Session 9: Heart of Stone
We descend into the ancient Dhakaani ruins beneath Sharn, face trials of the old empire, and stabilize the ley anchor—but at what cost?
The Ley Storm
At Tavick’s Landing, while inspecting the captured Dragonshards, a bright flash and thunderous crash erupted behind us. The memory of the ley gate burned in our minds—we remembered stepping through together, but something had gone wrong.
A hand jutted from collapsed tunnel rubble. Skid Demon dragged himself free, armor crackling with static, blade still glowing from ley discharge.
His eyes flashed white: “The ley current split. I fell through like a crack in glass. I saw lines—rivers of light leading to a heart of stone. Something’s moving beneath. Watching. Waiting.”
Three dwarven warriors approached, led by Master Molrik: “We felt a flux of ley energy from half a mile away.”
One dwarf, Glun, stared at Skid in astonishment as ley energy arced around him: “Stone-born.”
Into the Deep
Molrik’s clan took custody of Harlix and the Dragonshards, then led us through a collapsed tunnel into the depths beneath Sharn. Ancient dwarven forges lit by magma streams. Anvils and bellows from an age before memory.
At a sealed archway carved with Dhakaani script, Molrik stopped: “Beyond this door lies the old empire. The ley runs strongest there. You’ll feel it in your bones.”
Skid felt the pulse sync with his heartbeat. He had become a living compass.
The Hall of Warriors
The Dhakaani ruins stretched before us—statues of hobgoblin warriors bearing inscriptions: “Hold the line.” “The war is eternal.” “Guard the heart.”
The leyline’s hum deepened. Stone warped. Colors shifted. We blinked and the hall came alive—hobgoblin soldiers marching in perfect formation, banners blazing crimson and gold. They marched through us like ghosts.
The Hall remembered its last war.
Each of us experienced visions:
- Stol saw himself as a Dhakaani soldier
- Kei felt the weight of command and failure
- Skid saw a storm tearing through the ley—the same pulse that had marked him
The floor dropped away, hurling us into the next level.
Trials of the Dhakaani
We fought through chamber after chamber:
The Hall of Seals — Rune-trapped tiles sliced us with force-field blades until we deciphered the correct path.
The War Scholars’ Quarters — Three Dhakaani Wraith-Tacticians rose from the shadows. Stol’s Turn Undead sent them recoiling. Their death whisper: “The heart below must never fall…”
The Gauntlet of Stone & Shadow — Six undead hobgoblin warriors attacked methodically, followed by two Stonebound Guardians and a Shadow Captain whose body dissolved into ash, leaving a command token pointing toward the final chamber.
The Heart Stone Chamber
A spiral stair descended into a cathedral-like chamber. In the center rose a black obsidian monolith, veined with pulsing light, throbbing like a heartbeat. Twelve statues of hobgoblin generals surrounded it. Ley conduits snaked into the walls, vanishing into infinity.
A voice spoke within our skulls: “The Heart endures. Who commands the stone?”
General Varkuun erupted from the ground—the last Dhakaani warlord, encased in ley-crystal armor, eyes burning blue.
“You come for the Heart. As we once did. Prove your right, or perish.”
We used the ley conduits to channel extra damage, and finally brought the ancient general to his knees. His last words: “You are the last commanders. Guard what we could not.”
The Circle Mage
As the Anchor’s core opened, a figure stepped from the light—the Circle Mage, sigil burned into his tattered robes, eyes glowing with ley reflection.
“You’ve done what even my peers dared not—touched the Heart itself.”
Then he vanished, leaving only a glowing sigil burned into the floor.
Skid’s Vision
Light surged from the monolith. Skid went rigid, eyes white with leyfire. He stood alone in an endless cavern of glass and shadow, ley lines pulsing with his heartbeat. Through the cracks, something vast shifted beneath the earth.
A voice rose from the ley:
“If the pulse breaks, the world will bleed.” “The roots that bind will tear, and the sky will burn.” “Stabilize the pulse, and the heart will sleep again.”
He saw Sharn’s towers collapsing. Oceans boiling. Forests splitting along glowing fault lines.
Balance Restored
Skid shared what he’d seen: “I saw what happens if we pull it free. Everything breaks. The ley runs through the bones of the world. We keep it steady, or we all fall with it.”
Working together, we stabilized the anchor. The light steadied. The hum faded to a deep, even pulse. The fractures sealed into glowing veins.
The leyline beneath Sharn grew calm.
Skid’s ley mark now glows faintly—he can sense nearby ley currents. The Dhakaani statues bowed as motes of light rose from their eyes: “Balance restored.”
Return
We ascended to Molrik’s forward camp and returned the dwarven war banners we’d found. The Molrik clan rewarded us with magical items and their eternal respect.
The Eberron anchor is stable. But the Circle Mage escaped. The Maw Frame still rises in the Astralglades. And somewhere, Aru’xat the Verdant Maw stirs in his ancient prison.
The fight continues.
One anchor secured. More remain. The Circle Mage left only a sigil behind—what does it mean? And what will Skid’s new connection to the leylines reveal?
The adventure continues…