as written by the cavalier, Olmas Lurecia, himself.

17 Erastus, Toilday

Before we left to go to the castle, we asked Koya for a fortunetelling.  She agreed, and after some shuffling and concentration, drew a single card.

“The locksmith,” she said carefully, and paused. “Puzzling.”

We waited for her to say more, but she seemed to be staring at the card like it would talk to her.

“What you seek is complex.  The key is there but whether you can turn it remains to be seen.”  We looked at each other, and then at her. For her part, she gazed at us, then solemnly collected her cards and walked away.

I guess it is the nature of fortunetellers to be a bit mysterious, even to their friends.

We took off for the castle, or actually, the town first, since we’d pass through it on the way.  And actually, that wasn’t even quite accurate either, because before we reached the town we would reach a dilapidated, partially collapsed lighthouse.  Nehali had been circling, and reported back to Kali that there was a dead sea drake in the lagoon ahead.  That sounded a bit ominous – anything that could kill a sea drake might be a considerable threat to us too.

The undergrowth was fairly thick and tangled.  Kasimir was able to make his way through with only mild difficulty.  This continued until we reached the lighthouse. I dismounted and quietly told Kasamir to “watch”.

The growth around the lighthouse was also vigorous, but it wasn’t completely overgrown – just long neglected.  The roof had caved in, and there was plenty of rubble around.  No magic, according to Kali. Entering carefully revealed .. well, lots more rubble. Grubbing randomly through it, though, we found a partially crushed

[202] strongbox

which had done its job, because inside was an uncrushed

[203] rusty key

plus 93gp.  Kali scowled momentarily and then smiled. Ivan stared at the key and looked away.  And we now had a

[203] shiny key

I noticed that from this vantage point we actually had a pretty good view of the castle.  There was no movement. Looking down into the small bay and dock (even though the lighthouse was collapsed we were still on higher ground here) I could see what seemed to be a northern longboat at one of the piers, but judging from its odd angle, it also appeared to be unseaworthy.  Whoever had arrived in it was either no longer alive, or at the very least no longer able to return.  From here we could also make out the buildings of the village, although not with any detail.

We made our way down the trail from the lighthouse to the town.  We noticed what appeared to be a cemetery to the south.  We simply took note of that, for now, and began to inspect the town.  We suspected that although we’d seen no movement at the castle, it was probably not uninhabited, so I dismounted Kasimir and instructed him ‘quiet’, inspecting the town on foot with the rest of our team.

We found a deserted town square.  Buildings appeared to have been less ransacked (although we did find some of those) and more simply attacked.  That is, it looks like the town “dug in” when the attack came, and the attackers needed to break in doors and/or windows to get inside.  As a rule, it did not appear that people here ran off – they hunkered down and fought.

And lost.

We were interrupted by Kali.  Nehali was feeling a sharp uptick in fear.  She returned summarily and said, “human sized birds”.  Apparently we were close enough now for her to discern inhabitants of the castle.

Beware the birds who wish to fly but cannot.

And so one of Ameiko’s mumblings came true.

There was nothing of value here in the town.  The battle had in fact been lost, and either as a result of that or some time after, it had in general been looted.  Mundane things of low value were still to be found here and there.  From the harbor supply store we availed ourselves of some remaining ropes – never know when you might need another line.

We turned our attention to the cemetery outside of town. Although the fence surrounding it appeared rickety, the gates looked downright ornate.  And polished.  And resplendent.   A stark contrast to the rest of the area.  The gate was flanked by statues of Desna, and inside the cemetery almost looked like a lord’s garden rather than a cemetery. Inside, another statue of Desna held a basin of water which proved to be holy water.  We took some, and then refreshed it.  According to our clerics, the new water immediately became holy water as well.  As we beheld this, a small fairy or sprite emerged, hovering, from behind a nearby tree.

Spivey, she was called, and she was in part responsible for this garden/cemetery/holy place.  She had served a cleric living here (but since passed – eaten by a plant?) and had settled here by the statues of Desna after that event.  She told us much about the terrain.

The sea drake?  Swooped too close to the water and crab-like creatures had pulled it in.

The human birds?  They did not fly but they did come out to hunt about once a week (and it had been several days since their last hunt.)

She said she was willing to heal us, if it were needed, and to consider the cemetery to be a safe haven if we needed such.

After a brief discussion, we decided we needed to gain entrance to the castle. A horse in the castle would not be of great use and arguably would be some hindrance, so Kasimir would be left in the cemetery (with Spivey’s polite nod.)  We decided to try to simulate a hunting party returning.  While we had no idea if one was actually out, we were hoping that confused gate guards might open the gate out of habit if we identified ourselves as such.

We split into two groups: Qatana, Radella, Sparna, and Ivan in one, and myself, Kali, Etayne, and Anavaru in the other. We slowly and quietly brought ourselves within a few dozen feet of the front door, hiding in shrubs and undercover near the door.  The door did not appear to be the classic castle portcullis or drawbridge; just a pair of sturdy looking doors.

We first tried making animal sounds to lure them out.  No such luck. Finally, in undercommon, we called out: “Open the gates for the hunting party!”

And that worked. Four bird people – somebody called them corbies – two corbies came out.  And I immediately saw a flaw in our plan.  While we were battling our foes, anybody inside held a tremendous advantage over us.  That is, they could simply close the door.  It might not be brave,  but it would be very prudent, and we’d be left with an alarm having been raised and still no entrance to the castle.

As the others set themselves upon the four corbies, I ran to the door. Inside two more corbies looked surprised and ran towards a lever which, I assumed, would do exactly as I feared.  If they succeeded, I’d be separated from my friends but on the inside, at least.  Perhaps I’d still do some good.  I swung at one and connected solidly with my great axe.  Then Kali surprised me, leaping to my side and dousing them both in irridescent colors.  Color spray!  Both their eyes glazed over, and I killed one easily.  The second, immobile one also quickly bled out.

However, before the color spray, one of them had made a sound which very much sounded like an alarm.  While we’d all gained entrance to the castle, it was doubtful that we had the element of surprise any more.

Qatana looked over the door mechanism, and decided they should remain open.  To that end, she took the levers that operated the outside gates.  Now the mechanism wasn’t broken, but would be difficult to operate quickly.

I quickly did the same with the inside one.

Sparna heard talons running away overhead. He quickly ascended the ladder and poked his head up.  He saw a corby disappearing around the corner. I scurried up as well and Qatana and I gave chase.

We went as far as a turn which would have broken line-of-sight back to the group and I paused.  We didn’t want to separate the group too much.  We gathered everyone again and proceeded on a more sedate pace. We got close enough to see that they seemed to be readying a catapult. Apparently the one we followed did not know we’d followed him, and they were now making ready to send stones or boulders upon us when we entered the courtyard below.

Didn’t work out so well, for him.

Knowing that the rest of the group was behind me, I ran in and engaged the first enemy, taking care to leave space for other combatants to step in too. My great axe connected again.  Imagine my surprise when the second “warrior” to rush in was Qatana! Who leveled a pretty decent blow upon the second corby even as my great axe laid the first one out. Radella came in and finished Qatana’s foe.  Wow – dead in about 10 seconds.  We may have regained the element of surprise, because it’s possible every corby who knew of our entry is now dead.

We were now off the parapets and into the castle proper, and we began a quick but stealthy reconnaissance.  It didn’t take too long before we heard, rather than saw, a maintenance crew coming up to us.  They weren’t armed, but corbies, as luck would have it, are bipedal, beaked, and sport talons at the ends of their “wings” and feet.  So even unarmed they can provide something of a battle.  Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen any armed yet.

Anyway, these four had our entire group to fight against. Again, while we couldn’t avoid the sounds of battle, we wanted to make sure that none of them escaped to explicitly sound an alarm.  And we were successful: award killing blows to Sparna (2), Radella, and Anavaru.  Although I have to imagine the bodies and blood will tell their own story.

Ugh. Somebody should call a maintenance crew 🙂

Continuing our exploration, and led by our chief risk taker, Qatana, we found what seemed to be the ghost of a small child.  Or so I might guess, except it seemed to have the skull of a fox.  Qatana, moved by pity, became its first victim as it literally stole her voice.  I attempted to intervene, but found that after it struck me I was seriously tired.  It struck me again and I became exhausted. Radella was finally able to step in and end its attack.

We had no magic to return Qatana’s voice or my stamina, so we simply waiting, hoping it was magic that would expire.  And thankfully, after an hour, it did.  We had ample opportunity to inspect the artwork on the wall here, which seemed to depict an attack: ninjas with throwing stars, bird people with talons, and ogres with –

Wait, ogres?  Ogres attacked here too?  In collaboration with the others?  Clearly what felled Brinewall was not a chance attack or a lapse in security.  Somebody put a lot of planning into this.

As we inspected more rooms at this level, it became apparent that they were being used as bedrooms by the corbies.  One room appeared to house only one (judging from the number of feathers) while the rest seemed to house multiple corbies, despite not being particularly larger.   Were we going to meet a commandant?

No.  The next room we searched was a temple. Or used to be. Well, used to be, and still was, but it had been desecrated and converted.  And the priest/priestess (how does one detect sex on these creatures?) was still here, caked in blood.  A statue of Desna had been seriously altered, and now bore the visage of the demon Pazuzu, complete with four wings and a scorpion tail.  The artwork here reflected the new decor, and didn’t really brighten the room.

The priest led off with a thunderclap that not only deafened some of us, but actually injured us it was so loud. Anavaru and Qatana led off with hits first, but soon the rest of us were engaged. I formally challenged the creature and I felt an invigorating rush run through me as I struck it solidly.  For my efforts, I received a bolt of lightning from it. The healers began healing and the fighters fought bravely, and it was Radella who again dealt the killing blow.

Inspecting the body, we found

[204] scroll of cure moderate wounds
[205] scroll of cure moderate wounds
[206] scroll of dispel magic
[207] wand of inflict moderate wounds [12]
[208] studded leather armor
[209] masterwork longsword
[210] silver unholy symbol of Pazuzu

Searching the room closely, we were able to find a small hidden alcove that this creature had been unable to find.  There we found

[211] 4 +2 evil outsider bane arrows
[212] small chest
[213] scroll of cure moderate wounds
[214] scroll of remove disease
[215] scroll of restoration
[216] phylactery of “detect standing with deity”

I guess that last is used to tell if your god would approve of what you’re considering. Or maybe it’s not even that powerful – maybe all it can tell you is that that last thing you did wasn’t a particularly good idea.

The clerics tried to restore the statue of Desna but it had been too badly desecrated.   Mere prestidigitation wasn’t going to cut it.

We found one disquieting room in which some spirit or effect caused the walls to be gouged and stained with blood before vague figures appeared.

Having explored nearly all this level, we returned to a room near where we’d entered. There was a desk with overflowing papers. Kali snagged some to inspect them and burst out laughing.  It was a play written from the perspectve of the corbies, describing the experience of one who found himself transforming into “a bitter human”.

We found a door leading to the outside – it was locked but surprise! our shiny key from the lighthouse worked just fine.  Outside there was a solarium which had been converted into a sort of bat habitat with tarps … complete with a huge bat like creature. It tried to attack us so we killed it.  It had a horrible screech.

At this point, we paused to catch our breath and decide on our next strategic move.  It might be time to go down a bit deeper into the castle.