Pork and Shadow - part 2

 

Present:

• Balder Dash. Gnome Wizard from Toluene - Jamie
• Kosha Pickle. Human Rogue from Lakeside - Darryl
• Red Feuersturm. Human Temple Fighter of Hob from Toluene - Chris
• Griza Muso. Human Thief from Lakeside – Jeff
• Malcom Gandhi. Gnome Thief from Brian – Kevin
• Phoebe Lacrosse. Human Barbarian from Pugtown – Andrew
• Joe Manco. Human Fighter from Toluene – Shane
• Napoleon Twig. Elf Priest of Caribou Gorn from Pugtown - Ian
• Galena Alfdis. Elf Priestess of Vingt et Un from Palantir - Steven

By Jeff

...

Back at the Pig & Whistle inn, Galena had returned at the end of her designated shift. She hadn't even spotted Griza but knew he would have been in place before she left the pig farm. After reporting on the odd behaviour of the pig farmer and the barmaid, the party discussed what needed to happen next.

"We wait for Griza's report" suggested Kosha, "Then we go in and check out those sheds"

"Yeah" agreed Napoleon, "And Tiny can get a sniff at that farmer, and the pigs"

"No need" gloated Balder, "It's definitely him"

A few hours later Griza returned to the inn and quietly reported that the barmaid, who was also now at the inn and working behind the bar, had left the house through the front a while back. 

"Looks like she came straight here, to work" Griza concluded.

"Yeah" asked Gazala, "But did you see he go into the house?"

"Nope, just out" replied Griza.

"A secret tunnel?" wondered Phoebe.

"No doubt" grumbled Kosha, "When wasn't there a secret tunnel?"

"What are we waiting for then?" said Phoebe, "Let's go"

"Wait, let's make an actual plan first" exclaimed Kosha.

Plans were made, then Phoebe, Napoleon and Tiny, and Kosha led, off to have a chat to the pig farmer and distract him. Balder turned to Griza, "Your turn" he grinned, waving his arms in a circle.

As Balder concentrated and summoned his arcane power, drawing on the essence of the night and silence, he cast an Invisibility on Griza, who immediately faded from sight and slipped out the door after Kosha. "Ten minutes" whispered Balder at Griza's invisible back.

The stone shed of the pig farm

Unseen, Griza made his way down the lane behind the others and as they hailed the pig farmer who was working in his yard, he silently vaulted over the fence and drifted over to the big stone shed that sat to the side of the house, in front of all the pigsties. Keeping a mental timer running in his head Griza listened at the door of the shed. All silent, and the bolt slid back easily, not even locked. With a quick glance around to make sure no one was looking in his direction, Griza eased the shed door open and slipped in. 

The door clicked quietly closed behind him as he surveyed the room. The air was chill, and the room was dark. A series of salami sticks and slabs of meat hung from the ceiling. A butchering table sat along one wall, and buckets of blood slicked offal sat on the floor. The smell was bad, almost thick enough to taste, and Griza had to breathe shallowly in order not to gag. One closed door on the left wall obviously led to a further room. Griza crossed the room towards the other door, glancing quickly around. There didn't appear to be anything of interest in here, but the door to the next room was locked!

Bending down, Griza peered at the lock.

"Is there time to check for traps?" he wondered.

"Yes, and definitely not a place to be trapped alone" he decided.

His senses tuned and focussed on the lock and the surrounding door frame, Griza exercised his skills.

"All clear" he figured and slid his picks into the lock.

With a deft twist the lock clicked open and Griza eased the door open a hairs breadth, just enough to get a whiff, hear anything, and peer inside. 

The smell in the room beyond was even worse, and it looked even darker, but it was all quiet.

Slipping through the door into the small room beyond, Griza let his eyes adjust to the dark.

Which was just as well. There was a large hole in the centre of the room, just in front of him!

A hoisting frame was rigged over the top of the hole, and the top of a ladder protruded up from below.

Otherwise, the room was empty. Apart from all the bloody entrail remains and offal staining the floor and splattered around the walls. Taking a small step forward, Griza leant over the hole and peered in.

The ladder quickly dropped into darkness, and the cloying rank smell that permeated the shed was wafting up from down there.

"Nope" decided Griza, "My ten minutes is nearly up"

Spinning around, Griza slipped back into the main room, relocked the door behind him, crossed to the door out, and listed to check for any problems with exiting. The murmur of voices sounded distant, and Griza could make out Phoebe's accent as she demanded answers from the pig farmer.

Griza slipped out through the door, gently closed it, and made his way back over the fence, down the lane, and back to the Pig & Whistle. Reconnaissance mission complete.

"Why didn't you down the hole?" grunted Malcolm a little later.

"No time, too dark, and it really stank!" noted Griza.

"You'll need to go back and see what is actually down there" Balder confirmed, handing Griza a bag.

"Pull the stone out of there if you need a light" Balder instructed.

A more in-depth reconnaissance mission was planned to check out the hole.

Galena slipped into the trees and kept an overwatch. 

Griza and Malcolm went full stealth mode and made their way over the fence and back into the shed. Standing over the offal hole, Malcolm declared "That ain't too bad" and started down the ladder.

"About fifteen feet down to the bottom" he whispered.

A few seconds later he stopped, about five feet from the ground below. The chill was intensifying and all the hairs on Malcolm's arms sprang up as a tingling sensation swept across him. Looking down into the room, Malcom could see a similar small room as above, but the wall on one side had collapsed, and a dark tunnel led away. The air there seemed to swirl, the darkness flickering, as if shadows were moving.

Breaking into a cold sweat, Malcolm clambered back up the ladder as fast as his little Gnome legs could carry him and burst up in front of Griza.

"Let's go" he hissed, "discretion is the better part of valour I hear" and bolted to the door.

Griza quickly pulled the magic light out of Balder's bag and shone it down the hole. The light pierced the darkness, illuminating the room below, including a hole out through one wall with a tunnel leading off in the general direction of the pigsties. Blood stained the floor and walls of the basement space, and remnants of offal were piled up around the base of the ladder. The light also illuminated a translucent shadowy figure which was drifting up the ladder just below him. With a quiet squeal, Griza turned and rushed after Malcolm, slamming the door and locking it firmly. As Griza backed away from the locked door, he felt and heard some muffled thumping from the other side.

Barely remembering to move stealthily, Griza quickly left the shed, and followed Malcolm back to the Inn.

Reporting back to the party, Griza and Malcolm relayed everything that they saw, and felt.

"We shouldn't go there again" Malcolm stated defiantly. 

"Undead" hissed Phoebe, "We must kill them all"

"What" squealed Malcolm, "Is there more than one?"

"It doesn't matter" replied Phoebe, "Any and all undead must be dispatched immediately"

"Sounds like a Shadow" noted Galena, "Magical weapons required to damage them!"

"Well, I have one" stated Phoebe, brandishing her longsword.

"Anyone want this one?" asked Griza

The discussions continued late into the evening, but nothing was resolved.

In the morning, there was quite a hue and cry in the town. Apparently, a body had been found just outside of the town, a little into the forest. A young man from the town had been out in the evening with his girlfriend. He was found by one of the woodcutters just before Light, brutally eviscerated by some huge creature, but of the girl, no sign.

"That's our giant boar!" Balder decided, "Let's go"

The party followed the hubbub out of town to where the three volunteer town militia were milling about with a number of other townsfolk arguing about what to do.

Darius, the pig farmer, and the party's prime suspect was the leader of the town militia.

Not surprisingly, Darius initially declined the party's offer of help in their investigation.

Red strode up in front of Darius, looked down at him, and forcefully repeated our offer. 

"Maybe ... you could help a little" Darius stuttered, sweat just starting to bead on his forehead.

Phoebe cast about and located some pig tracks leading off into the forest. 

Napoleon had Tiny led the way, Tiny barking loudly and racing off ahead.

"We'll follow these tracks and investigate" stated Red.

"Um ... sure" nodded Darius nervously.

Tiny led the party out into the forest, then slowly curved around and back towards the town. Tiny stopped at a fence just outside the town. It was the fence to the pig farm.

"Ha" exclaimed Balder, "Just like I figured"

There was a brief hesitation as the party considered the laws around trespass, but Red confirmed that they had effectively been commissioned by the town militia to investigate the tracks.

"So, get over the fence" he suggested.

Everyone clambered over the fence and checked the ground on the other side. 

No tracks, no smell, no clues.

"The pigsty" confirmed Balder, "Where the woman disappeared. The "tracks" lead straight there"

The pigsty was occupied, a large sow and a heaving mass of piglets were all over the floor, but Malcolm slipped past them and reported the presence of a trapdoor. Red hustled the pigs out of the way, lifted the trapdoor, and climbed down. He looked back before his head dropped below the floor level.

"Come on then" he called.

The tunnel at the bottom of the ladder was quite low, Red had to stoop to move forward. It looked to head in the direction of the farmhouse, as expected. There were no strong smells so Red led off along the tunnel. He held his two-handed hammer out to the front. There wouldn't be much room to swing it, but he figured a good thrust to the face would be just as effective.

The smell of blood and offal slowly increased as Red moved forward, until after about a hundred meters a side passage branched off to the right, probably towards the shed, where the Shadow creature had been seen by Malcolm and Griza. The stench was also pretty bad!

"Magic weapons" reminded Gazala.

There was a bit of a shuffle. Phoebe moved to the front with her magic longsword, Griza with his just behind her. Napoleon followed third, but cast a Detect Evil spell before setting off after Griza.

"Evil ahead" Napoleon reported.

"And behind" he quietly added, turning to look back.

A slight purple aura shimmered surrounded Balder.

"What the...?" Napoleon wondered briefly, before assigning that problem to later and moving on.

The stench quickly intensified, and before long a disturbance in the air could be felt.

A shadow detached itself from the general darkness ahead and rushed forward towards Phoebe.

With her magic sword raised (+0, but magic in terms of creatures) Phoebe braced for an extended battle with the undead minion of evil.

In the end, its wasn't much of a battle. Phoebe sliced and diced with her +0 magic sword, Balder loosed a Magic Missile, and the Shadow faded out with a poof, without even getting a hit on Phoebe.

(Andrew rolled a couple of critical hits during the melee, with bonus damage and the Shadow automatically losing a few attacks. It was all one way, fortunately for Phoebe! Although Napoleon had also cast a Bless spell, to help with saving throws if that proved necessary, which it didn't).

The party moved forward, Phoebe still at the fore, with Griza, Balder, and Napoleon immediately behind. Tiny and the others followed them down the tunnel and through the hole into the offal pit under the farmhouse shed.

Galena immediately threw up all over the floor, and even the sturdier party members were suffering from the stench. Griza slipped up the ladder, popped his head up into the room at the top, and reported back that it all looked just as it had yesterday. 

The party backed up through the tunnel and took the other branch, presumably to the farmhouse. Phoebe arrived at a solid wooden door.....

Refer to the part 1 post to reveal what was discovered on the other side of the door!