The players find themselves the only survivors of a caravan leaving from Lave, the Captial of Vesh. The caravan was attacked by marauding bands of ratmen, and the players were barely rescued by a local garrison.
We awake to find that we are in the Laughing Ogre Inn. We are fed well and the beds are comfortable. Everyone is very nice. Over several days, we recover from the terrors of our narrow escape from the Rat Men.
On the first Corday of Charder, we are assembled in the large common room of the inn, enjoying yet another tasty meal, with fine ale and a happy company. As we eat, we can hardly fail to notice, over the large and well-appointed fireplace, an enormous skull, which we guess might be that of an ogre. Next to it is a sign that says "Don't touch."
We each occasionally look at Stone or Chuck the Younger to be sure they aren't going to touch it. Partway through our meal, one of the other patrons, rather unintelligent in appearance, walks over to the fireplace and touches the skull. It immediately begins laughing, long and loud.
Some of the regular patrons call for Fox Dunharrow, the half-elven innkeeper, who comes out and does something to cause it to stop, amid cries of "when will you get that thing fixed!?" Fox smiles at us and joins us. He asks us if we have any questions. Miriel asks what we can do to repay him. He says he'll be happy to get to that later, but right now he'd like to answer any other questions that might help us now that we're back on our feet.
"Where are we?". The inn is just outside the town of Southport, about a day's travel south of Lave, where our caravan departed from. We're not far from the coast.
Now he gets to the point. He and some friends used to go adventuring about the countryside, but these days he's settled down to run the inn. He's been hearing reports of mysterious lights in a ruined tower on the coast, about 6 hours (18 miles) travel south. He'd like us to go investigate it. He says he's been there several times to clear out monsters that have wandered in, but he's never heard of these lights before. He says it's been used for storage, but is mostly ruined and usually deserted. He does mention that the locals think it is haunted, and there are rumors of ghouls.
He also warns us against the Hag of the marsh, another 18 miles or so south. He says everyone stays away from her, and even the Rat Men seem afraid of her. The people around leave her alone, even though there are rumors of her chasing children with her Bag of Death. She is useful as a barrier to the Rat Men.
After much discussion and questioning with little result other than "mysterious lights have been seen," we decide to take on the task of investigating the tower. We decide to leave early the next morning so we can arrive and check it out in daylight. Paks suggests a quick bout of sparring to hone fighting skills. It ends with Goldpetal and Stone knocked out (no actual injury, just on points) by Paks and Chuck while Fergus MacAllister and Miriel watch.
We arrive at the tower shortly after midday. We approach the tower and listen; some of us hear horses. Chuck says "Hey, anyone in there." A man in leather comes to the door. Through the door we can see a cart.
We ask the man about the tower, the lights, and if anything is going on around there. His answers are short and hostile. Stone looks at him closely and greets him as "Mr. Bandit." The man denies being a bandit. Chuck notices some cart tracks and some human tracks. Miriel, who is hanging back from the door, tries to cast Detect Magic, but he points a crossbow at her and says "Don't cast any spells on me!" Miriel immediately stops.
The others continue to ask about the lights. He denies their existence and demands that we leave.
We head down the road until we think we're out of sight. After some discussion, we decide to head back to the tower, out of sight, and watch it. The beach is too exposed, so we into the forest, about half a mile from the road. As we go into the forest, we notice that it's very quiet, and there are a lot of spider webs, many more than usual. We continue into the forest and sneak along inside the forest, about 50 feet in. Walking through the forest, single file, we notice many spiders, some as large as basketballs, and many webs. We see some birds caught in the webs. Goldpetal advises us, when Stone offers to shoot a spider, that if we leave them alone, they'll leave us alone, so we do.
Chuck moves to the edge of the wood periodically to check our location. We reach a point where we can see the back of the tower from the woods and are unlikely to be seen. It's now getting dark, and although there is a full moon (just beginning to wane), there is also a fog coming in off the water.
So far we haven't seen anything. Wesneak closer to the tower, to where we can see it pretty clearly. We listen; we don't hear anything. It's a quiet night. We all look; Miriel sees the first bandit step out in the doorway, look around, then go back. He doesn't see us. We wait a few hours, but nothing happens. We never see any lights. The fog starts to lift and dawn is coming. We camp in the edge of the woods.
Dawn comes, nothing has happened. Stone and Fergus McAllister take the first watch and see nothing. Goldpetal and Paks take the second watch. Chuck and Miriel have the third. Nothing much happens; we see two figures coming out, walking around, having a smoke, using the outdoor facilities, etc. The day passes.
Fergus says we shouldn't attack the guys because they have squatters' rights. Stone insists that they're bandits. Fergus keeps arguing that we should not attack the men. Stone and Chuck say if they attack us when we're just looking around, we're justified in attack. This gets nowhere.
Miriel's suggestion of making signal lights to draw them out is brought up again. We continue to argue about what we agreed to do, what constitutes investigation, and exactly what our agreement with Fox included. Fergus says we didn't agree to clear bandits from the tower. Chuck wants to clear the tower. Stone wants to clear the tower. Miriel agrees to go along to clear the tower. Stone says "If they're nice guys I'll say 'I'm sorry for beatin ya up'."
Chuck suggests sneaking up to the top of the tower, climbing the rubble, and seeing if we can get down from the top. This might also let us get a good look at what is going on inside the tower. Paks doesn't like the idea of sneaking. Fergus also doesn't, and also doesn't want to go in with weapons out. Paks once again wants to try luring them out.
Eventually, it is suggested that Chuck and Stone will climb the tower while Paks and Miriel hide/wait below. At this, everyone agrees to go. Paks and Fergus will stop at 100 yards. and watch while the others go to the tower. The moon is yet up when we start out. We stop at 100 yards, where Paks and Fergus lie down hiding behind some rocks; the rest of us go up to the tower, wending our way through the stones. As we sneak up to the tower, we find that the fallen stones have left a good-sized opening through which we can see in. Light is provided by a small lantern, and we see two men dicing on the floor. "Oh, dammit!" "Pay up, you loser".
Through the opening we can also see a cart, a pile of hay, and two horses. One of the men is the one we met at the door the day before. Chuck observes that the crack is big enough for him to shoot an arrow through. We also see a spiral staircase, built along the wall of the tower. Stone suggests we wait and watch.
They're dicing, cursing, swapping gold around. They start talking about our visit, and how suspicious it was. Some guy named "Skelf" was really mad that they didn't just "waste us immediately." The talk about their job; they think it's pretty cushy, hanging out here in the tower, but they don't like having to to go the marsh to load the boats.
Miriel asks if we should inform the others and volunteers to go back. She joins the others and tells them everything that was heard. Fergus still thinks it's a bad idea to go in, and he again tries to determine if we have fulfilled our commission. Paks thinks that smuggling is wrong, and that if these guys have orders to kill anyone who comes around, then that leaves them as a threat to the general populace. Fergus argues that our commitment was to invesigate the tower, not to go in and kill someone.
The party at the tower is sitting watching. Someone slips on a rock. Stone moves around to the front. Chuck draws his bow. The people inside hear, draw crossbows, and go outside to check it out. Combat ensues. Stone rushes the door and holds a knife out. Chuck shoots someone through the crack in the wall and hits. One of the bandits calls for reinforcements through the trap door opened in the middle of the floor.
>From afar, Miriel sees Chuck shooting an arrow, and then Chuck and Goldpetal running around the tower towards the door. Paks, Miriel, and Fergus go running towards the tower.
Stone hits his guy hard, he's down. Chuck's arrow hits, grazing the other bandit, who jumps down the trap door.
Stone hoists a bale of hay and uses it to block the trap door. Goldpetal goes to the horses to calm (or free) them. Chuck steps around the fallen bandit to check out the wagon. Stone sets the bale of hay on the trapdoor.
Paks reaches the tower, then Miriel, then Fergus. They go inside to find out what happened to the others. The bandit Stone punched is dead. Chuck looks in the wagon, but there is nothing there. He next loots the corpse, finding 6 gold and 18 silver. He also finds a longsword, a dagger, and a crossbow. Chuck takes the cheaply-made dagger. Stone takes off the corpse's boots.
Three arrows come in from the opening in the wall that Chuck et al were looking through. One narrowly misses Stone. Goldpetal and Miriel are hit moderately badly. A big burly guy attacks Paks with a big bastard sword and misses. Paks tosses her bow out and attacks back, but misses, falls, and drops/tosses her sword into the middle of the room. A crossbow bolt hits Stone and he falls, bleeding profusely. A crossbow bolt misses Stone, another hits Goldpetal.
Chuck shoots his bow and hits the big guy, who would appear to be a half-orc, but he's still standing, with a big arrow sticking out of him. Fergus attacks the half-orc and misses. Goldpetal picks up the sword and tries to carry it to Paks. Miriel goes over to Stone and lays hands on him, healing him back into consciousness.
The half-orc hits Fergus. Paks hits the half-orc. Chuck misses.
More arrows are shot in; one hits Miriel, who slumps unconscious to the floor. Goldpetal drops the sword and goes to heal Miriel; he stabilizes her. The half-orc hits Chuck. Paks flanks the half-orc and is hit, then hits him. Stone stands up; an arrow misses him. Another arrow hits Miriel; she starts to bleed to death. An arrow hits Goldpetal, who is now bleeding to death.
Chuck drops the half-orc at last. Fergus backs away from the doorway. Stone grabs the wagon, trying to pull it over himself and the unconscious bodies, successfully shielding Goldpetal. Paks runs behind the wagon and performs first aid on Goldpetal. He seems much better, no longer bleeding, but still unconscious. Chuck picks up the bow and moves outside, making the bow his active weapon. Fergus runs out around the tower, staying out of sight of the bandits. Stone shoves Miriel behind the wagon. Paks tries to heal Miriel, who wakes up. Astounding healing power for just a "first aid" skill. Paks thanks Stone for the wagon.
Chuck sees the guys with the bows running away. Stone takes a new bale of hay and blocks the aperture in the wall. Chuck guards the door, looting the corpse at the door. He has 40 gold, 5 silver, 7 copper, a ring, some dice, and a pretty darn nice bastard sword. As Chuck picks it up, he sees that it's very nicely balanced, a fine weapon. Chuck remembers his pack is outside.
Miriel heals Goldpetal back to consciousness. Fergus points out that we should explore the tower before we go, and offers to investigate the second floor. Chuck and Stone go to get their packs. Chuck gives the bastard sword to Paks. Miriel suggests hooking up the team to the wagon. Stone flips the wagon over and Paks begins to harness the horses. Fergus and Chuck head upstairs. Stone puts on the boots he took off the first corpse.
Paks steps outside to guard, after harnessing the horses. Upstairs, it's a ruin, open to the sky, and there's a lantern on a rock. Stone picks up the lantern and brings it with him. Fergus votes to explore the cellar. Chuck points out that there were some guys in the cellar. Fergus and Stone want to go explore the cellar. Goldpetal listens at the stone, but doesn't hear anything. Chuck, Fergus, and Stone are at the trapdoor, Goldpetal backs off while Stone moves the bale of hay, Paks is on the second floor. Miriel crouches behind the wagon. Fergus opens the trap door. Nothing happens. Stone peers over the edge, sees a ladder which goes about 10 feet down. Fergus carefully descends the ladder. Chuck gets behind Stone, looking down the hole.
Fergus finds himself in a 30x30 room and looks around He can't see anything. He calls for a torch, which Chuck passes down. Stone follows down the ladder. Fergus sees a really big rock slab leaning against the wall, with a few other rocks holding it in. On another wall is a wooden door. Chuck now gets down, while Stone listens at the door and doesn't hear anything. Chuck does some indoor tracking. He sees a lot of confused footprints. Miriel calls "can we go now?" Chuck responds "we're just lookin at some stuff." Fergus listens to the rocks, but hears nothing.
Fergus listens at the door and hears some whispering. Tries to look under the door, but there is no crack. The door opens in, so Fergus tries to grab the rocks blocking the slab to block the door. Goldleaf is looking down the hole with sling drawn. Fergus asks Stone to help pick up the rock. Stone looks blank. Chuck refuses to help. Fergus picks up the rock. Stone hears voices saying "they're movin the rocks...cool...maybe it'll get them!" Stone says "fellas, don't move the rocks. Put down the rock." Fergus puts the rock back about where it was and looks quizzically at Stone. Stone suggests leaving, speaking to the door. The door doesn't say anything.
Stone says "Whadda ya wanna do MacAllister? The guys on the other side say not to move the rocks." Chuck is guarding the door (not slab) with his bows. Chuck asks the door "how many of you are there?" The voice responds "an awful lot!" "Why don't you come get us then?" "Why don't you come in and find out?". Stone says "in the next 50 seconds, I'm leaving. I suggest you guys go first." Chuck heads to the ladder, Goldpetal backs up to make room. Chuck keeps his bow ready, carrying the torch to the ladder. Fergus stands staring the the door, so Stone heads up the ladder while Chuck convinces Fergus to go.
Stone starts leading the cart out of the door. Miriel jumps in the cart. Stone stops to puts a bale of hay back over the trapdoor after Fergus and Chuck come up. Paks comes down, everyone gets in the wagon. Paks tosses all the weapons lying around into the wagon, and also the lantern. Stone leads the horses with the wagon down the road, back to town. Chuck divides the gold up on the road, Fergus declines any, Chuck says he wasn't going to insult him by offering. We make it back to the Laughing Ogre Inn.