Oathday, Erastus 19, 4712 afternoon
Brinewall Castle

I feel chilled to the bone.

We are under the castle, in some vast natural cavern, and below us, deeper in, lies the gory remains of our foe. Our victory came at a cost, at least for me, and the weakness, or sickness, or whatever it is that the bloated flying thing set to work against me is slow to pass.

Just a few hours before we were out in the bright sunshine, heading toward the wooden structure that leaned against the northern wall inside the castle bailey. By tacit agreement I would open the door, and Sparna would step inside.

“Spiders,” he called out, “and something else… I think it’s an ettercap.”

We mostly held back, waiting for them to come to us, but Etayne was overly enthusiastic and charged past our front line. She received some venomous bites as a reward. Quickly we killed the spiders and their keeper. Back out in the sun Etayne looked a bit sick, and her skin had a greenish pallor. Ivan handed her a portion of Lesser Restoration, which she quaffed.

With all of the above ground parts of the castle explored it was time to descend to the castle basement, and we chose the stairs in the troglodyte room as our point of entry. Once again Sparna led the way down, with me at his back, and after a turn there was a closed door, which Sparna opened.

In the flickering shadows from my light I could see a large dining hall full of troglodytes, who were just finishing up lunch. They advanced, and we backed up the stairs with the intent to lure them singly into the room above where we could set upon each en masse.

Kali whispered, “I have an idea… let me known when Sparna has cleared the steps. This should be good.” A moment later I heard her complete a spell, the result of which was that the first troglodyte slipped on the now greasy stairs and fell back down among his companions. Others attempted the climb, and many of them slipped and fell as well. One made it into the room, and was summarily killed.

We all had a good laugh, but the troglodytes retreated back down the stairs, and in fact fled back into an inner chamber, where they joined with more of their kind, and their leader.

Upon hearing the tactical details of the situation, Kali and I glanced at one another and grinned. This briefly took me back to happier times when we were girls growing up together in Sandpoint, always on the prowl for mischief; hatching silly plans and working together as one to see them out.

Using a combination of Obscuring Mist, Sound Burst, and Color Spray we made a significant dent in the health and morale of our confined opponents.

Suddenly a very large Sparna (a seven foot high dwarf?!) ran past us through the mist and into the room. The rest of us followed and within a minute all of the troglodytes, including the rather largish leader (whom Sparna had hewn in half), were dead.

Kali and Ivan had explored the adjacent room while the fighting was underway, and discovered an armory with useful items, which when combined with the troglodyte leader’s magic morning star provided us with a valuable haul.

[231] bone dice
[232] +1 cold iron morning star (from troglodyte leader)
[233] half plate
[234] master work heavy steel shield
[235-238] heavy crossbows
40 crossbow bolts
[239] case: 10 flasks of Alchemists Fire

We returned to the dining room and after Radella determined the wide double doors were neither locked nor trapped, we opened them and entered the castle’s kitchen complex. The floor was dusty, and a regular trail of prints led to one off to our right. Doors were set in all of the walls.

I sniffed the tracks on the floors and could easily tell that both troglodytes and ogres had passed through. We opened the first door on the right and saw the stairs that led down from the ballroom. A set of double doors next to the stair door led to a large circular room with a cistern in the center, flanked by four columns. Another pair of double doors was east, but they were closed and so we returned to the kitchen.

The door in the eastern wall led to a natural cavern.

The door to the north opened to a small hallway that ended with another door, but it was locked and Radella was called over. After a few moments of fiddling with the mechanism she grunted, took off her pack and pulled out a complex set of tools carefully wrapped in a leather pouch. She quietly worked nearly half an hour before I heard a soft click followed by a snort of triumph from Radella. She opened the door, beyond which was a large natural cavern with stalactites and stalagmites reaching down and up toward one another. Sparna and I wandered through the cavern, where I found what looked like a secret door cleverly hidden in the west wall. Radella once again spent some quality time with the lock, but in the end it yielded to her skillful fingers. She opened the door, which lead to a natural cave.

We followed this tunnel to its entrance on the shore of the northwest corner of the peninsula upon which the castle was built. There were no signs of recent activity here, and so we went back to the kitchen, locking the door behind us.

The western door was also locked, and this too took Radella some time to pick. Beyond this door was a passageway leading down.

Before moving on to another level we thought it prudent to finish exploring this one, and so we returned to the cistern and I listened at the door and heard the sound of large creatures snoring loudly. We arranged ourselves for a quick and quiet entry, and I thrust them open.

The room was a dungeon/cell complex that had been converted into a torture chamber, and two ogres were slumped against one another near the far wall. The larger one opened an eye and grunted, “You not supposed to be here.”

Really? How could it know that? I figured it couldn’t and with a little fast talking managed to bamboozle him into thinking we had been sent down to offer them something to eat. We were getting along famously when an arrow whizzed by my ear and stuck into the ogre’s chest. It looked stupidly at the quivering shaft sticking out from its shirt before yelling loudly at its companion to wake up.

Apparently Ivan was bored by the conversation and decided to initiate the inevitable sooner rather than later.

It was a short fight, made all the more short by a Hold Person cast by yours truly upon the larger ogre, who had just been hexed by Etayne. The smaller ogre lasted a few seconds longer before tottering over on its side and releasing a large volume of gas, and judging by the dark stains on its trousers, it had released the contents of its bladder and bowels as well.

Looking around the chamber we saw a woman’s pale blank face staring out from one of the cells. She was tall and blond and had the physique of a warrior. We asked her a number questions — all at once, which seemed to overwhelm her. I pointed at a nearby pile of rather nice looking adventuring gear and asked if that was hers. She nodded, and as Radella unlocked the cell door (the large ogre had the key) I indicated she should take her equipment.

She seemed to relax some after that, and said her name was Kelda Oxgutter. She and some friends had come down from the north (Kali seemed to know the kingdom from which she came, naturally) to see if there was anything left to plunder in the castle. They got down to the basement level before being overwhelmed. Her friends had been killed, but she had been knocked out and locked up.

She was suffering from some sort of stigma about not falling in battle, but when Ivan and I agreed to accompany her back to her home once we were done with the castle, she perked up a little and agreed to help us. Star in particular was happy to have another fighter on board, and passed on her appreciation to Kelda, who for some reason seemed confused. Maybe she does not like mice — it takes all kinds.

One of the ogres had been carrying a few interesting odds and ends in a sheep stomach pouch, which we took.

[240] master work dagger (Kali)
[241] elemental gem: when crushed, smashed or broken a large earth elemental appears under the control of the breaker
shiny river rocks
77 gp
sheep stomach pouch

The northern door opened onto an east/west natural corridor, which led back to the kitchen to the west, and on to a small chamber hewn from the rock to the east. An intricate iron screen blocked the way east, in the center of which was a door with the painted image of Pharasma upon it. Peering through the screen I could see a crypt, with the ceiling partially collapsed at the far end.

The door was locked, but the iron key from the lighthouse unlocked it, and we walked through. Alcoves lined either side of the crypt, but the sarcophagi had been toppled over and smashed, and the bodies were missing. Where the ceiling had collapsed was an opening to a vast natural cavern, and the missing walls from two of the southern alcoves led down into the space.

I had walked down a short distance when Kali called me back.

There, hovering in the large opening of the crypt was an image of Pharasma — exactly the same as the painting on the door. This seemed too much of a coincidence, but I felt it best to be cautious, and so I bowed and asked, “What may we do for you, my lady?”

“This place is holy to Pharasma. Lay down your weapons and enter the cavern below in peace.”

This seemed an odd request, and when I pressed her for details she responded with some sort of twisted dogma that might fool some people, but it was clear to me this was an imposter.

“This is not Pharasma,”, I stated matter of factly and strode out of the chamber and into the cavern below. The image blustered on with some sort of reply, but I heard Kali say, “Bullshit!” and she came down by my side. Most of the others soon joined us.

It was not dark. There were odd speckled motes of light drifting through the air, like dust lit by a sun beam, and these illuminated the cavern in a dream like haze. The walls were covered in paintings of four winged humanoid shapes. Pazuzu again!

Kali was scanning the ceiling, as if looking for something specific (she later explained how the Illusion spell worked) and grabbing my arm she quietly whispered in my ear, “There, circling that large stalactite, that’s our foe!”

A large, shadowy creature that looked like a ten armed octopus drifted among the shadows of the irregular ceiling.

The thing rippled and we were blasted by an Unholy Blight. I cast Cause Fear upon it, which angered it enough to drop down and touch me, bleeding off some of my health. Star and Beorn snarled with fury, while the rest of my friends offered soothing words.

Kelda was standing near enough to slash it with her long sword, but the creature’s wound immediately healed.

Kali summoned an archon lantern (I didn’t know she could do that!), and it began to shoot shafts of light at the creature, which roared wrathfully in pain.

Others shot arrows or threw weapons at it, but it was difficult to tell if these attacks were doing much, if any damage.

I struck it with Touch of Idiocy, and it was not happy. It sent a Scorching Ray back at me, but Sparna shoved me aside and the rays hit him instead.

It was clear thing did not like light, but it also seemed vulnerable to anything with a divine relationship. Its focused attacks on me also implied this same weakness. I called out, “Use divine magic, or call upon the faith of your diety to aid in your attacks.”

The creature swooped in again, and I bashed it with my flail, the ball of which served as my primary holy symbol to Groetus and was glowing with divine light. The beast screamed in agony as my companions acted similarly, and it retreated to the ceiling, calling out, “Father, help me! Pazuzu!”

I recast Sound Burst centered on the creature, and it exploded in a blast of ichor and pulpy flesh.

Unfortunately the affliction caused by the thing’s touch continued to work its way upon me for a while longer, and my health and resistance to illness felt depleted somewhat. Drinking a Lesser Restoration potion has helped some, but I am not fully recovered. Perhaps when we return to the cemetery tonight Spivey can offer assistance.

Wealday, Erastus 18, 4712 evening
Brinewall Cemetery

After our encounter with the bat we explored the eastern battlements where Radella found a secret door leading into the armory. Where to go next?

There were several stairways leading down to the main level, and one leading up in the large tower. Up seemed like the better option (there could only be so much up, whereas down presented us with the entire castle plus whatever lay beneath), and so I led the way back to the tower and up the stairs.

The top of the tower was a library, with shelves lining the wall and a door leading out to a small balcony. Sitting in a large nest off to one side was a harpy. She had been perusing a book, which lay open before her, as I entered, and although startled, she looked more curious than menacing, and smelled oddly of washed linen and ashes.

She beckoned for me to approach, and remembering the lessons on diplomacy from the Temple of Pharasma, I moved forward, and she reached out and touched my arm.

“Greetings, I am Zaiobe, and I can communicate in this way when we make physical contact.”

Her voice was soft like the wind through reeds, but she did not speak aloud — instead her words formed directly in my mind as she thought them. Telepathy!

She wanted to know who we were and why we were here, which, judging from the whispers of my friends on the stairway, was what we were keen to learn from her.

I explained that a friend was sick, and that we were sure the source of her illness resided in Brinewall Castle. We had volunteered to explore the castle and find and eliminate the cause of her affliction.

In turn, Zaiobe replied that she was an oracle, and had lived here for some time, but the castle was already occupied by the corbies when she arrived. She kept mostly to herself in the library, studying. It was clear she thought little of the bird-men, and seemed unaware (and unconcerned) of their reason for being here.

“However,” she replied coyly, there is a favor I would ask of you that could be to our mutual benefit. My lover, Kikonu, has become an insufferable boar, and I wish to be rid of him for good. He commands the corbies and appears to have some greater goal for being in the castle. Help me kill him and I shall leave you alone to do as you will in the castle so long as you leave me in peace.”

I asked what sort of being was Kikonu, and she replied that he was an outsider who took the form of a red skinned human with black wings, but he also could assume the shape of a giant raven with humanoid arms and legs.

“He sounds like a daemon,” I said thoughtfully. “Some call his kind that, yes,” she replied. “Where did he come from?” I asked.

“In far off Tien, when mothers wish to frighten their children into obedience, they speak of Kikonu. When the solitary traveler looks anxiously over his shoulder, it is Kikonu he fears to find. Many years ago he came here from his native land on some mission which he will not reveal even to me. He has dealings with those who dwell beneath the castle, and he organizes the corbies and other, equally offensive beings to guard the upper levels.”

“So was that his play in the room below?”

“Yes!” she spat out with obvious contempt and loathing. “This is what he has become. A weak minded fool who imagines himself the king of the corbies! Who but a dullard would even think of such a thing, must less desire it for himself? He spends all of his days writing that insipid play of his, and then organizing performances of the latest scenes with the corbies… and forcing me to watch. You can see why I must be rid of him, surely?”

“I can see how you would want him gone, but please don’t call me Shirley.” She didn’t get it.

I explained to my companions what Zaiobe had suggested, and we agreed to help her kill Kikonu (something we would clearly have to do on our own if we did not help). She suggested that we hide ourselves in the derelict inn just down the road from the castle gates. She would arrive after we were there, and call Kikonu to her. We would all attack once he entered.

And that is basically how it played out. We hid at the inn and Zaiobe arrived a short time later. She called Kikonu, and before too long we heard him walking up the road toward the inn. He had four corbies in tow, but he was the main threat.

He entered the inn, gushing about the latest scene he and the corbies had been rehearsing, and how she was really going to enjoy watching their performance.

He was in his bird form, and he was wielding a scythe at the end of a chain (which Kali later identified as a kusaragama). Ivan drew first blood with a shot using one of the evil outsider bane arrows we had found earlier. Sparna pressed the attack up close, taking a hit himself in the exchange.

“Beware my dear, there are enemies lurking here. Kill them!” he screamed.

Olmas charged in and contributed to his discomfort. The corbies began to enter the fray, but we were ready for them and I quickly cast Cause Fear on one, which fled. Etayne kept another corby at bay in the kitchen.

Zaiobe then shot Kikonu with a flaming burst arrow, which caught him by surprise. It suddenly dawned on him that she had lured him into a trap, and shaking with rage he shrieked, “You!” and teleported to her side.

We adjusted to his unexpected move, and the fighters charged in again. I channeled energy to heal my friends, while Kali Color Sprayed two corbies, who dropped.

And then quite unexpectedly, the remaining corby charged Olmas, dropping him to the ground. Radella returned the favor, and the corby also dropped.

Zaiobe clawed at Kikonu, who fell to the floor. Sparna removed Kikonu’s head while Ivan and Etayne took care of the unconscious corbies. I used a Cure Light Wounds spell to revive Olmas, who still required additional healing to set him to rights.

I asked Zaiobe if we could take Kikonu’s gear in payment for helping to slay him, and she agreed. But she had a queer look in her eye that made me feel uneasy. Kali picked up on this right away and suggested we haul Kikonu’s body outside and search it for valuables there.

[218] Dancing Wasp, +1 kusaragama: it makes a shrill whistling sound in
battle. Once per day the wielder can summon a giant wasp to follow
orders for as long as the kusaragama is kept swinging (max 5 rounds)
[219] small leather pouch
[220] 4 vials of ink
[221] 5 shiny pearls
[222] dark-wood and silver disk etched with an image of Brinewall with the
sun shining upon it (could not be identified: transmutation magic)

Zaiobe announced that she was returning to her rooms, and we told her we would meet her in the library the next morning. She flew off, and the arced gracefully around and began to shoot arrows at us.

This seemed so stupid and so short sighted that I did not understand it. We had just handily defeated Kikonu and four of his minions, and yet she thought to attack us on her own?

We scattered, with those capable of shooting ranged weapons doing so. I helped, but I am not very skilled with weapons of this sort, and my primary contribution was not shooting my friends.

Eventually, as predicted, Zaiobe’s arrow riddled body plunged to the ground with a bone crunching thump! We looted her body.

[223] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (Sparna)
[224] potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (Radella)
[225] chain shirt
[226] +1 composite longbow (STR12) (Ivan)
[227] wood holy symbol of Pazuzu (wood)

We returned to the cemetery and met with Spivey. She happily healed Anna and Olmas, reading from a pair of tiny little scrolls. Kali sent Nihali back to the caravan with an update on what we had encountered.

Oathday, Erastus 19, 4712 mid day
Brinewall Castle

We returned to the castle early this morning and went directly to Zaiobe’s library. There we found a handful of interesting tomes, but of more immediate importance was a set of blueprints for Brinewall castle. Using these we could see that we had explored the entire upper tier, which left the main level and whatever lies beneath. Unfortunately other than showing a handful of tantalizing stairways leading down, the plans provide no clue as to what is below the ground level.

Following the tower stairs all of the way down we entered a tumble down room of broken furniture. As we descended the stench intensified, triggering a severe gag reflex in many of us. Moving stupidly about the room were a quartet of troglodytes. At least that explained the stench.

Those of us near the lead quickly rushed in to make room for the others still on the stairs. The trogs moved in and the bashing party began. One of them seemed to realize that they were out numbered and, opening a door, yelled for help (so I was later told by Kali, who speaks draconic). Soon they were all dead.

The door through which the troglodyte had yelled led to stairs heading down. A door to the west opened onto a ruined barracks in which a large lizard was kept. The lizard lunged at us and was killed.

To the northeast a door opened onto a room full of troglodytes. All of them were sleeping, making an awful racket and smell with their snores, burps, farts, and various other bodily emissions. We crept in, and by the time they realized they had unwelcome guests they were already well along the path towards death.

A large hall was beyond the final door out from the tower chamber. Columns supported a high ceiling, and a red carpet led from a pair of double doors to the southwest to a throne at the northeastern end. Oddly enough, fresh splashes of blood were splattered on the floor nearby.

I led the way across the hall to a small door, behind which was a hall with a door on either side. To the west was a washroom and latrine. To the east was a wide hall with columns supporting the ceiling. The ruins of cages lined the walls and a massive heap of rotting carcasses and refuse was piled up in the center. Perched atop this mound of carrion was a female ogre-kin, shoving fist fulls of rotting flesh into her mouth.

We ran in and placed ourselves around the dim witted creature. She blinked and looked about before cackling, “You has disturbed my dinner. Oh, but you has half-elvsies. They is not as tasty as elvsies, but halfsies is close enough!” She smacked her lips, belched and descended from her throne.

She died surprisingly quickly.

[223a] +1 flail
140gp (in a small sack with “rent” written on it)

We returned to the main hall and Radella opened the double doors to the lower level of the ballroom. Bloodstains (old, not like those we found in the hall) coated the walls, and the same deep gouges we had seen in the upstairs armory were here too.

As I was sketching the layout of the room it became clear that it was not symmetrical. The columns were not centered in the room, and consulting the blueprints it seems that budget cuts may have reduced the size of the room after construction had begun.

Stairs leading down were behind a small door to the west, and a pair of double doors were east. Through these were another pair of double doors directly ahead, and small doors to the north and south. The two smaller doors opened onto rubble strewn storage rooms, with another door in the far end of the room to the north.

Searching the rubble we found some useful items.

[224a] case with 20 masterwork cold iron arrows
5 Sparna
5 Ana
5 Radella
5 Olmas
[225a] +1 flaming burst arrow (wrapped in red silk) (Ivan)

I paused and listened at the double doors.

“Oh you are so pretty, but then I love elves — they have such a natural beauty about them. I do hope you will be happy here. Now let’s see, I have already introduced you to my half ogre and half orc…”

It sounded like an elf was being held captive, and so I swiftly opened the door and moved in. It was an oddly shaped long room, filled with all sorts of creatures and humanoids (including humans). But they were not living… and they had been altered in unusual ways and posed in bizarre positions.

Something very small and elf-like (but with twitching antennae) stood before me.

“Oh, hello. I am Buttersnips, the castle’s resident artist. What do you think of my work?” And here he… she… it waved its tiny little hands about, gesturing proudly at the monstrous examples of taxidermy. But worse was still to come.

“Now this elf, she is my most recent work, and she is a masterpiece! I am sure she appreciated how I transformed her. I take great pride in the fact that I keep all of my subjects alive as I work on them so they can see how beautiful I have made them. But the elf, well now, she really is something special, don’t you agree?”

That was all we needed to hear. Kali cleverly coated the thing in Glitterdust just before it moved like a blur to one side of the room and grabbed a sword. “I hate glitter!The fighter closed in and began to pummel the thing, which once again moved as a blur out and into the hall, but Ivan shot it with an arrow and it dropped.

[226a] 5 doses of spider venom (identified by Etayne)
[227a] short sword

Etayne said it was a quickling, and that we were very fortunate that Kali covered it with glitter or we would not have had a chance to see it (much less hit it) because they flitter about so fast.

Etayne and I next explored the outside area beyond the northern store room. There was a weedy courtyard that had at one time been a garden, and a murky pond slimed with algae. Etayne poked the water with her spear and a giant beetle clambered out. We wisely retreated back through the door, closing it behind us.

Those with ranged weapons raced up the ballroom stairway and out onto the wall, where they shot arrows at it. Olmas and I ran out and around to get to the door on the opposite side of the courtyard where we could attack the massive beetle from the other side. Olmas was anxious to join in and kept getting in my way. By the time I finally opened the other door, the bug had been slain.

The others joined us and we moved on to the circular chamber beneath the armory. Opposite the stairs from above were stairs leading down. This stairwell had been sealed off by a door, but the door lay in fragments.

A short hall was to the south with rooms off either side, each with its door hanging on its hinges. The west room was an office where another set of stairs came down from the upper level.

We heard something moaning in the eastern room, and quickly backed out as a shambling mockery of a man lumbered out after us. It wore a dragon shaped helm and the blood stained remains of half-plate — it was a wight. It bore a long sword but rather than swing it it simply reached out with boney fingers and touched me. A wave of cold ran through me emanating out from the spot where the wight had made contact, and I realized we needed to slay it quickly or face dire consequences. Another wight came out from the room, moaning as it advanced upon us.

Mercifully I was surrounded by friends, and we swiftly killed both wights.

[228] +1 long sword
[229] dragon helm
[330] pieces of half-plate

Kali recognized the helm as the traditional helmet of the captain of the guard at Brinewall Castle.

There was a desk in the room where the wights had been, and a number of interesting papers were in the desk. But the most interesting was a letter sitting on top of the desk: an account of the attack on the castle written on the very night of the attack, but unfinished.

Kali took great interest in these papers, and has been reading through them as I have been writing this entry. Apparently the corbies had attacked the castle before. In fact the castle itself may have been built upon and underground dwelling of corbies (and other creatures), who broke through some time before the final attack on the castle. They had been driven back into the depths and the hole sealed up, but it seems pretty clear to me that they returned, but now they were in the company of some powerful allies.