Ragna Stonewake

Barak Thuld — Level Two

Ancient Warden-Engineer of Barak Thuld

Ragna Stonewake is an ancient dwarven warden awakened by Barak Thuld's emergency defenses when the blight penetrated deeply enough to threaten the fortress.

Ragna was trained for more than battle. She is a fortress engineer: a soldier expected to keep gates functioning, traps armed, defensive constructs moving, and damaged mechanisms operating while a siege was still underway.

Barak Thuld is therefore more than familiar ground to her. Its doors, counterweights, defensive passages, pressure systems, constructs, and mechanisms are tools she understands and knows how to repair.

When the party first encounters her on Level Two, she is already fighting.

The clash ahead is too measured to be the sound of beasts fighting.

Steel strikes. A shield catches something with a heavy crack. Then comes a dwarven curse, shouted with considerably more anger than fear.

Around the next corner, a lone dwarf holds the center of a ruined hall. Her armor is old, square-shouldered, and scarred black where thorns and corrosive sap have struck it. A broad shield covers most of her body while a heavy warhammer rises and falls behind its rim.

Black-rooted creatures press toward her from two passages.

One lunges.

The dwarf catches it on the shield, drives it sideways into the wall, and crushes its head with a short hammer stroke.

Only then does she notice you.

“If you're with those things,” she calls, “have the decency to wait your turn.”

Ragna at a Glance

Ancestry: Dwarf

Role: Fortress Warden and Engineer

Level: Creature 5

Combat Style: Shield, warhammer, chokepoint defense

Technical Role: Constructs, traps, gates, fortress machinery

Temperament: Practical, dry, stubborn, disciplined

Primary Concern: Keeping Barak Thuld from falling

Personality

Ragna is direct without being needlessly hostile. She has awakened in the middle of an emergency and treats almost everything through that lens.

She does not demand ceremonies, proofs of worth, or long explanations from the party. If they are fighting the things invading Barak Thuld, that is sufficient evidence that they can be useful.

Her humor is exceptionally dry. She complains about broken doors, neglected mechanisms, and the unacceptable condition of defensive works abandoned for centuries as though someone should have filed a maintenance report.

Roleplaying Ragna

Keep Ragna focused on immediate, practical problems. She knows Barak Thuld's defenses, mechanisms, procedures, and layout far better than she knows its ancient political history.

Questions outside her duties can receive answers such as “That wasn't my post,” “I was not consulted,” or “Ask me when the fortress has stopped trying to die.”

Warden-Engineer of Barak Thuld

Ragna was trained to defend Barak Thuld while simultaneously keeping its defensive systems operational under siege.

A damaged golem, jammed portcullis, broken firing mechanism, or shattered counterweight is a battlefield problem to her. She can diagnose failures, salvage components, perform temporary repairs, and restore systems that would be nearly incomprehensible to someone unfamiliar with dwarven engineering.

Centuries of neglect still matter. Ragna cannot simply command every mechanism back to life. Some systems require replacement components, physical access, another control station, or assistance from the party.

Engineer, Not Puzzle Solver

Ragna should make Barak Thuld's machinery understandable and usable without automatically solving every obstacle.

She might identify a broken counterweight chain immediately, but the party may still need to retrieve a replacement. She can repair an inactive construct, but only after the characters secure the chamber and recover its missing control stone.

What Ragna Knows

☐ The upper fortress has been breached.

☐ The blight has penetrated Level One and established positions on Level Two.

☐ Barak Thuld's major defensive network is currently inactive.

☐ The defense network can be restored from Level Three.

☐ The ancient breach cannot be permanently sealed until the defense network is functioning.

☐ Once activated, the fortress can help force the invading creatures back toward the breach.

Ragna's Plan

Ragna quickly reduces the situation to three objectives.

“First, we wake the fortress.”

“Then we kill everything in it that shouldn't be here.”

“Then we close the hole they came through.”

She looks toward the fighting behind her.

“In that order.”

Engineering Expertise

☐ Dwarven Constructs: Diagnose, repair, restart, and perform field maintenance on Barak Thuld's defensive constructs.

☐ Fortress Traps: Identify, disable, reset, bypass, or repair dwarven mechanical traps.

☐ Doors and Gates: Repair locks, counterweights, portcullises, shutters, barriers, and emergency gates.

☐ Defense Machinery: Restore firing mechanisms, pressure systems, moving barriers, signaling equipment, and similar fortress systems.

☐ Structural Diagnosis: Recognize weakened masonry, damaged supports, unsafe ceilings, and locations where deliberate reinforcement or collapse could alter a battlefield.

☐ Improvised Repair: Salvage intact parts from damaged mechanisms or destroyed constructs to restore another system.

Using Ragna with the Party

Ragna can accompany the party through Barak Thuld, but she should function as a supporting NPC rather than another full player character.

In combat, she holds chokepoints, protects vulnerable characters, and prevents enemies from surrounding the group. She should rarely be the party's primary source of damage.

During exploration, she understands where the party needs to go and what many dwarven mechanisms were designed to do, but she does not automatically remove the obstacles encountered along the way.

Keep the PCs in Charge

Ragna knows the mission. The players decide how to accomplish it.

She can identify a defense station without knowing why centuries of damage have jammed its controls. She can recognize a trap without automatically reaching its mechanism. She can tell the party where a passage once led even if that passage has since collapsed.

Unique Medium Dwarf Humanoid

Perception +12; darkvision

Languages Common, Dwarven

Skills Athletics +14, Crafting +15, Engineering Lore +15, Warfare Lore +13, Barak Thuld Lore +15, Intimidation +11

Str +4, Dex +1, Con +4, Int +3, Wis +3, Cha +1

AC 22; 24 while her shield is raised

Fort +15, Ref +10, Will +12

HP 78

Shield Hardness 7, HP 28, BT 14

Speed 20 feet

Hold the Passage [reaction]

Trigger A creature within Ragna's reach uses a move action to move past her or moves toward one of Ragna's allies.

Ragna makes a warhammer Strike against the triggering creature. On a hit, the creature's movement ends in the square where it was struck.

Shield Warden [reaction]

Trigger Ragna or an adjacent ally would take physical damage while Ragna has her shield raised.

Ragna interposes her shield. Reduce the damage by the shield's Hardness. Apply the remaining damage normally.

Melee

Warhammer +15, damage 2d8+7 bludgeoning.

Shield Boss +14, damage 2d6+7 bludgeoning.

Fortress Warden [one-action]

Ragna Raises her Shield and chooses one ally within 15 feet. Until the start of Ragna's next turn, that ally gains a +1 circumstance bonus to AC while adjacent to a wall, doorway, barricade, or other solid defensive position.

Drive Them Back [two-actions]

Ragna makes a warhammer Strike. If the Strike hits, she can immediately attempt to Shove the target. The Shove uses the same multiple attack penalty as the Strike.

Against a blighted creature, Ragna gains a +1 circumstance bonus to the Athletics check.

Fortress Engineer

Ragna can use Crafting or Engineering Lore to identify, repair, operate, or restore dwarven mechanical systems within Barak Thuld.

When appropriate, she can use Engineering Lore instead of Thievery to disable, bypass, or reset a purely mechanical dwarven trap.

This ability does not automatically bypass magical wards, unknown non-dwarven devices, or mechanisms missing essential components.

Emergency Repair [three-actions]

Manipulate

Ragna rapidly works on an adjacent dwarven construct, trap, or mechanical defense. She attempts a Crafting check against an appropriate DC.

Critical Success A construct regains 3d8+15 Hit Points, or a damaged mechanism immediately returns to full operation if it can reasonably be repaired in place.

Success A construct regains 2d8+10 Hit Points, or basic operation is restored to a damaged mechanism.

Failure The repair does not take hold.

Critical Failure The mechanism jams or the repair fails completely. Ragna must spend at least 10 minutes correcting the problem before attempting another Emergency Repair on that target.

Restore Defensive Construct

Ragna can spend 10 minutes repairing an inactive Barak Thuld construct whose essential components remain intact.

She attempts a Crafting check against a DC appropriate to the construct. On a success, the construct becomes functional with approximately half its normal Hit Points. On a critical success, it returns with nearly full functionality.

A badly damaged construct can require a replacement component before this activity can be attempted.

Reset Dwarven Defense

Ragna can spend 1 minute working on a disabled dwarven trap or defensive mechanism.

If the device is structurally intact, a successful Crafting or Engineering Lore check resets it. Damaged mechanisms might require replacement parts or additional time.

Jury-Rig the Fortress [two-actions]

Frequency once per encounter

Ragna performs an immediate battlefield repair or override on nearby Barak Thuld machinery. The exact effect depends on the surrounding mechanisms.

Possible effects include forcing a damaged door closed, raising a partial stone barrier, dropping a portcullis, releasing a counterweight, restarting a firing mechanism, activating a warning rune, or giving a damaged allied construct one final round of operation.

Barak Thuld Command

Ragna is recognized by surviving fortress systems as an authorized defender.

Once the Level Three defense network has been restored, she can activate designated doors, barriers, traps, and defensive mechanisms where the adventure specifically allows it.

This authority does not repair damaged systems or bypass mechanisms that require physical restoration.

Combat Behavior

Ragna fights like someone trained to defend corridors rather than chase enemies. She puts stone at her back, keeps opponents in front of her, and forces attackers to go through her to reach the rest of the group.

Typical Priorities

1. Establish a defensible position and Raise her Shield.

2. Keep enemies away from vulnerable party members.

3. Use Drive Them Back to clear doors and narrow passages.

4. Use fortress machinery whenever doing so provides a tactical advantage.

5. Repair allied constructs or defenses when that is more valuable than making another attack.

6. Fall back rather than pursue enemies into unsecured sections of the fortress.

Engineering During the Expedition

Damaged systems discovered while descending through Barak Thuld can become optional objectives. Repairing them gives the party advantages when they later fight their way back toward the breach.

Possible Repairs

☐ Repair a damaged stone guardian on Level Two. It later reinforces the dwarven defensive line.

☐ Restore a trap on Level One. During the return journey, the party can use it against retreating blight creatures.

☐ Repair a broken portcullis that can later divide a large group of enemies.

☐ Reconnect an old signaling system, allowing Ragna to communicate with surviving constructs elsewhere in Barak Thuld.

☐ Restore a ventilation or pressure conduit needed by a Level Three defense station.

☐ Salvage usable components from a destroyed construct to repair another.

Repairs Should Matter Later

Wherever possible, let repairs made during the descent visibly affect the return journey. A restored golem might be holding a junction. A repaired portcullis might cut off reinforcements. A reset trap might fire into the blight as the party retreats toward Level One.

This makes the expedition feel like the party is gradually restoring Barak Thuld rather than simply clearing rooms.

Why She Needs the Party

Ragna is capable, but Barak Thuld is too large and too badly compromised for one defender to restore alone.

Since awakening, she has spent most of her time keeping the defensive line on Level Two from collapsing completely. Every attempt to move deeper into the fortress risks surrendering ground behind her.

The party gives her something she has not had since awakening: enough mobile strength to stop merely containing the invasion and begin restoring the fortress.

“I've been winning this corridor for quite some time.”

Ragna glances at the black growth creeping over the far wall.

“The problem is that the corridor doesn't appear to have noticed.”