Session 9: Trolls in the dark

While the troll tunnels were being drained overnight, the group sought some much needed rest. They settled into a room for the night and set watches. During the middle watch a horrible creature attacked. Most of the party awoke to Mouse screaming that a horrible monster had beaten and grabbed Arianna and Imm. By the time the rest had been aroused Lath was able to make out a lumbering moss man carrying two slumped figures under each arm. It was striding into the water and towards the broken tower at the edge of the courtyard.
The group raced to fight the creature andeventually slew it with crushing weapons, but not before Arianna had been ripped apart and Imm had been beaten to death and drowned. Prayers were said and they were sewn into their bed rolls, never to awake again.
Dawn came the next day and the grim party headed for the central courtyard. They encountered a stanger in the halls and thinking him a part of the rival goup held him at sword point. It turned out he was a sole explorer, a denizen of the Mist Marsh named Stiggand. He had sworn revenge on the trolls of the marsh for the death of his brother and now was seeking their heads. The group invited the savage warrior along.
Having drained the lower tunnels, the group descended down the broken well and into the half flooded troll tunnels. They quickly found stairs up and a swarm of horrible oozlings on the surface of the water which they quickly fried with burning hands spells.
Next was a room with a lone aqautic troll, and as the group advanced a second aquatic troll stood up along their flank. Pressed in battle the group eventually beat the trolls into submission.
As the last aqautic troll fell a 3rd troll charged the rear of the party. It was wearing a cloak of red scaled hide with a silver hand clasp. The troll seemed more cunning than it's fellows and aimed attacks at spell casters over the heads of the dwarves who rushed to meet it. Eventually even this third troll was beaten down and the group dragged their bodies to a dry area to burn. The cloak and clasp were taken from the lead troll and stuffed into Mendax's pack.
Feldnar convinced the rest they trolls should be burned as the group left, for the stench and smoke would surely alert the competing adventuring group.
The trolls were put to the torch and the adventurers wearily ascended.
On the way out through the courtyard, they were confronted by the other band of adventurers. They demanded the prize, the Fiend's Embrace, or else. The group refused and a fight ensued. The rival adventurers were beaten. Their half orc warrior, human bow man and human rogue were slain, while the human female cleric, human wizard, and gnome bard ran off.

Session 8: Cold Stones Keep

Session 8:
Krudin waved goodby to the band of adventurers as they left the potion makers hovel.
The group moved south, and without the aid of the ‘Swamper’ would need to travel to the ghoul bridge in order to thread their way through the perilous Mist Marsh.
On the way the group encountered a lone elven woman, an armored fighter whom Aarth and Lath recognized from their time in Ellival’s household. Her name was Arianna, and she was the lone survivor from a group. The group’s leader had been a druid/ranger from the bronzewood lodge with a mission to explore and map key features of the Mist Marsh. Unfortunately they had encountered a spectral undead which rose from a submerged barrow. The creature, which Moregrim and Lath recognized as an ‘Allip’ slew the other four members of her band and she was forced to flee.
The group encouraged her to join them on their quest to explore Cold Stones Keep.
The ghoul bridge posed small problems for group, since they were prepared for the possibility on undead. Lath’s turned forced 5 of the 6 aquatic ghouls to flee, and the 6th was slain, but not before it Paralyzed Moregrim. Lath using his magic to release him from the paralysis.
The group fled to the other side of the bridge before the rest of the ghouls returned.
The group approached the sinking keep as dusk settled on the Marsh.
Their first challenge was to cross the water to get through the flooded gate house.
The group spotted a break in the wall of a nearby tower. Aarth sent his familiar ‘Scuttles’ to swim to the break and explore inside.
The familiar did so and in the gloom Aarth felt nervousness wash through him from their empathic link. Suddenly he felt panic and fear.
Aarth quickly swam the gap between solid ground and the break in the tower wall. Inside he found a partially flooded room rank with vines and growth. Scuttles was drowning in the fronds of a large pitcher plant. Aarth scooped Scuttles up, and before he could turn a large vine animated and tried to grab him. He deftly avoided the plant and moved towards the break in the wall.
Those that could swim tried to follow Aarth. Feldnar produced a scroll and began to read it’s magic. At the completion of the spell he tossed a length of rope and it animated. Arianna grabbed the rope from his hands and hurled it towards the tower. As it neared the wall, Feldnar yelled ‘Tie’ and the rope magically tied itself to a large stone. Arianna held the other end, and one by one the group used the rope to swim across to the broken tower.
By the time the rest of the group entered the tower, whatever had attacked Aarth had either fled, or remained passive for no other vines attempted to attack the group.
The adventurers move into the partly flooded court yard and went towards the keep.

The adventurers encountered little more than some unsafe rooms at first. After Moregrim and Bornir were struck by falling debris the group took a more careful exploration of the keep.
On the first floor the group found a row boat moored to a rock at a break in the keep’s back wall.
On the second floor of the keep the adventurers found a room with 6 bed rolls and a fire pit. Then while half of the group was exploring the encampment a little further down the same hallway came a bald gnome. He popped out of a doorway, with a cocked small crossbow cradled over his arm.
“Who be you?” He queried. A parlay of sorts ensued between Feldnar and the gnome, while Mendax, Arianna, and Lath looked on.
Little information was given by wither side, and Feldnar and the gnome agreed the two groups would stay out of each others way.
Then Mendax cast a spell at the gnome with no obvious effect. The gnome wagged his finger at Mendax “Very naughty casting a hypnotism spell at me.” He then popped back into his doorway and the door slammed shut.
Before he fled Mendax spotted a set of reed pipes slung at the gnomes side. A gnome Bard perhaps.
The group cautiously left the hallway, and decided to explore the rest of the keep. They encounter a quartet of skeletal wolves guarding another inanimate skeleton. This corpse was found to have a wand with a command word scribbled on a note, the wand proved to be a wand of charm person.
Next they decided to find a way downstairs. The well in the courtyard seemed promising.
Moregrim peered down the well and saw a large break in the side of the well. The break started down 10’. Moregrim was lowered in a rope harness fashioned by Aarth and he found a large break in the well wall to a room beyond. Most of the break was dammed up with timbers and stones, so that the room beyond was flooded almost to the ceiling.
After reporting what he saw to the group, he unlimbered his axe, planted his feet on the dam and started chopping.
Moregrim spent several minutes hacking down the dam, during which time Mouse was peeking to see if the other group of adventurers were nearby. Finally the dam gave free and Bornir and Arianna struggled to keep Moregrim from being washed down the well by the sudden torrent of water. Moregrim was hoisted up, and as he watched the water pressure tore apart more and more of the dam. After 10 minutes he figured it would take hours to drain the rooms beyond, and the group hauled him up.
As they had been working under torch light and with the benefit of Dwarven Dark Vision, it was deemed best to find a safe place to rest for the night and get a fresh start in the morning.

Session 7: Into the Mist Marsh

Session 7: Into the Mist Marsh

While recovering in the Dead Hole Mine the group spoke at length with Constance. She had been captured by Thurbiss and his bodyguard, a ‘swamper’ named Gulgh. They took her to Gerek’s shack, then later that night took her to be interrogated by the woman cleric in the Dead Hole Mine. Her name was Yazarax.
The cleric Yazarax wanted to know what she knew about Ragnolin Dourstone. She spilled her guts telling the woman that Ragnolin was a regular client of hers although his visits had become less frequent. The last time she saw him he was muttering something about ‘the Faceless One being displeased’. That was over a month ago.
Yazarax then untied her, and dropped her done the pit unarmed to be devoured by the creature - a Harpoon Spider. Had it not been for the group she would have been slain. It seems Yazarax was interested in Ragnolin’s secrets, whether to learn them herself or to keep them out of the hands of others.
The group discussed moving against Dourstone, but with only the testimony of a prostitute that Ragnolin may be involved there was little proof.
The two captives, Gerek and Brekard, were another matter. They were guilty of kidnapping and attempted murder. They claimed that Yazarax was probably sent by Dourstone to help Thurbiss and the gang, but they weren’t sure. Inconclusive evidence wasn’t enough to make the Garrison to move against a mine manager.
The group took the two captives and Constance to the Garrison. There Imm was able to persuade the clerics of Heironeous to take in Constance. He had taken an oath to protect her, no matter her profession. The Garrison took the two prisoners.
The group then went to Allustan for guidance and to plan their next move.
During the meeting, Allustan informed his pupil Feldnar of the visiti of the notoriously corrupt Sheriff Cubbin. It seemed he was after the group for the death of an albino half orc named Kullen.
Imm wanted to turn himself in to the authories and explain himself, to which Allustan scoffed and explained that Cubbin works for the mine manager who pays the best. To surrender to Sheriff Cubbin was to ask to be murdered in ones cell.
Allustan offered a different option. A colleague of his, a master wizard by the name of Melraque, was in town and seeking adventurers. Melraque was offering work outside town which would last several weeks and during that time Allustan would inquire as to whom was paying the Sheriff to persue the ‘murderers’.
After Imm checked with the temple of Heironeous, and found they would continue to protect Constance during the groups absence, they agreed.
Allustan arranged for a meeting with Master Melraque in his study later that day.
Melraque, a dapper man in his fourties, scarred and missing his left eye, he wears a dark blue patch, has dark graying hair, and a mustache and goatee finely waxed in the latest of court fashions. His dove grey and azure blue clothes were also of the latest cut and cloth of the court. He bore a silver holy symbol of Heironeous.
He greeting the group and at once described his reasons for seeking a band of adventurers. Lore concerning a magical cloak had come into his possession. The device known as ‘the Fiend’s Embrace’ was a lore filled item, once worn by the witch queen of Perrenland - Iggwilv, reported to have been given her by her demon prince lover, and made from the skin of a devil.
It seems a local hermit, who once lived in these parts traveled to Greyhawk to peddle his notes and other possessions before his death due to the ravages of disease. The hermit, a wizard and herbologist, though the magical cloak might be in a ruined keep in the mist marsh. Once built by a dark servant of Iggwilv.
Melraque wished the group to explore the keep using his maps, and if they locate the cloak, he will buy it from them.
Lastly, he warned that a sage he contacted in Dyvers had stolen the information and sold it to another group of adventurers. Melraque had contacted the sage to verify that a servant of Iggwilv had indeed settled in the Mist Marsh. Later, through other informants, he found the sage had peddled the information to this group who had taken off to the keep in haste.
Armed with this information the group set off to the south using Melraques map towards ‘Cold Stones Keep.’
After traveling nearly four days they started into the marsh and one night slew a group of gnolls.
The group then came across the hut of the hermit who had sold Melraque his information. The hut was occupied by a large squirrly ‘swamper’ (humans, mostly barbarians and rangers who live in and near the Mist Marsh) named Krudin, and after Mendax had a chance to sample his ‘mostly possum’ stew, he led them to the abode of an old crone who sold potions further to the south. She sold to ‘swampers’ and gnolls alike.