The Clerics Three – Session 12 (5e)

At the end of our last session, the Clerics Three had, in their role as caravan guards, come across the village of Rooksten and it was not in good shape. The village had been attacked and our heroes began to explore the seemingly abandoned village and kept encountering goblins. The group started exploring building by building, dealing with any goblins discovered and looking for survivors. So far, they had only found the bodies of deceased villagers. After the break, we pick up with their continued explorations of Rooksten.

There are potential spoilers for “Storm King’s Thunder” from Wizards of the Coast but it has been significantly modified for our use. This write-up is from Todd and my GM comments are in [brackets and italics] as usual. Muse was missing and Bridgett wasn’t able to join us; RJ played Otilia and Rachel played Cora.

The group goes to the tower with the dead pigs. Delg checks the tower and finds it to be clear of worgs and goblins. Chuck runs ahead and looks over a wall and sees another graveyard. Cora checks a building that is connected to the paddock. She finds a boulder had landed on a couple while they were in bed.

Across from the stables, to the south is a two-story building. Alaric opens a door, on the side of the building. He can’t see into the darkness, so Delg casts a light spell on Alaric’s sword. It is a kitchen. Across the kitchen, is a door. He opens the door. It leads to a large room. There is a bar and some stairs to the left. There is a large boulder in the middle of the room. It had crashed through the roof and the second story floor. Chuck hurries across the room towards the bar, stating that he is looking for the lockbox. He takes a few strides, there is the twang of a crossbow, and he is knocked to the floor, a bolt sticking out of his shoulder. The shot came from the hole in the first-floor ceiling.

A woman’s voice exclaims, “You’re not goblins!”

Chuck’s response is, “No sh!t!”

[Chuck…always the charmer.]

Alaric and Pallas start up the stairs. The woman explains that goblins have been coming into the inn. There are two goblins behind the bar, that she had killed. She tells her story. She is a pilgrim, going to Oldsten, visiting the temples along the way. She stopped in Rooksten two days ago. She got a room at the inn. Last night, a boulder crashed through the roof. She heard people screaming, and she stayed in her room. The goblins she had killed came in earlier today.

[She was also waiting here for some other pilgrims who were on their way to Rooksten to join her.]

Alaric and Pallas get up to the second floor. There is a large hole in floor, trapping the woman in her room. Alaric tells her to jump across the hole and he will catch her. She runs and jumps, but not far enough. Alaric leaps to catch her and turns to break her fall. They land on the end of the bar. Both are injured. Alaric uses his paladin healing ability to remove the woman’s wound. The woman kisses Alaric [on the cheek] in thanks. She says her name is Kemma.

Kemma tells them that the innkeeper, Morak, a dwarf, led the townspeople out of the gate during the night. Pallas, still upstairs, does some looking around. He finds a[n iron] chest in a room that he believes is Morak’s room. He hides the chest.

The party leaves the inn, taking Kemma with them. The owl cat is waiting outside. Chuck throws it a piece of jerky. They go to the courtyard to examine the hole in the ground. The hole is about six feet around and ten feet deep. Kemma says the hill giants took the Rook’s Beak. The beak is how Rooksten got its name.

[This was a large piece of rusted metal sticking out of the ground shaped much like a bird’s beak. Rooksten was built around it.]

There is a building across from the inn that had not been checked. It turns out to be someone’s home. We search another building that had been missed. The building has what looks like a picture of a bear claw on it. Kemma tells us the building is a trading post for the Bear Claw Trading Company. Delg is the first person in to the building. He sees a goblin at the counter. The goblin shoots an arrow at Delg and runs through a doorway in the back of the trading post. Delg yells, “Goblin!” and runs after it. The rest of the party, except Alaric, goes into the trading post. Kemma stays outside with Alaric.

Delg goes into the storeroom after the goblin. Looking around, Delg does not see the goblin. Chuck goes in to the storeroom, not seeing the goblin either, he asks Delg to leave. As Delg exits, Chuck casts burning hands at the back of the storeroom. There is a significant amount of flammable supplies and oil in the room that ignites. The explosion blows Chuck out of the room, the flames burning him and Delg. The flames were accompanied by a loud squeaky scream from the inside the room. As the group hurries to put out the flames, they find a charred goblin among the debris.

[I had rolled a natural 20 on the goblin’s stealth check. It had dived into a small hole in the floor and pulled some debris over it before the others arrived. Unfortunately for the goblin, that debris included some lantern oil.]

The fire put out, they leave the trading post. Pallas does a mental calculation and says that there is at least one goblin still on the loose [based on how many had fled and escaped…but not out of the village]. They spend s little time looking for it to no avail. Searching the two gate towers, they find the controls to raise and lower the drawbridge. Deeming the town safe, they go out to Bale and the wagon, leading Bale, Nefton and his sons into the town. On the way to the town the group learns from Bale about some of the villagers and a bit of the history of Rooksten. Once inside the bailey, they raise the drawbridge and take a short rest.

[Alaric also knew a bit about Rooksten as he is from this part of the world. Some of this information includes:

I’m sure none of that is important to what’s going on at all, right?]

We decide to go search the motte for survivors. Bale, Kemma and the others will wait at the temple. Owlcat and Pallas work out a signal, in case of danger. Delg swims across the moat, discovering a drowned goblin in the process. On the other side, Delg climbs the motte wall with ease, aided by the Monkey Wraps. Pallas casts aid. The rest of the group crosses the moat. With Delg anchoring the rope, the group climbs up to the motte entrance. Delg climbs up to the top of the gatehouse. He helps the others to the top. There is a hole in the roof of the gatehouse. Cora sees three bodies in the gate house. Everyone climbs down in to the gatehouse. They, noisily, remove the bar from the gate. Out on the bridge, Cora encourages Digger to join them.

We find the door to keep is locked. Cora mentions that there is a tower that is badly damaged and that it might provide entrance into the keep. They find the wall to the tower is mostly rubble. Delg climbs in, seeing the room is a kitchen. He crosses the room to a door. Opening the door, Delg sees four men facing the keep door, armed with crossbows. Delg tries to sneak into the room. His armor catches on the door jamb, alerting the guards. They spin around and aim their crossbows at the dwarf. Delg tells them he is a friend. The rest of the group comes into the keep.

The guards tell them that Lady Jegerlen is dead, under a huge boulder. They had not been able to move the boulder to retrieve the Lady’s body. They wish to bury her with her husband [in the graveyard’s crypt]. The party works together to get the boulder moved. Chuck steals the lady’s ring, while the others are distracted with moving the boulder. While getting the body for ready for moving, Owlcat shows up giving the signal that something is happening. Alaric runs up the rampart and sees a group of six people riding hard for the gate. He shouts a warning to the others.

[I believe that the ring was gold set with gems.]

The party rush to the gate of the bailey. The drawbridge is already down. The riders gallop in to the bailey. A half-elf dismounts and says that they are fleeing orcs. The half-elf walks up to Kemma and moves to give her a kiss. She turns her head away. The half-elf scowls. When Alaric comes into the courtyard, Kemma runs over to him and puts her arm through his. The half-elf walks up to Alaric and introduces himself as Radovan. Alaric gives his name and extends a hand in greeting. Radovan ignores the gesture, looking between Kemma and Alaric. Alaric extricates himself from Kemma’s arm and asks if Radovan and Kemma are together. Radovan says yes, Kemma says no.

[Oh dear, has Alaric gotten dragged into some love triangle? Those never end in tears and/or violence, right?]

Someone calls to look out over the walls. There is a large group coming out of the woods on the road. Figuring it is the orcs, we start preparing the bailey for defense. We move Bale’s war wagon to the gate by the motte bridge [because it has no gate…just an opening in the palisade]. The lady’s body is moved to the temple. Alaric asks the guards if there is any plate mail in the town. One of the guards says that the only plate armor he knows of is in the crypt with Lord Jegerlen. Alaric goes to pray. People are spread out around the bailey to keep watch. As Cora and Digger prepare their warren [in the hole in the village square], Cora sees a pilgrim come out of the trading post and go to Radovan. Discreetly, the man gives some papers to Radovan. Curious, Cora walks up to them and asks about the papers. Both men deny there being any exchange of papers. Meanwhile, Alaric prays about entering Lord Jegerlen’s crypt to take the plate armor for use in defense of Rooksten. He decides to leave the crypt alone.

[The preparations included having one of the guards or pilgrims taking up position in each of the watchtowers set at intervals around the palisade. One guard and two other pilgrims manned the large crossbow atop Bale’s war wagon. Bale and Nefton and sons were in the temple which is also where Bale’s chests, presumably containing the goods he was transporting to Oldsten, into the temple. Most of the others were taking up position in the two watchtowers flanking the main gate or waiting by the drawbridge.]

Outside the gate, a large four-armed orc calls out for the colorful one. There is a bit of confusion as to who the orc is meaning. The man with the colorful clothes. Alaric calls for Chuck. There are two ettins with the orc. The orc yells that Nethess wants Chuck. Torches light out across the front of the town. There are 18 torches, with areas of darkness spaced between them. Chuck comes up to the top of the gatehouse. The four-armed orc demands for Chuck to come out. Chuck is disrespectful. A horn blows and all the torches go out.

[That’s where we stopped for the night.