When we last left the heroes, they had spent some time investigating a couple of defiled shrines, discovered and dealt with the culprits of said defiling, offended Broadwater’s priestess, spent a good amount of time learning (primarily from Birch) about Ednowain, Glenis, and Tamuril as well as a bit about the halfling Tannil and his apparent interest in Ednowain’s Keep, and, lastly, Bryn appeared to have broken the heart of this same halfling…a person from whom they want to learn even more information about the keep.
There are potential spoilers below the break for the adventure, “The Crucible of Freya,” from Necromancer Games (although a heavily modified version).
After a restful night, everyone headed back down to the common room at the Cask & Flagon the following morning. Bryn approached Tannil and tried to strike up a conversation but the reception she received was quite icy…apparently he was a bit sore about having been spurned the night before.
Eventually, however, the party convinced Tannil to come outside with them where they could have a conversation away from the innkeeper and his staff [remember, the party was concerned that the innkeeper was connected to Maeve given the dragonfly ring he had been spotted wearing previously]. Clarissa explained to the halfling that they were interested in going to Ednowain’s keep and that they thought that he might know something about it as well as pointing out his connection with Elvid. Clarissa asked if his real name was Tannil or Grigory Sandybanks. Tannil explained that he had no idea what they were talking about or who this Grigory person might be.
Clarissa kept pushing the issue and Tannil kept declaring his innocence and that he had never met anyone named Elvid. When pressed on the issue of how he was supporting himself, given that he appeared to have no gainful employment, Tannil explained that he was living on an inheritance from his recently departed great uncle, Dannil. The two had been quite close and so, he explained, the loss was quite difficult for Tannil. He had decided to travel a bit and the quaint charms of the idyllic Broadwater had struck a chord with him and so he had decided to stay here for awhile.
No one believed the story and Clarissa kept pressing the issue and told Tannil that no more money would be coming his way as Elvid had died. Tannil kept protesting his innocence and demanded to know who had claimed he had this connection with this Elvid so that he could address this slander (or libel) directly. Eventually, Clarissa showed him the letter from Grigory that had been found in Elvid’s basement. Upon seeing the letter, Tannil’s demeanor instantly changed and he suggested that they all go walk by the lake and away from others who might overhear.
As they strolled by the lake, Tannil explained that he had, indeed, worked for Elvid and had located Ednowain’s Keep. He admitted that Grigory was a false name…would you want an evil wizard know your real name? He also asked about how Elvid died and Clarissa shared what she knew of that [per the prelude adventure that Rachel and Todd had participated in].
Tannil agreed to tell the party about the keep in exchange for 50gp and 20% of all treasure found within. If the 20% amounted to more than 50gp, he’d gladly refund the 50gp “deposit” to the party. Drogar balked about such a large cost but Tannil pointed out that he knew where the keep was and the party did not AND that he didn’t think it would be difficult for him to find other interested parties. Now that Elvid was dead, he was no longer “exclusively” employed and could sell his information to the highest bidder. Unless, of course, they party agreed to his deal.
Agree is exactly what the party did. Tannil shared that the keep was a day or so travel from Broadwater and that it sat atop a rocky outcropping in the woods. The keep itself predated Ednowain’s occupation. A few weeks ago, Tannil had a local woodsman by the name of Hanil lead him to the keep. He claimed that they only located it and looked at it from afar but did not investigate closely. Tannil offered to take the party to Hanil’s hut, a short distance out of town.
So the party gathered up their gear and followed Tannil out of town. When they arrived at the hut, there was no one home. Tannil noted that Hanil would often be out in the woods for long periods of time so they might have to wait awhile for the woodsman to come back and then he headed back to town. The party looked in the hut and scouted around in the nearby woods, following some small trails, but they saw no sign of Hanil. The firepit in the hut was cool so they figured that he might have already been gone for awhile. As they were setting up camp for the night in the small clearing in front of the hut, Hanil arrived home.
It was immediately clear that Hanil was not the brightest person they had met and that he was rather shy around women. Although he stuttered badly anytime Clarissa or Shory spoke with him, he was fine with Bryn and the men in the party. The party shared that Tannil had referred them to him, noting that Hanil could lead them to Ednowain’s Keep. He agreed to take them the following morning and offered his very limited hospitality for the night.
In the morning, the group set out. It was a full day’s travel to reach the area of the keep. Hanil pointed out a fork in the trail they had been traveling, noting that one led to the keep and one to some caves in the outcropping. He warned the party that Kargor and Karga, the “tall people,” lived at the keep. He said they were pretty big and strong but he didn’t know what they were…but they weren’t giants or ogres. He also said that he believed some bandits were occupying the caves and that the caves extended under the keep. The party gave him 3gp for his assistance (which seemed to surprise him) and, after he made sure that Shory was confident that she could find the way back, Hanil started back home.
While the bulk of the party stayed at the fork in the trail, Bryn and Shory moved up the trail towards the keep. The keep was in pretty bad shape with many of the walls damaged and the upper portions fallen. The towers at the corners of the keep were in varying degrees of clinging to their original structure. Circling the keep and climbing nearby trees to get a better look within, they didn’t spot anyone moving around inside. However, they did spot a few things of interest.
A short marble building sat in the center of the courtyard, about fifteen to twenty feet tall. It had no apparent openings and, as they would spot later, looked like a sinkhole had opened up underneath it…suggesting that the “tower” might have once been taller but was now largely underground.
Against the wall opposite the main gates, a stone building was intact. Later, as the party scouted around within the keep, Bryn listened at the stone door of this building. She heard a steady, but indistinct, rhythmic noise from within. The grasses around the front of this building were pretty well trampled with many bare, large footprints visible on the ground. A haphazard pile of various bones (some that looked human or humanoid) sat a short distance from this building.
The large tracks also appeared to have formed a trail that led to the opposite corner of the keep. There was what looked to be an orchard having grown wild in this corner of the courtyard. Hanging, upside down, from one of the trees was a human man, naked. The body looked bloated but didn’t have any obvious wounds. A closer examination later showed that it looked like he had been strangled by a garotte.
A sinkhole was on one side of the courtyard, about twenty feet from the marble building. There were many strange tracks around and along the sides of the sinkhole. They looked like someone had used a pole to make small depressions. The party’s first thought was that they were probably from a giant spider of some sort. These tracks formed a trail that led to an opening in the opposite wall (which had completely collapsed) and off into the woods. The party decided to follow this trail and it led to a large fallen–and rotting–tree that looked like it had been gnawed upon by large insects. They scouted around this area, but found nothing, before heading back to the keep.
After some discussion of lowering Drogar down in the sinkhole, the party decided to gather as much information as possible before blundering into who knows what. So they headed back down the trail with the thought of scouting out the bandit caves beneath the keep.
Most of the party hunkered down in some bushes at the trail fork while Bryn and Shory took the bandit trail towards the caves. As it got dark, the pair climbed some trees so they could observe the caves and the trail without–hopefully–being seen themselves. The rocky outcropping was about one hundred feet high and was pretty much a rocky cliff from their vantage point. A series of caves could been seen about midway up the cliff.
A short while after dusk, one of the larger caves was illuminated by a torch. A small group of goblins appeared in the cave mouth and lowered some ropes. As they scrambled down the ropes, two other figures come to the mouth of the cave…a gnoll and a masked man. It was Oscar! A small creature could be seen flitting about the two but neither Bryn nor Shory recognized what it was.
After the goblins climbed down the ropes, headed down the bandit trail directly towards the pair’s hiding spot. The goblins, however, did not stop or appear to spot the treed PCs. Instead, Bryn and Shory pair could hear the goblins giggling as they passed by their perch, heading down the trail.
It was not longer before Clarissa and the others could hear the goblin giggling from their hiding spot about twenty feet off of the trail. The giggling, however, did not simply pass them by. Instead, the goblins redoubled their giggling as one of them, in broken Common, asked the humans to come out and play. Somehow, the goblins knew exactly where the party was hiding!
That’s where we ended the session. Much of the evening was taken up with the conversations between the party and Tannil and then the scouting about of the keep and its area.
