Act 2. Wards of Flame and Steel

Looking back with longing, Zyra leads the way to the other iron door in the Alchemy Lab. She opens the small hatch, she had found earlier, for the release mechanism. Orryn, here is the mechanism to open this door. I can break it to open it, but I think Grusk will appreciate it, if we can minimize the damage. I didn't see any signs of traps so it should be safe for you to tinker open.

Zyra looks over to their elf companion: Legolas, are you ok if we finish exploring the exits in this room before we move on to the two unexplored doors in the forge?

Sure. Exploring every area is part of the job I believe. Picking and poking magic...
Legolas shrugs. He don't have a strong opinion, just caution

Orryn brushes past Zyra upon request. Leaning close with torch in hand to suss out how the mechanism functioned, and whether he could open it without further damage to the area.

Orryn, you are able to open the door without damaging the mechanism.

---

A wave of heat washes over you as the door opens. The next chamber is compact and circular, no more than thirty feet across, with smooth stone walls reinforced by dark steel ribs. A dim red glow pulses from narrow channels carved into the basalt floor—vein-like grooves that snake inward toward a central pit.

Suspended over that pit by three heavy iron arms is a crucible of what looks like blackened adamantine, no larger than a barrel but very, very heavy. Its surface is scorched and pitted, etched with runes that flicker faintly red, in time with the pulsing floor.The walls are marked with advanced forge-control mechanisms: levers, dials inlaid with dull gemstones, and pressure valves sealed shut.

One small hatch, roughly 2ft by 2ft, lies open in the nearby wall, revealing a crawlspace filled with tubes and calcified heatstone going through the walls, over the ceiling and under the floor.

There are no further doors here. At least, none that you can see from where you are.

Is it the heart of this place? Elf looked astonished. He would suggest to remove it as the last resort only, but it may be the only possibility to turn "clicking spirit" off.

Orryn, you know that heatstones are alchemically treated stones of volcanic glass. When crafted, they provide enough heat to keep chambers warm in the coldest winter. One heatstone keeps a 20-foot-square area comfortably warm even in extreme cold (below –20° F), or a 40-foot-square area in severe cold (between 0° F and –20° F). They can also be used as crafting materials for magic items.

A single heatstone is activated when struck against any hard surface. After this time, it continues to provide heat for anywhere from 24 hours to three years before losing its heat and then calcifying. An active stone does not emit enough heat to cook food or cause harm.

Orryn made his way over to the controls. If he could figure them out. It would clue him into the purpose of the room. So far, they only had a handful of details to go off of. The heart Legolas speculated over could very well be housed in the rune littered chest, but with magic involved, it was not impossible there could be some sort of core in this very room. Further speculation was pointless. For now, he would figure out what he could here, then look elsewhere.

"Might be nothing more than another place of production. I'll figure out what I can here. Have a look around if ye want."

Orryn, with your background in tinkering and crafting, you begin to understand the room’s purpose. This is not just another mundane workspace. The adamantine crucible suspended over the central pit is a marvel.

Given the setup, this forge could be used to:
- Smelt and shape extremely rare or magical materials—things like mithral, adamantite, steel or even magically volatile ores or alloys.
- Bind or contain magical entities, such as a fire elemental, to sustain intense and endless forge heat.
- Craft or repair magical weapons and armor, assuming the right tools and skills are brought to bear.

You also do the math in your head—and it’s staggering. If the crucible is truly made of adamantine, even a modest estimate puts its value at over 60,000 dragons. It could be dismantled and sold for a fortune, although doing so would obviously destroy its function as a forge.

---

The control mechanisms, however, are damaged—corroded valves, seized hinges, a few shattered gem inlays. You can’t safely operate them as-is. But with time, tools, and maybe access to replacement components, you could repair them. Fully restoring this forge would be a serious undertaking—but entirely within your capabilities.

---

Either way, that project can wait until the dungeon is secure and Grusk has authorized and paid you.

For now, you’ve learned: this crucible was designed to craft greatness—or contain an infernal heat.

All this is very impressive and I'm convinced that the old dwarf wasn't a simple blacksmith. I suggest we secure the alchemy lab and the two adjacent rooms and then we continue exploring the two unopened doors in the forge above. I think the clicker won't attack us unless it perceives us as actively thieving or destroying its domain.

Zyra, makes more annotations to her sketch and asks Orryn for details on the crucible room release mechanism and for Legolas to give her details on the secret door release so she can add more notes.

Legolas have made his conclusions about the small room and is not much interested in discussion between Zyra and Orryn
He walks out of alchemy lab and try to open forge's north doors - are they still locked as Grusk experienced it? he wonders, not believing the doors to be locked with a simple keys ... not in this place.

"The value of an apprenticeship here grows by the hour. This place carries extraordinary capabilities. If Grusk puts in the funds and effort, with which I would assist. We could forge more than just fancy daggers, an' nifty trinkets."

Orryn paused in awe. His mind filling with the possibilities such a room alone could contribute to his dreams of grand mechanical creations. With this, new alloys could be forged. Any design, only limited by imagination. They had to clear the place of danger. This was the break he needed.

Zyra's words finally reached him. The elf having left the room once more.

"Er, yes. Let's go. The locked room Grusk mentioned might be important. Or maybe we will find something in the scrap room."

Legolas stepped silently from the scorched remnants of the alchemy lab, his boots leaving no sound as he made his way into the forge chamber once more.He paused before the northern door.

No clang of locks. No resistance.

Unlocked.

He opened it slowly, ears tuned for the smallest betrayal of motion. The hinges gave only the faintest groan—an oddly restrained sound. Beyond stretched a narrow stone corridor, maybe fifteen feet long, ending in another door. The torchlight danced across smooth flagstone. Dustless. Pristine.

Too pristine.

Legolas frowned. The air here was… still. Like nothing had passed this way in decades. No webs. No scraps of parchment. No loose stone grit. Just clean stone. Purposeful silence. A hollow stillness that made his skin twitch and his hand move unconsciously toward his blade. Everything about this space screamed caution. The way it was too clean, the door too easily opened, the air too breathless.

A perfect place for a trap.

Legolas narrowed his eyes and remained still, torch held low and angled forward, casting long shadows across the hallway. He didn’t enter. Not yet.

This is wrong is all elf says.

Legolas takes his shooes off and drop into the corridor. Then throw other few foot further- at a distance of his normal walking steps.

"Wrong? In what way?"

Orryn's light merges with the elf's as he crosses the forge and peers into the prestine hallway.

"Ah, that does seem oddly clean. Like the tongs perhaps?"

Curious, but cautious to the elf's method of testing the pathway. Orryn steps a few paces back. Switching his torch hand as he rubbed at his shoulder.

"Damn that dust. Gonna need to soak my arm for a day after all this. Haven't had an explosion that bad since I first started workin' on propulsion systems. The stains never fully wash out, I'll have ye know."

Legolas pressed himself against the chilly stone frame of the doorway, toes barely touching the corridor’s first flagstone as he tossed his shoe forward in a slow arc. It fell with a soft scuff a few feet further in—right where his stride would normally carry him if he were to walk casually forward.

The reaction was instantaneous.

With a chorus of clicking mechanisms, a row of iron-tipped spikes sprang from hidden slits in the wall directly to his left, stabbing across the corridor in a deadly barrier of metal. The points crossed nearly all the way to the opposing wall, a bristling fence designed to skewer whatever crossed its path.

The shoe remained unharmed, resting safely a stride past the trap’s reach.

as Zyra comes up the stairs, she sees the stabbing blades, thankful both her companions are on the good side of the trap. She continues to cross the forge floor saying: Let me have a look fellas... she then proceeds to search for the trap override.

Zyra knew there were always overrides for these things—a hidden plate, a nearby lever, something designed to let the owner of the forge or a clever person disable the danger safely.

Her gloved hands pressed against the nearby wall, feeling for seams or a pressure plate. Her fingertips fell upon a small, well-wrought stone that seemed just a bit looser than its neighbors...

Instead of deactivating the trap, a hidden nozzle opened in the wall beside her. With a rush of air and a piercing roar, a sheet of flame suddenly blossomed forward, enveloping Zyra in a brief but painful cone of fire.

Zyra shouts out a number of derogatory expletives at the forges designer! Explosions, Impalers, Cleavers and Flame throwers! This Dwarf has some serious trust issues. I got this, give me a moment.

Zyra tries again on the other side of the entrance.

The hart were just child proof, but this ... . Elf is under heavy stress again based on amount of his talking he would normally keep his thought to himself . Soul? No way a house could have a soul. Is it kind of head? Mind? Could be the ...
Watching Zyra at work Legolas turns to Orryn and share his opinion Whatever is protected so carefully may need to remain protected. And looks like Zyra got the best skills for to just turn it off rather than destroy.

Using a small, specialized tool from her belt, Zyra carefully pried away a plate to reveal the mechanisms that powered the wall’s spikes. She pressed a few components aside, disconnected a tiny gear, and wedged it in place. With a satisfying click, the pressure fell from the hidden springs — the spikes were safely disarmed.