Borderland of Adventure #6: An Ill-Advised Brawl

At the end of last session, we left the party in an ancient crypt of Baklunish origin. One stone door hinted at other hidden areas beyond and, theorising that more undead and their treasures lay that way, the party tried to gain access. It quickly transpired that although the door was not trapped, rubble behind it made opening the door difficult. Eventually, the party managed to open it enough for Belivar to slip through.

BoA

 

He quickly ascertained that the area beyond once held a staircase leading downwards, but that the way was completely blocked by rubble. Stymied by this development, the party discussed what to do next, eventually deciding to return to Oakhurst to consult Adoven over the identity and ability of the strange whistle they had previously found.

They returned to the village without incident and decided to rest for several weeks to assimilate the new experiences they had recently endured – both Krorz and Kemmo taking the time to hone old abilities and learn new. While they trained, Adoven investigated the various potions and suchlike the party had recovered and identified them. He also identified the whistle as “Night Caller” an object of ancient Bakluni necromantic magic that could summon corpses from the grave to serve the whistle’s owner. Although the party had no intention of using such an item – Klara detecting a lurking hint of evil within – Kemmo elected to hold onto it for the moment. Also sadly during this period Klara came down with a very nasty nose and throat infection that confined her to bed for a week, but her half-orc’s resilience coupled with her skill in healing saw her through the infection with no lasting effects.

At the end of the two weeks the party gathered in the common room of the inn to plot their next move. While doing so, they were drawn into a game of Bounder by a visiting mercenary.The game was going well until the mercenary accused Klara (rightly) of cheating. Klara denied the accusation, but sadly the mercenaries six drunk friends didn’t believe a word of it. As the other patrons fled, a barroom brawl broke out! Although their assailants used mugs, chairs and fists, the heroes (with the notable exception of Kemmo) quickly resorted to weapons dealing lethal damage. Seeing this the mercenaries fled, but not before several were severely injured.

Before long the watch were summoned and in short order the party were ordered to leave town. Only Kemmo was granted leave to stay, but he elected to leave with this companions. The next morning, the party trudged out of Oakhurst on the Old Road and set up a base of operations in an abandoned farmhouse near to the village. Taking a day to establish their new accommodation, the party eventually returned to the Sunless Citadel the next day (24 Reaping).

Continuing their exploration of the northern parts of the Sunless Citadel, the party discovered a corridor filled with caltrops. Beyond, a low, crudely built mortared wall blocked a doorway leading into another room. As they discussed the way forward, two goblin snipers popped up and started shooting at Kemmo (who was slightly injured).  The party surged forward through the caltrops and one of the goblins fled to summon aid.

Desperately, the party tried to breach the wall before reinforcements arrived, but the crenelations stymied their progress and after the arrival of another four goblin archers, the party fell back. After resting, the party spiked the door shut leading to the goblins’ lair and then continued northwards into a long corridor with many doors. Ahead, Krorz discovered a large chamber with two open spiked pit traps and the party decided to investigate the doors in the corridor first. The first protected a small chamber – filled with rubble and detritus, but Krorz did discover several coins and four small (flawed) gems among the rubble.

Moving on, Kemmo opened the next door…

Published by

Creighton

Creighton is the publisher at Raging Swan Press and the designer of the award winning adventure Madness at Gardmore Abbey. He has designed many critically acclaimed modules such as Retribution and Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands and worked with Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Expeditious Retreat Press, Rite Publishing and Kobold Press.

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