Meet 98, Adv 6, 9/28/19

I've played this game for almost 4 decades and one of the things that always bugged me on either side of the screen was Deux Ex Machina - when something wondrous happens to save the party from certain doom. It feels cheap and as the player I always had the sensation I was robbed  - so I try to not have that happen in my games.

Except that it did.

The group had a whistle for over a year and a half in real life time that had been givento them by Dunatis, an Orcish druid (12th level) in the Moratian lands who felt good that the group was fixing the kobold issues out there and if they had run across the giants and felt a bit outside their element, can blow it once and Dunatis and his circle would come to help.

The thought was it would be used for the giant fight which I had expected to occur at the end of the adventure.

But the party didn't need it and we avoided the fight - so the resident Barbarian kept the whistle all this time.

And when they were faced with a TPK at the hands of Ixitch Barrowman, one of the party members remembered the whistle and the group blew it. And I portalled 1 12th and 4 10th level orcish druids into the Stronghold and they helped the group kick the crap out of the bad guys.

And as the DM, I felt cheap. The party was happy and no one but me seemed to bothered by it - but as for myself, it still stuck in my craw.

Write up follows:

The battle continued to rage on around us. The dwarven cleric that finally entered the room made her way behind the Bugbear and shot off a Cure Serious Wounds into him, staving off his impending death. We struggled against the ghoul who crept even closer, magic missiles slamming into it but failing to kill it. Barb was hemorrhaging hit points, Shimlagesh was bleeding out, and the two zombies beat on Eoghan who was struggling to knock one of them down.

We tried to back up into each other and Brading was smashed to the floor by the bugbear after finishing off Elsa Ire. Meanwhile the cleric stepped behind the swordsman fighting Barb and healed him as well! It was approaching the final hour and it looked like the party was done when Barb at the last moment drew Dunatis’ whistle that she had gotten from the druidic orc months ago and let go a single blasting piercing tweet.

The air split open and the shaggy half-wolf form Orc came in with 4 of the circle, looked around the chamber that drew themselves to a stop and looked about, and asked her “What do you need from us little one?”

She pointed to the bad guys and said, “Help us! Please!”

5 Druids, 4 10th, 1 12th, and their animal companions made VERY short work of Ixitch’s support staff. The bugbear, the swordsman, the axe thrower, the cleric, the two zombies, and the ghoul were all killed in a few minutes of slashing, biting, rending, terrible fiery power. Even a fire elemental had been summoned to help finish the fight off.

When it was over, Dunatis admitted he expected the call to come against the giants some weeks ago and was happy to have been a help. He agreed he would meet with Barb again on Icemonth the 1st to discuss their arrangement and relations and before they left, healed the party of their poisons, ills, and wounds.

Ok – that was NOT expected and NOT on the original plan. But it worked – as Thalin said, you can’t save things like the whistle for after you were dead.

At this point we could tell that the necromancer wanted to talk to us as one of the dead bodies here began speaking to us. The necromancer, called the “Keeper” was able to see which way this entire affair was blowing and wanted safe passage for him, his apprentices, and he non-empirics. Willing to give up his contract with Ixitch, he was going to beat feet and get to Grimyria before the angry dwarf could force his hands into something he didn’t want to do.

Time was ticking as Ixitch was having some argument with his other followers and we gave the Keeper the ok that he could leave. From down the hall we heard a door open and close quietly and then a line of people approached. The Keeper was a human, tall, and thin with ulcerous lesions visible on his neck and arms. He had two apprentices, both human, each just under twenty. A girl heavy made up and wearing bullous clothing and leading a chain with two zombies. And a boy corpulent and waddling, beady “kill you in your sleep” eyes and had a catchpole with a slavering ghoul on the end of it.

We gave the Keeper the farewell and he left along with his crew, but not before letting us know it was Ixitch, Gerry Rockbottom and his daughter Fleabite, Nardolen the half orc druid and her two animals and Silver Glass Ixitch’s wizard.

We were going through everyone’s belongings and deciding what to do next. The thought was to continue down the hall and take it to Ixitch now – but that meant leaving this room unwatched and even with the spike in the door, it was enough to slow them down but now totally stop them should they want to leave.

Will Murder offered to stay here, flatbow at the ready and hiding behind one of the curtains. We went down the hall to an entrance area, passages in all directions and a double door to the left with various religious symbology upon it. We made sure the door was untrapped and opened up, looking it. A temple of some sort, two tiers, furthest part of the room raised – dim voices in that direction. A number of backpacks were here on the left, packed and ready to go. A quick look showed clothes and food stuff – bug out bags.

We made our way through to the second tier where a door was on the south wall and the source of the voices. We came closer; made sure it was unlocked, and then entered with care. Small 10x10 room with another door on the south wall. We could hear clearer, some crying, and a rhythmic banging noise in the distance.

We drew up and got ready, then hit the door open and started pouring into the room. Nardolen was halfway across the long chamber which doubled as a dungeon and torture chamber, a silverbacked wolf and a hedgehog the size of a mid sized dog with her! At the end of the room was an open door with Gerry and his daughter visible as well as a human female in her mid-30’s clad in wizard robes and a tall conical hat. There was much yelling at our arrival and Barb ran for the druid getting angry as she did so.

Arrows and spells followed but they seemed to slow down and turn aside on hitting around Silver Glass. Meanwhile Gerry, crying and begging, was dragged into the dark hall by his daughter and we could hear Ixitch down there yelling to “help get this fucking door open!!”

The party launched spears and swords at the chamber while the hedgehog barreled into Barb, driving a dozen foot long quills into her body and making her swoon in agony. Most shots missed the mage who returned the favor by striking out at the group with a Blindness spell which had Darius screaming, “Foul! Fucking Foul!”

We tried to help out Barb, setting up to her left as we coaxed the druid, wolf, and hedgehog off of wasting her, Shim dousing a third of the room in a globe of darkness. While all this was going on, Ixitch managed to get the door open and told Gerry and his daughter to run for it. As then entered the room, Will Murder looked them over, verified their names, and got approval that Ixitch was still in there. He nodded his head and muttered something about not killing kids and their dads, then motioned them to get to the stairs and get the hell out of here.

The battle was turning and the group was pouring on the hurt as they raced down the room, spells flying. Silver Glass hit herself with an Invisibility spell and Ixitch tried to run for it, wounded, but Will shot his at point blank range, and then as he fell over, shot him again. As Ixitch was pleading for help, Will walked right up to him and shot him in the chest, and then again in the head. Silver Glass, wounded was unable to escape and was taken down and then the group managed to finish off the Half-Orc druid and her hedgehog.

The wolf was mourning her loss and Eoghan did his best to calm the animal down and get it to come to him. Once this was done we passed out some healing and started going through what belongings we could. It was at this time that the air split open and 3 figures in black and red, smelling like sulfur and sandalwood, entered the chamber with an official looking scroll. They were here for the body of Ixitch Barrowman who had made a contract with the Tower Arcane in Grimyria for various help and protections on the knowledge that upon his death his body would be remanded over to them for post empirical usage.

Yeah, you can take him.

Once sure that all was done and the Grimyrians left, we checked out Silver Glass’ spellbook, got some trinkets and keys off of them all, and decided that we had a few hours to look around before we should get the hell out of here.

Meet 97, Adv 6, 9/21/19

Big meeting this one was, and it was running long so we ended on a cliffhanger in the middle of fight.

Two main things that occurred though was the party had a second conversation with the BBEG, Ixitch, and this time it did not go in our favor. And the fight at the end showed the group was overmatched.

Ixitch at some point figured out between the first conversation and this one who the party might be. He was wrong on some level, but right on others. And flat out was/is going to use his influence to kill the group's family member and friends.

That's the truth of it. So they HAVE to neutralize him and soon before he becomes a problem.

The second part was the group had to face a concentrated enemy on their home turf - and even though we lost an NPC or two - and multiple members of the party were down - they once again underestimated the effectiveness of the enemy on their stronghold with their strengths.

Write up follows:

Bad Tom flat out said we didn’t need 2 dwarves to talk, and the camp dog was a non-starter so some sword thrusts finished them off, leaving one dwarven crossbowman and the wizard alive…for now. The wizard was young, a bit past 20 and cocksure of himself while the dwarf, Shelvar, was a bit more open and willing to talk to the party. Some questioning, some snide answers, some dead wizard and then we got some information about Ixitch and the others.

Apparently Shelvar is a temporary employee, worked for Ixitch about 5 months, was laid off for 3, and had signed another 5 month contract of which 3 or 4 months have passed. Ixitch has a trusted group of supporters who handle the downstairs portion of the Homestead and apparently they had been practicing for this situation and Shelvar let the group know that enough time has passed that Ixitch and Co. are ready for the group. No he doesn’t have particulars, but he knows that they all have a part to play.

We trussed him up after getting no confirmation about antipoison being in the locked secret room and made our way back to the Entrance Hall. It was apparent that there had been some changes here, small subtle things. We heard faint movement inside the Exercise yard as well as outside. Plus we could see/smell oil all around the front door.

We wanted to burn it off but do it in such a way that we don’t get hit with another fireburst spell. So Shim cast a ghost sound which sounded like 3 or 4 of us going to the front door, followed by a handful of loose rocks tossed at the door, which was followed by the oil being lit under the door and then followed by the fire being BURST by an unseen magical assailant! Shim made the sounds of people yelling and then going silent.

The group then dimly heard the sound of and inrushing of air from the Exercise yard and then a matching one from outside through the window. Ok…what??

Once sure no one was around, we chanced to enter the Exercise yard again. Right near the entrance, the dirt was swirled in a spiral pattern at least 6’ wide…and the ladder we had on the floor was missing. Ok…Lets look around. The thought was the people/person just here portaled out somehow, hence why the inrushing of air, pop, and spiral of dirt. As for the ladder it had to be back on the roof, so we had Brading cast Invisibility to Undead on Bad Tom, Eoghan, Barb, and Darius, and two of them attempted to climb the wall to look on the roof.

And there were two undead half-ogres up here with three ladders right near them.

Fuck, not a good idea – they came back down.

The Delay Poison was in its last hour and Eoghan was in danger to succumbing, so the group hightailed it to the north wall, Will Murder checked the door and let us know that there was a pressure against it on the other side but it was not locked…most likely trapped – and the set up made it impossible for him to disarm it on this side.

So Barb volunteered to open it and the group was expecting maybe a guard and/or a spear trap so we all spaced out and got ready and Barb used her pole to force the door open.

And a pressurized bladder popped and sprayed her with a caustic aerosol poison that go in her skin, nose, ears, mouth, eyes, and lungs…And just as it was beginning to burn – Brading hit HER with a Delay Poison Spell – stopping the effects in its tracks.

The group looked her over and the consensus by Will and Thalin was that she had two poisons on her, an acetic destabilizing one that could kill her, and flammatory one made from dried salamander skin. So it’ll weaken her, set her on fire, and then finish her off.

Crap – we had 4 hours to find a cure for her – and about an hour and a half left to help Brading.

We went in to the next hall, looked down and was going to open the door on the north side leading to the secret door when Darius noted something on the floor. Will checked it out – a wire connecting the two doors together. Open one and the other one opens as well. Nice. Nice try.

We disarmed the trap and held the door in place and then opened the north door – and the trap on the south room went off without opening the door – and no one was hurt! All right!

Key in hand we opened the secret door and it was an armory and trade closet of some sort. Weapons, armor, boxes of trade goods – and a safe set in the floor also guarded by a key. Will checked it out and was sure there was a needle trap set inside the 5 tumbler lock – no antidote visible for now. – Most likely INSIDE the safe.

That we don’t have the key for.

We left the area and decided that we might have to go downstairs and take the fight to Ixitch – but we also know that it might be a bad idea. The thought was to try and talk to Ixitch first and see if we can salvage anything of this situation – two of our members were poisoned and needed help now – and the minutes keep ticking by.

We went back to the Exercise yard, climbed the roof to look out at the front door – no one was there just undead on the roof (who didn’t see us thanks to the Invisibilty to Undead still going) – but we saw the swirling pattern in the dirt out there as well. We went back to the main room, to the hall and disarmed the spear trap, and then talked to Shelvar the dwarf who gave us what little info he was able to – and we let him go, the dwarf VERY thankful and on his way to Grimyria for now.

We went to the dead mage and Bad Tom finished hacking the head off while Darius kept tapping the head and waving his hand it, trying to get the necromancer and Ixitch’s attention. And after a few minutes, we were able to hear once again through the head.

Ixitch was pissed; we had been killing his men, wasting his resources, and ransacking his home. Convinced we were working for Big G O who had sent us here to collect the now 7,700 commons he was owed, he had little interest in making a deal, even when Darius (pretending to be Isilwine still) tried to give him a version of the truth that we were NOT working for Big G O and instead wanted to get to him.

Then we grew concerned as he traced the fact that Isilwine was married to Twilane Diamondcutter – who was the younger sister of an adventurer, and sell sword Darius, who had a group called the Vanguards of Ragnarok – and were them. Shit. He knows who we are.

We tried to beg for an antidote to the poison in the lock and made believe that Thalin was Avulstein – which had the “Keeper” – the Necromancer here, VERY interested in helping – professional courtesy and all. He wanted to have a good word sent back to Parylis that he was helpful and was willing to do a good turn. The antidote portaled up here and we turned the head so they couldn’t see us giving it to Eoghan who downed it with relief.

But Ixitch and Darius/Isilwine went back and forth and Ixitch flat out didn’t believe or trust the group at all. This was going to end and end badly. He was going to order a hit out on Isilwine’s wife, Twilane (Darius’ younger sister) and then do the same for the rest of the group – in a week; they were all going to be fucking dead, dead, dead.

We ended transmission at the same time he did and Darius looked at the group and said – now we have to kill them. This is my kid sister and family, he can’t be allowed to leave here and set this up.

We went to the door going down, made sure that any trap on the other side was set off, and then made our way down the steps to a large room. Some chairs, small tables, comfortable looking living room – pretty big, 30x 50. There were 3 doors on the south wall, one on the north – all reinforced oak. And each had a hanging curtain partially blocking it.

We took our time looking and listening. The three southern doors, the first one had a stink to it like unwashed bodies, the middle was silent, the last had some more foul sickly sweet smell and some weeping sounds on the other side. Meanwhile the north door heard maybe some distant shuffling noises, nothing nearby.

While all this was going on, Shim and Thalin were looking around for secret doors when they found a section of the western wall that could open – but no way to open it from this side – one way secret door. Most likely an escape tunnel. We wanted to block it up and Darius looked in his bag – finding one last iron spike.

Barb was going to set it but it would take 10 or so hits to do it – and it would be loud. So we handed out hammers and around the room we struck the spike 2 times and the ground the same and then stopped and Eoghan listened. Some noises again, nothing new. We hit it another pair of times and stopped. Listening…Someone coming closer and Eoghan could tell that who ever it was was listening on the other side of the door!

We hit it another 2 times and Eoghan let us know the figure was running down the hall. Then we just wailed on it and got it set – effectively closing off their escape route.

But now they know we’re here and most likely getting ready. So we all got near the door, Shim cast an illusion of 3 guys with flat bows looking at the door while Bad Tom was ready to open the door. And we did, one, two, three.

There was a distant moaning and then a snap.

And a god borne line of fire streaked down the hall like Sutur himself empowered it, consumed Bad Tom and the door in cacophony of shrieking flames, and burned Elsa, Darius, and Barb who were near the front.

And the figures ran down the hall as we backed up staring at the space where Bad Tom one stood as we readied weapons…And 4 zombies ran…RAN into the room and tried to hit Brading and Eoghan. Meanwhile right behind them came three other figures – a hulking 7’8”, 500 lb bugbear clad in heavy armor and swinging a heavy 20# flail, a human mercenary with a broad sword spinning in his grasp, and then a stout Gorokian Mountain Dwarf with 2 braces of hand axes. The Bugbear hit the line and we scattered, Elsa Ire taking the first hits as her quarter staff shattered and she fell back shoulder pauldron crushed. The swordsman struck out at Barb who realized that he was a better swordsman than her.

Spells fired, sling stones were shot, Arrows filled the air and Brading turned the zombies – but only two of them managed to flee- the others circling around and engaging Eoghan. Then a ghoul ran into the room and we shot sling stones and magic missiles at it, killing it before it could get close enough to hit one of us. Barb was overmatched and starting to lose the fight when she bit her tongue and swelled up, blood running through her mouth as her barbaric rage helped even up the odds between her and the swordsman.

Elsa took punishing blows as she swapped to her butterfly axe, bleeding from a torn scalp and nursing fractured ribs as the Bugbear was beating her to death. But she managed to center herself and hacked up hard…lopping off the bugbear’s shield arm at the elbow and evening up that part of the battle! Darius was struck by flying axes as the dwarf was trying to take him down. We could hear the dwarf calling down the hall, “Empress, we need you now!!” Followed by heavy mailed figure running down towards us. Eoghan took more hits from the zombies and was starting to stagger.

And as we were trying to set up a solid line of defense, the human mercenary called out, “Empress…A Three!” as he hacked at Barb again.

And there was outrushing of air as another ghoul pounced out of nowhere and appeared in the back corner of the room where Darius, Will Murder, and Thalin was. Shit. And it hit Will Murder like a starving wild cat, tearing and biting and scratching and ripping into the hobgoblin who fell over paralyzed as Thalin ran towards Barb and Darius took up defensive line between them.

And we heard running again down the hall – something was coming and we needed to slow it down. So Shim dodged through the battle, hit the front line, and cast a globe of darkness as far down the hall he could making whoever it was slow down and stumble – buying us another round.

And for his efforts, the swordsman turned his attacks from Barb and instead hit the gnome hard, again and again and again – dropping Shim to -7.

The group was screaming for Brading to help as Darius missed with all of his sling stones at the approaching ghoul and the scroll of magic missiles Thalin read shot off FOUR of the missiles at the undead scavenger – but failed to kill it!! Brading tried to turn the ghoul but failed and it hit Darius in a twisting ripping dance of fury – and the fighter fell over paralyzed!!!

And the ghoul was staring at Thalin and licking its lips.

There we were, Shim dying, Barb struggling against a superior fighter fully in a barbaric rage, Else Ira in the single digits and trying to keep the murderous Bugbear focused on her, Brading with his back turned to the dwarf who was ready to hurl another axe at his back this time, Bad Tom immolated, Eoghan struggling against two zombies, Will Murder bleeding bad and down paralyzed, Darius struggling to break free of his own paralysis and failing, and Thalin facing off with a wounded ghoul stalking closer and closer, with only a satchel full of spell scrolls to hopefully stem the tide.

Meet 96, Adv 6, 9/7/19

The group continued to hit their way through the upper floors of Ixitch' Manorhouse, taking out the defenders along the way but getting slowly whittled away as they did so. Time was both on their side and against them and the clock was always ticking ticking ticking.

Plus, the hobgoblins have been a blast to role-play.

Write up follows:

The thought was to check out the roof line before proceeding further through the Manorhouse, but with no way to the roof from here, it was up to Bad Tom to give Shim a toss-up and then join him up there. The roof of the Manorhouse was empty but we did notice three ladders had been stacked at the south end. This was also an explanation for the strange divots on the ground over there. However, we wanted to be able to get out if need be so we dragged one of the ladders back to the courtyard, and lowered it before climbing down and then dropping the ladder to the ground here.

We listened to the doors in the area again just to be sure. The South door that lead back to the entrance hall was quiet but we had taken the key out of it. The other south door with the rabbit dropping about the area seemed quiet and undisturbed. The door to the shed was still wire wrapped closed and we could hear a horse banging around within. (A check of the muddy ground showed it was a much smaller animal than the plaster casting of the warhorse hoof print we had). And finally the door to the north that lead further into the manorhouse was still quiet.

Bad Tom was voted to open the door. So we drew up, weapons at the ready, and the hobgoblin shouldered the door open and rolled in and to the side, broadsword flashing.

It was a hallway, door at the end maybe 15 paces away.

We gathered into the hall, drew up together, and Bad Tom hit the next door hard, rolling again but this time without the yelling or battle cry as per Brading. Another hall, shorter, two doors at the end, one on the north and south wall. So slow burn candles were in here on sconces and have been burning for some time. The door to the south smells faintly of cigar smoke and beer. We heard nothing at either door but figured we’d check out the north one as it should lead us to the stairs going up to the roof.

Once again Bad Tom did his roll and rise to show another hall that went some 8 paces and turned to the left, set of steps going up. We checked to make sure it was sealed closed and was going to make our way back when Eoghan was staring at the west wall. When pressed for why, he said that this manorhouse was tight with its space and room, but there was a wasted area here almost 8 or 9 feet wide that had no room behind it. It might be a secret door.

We looked about and eventually discovered a section of the wall that would open and a cleverly hidden keyhole. Taking the key we had taken from the other door, Eoghan stuck it in and turned it – but the key didn’t turn and instead he pulled his hand back and was nursing his finger which had a pin hole in it.

Brading had Heimdall show him any poison and sure enough, Eoghan was stuck and the poison was spreading. A Delay Poison was going to give us 4 hours to find a solution and an antidote we hoped but for now, the room was closed and sealed.

We looked in the south room, a meeting room that was used often but currently not. With nowhere else to go, we went back to the exercise yard to discuss our options and where to go next. We figured we’d go back through the way we came and head off to the entrance room. So we opened the door back to the hall with the dead dogs..and there were dead dogs there. We tested their deadness with some thrown axes and then moved to the next door.

Pickle and preserve room. Dead guys here, stripped. Ok, door closed. We opened it again…and Bad Tom had a spear in his chest, and went down hard from a spring loaded trap in the ceiling.

Damn it.

We hacked it out of him and then after he passed out, a sprinkle of fizzstone in his nose had him wake up. We healed him up and took a look. The hall beyond had the bench against the far door now, two pedestals and busts pressed tight to its side, blocking the door. But when we went in to look it over we stopped and backed out of the room carefully. The carpet had been liberally doused in oil – another damned trap.

Ok – this wasn’t going to work. So we were going to instead go back to the exercise yard and see about going through the front door.

However when we climbed up to the roof and looked down by the front door, there was a half-ogre zombie standing there ready to skewer anyone who came through. Damn it again.

Ok – another new plan. We go through the south door in the Exercise yard back to the main entrance and hit it hard, knowing that we’re most likely going to have to run a gauntlet of people. We wanted to try and fake out Ixitch’s people, so Barb and Elsa Ire took one of the dead guys, got him dressed in some of her cast off clothes, stuck a pole through the back of his head and the two of them used him like a marionette to hopefully get some attention.

We drew up and got ready to go in and then unlocked the door and shoved the dead guy through. Crossbow bolts slammed into him and we saw a dead guy in here. Barb and Else charged in, getting hit a bit from some bolts coming from down the long hall towards the kitchen. We charged in and tried to cover the distance, returning fire as we went. Brading just made the entrance and fired off a turn undead at the zombie just before it hit us, and it turned and started making for the front door.

But from down the hall some enemy spellcaster shot off a spell, and the door to the exercise yard blocking off Thalin, Shim, and Darius from the rest of us. Damn it!! The three of them tried the door which was held magically before going to the ladder and lifting it in place to climb up to the roof – they were going to head for the south end of the compound and down to the ground to take the fight through the front door.

Meanwhile Bad Tom was getting shot again as we tried to clear the hall, but Eoghan, Will Murder, and the rest of the group returned fire, dropping one and then a second crossbowman…meanwhile the others moved back and a magic missile shot into the party as the zombie opened the front door – and was attacked by the other zombie outside. Another turn undead had that one running as well as we gathered together and pulled bolts from Bad Tom – and sent more arrows flying down the long hall.

Outside Shim and Darius had made the roof when they heard crows coming, larger than normal, fat, and flying fast, they dove down out of the sky and aimed for the group. Arrows and stones flew knocking the crows down while Thalin was still in the courtyard before the sky was cleared and they can all cross the roof together and climb down to the ground below and enter the Manorhouse where we all gathered together.

From down the hall the 2 dwarven crossbowmen and the supposed mage retreated into the gloom of the kitchen and disappeared. We tended to our wounds and took stock of our situation. We had a chokepoint here and wanted to set a deterrent for them to follow. So we used some chalk, made a 10’ wide circle and pentagram, some incense and a candle, even used a burned out Manastone.

And while this was going on, a dead zombie human wandered in to the front door, held up its hands, and said in a disembodied voice, “Wait, wait, wait, I just want to talk. This has gotten entirely out of control.”

Someone was talking through the zombie. And we realized it was not only the necromancer on premises, but Ixitch Barrowman as well. We hit the zombie in the legs so it was forced to fall over, but it did see what we were doing and tried to talk to us about going our own way. Still suspecting we were representatives from Big G O, and referring to Darius as Isilwine Goldsmith (the same name he used in Paxian), we went back and forth for a while, while pretending to do a spell to ward the circle we made.

Eventually we grew tired of the conversation and hit the zombie a few times until it stopped moving and talking.

Ok. It was time. There were 2 other doors on the north wall here, one in front of the circle we made, and another further down. We checked the second one out and it was a barracks for 6 people to stay and sleep along with some personal belongings – but that was about it. So we tread carefully to the end of the hall and the kitchen.

No one was here. We did find the steps going up to the roof (ok, that was all 3 stairs up we’ve found) and a hall going north that eventually turned to the west. A large slowburn torch was lit at the corner. We extinguished it and then heard the sound of a door closing down the hall. Ahhh, another fire trap that we just interrupted.

We walked with care to the end where we smelled oil on the floor but now there was no issue. Door on the north and the smell of food, door on the west, most likely led to our enemy. So we all drew up, gathered together, Thalin began casting and then we tossed the door open to show 2 dwarven crossbowmen, a human, and another mastiff.

And our fighter mage put them all to sleep with a handful of rose petals and a blast of arcana.

We trussed them up quickly and took a look about. We were in the Manorhouse’s main great room. Door led to an armory, another led north to a private bedchamber that Will had to pick to open. It ended up being Ixitch’s private bed chamber. We looked around. Horseshoe collection, some bottles on a shelf, nice desk. Looking over the papers most had to do with his job as an enforcer for King Seljack, some had to do with his dealing with Big GO. Found hidden in desk a leather satchel with 20 doses of Scratch, a key we assumed was for the locked secret room we found earlier, and a messenger leather folder with a page torn out of a journal in it. About something called the Desmondia Diamond and where it might be and who has it.

Nice.

It was while we were reading it over that Barb felt and itch from the Ravenstone she was carrying and eventually hidden letters on the page were revealed to show even more clues where to find the Desmondia Diamond and that apparently Ixitch was going to go and send his people to look for it and soon.

By this point in time our charges were waking up and we gathered back to the Great Room to ask questions and then decide on where and how to find Ixitch.