Black Vein Quarry

Start-class article · First seen: s8 · Last seen: s10
Black Vein Quarry
Blackvane Quarry · the quarry
Portrait of Black Vein Quarry.
Location
StatusAbandoned
First seens8
Last seens10

The Black Vein Quarry is the abandoned rare-ore mine a day’s travel north of Umbrafall, where The Broker sent the party in session 7 to recover the Umbrafall Mining Company’s missing miners [8][7]. They found the miners dead and working on as ghosts, apparently corrupted through a cracked red crystal held by a succubus [9][5]. It is where Vasquez accepted Mharos’s bargain and was remade as a half-demon-elf [11], and where Harvo was killed by a dominated Hugo [12].

Overview

The Black Vein Quarry is a black-stone mining quarry a day’s travel north of Umbrafall [7], where the Umbrafall Mining Company’s miners went missing while working “a rare ore” [8]. The Broker hired the party to recover them. They found the dead miners still at work as ghosts, a wight and skeleton archers on the platforms above, and a succubus kneeling at a cracked red crystal, which was apparently how she had corrupted the miners [9][10][5]. It is also where Vasquez accepted Mharos’s bargain and was remade as a half-demon-elf [11], and where Harvo died [12].

Geography and appearance

Black stone terraces plunge into shadow. Broken lift cranes creak, carts sit half sunk in ash and gravel, and lanterns hang unlit from iron hooks along the quarry path. There are no birds and no insects: “Even the biogloom here pulses slower. Dimmer. As if the quarry itself is holding its breath.” [13]. The smell is damp stone, old rot and “something sweeter beneath it” [13]. From below comes the sound of metal striking stone, “Slow. Rhythmic. Wrong.” [14].

Layout

  • The approach. The road “dies slowly” into churned mud and then bare black stone split by glowing fungal vines, under fog heavier than the city’s [13]. The party reached it after a long rest at a roadside camp [15].
  • The quarry floor. Wide and uneven, “scarred by decades of labor”, with tools lying where they were dropped: pickaxes embedded in stone, shovels half buried in rubble, ropes snapped and recoiled [16]. The dead miners worked here, one with his throat torn open and two clawing at the wall as if searching the rock [9].
  • The mine. A cave [17], where the rhythmic blows grow louder as the party goes in [18]. Terry’s owl was shot dead while flying along its roof [19].
  • The stepped platforms. Several platforms at differing heights [20], reached by stairs [21], 15-foot ladders [22][23], a bridge [24] and a beam between the 20-foot and 25-foot levels [25]. The wight and the skeleton archers fought from the 25-foot platform [26][27].
  • The priest’s body. Half buried on a ledge just below the platform the stairs lead to [28], still gripping a pendant of Ilmater.
  • The equipment yard. A level 20 feet down, reached by a ladder at the top right and a walk round, holding crates, boxes and a small wagon that could be tethered to horses: mining gear and nothing remarkable [29].
  • The illusion wall. An indent in the rock that looks like solid wall. Detect Magic showed illusion, a thrown rock passed through, and the wall is one-way: those inside can see out, but those outside cannot see in [30].
  • The corridor. Beyond the wall, an open passage about 20 feet high with no traps, where humming like pipes could be heard [31][32].
  • The crystal chamber. A cave empty but for a human kneeling on one leg before a small pedestal, over which a ruby crystal veined with black cracks hovered, giving off enchantment magic [33].
  • The pyre. Outside the mine, where the party gathered wood and burned Harvo [34].

Inhabitants

  • The quarry ghosts: the dead miners, who ignore intruders until magic is cast [9][35].
  • A wight and skeleton archers, probably what killed Earthwing [26][36][37]. The wight asked Vasquez, “Why did it succeed with you?” [38].
  • The succubus, who passed as a kneeling man at the crystal [10][39].
  • A priest of Ilmater, already dead when the party arrived [40].

Notable features

  • The cracked red crystal. Destroyed in session 9; Hugo gathered the shards [41].
  • The illusion wall, passable in one direction only.
  • The Ilmater pendant: a gold chain bearing an ivory hand that grasps a golden ring with a ruby heart, with two faces, one smirking and one sad [42]. Terry took it [43]. Why a cleric of Ilmater had come to the quarry is unknown.

History in the campaign

Session 7: Maelis Falls, Vasquez Captured

Main article: Session 7

At the Black Hollow Market the Broker offered a job: the Umbrafall Mining Company had lost the miners working “a rare ore” north of the city, missing for “the last couple of weeks”, and would pay 100 gold to have them recovered [8][44]. The DM put the quarry “a day’s travel north” [7], and the Broker marked the way on the party’s map: through the moss field and the death zone, past the Illusionary Pit, to “a small quarry” [45]. Caelumn and Terry voted yes, and Hugo agreed [46].

Session 8: Bruise the Cellmate, the Succubus, and the Quarry Ghosts

Main article: Session 8

The party broke camp and went north to where the road gave out into black stone and the quarry opened “like a wound in the earth” [13]. The dead miners were still at work, one with his throat torn open long ago [9]. Terry sent his new owl familiar, Earthwing, to scout along the roof, and something hidden shot it dead [19]. When Terry cast Blade Ward, two ghosts turned on the party [35], and the session ended in the fight.

Session 9: The Death of Harvo

Main article: Session 9

Mid-fight with the ghosts, Vasquez accepted Mharos’s offer and horns tore through his skull [11]. Above, the party found a dead priest of Ilmater and fought a wight and skeleton archers on the platforms [40][26][38]. Beyond an illusion wall a kneeling figure at a cracked red crystal pulled each of them into a vision of their worst failure and revealed herself as a succubus [10][47]. She dominated Hugo, who killed Harvo with a hand axe [12]. The succubus died and the crystal broke; Caelumn realised the stone may have been how she corrupted the miners [5]. Harvo’s body was carried out and burned, and Terry’s Rite of Returning failed and cost him a point of Charisma [34][48].

Session 10: Ruin Joins, the Aurelian Conspiracy, the Plate Armour

Main article: Session 10

The session opened in front of Harvo’s dying pyre, with a sealed letter from Sevryn lying beside it: “I knew Harvo wasn’t coming back from this. I still sent him.” [6]. After a night’s camp the walk back to Umbrafall took roughly five hours [49]. There Hugo told the Broker that the miners were dead, corrupted into ghosts by a succubus and the crystal’s energy, and was paid the full 100 gold [50].

Status

As of session 23. Abandoned, and not revisited since session 10. The crystal is destroyed and the succubus dead; nothing since says whether the ghosts were freed.

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 7, line 740-746: Mining quest accepted; 100gp; 1.5 days north.
  2. ^ Session 8, line 1644-1798: Quarry described; Earthwing killed by unseen sniper; ghost combat begins.
  3. ^ Session 9, line 78-187: Mharos offers Vasquez the bargain; transformation.
  4. ^ Session 9, line 1196-1318: Succubus dominates Hugo; Harvo killed.
  5. ^ Session 9, line 1562: Crystal identified as the corruption channel.
  6. ^ Session 10, line 69-82: Sevryn's sealed letter beside Harvo's pyre; Hugo then reports the miners dead to the Broker (L449-454).
  7. ^ Session 7, line 763: Inline citation.
  8. ^ Session 7, line 749: Inline citation.
  9. ^ Session 8, line 1682: Inline citation.
  10. ^ Session 9, line 1065: Inline citation.
  11. ^ Session 9, line 73-78: Inline citation.
  12. ^ Session 9, line 1316-1318: Inline citation.
  13. ^ Session 8, line 1644: Inline citation.
  14. ^ Session 8, line 1645: Inline citation.
  15. ^ Session 8, line 1640-1644: Inline citation.
  16. ^ Session 8, line 1646-1647: Inline citation.
  17. ^ Session 8, line 1755: Inline citation.
  18. ^ Session 8, line 1678: Inline citation.
  19. ^ Session 8, line 1756-1768: Inline citation.
  20. ^ Session 9, line 312: Inline citation.
  21. ^ Session 9, line 296-297: Inline citation.
  22. ^ Session 9, line 491: Inline citation.
  23. ^ Session 9, line 520: Inline citation.
  24. ^ Session 9, line 674: Inline citation.
  25. ^ Session 9, line 383: Inline citation.
  26. ^ Session 9, line 405: Inline citation.
  27. ^ Session 9, line 421: Inline citation.
  28. ^ Session 9, line 312-316: Inline citation.
  29. ^ Session 9, line 952-957: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 9, line 1004-1034: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 9, line 1028: Inline citation.
  32. ^ Session 9, line 1055-1061: Inline citation.
  33. ^ Session 9, line 1065-1080: Inline citation.
  34. ^ Session 9, line 1590-1591: Inline citation.
  35. ^ Session 8, line 1879-1884: Inline citation.
  36. ^ Session 9, line 419: Inline citation.
  37. ^ Session 9, line 879: Inline citation.
  38. ^ Session 9, line 495: Inline citation.
  39. ^ Session 9, line 1089: Inline citation.
  40. ^ Session 9, line 312-350: Inline citation.
  41. ^ Session 9, line 1510: Inline citation.
  42. ^ Session 9, line 315-336: Inline citation.
  43. ^ Session 9, line 325: Inline citation.
  44. ^ Session 7, line 804: Inline citation.
  45. ^ Session 7, line 802: Inline citation.
  46. ^ Session 7, line 790-792: Inline citation.
  47. ^ Session 9, line 1089-1196: Inline citation.
  48. ^ Session 9, line 1632-1646: Inline citation.
  49. ^ Session 10, line 434: Inline citation.
  50. ^ Session 10, line 449-454: Inline citation.