Book Six, Chapter Two �Caer Shobald!�

 

����������� 14/06/2003

 

So the famous and noble Erana Sir Martyn Yanyez De Barbudo has lead the party deep into the lands of the Hoderi. The Solari have attacked us, and what was that about a man with a sword coming from the south? (See Book One Chapter One.) Things are not going well. The Brave Aruth of the War Wagon now only has one eye. Bowlhead is having a Stuart is at a 40th birthday party moment. Zytsi the glorious Khuzdul mason and Daniel the much-maligned Bard just lie back and think of treasure. It doesn�t help much, but what the hell it comforts them.

 

As Stuart isn�t here Bowlhead is in some kind of a Healing coma for the duration.

 

Today is the 29th of Larane and we are off to Burzyn and points north. Aruth is coming to terms with only having one eye, the right one. So he�s looking for an upgrade. Two days pass in peaceful travel and its raining. Daniel notices his mirena berry stash bag is missing, he�s lost 35 berries. He howls in pain and searches for it but fails to find it. 35 mirena berries are missing, this is bad news.

 

Two days later (3rd of Agrazhar) in the late afternoon we see a group of men up ahead. Humans, probably Hodiri. Zytsi hails the Hodiri, and they respond asking who we are. Zytsi of Orinane friend of Bragaza Five Tooth (the Hodiri king). We approach their camp and Zytsi recognises one of them, but can�t remember his name, he�s probably a younger son of the King. He introduces himself of Wulfhere Halfhand. There are 8 of them, one of them is wounded. A 14-year-old young warrior wounded by a wild boar. Sir Martyn uses his diagnostics to discover that the abdominal wound has been come infected and it could well be terminal. Aruth uses Disease Purifications on him, which extends his life from a couple of days to a couple of weeks. Zytsi gives him some antibiotics. Next day (4th Agrazhar) we realise that the antibiotics didn�t work.

 

New plan, we take him to the Larani Healers at Bejist on Setha Heath. The Hodiri agree, put good luck charms on the boy and Wolfhere will accompany us. Immediately we hang a west and take a detour to Bejist. Five days (9th Agrazhar) to get to the marsh and then we have two days crossing the marsh. Daniel spots some fairly large creature 60 or 70 yards up ahead. Low marshy mist around which cuts down visibility to about 30 yards. We prepare ourselves. Out of the gloom comes something that looks a two-legged rhinoceros with a long tail. A Vashu probably. Webbed feet and sharp claws. It sniffs the air and comes curiously towards us.

 

Sir Martyn says �Are you hostile?�

�Not particularly.�

It speaks!

�Can we pass, we travel to Bejist.�

�It is an ill-omened place. They say the demon walks again.�

�Which demon is that?�

�The elf demon, Daedal.� Whoops, I wonder how that happened.

The monster is obviously short sighted but has a good sense of smell. He�s called Golbratha and we tell him where we are going and why, but don�t mention how we know about Daelda.

 

The next day Zytsi makes a resistance roll versus Mentalism and something looking like a drowned man reaches in to grab the leg of the injured Holeri. Aruth and Daniel are at the front of the wagon and turn round and see it. Daniel starts singing an Inspiring Song (+15); Zytsi and Sir Martyn save versus Mentalism. Sir Martyn casts Dispel Mentalism, which stops Daniel�s song, and so he has to draw his sword.

 

Aruth fires an arrow, which just misses. It claws at Zytsi with its talon, twice, and misses, twice. Then two more have a go at Sir Martyn, who is surprised and on horseback. They only do trivial damage, which he can ignore. Zytsi hits the one in the wagon, knocking it off the wagon into and under the water. Sir Martyn hits one very hard, disabling one of its arms.

 

Daniel looks around and has to make a resistance roll, as does Aruth when he fires an arrow. The bad news is that Daniel is now paralyzed and was then attacked. He loses most of his hit points and has a broken weapon arm. He�s been picked up out of the wagon and is being bitten.

 

Sir Martyn batters his a great deal more, damaging its shield arm for the third time. Aruth smacks the one holding Daniel, as does Zytsi. Sir Martyn puts one of his down. The one on Daniel does him on damage, and (though paralyzed) Daniel does it on damage (nice armour). Sir Martyn takes his second one out. The one attacking Daniel bites and claws him again, spraining his ankle and making him unconscious due to hit point loss, however it goes down due to the damage it takes from the spiky armour. Then Aruth saves Daniel from drowning.

 

Aruth gives Daniel all his hit points back, Sir Martyn fixes his broken weapon arm (takes 4 days) and Daniel fixes his sprained ankle, takes three rounds.

 

Two days later we get to Bejist, 12th Agrazhar.

 

Apparently the Primate wants to see Sir Martyn. There was a messenger. They will see what they can do for the Hodiri.

 

It takes a week to get to Burzyn, so 20th Agrazhar is when we arrive. We stay at the Blue Horse, the up-market inn. Daniel goes to see Karlin, who looked after him when he escaped from the Pagaelin, stays there and tells tales and sings songs. He�s impressed with the quality of my current associates, except for Aruth. So Daniel increases the stories of the bravery of Aruth.

 

General looking up of old acquaintances as we have all lived around here for some time. Rumours of an expedition to Caer Shobald. The King wishes to recover the bones of an ancestor. Sir Martyn goes to the local Temple of Larani. There is a message for him; apparently the Primate is looking for him.

 

At the end of the day at the Blue Horse, the head of the secret police � Bartok. Well he�s more publicly the alleged head of the local Thieves Guild. Well the King, who still isn�t dead yet, is mounting an expedition to Caer Shobald. 10,000d in gold coins. He doesn�t want all the riff raff of Harn turning up and doing it, so he�d like us to do the job. We would get to keep anything we find, except anything of royal significance.

 

It�s a tower on an island that used to be reached by a bridge. Abandoned 20 years ago and usually used as a source of salvaged building material for the town. The bones will be in the crypt, which is on the ground floor in the cellars. It may also contain the remains of a mage, and adviser. The second floor is largely ruined and unstable. The roof is mostly gone. You come in on the first floor and go down to the ground floor. It�s a bit of a trip down memory lane as all the party (even the unconscious Bowlhead) have spent time in Burzyn and some have tried to explore Caer Shobold in the past.

 

What do we know about this place, Undead and a construct? Rumours of treasure and nasty creatures. Balatar the Fish used to ferry people over to it at 20d a go.

 

We get two coffins for bones. We are supposed to get the bones and leave them in the entrance of the ruined castle. This is for the big public expedition a couple of days later. This sounds a bit dodgy, but we do it anyway.

 

Midnight strikes so we are in a boat with two coffins, and Balatar is rowing. Daniel sings to Calm the Khuzdul, the only time that song still exists.

 

We come into the first floor, which is mostly rubble. The entire tower is about 50 foot square. It�s a bit of a tight fit to clamber over the rubble. There are some stairs in the far corner, a spiral staircase. Shall I sing an Inspiring Song suggests Daniel, not yet says Sir Martyn. We get to the bottom of the stairs. The ground floor is flooded, 18 inches to 2 feet deep, Zytsi looks upset.

 

We go into the water, lots of red eyes appear round the walls at the far end of the room and we have to make a Fear save. There are about 25 pairs of eyes. We all save, except Zytsi who is nervous. Only Sir Martyn and Zytsi have been here before. Sir Martyn and Daniel Inspire the party and then we have another round of preparation. Should have done this first.

 

We go in a bit and Sir Martyn casts another Aura, a souped up Larani Give Me Ears Aura with another +15 versus Fear. As we move in and our light reaches the glowing eyes and they vanish. Aruth starts warming up a big light spell. And we have to make another Fear save, and only Aruth and Daniel aren�t Feared. The Light goes off and more eyes vanish in the light. Sir Martyn kicks something, it�s an axe as dropped by a previous party. It must be Capal�s axe. Then it goes Dark, Utterly even. But Sir Martyn�s Sword Light is still working in a 10 radius around us.

 

As we move cautiously in Aruth slips slightly and finds a hole, a big hole. He doesn�t fall into the well-shaped hole. We warn Zytsi about it. Another Fear roll. Sir Martyn and Zytsi fail again and Aruth and Daniel don�t. We find 5 sarcophaguses, one looking more imposing than the others.

 

Daniel hears a splashing noise and a man in armour sets into the range of vision. It�s a Construct and it fires a heavy crossbow bolt at Daniel, who parries a lot and it misses. So Aruth fires a Triad of Lightning Bolts at it, which blows it in half. Impressive!

 

Sir Martyn�s Inspirations runs out and we have to make a Fear save. Daniel fails so he�s at -50 and can�t parry, well I rolled down. I was doing so well up to that point as well. The fighters must be really badly off then.

 

Now do we open the big coffin with the King�s name on, the one we are looking for? No of course not, we open one next to it. We are looking for loot. Next Fear roll and Daniel is now on minus 75. Zytsi stops working on the sarcophagus and we decide to leave before we have to run away. Sorry walk carefully away avoiding the well and return to the surface.

 

We�ve been down for about 10 or 15 minutes. Balatar has the fire burning. We are the first party to leave not running, and we came out ahead. We have Capel�s axe after all. We return to the pub where we are staying. Have a nice drink.

 

Bartok appears at breakfast and we bring him up to speed. It was a successfully scout. We find an Apothecary so we go shopping for drugs. She has 4 doses of a herb that gives +20 to RRs, all 4 for 2,000d or 600d each. So we take them, after a brief discussion.

 

Fast forward to the evening planning session. We work out our saves in advance. Fire ourselves up and in we go. First Fear save from the glowing red eyes, the weak one and we all save. The gap we have to go through is now blocked off. Cautiously we approach the new wall and the front rank discovers a big gap under the water.

 

The well has been extended into a trench in front of the wall. 385 Masonry roll from Zytsi, it is the wall is the pinnacle of masonry. Sir Martyn pokes it three times, it was an illusion with only two touches. Fear saves for everyone, and Daniel is at -50 and no parrying against enemies. Aruth creates a Woodwall pushes it over and we have a raft. More Fear saves and everyone saves. On we go and more Fear saves and Daniel fails again, - 75. We are going to open the King�s sarcophagus and make another Fear roll and Daniel fails against it to -100. -125 and then to -250 as Zytsi chips open the King�s sarcophagus. We lift the top up, rather slowly and another Fear save all round.

 

We put the bones of the King in the coffin, complete with crown, two-handed sword, and two rings. Meanwhile Zytsi completes opening the of the one we started last time. Three more Fear saves all round and Aruth fails on the last one. He creates a replacement Woodwall as the first washed away due to the waves of the first sarcophagus top being dropped into the water. He keeps a hold of this one.

 

Slowly we heave it off, it takes a while. It�s the skeleton of a man dressed in robes, with tufts of hair. It has two rings and a staff. As Sir Martyn leads in to poke it with his sword and a strange reddish glow appears in its eyes. It chucks a spells at Sir Martyn, who Dispels it. This will be a cleric. It starts to get up and there is another Fear save, and it�s not got the horrendous minus on it (-75 to be exact) so it doesn�t change the situation. So Sir Martyn hits it good and hard, as does Zytsi. Robe, two rings and a staff is removed out of this as Zytsi starts to open the sarcophagus the other side of the King�s one. More Fear saves and Sir Martyn shoots heavy crossbow random round the room hoping to get the source of the Fear. Aruth is going on the old Fear as we very slowly, oh so very slowly take the top of this one. In fact we fail to do it. So we move on the next one, which is nearest the exit. This immediately gets different spells chucked at us. Found the right one have we? Nasty spells saved against, and Utterdark. He�s a Sorcerer and did a Vacuum, which was nasty. Aruth says we should go, it seems a good idea so we go. Right up until that Vacuum Daniel may have been at -250 but he was still significantly contributing with his Inspiring Song. So there!

 

Well we got the King�s body and the Mage, who was actually a clerical type. And we do know that there is a 20th level Undead Sorcerer with a few tweaks, like the -75 Fear blast done every three rounds. Well we got the 10,000d for the King and the loot off the Mage/Cleric. This is where we leave it for next time. We probably won�t do it again next time, Bowlhead won�t save at all.

 

3,000ep for everyone.