The Dwarven Kingdom of Kale

Pregame

The party has spent over two weeks rebuilding Villageham after it's destruction at the hands of the Succubi. Amos and Angus have rallied the other freed men into work parties, and the children have largely recovered from their trauma.

Villageham is located in a secluded part of the country that does not get a lot of traffic. It is roughly a weeks journey away from Dragonspur to the east, the city of Sember to the north, the town of Aukby to the west and the Lake of Sky to the south. Trade between those major urban areas is done via the rivers and the lake, and so the land-locked village of Villageham is of little interest to anyone other than the locals.

The only serviceable building seems to be the large Meeting Hall and three huts. The rest of the village is considered to be dangerous and uninhabitable. The village includes a carpenters Workshop, a grain silo, a butcher, about a dozen huts and a Barn with a large hole in the roof.

• Arkaxus has taken over the running of the village of Villageham, but the state of destruction has meant that there were little supplies left to feed and care for the new inhabitants. A source of food is required, so Arkaxus had few choices except to spend the $1,500 necessary to buy the essential supplies and keep the inhabitants well-fed and in high-spirits. This has meant that the freed men were able to work overtime and complete the Carpenter's Workshop and Grain Silo finished so that the men could supply their own work while the Party is off adventuring.
  
• Grimbold has decided to take over the health and well-being of the village of Villageham, both physical and spiritual. Their daily religious sermons have empowered the amulet to use Thaumaturgy as a cantrip, and has strengthened the faith of the freed men that the old gods will return. The old crazy man is being attended to daily, and has been unconscious since the party first encountered the man and his prophecy. But Grimbold has been working tirelessly to ensure the man receives the best care possible. This has resulted in the man becoming stable, but still weak from exhaustion. He was only able to rasp out a single phrase, "The..... Watchers...", before the effort of speaking became simply too much.
  
• Aramil has been using Angus' knowledge and Amos' contacts so that he can send out letters of correspondence to Taliadora to see if his old boss is able to help the parties' cause. It's been a pain to get good writing materials in the burnt old village, but Aramil was able to convince a grumpy and frugal Arkaxus to part with some gold to buy ink, a pen and some quality paper (the desk was cobbled together using leftover wood). His efforts resulted in a reply letter from Taliadora, who was equal parts ecstatic and confused that her two former employees are still alive after they disappeared 40 years ago. She mentioned that the Empire has dictated that all magic users must be registered by the Empire to gain their voting rights and other benefits such as first preference for trade goods and access to restricted sections of libraries. She referred Aramil to the Registrar of Aukby, Puhau, as she thinks he would be the most sympathetic to Aramil's and Ceasus' plight.
  
• Ceasus has been intrigued by the portals that have been popping up around the world, and wants to conduct a few experiments to test his theories. He spent most of his days far away from the village, in search of locations where portals have been previously reported. He hopes these studies reveal some clues, but he understands that it is not without risk. The experiments revealed that the arcane signature of the Rip In The Sky matches the magic used in these mysterious portals, leading Ceasus to think that the two are somehow linked. The spell matches Ceasus' observations back during training of the spell 'Gate', but that the portals do not require the presence of the caster to be nearby, nor does it require components. The magic is neither divine or arcane, and seems to come from a third unknown source that seems to combine the two sources of magic. Finally, the magic used in the portals is similar to the magic that was used to imprint the prophecy into the minds of the party.
  
• Jinn has been worried about his family, and has been distracting himself by creating a relic out of the piece of lucky wood from the Barn. He has been trying to find any information about the Drow in the region and why Artor has specifically invited his race as an honoured species in the Empire. Jinn smells that something is afoot and that it cannot end well for his kind. His investigations have uncovered some useful bits of information, such as the fact that only the Drow are allowed to become part of the personal guard of the Herald and Emperor (a honoured position with high prestige). The high-ranking clan members among the Drow have easily come into positions of power and wield heavy influence in the politics of the Empire. Jinn has even discovered that his family is currently in servitude to the Suladin clan, who have been granted land near Aukby and participate heavily in the politics of that town. But the questions were not too subtle, and Jinn has noticed that he has attracted the attention of things from the shadows. Jinn is acutely aware that he is being followed any time he enters an urban setting, but his trickster magic means he is able to dissapear before the stalkers find the village of Villageham.

Kale Mountains

The party has decided to seek out their old friend Dorgrim Ironhide, their dwarf friend who was also on the council of the Order. When the order merged with the Templars and no longer sought to drive the Orcs out of the Northern Teeth, Dorgrim left the order to join the rest of his clan in the Kale Mountains where they were taking refuge. He became a senior figure among the refugees, building up a sizable force that they all hoped would be sufficient to take back the Northern Teeth from the Orcs and the Titan that still resides there.

The party has journeyed for about two weeks, leaving the village in the care of Amos and Angus. They have largely avoided the roads and populated areas, hoping to keep their mission a secret from the White Stars. They eventually reach the base of the Kale Mountains, where they encounter a large open air dwarven refugee camp. The large stone doors that leads into the caverns of the Kale Dwarfs have been shut, and it seems that the Northern Teeth Dwarfs have been permanently shut outside. The mood in the camp is glum and gloomy, and all the buildings are in poor repair.

After a few inquiries, the party is led towards the tent that Dorgrim lives in. Dorgrim warmly greets the party, including Grimbold who hasn't changed in the 40 years that he has known her. Dorgrim mentions that he is about to enter the Kale Mountains so that he may negotiate with the self-styled High Dwarf King Kolgar, ruler of the Kale Mountains. The Northern Teeth dwarves were exiled decades ago without warning by Kolgar, and so far nothing that the refugees have done has changed Kolgar's mind. Dorgrim wants the party to come along to see if they can help with the negotiations.

Upon entering the King's throne room, the party quickly discovered that Kolgar is under the influence of a Succubus, who is currently his Queen. An old, shriveled dwarf sits next the king and watches the party with cold, hard eyes. The party knew of the danger immediately, and Aramil was quick to banish the Queen to her plane of existence.

The young King was immediately angered by this turn of events, and ordered his guards to capture the party. The guards had trouble holding the veteran party down, and the party eventually were able to convince the King that his Queen was actually a Succubus. The Guards were ordered to stand down, but the old withered adviser got up out of his chair and cackled.

He made a grand speech about how the White Stars will not be foiled in their machinations, and that his God will see justice return to the mountain kingdom. But just before he was able to Teleport out of the Kingdom, Ceasus fired off a Counter-Spell and kept the old dwarf in the throne room.

The party captured the old dwarf, and managed to get some extra information out of him including the location of a crystal ball that allowed communication with the White Star hierarchy. And with that, the grateful King was able to sit down and begin negotiations with Arkaxus and the budding Resistance....