Death in the Oble Ranges

Present:   Andrew = Walton Formalin, Half-elf Mystic

                Chris = Elvan Rockblaster, Dwarf Fighter

                Darryl = Slim Jim (In no way similar to the infill game character Jim Slim), Human Rogue
                Ian = Sophia Beauchamp, Half-elf Priestess of Luck
                Jeff = Donk Platebreaker, Human Fighter
                Kevin = To be introduced in due course below
                Richard = DM (but often mistaken for Dimble, a Gnome Businessman of Toluene)
                Shane = Elvis Ghenna, Human Bard

Not:         Jamie = Balder Dash, Gnome Wizard

[Some time was spent making minor character skill adjustments as the previous week's game play with the new fantasy skill system (FSS) was discussed, and the weekly five skill points were allocated to their characters by each player]

Making ourselves scarce from the vervain flower valley and whatever had been deliberately poisoning the plants there, we found ourselves a nice, defensible, forested rise and set up camp for the night. We set watches, but Walton and Sophia needed a good solid rest to enable recovery of their magic points and tucked themselves into their bedrolls with a brief "Keep a good eye open tonight".
[Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep are required for recovery of D4 magic points, either Arcane (Wizard magic) or Divine (Priest magic). Alternatively, use of the Wizard Grape or equivalent Holy Wafer will recover 2D4 magic points, but then there is no way to wake them during the recovery process. So, no opportunity to have magic casters on watch if they need to recover magic points!] 

Walton awoke refreshed as the morning light burst upon the camp. The sounds of small birds were twittering from the surrounding bush, and Walton could hear Sophia's deep breathing from the adjacent bedroll. 

"Priestesses" he muttered to himself, "Ha, that Divine Magic does need more recovery time!"

Taking a deep breath of the crisp morning air, Walton analysed the detectable scents, hoping to find the pungent aroma of brewing coffee. But alas, no coffee detected. Sighing disappointedly, Walton sat up and looked around, ready to complain to whoever was already up and about.

"Must be fetching the water" he figured, as he spotted empty bedrolls. In fact, all the bedrolls were empty, except Sophia's, who slumbered on. Walton spent a moment watching Sophia as she slept.

"A tasty wench I figure" he mused to himself, before the lack of the rest of the party fully registered.

"Hmmm" Walton thought, "Donks massive two-handed sword is just sitting by his bed. But no Donk"

Feeling the first gentle touches of concern, Walton quickly woke Sophia from her restorative sleep.

"Did anyone say anything to you" he asked her, "No one's here!"

Empty bedrolls

A quick scout around the area didn't locate anyone either. All the other's gear was just lying by their bedrolls; clothing, weapons, armour, backpacks, and food. But of the party members, no sign at all.

"Look at the ground" suggested Sophia, "you might be able to see some tracks".

"No tracks" reported Walton, "Or none that I can see anyway"

"What the heck happened here?" wondered Sophia.

"Let's take a look around from up there" suggested Walton, indicating the top of the adjacent hill.

The rolling hills and valleys of the Oble ranges stretched away in all directions. But there was definitely no sign of any of the rest of the party. The daylight was bright, and the sky cloudless. If anyone was near, they would definitely have seen them.

"Looks like we were lucky anyway" noted Sophia.

"Is that smoke?" asked Walton, pointing at a thin plume rising from a copse of trees about a half mile further into the hills.

"Wow, lucky you saw that" noted Sophia smugly, "Let's go take a look"

A small plume of smoke

Walton and Sophia cautiously circled around towards the smoke, keeping down below the ridges and in the cover of bush and trees wherever possible. A Priestess and Mystic travelling through such rough country, on their own without fighter support, could have been risky. But Sophia was confident.

"It'll be fine" she affirmed, "Vingt-et-un will watch over us"

Creeping through the thin bush scattered across the top of the ridge, Sophia peered over the ridge and down into the trees about twenty meters below. They had made their way to be directly above the plume of smoke and it was time to see what was happening there. A rocky bluff ran both ways from where she was observing, about twenty meters high, and in her opinion, totally unscaleable. Just off to the right, a narrow defile in the bluff cut downwards and quickly disappeared into some form of dark tunnel. A natural trail led from the top of the defile back into the bush behind her. All was silent.

The smoke was wafting up through the trees in the still morning air from a rough looking campfire in a small clearing just below. A stubby looking bearded body was hanging by the neck from a branch of the tree, above the fire, and gently swaying from side to side. Entrails had spilled from the stomach cavity and blood was slowly dripping from the huge gash across the throat. The body was naked, and fire scorching marred the legs and torso.

Sophia's shocked gasp bought Walton quickly forward from his hiding spot a little back from the ridge, and he too peered down at the ghastly scene. 

"Isn't that Elvan?" he quietly asked, "She was such a cutie too"

"Yes" replied Sophia sadly, "Vingt-et-un obviously wasn't watching over her!"

Avoiding the path down into the defile, and the dark tunnel below, Walton secured his rope to a sturdy tree back from the ridge and lowered it quietly down to the foot of the bluff. After a careful look around, and a good sniff of the local smells, they clambered down the rope and took a closer look at the body.

Elvan the Dwarf fighter had been dead some hours. 

Hung, eviscerated, defiled, and burnt alive!

A cave tunnelled into the base of rocky bluff just beyond the fire and Walton reported a nasty stench emanating from deep inside. Goblins he figured.

Sophia, utilising her Stealth skills, undertook a silent reconnaissance into the cave while Walton kept watch outside. Walton took the opportunity to cut down Elvan's body and began digging a shallow grave just off into the trees.

Nasty Kobolds were torturing Balder

Sophia returned with urgent news; The tunnel quickly turned upwards with a sequence of low steps leading towards the entrance seen within the defile above. Around halfway up the climb towards the upper exit, a side tunnel led off. Sophia had heard the sounds of Gnomish pain and anguish from the side tunnel and had taken a quick look. The side tunnel had immediately opened up into a large natural cavern, and Balder was hanging by his feet in the centre of the cavern. He was being whipped and prodded by three small reddish horned creatures. Five other similar creatures were snoring quietly on a series of grubby sleeping mats, ten mats. On the far side of the cavern, beyond the ongoing torture of Balder, was a small dark opening in the side of the cavern. Sophia slipped quickly and quietly away.

While reporting all this to Walton outside in the clearing, Walton was lightly struck in the head by a flying object. Looking down, he spotted a small pebble bouncing along the ground. Spinning around in a defensive crouch, Arcane spells at the ready, he searched the surrounding trees and bush for enemies. Sophia hadn't noticed anything and was somewhat surprised as Walton dropped into a crouch.

"Sorry" came a quiet voice from the tress, "Just getting your attention without revealing myself"
"Who's there" grumbled Walton, "Show yourself"

A diminutive Elf appeared around a tree and cautiously approached.

"I am Macron. I am seeking help to rescue my three companions from the evil goblins who are holding them captive in a large iron cage in the forest above" he explained, pointing up towards the top of the bluff. [Kevin's character Macron is introduced to the active party]

Apparently, Macron was one of the previous employees of Dimble the Gnome, along with his party of adventurers, and Macron had awoken a few days ago to find his campsite empty and abandoned. He had tracked them in this direction, through the cave, and along the trail at the top of the bluff. That trail led off into the forest and soon arrived at an old house with a tall lookout tower attached.  An iron cage containing some of his party, and some others, was suspended over a deep pit.

"There is no way I can rescue them myself, and I figure those others are likely your companions"
"How about we work together to free them all, and wipe out this infestation of goblinoid evil?"

This sounded like a sensible plan to Sophia and Walton, so temporarily abandoning Balder to his fate at the hands of the creatures in the cave, the three new companions headed off to rescue the others. They took the long way, so as to avoid the occupied cave and keep far away from the well-worn trail (and to totally honest, to avoid any risks associated with climbing back up the rope to the top of bluff)

Eventually, they arrived at the enemy's encampment. An old decrepit house, with a sturdy modern tower attached to the side of the house, the side nearest to the prison cage. The prison cage was constructed from a set of grillages of iron bars, top, bottom, and four sides. The cage was suspended by a series of chains over a deep pit dug into the ground and fitted with nasty looking iron spikes. One wall of the cage was hinged, and securely locked with a heavy chain and sturdy padlock. The cage could be lowered, bringing the opening side level with the ground, but if over-lowered, the iron spikes in the pit would spear up through the floor grillage of the cage. They looked long enough to poke right through and out the top if the cage ever got lowered all the way to the base of the pit. There were a bunch of figures in the cage too, but they looked to be lying about asleep and identities could not be determined from the distance.

Up in the tower, figures could be seen moving around, so obviously well-guarded. While they were observing the scene, a scruffy human male with long hair, dressed in grubby brown robes, and covered in warts and scabs wandered out of the house, took a look around, and then went back in. 

After waiting about five minutes after the man went back inside, Macron and Sophia snuck up to the cage for a closer look. They could clearly see that Donk, Red [Red Feuersturm, a male Temple Fighter of Hob, and one of Macron's original party, but soon to be the new character of Chris following the demise of Elvan], Slim, and Damon (Macron's other original companion, a Wizard) were in there. 

"Where's Elvis?" wondered Sophia, just as she heard some sounds approaching from the forest.

It turned out that Macron hadn't been as quiet as he had hoped in his approach and the sounds of breaking twigs had attracted someone else. An ugly middle-aged woman and dog appeared at the edge of the surrounding forest. Sophia and Macron both dived for cover [Rolls vs. the stealth skill were made, and both failed. Both spent two precious Luck points to modify the rolls to be successful, and both thus managed to avoid detection by both dog and woman]

The woman and dog prowled around for a bit, and then disappeared into the house. Sophia crept forward the check out the spikes in the pit, while Macron executed his cunning extraction plan. With considerable skill and stealth, he clambered up the tree, shimmied down one of the chains supporting the cage, and dropped silently onto the bars of the cage roof. Not silent enough to remain totally undetected though, and Red rolled over to look up from the bottom of the cage.

"Macron" he grunted hoarsely, "Get us out of here"

From below, Sophia had visions of the occupants of the house hearing the disturbance and swarming out to find her standing around exposed and undefended. Casting the Whisper spell, she sent a stern "Shut the f. up" directly to Red's ear. That seemed to do the trick, as he immediately sat up and looked around, silently. 

Macron dangled down over the side of the cage and picked the lock on the door. [A critical success with a roll of 1 on the D20] After a small trickle of oil onto each of the hinges, he swung the cage door open and gestured for everyone to leap out. It was about one meter to clear the side of the pit and about two meters down to the ground, an easy jump for everyone in there.

Unfortunately, something must have alerted the house, because just after everyone landed on the ground, the house door swung open and the dog, closely followed by the long-haired man, come running out. 

The dog charged for Red, who had led the escapees and was rushing for the forest. The man waved his arms about and shouted something, and Donk, who was at the rear, collapsed to the ground. 

[Magic was cast, Magic Resistance was failed, and Donk was Slept into short term oblivion]

Red grabbed a sturdy branch from the ground and engaged the charging dog. A critical hit ensured maximum damage from his makeshift club, and the dog yelped and slunk off into the bush. Red, closely followed by Damon, raced into the forest and disappeared. Macron leapt down from the top of the cage and followed them. Slim paused briefly, glancing back to see the man, and also the woman, now dressed in chain mail armour, heading for the unconscious Donk. 

"Nothing I can do for him now" Slim mused, and then rushed off after the others.

Sophia, from her hidden vantage point just beyond the cage, also watched for a bit as Donk was dragged into the house, then she faded back into the forest and joined the others as they all returned to the overnight camp to gather as much of their provisions as possible and relocate to somewhere more remote, and hopefully safer.

The next day some other stuff happened. 

Balder had been killed by the Kobold's and Elvis had taken his place.

Elvis was rescued from the underground cavern with the support of two spell casters with Sleep spells, and some assassin like killings of the Sleeping.

The tower next to the house and it's resident Kobolds was successfully overcome, with an excellent distraction provided by Elvis, Sleep spells, and some more gratuitous violence.

The tower contained a small shrine to Leprous By-blow, an alarm chord that run down through the floor, and a closed trapdoor. There was no noise from below.

"Do you think they know we're coming?" asked Slim

....