Borderland of Adventure #13: The Well

At the end of last session, we left our heroes standing over the bloodied corpses of their bandit enemies.

Although victorious, the party were much weakened by their struggle. Kemmo wanted to leave immediately while the others favoured looting the tower and resting overnight. Nevertheless, Kemmo decided to return to town, but before he left he indicated that he would send Klara to the tower to aid his fellows.

With Kemmo gone, the party looted the above ground portion of tower, finding much loot, but little magic. Krorz ventured down into the cellar briefly and discovered a dwarf and goblin chained up in a prison cell. Not knowing where their loyalties lay, he quietly retreated and the party resolved to deal with them the next day. Their rest was without incident and the next day, the party returned to the cellar. There they discovered that the goblin was a captured member of the Blood Moon tribe. The party swiftly thereafter “released” him. The dwarf introduced himself as Reithic Yurgirn – a merchant and weaponsmith captured several months ago by the bandits. The party released him and allowed him to take weapons and armour from the bandits’ corpses.

The party also discovered a well in the cellar which intersected a stream flowing to he southwest. Theorising the stream might connect with the tunnels or cellars under the keep, the party resolved to investigate tomorrow.

The party rested for another day to fully regain their strength from the battle with the bandits. During the day, Klara arrived and there was much rejoicing.

The next day, the party returned to the cellar and after some cautious exploring, entered the stream below the well. The water was cold and conditions were cramped. After moving carefully for several hundred feet on a meandering course, the group reached the bottom of another well. Krorz went forward to investigate and discovered the area above to be dark. Hearing this Belivar moved forward and climbed the well with his eidolon. Reaching the top easily, he discovered a crumbling wall and proceeded to knock it down to gain access to the room above.

Sadly this created a lot of noise. As Belivar emerged from the well and Krorz started climbing up behind him, two hyena-faced humanoids emerged from a side passage and attacked! Belivar moved to engage them in the corridor and stop them getting into the well chamber. As Krorz reached the top of the well, several goblin archers advanced into the room from another corridor. They peppered (unsuccessfully) Belivar with arrows but more dangerously, one of the goblins caught Krorz in a tanglefoot bag – temporarily sticking him to the top of the well. As goblins advanced on him, Krorz quickly hammered in a piton to the well wall and dropped down a rope so Klara and Adoven could join the battle.

Adoven eventually managed to reach the chamber with Klara’s help, but Klara – hampered by her armour – utterly failed to climb the rope. Quickly, Belivar slew the two hyena-men (identified as gnolls) and seeing this the goblin archers retreated from the room calling for Ruknar. The party – down to three men – pressed the attack, forcing the goblins through another room and into another corridor. Sadly, at this point two bugbears joined the fray. Krorz charged the two, but they were ready for him and cut him down. Belivar advanced to aid his friend and Adoven also rushed to assist. Belivar forced the bugbears back, slaying one and forcing the other to retreat. As the party gained some breathing space another large humanoid of unidentified type appeared surrounding by more goblins. The creature carried a huge crossbow and called for the goblins to fetch “his father.”

By now, (with Krorz restored through the healing power of Moradin) the party was in full retreat. Krorz thought a possible way out might be up a set of stairs he had discovered, but sadly the way was trapped and he retreated with terrible burns from an exploding door. With no other option, the party hurled themselves back down the well and retreated along the stream’s course. There they met Klara who healed them as best she could before helping the party get back into the tower’s cellar. Luckily, the goblins did not pursue.

The party rested and briefly discussed their next plan. It seemed sensible now to retreat to the nearby town to rest and recuperate and so the next day the party returned to civilisation laden with the loot from the bandit tower.

At Piren’s Bluff they reflected on their experiences and Krorz recovered form his wounds. Reithic Yurgrim took his leave of the party, once again thanking them for saving him. For five weeks, the party rested and trained. Two weeks later, a note arrived from Reithic along with two daggers of dwarven make. The note told the party that he would always remember their deeds and that they now had a friend in Ratikhill. As the winter progressed, the party watched the snow that had at last began to fall and plotted their next move…