Session 16: Paid in Full
Session date: 2026-09-01
Campaign: Tip of the Diceberg
Status: Canon summary with review flags
Previously on…
The party reunited beneath Wyrmheart Mine, opened the last two dragon-hoard chests, and followed an elevated railway into an occupied dwarven forge. After freeing two dying pale dwarves and using the last TNT barrel in a desperate attack, they killed ten firenewts and reached level 6. The Song of the Albino Dwarf was still only recovered sheet music, and the machinery beyond the battlefield remained unexplored.
A Spirit and a Settled Account
The forge had more to give than another fight. Bodius raised one of the fallen firenewts as an Accursed Specter: a hovering, Ghostface-like spirit that obeyed him and would remain until his next long rest. Its nickname changed almost as quickly as the party could repeat it. The table also settled a sadder question: both freed dwarf captives were dead, including Simon. Which captive the recap meant when it described the explosion remained muddled.
Faf went to work at the anvils. He melted the first ten gold pieces he had ever earned, quenched the gold, and hammered it into a fist-sized coin for the eye of his fish shield. Rust from old dwarven armor, a little dragon milk, and Bonzo’s blood joined the work. One face read “Paid in Full”; the other, “Debt Is Due.” Manticore and Milkmaiden motifs would turn with the coin on its swivel.
This holy symbol was more than a commemorative trinket. Faf announced that he was now a cleric, developing a devotion to Vergadain, the dwarven god of wealth, luck, commerce, and negotiation. His prayers for clean accounts accompanied the hammering. The work continued as the party explored; no new magical shield bonus was established.
The others found three sets of thieves’ tools and barrels of gunpowder, oil, and brandy, which went into the bag of holding. Ruined plate armor crumbled despite an attempted Mending, and Bonzo’s friendship-bracelet project did not survive his first encounter with dwarven smithing tools.
Brandy, a Key, and a Loaded Die
In a neighboring workshop, Bodius found a firenewt warlock sleeping off his drink. With Isilrod’s faint bagpipe inspiration helping his fingers, he stole 33 gp and a key. Then he woke the warlock with an eldritch-charged finger in his mouth and claimed to be a supervisor sent by Siegfried. The bluff failed. A fire bolt missed Bodius, and he and his specter struck back.
Faf appeared in the doorway with blackened eyes, a booming voice, and harmless tremors shaking the floor. His terrible-beauty speech was pure Thaumaturgy theater, but it frightened the warlock enough for Bonzo to hold him with his lobster claw.
Under Isilrod’s Zone of Truth, the captive described a firenewt occupation devoted to Imix. They mined and forged for their faith but had failed to enter the albino dwarves’ treasury. Bodius had their one recovered key; the great door appeared to need three. Another warlock waited at the shrine, and cold water was a devastating weakness. The captive denied an affiliation with Siegfried and offered no useful answer about the death curse or the Symposium.
The interrogation ended with Bodius’s loaded die. He announced that a six meant death, rolled the inevitable six, and killed the captive with Eldritch Blast. “For Simon” supplied the dedication, not a pardon.
The Smallest Possible Water Fight
The party filled water barrels and loaded Moghammer. Faf made a more portable weapon: a water squirter from the dead warlock’s hollowed tail. He also finally received the black dragon-scale scabbard, which shaped itself to Debt Collector while he tried to keep the water away from his axe. Side rooms supplied a bong, one ordinary healing potion, and two empty jugs.
Across another magma gap, a second firenewt warlock prayed before a gold statue of Imix. Bodius disguised himself as the dead workshop warlock and carried in brandy. The shrine keeper complained about the untranslated runes on the treasury door, then drank until he passed out weeping at the statue’s feet.
Faf tested his tail-skin squirter. A little water struck the warlock’s tail and spread upward until he melted into a red puddle. The grand barrel assault was unnecessary; the quipper jug was not thrown.
The statue had a green adamantine third eye, but the candle found no magic. A religion check suggested that this depiction did not match the ancient stories of Imix; the firenewts might have been misled. Bodius lifted it, Faf held down the pressure plate beneath it, and the unmelted warlock’s body took its place. Valued at at least 1,000 gp, the statue went into the already crowded bag of holding.
The Door That Wanted a Song
The treasury door was a great clockwork construction with three keyholes and an inscription. The stolen key clicked cleanly in the first lock. Trying the other holes made the bridge retract behind the party. Moghammer, still on it, leapt to the ledge just in time.
Isilrod used Comprehend Languages to read the verse: no iron or skeleton key would do; the traveler must raise a voice. Faf’s booming “open sesame” accomplished nothing. The party finally turned to the Song of the Albino Dwarf.
Isilrod performed with accompaniment before the sealed treasury. On the final phrase, the runes glowed albino white and the door opened. The old song had accomplished what the occupiers’ keys and torture could not.
The performance is confirmed, but Deepgram misses part of the music. Fragmentary Google lyrics are preserved separately on the song page as an unverified supplemental transcription, not a reconstructed complete song.
An Equal Share
Inside were gold ingots and a locked chest. Faf tested the hoard with half a dead rat before anyone committed to the treasure. This time there was no dispute: each of the four characters took 100 ingots worth 1,000 gp.
Isilrod picked the chest, revealing white, black-striped Gloves of Thievery and the gold-and-silver Gauntlet of Moradin. The gloves grant +5 to lockpicking checks and could appear puffy or sleek like white driving gloves. Isilrod tried them on and invoked “More” by Phish before discussion turned to the gauntlet.
The dwarf-only gauntlet grants +1 AC and shares four daily charges between additional radiant damage and temporary protection. The warning was crucial: spending its fourth charge destroys it, rather than merely leaving it empty until dawn. Its detailed damage wording remains flagged for confirmation. Isilrod took the gauntlet, and Bodius took the gloves in the final split, confirmed by Reed.
Outcomes and the Road Ahead
- Wyrmheart Mine and the connected forge, called Hrakhamar in existing notes, were declared cleared. This session added two dead warlocks to the ten firenewts killed previously.
- Both freed dwarf captives are confirmed dead; the exact name attached to the TNT sacrifice remains uncertain.
- Faf embraced cleric devotion to Vergadain, worked his coin holy symbol, and accepted the scabbard. The party remains level 6; his precise class split awaits a sheet update.
- Bodius has a temporary firenewt specter until his next long rest.
- The treasury opened through song. Each party member received 1,000 gp in ingots, separate from earlier hoards and Bodius’s 33 gp pickpocketing.
- The gold-and-adamantine statue and both magical hand items were recovered. The bag of holding is crowded; exact barrel disposition is not reconciled.
- The party ended in the treasury, not back at the village. Its intended next move is to return to the Aldani for Bonzo’s trial, then rejoin Jacques LaFleur and Summer Mooneyham for Shadowfang Keep.
The dragon heart remains secured for Mina Aubrey’s cure; angel tears and faerie milk are still missing. The Kilburg Card Deck debt, Watto raid, Artus search, and news owed to Flea remain open. No new rest or exact elapsed-day count was established, and the rail-shaft web-maker is still unidentified.
Transcript: Full session transcript
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