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In attendance:

30 July 110

Back at Sorgul's commune after the return to the Resort

1 August - Head off to Clangdun to return the Dwarven waraxe found in Myagmarsuren. The hope is to find the heirs of Einerk, the presumed original owner.

4 August - In Midriver. Buy a few supplies.

7 August - Arrive at Clangdun. From an innkeeper, the party learns that the temple to Clangeddin Silverbeard is the place to get questions answered. They head over there and after an initial inquiry, are directed to Bamli, a Dwarven cleric. While he seems to have some initial skepticism, he agrees that the party's story is intriguing and suggests they return the next day while he arranges to have somebody more knowledgeable meet with them. So that they may be found more easily, Bamli suggests the party stay at the Mortar and Pestle, a smaller inn off the beaten track. While this does raise some red flags, the party decides to trust the dwarves for the time being.

8 August - In the morning, they return to the temple and are informed that they have a meeting at Noon. After killing some time by wandering around the village, they return at noon and meet Dasur, a cleric who serves in the court of King Konar. After the story of the axe (and the axe itself) are revealed, Dasur explains the history of Einerk, son of Queen Morif.

   Einerk was the younger son of Queen Morif, a controversial ruler of the
   dwarven city of Kalin around 400 years ago.  Kalin was a great city whose
   deep internal halls were known back then as "The Long Deep".  Now, however,
   the place is known simply as "the old city".

   Since dwarven females are less common than dwarven males, it is not unusual
   that the younger sons never marry.  Therefore, Einerk saw no future in Kalin
   and set off to seek glory elsewhere.  When no word came back after several
   years, a divination was cast which revealed he was dead.  No additional
   information is available.

   Meanwhile, on the death of their mother, Einerk's elder brother, Bagnar,
   became king.  However, he was indecisive and let the neighboring orc tribes
   gain too much power before attempting to deal with them.  The resulting
   campaign was a disaster which weakened the kingdom tremendously.  A few years
   later, a coordinated onslaught led by a fire wizardess named Qo'aycin proved
   too much and the walls were breached.  Qo'aycin opened fissures from the
   depths which made the city unlivable and the dwarves were forced to abandon
   their efforts to reclaim it.  They settled farther down the river, where they
   remain to this day.

   History has not been kind to Bagnar, but his mother Morif has taken perhaps
   more than her share of the blame, too.  Most likely, this is because of the
   considerable sexism that exists in the dwarven culture.  When Bagnar died, he
   had only a daughter, Glasur.  Traditionally, in such cases, the daughter
   would be crowned queen.  However, the clerics ruled that Bagnar's first
   cousin, Hunar, be crowned, instead.

   The current king, Konar, is directly descended from Hunar.  Since Einerk had
   no heirs of his own, the closest living relatives would be Glumli and Glamli,
   brothers, who were the sons of Tonus, a descendant of the spurned princess
   Glasur.  This family has often wondered what would have happened if Einerk
   had been made a bachelor king instead of his older brother, Bagnar.
   Naturally, in the absence of any real evidence of the kind of man Einerk was,
   a mythology has evolved that has made him perhaps more revered than he
   deserves.

The party is then invited into the inner city to have a dinner meeting with the brothers Glumli and Glamli. They accept, but return to their inn for some final preparations.

Roderick casts a Divination spell to determine whether they are on the right track and his god tells him that “The spirit of Einerk lies in the Long Deep and that only there can he be reunited with the axe.”

The brothers are very interested in the axe and eventually offer the party 10,000 gold pieces to buy it from them. The party, however, declines to sell it and insists that a quest to return the axe is the proper way to honor Einerk's memory. The brothers agree and ask their nephew, Pavo, to join the party on behalf of the family.

Pavo agrees and the embiggened party makes plans to head out the next morning.

9 August - Up the river to the most remote Dwarven outpost, known simply as “The Keep on the Borderlands”.

10 August - Arrive at the city late in the day. Aramil spots Giant tracks, so the party takes care to establish a secure campsite.

11 August - After a morning's preparations, the party heads into the only obvious entrance. They find that the place has been excavated “recently” and there is an unnatural cold inside. Additionally, there are Frost Giants and Ogres. They kill three of each with some effort and decide that they should fall back and regroup before continuing deeper…

XP awarded: 2,400 for Pavo; 1,825 for Aramil; and 1,350 for the rest. Roderick makes 10th level.