"I don't see any activity, on the parapets or from the front doors," said Paullus.
"Should we continue looking in the loops?" queried Ursina while moving further eastward around the fort.
"How many of these arrow loops are there? Erevel asked. "Maybe I could just climb up to the parapets instead."
The stormy skies and rain made it rather dark outside even in the early morning as the group continued peering at the Fort really hoping that their intrusion would be accepted as locals wandering close to the fort.
Ursina moved to the next arrow loop and peered inside again. There was another, or the same, green skinned creature peering out at her. It again jumped up and down and pointed. Then it turned and spoke, in a language no one understood, to the side. Ursina backed away and sidled over to the next loop.
There she could see more of the room, the walls of this semicircular room were clad in wood up to half of their height, and decorated with murals of the town’s civil life on the upper half. A bench ran along most
of the curved outer wall. Opposite the bench were a trio of high-backed chairs and a desk with a stool. Two more benches sat in the middle, near a central pillar that supported the ceiling. On one bench sat a green skinned creature.
Erevel became more insistent that the group climb to the parapets and started to determine where to start climbing. The five towers rose to forty feet, twenty feet above the parapets, while a larger donjon rose in the northeast corner. The walls looked climbable as there were separate blocks of stone with hand and toe holds available. The walls were weathered but in good condition.
The group determined that Paullus had the best chance at scaling the wall and he borrowed Gavril's grappling hook to hurl to the crenelations. He was successful in finding a hold for the hook and started to scale the wall. Reaching the edge he clambered over finding a flat roof of stone. Heavily weather-beaten, the open space on top of the fort and the walkways that connected the towers looked bare and bleak. There were two structures on the top, the donjon of two levels directly to the north and a smaller one level structure to the west. There was a wooden staircase on the exterior of the donjon leading to a door at the second level. On the east end of the first floor was a door. The smaller structure also had a door on the east end.
The rest of the crew clambered up the rope and onto the battlements spreading around hopefully under cover of the donjon. Erevel and Gavril headed to the east door of the donjon and heard nothing from inside. Gavril and Ciprian checked for traps, as they reported none, Erevel opened the door.
The room was furnished with a large table, a few comfortable chairs, and a standing mirror. The room appeared reasonably clean some dust but no footprints. A fireplace sat cold in the corner, and a pile of books and folios is spread across the table. A stairway led downward and another door led west.
Slowly Erevel entered followed by Ciprian and Gavril. Ciprian noted some magic on the table and moving closer he noted some parchments stuck in a few of the books or folios were magic. He collected all the books and folios showing magic into the bag of holding.
Disappointed at the lack of any creatures, Erevel headed back out. Armania suggested not going down the stairs yet. Maybe the crew could bypass the guards and whatever those green skinned creatures were by exploring up here. Possibly there were prisoners in the upper level.
Erevel again led the way up the wooden stairs to the second level. He listened but heard nothing inside this room either. Gavril moved up to check for traps or locks but found none. Erevel then opened the
door. Standing five feet in from the door was a green skinned creature, like the ones downstairs. There was a bed, with another creature lounging upon it. Ciprian forged in to attack the one nearest the door while Armania moved up the stairs to cast light into the darkened room. Ursina blessed the party as Paullus stood guard on the rooftop looking for other creatures attacking from the rear. Gavril stepped sideways into the room taking a bite from the monster. Erevel took the opportunity to move to the bed and attack the creature sitting on it. Surprisingly Erevel took shock damage from hitting the creature but she was sure she hurt the monstrosity.
The two amphibious creatures then attacked. Ciprian was hit by claws and a bite while Erevel was hit by magic missiles cast from the creature who stood up from the bed. The battle continued as Ciprian identified the creatures as Skum, a monstrous aquatic humanoid with a mouth akin to that of a toothy fish. He determined they were resistant to cold and started his Bardic Performance. Armania moved to the entrance and fired magic missiles at the magic using creature. Paullus noted a mundane puddle at the bottom of the stairs which was suddenly revealed as something more as a pseudopod lashed out. After feeling his sanity under attack, Paullus swiftly began climbing the wooden support of the stairs to stand at the doorway.
Armania's missiles finished off the magic using Skum and Gavril headed out for the stairway also. Ciprian attacked with his mace and then felt the sting of the slam and acid and fell unconscious on the stairs. Erevel and Gavril both felt an insidious attack against their sanity but shrugged it off to attack the ooze which dissipated into a puddle on the stairs.
While Ursina rushed to Ciprian's side, Erevel fell to the planking of the stairs as she stopped raging. Rebuke Death was applied to both Ciprian and Erevel and then the crew dragged them into the building where continued ministrations were applied.
Armania had started to Detect Magic inside the building and found several items on the two creatures. The magic using Skum had a headband, two potions of cure moderate wounds and a fine looking trident. The other Skum had a wand, an amulet, chain shirt and a ring of keys.
Finally looking around the room closer they saw a double bed, two chests of drawers, a small table, and a couple of stools, this room also contained a bulky steel safe, its door standing open. A cold fireplace occupied the northeast corner of the chamber. The shutters of the three windows had been torn from their hinges and lay broken on the floor. The smell of briny water was strong in the still air.
The safe was empty, apparently having been swept clean. The room was messy but rather nice. The floor was covered with webbed footprints. By the bed Ciprian found a book of bad poetry with the name Tillus Padgett embossed on the cover. Just for grins Ciprian pocketed the book.
Once all were back to feeling somewhat revived Erevel suggested they continue with the smaller building to the west. Again she approached the door and listened. Inside she heard a voice muttering and what was probably contents of the room being thrown about she swept the door open immediately. Everything in this room was in disarray. Overturned and broken furniture littered the floor, and sprays of dried blood marked the room’s stone walls. With its back to Erevel was another Skum ransacking the bed sheets.
With surprise on their side the party moved into position with Paullus firing an arrow into the Skum's back. Ciprian started his Bardic Performance against Skum once again but on subsequent reflection he determined that this creature was not a Skum. His next attempt to identify the monster did not reveal any information.
Erevel let loose her greatsword on the creature while Armania's magic missiles blasted the creature. Ursina blessed the party and Paullus continued firing arrows into the room. The Skum attacked Erevel and then nimbly climbed the wall and crossed the ceiling to hang above the staircase that rose from a lower floor up to the room.
Just before Gavril and Ursina entered the room a door in the nearby tower opened and a figure walked out. The figure looked like nothing more than a human corpse but it had a longsword and a longbow. Gavril moved to attack and hit the creature while Ursina tried a spell which failed to affect the monster.
Armania caste haste on the party and then moved down the stairs to block the creature from escaping down the stairs. Erevel and Ciprian moved in to attack the hanging creature. The monster dropped to the floor and attacked Ciprian with a slam attack. Ciprian noted that the monster had healed some of its wounds.
Outside the corpse attacked Gavril while Ursina had moved to provide flanking to Gavril who succeeded with a critical hit upon the corpse. Ursina followed with her own attack while Paullus fired two arrows dropping the creature to the flat rooftop.
Erevel moved over and split the head of the monstrosity which felled the creature. Ciprian kept hitting it to make sure it did not reanimate. The creature turned into a half-formed shape of a snarling dog in a pile of grayish foam.
A quick check of the room found no magic. Ciprian noted a couple of loose planks on the floor which hid a cache with a pouch which held 22sp, 88gp and 3 freshwater pearls which he estimated at 100 gp each. Paullus noted a desk drawer which had a skeleton key affixed to the bottom with a wad of dark red wax. By the bed, among bloodied and torn bedclothes was a portrait of an elderly man and woman.
Ursina noted that the longsword and longbow of the corpse were finely crafted.
DM's Notes: The party earned 1933 XP for the night. The battles were interesting especially Armania's talk of using a fireball and then the party being the recipient of one. The group is still on the roof of the fort and it is late morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment