"The Huntsman is dead, and his evil plot to destroy Lave has been foiled. Who would have guessed that ill-tempered noble, Count Juvenal was the huntsman? At least we don't have to worry about Laslo winning the election...once this all gets out of course.""I hope we don't have to dismantle this clocktower..."
We're in the clock tower, we just killed the Huntsman. JOSH-- list of huntsman's gear.
Miriel runs down to heal Goldpetal. As she reaches the bottom, Darmaon and Stone show up with the city Vigil, Thorn, etc. Telryn flies down with Saraya. Thorn says to arrest Lazlo right away. Telryn and Miriel are exhausted and want to rest.
When Darmaon looks for the hidden emerald the next morning, the drawer is empty, with just a note. We hear an explosion. Josh -- Text of NOTE Everyone runs into Telryn's room, but it's actually Darmaon. He's all scorched and blackened. Miriel heals him.
All anyone can talk about is how we slew the Huntsman, who was Count Juvenal. Laszlo Juvenal has disappeared. The tower has been roped off and that section of the city evacuated. Talisa Palpern has dropped out of the election, realizing she does not understand the politics of the city, and Thorn wins handily. Thorn awards us the rank of "Protector of Vesh". There is an awards ceremony and we get medals. The Eye of the Green Dragon disappeared, and the Solari family has put out a reward of 5000 gold pieces.
We discuss housing. Telryn wants to get a place of his own. He suggests buying a house. Miriel and Stone plan to stay at their respective temples, but Chuck definitely doesn't want to go back to the barracks. Telryn identifies much of the loot we discovered. The bracers are magic +2, the punch daggers are +1, the battle axe is a +2 dark axe, +2 studded leather. We give the medallions back to the Vigilant leaders. Masterwork throwing daggers. Light green potion of Frog's Tongue. Black tarry rat man mixture of Truth and Intimidate. Another mixture is Charisma mixed with Love. Milky white potion of Glibness, but cursed so that you can't stop talking. Cloudy is Gaseous Form mixed with Invisibility. Silver potion of haste. 3 hazy grey potions of Blur. Token of Vangel which allows better critical hits.
Stone takes the bracers. Miriel takes the studded leather armor. Darmaon takes the horn of summoning. Telryn hands out the potions. Darmaon takes the masterwork throwing daggers. We take the axe to the Vigils and collect the 5000 GP
We go off to sell the items. Darmaon thinks we should go to the Verlaki Brothers, three halfling triplets with a wagon near the city walls or the Black Cat, where they buy art items. Telryn suggests a forge to sell the Calastian ingots. We visit a high quality jeweler to sell the gems. Miriel's diplomacy fails her, so Darmaon steps in.
Stone pulls out the crown, but the jeweler says he can't sell it and recommends that we see Dravinia at the Black Cat. We go over there, she is a Forsaken Elf. She greets us respectfully. Stone shows her the crown. She admires it and says it is of Ledean manufacture, and she'll pay 2500 for it. Stone says it must be worth more than that. Once again Darmaon steps in and talks her up to 4000. Miriel says that's not a bad deal, and Stone takes the 4000, in platinum (400). Darmaon looks at the displays in the shop - lots of rare paintings and other artwork, some beautiful Shalizari rugs, Forsaken Elf statues, some of which even Darmaon finds offensive.
The shopowner talks quietly with Darmaon, telling him that the halfling was in trying to fence "something" for which there is a reward. He asks her if she knows any more, and she says no, but she might be able to improve on the reward if someone were to bring it to her.
Darmaon goes to the brothers looking for Sim. "Oh, Sim Greenpants, everyone is looking for her! Including the Fat Man, Mr. LeRoi - or should we call you 'protector'?" They laugh heartily. He shows them the aquamarine. They argue whether or not it's glass. Eventually they cheat him on the sale and laugh at him some more.
Paks goes to visit the Paladins of Corean to find out more about the shadow sword. They want it back, but offer to reimburse her. She offers to give it to them, but won't reject a trade. They are delighted to get it back, to give it to one of the heirs of the Order of the Silver, and they give her a +1 longsword. She asks if they have a smith who could work the symbol of Madriel in for her. She picks it up in a week.
Two weeks go by. Paks has picked up the sword. Telryn, Chuck, Paks, and Darmaon buy a 10-room house, for a good price, though it is perhaps a little close to the tower, which the Vigil alchemists are painting with protective material. It's the dead of winter, it's been very cold and there have been some snow flurries every few days. Miriel donates 200 gold to the Temple of Madriel. Telryn purchases a lab. Miriel and Stone go back to work at their temples. Miriel studies fighting with much more interest than she used to, and gets back into the rhythm of temple duties and classes, almost as if she never left. Darmaon buys a few bottles of Shalizari wines to start laying down a cellar. Paks gets the sword blessed. Stone accomplishes four weeks of work in two, since he never sleeps. He helps with the furniture, helps out at the tower, and of course works at the temple. Darmaon tries to find out what the price on his head is.
After they're settled in the house, they have the whole party over for dinner. Telryn invites Saraya as well. Chuck asks him to show her the Duck. She tells us the story of the Ducks of Dalta. This may or may not be THE Duck, but in any case it's enormously valuable, maybe 10-20,000 gold. He says he really wants to learn how to use it, and what it's other powers are. She says that anyone who owns one comes to a bad end. Dinner is catered by the Sleeping Dragon Inn. Goldpetal turns to Darmaon and starts talking about the halfling. A hawk he was talking to the other day said she saw the halfing and six humans riding west to Nepential's Wood. Saraya says it has a bad reputation. A necromancer died there before the Titan's War. No one from Vesh goes there anymore. It's about two days' ride. Telryn asks what the reward is for the Eye of the Green Dragon, Darmaon says 5000 plus another thousand, and Stone stands up immediately. Goldpetal tells us he can't come with us, but wishes us luck. Darmaon is worried about the magical properties of the Eye, especially in the hands of a necromancer.
We travel west for two days. It's very cold and cloudy. Telryn casts Mage Armor on himself every morning. We reach the outskirts of the forest. Paks doesn't sense any evil. Chuck finds the tracks of six horses and a pony. It's about midday. After about 2 hours we reach a clearing in the approximate center of the small wood. At first glance, the clearing looks like just a natural feature, but as we look more closely, we see the ruins of a large stone structure sticking up out of the snow. They're clearly hundreds of years old. Telryn knows something of the story, Nepenchil was an evil wizard who lived here hundreds of years ago; he was killed by a Paladin of Corean. His tower was consumed in a tragic fire, and he rose undead. The Paladin was known as an undead hunter and slew him. The Paladin came back with loads of treasure, but there is reportedly still more here. People who come into the wood rarely come back. There are horses tied in the NW of the clearing, and smoke coming out of a hole in the ground, in the SE area of the clearing. Telryn casts Bull's Strength on Paks.
The ground is very uneven, so we have to move slowly and carefully. Telryn casts Fly on himself and flies up to sweep the area, but sees nothing. Chuck casts Speak with Plants and asks the nearest tree what is going on around here. They complain of the cold and winter, but have nothing else to tell him. Paks casts an armor on her horse. Darmaon searches around the area. It looks quiet. He asks Telryn to make him invisible. Stone gets impatient and sneaks into the clearing, so Chuck follows. They move into the clearing and look down the hole - it looks like just a flue; we couldn't fit down it. They move towards the horses looking for an entrance. About 10 feet to the left of the horses Chuck finds footprints and points out a stone trapdoor. The horses look terrible, cold and neglected. Miriel puts blankets over the horses. Telryn suggests smoking them out by covering the hole. Stone hides near the trapdoor. Darmaon suggests an alarm spell, which Chuck says he can do. Darmaon uses a couple of blankets to block up the hole, which he notes that a halfling might have fit through. We wait for a few minutes, but nothing happens. We keep waiting, nothing happens. Finally Miriel says we should just go in. Stone moves over and lifts up the slab; nothing happens. Chuck looks for tracks and sees that someone has tracked snow in. He tells Darmaon to remove the blankets. Stone moves in.
We enter a 20x25 room. We smell a little smoke, but not that much. It looks like it was once a wine cellar, but it was ransacked a LONG time ago. We see a hallway on the far side. Chuck looks at some fresh tracks, which lead right towards the corridor. Stone peers down and sees what looks like a big room with some pillars. Miriel lights up her spear and Paks lights her shield. We go down the corridor and find a 35x35 room. There is a 5' passageway off the right side of the room. As soon as Stone walks up to the edge of the well in the center of the room, he finds the floor is greased, but he manages to keep his balance. As he tries to step back, he feels a hand on his ankle, trying to grab him - it touches him, but he pulls free. He looks down and sees a creature crawling up from the well. It is black and evil looking, vaguely humanoid. The well is about 50' down, with some water at the bottom.
Darmaon pulls out a sand orb and tosses it at the creature, but he misses and it falls into the well. He hears a big splash. The creature tries to claw Stone and hits once, then tries to bite and misses. He now tries to grapple Stone again and pulls him down into the well, dropping him in and giggling. Stone curses him as he falls down the well and at least 30 feet under the water. Chuck runs over to the well and skids, yelling Hoarfrost. As he slides, an invisible person tries to backstab him, but fails. He appears. Chuck swings Hoarfrost at him and hits. Darmaon hears Sim's voice from the far corner, apologizing about the gem and offering a treasure. Darmaon tells her to fuck off and die. Darmaon sees a shadow of the Huntsman attacking him, with two axes. He knows he saw the Huntsman dies, and disbelieves it. Paks shouts "Invisible spellcaster" to Telryn and moves around to flank the ruffian. As she moves, another invisible ruffian attacks her, but misses. Paks swings at him and hits. Telryn hastes himself and shouts "where is she?" Stone starts to swim but can't, and drops the bag. He then swims to the surface. Miriel comes in and casts a Searing Light at the creature. It cries out and falls into the well, but catches itself.
Darmaon throws the fire sand orb into one corner of the room, where he heard the voice of the halfling; it lights up the area, but nothing is there. As Stone looks up the well, he sees the black-skinned creature wink out. The ruffian attacking Chuck tries to push him into the well. Chuck swings at him and hits, killing him and knocking him into the well. Chuck slips in the grease, falling into the well. Stone calls to him to get the bag. Chuck pulls out the duck. Telryn feels an uncontrollable urge to start laughing, but resists it. A bunch of magic missiles come for him. The ruffian in front of Paks attacks and hits her hard. Paks tries to scare him away, but he won't move, so she swings at him, hits, and kills him. Telryn casts a lightning bolt across the middle of the room diagonally, hoping to catch the spellcaster, but she dodges it, we think, as we hear someone tumble. Stone begins to climb out of the well. Miriel casts a Dispell Magic towards the area where she heard the spellcaster. Three ruffians appear.
Darmaon throws a vial of Alchemist's Fire at one of them and hits. Chuck dives down searching for the bag. It's dark, so he pulls out the lighted dagger and sees it far down on the bottom. He swims back to the surface and climbs out of the well. The spellcaster appears and casts a laughter spell on Telryn. He can't resist this time and falls to the floor laughing uncontrollably. She shoots a magic missile at Miriel. Paks swings at the halfling, but misses. Telryn keeps laughing. A ruffian attacks Paks with a sneak attack and hits. The ruffian who is burning puts out the fire. Stone tries to climb out of the well, but fails and falls back into the water. Miriel casts a Searing Light at the halfling, but misses.
Darmaon throws a thunderstone at the wall behind the halfling. It goes off with a deafening thunderclap. Chuck starts to climb out of the well. The halfling steps back and casts Mirror Image and six images of her appear. She steps back again and casts again. She shoots Miriel with another magic missile. Paks attacks the two ruffians adjacent to her. She hits both, killing one and seriously injuring the other. The ruffian who was on fire runs at Miriel but misses and falls into the well. Stone punches the ruffian next to him in the water, killing him. "Order up!" Miriel casts a dispell magic at the halfling. All the images of her shift two feet to the side, and we see another ruffian appear.
Darmaon pulls out his want of Burning Hands and hits the mirror images, which disappear. Chuck tries to finish climbing out of the well, but falls back into the water. Sim says "Gods curse you all!" and turns invisible again. "Curse you all, I'll get you yet!" Paks swings at the ruffian in front of her and kills him. The remaining ruffian surrenders. Stone climbs out of the well. Miriel heals Paks.
Darmaon runs past the ruffian down the corridor, throwing a tanglefoot bag in front of him. He can't see what he hit. Paks accepts the surrender of the ruffian and puts him up against the wall. Telryn summons a wolf and sends it down the corridor to track the halfling. Stone tells Paks to go after the halfing and punches the ruffian in the back of the head, trying to knock him out. Miriel runs after Darmaon down the hall. We can see now that the corridor is 20 feet long, 15 feet down is a pillar which looks kind of sticky.
Darmaon shouts "All right, Sim, I've changed my mind, where's this other treasure?" Chuck climbs out of the well. Down the hall, we find a room with camp beds. Telryn tells Chester to watch for someone, and Chester tells him the pony just rode off. He yells to us that she has ridden off and we all head for the exit. The ruffian complains about being hit, but Stone punches him again. When he gets to the staircase, he sees a bunch of black tentacles coming down it. Miriel runs up to Stone.
The wolf keeps sniffing for the halfling. Darmaon searches the chest in front of the fireplace for traps. Chuck dives back in to the well to get the bag of holding. Chester tells Telryn that the pony has disappeared. Telryn tries to dispell the tentacles, but fails the first time, so he tries again, and this time succeeds. Stone runs up the stairs and sees the horses but no pony. He sees the owl hovering and hooting and heads that way. Miriel heads up the stairs.
Paks asks her horse what she sees. Darmaon tries to pick up the chest, but it's too heavy. Chuck swims down to the bag, makes sure it is closed, then searches the bodies. Paks shouts to Darmaon to have Chuck tie up the prisoner. Telryn casts Fly on himself and flies up and out, towards Chester. The wolf tries to follow him. Telryn tells it to follow the pony.
Stone listens for the pony and hears it nearby. The wolf shows up and points and sniffs at the pony. Stone tries to find the pony. Chuck doesn't find anything good on the bodies, so he climbs out of the well. Darmaon opens the chest when Chuck comes in with the light. He finds a sack of gold, a sack of silver, and a pouch of azurites. He also finds a map, which he looks at - it says "Nepenchils' Rest" and has other markings.
Stone opens the bag of holding and turns it upside down to see how much water comes out. Quite a lot. When we all reunite, Telryn takes a look at the map, which is carved into a big round slice of wood. Stone goes back down and finds one more room. He finds a coffin, a mangled skeleton, and it looks like the bandits have been trying to hammer their way through the wall at the end. He yells for Darmaon to get the rest of us. Darmaon has been counting the stacks of money. He finds 15 azurites. 790 gold pieces. 4700 silver pieces. He calls for us and we go back down. Stone pulls out the battering ram, and Chuck helps him. It takes them a while, but they break down the wall. The hole is big enough to crawl through, and Stone looks in. He sees a corridor that goes at least 20 feet down and crawls through. Darmaon follows him. They find themselves in a circular room 20' in diameter. There are three corridors radiating off of it. In the room are two stone sarcophagi. On the wall are faded frescoes of ancient nomadic nobles. As Stone steps into the room, something jumps him.
They both try to grapple him, but miss. Telryn shoots a bunch of Magic Missiles at the creature on the left. Paks swings at one of the monsters and misses. Chuck tumbles into the room, but they take attacks of opportunity on him. One hits him. He feels very cold for a moment, and seems to have lost energy. Chuck moves aside and drinks a potion of Cure Light Wounds. Darmaon tumbles in and shoots with his bow but misses. One of the creatures tries to grapple Stone and fails. Stone steps in and tries to punch one of the vampires, hitting it repeatedly and killing it. Miriel activates her spear of Daylight, moves up behind Paks, and sticks the spear over Paks' shoulder. It recoils back and hisses.
Telryn passes. Paks steps in and attacks the recoiling vampire, hitting it twice. Chuck steps up and attacks it with both swords and killing it. They both turn into mists and move into the sarcophagi. Miriel says she thinks that wooden stakes will kill them permanently. Stone opens one of the sarcophagi and Paks stakes the vampire with a chunk of one of Stone's 10-foot poles. They do the same in the other sarcophagus. All that is in the sarcophagi are old bones, no treasure. Paks detects evil down all the corridors, but just feels a general sense of evil. Miriel heals Chuck. Paks leads, followed by Miriel, down another corridor. We reach another round room. Paks stands in the door and Miriel holds the spear in front of her. Paks steps in and detects evil. Miriel stands in between the two sarcophagi while Stone opens them. He smashes the bones. Telryn searches one of the sarcophagi, but doesn't find anything.
We go down another corridor, about 15 feet, then into a rectangular room, 15x20. Three corridors exit, one to the left and two to the right. As we look in, we see a shattered and burned wooden coffin and a swath of dried bloodstains near the south wall. A broken chest lies against the north wall. Paks steps in. She feels evil to her left. Miriel inspects the bloodstains; it looks like someone was badly wounded. Chuck looks at the coffin, but it is just smashed. Chuck sees bare footprints in the dust.
Stone moves off in the direction of the map. The next corridor leads to a 15x20 room. In the corner of the room is a massive stone chair. Seated in the chair is a 10' suit of banded mail with a drawn scimitar across its lap. Paks detects evil. Telryn detects magic. It is magic but not evil. Telryn senses an enchantment. As Stone steps into the room, two red eyes glow inside the helmet and it rises to its feet with a terrible clanking.
Telryn casts Grease on the floor under it. Chuck pulls out his bow and shoots it. He hits, but it doesn't appear to be damaged very much. Darmaon throws a bag of alchemist's fire at it, but misses and hits Stone. Miriel steps forward and calls down a Flame Strike on it. Paks steps in and attacks it, but her sword bounces off the armor. It swings at her, but just pounds her armor. Stone puts himself out.
Telryn shoots off a Magic Missile. Chuck tumbles around it and swings Hoarfrost. Darmaon tumbles in and attacks it, but fumbles, slips in the grease, and hits his head on the wall. The creature attacks him and hits. Miriel watches to see if someone needs help. Stone steps in and aims a pair ofr hammerfists at it and hits once. It attacks Stone and hits him.
Telryn casts a Magic Missile. Chuck draws his second sword and hits with both. As he hits with his short sword, the whole suit of armor collapses.
We look behind the throne for a door. We don't find anything. We keep searching, but don't find anything. We do notice four swords on the back of the throne in the shape of a compass, which we recognize as the symbol of Corean. Stone wraps the scimitar in canvas and rope and sticks it in the bag. He says it'll look great in the living room. Stone pulls out his fancy shirt and wrings it dry, since his other one was burned.
We go down the next hallway and enter the corner of another room. There's a large chest in the center of the room. Darmaon searches for traps. As Chuck steps into the room, the floor opens up and he falls into a pit of spikes. The chest falls with him. It breaks open, and is empty. Stone moves over with a rope to help him up. Paks keeps searching, but doesn't find anything.
We move on to the next room, towards Paks' sense of evil. As we get in, we see it is swarmed by bats. Darmaon moves to the front with his wand of Burning Hands and zaps them. Chuck swings with both swords and hits both times. Paks waits for a monster, and Miriel waits for someone to need help. The swarm spreads out to attack the three in front, Paks, Darmaon, and Chuck. They take attacks of opportunity. Darmaon draws his keen sword and hits it. Chuck also hits. The swarm covers them, and Darmaon is nauseated.
Darmaon moves out of the swarm. Chuck steps back and swings with Hoarfrost, hitting the swarm and dispersing it. Paks lays hands on everyone who was injured by the bats to stop the bleeding from the hundreds of scratches. We can hear more bat swarms down the hall. We move down the hall with Darmaon in front, wand in hand.
20 feet down the corridor, we reach a room which we can barely see into due to the swarm of bats. Darmaon shoots them again with the wand of Burning Hands. They swarm Darmaon, Chuck, and Paks. Darmaon blasts them again. Stone punches at the swarm, but hits Darmaon. Paks pushes forward towards the room. When she steps forward, a vampire drops from the ceiling. She shouts to Darmaon to back up, vampire up here. Miriel blesses everyone. Telryn magic missiles the swarm. Chuck swings at the swarm again with Hoarfrost twice, hitting once.
Darmaon steps back and shoots them again with the wand of Burning Hands. Stone tumbles forward to punche at the vampire, but another one drops from the ceiling on him and tries to grapple him, but he breaks free and hits the vampire attacking Paks, but it doesn't seem to hurt it. It tries to slam Paks with a claw. As it does so, another drops from the ceiling and tries to grapple Paks, but it fumbles and falls to the ground. Paks swings at it and hits. Paks attacks the first vampire with, but misses. Miriel plows through the swarm of bats and does a turning when she sees a vampire. One vampire runs away. The swarm attacks and Darmaon starts to retch. Telryn launches a Flame Sphere into the middle of the swarm. Chuck swings twice and hits once.
Darmaon retches and calls for a medic. The vampire in front of Stone attacks him, but fumbles and misses. Stone punches it. Stone grapples the master vampire. The vampire tries to pin him, succeeds, and starts sucking his blood. Paks attempts a smite at the master vampire. Miriel shoots off a Searing Light at the vampire and fries it. The swarm attacks again and Darmaon passes out. Telryn magic missiles the swarm. Chuck hits it with Hoarfrost and disperses it.
Darmaon bleeds. The final vampire tries to slam Stone, but fails. He punches it with a flurry of blows, hitting three times. Paks vomits. Miriel casts a Healing Circle to heal everyone. Darmaon is conscious again. Telryn directs the flaming sphere over everyone's heads and down onto the vampire, but it dodges the sphere. Chuck moves over and hits the vampire with Hoarfrost. It turns gaseous and heads out the way we came.
We can finally see that we are in a crypt. All the sarcophagi are broken and there are empty niches along the wall, but there is one closed sarcophagus in the crypt. It's empty, though, and when we look back, the master vampire's belongings are all in a pile where he was incinerated. There are bracers, a ring, and a carved black obsidian necklace, in the shape of a cloven hoof. The hoof is evil.
We search the room, go back to the other sarcophagi, and kill the last two vampires. We don't find anything in a quick search.