Alert: Contains spoilers for the adventure “Scourge of the Slave Lords”

You kinda get used to waiting around in dungeons, so it wasn’t all that long relatively before Ezekiel emerged from the dark doorway and asked Heiron to come investigate a trapdoor that he couldn’t reach.

Fraught nerves suddenly relieved, we demanded of Ezekiel if it really took him that long to just notice a trapdoor.

Eventually, this is the story we dragged out of him:

He advanced into the abandoned apartment, eager to use the “exorcism” he had been given. The bone fragments we had noticed on the floor followed some dark brown smears into a short hall, where an oil pot sat ready to repel attackers in the gatehouse below…except now it was crusted with age. Stepping gingerly around it, Ezekiel entered the next room – beyond where we could easily hear him cry for help – where he spotted a skeletal hand lying on a table.

It seemed “associated” with a human skull and rib cage (one could hardly call it “connected” by now), but the thing did not react to his polite salutation. Continue reading →

Alert: Contains spoilers for the adventure “Scourge of the Slave Lords”

Turns out the leader’s room wasn’t as deserted as we thought. Raven and Lydia were searching the place, when Raven gave a squeal (he insists it wasn’t a “squeal,” more of a “cry”) and we heard a female voice say, “Ichar, release me!” (with some kind of insult attached to it).

Raven yelled at us to stay out – and not look at whatever it was – while Heiron and Ezekiel both rushed forward.

Lydia’s version is that Raven opened up the closet, and found himself face-to-face with a lady with snakes for hair. While he tangled her, Lydia dug in her bag – and hurled an egg, making the ugly creature gag and puke.

Ezekiel rushed into the room and tried to throw bedclothes over the lady’s head – apparently this kind of creature can kill you if it looks at you or something. Ezekiel says – from the stories he’s heard – they’re like basilisks. When he said that, Heiron looked around, and grabbed the leader’s blind helmet and handed it over. The snakes hissed and lashed at Ezekiel, but he got the helmet over the lady’s head – and we all breathed a bit easier (except the lady, who was still choking and gagging even after Lydia dispelled the stinking cloud). Continue reading →

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Scourge of the Slave Lords”

Subtlety…what is that?

Before the sun rose, Mikael summoned a fog down on the castle, and Ezekiel put silence on a rock so we could sneak around to the east side of the castle. Once there, Raven scaled the wall and broke off some of the wooden spikes along the top so that we could actually reach the top. He disappeared over the edge, and we started following him with the rope of climbing.

Ezekiel left the stone behind, so as we approached the top of the wall, we could hear shouting and clanging and the rattle of arrows against stone. (Business as usual already, eh?)

When I jumped over the parapet after Ezekiel, I saw him waving at some hobgoblins to the left, while Raven was chasing some others to the right. I decided we didn’t want them raising any more of an alarm than they already had, so I went to back up Raven, drawing my sword (because my bow was still on my back, and besides I need to practice sometimes).

As we rounded a turn in the wall, we spotted a funny-looking little blue creature, plus a whole squad of hobgoblins piling out of a door. Raven went for the blue creature, so it didn’t start spitting lightening or something all weird, and I went for the hobgoblins.

I did have one fumbled strike – maybe because a wolf cub was darting in and out of the hobgoblins’ legs and nipping at Raven. Everyone seemed to be shouting (something like “ranger”? But I don’t speak hobgoblin), and the wolf cub ran under my feet and knocked me on my butt for a moment. I picked myself back up, and between Raven’s rope of tangling and me, we polished off the rest of the squad.e

Heiron was shouting at us to come on, so Raven told the wolf pup to stay, and we went back along the wall to where Ezekiel had shifted the rope of climbing to help us get down to the roof. There were still plenty of archers lining the wall, plinking Ezekiel’s armor, so I stood by him to make a shield wall while Raven led the others onto the roof and across to the chimney we could get down. Well…the “others,” except for Agnar. For a while, I wasn’t sure where he was at all, except that I kept hearing wild laughter in a dwarvish accent from somewhere up ahead.

Ezekiel and I backed up to the rope, and after the others had gone down, I followed – while Ezekiel kept shouting after Agnar to come on (I don’t think he could hear a thing…he was in his “zone”). As I came up to the others, they were battling some huge apes, as tall as Mikael. Lydia was squatted down, just watching the show, while Mikael waved his arm at one of them and sang a song, and Raven slapped one he had tangled in his rope.

By the time I walked up to them, the last ape was staring at Mikael, making hooting sounds through her lips, and the others were dead. We did have a moment when the ape sucker-slugged Usin, but Mikael told her we were all friends, nice friends, and she shouldn’t attack us. Continue reading →

Alert: Contains spoilers for the adventure, “Scourge of the Slave Lords”

The wildmen put us back on the right track to find the “Slaver City”…but even without that, the trail was pretty easy to follow. There’s been a lot of traffic here over the years, some of it more-or-less recently.

Arrived this evening. It’s set on a hill that overlooks the surroundings, with a ditch surrounding it – crossed by a drawbridge. Even from this distance, we can see scores of sentries – some posted in set positions, some making rounds on top of the walls. Bottom line, wiping out the garrison with a frontal assault won’t be so simple as it was in the Flind village (which, I must remind everyone, had some sketchy moments).

Lydia thought about sending a Wizard Eye down into the fort, but then she said it doesn’t last very long, and wouldn’t get far enough in to be useful. So instead, she’ll make Raven invisible (so he doesn’t have to worry about it wearing off), and he can sneak in first thing in the morning.

Mikael really, really, really wants to light up the place with lightening again…but we talked him down by reminding him there are probably slaves imprisoned here, and we need to scout before we do anything else. Ideally, Raven will find a back door right into the boss’s office, and we can start there like we always do.

****

[sketch of chess board, and like a million tick-tack-toe games]

Raven is finally back, and he has told us his story in his own words. I don’t think I can do it justice, but here are the crucial points…

[sketch of castle interior…] Continue reading →

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Scourge of the Slave Lords”

Around the very next corner, we ran into more aspis…by “we” I mean Agnar, Heiron, and Bornthene to start with. Once again, the twisty, tiny passages left me guarding the back, hearing clangs and grunts and bangs from a combat I couldn’t even see.

Anyway, by the time I followed everyone through the narrow dirt tunnel, around the corner, and into the larger space, there were dead aspis and giant ants lying about, Agnar, Ezekiel and Heiron had already disappeared down another tunnel, and Mikael was singing to an ant as big as a wolf, which flapped its antennae hither and thither as though it wasn’t sure what was going on. Dree was singing, too, but not the same thing…it almost sounded like “Peyce of Oyr Fathyrs,” but I didn’t quite like to ask. It didn’t seem like the right time (and anyway, she might turn out to be a magic-shape-shifty lady in the end. You never know).

Lydia told me not to step on a silk trip-cord strung down near the floor, then kept watching Mikael sing his song and wave his one arm.

Bornthene and the half-orc weren’t there, either – and from the muffled clattering, I gathered the rest of the party was somewhere down the eastern tunnel. I didn’t like to leave Mikael unattended, but after all, Lydia is quite able to take care of herself and him…so after Dree went to see what was going on, I went, too.

The tunnels get quite narrow – and also split and merge a bit in a confusing manner – but the others weren’t too hard to find, what with the bright lights they carried, and the noise they were making. When I caught up with them, giant bugs were chewing on Ezekiel and Agnar, and Bornthene was emptying his quiver into a huge, bulbous, queen-looking aspis…imagine a termite the size of a cottage. Raven tumbled through my periphery vision, knocked over by an aspis.

I started filling the queen with arrows, until Bornthene got it in the eye and it had finally had enough, flopping to the ground with a great squelching and squealing. Moments later, a wall of fire leapt up through the middle of the remaining insects, cutting across the cavern. As insects squealed and popped, I saw Lydia across the way, nonchalantly blowing on her fingers. Continue reading →

Alert: Contains spoilers for the adventure “Scourge of the Slave Lords”

Ezekiel told Raven and me to chase the mysterious man, taking Lydia to unlock the iron door for us. Mikael tagged along, too (I guess having only one arm hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm).

Good thing he came, because when Lydia got the door open, the plants on either side of the path were lashing back and forth, practically snarling. Raven tried calming them down with talk, but I guess they weren’t impressed — they kept telling him they were upset, but plants aren’t big on details. Mikael still had an anti-plant shell active, though, so we advanced along the path, sticking close to him…until we reached the door north, that leads to the hall and the superstitious-orcs room.

That door was currently all blocked by trees, which looked as though they’d thrown their limbs across it like arms (I didn’t know they could move like that!). Here and there, glowing blotches stuck to the tree, sparkling in the morning light…and when Mikael pointed out the pulpy stains of man, we pieced together what happened to our quarry. I…I guess he forgot about the angry plants…or didn’t have a way to ward them off. They claim to “serve” Beori, after all – and I doubt this guy was very tight with her.

I gathered up the biggest pieces I could reach without leaving Mikael’s side, and we headed back to show Ezekiel.

While we were gone, he gathered up all the papers he could find in the desk (mostly boring ledger stuff) and searched the crates around the office. He found rations, chains, traveling supplies, a little bag of jewelry, and way more money than we could easily carry (bag of holding, you are missed).

When we got back, he sent Heiron, me, and Agnar up the ladder to “just take a peek” at what was there (“don’t open any doors or anything!” – the horse left that barn, Ezie). There’s a twisty little dirt tunnel that narrows so far, even Agnar couldn’t squeeze through…so unless it was for halflings, or that guy could shape-shift, I don’t know what the point of it was. At the very least, I made the assumption we wouldn’t meet any of those giant ant-men things, so I persuaded Agnar we wouldn’t find a good fight up there, and we should go check on Mikael (his best-buddy-forever). Continue reading →

Alert: May contain spoilers for the adventure “Scourge of the Slave Lords”

Well…we left the slaves barricaded in the storerooms, and the three merchants in cages, guarded by a fake wyvern. (Ezekiel insists it’s not “fake,” it’s “spiritual.”) So…they should be fine.

The door at the top of the stairs needed Heiron, Agnar, and Raven all working on it to get it open. Sure enough, on the other side stood an aspis guard – which Heiron and Agnar carved up with their swords.

Then the way branched once again. This all seems a bit incidental given later events, but I should record everything as fully as possible.

To the west, we found a small room with a row of levers along the wall, with a slit above each lever. Raven peeked through the slit and played with the levers, and through the doorway to the room beyond, we saw a huge piece of floor rise up into place. He hit the lever again, and it dropped – like a trapdoor.

The whole room beyond was a grid, with narrow beams running up-and-down and side-to-side. Apparently the beams support these huge trapdoor panels that serve as the floor – or would, if they were all levered into position.

Below each trapdoor is a cage…or in other words, the whole “room” below is divided with bars, and the ceiling of that room is hinged to flap down or lever up into place.

Personally, I don’t see the point of it at all. The slaves are already captured when they arrive here…there’s no need to trick them into a cage. There’s no real government out here to speak of…the orc clans aren’t going to “raid” the Slave Lords’ operation – unless they want a piece of the action! I suppose that is a mystery for another time.

Ezekiel told Heiron and me to head down the corridor to the east and see what was there. Yes – SPLITTING THE PARTY. As Master Otis says: if you don’t push yourself, you’ll never grow…but speaking of growing – Continue reading →