Beyond the Passes
Collapse the Minor Tunnels, 33/50.
(2 Miner Dice.)
4+35-5-5+4 = 33
Now that the Underhold has been made available, the Stonebeards are not meant to be out in the sun. Sun Madness has taken many of the Miner Clan in its grip and the efforts to seal Kazad Urbaz has been greatly delayed. First they wept over the destruction of so many tunnels, then they insisted on probing the tunnels that were going to be sealed and then they had to rush back to the Underhold to quickly mine a little bit more Coal.
Fortify North Tunnel, 239/150. Completed.
(1 Stonemason Die + 1 Warsmith Die + 2 Beardling Dice.)
18+10+9+97+97+8 = 239
As the other tunnels are slowly collapsed, many Dawi move to cap the North Tunnel with a suitable gatehouse. It is slow work, the rough winding path from Karak Drekfut to Kazad Urbaz is some eight miles and hauling tools and cut stone along it is arduous enough. The Longbeards of both your Clan and the Shatterspears take their time erecting the simple structure of the gatehouse, wary of the Troll Caves that lie further down North Tunnel.
What remains of South Throng has occupied Kazad Urbaz and if any Trolls still hide in those caves then they should be slain easily enough but the South Throng is depleted with more than a half of them still in the Healers Hall. The Beardlings however, who have never seen the carnage a Troll Horde can pass over an outpost, are ever-eager workers. They are the ones who raise up the great stone gates on their hinges. They are the ones who carve the towers and staircases beside the gatehouse and flatten the face of the mountain so that it cannot simply be climbed.
North Tunnel Gatehouse completed.
Fortify the Door Onto the Pass, 229/150. Completed.
(1 Stonemason Die + 3 Beardling Dice.)
34+35+55+97+8 = 229
The Shatterspears have taken Beardlings from many Clans into Kazad Urbaz and down through the bloody and burnt ruins to the southern face of the mountain. Where the Peak high above has been lost in the cloud layer, the Pass has revealed itself. The Door Onto the Pass is significantly lower in the mountain than the North Tunnel and is the only known passage between Kazad Urbaz and the world beyond besides North Tunnel.
To fortify the Door is to lay claim to the Pass which looks to have a future as a prosperous trading outpost. The Elders have counselled that the Kazad could also be used to shroud the Karak from travellers and act as a great gatehouse. Fortunately, the Door is already set into the back of a natural cave and so allows a degree of secrecy and security for the workers.
The Shatterspears start with taking apart the Door and having Beardlings burn the bodies that has previously encased it. Work is delayed from time to time as strength is exerted onto the Pass by Rangers but continues all the same throughout the year. The natural cave between the Door and the Pass has been entirely renovated with the rough walls replaced with heavy stone blocks. The Hargrobi wall housing the Door has been demolished and rebuilt with Dawi craftwork and the face of the cave out onto the Pass has been replaced with the traditional stylised gatehouse of the Dawi.
A heavy stone gate with a very thin steel plate inscribed with the helmeted face of a Dawi Warrior stands just out from the skin of the mountain and the gatehouse allows for defenders to fire down the pass to the east and the west.
Door Onto the Pass completed.
Carve a Road, 11/50.
(2 Farmer Dice.)
18-5-5-5+9-5+4 = 11
Karak Drekfut's South Pass and the North Tunnel of Kazad Urbaz are some eight miles of winding rocky mountain passes apart. The Ironploughs have been greatly distracted from their work by feeding the Hold and little of the road between the Karak and the Kazad has been completed.
Elder Garin reports that the ground has been levelled between South Pass and the first of the five peaks the road must wind past to reach North Tunnel but the Farmers haven't yet manage to replace the smoothed out ground with the reinforced slabs needed to allow laden wagons to travel smoothly at speed.
North Peak
Significant Hold Fortifications, 314/300. Completed.
(1 Warsmith Die + 1 Brewer Die.)
23-5+84-5-5+4 = 96
Your Clan and Daungrumm's have worked together with seamless efficiency to raise up the rear gatehouses and replace the temporary support struts with solid and reinforce pillars. From within the Entrance Hall the Dawi of the Hold have the means to collapse the Hold Fortifications upon any invader although a foe that can breach the triple gates of Karak Drekfut is a true danger.
Those heavy stone gates are not easily opened even by teams of Dawi and the slope of North Peak directly over the gates are rife with embankments, towers and low walls from which defenders can fire upon the enemy in the Valley without concern for being fired back upon.
Significant Hold Fortification completed.
The Underhold
Iron Ore Under-Storehall, 93/100.
(1 Brewer Die)
29+2 = 31
The Bronzeplaits have not fared well in the Underhold and continue to make slow progress to see the Iron Ore Under-Storehall completed. Elder Korin has sworn that should you will it, the Clan shall see the Under-Storehall completed in the coming year. But there are grumbles among the Stonebeards that the other Clans have not been respecting the Underhold in their absence.
Runelord Challenge
Master Rune of Balance on North Peak, 4/4 turns completed.
Challenge Level: 20
81
You are out in the Valley when the Rhunrikki strikes the Master Rune of Balance. The whole Valley goes silent and there's a stillness within Valley and Hold. You can see the workers at the gates stop and look up and the Ironploughs in their fields stay their work. The great shape of the Master Rune of Balance glows silver with a brilliant light on the North Peak.
A weight that had stood on your shoulders diminishes and there's a strength to you that you had forgotten. Other Dawi seem to stand a little bit sturdier as well around you. The great glow of the Master Rune might imply that it was more active in its birth than the Rune of Slowness had been and as the Rhunrikki descends from the mountain you move to question him on the state of magic in the surrounding world.
But the Rhunrikki simply shakes his head and mutters. 'I heard a scream.' And then he goes on into the Hold.
Master Rune of Balance completed in North Peak.
Personal Challenge
Feast for the Hold, Success.
Challenge Level: 30.
(Lady Daungrumm + Lord Gartrim)
43+34 = 77
A Grudge has been struck out, a Great Grudge has gained satisfaction and the Hold must celebrate. You and Daungrumm host a great feast to celebrate the victory that has been won over the Hargrobi. The Hold Book of Grudges is placed on a pedestal where the bards usually stand in the Tavern and the Grudge of the Rock Lobbers and the Grudge of Kazad Hargrobi and the Great Grudge of the Time of Woes are spoken aloud in most ancient Khazalid.
Your voice is the voice of the mountain. You are grinding stone, flowing gravel and thundering avalanche. Your audience is an enraptured as the audience of the greatest bards. The White Dwarf himself could tell tales of his endeavours and the Dawi would hear only you. When at last your reciting of Grudges is done the Hold is shook by cheers and then the celebration.
Karstah, now six years old, enjoys the feast greatly. She runs about between the tables, pilfering Ale from watchless Beardlings and climbing over and around Rangers. Those who suffered for this victory are not left out, the celebrations roll across into the Healers Hall and the Matrons brow beat many a drunken Dawi who is fool enough to try and lift the injured from their beds.
The Throng gains Enthusiatic.
The Lorekeepers
Engineers, 2/5 turns completed.
The simplest workings of the Engineers have now been taught to the Beardlings. The Crossbows of the Quarrellers and Rangers are the first of Morgrim's gifts to the Dawi and so they are the first complete design that the Beardlings are trained to create. With the basic skills of working wood, metal and rope the Beardlings have the right fundamentals to make steady progress and soon complete their course on Crossbow making.
The Throng
Guard Kazad Urbaz
The Southerly Throng has been tasked with guarding Kazad Urbaz. There are creatures of dark nature in that mountain and servants of the enemy as well. With work crews working through the edges of the Kazad the Throng is spread thin, especially with so many of their number in the Healers Hall after the conquest.
They split into three groups, the North Tunnel is watched by one and the other keeps the Door Onto the Pass while the Deadeye and his Rangers venture between the two and a short way beyond. The Rangers were most healthy of any party for they had enjoyed the Deadeye's great skill at ambushing Grobi during the battle.
There comes upon Kazad Urbaz no danger and the Rangers patrol some of the Pass. The Hargrobi leave tracks into the mountains on the far side but disappear quickly into the rocks, no travellers make use of the pass in either direction, but the Rangers bring tell of Giants. One week a thunderstorm rolled over the pass and amongst the peaks to the south there strode towers more Titan perhaps than Giant.
Range Beyond North and East Pass
The Rangers of the Northerly Throng journey north through the mountains. They weave through rocky ground and past the Urk Mountains that descend into the west. The roaring of a distant Dragon sounds from the far north when they stop in the high mountains and look down on the Umgi to the east.
Their stone castle is broken open, the shell has cracked, and the masonry has been cast a great distance down their hill. Blackened ruins run through the city and a line of scorched ground continues south and east towards the horizon. On the ground beneath the broken castle is a warhost of the Umgi. Banners count in the hundreds and the tents in the thousands.
The horsemen who dwelt here are most numerous and fly dark green banners marked with golden threads or red. But the warhost that came from the East is camped with them. They look perhaps something taller than the first sort of Umgi and they wield mostly Az. Their banners are a paler green and threaded with browns both light and dark.
Meanwhile the Easterly Throng has descended the East Pass and worked slowly through the foothills to the north. In some places they cross the worn wooden bridges of the Umgi and in others they ford the mountain streams that feed the Great River. Eventually the siring rivers of the Great River must be crossed. For a land that has been recently traversed by a warhost, this crucial crossing is entirely unwatched, and the Rangers make the crossing unseen.
Their journey has been alongside a terrible shadow, however. Across the Great River they can see a burn scar in the woods that has woven back and forth. Some of the land is blackened and in other places the forest has grown back with saplings feeding on the ash of their fathers.
The Rangers soon come to lay upon the long grasses of the horsemen having bypassed their fortified wooden towns and rounded the last hill before the Umgi castle. The warhost stretches on for a great distance and the Rangers can watch as a funeral procession seems to travel through the Umgi. There is a silence amongst the Umgi although birds yet sing. Overhead a Great Eagle swoops down over the castle and an Umgi descends from its back. He is clad in steel armour that rests comfortably over a leather underlayer and the Umgi horsemen kneel to him. The Great Eagle flies away with great haste.
The Umgi King ascends into the castle and the camp returns to its wait. The Rangers watch for a few days, but the Dragon is growing slowly closer, and their rations are growing slowly thinner. They return their own ways to Karak Drekfut.
Range Beyond West Pass
Elder Urtain and the Rangers of the Westerly Throng travel through South Pass and Kazad Urbaz to make use of the Door Onto the Pass. They walk it into the west and follow as it gently slopes and turns southwards. The Pass turns to road and tightens as it begins to twist carefully along the wall of a great gorge. The Rangers descend the wall of the gorge, and the Elder looks down upon the river that carves through the rock of the low mountains and rushes away to the west.
And also looks down on a marvellous city of great grace and beauty that sits on the far side of the river, connected to the road by a narrow white bridge. The city rises up the far wall of the gorge and is rife with orchards and elegant towers. The Elder calls his Rangers to halt and curses Elgak Magics. Was he so young that he could not see that which stood so clearly before him! Woe upon the Elgi, had they not struck low his kin and shattered their might in the War of Vengeance then he might have had a Runesmith in his host. He might have had a nose that could know the presence of such magics as distracted the eye and shrouded the city.
The Elgi have seen the Rangers, how could they not have for the Rangers are all stood clear against a wall opposite the watchers that guard the city. The Elgi are many things, but they are not watchless. The Rangers retreat back up the gorge and away from the Elgi. Elder Urtain watches as a small band of riders cross the bridge and the Rangers form up behind rocks and level crossbows. The Elgi clearly change their mind about charging up the narrow road against you. Faithless creatures and cowards.
The Elder and his Rangers work back up the Pass and into Kazad Urbaz through the newly built Door Onto the Pass. You hear counsel from the Elders who discuss where there could possibly be Hargrobi and Elgi at once. But the signs grow ever clearer as time marches on. You are not in any known place. The Lord of Change who cast you here has cast you further than you dare mourn. The questions that stand swirl through your mind.
Have you been cast through great space to a land beyond the world your Ancestors walked, or have you been cast through the treacheries of Time to a land ancient or perhaps distantly young? And are these Elgi native to this land or were they cast here too by some plot of the Plotter?
