The Lair Under The Mountain - 20/02/2024 - Mendal Recounts

Metalwork Memorabilia

A small courtyard can be found inside the house of the veteran adventurer goliath, Kavel Castiron. Against the wall of the courtyard stands a magical door. The magical door opens up into the Summer Court of the Feywild, to the location of the Damphenite Tangle, where the door’s twin is located. Access to these doors is only possible for the couple who made them; Kavel and his fiance Nathalie Walnut, the Spiritual Leader of the Damphenite Sprites.

In the same courtyard can be found a second magical door. This second door also grants extraplanar access to another plane for the individuals given permission to pass through. This second door was created by Kavel’s human wizard friend, Dr. Archie Haltuhr, by casting the conjuration spell Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion.

The courtyard is empty and this is because the house’s three occupants; Kavel and his close friends; Archie and Mendal, have all vacated the house via the second door to make use of Archie’s Magnificent Mansion, all taking advantage of the splendour and conjuration possibilities within.

The current Dawnland winter is still cold enough to require heavy cloaks. But Inside the Magnificent Mansion, Archie has created an indoor garden space as warm as summer, with a gentle breeze. The garden is full of exercise equipment for Kavel, currently exercising with a set of extremely large heavy clubs conjured as part of the Mansion spell. Archie himself is nearby reading on a reclining garden chair with a refreshing drink of iced tea placed on a side table. The tea is routinely refilled by the invisible servants that the Magnificent Mansion provides.

Opposite the garden is a room Archie conjured for his dwarven friend, Mendal Vultan, of the Vultan Clan Crafters. The room is a perfect replica of the forge back in Waterdeep where the Vultan Clan Crafters made their trade. Presently, the master dwarven craftsman is inside, working on an item of some significance to him brought about by a recent adventure.

“Finished!” Mendal shouted, as he walked out of the forge letting the door bang against the wall as he walked through.
Behind him, a couple of the Mansion’s invisible servants were carrying a small table with a cloth covering an object on top. Mendal walked up to his friends in the garden space, and then directed the servants to set the table down. With the table and its hidden item now on the garden floor, Mendal removed the cloth hiding the object underneath. “Have a look at this boys! What do you think?”

Unveiled on the table stands a two foot tall, hollow metal dragon sculpture with amethyst gem eyes. As part of the same piece, in front of the dragon is a lantern. The dragon is tinged with a hint of amethyst. The lantern is a mixture of chromatic colours.

Archie admired the sculpture. “Magnificent Mendal! The detail of the scales is exquisite, and the gems are a nice touch to pay homage to Valdira when the piece is made entirely from metal. Brilliantly oxidised too to produce that lovely purple sheen. The lantern, I assume, is welded to the dragon?”

“That’s right!” Mendal responded, “hid the join beautifully, I might add between the back of the lantern and belly of Valdira.”

Kavel finished his set and put the clubs down. The goliath walked over to his friends to look at the metal sculpture. “I can pick it up, Mendal?” Mendal nodded approval, and Kavel lifted the sculpture, “yeah, hollow. Light.” Putting the metal dragon piece down, the goliath added, “you did her proud, I reckon. Good.” Archie echoed the sentiment.

“Cheers boys!” Mendal bellowed. “She was going to sacrifice herself to destroy that insanely powerful lantern, and it was only by chance that she had some witnesses to see her noble act and remember her! I thought a little sculpture was the least I could do as tribute.”

“It’s marvellous, Mendal,” Archie complimented.

“Yeah. Certainly is,” Mendal replied, with no modesty about his own work. “Can’t call me work shy. I didn’t have to do this!”

Archie wobbled his head from side to side with a sceptical expression on his face, “... if the work is to your liking then you’re not work shy. Let’s not over exaggerate.”

“Whatever,” Mendal replied casually as he took a mug of cold beer from off of the tray that one of the Magnificent Mansion’s servants presented him with.

“You used amethyst gems from your own pocket for the eyes?” Kavel asked, pointing at the sculpture.

“Oh no,” Mendal answered, “well kind of, I guess. All part of the loot we took from the lair. Got 300gp out of the lair - loot you should have picked up yourself you idiot! Bahumat gave you a shiny back tattoo and your lot somehow forgot to loot the lair. There’s still stuff down there you know! We should go back and empty the place!”

The Advantages of Magic and How Different Adventuring Company Can Be

“She doesn’t have the Teleport spell Archie! Nor does she have one of these!” Mendal pointed at the surroundings, which is to say the Magnificent Mansion. “Getting to the Spines without teleporting is a long bloody trek! I had to sleep in her Galdur’s Tower. I don’t care how high you stack that tower when you conjure it, it’s cramped! Luckily Digs and Lolli don’t take up too much space.”

“I do hope you were not this ungrateful to Lolli’s face, Mendal,” Archie replied reproachfully.

“No, I kept my mouth shut. I have manners,” Mendal responded.

Kavel, however, was the first to look quizzically at his dwarven friend, a person he would not describe as keeping his opinions to himself. “Are you sure you said nothing, Mendal?”

“Well of course I made suggestions!” Mendal said, throwing his hands up in the air, and as if what he said just then didn’t contradict his earlier statement. “You know, things like; ‘oh Lolli did you know Archie does a Mansion version of this tower spell? It’s bigger! He also finds preparing the Teleport spell very useful’. See? Not rude.”

Archie once again wobbled his head from side to side with a disagreeing expression.

“Whatever!” Mendal replied whilst gesturing to one of the Mansion’s servants for another beer.

“Who else was with you?” Kavel asked.

“Oh yes,” Mendal began to say, whilst picking up the new beer a servant presented to him, “some newer fella; Ramsay, a tiefling. Paladin I think? Bit cheeky and mischievous. Digs too. Digs is also nippy and has very sticky fingers. Not sure those two make a good pairing. Oh and Leonida your ‘Kundar shopping’ buddy was there, Archie” Mendal smirked at Archie as he said the word, ‘shopping’.

“There’s never any need to mention the Kundar shopping trip,” Archie reminded his friend uncomfortably.

“Yes, prison breaking is a rare and glaring blemish on your otherwise impeccable ethical conduct. Ha! Leonida, I don’t think she shares the same ethical standards as you. Ha!” Mendal laughed at his friend’s discomfort, and then added, “you know, with that lot, I reckon if I spent any more time with them, maybe I’d be involved in a criminal heist, too? You get all sorts in the adventuring business, don’t you?”

There was agreement from the others.

“Felt a bit sorry for Digs at some point though,” Mendal carried on. “The little fella’s got this right proper cursed armour. Pretty powerful, but from what I gathered it’s some bad dragon soul shit. He’s very cagey about it, and dragons too it seemed. Not sure what the particulars are. But, naturally I teased him about it all, ha!”

A side eyed glance was shared by Kavel and Archie - habitual targets of Mendal’s teasing.

“But you know,” Mendal added, “when we met Kurtz, then discovered our patron Phaeris Nox was also a dragon - brass to Kurtz’s green - and then discovered that Valdira was also a dragon - amethyst - oh boy did I start feeling a bit sorry for the little kobold. I think Digs was surrounded by his worst nightmare. The dragons kept questioning Digs about his armour and experience with other dragons. At one point I felt like I was looking at a little lamb trying to justify to three butchers why it didn’t want to be slaughtered and made into someone’s dinner.”

“It seems like Digs, for his talents is a little skittish about something in his past,” Archie observed.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. So, I went easy on him afterwards,” Mendal admitted, “even blessed him with Moradin’s enhanced ability to help him out a bit.”

“You might contact him with a Sending Spell, ask if he’s alright?” Archie suggested.

“Too busy old boy, got temple work and forging to do,” Mendel pointed out.

“You said the elven hammers are giving you the silent treatment for not battling with them for so long,” Kavel pointed out, countering Mendal’s claims that he would be too busy with forging. Mendel had announced that when he came back from the Spines, Carric and Nevarra had made it clear they would not assist him with their crafting expertise until he battled again, and Mendal was now quite reluctant to craft without them.

“And you can never use temple work as an excuse, because you do your best to avoid it,” Archie followed on.

Mendel rolled his eyes and reached for another beer. He took one sip of the new beer and then responded to these, as he saw them, unfair bits of backtalk, “Whatever! Stop contradicting me, the pair of you, and instead help me pick adventuring jobs that have the promise of a bit of fighting, so I can get those stuck-up sentient hammers back on my side!”