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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Kendrik" data-source="post: 153467" data-attributes="member: 123">Here is the next instalment in the adventures of the Misty Isles. When last we caught up with our brave heroes they had reached the Caves of Chaos, found the exhumed and defiled body of the evil necromancer and defeated, once more, the reanimated chimera. After following the previously blocked passageway the heroes had found themselves in a marsh. In the distance a ruin lay waiting for the party to investigate. 23 Storing 1353 A short walk down from the cave where the heroes spent the night brought the party down into the valley floor, but also caused the heroes to lose sight of the ruins. Sir Kendrik got his trusty tracker Marban to use his excellent wilderness skills and plot a course for the ruins. The journey through the Coronach Marsh was hard going at first, the terrain and the inhabitants doing their best to slow the heroes down. After a short distance, Father Arton stopped and called upon Pelor’s divine assistance. The heroes found that they were travelling just above the soggy marsh, their feet no longer touching the surface, and the mosquitoes and other insects that had almost driven the heroes to distraction now seemed repelled by the heroes’ presence. Suddenly, coming from directly ahead of the party was the sound of combat. Callin moved in silently to find out what the commotion was. He spied a group of gnolls attacking some strange lizard like folk. Throughout the region rumours of lizard folk in the Coronach Marsh have made the rounds but Callin had never ever seen one. He returned to Sir Kendrik, and the young lord, knowing that gnolls are considered evil, ordered his party to move in and assist the lizard folk in defeating them. He reasoned that the lizard folk might be able to assist the heroes with information on the ruins. There were five surviving gnolls and four remaining lizard folk in a pitched battle. The gnolls though, were not like the gnolls the heroes had encountered the previous day. These gnolls were wielding rusty battleaxes and wearing patchwork armour, as is the norm in the gnoll packs of the Misty Isles. The lizard folk were wearing scale mail amour made out of a combination of shale and shells. They were wielding crude clubs embedded with jagged pieces of shale. Callin was first to react to Sir Kendrik’s order and charged in, the gnoll he attacked didn’t know what killed it as Callin ran his short sword deep into its back. The lizard man looked at Callin, its reptilian eyes slitting, impossible to read its expression as it backed away slightly. Sir Kendrik was next to enter the fray as he charged in slashing with his longsword, mortally wounding the gnoll in front of him. The lizard man being attacked by that gnoll stepped back warily from its rescuer. Marban joined the battle and attacked another of the gnolls with his longsword. Fr Arton also attacked another gnoll with his mace, dropping the humanoid at his feet with a telling blow. Friar Leo hung back and muttered some arcane words, and weaving arcane symbols with his hands. Callin quickly moved around to flank one of the remaining gnolls that had turned his attentions to Sir Kendrik. The gnoll growled as it attacked Sir Kendrik, but couldn’t penetrate the knight’s defences. Callin ran this gnoll through and killed it instantly. The gnoll Marban was attacking backed and ran but this did not deter the barbarian and with a roar he chased down his foe, and dispatched it. Callin quickly started checking the bodies for clues. Now that the gnoll menace had been dealt with, Sir Kendrik took a leap of faith and sheathed his weapon in a sign of friendship to the lizard folk. Two of the lizard men near Sir Kendrik hissed in a strange language, indecipherable to all but the young halfling friar, unfortunately Leo was out of earshot. Seeing that the battle was over Friar Leo moved in and was able to hear the lizard folk discussing, in a strange draconic dialect what was happening. The Lizard folk could not understand why these strangers would aid them so. Leo, seeing that the lizard folk were unsure if the heroes would attack them, attempted to reassure them of their peaceful intentions. One of the lizard folk asked why they were there. Leo replied that gnolls were a common enemy. The lizard man continued with its questioning and asked where the heroes were heading. Leo informed the lizard man that the heroes were heading to the old ruin. The lizard man told Leo that the ruins lay on their lands and that the heroes must leave immediately. Leo tried to reason with the lizard man saying that bad gnolls were there and that the heroes were going to remove them. The Lizard man replied that the ‘Ancient One’ lived in the ruins and that the heroes would find that out. Leo asked if the heroes could pass back through these lands on the way back home but the lizard man ominously told them that they wouldn’t be returning once they met the Ancient One. That having been said the lizard folk backed away from the heroes and disappeared into the foliage. The heroes, unperturbed by the lizard man’s warning, continued on their way to the ruins. After another two hours of uneventful travelling the heroes reached the clearing that surrounded the ruins. Up close, the ruins had the now familiar design of legion architecture, but at some stage it had been reworked to look more Penlysh. Before approaching the ruins the heroes took turns using the spyglass to check the ruins out for habitation and to see what it was. The ruins were most likely a legion manor, not the fortress that they were expecting, and was in a messy state. The bell tower of the manor had collapsed almost completely, the main hall was intact but parts had crumbled away, its upper level looking badly damaged. The structures were surrounded by a moat filled with sluggishly moving, dark water surrounded by reeds and filled with other water plants. Finally it was decided that the heroes should head into the ruins to find out if it was indeed the priests of Virakus’ destination. When the heroes had gotten within 50 feet of the moat, the rogue Callin spied something floating in a stagnant pool of water. It looked like a cloak, and after Callin informed Sir Kendrik, the party moved over to the edge of the pool for a closer inspection. Marban decided to try and retrieve the dark cloak with his longspear, proceeded toward the edge of the water. Unfortunately the tracker lost his footing on the slippery banks, sliding down stopping just above the surface of the moat, the gift given to Fr Arton still protecting the heroes from sinking into anything wet or muddy. Startled, Marban jumped to his feet, exclaiming his surprise in terms not fit to be heard by a lady. Marban enlisted the help of Callin to try and retrieve the cloak, but the cloak was waterlogged and apparently snagged on something underwater. The two heroes pulled a few times and suddenly it budged, suddenly rolling and revealed a shocking sight. A corpse, bloated and putrid, dressed in the robes of a cleric of Virakus, its body gashed with claw marks. But it was the clerics face that had the heroes most revolted. His lower jaw had been ripped off as if smashed by a blow from an incredibly strong creature. No one else seemed willing, or indeed able, to retrieve the body from the pool, so Sir Kendrik reached down and collected the unfortunate cleric’s body, using all his strength to do so. Once the dead cleric was on dry land, Father Arton paused and concentrated, calling on the power of Pelor to detect any evil emanating from the cleric. After a few moments, Fr Arton could feel the power of Pelor enter his body as he waved his hands over the dead cleric of Virakus. Soon after a feint glow emanated from the dead cleric, with a more powerful glow coming from the symbol hanging from his neck. Marban was ordered to search for tracks around the area and the tracker found that the footprints of several humanoids headed back and forwards from the lowered drawbridge. The drawbridge was in a very run down state, the planks warped and close to rotten. Whoever had been using the bridge though, had re-enforced it by placing down some new wooden planks to walk over. Sir Kendrik ordered that the party head over the bridge, and one by one the heroes gingerly crossed the bridge. Marban was first, the bridge creaked and groaned in protest at the load that it was forced to bear. This commotion continued as each of the other heroes crossed till it was Sir Kendrik’s turn. The sheer weight of the solidly built knight and his full plate armour almost had the bridge cry enough, however the knight carefully shifting his weight with each step till he too made it to the other side. Now in the ruins proper, the heroes came across the remains of a large garden, overrun with swamp vegetation. Those who had been to a monastery or abbey before could make out what appeared to be the rotted away framework of a cloister. Marban continued in his attempts to follow the clerics and gnolls tracks, but the rain from the previous night made this task somewhat harder. After some searching of the grounds Marban was able to track the villains footsteps to and up a set of steps up to and into the great hall. The heroes could not help but notice the smeared trail of dried blood that went up the steps and along the courtyard. Sir Kendrik arranged a marching order to investigate the ruined building. Callin with his excellent trap detecting skills took the lead with Marban, Sir Kendrik and Fr Arton close behind and little friar Leo in the rear. Once the heroes reached the top of the steps, they entered through large double doors, the hall was in bad repair with the large, once ornate windows broken and letting the light outside stream in. On the floor lay two cloaked bodies, which Callin moved ahead to investigate. The first body he checked what that of a male cleric of Virakus, his unholy vestments torn and shredded and the body showed signs of being something’s meal, on its side was a large pouch that had not been disturbed. Callin was very careful not to touch the body with his bare hands and pulled out his trusty rogue’s tools to assist him. Callin found that the cleric was wearing a symbol of Virakus around his neck, the chain broken and lying on his chest. TO BE CONTINUED.........................</blockquote>

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