The "B" team has been whittling away at the kobold forces and upsetting the tenuous stability the kobolds have there so much so that there are less than 15 kobolds left. 15 mature ones that is.
There are hundreds and hundreds of immature kobolds currently growing and maturing in the keep that if they are not dealt with in the next 6-7 weeks, will mature enough to be a major problem for the party, this area, and House Illytch's efforts in this area. They will be the part of a tribe whose shaman has proven himself unwilling to work with the local races, is bloodthirsty and duplicitous, untrustworthy and unwilling to compromise. And he can then expand his tribe in 6-9 months AGAIN by another 4-6 fold. Meaning 1,600 or so kobolds at his command in under a year.
The party is doing great so far in upsetting the applecart - but the snag hit was another wandering monster check at night and the dice showed vampires again. Brutal! So Lysil came back and Dizzy was now the target but he fought back so the vampire had him taken down and spirited away.
The group is now on a timed rescue mission to save their friend and then get the hell out of Dodge.
Write up follows:
We watched Shassismyr as he ran across the dining room and then to the main hall. He hit the double doors leading out to the Bailey and roared out a challenge in the night air to the mutated razorback that lived in the area. His stomping and cry did not go unnoticed by the K’Morat who inhabited the keep and many of them began awaking and gathering themselves to see what was going on as well as possibly coming to check on the kitchen where the troll lord had been.
The group had spread out, taking up places across the length of the dining room, weapons at the ready and watching the hall through the open archways. And when there was a batch of 4 of the K’Morat warriors running through the area, a well placed sleep spell knocked them all off their feet. Hjalgrim, Sybil, and Einar took up space near the front, Thalin running to help, while Merica, Dizzy, and Percy were closer to the kitchen, missile weapons at the front.
The group managed to kill one of the sleeping kobolds when they were spotted and other K’Morat started running across the chamber to assault the group, one of them letting the leash of a wolfhound slip free and the canine taking the lead as the battle grew closer. The wolfhound turned and bolted into the chamber, hitting Sybil and driving the Halfling back, tearing into her. Missile weapons fired and most of them bounced around the hound, not enough to kill it.
Then from the gallery came a staggering and ill 9’ tall ogre. Sloped forehead, sweating badly, sporting a long spear and obviously struggling to stay alert, it threatened Merica who had the ogre stand down, the two of them hissing to one another. Said he was Kornog and had been here a few days. Wanted to kill K’Morat and was suffering from whatever their shaman had done to him. Merica helped it to its feel and Dizzy hit the ogre with a cure minor, adding some color to the ogre’s face.
If we could help it get free, Kornog would help us against the kobolds who according to him, struck him, fucked him over, and left him to die in the last room of the gallery.
The rest of the group was facing off against the kobolds pushing their way into the room as more were coming down the hall. A burly necked one stood toe to toe with Hjalgrim, stone axe flailing about while Sybil went down and the wolfhound was killed before it could finish the Halfling off. Einar and Hjalgrim were hit with a fairie fire spell, the two of them outlined in red, blue, and green fires. More blows were struck back and forth and hit points ticked down slowly.
Merica did the helm thing again and could tell one of the kobolds was sneaking in our direction from the Gallery. Kornog and he went around and the kobold tried to trigger a trap but Kornog took the blow, the spears bouncing uselessly around the ogre. Then the two of them staggered towards the kobold and struck at it repeatedly.
Another sleep spell went off, catching the now swelling number of kobolds at the archway again, dropping some more. A few that were in the area scattered and the group spilled in the main hall and killed one while one ran down the northeast and the long hall there. Hjalgrim tried throwing a spear but the missile missed and the kobold could be heard running away.
We reconvened and could hear Shassismyr and the boar fighting outside. The Ogre was still standing and wobbling. Getting more from him, he was charged with getting the “lent” dryad back for the Ogres who had leased it to the kobolds and the former shaman some months ago for a short period of time. When the dryad and its basin hadn’t been returned Kornog had been dispatched with a bag of copper coins to pay off the kobolds if need be and get the damned planter and tree back.
The new shaman fucked the ogre over, stabbed and poisoned him, and the tribe chased him to the corner gallery room and left him there to die where they would then eat him at their leisure. So we agreed to let him take the dryad pot and Cashandra out in exchange for the bag of coins and guarded the hall as he went out to the Inner Courtyard, picked up the pot, came back into the main hall with the scraggly 15’ ash tree and planter, with the scarred up green skinned Cashandra walking behind him, hand on the ogre’s back, imploring him to be careful and watch it.
Then he and the dryad made it to the front door, checked to see the Troll lord and the razorback were not fighting nearby (seemed to be to the east) and then walked across the broken Bailey and out he barbican into the night and gone.
We wanted to get Hjalgrim’s spear and the dwarf carefully walked into the long hall with the worn out carpet, staying on the newer path and avoiding what he assumed was a trapped area. Getting his spear he returned and we all talked about options. On the east side of the hall we looked down the main hall and to the dark activated infravision, we could see rapid footprints running from the entrance of the chapel and to the east, eventually up the stairs at the end of the hall. This led to Merica and Hjalgrim each activating their helms. Merica was able to faintly hear but surely detect 8, 10, 11 kobolds one floor up and to the east of where the group was standing. And Hjalgrim was able to hear and detect…70, 84, 97, 110 or so birds – also in roughly the same area.
Ambush, waiting for us upstairs.
The group did not want to face it now and we figured that we had done enough wreckage for now so we made our way to the front door, checked to make sure we weren’t being watched from above or that the troll lord and/or the boar battle were going to impact us (it wasn’t, somewhere to the east now from what we could hear), and then made our way out of the keep and Einar obscuring our prints, took a circuitous path back to the north and east to the cave we had been using as refuge.
It was after 2:30 in the morning and the group was delirious with joy and exhaustion at our efforts so far against the K’Morat. We took stock of the night, wrapped everything up, and then went to sleep, leaving Dizzy on watch for the first round.
And perhaps an hour into his watch, two vampires wandered by the cave, and tried to coax Dizzy on letting them in. The thief/cleric to Sif did all he could to keep them out. Blankets held up, stuffing his ears to muffle their words, ignoring their entreaties and pushing to have him come in. When an orcish zombie tried to rip the tent blocking the cave entrance down a lucky turning sent the zombie reeling back. It took dozens of mice, rats, and bats swarming under and through the cave entrance to drop Dizzy and have the dwarven priest knocked out and taken away by Lysil the Orcish vampire and one of his minions.
Many hours later, the party woke up thanks to Thalin noticing he had not been awakened for his turn on watch. We looked around, some blood, Dizzy’s backpack here, torn up tent and blanket near the front, LOTS of rat droppings. And outside, a 6’ 9”, 300# orcish zombie standing there with a rolled up note. We recognized the undead as Centius, the onetime minion of Avulstein who reported it had been forcibly taken by an orcish vampire named Lysil many weeks ago when the vampire and 3 of his minions came upon the sleeping party and assaulted Barb at that time and then stole the enhanced zombie.
There was some back and forth and the zombie gave us the note, waited for a decent tip, then mounted on a black steed and rode away from the party and to the south and west.
The note mentioned that Lysil was taking Dizzy, “Just for the night” and would return him tomorrow, not to worry. The group was not happy about this, Hjalgrim to most vociferous in this case. The cavalier was talking about going to get Dizzy back and this had his man, Percy, getting in the cavalier’s face and trying to show his that bravery and foolhardiness were not the same thing.
Voices grew loud and angry and everyone eventually woke up and joined in. Hjalgrim was angry but the party did all break camp and tired, we walked out with Einar and the party decided to follow the tracks and eventually find Dizzy and spring him.
The trail went for some time to the south and west and south again, skirting near a lake and then staying in a ravine and valley area. The area we were travelling in showed little sign of life until after 7 hours of walking, we could see a crumbling castle on a raised hill overlooking the north and west areas of the valley. The trail led there and the party bolstered their courage and approached the entrance. We knocked and waited, eventually getting an audience with a raspy sounding orc named Ticrus.
He said his lord, Lysil, was not around and should be about after sunset. We can come in but only because we were fairly pathetic and had the group perform some embarrassing feats to show their ineptitude. Once inside the hooded and cowled orc led us through the bailey and to the castle itself where at the tired grandeur within had a frank conversation with the group.
Dizzy was in the west wing past the dining room and was there recovering from his encounter with Lysil. The lord was somewhere else in the castle, crypts? Sleeping and well guarded. We should not eat the food in the dining room (tainted) and had a limited time to find Dizzy and make our way out of the castle. Once outside we should run for our lives and find a place to hold up for the night as Lysil would be wroth at the party’s incursion and removal of the dwarven cleric/thief.
Why…why was Ticrus helping us or telling us anything?!?! Ticrus had died during the Gorokian/Randari war over 100 years earlier and he and the dwarf that had been killing one another both died in combat and went to Valhalla. He spent 3 days there and then was forcibly ripped from his reward and thrust back in his dead and mummified body by Lysil who needed the orcish commander and tactician for his own needs.
Over the centuries, Ticrus had found his bonds of loyalty and obedience to the vampire had weakened to the point that he was more than capable of perverting most orders when Lysil was resting and having a modicum amount of free will. So this was another way to thwart his lord and that was reward enough for Ticrus.
We were led to the dining room with the table heaped high with breads and cheeses and a roast quail even, reminded not to eat anything, reminded we had 1 hour 33 minutes remaining until sunset, and then Ticrus left, locked the dining room behind him and we were on our own in a vampire’s castle with one other door out of here we could use to find our friend and then make our escape.
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