Meet 95, Adv 6, 8/31/19

At this meeting the new player at the table had his own character, a Human Ranger that I was able to introduce through the interactions of the Hobgoblins. To help the group out in their attempt to storm Ixitch's Manorhouse a second time, I've included 3 of the hobgoblin warriors to help them out.

They are going to need them this go round.

Write up follows:

For the next 3 days, the party was at the welcome…and mercy, of the Bloodtusk clan. The hobgoblins were focused on their overall and arching mission which was to bring their might in a surgical strike against the orcish tribe that had raided their caves some 6 months earlier. Less wise creatures would have thrown themselves at the orcs hoping to take as many down as possible, but the hobgoblins have a different outlook – the clan is important – but no more important than the individuals that make it up.

Any attack on the orcs would have to be one that did not risk the decimation of the Bloodtusk strike team.

We learned from Lieutenant Bloodtusk that he would lend us 4 of his fighters to go an assault the Ixitch Manorhouse. From his conversation with his advisors, what the party had told him about Scratch, and some serious strategy – the thought was that currently the orc tribe in question does not know of or use Scratch – but if they did, their capability would increase which would mean more potential loss of life for the Hobgoblins. So by taking out the Dealer, or seriously curtailing his ability, it prevents the promulgation of the drugs in question.

But it’s not a horse he has in the race and the main goal is to continue to shadow and track the orcish tribe as they break down their encampment and begin their wandering portion of their annual lives. But they did take back any wooden shields we had and upgraded most everyone’s armor thanks to their smiths and armorers.

We had a chance to meet and discuss plans and tactics with the 4 that would be coming with us. Bad Tom Bloodtusk was a giant of a hobgoblin, almost 7’ tall and over 300 lbs, he was the excited front line fighter of the group. Will Full Murder Bloodtusk was shorter and thinner, but was a crack shot with his flatbow and had some serious skill in sneaking around and scouting. Elsa Ire Bloodtusk was an adherent of Maglubiyet and had some fighting skills based upon her god’s skill set.

And then there was Eoghan.

At over 6’ tall and somewhere in his early 20’s, this non-hobgoblin had been captured by the Bloodtusk tribe over a year ago and had been their thrall during that time. Already a skilled bowman, his abilities grew exponentially in tracking and shooting, able to find his way through the densest forest in the darkest night. Saddened over some travesty that befell him almost 2 years ago, the Bloodtusks were waiting for an opportunity to send Eoghan on his way.

We were it.

The 4 were instructed that the group – primarily Barb and Brading, were in charge and they were to take out Ixitch Barrowman and end his dealing abilities. Then the three hobgoblins should find their way back to the strike team and Eoghan was free to go. It was expected that the hobgoblins would be entitled to a share of any spoils if any.

So it was on the end of the 4th that now fully equipped and given a bag full of food, that the now nine party members made their away from the Bloodtusk encampment and began their trek back. We pushed overland for a while, then turned south and stole our way through the early morning hours around huts and homes, making no effort to interact with anyone. We arrived at the North East Highway and turned to the left, and then realized we had made the initial turn south too early as we were coming upon once again, the small Thorpe known as Ditch.

We decided to go around it, giving the town a wide berth and then eventually found mile marker 5 where we had seen it before. From here we took the side road north to the 5 manorhouses that had not been used for a few years – except for the 4th one – Ixitch’s. In the just post dawn air, the ground was cool, the air cool and moist, and there was a layer of fog on everything.

We detoured to the left and off the road and peered through the gate seeing no one walking around. Shim drew out a scroll of Wall of Fog and intoned it, reading off the words as they boiled away and he sprung up a wall of vapors, 5’ thick, 10’ tall, and 70’ long that stretched in a faint curve from the gate to the front door of the manor!

We ran to the gates and Will Murder unlocked the new lock and chain easily, the wall hid us from the zombie head, and we arrived at the door without issue. We went to the right of the door and saw about 2 dozen rectangular divots in the ground, most about 3” deep. Not sure where they came from or what they were about, we wanted to instead turn our time and attention to getting inside and moving through as fast as we could.

Once again Will went to the door, and we managed to get it open…And Bad Tom went in, rolling and sweeping his sword, and then dodging to the left. No one was inside the place at the entrance, but we did see a half-ogrish Zombie standing there. With an armful of cheap clay plates.

And shit…he dropped them. The noise echoed through the place at the same time that Shim dropped a globe of darkness over the zombie AND blocking the door and the hall! Nice. So this meant we went to the left double door and the group high tailed it down there fast.

Once inside and before the zombie could get to us, we went to slam the door closed and Brading took a bracing bar to block it up – meanwhile we faintly heard voices getting closer. Just before it happened, Thalin fired off a summon monster spell and a Troglodyte appeared! He gave it the command to “fight” and the door closed as the reptilian drew out his bone spear and charged into the dark. With the door closed we took quick stock of the place.

Hall, dirty carpet, wooden bench with ratty cushion. Closed door on the north wall, double door on the end hall, 2 pedestals with dwarven busts upon it. Alright. Barb and Tom were going to push our way in to the next room while we took the bench and placed it in front of the lone single door. Meanwhile though the doors behind us we could hear yelling and snarling and fighting.

Barb hit the door just as it was opened and we saw two humans armed with flatbows and a mastiff hound! Whew! Fight was on. And with 9 to 3- it was an easy hold for the party to force the enemy back and pick them apart, especially after Barb raged and body slammed one of the back to crash against the far wall and rain preserves down as well and fall against an open brine barrel 1/3 filled with pickles.

Nice.

More double doors to the north, stairs going up to the south. Shim and Brading checked it out and after climbing the turn, saw the trap door above was closed and braced in place – no chance of anyone getting in that way. Meanwhile the group was putting more hurt on the defenders when just as it was about over and we pushed into the next room that two more mastiff’s leapt in from beyond the next chamber and Barb took the impact.

She was savaged for a bit before the rest of the group was able to come to bear and help her hold off any further damage from the hounds. We finished THAT battle off before we heard a lone shambling undead coming our way also across the training grounds…stop…look at us and then detour around the side of the entrance. From there we watched it as it picked up a practice sword and stood by the door poised to strike.

Right.

So while Bad Tom and Shim were getting pickles and preserves, handing them out to the tired adventurers and Thalin and Brading were locking doors behind us as we kept going on, Else Ire and Barb dove through the door and made short work of the undead with a well delivered smattering of blows.

We found ourselves in the training yard, some practice dummies, saw horses, piles of bark, some stones for shotput practice, and tall posts. Also, lots of dog shit. A Large shed was in the northwest corner, we heard some noises like a horse coming from inside – the door was roped closed. A door on the north side of the place was closed and we heard nothing and 2 other doors on the south side of the place, one with rabbit shit around it, the other with a key in the lock. We guessed it was the other door that led back to the main entrance hall so we made sure it was locked and then roped the two doors together.

Meet 94, Adv 6, 8/17/19

The group had a miserable time just at the front door of the place as it was the enemy stronghold and they had been prepared for the party by almost 2 hours - one of my players did the math and the enemy did over 100 hp of damage to the party about 5 times the amount we had done to them. Location location location.

And then after they ran away, they were captured by a bad run of the wandering monster dice - 70 fucking hobgoblins.

Hahahah - holy crap - that did not go as planned.

Write up follows:

The group walked around the west side of the Manorhouse towards the front of Ixitch’s stronghold, noting the same sort of sparse narrow windows here and there and the lack of anyone milling about. We were confident the Invisibility to Undead spell was still working as the severed heads on spikes still made Brading’s skin tingle. The stables (that we could now see) were in poor condition, 2 of the 4 stalls had a fallen thatched roof upon their wooden supports. No steeds were visible.

There were three oversized trees through and at least a half dozen crows were perched on the branches and staring down at the party, cawing loudly as they shuffled from branch to branch. Darius was concerned that if this entire thing went south, we had no easy way to escape short of heading back to the wall and trying to climb over. So instead we went to the front gate and took a look. Chain and lock were newish but we figured on busting one of the links. Shim fired a ray of frost at one of the links and Barb used a crowbar to force one of the links open – allowing us the snake the chain off the gate and giving us a way to get out of here.

We went back the front door and decided that Barb was going to test it and if need be, slam it open. Thalin had his bow out, sleep spell at the ready, everyone else was set to shoot into the double wide entrance doors and then storm in but as the Half-orc barbarian was coming to the door she smelled lamp oil coming from the soggy ground in front of the place and she backed up quick.

The front area was set up to go on fire. She shuffled her feet a bit to get the residual oil off and the group discussed plans again, deciding this time to burn off the oil with a tossed torch and then force the doors open. Seemed like a good plan and we lit a torch, tilted it back to throw…

And someone inside the Manorhouse hit us with a Fireburst spell again. Barb was on fire and she fell to the ground rolling as Brading used a blanket to help put her out. The torch DID get tossed to the oil which was on fire and burning the area near the front door and we let it burn while healing Barb again. Brading let us know that his spells were dwindling and we were starting to think that this might be harder than we expected.

Barb took out her threaded rod and approached the front of the Manor house, stepping near the closest window (10” wide, 4’ tall, 2’ deep – homespun curtain obscuring view on the inside). She then stuck the rod through the window, snagged the curtain, and twisted it around and around until the curtain was wrapped around the rod and she pulled…ripping the curtain free and making one window less likely to have a mage hiding behind it.

By this time the two half-ogre zombies wandering around the place came towards the front of the building and then each one of them stopped…right in front of the doors to the Manorhouse and stood there staring out at us, but not seeing us. Ok, fuck, that was pretty smart for whoever was controlling them.

We needed to move them and it was thought that Brading would call upon Heimdall to turn the zombies away. So the dwarven priest stepped up, symbol presented before him, and called out to Heimdall for aid. And the Zombies rippled, twisted, and then with a breathy moan, turned and ran (fast shuffled) their way out of the area – splitting up as they tried to get away.

Ok, this was it, front door was clear – it was time. Thalin had bow out, spell at the ready for possible sleep, Darius had his sling, Shim was full of spells, Brading hand axe and holy symbol…And it was Barb forcing the door open.

Large entrance room, two double doors leading out of the place and a side corridor, three zombies just on the inside of the door, large harpy statue to the right of the door, and in front of each double door out of the entrance hall were three flabowmen each and one of the mastiff guard dogs.

And the quarrels flew. Barb was struck as the 18” shafts slammed through armor, knocked her down, and then over – killing her.

What the hell?!?!

Brading went to step forward to heal her as the three zombies stepped up, two of them tripping on her and breaking the spell, while the third swept around and was making a beeline for the dwarven cleric. The camp dog was let off the leach and CHARGED the group going to jump for Brading. Darius let his sling fly and slammed into one of the crossbowmen so hard he was tossed back and hunched over, hands wrapped around his midsection.

After a single volley the crossbowmen were already looking the head back OUT of the combat and through the double doors further into the manorhouse. To keep the camp dog off Brading Shim uncoiled his whip and slashed it at the dog who caught a painful wound and turned to leap upon the gnome sorcerer, bearing him to the ground and critically mauling him, ripping his face open from eye socket to ear and then TEARING his ear off the right side of his head! Darius and Thalin shot at the dog, weakening it and trying to keep it from killing the gnome.

And the two Zombies on Barb were STOMPING their feet down on the unconscious and dying Barb – breaking bones and trying to finish the job. Brading called to Heimdall and two of the three zombies turned tail and ran back into the keep and around the corner leaving just one who was making it his personal effort to get Barb to -10.

Darius tackled the zombie, driving it off of Barb which allowed Brading to try and heal her. Meanwhile Thalin fired off a magic missile and blasted the dog to death. Barb opened her eyes and tried to focus, Darius and the Zombie grappling with each other right over her head. She crawled a few paces to her threaded rod, grew ANGRY and raged, and then in a prone position, swung it with all her might at the zombie’s leg.

Shattering one of its shin bones and the undead ogre fell over bearing Darius to the ground with him. The fighter twisted and elbowed and shoved just breaking the grapple as he struggled away and we all drew shaky breaths. The undead zombie stood up and fell over, its leg not supporting itself, so it did it again and then started crawling towards us fairly adroitly.

Most of us badly hurt, almost no healing available, and we hadn’t even made it INTO the entrance hall yet, Darius suggested very strongly that we get the hell out of here and now. No one argued it and we double timed it to the gate, past the cawing crows and excited noises, and then to the main road when we went back to the Highway and made out way Southwest as quick as we could.

With nowhere else in mind to go to, the thought was to go to the farmstead we stayed at before and hoped to hole up there – but we were very convinced Ixitch could follow us and might already be doing so. One problem at a time. Once at the farmstead we went past the few chickens there and unlocked the place again. Inside we relaxed and Barb slipped back into exhaustion as the crossbow bolts were STILL IN HER BODY AS WE RAN.

We spent some time taking them out and Brading shared what healing he had left, potions were handed out, and we took stock of ourselves.

We got out ass kicked.

They knew we were there, we knew they were watching us, and they were well prepared for us to come in and rained all sorts of pain down on us. And what did they lose? 1 guard dog was slain and one zombie had its leg broken. This was not going to work for us and we needed a new plan to assault them.

But we couldn’t stay here. This was too close to their point of operation and with all the chicken outside and now crowded around the door (between hearing us, seeing us, and Barb feeding them bread under the door) this was not going to be a safe place for us to stay.

The decision was we’d sneak out the side window, head north for a bit and then west and get lost in the hills, finding someplace to hold up for a few days and then go back to Ixitch’s place and this time not screw around but just charge the front door before they have a chance to prepare for our attack.

Darius managed to open the window and once we all got outside, hurting and sore, we closed the window behind us, left the squawking chickens alone, and travelled north through the rough terrain and winter grasses. After 20 minutes or so we turned west and were lost in the foothills. Coming to a decent sized copse of pines we stopped to heal again, bind more wounds, and take stock of our situation. We were boned and needed a better base of operations. We were going to head more to the west and hopefully pick up a road and small town to stop out and then come up with a proper assault plan.

That didn’t happen either.

Not too much later that that as we were walking through the cold hills we crested the top of one and saw…a military encampment of dozens of tents, horses, and orderly lines of orange haired tall green skinned goblinoid figured.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck.. Damn it.

We went to back away but our presence was noted and two sets of riders rode up to us spear and lances at the ready while another half dozen charged up the hill towards us, the tall hobgoblin leader sneering at us. He identified himself as Lieutenant Bloodtusk and branded us as spies. We were forced to drop weapons and shields, then we were escorted to a prisoner’s wagon where a half orc named Dwarlow was, pretty beaten up and was going to be prisoner of the Bloodtusks for the next 2 years for mouthing off to them.

The Bloodtusks were going to take their assault against a local orcish tribe that had raided the hobgoblin’s cave system earlier this year (no, not the Wolf Skull Orcs) – and it was thought we were working for them. Hobgoblins HATE elves and gnomes so it was best that Thalin and Shim say nothing. They left us alone for a few hours until they came back and demanded to know who was in charge. Whoever was in charge is responsible for the group – including punishment. So who was it?

Darius didn’t understand the language, so that left Brading and Barb to talk – and Barb was pretty wounded. The Bloodtusks were convinced that the two of them were NOT friends as dwarves and orcs don’t get along and suspected a ruse. But when Brading stepped up as the person to be in charge, he was pulled from the wagon, stripped of everything except pants, and was told he WAS going to get 10 lashes – but he had to work for the Bloodtusk’s first – digging latrine trenches. A job for a slave, not a hobgoblin warrior.

We watched him being led away and were growing very concerned now. What was to happen next? If Thalin or Shim did ANYTHING magical they would just be killed out of hand and we figured to lay low for now.

At that point one of the shaman Irilius and his followers came, called out for a detection, and took note of what items the party had on them that were magical. But the shaman looked at Shim and had the gnome dragged out of the wagon and stripped. They took his potion of flight and the shaman and Shim talked – inside a circle of solace as well as a zone of truth. And Shim was forthcoming. The Shaman was a good listener and came to the realization that the group was NOT aligned with the orcs and were actually a fairly good aligned force. It wasn’t exactly said but the Shaman paid close attention to the idea of Scratch and seemed to be disturbed at its implications and how it would affect other orcs.

Eventually he made the call that Shim and his group would be given the benefit of the doubt and would let the Lieutenant know that they could be trusted. But Shim still had to take 5 lashes. Um…what?!?!?

The gnome was held in place and was whipped 5 times across his own back until he passed out from the pain. And then tossed back in the wagon. The gnome was whipped…with his own whip. And the Shaman took it.

Then as for Brading, he had finished the job and then was taken from camp where the Lieutenant told him he was to be whipped. BUT – according to the Shaman and his advisors, the group’s presence was most likely guided by Maglubiyet, the goblin god. So here was the deal – if Brading could take 10 whippings and NOT pass out, the Bloodtusk clan would better equip his group AND lend them 4 of his warriors to help assault the Ixitch Homestead.

If he could not, then they would be kept for a year and a day and then set free, but still better equipped at that time.

Brading took the deal. The dwarf took lash upon lash, held in place as the whip crisscrossed his flesh. As he grew weaker he called on Heimdall twice to heal him and hopefully remove the painful wounds – and then it had been 8 lashes and he was tottering in agony but still awake. He was given a chance to commute his final whippings to Barb – but he refused. Then he was given an opportunity to just have Thalin killed outright as a commute – and again he refused.

The last two whippings fell…and they were just very light hits on the dwarf.

The Bloodtusks were impressed with Brading’s refusal to break himself and pass further injury to his people. He was told he would be considered a Corporal to the Bloodtusks and they were going to spend the next three days getting better outfitted and introduced to the 4 warriors that were going to go with them back to Ixitch’s homestead.

Meet 93, Adv 6, 8/10/19

Chickens.

Somewhere around Canaslan, there is a large area dominated by wild free range angry aggressive chickens. They have grown to larger than normal size and have hunting tactics that remind one of Velociraptors. And the group made the mistake of encountering a few of them, thinking they were going to get a fast meal.

Did...not...happen.

Hardened adventurers ran for their life from the chicken mob, and as the DM, it was the best decision they could make. :)

Write up follows:

The group wanted to get ready to leave and we split up, Shim and Brading went to the public well to fill the water skins while the rest of the party went to the provisioner to gather food. Shim did note that at least 1 of the 2 that had been watching the group earlier was watching us again here, being on line a few places behind Brading. And further, he also noted a frantic looking stringy dwarven female come charging into the town square and have an animated conversation with one of the guards. She gave an animated description of a number of people who Shim felt looked too much like us, talked about an assault on two members of the town, and eventually placed a large amount of coins in the guard’s hands.

The guard then went to another one and the two of them went up to the parapet on either side of the main gate, heavy flatbows loaded, and proceeded to look over the crowded town square.

Fuck – 2 sets of problems.

Shim made the mistake of mentioning to Brading to hurry up as we were being watched which had the dwarven priest grow furious and blame the guy behind him on line of spying on us (the wrong guy!). While this was going on, the rest of the group had come back to the town square and seeing Shim’s waving hand and eventual pantomiming to wait – Thalin stepped out to talk to Shim while Barb and Darius went to the street merchants and got roped into a conversation about potatoes with one of the sellers.

Thalin and Shim shared information and we had to get out of town, through the only gate being watched, but NOT as a group as our combined descriptions will tip off the guards. What to do, what to do…

Bum fight was the solution.

Through a number of deceptions and some well placed smatterings of coins given to the local down trodden we cycled through the gates in 3 sets as Town Square degenerated to at least a dozen men fighting over a number of coins and the local guards and merchants taking odds on the outcome.

Once outside we decided NOT to walk right to Ixitch’s Manorhouse and instead pretend we were heading back to Erylond. It was a good call because one of the tails who had followed us out made sure we were heading back for home for a good 10 minutes before heading back to Paxian.

From there we travelled overland north through harvested fields and furrowed lands, and then east again after some distance until we crossed the Canaslan Northern Byway and then eventually the Canaslan Northeastern Highway – a muddy and rutted patch of raised puddly dirt almost 25’ wide stretching off into the distance.

We were on our way.

As we traveled down the highway, we passed more of the questionable homes and pseudo-poverty that seemed to define Canaslan. The people though were happy and each town we went through was smaller and a bit dingier than the next. We had broken for meal and pressed on, watching the mile markers count upward. Just before mile marker 5, we came up the smallest and last hamlet of hovels; a group of miserable homes in a place called Ditch, and commented the place was aptly named.

Getting close we were going to camp for the night and assume that Ixitch and company would be celebrating the new years – hoping to find a barn or farm we could use. In an effort to further our stores, we did note a number of free ranging wild chickens in the area. Feeling good about the prospects of fresh chicken, Darius loaded a stone and let fly…

Thud. The bird pitched over and fell, got up, flapped around and then died. The other half dozen chickens in the area all stopped and stared at the dead bird, and then as one – back at Darius. They took a few steps towards us, heads bobbing as he casually loaded up another stone, whirl whirl whirl…THWOCK! Took the head off another one! It ran about half a dozen steps and fell over spurting blood dead.

At this point the remaining 4 chickens all started clucking and “bokking” rhythmically and tilting their heads back. And from the tall winter grasses around us – other answering chicken calls came. Like, a lot of them.

Ok..this was getting weird. We started to move on down the road as the chicken closest to us suddenly picked up speed and started chasing us. Just as almost THIRTY over sized chickens burst from the grasses and bushes around – coupled with TWO of the largest roosters we had ever seen. And they were all hissing and clucking and RUNNING towards us with avian fowl hatred in their eyes.

Fuck… The party ran.

We ran hard and fast, heading for an abandoned farmstead not too far from here, trying to make it to the barn. Meanwhile the chickens were gaining ground on Shim and Brading, the two of them the slowest in the group. Shim dropped a darkness spell behind us causing the pursuers to roll into the globes and lose some momentum and others to circle around it. It was getting closer as he hit the farmstead and Barb, Thalin, and Darius tried to get the barn door open in time. The chickens were getting closer and closer. Finally it was open and the 5 of us ran in and slammed the door closed behind, barring it as 30 plus angry oversized chickens tried to force their way in. We latched the back door to the bard and Brading took care of the loft door.

They continued to beat at the door for almost 5 minutes before eventually slowly fading away. We opted to wait almost an hour before daring to open the door and making our way to the house. The shutters were closed and the door locked. Using a javelin, we managed to pry the bar aside from the outside and entered. It was a peasant’s hut, dusty from lack of use. Some food stuffs had dried and rotted, and there was faint sweet odor from the huts only other room. Inside we saw two figures in the bed, dead for the better part of a year, an elderly couple fingers entwined with one another. As a show of respect we covered them with a blanket and shut the door.

From the kitchen we lit a fire and ate our meal, boiling some potatoes and getting ourselves ready to rest. We wanted to sleep and early in the morning, head off the Ixitch Barrowman’s Demesne and Manorhouse and reconnoiter first if at all possible.

After a long night we awoke early, broke our fast, and before we had left, Brading had cast Invisibility to Undead on the group. It would have no effect on the living – but we had to remember three things that would end it: an aggressive action against an undead, the passage of four hours, and the willing end of the spell if need be. In addition, if you allowed an undead to walk into you, it would also break the spell.

We left the farmhouse, closed the door and locked it, and making sure no chickens were around us, we finished our walk past mile marker 5, only a short distance now from the border of Grimyria. Following Gerry Rockbottom’s directions, there was a side road that led north to at one point was supposed to be a haven for the wealthy new landowners of Canaslan. However, the location never took off and the homes had been left to fall fallow.

Ixitch was ensconced and owned the 5th Manorhouse – a walled in area about 4 acres total, with only 1 double wide gate in and out. We walked by slowly and looked in. The Manorhouse was stone construction, at least 12’ tall and had a crenellated wall that ran along the top of the structure. A stables was to the right but was a bit out of view for us. No large windows, the grounds were overgrown and had three very large trees where at least half a dozen fat crows was cawing in and watching us. A spike was near the gate on the other side, a severed orc’s head was planted on top. The faintest tingle let Brading know that the Invisibility to Undead Spell was working as we passed in front of the orc’s head – someone was “watching” us through the dead skull.

We kept going past to the next homestead and picked through the wall. The property here was worse than the other side, and we followed the wall perimeter northward the full length to the end. The wall on Ixitch’s side was solid and unbroken. The top of the wall (8’ or so) also had busted glass mortared in place to further prevent anyone climbing over. Finally at the top of the wall along the BACK of the homestead was another severed orc head on a pole. Watching back here as well.

We heard the cawing of a crow and hid along the wall, hunched down in the scrub as a fat black crow flew up and circled around for a while before heading back to Ixitch’s side. Ok – we assumed both the stationary undead head and the crows were the watching warning for Ixitch’s people – Necromancer and probably Druid.

The group went to the house here on this Homestead to get out of sight and to see if there was a tunnel running between the two properties. It was almost an hour of looking before we accepted the fact that there wasn’t any. The thought was to climb over the wall, scout the place out, and make our way to the front door.

But when we left the place and went to the wall to look over (Barb) – we noted there were at least 2 large mastiff guard dogs in the area. A mass of salami and cheese in a ball of bread was thought to be given to the dogs to make them pliable but we didn’t want to risk it.

Then it was 9:30 and we heard the ringing of a bell at the front of the Homestead and the dogs’ with the ears perked up ran for the front. Breakfast bell. It was time to climb. Barb went over first, blanket draped across the glass, and one by one, the party went over the wall until finally we pulled the blanket down and took stock. Overgrown grounds, sparse trees, building – seems quiet. We went up the building’s walls and decided to walk around the back of the place first. What few windows we did see were narrow, 4’ tall, curtained from the inside, and deeply set in the stone almost 2’ – no chance of us using them to get in.

Around the back of the building we proceeded about until we came to an overgrown and choked herb garden – where a variety of plants were growing – including Lion’s Leaf and Eye Bright. We continued exploring, going south now and then heard something coming through the tall grasses. Dog? No – a half-ogre zombie plodding along. 8’ tall, 400 plus pounds – it wandered north and our invisibility held as it passed  - went beyond the herb garden and then turned sharply to the left and continued in that direction and out of sight.

A little further south just before the stables one of the narrow windows gave us the sounds of men (and women?) eating breakfast and laughing. Ok – kitchen area here on the east side of the building.

We wanted to get in and figured with no other doors visible – we’d have to entice them to come out. The thought was to go to the herb and drug garden and burn it. But the plants were green so we’d need to use oil to get it to light. Darius and Barb stayed by the garden to prepare it with oil and rags, while Brading, Thalin, and Shim when back around the side of the building and to the first large alcove to hunker down and hopefully surprise the bad guys when they came out.

It didn’t go to plan.

As Darius was getting ready to light the place on fire, oil and rag everywhere, he had a torch lit when something went terribly wrong and the fire in his hand EXPLODED. It then caught the oil on fire and he was suddenly engulfed in flames as he tried to roll around to put them out. Barb ran out to tackle him and drag him back to the building when crossbow bolts were shot and she was hit. They staggered towards the building as more flatbows fired, hitting the two of them again and then a trio of magic missile flew out and scored Darius just as they made it to the building – both of them bleeding hit points.

Had to go and meet up with the rest of the group and now. – They were hurting but ran east along the building’s edge while from above they could see two, maybe three figures peering over trying to get another shot in at us. Another magic missile went off and Darius was going to run OUT from the wall and sling up there while Barb went into berserker rage and tried to climb the wall.

Meanwhile the rest of the group saw TWO ogrish zombies coming along – still unable to see us, but they could hear some sort of problem going on around the corner. Brading snuck the edge and the Shim and Thalin know the two friends were bleeding badly and Barb was climbing up to some figures up there on top.

Thalin and Shim then drew scrolls and stepped back, pointing to the roof and each of them called out a summon monster spell – one ended up was a gnoll wielding a two handed sword and the other with a goblin sporting a sling. And then Barb was up there just as Darius sling bullets one of the crossbowmen. Two crossbow men and a mage type.

Excellent.

Barb changed one of them and proceeded to beat him to death and then lift him overhead and HURL him off the building. One dead. The gnoll ran towards a crossbowman who dropped his flatbow and had his sword out – but the gnoll was stronger and the battle was on. The goblin kept firing sling stones in the combat, whittling hit points away. Brading ran to Darius to heal the wounded fighter and Barb chased one of the men who tried to make it to a trap door to escape but failed.

The combat on the roof ended after this and Barb tried to hack the trap door open but it was too thick and well made and although she jammed the gnoll’s sword through the crack – she couldn’t open it up.

As the summoned monsters faded away we all gathered again and doled out some healing, taking into account what happened and that they know where here even if the zombies can’t respond to us. This was it, we were going to the front to bust the door open and take the fight to Ixitch and his men.