Session 03

Magma Force found themselves in a small octagonal room at the bottom of a long elevator shaft. There was a single wooden, iron-bound door out of the room. Harley the rogue checked it over and pronounced it safe so the dwarf barbarian, Gotrek yanked it open. They got their first real view of the inside of the Malachite Fortress. A long hall spread ahead of them and hanging from the ceiling were some cages of unknown use. Moving into the room to examine the cages they saw in the middle of the room some sort of sculpture which looks almost like a 4 armed human signpost. A bit strange. It was even more strange when the thing annimated and attacked! The party battered it to pieces in seconds but the noise was enough to attract the attention of a nearby creature. A giant with a filth encrusted falcion stepped out of a nearby room and engaged the party. Luckily for them it appeared he was very unskilled in his sword and was unable to touch any of them before he was overwhelmed by their superior numbers.   Searching the giant's room they found a chest which they opened using a key on his body. It was a horrible filthy place. Worse than that there were no doors from it so they had come to a dead end. Harley quickly surmised that the dwarves were logical and figured their should be a door at the end of the hallway symetrical to the one which came in. A quick search revealed a cunningly cut secret door which was only just detectable.   The group lined up to open it, and Morgan the Paladin of St. Cuthbert pressed in the stud in the wall. The door slid open to reveal a big hall with a large stone statue of a drwarven warrior, draped in metal chains, plus 4 hobgoblins guarding 2 double doors.   Before anyone could react Harvey threw his dagger, plunging it right into the eye of a hobgoblin and felling it. Then the door, on well constructed and balanced hinges, swung closed again - some sort of counterweight mechanism clearly.   The party all looked at Harvey impressed and then Camero the Battle Sorcerer moved to the front to hold the door open, allowing Gotrek and Morgan into the room. All five of Magma Force now piled into the three remaining hobgoblins and would have made swift work of them but as they passed by the statue of the dwarven warrior the chains wrapped over him animated, lashed out and grappled them, half strangling Braken the Cleric of St. Cuthbert! Gotrek and Morgan were also in a long drawn out tassle with the chains but eventually they were overcome.   Looking out of the peep holes in the doors to the north the party saw a bridge over a chasm leading to a large dark cave. Morgan spotted some dwarven runes on the statue but could not read them so Harley, who spoke and read dwarven fluently translated: "Zenith Splintershield, Lord of the Malachite Fortress". Braken had heard of him and told the group a little about the founder of the Malachite Fortress. As this was going on the dwarf had noticed another secret door in the opposite wall to the one they came in through. After a brief discussion it was decided to head through there rather than the two pairs of double doors.   The secret door lead to a corridor with a guard room off it in which four drunken hobgoblins were surprised and masacred. There was also some sort of strange room with loads of skins and bones in it including a chair made of bones and covered with skins, with a draconic skull atop it. As this room was bring quickly searched Gotrek spotted another secret door in the south. Amazed at his ability to find doors without even searching for them, the others all entered the room. He explained it was his dwarven nature and he could spot typical stone doors like these a mile off. They opened the secret door to reveal a treasure trove. Three chests, numerous casks filled with coins and gems, armour, weapons, trinkets and more spilled everywhere on the floor. The party entered cautiously and approached the treasure.   Suddenly, this lovely and expensive looking gong exploded into action. A fist shaped protution shot from the gong, striking Morgan and sticking fast to him. The party rushed in to fight this strange gong monster and attacked. Sadly Morgan could not unstick himself and soon Gotrek was stuck fast too, and the two were being crushed by the gongs strange strong arms. Others weren't fairing much better as each time they tried to strike it with weapons their weapons would stick to it! Thinking quickly Morgan managed to get a flask of oil from his backpack. Harley grabbed it and threw it at the gong creature, covering it in oil. Camero, always prepared, grabbed his flint and steel and lit the creature. With a pitiful scream of pain it let go of the adventurers and perished in the flames.   Patching up the party grabbed useful bits of armour and weapons from the pile and a few expensive and portable trinkets, plus some potion bottles and gems. Harley found and disabled a magical trap on one chest and they recovered much treasure.   Of course during this time Gotrek noticed another secret door! Opening this revealed a small square room ahead, with no obvious exits. Expecting there to be a secret door on the other side, Gotrek stepped in - and the floor immediately collapsed under him. He fell about 20' onto some spikes but was not badly hurt. He was a tough dwarf from the Mochican jungles and it would take more to stop him. They searched the pit and then realised that the lever in the treasure vault would close and secure the pit, so they did this and indeed found a secret door on the far side of the pit. This lead into a room which turned out to have two illusory walls in it and two strange human like automatons with a pincer for one hand and a huge hammer for the other. These each guarded levers. Magma force were hard pressed to overcome these two guardians but eventually did so. Just before they fought them the guardians pulled their levers down. Due to the illusory walls the party did not see what had occurred although they heard a great grinding noise when it happened. Once the guardians were defeated the party pulled the levers back up and watched through the illusory walls as huge blocks of stone slid back into the walls to reveal more passageways. The party explored these newly revealed passageways, finding two unoccupied cell blocks, each with 14 cells. They showed signs of recent habitation. Magma Force felt like they were getting close! Moving back into the room they had fought the guardians in they opened the only door leading out, seeing that it lead out to a huge chasm with a walkway down one side and a brigde over the chasm to a door which lead into a large building with windows, from which light spilled.   Suddenly having another inspiration about symetry, rather than going through to investigate the light the party dropped back into the room with the guardians and searched the south wall for a secret door. Sure enough they found one. They set up to open it and found another cell block stretching ahead of them.   From this one though they heard the unmistakable sounds of whimpering...