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Windhammer, Copyright Wayne Densley 2008 All Rights Reserved
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249
 The Chieftain lays dead at your feet but you have not come through the battle unscathed. Blood pours from a deep gash in your forearm and lines of red trace its flow down your arm. As you make up a bandage to bind the wound you look around the room and examine it for anything of use. What you find is most unexpected.
The chamber is a long curving space, dominated on its western edge by a huge crystal wall, that extends from the floor to the ceiling along its entire reach. It looks like glass but feels rough to the touch, even though you can look clearly through it to the outside world. Carefully you peer out through the wall and see that the stone of the mountain extends beyond the crystal for about a metre before dropping off a shear cliff edge. Before you extends a vista of the Krodestaag mountains, your vantage overlooking everything from the foot of the Devkraager Tor itself to the far western horizon and the jagged mountains of the Krodestaag. What you have found is a lookout, carved into the side of the mountain as a permanent observation point covering the entire western reaches of the old Dwarvendim kingdoms.
Caught by the grandeur of the marching lines of grey peaks you wonder on what the old cities of the Dwarvendim must now look like. Left to abandonment and ruin for more than a hundred years you can only think that they are long lost to your people, but you know the resourcefulness of the Dwarvendim and perhaps there will come a day when those grey citadels will once again be called home.
As you survey the wide horizon the twin suns of Arborell settle against the upper edges of the crystal wall. Now late in the afternoon the suns have almost reached their daily rest and you turn away from their gaze, unaccustomed to the dazzling light. After all the time you have spent delving the secrets of Stoneholme your sudden exposure to the brightness of day leaves you squinting in the direct glare of the setting suns. Orange and red in the dusk they are a wondrous sight but one you cannot spend time enjoying. All you can allow yourself are a few deep breaths of the clear air that fills the room before you turn to a quick search of the Hresh and his personal equipment.
What you find amongst his belongings is surprising to say the least. Upon opening a small box held within a larger chest you uncover a medallion and chain, mostly silver in artifice but holding a large green gem at its centre. Immediately you recognise it as a Shield Stone and place it away within your own pack. Such talismans of the ancient world are rare indeed and even if it can be of no use to you, it should be returned to those who understand its nature. A further search shows that there is no other exit from the room bar the one you have demolished. You will need to return to the Lesser Hall if you are to continue your quest. For just a moment you watch the setting suns fill the lookout with the growing wash of a deep red glare, then turn for the exit. With nothing else to be found in the room you begin the long trek back down the spiralling stairs to the Lesser Hall.
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Record your discovery of the Shield Stone on your character sheet then turn to section 180.
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This book, and its associated books and other documents in the Chronicles of Arborell series are the intellectual property of the author, Wayne F Densley, and all rights are reserved by him. Windhammer is best viewed at 1024 x 768 resolution. Any questions regarding the Chronicles of Arborell can be answered by emailing the author at densleyw@shoal.net.au
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Windhammer, Copyright Wayne Densley 2008 All Rights Reserved
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