The colossal red dragon remains behind at the western forge, honoring the Dwarves’ right to hear the petition without her immense presence. Bottu follows the copper tablet alone through a buried mountain passage.
The passage narrows beneath slabs of ancient stone. Copper road-lines glimmer under Bottu’s claws, guiding him past collapsed galleries and frost-rimed pillars toward a sealed gate.
Bottu
The tablet’s road is older than the forge’s covenant.
Twin dwarven doors rise from the mountain wall, their iron faces crowded with angular runes. Rune-light flickers across them, then vanishes in whole sections as the ancient ward weakens.
No dwarf answers Bottu’s approach. Beside the entrance, however, a fresh parley mark has been carved through the dust, its clean edges bright against the weathered stone.
The copper tablet warms in Bottu’s grasp. Its etched road ends at the new mark, while a single surviving rune awakens between the sealed doors and waits for his next move.
✓ Quest Accepted
Open negotiations with the Dwarves
“Well barging in would be rude and could be seen as a slight. I’ll knock instead.”
FAILURE (Mediocre Diplomacy, rolled -2)
Bottu raises one claw and knocks gently against the dwarven doors. The sound travels through the stone, but the surviving rune flares sharply instead of answering with a formal welcome.
Bottu
The gate heard the knock, but not the courtesy behind it.
Iron plates slide across the doors, sealing the rune beneath a barred sigil. A narrow speaking grille opens at eye level, and a hard voice emerges from the darkness beyond.
Durn Coalvein
That is a forge summons, not a parley knock. State your authority, or leave the tablet beneath the threshold.
The copper tablet grows warm. Along its edge, hidden lettering appears: a side passage may receive petitioners who present the forge’s seal without demanding entry.
Durn Coalvein
The eastern wicket will open once. Bring the tablet there, and the rune-holders may hear your terms. Strike this gate again, and the petition ends.
The grille closes. Beside the doors, a seam parts in the wall, revealing a narrow stair descending toward the marked eastern wicket.
“Touch crowd. I’ll go seek out the rune holders instead then.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +2)
Bottu slips down the narrow stair with practiced balance, keeping the Copper Parley Tablet against his chest as the stone steps twist beneath the mountain.
The stair ends at an eastern wicket cut into black rock. A young adult dwarf man waits beside it, broad-shouldered and soot-streaked, with copper-braided hair, a square beard, and a dark smith’s apron covered in rune chalk.
Durn Coalvein
You came by the permitted way, carrying the forge’s tablet. I am Durn Coalvein, keeper of this wicket. Enter, and the rune-holders will hear you.
Durn presses a copper seal into the wicket. Its bars withdraw without protest, revealing a round chamber where three dwarves tend tablets, inkstones, and a wall of fading runes.
Durn Coalvein
Rune-holders, the western forge petitions us. The bearer has crossed the mountain safely and asks that this ward answer to its keepers, not Histol’s distant command.
The three rune-holders turn from their work. One lifts a slate bearing the same authorization pattern Bottu saw at the northern waystone, while another clears a place before the central table for the Copper Parley Tablet.
Durn Coalvein
Set the tablet there, Bottu. The eastern ward will be examined under witness, and its release, if accepted, will be decided here.
Bottu stands within the rune-holders’ chamber at last. The tablet rests before them, the eastern ward’s records are open, and the dwarves wait for his terms.
Quest Complete
Open negotiations with the Dwarves
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Mediocre→Fair