The Ballad of Trino

 The cast: Bear [Ian], Dexter [Jamie], Gillard [Kevin], Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver [Jeff], Tu [Shane].
Marmaladers: Ouzo [Darryl], Scuttle [Chris], Debbie [Steven]

This ballad was written to the old Scottish Waly Waly tune ("There is a Ship and she sails the sea" - Peter, Paul and Mary). Which is 4/5, 4/5, 5/5, 4/4 syllable meter.

One of the dead, ravens from the tree,

It morphed and morphed; a naked lady.

A were-raven she, so we realized.

Another witch, was "were" disguised.

Jemima REAL, priestess from the town

Escorting us, a witness renown.

She had skills superb, for to draw and trace

A lovely sketch, of were-corpse face.

We took this pic, and then sealed it nigh

Some one, in time, could identify.

And tell us which witch, was the raven "were"

A Malechai, for certain here.

Then back to Skulk, where we stayed the night

The next day dawned, we gathered first light.

To escort a man, was our job that morn

Wallace the priest, of Caribou Gorn.

We travelled up, tribu'try Strontime

To make the Great, Grove (Druids) on time.

Two days it would take, so for that first night

Set standard camp, where we could fight.

Then at first watch, Dexter did observe

A chain-mail clad, male fighter with nerve.

Arrows, they did fly, we were soon awake

A fitful fight, we all did make.

A stalemate loomed, cover we had sought

But so did they, 'twas so very fraught.

So Myrtle set up, magic telescope

The felons seen; they lost their hope.

'Twas at that stage, thinking of their home

One of the crims, was Dubull the gnome.

His party of three, were all run-aways

Escaped slaves, they, free of their cage.

Parleyed did we, and they joined us fast

Headed were they, to Toluene pass.

William was a man, and Dubull a gnome,

And then an elf, his name Simone..?!

" 'Simone's' a girl," Myrtle said so gruff.

Simone complained, "It's manly enough!"

"We elves can select, gender fluid names,"

"Even 'Simone'; it's not that lame."

The Druid's Grove, we arrived and lo

We said goodbye, to Dubull and Co.

But barter we did, we had trade to do

Their fey cross-bow, for horses, two.

But now our cart, had no horse to bear

And so we bought, a fine destrier.

The druids charged heaps, but the horse was strong

So now our trip, would not be long.

The path we took, was to Toluene.

We stopped that night, a way-station seen.

It was occupied, Soixante Neuf times three

Two buxom girls, and priestess she.

Those temple guards, Soixante Neuf they praised,

Guarding their charge, with lewd voices raised.

The males of our group, struggled to contain

Their needy lusts, lest they be slain.

The next day dawned, after quite a night.

We hurried on, the city in sight.

In Toluene now, so we hired a room

A peaceful night, a chance to groom.

Then it was morn, so we left that town

And down the road, to Trino renown.

We then found an inn, Ravished Incubus

A better place, than Maggots Rest.

But by the door, of the Incubus

We saw THE mark, the sign of the witch.

Enquiries we did, of the owner's fame

Odette Pearson; that was her name.

She wasn't home, so we looked around

Her man Dravid, looked after the grounds

He ran a tight ship; he did well to guard

A cake-walk not, make us work hard!

That afternoon, Myrtle took a swill

A potion drank, went invisible

Then snuck through the doors, of the tavern's rear

And found a room, with narrow stair.

A watchful dog, guarded that small room

And so we planned, yes, to return soon.

We waited 'til night, when it first began

Cigars in hand, a cunning plan.

These cursed cigars, damaged us before.

We used them now; slipped under the door

Of the room with the dog, then the next bedroom

Where Dravid slept, he'd waken soon.

The poor dog died, choking on the smoke.

Then Dravid coughed, and soon he awoke.

He raged out the door, to meet Dexter and Bear,

Then they all fought, the battle here.

It wasn't long, before Dravid fell,

So he was bound, so tight, we could tell.

We went down the stairs, to be underground.

Shrine Malechai, soon would be found!

When moving through, tunnels underground,

One uses thieves, clear traps that abound.

But all of our thieves, they had marmalade,

So Myrtle's luck, would soon be paid.

There was a trap, on the first damn door.

Poor Myrtle zapped, and fell to the floor.

But soon she was up, Bear administered,

A healing draught, it made her cured.

The next chamber, held the darkened shrine

Of Malechai, with no lantern shine.

But rearing nearby, was a ghastly sight,

A vengeful hag; was it a wight?

We had no choice, but to fight that day,

Our magic swords, were drawn to the fray.

But harmed her, they failed, they just passed right through

Her ghostly form, no damage due.

'Til up stepped Tu, with his silver sword,

He chopped so hard, he got his reward.

Seemed silver did work, on that frightful hag.

So Bear joined in, axe from his bag.

It wasn't long, when she flickered out,

Brought down so hard, with silver and might.

But sev'ral of us, were struck by the hag.

They failed their saves, it could be bad..?

[So endeth the session]

Our local area of the Known World
(The Strontime river tributary flows into the Spoon river
which eventually forms the Spite river)

On the trail

The crew: Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Dexter [Jamie], Gillard [Kevin], Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver [Jeff], Tu [Shane], with Ouzo [Darryl] and Scuttle [Chris] slumped somewhere nearby marmalading.

Two black ravens settle in the trees

Out of the corner of her eye, Myrtle spotted a flutter of movement in the trees nearby as she and Gillard hurried back to the witch’s house with the REAL priestess. Two birds had swooped in and settled into the trees.

“Ravens” she hissed at Gillard, “Two of them, and definitely unnatural”

“How did it come to this?” Gillard wondered to herself, thinking back over the last few days.

It had started in Penstoke, when the party had broken into the residence of Ingrid Barnett, the ex-cleaner of the Penstoke REAL temple, and suspected Malechai witch.

They had crowded around outside the door of Ingrid residence after having attempted entry and retreating hastily under enhanced Magic Missile fire. Ouzo had run squealing back to our Inn after hearing Oliver’s description of the skeletal mage who was guarding the house.

From Oliver’s brief glance into the entry lounge [no one else could see into the unnatural darkness that filled the room behind the door. But while Oliver held his magical cursed dagger, he was able to see into the darkness clearly. A useful effect of the cursed item] he had determined that of the two windows that fronted the residence, one led into the dangerous entry lounge, but the other opened into another different room. The windows both had drawn curtains and the interior was not able to be seen from the outside.

Tu glanced around to check for observers, then raised his sword and bashed the glass window with the pommel. A mighty shatter echoed around the street and the window glass imploded into the curtains and dropped into the room. Tu quickly smashed out the remaining pieces from the frame and prepared to climb in.

“Patrol” yelled Dexter who had been keeping an eye down the street, and the party quickly dispersed around the neighbourhood and nonchalantly imitated local villagers.

Fortunately, the village guards in the patrol were as observant and Debbie and just hurried past looking around for anything out of the ordinary. The seven-foot fighter in chain mail and the midget  female halfling fighter did not attract their attention and they carried on down the street and around the corner. The party quickly gathered back around the broken window and Tu pushed the curtains aside.

The kitchen

“Must be the kitchen” he declared and clambered over the sill and into the room.

“I’ll stand guard out here” stated Bear, “no way I can fit through that tiny window”

So we all slipped through the broken window and into the kitchen of Ingrid’s house. Except for Gillard, she could not quite reach the sill despite standing on a small rock in the garden.

“Toss me”, she whispered to Bear, “but don’t tell the elf”

The kitchen held nothing of interest so avoiding the door that would lead into the dark entry lounge, Tu opened the other door, which led deeper into the house and opened into a study with a large writing desk. The drawers were locked though, so Gillard pulled out her sword and started to hack away at the desktop.

“Stop” commanded Tu, “like this”

Tu flipped the desk upside-down, revealing the underside of the draws, and easily sliced through the bottom of the exposed drawer. He pulled out a bag of coins, some glass fragments, and a bunch of damp papers. The papers turned out to be various letters addressed to Ingrid Barnett from Ophelia Treacle, and they mentioned other letters than had been sent by Ophelia to other people.

“Well”, queried Myrtle, “others who?

“Various people” replied Tu, “Someone named Rose, and a Hayley, and a Ruby, and an … Oliver”

Everyone turned to look at Oliver!

“Hey, can’t be me” responded Oliver, “I got no letter from anyone”

Rose would most likely be Rose Gervan, recently retired from the Toluene town militia, and now possibly visiting Ophelia in Skulk. [refer previous adventures: https://scabport.blogspot.com/2022/06/ouzos-second-letter-home.html]

Ruby would most likely be Ruby Jeffrey, deceased, recently of the Toluene Mages guild and suspected owner of a were‑cat familiar that also recently passed away. [refer previous adventures: https://scabport.blogspot.com/2022/06/ouzos-second-letter-home.html]

“Who’s this Hayley then?” asked Dexter.

After searching around the rest of the room and piling everything interesting on the floor next to the overturned table, Debbie cast her Detect Magic spell and reported no magic items in the room.

Tu marched over to the only other door leading out of the study and quietly opened it. A short passage with stairs leading up, but also a narrow stair heading down.

Debbie hushed the rest of the party and turned her ear towards the stairs.

“Yikes” she whispered, “something’s coming up from below. Something small and light”

Black cat leaping up the stairs

Dexter draws an arrow and is poised ready to shoot when a small black cat came leaping up the steps and into the light.

“Twang” and Dexter’s arrow misses the cat and rattles down into whatever space is below, closely followed by the cat which leaps backward down the stairs and disappears. Closely followed by the rest of the party rushing blindly down the stairs chasing the small cat.

At the bottom of the stairs was a short passage leading to an archway. But through the archway was nothing. Nothing but darkness anyway. A thick darkness that our lights could not penetrate. But which Oliver could see right into without any problem at all.

“Looks like another Malechai shrine.” reported Oliver, “No cat to be seen though”

A rope (just in case) was quickly tied around Oliver, and he was sent through the archway to explore.

“It’s a pretty small room actually” resonates Oliver’s voice from the darkness. “A small shrine with some candles in a candle holder, … a box of matches, … a few stools,…  and hey, there is a cat flap in the wall back here!”

Three evil looking candles

Myrtle cast a Light spell on her notebook and tossed it through the archway in Oliver’s general direction and “Poof” the darkness was dispelled. Oliver was crouched down beside the back wall of the small room poking at a small cat flap in the wall, and the room was just as Oliver had described.

Oliver cast a Detect Magic spell in the room which revealed that the three candles were definitely magical, but nothing else from the place. And the usual glows were emanating from the party’s personal and collective equipment.

A decent search revealed that the cat flap was embedded in a hidden door, which was soon opened to reveal a dark passage carved through the earth. Echoes of our excited chatter indicated that the passage was relatively long, but at least the darkness was not magical and withdrew as we peered in with our lanterns blazing. So, we closed the door and returned upstairs to search the rest of the house.

“Hey” exclaimed Dexter, “the cats back. And he seems to like me!”

We were not sure where it had reappeared from, but the little cat was indeed back, purring and rubbing up against Dexter’s legs in a very friendly way.

“Might be a spy, a witch’s familiar” stated Myrtle and after we had searched the bedrooms upstairs, she cast a Detect Magic spell. [Any witch’s familiar would present as magical due to the magical process of “finding” the familiar and bonding it to the witch or wizard involved]

“Nope” Myrtle confirmed, “just a cat”

“Awww” replied Dexter, “He’s so cute and cuddly”

And thus started the catmance between Dexter the feline lycanthropy infected Ranger and Cellar the little black cat from Ingrid’s cellar.

With just the dark and guarded entry lounge and the cellar passage left to explore, we updated Bear on our progress and headed back down to the cellar. The passage extended from the cellar about two hundred and fifty yards, well outside the town wall, and exited out a concealed trapdoor into a shady copse of trees. There was nothing of interest there, so we sent Tu and Gillard off to collect Bear and braced ourselves to face the hideous skeletal mage in the entry lounge.

With Bear in tow, we all snuck back into the house through the tunnel and assembled in the sitting room. Tu eased the door open while Bear stood ready with his double handed monster smashing axe. Darkness! Oliver clutched his dagger and peered around the door jamb into the room, but this time the room looked empty. Myrtle cast a Light spell onto her notebook again and tossed it into the room. Poof, normal light and shadow instantly returned. Definitely empty.

“So, where is this skeletal mage then?” asked Bear, gently swinging his axe in an arc.

Fortunately, the room yielded no surprises and we all entered for a good search. Oliver cast a Detect Magic spell, which found a magic source behind one of the paintings on the wall. A small hole in the painting, artfully concealed in the eye of a raven, led back into a hidden cavity within the wall. Myrtle and Oliver rushed back to the study on the other side of the wall and discovered the whole wall was much thicker than it appeared.

Meanwhile Bear had grabbed a poker from the fireplace in the kitchen and thrust it through the hole in the painting. It went in about a foot before there was a loud crack, a tinkling sound, and then a mighty zap as Bear was flung back across the room and taking seven points of electrical damage!

Myrtle found the secret panel in the wall of the study and opened up the door to the wall cavity. A complicated and delicate looking metallic device, now sporting the pointy end of a poker,  was mounted behind the painting.

Another Detect Magic spell from Oliver showed that whatever magic the device had once had, it no longer did. But we throw it into a bag anyway, along with the three magical candles, and head out through the cellar passage and back to our Inn.

Spell recovery, followed by healing spells, and then more spell recovery was undertaken. A Detect Evil was cast on the magical candles, but there was no trace of evil taint there.

We again met with Ingbot the REAL priest to update him on our findings at Ingrid’s house, and he mentioned that there was a powerful wizard called Hayley that lived with her husband Peter about fifteen minutes out of town.

”Could it be?” wondered Tu.

With the cunning plan of inquiring about the purchase of Identify spells we were soon on the road to investigate this Hayley. We located their property at the end of a long and winding dirt road through low hills and small clumps of shrubs and trees. As we jauntily approached the house, we saw a male Elf playing with two young Half-Elven children. He identified himself as Peter and inquired what we were doing there. Conversation ensued. He politely asked us to wait while he sent the kids back to the house to fetch Hayley. He did not invite us any closer.

Hayley soon arrived from the house, introduced herself as Hayley Price, and confirmed that she would be happy to Identify any items we provided. The cost was a bargain, only $150 gold per item.

She was not very chatty but was very interested in learning our names, which we provided, including “Frank” our wizard! She asked after Dexter’s cat and where he had come from.

“Are you sure you aren’t a wizard?” she asked Dexter.

The magic telescope is put to good use

We thanked her for her Identify availability and retreated back down the dirt road. Once we were out of sight of the house, we slipped off the road and circled around to allow for a more surreptitious scrutiny of the other sides of the house and the stables located in the rear. We assembled our magic telescope and used this to get a good look at the house from a distance and partially concealed in the surrounding trees.

“Look” exclaimed Oliver, “The coven symbol is definitely etched onto the back door”

“We must head off to Skulk and handle Hayley later” demanded Myrtle.

After some discussion [and a democratic party vote] we pulled back to Penstoke and prepared to head off to Skulk the next day. The trip to Skulk was a three-day, two-night, journey across country, or a similar length trip back down to the Strontime Forest, past the Druid’s Grove, and down the Strontime Tributary.

We elected for the overland trip, which was absolutely uneventful. We arrived in Skulk in the middle of the third day, and obtained lodgings in the Violet Bastard Inn, one of only two Inns in the village. That afternoon we meet another traveller staying at the Inn, Wallace, a priest of CARIBOU GORN who had been working around Skulk to assist with some crop diseases and was soon to travel back to the Grove in the Strontime Forest. He was a bit concerned with he reports of bandits and other recent problems along the river, so we agreed to escort him back there in two days’ time. We figured that we could search out Ophelia and deal with her before then and may then be interested in leaving town in some haste!

Tu and Dexter went off on a scout around the little village to check for coven symbols, and the rest of us visited the local REAL priestess, Jemima, to introduce ourselves, update her on our progress with our tasks for the REAL church, and inquire the whereabouts of Ophelia Treacle. Jemima responded that she knew Ophelia and her cousin Rose very well, and that they were lovely people, and gave us the address. A moderate single-storey house just outside the main village walls.

“But I can’t believe they would be involved in anything nasty like that” she exclaimed.

“Well” replied Myrtle, “That’s our job, you just leave it to us and we’ll bring you the evidence”

As we left the REAL priestess’s house, Tu and Dexter rushed up to report that they had located the Coven symbol on a single-storey house just outside the main village walls. Perfect.

The Sahuagin - without manacles!

Ophelia’s house was in direct line of sight from the other Inn in the village, the Manacled Sahuagin, so we relocated there and took an upstairs room with a window looking that way. We set up the magical telescope and settled in for a night of reconnaissance.

Dexter took the first two-hour evening shift of watching the house.

“No smoke from the chimney, or lights in the windows” he reported.

“Wait” he exclaimed a bit later, “there is movement in the gardens. It’s … it’s … well, it looks like a large wolf or a small horse patrolling around the house”

“Oh Crap” he then gasped, “It just transformed into a normal humanoid and went inside”

Myrtle took over for the next shift and confirmed there were no lights on, and no movement behind any of the upstairs windows. But she also reported that a humanoid form came back out the front door, morphed into a large four-legged creature, and was definitely patrolling around the house.

Oliver took over a few hours later and confirmed the same information.

“That’s it then” declared Tu, “No one is home apart from one shape shifting guard thing which we can easily take out. This is the perfect opportunity to check out the place”

We quickly throw together a brilliant attack plan, and three hours before light we spring into action. We quietly left the Inn, exited the walled village in the opposite direction, and circled back around outside the village to approach Ophelia’s house from the wilderness side. Oliver was ready with his Magic Missile spell, Myrtle was wielding the ten-shot wand of Magic Missiles, and Debbie, Dexter, and Tu had their magic arrows at hand. We would approach from behind the handy neighbouring shed to firing range and wait for the creature to circle the house towards us. Then whoosh, let loose the missiles of war. Easy. And Bear would clean up.

And surprisingly, that is pretty much what actually happened. Dexter did fumble his second shot and dropped his bow, but it was all over in two rounds of missile fire. The creature dropped, Bear raced up and lopped off its head, nothing else appeared, and no one else heard a thing.

We crept up to the back of the house, bypassed the back door, and slipped around to the front. We had watched the creature slip in and out through the front door, and it had not appeared to use any keys. So, we turned the handle, opened the door, and just walked in.

The entrance porch had three pairs of boots neatly lined up. One larger pair, obviously a male, and two more dainty pairs, obviously female. Then a kitchen with doors into a bedroom and a study. In the middle of the bedroom we found the obligatory witches trapdoor. A shaft with a ladder dropped about fifteen feet into the gloom. Gillard shouldered her way to the top of the shaft, whipped a rope around her armpits,  and lowered herself onto the ladder and began descending.

“A big room with stone tiles” she whispered back up to us. “One archway leading off from the left, but my light isn’t penetrating into there. It must be that magical darkness stuff again.”

“And I hear something … a really deep growling” she whispered, “Yikes, haul me up, now!”

Viscous dog growling

Bear gave a yank on the rope and Gillard flew back up the shaft and popped out into the bedroom, just as two pairs of red glowing eyes appeared at the bottom of the shaft. We could see their eyes and snouts staring up at us. They were both growling menacingly and were dripping evil looking saliva from sets of very long and sharp teeth.

“Dagger vibrating” stated Oliver, and then both the dogs backed off and disappeared through the archway into the magical darkness beyond.

“Oh no” grunted Bear, “Not these again”

“I might be able to control them” offered Oliver, “And I should be able to see into that darkness”

We tied Oliver around the armpits with the rope and lowered him slowly down the shaft. Oliver held the vibrating dagger out in front of him, hoping to force the creatures back. Just then the two dogs left forward through the archway and launched themselves towards Oliver.

“Back” he commanded them, to no avail. “Pull” he screamed.

Myrtle somehow misheard Oliver’s scream and told Bear to lower him to the bottom. Oliver landed at the base of the shaft just as the two dogs arrived and clamped their jaws around his legs. Thanks to Oliver’s adventure planning and constant preparation, his pre-cast magical Armour spell reduced the damage by three points, and he did not pass out from the pain and loss of blood. And in a series of fortunate incidents including the second dog missing its attack, Bear interpreting Oliver’s subsequent screams as a request for extraction, and the party winning initiative, Oliver was jerked back up the shaft before the dogs killed him. He did drop the dagger though!

Myrtle cast a Healing spell.

The fighters prepared themselves and descended the ladder. Bear bravely led the way, followed by Gillard, Dexter, and Tu in that order. Myrtle stood at the trapdoor ready with the wand of Magic Missiles, Oliver by her side. Debbie struck up her jaunty battle symphony on the lute.

Needless to say, Bear fumbled and snapped his shield strap. The shield hung off his arm and was totally ineffective for defence. It took him two rounds to throw it aside [14 on his fumble roll, -2 OV for the current and next round, shield strap breaks, shield ineffective for the combat, no shield bonus]

But we prevailed.

“Gillard, this isn’t a big room ya git, it’s friggin tiny!” Bear complained.

Oliver eventually retrieved his dagger from the ground at the bottom of the shaft and peered through the archway into the magical darkness beyond.

Surprise surprise, yet another shrine to Malechai.

This time though there were three barred doors along one side in addition to the customary alter and “religious” paraphernalia.

“All clear” Oliver reported. Myrtle cast a Light spell which cleared the darkness and we entered.

The three doors had complicated magical locks. Two were empty, but the third held a decaying corpse, slumped against the far side of the small cell. We could not get in.

“Evidence!” stated Myrtle triumphantly.

We searched the whole house and located an old property deed and a floor safe under a rug in the study. And some keys. The safe held some bags of coin and gems, and three vials of coloured liquids.

Myrtle and Gillard hurried off to fetch the REAL priestess, while the rest of us discussed possible plans for the next step in our operations. It was still dark, so they had to wake her, but they were soon heading back to Ophelia’s house.

The two black ravens

Out of the corner of her eye, Myrtle spotted a flutter of movement in the trees nearby as they approached the house. Two birds had swooped in and settled into the trees.

“Ravens” she hissed at Gillard, “Two of them, and definitely unnatural”

Ignoring the birds, they just hurried inside and told the party about the possible spies in the tree.

Tu, Dexter, and Debbie gather up their magical arrows and stepped outside. One successful barrage and both birds were killed, and then totally hacked up and destroyed.

“Just to be sure” stated Tu.

Myrtle cast her mind back to first seeing the ravens and recalled that they had seemed to arrive from the Anti direction. When this was cross referenced with the old property deed, and with what the priestess Jemima knew about Ophelia. It seemed that the next destination would be a small country estate in the hills overlooking Nitro Lake.

“After escorting Wallace back to the Druid’s Grove” reminded Dexter.

 

 

 

 

It wasn't us!

The crew: Bear [Ian], Debbie [Steven], Dexter [Jamie], Gillard [Kevin], Myrtle [Andrew], Oliver [Jeff], Ouzo [Darryl], Tu [Shane], with Scuttle [Chris] slumped somewhere nearby marmalading.

Oliver jerked awake out of a deep sleep and looked around.

"Oh, it was a dream" he sadly realised.

The party were staying at the Bestial Maid Inn in Toluene. We had identified the last haul of magical treasure, handed the magical chalice and incense off to the REAL Temple, and were going to decide on our next moves this morning at breakfast. The cook had promised a decent cook up, although he had politely declined Ouzo’s offer to assist with the cooking.

A sumptuous breakfast

After filling our bellies, Bear walked over to the door and leaned against the jamb, rubbing his back up and down against the wooden frame.

“So, what now?” he questioned, sighing happily.

We all watched him scratch his back on the door, then looked around at each other. Myrtle raised an eyebrow. Gillard gave a wry grin. Tu shook his head. Dexter licked some grease off his hand. Debbie had not even noticed.

The trail appeared to lead to either Skulk or Penstoke.

Skulk was where Ophelia Treacle was apparently residing now. She was definitely a witch of the local coven, the owner of the mansion we had just explored, and the cousin of Ruby Jeffrey, the other local witch who had suspiciously passed away in the Magic User’s guild house, at the exact time we had killed the were-cat!

Penstoke was where Ingrid Barnett, mentioned in various letters uncovered in the Malachi shrine below the witch’s mansion, had recently been serving as a cleaner in the Penstoke REAL Temple. The very same Temple that had been raided and desecrated by a group of Malachi following mercenaries a month ago.

Vigorous discussion ensued; voices were raised.

Other guests at the Inn glanced over at us worriedly. The serving girls gave us a few “sshhh” gestures as they hurried about the dining hall.

After some debate it was decided that we would travel off to Penstoke the following morning. But since we were here in Toluene, we would pay a visit to the other house here owned by Ophelia Treacle before we left.

“Why therrrrre?” purred Bear happily from the doorway.

“That house is above the end of that tunnel we explored, the one where we decided not to crash through because of the two male voices we heard in the room above” stated Myrtle.

So, an hour later we nonchalantly strolled passed the house a few times before striding up to the front door. The gardens looked overgrown and untended, and leaves had been blown into the front porch and were built up against the wall. After a quick glance around, we all crowded into the porch while Ouzo ducked down and worked his lock-picking magic on the keyhole.

“Maybe around the back” he suggested a few minutes later.

The coven symbol

We had previously confirmed that the back door had the coven symbol scratched into one of the door panels, and it was still there. But it did not deter Ouzo, and in a few seconds the door swung open to reveal a messy kitchen. Mouldy food scraps littered the table and benches. Most prominently though, in the centre of the room was a barred iron trapdoor! The rest of the house was also messy, and empty. Signs of habitation by a couple of men were present, perhaps two weeks old, but there was nothing of interest to be found.

We unbarred the trapdoor and peered down into the tunnel below.

“Just as it was when we were down there” stated Tu.

We closed everything up and made our way back to the Inn to prepare for the next day’s travel.

The next morning revealed an overcast and drizzly day. Dexter and Bear looked mournfully at the grey sky and muttered grumpily about the dampness. And off we went …

It was a three-day trip up to Penstoke, across the Toluene river, skirting the Oble foothills, past the Strontime forest with its Druid Grove and CARIBOU GORN Temple, and over the Strontime tributary. We planned to spend each of the two overnights at the waystations, small and secure bunkhouses for travellers, that were maintained by the local militia at about a day’s easy travel apart.

At around midday we crested a small rise and looked down into the valley ahead. A group of riders were attacking a wagon about three hundred yards ahead. About five or six figures could be seen huddling around the wagon, while eleven or twelve horsemen circled them, firing arrows and obviously intent on butchery!

“We must assist” yelled Myrtle, starting to rush forward.

“Um, twelve” noted Tu, grabbing Myrtle’s cloak, and preventing her moving.

We held the higher ground and watched as the one-sided battle evolved. One of the riders went down, but pretty quickly all the defenders were felled and the horsemen moved in. One of the riders spotted us and trotted towards us a little. He stared up for a minute, while we stared back.

Then they all gathered together, picked up the body of their fallen comrade, and took off away from us up the road.

Once they disappeared over the next hill, we rushed down to the wagon and the bodies.

Six dead people. Four humans, one of them quite large, one elf, and one halfling. They had been butchered mercilessly and laid out in a row. The wagon had been searched, but it did not look like anything had been taken. The two horses were also left and were still hitched to the wagon.

Myrtle sobbed as she crouched over the bodies.

“Those bastards” she muttered, “we better not find them at the waystation!”

We gathered everything we could find, and Myrtle cast a Detect Magic spell. Nothing. The dead horseman’s long sword had been left lying on the ground, and just beside the pool of blood where he had fallen, we found a necklace with a Malachi symbol lying in the mud.

The Penstoke road

Sure enough, later that day we arrived at the waystation to find twelve horses tied up to the hitching rails and two sturdy looking guards positioned outside the door. Before approaching we discussed just carrying on past but decide to hold our tempers and stay the night in the much “safer” waystation with these Malachi murders.

“Do not antagonise them, … please” pleaded Tu.

“Stink’n evil murderers.” whispered Myrtle, “They’ll be lucky if I don’t reap justice on them all”

“Um, eleven” noted Tu, as we move forward towards the waystation.

One of the two guards stepped forward and brandished his sword.

“It’ll be a bit crowded” he notes, “perhaps you better just move on”

“We’ll be staying” stated Myrtle, “and you had better put up that sword or deal with my twelfth level Ranger here”. She was pointing at Dexter, whose mouth dropped open in surprise.

Things were getting a bit tense, and then the door to the waystation swung open and a short burly looking man stepped out.

“Good evening, I am Godfrey” he stated, “is there a problem?”

Bear’s hairs were standing on end, and he was bristling. Gillard stretched up on tiptoes to look a bit taller. Tu’s hand was around the pommel of his magic sword, ready to draw. Oliver was at the back, ready with a Magic Missile. Myrtle was full of righteous indignation and was staring angrily at this Godfrey character. Dexter was staring at Myrtle and spluttering. Debbie had wandered off to pat the nice horses.

“We are but mercenaries and have completed our mission here. Tomorrow we will be off towards the Homer Saddle and back over the ranges to Honkeysville. You are most welcome to stay the night, we will not offer you any trouble; if you offer us none”

Things settled down after that assurance, and we all bundled into the crowded waystation. There were eight beds available, just enough for us, and so we settled in.

Myrtle was fuming, but sensibly restrained herself.

Godfrey offered to share their meal, and Ouzo proffered some of our condiments in return.

SOIXANTE-NEUF Priestess

Their party consisted of three females and eight males. Another dead male body was laid out behind the waystation, and they were intending to return him to his home back in Honkeysville. One of the females was a priestess of SOIXANTE-NEUF, who oddly kept to herself in the corner. Their cook was an obvious thief, as evidenced by his and Ouzo’s communications via hand gestures and unintelligible cant. Another of the females was an attractive warrior named Eliza, who was eyeing up Bear in a professionally hungry way.

“Eliza, the Tasty” grinned Bear, rubbing his back against one of the bunks.

One or two of the males were likely wizards since they did not have any armour, and their whole band all looked pretty competent and experienced.

Various discussions during the evening revealed that they were a long-established mercenary party based over the Oble Ranges in Honkeysville. They had been hired to hunt down and wipe out a party of adventures that were known to be operating in this area. These adventures were apparently hunting down witches and included a Halfling member and a mage called Oliver.

“Oh” gasped Oliver.

“Well, did you hear that … Frank” Dexter asked, looking pointedly at Oliver.

“Really? Witch hunters?” stammered Myrtle.

“Nothing to worry about though” replied Godfrey, “we found them and wiped them out already. I believe you have recovered their wagon” he chuckled. “And I believe there was a barrel of ale aboard it?”

Bear and Eliza the Tasty hauled in the barrel, and everyone set to with a will. Apart from the SOIXANTE-NEUF priestess and one of the other mercenaries that is. They just kept to themselves and quietly watched everything going on.

Eliza (the Tasty)

Bear and Eliza the Tasty decided to have a friendly bout, so the furniture was pushed back to create a small arena. Quarterstaffs were chosen, armour removed, and the two combatants stepped forward. Eliza the Tasty swung first, striking Bear a ringing blow across the head. Bear’s return strike was obviously disrupted by his head blow, as he staggered forward into Eliza the Tasty and winded himself on her staff. [An eleven fumble was rolled, “wind yourself by running into opponent”, -4 for the rest of the combat] With a flurry of blurring strikes, Eliza the Tasty got in three more solid hits while Bear was unable to even hit her.

“Enough” he coughed, spitting blood. “You are too much, even for me”

“You were just unlucky” Eliza laughed.

She beckoned over the SOIXANTE-NEUF priestess who strutted over and cast two Cures, licking the blood off from Bear’s chest and running her hands and tongue over his bruises.

“Mmmmmm” purred Bear.

“Mmmmmm” agreed the priestess.

The rest of the night was uneventful, unless you count the rustling, grunts, and purring from Bear’s bunk that continued until the small hours.

Our watches were vigilant though, right through the night, and no one else stirred. One of their group was also awake. The man who had not joined in with the festivities. He just stared across at us all night and did not appear to sleep at all.

The next morning we packed up and left early.

“Well, that went well” stated Ouzo, “They won’t think we are anything special”

“Yeah” laughed Dexter, “and they think our mage is called Frank!”

They rode past us a few hours later. Eliza the Tasty gave Bear a friendly wave and laughed.

We decide that rather than spend another night with them at the next waystation, we will turn off to the right and head to the CARIBOU GORN Temple in the Strontime forest.

Druid in black bear disguise

As we entered the forest, two large Black Bears crashed through the undergrowth towards us and transformed into humans right there in front of us. The two Druids welcomed us back to the Stontime forest and invited us to visit the Temple for rest and repast.

“Except for you!” he growled at Oliver, “You are not welcome in the Temple”

While at the Temple, the party had a comprehensive discussion with the Druids regarding lycanthropy and the potential risks associated with being infected. Dexter felt that if he had contracted lycanthropy then that was the obvious will of CARIBOU GORN, and being a naturally occurring condition, he would happily go with it. Bear thought it prudent to have his blood tested, which gave strong positive indicators of lycanthropy, and he chose to allow the Druids to “treat” him. This treatment involved the ingestion of a known poison that was deadly to the lycanthropy disease, but only harmful to humanoids in rare circumstances. Bear was fine of course. [Bear successfully rolled against his System Shock chance of 99%, governed by the CON requisite, and was fine. A failure would have led to the treatment killing him]

Bear’s treatment and recovery required an extra day so after two nights in the forest we continued on our journey towards Penstoke.

“I hope we don’t catch up to those big nasty mercenaries!” said Gillard.

We only had a few short hours to the second waystation where we decided to pause for the rest of the day and stay overnight. This would allow us to arrive in Penstoke before dark at the end of the next day. We had a quiet afternoon, a peaceful night, and a half day of uneventful travel through the next morning.

Around midday the next day we spotted a caged slaver’s wagon with a driver, shotgun guard, and four mounted guards heading towards us. We pulled over to the side of the road to let them pass, and to our astonishment we heard a familiar, but unwelcome, voice from inside the slave cage.

Dubull the Goblin returns!

“Oh my golly gosh, u must be buying me dis dime” yelled Dubull the Goblin.

“No thanks” replied Bear, “we already have enough little people”.

“Nothing personal Gillard” Bear clarified.

“Take him, we’ll pay you” pleaded the guards.

As the slave wagon continued past us and down the road towards Toluene, we could hear Dubull calling from the distance, “I can cook, and clean boots, and armour. Anything….”

We carried on towards Penstoke and arrived just before dark. We took rooms in the Screaming Wench, ate a hearty dinner, and then went straight to bed for a well-deserved rest. Bear reckoned he could still hear Dubull’s goblin accent echoing from the far distance.

The next morning we paid a visit to Ingbot, the REAL priest that we had dealt with the last times we had been here in Penstoke. He confirmed that Ingrid Barnett had been a cleaner in the REAL Temple, did not really have any friends in town, had abandoned her old house and moved on to Skulk after the Temple had been raided. She had also claimed to be a follower of SOIXANTE-NEUF.

“But ewww, old and retired I assumed” stated Ingbot.

He also noted that the mercenary that had been captured and “questioned” had provided some additional information regarding the raid on the temple. Before he died, he had let slip that the mercenary raiders, followers of Malachi, had been looking for a special knife, previously owned by a Mr Coultard, and suspected to be here at the Penstoke REAL Temple.

Everyone looked over at Oliver.

“What? Didn’t I suggest exactly that last time we were here” he replied.

We then popped round to the town’s SOIXANTE-NEUF priestess, a Beth McIver, to see if she had any additional information regarding Ingrid. Bear offers to worship with her.

“Excellent, my husband and I will be very grateful” she exclaimed.

“Husband” gulped Bear. “Perhaps another time, we are actually quite pressed for time right now”

Bear hurriedly leads us away and take us to the abandoned house of Ingrid.

We look around to make sure there are no witnesses, and then we gather round the flimsy looking wooded door in a huddle as Ouzo crouches down to work his magic on the lock.

“Maybe around the back” he suggested a few minutes later.

“You always say that” noted Tu, “and there is no back this time!”

Ingrid’s house was part of a cluster of dwellings all packed together, and only had the front door.

“Stand back” commanded Bear, and then violently threw himself at the door. He bounced back; the door was still closed. “That’s strange” he muttered.

“Ha, allow me” said Tu confidently, and he took a little run and threw his shoulder into the door. He bounced back and tumbled into the street; the door was still closed. “Ouch” he cursed.

“Pagh” exclaimed Dexter, “like this you boys”

Dexter flicks his hand against the door and it springs open, revealing darkness. Not your run of the mill shady interior type of darkness, but actual Darkness, filling the room like an inky black cloud. You could almost see the darkness stirring in the breeze. And there was a breeze, a cold draft that seemed to blow outwards through the door causing everyone to shiver.

Myrtle cast a Detect Evil spell and staggered back.

“Stinkin Eeevil” she hissed

Debbie was dragged forward, and she cast a Detect Magic spell.

“Oh, its dark in there” she said, “and there is magic”

Myrtle cast a Light spell on a handy stone and tossed it through the door.

It went out.

We did not even hear it land.

Oliver drew out his dagger, but it was not vibrating. He stepped forward to the door and peered in.

Ingrid's skeletal spell caster

“What do you mean dark?” he questioned. “Can’t you see that tall skeletal creature waving his arms about right there in the middle of the sitting room? Looks like he’s casting a spell actually”

A dark purple bolt of blackness shot out through the door and struck Bear in the chest, pushing him back and delivering two points of damage.

Myrtle called upon the mighty power of VINGT-ET-UN and used her innate priestess ability to turn undead. Another dark purple bolt of blackness shot out through the door and struck her in the chest, knocking her to the ground and rendering her immediately unconscious.

“Yup” confirmed Oliver peering through the door, “definitely casting spells. Looks a bit like Magic Missile, but better”

Bear pushed Oliver to the side, grabbed the flimsy door, and pulled it closed, while Gillard extracted a Healing potion from her pouch and upended it over Myrtle’s mouth.

"Why didn't the dagger vibrate?" wondered Oliver.

Oh, it was a dream!

Oliver jerked awake out of a deep sleep and looked around. What was it that had awoken him? 

Something wasn't right. A thin trail of smoke curled up from the campfire and through the dense branches of the trees in the copse they had camped in that night. The sleeping figures of the rest of the party were visible around the fire. But there was no sign of the watch! Who was meant to be on watch?

Oliver's innate wizard ability to tell the time indicated it was just after midnight. And there was something out there that wasn't right. His attention was drawn Klibward, towards the river. It was over there, whatever it was, definitely over there.

Oliver rolled out of his bedroll and peered through the tree trunks towards the river. A red tinged mist could be seen curling up from the water and spreading along the shore towards the camp. Definitely not right! And those strange swirling movements hinted at things moving within the mist.

Oliver tried to rouse Bear from his sleep, but he seemed to be totally out to the world. In fact no one would wake up. Shit, some magical effect was keeping everyone else asleep. 

Oliver's arm was aching, and his dagger was vibrating fit to bust. Undead!

"Why me?" whispered Oliver.

Drawing his dagger, Oliver moved to the edge of the trees, he knew he could control a few undead, it would probably be OK. Wouldn't it?

Oliver was prepared to protect his friends with his life, but still, caution kept him in the trees.

A glowing red light strengthened in the mists, which suddenly parted to reveal a stunning beautiful women. Scantily clad in black, with long red hair, she boldly approached the camp.

"A witch" Oliver surmised, "A practitioner of Malachi's evil arts"

The gaping maw of some red glowing worm-like creature hovered above her, and she was surrounded by hideous grey undead monsters. Her hands stretched out for Oliver, reaching towards him, beckoning him forward.

"Oh crap, she's come for me" he realised, "but what a way to go!"

Oliver was compelled to step forward, his self control gone. 

The stunningly beautiful, but super evil witch.

Oliver jerked awake out of a deep sleep and looked around.

"Oh, it was dream" he sadly realised.

The party were still in Toluene, there was no game this week due to the DM's absence.