Moonday, Arodus 13, 4712 Evening
Kalsgard
With a destination named Ravenscraig it was a safe bet that we would be climbing over sheer rock faces, and (especially given our recent history) probably in the dark, and so we stocked up on things like rope, and potions of Spider Climb and Darkvision and the like.
Uksahka had given us a reasonably detailed description of Ulf that fit the description of about three quarters of the male inhabitants of Kalsgard — I thought it not useful to point this out, and so I remained silent.
Toilday, Arodus 14, 4712 Morning
Kalsgard
Someone shot an arrow into the side of Ameiko’s wagon last night. I had already been on watch and was sleeping when the shot was fired, but seeing as how the arrow hit the solid wooden frame of the wagon we determined that either the hired thug was a bad shot or his employers were trying to send a message.
Etayne was quite excited about the arrow because it was poisoned and the poison was a very deadly and very expensive toxin.
“What a bunch of assholes,” squeaked Star. Typically my friends and I have a benign “Live and let die” outlook on others, but in this case I had to agree with Star, and thought the leaders of the Rimerunners Guild could use a little nudging toward the “die” end of the spectrum. Back to bed.
Toilday, Arodus 14, 4712 Evening
Ravenscraig
We’re here! Darkness is already spreading beneath the trees where we are hiding and peering out toward the cliff wall atop of which is perched the fortress of Ravenscraig.
The ride here from Kalsgard took most of the day, and was mostly uneventful as we rode along well traveled roads, which became rough cart paths, and finally overgrown single track. It was obvious that regular traffic passed this way, but not much and not often.
The first part of the journey was tedious: plodding a long at a walk on the back of a horse through mostly flat and low lying woods and scrub makes for a dull time. Occasionally a hill would poke up on either side, lending some interest to the scenery, but we kept to the lowlands.
Eventually we came upon a boggy area with algae slimed pools on either side of the trail. It smelled bad and we urged our horses to move a little faster. We were well past the first pool when a large blob-thing rose up from the quagmire and struck Etayne and Ivan.
Jellies! I had heard of these before, but had never seen one in person. The horses were somewhat skittish, and so we dismounted and they trotted back up the path and stood huddled together. I think Olmas’ horse actually kept them from just bolting.
After a short battle, where we learned that using blunt weapons worked best on gelatinous creatures because edged weapons caused them to divide into more creatures, we had killed the jellies and discovered a small trinket of some value.
| [269] | black pearl necklace (1300gp) |
A little further along and we saw where a new path joined the main trail: apparently we had missed the turnoff that would have taken us on detour around the bog.
We finally entered the hills as the day was ending, and a shale cliff rose up on our right as we continued on south. Eventually the woods ended and we saw a large clearing at the base of the cliff, up from which a set of wooden stairs climbed back and forth to a dark castle above.
Kali sent Nihali up to scout out Ravenscraig on the wing, and she reported that there was a large flock of ravens roosting in the highest tower.
We decided to wait until it was fully dark, and then using our climbing spells and gear scale the cliff and approach the fortress from behind. We will leave the horses here, and Olmas’ horse will keep them out of sight and waiting for our return. Pretty nifty, that.
Toilday, Arodus 14, 4712 Night
Ravenscraig
We clambered up and over the cliffs into a narrow valley that rises up behind Ravenscraig. A stream descends into the valley and forms a small pond before the fortress walls, and a path follows the stream and, leaping over a foot bridge, it arrives at a back door.
Listening at the door indicated it led to the kitchen, and as if to confirm it the aroma of cooked meats and baking bread wafted out and around us. But seriously, who bakes bread the evening for the next day? Sure, you want to set it out the night before so it will rise, but bread should be baked in the morning! The staff had clearly adopted some evil habits.
With the kitchen occupied by busy servants we made additional use of Spiderclimb and scuttled up the castle walls (just like spiders!). The upper windows were quiet, but also shuttered, using I knife I managed to lift up the securing bar within, and Ivan assisted with an Unseen Servant spell to ensure the beam would not clatter noisily onto the floor.
A dimly lit great hall stretched out before us. This seemed as good an entry point as any, and so we quickly scampered inside, closing the shutters behind.
We had entered on a dias above three sides of the hall, with the main floor of the hall below. Doors led into side passages and the main doors were in the opposite wall. At either end of the dais were doors, and we decided to check those out first.
The northern door was locked, which Radella quickly picked, and we soon found ourselves in the armory. While of reasonably quality, the weapons and armor were non-magical, except for a single arrow.
| [270] | arrow of Greater Magical Beast Slaying |
The southern door opened into a store of furs, blankets, and cold weather gear. I poked around through the pile of and found a stack of scrolls written in the native tongue. Sparna read through them and discovered they were written by Snorri Stoneye in the days before he “died.” He claimed his magical eye gave him “the sight” and the a great conflict was coming, during which the world would be flung into a deep winter.
He also made mention of a store of special items he had hidden in an upstairs flue.
| [271] | Snorri Stoneye’s journal |
The dais also led into the main tower section of the castle, and so we carefully made our way over and looked up and down the central shaft. Stairs ran both up and down, and while views to the upper levels were blocked by the wood ceiling, down below was a large and well stocked alchemical lab.
Etayne wanted to go down right away, but the rest of us thought it better to finish exploring the current level, and maybe the upper tower levels first. There was an unlocked door nearby and so we opened it.
“And that’s where you put your foot in it,” Badger quipped. It turned out to be the bedroom of one of the tower guards… and not just an ordinary guard, but some sort of were-bear. He screamed out, “Intruders in the hall! as he began to change shape.
So much for secrecy and the element of surprise. Radella and I quickly killed him, but we heard a large ruckus, like the flapping of many wings, coming in from the great hall.
Two swarming flocks of Ravens swooped in and attacked, but we managed to disrupt them through overwhelming physical attacks and spell casting. Even Helgarval joined in.
Kali had summoned an air elemental that arrived after the battle was over, but thinking quickly she sent it up the tower where Nihali had reported the ravens roosted. Moments later loud squawks of alarm confirmed that this had been a good tactic, and we moved up the tower stairs.
Waiting for us was a squad of avian ninjas, who used blowguns to shoot darts at us. Worse, some of the darts were coated with the same deadly poison that was on our “warning arrow.” Some of the darts hit their marks, and it seems that Olmas had a very bad reaction to being poisoned. He began to look rather ill, and even in the middle of combat we began to fear that we would win the battle, but then lose Olmas after the fighting was over.
The fighting did not last long. They might be fast and agile and armed with wicked poison, but quite frankly they were no match for us, and all lay dead within a minute.
This freed Etayne and I to look after Olmas. Neither of us had any means to neutralize or even slow the poison, but using a combination of healing and a scroll of Restoration we managed to bring Olmas back to health such that his own system was able to fight off what remained of the toxins in his blood stream.
“Which brings up the question,” added Beorn in a rather sly sort of way, “why is it Olmas that is always almost dying on us?” “Well, at least he always pulls through in the end,” countered Huffy. “Yeah, but sooner or later the only end he’s gonna pull through is his own.” And at this Beorn began to titter uncontrollably.
We sifted through the ex-ninjas’ belongings, taking what looked useful (or at least valuable).
| [272] | 6 potions of Blur |
| [273] | 6 potions of Disguise Self |
| [274] | 6 vials of Whinnis poison |
| [275] | 6 empty vials (traces of Deathblade) |
| [276] | 6 leather armor |
| [277] | 6 blow guns |
| [278] | 6 masterwork wakasashi (swords) |
| [279] | 18 daggers |
| [280] | 6 climbers kits |
| [281] | 6 50′ silk ropes |
| [282] | 6 +2 ninja outfits |
| [283] | 6 jade raven statuettes set with precious stones |
| [284] | 6 sets of Tien clothing (200 – 300 gp each) |
| 3 poisoned darts (Deathblade) |
In the northwest corner was a large, filthy nest spattered with copious quantities of bird droppings. Extra large bird droppings. Hiding in the twigs, rags and bird crap was a collection of human teeth, some gold coins, and a couple of other valuables.
| [285] | ivory and onyx necklace |
| [286] | kit for making messages for delivery birds |
| 27 gold pieces |
There was a narrow door that opened onto a small room with a fireplace that had not been used in some time. Reaching up into the flue I found a a pair of magical boots.
| [287] | Boots of the Winterlands |
A trap door led up into an aviary, with a coop and a small wooden table set next to platform. This was where the ravens roosted, and so we destroyed the coop and made it a generally unpleasant place for the ravens to settle back in.
We went back to the large nest below and carefully set two of our three poison darts in the nest, pointy side up. We thought this was where the large red feathered raven nested, and wanted to give it a special surprise when it returned. We tossed the ninja bodies down the stairs, and followed down ourselves.
Back in the cloak room we have used the magical eggs to generate an extra dimensional space (via Rope Trick) where we can rest undetected (or so it is hoped).
As usual I have the first watch (with Radella), and Helgarval is recounting some of his past adventures to keep us alert (or maybe he just needed to talk). In any event, I realized that Helgarval was not a helmet at all, but one of the lesser angels, and that he is susceptible to the same sorts of spells and attacks as the rest of us.
I’ll need to be careful when I wear him in the future. Too late to do anything about that now. Beorn seems unduly amused by this realization, and I can hear him chuckling softly to himself.
Wealday, Arodus 15, 4712 morning
Ravenscraig
The rope trick worked! During the night our watch saw the door to the cloak room open and close as ninjas searched the fortress for us. The search seemed to have ended, and so we continued with our exploration of Ravenscraig.
Out into the great hall, before we had gone far, ninjas started popping up out from the woodwork. And dropping like flies almost as quickly. A band of Ulfen guards joined in, but they too found themselves out classed and quickly dead.
We systematically went from door to door, exploring each of the rooms beyond. Other than a small trap door in the floor of one room, we found the usual sort of chambers one would expect in a fortress (barracks, guard rooms, supply rooms, and so on).
I opened the trap door and a booming voice from below called out something in giant. I looked over to Sparna, who quickly translated, “Enough coal! No more. All good.”
We did find some useful items in our exploration (and from the bodies of the dead ninjas and guards), plus a set of keys from the were-bear’s room (which we had failed to search the night before).
| [288] | 8 fugitive grenades |
| [289] | 8 potions |
| [290] | bracelet |
| [291] | ebony fan |
| [292] | Rimerunners Guild cache voucher for 80 gold pieces |
| [293] | 6 jade ravens (lower quality) |
| [294] | 8 jade ravens (higher quality) |
| [295] | 8 master work short bows |
| [296] | ring of keys (from were-bear’s room) |
| [297] | 400 freshly minted Chelish gold pieces |
| 500 gold pieces (offerings at altar) |
Descending the tower stairs we finally arrived in the alchemy lab. In addition to the usual tables, benches, chemicals and equipment was a large glass tank. Within the tank was a human body. As we passed by a voice called out, “Help!” and the body began to feebly beat upon the glass.
It was obvious that this was not some poor human trapped in the tank, and we prudently decided to let it be. Sparna and some of the others who were closer to the body saw that something was wriggling and crawling beneath its skin.
While the others were busy with the lab, I was scouting out a small door in an alcove off to one side. The door was locked and it looked like a prison cell might lie beyond. Radella used our newly acquired keys to unlock the door, and opening it we found two bodies within.
One of the bodies was a corpse, but the other was of a living man. He looked half starved, and in need of food, drink and some healing, all of which we provided.
He said his name was Lute, and he had been brought here and locked up for daring to ask questions at a Rimerunners meeting. He warned of Silverscar, whom he said had been threatening him with the “wasps.” He thought Silverscar ran the place, and might be a purple ogre.
I asked, “What do you mean about the wasps?” To which he replied that Silverscar exposed victims to a swarm of wasps that would burrow into their body and turn them into some sort of zombie. The wasps were kept in the glass tank in the lab.
In the mean time the rest of our group had collected a variety of items from the lab (I swear Etayne’s pack and pockets are bulging).
| [298] | jar of ointment that can be used as stone to flesh, or as stoneskin |
| [299] | ring of counterspells (empty) |
The safest place we could think of for Lute to be was with us, and so he has joined our ranks rather timidly. There is a stairwell leading down from the lab into the dark dank depths below, and that is our next destination.