Our last session ended with death and dissension in the ranks. Dru was killed while fighting against some of the creatures to be found in the Underdark, swarms of centipedes, and Adran was faced with a couple of his advisors, Berguk and Skarr, at odds about just getting a private audience with the Lord of Cagair Keep. At least, it appeared, that the dworcs had been brought into line. We ended the session with Berguk and Adran (the latter via an invisibility spell) had slipped away to the war room for their private discussion with Berguk reaching for something under his cloak. We pick up this session with their brief meeting.
Todd was missing this session and so Thomas played Skarr. This recap is from Rachel (although the initial bit was via texts and private messaging during the week between RJ and myself so I’ve begun with it). My GM comments, as usual, are in [brackets and italics].
Alone in the “war room” of the keep, Berguk pulled out a small badge emblazoned with bronze dragon rampant. Asking for forgiveness, the dworc explained that he had had it made and if “the master” approved, then he could see to having more made and applied to the outfits of the troops. As he turned to leave, Berguk took more liberties and questioned Adran’s lack of command and authority. Pointing out that he had just had his cousin killed for insolence and disrespect to Adran, he asked how Adran thought that Berguk could ask his clan to follow the Lord of Cagair Keep if his closest companions and even his personal bodyguard could show blatant insolence and disrespect without retribution.
Before Berguk could slip out, Adran stopped him and assured Berguk that his loyalty was much appreciated as was his assistance during these early days of rulership, something that Adran admitted was new to him. However, the Lord continued with an icy tone, if any threats–real or veiled–or harm inflicted to himself, any of his companions, or anyone under his rule, that there would be consequences and Adran would see to it.
Sadly for Adran, this did not have quite the effect that he had hoped. Instead, it steeled Berguk to continue to respond in kind. Berguk questioned if these consequences would apply to all subjects or just the dworcs. Berguk noted that Adran’s guards and his companions [(i.e., the other PCs)] had threatened and even attacked the dworcs. [RJ recalled that Skarr had attacked Berguk but could think of no others so I simply pointed out that Adran had been missing quite a bit and even Lokka had been gone for a few days and had not been around to keep the guards in line…so, perhaps things have been going on at the Keep that the Lord wasn’t aware of. I do have this pesky tendency of having the world continue on even when the PCs aren’t around or involved.] Berguk noted that if Adran would not assert his authority to protect the dworcs, then the dworcs would have to protect themselves. He made it clear, even using Adran’s proper name for the first time instead of calling him Master, that this was not a threat…just the reality of the situation. Berguk then left, leaving Adran pondering just what a mess he had on his hands.
[Now on to Rachel’s recap…]
As those of us who were upstairs in the main house headed downstairs, we saw Berguk storm out of the house. A horn sounded outside the keep, so we all headed outside. Lokka had the gates opened and an elf rode in on a horse. She had blue hair and pale white skin and wore chainmail with a symbol of Tyr visible. The elf demanded that Lady Hawke be sent out to her to be held accountable for her crimes. She said that Hawke pretends to be helping people but is really stealing from them. Adran told her that we ousted Hawke 8 days ago, but that she floated [more glided] off the cliff. The elf wanted to see where this happened, so I (Rory) showed everyone to the spot at the edge of the cliff.
We made introductions—the elf is Meriele, but goes by Meri, and is a paladin of Tyr [and, if you hadn’t guessed it yet, Muse’s new character]. Meri is seeking justice for those that Hawke has harmed and Adran tells her that she is welcome to stay at Cagair Keep as a guest. He mentions that we think Hawke may try to come back and retake the keep. Lokka says she could use a set of eyes keeping watch on the wall and Meri agrees to help. A guard shows her to one of the towers and she goes up and starts keeping an eye out for anyone approaching.
[Sheesh…Verrak shows up with the dworcs and is immediately taken in by the PCs as one of them but poor Meri gets put on guard duty. 😉 ]
Adran had our group meet in the War Room and tells us that Berguk is not happy with him. Berguk said that if Adran does not start acting as a stronger lord, he may not be able to continue to support him and persuade the dworcs to serve him. Adran said he really needs us to follow his direction and not question him in front of the others (though he hints that we can take the lead more when we are below the keep and not in view of the dworcs and Lokka and her troops). We discuss having Adran meet with Lokka, Berguk, and us to explain that we are all his advisors, that none of us (or Berguk’s clan or Lokka’s troops) can attack each other, and that Skarr must be whipped for having assaulted Bartholomew, so that everyone knows this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. [Skarr, being honorable, accepted that this punishment would be just. And so meet they did and both Lokka and Berguk seemed totally in support of this…Lokka perhaps a little too much. As Captain, she was quick to note that it would be her duty to mete out this punishment and seemed rather enthusiastic about it. Lokka and Berguk also agreed to make sure that the guards and the dworcs would not threaten or attack each other.]
Adran has Berguk bring all the dworcs [that could be spared from work and guarding down below] out to the courtyard and Lokka and her troops gather as well. Adran says a few words and Lokka has a couple guards string Skarr up. Lokka gave him 66 lashes, despite Dench suggesting he might not need quite so many. From Lokka’s muttered comments to Dench, it sounds like the number of lashes was due more to Skarr’s impregnating Ugak than to his hitting the dworc. After finishing the lashing [and after most others had left], Lokka disappeared briefly, returning with a bucket of saltwater that she threw on Skarr’s wounds. Dench urged Lokka to cut Skarr down in the evening but she said he was not to be cut down until the next morning.
We stayed in the keep on the 12th (the day of the whipping, and Ugak’s 1st child’s birth!) and the 13th (Skarr needed to rest after being cut down and we needed to marshal our resources before heading back down to Migdhal Yar). Verrak and I had collected the rope that Berguk got in Daggerford to take back down with us. Adran asked Berguk to accompany us and select a few dworcs to come with us, in case they knew a way to open the 2nd portcullis at Migdhal Yar. Adran also invited Meri to join us.
The morning of the 14th, our group, Berguk, and five other dworcs headed down. The dworcs looked at the gatehouse a bit, one licked the stone wall, and we kept crossing the bridge to Migdhal Yar. [Ha! If Adran didn’t keep them moving, the dworcs would probably have spent days gawking at the Glitterhame, the bridge, the gatehouse, and the front of Migdhal Yar. They were simply overwhelmed and fascinated by all of it.] The dworcs spent a while checking out the bars in the 2nd portcullis before Berguk tells Adran there is not a way to break or get it open. It could potentially be dug/mined around but that would take a lot of time.
[The dworcs spent quite a bit of time checking out the second portcullis, banging on the bars and the like. It wasn’t long before a few swarms of centipedes skittered out the main door and took the group by surprise. Sadly, one of the dworcs was killed in the initial onslaught before the PCs could intervene. The other dworcs were not overly upset and noted that the Underdark was a dangerous place.]
Adran made Karrhig (one of the dworcs) and me smaller, Dench changed into a rat, and the three of us climbed up the rope and through the arrow slit. After Karrhig handed Dench and me ends of string [with knots at regular intervals] to help him start mapping, we realized this was going to take a long time. We asked Adran to send up Berguk and Raguk (another dworc) to help speed up the mapping. After the dworcs completed mapping the level, Dench and I started searching for secret doors around one of the larger unexplained areas without doors or openings. The dworcs had been with us at the beginning of our searching but after searching for a few hours, we had not found anything and the dworcs were not nearby.
Dench and I called out to Berguk and checked back through all the halls and rooms on this level but did not see the dworcs or get a response. We let Adran and the others below know that they have disappeared. We settled down in one of the rooms not far from the room with the shrieking mushrooms for a long rest.
The next morning we hear the mushrooms shrieking and head into that room. Berguk and the other dworcs are in there and said they spent the night in a shrine. I asked where they found it and Berguk takes us to a small area of wall and starts moving his hands over it. I tried to pay close attention to the pattern and areas he was touching but Berguk blocked my view of parts of it. Suddenly the wall opened and there is a spiral staircase going down.
[I have a sneaking suspicion that more will be made of this shrine and questions about it and how Berguk found the hidden stairs leading down.]
Dench and I let the others down below know that Berguk and the other dworcs had found a way down and that Adran should shrink Meri, himself, and another dworc to come up so we can have a bigger group go downstairs and search for a way to open the second portcullis. [Skarr and Verrak were simply a bit too large to slip through the ballista openings like the others.] They all came up and we headed down the staircase. Dench tells us that the door out from the staircase is near where he saw the swarm of centipedes before and that there may be a big centipede nearby.
Berguk and the other dworcs stayed just inside the door at the foot of the staircase while we scouted ahead. We found an empty room with two doors and a hallway around it. The big centipede attacked Dench in the hallway and we lured it into the empty room. Dench turned into a brown bear to fight the centipede. We all attacked the centipede and it attacked Dench and me, knocking me unconscious. The others kept fighting and Dench got the killing blow on the big centipede. I was awakened when Meri healed me.
And that’s where we stopped. Unfortunately, it was too early still to stop when the dworcs went missing…that would have been a great cliffhanger. 😉
Even though the centipede (a reskinned giant scorpion) was an “easy” encounter for the four PCs…at least by the numbers…it was a bit of a handful and a good thing that it didn’t get to attack the PCs along with the swarms.
Kudos to RJ for having Adran start to take charge a bit more. Adran IS the Lord of Cagair Keep. The appearance of that, at a minimum, probably needs to be maintained if Adran’s other subjects will accept his authority in the long term. Skarr’s punishment went a long way in reestablishing his authority and bringing order and safety to his subjects. Things could easily have gone in a different direction which would be interesting too but I hope that the current individuals at Cagair Keep continue to play a role in the campaign. Kudos again to RJ!
Beer Log: Using our hit, miss, crit, and fumble rating scale, below is what we sampled this session.
- New Glarus Belgian Red: Thanks to RJ. What? We just had this not too many sessions ago? So? So?!? New Glarus? Fruit Beer? Who’s going to say no to that?!? Near crit…again.
- Alpine Duet: Alpine makes some of the best IPAs around. Duet is one of those great piney IPAs. Very solid hit.
- Alpine Pure Hoppiness: Alpine’s Imperial IPA that, like the Duet, is a very solid hit.
- Crafted Artisan Meadery Belgian Meadjito: I think I probably liked this the best of the Crafted meads but I hate to say it, I wasn’t really all that impressed by any of them. A hit though.
- Small Town Brewery Not Your Father’s Root Beer: I can’t say that I’ve had a hard root beer that I really like a lot and this one, for me, is probably pretty much at the bottom of that short list. I know that it wasn’t for everyone at the table but this was a miss for me. There’s just this weird aftertaste that I definitely dislike.
