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.
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