Youth Meet 12, Adv 1, 3/23/18

After the last meeting and the tribulations from it, this meeting (besides not a full compliment at the table) was full of character development as well as LARPing around the table. Everyone had their moment to shine and we heard many dissimilar viewpoints to digest.

Write up follows:

The party argued about the problems that Veldryn and Deja’s recent spat had brought to light – what is the ultimate goal, can people be trusted, and what is the end position that one can believe from the others. And it was not pretty.

Deja had Val, Magnus, the young Tyrian smuggler Darveig, and even Ned on her side, while Veldryn had only Talion on hers – but it was a strong position as she was ostensibly the oldest person in the group and the Ranger was the leader. The feeling was that Veldryn needed to back the hell off and remember that there were others in the party.

Since it was already so late in the afternoon, we decided to spend one more night at the mansion instead of taking the jolly boat back to Saltmarsh in the twilight. So everyone except the ranger and the elf made their way, dragging the unconscious Sanbalet, back to the smuggler sleeping chamber in the basement.

As for the last two – their decision to remain behind was not as altruistic as they originally suggested as Veldryn was anxious to remove one of the smuggler’s heads and bring it back eventually to Saltmarsh to acquire one of the many ingredients she had sussed out of the documents and paperwork – Brain Juice. What was it? Was it actually the juice of a brain? No one knows, but how often do you have humans, dead human, just sitting around to harvest.

So between the two of them, they hacked and hacked at the head with Talion’s sword until eventually they had cut enough of the way through to twist and rip the rest of the head off. It was dumped in the large sack, stowed on Talion’s back, and then the two of them casually made their way back to the party promising to say nothing of this most gruesome recent activity.

Meanwhile back at the house, Ned had stoked the fire and swung the cauldron with the stew back over the flames. Sanbalet was dumped on a bed and Darveig was helping to lay out dishes and place settings for the party. This then led to the questioning as to what was going on and what Veldryn was up to. Could she be trusted? She is an elf and they don’t think like normal people, so what is her end goal?

And she has a hold on Talion. Are they sleeping together? No one knew for sure, but the paladin was convinced of it. Either way, Talion needed to be spoken to and questioned what was going on. This then led to the Ned suggesting to the party still here that tonight at watch, we post 2 at a time – and we don’t let Talion and Veldryn share watch and we don’t let Deja and Veldryn share watch.

Eventually the other two returned and we all ate, relaxed, and then discussion turned all over the place. The Saltmarsh smugglers, what was the next plan, taking the jolly boat back in the morning, what was going on in the cave, Sanbalet facing trial, and Deja and Veldryn’s argument.

As the words grew heated and the arguments flowed, Valerie wanted little to do with it so the half-orc druid made her way back to the caves and wandered around until she couldn’t hear anything from inside. As for those inside, it was Magnus and Talion back and forth with one another as the paladin expressed his lack of trust in the ranger and his attitude and decisions lately – offering that if this continued, he would enact the adventuring charter clause that allowed the group to vote on a new leader.

Ned meanwhile had convinced Veldryn that she needed to do more to connect with the group as her actions as of late have been divisive and fostering anxiety amongst everyone. She admitted that she would try harder, actually crying at one point. With things calmer, Ned offered to go and find Valerie and bring her back.

He discovered her – standing by the headless corpse of one of the smugglers. Ned grew upset, saying that it was Johnson and he HAD a head during the fight! Valerie suggested that Veldryn and / or Talion removed the head – but why? What the hell was going on?

She returned with Ned and more conversation flowed about the missing smugglers head – no one admitting to it and the matter leaving a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. Watches were divided up and the party got some poor sleep. The next morning we all wandered into the cave after breaking our fast and praying and proceeded to load up the jolly boats.

At this point Veldryn wanted to bring back a dead gnoll. Why? She wanted it – for research maybe. 350 lbs of dead gnoll in a jolly boat already laden with the smuggled goods and the party and Ned, Darveig, and Sanbalet – not a good idea at all. More arguing followed, the group going back to dead Johnson and his missing head and Talion swearing when questioned point blank if he had anything to do with and he said no. Amidst all this Valerie withdrew the Bifrost Crystal, sunk her will into it, and asked Frey aloud if the two friends had removed the dead guy’s head. Frey answered yes and that blew Talion and Veldryn’s trust and honesty out of the water.

Valerie wanted to walk back and not take the boat, the druid confident she could make her way to Saltmarsh easily. Talion had to back pedal to Magnus his last statements and there was a serious back and forth play between the two of them that was not going to end well with the paladin just accepting things as they were anymore.

We had to get back to Saltmarsh. We had to bring Sanbalet. Ned was going to have his crimes commuted with his testimony and his aid to the party. We had to talk to the council and Sir Archibald Reguirin about what we’ve learned. There had to be another half of the smuggling operation – where was the larger boat that either brought or took the smuggled goods?

We left the gnoll, Veldryn ran after Valerie to walk back with her friend and try to mend fences, and the rest of us boarded up on the boat, the single sail was raised, and Ned was taking the rest of the party northward along the coast across the Mastelic Ocean and back to Saltmarsh.

Meet 43, Adv 4.1, 3/17/18

Some time ago I took Platinum out of my game as a viable currency - the argument being that I was phasing to the silver standard, had added a currency below copper, and there was no reason for a currency that high. However, I still had a number of adventures that I used that PP had been mentioned.

So the rounding out of it ended up being 1,000 Brass Bits to 100 Copper Commons to 10 Silver Nobles to 1 Gold Crown. Coins are about the size of a nickle and a bit thinner, 50 of them make up 1 lb. Electrum was purged and that left Platinum. The work around for me was Platinum was the type of currency the noble houses exchanged for value and would never enter the mainstream of purchasing. 10 Platinum Bars would equal 1 lb, and each bar was worth 50 gold each. Platinum bars are stamped and sealed at time of forging so there is a definitive serial number that could be tracked through all the machinations back and forth between noble families.

The Keep they are in IS that of a Lorded Orcish nobleman and I hid 1 real treasure in here - the castle's stipend of platinum bars. The group has uncovered it and there are 28 of them, stamped and sealed by Kaizer Gruuntush Rand. The Orcish empire collapsed due to the dwarven assault 123 years ago so these bars are "open" and uncirculated. But there presence spells a serious problem for the group - they can't spend them in normal places, their presence will attract every thief, robber, exchequer, Reeve, taxman and bailiff everywhere they go.

It represents about 1,400 crowns - a sum that puts them firmly on the "rich" side of things in my world - even if they have to give half to House Illytch.Right now the thought is to keep it hidden and then when given the chance, pass it on to House Illytch and let them deal with the headache. Can't wait to see how it plays out.

Write up follows:

We figured (thanks to Merica’s helm and our own count) that the 1 lone kobold adult in the basement most likely has no idea what’s gone on with us killing the rest of the Warren, and won’t know anything until he is relieved or his shift is over and he comes up the stairs looking for someone else. So we left Einar, Shog, and Bruce here to keep watch while the rest of us went back to the Great Hall and then down the east wing to the stairs on the 2nd floor. We wanted to give the places the kobolds’ had been in a once over to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

Sybil gave some listening to all the local doors identifying one of them with a foul fecal odor, another had the stink of a rotting corpse, two were silent, and the last had the sound of clicking and movement within. From the main hall, one door was quiet and the other also had a distant clicking movement – letting us know that this door connected to the other one and was most likely a large chamber.

The group went back to the stair, up to the Solar, and then took stock of the rooms up here. When the K’Morat came out, they didn’t shut the doors behind them so the group took a look from here. To the west, down the long hall, was a single door, closed, with wooden wedges beneath it. North of here were two doors on the left (the first leading to the Water closet), two on the right, and one at the end which is where the Altern had come out of. We decided to hit the northern corridor first and in order.

The Water closet showed us nothing new, but just to be sure, we dragged all the bodies out and into the Solar, checking them over for anything of interest. Most of it was nothing, but the Shaman did have a bag with 4 keys in it, old and tarnished, but still in good repair. There was a smattering of colored stones and little else except for a disk of gold that showed a lizardman’s face, left hand holding up 2 fingers, the other hand had been torn free of the disk.

From the water closet the next room on the left was a bedroom originally for the orcish lords who lived here, but had been repurposed to the kobolds’ needs – with some nesting of assorted trash that would sleep 8. However, the nesting was old, misshapen, and worn as if it hadn’t been used properly in months.

The next chamber was another bedroom and also reused with nests. We did look it over and there was a fireplace in here that we could hear the whistling of the wind above. Hjalgrim was giving the fireplace a once over while the rest of the party poked through the nesting with spears looking for anything of interest. The cavalier lucked out and above the fire line there was a section of stones that rattled hollow.

Sybil lent the dwarf her dagger and he worked and scraped at the stones, eventually pulling them free. Inside the hollow was a rusty metal box that looked like it had been here for over a century. 8” wide, just about 4” tall, and almost 2 feet long – they dragged it free and placed it on the ground. The piano hinge was rusted solid and the lock had long ago rusted away. The cover didn’t lift free and some oil went to trying to help, but had no impact.

Dizzy took over at this point, borrowing Sybil’s dagger from Hjalgrim he worked the blade in and out of the metal box, breaking the rusty metal and prying the lid up bit by bit as he did so. The dagger became scratched and nicked but the cover eventually popped off and he sheepishly returned the now damaged weapon to the open mouthed Sybil who muttered, “You owe me a new dagger when we get to town.”

The interior of the box had some folded dark cracked leather that was pulled apart – to reveal 28 orcish stamped and sealed by Kaizer Gruutush well over a century ago platinum bars. The monetary street value was over 1,400 CROWNS. However, although platinum was valued tender, it was not “legal” for commercial or mercantile purchases – limited for value exchange between landlords, land holders, and royalty. 99.9% of people never SEE platinum, to say nothing of 28 bars of it.

We closed the lid, eager and gleeful, wrapped the box closed, and then made an express decision to dump this into the lap of House Illytch as soon as possible to get this potentially dangerous haul off our hands quickly.

With much better spirits we went to the next few rooms, giving them a solid look over but outside of finding the arm guard of the missing (and eaten!) Randari Ranger that one of the K’Morat had brought back here as a memento, there was nothing else of note discovered in the rooms. This left the one chamber with the wedges under the door or go back to the 1st floor and eventually the basement.

Sybil was voted to go and listen to the door, and she was able to hear movement from within – slow and dragging and it sounded like breathing. We chanced to knock on the door and ask if whoever was there needed help, and the knocking followed back. We established 1 and 2 knocks for yes and no, got a few questions asked, and even had a “shave and a haircut, 2 bits” reply knock at the end. The thought was whoever it was was intelligent, honest, and willing to talk with us. The fact that it was communicating with us was enough to spur the group on to opening the chamber and seeing what was what.

Sybil kicked the wedges free and with care, opened the door. On the other side was the fleshy skeletal remains of what was once a fairly large orcish individual. He was wearing red and blue ragged raiments and sported a 5’ tall marble pedestal. The two of them stared at one another while we took in what was once the Master Bedroom of the Orcish keep, now long ago worn out. There was evidence the shutters had been nailed in place from the other side and the room was sealed closed.

Sybil and the orcish skeleton stared at one another and then there began a series of pantomimes where the Halfling was offering to help the undead and the undead was pleased at her offer. There was no malice, no evil, and the telltale signs of necromancy around walking corpses was absent from this one. He did try to speak often, making breathy sighs and working his jaw, but the dried and rotted flesh of tongue, pallet, and throat didn’t allow anything to be made.

For her efforts to help and getting him to understand that we needed his help killing the kobolds, he gifted Sybil with a livery shirt from his armoire that a page or squire might wear, and then tapped the busted end of a broken sword on her shoulders. From there he followed and we did the same. He stopped in each room and made moans and sighs as he saw the wreckage and destruction that not only time had wrought, but the kobolds had done as well. His boney fingers traced broken glass and other busted pieces. At the stairs we had to brace him as one of his legs was lame, the bones twisted, so we went on each side and helped him to the main floor where he once more was just stunned at what he was seeing. Hjalgrim gave him a weapon to use instead of the busted blade and for that, the undead orc made the motions of knighting him as well.

At the main room the thought was to take him to the clicking movement sounding room and take a look and the undead guy made signs that it was an aviary and not a problem. We had a hard time getting him to understand the sheer passage of time and his own faulty memory, especially since we could get him to talk. At this point Dizzy thought and performed a mending on the dead guy’s tongue and he was able to speak. It was growling and rough sounding but we were able to talk.

He was Lord Gurunts Irontusk and was the lord of Irontusk and the surrounding lands. We retired to the dining room where he wove a tale that was 125 years out of place. The dwarves had declared war on the orcish people and were eating babies and raping their women, killing them all when Kaizer Gruuntush ordered a mustering of 50 able bodied warriors from every keep, holdfast, town, and village. Lord Gurunts was please to muster 60 and sent them over – three of them his own sons – two from his first wife, one from his second.

As word from the war came back and it was poor, the orcish people were growing despondent. Lord Gurunts had made a pledge during the Woden’s Day ceremonies that he wouldn’t rest if the day came that enemies took over his lands and keep. He made the oath and the people rejoiced. Then that night word came of his 2nd wife’s child’s death and as she was screaming at him, he tried to get her to relax and when that didn’t work, smacked her to calm her down. She was stunned at that and he took her mewling as being receptive to marital relations. So he did.

He came to briefly after sleeping it off to find her stabbing his repeatedly in the chest with a knife and then he felt nothing for a long time until he “awoke” to find anklebiters in his keep! His guards didn’t answer his call and he noticed the sad state of his keep and body. He fought hard and pushed his way out of the room but there were too many and the anklebiters forced him back to his chamber where they wedged it closed. Then they sealed him in from outside and he was forced to wait. Many many days have passed, he doesn’t sleep, eat, or rest – and has been waiting for the chance to get free.

We gave him VERY broad strokes as to what’s happened; let him know 123 years at least have passed, and that we needed his help to clearing the keep of the last kobold and all the young in the basement. He agreed and we then went through the keys we had taken from the Shaman, Lord Gurunts giving Sybil the key to the Armory – one of the locked rooms over here. Inside though was NOT the orcish weapons he was hoping, but 20 stone axes and 70+ spears. As for the room with the clicking, it had 3 fire beetles within so we closed the door and went back.

A tour of the Gallery followed and he showed us how to turn off the spear trap, Lord Gurunts describing each person in the picture (including one of himself) and some history of the land and the people who lived here over a century earlier. We did ask him eventually if he knew Lysil and he wanted to know Lord Lysil or Lysil the Younger? Lord Lysil was in his 50’s and was a stout no nonsense orcish military man with a keep on a bailey about 7 miles south of here. Lysil the Younger was his foppish son who took on some of his elven tutor’s softer ways at one point and was fond of being a petty bully and exchanging hugs – mush to the embarrassment of his father.

Nice. We filed that away for later.

Our plan for the basement was to move all the stone axes here, set up a table from the dining room at the top of the steps as a secondary barrier. Oil was going to figure but for now, we had Lord Gurunts, Hjalgrim, and Merica at the bottom of the steps. They moved the kobold barrier and then littered the floor with caltrops. Then a yell followed and the wave of immature kobolds charged us.

They hit the caltrops and were rolled over by the mass behind while Hjalgrim and Lord Gurunts manned the front, hacking bodies with wild abandon. Hjalgrim found himself in trouble, his weapon tangled up, the cavalier falling over and then smashed to the ground as dozens of foot and a half tall kobolds swarmed over him. The barrier was already failing as they crawled through our legs and hit the stairs. Merica took front and hacked at the kobolds as Lord Gurunts and he dragged the groaning and badly bleeding Hjalgrim up to the landing, shouting for help. Oil flasks were hurled past the three as they hit the top of the steps and Dizzy and Einar smashed the table in place, propping it up with pots filled with broken cobblestones. The kobolds hit the barrier and were stopped but tried to jump up, unable to crest the top of the table. Meanwhile more oil was tossed and the party hacked at the top of the table and over the edge while from around the corner the wavering yellow light grew closer and a Fire Beetle made the corner along with a wave of immature kobolds.

Thalin’s sleep spell shot off dropping the beetle and a half dozen of the kobolds who were run over by those behind. More hit the table and they were jumping, ones and twos making the top while the table shook and Einar held it in place. The oil was lit and a flaming Molotov went off, killing more but still MORE made the stairs and were climbing. A summoning spell shot off and a wild stallion appeared, trampling kobolds on the landing as they leapt up and eviscerated the whinnying equine. Another fire beetle made the flight and this time it was Merica’s sleep spell that ended it and more kobolds.

Percy managed to heal up Hjalgrim enough for the cavalier to rise to his feet and join the front line. The kobolds that did jump to the top were tearing into Lord Gurunts, Hjalgrim and Dizzy while draughts were dispensed. Heavy stone axes were hurled over the table, flattening more immature kobolds. And then Thalin held the busted Dryad’s finger branch and tried his own summoning spell – the spell over powered and an Ogre appeared on the landing, slowing the tide down while the party bolstered Einar at the front and the table was shaking.

The dead count was over 70 we suspected but the Ogre was in the midst of the swarm and the lone adult kobold had been cut down and when the ogre fell, the kobold young swarm hit the table with a pounding groan…and the table eventually moved! The swarm had reached the first floor and the party was backing up, hacking and slamming and slicing as the kobolds filled the floor and spilled towards us.

A split decision was made and the party hit the stairs going UP here to the roof of the 1st floor, Dizzy slamming the trap door open and the group spilling up onto the roof. Lord Gurunts was the last one up, the undead Orc lord barely staggering free before the trap door was slammed closed and the group sat on the door.

We had a view of the main courtyard and the oversized pig and then the pig was squealing as kobolds came out of the opening in ones and twos. He stomped on them and then a dozen came out and were crawling on the pig. The pig grew nutty and charged the main door where we saw it disappear inside the keep followed by tons of squeals, screams, and the cicada yipping noises.

Looking out at all the broken wood, dried plants, and wreckage in the courtyard, the party had a fantastic idea and started throwing lit oil into the mess, eventually setting the courtyard on fire and guaranteeing the pig AND the kobolds would be stuck here and inside the keep for a few hours – giving us a chance to heal up and then come up with a plan on how to deal with 100 – 200 swarm like immature kobolds.

Youth Meet 11, Adv 1, 3/16/18

And this wraps up the first half of the Saltmarsh adventure. They have to get back to town and debrief, but it’s in the bag. Have a number of the party hit 2nd level, as expected, which makes the 2nd half of the adventure not as much of a bear. So it’ll be a meeting or two of town adventuring until the next part of the smuggling operation has a chance to be tackled.

Write up follows:

The group stood the line as gnoll and smuggler slammed into them. Scythes slashed, arrows flew, shields were raised and curses sailed about the room. The lead gnoll eventually fell but three more smugglers charged from down the hall. Valerie shot a globe of light at one of the smugglers who dodged in time, but the second one ran into it and fell to the ground screaming about his blindness.

The combat rolled back and forth, Magnus was the front of the line as the spear wielding smuggler pressed hard on the limping paladin, knocking him to the ground and then jamming the spear through his chest and out his back! Deja took a blow and collapsed to the ground next while Valerie was struggling to shrug off the blows on her and lay a healing on the bleeding paladin. The power of Frey staunched the worst of the bleeding and allowed him to stand up in time to block another smuggler’s blow.

Sanbalet, unable to get away from the melee, hurled a poison coated Kris bladed dagger into the fight, just missing the party by inches. Talion was having a rough time with the guy he was fighting and Deja was helped to her feet just in time for the Halfling to let her daggers fly – knocking the fleeing spear wielding smuggler to the ground and killing her with a knife to the back of her neck. Sanbalet then made an attempt to raise a cloud of fog but was interrupted by a furious Veldryn and her whirling scythe.

The group was still standing, beaten and bleeding, but holding their own when one of the smugglers made a run for it back down the long passage and in the direction Ned Shakeshaft had gone. Talion and Veldryn gave chase while Magnus had Sanbalet trussed up and the sobbing smuggler who had been hit with a light spell was given his sight back and spoken to softly.

Talion put on a burst of speed as the smuggler hit the end of the cave and the Mastelic Ocean beyond. The cavern ended at the mouth of a cave, water running into it, and 20’ away and rapidly distancing himself was Ned Shakeshaft on a single mast jolly boat rowing for all he was worth.

The Ranger struggled with the smuggler, knives flashing and the two men fighting in the surf while Veldryn whipped out her scroll case and shouted out the words on the paper. They turned into black fire and she hurled it across the water at the now 30’ away Ned…freezing him in place! He was stuck in a rowing position, held in place. The death priest stripped off her armor and waded into the water in just her underwear, hands waving into another spell.

The power of Hel raced through her and her hands and feet grew webbed and her skin took on a shimmering look – and she then down into the Ocean and swam VERY fast to the receding jolly boat to clamber aboard and wrench the oars from the held Ned. While she was struggling to turn the boat around and paddle back, Talion managed to subdue his assailant and drag the tired smuggler back to shore. Once there he whacked him on the temple and knocked him out, dropping him onto the sandy cave floor.

While all this was going on the other three party members were having a mixed bag with the two smugglers they had. One was Sanbalet who was crude, rude, insulting, and joking to the paladin and his questioning. The other was the once blinded younger smuggler who admitted he was doing this for the money and that his mother was very ill. The physickers, healers of Tyr, wanted to help the young man’s mother but needed more money than the family had so he was working any job that paid a lot and quick – even if in his heart he knew it was a bad choice. After being blinded he realizes that nothing is worth it and praises Tyr for helping him see the error of his ways.

While Magnus, Deja, and Valerie talk to the now open smuggler about the situation and ignore Sanbalet’s jibes, they do realize that there is a ship that comes here and off loads these goods (which also have the squid design on them) and it can’t be the small jolly boat at the end of the cave. These smugglers are only part of the problem, and we’re going to have to take everyone back to Saltmarsh to figure this out.

Talion helped the furious Veldryn drag Ned out of the now beached jolly boat and bound up his frozen form as best they could with what ropes they had. Our elf was furious at Ned for his departure from our midst, his actually being a smuggler, and for hurting Valerie with his leaving. She called on Hel to create a spring of water which burst from the ground…and then proceeded to torture the frozen Ned by jamming his face and mouth over the spring. She did this repeatedly while Talion watched, but the yelling and choking was echoing down the cave and Deja and Valerie came to investigate while Magnus stayed with the young smuggler to guard Sanbalet.

When the Halfling saw what was going on she stood over and in front of Ned, blocking Veldryn from further assaulting him – as the death priest at this point had out her scythe and was cutting at Ned’s face. The two of them got into a heated yell fest and then Veldryn shoved Deja – who fell back over Ned and bounced up with murder in her eyes.

Valerie was talking to Ned who admitted that yes he was a smuggler and a scoundrel, but when he grew to like the group and their camaraderie, especially Val, he couldn’t go through with his original plan which was to assault the group at a weak moment and instead took his leave and tried to convince Sanbalet that they should end their operations here for now and move on.

There was lots of contraband around the cave and we could not bring it all back AND Ned, Sanbalet, and the other smuggler through 3 miles of swampland – it was too much. Ned offered, for some leniency with the town council, to pilot the jolly boat back after we load it up with everything if we wanted to.

Deja and Veldryn were barely able to look one another in the eye, the thief promising the death priest that this cruelty and her assault would not be long forgotten. So we gathered everyone together and discussed the plan of taking the boat back.

Meet 42, Adv 4.1, 3/10/18

It was a mopping up adventure as the group wandered their way around the keep, looking for stray kobolds to finish off. They KNOW there are 13 of them and the suspicion was they were on the second floor. So after some back and forth, before the go after the youth swarm below, they would take out the adult anklebiters. It went about as well as expected, primarily due to the narrow hall preventing most of the party from being front line.

Write up follows:

The party fell into an exhausted sleep except for Dizzy who was awake and took the watch. It was during his watch that a Cyclops came to the tent, made shushing noises, and came in to sit and talk to the dwarven cleric. He said that he saw Dizzy in a dream and that his appearance was important – because according to the Cyclops’ vision, it meant that he was going to some sort of shield called “Ironbind”.

Dizzy wanted to talk to the young male Cyclops who was called Shortfeet, and had him describe what he saw. A big cyclopean sized metal shield in a room of darkness filled with K’Morat young. Dizzy takes the shield, comes back to the Cyclopean city and meets Shortfeet giving him the shield – and Shortfeet eventually helps to overthrow the Ogre control of the clan.

Dizzy made noises that he’d do what he could and then Shortfeet left. The Cleric was insulted; the idea of “doing it” for Shortfeet offended his Sifian sensibilities; one is supposed to show personal excellence – not have a vision and then get someone else to do the work.

The group awoke the next morning, we prepared a few spell scrolls, ate the food the Cyclopes brought to us to eat, and then by 8 AM, were ready to go. Yuntwun, the elder Cyclops seer met us and leaning on her long staff, we walked out of the camp and on our way to K’Morat Warren. As we walked the seer tried to explain to Dizzy and the others how visions work and how you cannot just accept what you see at face value. A good seer can take a vision and work it beyond the obvious answer. There is a nuance to it that is generally answered after the fact when more information is available. What she tells us though is that the Norns have already woven us into the skein of life and if it our time to go, stay, die, live, be heroic or just part of the background – it’s already written and our parts are there.

We arrived at the walls and looked around. The doors under the barbican were open, but the second portcullis was down – only maybe 2 feet open at the bottom. There was 1 or 2 kobolds in the barbican, and it looked like a dozen crows were flying around watching to see if anyone approached. Yuntwun cast her spell and the party turned invisible – we had 20 minutes until we did an aggressive action. It was time.

As the group walked to the barbican moving quietly, Sybil took a wandering path, spreading tainted soporific bread we had taken from Lysil’s castle all about the ground to entice the crows flying around, the bread turning visible as it left her hand. At the Barbican a few of us tried to crawl underneath but eventually it was backpacks and armor that had us getting hung up on the portcullis. The kobolds above were watching the group but did not see anyone.

Meanwhile Dizzy had crept to the end of the interior Barbican wall and was watching for the pig with a loaf of poisoned bread at the ready. There was a door that lead UP to the barbican here but we didn’t use it yet as Einar had gotten caught beneath the dropping portcullis. Unable to extract himself he “raged” and shoved the portcullis up, bending the end to jam it in place. While all this was going on the crows above were falling asleep in the field outside the walls after eating the bread and it was freaking the kobolds out. One of the kobolds then ran for the shaman and the pig began to close – and we were all still invisible. We tossed some bread into the doorway as the pig arrived and was sniffing at the bread, eating it whole. It then forced itself into the narrow opening and ate more bread while the lone kobold up top was yelling at the pig to get away.

We crossed the Bailey to the door of the keep and entered, back into the great hall. Time was ticking and we had only a few more minutes of invisibility to go. Merica and Avulstein used their helmets – getting 6 kobolds upstairs and no birds. So we went to the end of the hall, climbed the steps carefully, and entered the former Solar of the keep. The ceiling and walls had once been glass held in place by lead stays but the glass had long ago broken away and there was nothing left up here except for some scraps of wood and plenty of bird shit. We circled out of the Solar – to the east was the causeway to the parapet, and just past the stairs on the north wall was a corridor that turned left and went for some distance with a “T” running to the north halfway down, and the end of the hall with a door blocked closed on this end.

The two thieves took point with Hjalgrim right behind and they snuck down to the “T” and looked. Maybe 50’ long corridor, two doors on each side and a door at the end open and ajar. Voices could be heard there. Another Helmet look by Merica revealed more kobolds up here – and the guess was there were more, just not in range of the helmet.

Closer to the “T” they listened and sure enough, according to Sybil, they could hear the kobold from the Barbican trying to get a commanding kobold to respond and get the shaman, and the commanding kobold kept coming up with reasons to leave the shaman alone. Frustrated the barbican kobold was ordered to return to his post and the group ran back down the passage to the “T” and took each flank. The one kobold came closer and closer and when he turned the corner, got “f-pwa’ed” by the thieves and killed. His body was passed back and once it was clear, we heard noises in the closest door or running water and a kobold humming.

Readying ourselves again he stepped out, turned our way..and was “f-pwaed” to death. Two down, 11 to go, 9 in this area.  We went to the next door and after trying to lure some of the out and it failing, the door was opened and multiple stabbings went off, but one of the managed to call out for help, and the doors around the castle bust open and the other 9 kobolds assaulted us. The narrow hall did not help so we gave ground and backed up, Thalin taking a different angle to try a spell. Meanwhile the Shaman was calling out for his crows and a small murder was flying over to us.

Einar filled the air with obscuring mists but not before Bruce took off and using his echolocation, slammed into the large crow and took off into the air, the murder giving ground to avoid slamming into the walls of the Solar.

Thalin fired off a sleep spell and 5 of the kobolds dropped, freeing up the hall for the group to surge to the”T” and go toe to toe. The fight was blasting back and forth and the Shaman used a bit of Cashandra to summon a Dire Rat which held off Hjalgrim for a bit. Dizzy called on his own giant rat and the Shaman also summoned a hyena but Thalin dropped it to sleep. The Altern leader of the kobolds eventually went down and after that the fight degenerated against the kobolds and it was the Shaman against everyone – and then it ended. No living kobolds anywhere in range.

The mists cleared and Bruce had beaten the oversized crow and we doled out healing. We wanted to find the underground area and take out the nest if we could so we dragged the bodies to the bathroom and left them in there after cleaning ourselves up a bit. Then we looked out of the Solar at the area and realized we left a kobold IN the Barbican. So the group went to the end of the Solar, drew bows, and shot the kobold from 70’ away, killing it. The pig seemed to be asleep jammed into the narrow door opening.

We went back to the main floor and headed near the dining room area. From there we went around and saw a slew of doors, a set of stairs going UP to the roof, and another going down to the basement. Bingo. We looked down and smelled burnt pepper and wet meat, along with the sound like yipping cicadas. The room was bathed in wavering shadowy yellowy light and we couldn’t see, but around the back area of the stairs was the larger cellar and maybe the 340 all over the place immature kobolds. The stairs was blocked off by a metal, tin, and stone barrier like a gate 4’ tall and sharp on top to stop the kobolds from climbing over. We then went back up to the first floor and spent some time discussing lots of plans to take out the kobolds below, arguing them and discarding them as fast as we could formulate them.

Youth Meet 10, Adv 1, 3/9/18

There is something just nice about running a more 1st edition version of the game (and other parts I’ve jettisoned for latter edition improvements) but one that stands out is just initiative. Role, higher goes first and that’s it. It removes a crap load of tactical stuff that makes combat interesting but it doesn’t constrain the combat narrative and combat moves lightning fast. The youths are at the end battle for the 1st half of the adventure and are doling out punishment – and taking it in return as well. The gnoll warriors are a heavy hitting difficulty the group is barely able to contain as hit points oscillate wildly.

Write up follows:

The group was dragged into the room the skeletons had been in and then the door was closed. The lock and handle was on the other side so this was a limited solution at best. First some slaps were given to wake everyone up and then healing was doled out. We took stock of ourselves and Veldryn assured us the mists would last a few more minutes tops. The room was heavy stone and there were many gouges in the rock and the back of the door as the skeletons that had been here had tried to get out over the years.

A quick look was made for secret doors on the east wall since that was the only one that didn’t lead back to the cellar or the foundation of the mansion above. Sure enough there was a section of the wall that did move slowly and with great effort. The space beyond was a room heavy with dust on the floor. From the staleness of the air coming out we deduced it hasn’t been opened for decades.

A light shining within showed a long workbench on the west wall and a desk on the south wall, chair and a figure in a hat and robe sitting there, the edge of an open book visible. It appeared he was…reading. In the dark? Beyond a secret door? For decades? Deja volunteered to step in and she crept closed and eventually touched the figure with care…discovering that person was dead and had been for 20 years.

Waving the rest of the group in we entered and looked around, the party deciding to shut the door for now and seal it back in place. No one had found it for 20 years, no one would again – plus it would give a chance to pick a better place to fight the smugglers. For now, the figure was the original magic-user, alchemist, and owner of the mansion. Veldryn had suspicions that he had been here reading and died suddenly, stroke or heart attack. For some reason, this made the party a bit sad.

Taking stock of the place we looked around. There were some items on the desk in front of the alchemist each of them seemingly made entirely of gold: a human skull, a set of balance weights, a rose, and an apple. The book he was reading was a ponderous tome identified as “The Philosopher’s Stone” which had the group gasp in surprise. A detect magic followed and we discovered a glow coming from his left hand where a pearlescent oblong rock was gripped and another glow coming from the second drawer in the desk where we found a book bound in cracked dark leather and sporting a few runes on the cover.

Veldryn was sure the book was a spell book as the runes were those of protection from fire. Some of the pages were in poor condition from mold and water but the book itself was still whole, so we took it. As we were looking around at the many alchemical alembics and braziers we heard voices coming closer and rising. The smugglers had returned and were looking around.

There were many of them talking and the group of them discovered the skeleton door opened and the bones smashed. Where were we? Someone else reported the stairs up to the 1st floor had been destroyed and the leader, Sanbalet, said that this place had become too hot and we should gather everything up, get to the caves, and get out before the fools from Saltmarsh come back and try to arrest them.

We then heard lots of noises and banging for a few minutes as they cleared out of the chamber and then eventually it got quiet again. We waited until we heard nothing else and then discussed our options. The group didn’t want these guys to get away but opening the secret door and fighting them from inside this room was not a good idea as they’d be trapped. So the decision was to go now, give chase, and take them down before they get a chance to escape.

The party opened the door, arrows and swords at the ready…and the skeleton room was empty except the bones. We did note that the long leg bones were not here for some reason. We then went into the cellar proper…and there were some changes. Half the torches were now out, all the footlockers had been opened and ransacked, the closed door on the north wall was open and even though it was a nice bedroom it too had been cleared out. Even the casks and silk had been taken. Magnus realized that his lantern had been stolen from the table.

We went to the southwest corner of the chamber and a short investigation revealed the secret door we knew was there. Weapons ready, we tore the door open and Deja took point. A set of stairs was cut into the stone and went down further and further, eventually turning under the house itself and heading off in the direction of the Mastelic Ocean. Was there a ship here to spirit them away?!?

With the scent of salt air guiding us and torches guiding our steps we sped along until we came to a split, south or west? South smelled faintly of vinegar and west did not – so we opted for west. Continuing we could hear voices now and again up ahead along with the sound or people moving things. Another opening to the south but we ran past and came to a place where the cavern had a large open room to the west and another turn to the south where we could faintly hear voices and the lap lap lap noise of the tide on the rocks.

From the room we could see 3 humans, two men one female, and two 7’ tall wide shouldered hyena hybrids creatures clad in brigandine and sporting battle axes. The room had a dozen large casks and maybe half a dozen rolls of fabric. The bald headed smuggler was guiding the others and when the group came into view there was some snarling and the battle was joined! Arrows flew and the first smuggler went down with an arrow in his throat. The female smuggler whipped out a spear and the battle line struck the lead gnoll, Veldryn scythe doing terrible damage.

Sanbalet however finished whatever spell he had and fired one off at Veldryn, hypnotizing the priest! He them commanded her to attack the Halfling with her scythe and she whirled around, hacking twice – slashing Deja wide open and dropping her to the ground. Talion stood over the Halfling and we heard more smugglers coming from the south!

Healing was dropped quickly and Magnus took the front of the room; the paladin standing against the last gnoll and the spear wielding smuggler. As Deja was down the hypnotism faded and there were more smugglers getting closer. Valerie sent Ho’rse the giant rat south to intercept them, the 35# vermin tearing into one of them and ripping him femoral artery open, spilling blood everywhere.

Magnus was giving and taking blows from the gnoll and smuggler, struggling to keep them from the rest of the party. Sanbalet finished another spell and turned himself invisible! Damn it! Deja got back to her feet and gritting her teeth grabbed her bow shooting an arrow at the last approaching smuggler from the south. The battle was spreading wildly and then Magnus took a blast to his leg from the gnoll’s battle axe. The hyena like figure was cackling fiendishly as the paladin hit the ground…and then the smuggler with the spear called him pathetic and jammed her spear into his chest so hard it punched through and hit the back of his armor with a clang – the paladin was now down and in the negatives!

From the south MORE figures were coming up, two of them, a gnoll and…Ned Shakeshaft! Valerie was crying to Ned, “Why!?” and the smuggler looked embarrassed and turned back crying he couldn’t do this, breaking the half-orc’s heart. And then it got worse as the approaching gnoll slammed him battled axe down – flattening the druid’s giant rat companion, Ho’rse! The anguished cries were numbing.

Veldryn whipped out the scroll of cure moderate wounds and read of the words, turning the scroll to flame, but bringing Magnus back to full and breathing new life into the party’s paladin. We had the paladin bolstered to his feet as the priest supported him as best they could with scythe, axe, and shield against the wounded gnoll and the angry spear wielding smuggler. Behind them Talion and Deja were sending arrows down the hall and into the fight when the opportunity presented itself and still there was another gnoll coming from the south, his own battleaxe stained with Ho’rse’s blood. And through it all, Sanbalet was somewhere nearby, invisible and waiting for his moment.

And it was time to roll for initiative.

Meet 41, Adv 4.1, 3/3/18

This interlude was NOT in my original writing and once the party was racing off to save Dizzy from a vampire's castle, I had to drop this in. 3 floors, 12 rooms, timed escape. I liked the way it went and the party did what they do best - set shit on fire and ran away. ;)

The assorted relationships with monstrous creatures is definitely a "B" Team thing. Ogres, giants, trolls, dryads, cyclopes - the group has tall friends in tall places. Their lack of charisma actually has almost no effect of these monstrous races.

Write up follows:

With 1 hour and 33 minutes until sunset, we had that limited window of time to find Dizzy and get the hell out of Lysil’s castle. The clock was ticking and we were in the dining room, advised by Ticrus that the food was tainted and not to eat any. There was the door we came in on the south wall, and another door on the east. We checked the south door, besides being locked, a flash of white light flared off letting us know it was sealed as well.

The table was thick cherry wood and had seating for 12. A few small tasteful pictures on the walls and two mounted deer heads. We looked over the east door and once sure it was safe, opened up to look. Servant’s hall, running maybe 30 odd feet and ending at a set of stairs spiraling up. Two doors on the right, two on the left. Second door on the left had a noticeably cleaner knob and there was some grit on the floor disturbed outside the doorway.

While Sybil went to listen we took care to look over behind us, sure that no one was sneaking up behind. The door was opened, servants quarter, perhaps 10x15. Bed, chest of drawers, vanity table with steel mirror, pedestal table with bowl and ewer for water, and carvings of fat cherubic orcs circling the ceiling. On the bed was Dizzy, asleep. Dressed only in his undergarments, he was covered in bandages, seemed pale, face was drawn and shadowed, hair was darker than normal.

He awoke roughly, as if he couldn’t claw himself from sleep. Explained what was going on and he quickly gathered the need to move fast. We looked through the room for his belongings, finding it under the bed and in the chest of drawers. All of his clothes and equipment had been polished and lightly repaired. As he was getting dressed we glanced in the other 3 doors – two more servants quarters, one with a very dead orcish figure on the bed, and the last room was a storage closet with tablecloths, dishware, some slowburn candles and a few candelabra.

While this was going on, Hjalgrim noticed that one of the cherubic orcish carvings was no longer on the wall, having disappeared somewhere. We took this as a need to stop screwing around so we grabbed a few candles and knowing the clock was running out, went off to the east and the stairs spiraling up to the next floor.

Setting up a marching order we took the stairs up to the next floor. The stairs DID continue going up here, but this floor had a fairly dry fibered rug running to the west 25’ and ending with three doors at the end of the corridor – one south, north, and east. There were a few sconces on the wall but they held only burned out torches.

We got to the end of the hall and the door on the west wall opened INTO the hall we were standing in. Deciding it was the best choice of the three, we worked the door for a bit, unsticking it from the frame and pulled. The room was pretty large and was a spinning room. Two spinning wheels were here, both in bad condition but still functional. A hand loom, a couple partially finished pattern tapestries, four chairs, a stout table, 1 full skein of yarn and two empty wooden skein frames. There was a double door on the opposite side of the big room, it was weather beaten and faded but still standing and it too opened towards us in into this room.

The group closed in and the double doors were pulled open. The chamber beyond was pretty big and was lost in the gloom, but the reek of vermin was horrific and standing there, some 30’ away was a rotting standing corpse of an orc wearing a gleaming symbol to Baldur around its neck. Amidst the area around it? Thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of mice and rats.

The creature looked at us and then howled its head off and started lurching forward; its action a signal to the vermin to assault us as well. The group slammed into the doors in order to jam them closed but only one shut, the other was stuck in place. Dizzy called to Sif to erect a vermin barrier and it sprung into place some 10’ inside the room – but while it was coalescing, the magic was working slow as if the castle itself was dragging the god borne power back – and Dizzy had to grit his teeth as he was physically shoved back by the combined weight of the rats hitting the barrier and actually moving it! Einar lunged forward, holding Dizzy in place as the barrier stopped the rats about 4’ from the door.

As the group tried to slam the door closed Sybil knocked one of the spinning wheels over and ran the damned thing, legs first, at the closed door until it hit and the legs jammed under the door. Weapons out we were getting ready for a problem when Merica charged the last door with his shield free, trying to bulrush the door closed. Just before he hit, Dizzy fired off a turning to the now very close Zombie and it staggered, but the symbol around its neck absorbed the turning and dissipated it.

The door slammed closed and we braced it while the next spinning wheel was dumped over and also jammed under the door. The group was backing up out of the room when we noticed that we could hear squeals of rats and mice ABOVE us in the ceiling as they began raining through the holes in the masonry and falling into the room. And through it all, the zombie was beating at the door, splintering it bit by bit as it tried to enter the chamber.

We then shut the next door to the hallway and jammed it closed. The rug we doused with oil while the party ran down the hall to the stairs. Leaving a trail of oil through the dried carpet, at the base of the stairs we hacked off a candle till it was about 5 minutes and then lit it, placing it by another oil soaked section of the carpet.

Meanwhile the top of the stairs had a locked door. The lock was picked and as we tried to open it, that’s when we noticed it was barred on the other side. So we beat and bashed at the door and then Dizzy had the great idea, taking out the cudgel he picked up, called out “Smiter!” and then hit the door. There was a concussive blast and the door had a massive dent in the wood, cracks were running through it, and we could now open it almost 5 inches as the ragged bracing bar on the other side jiggled in the stretched out stanchions. Merica reached through the crack and we flipped the bracing bar up and gone, the group filing into the hallway as smoke was coming up the stairs and we could hear the squeals of terrified rats and the roaring of the zombie closer.

A hallway was here, 5 doors: two on the left, two on the right, and one at the end of the hall. While we shut the door up here and braced it in place again, Sybil and Dizzy verified the door at the end of the hall was locked and had the flash of white – letting us know it too was magically sealed. Best bet was either of the two south doors as that was the direction of the kitchen and hopefully the space beyond the sealed door in the dining room.

Both doors needed to be forced open which took some time, time for the smoke to slowly coil up the stairs and sieve through the door, and then even more time for the zombie to stumble his way up to the door and begin to beat on it. And while that was going on, rats started crawling through the gap in the floor. Two of us stood in the hall side to side and beat at the ground with blunt and slashing weapons in order to keep the still manageable number of vermin under control.

The two doors were opened and in the left on was an office with a raised heavy wooden desk and a closet in the corner, the other door opened to a master bedroom, 4 poster bed, Queen Anne dresser…and a small 2’x2’ opening on the south wall. Dumbwaiter.

That was our ride out of here. Dizzy and Sybil checked it out, old yet still serviceable. It was a 22’ ride down to what we assumed was the kitchen. Gap at the bottom for 3’, gap at the top was about the same. The pulleys were solid but showed some warping and rope was rough hemp but didn’t have any unravelling.

We realized real fast, Einar was not going to fit. The Half-orc was replaced in the hall by Hjalgrim and he came into the bedroom and stripped off his armor in order to give him a smaller presence. Meanwhile the dresser was upended and shoved in front of the door. And we realized that there was a secret door in the closet that led to the closet in the bedroom! Thalin went down the Dumbwaiter to the ground floor and once there, opened the door there and beheld the kitchen.

The orcish undead Ticrus who had been helpful to us before, was standing back to the dumbwaiter stirring a pot, and trying to make sure he didn’t notice us. Waving back up the dumbwaiter, Thalin worked the ropes and the platform rose.

Meanwhile the rats were still coming through and the two in the hall had to back up slowly, giving ground while the zombie bashed and bashed at the door, weakening the braces even more. The desk in the office was plundered of pens, ink, and paper as Dizzy and then Sybil went down the dumbwaiter.

At this time the upper hall was abandoned and the door to the office slammed closed. The desk was shoved in front of it and the party ran for the closet door, secret door, closet door coming out in the bedroom. Einar went down the dumbwaiter leaving Merica, Hjalgrim, and Percy still to go. Minutes were ticking, fewer than 15 at this time to get out of the castle – and it was a full minute or two up and down each time with the dumbwaiter.

We heard scratches at the door as the rats tried to chew through but the dresser was slowing them down. Meanwhile the zombie was now smashing at the office door. After Percy went and Merica, it was just Hjalgrim and the dumbwaiter was behaving oddly. The pulleys were now almost oblong and didn’t turn easily but the mechanism still worked. He climbed on, shut the door amidst the sound of splintering wood, and started pulling himself down. He got stuck at 11’ and the group all had to work the ropes below to force the dumbwaiter to finally get to the ground floor.

We climbed out, grabbed our stuff, and ran out of the kitchen and to the left, heading for the front door. 9 minutes remaining.

Hitting the main hall we took the stairs two at a time, made it to the entrance and then ran out of the castle, charging down the motte and going for the gate. A gargoyle took flight behind us, calling out, “You! You cannot leave! You cannot leave!” as it tried to dive bomb the party, ripping scalps open and slowing us down.

As this was going on, undead were erupting from the earth behind us, skeletons climbing out of the dirt as we passed by and giving chase. Dizzy did a short turning but when there were 12 chasing, he gave up and the group poured on the speed. We hit the main gate and struggled to lift the barrier, letting it fall aside as we ran out of the castle courtyard and made it to the valley beyond.

Where half a dozen ogres, three cyclopses, three trolls, and the dryad Cashandra were waiting. A blast of sleep shot out from the cyclops and dropped the party except for Thalin who stood there mouth agape. One of the trolls was Shassismyr and the party was being loaded onto a long cart, furs and tarps tossed over them. Thalin was told to get on while Cashandra was making vines grow up around the main gate, holding it in place.

With that the monstrous humanoids began jogging through the valley northward, leaving Lysil’s castle behind. A few times we heard horses riding along fast, and again we heard some voices questioning the Ogre’s but nothing came of it. Eventually evening fell and the entire troupe arrived at some disrepaired ogre/cyclops encampment. The party was unloaded into a yurt and a dreadlocked elder cyclops woman looked over the group and tended to their hurts.

A bit later an almost 9’ tall Ogre stormed in, pointed at Dizzy and said, “Besides you, who else is worthy to treat with me?!” Dizzy tagged Thalin and the two of them were brought to another yurt where they sat with the larger Ogre, a chief named Mjarnur, the Troll-lord Shassismyr that we had freed, and the cyclops woman Yuntwyn who was an altern and Seer for the cyclopean.

Turns out Mjarnur was the father of Kornog, the ogre we helped heal, fight with, free, and return the dryad to. He successfully made it home (5 days later than expected) and shared with his father, the chief, what had happened and the party that helped save him. At this time, Shassismyr arrived with 2 of his trolls, also telling the Ogre Chief that HE had escaped at the group in question that helped spring him and get HIM free. He was here to assure Mjarnur that his lands were not open to being annexed by the Ogres and to stay clear.

There was talk amongst the monsters about what happened and Mjarnur HATES owing anyone anything. At all. And right now he was in the party’s debt two fold – freeing his son, and returning his property.

So after it was discovered where the group went thanks to the seer, Mjarnur sent out his Blood Runners to find the group and spirit them away before the vampire was able to find and catch them. That was the first debt and paid handsomely. This then led to a lively discussion and the group would have the day to settle around and then head off to the keep and dispatch the last 13 kobolds (we have the count from the seer) and the…340 immature kobolds in the basement! The kobold shaman has gotten frantic over what’s happened and ordered all the mutagenic food fed to the hatchlings..meaning that in 4 days they’ll be roughly half sized kobolds, and a few weeks after that – full grown (but fucked up and maybe having some issues – but still, 340 more kobolds!). Right now the situation was doable, but only if we went back within the next 3 days.

We agreed it was the plan and would be going tomorrow. We then went back to the yurt, asked to speak to Slowbead (Dinka’s Mom), and gave the elder cyclops Dinka’s note. She was very sad and misses her daughter, and eventually left after crying. We talked about what we had to do tomorrow and by 11:30, fell asleep exhausted from the days activities.

Youth Meet 9, Adv 1, 3/3/18

The first half of the adventure is coming to an end and coming quick, as the youths have decided to finally plumb the basement of the haunted mansion. They are on alert since Ned Shakeshaft did disappear down the steps the day before and most likely is waiting for them. They did come to some realization as to what’s going on out here in regards to smuggling – but they got sidetracked as the necromancer and the leader wanted to encounter the potential undead down here – which made them an unaware target for at least some of the smuggler troupe.

Write up follows:

We left Saltmarsh behind us as we trekked south along the remnants of the old road, eventually finding ourselves once again trailblazing our way across the Eider Down Fen. Talion to some degree but Valerie to a larger one kept the party on a clear path through the fall sea breeze; tromping through the swamp for almost 4 hours until eventually they arrived once more at the haunted mansion.

It appeared no different than when we left it yesterday, but we still carefully entered the house through the front door. The main foyer looked like it did earlier, still filthy and cluttered with refuse. The group whispered they were going to head for the kitchen at the end of the north wing and then to the scullery and basement steps beyond. Val took up the lead as the party progressed with care down the hall.

The kitchen was still as wrecked as it was earlier, cabinet on its side, oven missing the door, steps to the 2nd floor broken half way up. A short look in the scullery outside of broken crockery showed nothing new. There was still a heavy layer of mold on the floor and the party was going to use scarves, cloaks, and shirts to block out the spores as they walked in. Val suggested wetting the fabric first so Marcus turned the spigot on the sink – and it busted off in his hand while brown rusty water gurgled out and into the sink.

He soaked his shirt in the filthy water and Val took the faucet handle while the group wondered how the water was going to shut off. But the cistern on the roof eventually ran clear and the water was clean as the group soaked their cloths before the little bit still up there finally ran out. Ready now, the entered the scullery and made their way to the steps. Deja had a candle lit and the Halfling gave the steps a real once over – actually spotting a chalk glyph on the top two treads heading down. Veldryn looked them over with the thief and the two of them were convinced that it was an alarm of some sort that would be triggered if the glyphs were either erased, or the treads were stepped on.

We needed to go down the steps so the party was talking about stepping OVER the 2 treads but Deja wouldn’t make the step. Instead, she tested the wall and then climbed the wall OVER the treads, went around them that way, then them climbed down to the next clear tread. Marcus went next, the paladin making a big step and clearing the hurdle easily. Then Talion and Veldryn followed, the Ranger making the large step, and the priest having Marcus catch her.

But when it was Valerie’s turn, the half-orc druid wound herself up and JUMPED over the two steps.

Hit the 4th one down, the entire structure shuddered, and then snapped right there, collapsing the remaining 7’ to the basement floor.

The group surfed the falling steps and rolled into the dust at the bottom and then looked up and around. 9 of the 11 steps had collapsed down – leaving the two with the glyphs still up at the top of the hole leading back to the scullery. There were the remains of a wine rack covering 2 of the 4 walls in this large cellar chamber, a couple of metal bins on the opposite side of the room. No other doors in or out of here. There was a body though in the middle of the room, clad in platemail, sword at his side, shield on his legs, and a puddle of rot around his corpse. Veldryn assured us he had been dead a few weeks.

While Deja was checking out the racks (finding at least one bottle that had something still in it and sharing it with Talion), Veldryn and Marcus were looking over the body without touching it as Valerie stayed close by. The skin was thin, the body jellifying as it had been here for some time, male human, and his belt pouch was slashed and deflated. There was some talk of seeing if it was animated and in waiting, so they hacked it with her scythe – nothing.

BUT – Marcus did see from the open wound, a white finger width grub like worm poke out, flick around the air, and then burrow back into the body once more. WTF?!?!? He tried to describe it and the group didn’t want to touch the body this time. However, when we did come close to the corpse, we could see the grubs under the skin squirming around seeking out our living hosts. We shot at it, actually splattering the grub! Valerie called them rot grubs and let us know that they could kill anyone they burrow into. Best to leave the body alone and move along.

We looked at the bins, one was empty, the other was filled with refuse, dirt, and …feces. Disgusting. The idea was though that SOMEONE had been down here and not too long ago. With no other doors in or out of here, the party decided to search the south wall. Nothing was found…but there was an odd breeze that let the group know there was something there. Deja took a trip around the perimeter of the cellar and found a lever behind one of the bins, unable to lift it, Valerie came over to give the Halfling a hand – and a 3’ wide section of the south wall shifted over revealing another room.

This was another cellar, and from our estimation took up most of the size of the above mansion. There were sconces on the walls lit with torches, ten beds, fireplace with some open casks nearby, another set of stairs going up, footlockers, table and chairs, some closed casks and a bolt of cloth. And on the east wall were two doors in an alcove, one north and the other east – the east one had a bar across the front and written in chalk on the surface it said “Danger”.

We carefully looked over the chamber while Marcus felt out with Tyr’s presence – gathering there were 6 evil beings beyond the barred door. Deja and Valerie finished their sweep while Talion and Veldryn were talking about opening the barred door. There were 2 casks of brandy, still sealed and a bolt of cloth that was actually silk. The value of them was over 1,000 nobles and on looking it over we saw the same stylized squid marking on the goods. We knew that one of the merchants in town, Iran Hamanar, supposedly had the same symbol. Was Iran stolen from? Part of the theft going on? Smuggling? Something illegal was going on here and from the count, there were 10 people involved. Were the still here?

Meanwhile, Veldryn was big on opening the barred door so we got in line: Deja with her bow to the rear, then Talion with his own bow, Valerie and Veldryn close to the door, and Marcus at the front with his scimitar at the ready. The bar had been removed and we could hear scraping in the next room. And then, the door was hurled open – and six raggedly clothed sword wielding skeletons tried to boil out.

Marcus called out to Tyr and plowed into the room, hacking one of the skeletons and smashing bones everywhere. Both Deja and Talion fired – but the arrows although they hit the skeletons, didn’t do any real damage. New tactics were needed. Talion swapped to his broadsword and Valerie swarmed in, beating one with a club while Ho’rse the giant rat tore it’s leg off. Two down. Then Veldryn finished her cries to Hel and one of the skeletons eyes flared and she gained control of it. She had the skeleton turn and hack at the next one!

The combat raged about and Talion raced in to help, but the ranger was having a hard time getting a blow to land. Meanwhile, Veldryn and Deja were right outside the chamber, the priest keeping her skeleton under control. Another skeleton fell during combat leaving two to fight and then one.

And then Deja screamed as an arrow slammed into her back, knocking her down to 1 hp and tossing her to the ground. Veldryn turned to see what happened and she was shot, once and then again – and she fell to the ground with 1 hp! Her control over the skeleton faded and it whirled around, whittling more hp away from Talion. Valerie ran out of the combat and dove at her fallen friends, tower shield in front of her and teeth bared into a growl. There were 3 men, 2 with bows, the other waving his hands, at the other end of the room just past the beds. And then the call went out and a sleep spell knocked out the druid and the Halfling. Veldryn managed to stay awake, thanks to her elven heritage. She mustered her concentration and the ground inside the chamber exploded with vaporous mists obscuring all vision beyond 5’. The men cursed and mentioned something about “still alive” and “let’s go, tell Sanbalet what’s going on.”

Marcus and Talion managed to take out the last two skeletons and then entered the mists to find Veldryn and her cries for aid, the priest sitting by her unconscious companions.