FRC Session 8…The Turd

By the end of our last session, the “good guys” had achieved the objective of driving Lady Hawke out of Cagair Keep but they had to figure out how they could keep the Keep. Hawke had escaped and after some rather orcish interrogation of a prisoner by Strik, they learned that their foe still had men in the area and could be probably be back by morning. Thokk, despite the party’s reluctance, left to find troops to bring back to the Keep to defend, with all assuming that he’d bring back orcs. We pick up with all of this victory “aftermath.”

This recap is from Todd who has rejoined the group as he is now staying in town instead of moving. You’ll see who he’s playing in a bit. Both Andrew and Muse were missing this session. My GM comments are in [brackets and italics].

With Thokk gone, there is less tension. Adran asks the dworcs their names. The apparent leader says his name is Berguk. He introduces Hogug as his brother, Onog as his son, and Ugak as his daughter. Ugak giggles as she eyes Strik. [Not that she remembers their abbreviated evening of passion due to Strik’s forget-me potion…so why was she giggling?]0

Adran wants to take a look around the grounds of his new keep. They start at the stables. There are a couple of horses there. Then the barracks, which is empty, except for bunks and footlockers. They skip the graveyard, and go to the shed. It is full of old stuff that looks to have not been used in a long time.

They go into the main building. Berguk gives Adran a set of keys, explaining that he also has a set. The dworcs living quarters are on the first floor, as are the kitchen, a formal dining room, a parlor, a torture room, the Hawke’s “war” room, and a couple of guard rooms.

Upstairs are some bedrooms and studies. In the study that is connected to the master bedroom, is a plaque with a polished turd. The plaque reads, “A polished turd is still a turd…” [This was one of the early things that the party learned about Caill Dafad. Adran remembered that his favorite saying was something along the lines of this, “A polished turd is still a turd…unless it isn’t.” Hmm…I wonder if that could be something of a clue bat. 😉 ]

The group goes back downstairs. Rory and Strik go to the warroom to look through Hawke’s papers. They don’t find much. They do find a schedule of when boats are coming and going on the river.

Meanwhile, Berguk has a chance to get Adran alone and tells him about the prophecy. Adran’s destiny is to lead them back below. Adran’s treasure is below, it is great and from before the fall of Migdhal Yar.

Before long, it is dark. Berguk, with Adran’s permission, sends Onog to go get the rest of their clan [or at least some of them]. The group sets up watches in the upstairs corner bedrooms. Adran and Dru go first, with Strik and Luther taking the second watch. Rory has a dream, a dream of something slithering around at the edges of her mind [and wanting to be let in as well].

In the morning, Berguk announces breakfast. He explains to Adran that they have enough food to last about a week. The dworcs get to moving the bodies into a pile and burning them. Rory and Dru take up positions in the front towers to keep watch. Luther is checking the outhouses.

In the end outhouse, the outhouse that had been holding Snowball, Luther sees that the seat is not in place. He examines, and pulls the seat forward, revealing a hole. A hole free of feces. He can see the hole goes down ten feet and that there may be a passage below.

Thokk is seen sprinting from the woods, yelling to open the gate. Behind him, is a group of half-orcs, in hot pursuit. The gate is opened, Thokk enters, yelling for Adran. The half orcs follow him into the keep. Thokk tells Adran that these are the warriors he went to bring back. Thokk takes Adran’s hand and cuts it. The warriors, lined up, each cut their forehead. Thokk puts Adran’s hand to each warrior’s forehead, as they pledge their service to Adran. The first half-orc Thokk introduces as Skarr, his son, and [now] Adran’s personal bodyguard. The second half-orc, a woman, Thokk introduces as Lokka, his daughter, and [now] Adran’s captain of the guard. [The rest of the men are Lokka’s warband and now Adran’s men-at-arms.] Strik is not too pleased by this turn of events.

[So Thokk basically just rushed through pledging his children and Lokka’s men to Adran and I’m pretty sure that Adran (and RJ) have no real clue what all of that means…nope, no clue at all. Note: Thokk did not pledge to Adran like the rest. He and Adran had already come to their own agreement the prior night and shook on it with blood. I don’t think Adran (and, again, RJ) really understood that agreement either.]

Meanwhile, Luther puts the seat back in place and telepathically tells Adran about the secret passage.

Pledges concluded, Thokk and Snowball leave, going back out in to the forest. Lokka immediately sets her warriors to their new duties. The group introduces themselves to Skarr. Strik makes a comment to Adran about being able to trust the half-orcs, apparently forgetting that Skarr is standing right there. Skarr warns Adran not to question Lokka’s or her warriors loyalties. They take their pledges very seriously. [As does Skarr.

This is about when everyone learned that Skarr is Todd’s new PC as Todd started to answer on Skarr’s behalf. The look on Thomas’ face as he realized this was well worth Todd waiting about an hour to actually start playing…or at least I thought so.]

Berguk tells Adran that with all the extra men, the food will last maybe three days. Rory and Dru offer to go hunting. Skarr says that he can create food and water, if needed.

There is some discussion about what to do. Luther brings up the secret tunnel. Strik goes down the tunnel. It leads out to the river[…eventually. It kind of took quite awhile for the tunnel to come out at the river.]

Since the treasure is rumored to be below, they start searching the grounds. They draw curious looks from Lokka and her warriors.

The shed is emptied, nothing found but a pouch with six silver pieces and one gold piece. The graveyard is examined. Some of the graves are fairly recent. The headstones that are there are old and weathered beyond reading. The stables are mucked, but nothing is found.

They go to the barracks. The warriors, not on duty, immediately stand when Adran enters. [They had been sleeping as they are the night guard.] The barracks is not searched.

They move the search to the main building. Adran tells Berguk to start preparing lunch. They search the parlor.

Berguk announces that lunch is ready. Adran tells him to let the warriors eat first and they can eat inside. Bergul is obviously annoyed at this. Everyone eats lunch. Nothing is found in the parlor. They search all the rooms on the first floor, nothing is found that leads them to below or the treasure.

Outside of the keep, Rory and Dru are looking for game. They hear a low deep growl from behind them. As they turn, a white streak flashes between them, knocking them to the ground. They hear Thokk laughing. He tells then to get up and help carry Snowball’s kills back to the keep. There is a boar and two deer. [I think that Thokk was actually more jovial than he really had been previously even if it didn’t quite come off like that here.]

The hunting party returns to the keep. The warriors set to processing the game. Berguk and the dworcs start preparing dinner. After dinner, Thokk and Snowball head upstairs, saying to wake him if anything happens. [Thokk took one of the corner rooms with an attached study. He didn’t really ask…just did it.]

With Lokka’s men on watch, the group find rooms and go to sleep.

Nothing happens during the night. Adran seeks out Lokka and asks if anything happened during the night. She is perturbed and tells him that if anything had happened, then he would have known about it. [Oh yeah, Adran is already off to a good start in forging a good relationship with his captain.]

The group set to searching the floor of the main hall, looking for anything that might give them access to below. Thokk and Lokka are bewildered by this. The searching is time consuming and takes all day. Skarr casts a detect magic spell, but still finds nothing.

They go back to the graveyard, but find nothing.

They decide to go upstairs and search the master bedroom and study. There is a knock at the door. A warrior reports that Lokka says there is nothing to report. [She might be gruff and a bit abrupt but at least she has a sense of humor…sort of.]

Rory starts to search around the plaque. With annoyance, Adran grabs the turd and twists it. Everyone hears a click behind them. A flagstone is protruding from the wall [floor actually]. Adran pulls it out, revealing a shaft in the wall. It goes down beyond their sight.

Strik takes a look in the shaft. Rungs in the shaft have been sheared off. They gather rope. They tie two ropes together, and Strik climbs down. He gets to the end of the rope, eighty feet down, he still cannot see the bottom. They add a rope. Rory climbs down to the end of the rope. She is still thirty feet above the floor, and she sees a door.

Since is it late, they decide to continue in the morning. They all head to bed. [Strik slept in the study with the newly discovered shaft leading down even though Berguk offered to keep watch. Strik’s insistence on keeping watch as well seemed to annoy Adran’s apparent seneschal.]

There is a knock at Adran’s door. Skarr lets Lokka in. She wakes Adran, and reports that it is an hour before dawn. Skarr chuckles.

Ugak shows up to Strik’s room with breakfast, she giggles. As he lets her in, she “accidentally” spills the food on her clothes. She giggles. She takes off her clothes, but Strik refuses her advances. Ugak leaves Strik to clean up the mess. She is not giggling.

[Strik had remained to keep an eye on the shaft down and so Adran ordered that breakfast be brought up to his chief adviser. Ugak actually showed up naked, carrying a tray with breakfast. When Strik didn’t react positively, she spilled the food on herself and suggest he clean it off. When he refused this advance, she left rejected and angry. What’s that saying about hell hath no fury like what?]

As the group gets ready to start their exploration into the shaft, Berguk wants to talk to Adran alone. Skarr refuses to leave Adran’s side. Berguk is annoyed, again. Berguk shows Adran a burnt piece of paper. the writing on the paper says, “the wards on the doors are holding. Further”, the rest is burned away.

Back at the shaft in the wall, Strik climbs down about 150 feet, to a small room. There is a door. He pushes it open.

[And that’s where we ended the session. Yep, that turd was a mighty big clue bat but they eventually discovered it. So what lies beyond that door that Strik just opened? So just what are the expectations of the pledges taken with Adran’s new troops? Why does Ugak keep throwing herself at Strik? Thokk and Snowball both left that last day without giving any indication as to where their destination or when they might be back. So where did they go off to? When will Onog return with the dworcs? Or will he? Maybe Thokk took off to see that the dworc has an unfortunate accident…he clearly didn’t seem to like the dworcs. Hmm…am I forgetting anything? Hmm…there’s gotta be something? Oh yeah, Lady Hawke…where the hell is she at and why hasn’t she attacked yet? Hmm…

It was a really good beer tasting, er, gaming session, er, beer tasting gaming session. 😉 ]