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.
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