First time the group has left town and went on their way to the adventure (not that the town isn’t an adventure, it’s just not the focal/goal portion of the quest).
Some time was spent outside before walking in. At this point, I have to ramp up the “haunted” feel of the house a bit more. Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the group and the pace of things so far.
Write up follows:
The group talked at length about the leadership and the name eventually voting Talion the ranger as the leader and calling themselves the Tides of Valhalla – both as homage to most of their fishing village origin as well as the paladin’s deep abiding love of the heaven for courageous warriors.
The council reiterated our mission and then by 9 that morning, we were on our own. The thought was to go to Rosensteel’s Tradegoods and load up on rations for a few days, and then leave Saltmarsh with little delay. There is supposedly a long abandoned cliffside road closer to the Haunted House, but most of the trip would involve up trailblazing through swampy fens and uneven ground.
We purchased food, shuffled our packs around, and then took a trip to the Moneylender. A stone building well guarded by two dwarven warriors and further protected within by a Half-ogre with a claymore, the moneylender was a 4’ gnome called Rizle Tizle McDizzle, but call him “Mick” for short. We changed a number of crowns in for nobles and commons, a few of us getting brass as well. Mick was thrilled when Veldryn talked to him in his own language and we left there feeling good about the moneylender and comfortable that we’ll be well treated in the future.
We did talk about the haunted house and our adventure to go there, and were told that a talkative poacher named Curis Thanger would wax long about the one time he tried to sneak in the haunted house and was scared off. Works a longshoreman off a boat called the Third Heaven if we wanted to talk to him. After we were out in the street through, we decided that it was not necessary to talk with anyone else and the trip to the House will already take some time.
We walked south out of Saltmarsh, trying always to stay closest to the shore and beach of the Mastelic Ocean. The Eider Down Fens became thick within half a mile of Saltmarsh as we left the last of the hovels and peasant’s houses behinds. We had to walk back and forth often looking for better passage, slowing our trip. Eventually the time ticked past 1 and we were slowly working upslope to a series of cliffs that looked over the Ocean, 60’+ in height. We could see the dark outline of the lone mansion in the distance and by quarter after one, we had arrived at the locale in question.
It stands at the top of a cliff, 70’ above the surf and ocean, maybe 80’ back from the cliff. A partially collapsed stone wall encircled the place, 6’ in height where it still was functional; an iron gate partially hanging on rusting hinges blocked the entrance. As for the mansion, 35’ tall, heavily gabled, black windows shuttered – the entire edifice looked foreboding. Deja entered through a gap in the wall first, testing the garden beyond. The grasses were over 2 feet tall, plants, roses, flowers, and vegetables had grown wild in the last 2 decades, twined about amidst burrs and scratching weeds. But nothing was here except the sensation of being watched from the house itself.
Satisfied it was ok, she motioned the rest of the group through, Magnus going first. The paladin sadly knocked part of the weak wall over and fell into the garden amidst lots of noise and fallen mortar and brick. Deja looked at him with contempt, satisfied that any chance of surprise we might have had, should we need it, was now gone. After getting up, Magnus cleared the way and Talion and Veldryn followed.
The thought was to circle the house first, keeping closer to it, and see if there was anything in the grounds we needed to look at and concern ourselves with first. We went counter clockwise, staying in the shadow of the mansion as we looked around with care. That was the remnants of a few apple trees in poor condition, and a large weeping willow that had been partially uprooted but still alive and growing. But beyond it, close to the rear quarter of the mansion, was a 5’ well with the house collapsed, a bucket chain going down into the gloom.
The thought was to pull up the chain which was rusted but functional; a 2 gallon wooden bucket on the end. It was not in the best of condition and did leak, but was serviceable should we need it. A set of iron rungs went down the side of the well. Talion and Veldryn offered to go down and check it out, the water level looking like it was 15’ below the surface.
While the ranger did get closer to the water, Veldryn called on Hell and summoned a globe of light which she placed in the water, illuminating its 3’ depth. But while hanging there, Talion failed to notice a long snake emerge from a crack in the wall and bite him on the arm! The fangs got stuck more on leather and bracers, not piercing to his flesh. But the ranger was just as quick, tearing a dagger free and stabbing it into the snaked spine and tearing down, ending at its heart with a single critical assault! Veldryn helped Talion extract the now dead snake from the wall – 12’ long! Seeing there was nothing else down here, they climbed up and laid out their find for the others to see.
Deja and Veldryn then spent some 10 minutes cutting back the snake’s jaw and pulling the flesh out until they arrived at the poison sacks. With exaggerated care, the cut the full venom sack free and Deja deposited the liquid in one of the priest’s empty vials, sealing it with some wax. The thief was sure the venom was somnolent, whoever would get it in their bloodstream would eventually fall asleep. Talion took the vial for now, and Magnus thought the use of poison was not worth our time.
We did keep on keeping on, circling the rest of the house and coming back to the front door. We approached and after making sure the door wasn’t locked, put shoulder to the door and pushed our way in. The entrance hall had a set of stairs on the left going up to a balcony and 2nd floor while three dark passages in the dusty cobwebby gloom led off to the east, west, and north wings respectively. The smell of decay and the groaning of the ancient timbers were all we heard mixed in with the cool ocean breeze blowing through the doorway.
A brief discussion followed and we opted to go north wing first. After crossing the room and seeing the dim corridor beyond, Talion lit a torch and we looked. The north passage went some 15 paces or so and turned to the right, a door on the right, left, and at the end of the visible passage was seen. We travelled along, Deja looking for locked doors and Talion keeping a weather eye out for traps. None so far. At the end of the passage, the corridor turned to the right and went some 30 feet, ending at what seemed to be a door that led outside and presumably to the gardens.
The group opted to check out the left door first. Magnus managed to open it after Deja declared it trap free, and we could tell it was a dining room at one point. A massive table with no legs, a few broken chairs, and a pile of busted crockery and china from the broken shelves of the cabinet in the corner. Deja checked the east stuff out and Magnus took point on the table – but at the end of the day, there was nothing here and we left the chamber.
We went across the hall to the right door and after assuring ourselves it wasn’t trapped or locked, opened it up to reveal a drawing room. Two stuffed arm chairs that someone looked like they had slashed some time in the past, broken table, and a pretty large fire place. We entered and looked around with caution. There was a whistling coming from the fireplace and a look up showed that the flue was closed, keeping the wind and rain out for the most part. The wood box was empty, but there was a set of iron fireplace grates in the middle of the hearth.
A check in the chimney showed that up near the back wall was a displaced stone, not an uncommon spot to hide something if need be. Deja was asked to come forth and give it a once over before anyone opened it but when the Halfling entered the fireplace and glanced up on the other wall, there was a big spider perched there about the size of a beagle! She ran back, the group was not anxious to go and brave the spider and didn’t want to attempt to remove the displaced stone in the back of the fireplace without taking the spider out first.
A plan was hatched where Deja would ready an arrow, fall back INTO the hearth looking up, and shoot the spider swiftly from 4’ away – while Magnus would hold Deja by the ankles and pull her out as soon as the shot went off. Everyone seemed ok with this plan but Deja, however the Halfling didn’t have much choice as she was helped into place and Magnus already held her ankles. She fell back, looked up at the spider, and fired.
The shot went true, and went up to the fletching in the spiders midsection, raining gore and juices down on the Halfling who was screaming and sputtering – followed by the spider actually falling on top of her! She kicked and rolled free, the spider’s legs curling up into one another as her one shot killed it outright. Once the excitement ended, Veldryn and Talion was hoping to extract the spider’s poison glands like they had done the snake while Magnus and Deja were determined to head back to the hearth and see what, if anything, was behind the stone up in the wall.
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