SATURDAY, FEB 14TH - THE ORDER OF THE FLAGON: SESSION 2 RECAP
When last we saw our intrepid adventurers they had decided to break camp and were moving away into the night when a band of Goblins set out in pursuit of them.
Ulbric shouted a warning, letting the rest of the party know that they were being pursued. Forlan, the Ranger, ran up to the top of the short hill to their right to get a better vantage point. He drew back an arrow and let it fly, taking the lead goblin in the right eye and dropping it where it stood. It fell at the feet of the dwarf who grinned in appreciation.
Rhonin, though human, is most at home in the dark. Listening carefully for the sound of pursuit, he moved into a position where he was able to launch a series of well time punches, dropping a second goblin.
The Goblins rushed to attack, two of them raining blows down on Ulbric, one of their blades found its way past the dwarf’s shield and cut a bloody furrow across his left side. Two of the goblins had hung back and with short bows, unleashed arrows at Forlan. One missed the mark by a foot, but the other one landed a solid hit into the right side of the elf.
Milosh made his way up the hill to stand next to the Ranger. Seeing the two goblins archers he pointed his hand and unleashed a Ray of Frost, freezing one of the goblins in its tracks. It toppled over dead.
Ulbric drew back his warhammer and with a shout in Dwarvish he brought his weapon down on the head of the goblin in front of him, crushing its skull and sending it to the ground, as if all of the bones in its body have been broken.
Forlan drew back his bow again, and unleashed a second arrow towards the last archer, striking it through the throat and killing it where it stood.
Seeing that their foes were tougher than they had bargained for the remaining goblins broke and fled, fleeing into the night. The party considered chasing them down, but given that both Forlan and Ulbric were wounded, they thought better of it and decided to find a place to camp for the night.
The next morning, the party decided to backtrack to see if they could determine where the goblins had come from. Investigating the far side of the hill they found signs of a makeshift camp with bones and bits of debris around. Forlan looked for tracks and determined that it must be some sort of a hunters camp seeing signs of the goblins passage back towards the forest to their east. The party briefly discussed following the goblins to see if they could discover their lair, but decided it would take them too far from their goal of the tower. Instead, they set off to the northwest headed for the Spiderhaunt Woods.
Two days of travel across the grasslands brought them to the very edge of the dark forest. They found the fallen oak tree that they had been told would mark the edge of a game path leading into the forest. After a few moments of searching, they found the game trail and made their way north into the woods. After several hours, they came across the foul smelling creek that they had told would lead them to the edge of the hill that the tower was built upon. As they continued north, they noticed that the underbrush and trees were starting to show signs of rot and corruption.
By midday, they found a large break in the trees. Ahead of them was barren landscape marked by what appeared to be ash and dead ground. There ahead of them they saw the hill, the crumbling remains of the tower built on top. Much of the debris from the fallen tower had slid down the side of the hill towards the source of the dark corrupted stream.
Milosh used Minor Illusion to obscure their presence, and the group moved closely together proceeding across the open ground to the base of the hill. They made their way up the hill to the tower and moving around it counterclockwise. They were able to find a breach in the outer wall, showing them the interior of the lower floor. Tattered remains of spiderwebs and debris from the floors above littered the area. Looking up, they could see the upper floors had either collapsed or fallen away, exposing the base of the tower to the open sky above.
Ulbric moved into the towers interior looking for a way into the floors below. As he poked and prodded at the pile of stone, part of it shifted and gave way, as a trap door collapsed exposing a stairwell leading down into darkness.
Calling the rest of the party over they lit a torch and tossed it down the stairwell where it came to rest on a landing below them. They could just make out stairs continuing to go down on the other side of the landing. Making their way down cautiously, they found the stairs ended in a large stone door that stood slightly open. After some debate, they decided to open the door and continue inside. With a grating of stone on stone, the door swung in allowing them to see beyond.
They entered a short corridor that ended at another doorway. This door stood closed but as they approached, Milosh could make out what appeared to be some sort of rune on the capstone above the door. Moving forward to look at it more closely none of the party could read it until Ulbric glanced up to see what the fuss was about. He recognized it as a Necril rune. The sight of the language of the dead infuriated the dwarf, causing him to pound on the door in frustration.
“We must destroy whatever lies beyond this door!” he shouted.
Rhonin calmed his friend assuring him that they would get past the door, and if need be destroy any undead that may lie beyond.
Impatient, the dwarf shoved on the door with both hands and it opened with the shrill noise of stone on stone. As he passed through the open doorway, Milosh noticed that the rune above flared briefly for a second and a green aura surrounded Ulbric for a brief moment then vanished.
“Do you feel any differently?” the mage asked.
“Why? the dwarf snapped back at him.
“No reason,” Milosh replied as the dwarf turned and pushed into the corridor beyond.
They entered another corridor, this one only five feet wide extending forward about fifteen feet when they noticed two alcoves flanking the corridor. In each alcove on a plinth stood a statue of darker stone. Each statue appeared as a man in robes holding a staff in his right hand and his left hand extended palm outward towards the corridor that passed between them.
The party investigated the area, passing a spear between the two statues to see if it triggered any sort of trap. When nothing happened, the wizard used his quarter staff to tap on the stone to see if anything occurred. When it did not Rhonin move forward to pass between the two statues. As he did a stone below his foot shifted downwards several inches and they heard a click. Suddenly flames left from the palms of the two statues into the corridor between them. The monk was able to throw himself forward, avoiding most of the damage, but was still singed by the magical flames.
Moving forward Ulbric channeled his clerical magic and healed his companion’s wounds. Helping Rhonin to his feet, the monk thanked the dwarf, and the party moved down the hallway to an open archway.
Beyond the arch lay a small room about twenty feet across. The room beyond was unfurnished. A large rusting iron grate stood on the floor in the far right hand corner. To the left in the center of the wall was another open archway. The party moved over to the grate to see what might lay below. Beneath the grate was a slime coated cylindrical shaft that went down twenty feet and showed brackish water flowing past the opening below. Rhonin dropped his torch down through the grate and watched is it extinguish itself in the water below. When his companions looked at him questioningly, he simply said, “I had hoped for the reaction of something living below.”
They moved over to the open archway and looked into a room beyond. There they saw what appeared to be a pool of brackish water in the room with a narrow walkway going around it along the left and right walls converging onto a narrow ledge on the opposite wall, where a door stood closed. In each corner of the room stood a three legged stool made of stone. The monk moved over to investigate one of the stools and found that it could be moved, though it was very heavy. He stood up on it to see if it would trigger any sort of trap or reaction. When it did not, he got down and simply shrugged his shoulders at the rest of his friends.
As the other others watched Milosh took out his collapsible fishing rod, assembled it, and then cast the line with a weight on the end into the water. He did this several times and drug it back and told his friends the water was approximately seven feet deep. The party started to make their way around the narrow ledge to the right. As they got near the door with the dwarf in the lead, the wizard noticed a rippling in the water.
“Beware! There is something in the water!” he cried out.
As the others turned to look, a grim visage of a skull appeared above the surface of the water. An animated skeleton was lifting itself from the dirty water approaching those closest to the door.
Forlan reacted first, firing an arrow at the undead creature, but the arrow only chipped a rib bone. Rhonin clasped his hands together and raising them above his head, brought them down in a powerful blow that crushed the skull of the skeleton as it tried to pull itself out of the water.
With a dwarfish war cry Ulbric barreled past his friends and leapt into the water. His heavy gear and chain mail caused him to sink like a stone.
As bubbles rose from the water below, the three remaining companions turned to look at one other in shock
That is where we left off session 2 of our campaign. Is Ulbric insane? What does he hope to gain by leaping into the water? How will his friends fish him out? Check back in a couple of weeks to find out what happens next. Thanks for reading and your support. We’ll see you back here next time in The Maze
