Journal of Farnsworth: The Happenings at Hookhill
Prologue
It is First of October, 890 of the Third Age. The air is crisp, and the sky is a deep cerulean blue. Although the snows that blanket the forest this far north will come soon enough, the trees are ablaze with autumn colors encircling copses of dark green pines. You are returning with your companions from Rivershaw Castle, after successfully meeting with your father's commanders - the first such meeting that has been entrusted to the eighth child of the Lord March.
Your companions are deep into storytelling as your horses plod along the well-worn path leading to the Black Owl Garrison. Normally wary, the news of the crushing defeat of the orcs in August at the Battle of Middlewich Fields, a scant 180 miles to the south, has given you confidence that the path is safe. By all accounts, the orc army was decimated and the survivors pressed into the chain gangs now assisting King Vincent Fleetwood in rebuilding the besieged capital city of Teufeldorf.
Bravely you boast that the Orcs of the Evil Eye are probably holed up in the Shadowyarn Mountains licking their wounds. The body of Ronak Axethrower, a black orc of the nastiest disposition and the Evil Eye warboss wasn't found among the dead at Middlewich although he was seen surrounded by his goblin shaman fighting from a hillock that was subsequently destroyed by a gnomish firestorm. Ah, the gnomes. Who would have figured the wee ones from the bogs to be the heroes of the battle?
The only downside to your report to your father is the loss of many Wirksworth knights in the fighting. Your father will be angry that the king has decided to delay the remaining knights' return home in order to provide security for the capital. However, the king's argument is sound. Without fields to harvest, your small forest castle can handle itself better than most. With the orcs scattered, the only threat is from the Horned Society - who have been quiet of late.
Your banter grows quiet as you pass from the sunny plains into the darkness of the forest. Sounds are muted and the earthy smell of the forest floor provides a stark contrast to the windswept grasslands. With only four hours until sunset, you feel confident that you can reach the Tanglebough Traders in time for a hearty bowl of stew, a pint of Bough Bitters, and a pipe. With luck, your favorite server will be on shift tonight - for your successful mission for the Lord March will be sure to impress. Lost in your fantasy, you ride on - a smile on your face...
October 1st to 3rd, 890 TA
Ulrich Allos (Male Human Fighter)-Kimberly Matney
Farnsworth Finefoot (Male Halfling Wizard)- Jeff Frankenstein
Snivelbum Knotbrew (Male Gnome Rogue)-Brian Lee
Octavious Moonstroke (Male Human Cleric)-Michael Sharp
Mikus Hammerhard (Male Dwarf Fighter)-Karl Hayden
We had completed an errand for our liege at Rivershaw Castle and were returning to the Black Owl Garrison. Everyone on fine horses, except the Gnome he has a fine riding dog. It had rained earlier up ahead of on the trail and as evening fell we noticed the wetness. We also became aware of animals fighting all around us in the woods. Spotting two bears locked in combat. Leaving them alone we continued our ride.
Suddenly a giant owl swooped down and attacked poor Ulrich. The creature was dispatched by means of Ulrich's sword and the dwarfs axe. Unfortunately, Ulrich was wounded unto unconsciousness. The cleric was able to get him up and about, while still seriously hurt. The owl was wet from the rain and we took some feathers as a trophy.
We continued our journey making for the Tanglebough Traders to spend the night. Upon arrival all was not well. No lights and a seemingly abandoned inn greeted us. The innkeeper (William Brightbrew), his wife (Rose), four children (Giles, Simon, Sarah and Alice), and the handyman (Martin Payne) are missing. We did a quick outside recon and entered finding signs of a struggle. The gnome and the dwarf finished some beer, while the rest searched the place - eventually finding a highly illegal gambling establishment in a secret room off the cellar.
While searching the cellar we heard noises upstairs. Upon ascending we encounter Martin the inn's handyman. He is not right in the head and attacks us with a glowing sword. We beat him down and heal him up. Leaving him tied up to avoid further attack. We search the upstairs finding nothing. The dwarf and Ulrich guard the downstairs. Suddenly, the window smashes in and a raging blood covered innkeeper's wife tries to attack Ulrich and the dwarf. Application of the flat of a dwarven waraxe sends her unconscious. We tie her up and stack her with the handyman. The innkeeper is now seen raging back and forth in front of the inn. Eventually the spell wears off and the handyman and innkeepers return to normal. We bring everybody into the inn. The children our still missing. Giles is expected to be away on a hunting expedition.
We rest for the night to heal and will search for the children in the morning. In the middle of the night the innkeeper reveals that he has been robbed of a sack of money. We, of coarse, have no knowledge of this crime. The gnome, however does return a magic box to the handyman that he found while searching.
The morning dawns and we get a good breakfast from the inn. We set out to find the children. Initially we have no luck and find our mounts gone, except for the riding dog. We do eventually find two goblins in a tree, by using the Martin's magic sword. The goblins try to send pigeon messengers off to their camp. The dwarf shoots one down. Ulrich climbs up behind the gnome to the platform. Snivelbum is wounded quite badly by arrows and magic missiles from the goblins. A cunningly timed sleep spell from Farnsworth puts out the pigeons and one goblin. The gnome misses badly in hand to hand with a wand slinging goblin. Ulrich arrives on the platform splatters the creature. We now have one goblin prisoner and five messenger pigeons.
Noddy the goblin is not too bright, but very forthcoming with information. We find out the rain causes uncontrollable rage. We find out they were stationed here and given immunity to the magic in the rain that causes the rage. Mikus will keep Noddy as a beer carrier and pit trap locator.
We continue to search for the kids eventually finding the little girl Rose slaughtered. She had apparently been caught by her enraged mother. We find Sarah the oldest unconscious, but in good health after apparently falling down a hill in her enraged state. We tell the parents the little girl was killed by animals.
We come up with an idea and send a pigeon off with a message in goblin saying all the humans at the inn are dead. We rest again without incident and are ready to continue on toward the garrison. We also prepare sail cloth rain ponchos. Martin decides to join us. It is the morning of October Third, 690.
Treasure of note: Unspecified amount of coin and some magic cheating cards (Snivelbum); Wand of Magic Missiles (Farnsworth); Four pigeons (Party); Noddy (Goblin Prisoner).
Highlights of the session: Farnsworth's sleep spell and his owl familiar which gives him an awesome spot check; Snivelbum's awesome spot rolls followed by critical failures using his rogue skills; Sending a sleeping goblin down from the tree like a Yo-Yo; Constantly referring to Ulrich as "she".
From The Journal of Farnsworth
10-1-890
I left my cozy little hobbit hole under The Hill to embark on an adventure the likes of which no hobbit... well, very few hobbits... have ever undertaken. My magical powers have gained me the favor of none other than the brave, noble, and gallant Octavious Moonstroke. Believe it or not, I have the power to put people to sleep, and not just with my storytelling! Kings Fleetwood, Goodfellow, and U-Gene will one day need to replace the ancient wizard Hylax (although there are rumors he's immortal). Why not replace him with a hobbit? I can't wait to see what fun and excitement this journey has in store for me.
10-2-890
It was horrible! The rains came making everyone crazy, and a young girl died... so sad. Goblins stole our horses and claimed to be in league with the Orcs of the Evil Eye. What could possibly happen next? I wanted adventure, but I hope I never witness tragedy like this again. Okay, I'm calming down. This was an isolated incident, I'm sure of it. Octavious, Ulrich, Mikus, and Martin will protect us with their swords and axes, and the crafty Snivelbum will use his skills to keep us out of trouble. The kings of the Realm have rid the land of evil and we are safe. When we get to the Black Owl Garrison all will be well.
10-3-890
We are heading to the Black Owl Garrison, but Mikus isn't coming with us. He has dwarf rot. It's supposed to be bad. He looked okay, but the smell was nasty. We'll miss his steel. For what it's worth, we told the other people at the inn that we're heading south in case anyone is following us. The sky is overcast. Was that a sprinkle?
10-3-890 (afternoon)
More goblins! Snivelbum was leading us up the road toward the garrison when he stopped and pointed at a tree. I could see a couple of sneaky goblins hiding way up in the tree- maybe twenty hobbits high. I summoned my magical powers to make them sleep. It worked, one of them fell sound asleep. Yes! Snivelbum climbed up the tree and wrestled with the other one. A body fell and then a scream echoed through the trees. I closed my eyes, but it was unnecessary. There was no splat on the ground. When I looked up again, I saw a goblin dangling from the tree limbs. Ulrich leapt up and pulled him down. Once he was bound, Octavious questioned the foul, little creature. He said that his boss is stationed at Hookhill. He's an orc named Berkan. He also said that there are many more orc camps to the north. I think he's lying. Maybe we'll be rewarded by the Lord when we sees that we captured a goblin.
10-3-890 (evening)
I witnessed more bloodshed. Lots of it. And lots of orcs, too. This is the most frightened I've ever been, but I must steady myself and tell this tale so there will be a record in case we don't survive the day. Here's what happened. When we got close to the garrison, Martin's sword began to glow. I climbed a tree and spotted two more goblins. Snivelbum and I snuck through the woods and climbed the tree that the goblins were in without them spotting us. I hopped onto the platform and fought the goblins while Snivelbum rested. He must have been tired after the long climb. (We're about to be eaten by orcs so I feel the need to be absolutely truthful. Snivelbum helped a little.)
There was no time to celebrate the defeat of the goblins, however. From up in the tree, we could see the Black Owl Garrison. I've never seen such a sight. The garrison was swarming with orcs, and I could see dead bodies of both men and orcs scattered on the ground like smashed up pumpkins in the Orange Hill pumpkin patch the week after the Autum Festival. The orcs had broken through the outer defenses of the garrison and were trying to batter down the door to the inner Keep. A very scary red glow radiated from the gatehouse windows.
Snivelbum and I joined up with the rest of the group and told them the terrible news. There was no time for pre-dinner snacksies, and who could eat after seeing such horror? Even just some toast with cheese, and a few select spices, and a goblet of Hobbit Hill Vineyards wine... Two orcs were watching the road and they had become anxious, or suspicious, or whatever orcs feel after having heard the noises in the woods; the noises caused by us and the goblins. I wanted to hide, but Octavious, Ulrich, and Snivelbum were calm. They hatched a plan while I listened carefully.
The first part of the plan was to quickly dispatch the two orcs on the road. I needed rest before I could summon more magic, but that didn't matter because Ulrich and Martin had already knelt at the edge of the woods and raised their bows. When I opened my eyes, the orcs lay flat on the road with arrows sticking out of them. Wow! With no more orcs outside the gates, we were free to climb up high and begin firing down at the orcs inside the garrison who were shoving the battering ram. Some orcs dropped and the rest fled when the arrows rained down on them. We couldn't hang around because we knew the orcs would send out scouting parties to kill us, so we circled around through the woods to the opposite side of the Keep. Octavious was able to get the attention of a girl inside. In her excitement upon seeing Octavious, she almost gave our position away, but eventually a rope was tossed down and we all climbed up. As if the day hadn't been awful enough, we got news from Captain Trotwood that Lord March had been captured. He had gone mad and slaughtered his own men before being netted by orcs.
We know the rain was to blame for the madness, but that doesn't help our current situation. The Lord is probably being held in the gatehouse. Our new goal is to find a way past the army of orcs and rescue him. To that end, the rest of the party is searching the Keep for secret passages while I am solving a puzzle with numbers, and writing in my journal.
10-3-890 (night)
With the help of a ghost, a real? ghost, we drove the orcs out of the garrison. The Lord is still missing. We have information that he was carried to the north by the orcs. The ghost appeared in a crypt beneath the Keep, under Abby Tower. I wasn't there, but the story I was told is that Snivelbum opened a sarcophagus while searching for ways to reach the Lord and save him. Inside was a skeleton that was missing a ring finger. Swirling mists appeared out of nowhere. The ghost of what looked to be an abbot formed out of the mists but didn't immediately kill everybody. This is where it gets weird. The ghostly abbot flew down a set of stairs and disappeared through a wall. Upon closer inspection, the section of wall that the ghost flew through was of newer construction than the other walls. I met up with the party as they were busting down that bit of the wall.
Behind the wall was a narrow passageway ending in an ancient door. Octavious opened the door revealing a large, undisturbed crypt. Before we could get more than a couple people into the room, a rotting, vicious creature from beyond the grave darted at us from out of the darkness. Seriously, it was a raging, snarling ghoul, not Nuggy Kneeknocker playing a practical joke. It moved faster than I thought it could. It swung a gruesome claw at Octavious while Snivelbum slid around and stabbed it in the back. I shot a missile out of my magic wand that I got from the goblins. You would have done the same thing if you saw this thing and were brave enough not to run away. I shuffled to the side so the powerful Ulrich could get into the fray, but the ghoul struck first and cut Ulrich's flesh. (By the way, Ulrich has shown no signs of ghoul fever which I'm told can kill you.) Snivelbum, Octavious, and Ulrich surrounded the ghoul and their swords took it down, this time hopefully for good.
In a small, concealed room beyond the crypt, we found a dead man buried in rubble in the corner of the room. The room also contained a single sarcophagi. What was funny in a creepy kind of way is that the dead man and the ghoul were wearing similar clothing. Maybe they broke in together to steal from the crypt and different bad things happened to both of them. Snivelbum found a bag next to the body in the rubble and guess what was in it? The finger with the ring... the finger from the ghost, and a cross. All of a sudden, the ghost appeared out of a wall and summoned us back to the outer crypt. I swear the ghost was there, floating in the air and motioning to us. When Snivelbum finally put the items back in the abbot's sarcophagus, the ghost spoke to us. Maybe it was a voice inside my head, although everyone heard the same thing. He offered Snivelbum and the rest of us a boon for recovering his items. The response was simple,"Kill orcs." The ghost flew off.
While I was still in a state of disbelief over recent events, Octavious sprang into action. He commanded the troops inside the Keep to launch a counterattack on the orc army in support of our ghostly friend. Before I knew it, everyone was running out into the courtyard waving swords and shooting arrows. The orcs, led by a giant black orc who looked fearless and indomitable, did not waver. What a battle it was. I saw Snivelbum, Ulrich, and Martin all charging towards the black orc. It was a fairly even battle to start with, maybe a few more men than orcs, I couldn't tell. The battle quickly swung in our favor as eight or nine orcs fell to the ground. As quickly as I felt my confidence growing, I felt a sickness rise in my stomach. The man who had been my ponymaster when I was a young halfling was struck down by an orc axe. I saw large chunks of flesh in the orcs mouth as he arose from the ground where my ponymaster lay. I grabbed a bow. I don't remember drawing back the string. An arrow flew out of the bow on its own accord. It found the neck of the orc. Green-tinted blood spurted from the wound and the orc tumbled over backwards. I felt a feeling I've felt many times in the past. If I had to put a word to it, I'd call it... "pleasure".
I looked around just in time to see the huge black orc fall. Men were cheering Martin, the returning hero. Chants of "Octavious" could also be heard from the women in the castle as the rest of the orcs died or fled. I don't remember what happened for the next five or fifteen or fifty minutes. I know we went to the gatehouse and were disappointed not to find Lord March there. I remember Snivelbum floating in the air, I think. I also recall a fiery red creature that demanded a sacrifice of wood in exchange for information, then it burst into flames.
Did that really happen? The gatehouse is a smoldering ruin now, so maybe it did. There's one other thing that I need to mention about today. Octavious showed me a note. It was addressed to King Fleetwood from Lord March. It spoke of an old man wearing brown robes, a purple amulet, and a staff streaked with silver. The man went through the gates of Hookhill. A young boy described him to a blind man. The boy forgot having ever seen the man in brown robes immediately after he passed through the gates, but the blind man remembered what the boy had said.
Does the man that was described make people lose their minds? Is he responsible for the rain that causes people to go crazy? Will he make me lose my mind? Perhaps he is too late for that. At least I still have enough sanity to know that we must travel to Hookhill and deal with what I'm certain is an evil presence. First, we must get stronger, and we need to find Lord March if he is still alive and his mind is intact. And what about the Bloodlent, and the horned society, and the crypts, cairns, barrows, and Myrrha's tower... and orcs, and spiders, and ...
But first, it's time for after-dinner snacksies!
Happenings at Hookhill October 6-9
I was sick with dwarf rot - a disease that comes about from not having enough beer. The party left me at the Tanglebough Traders Inn. I was quickly cured of my illness, when the evil proprietress and her equally nasty daughter tried to give me a bath. They crept upon me in my drunken slumber with a tub of soapy water and scrub brushes. I awoke, grabbing my pack and axe; I left a dwarf-shaped hole in the second story wall. As I ran down the road to the garrison I saw them remove and burn the bed I'd been using.
I caught up to my companions on October 6th. They had fought a battle with orc raiders while I was convalescing. It looked as if they had been moderately successful. We set out to the northeast and encountered a large orc camp.
Snivelbum snuck around the camp while the rest of us captured an orc for questioning. We cleverly waited by the orc's latrine, and incapacitated an orc by the expedient application of the flat of my axe to the groin. Ulrich and Octavious had built a raft while we waited and we hightailed down stream with a captured orc. Farnsworth provided good cover with his magic. Snivelbum was left to sneak back to the garrison with a map and a note. Some orcs were killed by arrow fire as they chased us, and generally we were successful. We don't get much out of our prisoner.
The orcs surround the castle and we rested for the night. The next day we hear sounds of fighting in the woods. We investigate and find a bear fighting the orcs. We aid it, and it appears to be friendly. The garrison joins the melee and we rout the orcs with only minor injuries on our side.
October seventh dawns and we escort two messengers to the traders. We split off and head to the ruins of the wizards tower to investigate orc interests there. The messengers head to Rivershaw Castle to get reinforcements.
The tower upper section is blown apart. We find orc bodies all over the place. We cautiously approach the tower and are attacked by giant frogs. The mage is acting strangely talking to the catapult and other objects. Gnomes are generally weird. We beat the frogs and find their nest with more frogs by lowering Snivelbum down the well. Halflings make excellent fishing lures. We kill more frogs.
Finally we enter the tower. There we have a wonderful encounter with a particularly ornery owlbear. Martin and Ulrich take a beating, but survive. We find a chest with a magic puzzle lock. Puzzles are not my specialty, and the magic destroys some of the items. We gain a hat, scroll, potion, some money and a key.
We decide to rest here at the tower it is now the morning of the ninth.
The Squishy Heroic Death Of Snivelbum - Or - Hey you're a freaking Werebear?
We hung around the wizard's tower for a few days to train and plan. During our stay we figured out a few things and had a few encounters. We killed the owlbear's mate when it came into the tower. Our bear ally fought with a giant owl which turned out to be a naked human woman. Her name is Myrrha and this was her tower. She had been stuck in the form of a giant owl for quite a while. The end of the fight revealed that Ulrich is actually our bear ally. Unfortunately, once my fleas found out several families moved off of me and onto him. I will miss the conversation.
Snivelbum and Farnsworth figured out how to work the teleporter in the basement. In retrospect that was a mistake. Myrrha sent a fake supply order through the teleporter to the orcs at Hookhill. She changed us into flying bugs and sent us along. We proceeded to try and rescue Octavious' father. That actually worked in a weird way.
Hookhill is unfortunately a major orcish stronghold - lots of big nasty black orcs, regular orcs, goblins, and unfortunately nasty leaders. Oh and a very big mature black dragon. (I was all for attacking the dragon, but no, everybody else wanted to rescue the lord.) We found the lord we were looking for locked in a tower and well guarded.
So Snivelbum, Farnsworth, and Octavious had me, Ulrich, and Martin, wait outside the fortress. They proceeded to try to get Lord March out of the tower. Farnsworth did a lot of fancy spell slinging turning himself into an image of the orc leader. Snivelbum some fancy backstabbing. Octavious did some fancy falling to the ground and imitating a bleeding body. Snivelbum saved him and Octavious used his hat to change into the likeness of a black orc. Farnsworth turned Lord March into a mouse and put him in his pouch and turned himself into Bentbrood the mad orc shaman. They manage to fool the orcs all the way to the gatehouse. That's when the real Bentbrood showed up. The Mage and Octavious featherfell from the bridge. Snivelbum stayed behind to draw off pursuit. The real Bentbrood changes into a dragon and kills Snivelbum near the gatehouse. He then flies down and kills the mage. Octavious kills his dad the mouse and then dies at the claws of the dragon.
So, to end this hideous comedy Ulrich, Martin, and I sneak up and recover the remains of the Lord March, Farnsworth, and Octavious. Snivelbum is unfortunately out of our reach. We then walk back to the garrison, which has been sacked by the orcs. So we walk all the way to Rivershaw. The Lord March, Farnsworth, and Octavious are raised from the dead. Mission accomplished! Oh, along the way apparently Myrrha was captured by the orcs and sacrificed. Now we have rage rain and polymorph rain. So, we are going to try and stop the shaman from capturing the Spider Queen, and try to avoid death rain. Personally, I think we should just relocate to a desert.
Puzzle Chests, Traps, and Talking Trees
We put our previous brush with disaster behind us and found a replacement for Snivelbum. He's apparently a hideously ugly elf named Ghul of the Mask, and claims to be a bounty hunter. We met him in the tavern, which was good because I needed a keg or two. Lord March gave us orders to find the source of Bentbrood's power and put a stop to his depredations. This is not going work out well. We set out for the Bloodlent forest, were Bentbrood supposedly came from, to see how he got his power.
While camping one night we were visited by some goblin spider riders who wanted to play. We actually did quite well for a change. Farnsworth's sleep spell worked wonders and we killed all eight goblins and five of their spider mounts. We also got some awesome loot, which allowed us to go back to town and buy some much needed healing potions, and I got some shiny new half plate. We each have a funny little ruby, which I will eventually use to buy a wagon load of beer. Once I can ditch Farnsworth, he's obsessed with the rubies.
On our way to the Bloodlent we found a lot of exploded graves. The effect ends around this nifty tomb in an even circular pattern. Something in the tomb seems to have protected the graves around it. Ulrich changed into a bear and scouted the tomb. He didn't find anything at the time. So in the morning we went to the forest. The forest is guarded by possessed ents. Octavious, in a rare flash of brilliance, used his magic hat to change into the likeness of Bentbrood. We find out that the source of the power is gone from the forest and thus avoid going into the nasty woods. So, we head to some ruins and accidently find the back entrance to the tomb.
The entrance is a tunnel made by carrion crawlers, which we dice up quite nicely.
We find our way into a twenty by twenty room. The room opens into a narrow hallway and the first room we enter leads to a nifty fight with wraith. Ulrich loses some strength from its touch, but in the end we beat it into permanent death. We get a copper key off the corpse in the coffin. We head back into the hallway and turning the corner find a puzzle chest. Farnsworth and Octavious are fascinated by it and would not let me open it with my dwarven lock pick. While the evil puzzle had then entranced; Ghul, Ulrich, and I scouted the rest of the dungeon. I used my nonexistent thieving abilities to detect several traps; I am pretty good at it. We find a lovely blade trap, a springy squish you into the ceiling trap, and a ballistae bolt trap. I suffered a few scratches. We find three secret doors. We find three rooms and the entrance room. We find some bodies killed by animated statues. One room has a levitating spear above a coffin, another had some statues in it, with a few obviously missing statues. One room had the springy trap, but also had another puzzle chest. A large alcove had a stone book on a pedestal, and three standing coffins. So we get back to our puzzle pickers, and amazingly they had opened the chest. I was very disappointed.
We pilfer the other chest and take it with us to a nice fight in the entrance chamber with two ghouls. We re-deaded them. Here our antics were paused until next time. Farnsworth and Octavious were last seen drooling over the new puzzle chest.
We acquired a red potion, eight magic arrows and some bracers from the first chest, a copper key, 500 gp, and a lovely new puzzle chest. I am so pleased.
We killed three carrion crawlers, one wraith, two ghouls, and expertly disarmed three traps. We still have one secret door to open, and have not dealt with ominous floating spear of dwarf impalement.
Cleaning Out a Tomb and Visiting a Village - Or - What do you want your new character to be?
Our group of horrible-looking adventurers began by breaking camp in the main entry chamber of the tomb. Farnsworth had labored through the night solving the final evil puzzle chest's mystery. We found another potion, a ring, and 500 gold pieces inside it. We then proceeded to activate two nifty stone golems. It turns out stone golems are not friendly, but they fortunately were also not immune to critical hits. So since they were being rude, we pummeled them into rubble. Ulrich delivery the smashing deathblows to each of them.
Proceeding back into the depths of the tomb, I used my expert thieving skills to disable the blade trap and Octavious turned a ghast in the room beyond. Farnsworth's new ring allowed him to see a nifty invisible axe outside the chamber. The axe is now my new best friend. We questioned the rather talkative ghast at length and learned of the Horned Society from him. Needless to say they are not a nice group of people. Unfortunately for the ghast he ran out useful information, and then suffered a rather severe case of axe poisoning.
We next proceed to the room with the floating staff. Here we encountered another wraith. It also had backup from the floating staff, which shoots fireballs. We became slightly singed, but eventually we put the wraith down and acquired a lovely staff of fire, which hopefully Farnsworth will put to good use at a later date. (I vote we torch Shadebarrow with it.) We also acquired the last key for the magic lantern, which is now in our possession. Overall, this tomb raid was an astounding success. So, we of course decided to follow it up by proceeding to do something astoundingly stupid.
Ghul had a mission to try and catch a half-orc, so we set off to try and catch him in the village of Shadebarrow. Along the route we encountered some orcs moving their camp to avoid the rain. We used some trickery and captured one for questioning. He then challenged me to a duel. I accepted and he died.
Entering Shadebarrow we tried to be sneaky. Unfortunately, we really should just give up on that strategy. We are not as skilled at it as we think. So, after being poisoned and splitting up the party; Mikus, Farnsworth, Ulrich, and Octavious are holed up in the Firecrest Trading Company, with two of the Lord March's agents surrounded by undead shadows and an angry necromancer who is a Horned Society agent. Ghul is outside hiding.
What do you want you next character to be?
We have got to stop entering strange towns - OR - So says the Lord March... march!
So there's been a plan to capture the Half-Orc Blackwood, who Ghul says has VERY important information for Bentbrood. If Bentbrood gets it, our cause could die with that passing of information, so more or less the party is united in... trying to stop Blackwood. That's why we entered Shadebarrow and we still want to pursue that goal after the most recent events.
In the Firecrest Traders, Corwin Rand has formed a circle of salt to protect us from the undead shadows and Mayhem's scry. Corwin wants to know why we blew his cover in Shadebarrow. No... not a good scene outside... not much better within... apparently there is a great deal of enmity between Ghul and Corwin .... Ghul won't even take healing treatment from Corwin... uncomfortable....
Through conversation and bad social interaction between Ghul and Corwin, we have the understanding that our odds outside are not so bad, IF we go into the woods BUT don't stay in them too long. Leta will lead us to the river, near the bridge with the strange flashing-recognition-guardian light.
While going through the woods, Mikus sees two shadows approaching and when he announces such, Farnsworth (carrier of the Lantern of Undead and Their Afterthoughts [since... IN PLAY... we can't locate the card that reminds us what the lantern REALLY does]) turns on the Lantern in the woods. In a sickly purple light... the shadows are forced against their will, away, until they become less and then nothing... in a "poof." Ok, so we got that going for us.
Around 9pm, we get to the wooden bridge, so we wait beneath for the possibility of Blackwood riding through so we can ... capture him. At one point, Mikus recalls a similar setup near a similar body of water and wants to build a raft (an honorable, further expedition of the Lord March's Naval forces, no doubt), but the party resists and holds vigil beneath the bridge. There, Ghul tells us he doesn't want to take Blackwood prisoner... only wants his head. Unfortunately, we took this to be a bounty hunter's metaphor.
We hear three horsemen approaching quickly, and we decide to make the bridge impassable, between oil slick and sound burst spells and other forms of attack, such as Ghul shooting directly over the shorter Mikus' helm into the oncoming fray. We take prisoners and learn they were riding to announce "that they have arrived... they are coming," to someone in Hookhill. Ah... fame. We HAVE arrived!
Mikus does some effectual axe interrogation on the guards. We learn there are 60 guards within Shadebarrow. Again, we hear how the rain will kill us and that there is no antidote, which is why everyone wants to leave for the eastern plains. We take their armor, and I believe Mikus leaves them in a state from which they will not tell others which way we went... yes, that state.
We begin to make our way along the noisy creek so we can try to re-enter town with Leta, to seek refuge in the church she's been re-sanctifying. We learn that we've been followed and there are many guards after us, while the town's folk seem to be kept or barred indoors during the hunt/search for us.
In our flight from the village guard, Leta effectively misdirects them to follow her away from us. Farnsworth and Octavious want to make it to the safety of the church building of St. Cuthbert, while Ulrich and Mikus want to fight. Ghul... surreptitiously crosses the road and moves toward the hotel where he knows Blackwood to be staying. And Farnsworth handily uses a silent image illusion to lead the guards away from us. Crafty! Yes, but he does it once more later to further keep us safe! Great magic, there
Ghul... climbs a tree to observe Blackwood in his second-story inn room... and he stunningly sends an arrow at him, which arrives with a stunning chest shot (blam!)! Ghul readies for his next rapid shot and hits Blackwood the orc again (39 hp, but who's counting?)!! With such a reign of good luck, Ghul tries to run like a squirrel along the tree branch to enter the Blackwood room and give surprise attack... which ended badly... something about falling... a busted lip... some loose teeth and his wind knocked out of him. It was going so well till then.
Leta is worried about her father, who hasn't rendezvoused yet with her at St. Cuthbert's on time. She decides to go search for him and Octavious and Farnsworth stay within. Actually they have an interest in what may be below the church floor... for some reason.
Meanwhile, Ghul catches his breath and with a rope climbs back up the wall of the hotel, out of sight. He taunts the badly bleeding half-orc: "You can give up at any time." With rope tied to chimney, Ghul moves about the half-orc's room, eventually tossing in manacles with another taunt, "put these on." He then maneuvers into the other window and slams his axe into Blackwood's chest. But Blackwood is too much, despite arrow wounds STILL squirting blood, he manages a couple good sword strikes, and Ghul is... down, or as they say in French... "histoire."
Meanwhile, Ulrich and Mikus get into the church, with Farnsworth and Octavious' assistance. Ulrich is angered by the desecration of this Church of St. Cuthbert. That makes him angry.
We decide to check out where the crypt might lead. (Well, it's worked for us in the OTHER episodes!) So we head down toward the crypt, and we then see the weird armadillo things... and then suddenly Octavious and Mikus are sans armor. Octavious runs upstairs to contemplate his nudity in safety, thankful they took the armor of the guards they captured at the bridge. Mikus... is a bit more stunned, having lost a more valuable set of 1/2 plate armor. Between cursing in Dwarfish and weeping, outright retreating to save his other worthy implements, he and Ulrich manage to beat the beast pretty badly with wooden implements (like axe handle, devoid of axe heads). And they also effectively cheer on Farnsworth, who helps to finish the Rust Monster, to the price of two fire balls from his staff. That's an expensive monster.
Worried about Ghul's disappearance, Farnsworth and Corwin leave to find him. Corwin uses Octavious' Chapeau of disguise, disguising as the town's drunken mayor. Meanwhile, Farnsworth finds the dead Ghul in the second-floor hotel room, takes a finger off of Ghul's hand (and some items) and fireballs Blackwood and his room, resulting in the hotel rather quickly burning to cinders. Mission accomplished and then some! Or so we first thought - turns out that "having Blackwood's head" wasn't really a bounty hunter's metaphor. Guhl really would have wanted Blackwood's head (and what was on it) in a sack or nice box... nothing more. Whatever what might have been on or in Blackwood's head... probably also, "histoire."
Ulrich goes into the crypt. He finds a strange mausoleum... and it has several other rust monsters guarding it. Leaving the crypt for another time, the remaining party (and a finger) goes to Rivershaw Castle. We just miss the storm. We see Spider Riders fleeing the woods. We see all living animals stampede out of the forest. We observe a Walking of the Dead, with a black raven. Four days of rain, and downstream from the woods comes death. Solely with his own money, Ulrich pays for Guhl's resurrection.
From Teufeldorf, the Lord March gives us our orders. With four 5th-level fighters, we will teleport to the cemetery of Hookhill and storm the place. We "will defeat Bentbrood and his plans or die trying!" Looking blankly, off in the distance, Octavius tries to sound brave and manages a rather weak, "...O-k..." and swallows something loudly.
Sneaking into Hookhill
We began the day's adventure back at Rivershaw Castle. Here we recuperated from a rather pleasant outing in the lovely village of Shadebarrow. We rearmed, and Octavious' daddy promptly had us teleported to the Hookhill cemetery. What a great guy!
We first encounter our old friends the goblin guards hidden in trees. They may want to rethink their positioning in the future, because Ghul and Farnsworth took them out with no problem. Next we enter a lovely crypt with lots of gargoyles. Well two, which Mikus and Ulrich kill or is it smash? We also find inscriptions honoring the Horned Master. We then find a lovely sickly green mist in a room full of exploded burial niches; also Ghul finds a secret door in the northwest corner of this room. Mikus uses his dwarven lock pick of party annoyance on the secret door. This turns the secret door into a secret open space, which is much harder to see. Moving on we find a very nice kitchen, dining room, bedroom, demon altar room, and cold storage full of dead Horn Society old guys. We also find stairs up, which would have been the appropriate route to take, but then again demonic altars are so much more fun to fondle.
We of course are very interested in the statue of the Bone Demon on the altar, because it is so lifelike and well made. One of our party of adventuring geniuses decides to examine some burned papers in a bowl, which apparently annoyed the statue. Make note one and all this was not Mikus, he was polishing his axe. The Bone Demon naturally attacks, we naturally fight back. The battle was helped by Farnsworth's haste spell and Octavious' cause serious wounds spell which worked nicely. Mikus missed a lot, but eventually the bone demon was boned. The shooting bone spikes were very painful. Inside the now demonless altar we find one of the dead old guys, which is not exactly great treasure.
As we are fiddling around, orc guards find us and we kill them at the crypt entrance, unfortunately this brings Woebringer and more orcs. We evade through the secret hole and head up the stairs. We move on to a lovely room with two skeletal rat swarms and a flesh golem. Ulrich in bear-form and Ghul take out the golem which pounded Mikus into the floor. Octavious turned the rats using his holy symbol. We end up in a magic user's office. Finding a lot of books, Farnsworth and Octavious are very happy. That is until we are attacked by puddings, which normally wouldn't be scary, except no one brought a spoon. We flee up some spiral stairs leaving the puddings alone, but they chase us with pudding-like rage. We end up in a room full of mirrors. Six mirrors! Which show various other places?
So here we are once more low hit points, spells, and without a clue. Which is how we like it?
The Party Strikes Back!
The adventure picked up again in the room with the six mirrors. The mirrors show images of various places. Touching the mirrors was somewhat of a bad idea. Glass golems called shardcasters came out of the mirrors and attacked the party. This fight is won by the party, but unfortunately Farnsworth is severely hurt. Octavious' sonic blast has powerful effect during this fight and allows us to win. The party is however now pretty banged up and getting low on healing. Ghul finds a secret door leading to a hallway off this mirrored room.
The hallway leads to some evil temple areas, and rickety stairs up. We climb up the rickety spiral stairway to a hallway with female statues and some of us hear voices. The stairs collapse while Ulrich is ascending doing him enough damage to make him unconscious. Ghul goes down and ties a rope around Ulrich, we haul him up and Octavious heals him. We find a larger room at the end of the hallway which has a door with bands of shiny steal. Inside the room we find a lightning trap, a succubus named Osa, and a puzzle chest.
The succubus is Bentbrood's enslaved demon and he has her sister imprisoned in a cave. She actually gives a lot of information, and we find out Bentbrood is using corpses to power his storms. He has used up all the corpses in the area and will be moving on to the Cairns next. So we found the source of his power. He is currently making the Orcs of Hookhill forget he was ever here. Now about this time Woebringer catches up to the fallen stairs and starts sending orcs climbing up the wall. We drop two statues on them. Then after some planning we decide to hide in the demon's curtained alcove. She charms the orcs and Woebringer, but fails to beguile the mage. The fight that ensues leaves Farnsworth dead from the mage's shout spell. The succubus, Woebringer, all the orcs, and the mage are also killed. We put Farnsworth in Mikus' pack. We acquire +3 longsword, +2 dagger, book with list of Horned Society spies, spell book with up to 9th level spells, and an unidentified wand. Oh and the damned puzzle chest. We sneak out of the complex the way we came in, steal horses. Riding for the Cairns and trying to get there before Bentbrood.
We make it to the Cairns in plenty of time. Octavious uses speak with dead on Farnsworth to find out how to solve the puzzle chest. We acquire a wand of petrification, orb for controlling the mirrors in the six mirror room, gold key for the electrical trap in the succubus's room, and a rod of necromancy. We of course use the rod on poor Farnsworth, and he becomes a Halfling ghoul mage.
The Cairns have a large bell tower obelisk at there heart and we explore it. It is full of coffins with a special coffin in the center containing a headless body. We find the head at the top of the tower in a box. The coffin also has an ornamental sword in it. We set up an ambush, sending Farnsworth away, because we are using the Lantern of Souls. This apparently wipes out quite a number of undead we were not aware of around us.
Bentbrood arrives in the form of a black dragon. Farnsworth uses his staff of fire on him twice, before the dragon kills him again. The damage is enough to force Bentbrood to change into his normal old druid form to heal himself. We attack as he approaches the obelisk. Mikus, Ulrich, Chauncey, and Alwyn charge the druid. Ghul shoots from the bell tower top with bow with excellent affect. The druid raises a barrier of stone, which is not very effective for him. Ulrich leaps it, and Mikus uses his magic axe to cut right through it. Octavious cast spiritual hammer. A spectacular series of critical hits by all members cause Bentbrood to be unable to cast spells. Bentbrood dies pretty much like he stepped into a wood chipper. We acquire the Amulet of Bentbrood, the Staff of Storms, and Bentbrood's head. Farnsworth is given a heroic resurrection when we get back to Rivershaw Castle. This was an astoundingly successful climax to a campaign that looked to be completely beyond our capabilities.