Game Session Nine

The game opened in the late evening of Wealsun 5, 3080 YE. A band of vile orcs had just raided the village of Discam and had burned the Temple of Myhriss, taking the magic Crucible of Myhriss with them. Arlen the mayor and Shandril the priestess of Myhriss had just asked the party to help recover the Crucible from the orcs and bring to Justice those who have defiled her Temple. The party agreed to the task and Shandril had given Moss the use of her sword for the quest. Baran the Captain of the guard told the party that he believes the orcs are occupying a ruined keep to the south of town. Baran doesn't want to send his own guards as he thinks the attack may just be a ruse to draw the guards away from the town. Arlen thanks the party for agreeing to recover the Crucible and tells them they are free to keep anything they recover from the orcs, aside from the Crucible.

Baran reluctantly agreed to provide horses and sent along three guards to lead the party to the keep. The guards included his Lieutenant, Lauriel and two other guards Jerinor and Hathol. The party decided to leave Corian and Rhino behind, along with Moopo, in order to watch over the dragon and the rest took off following the trail the orcs had left.

After fording the river the river the party, with Moss scouting, noticed that the orcs trail split off from the main path that Lauriel said went to the ruined keep. Scouting down the trail Moss found evidence (a pouch with several small items from the Temple) that this was the way the orc raiders had come. There was a small amount of discussion about whether to follow the path, which meant abandoning the horses, or following the main path to the ruined keep. Lauriel keep insisting that they should keep to the main path and after a while the party agreed with her.

So the party followed the old main path towards the keep. Soon the road they were following started to become overgrown with trees, forcing them to travel single-file, then having to walk their horses. They finally arrived at the gatehouse of the ruined keep. The party stayed in the cover of the woods while Eldon scouted the gatehouse. The gatehouse looked mostly intact with the exception of the rusted portcullises looking rusted shut. Eldon then scouted around the perimeter of the fortress, keeping to the trees. He reported back to the rest of the group, giving them a rough map of the keep and what orcs he saw. Dweezil, Ulfgar's weasel familiar, also went into the keep and scouted out numbers and positions. What was spotted was over a dozen orcs and a single large ogre in the inner courtyard drinking out of open kegs.

The orcs were at this time partying hard, sounds of orcs drinking and whooping it up could be heard even outside the keep. The party decided this would be a good time to assault the keep. Eldon had spotted an orc sentry high in an old bell tower and what looked to be a back entrance where apparently the other trail not taken led to. The plan was to take out the sentry, sneak onto the walls at start firing bows down into the celebrating orcs.

Eldon picked the padlock that closed the back door, while Ulfgar did a sleep spell on the orc sentry. With the sentry asleep, Ulfgar and Cebo threw a grapple up and climbed the back of the bell tower. Killing the sentry, they noticed a working scorpion in the tower. From the tower they could see over the entire inner keep. The rest of the party entered through the back door. They avoided the green slime that was on the tower floor and climbed to the second level and spread out on the walls. Moss went to the roof of the building that had the bell tower, Flairian, Eldon and Lauriel went to the north wall. The other guards, Jerinor and Hathol guarded the horses back in the woods. The signal for the attack would be Cebo firing the scorpion at the ogre.

Cebo fired the scorpion at the ogre and even though he was unfamiliar with the weapon managed to score a critical hit on the ogre. Unfortunately he didn't manage to bring it down with the one hit so the rest of the party targeted the ogre in the first round. After the initial volley the ogre was dead and the orcs were very surprised. The party started firing another volley at the orcs. Cebo in the bell tower fired his bow, while Ulfgar reloaded the scorpion. The party managed to get off another two volleys, including another scorpion bolt, before the orcs finally got their own bows out and strung. While this was happening the orcs guarding the perimeter started running towards the inner courtyard and another group led by a big hulking orc came from the southwest tower.

By this time the orcs were returning fire, most of the shots were missing as the party were hiding behind cover on the walls. Moss, though, managed to take an arrow (or more) every round. Most of the orcs were still standing in the courtyard shooting at the walls but the big hulking orc started to lead a small band towards the tower that led to the walls the party were on. At the same time a evil-looking half-orc dressed in blackened chain stepped from the chapel with even more orcs at his back. While this was going on there was also someone pounding on the trap door to the bell tower where Cebo and Ulfgar were.

Cebo, using the scorpion took a shot at the hulking orc and managed to seriously wound him, the rest concentrated on taking him down with arrows. Moss managed to score a hit on the evil-looking half-orc. The evil half-orc, who was obviously a cleric (as evidenced by the evil black mace with the skull-topped spikes, and bearing the device of Orcus on his shield) tried to cast a spell on the group on the north wall, a spell that obviously failed. The evil priest then hunkered down behind his shield, giving the attackers time to take out a few more orcs. The evil priest then tried another spell, targeting Lauriel, which failed. (Flairian was able to determine that it was a hold person spell). The evil priest then gathered a group of orcs at rushed towards the northeast tower. Cebo, itching to get into hand-to-hand combat, quickly climbed down the bell tower and was joined by Moss as the headed to the tower. Flairian and Eldon quickly spiked the door to the wall shut.

The two groups met at the top of the stairs leading to the walls. Cebo and the evil priest exchanged very few blows before Cebo manages to cleave the evil priest of Orcus in two with a stroke of his great axe. As the cleric's broken body hit the ground it disappeared in a puff of light. The orcs that had followed the priest into the tower shrieked in terror and retreated at full speed. Cebo and Moss followed closely after the fleeing orcs. As the orcs came out into the courtyard they were shouting that "all was lost", and "the leader is dead", "flee for your lives", and other such greetings to the remaining orcs. At this all the orcs turned and started running toward the far palisade wall trying to escape. Cebo and Moss were hot on their tails and Flairian and Eldon were able to fire another round of arrows at the fleeing orcs. Cebo and Moss caught up to the orcs as they were climbing the palisade and managed to bring down a couple more.

As the party descended into the courtyard, they could see that the building that had the bell tower, where the evil cleric had come from was some kind of chapel. The group entered the chapel and could tell that this was once a chapel St. Cuthbert. The entire chapel was trashed and the wall were covered in vile runes and smeared with orc shit. The benches and pews had been broken up and it looked liked orcs had been living in the chapel. The only clean thing in the room was a statue of St. Cuthbert, which for some reason had been left alone and undefiled. The statue still looked towards the altar which had been smeared in blood and which had on top of it the Crucible of Myhriss, also covered in blood. On top the altar was also an evil black tallow candle, which burned with a wicked, flickering light. It was dripping a viscous, red ichor that stained the altar below it. The party approached the altar with both Moss and Lauriel reaching for the Crucible. Moss managed to grab it first. The group blew out the candle and searched the chapel.

In the rear they discovered what looked to be the priests bedroom, where they found a chest that contained gold, silver and some jewelry. They also found an orc that was trying to hide. They quickly subdued the orc. Well, actually it took a while, but they did finally knock him unconscious. Tying him up they started to interrogate him when he woke back up. The orc told about how the evil priest of Orcus, named Tavik, had recruited his tribe from the Orclands to come and do some raiding. The orc said that Tavik had claimed to come from under the Mistwall and he didn't know why Tavik wanted the Crucible or what else he was doing here. Lauriel asked what the rest of the orcs would be doing now that Tavik and their leaders were dead. The orc said that they would be heading home as quickly as possible. Satisfied that the raiding problem was now solved, Lauriel cut the orcs throat.

As the party re-entered the courtyard Lauriel called to the two guards with the horses. They guards started gathering up the dead orcs and stripping the bodies of arms and armor. Lauriel told the party that they could check out the rest of the place if they wanted but she considered the task finished. The Crucible had been reclaimed and the orc threat ended. She said that she would give them 2 hours to loot before she left to go back to Discam.

The party went to the southwest tower, where the orc leader had come from, first. The floor of this tower was covered with rugs that were probably once fine rugs but had been used as sleeping blankets by the orcs. The party started searching the rugs, the smell was so vile that they all had to leave the tower to throw up at least once. Their search was rewarded though when they found a secret trap door in the center of the room. The upper level looked to be the home of the ogre, based on the size of the sleeping area. There was no treasure on either above ground floor of the tower.

Opening the trap door an throwing a torch down, the party saw dark, musty chamber that was a swath of destruction. Everything smelled like orc, or maybe ogre. Broken pieces of furniture lay strewn about and tapestries lay in shreds, scattered about. They could see a single trap door in the center of the chamber, and the area around it was strangely free of debris, as if someone had cleared all the trash away from around it purposely. They also saw just a glint of shiny metal from the edges of the trap door. The group attached a rope up top and climbed down into the chamber.

As they looked closer at the trap door they noticed something strange. The trap door had been nailed shut with what looked like silver nails, in addition silver pieces had been wedged and pounded into the cracks and edges of the door. With some undecipherable runes carved into the face of the trap door, the whole thing gave the impression that it was made to keep something from getting out from below. Seeing this door and furthermore detecting that it was arcane locked in addition, the party thought maybe they should come back later with Rhino, the cleric.

Coming back out into the courtyard they saw that the guards from Discam had stripped the orcs and were building travois to haul the armor and weapons back to town. They asked Lauriel about any rumors regarding the keep and she told them that tales mentioned that a vampire used to live here, though she didn't believe it herself. This definitely decided for the party that they should come back later to check out the rest of the southwest tower, and maybe bring along the cleric Rhino with them.

There was one other tower left for the characters to check out, the one in the northeast. The door to the tower was locked but Eldon quickly managed to unlock it. The ground floor of the tower was filled with debris, broken furniture and torn tapestries. There was a set of stone stairs leading to the second level. The party went up the stairs single file with Cebo and Moss in the lead. As they entered the second floor they could see the chamber almost filled with spider webs and two monstrous spiders, each at least 4 ft. long. Cebo and Moss quickly started running across the old wooden floor to do battle. As they started across the floor the rotted planks collapsed under their weight and both fell through, onto the rubble below. This left the halfling Eldon as the point person on the stairs as the spiders advanced. The spiders attacked the remaining party members and both Eldon and Ulfgar were hit and poisoned before Cebo and Moss could manage to make their way back up the stairs and kill the spiders. Looking around the room afterwards they did find two magical potions.

Deciding they have had enough for now, the party rejoined Lauriel and the other two guards in the courtyard. True to the Arlen's word Lauriel handed over to the party the coins collected from the dead bodies, a pile which made a tidy sum. They then hooked the travois up to the horses and started back to Discam.

On their return to Discam the party are hailed as champions. Shandril and Arlen are well pleased with their success and even Baran managed to smile. The party tell their story about how they defeated the evil cleric and the orcs and drove them from the keep. Lauriel confirms their story to Baran's satisfaction. The party is quickly healed fully by the combined powers of Shandril, Kath and Rhino. The party then told of the silver lined trap door they found in the keep, and their intention to return and look beyond it. Arlen convinced the group to rest and let the village hold a party in their honor before they returned. They didn't need much convincing. Shandril told Moss that he could keep her sword as long as he used it to destroy evil.

After getting some sleep they went to find that the whole village had turned out for the feast. Glarian, the proprietor of the Drunken Cockatrice and laid out a splendid table in their honor, large flasks of ale and clear sweet water from the well lined the table. Everyone had a great time and the local bard sang tales of their bravery. The villagers were a varied, if friendly lot. Humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, half-whatever's, even a couple orcs all holding hands and kissing up. The adventurers were seated in the place of honor with Arlen and Shandril. Everyone had a great time, Even Moopo got kissed and Flairian hit up on Shandril and scored himself some Elf sex.

The next morning the party returned to the keep, Arlen let the party keep the horses they had used earlier (along with giving them the value of the assorted orc gear they had brought back). This time Rhino, the cleric of Kord joined them, leaving Corian and Moopo behind to watch over Calcryx. Figuring that they would need more magic weapons then just Shandril's sword, Ulfgar and Rhino both studied/prayed for appropriate spells.

Entering the keep, they went straight to the southwest tower and the trap door. Unable to undo the magics holding it closed Cebo just laid into it with his greataxe, quickly smashing through the wooden door. There was a gust of stale air and the smell of a charnel house as the door was breached. Throwing down a torch, they could see that the room appeared to be some kind of laboratory, with candles, tubes, and glassware on tables around the room. There were also man-sized statues of knights in mail with full helms ringing the walls of the chamber. In the center of the room they could see another trap door in the floor.

Securing a rope in the room above, the entire party descended in the room below. As the last of the group reached the floor and they started to look around the six statues started moving towards the and attacked, once they started moving they could see that the statues were really zombies in chainmail, with worms crawling out of the remains of their flesh. After several bad rolls all around, they managed to destroy all the zombies. They noticed that there was also a door in the wall of the chamber. Checking it out they saw that it lead to a bedroom that contained a bed, brazier and the remains of creature comforts. There was also a stack of large tomes on the bedside. Looking at the books Ulfgar realized that they were a set of spell books and a large volume on zombie creation. Ulfgar happily took possession of the books.

Going to the trap door in the floor, the party slowly opened it. With an eerie creak the door opened into darkness. In the light of a torch you could it was some kind of crypt. Six small stone sarcophagi lined the walls at even intervals, and on a raised dais of the blackest stone, in the very center of the room, rested an ornately carved stone coffin with hieroglyphs and symbols all over it. A skeletal corpse was lying on top of the stone coffin, one arm drooped over the edge grasping a staff. Shards of what looked to be a once-ornate flask lie at the front of the coffin, with several loose papers beside it. In the torchlight they could see that the corpse was dressed in ornamental robes with runes smeared in what looked to be dried blood, around his neck was a small rune-covered leather pouch.

Wanting to recover the staff, Moss used a grapple and rope to snag the staff and yanked it up out of the room, along with the hand of the corpse that was holding the staff in a death grip. Next the party wanted to recover the papers to see what was one them so they lowered Eldon down on a rope and he recovered the loose papers along with the leather pouch from around the corpse's neck. Once back up top Eldon seemed very tired and weak from the effort. Looking over the papers they could see that they were written in Draconic, but they couldn't decipher the writing. The pouch contained what looked like parts of small animals.

Deciding that they had to go down into the room eventually, the party prepared. Rhino cast a bless on them and Ulfgar and Rhino both cast magic weapon on both Cebo's axe and Rhino's mace. Thus prepared they cast a light spell on the coffin and lowered themselves down. As soon as they hit the floor a magical darkness cancelled their light spell. At the same time Rhino was attacked by something with a chilling touch and felt his strength drain out of him. Ulfgar quickly cast another light spell and the ones in the crypt could make out, just barely, a shadowy figure that attacked them again.

Cebo, Moss, and Rhino all started to attack the shadowy figure, with most of their blows passing right through it. From up above Ulfgar and Flairian used what limited magic they had left also. After what seemed a very long fight the fighters finally managed to destroy the shadow, but not before all of them had suffered severe strength loss. As the shadow was destroyed a pair of bracers dropped to the floor from it's incorporeal body.

With the shadow destroyed everyone went into the room below to check it out. The party tried to open the stone coffin and the stone sarcophagi but they were all so weak they couldn't move the stone lids. So they gathered up what they had gotten so far and returned to Discam. Their they rested up and with the help of Shandril and Kord regained their strength.

The next day they returned to finish looting the crypt. Opening up the stone sarcophagi they saw that they held the remains of humans, they could see scratch marks on the inside of the stone lids and skeletons fingers were broken. Evidence that they had been entombed alive. Thee was nothing of value in the small sarcophagi.

Inside the center coffin though they did find a stash of treasure. In addition to large quantities of coin, gems and jewelry, there was an arcane scroll and a potion.

Happily returning to Discam the party was allowed the use of the "Noble's House", where passing nobles or other Persons of Note stayed while in Discam. Arlen said they could have the use of it for as long as they wanted while staying in Discam. So the party moved into the Noble House and spent the next several days resting and casting identify on the magic items that they had found.

The session ended with the party still resting in Discam, getting ready to finally travel to Greenswabs to get rid of the dragon. They have treasure from the keep, Moss has Shandril's sword, there is assorted magic to be divided up, and Arlen has given you five horses for your help.

Character Name	Starting Experience	Session Experience	Total Experience	Notes
Cebo	6,960	4,425	11,385	goes up a level (5th)
Moss	4,410	445	4,855
Corian	2,810	0	2,810
Flairian	2,540	4,425	6,965	goes up 2 levels (4th)
Rhino	2,710	100	2,810
Ulfgar	3,610	4,425	8,035	goes up 2 levels (4th)
Eldon	2,440	4,450	6,890	goes up 2 levels (4th)

The Party at the Start	The Party at the End
Cebo - Human (Ftr 4)	Cebo - Human (Ftr 4)
Moss - Half-Elf (Rng 3)	Moss - Half-Elf (Rng 3)
Corian - Human (Sor2)	Corian - Human (Sor2)
Flairian - Half-Elf (Brd2)	Flairian - Half-Elf (Brd2)
Rhino - Human (Clr1/Ftr1)	Rhino - Human (Clr1/Ftr1)
Ulfgar - Human (Mnk1/Wiz1)	Ulfgar - Human (Mnk1/Wiz1)
Eldon - Halfling (Rog2)	Eldon - Halfling (Rog2)