Role Call: Barundar, Draelic, Forsythia, Josey, Kendrick, Laurus, Sendar.
The group wakes up in the Duck and Bucket, the adventurer-friendly inn located in Crossroads Keep. The innkeeper, Harriman, points them in the direction of the local alchemist and the pawn shop.
The alchemist is a female elderly gnome named Batty McBatShite. She goes by “Aunt Batty” to those she favors. She identifies the group’s potions found last adventure, and mentions that she’ll make cheap potions if the adventurers find certain ingredients for her, such as trolls’ blood. She also points the group in the direction of the local Trackers/Scouts Guild. Kalindra, a female halfling who runs the Guild, sells the group a map of the environs, and gives them information on some of the gnoll bands that lurk in the area.
Once all of the business at Crossroads Keep is finished, the group heads out and decides to return to the ruins of the Wolves Den. The remainder of the day is spent in travel, and they arrive with no incident. After a discussion about whether or not to head north to reconnoiter the gnoll lair, the group decides against it and hunkers down for the night in the still-standing stable.
The group travels north towards the High Moors, about five miles away. They arrive at the moors, a barren desolate place with patches of ice, snow, and mist, and begin looking for the gnoll lair. A wind shift presages a change in the weather, possibly an approaching storm.
They find the lair, and a plan is hatched. Josie and Kendrick, with Barundar and Laurus as backup, are to head into the lair and scout out the passages. The rest remain behind, hidden, ready to ambush.
The four adventurers enter the cave and find that it’s a passage sloping downward into the earth. After following it for at least 100 feet, it opens into a cavern that has a huge crevasse as its main feature. On the other side is a wooden drawbridge. The gap is at least 60’ wide. A gnoll sentry steps out from the shadows on the opposite side and begins firing arrows at the intruders, while a hue and cry is raised.
Our heroes back out of the area, heading to surface; all that is except for Kendrick, the rogue, who remains behind hidden in the shadows. But when he sees the size of the force coming across now the deployed drawbridge, he hightails it out of there as well.
The gnoll army emerges and battle is joined. A free attack from the group shows the gnolls who in the party is the most effective and the wise gnoll cleric of Yeenoghu casts a Hold Person at Laurus. The fighter fails, and there goes the most effective melee power in the party- held.
A gnoll attacks Josey the halfling Druid, injuring him. As a result, Josey’s dire rat companion is furious and launches an attack against the gnoll. Draelic heals Josie, and Barundar wades into the battle. Forsythia smites a gnoll, but is dropped in a counter-attack from the gnoll’s allies. Sendar attacks the cleric with warmage spells, causing the cleric to retreat back down the tunnel.
Laurus snaps out of the Hold Person and goes on a tear through the gnoll ranks. The rest of the gnolls begin a retreat back down the tunnel, but Laurus takes out two more, and Kendrick trips one and takes it prisoner. With the prisoner tied up, the group returns to the ruined inn.
Once at the inn, the interrogation of the prisoner proves fruitful. Hey, as far as the gnoll is concerned, he’ll just wander off and find another gnoll clan; the area is full of them. Why should he care about his previous clan? That’s Chaotic Evil for you. So, he spills it. The gnoll leader is their equivalent of a Ranger, with the favored enemy “Human”. The chasm is deep and populated by dire bats that are trained to attack anyone who doesn’t give the command phrase. The gnoll teaches Kendrick the phrase. There’s about twenty gnolls remaining, including non-combatant offspring. Once the gnoll has said all there is, he’s released.
The group decides they’ve done enough for now, and heads back west towards Crossroads Keep. However, around mid-afternoon, the party encounters some brigands who want to relieve them of their gold. While Kendrick and the bandit leader exchange pithy quotes back and forth, Laurus has enough of this and just charges at them. So much for negotiations; it’s clobbering time!
(What follows is one of THE worst performances by a group of NPCs that I have ever seen, in terms of dice rolling. The number of Natural 1’s I rolled, witnessed by the players, was horrendous; and it didn’t matter which dice I used. It was awful.)
While Laurus wades into the brigands, Kendrick hits the leader with a sap and pleads for him to surrender. Josey’s rat goes for the throat of a brigand and begins really hurting the guy. Barundar’s attack drops the leader, while Kendrick tries to convince the brigands to surrender. They refuse. Laurus plows through the ranks of bandits, cleaving as he goes. Sendar casts Whirling Blade and sends it flying into the group of brigands.
At this point, the brigands attempt a fighting retreat. Josey’s rat kills a brigand. Laurus catches the remaining two brigands and they surrender. With two prisoners in tow, the group returns to the Keep.
Once at the Keep, the group is directed to the main tower, which is where the place is ruled from. The prisoners are turned over for jail and a trial (which is a quick affair, followed by a hanging). The Chief Constable of the Keep is Captain Trevaylion, a Paladin of Helm. After thanking the party for their efforts (and paying a bounty for the brigands), he tells them that he knows of the knight whose spirit the party met at the Wolves Den. He was Sir Asdrubal, and he talked at length with the chief priest of Helm at the Keep, Sir Garrit.
The party returns to the inn for a hot meal and bed. During the night, Josey wakes up and tends to the fire in the fireplace, and notices that the snow is beginning to fall outside. The next morning, the group has a hearty breakfast and heads to the temple of Helm. There they meet Sir Garrit, a former Knight of the Black Iron Watch at Dormin Keep (several hundred miles to the east of here). He’s now a Priest/Knight of Helm, and is in charge of the spiritual welfare of the Keep, at least as it pertains to Helmites and those seeking defense.
He has notes on Sir Asdrubal, who passed through here on the way to recruiting an adventuring band to help him with some rescue mission. The mission was brought to the knight’s attention by an ally from Calimshan, a Paladin of Tyr named Ali Ben-Radah. Sir Asdrubal was supposed to recruit his band of adventurers, then go to Calimport and meet his friend, who would show him what must be done.
Guess who’s inherited the job…
The group thanks the cleric, then goes to the market to sell off some of the equipment salvaged from the brigands. They decide to spend the rest of the day waiting out the snow, and resting up.
But there is one more thing…Sir Garrit spoke of Sir Asdrubal’s faith leanings, how Helm was his patron god, and Hoar, the god of Vengeance, was sort of his “minor god”. Garrit spoke of the knight’s holy symbol, which on one side had the gauntlet and eye of Helm, and on the other the two-headed coin of Hoar. During dinner, something occurs to Draelic…something clicks. Abdiel, the old man in the Wolves Den, had paid the innkeeper with a two-headed platinum coin. And when he was asked who he was, he responded “I am a collector of debts”.
Something to think about….
