Servants of the Swift Sword (A Kalamar campaign)

i think your kids are hilarious... Make me invisible! Fire! Lightning! ... i busted my stitches on that one...

Sorry, for falling behind and not posting any updates recently. I'll blame it on the weather. My water pipes have froze up five times in the last two weeks causing me to have to spend about two hours at a time standing in the basement with a propane torch. Anywho, I am trying to get caught up on all sorts of things including this storyhour... so...without further ado here is...

Chapter 27: Elias’ Fort

As the companions discussed their camping options for the night the sun slowly crept towards the horizon. They were aware that the locality seemed inhospitable to say the least, but they were not sure they would be safer if they sought to travel further south for the night. Eventually Tilliana won out and convinced the other three that the safest course would be to take up shelter somewhere inside the fort across the stream. Alairic did not seem convinced but he was outvoted and so they pulled the horses down to the stream and considered how to cross it.

The stream looked to be about ten feet deep in the center, too deep to merely wade, and though it was only twenty feet wide or so, it was flowing fast. Finally after much discussion on the various ways to get everything across, they decided to have Kinshag swim across with a rope and then anchor the rope to both ends of the band in order to facilitate the crossing. Kinshag made it across with little trouble and tied the rope off to a small tree. Alairic, still on the south side of the stream, tied off the other end. Niccolo was next with the horses. The horses were tied together along the line of another rope and spaced out so that one struggling horse would not injure another. Using the tied rope as an anchor for himself, the half elf reached the other side without being swept downstream. Soon all six horses where on the north shore, shaking themselves dry.

The wagon was next. Tilliana tied a third rope to the front of the wagon and threw the end of the rope across the stream to Niccolo and Kinshag. Then Alairic and Tilliana pushed the wagon into the water and the other two pulled it across. It floated and the tied off rope kept it from being swept swiftly downstream. On board the wagon, Two-socks, the wolf, whined a bit as he was ferried over the water. Despite the ease with which the wagon was pulled across the stream, Tilliana fretted the whole time lest the demon stone in the back of the wagon should somehow fall into the water, out of reach.

Finally, when everything else was across, Tilliana and Alairic swum across, one hand grasping the tied off rope for support. When they were on the other side, they helped Kinshag and Niccolo who were putting the two work horses back into harnesses for pulling the wagon.

“Let’s get inside,” said Tilliana, “It will be dark soon enough. It will be safer with walls around us.”

“Sure,” murmured Alairic, “the village is crawling with vampires, some of them even came this way last night, how much safer could we be?”

“You got a better idea?” asked Niccolo. The paladin did not and so they made their way up the path to the gates of the small fort. The gates were a twin pair of iron barred doors on hinges. Niccolo stepped towards them first to examine them. They were locked and slightly rusty. There was a second set of gates five feet past the first. The half-elf peered through the bars into the courtyard of the fort. Something dog or wolf like ran swiftly past the bars.

“Yummy,” said Niccolo wryly.

Kinshag walked up to the bars and knocked. The sound rang out. The other three looked at him quizzically and the half-hobgoblin shrugged and grinned.

“Doesn’t hurt to try,” he said.

“We can tie the gates to the horses and pull them down,” said Niccolo.

“What?” asked Kinshag, puzzled.

“Tie ropes to the gate and then tie ropes to the horses and then have them pull.”

“Ohh.”

“I have a small portable ram in the back of the wagon,” said Tilliana, “we could try just battering them down.”

That seemed a sensible suggestion and being the two strongest, Kinshag and Niccolo were the best choices for making the attempt. The iron bound wooden ram was unloaded from its spot next to the demon stone and the two fighters went at the door. Overhead Niccolo’s two bird companions wheeled and Two-socks, smelling trouble in the air jumped out of where he had been sitting on the wagon and watched the procedure with interest.

The first set of gates crashed to the ground with ease but the second set of gates gave the two more trouble. They crashed the ram into the iron once and then twice. Nothing happened.

“One more time,” suggested Niccolo and Kinshag nodded.
Taking a step backwards, the two rushed forward mightily and tore through the iron bars, wrenching the hinges from their settings in the stone wall. But even as they plunged through the gate, wolves leapt at Kinshag and Niccolo from both sides. There were six of them and they were lean and hungry. Two of them latched jaws onto Niccolo, trying to pull the half-elf to the ground. One of them tore a chunk out of Kinshag. Niccolo dropped the ram and pulled out his longsword, slicing into one of the animals. Two-socks rushed through the fallen gates to aid his companion. Tilliana was right behind the wolf, her greatsword already out, she charged straight through in and rushing to Kinshag’s side dispatched two of the wolves.

Meanwhile Niccolo was faring badly. Despite Two-socks trying to help, the half-elf was pulled to the ground by the two wolves. Immediately the wild animals were after the half-elf’s throat.

Alairic rushed in through the gates and killed the last wolf going after Kinshag, shouting to Niccolo as he did so, “Slice their heads off!”

Niccolo stabbed up at one of the wolves trying to do just that. The blade slid into the creature, but it was far from a death stroke. Kinshag swung his axe at one of the remaining wolves and struck, drawing blood. In a mere second, Tilliana was closing in on the animal from a different direction, killing it. One of the wolves grabbed hold of Niccolo’s shoulder with its jaws and clamped down. Alairic stabbed the animal through with his sword, throwing it lifelessly off of Niccolo. Kinshag swung at the last animal, cleaving his axe into its side even as Niccolo struggled to keep it away from his face. Tilliana moved in and finished the job.

The wolves were all dead and Niccolo, though it had been close, was still alive. Thankful for not being dead, the half-elf lay for a moment on the ground, quietly bleeding from a half-dozen bites and then pushed himself to his feet.

As the other three surveyed the courtyard of the fort, Niccolo looked at the dead wolves.

“Poor creatures they were half-starved,” said the half-elf sympathetically.

The courtyard was surrounded on three sides with buildings. Lining the west side was a series of stables. A building that looked possibly to be a barn or carriage house was built just north of the stables. Joined to this structure on the north wall was the house which was built in an l shape against both the north and east walls. The house connected to a stone tower in the southeast corner of the courtyard. There did not appear to be any door into the tower from the courtyard, suggesting that it was entered via the house. The house itself had a second story, though straight across from the gates it was only one storied with a flat roof that looked to be a sort of terrace by which one could walk up to the wall of the fort and look over. The roof of the stables was built the same way and was in fact connected to the roof over the front of the house. In the corner of the house there was a well.

“Where shall we stay?” asked Tilliana.

“In the stables,” suggested Alairic.

“Definitely not in the house this close to dark.”

“We could put the horses in the stables,” said Alairic.

“Lets try that barn building,” said Tilliana, “we can keep the horses with us.”

That suggestion pleased the others and so they went to explore the large barnlike structure. Inside, the place had a faint smell of hay, though any hay was long gone. The first floor was a single room, fairly large, with empty hooks on the stone walls to hold saddles and harnesses.

“A carriage room perhaps,” said Niccolo eyeing the large double doors leading in.

“Check out the floor,” said Tilliana, “lets see if any of the ground has been dug up.”

The ground however appeared to be solid and the room empty. Alairic went up the stairs in the northwest corner of the room to investigate the second floor. It too was empty, with a set of double doors on the south wall leading out onto the landing. The smell of hay was stronger up there but the room was barren and featureless.

“Can we bar the doors?” asked Tilliana when they had brought all six horses and the wagon inside. There was nothing however to bar the doors shut. As Alairic started to move the wagon up flush with the doors, Tilliana decided to take the time to heal Niccolo from the wolf bites he had suffered.

As he grunted to push the wagon up firm against the doors, he asked, “What about the door upstairs?”

“We could get the iron gate me and Kinshag knocked down, said Niccolo as Tilliana finished healing him.

“But we are already inside!”

“Well who’s bright idea was that?”

“Alairic,” said Tilliana, surveying the paladins work, “You realize don’t you that those doors opened out?”

The paladin looked again at the doors and then at the wagon. With a shake of his head he started to work to push the wagon away from the doors and back into the northeast corner of the room.

“Should we get the iron gates?” asked Kinshag.

“We could just tie the doors shut and attach them to the post holding up the second floor,” said Niccolo looking at the stout wooden post next to him.

“I’ll do it,” said Kinshag and started to get the ropes from the back of the wagon.

**********************************

Night came and Alairic and Kinshag elected to take the first watch together while Tilliana and Niccolo tried to get some sleep. Hours started to pass and nothing had bothered them. It couldn’t last.
About three hours after dusk, there was the sound of movement on the stones outside the door. Kinshag and Alairic stirred themselves and drew their weapons. The door was pulled and the rope came loose as the poorly tied knot gave way under pressure. The door swung open and outside Alairic and Kinshag could see five figures. The one in front was slightly shorter and wore a robe. To his left was another man in a blue robe and behind him a giant of a man with a beard and a greatsword. To the right of the center figure was a woman and behind her a man in charred and burnt clothing. Alairic and Kinshag recognized both the woman and the man with the sword from the previous evening.

Alairic and Kinshag felt something pulling at their heads and felt a compulsion to drop their weapons and walk meekly to the five. With an effort both fought off the compulsion and held their weapons tighter.

“Surrender now intruders!” commanded the robed man in the middle.

In answer Alairic yelled, “Wake up!”

Twosocks jumped from his place on the floor and giving one yelp he ran up the stairs and away from the intruders.

With a suprising speed the female vampire rushed into the room at Kinshag, arms outstretched. Kinshag tried to hit her with his greataxe, but the blade bounced harmlessly away from her as she grabbed him by the throat and plunged fangs into his neck. Kinshag cried out as he tried to wrestle her away, feeling his life draining away as he did so. With a wrench he pushed her back and away and then tried to hit her again with his axe.

The one who had spoken rushed at Alairic, slamming into him with a fist that buckled the paladin’s knees and drained him physically. Alairic responded by swinging his blade up in a perfect arc that cut straight into the man’s chest. The blade flashed with a holy light that burned the vampire badly. Alairic yelled again as he sidestepped a second attacker trying to reach for his throat and slashed again at the injured vampire, striking him once more across the chest.

Kinshag, weakened, but hardly out of the fight found himself parrying a sword-stroke from the greatsword wielding vampire at the same time as he continued to try and keep the woman from his throat.

The remaining vampire meanwhile had turned into a mist which drifted lazily across the room to a spot behind Kinshag.

Alairic’s shouts had woken Niccolo who grabbing his longsword, lurched to his feet and surveyed the room. He saw the female vampire lunge once more past Kinshag’s axe, shrugging off the bite of the blade as she plunged her fangs once more into Kinshag’s neck. Kinshag once more managed to push her away, but not before she had drawn more blood. With a smile on her face the vampiress licked her lips. Alairic meanwhile was holding his own against two of the creatures even as a third creature turned material and moved to attack Alairic from behind. With a yell Niccolo rushed to aid Alairic. Snarling, Niccolo leaped into the fray and plunged his longsword into the vampire Alairic had already injured. The sword went in but as Niccolo pulled it out, he realized it had not even slowed the vampire.

“May Naemae smite you!” yelled Alairic as he swung once more at the wounded vampire. There was a brilliant flash of holy energy and with a cry the vampire fell backwards, cut in twain. But even as the body fell to the ground, it was turning to mist and drifting away from the floor.

“Yes!” said Alairic and then one of the other vampires slammed a fist into him. Alairic turned swiftly and his sword cut into the offending undead.

Kinshag meanwhile was definitely having difficulty. He had managed to avoid having the large vampire skewer him on the greatsword, but he could not shake the female vampire. Once more she was at his neck, drinking deeply and Kinshag could feel the life draining from his body.

“Daylight!” cried Tilliana from her place upon the floor and suddenly the room was filled with a bright light, almost as bright as the sun. The vampires snarled and moved to flee the light. Alairic plunged his sword into one even as it was starting to run towards the door and then turning swiftly he caught the female with his blade as she threw Kinshag away from her and moved swiftly away from the light. All four of the undead were out of the door in seconds and as the companions rushed to follow, they saw them turning to mist and dissapearing into the night.

“The light will last about an hour and then will be gone,” said Tilliana, “And I cannot summon forth such a light again tonight.”

As they went back into the shelter of the barn Tilliana looked to see which of her companions was the worst off. Kinshag had suffered the loss of a lot of blood and Tilliana knew there was not a lot she could do for him until the morning, if even then. But there were also some physical wounds she could mend. She pulled scrolls of healing out of a pouch in the wagon and used four of them in tending to Alairic and Kinshag.

“I need a better weapon against those things. That’s for sure,” said Niccolo, “I plunged my sword into them and it did not even faze them.”

“Hmm,” said Tilliana, eyeing the smile pile of weapons they had one the back of the wagon. She walked over and uttering a small prayer smiled when the great-ax they had pulled off of a vampire earlier in the day started to glow.

“Here,” said Tilliana handing the axe over to Niccolo, “I think this will prove useful to you. Niccolo took it and placed his old greatax on the wagon.

“Do we have holy water?” Alairic asked.

“Yes,” said Tilliana, its in the wagon. She proceeded to give everyone a vial of the blessed water.

“Kinshag,” said Niccolo, “That mace you’ve been carrying around forever is enchanted, the one you took from that guy on Dragon Isle, why don’t you use that, it might keep you alive a bit better.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Kinshag, “I had forgotten about that. Okay.”
Noone went to sleep this time. Instead they all stood guard. Niccolo sat in the wagon his back against the wall. Kinshag sat upon the bottom stair. Tilliana sat in her bed, back against the north wall and Alairic paced in the center of the room. The hour came and went and the Daylight spell faded into blackness. Alairic retied the door shut, testing the rope this time to make sure it would hold.

Another hour past and nothing happened. Midnight was approaching. Tilliana lit a lantern and placed it on the seat of the wagon. The horses shuffled nervously but slept. Upstairs Twosocks whined a bit and refused to come down.

A mist began to creep into the room, noticeable in the light of the lantern. It flowed under the closed door and filled the floor.

“Here they come,” said Alairic readying his sword. Tilliana began to pray for blessing.

One of the creatures materialized next to the priestess. He was the one who smelled of smoke and wore charred clothing. With a snarl he swung at Tilliana, connected with a powerful punch. Tilliana felt a bit of her strength drain away. The female vampire materialized about five feet away from Kinshag and immediatelly Kinshag could feel her in his mind, trying to wordlessly seduce him into surrender.

One of them, the one with the greatsword, appeared on the wagon next to Niccolo and immediately Niccolo threw a vial of the holy water at the thing. The water splashed and burned into the dead flesh. With a cry the monster howled and swung his sword. Niccolo raised his axe to parry but the weight of the swing caused the sword to push the axe back and at the half-elf. The blade managed to cut into the half-elf'’ arm.

Kinshag fought off the attempted supernatural charm and rushed at the female vampire, black mace at the ready. He swung the heavy end of the mace around and into the woman’s head. It snapped her head back and Kinshag was gratified to see it left an imprent.

Alairic saw the robed vampire he had already cut into pieces once materialize away from the fighting near the door and charged him. The undead creature ducked easily away from the swing and looking into Alairic’s eyes, whispered, “Surrender!”

Alairic felt his will weaken and for a moment was ready to throw down his sword and offer himself to the creature when he remembered himself and fought off the mental attack.

A second vampire attacked Tilliana, this one wearing the blue robes. Tilliana dodged the blow and then swung Razortongue around and into this new threat. The sword cut true and the vampire stumbled back.

Niccolo, bleeding from the cut inflicted by the sword wielding vampire pushed away the blade and swung the enchanted axe up and into the skull of the vampire. Already weakened from the burning holy water, the vampire was too slow to dodge and fell back and away as Niccolo wrested the axe head from the skull of the other. But the body did not remain. In a pattern that was all too familiar now, it vanished into mist and the mist sailed out and towards the door.

Meanwhile Kinshag was doing better in his exchange with the female vampire than he had done previously. He struck her again with his mace and then as she moved in to try and bite him once more he struck her a third time.

Tilliana swung and Razortongue cleaved into the blue-robed vampire again. But her guard was lowered and the other vampire, the one smelling of smoke struck her from behind. A bit more of her energy drained away. Niccolo leaped between two of the horses and rushed into the fray to help Tilliana, swinging, but missing, at the one that had struck her from behind. Tilliana, thrown off balance, swung but missed her target.

Alairic was managing to keep the robed vampire in the corner, cutting him once and then dodging away from the deadly claws of the vampire before moving in to cut him again. Kinshag stuck the vampiress once more and then again and she was down. With a cry she transformed into a slow moving mist that floated towards the door

Niccolo plunged his axe once more at the vampire that had struck Tilliana and then it too was turning into mist. Tilliana, feeling weak from the two hits she had received, left herself open and was struck by the blue robed vampire. She stumbled back and away and the vampire moved in gleefully, closing the gap again just as Kinshag bashed him on the head from behind with his mace. As the vampire mistily followed its companions out the door, Tilliana shrugged off her weakness and with Niccolo rushed to help Alairic.

Niccolo managed to cut the vampire who cried out and moved to defend itself.

“I’ll get it!” shouted Kinshag and he hurled his mace across the room. It missed, striking the wall behind the vampire. But it was enough of a distraction to allow Alairic to plunge his holy blade into the vampire, causing it too to turn to mist once more and flee the room.

Tilliana tended to their wounds, at least their physical ones. There was nothing she could do for the spiritual drain the party was starting to feel.

“Do we have any stakes?” said Niccolo, “There has to be a way to finish them off so they don’t keep coming back again and again. Even burning didn’t seem to work. I’m guessing that char-boy there attacking Tilliana was the one in the house we burnt down.”

“Sunlight worked,” said Alairic.

“I have tent pegs,” said Tilliana, perhaps we could use those as they are wooden.”

“Holy Water worked,” said Niccolo, “but not as well as the axe.”
Tilliana handed out the tent pegs and then they settled back down to wait.

“This ain’t right,” moaned Kinshag as his head swum from loss off blood and he looked at his own skin, “I ain’t suppose to be pale.”

Time passed.

“Perhaps,” mused Alairic, “We could anticipate right where they will materialize and plunge the stake into the mist just as they are turning.”

More time passed, a total of three hours since the second attack, as they sat and waited, once more in the positions they had occupied most of the night.

Movement could be heard above them. Stealthy footprints on the dry boards.

Music started up from above, a harp.

“Here we go again,” said Alairic. Niccolo got down off the wagon and moved closer to Tilliana.

“Plug your ears,” said Tilliana as she moved to do just that. There was a snarl upstairs and then a whine. It sounded as if something had happened to Two-socks.

The music continued.

Mist started to drift down through the floor-boards. Kinshag looked up the stairs. The female vampire that had plagued him all evening stood at the top of the stairs, harp in hand. Kinshag felt his will being sucked away as he watched her.

The vampire with the greatsword was suddenly once more at Niccolo side, the greatsword descending in a vicous arc at the half-elf. Tilliana was struck from behind as the vampire in the blue robes punched her. Alairic barely managed to dodge aside as the shorter robed vampire lunged at him. Things were looking bad.

Tilliana swung around and Razortongue cleaved into the vampire that had struck her. Niccolo shrugged off the painful wound and ignoring the sword wielder turned swiftly to swing his axe into the smoke smelling vampire who was about to attack Tilliana from her other side. The axe bit deep but Niccolo was not swift enough to move out of the way as the vampire snarled and turned on him, punching hard.

A cry from the steps sounded. Alairic, Niccolo and Tilliana looked over just in time to see Kinshag fall limp in the eyes of the vampiress. Gleefully the woman carried the stout body of the half-hobgoblin up the stairs.

“No!” shouted Tilliana and Razortongue once more cut into the blue robed vampire. In seconds he was mist. Niccolo once more struck the smoke smelling undead as Alairic fought to hold his ground against his opponent.

Niccolo sidestepped another sword stroke as Tilliana turned and swept Razortongue up and into the vampire Niccolo had already injured. The man fell to the ground as he turned to mist. Niccolo swept his axe up and into the sword-wielder as Tilliana took a step towards the stairs, her heart bidding her to follow and try and save Kinshag. She turned her head and saw that Alairic and Niccolo were still fighting. Should she chase after a bloodless corpse or stay and help her still living companions. She made her decision and turned and rushed at the large vampire with the Greatsword. He was already injured from Niccolo and Tilliana managed to finish him off. Niccolo for his part rushed to help Alairic. In seconds the last vampire was mist and the three companions stood alone in the room as the horses sweated and stamped.

Upstairs they found the rope untied and the doors open. Two socks lay on the floor dead. With a heavy heart Niccolo drove one of the tent pegs through the heart of his former companion. They retied the door, though it was obvious that such a device could not stop evil creatures that could turn into mist at will.
They sat and waited till dawn but no more attacks came. As the sun crept into the sky, Niccolo summoned his two feathered friends and had them watch as the three of them lay and got some sleep. Sleep that they would dearly need before they went in search of the vampires and of Kinshag.

Chapter 28 – Elias’s Fort

It was a couple of hours after noon before the three companions were ready to venture out of the carriage house. Tilliana and Alairic healed the remaining wounds as well as they were able, but though the physical marks from the night before were gone there seemed little they could do at the moment for some of the spiritual wounds they had suffered at the hands of the vampires.
As they rolled up beds and prepared to explore the house itself it seemed odd not to have Kinshag with them.

“We’ll have to find Kinshag’s body,” said Niccolo. The other two understood. They were afraid that Kinshag would rise as a vampire and join in the attack against them.

“I think we need to make sure that we stake the vampires, perhaps even if they attack us again. We could always try and wrestle them to the ground and drive stakes through their hearts,” said Tilliana.

Their conversation was interrupted by a scream that echoed in the air. It was a man, yelling for help. Running out of the carriage house, they hurried down to the broken open gates of the fort, weapons at the ready.

There was a man running down the hill on the south side of the stream. Behind him, lumbering along slowly were a number of zombies. The man was tall, with a neatly trimmed beard. He was armed with a crossbow and a staff, but was unarmored.

They watched him run for a moment between the ruined houses of the village on the slope across the stream. There seemed little danger of the zombies outrunning the man, but neither did it look like the walking dead were going to stop chasing the man. Not unless he managed to get to where the zombies could not reach him.

“Hey!” shouted Niccolo, "Run to us! Cross the stream, there’s a rope there you can use!”

The man must have heard Niccolo because he looked across at the trio and then dashed desperately towards the stream. Seeing the rope he leaped into the water and clutching at the rope to keep himself from being swept downstream, he crossed the stream in record time before collapsing wet and out of breath on the bank. A small wet animal, crawled out of the bag on the man’s shoulders and shook itself dry. It was a small brown weasel.

The zombies upon reaching the edge of the stream stopped their pursuit and turned eastward, stumbling slowly along the southern edge of the stream. Tilliana, Niccolo and Alairic made their way swiftly down the broken path to the man.

“Who are you,” asked Niccolo as they drew close to the bank, “and what are you doing here?”

“My name is Rasthok, I’m from the coast and I was looking for a pair of towers called the towers of Daylight. They were built by a powerful mage who died and I thought there was a possibility he had left behind some spellbooks. I study such things you see and had a professional interest in finding them.”

“How did you meet your friends over there.”

“I was just wandering the area and chanced upon them. I had no idea this region would proof to be a home to undead! I am afraid I did not stand a chance with so many and so was forced to run, as you saw.”

“Well you will be happy to know that this whole area seems to be infested with vampires,” said Alairic cheerfully.

“Ohh,” moaned Rasthok.

“I knew the wizard, Tamil, whose home you are looking for,” said Tilliana, “I grew up around here. He had a talking cat named Angel I used to play with.”

“She is fixated on that cat,” said Niccolo to Rasthok.

“Tell you what,” said Alairic, “why don’t you stick with us and help us kill some vampires and then we will go with you to explore those towers. There is safety in numbers after all.”

“Sure,” said Rasthok, who was visibly shaken by the thought of vampires, “Thank you, I will do that I think.”

They led him back up to the fort, introducing themselves as they walked. Once past the gates they turned to business.

“Shall we look through the house,” said Alairic, “We can get in through the front door and there is another door up on the landing there I noticed that we could get to through the barn.”

After a brief discussion they decided to simply try the front door. As they approached, they could not help but notice that there was a small door on the bottom of the door, a cat-flap. The door proved to be unlocked and Alairic in the lead opened it.

“I could have opened that with magic,” said Rasthok, “In case it was trapped you know. The others drew their weapons and entered.

The door opened onto a small hall running to their left and right. There was a door a few feet to their left and to their right there were two archways, one to the north and one to the east. The eastern archway opened into a room, illuminated by the sunlight streaming through the uncracked windows.

“Let’s check out this door first,” said Alairic going straight to the door on the left and opening it. The small amount of light that entered through the doors revealed the room to be a closet, 10 feet deep, with hooks for cloaks, coats and hats.

“Nice closet,” said Tilliana looking over Alairic’s shoulder.
The room to the right of the front door, the room illuminated by the windows turned out to be a dining room. There was still a large oak table in the middle of the room, covered in dust, but it was the only piece of furniture to be seen. There was an empty fireplace between the windows on the south wall and beyond that, on the eastern wall, were stairs leading up to a second floor. Doors led out of the dining room to the north and an archway in the northwest corner of the room led into a dark unlit room.

“Just a moment,” said Rasthok, “I can help you there.” The tall bearded man shrugged off his backpack and opening it, he pulled out a flaming torch.

“A light,” he said with a smile. The others looked on impressed. The torch burned bright but it shed no heat.

Now that they had a light, they decided to try one of the doors. Opening it revealed an empty room, completely devoid of anything but a musty smell and a puddle on the stone floor.

“There’s a water stain on the ceiling,” said Tilliana pointing up.

“I hope the floor’s not weak in here,” said Niccolo, remembering the house with the collapsing floor.

“It’s stone,” commented Alairic dryly.

There was another door in the room on the west wall and they opened it. Beyond was a small bedroom with a bed and a wardrobe. The bed had and old musty mattress and the wardrobe was cracked.

“Maybe we could get a good night’s sleep in here,” said Tilliana as Alairic checked under the bed for monsters. The room was completely empty of life however and they left it, wondering where they would find the vampires.

“Let’s go back and check out the hallway near the front door,” said Alairic and they backtracked through the dining room to the front hall and then through the northern archway. It was another short hall, parallel to the dining room, with another archway on the north end and a door in the middle of the west wall. They opened the door and looked in.

It was obviously a small private library. Books lined the walls on shelves and there were old chairs for sitting in. Rasthok rushed right in, followed by Alairic and Niccolo. Tilliana remained in the hall watching the other three.

Rasthok eagerly pulled a book off a shelf and opened it. The pages within crumpled apart from the pressure and Rasthok could see small wormholes in some of the pages. Niccolo too opened a book and the same thing happened. The books were evidently in dreadful condition. With disgust, Niccolo noticed a small worm crawling off of the book and crushed it with his fingers. Alairic stood in the middle of the room holding the torch, watching the others.

“Nothing in here,” said Niccolo, leading the way out into the hall, “just worms.” Rasthok and Alairic turned to follow Niccolo out.

“Wait a moment,” said Tilliana going in as the other three walked out. Rasthok and Niccolo, having just left the room turned and walked back in after her. Alairic was left standing out in the hall holding the torch.

“Look there,” said Tilliana, pointing to the ground. Niccolo and Rasthok watched as small maggot like worms crawled across the hard floor towards Tilliana, “they are attracted to us. Come on, lets get out.”

“Right,” said Niccolo, following the priestess back into the hall.
“They are just bookworms,” said Alairic, puzzled by the goings and comings.

“What?” asked Rasthok.

“Just bookworms,” repeated Alairic.

“Oh no,” said Rasthok as he tore off his backback and threw it open. Frantically he dug into it, pushing aside the crowbar, the food and the rope.

“Do you have a book?” Tilliana asked him.

“My spell book!” cried Rasthok, pulling out a thick tome. Opening it revealed the worst. Five worms were merrily munching through the book. Rasthok was clearly upset as he started frantically killing the worms. “They are ruining my spells!”

After killing the worms, Rasthok examined the book. He had lost about ten spells, a huge loss to him. the others tried to console him as best as they could though they had little experience with such things.

There was nothing they could do but go on exploring the house. There was a sitting room, just north of the Library and the front hall. There were four old, scratched chairs in the room, covered in dust. There seemed to be little else though. Alairic looked over the fireplace and noticed that there was on spot on the wall which was offcolored from the rest of the wall. It was a rectangular spot, likely the old site of a hung picture.

“Umm,” said Alairic looking closer, “could be a secret door here.” He searched carefully as the others watched him but in the end was forced to decide it was nothing more than a spot where a picture had once hung.

They walked from the sitting room, through an archway back into the dining room and then opening another door they entered a room that looked to have once been the kitchen. The room was dominated by a large fireplace on the east wall, evidently built to cook over, with an oven next to the fireplace. There were two archways on the south wall and a doorway on the north wall.

“The ceiling is buckled overhead,” said Tilliana, “It doesn’t look too stable.”

“There is smoke coming out of the fireplace,” said Alairic, and indeed it did appear as if smoke was starting to pour out of the cold, dust covered fireplace.

“Wha…?” began Niccolo, but he did not finish his question for it was immediate apparent that it was not actually smoke, but some shadowy substance. Flowing in and with the shadows flowing from the fireplace were small rat like forms, charging at the companions.

Alairic, who was closest, swung his sword and one of the small shadow like rats dissipated into nothing. He swung at another and it too disappeared, but when he swung at a third, his sword passed harmlessly through it. Tilliana too was quick to react, moving forward to stand next to Alairic. Two more of the shadow rats were sent into oblivion as Razor-tongue cleft through them.

Rast swung at one with his staff and Niccolo attacked one with his sword as the rats closed in on them. Both dissapeared. But still there were many of the small things. One latched a jaw onto Tilliana, its teeth passing into and through her armor. The wound was slight but Tilliana could feel her strength draining away from the chilling touch of the beast. Three of the shadow like rats latched jaws onto Alairic and he too felt his strength drain away.
Tilliana swept Razortongue down at the rats biting at her, moving her feet back and away from the little monsters. One of them dissapated from the touch of the blade but the enchanted sword passed harmlessly through a second. Alairic swung, but his holy blade passed harmlessly through his target. Niccolo managed to spear one on the tip of his longsword but still more rats pressed in at the companions.

Their feet shuffled to avoid the small biting jaws and their weapons stabbed down and at the creatures. But the smoky substance that formed the rats was not always solid and the weapons frustratingly kept passing through the incorporeal forms.

Tilliana as she moved to avoid another of the small jaws released her right hand from the hilt of her sword and reached to the silken divine focus hanging from her neck. Pulling it out she called to Naemae and a divine light bathed the room for a moment. The silent rats finally made a noise and with a hideous shriek, they were gone and the shadows that had crept across the floor of the room from the fireplace disappeared as well.

The four stood there panting for a moment, the frantic fight suddenly over.

“I should have done that in the first place,” said Tilliana, “I didn’t realize they were undead though at first.”

When they had gathered themselves together, Tilliana prayed over Alairic and his strength, so drained by the shadow rats, was restored to him. Feeling better, Alairic was once more all business.

“Let’s check in the fireplace,” he said.

But with the shadow rats gone, the fireplace had nothing unusual to note. It had evidently not been used in many years except as a rat nest.

Tilliana opened the door on the north wall and led the way into it. But scarcely had they begun to examine what to all appearances was an empty room, Tilliana barked, “The ceiling is bad in here, everybody out!” As they looked up, they saw she was right, the ceiling was bowed badly as if a great weight was on it above. Not wishing to have the ceiling collapse on them, they quickly exited back into the kitchen.

The archway on the left leading south proved to be a rubble filled hallway. Someone had dragged rock, brick and timber and had filled the hallway completely, making it impossible to use the hallway without first cleaning it out.

The other archway also led to a hall. This one was unblocked, with a door on the south, a door on the west wall and right next to that door, an archway leading to stairs going down.

“Let’s open the doors at the same time,” suggested Alairic.

“Alright,” said Tilliana, “I’ll open the one in the middle of the hall, you take the one on the end.”

“One, two,” counted Alairic and they opened the doors.
Tilliana’s door opened onto a cupboard, currently empty. Alairic’s door led into a bedroom, empty with a sagging ceiling.

“Let’s go down,” said Alairic cheerfully leading the way. Tilliana followed right behind him. Rasthok took the rear, right behind Niccolo.

There was a small room at the bottom of the stairs, hewn out of the rock under the fort. There was a door on the south wall and an archway on the west wall, leading to a dark room.

They tried the door first. Behind the door, which was unlocked, they saw a small five foot hallway and then a room. There were three beds in the room, all parallel to each other against the east wall. At the foot of each of the beds were large chests, each at least five feet in length and three feet tall. Alairic opened the chest on the far right. It was unlocked and empty. At the bottom of the chest they could see that the chest was bolted to the stone floor.

Tilliana strode forward and opened the one in the middle. It too was unlocked and empty.

“That leaves me,” said Niccolo and tried to open the one on the left. The lid would not budge.

“Let’s check under the beds,” said Alairic, and getting on his knees he looked under each of the beds. The beds too, it seemed, were bolted to the stone floor.

“Who would bolt beds to the floor?” asked Niccolo.

“Split open that one chest,” said Tilliana to Niccolo.
Niccolo smiled and hefted his greatax. Rasthok looked on for a moment and then backed away, out of the swinging space of the half-elf.

Niccolo swung hard and the lid of the chest shattered and then suddenly blew up and open. A clawed hand shot up, out of the chest, followed closely by a large body! The claw shot up and struck Niccolo, knocking Niccolo back

“Ouch,” said Niccolo as something sucked the energy from him.

The attacker flew up and snarled. It was the large bearded vampire, the one who wielded the greatsword and he did not look happy to be awake. Somehow his greatsword had fit with him in the chest and he pulled it up now, readying it for combat, still hissing and snarling like some beast.

Rasthok, who had been standing back, was the first to react. As soon as the vampire stood, Rasthok was murmuring arcane words of power and a second later, two bolts of energy flew from his fingers and struck the vampire in the chest. The missiles seemed to hurt it. A second behind the missiles, Niccolo’s axe swung through the air, cleaving into the vampire’s shoulder in what should have been a mortal blow. The vampire turned to mist, the snarl’s dying on its lips. But the mist did not fly off and away. Instead it settled back down into the open chest and the vampire rematerialized there, looking for all the world like a corpse, laid to rest in somebody’s foot-locker.

“Stake him!” shouted Alairic, “And then lets drag him upstairs and out into the sunlight. They quickly put the words into action and after removing the creature’s chain shirt, sword and some gems, they drove a tent-peg through his heart and then carried the lifeless body up the stairs and into the sunlight where it burst into bright flame.

“That’s one down!” said Alairic happily.

“Do you need the chain-mail,” said Niccolo to Rasthok, eyeing the armorless form of their new companion.

“He can’t wear armor unless I’m mistaken,” said Alairic knowingly.

“He’s right,” said Rasthok, “I’m a mage, an evoker and it would interfere with my spells.

“Ohh,” said Niccolo, not quite understanding but not willing to push the issue.

“Let’s go get the rest of them!” said Alairic with a broad grin, leading the way back into the house.

Wow. I missed 2 updates. . . . let's put this on the first page in case anyone else missed them.

I missed this one too, somehow.

Wicht, are you going to post maps and adventure notes in your other thread?

And I never thought of using bookworms to chomp a mage's spell book. Brilliant!

Final question. Is Rasthok being played by the former Kinshag? If so, that player sure keeps losing characters. This is his third, yes?

I am going to be posting tons of maps and adventure notes on my other thread. Just as soon as I get the time to start running my scanner. Probably this week some time. I am also currently at least 2 chapters behind in my writing and hoping to catch up on that as well.

Rasthok is indeed the third character for Justin.

As for the bookworms... What else are they for

It's always the same players who tend to lose characters...

Chapter 29 – Elias’ Fort

There was still plenty of daylight and so the four companions went back into the house and made their way back down into the basement once more. There seemed to be nothing else in the room with the three beds and the three chests. At the bottom of the chest in which the vampire had been sleeping, they found foul smelling dirt, but nothing else.

“Let’s check out the other room down here,” said Alairic and he led the way, followed closely by Niccolo. Rasthok, with the torch, brought up the rear. Alairic, scarcely waiting for the light moved swiftly into the room with the stairs leading back up into the house and then went left through the unexplored darkened archway.

A small hall, perhaps only three feet in length led into what appeared to be a room. Alairic walked straight into it about ten feet and then stopped, waiting for the light from the torch to get better. Rasthok was still in the other room though and all Alairic could see was the smooth stone floor, wet in a few places.
Something wet and a little heavy dripped onto Alairic’s shoulder. Immediately there was the sound of hissing coming from the spot, loud in Alairic’s ear. Another blob of the unseen, wet and heavy substance fell, landing on Alairic’s head.

“What?” began Alairic and then without warning he loudly screamed, “Aarrgh!”

The intense pain of something burning away at his flesh overwhelmed Alairic. It burned and hissed and the smell of scorched flesh suddenly filled the air. Niccolo, right behind Alairic stared in horror for a moment, wondering what to do and then as Alairic screamed even more loudly, Niccolo grabbed the paladin by the arm and propelled him back out of the room. The other two made room for Alairic and by the light of the torch they could see a green, slimy substance, eating quickly through Alairic’s flesh, down to the very bone. It was a horrifying sight and so quickly was the acidic substance doing its job that there was not doubt that Alairic would in seconds be dead.

“Stand back,” commanded Rasthok to the other two, and speaking a word of power he brought a glowing ball of fire into existence. With a flick of his wrist he directed it towards the anguished Paladin who was writhing on the ground.
“What are you doing!” shouted Niccolo, rushing forward to stop the Evoker. Tilliana grabbed Niccolo by the arm, stopping the half-elf and the ball of flame descended on Alairic. The smell of burning flesh grew stronger as the flames engulfed Alairic’s head and shoulders.

“It’s the only way,” said Tilliana to the upset Niccolo.
Rasthok made another gesture and the flames moved off of Alairic and into the dark room beyond the archway. There it burned in the next room until it went out seconds later.

Alairic lay on the ground, still alive. The flaming sphere had done its job and the slime had been burned away. The resulting mess was not pretty. Alairic had just enough presence of mind to lay his hands on himself and pray to Naemae for healing. The burns on his head and shoulders quickly healed over and Alairic stumbled to his feet. He was still very weak from the attacks of the slime.

“Green slime,” said Alairic weakly as he rose, “I have heard of it, but never before encountered it.”

Tilliana rummaged through her brain before saying, “Fire, cold and daylight kills it I think.” Striding through the archway, Tilliana stopped before actually entering the room beyond and uttering a brief prayer she held up her divine focus and suddenly the whole room was bathed in light, as bright as the light of the sun.

The others moved behind her. The green slime could clearly be seen to coat almost the entire ceiling beyond, save right around the doorway. But the light Tilliana had conjured forth was having an effect on the slime. It shriveled and dried before their eyes.

“Good riddance,” muttered Alairic.

The room inhabited by the green slime was empty, though bits of metal on the floor, the remnants of weapons, along with the remains of floor padding gave the hint that this was perhaps once a training room of some sort. The green slime had eaten away almost everything in the room though. There were no other exits from the room.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Niccolo and turned to leave.

“I want to search the room more closely,” said Tilliana to Niccolo as the half-elf reached the archway. So saying, Tilliana began minutely searching the walls.

“I’ll help,” said Alairic cheerfully and he started examining the wall on the other end of the room. Niccolo and Rasthok watched impatiently.

The two carefully went over the walls, inch by inch, looking for any signs of other exits.

“Found one!” announced Alairic. He was standing at the spot where Tilliana had begun her search and pressing a certain stone he caused a doorway in the wall to open.

“Someone else can go first,” said Alairic sheepishly, looking through the door.

“Check the ceiling first,” cautioned Tilliana, but the warning was unnecessary. There was nothing on the other side of the door but a short hall leading to another door. This new door was of a strange stone-like substance. There was no visible lock or handle for the door, but in the middle of the door was a metal fixture, with a pattern in the middle, an indentation. The door would not push open and they concluded that the metal fixture was indeed a special lock of some sort.

They studied the indentation more closely.

“Perhaps the gem we took from that vampire down here,” suggested Tilliana, but the gem did not match the indentation. They looked at it some more. The roundness of the indentation suddenly suggested a medallion in Tilliana’s mind and she remembered the magical amulet her mother had given her, the one that had belonged to her father. Pulling it out from underneath her tunic and armor, she tried fitting it into the indentation. It did not quite fit.

“Let’s check the second floor,” said Niccolo, “We can come back to this later when the vampires are all dead.”

“Or we could dig our way into the tower,” said Alairic, recalling the pile of rubble someone had stacked in the hall leading from the kitchen to the tower.

“The second floor first,” said Niccolo, “before we dig.”

“Don’t forget the floors up there seem to be sagging,” Tilliana reminded them as they moved to return to the stairs.

************************************

Returning to the room with the large dining table, they took the stairs to the second floor. To their chagrin, there was little room at the top of the stairs. A door straight across seemed in decent condition, but immediately to the left of the door, parts of the ceiling of the house had collapsed in, filling the area with nearly impassable debris. The sagging ceilings below were explained.
Niccolo, now in front, opened the door at the top of the stairs and looked through it. The room beyond was in poor shape. The ceiling was intact, but the lone bed that occupied the room was junk and the walls were cracked.

Niccolo, determined to find something on the second floor, started searching the room carefully, in the end turning up nothing.

“Let’s go dig,” said Alairic. They had about three or four hours remaining until dusk.

******************************

Two hours later they had managed to clear a path through the rubble in the hall leading south from the kitchen to the tower.
As they entered the bottom floor of the tower, they could see that it seemed to be in better shape than other places in the keep house. Even the dust, so prevalent elsewhere, seemed absent.

There were two doors opposite the hall leading into the tower and to the left of the doors, stairs circled up around the wall of the tower to the next floor.

They opened the door on the right first. Inside was a newly refurbished bedroom, not that big but very tastefully decorated. They stared around for a moment at the signs of recent work. The new bed and wardrobe, the carpet freshly laid out on the floor.

“Is anyone in the room,” said Tilliana finally and they remembered they were supposed to be looking for vampires.

A fifteen minute search of the room revealed no-one. Beginning to wonder where all the other vampires were, they checked out the next door. It revealed a linen closet, completely empty of everything but shelves.

They climbed the stairs.

The stairs circled around the tower in a clockwise direction and after a half turn around the tower, the stairs came to a small landing with a door on the right. Beyond the door the landing ended and the stairs started climbing once more.

The door opened onto an empty bedroom and after a quick search revealed that it too was empty they resumed climbing the stairs.

At the top of the stairs they came to another door. Opening the door revealed another recently remodeled room. The wooden floor looked to have received a great deal of repair and the walls were newly painted. A painting of a red dragon in flight hung on one wall above a new chair. There was another door in the room as well as a door on the ceiling. Niccolo reached up and pulled the ceiling door open. The door swung down, along with a folding set of steps, which Niccolo unfolded. Above them they could see the sky. The sun would soon be setting and the sky was darkening.

“Let’s check out the other door first,” said Niccolo.

“I say we go up first,” said Alairic.

Niccolo shrugged, not wanting to argue the point and began climbing up the steps. No sooner had he reached halfway up then the ancient wood collapsed under him and he fell rudely to the floor.

“Umph,” said Niccolo in surprise as he landed in an undignified heap.

“Let’s check the door,” said Tilliana.

The next room looked to have seen some recent work as well but was fairly empty of everything except a desk.

Niccolo, entering behind Tilliana made straight from the desk. Atop the desk was some unfinished correspondence.

Niccolo read, “Things go well but we are suffering attacks from unknown persons…”

“Tear it up,” suggested Alairic, “make them write it again.”

Niccolo did so and the group searched the room, finding nothing else.

“There’s nothing here,” said Alairic with disgust, “Where are those vampires hiding?”

As they descended back down the tower and into the house, they discussed their options. Alairic reminded them of the other door leading into the second floor of the house, the door atop the landing above the entrance to the house. They could reach the door via the barn doors on the second floor of the carriage house.

Following Alairic’s suggestion, they made their way out of the house and back into the barn, stopping for a moment to check on the horses. The doors on the second floor did indeed lead onto the landing, a sturdy platform which ran above both the tables and part of the house, providing access to the north and west walls of the keep.

The door into the second floor of the house from the landing opened easily and they entered through, aware that their daylight was swiftly fading. The door opened onto a hall. The hall contained two doors, one on the left and one on the right and just past the doors, someone had clogged the hallway with rubble.

“Let’s open them at the same time,” said Niccolo to Tilliana, motioning to the doors.

“Right,” said Tilliana and moved to open the door on the right even as Niccolo moved to open the door on the left.

Tilliana’s door opened to reveal a bedroom, in decent shape, but dusty. Niccolo’s door opened to reveal an empty room.

They entered and searched the bedroom first. Alairic checked under the bed and Niccolo opened the trunk at the foot of the bed. It was empty and there was nothing under the bed but dust. Tilliana looked at the fireplace in the room and looked up the chimney. She saw nothing. The room seemed to be unoccupied.

Frustrated Alairic went around the room double checking everything while the others watched. He still found nothing. They went back out into the hall and looked into the empty room Niccolo had opened.

Just as he was about to enter, Niccolo looked up and noticed the ceiling of the room was leaking.

“Maybe we should not go in there,” said Niccolo looking at the floor and deciding it looked a bit weak and rotten.

“Where are they hiding?!” exclaimed Alairic.

In the end they decided to dig out the rubble blocking the hallway and see what lay beyond. They set to and like the hallway leading to the tower, it took them about two hours to get this one cleared. It was truly night by they time they were finished.

“It’s night time now,” said Alairic, stating the obvious. They made their way through the recently unclogged hallway and looked around.

“Maybe we should set up some sort of alarm,” said Niccolo. There were two doors to their right and ahead of them the hallway opened into a large room, part of which looked to be in pretty poor shape.

The first door to their right burst open and a lithe, snarling shape sprang through. It was the female vampire who had taken Kinshag. She slashed with claw like hands at Niccolo who barely managed to move out of the way in time.

Alairic drew his sword and swung viciously at the creature but she nimbly ducked under the swipe. Niccolo, remembering Tilliana’s suggestion earlier in the day that they wrestle the creatures to the ground and stake them, moved in to grapple the vampiress. Avoiding the claws, Niccolo futilely tried to pin the woman. Tilliana rushed in from the other side, putting the undead woman into a headlock but with a snarl, the lock was broken seconds later and the vampiress moved to try and push her two grapplers away.

Rasthok flicked his fingers and murmured a word. A flash of light went off in front of the eyes of the vampiress, but whatever the intended effect was supposed to be, it did not work.

Alairic, seeing an opening, swung his holy sword up and over and into the undead creature. The sword bit deep and there was a flash of divine light that burned the undead woman. As Alairic wrenched his sword away, Niccolo and Tilliana moved in again. Tilliana managed to grab the woman and hold her and before the woman could escape, Niccolo pulled out a tent peg and plunged it into her chest. The woman gurgled and fell to the floor, unmoving.

“Cut her head off,” Tilliana directed Niccolo as she moved to look through the door the woman had just charged out of. It was a closet. There was a coffin propped up in the back of the closet. Lying on the floor in front of the coffin was Kinshag’s dried and lifeless body, gear and all. With a sigh Tilliana moved in to behead the body.

The door next to the closet door opened to reveal a toilet. There was a sink next to the toilet. Water was leaking out of the sink faucet, drip, drip, drip, indicating that somewhere above was a cistern.

They left the toilet and continued down the hall, Rasthok’s magical torch providing light. There was a door on the left wall in the room beyond the hall, and a fireplace on the east wall. The southern half of the room was filled with debris from where a major part of the ceiling had collapsed.

Niccolo and Alairic moved to check the fireplace. There did not, however, seem to be any corpses, dead or undead, lurking up the chimney.

Tilliana moved over and tried to open the door to the north. It would not budge, though the door did not appear to be locked. Niccolo strode forward and pulled out his great ax to chop the door open.

Tilliana moved back. As the axe swung and struck the door, it became obvious that a mist was floating into the room.

“Here we go again,” muttered Alairic. Rasthok, standing near the fireplace, looked nervous as he saw the others preparing their weapons. His mind raced as he tried to think of a plan.

Two vampires appeared on either side of Tilliana and attacked. Tilliana fended them off with her sword even as Alairic moved to aid her. There was not a lot of room to maneuver in what remained of the room but he still found room enough to swing his massive sword into the side of one of the vampires. A third vampire suddenly appeared as he attacked Tilliana. He had, it appeared, been invisible. Mainly by luck, Tilliana moved just in time to avoid the vampire’s claws as they reached for her.

Moving forward from his spot by the fireplace, Rasthok uttered a series of arcane words and reaching out for the robe of the vampire that had just been invisible, Rasthok transformed the cloak into a source of bright light, as bright as the noon sun. As the light filled the room, the vampires all screamed. The robed vampire with his cloak a source of magical sunlight screamed the loudest as his skin burned. He transformed into mist still screaming but even as mist the daylight spell traveled with him and the screams vanished into silence.

The other two vampires, seeing the magical light started to move away. Tilliana pulled out one of the sharp wooden tent pegs and tried to ram it into the chest of one of the fleeing vampires. Her aim was off however and even as she missed the vampire was turning to mist and flying down the hall, leaving the house.
Niccolo raced after the mist, calling for his two feathered friends as he did so. With a shriek, his two eagles, Hunter and Featherbrace swooped down out of the sky.

“Follow that mist,” commanded Niccolo and the birds flapped and shot back up into the sky to do so.

“We need to find a place to camp,” Tilliana was saying when Niccolo returned back to the others.

“We could stay in the barn again,” suggested Niccolo. They argued about the merits of staying in the barn with the horses again for a while.

“I think we should stay down in the basement with those three beds,” said Tilliana, “And there’s only one entrance into the room there.”

“We won’t have an exit down there though either,” said Alairic, “If we are attacked we will have our backs to the wall. Might as well slit our own throats.”

They discussed it for some time before finally deciding on staying in the room on the second floor with the bed and chest. It was near and they were ready to camp. Rasthok set up a magical alarm for them and they were soon drifting off to sleep, only one of them at the watch at a time. They were not attacked again that night and by morning they had decided to head out of the area for a couple of days until Tilliana could have them back to their normal strength. Alairic in particular, between vampires and green slime, had been drained and needed to rest. Having thus decided they went and saddled the horses, left the keep, crossed the stream and rode back south.

Tilliana's Map

I was wondering when they would decide to go away and rest up. They seem to be gluttons for punishment!

I hope they're sharpening those tent pegs....