After their short rest, Jym, Mike, Rael, Vismund, Dawn, and Lethe searched the area and turned up some minor treasures. Mike stalked silently up the stairs to scout ahead. He found a barrier of large rum barrels blocking access to the next landing. He also heard a pair of orcs speaking in a strange tongue on the other side of the barricade. The group suspected that the barrels would be used as flammable weapons against them and decided to ignite the barrels preemptively to catch the orcs off-guard. Dawn blasted the barrels and immediately ignited three of them which exploded and caught the surprised orcs on fire. The last barrel burned for a moment before it finally exploded. This caught Lethe and Rael in it's blast who had forgotten it was still a danger as they attempted to move past it. Mike used his powers to drag one of the orcs through a campfire which finished burning it to death. The remaining orc tossed an axe at the party before it was killed.
As the group reached the next landing they could hear more orcs charging down the stairs from above. Two orc raiders were followed by an orc shaman of Gruumsh, the orcish god of destruction. The shaman gave a battle cry and then struck the group with "hammer of chaos", a disorienting blow of invisible force. Mike recovered and then replied with his own blast of forceful wind, attempting to knock one of the orcs over the railing and into the deep chasm below. Unfortunately the raider in question was able to grab and hold on tightly to the railing to save himself from a surely fatal fall. The raiders threw their hand axes before charging down the stairs with their greataxes raised. The shaman continued to support them with eye of wrath, weakening his opponents' defenses, while encouraging the raiders to take extra swings at his targets. Rael courageously retreated from the front line to recover from the effects of the eye of wrath, while Jym moved the rest of the party into myrmidon formation allowing them to recover from their wounds while presenting a strong frontal assault. Once the raiders were dealt with the party closed in around the shaman and finished him off.
The party found more treasure on the orcs and at the top of the last landing they found an old battered battle standard that had some minor magical healing properties. Because of its ratty appearance the party decided to have Vismund carry it. There was also a pair of large metal doors at the top of the stair which led into the upper halls of Tannhiem. They cautiously opened the doors and continued on their way.
They went in search of the throne room rumored to have been the last place the Underking saw his ancient crown. When they got there they came upon a large group of dwarves in the middle of some religious rite. The roof of the grand chamber was held up by crystal pillars, pulsing internally with bluish light, one of which had collapsed and lay in pieces on the ground. A short dais with a stone throne was on the far side of the room, where an important looking dwarf sat and watched over the rite, a battered golden crown resting on his bald head. A pair of tough looking dwarves with crossbows stood idly by, apparently acting as bodyguards to their leader. The rest of the dwarves were dressed in plate-mail emblazoned with a symbol of a black hammer and were armed with greatswords. They were gathered about a massive stone statue in the center of the chamber standing on a metal grating from which steam continuously rose, slightly obscuring the statues features. The statue appeared to be cobbled together from the bits and pieces of other statues and depicted a massive demonic dwarf with bat wings and a beard of writhing tentacles.
Vismund recalled seeing many statues of the Septych, the seven deadly dwarven vices represented in demonic form, that the party had discovered in the underground lake and remembered that they appeared to have had pieces scavenged from them. He determined that some of the schematics in the trapmaster's journal matched this construct, so warned the party that the colossus might have more to it than meets the eye. Luckily the party had approached silently and the dwarves had not noticed them yet. A closed door to the party's left promised a circuitous route around the main chamber. Lethe, as instructed by Jym, decided to try to sneak in closer to the statue to get a better look. Unfortunately he kicked a broken piece of masonry which skittered noisily across the floor and alerted the dwarves to his presence. Quickly the party sprang into action to recover what advantage they might still have.
Lethe engaged one of the crossbow wielding bodyguards to neutralize him. Mike and Dawn coordinated their blast attacks on the black hammer dwarves and annihilated a small group of them. Rael opened the side door and encountered another group of black hammer dwarves guarding the next room, charged in and took a pair of them out with a sword burst. Jym and Vismund moved in to the main chamber to get a better view of the action. Then the dwarves recovered from their surprise and fought back.
The statue came to life and turned to face the party. Mike attempted to move past it in order to support Lethe, but was struck by a heavy stone fist and dropped prone to the ground. He had to crawl away from it as it tried to smash him to the ground with its foot, only to be struck by bolts from the other crossbow bodyguard. Rael finished off the other black hammer dwarf he faced and then continued to sneak around the side chambers. Lethe traded blows with the other bodyguard. Their spiritual leader, Master Gimbolge, came down off the dais and got into the fray, focusing his attacks on Lethe and Mike while calling on more support troops from another adjoining room. As new black hammer dwarves entered the battle Dawn picked them off. Rael eventually found his way back into the main chamber and fey-charged the crowned dwarf and his minions. Meanwhile Jym and Vismund surrounded the statue, bolstering each others strikes, as they pounded away at it while dodging its massive fists.
It was a brief but violent battle. The black hammer dwarves were defeated first, then Master Gimbolge was overwhelmed. One of the bodyguards was killed before the statue was destroyed. The final bodyguard attempted to flee but he did not get far before being dropped. The party recovered the battered crown from the corpse of the bald dwarf and then searched the bodies. Jym found a power jewel on the leader, while the rest of the group looted beard rings, coins, and ingots.
They decided it was time to take an extended rest before heading in search of the temple-forge. Mike set up a "wizard's curtain" in order to hide the party from view while they rested.
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