Connects to: 00.02.01, 01.02, 02.03, 02.05, 03.03, 03.05, 03.07, 04.02. 04.06, 04.05, 05.06.01, 15.15, 22.00 and 33.00.
A cadre of dwarves has long lived in a small monastery overlooking the Pool of the Firebirds (04.05). Occasionally, the dwarves travel in pairs - never more than two, never less than two - to the pool to collect small orange stones. Outside of the monastery the dwarves will interact with others in a friendly manner. However, they will never speak about what happens inside their monastery. Each dwarf carries an iron symbol shaped as a firebird, the symbol of The Drinker of Iron, the dwarven god of the forge.
A dwarf vagrant also roams these lands (03.07); he claims to be the former master of the monastery who was driven out during a coup d’état. He-she claims that an evil presence has taken hold of his-her former Brothers.
This dwarf, once known as Father Dorek, did indeed once lead the monastery. Before his ouster, he often took long walks in the forgotten tunnels beneath the dwarven monastery while contemplating the mysteries of the divine. On one such ramble, he came across a passage of tunnel that radiated heat and, when he ran his hands along the tunnel wall, the pattern warm areas spelled out the dwarven Forge Rune, or at least so Dorek claimed.
Excitement raced through the old dwarf and he quickly sent for mining equipment and delved into the rock for the source of the heat. There he found, encased in the rock, a being of fire and smoke. To Father Dorek, this creature could only be an avatar of The Drinker of Iron, and he set about freeing the creature from the rock that imprisoned it.
Alarmed at Father Dorek’s apparent heresy, and even more alarmed at the thought of a monster loose in their halls, the Brothers of the monastery ousted Father Dorek from his position and his home and packed him off screaming of disloyalty and evil. Too afraid to confront the being of fire and smoke, they redirected the flow of the springs of the mountain to pour through the tunnel where Dorek found the creature, hoping that water would rob the creature of its power.
So far it seems that the plan of the dwarven Brothers has worked. That spring water, heated by the imprisoned being of fire and smoke, now pours out in a mountain pool. Enjoying the heat of his new pool, firebirds came to bathe there from their distant nests, which the Brothers took as a sign of divine approval for their actions.
At night, strange cries from deep in the mountain can be heard by the dwarven monks and strange orange rocks have begun to turn up at the Pool of the Firebirds. These rocks, perhaps the tears of their prisoner, become smoky orange gems of breathtaking beauty when cut correctly. Every so often two dwarves of the monastery are chosen by lot to venture to the Pool of the Firebirds, one to gather the orange stones and one to ensure that the gatherer keeps none for himself.
Subhex:
- 03.04.01 (The Gems of Stolen Fire): the gems that the dwarves harvest are actually delayed blast fireballs.
Connections:
- The monastery can be reached by climbing the Long Stairs (03.05).
- Monks from the monastery sometimes climb Mount Scorshia (02.03) as some kind of pilgrimage or test.
- The mountain of 04.02 (the Drinker’s Mouth) is holy to the monks’ god (the Drinker of Iron).
- The dragon cultists of Cragsend (04.06) claims seem to indicate that the being of smoke and fire once held the keys to the otherworldly lair of the legendary phoenix.
- The dwarves make charcoal out of the Scorshia birches (01.02), douse it in their own blood and burn it to gain visions of wisdom from its smoke.
- Many of these dwarves comes from Titan’s Skull (33.00) and have left the decadent dwarven society there.
- The dragon of the Boiling Sea also had orange gems for scales (15.15). Is there a connection with the gems that the dwarves find?
- Dwarven mystics sometimes meditate at the Rift of the Great Lament (03.03).
- Some time ago an entire tower of the monastery was stolen by the giant king Udenyr (00.02.01).
- The monastery was built from the stones of the ruined fortress of Hoth Akhbir (02.05).
- Some claim that half of the artifact known as the Drinker’s Stein is held here (05.06.01).
- The dwarven monks have begun systematically defacing the rock carvings in the Vale of Tirandelle (22.00).
Hooks:
- What exactly is the being of fire and smoke? Was Dorek right about it? Or is it a demon? An elemental? A demigod? How did it wind up imprisoned in solid rock?
- Do the gems that are cut from the orange stones have any interesting properties?
- Who do the dwarves sell the gems to? What have they done with their new income?
- What would happen if the being of fire and smoke ever broke free? What is the vagrant dwarf doing to make this happen?
- What else is down there in the tunnels beneath the monastery?
The Gems of Stolen Fire
Hex 03.04.01
Connect to: 29.14.27.
The dwarven monks (03.04) are fools for they have been blinded by their greed. The orange gems that they have been gathering from the pool of the firebirds (04.05) and selling are the tears of the being of smoke and fire that they have imprisoned. They are motes of stolen fire and function as delayed blast fireballs. The elemental is slowly weakening due to the spring water that pours over it and keeps it trapped and when it dies all of the necklaces, rings and bangles that the dwarven monks have sold will explode into fireballs.
The wizards of this land have had difficulty identifying theme gems for what they are since they are not the work of wizardly artifice and so they have been slowly spreading east and south into Thring and the Freeholds. Recently they have been seen in the City of Shuttered Windows itself and Amanita Tenzerlin (29.14.27) has been seen wearing a beautiful necklace with a full dozen of these fiery gems.
Hooks:
- Does anyone know the true nature of these gems?
- How long does the imprisoned being of smoke and fire have to live?
- Who else owns some of these gems?
- Just how powerful will these fireballs be when they finally go off?
