Characters: Julian, Balin, Randal, Anthony, Grim, Samael.
NPCs: 16 Stone Automatons.
10 Alturiak 1374 - 11 Alturiak 1374
4380 XP
Back again in the great mining cavern, the party began to make its way toward the Uderhardt Clan guildhall. They went around to the side of the castle structure to find a massive entrance with large rails leading through it. Entering the party found many decayed corpses of dwarves hung on chains in the rafters and old signs of orcs as well. They followed the old rails through the large Uderhardt machine shops and eventually discovered a switching hub for many of the guildhall's rail cars. Julian began to tinker with the gears and levers to release a rail car for he and Balin to travel down the runnels in. Accidentally, he unlocked a large rail car which proceeded to gain momentum and fall down a deep shaft with a crash. Somewhat later he managed to unlock another and Balin and Julian rode down the twisting tunnel at an increasing speed.The rest of the party was nearly crushed by the speeding cart and Grim was hit in the leg. Soon the cart gained a dangerous amount of momentum and Julian and Balin bailed out just in time. The party followed the now gaping opening downward and passed through many levels of the amazing ruins of the Uderhardt castle. Finally, they had reached its deepest point, a small platform surrounded by the most complex machine they had ever seen. Many levers, cranks, gears, buttons and chains stood in all forms of decay. The party began to examine and search for clues and discovered that it was a complex mathematical series. Grim and Julian led the party in figuring out the mechanisms and finally unlocked the platform. The party descended into the great Uderhardt Clanhold.
The first challenge the party faced was a complicated maze of moving blocks and gears. Many dwarven runes illuminated the area in a blue glow of antimagic. One by one they balanced, jumped and climbed through the deadly mechanism avoiding danger at every turn. Samael made it through without breaking as much as a sweat, while Randal also eased his way through. Anthony, Grim, and Balin however became caught in some of the increasingly bloody gears and stones. Julian finally, had the most difficult time and ran with a mad dash through the gears due to his new "golden armor."
Safely on the next ledge the party rested for 8 hours. Meanwhile, Julian, Samael, and Grim set to disabling a number of the antimagic runes in the rooms so that they could cast healing and protective magic upon themselves. Amazingly, Julian was able to temporarily disable the antimagic runes and the party healed themselves fully. Next they opened a great mechanical stone door and began to carefully search through a large square room. There were 16 large indents in the floor which were illuminated by more of the blue antimagic glowing runes. Balin stepped in one and was nearly crushed by falling stone pillars, Randal had saved him. These were not merely stone pillars however. In seconds they began to animate into great Stone Automatons and attacked. The party suffered terrible wounds from the seemingly invincible guardians. They fought back into the small room they had rested in and Grim was able to cast a Mordenkainen's Disjunction to permanently destroy a number of the antimagic runes. Now capable of using their practiced magic against the Automatons the party evened the sides and reduced the stone guardians to rubble. The now stand in a large square room filled with the stone rubble and mechanical remnants of the automation guardians.
