The Inheritance Beneath Stone
The Inheritance Beneath Stone
“The first step toward inheritance is written in ash beneath the mountain.”
— Hook · Infiltration raid and military sabotage
“Tonight, you will climb into the city that has loomed above your people for generations. Break its ballistas, spill the blood of Commander Hadrik Stonevein, and leave enough ruin behind that the dwarves remember the goblins beneath their feet. When dawn comes, Dhol Kuldhir must know that its inheritance has begun.”
— Hook · Infiltration raid and military sabotage
The goblin warband gathers in a cavern beneath Dhol Kuldhir. Six basic goblin raiders check blades, bows, and crude charges while Warlord Vorga addresses the two PCs as the leaders of the strike. Skrikk lays three routes across a stolen dwarven map: an abandoned mine shaft, a maintenance tunnel beneath the bathhouses, and a fast-moving waterway that exits near the military galleries. Vorga orders the PCs to choose the route and promises that every broken gate, collapsed bridge, and stolen weapon will count toward the goblins' future claim.
Warlord Vorga Black-Ear
Warlord Vorga summons the PCs to a war chamber carved around an ancient stone pillar. She presents the raid as both a tactical mission and a sacred beginning for the goblin people. She expects violence, but rewards clever destruction and the survival of the six raiders.
Rumours
d5 · table- 01The dwarves maintain three ballistas, but one has not fired in decades because its foundation is built over a hollow shaft.
- 02Commander Hadrik keeps a private map room below the eastern gallery and trusts only soldiers who have served under him for ten years.
- 03A waterway beneath the bathhouses carries more than waste. It also connects to the old royal mines.
- 04The stranger who visited Warlord Vorga wore no armor, yet every goblin guard nearby felt watched by something standing behind him.
- 05The dwarves once sealed a gate below the mountain after hearing voices from the stone.
If the raid succeeds, the goblins gain their first meaningful victory over Dhol Kuldhir and may unite the undercity under Warlord Vorga. If it fails, the dwarves learn the undercity's routes and can destroy the goblins before the wider evil in Syldora rises. The deeper danger is that weakening the city's defenses may also remove the final barrier protecting the mountain from an ancient evil.
Background Lore
For centuries, the dwarven city of Dhol Kuldhir has been built upward and downward through the mountain, while an older goblin undercity has survived beneath it in darkness. The goblins of the undercity have mapped forgotten mine shafts, drainage channels, ore lifts, and maintenance tunnels leading into dwarven territory. Now a mysterious emissary has promised the goblin warlord that, when evil rises across Syldora, the goblins will inherit Dhol Kuldhir. The promised inheritance begins with a raid designed to cripple the city's defenses and eliminate a senior military commander.
The goblins of the hidden undercity have waited beneath Dhol Kuldhir for generations. A mysterious emissary has promised that the dwarven mountain city will belong to them when evil rises, but first they must prove their strength by striking the city's defenses. The PCs lead a small raid to infiltrate Dhol Kuldhir, destroy its ballistas, and kill Commander Hadrik Stonevein before escaping into the tunnels.
