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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kid Charlemagne" data-source="post: 68325" data-attributes="member: 93">Ulfang, June 1st, AE 420The party watches the golden-eyed man fly off in hawk form, and debates what to do next.  They decide to check out the lighthouse, thinking that there may be access to the tunnels behind the caved-in area beneath the prison camp.  They also want to speak with dead with one of their assailants but Jovah can’t do that until tomorrow.They ride up to the lighthouse, and head up to the door.  Jalea is checking the door for traps when an elderly fellow opens a small window in the door.“Can I help you?”   he asks, skeptically.Brennen nudges Jalea in the ribs to tell him to stop checking for traps.“Hi!” says Jovah.  “We’re tourists, and we were hoping to get a tour of the lighthouse!”That last bit was a suggestion spell.  The elderly man’s expression changes from suspicious to cheerful, and he welcomes the party into the lighthouse.  He begins going into a long, detailed explanation of why the lighthouse was built here, how it works, and so on.  “This is wonderful,” he says.  “I haven’t given a tour since before the Siege!  I’d forgotten how much I enjoy them.”As he leads the group up to the beacon, Jalea, Aris, and Reana stay behind to check out the basement, and see if there is access to anything beneath the lighthouse.  They search, but find nothing.Upstairs, Gavin, Jovah, Corwin, and Brennen are quizzing the old lighthouse keeper.  It turns out he has had some contact with Lord Kentfield, and that they did have some discussion about coves suitable for large ships to drop anchor; Kentfield presumably was concerned about the potential for invasion from the sea.  He also tells the party that there are plenty of caves along the cliff wall, some quite unstable and dangerous.  He hasn’t seen Kentfield since the prison camp closed down about two years ago.After leaving the keeper, the party rides further on to the closest of the coves he mentioned.  There is no path leading down, so Jalea, Brennen, and Reana climb down the cliff wall.  The find two caves, and Brennen notices that the tide is going out.“Both of these caves will be covered by the tide when it comes back in,” he says.  “We have a few hours, but we have to keep that in mind.”Brennen has some shipboard experience, so he knows a little about tides and such.They go into the cave that is closest to the prison camp, and follow it back.  It goes quite a ways, and eventually rises up to such an extent that Brennen is confident that it will remain above water even at high tide.“Let’s go get the others,” Reana says.The full party assembles in the cave after a careful descent of the cliff wall, and moves further into the cave complex.  Eventually, it leads to a spot where there is another cave-in.  This one also looks to be man-made.  Brennen clears out some of the rubble, and Corwin sends his toad familiar to pick his way through and see how far back it goes.  It appears to only go about 20 feet, and the party decides that they can spend a few hours digging it out. This they do, with only a minor mishap as Brennen and Gavin cause a minor secondary cave-in on their own heads.  After about four hours, they have the cave-in cleared, and they climb through to the clear passage beyond.“Just remember,” Jovah says.  “Anything living in between two cave-ins is probably not alive.”They explore into the uncovered passages, and soon find an area with worked stone.  They are beset almost immediately by undead creatures; wights, they believe.  They make quick work of the threat and take a look at what they have found.There are three chambers in the cave complex:  two appear to be living quarters, abandoned for some time.  The other looks temple like, with carvings and a large statue.  However, the statue has been demolished, its identifying features broken off and pulverised.  The wall carvings are also smashed.  They find a patch of clean stone in front of the statue, bordered by a darkish brown stain all around it.“This is blood,” Reana says.  “I bet there was an altar here, and they took it with them.”Aris looks at Corwin.  “Convinced yet?”“I have to admit this doesn’t look very good for Lord Kentfield,” Corwin replies.“Okay,” Jovah says.  “What now?  The tide has come in, and we’re stuck here till morning unless we fold up to the top of the cliff.”“I don’t want to leave my horse up there all night!” Gavin says.They fold up to the top of the cliff and camp up there.  The next morning they go back to the prison camp and get one of the dead rogues, and cast speak with dead on him.Jovah asks the questions.Q:  Who is the golden-eyed man you were here with?A:  He is the man who hired Tuck to have you all killed.Q: Who is Tuck?A: He’s a lieutenant with the Assassin’s Guild.Q:  What does Tuck look like?A:  Big half-orc, with a scar, carries a scimitar.Q:  Where do we find Tuck?A:  You can probably find him at the Dark Serpent Inn.Jalea fills in one gap.  “The Dark Serpent Inn is a big Thieves’ Guild hangout,” he says.“So what do we do?” Corwin asks.“I say we go nab Tuck,” Jovah says.  “Dead or alive, I can interrogate him either way.”</blockquote>

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