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Greenlake Notes Page 2

Page history last edited by Gillian 2 years, 3 months ago

Back to Notes 1, Notes 3 Greenlake Barony, Laketower, Calendar

Session 11

The PCs left Penney early the day after they finished exploring Frog Island; they traveled down to the Mines where Bexa was unable to track the dwarves who had attacked Baron Dmitri - she lost them in the woods, which isn't surprising as it had been at least 4 days since the attack. Her best guess is that they went southwest. Continuing to Greywhisper Castle, they let the occupants know they had arrived - the tribe agreed to watch their horses, and assured them of a safe place to sleep or shelter at need. The PCs explored the area around the mausoleum and old battlefield with care - as they drew near the mausoleum, they were sure they were being watched from the woods, but not even sharp-eyed Revian could see what was watching.

 

As they circled the mausoleum, a trio of ghouls lurched out of the bushes at the base of the structure; Vivian turned them easily, and the PCs had no trouble slaying them. Only Thori was bitten, once. On exploring the mausoleum more closely, they found an ancient text around the ceiling that honored the dead in the name of Aragh, written in 2nd empire script, which Eric can read. Aragh was the 2nd empire's premiere God. Inside the mausoleum, steps led down into a cryptlike dungeon below. Thori bashed open a number of doors to several rooms which held empty coffins, and a giant rat body infested with a strange green slimy stuff. They burned it without incident. Beyond this room,  a set of steps led further down. A trap on the step maimed Thori, with a spike that had fresh poison spread on it. The party retreated at this point, back up to the Castle. The Greywhisper tribe's adept cast Lesser Restoration for Thori, restoring the strength the poison had drained away, and they descended again into the dungeon. The room at the base of the stairs held a strange skeleton mounted in a chair, covered with red ants gnawing away at the last traces of flesh on his bones. Beyond, a passage led north and south; the northern direction led to a cavern with a smashed open door, and several ancient skeletons. Within the room, a desk held 3 bottles of embalming fluid and one sealed bottle of what might be water. A secret door (left ajar!) led to a privy, which the PCs decided to leave unexplored. It smelled as if it were still in use, making everyone quite suspicious.

 

 

Down the LONG south hallway, they bypassed a wooden hatch on the wall, presuming it to be some sort of trap. Revian found it, and spiked it shut at Eric's suggestion. The end of the passage led to a rough tunnel into a huge room with a stream across it. On the near side of the stream, an elven woman was positioned, her back to another tunnel half-blocked by rubble. She screamed for help, and was apparently being attacked by dire rats. Revian, quite oddly, tried to convince the others that she was in need of rescue - the rest of the PCs were very suspicious, and Eric attacked her with a burning hands spell; a critical hit caused massive damage, and she died at once. She shifted form as she died, becoming a giant dire rat - she was a wererat! The dire rats were also easily slain, although Thori was bitten, and contracted filth fever from the bite.

 

Searching the room revealed a number of small tunnels, and a larger tunnel beyond the rubble with some niches in the walls that seemed to be just big enough to hold foes, and a set of stairs plunging down into darkness. Revian, at Eric's prompting, threw a flask of lit oil into one of the niches, with a shout of "Fire!". Scurrying and scraping was heard, then silence. Eventually, the PCs determined that the niches were tunnels and found that some of them led to a rat nest/warren. There, they found traces of someone named Jarvik, who had received letters from a person using an old-fashioned religious title - Dominar (only ever used by priests of Aragh or Mikar in 2nd empire times). The letters directed Jarvik "and his men" to spy on Greywhisper Castle. The PCs recovered a whole lot (143) of ancient gold Aureus coins, a rapier with a crystal set in its hilt, and a bag of caltrops. 

 

Further back, on the other side of the stream, the PCs discovered a tunnel that connected to the rat warren and also led outside; a further branch of that tunnel plunged deeper underground. The outside tunnel ended at the trees where the PCs had earlier been spied upon. 

 

At this point, being low on spells and ready for a night's rest, the PCs retreated again to the Castle. There they were able to get a good night's sleep, and the Greywhisper Adept taught Vivian how to cure filth fever with a particular set of herbs. 

 

Session 12: (8/22/21)

After recovering from their first attempt at the caves and dungeon under Greywhisper Castle, the PCs descended again in the morning. They went down the stairs beyond the wererat tunnels, and found a constructed dungeon area. On a main hall, there were four doors, which they explored carefully. One door had a handaxe embedded in it, which Thori claimed, and a key, which subsequently opened many of the other doors. Two doors (on the west wall) had interesting tunnels, and the others led to blander cross-tunnels. Exploring the southwest door led to a coffin with a body in it, and an everburning torch. The body was infested with rot grubs, which Vivian cleverly burned out. The body had a shield on it, which later the PCs confirmed to belong to a cadet or minor branch of the Fairvale County family. There was also a pouch with 120 old silver pennies. 

 

The strange grinding, thumping noise the PCs had been hearing turned out to be a weird traplike spiked stone ball filling a hallway between the coffin room and another chamber; beyond that a hallway bent back to the main entry hall; a secret door at the bend was revealed to hold a chamber inhabited by probably six strange black skeletons. They emanated some sort of fear aura, and everyone but Vivian fled in terror; she managed to turn them, and slammed the door shut before fleeing after her companions. They retreated upstairs, again, and spent another night before attempting the skeletons a second time, but with very little better results; they destroyed one using fire, may have badly injured several of them, and forced the others back into their secret chamber. 

 

Turning to the south, the PCs found a dead end chamber that they discovered also housed a secret passage, which led to a rough cave inhabited by a LARGE number of ghouls and ghasts. Again, they retreated before they could be overwhelmed. Seeing the toughness of these monsters, they decided it was time to seek aid from their patron. They withdrew completely, traveling to Laketower, and asking Dmitri for his assistance. Being too busy to go himself, he gave them a necklace of fireballs, warning them to treat it with caution, because it could explode if exposed to fire. They spent a bit of time ordering some new masterwork weapons, dispersing funds for the repair and maintenance of their home, and visiting Bexa's parents, who are weaponsmiths in Laketower. They left the acid war-axe with them for examination. (Or did Bexa decide to take it, after all?)

 

During their return journey to Greywhisper Castle, they were attacked by a Harpy in the woods. All except Eric were charmed by it, and traipsed off to their doom. Eric, following behind, was able to win initiative over the harpy, and with a critical hit with his ray of flame, slew it out of hand. Bexa also befriended her new animal companion, a serval cat.

(PCs reach 4th level).

 

Session 12 (9/5/21)

Combat heavy - first they crept downstairs, ambushed the ghouls and toasted them with fireballs. Unfortunately, they destroyed a bunch of treasure at the same time. A sizeable sum of silver was found, however, fused partly together in the heat. Turning back to seek out the Black Skeletons, they were assaulted by a band of Ogres, led by a very strong ogre barbarian, who was able to take Revian down in two brutal blows; several fireballs and a lot of high-risk melee ensued, before the barbaric ogre was slain, and his followers retreated in fear of more fire. A decent bit of treasure in the form of a silvered greatsword, a bearskin, and a small pile of silver coinage were recovered. The PCs retreated, Revian was cremated - but a strange stone engraved with a death'shead moth, like the tattoo on Linette, was found in his possession. What was Revian up to? He also had an undeclared sum of 200 sp. Later, a search revealed that the ogres had apparently found a tunnel from outside into these caves; the half-orcs of Greywhisper admit that they drove off a small band of ogres a few weeks ago; they must have been trying to find another way into the castle from below.

 

Continued exploration led the PCs to a ghostly man lingering in one chamber - a firebolt from Eric caused him to disperse - and a spellbook was found in his ancient bedding. Several other rooms revealed not much beyond a tiny gem caught between two flagstones, and then eventually a cave full of fungi - yellow mold and shriekers, and dire rats. A minor battle with the rats was successfully concluded, and the fungi burned away.

 

At last, the adventurers returned their attentiont o the Black Skeletons. They used consecrate, bless and resistance before opening the secret door, and the skeletons emerged to attack. Everyone saved vs the fear, but then had trouble hitting. Eric used several more smaller fireballs, and Bexa was the first to finally take her skeleton down. Vivian turned three of the five, and Thori with Vivian's help from spiritual hammer slew the last. They once again sealed the secret chamber on the other three skeletons. 

(PCs leveled up AGAIN! to L5).

 

Session 13 and 14 10/17 and 10/24/21

PCs cleared out the black skeletons, explored the rest of this dungeon, found a door that was sealed with a symbol of Mikol and warned that there was someone really bad on the other side; don't MESS with him! And the PCs turned supercautious, and left it alone... They also found a room with a floating ball of cold, but they could not move it. They've decided it is THEIRS, and are hoping the Greywhisper clan doesn't find it.

 

After leaving the dungeon, they traveled back to Laketower. There, Dmitri had two pieces of news; one - someone had gone to Raven Hill Manor and bluffed their way in, and searched the whole place, but apparently didn't steal anything. Dmitri offers to try to find out who they were (they apparently went back to Greenvale somewhere), if the PCs will help him with the second piece of info - an old wizard friend of Dmitri's was burgled by another wizard, who stole two dangerous books of lore, and said wizard-thief was then tracked traveling south, in the general direction of Greenlake, tho to the west. The old wizard friend offers a 1,000 sp reward to anyone who can recover the stolen books, but warns that Erhart the theif is not a wimp, nor is he particularly nice. The PCs agree to do this recovery job, while Dmitri investigates their intruder problem. 

 

The PCs all begin to travel south, as the old wizard Friend (Hrodulf of Crossroads in Fairvale County) directs them; he's scrying on Erhart. They finally arrive on a mountain ridge overlooking a small lake, after 6 days of travel and a couple of encounters (I think they fought a Caterwaul and something else?). At this point Erhart disappeared from Hrodulf's scry spell. After a search, Bexa manages to locate a sinkhole, which turns out to be guarded by two fighter/bodyguards from Greenvale, who were hired by Erhart. Some judicious threats cause the men to decide to give up their job as a lost cause, and retreat. Next morning, as the PCs consider whether to descend into the hole, they are approached by some Warforged (actually they helped run the fighers off) who tell them they are from "Tranquil Valley" - the area they claim around the lake (Lake Tranquility). There is a ruined town where the warforged are apparently living, which looks as if it has had a shipwreck dropped into the middle of the town. The warforged leader, named Ironfist, actually seems like a fairly nice guy, and invites the party to come down and visit after they explore and finish their "mission". The PCs agree, mostly. 

 

There are some shenanigans with ropes, fireballs and cave fishers which end with the party on a ledge in a cave above a pool of water, with a tunnel. Further exploration, following footprints in the dirt, lead to a series of rooms, a ghost who helps them out, a shrine to Mikol, and a magic longsword in a pool of lava. There's a massive fight against a bunch of starspawn aberrations, and also a library with a Spirit Naga, who says the sword (and the library) is HIS. He allows the PCs (Bexa) to borrow the sword, but says they must return it when they finish hunting Erhart down. The PCs learn a lot about some being called Delban (the Star of Ice and Hate) and his five Apostles, one of whom is imprisoned in this dungeon. They chase after Erhart, and interrupt him as he is attempting to complete his summoning ritual. It's a TOUGH fight, and only Eric blasting a hole in a wall of ice, Thori killing a bunch more starspawn creatures, and Vivian eventually slaying the wizard with her Spiritual Weapon from a distance allows victory to rule. Eric went DOWN to -4 when Erhart cast a lightning bolt, and Bexa was driven off for a while by fear, but came back in time to use her flaming longsword to destroy the menhirs needed to complete the summoning. The world was saved. 

 

Session 15 (10/31/21)

As soon as Erhart collapsed, Bexa used her flaming longsword to destroy the menhirs. They grabbed the wizard's body and retreated from the icy prison of the Apostle. He had a few nice items of treasure - a wand of silence, a cloak of resistance, and some potions. The PCs retreated to the lair of the Naga, who after some conversation with Bexa, agreed to the following:

1) Bexa could keep the longsword until he decided to call in the loan of it

2) Bexa would build a "fine" building and house the book collection from this dungeon within it - she has six months in which to construct that building

3) the Naga will come to "visit" sometime after the six month time, and may remain as long as he wishes; it was unclear if he would pay one or multiple visits, or how long said visit would last. He said that he was uninterested in "conversations" with anyone who was not "both wise and learned". 

After dealing with the Naga, the PCs camped for the night, and then the next day hiked down to the town on the lakeshore. There, they met with Ironfist and his Commander, Hammerjaw. After some back and forth, the PCs learned that the Warforged were mutineers, once crew on the airship now crashed in the ruins of the town. The ship had lain dormant for over 300 years, but recently new activity was spotted around it. Several Warforged "loyalists" had appeared to begin working on repairing the ship - no one was quite sure why. Hammerjaw says that if possible, he wanted to talk to the Captain of the ship - apparently none of his mutineers can enter the ship, and the loyalists are refusing to talk to him/them. But they are desperate for access to the repair facilities on the ship.

 

So the PCs, hoping to gain some sort of reward for their actions, trot on down to the ship, and demand to speak to the Captain. Some back and forth occurs, as "Number One" of the loyalists tries to refuse them entry. Eventually, though, they get in to see the captain. Turns out, he's an adventurer-wizard who has somehow become partly merged with the ship, and is "trapped" in a vat of healing goo but mentally controls the ship. He agrees that allowing the mutineers to rejoin his crew would be a good thing, as they have the artificer and skills to repair the ship, and he has access to the tools and resources. In turn, the PCs agree to bring a healer to him, if he will give them his ship's pinnace, a smaller flying vessel that can hold six passengers. Oh, and the PCs also recover a few minor magic items that had been stashed in the ships lockers from the Captain's adventuring companions (or possibly elsewhere, who knows?)

 

The PCs return home, with the agreement that in one month, the Pinnace will arrive at their Manor, and they will have a high-level healer with them to travel to the ship. They travel into Greenvale, to Castleton, to the Temple of All Gods, where they meet with Hrothwynn, a high-ranking priestess of Elanora, who agrees that for access to the Captain's information and such, she will send TWO priests to the PCs to travel to the ship and heal the captain, and negotiate with him. 

 

After this, the PCs return home. They have two weeks to wait until the clerics and the pinnace arrive. So they decide to start preparing an area of the woods to be cleared to make room for pastures to raise horses - Bexa's idea of a good way to generate a steady income. The PCs discover a particularly dark, swampy area of the forest about 1/2 mile from their house - there may be DARKWOOD trees growing there! So they go exploring, after being warned by the loggers that darkwood forests are often the home of creepy and dangerous critters. And yes- they manage to stumble across a pair of Dracolisks quite readily... one massive knock-down drag-out fight later, they have had much fun and near death, but managed to slay the two beasts. 

 

Session 16 (11/7/21)

The PCs spent a bit more time in the Darkwood Grove/swamp, and fought some megacentipedes, slew 4 of them, and gained new skills (leveled up, now 6th lvl). Afterwards, their pinnace, piloted by a warforged known as Anchor, arrived. The clerics of Elanora from Greenvale also arrived, and they flew back to Tranquility. There the wizard Captain Siluros was healed, and granted them use of the pinnace for one year. He did warn them that one of the PCs would probably want to learn to pilot it, as Anchor wouldn't want to stay away for too long. 

 

After returning to Ravenhill Manor, and spending time getting set up to build an outbuilding Library for their soon-to-visit guest Naga, they decided to set off to find the strangers who had searched their house earlier. Dmitri had been able to find out where the two had come from - a town in Greenvale called Cedarknot. So the PCs flew up there, hid the pinnace outside of town (with Anchor) and began to investigate. Soon, Eric and Bexa found a bartender willing to tell them that he recognized the drawings of the two perpetrators. They were adventurers who live in Cedarknot, at an inn with the lovely name of The Slaughtered Prince. He told them he knew someone who could help them; a street urchin who knew the cook there. He sent for the boy, named Lander, and the kid told the PCs he could get them into the Inn, at the back, because he was friends with the cook. He darted off for ten minutes, then came back and said he'd do it for 5 sp. They agreed, paid him, and followed. He led them to the back alley, which turned out to be a trap/ambush. The PCs were attacked by Lander and 4 others - a fighter with a bow hiding down the alley, a fighter with an axe coming up from behind, a half-orc cleric on a set of stairs in the alley, and a wizard leaning out of the window on the upper floor of the Inn. During the fight, Bexa was fear-spelled, as was Thori at the end of the fight; the wizard took Eric down, and everyone was seriously injured. However, Bexa killed Lander after he backstabbed her, Vivian and Thor took out one fighter, Eric cast several fireballs, eventually killing the cleric. The wizard and the archer-fighter fled after the cleric fell. 

 

When he was dead, they discovered that Lander was not a child, but a halfling in disguise. They dragged the bodies into the kitchen, quickly looted them, then ran upstairs to spend a few minutes searching the killers' rooms before the Patrol arrived.

 

 

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