Ho hum. Killed an ogre, looted its treasure, and found some door barred from the ogre’s side…where is the cliffhanger in that? Come on daHeadRat…you’re losing your edge. We need cliffhangers.
Yeah, yeah…doesn’t the unknown of what an ogre keeps locked out enough of a mystery to count as a cliffhanger? It appeared that all of the players assumed that the door was barred to keep something out of the ogre’s room and not to keep something in whatever room lies beyond the barred door. That, of course, is where we pick up this session below the break…with the party taking the chance of releasing whatever horror(s) lie beyond the door or discovering whatever horror(s) are contained within.
Craig was missing this session so RJ played Drayton…getting to be both brothers of the sibling pairs and getting less then complimentary looks from both sisters. There are definite spoilers for T1 The Village of Hommlet and possibly for A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry below the break. This recap is from Rachel and my comments, as usual, are in [brackets and italics].
After regrouping from fighting the ogre and checking out his room, we took the big bar off the inside of the second door. It opened to a room with a chopping block made of a tree stump in the center with a large axe stuck in it. The stump was covered with blood and it looked like a human leg [or two or three] was on the floor. Two figures were cowering in a corner—at first we were afraid they were zombies but it turned out to be two men who had been horribly tortured and traumatized. We told them we would get them out of here and that they were safe with us. In response to our questions, they were able to give us some information before getting too upset to continue.
Their names are Murray and Denholm and they are merchants from Dyvers who were taken on the road by hooded men. They said that Leighton tortured them and had asked for information about other merchants and their travel and delivery schedules. We told the merchants that we had taken out eight of the brigands but they said there were at least [two or] three times that many hooded men. We bandaged up the men as best we could (some of their wounds were in really bad shape and may not be able to be healed at this point) and carried them back to Hilltop.
We went directly to Lady Katerine’s, where her guards took the men inside and got them settled so the physiker could tend to them. Lady Katerine came to meet with us more quickly than she has previously. We told her about the merchants and what they had told us, as well as finding the two storage rooms empty and finding the ogres at the moat house. Lady Katerine was very concerned and deputized us to finish taking care of the moat house. She offered us whatever weapons and armor we need to complete the work, so we took her up on some crossbow bolts and arrows. Lady Katerine said she would send her physiker to the inn to tend to Drayton once he had the merchants resting as comfortably as he could.
[Drayton, I believe, had taken the brunt of the ogre’s attacks near the end of the previous session. He had almost been killed but his sister’s ministrations and magic had kept him alive and back to consciousness. We are also using a house rule where you regain an additional hit point if you are under medical care while resting.]
We headed to the Bugbear’s Beds and Brews, where Cahill was quite happy to see Griff—congratulating him on being a hero, treating him to expensive drinks [a glass of Velunian Fireamber wine that cost a considerable stack of gold to purchase], and trying to pump him for some information about our encounters at the moathouse. Brenwyn and I went over to join them and to try to prevent Griff from spreading too much information. Griff did ask Cahill if he could try to find out about Leighton. We agreed that we understood we would need to reimburse him for some information. Neleos Malachias came by the inn to let Brenwyn know he could pay 400 gp for the aquamarine—he was willing to pay the extra amount to help us since we are trying to make the community safer. He also hoped we could put in a good word for him with Lady Katerine.
[Neleos was, of course, his flattering and somewhat obsequious self while doing so.]
The next day (the 22nd of Planting) we decided to stay in Hilltop and build up our resources (and let Drayton fully recover) before heading back to the moat house. Brenwyn went to Neleos’ shop and sold him the aquamarine. We promptly took the 400 gp to the temple to make a donation and hopefully be blessed by St. Cuthbert with a healing potion. Canyff encouraged us to have Griff and I make the donation and speak to the priest, as Tanant had not taken kindly to Drayton the last time we came.
[Neither Drayton nor his siblings are devout followers of St. Cuthbert…or even followers at all! It is pretty clear that Tanant is a bit of a stickler for that sort of thing.]
After obtaining the healing potion, Brenwyn and I went to Lady Katerine’s to ask if her physiker could tend to Drayton today and to offer any help needed around town. When she said she most needed us to focus on taking care of the moat house, we assured her that we would be headed out first thing the next morning. When we got back to the inn, we found that Griff had been having some drinks and gambling a bit with Cahill. Griff was apparently going on about “my dowry” again, as Cahill offered us a pouch of coins as a donation, which I declined. We encouraged Griff to go sleep it off upstairs.
[Griff had drunk the majority of a bottle of the Velunian Fireamber this time! It cost a whole pouch of gold and Cahill had paid! Although Molly declined Cahill’s “generous” donation, Griff had no problem accepting the pouch when the cardshark slipped it to him under the table. Oddly, it was rather obvious to the others at the table. One might think that a ne’er-do-well cardshark type might be a little more subtle and a little better at that sort of sleight of hand. It was also Cahill who helped Griff up to his room.]
While Brenwyn and I had dinner at the inn that evening, the bulging eyed man we had seen at Rhodri’s (turns out he is Rhodri’s business partner) entered and approached us. His name is Gareth Ladron and he offered to “rent” us two of his guards (armored and with their own weapons, for 2 gp each per day) to help us with our next foray to the moathouse. [Seems word as spread about what the PCs are up to.] After a bit of discussion, Brenwyn and I tell him we will take him up on his offer and pay him 8 gp for Renger and Cor to accompany us. Gareth tells us they will meet us here first thing the next morning. We did notice that other patrons at the inn gave Gareth a wide berth and did not seem to be comfortable near him.
The next morning (23rd of Planting), Renger and Cor met us in the dining room of the inn and we all headed out to the moat house. The two guards stuck together and did not seem too interested in engaging with us, but hopefully they will be helpful. I saw one set each of human and ogre tracks headed to the moat house but then suddenly lost them. They must have entered the swamp but I saw no further trace of where they may have gone.
[Renger and Cor were both rather surly and seemed, well, a bit shifty and definitely not very trusting of the party.
Also, when Griff went to get some money, he discovered that the pouch of coins that Cahill had “surreptitiously” given him was missing. I wonder where that pouch got to.]
At the moat house, the broken wagon had been moved to fully block the courtyard entrance. As we started moving it, four skeletons rose out of the moat. Brenwyn was able to turn them and they moved away, so we moved into the courtyard. The ogre body and head were no longer here. We decided we should check out all the areas on the ground floor to see if anything else had changed while we were gone before proceeding down below. Brenwyn and Drayton opened the door to the room where the brigands had camped—it was empty, but a bell rang when they opened the door so we were fairly certain it was alerting someone that we were here. Griff and I entered the room where the snake had been and an ogre was laying in wait for us and attacked. Brenwyn and I were knocked out before Griff and Drayton took out the ogre. Griff and Drayton brought Brenwyn up with the healing potion and she revived me.
[The bell was on a string that hung from the ceiling such that when the door was opened, it would strike the hanging bell and would ring. Simple but effective.]
We checked the doors along the hallway closer to the stairs below. Griff opened the door at the end of the hall and closed it when he did not see anything. As soon as he closed the door, however, we heard a big thump on it from the inside. The big lizard we had fought before was now undead and broke through the door! Fortunately we were able to take it out relatively quickly.
In the basement we were reminded again that we need to decapitate and/or cut the feet off the bad guys we have taken out—the spider we had fought upstairs on a previous visit was now undead and attacked us. We were able to dispatch it relatively quickly, thankfully.
[Sometimes the simple things bring a smile to a DM’s face. The players were discussing whether or not they had cut off the heads or feet of all the vanquished foes. They got all of them except the spider which no one remembered and it, coincidentally, was the last of the recent slain now turned undead that remained. Chuckle. 😉 ]
The rat zombie and brigand zombie bodies were gone, but we spied drag marks going into the old torture chamber. They went up to a large pillar and suddenly disappeared, so we inspected the pillar and found a small panel that pushed in, opening a “door” to a shaft with rungs going down into darkness. We headed down, though Renger and Cor opted to stand guard at the top. We went through a narrow passage that led to a crypt with niches. At the far end of the room was a pile of the brigand and rat corpses, and four scary looking ghouls were gnawing on them. They noticed us pretty quickly and did not respond to Brenwyn’s attempt to turn them. We took them out but Griff was paralyzed in the process.
There is an opening to the side—it is a long corridor with niches on both sides. It looks like there is an alcove at the far end, but we will have to move closer to get a good look at it.
[If folks were disappointed by the lack of a good cliffhanger at the end of the last session, this one is worse. That’s pretty much where we stopped for the night. This last room was kind of t-shaped with lots of burial niches and possibly a corridor leading out of it. The party has not really explored the area at all…not the possible corridor or the niches.
Griff remains paralyzed as well. I wonder how long that will last.
I think some of the group are pretty low on hit points as well. Are they going to risk pushing on or head back to Hilltop to recuperate and give who/whatever is done here to regroup and prepare. Fortunately, everyone understands that this isn’t a static adventure site but a living one that will change as the PCs come and go…you know like recently slain brigand being animated as zombies. Someone has to clean up after the adventurers, right?
I’ll try and get back to posting our beer log next session.]
