The Unusual Heroes vs. The Pool of Radiance

[Gilthanas_Galanodel]

Hi,
Just posting to say how much I enjoy this story hour, it is my joint favourite storyhour, sharing the position with Dr Midnight's and Wulf's.
Cya
(p.s, you now have at least one 5 star rating)

 

[Xaltar]

Well, we just got through another intense night of gameplay. The party is now comprised of 7 PC's.

I am doing my best to copy over the remainder of my storyhour from the old boards, and should have new story up later today.


- Xaltar

 

[Ziona]

Wow! What a night of gaming! We thought last week was intense, wait 'till you see what Xaltar threw our way this week!

Stay tuned, true believers!!

 

[Xaltar]

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Session 3, Part 1: The look of disgust…
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Continuing south from the Bee Hive, They noticed that the cave continued for a short ways and then sharply ended. There was however a crack in the wall that a person could wiggle through, and it was guarded by two aggressive kobolds.

Spiderfang and Drexel were able to able to translate the sharp yipping sounds as warnings spoken by the kobolds in a form of butchered Draconian. The party soon found that their threats were hollow as each creature fell to the first barrage of crossbow fire.

Moving up to the crack in the wall, the party let Borghin go first to check things out. He said that it was an empty hallway, so the others followed without hesitation. Rougher came through last in case he was too large and got stuck in the crevice.

Once the party entered the hall they noticed three major features: a crumbled and caved-in staircase to the west, a bend in the passage to the east, and a silky black stone centered on the south wall. Borghin quickly approached the door, at first searching for traps, and then resorted to looking for anything that would act as either a lock or handle.

Holden, noticing Borghin’s difficulty in discovering a mechanism to open the door, began to search the door as well. Holden hid a few of those roguish talents up his sleeve as well.

The others were growing tired of the ineffectiveness of the search, until they heard the sound of more kobolds around the corner to the east. Using the call of battle as an excuse to interrupt the dullness of the unfruitful search, the party readied for action.

As the group came running around the corner, they noticed that the hallway ended in a storage room that was now overtaken by a small kobold camp. These kobolds hearing the party’s preoccupation with the nearby door and had prepared for battle as well. They were also employing the aid of a very scraggly looking dire weasel.

The battle should have been very simple, in theory. The party knew that they had the upper hand, but decided that they would show off. Drexel, who was the first to fire managed to hastily load his crossbow and sent his bolt spinning out of control into the air.

Ziona attempting to place a shot over Holden’s shoulder, managed to lodge the bolt directly into his back. Borghin also fumbled his shot, narrowly missing Spiderfangs head. Meanwhile Rougher reaching back with his greatclub to take a hearty swing, clubbed Drexel in the head, nearly knocking him unconscious. All of the commotion also took Spiderfang by surprise, breaking his concentration and skinned his hand against the tight and jagged wall.

Holden, the only one who didn’t folly during the combat began cutting through the kobold front line. The others managed to pull themselves together and joined Holden in the onslaught of the feeble creatures.

During the combat, one kobold in particular had retreated back and was hiding behind some crates and barrels. After the party had torn through their final line of defense, Spiderfang ran up and called out for the hiding kobold to show himself.

“NOOOO, YOU LEAVE LEPER ALONE,” it whined in draconic.

Believing the comment about leprosy to be a ploy, Spiderfang proceeded to leap over the barrels and knocked the kobold into unconsciousness with one swift hit from the palm of his hand.

After the situation was under control, Holden began searching the barrels for any possible treasure that these filthy creatures may have. He was pleasantly surprised when he found several jars of uneaten honey.

Meanwhile, Spiderfang opened a large create near the unconscious kobold, only to find a good size half-orc curled up, and upside-down in the box. He was covered in bee stings from head to toe and was rather incoherent. Ziona stepped up to heal the tortured man.

He was grateful for the healing, although still weakened by the effects of the poison. As Drexel had surmised, the man, who called himself Udbul, claimed that the kobolds used him to retrieve honey from the beehive, and forced him to live in a box.

At first sorry for the man, the party continued to talk to him. Udbul was truly thankful for being saved and was willing to answer any of the questions that they party asked of him.

He revealed information regarding his status as working for the Zhents, and how often his raiding party came to the area. At some point the conversation turned in an obscure fashion. The group asked Udbul if he had any children, and after a moment of thought he said, surely I must have several scattered across the Dalelands.

Holden was the first to be offended by Udbul’s response, “No doubt from all of the women you have raped!”

Udbul, astonished by the accusation, replied, “NO, NO… I usually pay!”

Disgusted, the party told the half-orc to leave, and to leave quickly. At first reluctant to travel back through the beehive, the look in eyes of the party convinced him otherwise.

Once Udbul had left their presence, Holden slung the limp kobold over his shoulder and the group jumped in shock as they heard an explosion from the main hallway. As they looked around, it was obvious that Borghin and Drexel had been messing with the door again while the others had interrogated the half-orc Zhent.

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Still more to come…
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[Xaltar]

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Session 3, Part 2: Who is the ghost haunting Galath’s Roost…
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Just around the corner, Borghin and Drexel had gone back to investigating the mysterious glossy black door. Borghin sat back to watch as the know-it-all wizard thought he could find something that the dwarf had overlooked.

As soon as Drexel touched the surrounding doorframe, there was a large explosion. The blast lifted him off of his feet and blew him against the hallway wall opposite the door. Borghin stared in amazement at his severely hurt friend as he himself stood there completely unharmed.

Before Borghin could even muster his wits to call for help, the others were rounding the corner with great speed. Ziona, one of the first to investigate the loud “BOOM”, rushed over to heal the now unconscious Drexel.

Just as the group showed up in its entirety, a ghostly elven figure partially emerged through the door. Eerily appearing in its ethereal form, an elven knight clad in gleaming plate armor and a shield bearing two golden stags. Armed with a bastard sword, he loomed over the fallen Drexel and demanded, “Who interrupts the rest of Lyklor Kelerandri?”

“Drow in my Tower,” Lyklor asked as he eyed the group that stood before him and focused on Ziona’s presence.

“You’re the monster,” spouted Drexel.

“Yeah…JERK,” followed Spiderfang with roughly the same lack of tact.

Not wanting the situation to turn into a disaster, Holden stepped in front of the group and began trying to calm the infuriated ghost. He informed Lyklor that the tower was no longer standing, and that his group, including Ziona, was now working against human and drow raiders in the area.

After some fast-talking, Holden managed to convince the apparition that the party was working on the same side. Reluctant, but willing to help the group as long as they didn’t attempt to enter the elven burial grounds that he was guarding. The ghost, confined to the crypt was only able to offer information, but none of it was new, so the party bade Lyklor farewell and continued on to explore the remainder of Galath’s Roost.

During Holden’s conversation with Lyklor, Drexel retreated around the corner. He had believed the apparition was able to see through the illusionary magics that hid his true identity. Spiderfang who was told to move back by the others after he had offended the ghost also joined Drexel.

While waiting for the seemingly endless conversation that ranged from drow to the more current events in the Dalelands, these two decided they would interrogate Leper, the kobold prisoner by the same name as the disease that he claimed to carry.

Spiderfang began nudging the unconscious creature with his foot until it woke up. As it awoke, Drexel charmed him. In moments Leper was more then willing to share his vast wealth of knowledge with his new best friend. Leper was overjoyed in fact, since he had never been treated so nicely before, in fact he had never had another friend.

Spiderfang and Drexel tried desperately to find out if Leper was in fact diseased. He could only inform them that he had no idea. In fact, he didn’t know what leprosy was, and that he was merely told by the now slain elder member of the tribe that he had it and therefore that was his name.

Frustrated, the two decided they would question the kobold for other useful information. They asked about where the kobold’s base of operations was. Drexel almost bit through his lip when he learned that this kobold’s idea of the huge dungeon in which he lived included only the room that they were in and the connecting hallway. Not only were they trying to deal with a kobold, but also they managed to spare the dumbest one.

Spiderfang and Drexel decided that they were getting nowhere, but figured that it would stay out of trouble if it continued to believe that Drexel was still it’s friend. Leper would settle for nothing less than to fight along his newfound hero’s side. Therefore; when Holden’s conversation with the ghost was finished, the three of them: Spiderfang, Drexel, and Leper rejoined the others.

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Still more to come…
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[Xaltar]

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Session 3, Part 3: Hooked on Roughner...
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The party continued back through the beehive and followed the stream to the north to find the creature that had posed as Galath’s ghost on the first night. Holden had sworn that he had seen something swim off during that encounter.

With Holden in the lead, they soon found a pool where this part of the stream ended. Although the surroundings appeared to be a natural cave, there was a set of carved stairs that appeared to lead up into the dilapidated keep above.

As the party drew nearer to the water, a few of the members spotted something moving in the water. As if in slow motion, the air quickly filled with the toxic fumes as Spiderfang and Holden lept directly into the brisk 15 feet deep water.

The next couple of minutes were completely chaotic for the group. People were running every which way trying to avoid the toxic fumes, but also trying to get in on the action.

Once the party had all made it around the gas to the surface of the pool, they found that Holden and Spiderfang were having a great deal of difficulty fighting the water mephit in its natural environment. Furthermore, the mephit had successfully gated in a friend, and the two watery fiends were putting up a good deal of resistance.

From above Drexel blasted the creatures with his wand of magic missles, but the others found that there was little they could do. That is until one of the mephits tore into Spiderfang’s chest with its claws, sending him into unconsciousness. It was apparent to the others as his body went limp, that he was going to drown before he bled to death.

Immediately Borghin readied his grappling hook to fish for Spiderfang, yet his first attempt to fish him out failed. Desperate, Drexel demanded Roughner to jump into the water and help. Roughner had only hesitated due to the fact that he wore heavy chain, and was bound to sink to the bottom of the pool rather then being effective in combat.

Without further prodding, he lept into the pool just as Borghin made his next cast into the water with his grappling hook. Ziona, waiting on the bank to heal Spiderfang closed her eyes as she witnessed the grappling hook catch Roughner in the face right beneath his troll-skull helmet.

The now murky water was quickly turning a light shade of pink with all of the blood that had been spilled. None of the party members could see what was happening until Borghin’s rope went taught. As he braced himself against the weight and began pulling in the line, he found that he caught Roughner who in turned managed to grab onto Spiderfang.

As Roughner laid the limp body of Spiderfang on the ground, Ziona rushed over to assist. His lips we cold and colorless, but with her extensive knowledge of the healing arts, she managed to resuscitate the young monk.

Knowing that Spiderfang was going to be okay, Holden took one last breath and dove back into the dark pool to skewer his friend’s attacker as Drexel pounded it with magic missles. They had had enough of these mischievous mephits, and quickly ended the battle.

Emerging victorious from the pool, Holden and Roughner were far less then thrilled knowing that they were going to remain soaking wet for a while. The others were the ones whom seemed most affected due to the resulting souring smell created by Roughner’s soaked hides.

Still early in the day, the group gathered up their belongings and trudged up the stairs to investigate what other threats remain above.

Map from Dungeon # 87

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Still more to come...
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[Xaltar]

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Session 3, Part 4: Ziona’s new pet...
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Upstairs, the roofless keep was full of bright sunlight that struggled to bring warmth to the brisk day. Yet, the air was crisp, and the wind blew hard. It was obvious that winter was coming. After a quick shiver from the sopping wet trio of Holden, Spiderfang and Roughner, the group trekked forward to explore the dilapidated structure.

Drexel noticed a few larger closed in areas towards the center of the keep. He quickly headed to the first room, with the others in tow as he noticed a peculiar thing, there was a large oak tree growing up through the floor. Drexel stopped at the base of the tree while the rest of the party moved in to search the room for clues.

As the group stood by, Drexel felt something fall lightly against his back. As he looked up into the tree to find where the fallen object had come from, he was hit square in the head with an acorn. Annoyed with the intrusion, Drexel began casting…

Before he could finish, Drexel found himself enveloped in a barrage of acorns. While he moved back away from the rain of acorns, Spiderfang had used his magical slippers to walk up the backside of the tree. He quickly found the source of the annoyance in the form of a tiny but plump purplish dragon looking creature.

The psuedodragon who went by the name of Rossal was very apprehensive in negotiating to the party, well that was until they brought up the topic of honey. Licking his lips, Rossal quickly flew down and landed at the feet of the adventures. He wasn’t the type to pass up free sweets!

Both Drexel and Ziona pulled out jars of honey and took off the lids. Suddenly it was as if two children were trying to see who could call the family pet to them first. Ziona and Drexel were hunched over calling to the tiny creature. Rossal was torn for a moment, then looking up at Drexel, said in a small and wavering voice, “You’re scary.”

Drexel stood there looking perplexed as Rossal flew into Ziona’s arms and began scooping the honey into his mouth at an alarming rate. For several minutes the party just stood by waiting for him to finish. After he licked the jar clean, Ziona asked him a few questions about what he knew of the keep.

To a great benefit of the group, the psuedodragon was in fact well informed as to the inhabitants or the keep and the with the passing raiders. The party learned of other hazards in the keep, such as large beetles, that they thought were better to just avoid.

After mapping out the areas that they had explored, and worked on some calculations of when the raiders had last passed. They suddenly realized that they only had one more day before the raiders would return, and they begun discussion some battle plans in further detail.

While they were talking, Holden quickly looked up. He cocked his head to the side, as if still listening, and whispered, “I hear horses.”

Shocked and feeling unprepared, the party began running in all different directions. Some retreated back, while others hid behind the rubble remaining from the outer wall, and even a few jumped down and hid in the ravine.

As the riders drew nearer, everybody tensed up and prepared to grab their weapons. They didn’t feel prepared for this battle and they all secretly weren’t convinced that this could turn out well. Everyone had prayed that they had hidden themselves well enough.

It wasn’t until the mounted and cloaked figures came towards the makeshift bridge to the keep that Holden was able to spot the symbol of the “Riders of Mistledale” while hiding behind his rock. Realizing that the party was going to be in more danger in this instance if it looked as though they were arranging an ambush of their own by hiding in the ruins, Holden leapt forward from behind his rocky niche and called out to the leader.

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Still more to come...
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[Xaltar]

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Session 3, Part 5: When a plan comes together...
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Holden and the Riders of Mistledale (A group of lawmen that protected the surrounding area) swapped information on the recent disruptions and discussed possible courses of action. Meanwhile, the rest of the party began to pull themselves from their hiding places and joined Holden’s side.

The group found the Riders to be polite, but preoccupied. They seemed grateful that the party was willing to follow-up on the apprehension of these raiders, allowing them to return to their battle against the raiding drow. Before they left, Holden had persuaded them to assist the party in constructing a three-section pit trap along the path that the raiders were known to travel.

After a long and hard day for everyone, the Riders pack up their horses and wished the party luck. Their captain approached Holden and gave him a pat on the back saying, “You have a good head on your shoulders, and I think that your plan might just work!”

With that said, he handed Holden a couple of healing potions to aid them in their upcoming battle. He also mentioned that nearly a ten-day ago, the raiders had raided a nearby farm and had taken a stable boy named Walter and a horse named Axel. After he mention that there was a hundred gold piece rewards for the return of each, Drexel asked, “It’s a horse, how do we know we have the right one?”

Smiling, the captain stated, “You’ll know! This horse is a prize stallion, and he’s also got a bit of an attitude…of course that can be overcome with a good apple.”

The captain reached in his pack, pulled forth a fresh red apple and tossed it to Drexel. With a wave he turned and mounted his horse and within minutes the Riders were gone.

After a good night’s rest, the party woke the next morning to perfect their trap, and to work on creating better hiding spots; they weren’t going to be taken off-guard again! They dug into the side of the ravine, and managed to setup a well-hidden alcove. It was all planned and secured, as the raiders rode by the side of the keep, the first horses in line would trip into the covered ditch, and the party would use the surprise to gain the upper hand. While the others lightly rested, Rossal was given another jar of honey and asked to keep lookout in a nearby tree.

The party waited tensely, overpowered by the smell of freshly dug soil, with sweaty hands grasping their weapons in anticipation. They didn’t want to discuss what they were all thinking, what if they weren’t strong enough to beat this other party in a frontal assault. Suddenly acorns started fall into the ravine, and they all new that it was almost time for action.

As they peered from they’re hiding place, they could see a group a about 8 humans and half-orcs with some captives slung over the horses of the riders in the rear. Leading the group was a very large half-orc with thickly dreaded hair. As their commander rode forward, the horse hit the first covered section of the covered ditch and faltered. In fact, with the weight of it’s warrior, the horse’s front legs crumpled forward with a sharp cracking sound.

In that moment as the raiders watched their leader’s horse crash to the ground, the party sprang forth from they’re hiding spot. They had three primary targets, a mage, a priest, and the barbaric half-orc leader. Yet the prone leader stood little chance as Holden tumbled forward and drove his great-sword into his back, burying it to the hilt as several feet of sword protruded from his chest.

Spiderfang rushed forth, pummeling the cleric with his powerful glowing fists, while finishing his flurry of attacks with a hit that snapped the man’s neck. Meanwhile, Borghin’s trained crossbow shot struck down the mage in one shot, while Ziona provided cover against the more heavily armored warriors. In the rear of the party, three half-orcs halted their horses. With only two of higher ranking Zhent officers left, and all of their leaders killed in the initial ambush, they were having second thoughts about throwing their lives away.

The half-orcs weren’t going to pursue suicide, but the other two were devoted Zhent warriors, and they drew their weapons to attack. Drexel quickly charmed one of the Zhents, and called out to his new friend in desperation as the other warrior approached. Grack had been in the loyal employ of the Zhents for many years, but he wasn’t about to let his friend Drexel die this way. Grack ran to intercept the hit from his commander, and proceeded to run him through with his long sword.

During this time, the rest of the party surrounded the half-orcs and demanded their surrender. They were more then willing to oblige after witness the near instantaneous slaughter of their comrades. When one of their lower-level officers approached at Drexel’s side, they were convinced that they had been “Set Up.”

The party let the cowardly half-orcs go free on foot after they had explained to the best of their ability how they understood the portal to work. The party also released the prisoners and provided them with horses to return to their homes.

After the half-orcs and freed captives had moved out of sight, Holden hefted the body of the dead cleric over one shoulder and headed towards the area where he had first found the horse tracks that abruptly disappeared. After waiving the cleric’s left hand, bearing a tattooed eye in the center, over that spot on the ground…a portal opened.

Drexel turned to his new ‘friend’ Grack and asked him how much time they had before the portal closes. He replied, “Uh well, I guess about ten minutes, so you better hurry because you can’t open it again for another ten-day.”

Then with a harsh tug on his robes, Drexel looked down to see someone he had completely forgotten about, Leper the kobold. Looking up, he quickly did some math in his head and realized that his charm person spell should have worn off by now. Squinting his eyes he looked towards Borghin and Spiderfang as if they might know something that he overlooked. Both ignorant in the ways of the arcane arts just shrugged.

With another harsh tug Drexel looked down again, “YES???”

“Are we going somewhere?”

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Next time: Storming the keep...
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[Xaltar]

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Session 4, Part 1: Playing the part...
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As Drexel looked down at the potentially leprous kobold he said, “YEAH! You’re going home!”

“But you’re my only friend!”

“That spell wore off!” Drexel retorted, shaking his head.

“But you’re my only friend!”

Finally Drexel got the hint across with, “Get Lost”, and Leper ran off towards the direction of Galath’s Roost, heartbroken.

Annoyed by the distraction, especially since time was quickly running out, the party discussed their next course of action. They had spent a full day planning their last battle, but never thought about how they were going to get into or through the Zhent outpost on the other side of the portal.

Roughner, who had been quiet for a while peered through the portal and turned back with a worried look on his face, “Now what?”

Ziona recommended that they just wait the ten-day and come back when they can reopen the portal. Several of the other party members thought that waiting might not be a bad idea. That was until Grack spoke up, “Uh, well, their going to be upset if the raiding party doesn’t show back up on time.”

Suddenly a plan clicked, with less then five more minutes to prepare, they quickly began to disguise themselves in the clothes of the fallen raiding party. Borghin used his swift skill with rope to create makeshift bonds that could be easily freed. He gave a set to Ziona, Hunter, and Spiderfang while he put another over his own wrists. Drexel donned the robe of the mage, and Holden wore those vestments of the fallen cleric. Roughner was told that he was their ‘new mercenary’, replacing the cowardly half-orcs.

As the others rode through the portal, Holden delayed a moment. After the others had passed, he took out his great sword and chopped the hand off of cleric’s corpse lying at the base of the portal. Thinking that this may be his only way home, he justified his own actions, and placed the severed hand in his bag. Jumping on his horse, he followed the others to their fate at the Zhent outpost.

With less then a minute to spare the party arrived at the Zhent outpost. They appeared on a rocky path that leads to the entrance of the citadel. Above it was evident that there were at least two arrow slits that could be used against them. They were going to have to bluff their way in, but nobody said anything.

“Hail,” came a booming voice that knocked the group back into the reality of the situation.

Drexel replied in a gruff voice, “Please, we have no time for your useless banter! Let us in this instant or I’ll bring down Bane’s might.”

With some audible grumbling coming from within the guard tower, they began to extend the mechanized bridge that covered the ten-foot wide chasm protecting the front gate. Drexel turned back to the others and smiled, “Just need to know how to talk to these evil people. Now we need to get in there and take them down as fast as possible”

Grack looked back towards Drexel and asked, “What exactly are we doing anyway?”

Realizing that maybe he had said more then he should have, “Yeah, well you see…we’re just going to take over the keep and become more powerful, you want to become more powerful right?”

Grack suddenly looked a little paranoid. “Uh Yeah, I want to be powerful.”

“Good, then you lead.”
As the bridge clicked into place, Grack nervously urged his horse forward across the bridge. When they all got to the other side, two guards standing behind a porculous stopped them. They quickly looked over the party, and eyed the prisoners.

“You took an awful lot of casualties for having so many prisoners,” one of the guards bluntly stated.

Drexel quick to keep their cover, “Well, we captured these then were ambushed and the half-orc cowards ran! Although we’ve got this new guy in the back though, now he is a good mercenary.”

“Ahh, don’t lie, we kicked yer arse!” Shouted Borghin.

The guard was appalled, “Gag that prisoner!”

“Yeah, please do,” added Hunter, who was also supposed to be a prisoner.

Roughner trying to save the situation jumped down and ‘roughed’ them up a bit. Content but still reluctant, the guards agree to let the raiding party in, but eyed them all of the way down the main hall.

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Still more to come...
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[Xaltar]

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Session 4, Part 2: Freeing the slaves...
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A short ways down the hall, Grack lead the party to the stables where his raiding party’s horses were kept. As they stabled the horses, Holden took a few minutes to search around for the horse named Axel that they had been sent to recover.

Looking in each of the closed stables was tedious business. The first several had nothing more then standard livestock including animals such as sheep. As Holden opened one door towards the far end of the hall, he noticed that the stall was completely full of mud and had been converted into a pigpen. However, the obvious factor had to be the large wild pig that charged the surprised ranger.

One of the pig’s small tusks punctured into Holden’s mid-gut leaving a very serious wound. It wasn’t long before the whole party went to his aid. The wild pig was no match for Holden’s greatsword, but it had still managed to inflict several grave wounds before it met its untimely demise. Holden while shaking his head as Ziona bandaged his wounds said, “I will never touch PORK again!”

Holden and Drexel shoved the dead pig back into his stall and shut the door while Ziona and the other mock prisoners resumed their disguise. They had managed to regain their composure just in time as a guard from the front gate had arrived to investigate the noise.

As the guard demanded an explanation, Drexel poked Grack in the ribs. Grack in turn spoke, “Uh, well…Uh you see the horse reared and the dwarf feel off onto the floor. We’re bring them down to the stockade now though, so there won’t be any more disruptions.”

Satisfied, although somewhat suspicious, the guard left the party and returned to his post. The group quickly moved down the hall following Grack to the prison area so they could keep moving before their cover was entirely blown.

After they descended the stairs into the lower level of the citadel, two human guards greeted them. “We’ll take them from here,” stated one of the armored guards.

“Perhaps we should give you a hand, there are quite a few prisoners,” responded Holden as he began moving up and passed the first guard.

As the guard began turning to face Holden who had moved passed the guard, Holden drew his sword and slashed a brutal wound across the flat of the guard’s back. His partner turned to witness his fallen ally and as he turned back around to face the party, found that crossbow bolt sink into his forehead. Borghin stood across from the man, having slipped his poorly tied bonds, with a big smile on his face and a crossbow in his hands.

Drexel relieved the guards of their keys and they continued to explore around. The party proceeded to explore a passageway to the north. After a long and slowly sloping set of stairs, the party came to a room that was roughly shaped like a hand. As they peered into the room, they noticed that in each finger shaped alcove, there was a pedestal with a drum on it, except for the center alcove, which contained three levers.

In the center of the room was a large grate that was about 10 feet long and 15 feet wide. The foul stench of decay rose from underneath the grate, while the ceiling vault in the center above, and lit the room with a glowing light source. There was an unholy feeling associated with the room that sent a sudden shiver up her spine.

The party was not thrilled about searching this room, so they began climbing the stairs back towards the prison chambers. As the turned to leave, they didn’t notice that Borghin’s curiosity had gotten the better of him again. He rushed forward, attempting to jump over as much of the grate as he could. Although he landed on grate in roughly the center, the cold iron bars did not falter and drop him to the obvious pit of darkness that lied below.

With the remainder of the party almost halfway up the stairs, he quickly searched the levers for traps, and began pulling them. He turned as did the rest of the party to hear a large clanging. The center section of the grate had swung down into the pit. As a hand covered in rotten flesh reached forth from the pit, Borghin yelled, “GUYS, HELP!”

Turning to see the undead hand reaching for her friend Ziona charged down the stares and peered into the dark pit separating her from Borghin. There were three ghoulish monsters working to climb they’re way out. Calling to the power of Elistraee, Ziona called out with such strong conviction that the undead monsters burst apart and disintegrated. Even the presence of Bane’s evil aura wasn’t enough to diminish the righteous might of this cleric.

With Borghin safely back across the pit, the party headed up the stairs and back to the prisoners quarters. Drexel, using his magically enchanted hat to alter his appearance, made himself appear to be one of the guards that greeted them when they first entered the lower level. He convinced Grack to lead since this may not go smoothly.

As Grack and Drexel entered into the next room under the pretense that they were delivering prisoners, the two half-orc guards appeared to be rather skeptical. Unsure if it was because they had heard the previous commotion, or if it was Drexel’s tone of voice, the party took little time to remedy the situation by dispatching of the guards.

As they searched the bodies of the guards they found a handful of keys. They began by unlocking the furthest door. Manacled in the corner was a knight in platemail. He appeared to be unkempt, but also unharmed. The party learned that he was Kurud, Paladin of Torm. As Drexel searched through the keys to unlock the prisoner, he found that the manacle keys were not present on this ring. However, Borghin stepped forward to make little work of the locks.

The next occupied cell contained both a male moon elf and a female drow. It appeared that they had enough slack to both reach the food, or each other in the middle, but both had retreated to one side or the other. This was obviously some sort of sick joke setup by the now deceased jailers.

The party quickly released the elf, but left the drow. Gwenect Moondark, the still chained drow insisted that if the party frees her, she would grant them a favor. Looking to the newly freed moon elf, Inialos Oakwood for the final vote, he nodded in her favor. Holden was far from comfortable with the idea, and he insisted that he would always walk behind her…he wanted to be the one to do the backstabbing, not the other way around.

The last inhabited cell contained several beaten, abused, and malnourished humans. Among them was Walter; the young stable hand that had been kidnapped. The party began distributing food to the half staved prisoners and told them to remain in this guard area until the party found a way for them to escape. Most everyone was content, except for Kurud who insisted that he aid the party in taking over the citadel.

Drexel, realizing how much time they had taken to get this far into the citadel quickly asked Grack to go back and check the paladin’s cell for his sword. Grack was reluctant at first to the fact that they would keep Kurud’s weapon in his cell. Drexel convinced Grack that he had seen it in there, and that a real friend would check regardless.

As Grack walked into the cell to investigate, Drexel slammed the door shut and locked it. “Hey guys, this isn’t funny. Ha-ha, now let me out.” Grack went on until the Drexel’s spell wore off and the others couldn’t help but chuckle.

Drexel, Ziona, Borghin, Roughner, Hunter, Holden, Spiderfang, and their new companion Kurud moved out to explore the remainder of the Zhent citadel. As they left the inner prison and returned to the entry room of the lower level, a secret door swung open. Standing in the doorway was a heavily armored cleric wielding a morningstar.

The battle escalated as another cleric and an acolyte of Bane joined in the fray. After quickly disposing of the first cleric, Holden, Hunter and Spiderfang forced the other back and into his room while Drexel and Borghin accosted the acolyte with spells and bolts. The remaining cleric posed a significant threat to the party however. Not only was unbelievably well armored, he had an invisible ally interfering with the party.

When Ziona moved forward she called to the others, “I can’t see what your fighting…where is it?”

Rossal took this as his cue and poked his head out from under Ziona’s cloak. He used his telepathy to inform the others of the direction of they’re invisible antagonist. Once the monster had been located, Hunter sliced through the air. The halves of an imp’s corpse and a stream of blue-black blood as Hunter used his own form of ‘Dispel Magic.’

Meanwhile Spiderfang using his quarterstaff went toe-to-toe with the armored cleric while Holden flanked from behind. Hunter soon joined his friends and they quickly finished off the remaining cleric. Upon defeating the clerics of Bane the party looted their rooms and belongings and decided that with the lower level cleared, and with Ziona and Drexel low on spell-power, they should spend the night here and intercept the next changing of the guard.

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Still more to come...
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