My Back-to-Basics Greyhawk Campaign

[scottenkainen]

Prologue (Session 1)
They came in a covered wagon, not allowed to see the route through the hills they took to reach the castle. They were only allowed out when they were in its courtyard. Their actions were limited because they were the indentured servants of a wizard – one Eneever Zig.

The wizard himself was there and waxed nostalgic about where they were – Castle Greyhawk. He talked about how generations had looted its dungeons and been responsible for the beginning of a new social class, the adventuring class. And, even though the castle should have been cleared out by now, someone or some force had restocked the castle dungeons with monsters and treasure. Zig wanted those treasures, and any treasure brought to him would help pay for their emancipation. He even showed them a way down, revealing a concealed trapdoor in the courtyard.

The initial five servants were Card, Jake, Korrin, Rex, and Thorin; of them, only Jake the Cleric was human. They found the dungeon, at least near this entrance, was truly a dungeon in form and function, and one of the first three cells were inhabited. They freed two gnomes and sent them up to the surface. Their jailors were a group of bandits at the end of the hall. Not many of the bandits were there in their lair, so they went down quickly.

From a bandit they left alive they learned of a nearby maze area the bandits avoided. This sounded promising to the five adventurers. They explored some of it, finding a spear trap behind a false door, and eventually found their way to a room with kobolds in it. They also made short work of the kobolds. Then they found a larger room with a row of three doors and, after they tried one, they found this area was inhabited by a lot more kobolds – too many to handle! They fled for their lives, Rex sacrificing himself in an attempt to slow the kobolds down…

To date, we still only know if Jake survived.

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Admin edit: This is the DM view of the game. For the player view, see my thread
odd74.proboards.com/thread/13962/finally-get-play-again-today

[scottenkainen]

Session 2: Five Months Later

Eneever Zig returned to the castle, with two wagons full of servants and other retainers this time. He wanted information more than treasure this time, and put a bounty of 100 gold on the head of Gurth, the bandit leader. Jake, having survived the first foray months earlier, returned to guide three new adventurers, Goryc, Hauspex Niv, and Siliceous Slagg. They went down via the same route.

At the prison cells, they found the same two gnomes! They had never made it out of the courtyard, having been captured by an ogre five months ago and returned to the cells. They had someone else in the cells with them, but this man turned out to be one of the bandits. He pulled a dagger to Goryc’s throat and demanded the others leave! Niv was fast with a charm spell and put the bandit under his power.

The charmed bandit led them to the bandits’ rooms. The bandits were spread out over two rooms, with Gurth in the second room. All of the bandits were dispatched, save Gurth and one other (the charmed one was killed by Slagg). They collected some treasure and returned up top to claim their bounty. The light of day hurt the eyes of the bandits, so accustomed had they become to living underground.

Zig asked them to pin Gurth down, then used a medallion to read Gurth’s thoughts. The medallion killed Gurth, but not before giving up his thoughts to Zig. Zig did not get the answers he wanted, but he now placed a bounty of 200 gp on someone Gurth knew as “The Master.” Zig also appraised the treasures the adventurers brought back. Goryc suspected Zig of lowballing them and cast a magic-detecting spell. None of their treasure was magical – but he did learn that Zig was protected by two invisible, magical guardians nearby him. At least they got 100 gold which, when added to their bounty, gave them 200 gold to pay down their servitude. Just 550 gold each left to go…

The captured bandit that wasn’t Gurth was eager to trade information for his life and told of a lieutenant who might know where the Master was. The prisoner was forced to lead them down and took them to a room full of eight orcs. Prepared for them in advance, the two magic-users dropped all eight of them with two sleep spells before the orcs could even reach them. They killed all the orcs, but left one alive for questioning. Their new prisoner told them the lieutenant they sought was a “half-goblin” named Herg and gave them directions on how to find Herg.

The adventurers followed the directions, passing three doors that led into rooms that housed huge weasels. They left the weasels alone and made their way to a large muralled hall and a pair of double doors, just as the orc had described. But the double doors were extremely hard to open.

While working on the doors, a man with a candle and a cape made of rat pelts approached them. This man was a roving furrier, buying rat pelts, and had been down here so long he wasn’t sure he wanted to leave and promised to think it over.

Meanwhile, the magic-users found, if they each touched one door that they opened for them. Unfortunately, the orc had lied. This was not Herg’s lair, but the lair of nine berserkers. Short on spells and not feeling confident, the adventurers tried to quickly trap the men inside the chamber, but the men were able to easily open the doors from inside. The adventurers fled the way they had come, but the berserkers were faster and caught up to them around the corner, in the hallway with the weasel rooms. The adventurers staged a fighting withdrawal up the long hallway, but would likely have lost the battle had Niv not started opening doors and letting weasels out. The weasels wound up doing more harm to the adventurers than anyone else down here had, but they also kept the berserkers busy and allowed them to escape.

[scottenkainen]

Session 3: Two weeks later…

The wagons rolled over the drawbridge into the courtyard of Castle Greyhawk once more. Rulf, acting like he thought of himself as a sergeant when he did not outrank any other indentured servant, called for everyone to line up and sound off, while the wizard Eneever Zig reviewed them. Zig’s instructions were short this time. Instead of waiting here, Zig was going into the dungeon himself, to speak to someone in the Bottle City. He explained how this was literally a city in a magic bottle, on the second dungeon level. He did not even assign guards to the wagons before walking off.

Jake, Haruspex Niv, Siliceous Slagg, and Baron von Hage (Baron was his first name) were not interested in guard duty, they abandoned Rulf and the others for the trapdoor that led into the dungeon, intent on collecting bounties.

Passing the dungeon cells, they found a third gnome in the first cell! The gnome was chained up and made it clear an ambush was waiting for them in the second, adjoining cell. Forewarned, the four bounty hunters surprised two brigands lurking in the next cell, a variant of the trap the brigands had left here for them last time, but more dangerous because one of the brigands had an alarm horn in hand. Thankfully, the brigand dropped the horn when surprised, and neither brigand lasted long (one slain, the other, Bill, captured).

The gnome was freed. His name was Mather, and he had come looking for the two gnomes freed two weeks back, but was himself captured and tossed in here as fresh bait for the bounty hunters. Mather, unlike his cousins, wanted to accompany them and avenge himself, and was given Baron’s dagger.

Bill was questioned about the location of the Master. He had no idea, but he explained some dungeon economy to them. Rather than being paid money he was allowed to keep, Bill was given a weekly allowance that he could use to buy replacement weapons, good wine, or a romp with the Master’s harlots. This seemed like a good clue to the bounty hunters and they insisted Bill lead them to the harlots. Niv cast his ESP spell so he would sense thoughts they approached and would be harder to surprise.

The way to the harlot rooms seemed deserted, though. Bill suggested that it might be meal time; his sense of time was thrown off by the week he had spent in the cell as part of the trap for them. Eventually they reached a locked door that they could not break down, but the noise of them throwing themselves against it brought the attention of the harlots on the other side. When they claimed to be the Master, it brought the madam, Muriel, to the door.

There was a brigand in the room who was now half-dressed, had picked up his spear, and rushed in to fight, with Muriel fighting alongside him with her dagger. But the brigand went down fast and Muriel surrendered. She had fought to make a show of loyalty, but her only real loyalty was to her girls. She said she had few encounters with the Master, and most of her dealings were with a lieutenant, Gregory. It was Gregory with whom Muriel had an arrangement that her girls would always be compensated. She was asked if the women would want to leave the dungeon if escorted, but she said some had been down here long enough they did not remember the surface world anymore. She agreed to lead them into the vicinity of Gregory’s quarters, but would not risk being seen with them and let him know she had betrayed him. She also implored them not to kill Gregory, as her girls would no longer be safe then.

Two more brigands had been in the next room of harlots, but one escaped and only one remained to guard the other’s escape, wielding only a scimitar in his hands. He was a capable swordsman and it took some time for Slagg, Baron, and Jake to drop him.

A short distance away, at Gregory’s quarters, they fought and killed a guard outside the room, and Baron was finally able to upgrade his armor to what this man had been wearing. By now, Muriel had vanished (Mather had her dagger now, though). The door to Gregory’s room was locked, and another door on the other side that seemed to lead into the same area was locked. Niv sensed no thoughts within, so making lots of noise breaking a door down did not seem useful enough to them. Instead, they moved on to a new part of the dungeon past here.

The next rooms were also empty of people, but they were not empty. One contained a blue opal in a chamber full of centipedes, including two giant centipedes, which were easily killed. Mather helped in the combat here, despite still having no armor. Another room contained a stuffed albatross on a wooden pedestal, with a pair of dice next to it. A third room contained even more elaborate and puzzling contents. There was a pool of water (curiously, salthingyer!) with a chain hanging from a pulley above it. In a small adjoining room was a winch controlling the chain. The bounty hunters tried lowering the chain into the water, and tried baiting the chain with the stuffed albatross, but caught nothing on their fishing expedition.

While trying to solve the puzzle, they were caught by three guards on patrol and the bounty hunters fought them and killed them. Mather, again, proved useful (so much so that he was convinced Muriel’s dagger was magical), but by now both Slagg and Baron had been injured and Jake only had a healing spell for one. Leaving Baron moderately injured, they decided it was time to start heading back. Returning to the harlots’ rooms, they found Muriel had returned here. She told Mather her dagger was not magical, shocking him to learn that it was all himself who had been so successful in combat. Muriel had discussed their offer of freedom with her girls and three of them wished to go.

They got turned around once on the way back out, but realized they had taken a wrong turn when they reached a pit they had never seen before. Luckily, they had still been dragging Bill around all this time, and Bill led them out. However, not far from the first bandit lair, they opened a door and found four wandering giant rats. Two of them jumped on Baron and tore him apart. Mather killed them both, while Slagg and Jake took care of the other two.They tried to revive Baron, but all they got out of him were his final words. “I had a good time…don’t tell anyone how I died.”

Returning to the courtyard (Bill was forced to carry Baron), they found all the other servants badly hurt and one of the wagons smashed! Two ogres had ambushed them from the roofs of the nearby round towers and hurled rocks down on the nearest wagon to smash it. The ogres had been chased off after a horrendous battle.

Eventually Zig returned and he had news too: the dungeons had changed since he was down there last and he could no longer find the Bottle City. He offered a 200 gp reward if they happened to find it. No one had, of course, but they did have treasure to show Zig. The dice found by the albatross had fading magic, or some residual magic, to them. Curious, he gave them 50 gp for the dice. The blue opal was worth far more -- 2,000 gold pieces. Now the bounty hunters had a serious discussion -- use the money to resurrect Baron, or pay for their freedom? The 2,000 split three ways would make all three of them free men (or two men and a dwarf, at any rate). The desire to be free men won the day, but to assuage their guilt they agreed to give the remaining 200 gold to Baron’s next of kin.

And so they all left, with the remaining wagon, to return to the City of Greyhawk…

[scottenkainen]

Session 4: Two weeks later...

Though Haruspex Niv was eager to get Mather to Grossettgrottell (and possibly a reward), Jake and Siliceous Slagg made him wait, vowing they’d do that after one more trip to Castle Greyhawk. They brought Goryc along (even though Goryc is still an indentured servant of Eneever Zig!).

Thanks to a wealthy patron Jake met the previous week, they had a carriage ride and men-at-arms escort all the way to Castle Greyhawk. Once there, they realized they could do anything they wanted, with no mission from Zig. They looked around the entrance and found an ogre’s “nest” in one of the square towers, but the ogre wasn’t home (the heroes know there are at least two).

Then they checked out the stables on the south side/high end of the castle grounds. There they found a working wagon, miscellaneous possessions from old workers, and – on the third floor – a haunted room. Jake performed a ceremony to try and put the undead to rest, but the ceremony only upset – a wraith! Niv and Goryc ran (I wasn’t taking the blame if they got energy drained while they were NPCs). Slagg had a silver dagger, so he stayed and fought. Jake poured holy water on his morning star so he could fight too. And they won! (Chiefly because the wraith was a terrible fighter/I could not roll more than a 10 to hit/forgot silver weapons do half-damage. Oops!) The room contained some loose change, a holy symbol, and more importantly a workbench full of a master blacksmith’s tools in pristine condition.

Rather than move on in exploring the castle, Slagg had an unusual suggestion: why not quit now with the spoils they had? They could load everything that looked saleable into the wagon and push it downhill to the courtyard entrance. If they hurried, they would get out before the ogre(s) came back. After some discussion, they agreed as a group to leave, left the castle, and met their escort just outside. Their carriage had two horses; they bought one outright from the driver and returned at half-speed to civilization. Rather than return all the way to Greyhawk City, they stopped at the Village of Hawfair Green, so they would reach it by late evening.

[scottenkainen]

Session 5: Two weeks later...

At the end of that summer, the three freemen adventurers - Siliceous Slagg, Jake, and Haruspex Niv - decided to finally go to Grossettgrottell and see if Mather and his clan had a reward for them. They were joined by Niv’s newly hired man-at-arms, Peter, and a new adventurer, Sagan the Nameless, who they suspected was spying on them for Eneever Zig, but let him come anyway.

After an uneventful trip into the Cairn Hills, they finally reached Grossettgrottell, which seemed to be no more than a thorp full of gnome shepherds with a human-sized inn. The inn was run by Halril, an elf maiden, who entertained merchants who could not or would not go down into the warrens (a friendly merchant of this sort they met was John Rown) and gnome shepherds waiting for the bowling games to start. Though they made sure the inn could put up their wagon and two draft horses, it seemed accommodations were scarce because this was a fest day, or a market day, and indeed they were missing it even now in the warrens below.

Moving outside, Slagg quickly found the concealed tunnel entrance to the underground warrens. They were stopped at a guard outpost where the gnomes were suspicious until Slagg described Mather and his nephews, and then they were admitted, and warned not to pet the badgers (they had many opportunities to, but chickened out).
The entry tunnel went past a side passage with a dwarven glyph over it, but they ignored it and pressed on to the trade hall cavern. In this enormous cavern they found the marketplace just starting to break down for the day. They hired a gnome guide for 2 sp who took them to a tunnel that led to the Amdur Clan’s section of the warrens, home to Mather and the nephews, Horach and Pincnan. Here they were received warmly and told they could stay as long as they wanted. A feast would be prepared for them – but the chef Ipayah refused because she had no violet mushrooms for everyone’s favorite dish. The mushrooms could only be found in the Forbidden Caves.

At first, the party wanted nothing to do with the Forbidden Caves. They found the Amdurs’ drinking hall and, socializing with the gnomes there, learned of undisclosed bounties on kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs that infested the Cairn Hills. They told about kobolds bursting into flame when killed, and goblins having special abilities, which may or may not prove to be true. But the Forbidden Caves were starting to sound more tempting, especially when Horach and Pincnan agreed to come and point out poisonous mushrooms to them (the whole “forbidden” thing was really more of a guideline…).

In their first cave, they found poisonous, sticky mushrooms, and normal-sized beetles that seemed to like heat. In the second cave, they found destroying angel mushrooms that were, besides being deadly poison, would explode with a flash if thrown. Jake was collecting some when three giant centipedes attacked him, but they were quickly dispatched by the party without harm. Niv made Peter collect the bodies and place them in his pack.

In a third cave, they found a slick slope and decided it looked too dangerous, so they backtracked to a side passage. Down this way they found a fourth cave with a 4’ cube carved stone in the center of it. Though initially wary of the cube, Jake went in and touched the back side of it, at which time the side facing a small side passage turned white and the side facing a shallow niche turned black. There was definitely some puzzle here, but they decided not to mess with it. It was getting late and they wanted to find their way back. Which they did!

[Finarvyn]

Glad the game is still chugging along, Scott! The one session I had was awesome!

[scottenkainen]

Sept 5, 2020 15:53:05 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Glad the game is still chugging along, Scott! The one session I had was awesome!

It's not too late to rejoin...!

[scottenkainen]

Session 6 (Two weeks later…)

On the two-week anniversary of the party’s arrival in Grossetgrottell (this week’s market day-fest was taking place in the neighboring village of Chataignier), the party was planning to go back and explore the rest of the Forbidden Caves. Haruspex Niv, Jake, and Sagan the Nameless found Siliceous Slagg, who had been spending time with his fellow dwarves in Grossettgrottell, while the others had been staying close with the gnomish Amdur Clan. Their reunion was cut short by a commotion -- the mayor’s son, Zeph, had been kidnapped! Everyone who wasn’t away in Chataignier was mobilized to search, including every burrowing mammal, but the only clue was that something had been seen heading towards the Forbidden Caves!

Mather was rallying his people when he spotted the party. Singing their praises as experts in rescuing gnomes, he also volunteered to come with them, armed with his lucky dagger and a shield he had bought. They also had Niv’s man-at-arms hireling, Peter, along with. Slagg volunteered that he knew of a dwarven hero staying in the area, but the others did not like the thought of splitting treasure with a hero and decided six people was quite enough thank you very much.

The party headed back into the caves, being more careful to map this time, and used Niv’s ESP spell to try and home in on the gnomenappers. They covered a lot of familiar ground at first, making sure the four caves they knew about were not occupied and looking for tracks. It was when they returned to the cave with the magical stone cube in it that Niv’s spell finally detected evil monsters ahead. Still, the party took the time to try and detour around the direction the thoughts emanated from, suspecting an ambush. So they came at a cave with three goblins and four giant rats in it from a slightly different angle. The rats charged at them and the goblins threw their spears, but Jake blocked the tunnel entrance with his shield and the spears all glanced off -- and then their opponents were all dropped by Niv’s Sleep spell. They had minimal treasure -- 12 sp -- and it was decided (after killing the rats) to tie up the goblins and see if they had any information of value. It turned out, their boss was a gnoll, and the gnoll had gnomenapped Zeph. The goblins were guarding his back as the gnoll headed deeper into the caves. After questioning them, Slagg dispatched them with his axe.

The next cave had a high ledge overlooking it like a balcony and there was a lone goblin guard watching them from the balcony. The party went back to get the three throwing spears from the dead goblins and come back, but when they did they found the lone sentry had gone and got all his friends -- four of them -- to come man the balcony with him. They lobbed javelins at the party, lightly injuring Slagg, and nearly killing Mather (he was saved at the last minute by Jake’s only cure spell). The javelin-tossers were chased back by flaming oil, but soon the cave was filled with smoke and too dangerous for the party to stay. Luckily, there was another tunnel down here to try…

Which lead to a cave with the gnoll in it, accompanied by a lone goblin, and a sack with something moving in it. The goblin met the advancing party and blew out Jake’s torch (being able to blow out torches was something the gnomes had told them goblins could do -- and it turned out to be true!). The gnoll was running towards a tunnel on the other side of the cave when the lights went out; Sagan tossed a Sleep spell down the tunnel as far as it could go and caught the gnoll in it, which they found out after Slagg dispatched the remaining goblin. Sure enough, Zeph was sleeping now in the bag, but they woke him up. Mather comforted Zeph while the gnoll was tied up. The party quickly decided they would bring back their prisoner to face gnomish justice…and maybe collect a reward for capturing him. They also found the cave the gnoll had fled into was the cave of violet mushrooms -- the very delicacies they had been looking for last time! They filled the sack that had held Zeph with the delicious mushrooms and started to head back.

But not all the way back yet. There was something Sagan had noticed while mapping…that a dead end they had seen earlier seemed to come to the other side of the balcony cave. They all went there and searched it for secret doors. They almost found none, but Peter found it, searching a little further back in the tunnel from the dead end. This lead to the secret lair of the six remaining goblins, who were felled by another Sleep spell. In a chest, they had 9 cp, 300 sp, and 31 ep, which the party took.

And lastly, Jake wanted to back and gather 16 more “exploding” destroying angel mushrooms, enough to fill the remainder of space in his backpack.

When returning to the Village of Corippo, they returned Zeph, and were treated to a 50 gp reward, plus 20 more for bringing them the blackguard who had abducted him. The violet mushrooms were worth 50 gp to the Amdur Clan (and shared only with the Amdur Clan, cementing their cooking- related power in the community!). Jake looked into if the destroying angel mushrooms were saleable and learned that the four he’d picked two weeks ago would rot in the next few days, meaning his collection was of limited value.

[scottenkainen]

Session seven (two weeks later...)

In Sittingbourne, Haruspex Niv paid for all but the ship’s crew to sleep the night in the Red Lion Hostel.

The next morning, Niv, his hireling Peter, Siliceous Slagg, Jake, Sagan the Nameless, and John Grond returned to the Rhenee Mistress and continued their riverboat tour southward, reaching the Village of Faversham that same morning. The wagon and horses were unloaded, the horses given some time to stretch, and the party considered their best course of action. Though John wanted to seek out information at Pelor’s Inn, Sagan suggested any guards at the west gate to the village (Faversham being a walled village, even if the wall was not very high) would be a better source of information. The two sentries were very surprised to see anyone wishing to go to Ashford; no one had been coming or going to Ashford for some time, since a hydra was lose in the area (something the party had heard rumors about weeks earlier). The party decided to chance it, but bought a pair of goats to bring along as hydra food in case they ran into it.

Outside the village was an abbey. Jake had always wanted to visit this abbey and begged leave of the others to see it.

Jake-less, they survived the day, seeing no sign of a hydra. But neither did they reach Ashford that day, given their late start. They camped the night behind a low hill away from the road and set one-man watches. It was at the end of Niv’s first watch that a small band of local adventurers from Ashford happened upon them. They were hunting a barrow wight, traveling with goblins, that had been sighted in the area. They knew of Propsero -- indeed, they knew he had been shut him in his home for over a week, refusing to leave, even to help with this wight business. This lent extra weight to their mission of helping to move Prospero, the task the Striped Mage had given them. Further, the adventurers were concerned the party might be wights in disguise. John submitted to tests to prove he was no wight, and the local adventurers pushed on.

In the morning, they reached Ashford and John checked the local stores for silver weapons, but found none. They set out to find Prospero’s house, got lost in the forest, but doubled back and found it a few hours later. And that was when they encountered eight little grey men -- kobolds -- who warned them they had no business with the wizard and to leave. It seemed like it would be a simple matter to put them to sleep with a spell -- but they seemed unusually resistant to the spell and only four went down. The other four were defeated, with two taken prisoner, but not before John, Niv, and Peter had all been injured, Niv and Peter seriously.

They were searching the bodies and finding some silver pieces when nine more kobolds arrived from the woods with the same warning. John killed one of the prisoners to try and break the morale of the fresh wave, but it did not work. Another sleep spell was attempted, this time by Sagan, but he was hit with a spear and his spell disrupted. Niv, Sagan, and Peter all retreated to the house with the remaining kobold prisoner while Slagg and Grond tried to hold off all their opponents. Indeed, they won in the end, dropping seven more kobolds and the two remaining ones fled, but by now both Slagg and Grond were seriously injured as well.

Meanwhile, the others were exploring the ridiculous-looking house, filled with curious knickknacks, and clocks that were impossibly miniaturized. Most importantly, Peter found Prospero sitting in his living room. Prospero was confused and indecisive, but claimed this was because of some unknown spell afflicting him. He was further aware that his house was surrounded by monsters that were not just unusually magic resistant, but “impossibly” magic resistant. To test this, Niv and Sagan both cast their remaining spells on the prisoner, trying to make the kobold like them, but it did not even seem to need to try and resist the spells.

Slagg came in, announced the battle was over, and asked for a healing potion. Luckily, Prospero had one with extra-healing properties, so Slagg and Grond could split it between them. It didn’t heal very much, though.

They saw another test shortly of this “magic resistance” when they convinced Prospero to come outside and they saw a large green monster about to attack Grond. Prospero dropped a Cloudkill spell on it, but the spell didn’t do much but obscure its vision. Everyone fled back inside.

While packing Prospero’s valuables, John stole a “magic coffeepot,” and Sagan found a magic talking mirror on the upstairs floor. The mirror told them of a secret passage under the house that Prospero claimed to have forgotten. It was a tunnel that led six miles east; the magic mirror was even able to show them that the end of the tunnel was clear. So they all made their escape, leaving their horses, wagon, and goats behind for the huge green monster…

[scottenkainen]

Prospero recovered his wits as soon as they were some distance down the tunnel. Once they were out, Prospero took his things (minus the pilfered coffee pot) and teleported to the City of Greyhawk. Before he went, he asked them to make contact with his friend, Roger Bacon, in the Village of Faversham. They needed to go back there anyway to pick up Jake from the abbey.

Peter, Niv’s hireling, was badly shaken by having to flee from a troll -- he just kept going, never to be seen again (so far).

After a week in Faversham, during which time Prospero never returned, Sagan and John decided it was time to return to the Striped Mage and inform him of their success. They had, after all, helped Prospero move, just not in the way they had expected. Upon returning to Greyhawk City, though, they were shocked to learn that the Striped Mage had died, apparently from old age! All of his indentured servants were expected to attend his wake that weekend…but some of them would soon have other plans…

Session 8
Patchwall 14, 620 CY
 
On a beautiful autumn Starday morning, seven adventurers rode out from Greyhawk City, northward toward the Cairn Hills. The rented carriages carried them over the side trail that led to the infamous ruins of Castle Greyhawk. For Haruspex Niv, Siliceous Slagg, and Jake, it was a return. For Sagan the Nameless, John Grond, Tuko "Lumpy" Burrstone, and Jolith Rhygar, long denied the chance to seek fame and fortune by their master, the Striped Mage, the day of his wake was a fittingly spiteful time to at last visit the Castle.
 
Not long after one of the carriage drivers had told them about an ogre ambush on the last carriage tour to the old castle, two ogres charged the party just as they were unloading from the carriages. First blood went to Jolith’s sling, but the ogres responded in kind with hurled spears and one random throw impaled Sagan and the other impaled one of the carriage drivers. Jake tried to magically heal Sagan, but it wasn’t enough -- Sagan the Nameless died. The battle was quickly ended, for the injured ogre fell afflicted by Niv’s charm spell and, between the charmed ogre and John (who could speak Ogrish), they convinced the remaining ogre to stand down.
 
After huddling up, the adventurers came up with a pretty audacious plan to deal with the ogres. They bribed the ogres into compliance by feeding them the horses from one of the carriages, then bribed the remaining carriage driver into returning to the city, not report what happened to the other carriage, and use the money left on Sagan to pay for his funeral. A few choice gear items were removed from Sagan (and carried by John). After the carriage was away and the ogres were done eating, the adventurers asked for an escorted tour of the castle grounds.
 
The ogres showed the adventurers their home and inside was a human cleric chained to the wall -- what the ogres offered to share as dessert. The adventurers sent the charmed ogre off on a false errand, surrounded the remaining ogre, and killed it. They freed the cleric, Brother Langdon, who had come on a solo pilgrimage to the Shrine of Boccob here at the castle. They found Langdon’s gear (and 30 gold from the ogre besides), and brought him along to keep him safe. Then they retrieved their charmed ogre and convinced him to go into the dungeon with them, through the trapdoor entrance they knew so well.
 
The ogre did not care for the tight confines of the dungeon and had never been down here before, but proved an invaluable door opener. The jail cells in the entry hall were empty this time, so they were able to move on quickly. The old brigand lair was now being shared with hobgoblins (they had 15 gp between them), but with the ogre’s help the hobgoblins were quickly dispatched (though Lumpy was seriously hurt by their polearms) and the brigands surrendered (they had a decorative shield worth 20 gp). The old orc lair was empty. They searched the sarcophagus room and found treasure they had missed months earlier (a 100 gp tourmaline and a 25 gp incense burner). Lastly, they found a new room with a trapped chest in it (Jolith triggered the trap, which was supposed to hit him with magical cold, but something went wrong with the trap and he took no harm). Inside was the biggest cache of treasure they had ever seen before -- 4,000 gold pieces worth of gold and jewels, and three magic potions.
 
Leaving the castle with their spoils, their charmed ogre pulled the carriage halfway back to the city, where they left the ogre to his own devices, and then they walked back home the rest of the way.

[scottenkainen]

Interlude 1

In the Barrier Peaks stands the castle of Mordenkainen. Many protective guards and wards protect its walls from those who could even reach it to begin with, as remote as the castle is. But unlike, well, any living thing, we can soar through an upper window on the thirteenth floor, through a study, down a hall, through a larger hall, around another corner, and into one of the private rooms of Mordenkainen himself. He is sitting in a chair while an elf servant trims his beard.

Suddenly, Mordenkainen lurches forward, stumbling out of his chair. He reaches out for something solid to help steady himself. He turns, looks around, and says to the elf maid, "Did you feel that?" in her own tongue.

She did not. Concern knits Mordenkainen's brow. For a full minute he looks at the floor, deep in thought. Finally he decides on a course of action; he walks to the nearest side wall and gives a very special rap of his knuckles upon it, causing a door to appear there. He opens it, and steps through. We follow.

Mordenkainen has stepped into his divination room. He uncovers a crystal ball, touches it, and speaks a command. "Show me Tenser. Allow me to speak with him."

The image of another of Oerth's most famous mage's appears in the ball. He's eating a sandwich.

"Tenser," Mordenkainen says, "I have felt a great disturbance. Something feels amiss to me. Do you not feel it?"

"Is that why my sandwich tastes off?" Tenser asks. "What goes on?"

"That I do not know, though...I have a strange premonition that gives me some inkling...I will get back to you."

Mordenkainen touches the crystal ball again and the image blurs and disappears. He thinks twice before saying what he says next. "Show me the Mad Prophet. Allow me to hear him."

The image of a dimly-lit cell, illuminated by the flickering light of some distant torch, appears in the ball. In the gloom, covered in matted hair almost as thick as fur, is a man. The man cackles with a hoarse, dry voice.

"Who is watching me? Basiliv? Rary? Mordenkainen? It does not matter...you will all come to me in time...and, in time ...will come to see what time will mean in time."

[scottenkainen]

Session 9
Patchwall 27, 620 CY

The adventurers (still having no company name, even unofficially) have found the cost of carriage rides to Castle Greyhawk is prohibitively expensive since the last carriage driver died/”went missing,” so they bought two mules, put the dwarves on the mules along with some of their gear, and everyone bringing platemail armor for the dungeon bought leather armor for traveling, so they could make the best time possible.
At this time of the year, even moving as fast as they could, it was dark well before they reached the castle, which was also when they came across a small campsite of goblins. The adventurers used bows and slings to attack the four goblins, downing two, but the other two fled and got away. The goblins were poor, with only 6 sp recovered.

When they did reach the castle, it was well after the goblins had, and they had gone for help. Six orcs piled out of a gatehouse before the castle (one that had never produced occupants before) and charged the adventurers with their bardiches, with the goblins trailing behind. But the party was now well-experienced with missile fire and brought down half the orcs before they’d finished their charge, and took down the remaining half right after, without a drop of the party’s blood being spilled. The goblins tried to get away again, but the party’s slings were too deadly efficient. Unlike the goblins, the orcs were apparently well-paid by someone to guard that gatehouse; they had 21 gp between them.

The party made their way into the courtyard but, because of the late hour, decided to rest for the night before visiting the dungeons. They knew, thanks to Brother Langdon, that the Chapel to Boccob was a safe place for them, and they hoped it was unoccupied so they could get away with bringing their mules in. Unfortunately, a Brother John was at the chapel, a priest who had risked entry to the castle because he felt he was needed here, but apparently not to put himself at risk helping to clear out his monstrous neighbors.

Instead, the party decided it was a safe risk to put the mules in the old stable overnight. John confirmed that it was no longer haunted since Denebus the Wraith (Siliceous had researched the likeliest identity of the wraith on his downtime) was dispatched. To further ensure their safety, the main doors to the stable was barred from inside and the party left through a side door, and posted a watch all night from a window in the chapel.
That last step is what ensured that Siliceous, during his watch, was able to hear the main doors being broken into.

A lone ogre had been roused from whatever ogres do in the night by the smell of mules, and seriously injured one of them with his axe before John Grond was able to distract it with his ability to speak Ogrish. Grond came up with a plan, that even the lawful members of the party wound up endorsing, of paying the ogre to guard the mules through the night, and then kill him in the morning.

Patchwall 28, 620 CY

To be fair, they tried charming it first, but the spell failed. The plan to kill it surprised the ogre and it was dispatched quickly before it could retaliate. It had only 14 gp on it.
Now it seemed clear that there were just too many ogres about and that it was dangerous to go into the dungeon with ogres at their backs. So the new plan was to go around to all the towers along the castle’s curtain wall and search them for ogres. They started by knocking on the door of the square tower at the castle’s entrance they had previously fought ogres in, and found two new ogres had made it their home! Haruspex put one to sleep with his remaining spell. It took two minutes to drop this ogre, and during that fight it delivered a crushing blow to John Grond! After the battle, Jolith and his hench-elf carried Grond back to the chapel to be healed, while the others searched the tower. The tower produced a total of only 77 more gp in the ogres’ sacks.

Back at the chapel, Jolith had to bribe Brother John to help save Grond (since Jake the Cleric had not come on this trip, they lacked a healer!). For 20 gp, and as a favor to Langdon, Brother John helped – though through mundane rather than magical means. It was touch and go, but Grond lived!

[scottenkainen]

Session 10
Ready’reat 13, 620 CY. An unusually warm earthday this late in autumn.

Jake is still busy with other things in the city (this has kept his new inductee to the party, Erin, from being able to go with yet), and Lumpy is still mysteriously missing, so a party of five -- Haruspex Niv, Siliceous Slagg, John Grond, Jolith Rhygar, and Brother Langdon -- plus their two hirelings (Slagg’s silent caddy, Haldor, and Jolith’s prankish elven archer Trebor) and their two mules (the injured one has healed nicely) make their way back to Castle Greyhawk. The plan is to spend the night in the Chapel of Boccob and then visit the dungeons again.

Those plans are changed abruptly when they find the drawbridge to the castle is up!

Siliceous has done much studying of castles and knows there must be a sally port or two somewhere, but they prove difficult to spot from the far side of the chasm-like dry moat completely surrounding the castle. Undeterred, they circle the moat for the first time and discover, on the east side, a narrow set of stairs descending to the moat’s floor 40’ below! Everyone (mules included) go down and the first thing they find is a cave mouth, but in the east wall of the moat, leading away from the castle dungeons. Still, the party is confident that the tunnel inside might loop down and around and come into the dungeons, so they go in.

Almost immediately they are stopped by a pit at an intersection of tunnels. Grond carefully tests the wooden planks over the pit and finds them all rotted and unsafe. So the party leaves the mules here, guarded by Haldor and Trebor, and the five of them rope themselves together so they can cross the narrow corner around the pit safely and head south.

The route never does lead under the castle, but only further from the castle! They explore cave after cave, finding a locked salting room, a cavern that might have once been an ogre nesting site before the ogres moved into the castle, and someone’s abandoned archery room (a long straight tunnel leads into it) now inhabited by four kobolds. Along the way, they pick up some loose treasure here and there, the best being a bolt of velvet found intact in the old ogre den.

While listening in the archery room, Siliceous hears someone’s footsteps in there with them that he can’t see. He takes his rope out and swings it around until it touches something invisible. Then that invisible person runs north down a tunnel leading out of the room, but Langdon sprints after him and catches him. The invisible person casts a charm spell on Langdon, but he resists. Everyone can now see he’s some dressed like a fellow adventurer. Siliceous and John join Langdon in a dog pile on the lone spellcaster, beating him up until he surrenders. Haruspex tries to charm him, but this man -- who says he’s a conjurer named Arlo -- also resists the spell.

Arlo claims that he was also looking for another entrance to the castle, so he could impress its new master, Eneever Zig, by getting in. In exchange for his life, Arlo tries to buy his freedom with the contents of his purse, that includes three precious stones, and the rumor that an old well on the south side of the castle leads down into the dungeons. Arlo is tied up and held by Langdon on a leash as the party moves on to explore more (the room behind the door turned out to be abandoned).

Moving further east, in the direction that Arlo was fleeing, they are surprised by goblin guards and, despite there only being three goblins, they prove surprisingly successful at seriously injuring both Grond and Langdon before they go down. The party moves on again, but more cautiously.

To the north is a large cavern. As they are checking it out, they hear a huge crowd charging at them from the north end of the cavern. It turns out to be 10 more goblins (it sounded like even more!). Luckily, Haruspex has been holding onto his sleep spell all this time! It drops eight of them, and the remaining two turn in mid-charge and flee through another passage east. Fearful of reinforcements, the party decides they have had enough of this foray and backtrack out the way they came. Haldor, Trebor, and the mules are still alive and well when they return to the entrance!

Before leaving, the party checks out Arlo’s story and do indeed find an old well outside the castle walls. They lower a lit lantern on 100’ of rope to test its depths, and they have still hit neither the bottom or water. Realizing they want no part of this particular sally port, yet, they head home to lick their wounds and sell their loot.

[scottenkainen]

Session 11
Ready’reat 28, 620 CY

Haruspex Niv, Siliceous Slagg, John Grond, Brother Langdon, Jolith Rhygar, and his hireling Trebor had all decided to stay in the City of Greyhawk and see what they could do to help at the “Cursed Tower,” the still-under-construction chapel of Boccob that had been delayed by many accidents, including the recent death of the laborer Greybill. If they were expecting a deserted tower they were much mistaken; it was bustling with activity, with a small security force outside, laborers on the scaffolding and going in and out of the chapel, and over a dozen clergy standing around, seemingly supervising.

John Grond split off to go visit a nearby bakery, while Jolith told Trebor to take up a position somewhere he could watch the tower from an unobserved distance. The others went up to talk to the adept, Brother Tybalt, who summoned Brother John from inside. They all knew Brother John from Castle Greyhawk, and he related to them the story of how a wizard and his hirelings had driven the ogres of the castle to the far western towers, but then broke off their assault. The wizard cast a spell that lowered the drawbridge so his hirelings could come and go, and John took this opportunity to leave himself; and this was a week ago. In the course of the conversation, John returned with a loaf of bread. He had also been followed.

An old lady, perhaps 60, but wearing armor and armed, came to meet the party, bearing a box of pastries for them. More importantly, this was Grandma Erin, whom Jake had earlier talked about admitting into the party as his possible replacement, now that his priestly duties were so great. Erin wanted to help out, so she stayed with the outdoors group, watching for trouble, while Haruspex and Langdon went inside to take a tour of the chapel.
Inside, the two of them met Bishop Carolus. Carolus squashed Langdon’s theory that it was a spirit or fairy causing mischief by sharing the secret that notes warning of further “accidents” had been left several times inside the chapel. It seemed more human agents were responsible, perhaps even one disguised as a clergyman. Carolus also shared that he had avoided taking more actions than hiring security because he was waiting for a sign, but last night he had a dream about Brother Langdon that Langdon found only semi-reassuring.

Speaking of clergymen, they were met on the second floor by the two curates of the church, Artemidorus and Ptolemaeus, who felt “Langdon’s friends” were disruptive at best and suspicious at worst. Ptolemaeus also had some noticeable magic about him, as he made no noise when he moved.

Outside, the group followed music to a female bard wearing a man’s flat cap and playing pipes by the tower. She was Stenburch the Bard and they talked to her until another accident happened – a scaffolding plank collapsed when one of its support poles broke. Erin checked the pole and found that it had been partially sawed through sometime earlier. Jolith tended to the broken leg of a man who fell, putting a splint on it, but changed his mind when two other laborers were leading him away. He cast his only healing spell to fix the leg, but then traded the miracle for information. Sure enough, the laborer was harboring some knowledge he’d been hesitant to share. He had not wanted to say anything, but the stonemason Hilge was suspiciously always early and leaving late.

It was decided that Haruspex would charm Hilge so they could all interrogate him. It worked – maybe even too well, as Hilge began to draw attention to himself by how he fawned over Haruspex. Niv drew Hilge away from the tower and, some distance away, they pumped him for information. Sure enough, he was a spy working for the Iron Workers Guild. He had not done any of the sabotage himself, but was there to observe and make sure it happened, as was at least one more laborer (who was not scheduled that day). The Iron Workers Guild were racketeers…

Just then, they noticed a man dressed all in red running away from the tower. He reached the stream just east of the tower, with the security detail in hot pursuit – but then the ‘man in red’ made a 30-foot leap over the stream, leaving the fighting men well behind. The man in red doffed a flat cap – of the same type Stenburch wore earlier – and then fled the scene. Before he was out of range, Niv cast his Charm Person spell, but it failed to affect him.

The party converged outside the tower to find out what had happened. The man in red, representing the Iron Workers Guild, presented a final ultimatum, that the Church of Boccob would need to fire all its workers and hire through the guild instead, or would suffer their worst disaster that night.

Someone else came to meet the party. Vask, a strong but dumb fighting man, was in the employ of the Wizard Prospero, who sent Vask to help protect the party.
There were four hours to darkness. The party used this time splitting up and fetching their heavy armor and adventuring gear (they had worn their traveling leather armor until now). Haruspex bought throwing daggers, since he was out of spells. When they came back at dusk, they talked to Trebor, who had been watching this whole time. Trebor had observed Stenburch leaving, and had talked to four ratcatchers who were looking for unusually large rodents in the area. The party wanted to inspect the cellar level of the chapel, which they had grown suspicious of since hearing it mentioned a few times earlier in the day. Carolus had sent most of the clergy home for their safety and the increased nighttime security was outside, so the party was able to descend from the nave to the cellar uncontested.

The first side room in the cellar contained a grated trapdoor in the floor that seemed to lead into the city's sewers. The grate was not locked, but resisted opening. Barrels were moved onto the grate to keep it from opening. The party spent a lot of time searching around the statue of Boccob in an alcove at the far end of the hallway and that amounted to nothing. When they returned to the upper level, there was a commotion outside. While Siliceous, Langdon, and Erin remained below to watch the grate, the rest of the party went out to investigate.

There was no sign of the security forces, and four men were trying to set the scaffolding on fire with torches. The fighters in the party chased them off, seriously injuring two with missiles, while Trebor took down one with an arrow fired at distance.

At the same time, the grate was being rattled in the cellar. Someone was trying to enter, during the distraction outside. Erin dropped a lit torch through the grate and they could see it was four hobgoblins. The hobgoblins shrieked and fled down a tunnel away from the grate. Erin summoned the people outside back to the cellar. There was talk of taking the hinges off the trapdoor to see if it could be opened then, but by now enough time had passed that it was determined the hobgoblins had too good a lead.

The party returned to the nave, planning to all go outside, when they found that a third wave of attackers had taken the ground floor. A big chaotic melee ensued as nine men with torches and axes attacked the party. Some of them were good fighters, one taking three hits to drop, but they were not too loyal to their cause, and many tried to flee as soon as injured. Several party members were hurt in the fight, but none worse than Vask who was smashed in the face with a torch and went down! The party did win the fight (with Niv finding he was actually pretty good at throwing daggers), and the adepts on the upper floor were roused from their sleep to heal him.
[And that's where we ran out of time!]

[scottenkainen]

Interlude 2
Ready’reat 1, 620 CY

The ogre lumbered away, but only three more paces across the courtyard before falling forward, its head lolled to the side, and three of Eirenden’s arrows sticking out of its back.

“Don’t let them fall back to their tower!” Eirenden called out. He had another arrow already notched and was sighting his next target of the fleeing ogres.

But Rulf, further back, had just had a gravelly voice whispering in his ear. “Stop!” Rulf shouted. “Everyone, fall back to me! Zig’s orders!”

“Zig isn’t here,” Vincent said, holding his bloodied wound, but still with enough strength left to him to sound defiant.

“He will be,” Rulf argued. “Everyone, form a defensive circle around this spot!”

Rulf backed away into the circle of Eneever Zig’s henchmen forming up as instructed. Even Vincent. He had no love for Rulf, but he was wise to fear disobeying Zig.

Motes of magical energy began to dance in the spot near where Rulf stood. They spun briefly in a vertical oval shape before disappearing in a brief flash of light -- and then Eneever Zig stood in that spot. He wore a black conical hat and black robes that his white beard hung over, and he clutched a wizard’s staff. He could not have looked more the stereotype of a wizard had he consciously tried.

“Well? You found it?” were the first words out of Zig’s mouth.

Rulf seemed to know to what he referred. “Yes. We located the Bottle City. Did you wish to see it right away? We were just dispatching the rest of the ogres in this place.”

“Leave them,” Zig said. “They do not concern me. I would be taken to the Bottle City at once, but I have a new task for after you lead me there. Take the men and secure the main tower of the castle, so I may make use of it upon my return.”

“The main tower is held by a group of elves…” Rulf said.

“I know. You may try convincing them to leave if you wish, but if they resist, kill them. Kill them all.”

[Finarvyn]

Sounds like an awesome game, Scott. Wish we could be playing live again!

[scottenkainen]

Dec 8, 2020 12:06:09 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Sounds like an awesome game, Scott. Wish we could be playing live again!

Hopefully someday. In the meanwhile, it's not too late to force yourself onto Zoom...

[flailsnail75]

I’m enjoying reading this very much I hope the posts keep coming 😊
Is this Castle Zagyg or your own version of Castle Greyhawk?

[scottenkainen]

Dec 20, 2020 10:17:06 GMT -6 flailsnail75 said:

I’m enjoying reading this very much I hope the posts keep coming 😊
Is this Castle Zagyg or your own version of Castle Greyhawk?

An amalgam of sources...

[scottenkainen]

Session 12
Sunsebb 14, 620 CY

On a freezing cold day, the adventurers Haruspex Niv, Siliceous Slagg, John Grond, Brother Langdon, Jolith Rhygar, and Vask -- now calling themselves the Company of the White Oak – headed once more towards Castle Greyhawk from the nearest village of Hawfair Green. Their last forays had not made them rich and fears that a long winter would cut into their savings too deeply brought them back one more time. However, the castle itself was not their main focus, and turned out to be unavailable anyway (the drawbridge was once more up, no doubt the work of those pesky ogres!). Instead, they planned to descend into the dry moat and try the cave tunnels once more.

The first caves were not only uninhabited now, but the furnishings had been cleared out of them, even when nothing more than crude nests. Soon they reached a cross tunnel that led, to the right, to what had been a small guard room and, to the left, to a large common room cavern. The party had stood there and debated for a bit about which way to go and had just decided to skip checking the guard room when they were attacked by three fresh goblin guards from the rear. Siliceous, the rear guard, held them off while John and Vask turned around and aided him with spears. Niv, from his position in the middle, threw daggers over people's heads at the back rows of the goblins. Meanwhile, five more goblins emerged from the cavern to attack the clerics who were now the rear of the party.

It was the very pincer move the company had feared and, initially, it looked like it might prove deadly for them. Vask was struck a critical hit and went down, while Brother Langdon was seriously injured after several hits. These goblins, perhaps their elite fighters, fought smart and teamed up on the same opponents instead of spreading their numbers out. But the party soon turned the tide, struck down all the goblins save two, who fled back into the large cavern. John pursued them into the near-darkness of the cavern and found that Jolith’s guess as to what happened to all the furnishings turned out to be prophetic – the goblins had constructed a long barrier, up to 4’ high, crossing the entire 30’ width of the cavern. The goblins scrambled over it and escaped, for the moment, while the company dealt with their wounded. Jolith had called on Delleb to heal Vask and Vask was immediately restored to full health. Langdon had called on Boccob to heal himself and the Uncaring One had still left Langdon moderately hurt...and a little resentful.

A strategy was quickly devised for dealing with the barrier -- three flasks of oil were poured out on top of the wall, and then the band stepped back and waited. When they heard sounds in the dark on the far side of the room, they lobbed sling stones into the darkness, with only Langdon getting lucky enough to strike anything. Then the goblins made their charge -- all 10 of them. The company were themselves exposed to some sling shots, but the goblins were not effective with them. The company held their ground until the goblins were right up to the barrier - then Jolith tossed his lit torch onto it.

FWOOSH! Three goblins standing right up against the barrier with their spears caught on fire and burned to death. Spears and sling stones rained down on the fleeing goblins until only a few were left to escape.

Which left the company with a problem. They had set a huge fire that now blocked their pursuit of the goblins, and the wall of smoke it was throwing off meant they couldn't even watch to see if the goblins were coming back. The party backtracked to a side passage they had passed charging into the chamber and found a second small side cave, this one was apparently a lavatory for the more civilized goblins.

Since it was going to be maybe 20 minutes until the fire died down enough that the company could knock over the remaining barricade safely, the company decided to leave this area and explore elsewhere. Way back at the entrance was a left side passage they always ignored, but this time they planned to take it. They returned to their hirelings first to make sure they were okay, and they were. Trebor and Haldor had heard rocks falling out in the moat earlier, but saw nothing.

Circling carefully around the pit blocking the left side passage, the company found themselves in a new cave full of garbage and waste -- the lavatory for the less civilized goblins, perhaps, and judging by the size of the mounds the less civilized ones were more numerous, or these had been left behind by the ogres that had inhabited these caves sometime in the past.

But this was not the time for solving such mysteries -- for the room was inhabited by nearly a score of huge rats! Niv judged it was time to finally break out his Sleep spell and half the rats fell asleep. The remaining half seemed hesitant to advance and some of them fell to sling stones. The remainder fled either behind or into mounds of garbage. Rather than waste time dealing with them in order to search the room for buried treasure, the hirelings were brought in and given spears to do the dirty deed with.

A small tunnel to the north led to a sunlit cave with unusual occupants. Bats hung from stalactites on the ceiling, while below them, caked in guano, were two orcs, a hobgoblin, and a hairy, half-naked man. All four were bound to the walls by lengths of chain attached to manacles at their left wrists and ankles, the chains feeding through a loop spiked into the wall behind them. Jolith came in and fed the prisoners, then suggested a strategy of using an iron spike to pry the loop out of the wall (but it was given to John to accomplish, for Jolith had not the strength for it).

The man was freed. He said his name was Oslo and that he had been exploring the moat with an adventuring party, but being tortured in this cave made remembering anything else hard. Oslo did have many small, fresh wounds on him. Oslo was sent one room back for the hirelings to watch over. Then the company had to decide what to do with the other prisoners. Rather than free or kill them, they were just left where they were, struggling impotently against their chains.

There was a door in the north wall of the cave; Oslo had said that other monsters lurked behind that door that were not his goblin captors. From his description, it was clear they were about to deal with gnolls again. They advanced down a long tunnel and came to a gnoll lair with three of them arguing. The company had surprise, but their true advantage was in the gnolls only having long pole weapons; once the fighters closed into melee with shorter, faster weapons, the gnolls did not have a chance.

The gnolls seemed to be the jailors, given they were carrying keys, but they had only 9 gold pieces between them. The goblins had been poor too, with the company only collecting a few dozen silver pieces from them so far. Down to only one spell, the company knew they would be cutting this expedition short soon, but wanted to see where the east tunnel from the prisoner cave led. This took them to a four way intersection of tunnels. Turning south, they came to a new large chamber that served as the goblins' kitchen. Nine goblins toiled at cooking over cauldrons, or working the large, crude crane that moved the cauldrons over a giant fire pit. Again, the company had the advantage of surprise, as the goblins were unprepared for combat. And again, the goblins fell easily to the better-prepared company. Also again, the goblins had little treasure.

When they returned to their hirelings, though, the hirelings proudly showed off a silver, gem-studded necklace they had found in a mound of poop!