Gathering their wits, the party looks about them for any signs of further danger before assembling once again on the far side of the log. While Lothryn and Ogden keep a careful watch, Iah sets about tending to the wounds suffered by Laria and herself. Her back turned to their knightly companion, the Apostate takes the time -and the risk- to augment her healing with a little magic, closing some of their minor wounds altogether. The remaining injuries are thereafter deftly stitched and bandaged.
As they continue, the the ruins of a tall, wide keep come into view. The long, low building is flanked on either side by the stumps of once mighty towers, that on the western side being of somewhat greater girth than that on the right. Alas, the path to the ruins appears to be blocked by a veritable wall of thorny brambles and vegetation.
Reasoning that the elf lass, Eshara, had to have escaped from the ruin somehow, Ogden and Lothryn skirt the bracken, one in either direction, looking for a safe route. Lothryn finds one with ease – a recently hacked passage a shoulders-width across. It appear to have been well-trodden.
The others stand by as Ogden rather recklessly decides to stomp along the path, showing absolutely no regard whatsoever for the possibility that this trail is likely warded in some way. Alas, he finds the “wards” in question soon enough. Or, to be more exact, his foot does. Letting out a mighty roar, Ogden drops to the ground, a piece of twisted metal protruding from the sole of his well-worn boot. Iah, rushing forward to the aid of her childhood friend, also succumbs to the insidious, hidden obstacles, though thankfully she only nicks the edge of her foot on the sharpened point (rather than impaling herself like Ogden).
Lothryn and Laria react quickly to Ogden's shout – but in a manner far different from Iah. They draw steel, careful to look around for other threats. It's an unwise foe that relies on obstacles alone to ward it's home. Obstacles are only effective when guarded, after all. But after a few tense moments it's plain to both warriors that nothing is coming to investigate the loud yell torn from Ogden's dwarven throat.
While Lothryn keeps watch with Laria's crossbow, Laria herself slowly approaches her two stricken comrades, painstakingly clearing away the caltrops by the simple expedient of knocking them aside with her quarterstaff (but only after stuffing the first handful so detected into her pack). Despite their being half-hidden under a carpet of lichens, fallen bark and dead leaves, she manages to clear her way first to Iah and then Ogden without incident. Together, Iah and Laria help Ogden limp back to safer ground, supporting the dwarf's weight under each shoulder. Once reunited with Lothryn, Iah examines the caltrops recovered by Laria for any hint of poison, being extremely relieved to find nothing of the sort. She again sets to cleaning and bandaging wounds, but, alas, is unable to use her healing magic under Lothryn's concerned gaze. Iah's wound is of little consequence, but that of Ogden is deep, having broken several of the small bones within his foot. Having ascertained that there is little risk of infection as yet – Iah having applied a poultice- Ogden is quick to assert than he can continue. Lothryn and Laria help the injured dwarf to his feet.
(This wound will cost him two yards of speed until it heals up. The caltrops aren't actually in the published adventure. They were an on-the-spot addition of my own. I'm treating this adventure as an introduction to dungeoneering for my novice players. I wanted to impress upon Silv and Aimee in particular the the dangers taking the “obvious” path. It might have seemed a little cruel at the time, but it may save PC-lives later on. All because painful lessons are the ones best remembered. Not because I'm a sadistic git of a GM - although I'm certainly that too).
Abandoning the trapped trail, the four companions return to the log bridge. Upon the advice of Lothryn, they decided to circle the keep and search for an alternative route. Fortunately, they quickly find that the ground slopes upwards a little further to the west, and that the rocky soil prevents the growth of much in the way of foliage. Climbing up the slight rise, the party soon finds itself looking down upon the ruined keep from a height of about forty feet. Lothryn comments that it is unusual to find a fortification built close to a terrain feature that would allow attacking forces to shoot down onto the castle itself. (I gave Lothryn some bonus xp for this observation, but not as much as he could have earned had he realised they stood upon an earth-work: a siege ramp). Looking down upon the keep the party spotted nothing unusual from this new angle, save for the presence of an area of ground cleared of rubble, where the first few steps of a cellar stair could be seen, leading down into the lightless depths below. Lothryn tied a rope to one of the few trees growing on the earth-work that seemed to have sort of deep purchase in the rocky soil.
Thereafter, he lowered down first Ogden, then Iah without incident. Lothryn climbed down himself next, while Laria stood watch with her crossbow held ready. Finally, the agile young swords-woman made the climb down with an agility bordering on the feeling, impressing the taciturn Ser Lothryn somewhat further. Once the small band had re-assembled on level ground, Lothryn lit one of his torches and, wishing to keep the hands of the three warriors free for wielding weapons, handed it to Iah.
Accompanying said gesture with a strong and forceful admonition to stay behind the warriors and keep the burning brand held high. With shield and sword in hand, Lothryn led the way down into darkness, with Ogden at his side with ready axe and the ladies following behind. Laria with her crossbow cocked and ready to fire over Ogden's head at any foes looming in the shadowy darkness beyond. They descend.
After less than a dozen steps, the stairs turn sharply to the right, then descend once again. All in all, the steps require four turns – deep cellars indeed, it would seem. The light from above does not penetrate this deep. The gloom presses down upon them and all around them. The weak, flickering flames of their single torch does little to banish the stygian darkness into which they descend. The light reveals only two walls slowly curving away to either side and the smooth, cracked flagstones of the ancient cellar floor. Moisture pools in the cracks at their feet. The air reeks of black rot and mould. Must and death. The only sound is the gentle, irregular, drip, drip of water dripping from the ceiling above. Yet even as Ogden takes his first steps out onto the floor of the chamber, another sound perks his ears, the noise a veritable assault upon the senses in the sepulchral stillness of the air. It sounds like nothing less than the gentle, grisly scraping of metal upon bone.
Laria feels the air part around her, a hissing feather stroking gently against her ear in passing. The metallic chink of the steel arrowhead meeting stone is followed a bare half-breath later by the snapping of the shaft. The close passage of the missile causes the swords-woman to flinch momentarily, her panic-fired quarrel revolving out into the darkness. Immediately she lowers the weapons crosspiece to the ground, bracing it against her foot, striving to pull back the taught leather chord that propels the bolt.
Iah moves forward at the sound of the shattering arrow, allowing the light of their single torch to further penetrate the deep gloom of this dank and treacherous place. Lothryn is careful to keep his body and his shield between the un-armoured woman and any danger, slowly moving forward into the blackness. Yet their enemies remain outside the circle of flickering torch-light, as though reviled by it.
Ogden quickly reaches behind him, clutching at the haft of another torch tied to his back. Quickly, the sparking of flint rubbed against his axe reaches out and the pitch-smeared head of the stave catches light. Without pause, the dwarf hurls the burning brand as far into the room as he is able, and is rewarded by it's impact against the far wall of the great, round chamber. Though the flames gutter menacingly for a moment, the flames remain lit, revealing the foul unnatural archer and it's cohorts.
Even as the things creaking, parchment-flesh wrapped arm reaches over one bony shoulder for a second arrow, five more of the walking, near-skeletal forms, brandish an assortment of melee weapons and begin a shambling advance. Despite their fear of such disturbing, disquieting creatures, the small company holds to their resolve, bracing to meet the slow, dreadful advance of the accursed things. Lothryn and Ogden take the brunt of the charge upon their shields, both warriors having forgone their usual, heavier weapons in favour of those better suited for mortal affray in the tight , winding corridors of a castle ruin. Protected behind these portable defences, neither warrior suffers a blow, yet already their line is staggered and forced apart, Ogden being pushed back towards the stairs. Lothryn is left alone at the front, his unshielded side dangerously exposed to the wicked yet jarringly graceful weapons of his foes.
Behind and on the stairs, Laria completes the reloading of her crossbow, the leather-flighted bolt sitting in place just long enough for it's wielder to take aim at the skeletal archer and launch it on its way. The weapon, propelled by deadly force, does not fail to find a mark. The archer's left arm rattles upon the stony floor, taking the yew-wood bow-stave to the ground with it. The skeleton stares stupidly at the arrow held in it's right, remaining hand for but a moment before turning it's baleful, red-eyed gaze upon it's hateful, living foe.
Lothryn likewise enjoys similar success in his efforts, bringing his longsword down upon one assailant, shattering it’s collar bone and several ribs. Dust rises from the corpse, threatening to make the knight sneeze, but Ser Lothryn fights back against the deadly impulse to close his eyes, swallowing the dusty sneeze before it can tear loose from his lungs. Ogden's efforts match those of the knight, his longsword severing the legs of his scimitar-armed foe. Alas, his jubilation turns to dismay when the creature, cackling silently, simply lifts itself up upon one arm and presses the attack with it's blade held in the other.
All but weapon-less, save for the arrow clutched in it's skeletal fist, the archer launches itself upon Lothryn as best as it may, trying to drive the small but wicked weapon into the warrior's eyes while flail and mace wielded by two more foes whip by. The final two bone-creatures turn their attentions on Ogden.
Distracted by the efforts of the crippled skeleton to enact it's vengeance upon him by severing his knees, Ogden first leaps straight into one blow and then, stunned, is further injured by the back-swing of the blow he tried to avoid. Alas, these fiends have little in the way of muscle or fury to power their blows, yet Ogden has good cause to bless the efforts of Master Torm, the metal-smith.
His will and fury stoked high by the cries of his comrade behind him, Ser Lothryn undertakes a massive and heroic feat of arms. His roundhouse sword-blows cleaves entirely through the chests of two of the his foes, sending them lifeless as string-cut marionettes to the soggy floor below, before thereafter smashing a third foe prone with a harsh body-blow from his shield.
(A six stunt point attack. The first of about three from various PC's this session.)
Ogden, outraged at being outdone by this newly-met knight, emulates his feat in part by cleaving the legless fiend in two from chin to clave. The creature shakily keeps itself upright for but a moment, before the dwarf kicks its supporting arm from under it. It falls with a clatter to the stony ground, and does not rise again. Yet his second opponent, not in the least affected by the “demise” of it's companion, retaliates with a hefty blow of its own, it's axe breaking through mail to draw fresh, dwarven blood and embedding not a few broken links of steel into the wound.
Lothryn's foe regains it's feet, rising to to strike again with a celerity not in accord with its dilapidated appearance. Though it's mace swings wide, the wicked flanges pass close enough to the knights head for his hair to stir at it's passing.
Laria, having reloaded her weapon, sights down it once again before releasing another, true-aimed bolt into the fray. Ogden's foe is caught mid triumphant-hiss by the wickedly propelled missile, when passes straight through the collarbone and out through the rib-cage, dislodging and powdering a good few of the skeletons ribs on the way.
Lothryn too, seeing the dwarfs distress, quickly smote his remaining opponent, crushing first it's arm and then it's leg (mighty blow stunt). Turning upon the remaining foe, he swung his blade at the creatures exposed back, aiming to sever the spine. This second blow, swiftly aimed, struck true . The last of the foul cadaver joins it's fellows in pieces scattered about the room.
Iah, protected behind Lothryn and Ogden all this time, holding high a light by which her companions could see, rushed forward to examine the wounds of her dwarven friend. With Ser Lothryn peering at them with such intent worry, there was no opening in which to call upon her gifts, and so little light that she feared to work stitches upon his wounds. All that could be done was to bandage the still flowing wound, and hope for another chance to call upon the powers arcane later.
Retrieving his guttering torch from the mouldy floor, Ogden explored widdershins through the gloom while Lothryn and Iah moved sunrise. Laria, stood watch atop the stairs with bolt knocked to quarrel, keeping a wary eye above as well as around.Though Ogden found a few old coins buried amidst the trash and detritus of the cellar floor, Iah searched among the bodies of the foe to retrieve the skeletal archers bow and quiver of arrows. Ser Lofryn could not help but observe that the weapon -indeed, all the weapons used against them- were of Dalish make. Though the party thought nothing of it at the time.
It was Iah and Lothryn who called upon the others to join them, having been first to find egress from the chamber. Before them stood a massive stone door, rune-carved with sigils unrecognised by the knight, who could not recall such a door having been here on his earlier visit nigh on two decades before. It was the knight who first grasped the significance of the door's brackets, which, being on this side of the door and not the side further in, were most expressly intended, not to keep something out, but to keep something in. Iah and Laria commented that such a door likely had wardings of a more mundane as well as the magical kind.Yet rashly Ogden had not thought to listen. The dwarf first tapped upon the door with the hilt of his axe.
“Silence” hissed the knight.
"You want to announce our presence to every beast in here?”
He then pushed it with his hands and, finally, threw his heavy, broad dwarven shoulder against it to part the warped wood from the frame. This, of course, triggered the trap that awaited him, spilling a veritable rain of sharp and rusty metals upon the luckless dwarf who, though once again protected by the work of Master Torm, did suffer several minor wounds which Iah worried might fester and become inflamed in the dank, dismal place.
And yet the blunder had, at least, served to open the way. Behind the door a short corridor stretched before them, the torch light flickering upon the wall at the far end that marked the passage's end. Two doors, one to either side of the corridor and staggered but slightly, ran along the length of the passage while a third stood opposite that which had been broken down. From behind the left-most door, (that being the nearest) Ogden heard certain mewling noises which he could not identify. Ser Lothryn invited the dwarf to press his ear against the door to learn more but Ogden, perhaps belatedly having learned the dangers of newly discovered portals in unsafe places, refused. It was thereafter the knight himself who pressed his ear against the moist wood and heard from within both whispering and the clinking of metal. At the knights signal, the party prepared to enter the room, with Lothryn and Ogden poised to kick the door down (or in) with Iah behind and Laria guarding the rear with readied crossbow, her back to the passage wall so that she might guard both left and right.
The two warriors burst into the room, with Iah close behind, to find themselves in a room where no less than a dozen Dalish, separated into males, females and off-spring, languished in three cells. The prisoners screamed as the party entered, but not so loud as Laria when the corridors opposite door was burst asunder as well.
“Evil!” is the swordswoman's warning cry at the sight four scrabbling abominations fought one another in their frenzied efforts to gain entry to the passageway. As the largest ran towards her with ungodly speed, on all fours like a beast, Laria began to back away hurriedly. Each stood at least as tall as she, despite a posture that was decidedly hunched, though the leader stood taller even than Lothryn. As they closed, Laria saw that the creatures skin was a sickly grey-green, the colour much akin to that of fish guts. Red, glowing eyes gleamed evily in the torchlight, seeming to suck in all light that passed near and wicked, black-taloned hands clawed out towards her. Almost frozen with fear, it was all she could do to let loose her quarrel, which fractured harmlessly against a wall, and retreat as far the limit of the parties torchlight back the way she had came.
Lothryn ran to the door and froze upon seeing these foul creatures, the foul sight more hateful than his warrior-soul could bear. Ogden meanwhile, hearing the cries and seeking aid, desperately approached the cell that imprisoned the single, adult male elf, and tried to force the door.
Locked! He swore as though he should have expected anything different. Then, to the Dalish: “Stay put. We're going to get you out.”
The two lead creatures charged down the corridor after the retreating Laria, while the two behind leapt with feral speed upon the frozen form of Ser Lothryn. One creature, overly keen and exited by blood-lust, failed to account for the knight's shield and armour and clawed ineffectually against him. The other, luckier or perhaps simply more cunning, latched his teeth about the knights throat, clawing at the knights exposed, un-armoured thighs with his feet, tearing great bloody furrows down both legs and opening wounds on the warriors neck. Laria, alas, was less lucky. Both of the fiendish creatures she faced threw themselves upon her, near bearing her to the ground and savagely mauling her lithe form, tearing pieces of leather from her armour in their haste to savour the warm, tender flesh beneath.
Laria, in near-panic, yet retaining sense enough to know that without her shield and a proper close-arm she was lost, dropped her crossbow from near nerveless fingers and wrestled free her shield and shortsword. Unable to attack, she exerted all her strength and might, remembering every trick she learned in child-hood wrestling with Ogden, and threw her attackers back for but a moment. Gasping against the pain, blood running into her boots, she dropped into a fighters stance, with her shield presented before her, and prepared to sell her life dear.
Lothryn, jarred from inactivity by the savagery of the assault upon he and Laria, set upon the creature gnawing upon his neck, driving the tip of his longsword deep into it's side and ramming it back to clear the door.
Ogden barrelled into the opening, only to freeze in superstitious terror at the sight of the beasts before him.
Iah, with Lofryn's back towards her, did not scoop a rock with her usual pantomime prior to launching forth her Stone throw spell. The magically conjured missile flew over Ogden's helmeted head to smack the second of the creatures that had railed against her knight. Casting swiftly (thanks to another of those six stunt point attack rolls) she summoned up a mind-blast upon the two already reeling beasts before her, luckily (and unbeknownst to her) catching one of the two attacking Laria (just out of sight) in it's snare as well, though the largest of the two managed to resist the spell.
Laria quickly took advantage of the opening this afforded her (and which almost certainly saved her life) by aiming a fierce blow at the stunned creature in front of her. Powered by her fear, desperation and the near-overwhelming pain of her wounds, the tip of her blade burst through the creatures back, having spilt the creatures foul heart in twain. Empowered by the fury of her first strike, he smote the second creature before her as well, striking sufficiently well that the black-hearted creature howled it's pain into the dark. (Another 6 stunt point attack, with the hit on the first creature bolstered by the application of a mighty blow). Her attention held by the remaining (and largest) of the beasts before her, she failed to note the oh-so-subtle change than had befallen the first creatures body immediately after it's being slain.
Iah threw her torch over Ogden's head in the wake of her magic, lighting the corridor (luckily it did not go out – it was the only lit light source at the time, Ogden having quenched his) and freeing her to flick her newly acquired bow into her hands. Meanwhile, Lothryn, rejoicing that his and Ogden's blows had somehow managed to stun the feral beasts that fought them, skewered the wounded creature in front of him in near the same place as before, killing it. Ogden brought his own sword down on the creature in front of him, landing it a hefty blow and breaking its collarbone. With the other creature facing him distracted by Ogdens fierce blows, Lothryn at least had the chance to witness the terrible transformation that unfolded before him.
“Oh filth!” the knight swore, gazing down upon the ravaged form of the Dalish elf at his feet, it's anguished eyes locked with his own in silent condemnation.
The creature that Laria had wounded, perhaps confused or angered by the anguished howling of its lesser companions, quickly turned and, in a frenzy, began clawing blindly at the dwarf, causing some terrible wounds, even as it once again tried to clench its jaws around the sweet, tortured flesh of Laria. The last of the smaller fiends, so recently wounded by Ogden, lunged at Lothryn, taking advantage of the knights horrified distraction to clamp teeth around his leg.
Laria's attempts to finish the leader of the beasts were defeated by its sheer ferocity. So intent was she upon keeping the beast's be-fanged maw away from her that her own blows were to prove ineffective. Iah's arrow, fired at the creature facing Lothryn, also failed to injure a foe, flying wide due to her lack of skill with such devices as much from her care to avoid hitting the embattled knight.
However, as the creature ducked, it ran into the path of Lothryn's blade. Though the wound was but a nick and barely deep, it sank into the creatures flesh deep enough to open a vein in it's neck. Screeching it's rage, this, the creatures claws scrabbled ineffectually against the knight for a brief moment before it fell into a mewling, ex-sanguineating heap at the mighty warriors feet.
Buoyed by the knights success, Ogden moved to attack the final, largest creature from the rear. He managed to knick the creatures arm, but the horrific, fallen thing barely paused to take notice. Scrabbling with tooth and claw against Laria's shield, the beast was unable to land a further blow on the exhausted, tiring swords-woman, her shield turning away it’s blows at the cost of great effort. Her own blows, wielded in a hand slick with her own blood, were too weak to penetrate the thick, warty hide of the darkspawn before her. Laria knew if the creature were not soon slain, it would likely take her with it into death.
Lothryn charged the creature one of the creatures, slipping his longsword through the ribcage and bringing forth a great gush of foul smelling black blood, yet still unable to pierce the heart. Ogden too, failed to finish the creature, his blow lacking much in the way of strength, fatigue taking its toll on the skill of even this doughty warrior. Seemingly only further enraged by the near-mortal blow dealt it by the knight, the creature leaps upon Laria with the strength only a dying form can lend, clamping jaws around her neck and squeezing, tearing forth a great lump of her shoulder between masticating jaws.
Iah, calling in fear for the life of her friend, looses an arrow from trembling fingers that failed to find a mark. Yet it was Lothryn, again, who had slain so many foes that day already, that would save the life of the young swords-mistress. His blow followed the path of his previous thrust, striking further and deeper, finally popping the great muscle deep in the creatures chest that forced the black, cursed blood of the darkspawn through it's veins. The creature coughed once, gurgled loudly, and expired, messily, on the floor.
Grabbing Iah by the shoulder, Lothryn all but propelled Iah towards her terribly wounded, blood-splattered childhood friend, turning his own attention to warding the door from which the foul beasts came. So much blood was there, and so grievous were Laria's wounds, that it seems likely Iah would have used healing magic then regardless of whether the knight back had been so conveniently turned. Iah poured as much of her mana into the spell as she could in a single casting, near-sealing Laria's shoulder wound as it never was, causing new flesh to form and pink, thin skin to settle over the wound. There would be a nasty scar there to forever remind the lass of her near brush with death, but at least she lived. Iah thereafter set about tending her friends wounds by more mundane means, cleaning, bandaging and sewing where she may while Ogden and Lothryn stood guard.
Investigating, Lothryn soon saw that the door led to a barracks room, strewn with hastily strewn and much soiled straw. From the relatively cleared spaces and the various nests, he judged that perhaps thirty to forty creatures had only recently left there, perhaps, going by the smell of fresh waste, only a few hours before their own arrival. Lothryn was disconcerted even as he was relieved. He could think of only one reason why so many creatures had left the keep. Alas, his fears would prove well founded.
Meanwhile, out in the corridor, Iah caught a glimpse of the bodies around her and gasped. Ogden very quickly shut the damaged door leading into the chamber with the cells. It would not do for the Dalish to see the bodies of their loved ones strewn about in this state. Moreover, how could they explain it?
While a pale but much recovered Laria stood guard, Ogden and Ser Lothryn set about dragging the bodies -all the bodies, even those of the skeletons (for the party had made the connection with regards to the creatures unusually fine and well made weapons) - into the barracks.
Finally, Lothryn and Iah re-opened the door to the cells, approaching the male elf and gradually, though not without effort -seeming to gain his trust. Under questioning, the elf explained that he and the other prisoners were the survivors of a raid on the Dalish caravan that had left Vintiver under a cloud a week ago. Other males had been dragged off from time to time until -gradually- he came to be the only one left. He too would have vanished by now, he suspects, had not nearly the entire darkspawn population of the dungeon gone tearing off into the woods not half a day before the parties arrival – for which he gives thanks to Eshara and her mad risk in stealing the “demons” silver link.
“For surely”, he adds, “that is what they are after.”
(And where is the silver link? Why, back at Vintiver of course. I still can't figure out why they left it there. It's not like I hadn't dropped enough hints of it's importance or anything).
The party share a look that says “Oh shit!” as clearly as if the word had been spoken aloud. They are all in a rush to make best speed back to Vintiver, when Ogden suddenly tells them to to hush. They still have one more door to open at least. At that, the male elf screams and curses, dancing back towards his cell which he slams shut behind him.
“Dont release me till you've cleared this place out!” he screams. “I'll not let the last of my clan die because you didn't think to kill every foe first.” The elf will not be dissuaded, even though Lothryn is fairly sure that the final door in the corridor leads the last chamber of the keep -one he could not enter when last he came this way.
Leaving the terrified Dalish huddled in their pitiful, cramped cells, the party moves up the now blood-spattered corridor to the door of the final room. Lothryn is surprised that a the feeling of dread terror that descended upon him the last time he appraoched this door is no longer present. Listening at the door, Laria can just make out a faint crackling sounds from within. Upon entering they found another large round chamber, smaller than the first, lit by a glowing, crackling blue sigil in the floor. The walls themselves are lined with shelves containing books and every other manner of wizardly paraphernalia.
Opposite the door, a stone table sits with a massive, leather bound book some four feet perched atop a lectern. Two long chains of various mixed base metals, including links of iron, copper and lead, extend from this altar table to the sigil itself. Each is broken at one end, as though a single, unifying link were missing.Wisely, no-one touches the sigil (which Iah recognises as a warding glyph, though she does not disclose this information in the presence of Ser Lothryn) and although they approach the book, all thoughts of reading it are expunged by a single glimpse at the pictures contained within and the rust brown colour of the ink.
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