campaigns:latitude_history:adventures:the-drums-beneath-hearthforge [Ron Helwig's Viking World for D&D]

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====== The Drums Beneath Hearthforge ======

{{ :campaigns:latitude_history:adventures:drums-beneath-hearthforge-door-breach.png?620 |Thordak and Risar breach the Hearthforge ritual-room doors}}

===== Party =====

  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:thordak-faerdhal|Thordak Faerdhal]]
  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:caleb-gandalfson|Caleb Gandalfson]]
  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:thorgall-giron|Thorgall Giron]]
  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:leif-arrowsong|Leif Arrowsong]]
  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:risar-stormborn|Risar Stormborn]]
  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:mechakirby|MechaKirby]]
  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:shenanigan-swift|Shenanigan Swift]]
  * [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:steve|Steve]]

When the party returned to [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:hearthforge|Hearthforge]], the enemy had learned from the first intrusion. Signal watchtowers ringed the mountain saddle, and the cave entrance had been fortified again. Thordak, Caleb, Thorgall, Leif, Risar, [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:mechakirby|MechaKirby]], Shenanigan, [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:steve|Steve]], and others flew in the [[campaigns:latitude_history:lore:flying-karve|Flying Karve]], pulled by [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:skythor|Skythor]], with [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:mechakirby|MechaKirby]] watching the sail overnight so the boat could keep moving while most of the party slept.

They dropped onto the first crude watchtower and overwhelmed it in the opening moments, killing the goblins and setting the tower ablaze. A hobgoblin captain came up through the hatch and died in the same rush. There was no time for careful looting; the party threw bodies onto the karve and moved as smoke and flame gave them away. Leif saw another tower fire across the saddle, and the party realized four signal towers formed a warning ring around the pass.

Instead of hiding, they flew straight to the cave mouth. Thordak dropped with Caleb's Feather Fall and blasted goblins at the palisade with Thunderwave. Thorgall, Leif, Risar, and [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:mechakirby|MechaKirby]] followed him down while Caleb, Shenanigan, and [[campaigns:latitude_history:characters:steve|Steve]] stayed aboard. The assault pushed through gatehouse, palisade, goblin defenders, devilkin, and the ogre chain brute.

During a short rest, tremors hinted that the mountain itself was not entirely still. In the long hallway beyond, Leif noticed red light flaring from Thorgall's [[campaigns:latitude_history:lore:necklace-of-troll-detection|Necklace of Troll Detection]]. The glow brightened with the rhythm of drums deeper in the halls. The party came to understand the terror of that rhythm: each beat was bringing [[campaigns:latitude_history:lore:thullgrim|Thullgrim]], the troll mountain, closer to waking.

Before the ritual room, the party paused and planned. Thordak and Risar burst open the double doors, Risar helping by bashing his head into them, and the party's prepared actions struck as the doors flew wide. Caleb's Wand of Wonder produced both Fireball and Lightning Bolt during the fight, and both effects were crucial. The coordinated breach turned what could have been a disaster into a victory.

The party killed every enemy in the ritual room and stopped the immediate attempt to wake [[campaigns:latitude_history:lore:thullgrim|Thullgrim]]. [[campaigns:latitude_history:places:hearthforge|Hearthforge]] itself remained uncleared, with deeper halls, stolen dwarven relics, and old tunnels still waiting. The drums had been silenced for the moment, but the mountain had heard them.