fountain must be magic they sent a summoned ape forward to touch the fountain. Nothing bad happened to upon touching the blood, so they had the ape take a bath in it. Again, nothing significant happened. They tried having the ape block the flow of one of the elf’s wounds, and that elicited no effect either.

The fountain appeared safe, so Tagenadi approached it. He poked his finger with a dagger and watched a drop of his blood fall into the fountain. His blood sizzled upon contact with the dark red of the fountain. His blood changed color to the deep red of the fountain, before mixing in with the rest of the blood and disappearing into the flow.

The party decided to try adding blood to the fountain in greater quantities. They summoned a dog and gave it a large gash on its leg. The blood poured forth, sizzled, changed color, and mixed in with the rest.

Torin suggested that perhaps elf blood was necessary. Having no elves present (Aldarian is the only elf who occasionally goes with the away team) the party decided to drop it. Saying the Goblin word for elf to the statue didn’t do anything either. Tagenadi got a vial of the fountain blood before they left the room.

Whispering Pit

Next was the room to the east of the demon statues. An ape summoned by the cautious party triggered a trap while going down the stairs into the room. Three axes swung down to four feet high and cut deep gouges into the summoned creature before it disappeared. The party bypassed the trap by ducking under the blade heads.

The room was spherical just like the room west of the demon statues. Writings and pictures on the sides of the room told the story of Kruk-Ma-Kali’s successful eradication of the dwarves of the Dominarie Moutains. In the center of the room was a large well. The sound of deep breathing came out of the well. Additionally, faint whispering could be heard coming from the well.

Terroc had cast a prying eyes spell previously. He sent one of the eyes down the well. It disappeared. Terroc sent another eye down and had it return to report every five feet. Through this method the party discovered that the pit was 200 feet deep. Tagenadi and Terroc went up to the pit to drop a rock with a light spell cast on it. While watching the rock fall Tagenadi heard a whispering in his ear, “You killed them! You killed them yourself, you bastard!” The rock suddenly disappeared at approximately 200 feet in depth. The strange experience warped Tagenadi’s mind and he felt himself wiser for it.

Tagenadi dumped the vial of elf blood into the pit. There was no visible effect in either the pit or the elven blood fountain. The party tried directing a summoned eagle to the bottom of the pit and then back up. The eagle disappeared at 200 feet and didn’t return. The party gave up on the pit room after that.

Four Door Horror

The next section of the tomb was turning right at the T after the demon statue room instead of left. Previously, left had led to a room with a mindflayer carved into the wall and then a room full of spikes guarded by a now dead air elemental.

The hallway to the right of the T led to a locked door pointing south. The party had Tagenadi open the lock with an adamantine dagger. A needle shot out of the lock and glanced off of Tagenadi’s armor. The lock was destroyed by the dagger and the party made it into the next room. The room had four doors just like the mindflayer room and the spike room. The left door was made of a mahogany and had a jade handle shaped like a dragon. The far door was made of bronze with a golden handle shaped like a wolf. The right door was made of oak. The walls of the room were made of gold. Goblin writing in blood covered the walls.

Tagenadi examined the writing and found it to be about hobgoblin myths. Tagenadi wrote down the Goblin words for dragon, wolf, and pit and had the party search the walls for those three words. The party found one appearance of dragon and another of pit. The dragon mentioned was the dragon in Jason and the Argonauts. The pit mentioned was the pit of Tartarus where the Titans were banished after the war between the Titans and the Olympians. No clues to the pit room or the two doors in the current room were found.

The party examined the dragon door and found it impossible to open through conventional means. No lock. The door didn’t open easily to a push, a pull, or sliding to the side. Knock didn’t work either. Terroc told everyone to stand back and then blasted the door with a disintegrate. The door fell into ash. The door was revealed to be hollow and full of acid. The acid washed over the floor, but the party kept a safe distance and suffered no harm. Torin cast create water to dilute the acid and the party moved in to see what was behind the dragon door.

Beyond was a small room with a metal vault door in it. The door had five one-inch holes in it forming a pentagon. Beneath the pentagon was Goblin writing. Tagenadi read it to the party,
“The greatest treasure to behold, lies here within this vault so cold.
Heart of earth, stone supreme, earns thee entrance if thou see past the mean.”

The party was unable to figure out the riddle. They thought it might have something to do with gemstones or coins, but saying the Goblin words for gemstones or coins achieved no result.

The wolf door was next. It wasn’t locked. Behind it was a symbol of lycanthropy. The party resisted the foul transformation magic and the symbol disappeared.

The simple wooden door was locked, but the adamantine dagger mutilated that problem as well. Beyond it was a short hallway with a huge 10’ by 10’ vault door made of steel and mithral. In the center of the door was a sword pommel. The party was scared of traps on the door. They decided to go back to the spike room from before.

The three unexplored doors in the spike room were a wooden one in the south wall, a steel one in the west wall, and a golden one with writing on it in the north wall. After a detect magic found no overt magical traps, Amalius went up to the north door and read the inscriptions aloud the rest of the party, “I swear upon the blades of Athena and by the wings of Nyx that I am the slave, body and soul, of Kruk-Ma-Kali, King of All, Lord of Might, Prince of this World, Protector of the East, Builder of Empire, Guardian of Elos, Master of Blades, Defender of Faith, Conqueror of Men, Slayer of Dwarves, Grinder of Elves, Ravager of Cimmeria, Son of Night, Warden of the Black Pit, Brother of War. If I should ever fail my sovereign lord and master, may the daughters of the dark rend my flesh and the hounds of war gnaw upon my bones.” Upon finishing the golden door swung open to reveal another corridor with a large door at the end of it.

Realizing that he had just read some sort of dark oath, Amalius immediately manifested mind blank on himself. Nothing sinister happened, but he resolved to keep his guard up when reading future writings in the tomb.

The large door at the end of the corridor was covered in carvings of elves, dwarves, and humans writhing in agony. An elf with its back arched in pain formed the handle at the center of the door. Not wanting to risk the door, the party headed back to the pentagon door to ponder its riddle.

The party sat down and tried to figure the riddle. Eventually, Terroc realized he was only getting older. He stood up and disintegrated the door (The party had, of course, written down the inscription already). Beyond the door were the walls of the tomb. Written on the wall were the words, “Wisdom, hard won, bests any coin. Follow Us and prosper. KMK”
The party was set on the coin part of the riddle, but nothing obvious presented itself. They moved on to the steel and mithral door. An ape was summoned to pull on the sword pommel. Immediately on pulling it the sword sprung out and the ape swung it around. Fortunately, everyone had chosen to keep a safe distance away. The sword completed its ape-propelled circle back into its door sized scabbard. Upon returning, the door opened revealing another square room with three other exits.

The Tomb Takes a Turn

The room was dominated by a large black-marble statue of Kruk-Ma-Kali facing away from the party on a pedestal in the center. The walls of the room were beaten platinum covered with a tiny golden Goblin script. To the north was a bronze door with a gem-encrusted handle. To the south was an ebony door with a bone handle. On the other side of the statue was an archway, beyond which was only mist.

The ape was sent in first to stomp around and check for traps. He found none. Not wanting to waste his remaining duration, the ape was sent into the mist and told to return after stomping around in there.

It didn’t come back.

Deciding that the room was safe, but not the mist, Amalius went in to examine the writing. The words told the story of Kruk-Ma-Kali’s true rise to power and his eventual fall. Amalius examined the statue to see if there was any writing on the pedestal. He found no inscriptions, but he did find that the statue did not actually rest on the pedestal. It rested upon a disk. The disk rested upon a pole that went into the pedestal. Amalius correctly surmised that the statue could rotate.

The party moved forward to rotate the statue. They decided to turn it counter-clockwise to face the northern bronze door. Upon facing north, a great sound of stone grinding upon stone was heard behind the bronze door. The party continued rotating it. When it faced the door to the south, the floor crumbled beneath them! Terroc was the lucky one, having an overland flight spell already active. Tagenadi, Amalius, and Shez plummeted. Torin jumped to grab the statue which was not falling, but slipped when trying to grab it. Torin fell. Preta jumped for the statue as well and managed to grab it. Tagenadi, Amalius, Shez, and Torin hit the ground one hundred feet below and suffered a fair amount of damage. Torin healed them all up. Preta and Shez cast fly upon themselves and ferried the party members up. The statue had not fallen because it rested upon a huge pillar in the center of the room.

After everyone was safe, Preta and Shez rotated the statue further, back to its original position, facing east. The grinding of stone upon stone was heard once again. Tagenadi suspected that a secret passage was opening and closing on the other side of the bronze door. Preta knocked the door and the party continued. Beyond was an empty room. Rotating the statue back to the north caused a section of the northern wall in the new room to slide down into the floor. A short hallway was revealed, at the end of which was a door made of bone.

A detect magic unsurprisingly revealed a necromantic aura on the door. Terroc decided that disintegrating it was best. As the ray hit the door, the skulls that composed it animated. They flew forward and began biting the party members. Tagenadi slew one quickly. Torin filled the air with positive energy, causing the rest to turn to dust.

Bone Bridge

Beyond the destroyed bone door was a large cavernous chamber. Stalactites covered the ceiling and bones were encrusted in the red stone walls. Instead of a floor there was a firey pit that could only lead to one place. The screams and cries of the damned came from the pit and sulfurous smoke curled throughout the room. A wooden door could be seen on the far side of the room. A winding pathway made of bones and skulls was suspended in midair.

Terroc sent two apes to explore the pathway. The apes discovered that the pathway was very rickety. They promptly fell to their dooms.

Torin used an animate objects on the doorway across the cavern. It opened to reveal a room filled with light instead of the usual dark of the tomb. Tagenadi threw a rock across the cavern, but it hit an invisible barrier in the middle of the room and fell into the pit. Puzzled, Tagenadi decided to chance flying into the room. He activated his celestial armor, but found that the flying magic slide off himself and into the pit. Terroc summoned an air elemental to see if its flight would be absorbed by the pit. The air elemental was able to travel the room safely. Tagenadi was also able to toss a rock onto the bone path close to him.

A little bit more than curious, the party scoured the room with detect magic. The right side of the room contained a large illusion spell. The party immediately attempted to disbelieve the illusion, but were unable to.

Amalius had a growing suspicion. He threw a rock near the wall to the right. The rock did not fall into the pit, but landed on an invisible section of the bone pathway. Torin tested the invisible pathway with his spear. His prodding revealed that the invisible pathway was a reality. However, as he poked the bone he felt a force grab his spear and take it from. A flying imp’s invisibility dissolved as it took his spear!

Amalius reacted quickly and dominated the imp. He proceeded to interrogate the imp about the room. The imp revealed the full location of the invisible pathway along the right wall. The invisible pathway was considerably less rickety than the winding visible one. Tagenadi crossed the rickety pathway with the assistance of an air elemental. The party decided that would take too long. Instead they had an air elemental carry them across in a bag of holding. They questioned the imp about the rest of the tomb, but it knew nothing. Amalius ordered it to count all the bones in the pathway before they went into the well-lit room.

Hallway to a Surprise

The room’s walls were covered in golden writing. Tagenadi translated a few of the phrases as aphorisms of Kruk-Ma-Kali. The light in the room originated from a magical orb near the ceiling. Three identical wooden doors led out of the room to the west, north, and east. Tagenadi bravely opened all the doors, starting with the east and moving counter-clockwise.

The east door exploded in his face and revealed only a wall behind. The north door revealed a wall with a magic symbol on it. The symbol disappeared and Tagenadi suffered no ill effects. The west door was… locked.

Terroc threw a disintegrate at the door. A good portion of the door turned to dust. The spell revealed the door to be made of thick steel instead of wood as it first appeared. Tagenadi bashed down the rest of the door using his Mountain Hammer technique).

Beyond the door was a long hallway. The hallway contained many carvings of Kruk-Ma-Kali. Kruk on a throne with various humanoids prostrating themselves before him. Him commanding his armies. Him slaying a dragon. His birth. His first battle. His slaying of a manticore at the tender young age of five. Him surveying his troops and executing prisoners. Him fighting humans and other beasts. At the end of the hallway was a carving of him with his back to the viewer while he filled out some paperwork at a desk. Four stern-looking bodyguards surrounded the carving at the back. The hallway turned left at the desk carving.

Tagenadi led the way forward. The party encountered two traps. One that filled the hallway with fire and another that filled it with ice. Both were dealt with by having Torin heal everyone back to full after passing over the pressure plates. Following the turn in the hallway a pair of doors was revealed. The carvings of Kruk-Ma-Kali continued to the doors. Upon the portals were two images of him with what appeared to be real stone scabbards capable of accepting blades. The party immediately knew that putting some sort of blades into the scabbards would open the door. They tried first with the black silver dagger they’d found in the tomb in one scabbard and a normal steel dagger in the other. That achieved nothing. They tried next with the black silver dagger and the cursed never-miss sword. That got no response either. Terroc suggested that Amalius think on it a little harder. Amalius manifested divination. The power told him, “Blades too big and too small. None of these blades fits at all!” The scabbards were longsword sized, so they needed longswords. Having no longswords with them, Terroc simply blasted one of the doors open with a disintegrate.

The next room was the motherload room! A large chamber filled with treasure stacked up against the walls. Jewels, gold, silver, and four large treasure chests. A large statue of Kruk-Ma-Kali stood at each of the four corners of the room. At the far end of the room was a large alcove with a giant sarcophagus on it. Fearing traps and animation of the statues, Terroc sent in two earth elementals to lift the lid off the sarcophagus. No one was surprised when the statues animated and attacked. What was a little surprising was a goblin ghost coming out of the sarcophagus instead of a hobgoblin. The ghost attacked the elementals with the help of one of the golems. Tagenadi engaged another golem. Preta used a wall of force to separate the other two golems. Shez threw a magic missile at the ghost. Torin followed up the missile with a mass cure spell. The ghost suffered under the influx of positive energy and slowly faded away. Tagenadi took down his golem with a Mountain Hammer Strike despite it attacking with its swords and magic eye lazers. The other three golems were quickly mopped up.

The party took a look inside the sarcophagus and saw that it contained only the small preserved corpse of a goblin slave. The slave clutched a rusted dagger to its chest. Amalius correctly identified the slave as the assassin of Kruk-Ma-Kali long ago. Unsure what to make of it, the party loaded up the treasure into the bags of holding for later counting. Satisfied with the vast bounty of loot, the party exited the tomb and teleported back to Highhold.

The Dwarven Kingmoot

They were set up with fine accommodations in Highhold and informed that only one of their number would be seated at the same table as the dwarven kings. The rest would have to stand to the side or leave the room during the negotiations.

The party hemmed and hawed over who should represent them. They narrowed it down to Torin, Terroc, or Amalius. Torin was a dwarf and made the most sense initially. However, Torin was deemed too low in the dwarven social order to sit with the other kings as equals. Someone wholly removed from that order would be better, a representative of the Alliance, for example. Terroc suggested himself as the most senior and Amalius suggested himself as the most diplomatic (or psioncally dominating, whatever). Bickering ensued until Tagenadi suggested that they simply ask King Dainlin if he’d like to take part in the negotiations. The party teleported to Dainlin and asked him. Dainlin agreed. They zipped back to Highhold and the Dwarven King’s Brunch began the next day.

The players did not want to watch me talk to myself over Google Hangouts using four different handpuppets (even though that sounds very entertaining). Neither did they want me to summarize the negotiations to them. Instead, they chose to play the dwarven kings during the negotiations. I wrote up a short bio on each of the kings and sent it to the player who would be playing that king. The bios are spoilered below. The players were not allowed to view the other players’ bios until after the negotiations were concluded. I played Epidemus, Torngar’s castellan and the arbitrator of the negotiations.

There was an upset at the start of the negotiations that a Mountain Dwarf so close to Torngar would arbitrate the debate. However, Torngar convinced the others that because he was host, he got to choose the arbitrator. Besides, even if they looked they weren’t going to find an impartial dwarf arbitrator in all the world. Epidemus set forth the goal of the negotiations.

If the four kings could unanimously decide on one of their number being given the Fierce Axe, then no other negotiations would be necessary. If the kings could not decide, then they must come to a different unanimous decision on the method of decision. The other methods of deciding could be voting, a wrestling tournament, a crafting tournament, or a drinking contest. The kings began the negotiations to see if one of their number could gain the support of the other three. During the debate, Epidemus served the kings plenty of beer and mead in fine gem-encrusted silver flagons.

Sandil opened negotiations by flattering Deekgaon. Sandil knew Deekgaon to be a strong and just king for letting the Duergar stay in his home. Deekgaon took well to this motion and suggested that he be made High King of the dwarves. Torngar objected, thinking rightly that Deekgaon would drag the dwarven people into a war. Dainlin objected as well, not trusting the Underdark dwarves to rule with good hearts. Sandil then threw Deekgaon under a bus and supported Torngar. Deekgaon was shocked at first. Dainlin agreed to support Torngar, only if Torngar agreed to send the dwarven people to war. Deekgaon was resistant to the idea of Torngar ruling, until Sandil suggested that Deekgaon be given command of the army. All four admitted a tentative approval of this plan.

The details of the plan were worked out. The Xorians would be given an ultimatum to give the Underdark back to the dwarves within a month. If the Xorians complied, then the dwarves would not go to war. If they refused, then in three months time the dwarven armies would pour through the Xorian Underdark to reforge the Dwarven Empire of old!

The four kings sealed the deal by smashing their flagons together and drinking deep of their beer. Deekgaon and Sandil kneeled before Torngar immediately. Dainlin hesitated, then kneeled as well. Torngar was proclaimed High King and Emperor of All Dwarves! Torngar’s first act as Emperor was to call for more beer and for an immediate feast.

The session ended there. Next session will probably deal with the coronation stuff and then onto other adventures while waiting for the Xorian response (if any). I asked all the players to write their versions of the negotiations. We really got into it with the flowery dialogue and the accents. I focused mostly on staying awake (it was pretty late) and retaining the general flow of the talks. The other players can enlighten some more specific things from their point of view. Ben, Jamie, and Will wrote up their version of events.

Ben’s POV with Torngar of the Mountain Dwarves

I am Torngar the Great, Duke of Highholt, Lord of the High Passes, King of the Mountain Dwarves, Dragonslayer, Horror of the Dread Serpents, End of Yglesias the Black Shadow, Drinker of the Thousand Cups, He of the Everflowing Beard, Master Armorsmith, Strong of Heart and Arm, Forger of Mythslayer, the Solid, the Brave, the Alcoholic.

This is my story.

The four of us met in Highhold. My kinsmen – the great and numerous Mountain Dwarves – thronged around the palace. The four of us were arranged around a table:

Me, Torngar. I already led the bulk of the Mountain Dwarves, and I was the only one bathed in the blood of the dragon. In retrospect, how could I not become Emperor?

Sandil of the Deep Dwarves: Strange little fellow. Never liked deep dwarves, personally, and he seemed a bit conniving.

Dainlin of the Hill Dwarves: Not a bad dwarf. Am secretly envious of his beard. Still, consorting with the humans has been bad for him.

Deekgaon: A little too much granite in the head, if you catch my drift.

We talked. And drank. In the end, I became Emperor. How else could it have ended? Sure, I agreed to go to war against the Xorians in three moons – but dwarves have never been known for keeping tight schedules.

Jamie’s POV with Deekgaon of the Deep Dwarves

The following is the report of Deekgaon – written sort of in the style of the “very secret diaries”. Deekgaon is a noble dwarf lord, but with four different accounts of this story, this seemed like it would be more entertaining.

Dainlin says I should be king. A wise choice that.
Sandil agreed. He always has my back. Such a pal.
V. Important to get Sandil’s land back. Duergar keep drinking my favorite beer.
Torngar says “don’t be hasty.” Reminds me of a tree for some reason.
Took break from drink and talk to drink some beer
Beard check: impressive and bushy

It’s been decades since Duergar land taken I said. What haste is Torngar talking about
Torngar says Kingmoot has only just started. “Kingmoot”: V. funny.
We drank beer some more.
Epidemus mentioned we could have contest to pick king. V. good idea! We could have any sort of fair contest. Arm wrestling, knock-you-down, halfling tossing, etc.

Sandil says we should keep talking. Such a nice guy. I trust him.
Dainlin talking about how awesome I am. So sweet, but he can’t be my BFF. ❤ Sandil.
But Sandil says Torngar will be a better choice because of all the thinking a king has to do.
That made me thirsty.
Sandil yelled at Epidemus because our mugs were empty. I like Sandil.

I remembered I am already a king. What’s Sandil talking about? I think all the time.
Axes. Beer. Mountain. Beer. Sandil. Beer. Waffle. See? Thinking.
We drank some more beer. I like beer.
I like Sandil, but his Duergar drink too much beer. Maybe if Torngar agrees to lead us to war… but I want to be king.
Sandil says I could be a great general. That does sound fun.
Torngar agrees, obviously, cause Sandil’s so convincing.
What would happen if you stored beer in gold kegs? Good thought. Will have to tell Sandil. He’ll be so impressed.
Beard check: Somewhat damp. Will have to see if tongue can reach beard after Kingmoot. Do not want to waste beer.

Torngar says we need three months. That seems like a long time.
Sandil says we need three months. Oh he must be right then.
Dainlin wants one month. I do want to go to war. But Sandil says three. He must be right.

Sandil says it’s cool to call Torngar emperor. I know he’s still my best friend.
We drank beer.
Beard check: better than the emperor’s. I am an impressive dwarf.

Will’s POV with Dailin of the Hill Dwarves

Our negations began with two faced scum Sandil praising Deekagon’s fighting strength and supporting him for Emperor. Because Deekagon would lead our people to war against our dragovinian foes I too said I would support him. But because Sandil has less honor than an elf has valor, he switched his support to Torngar who has been picking daisies in the mountains while the rest of us have been fighting. However, Deekagon whose will is as weak as his arm is strong also switched his support to Torngar and though it pained me I was forced to become Torngar’s vassal in order to get a united dwarf army. And so Torngar held the Axe of Kings and we all drank to the health of a Dwarven Empire and to relieve our parched throats, which had barely felt the sweet taste of beer for fifteen minutes.