Tonight we welcomed back our DM for Dragon Warriors who had taken a couple of months out to do other things. The ranger player enjoyed one session with us before he found another game to play that more suited his tastes (thanks for joining for the one session though Kris), so we had room in the party for another fighter type. Luckily another ranger was required, so the charcter just slotted in to where Samson left off. I think the party, including the NPC magic user, is now quite rounded out in terms of fighting and spell casting abilities.
The Moathouse – Part 2 (6th November 2013)
The Adventurers
Bow – Ranger
Hallan – Fighter
Johan - Cleric
Paulix – Thief
Vox – Magic User
Spugnoir – Magic User (NPC)
Snakes Alive - Thunorsdsay 11th Quattrober
(Day 16) – late morning
The sunlight slanting in through the gaps in the roof
glinted off motes of dust as they spiralled their way like dervishes to the
floor of the now motionless hallway. Motionless that is except for the heavy
chest movements of the party as they sought to regain their breath after the
last bandit fell. They quickly organised themselves to watch each of the six
entry points to the large vestibule they were now standing in. The bandits were
quickly stripped of anything useful and their bodies were heaped into a pile
out of the way.
When the area had become secured to their satisfaction,
Hallan and Paulix began to systematically search each of the rooms in the south
running corridor. They opened each door in turn only to be greeted by rooms
full of destroyed furniture, rubbish and on one occasion a swarm of bats. The tracks
of the bandits that they had just killed could be discerned in a few of the
rooms, but each of the doors was always closed. They finished searching the
last of the rooms either side of the hallway before they headed to the final opening
at the end of the corridor. Hallan listened carefully before he advanced into
the room in darkness. His eyes adjusted to the gloom quickly, aided by the
light filtering in from the arrow slits at the western end and the hole in the
roof at the eastern end. He could make out that most of the room was filled
with rubbish and broken furniture, much like the rest of this wing of the moat
house, and then his eyes lit upon the corpse of one of the bandits.
He called for the rest of the party to come and have a look,
and they all complied except for the two mages who remained vigilant at the far
end of the corridor. The party searched through the rubble for anything of
value and noticed that at roof level at the eastern end of the large room there
was a gap big enough for a person to wriggle through to the roof. Hallan and
Paulix, meanwhile, decided that there was probably more to be gained by looking
over the two-week old bandit corpse and decided to try to poke it to see what
happened. Suddenly a large fanged head darted from the mounds of detritus and
struck Hallan. The bite shocked him more than it injured him, but the burning
sensation coursing through his veins immediately afterwards told him that the
venom was powerful, if short-lived. The party drew their weapons and joined in
the fray. Luckily no-one else was injured by the twelve foot viper, and it was
soon dispatched. The ranger cut out the fangs and poison glands thinking that
they might come in handy at a later date and secured them safely within one of
his belt pouches. A quick search of the body revealed a very ornate dagger.
Locked door
After the shock encounter with the snake, and subsequent
healing session for Hallan, the party returned to their companions at the end
of the corridor and investigated the locked door from which the four bandits
came from. It was securely closed. Hallan attempted to break through it by
brute force but even his superior strength was not enough to budge it without
the aid of a battering ram; this was a fortress after all. The party decided to
hack it open with their hand axes. Whilst this was going on, Paulix
investigated the stairwell opposite but saw that even though the steps led up
to the next level it was completely blocked by a pile of fallen masonry.
Once the door was hacked open, the party cautiously advanced
inside where they saw the remnants of a makeshift camp upon the black flagstone
floor. Straw pallets enough for all of the bandits that they had encountered so
far lay scattered about, but a quick count revealed that there were extra for two
additional men. The ranger investigated the tracks within the room and
concluded that the last two bandits would have climbed out of the hole in the
roof and escaped down the other side and across the moat to the safety of the
surrounding fens.
The party were beginning to feel rather beaten up by now so
they decided it would be time to rest up and recover from their ordeal, as well
as allow the spell casters to regain their spells. They decided that the room
down the southern corridor that overlooked the steps into the hall would make
the best defensible place. They removed some of the sleeping pallets from the
bandits’ lair but before they had made much of an in road, Paulix motioned for
them to stop. After a few minutes of frantic digging he unearthed a large chest
from beneath the rubble which allowed egress from the room to the moat. After
checking it over for traps and removing the lock, he popped open the lid.
Inside he found a huge amount of copper coins and a variety of precious
objects. The party took all of the useful and valuable material to their newly
appointed strong room to rest up and count their fortune.
Tick Tock
Whilst the spell casters read their tomes of power and the
priest of Balder prayed to his god for more power to aid his ailing companions,
the ranger, Bow, decided to go out to explore the rest of the complex; there
was still the east-west corridor and a dark opening close to the bandit’s lair.
The rooms along the southern side of the corridor proved to
be empty except that the second room, which appeared to have belonged to the
castellan due to its perceived sumptuousness, held a silver baton concealed
within a loose fitting cresset on the wall.
Happy with his finding, he crossed to the opposite side of
the corridor and poked his head inside what would once have been the fortress’
kitchen. He slowly advanced into the room, poking his sword into splitting
sacks of rotten grain and rotting cupboards upon the walls as he went. He had
surveyed most of the room before coming across a large barrel. He tapped it to
see if it still contained anything within when suddenly a bloated six-legged
vision from the Abyss erupted from its hiding place behind the tun. The
blood-sucking giant tick launched itself at the ranger and managed to punch its
proboscis into his stomach and proceeded to suck at his juices.
Bow screamed in horror and pain, and tried to cut it from
his body before realising that at the rate his blood was being sucked from him
he would not last long enough to get more than a few strikes in. He decided to
try to make his way back to his companions dragging the bloated insect with him
in the hope that they could do something for him. Luckily his companions had
heard his screams and were at his side rapidly. One strike from Hallan was all
it took to cut the parasite from him, but the spray of the ranger’s own blood
across the walls and floor showed that he had had a lucky escape.
As the spell casters still had a long while to go before they
fully recovered their repertoires of chicanery, especially as Bow needed to be
healed, the party decided that no-one else should go out alone. They hunkered
down in their makeshift camp and waited out the hours eating their trail
rations and drinking the still serviceable wine from the barrel that the ranger
had been investigating just before he was attacked. Vox, with a little guidance
from Spugnoir, realised that he could now memorise an extra spell from his
book. He was beginning to grow in competence as a mage.
After a couple of hours of nervous waiting, the party heard
the scamper of feet above them. An hour or so later, they heard more noises
coming from the north of the moat house. The barrel of wine that they had found
did a good job in fortifying their shredded nerves. After the companions had
rested fully, Paulix and Bow quickly clambered onto the roof through one of the
holes that they had found earlier but were unable to spot anything untoward.
Giant Lizard – early afternoon
As the party only had two more places to explore within the
moat house, they decided to go together to face down any more adversaries with
a united front. The end set of double doors at the east-west corridor remained
sealed so they decided to investigate that first. After a quick listen to make
sure nothing was on the other side, the left door was opened and the party
snuck into the confines of the large room. Again, they were greeted with the
signs of devastation seen within all of the other rooms they had entered so
far. This room was full of broken bunk beds; obviously this was a barracks in
its previous life. Across the other side of the room was a huge pile of rubble
that appeared to lead out onto the roof and at the foot of the mound, against
the western wall, stood a large chest.
Paulix made his way towards the chest and Hallan began to
pace towards the rubble when a very large lizard slithered down the broken
masonry and hissed its defiance at the interlopers. The companions hefted their
weapons in readiness for combat. A furious battle ensued but the party had
learned from their previous encounters with large reptiles. They each supported
the melee in their own way which allowed Hallan to finish off the beast with a
mighty hack of his sword.
The chest was examined for traps but none were found. The
lock proved to be beyond the capabilities of Paulix, so he smashed it off with
a hand-axe instead. Inside the thief found some more coins in a small pouch, a
suit of scale armour (which happened to fit Hallan) and a crossbow with a box
full of bolts.
The party retrieved all of the treasure and made their way
to the final part of the building not yet explored. They discovered that beyond
the gap in the wall was a larder with shelves lining the walls with a variety
of sacks, pots and pouches. They could just make out in the gloom a flight of
steps leading down into darkness.
Rats
As the adventurers lined up to go down the stairs in single
file, Johan lit a torch and passed it forwards to Hallan to lead the way. He
made it to the top of the stairs when suddenly he was accosted by a swarm of
dog-sized rats. Spugnoir, seeing that there was room to cast a sleeping spell
beyond Hallan’s position at the head of the column, released his magical
energies at the swarm and a great many of them
at the front of the wave collapsed into a heap at the fighter’s feet.
Paulix, Bow and Johan squeezed to the front of the column to join Hallan in
hacking away at the rats. The thief took care of the comatose ones whilst the
other three fighters swiftly dealt with the remainder. A couple of the more
hardy specimens managed to get a few bites in but they were still killed
relatively quickly.
A search of some of the sacks and pouches revealed
mouldering foodstuffs that were no longer fit for human consumption as the rats
had fouled it, but one of the sacks had spilled some of its contents down the
stairs. Paulix followed the grain trail down a few stairs to be rewarded with
finding a fine, but very old gold ring with a worn out signet on it.
They decide that as it was getting late, they had a large
amount of treasure, and many were carrying an injury of some form (some a lot
worse than others), to head back to Staneford to rest and boast of their
exploits.
Return to Staneford – late afternoon
The three hour journey back to the village of Staneford was
remarkably uneventful. The party made their way straight to the Plough and
Stars Inn, booked rooms for the night and a hot bath each to steam away their
aches and pains. Whilst the rooms and baths were being prepared they had time
to get their treasure evaluated. Spugnoir was asked to determine which items in
their hoard were magical and they put those aside before going to see the
usurer Melubb, whom Paulix had visited a few days previously.
Upon approaching the money changer’s stout building the
party must have given off an air of confidence and experience; their demeanour,
armaments and appearance showed them to have survived some hefty fighting. The
guard at the door noticed their approach and as he was an ex-man-at-arm who had
seen combat in his past recognised the look of experience in their faces. He
nervously twiddled with his crossbow and repeatedly looked to his mastiff for
assurance until Bow calmed him and said that he had nothing to worry about –
they just had some goods they wished to exchange with Melubb. The guard knocked
on the door and whispered to the money-changer beyond the small slat that had opened
and a few moments later the party were instructed that two of them may enter
the building; but without weapons. Paulix and Johan entered, leaving the rest
of the party outside to guard the more mundane goods.
Melubb’s eyes lit up at seeing all the treasure on show and
he proceeded to evaluate the treasures presented before him. He changed up
their copper coins at the going rate and then offered a sum for each item and
the adventurers decided that they seemed reasonable for the most part, so they
traded most of their precious goods. The last few items they put back into
their sack and bade Melubb farewell, mentioning that there might be more where
that came from over the coming days. The gold in their purses was quite heavy
but a lot easier to carry and utilise than all the copper coins and items they
previously had. Just as they were leaving they asked him who might buy their
more mundane items. Melubb suggested that Rannos the trader might be able to
help but he did not give very good prices.
Divvying up the Treasure – early evening
The party headed to the trader’s establishment and made
their way inside the large building. A sour-faced portly man greeted them upon
entering the establishment and a tall, thin fellow ordered a lackey to stay out
of the way until called for.
The adventurers managed to sell off a lot of the bandits’
arms and armour here but failed to get more than half of what the items were
really worth. They did get a few deals due to the amount of goods that they had
to trade - some slightly better armour for a few of them that needed it.
With mixed emotions - unhappy with being ripped off, but
pleased to have got rid of the stuff quickly - the adventurers returned to the
Plough and Stars. The ranger slapped a gold coin onto the bar and suggested in
a loud voice that the innkeeper gave everyone in the place their choice of
drink until they returned to the bar after their ablutions when they would be
told tales of such derring-do that it would make their toes curl!
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