Taking a brief rewind in time, Father Falder had reached out to the 5 SEGA operatives that had been in town for the last 5 months, acting as liaisons, fences, support, and scouts for the operation, seeing if one of them was willing to break ranks and take the risk with joining the forward operation of your party.
One of them did. Sylas Rybak, 5th of 6th children of the Ryback family, a fisher by trade, ranger by occupation. He had been working the docks down here @ Highpoint, tracking to arrival and departure of the syndicate boats and putting together a complete log and manifesto. A scarred individual, he had been victim of a fire some time ago, but was both an accomplished woodsman, kingsman, and bounty hunter. After some questions he was welcomed into the group and promised to do what he could.
We also had a chance to better hear and understand Yandr Offop’s concern regarding the 2 ghasts that had escaped during the first excursion to the Temple of Gruumsh. Pretty much he wanted us to put some effort into eventually cleaning it up and to be more mindful of our actions in and around the temple.
Returning back to the here and now, Birthmonth the 7th, 8:50 PM, we stopped outside the Stonecutter entrance and listened. Hearing nothing, we opened it up, and some stacks metal and wood on the door fell out, making some noise. Fuck. We waited and sure enough, could hear some running figures approaching. Yandr did a fast detect evil and we got 4 orcish pings closing…and at least 2 or 3 ghouls beyond the cemetery doorway.
We figured to line up and get ready, weapons hot. The orcs hit the door, the lead one hunched over, expecting an attack, and then slammed into Darius, the next one hitting Hrimvir. Some of us were behind the door and were ineffective to hit, but did instead slam the two doors repeatedly into the orcs there. The 2 in the back rank fired crossbow bolts, hitting the group. Hrimvir and Sylas took turns swapping to make attacks. Rhareli called to Garl Glittergold to make the fight silent so we didn’t attract more enemies.
The orcs held the ground for 3 rounds, 1 set of them swapping, out for the front before 1 of them decided to flee down the hall. Rhareli went to Atlas who used his ring of spell storing to place jump on the gnome. Rhareli jumped back of the group, tumbling through the gap at the door, and hit the orc there, felling the crossbow wielder. It took 6 minutes but we managed to finish the fight. They were using poor weapons and armor, and had less than 10 coins on them. And 1 escaped.
We got a bit in conversation and lost some direction for a bit. We did remember the broken iron box and we spent 4 or 5 minutes forcing it open to reveal a potion of fire resistance and 6 decent sized diamonds. Carl was sure they were 500 crowns a pop. Nice – we kept the items and returned to discussing our options. Eventually settling on Sylas tracking the 1 who escaped back down the hall and the rest of us coming along. The new ranger found scuffs that indicated where the 4 orcs had come from, and the further we walked along the long passage, the more obvious the trail became. At the side corridor, we came to more proof they had come from this way and a few doors. Best we could tell were the doors were closed and some air movement behind? No evil in the area. A final door was south down a short hall.
We gathered up and after making sure the door was not trapped, opened up to take a look around. An Inner courtyard. Star and moonlight gave up a heads up on the size of it. Mostly dust and grass, some soot, several large yellow trees near the edges, blocks of stone that had fallen from the higher walls and outbuildings. Lots of protection for creatures to hide behind. Big.
We decided early on to NOT split up. A tracking showed that they had come through here at one point, but no way to know from or where (poor check). We decided to start on the eastern side of the courtyard and check the area out with care. Within a short time we stumbled on a dozen to a score of deep bones – legs primarily. Well gnawed and eaten. Carl and Sylas had no idea what it was that had eaten the flesh off, outside of it being a carnivore.
Eventually we did find a concealed door on the east wall. Sylas was sure the one who escaped came from here. We tried to open the lock (5 tumblers!) but no one had any luck. Maybe tomorrow. We kept going on, staying on the east wall and heading south. We were getting dirtier and looking around. To the south was a wall that showed many repairs, reaching 10’ in height. Looking at the map that Cara and Gun were working on, this section of the wall came right against the inner room that we had mapped where there were repairs on the eastern wall within that chamber. Same sort of repairs here. Ok – this was the same place.
Don’t want to knock it down, so we decided to have Atlas (tallest) be hoisted up and grab the top, take a peek over. Hrimvir cupped hands and Atlas stepped in, lifted, scrambled, and slid off, hitting his side – 1 point of damage. Ok, ok. Again. And again he went up, lift, scrabble…and fall on his face this time – 1 point of damage. Dude!
This time Cara, Carl, and Yandr braced the mage’s leg, holding him up and in place and Hrimvir lifted and Atlas grabbed the top finally. Hands together, he lifted, braced his feet and looked over. Chipped cracked stones, some caretaker items, a few statues in weird poses. Eyes from a lizard looking thing staring at him.
…
Atlas was turned to stone. “What the hell?!?” Hrimvir lifted Atlas up and off the wall as 1…2 howling dinosaur sounding monsters from the other side howled and yelled, wanting to get over and attack us. Hearing the noise, seeing Atlas’ condition, Sylas took off his cap and wiped his sweating head clean. “I think we got us a couple of basilisks over there.”
“Damn it.” We wanted to get out of here with Atlas and see if Father Falder had a way of turning the wizard back to flesh. As we were discussing our options, we failed to notice danger creeping up except for the ranger who looked up and stepped in front of Gun, axe up, as a 6’ tall undead pale skinned monster stalked out of the gloom and tried to attack. The surprise blow was turned aside by the ranger who returned the favor with a well placed hit on its neck. The axe blade dug deep and was pulled out – the flesh knitting back to normal instantly. “Damn it!!”
We shuffled the lines, Carl was sure it was a wight. Hrimvir lowered Atlas and told Carl to hold his turning attempt until he could get a combine spell out from Thrym. The wight though saw the cleric and shifted its attack, spurring towards the cleric. Where its claws rippled out and slashed Carl. Robbing him of strength, warmth…and life force. Carl went from 5th level to half way down 4th instantly – losing spell power, hit points, and skillsand abilities. The Combine spell rang out but the cleric was now lower in level, and had to work harder to turn – managing to get lucky enough to drive the wight away for a short time.
Carl looked over at the god’s dice and saw it was only a “3”. “3! 3 rounds! We have 3 minutes until it comes back!”
We grabbed Atlas, each other, and ran north across the courtyard. Getting to the door, we burst through, slammed it closed behind, and ran through the Temple to the Stonecutter shed again. Rhareli went invisible, snuck to the gate 45’ away, unlocked it, and we all ran out into the street, dodging and guards and curfew, making it eventually to the gates of the Temple of Uller. 11:15 PM, 2 hours and 25 minutes after we first entered the Temple of Gruumsh.
We awoke Father Falder and filled the venerable priest on what had occurred. He could turn Atlas back to flesh, Uller demanded 2500 crowns of payment. We took 5 of the 6 diamonds we just got and offered them up. 10 minutes of prayers followed and then Atlas took a deep breath, his skin turning back to normal again. As for Carl, that was something else. The draining life force of the undead cannot be reversed and only time could replace the life that Carl had lost.
We rested and awoke the next morning, Birthmonth the 8th. We were eating breakfast when we heard a knock at the front door. The party hid for now in the nave behind the partition while the Captain of the Dragoons entered. It seems there was a ghast sighting and potential attack but had been driven off. During the subsequent chaos, they discovered this young human boy, malnourished and in bad shape. They wanted to know if Father Falder would watch after him for now, obviously he had been either captured or enslaved up until recently.
After the Captain left, we ended up talking to Govaine. He was nine and from Seaford further up the coast. A few months ago, pirates had attacked, killing his parents and capturing him and his 2 older brothers. They eventually came here to Highport where they were taken to the Temple and brough underground through some unused Sewers. They had been there for some time. The eldest brother was taken out after a week, shipped north to someplace called the Stockade. A month later the next brother was taken out on a different caravan and was to be taken to someplace called the Aerie on orders of a cruel woman named Valeria.
He had been working underground, fearful of “bug men” and something called “The cow”. The slaver orcs were nasty to all the humans and something had happened. A slave master named Karraway was approached and told about intruders. A meeting followed and they all went up out of the sewers to the surface. Govaine, finally left alone and not reshackled, took the chance to climb up. He came out between the legs of a one eyed orcish statue and then snuck for the entrance, running through the open portcullis until he snuck out of the gates and found himself near the town square.
Nice. At this point we wanted to enter the eastern half of the Temple and Govaine said he’d draw us as best a map as he could. We figured we’d re enter the Temple tonight, this time to encounter Karraway and maybe make our way into the lower sewer levels and get some more answers. Birthmonth the 8th, 11:30 AM.
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