Youth Group! TOEE - Meet 8, 8/24/22

The way I play lower levels (under 3rd) is that I don't like killing you off in combat with a shitty roll. I'll drop you to 0 and the group has to get you back up. 3rd level up and more, gloves are off and a bad combat will kill you. Also, if you made dumb assed decisions, I will let you die regardless of level.

Follows:

Restmonth the 8th. The party looked around the chamber after getting heals passed around and decided to go investigate the south door. It was closed up tight and the group listened, eventually hearing some groaning on the other side. We knocked and offered to come in, but there was only sobs and cries from the other side. They feared we were cultists and didn’t want to risk talking.

We opened it up and it was at one point a pantry. But now besides some food stuffs, were three figures – 2 humans badly hurt and a gnome so beat up and tortured, he was missing half his left arm. Pestle glanced back at Lubush the dead ogre, noting the mostly gnawed upon gnome hand it had been nibbling on.

The humans were eventually calmed down and were a husband and wife team from Nyr Dyv; Ned and Margorie Siksalli. The gnome was a fellow merchant and facilitator named Beena Shaskill, or Banana for short. After getting some healing on them (minors) and more importantly calming Margorie down they were happy to be rescued and was surprised that the group hadn’t been sent here to look for them. They had been coming to Hommlet from Nyr Dyn on a standard trade outing when gnolls attacked them, killed off some of their people, and captured the three of them.

They had been here almost a week and reported being terrified of an almost beautiful to look upon man named Lareth who seemed to talk to them and convince them to answer his questions even if they didn’t want to. He had a number of cultists with him and they followed him around singing and chanting, fawning over the charismatic Lareth with fervent longing. When Banana wouldn’t answer their questions, they had Lubush hack off the gnome's arm and eat it in front of him.

They really expected us to leave now and head back to Hommlet but the party didn’t want to head back now – and risk letting Rannos Davi or Terjon know that we had been making headway in the Moathouse. This upset Margorie and we had to calm her down. They did say that the cultists and Lareth would come into the ogre chamber from the east, often preceded by the chanting and music. Secret door? We couldn’t find one for now so the thought was that Pestle would study detect secret doors and maybe Albert would study Mount. We could then send the three of them back on the horse?

Eventually a modified version of that plan came to be where we actually gave them our horse with instructions to head for the Inn of the Welcome Wench and stable it there with Ales until they return. And when we wanted to leave, we would load up the wagon we still had here and have Albert summon up a Mount spell at that time for us. Elmo eventually unlimbered our steed for them and we wished them well for now.

Returning to the Ogre room, Pestle cast a Detect Secret Door spell and sure enough – there it was. South east corner, east wall. It took some doing but we did discover the right stones to press at the top and the door opened up to…a 10’ square chamber with a set of stairs going UP on the north wall. Really? We drew up and went up the steps where they ended at a blank wall. We suspected it was another secret door…and given where we were, it seemed to open up in the Black Chamber where we fought off Ortti Goldenthan and his brigands.

Ok, ok. Good…But this was not going to get us to Lareth. We must be missing something. Returning to the 10’ chamber, Pestle made an off hand joke about a secret door past a secret door but it resonated with the group. And a concentrated effort later had us discover that yes, the eastern side of this room DID have another secret door there! And it opened the same way which made things easier for us to navigate it.

A long set of stairs went down into the dark from here. Elmo made sure we had a fresh torch at the ready and we drew up into marching order, making our way down into the gloom. The place was used, no real dust, entire middle section of each stair was clear of grit. Distant echoes trailed back to us, muted and indistinct. We did eventually get to the base of the stairs and the passage opened up to some sort of dungeon beyond, numerous twists, turns, and corners. “Everyone be ready,” came the advice and the group decided to head east (left) as the few echoes we did hear came from that direction.

So we headed off and not even 10 spaces later, Elmo stopped the group as we were looking carefully about, and the ranger revealed a door on the north wall, hidden. Ophelia opened it up and it was an “L” shaped chamber with a big winch in the center of it, chains running up the wall and to the west. We debated on what to do, noting it was oiled and in good repair, and opted to turn it for now and see what it did, as opposed to being trapped down here at a later date.

So we turned it and in the hall, up the stairs we had come down, two sets of bars were lowering from the ceiling. Nice. Now if someone was hoping to trap us down here, we knew where the mechanism was to lift and bypass that problem. We reversed the winch, lifting the bars, and then locked it back in place. We left the winch room and commenced following Elmo eastward through the gloom. The passage turned back and forth a bunch, but the sound of voices was getting clearer. Goblinoid. Couldn’t make out much, but at least 3 – deeper sounding. Hobgoblins?

Eventually the passage came to a room with 3 doors on the east side of the chamber and some alcoves, and a passage on the north wall lead off where the goblin voices were. Alright. This was a good spot. We wanted to have them come to us, everyone would have spell and bow ready. We knew that Aredhel was going to Fireburst a torch, that would set off the festivities.

We could tell that they wanted to walk patrol and were coming closer. So we all took positions along the western end of the room and watched them get closer.

And we realized our dismay…they weren’t hobgoblins. They were bugbears. Larger again than their hobgoblin kin, 8’ tall and 400+ lbs, covered in fur and sporting long morning stars and spiked clubs. And there were 6 of them.

“Light them up!”

Aredhel burst the torch alongside, making 1 shy away but scoring a deep burn on two others. Then crossbow bolts and arrows flew along with other spells as the bugbears took the first withering wave with no chance to return. They ran at us and Elmo drew the ire of one of them as they closed REAL fast. Pestle ran across the room to an alcove and we shot, spelled, and slashed again, even Winter joining the combat. One of them was staggered from the spider’s venom and then fell over, spasming and choking on his own bile. A bugbear still running closer cried out, “HUSBAND!” in her own language and ran up to cradle the dying…dead bugbear. Through her tears she centered her gaze on the party, Rowan and Winter specifically, body shaking with grief and fury.

“KILL THEM!!” she hollered out.

Fuck.

Albert called out for some help and a summoned monster had “Jimmy” the kobold pop into view. Pestle wanted to throw another torch to set up another fireburst but no good places were immediately available. Distance weapons fell aside as the floor became a melee zone with howls and screams and curses filled the air. Rowan was horrified as the bugbears put their effort against his giant spider, crushing Winter, killing him. There were some distant dings and Rowan, Pestle, and Albert seemed to have renewed power and strength running through them, spells and knives flying.

Another 2 bugbears fell before the wife of the first fallen smashed her morning star against the druid, slaying the follower of Frey (down to 0!). The battle drew tighter and then Ophelia went down next, the Cleric hit and bleeding bad. The last 2 bugbears were in line with Elmo, and then there was just one. The ranger took a brutal series of blows but the remaining party members focused their attacks and the last bugbear went down at long last.  Healing potions were administered and Ophelia heard a distant ding as well. We looked around stunned at the brutality of the bugbears and decided to wait a bit here before moving on anywhere else. It was 3:00 PM at this point in time.

Youth Group! TOEE - Meet 7, 8/17/22

Both wizards spent a bit of time studying while we hung out upstairs in the kitchen area and discussed our soon to be trip back to Hommlet. We wanted to meet with Auva and explain to him what was going on, and not to get the rest of the council involved. We also went over possibly going to the “Cheese and Sword” tradeshop but given that Rannos Davi would be there or one of his men – we wanted to skip it entirely.

As for Ortti, the nobleman’s treasures (platinum and coins) we opted to replace in one of the nice boxes we had and return it to the space under the bed slats. If we didn’t have it on us, we had no idea about it – especially if it was eventually discovered that the noble scion seemed to have disappeared.

So we loaded the giant frog onto the back of a Mount that Albert conjured up (Jerry the Horse!!) and made our way out of the swamplands, 2 hours plus to return to Hommlet. We know we were seen by some of the watchers on Burne’s tower but paid them no additional mind- going instead to the Elder’s estate and getting a meeting and dinner with Auva and his sons.

The Elder listened to our tale so far and did ask and wonder about the casual killing of people’s who had “given up”. In the heat of battle, sure, defend yourself without doubt. But once it has ended? Mercy is the better choice amongst the options. We represent him and should keep that in mind in our actions and deeds.

Otherwise he was fascinated with the Frog, agreed that more investigation is merited. He would hold off on calling the council until 10 tomorrow, that should allow us time to sleep in the Welcome Wench and be gone before the council would have requested our presence. We then went off to the Gnarley Oak Grove and met with Jaroo.

The one legged druid was fairly baked at this time, high and happy to see the party. We filled him in and he was pleased to learn that it was a giant frog that had bit him. A few of us partook of the druid’s weed (an almost requirement to be healed – it channels the healing energy man!) and he patched up the worst of our hurts. There were 4 healing potions available so we bought them from him and then made our way to the Wench.

The Innkeep sold us a room and some drink for the night and the party did their best to get some rest. We awoke early and discussed plans on what to do, but we wanted to be gone before 9 so we figured another time. We did take our own steed and wagon – both worked on and in good repair as per Ales the Wench’s stablehand, and we were off once again.

It took us again close to 2 hours or so to get to the Moathouse, and once there, we dismounted from the wagon to avoid overloading the bridge, and we drove it across to the walls and then the courtyard. The bridge did make some deep groans, and we could hear things falling off the bottom to the moving water below – but it held for us. We then set up some hay for the horse and a bit of water, tying the animal and wagon up to a wall ring that someone had set up before.

Once ready, it was between 11 and 12 when we reentered the Moathouse. Torches ready, we went down the stairs behind the pantry and looked around with care. There were no slimes, so that was good. And no one looked like they had moved any of the furnishings we had disturbed and then replaced again. But the dead humanoid zombie bodies? All gone. And the doors to the cells? All closed again.

Damn it.

We went to the first door and looked in – and there were two of the bandits from the room we had killed upstairs! Naked, covered in small painted or dyed bits of runes. Some sort of spell? New zombies? Ophelia called to Athena and got some sensations that this was potential evil – and there was more north and east of here – dirty tasting. Alright!

We wanted to prevent these bodies from getting up (and looking in the next 4 cells, we saw the rest of the bandits – and the giant lizard! In the other rooms. Screwing with the spell was beyond our skills – so we then decided to make the zombies useless. We would hack off one foot and one hand (from the opposite side of the body). With sword, axe, even staff and dagger we swung and beat and chopped. It was grisly work and one by one, we all lost our taste for it, but we did manage to ruin every body we could find.

Taking stock of ourselves, we went to the north door on the east end of the room and after listening, checked it out. It was a store room of some sort but mostly garbage was remaining. There was another door on the east end of the chamber, so we went up, listened, and got ready to open it up. When the door burst open from the other side and a soul milk stinking 1,000 lb Ogre named Lubash was there.

“Rrrah! I’ll get you!” he roared as the flinging door hit and crushed Aredhel and Pestle – knocking both the sorceress and gnomish wizard to the ground and threatening to kill them! We ran up to do battle while Rowan and Opehlia dared to try and drag the two friends back. Before Elmo could ply his axe though, Albert managed to cry out a spell – summoning a Giant Ant (random check), not just any type, but the Warrior type! It screeched and reared up, leaping onto Lubush and slamming its mandibles on either side of the ogre’s head (Critical hit, 00 – Decapitated – instant death – the 2nd time ever I’ve rolled that option on the bladed/edged weapon critical chart!) and then tore it free!!!

“Way to go, Ant-oni!” Albert cheered and we all sort of looked around, stunned at the rapidity that the battle just…ended!

Our druid and cleric worked to get the sorceress and wizard vertical as well. So we took stock of the room and figured out what to do next.

Youth Group! TOEE - Meet 6, 8/10/22

No matter what, we wanted to make sure we were not trapped by the green slime. So there were a number of plans thrown out there. A sturdy tree branch or the like to entice them to fall? That was something we could do. Elmo was right on it. Albert wanted to restudy while we had some time to kill waiting for Pestle to wake up. We also knew we wanted to have some torches set so the party went through our inventory making sure enough light and fire sources were there to go around.

But the big thing was to get the further slimes to work their way to us. And for that we would need Wynter. So with only 2 minutes on the clock, just before we were ready to go back down, Rowan cast Speak with Animals and had an intense conversation with his giant albino spider, impressing upon him what he wanted him to do and the amount of time to get it done. The arachnid seemed like he got it and we all gathered at the stairs, ready to go down.

Once there Wynter climbed the wall and then onto the ceiling and skittered off in the dark to goad and coax the slime up there to move towards the stairs where Elmo and Aredhel were waiting with torches. The rest of the group were looking over the mass of furniture, bags, barrels, and the like on the west wall. Eventually they unearthed a few bags of sillage, the leftover found when winnowing grain and the likes. Coupled that with the VERY large earthenware jug of oil that Pestle brought down from the pantry area, made us pretty much ready as the slimes drew closer.

They didn’t seem to respond much to the branch, one of them dropping and getting burned to cinders for the effort. But the other 2 slimes had oozed together and were not being enticed to drop, instead trying to settle over Elmo’s position. So Albert called out a short summon and a field mouse showed up. He gave it explicit instructions for the rodent to follow, calling it Guiseppe. The mouse seemed to grin and then ran off into the large chamber.

Where the huge slime slammed down upon it, devouring it instantly.

“Light it up!” Elmo called out, jamming the torch into the green slime.

As it proceeded to burn, the Ranger backed up long enough for Pestle to hurl the jug of oil into the slime, further spreading the fire. One of the bags of sillage added to the mix as well, spreading the flames. And then a Fireburst spell roared out and the slime was consumed in a massive conflagration that had the party back up and watch and wait for a few minutes until sure that all signs of the green slimes were gone. Hooray!

We decided to check out the wall on the west, dig through the furnishings and material there for a while, while Pestle wandered off to the east to keep watch for a while. We gave ourselves a 20 minute window and worked on stripping off barrels boxes and bags. The gnome did let us know that she did spy in the distance and to the south, a figure that was radiating room temperature but still milling about slowly. Undead. Most likely a zombie. We altered our plans to just look and then get out of here. Pestle would let us know if the figure moved at all.

We did discover that behind the wall of trash and boxes were two doors. And based upon the age of the locks and the amount of rust and dust, they hadn’t been opened in years. One of the doors was able to be opened, the other was still covered by trash. Taking out his crowbar, Elmo worked at the door and lock, twisting the metal back and forth until the metal gave way under the warrior’s might and snapped off. We waited…nothing was coming. Opening the door (difficult!) we had a chance to see the original manor house’s weapon room. Pikes, spears, guisarmes, and a case or arrows and crossbow bolts. A few of us topped off our quivers but we guessed we were running light of time.

We talked about it and wanted to get a lot of these back to Hommlet as they would get us a pretty penny but also help arm the town if need be. But we would need our wagon and horse. And if Lareth was indeed down here somewhere, we didn’t want him or his followers to get them. So we closed the door and stacked the stuff in front of it. We suspected the other door was the armory and hard armor items within – again, for another day.

We went to Pestle and noted the zombie was now heading our way. So we drew up into a battle light, light was laid out, Pestle backed up to the stairs to sling stones with her hoopak, and the one…two zombies drew close. There were 5 doors to cells on the western side of the room and from the closest one, two more zombies came out. We also noted that piercing weapons were mostly useless on the undead so it was blunt and slashing weapons.

The zombies were slow and we hit them first, Elmo’s battle axe leading the way. We wanted to hold Opehlia’s turning until it was best so we plied sword, club, and spell for now. And after we were hit, we readied to return the blows. But another set of doors opened up and two more zombies came out, staggering towards us. Ok that was a bit different. Albert summoned a giant ant, named Antony, and Aredhel poured through a spell or two before taking Elmo’s crowbar and smashing zombies.

And then Ophelia went down from a series of undead attacks. Rowan dragged her back and rocks were hurled, the druid getting the cleric back up in time to Turn undead! But the power of Athena faltered and the zombies came onward, now 7 of them engaged! Elmo hit again and we had three down at this point…but Rowan dropped next! Damn it!

Ophelia got Rowan back to his feet, the druid staggered but fighting on. Albert ran out of spells and we were calling to flee but kept waiting one more round. We had dropped 5 of the zombies at this point and we noted a queer thing, the later zombies we dropped were in poorer conditions than the first ones which took a lot of effort to bring down. So we opted to try and ride it out. Elmo and Aredhel had a bad run of misses and Pestle had churned through half her rocks. Albert eventually took to hurling daggers to help out and Ophelia fell again!

We were down to dregs for spells and 10 rounds in…the cleric was brought back to 1 hit point. Elmo was given a precious healing potion, the ranger a mass of bloody wounds and bruises. It was getting pretty bad. And then Ophelia fumbled and hurled her magic sword across the room. Damn it. She drew her standard broad sword and fought on but was hit hard AGAIN, and again dropped to 0! With only 2 zombies left we pushed on and Rowan raised the cleric again back to 1 hit point as we tore through the last zombies and finally, 14 rounds later, ended the fight.

Exhausted and with no healing left to dole out, we made sure no one had paid attention to us, and then bandaged our hurts while a few of us looked in the cells. While that was going on, Pestle, Ophelia, and Elmo went to the end of the larger chamber and looked in the next. It was a torture chamber, both long ago used and recent usage could be seen. 2 5’ wide columns went from floor to ceiling and the party was looking around. In the cells we did find a few hollows with gems in them, and Pestle wanted to use her last spell, Detect Secret Doors. There were none in the cells...but while panning around (spell ends fast) she DID note some sort of the brief hint of a secret door on the central column!

We checked it out and eventually opened a section of it that revealed a shaft going down maybe 30’ into the gloom. It smelled of death and corruption, rot. Ladder rungs were set in the wall. “No time, people. Let’s go.”

We worked our way out of the room, back to the first floor, and then at 2:15 or so, set ourselves up behind the door to Ortti and the Brigand’s hideout, discussed possibly studying and then heading back to Hommlet. Jaroo had promised to help us if need be. We hoped.

Meet 27, Adv 10, 8/6/22

The party eventually decided on who was going to make the trip to Stivil and who was going to stay behind. There were a number of things we wanted to take care of, and too many of us needed to stay behind for training. Darius wanted to have a brief conversation with Pha-iyr Carom before we left, where the fighter did learn that the 2 people that we had pulled out of the Terror Dungeon that had been burned to just bones, were most likely hirelings that the Chosen of Asgard had brought with them. A team of thieves, they had been hired by Lester Humbleman, leader of the Chosen, and the consensus was that the 2 had a falling out with the paladin and his team and stormed off, eventually getting captured and killed by ogres. The fixer did offer to set up a conversation between Darius and the group leader and we hoped to get to it soon.

Meanwhile the party had used our own wagon, made sure it was loaded down, and got our nag from the stables, eventually making the trip out of the Northgate. Unlike the main Traderoads, the lesser roads were poorly designed and infrequently maintained. Prone to ruts and flooding, the 6” of muddy ice and snow still covering their surface proved a long trip for us, eating up the entirety of the day. The trees were thick to our west and in many places the arboreal spread threatened to consume the road itself. The land rose slowly ahead of us, making the horse groan from effort. The day had fallen to night and eventually we could smell the city of Stivil itself.

Surrounded by farms and grazing lands, the walled city had been breached during the Randari War over a century ago and the dwellers never fixed the walls, instead used the fallen stones in future building and projects. Numerous breaches, some of them easily 30’ wide dominated the area. A main road led us through and after announcing ourselves to the guards, were given direction to the Eastview District and a suggestion to stay at Third Breech – an Inn of some renown and standing. The centerpiece of the city was the Arena, a stadium capable of seating 7,500 that dominated the middle of Stivil. Built over 2 centuries ago by Randari Orcs, it has been almost continuously used all these years and it is the largest draw to anyone who has any interest in visiting Stivil.

We came to the Inn where a stableman took our tired animal from us (Stavi). We then went in where Hjaring, the proprietor, welcomed us and made sure we were fed and given drinks before arranging a room for us for the night. We made our way up to our room and after settling in watched as Grendel used almost all the water to clean himself and his clothes up in the room ewer. He then went out to get more, walking down to the Commonroom to ask Hjarling to take care of it.

It was here that Dizzy laid out for the party what he was looking to get done here. It seems that there was a Thorian priestess laid to rest here, Matron Autti. She had an earring on missing the second – of which Dizzy had. The dwarf then wanted us to get the body dug up, take the earring, and then once he had the pair, wanted to make a trip east of Thak where he would seek the lair of the copper dragon Herodotus who took it so so so long ago.

Whaaaat?

We had some back and forth where he had to sell it to the group but eventually everyone agreed to go and see the tomb tomorrow and then make a further decision. Good enough for now.

It was Airmonth the 2nd when we broke our fast and then wandered to the Lord’s District and the main city graveyard. It was fenced (wrought iron) and there was a funeral house on premises. The dwarven priest, Gulmund, sweating and large, came out to meet us. We fabricated a story about visiting great former priest graves and Matron Autti was next on our list. He seemed welcome to the idea and we went off to a mausoleum that had been sponsored by the temple of Thor. With space to inter 6, Autti spot was 4th from the bottom. There was a clay seal here and Gulmund chatted with us for a bit before escorting us out. We had asked some questions but left long before it would raise too many suspicions.

Liking what we saw we would have to come up with another possible way to get in after hours and get to the grave.

Lastly, Eoghan begrudgingly made the decision to head off to his family home and speak with his Father and Mother. Dylan Bowyer, Leila Bowyer (his mother), and Morgan (elder brother) and Seren (older sister) were stunned to see him. It had been a year and the family had fallen on some suspicion with Eoghan’s absence. The Bowyer’s farm had been taken back by the landlord and then reparted out to another. Dylan and Eoghan did not see eye to eye- both still stinging from actions and words made over a year earlier. And to add more drama, the parents were going to separate. This was going to put Dylan’s operation as Master Hunter here under great pressure. Morgan was trying to step up but the elder brother did not have Eoghan’s natural gifts as a hunter and ranger to truly help the father. And Seren was way too self absorbed and her prospects of being married off had diminished greatly, she was now seeing a musician at a local bar.

Eoghan did get a lead though. Seems a local monster hunting group had taken up locale west of the town to the abandoned watch keep Falcon’s Nest. Run by a halfling named Jessie, she had gathered a decent group together and had a large portion of the town convinced that a monster or more made their home in the Passian Hills and were part of the hunting problem as well the source for a number of unexplained murders. He thanked his family and made his way out, interested in telling the group what he learned and hoped to go to the keep.

Youth Group! TOEE - Meet 5, 8/5/22

We awoke the next day Restmonth the 7th @ 7 AM. Some rain was falling outside and we discussed the fact that the pattern had been until now, crazy rain falling on RestDay – which was yesterday – and it didn’t happen. At least here. Being that Hommlet was about 2 hours through the swampy lands from here made us think that there was most likely similar weather at both locales.

The thought was that we would check out the west wing of the Moathouse this morning and then make our way to the pantry and most likely downstairs right after. So after prayers and studying, we gathered outside the main chamber and with Elmo and Ophelia taking point, proceeded our way west. The hall was dirty, grit covering the floors. 4 Doors, one on the right, 2 on the left, and 1 at the end of the hall.

We opted to hit them in order so came to the first door on the left first and while we were listening to it, we DID hear the sound of something soft falling down the hall a bit and behind the right door. Er…let’s go there first.

We listened to the door again, and heard nothing this time. But we opened it up and it was the Manor’s kitchen. Some old rot, spoiled signs of food stuff, dried out herbs, and a mess on the counters met us. 3 small casks (barely 2 gallons) were on the floor by the fireplace, one of them was on its side. Otherwise we didn’t see anything.

We waited a few seconds before shutting the door and heading back down the hall to the 1st chamber again. With care we opened it up and it was a trophy room. Animal heads and antlers, horns and the like. Most were ruined and twisted about. But Rowan and Aredhel gave it a further once over before announcing the chamber was clear.

We went on to the next door, also on the left. We did hear something fall again behind the right but chose to ignore it for now. The left door was opened at it was some domicile for the Manor’s original Castellan. Decent furnishings, clothes, bed, writing desk. We looked the room over with serious care until we came upon a small 2’ leather wrapped baton with a bulbous rounded metal end at each side. We each took turns trying to unscrew the metal but eventually Albert (to everyone’s surprise) got the end to pop off.

Inside was dust. Silver dust. Whoa! Pestle and Albert discussed it at length and did say the ground silver dust was used as a component in various glyphs, wards, and circle spells. Rowan kept it for now. We wanted to check out the door at the end of the hall and after a moment of forcing it, the portal opened up to reveal a large chamber. A barracks of some sort, most of the interior was in poor condition and the wall in the southwest corner had given way, spilling out to the rain soaked exterior.

But it was the giant 15’ long lizard curled around a bed and chest on the north end of the room that gave the group pause…long enough for it to burst from the area and lunge for Elmo, ripping into the ranger’s armor and biting him HARD on the left leg! It refused to let go and started to savage our giant when Rowan called to Frey and calmed the beast long enough for us to pull away and charge out of the room, slamming the door closed.

“How long does that last?” Pestle asked as we got to the end of the hall.

The sound of something hard smashing into the recently closed door resounded as the druid replied, “Not long at all.”

“That door is NOT going to hold,” Albert commented, Aredhel stepping vaguely in front of her brother, everyone getting spells and weapons out.

“I am getting a bit tired of being bit,” Elmo chuckled, flexing his wounded leg and readying his weapon.

The giant lizard continued to hit the door again and again, 500 plus pounds of angry cold blooded reptile. The wood splintered and it shoved its head through, one claw reaching down the hall as it hissed at us. Rocks flew and a crossbow bolt, even a sleep spell (which failed), but all it did was anger the beast until it busted free and raced to the party. Albert called up another summoned monster, getting an Orc to appear behind, armed with a halberd. “Carl” (as he called the porcine warrior) did his best as did we all, but the giant lizard flashed and bit and ripped around the group until enough blows finally landed to end the giant beast.

We cautiously went down the hall to check out the room while Pestle looked the animal over for signs of sorcery along with Albert, getting some of its blood for now. The room did result in finding a small smattering of copper coins, but also 3 giant lizard eggs the lizard had been caring for. We then made our way back to the last room, the door on the right to the kitchen.

Elmo once more went first and when we opened the door up, we could see that another cask had been dumped on its side. We approached slowly, when something burst from under the chimney and launched itself at the ranger. Elmo was driven back THROUGH the hall and to the other room, with a 60 lb giant tick in his chest…and it was beginning to swell up with an audible “SLUUUUURP” noise! “AHHH!!!!”

Using his dagger he tried stabbing at it while magic missiles and other weapons clanged against its toughened carapace. Another summon got Jimmy the kobold again, but the tough shell made most weapons bounce free – including Elmo breaking his dagger! The Ranger was pretty beat up before we managed to finally slay the beast a wave of healing and healing potions followed. “I don’t know what damned wizard is making a variety of giant animals around here,” Elmo growled, struggling to get up, “but I will have no problem feeding him his own hands.”

We wanted to rest a bit and Pestle tried to cook the giant lizard eggs we had found, burning them a bit but Elmo ate them with thanks. Some studying followed as well and then we figured at 12 noon, we should press on.

At the pantry we looked around the corner and saw stairs going down into the gloom…and lots of rats, including over a dozen giant ones. “Ares…Damn it!” Elmo was shaking his head. The ranger took out all 3 of his flasks of oil and ripping his shirt made Molotov cocktails. We lit them, looked around the corner, and let them fly. Two of them hit the mass of rodents setting them ablaze – the last sailed DOWN the steps and hit the ground below…and did not break!

With most of the rats burned up, we dispatched the last few without issue and then lit a torch, Ophelia holding it. We then went down the steps and saw a very sizable chamber. Columns supported the ceiling and to the left we could see piled up furniture, boxes, barrels, and chairs. Pestle, Albert, and Aredhel all could feel the power of burgeoning magic in the air. The thought was we might be close to a demonic force. Elmo was going to step into the room to grab the flask of oil when a mass of slime almost 3’ in diameter dropped from the ceiling and hit the ground just ahead of him!

He backed up onto the stairs as another one hit the area. Pestle had some dancing lights fly around and she picked up 2 more slimes on the ceiling. As for the ones here, we proceeded to burn one while the 2nd one tried to move to the wall. The one we burned gave forth a horrid smell and the gnome fell over, succumbing to the burnt vinegar odor. We grabbed her and went back up the stairs where Rowan and Ophelia said that Pestle would be out for 40 minutes. So we discussed what we would do next and going back down to the basement.

Youth Group! TOEE - Meet 4, 7/27/22

We discussed plans quietly and quickly, opting that we would try to open the door and then attempt to sleep them. So we drew up in a rough circle around the door and then forced it open. Many of the bandits within charged out, a crossbow bolt flaring and a couple of them getting to within melee range. However before Aredhel could sleep the mass of them, a lucky throw from a knife wielder smacked her in the skull and dropped the sorceress – upsetting our plan immediately!!

"Get up!” came the call as Elmo plied axe and the rest of the party struggled against the 9 foes against them. A quick and well placed cure righted the sorceress who drew out her supply of rose petals and crushed them, hurling the magics out and shouting, “Zu!” Dropping 6 of the 9 bandits. “Take them out!”

The guy at the door fell back swiftly, slamming the door closed and locking it, and then proceeded to wake up the guys still in the room with him. A few of us dropped knives and staves on the sleeping foes, slaying them outright as Elmo was asked, “Get that door open!”

“On it!” The ranger agreed. He charged the door, axe and shield out, and hit it hard enough to splinter the wood after a smash or two, opening it wide. And was shot in the gut at point blank range with a heavy crossbow, staggering him back and knocking him to the ground! Rowan and Ophelia ran up, horrified to see the magnitude of the wound would be fatal if not treated immediately (Critically hit, struck in gut, dead in 2-12 turns!!). But with now 3 of the brigands up, one of them the leader, we had other issues to face.

We fired off a magic missile and Albert summoned another monster, a hobgoblin that he named Robert – ordering the bulky goblinoid to immediately join the battle with the brigands. And then Elmo, hurting bad and leaking blood, joined the fight even with a mortal wound, his axe cleaving through one of the dwindling defenders. Finally with just the leader left, he dropped his weapon and allowed himself to be taken prisoner.

Healing, what little we had left, was doled out, special attention given to Elmo. As for the leader of the bandits, his name was Ortti Goldenthan, and identified himself as the son of the Goldenthan Lord in Nyr Dyv. Elmo had some dealings with nobility and let the group know that we needed to treat carefully with Ortti. He did surrender and as the son of a nobleman, even a disgraced one as he recognized Ortti to be, he was still supposed to be accorded some leeway. Albert nodded and commenced with the questioning.

There was lots of discussion. Turns out he was part of a group called the “Black Chamber” and their job was to receive goods that would come here every 2 weeks. Rannos Davi had some of his caravan guards come by and swap out, and they would often bring trade goods, food stuffs, and “various animals. You know, cats, rats, pigeons, and the like.” Weird. At one point though he was trying real hard to get Rowan to agree to letting him just go and the 2 wizards and the sorcerer noted that some sort of latent charm was tried on the druid. It failed, but they identified it as a demonic gift. This Ortti had been in contact and served a demonic entity. Further proof that we were in the right place and most likely near some sort of higher ranking figure beholden to Iuz the foul.

Frustrated that his ploy failed, he then launched into a diatribe that the silver light has been seen. He’s seen it and it’s opened his eyes. Lareth the Beautiful will tear your souls free and feast upon them. The Dark Hope will devour any and all in Hommlet who dare stand against him. The party’s life is forfeit and the new master will learn of them and destroy them. Great. Albert and Elmo discussed it at length and he was touched by a demonic entity (Lareth?), stark raving mad, and too much of a danger to let roam free. He needs to be taken care of. Permanently. Elmo really didn’t want to do it but knew in his heart it was the right call. So he finished off Ortti and then made the party swear never to tell a soul of Ortti to anyone as the House of Goldenthan would be forced to seek retribution for the attack and slaying of one of their scions.

He slit the body’s gut and filled it with rocks, dragging it out of the moathouse and to the flowing waters, Ophelia helping while Rowan and Aredhel looked around the chamber and Albert and Pestle mused about what we had learned. Once the body sunk under the water, the large man and the cleric returned, Rowan was digging up a section of the chamber where the wall had collapsed. The druid’s keen senses had discovered the bandits had indeed hid something here under the dirt – a low chest!. Opening it revealed a long sword a few arrows. The long sword was touched in silver and had some magical runes on it. The item was also named, “Grace”. Ophelia gave it a few practice swings and agreed that she would hold it and use it well.

It was about 4 PM now and we decided that we would avoid questions or scrutiny at Hommlet, tipping our hand to Rannos or anyone else on the council, as to what we might have encountered or learned. So we figured we’d explore one of the wings (the south one) and then retreat to the chamber the bandits had used. We went south, confirming the stairs to the 2nd floor was unusable and choked with rubble, the floor above had collapsed some time ago.

Three doors were ahead of us, 2 on the west wall, 1 on the east, and eventually a larger chamber beyond the end of the hall. The first room was a littered chamber, once a conference room but now pretty much a wreck and ruin. A few rats scurried away as we looked in. Rowan and Aredhel gave the room a solid once over, eventually finding a hollow spot with a rusted sword tucked within but nothing else. We went a bit further to look in the next chamber but stopped on hearing movement from the room to the south. Something big, heavy, dragging across the ground. Weapons ready we dared to enter a 12’ adder met us!

Battling the snake we wasted little time on attacking it, Elmo’s axe leading the way. Not wanting to get too close, Albert summoned another monster and again got a kobold, Jimmy returning once more! The little ankle biter charged the snake and leapt atop its back, hacking and trying to eat it. It took some doing but we managed to slay the beast at long last. The room here at the corner was also open to the elements and we didn’t see anything so we returned to the 2 closed doors. One of them was a salon at one time, but now a mass of ruined furnishings. And bats. Lots of bats. We slammed the door and left that room alone.

The other chamber was an empty bedchamber which most likely Ortti used a few times. Rowan and Aredhel took it apart, clothes and other items found. But also a thin box under the bed that contained 4 healing potions and 3 platinum bars! Whoa! Elmo let the group know about the difficulty of handling platinum (no one in the party had ever seen one before) and we took them for now, deciding what to do with them another time.

We retreated to the northeast chamber and ate, drank, and locking the door behind us, drew up lots for watch and then eventually fell asleep.