Malignant Mansion Minions

At the monastery gate, our group was asked to leave their weapons with the guard, as the monks were not the fighting type and did not relish violent or threatening atmosphere in their home. Saralahan, Larry and Pot left their weapons (at least those the guard could see) at the gate. Kolban, of course, refused to part with his adored weapons, and remained outside. It was for probably for the best, as his stench was getting worse and would have probably frightened monks and animals both inside the monastery.

Inside the walls, Pot O'Gold decided to go to the temple, which was more like a library than anything else and read what he could about this Monastery and it's Order's principles and tenets.

Larry and Sarlahan were shown to the guest rooms, where they met Ad. Ad was a local human, who seemed to know quite a bit about the surrounding area and was rather curious about the strangers before him. When Pot O'Gold joined their conversation, having finished at the temple, they exchanged stories, or rather, the leprechaun blabbed everything he could while Ad mostly listened and answered some minor questions.

After the conversation was mostly over, the monks invited them to supper. During the supper, Sarlahan decided it was not right that Kolban should sleep alone outside the walls, and so went to join him, only to eventually convince the Half-Orc brute to let the guard have his weapons while he slept next to the guard's post, close to his weapons.

Two hours after everyone went to sleep, except for the guard, and the insomniac Ad, who meditated instead, an uneasy feeling came upon everyone inside the monastery walls. When they came out of their rooms, the feeling grew worse, and when they looked up, they saw a very low cloud-like substance flowing at high speed above them. After a while, a low, rather too dramatic moan was heard as well, much like an exaggerated imitation of a haunting ghost.
Ad let his raven familiar loose to check the strange cloud, only to fall unconscious straight into his arms.

Taking note of the north eastern direction the cloud came from, our heroes decided to investigate it in the morning, after some more sleep....maybe.

Six hours of uneasy sleep later, breakfast was quickly served. The abbot had a quiet word with Ad while the group still ate their simple yet delicious breakfast. It wasn't too difficult for Ad to convince the four 'brave' adventurers to investigate the recent weird events in the forest and maybe save their kidnapped friend. The latter part was probably why they resisted so long.

The group accepted some much needed provisions from the monks and quickly left toward the north east. Following Ad, who was a local and seemed to know where he was going, they took a long abandoned trail into the forest, it's only known destination being an old, large mansion surrounded by the forest, it's history not very well known.

The walk was uneasy and the group tried to stay alert as they went deeper and deeper into the ever oppressive forest. Eventually, someone spotted some cloth on the leaf-covered ground, only to discover the body of a half-elven scout. The scout was wearing a king's seal ring, meaning he was a royal agent. Ad recognized the man.

Our heroes quickly established that the scout had been dead about 2 days, yet was not injured in any way. Pot O'Gold could only guess that it was some sort of heart attack even though the scout was young (for a half-elf) and quite fit. A more magical investigation by Ad determined that the black art of Necromancy was involved.

Trying to lure the scout's killer, Ad decided to burn the body right there in the middle of the trail, while he and the other hid behind some trees, waiting. In a matter of minutes, five bat-like creatures flew in from the direction of the mansion and circled around the still burning body. When the fire finally gave out, the bats landed on the ashes and starting feasting.

Larry, losing patience, fired a bolt at the ugly creatures. While the first shot missed, the second one aggravated the little beasts and they swarmed towards him. Ad, however, managed to fry them with a spell just before they landed on Larry, injuring them badly. The 'battle of the bats' was quickyl over and gained the party five Nightwing heads with poisoned fangs.

The party moved on, reaching the mansion a day and a half after leaving the monastery. More bat-like creatures were circling the mansion from above, but otherwise the place seemed abandoned and incredibly old.

A quick survey of possible entrances into the building came to naught as they realized all the windows and doors were warded, with something, Ad explained, that would probably explode.
Then, someone pointed at the chimney, where the bat-like creatures seemed to enter and exit the mansion without hindrance. Our heroes waited for a lull in the Nightwings chimney dives and as fast as they could, threw a rope down the chimney and climbed in.

Landing on the third floor of the mansion, the five adventurers found themselves in the corner room of the mansion. Another search showed a secret door to a room replete with art of all sorts. Obviously, the 'heroes' took whatever they could easily carry, which was mostly the pictures without their frames and a little gold statue. Behind a curtain in the room, the found a nursery, the skeleton of a baby still in the crib. They quickly walked out , minding the rather large holes in the wooden floor.

Taking the more visible door out of the corner room, they found a corridor with four doors and a stairway going down at the far end. Larry quickly unlocked the first door to his right, only to see another nursery and a large creature, seemingly sewn together from body parts. The creature started towards the door. As Larry quickly closed the door behind him, the foot falls stopped. Opening the door again, the creature again walked towards the door. Reaching the door, the creature eventually just slammed the door shut.

The adventurers quickly surveyed the other three rooms on the floor, finding nothing except the urge to open that first door and annoy a creature they took to be an undead of some kind. So, to indulge their urges, Kolban ripped the door out of it's frame, forcing the massive creature to come at them.

A sort of pathetic battle ensued, the powerful attacks the group could muster against the creature had no seeming effect and neither did the bottle of holy water thrown at it by Pot O'Gold. Larry convinced his friends to run to towards the first nursery they had found and try to fool the damned monster to fall down a floor or two. The plan failed as the monster stepped over the large hole in the floor. The two fighters, Sarlahan and Kolban, decided to try a different tactic and tackled the creature. While the creature fell down, it did not fall through the floor, Kolban solved the problem by attacking the offensive wooden planks. The creature finally fell, but so did Pot O'Gold, Larry and Sarlahan. Sarlahan caught himself before hitting any floors, while Pot O'Gold was caught by his friends. Larry simply hit the floor and climbed onto Sarlahan to get back up.

Moving on, they went down the stairs after making sure the creature they had just pushed through the floor, was not there. It wasn't. However, they found a rather disturbing storage area of dead bodies, it was kept cold somehow, and the bodies were mutilated but fresh. Quickly moving on at the sight of the 'pantry', the five heroes came upon a large room with bunk beds in it. Also in the room, were ten skeletons, animated and moving towards them. The battle fast, mostly because Pot O'Gold called upon his goddess to turn some of the undead away, and because of the tendency of Kolban's and Sarlahan's attacks to go through several targets in the same swing.

It was there they decided to rest.

Cave Camping Cultists

Taking the only way out they could find out of the elven statue protected rooms, our heroes (and I use the term 'heroes' loosely), went further in, rather than out.

They found themselves in a semi man-made corridor which shortly became a natural cave. They came upon a heavy, locked door, and being the heroic beings they are, they sent Larry to listen at the door while they kept back and out of potential harm's way.

Larry put his ear to door, listening quietly. The conversation inside the room seemed to be mostly one sided angry shouting, and a little bit of koboldish groveling. It went something like this:

Angry man: "You failed me, vermin. Not to mention, failing my master!"
Kobold: "We searched everywhere! We couldn't find him! The town was destroyed, but no one fitting your description was there! I swear we di-"
Angry man: "You swear? Swear what? We gave you nothing but the dust to search through! Your own scouts said he was there the night before. The magical trai-"
Kobold: "But Sir! He was no-"

Angry man: "You dare interrupt me? You insolent lizard! I can not tolerate your incompetence, and even less your disrespect. Worthless leader of a pack of scum! You fail to find the one we want; instead, you saddle me with an annoying elf woman and get your fool men all killed by a four weaklings and a bunch of elven statues down in that mine! You are less than useless to me no-"

Kobold: "No! Mercy! Merc-"
*BOOM*
Angry man: "Clean that mess up and throw the vermin 'chief' in the pit. We're leaving in 3 hours."

Assuming the conversation was over after the stench of burning flesh reached his nostrils, Larry decided to report back to his friends. They then tried to decide what the hell they should do, and where to go.

The decision was mostly made for them as four black robed and cowled men stepped out of the door without noticing the intruders. Two of them were carrying a blackened body between them. the group decided to follow the four, but only after placing some oil and caltrops in front of the locked again door.

They followed the four men into a right turn which took them into a large, damp cave hall. Deciding how to proceed into the room since they lost sight of the ones they followed took a long while, mostly because of the high stalagmite walls, sectioning the room into three areas. Finally, they decided to let the hiders hide and the fighters flank as they heard the sound of footfalls coming back towards them.

In a rather longer and tougher battle than expected, the group managed to overpower and kill 3 of the four men while one managed to escape, mostly facilitated by the sudden (magical) urge to flee. Once again, Pot O'Gold's create water did nothing but....create water.

Our heroes searched the room and the bodies of their victims, finding the pit at the end of the room, full of bones and a recently fried kobold body, from which the Kobolds leader token was quickly stolen. On the bodies of their black robed victims they found only swords and the black robes themselves, emblazoned with the sign of the Black Sun. The Black Sun cult, as Pot O'Gold knew, were an apocalypse pursuing bunch, trying to reform Loafyn under a sky with no sun at all. The bodies and robes quickly rotted into nothing.

Having been hurt rather badly by the combat, the group went back into the rooms they had come in from in order to lick and heal their many wounds. A day later, they went back in, this time entering the same door Larry had eavesdropped at the day before.

They found only the dead bodies of a goblin cleaning crew, a natural color-changing water fountain and a simple wooden throne with a secret stash under it and a door to low prison cell where Mirage had apparently been held. They surveyed the room thoroughly and came upon the idea to test the water and it's many colors, finding it full of surprises. Of course, they had to take some with them, so they did.

Much later, our heroes took the only path they didn't follow the day before and found five corridors. The right most led them outside, but rather than leave, they went back in to try the other corridors. While three others were mostly dead ends, the middle one took them into something resembling an alter room. On the alter, to their surprise, they found the still dying body of a half-dragon, half-human female. The mix of human and monster seemed magical and torturous rather than natural.

After attempting to revive the woman, and communicating with her without success, she died in the arms of Kolban, who took it upon himself to bury her as they left back through the right-most corridor.

Following the tracks of the cultists, the heroes went east, catching glimpses of a destroyed village and town. They finally arrived at a seemingly intact town, where they decided to sell their hard earned treasure, resupply, and ask a few questions. Apprently, they were not the only ones following the cultists east.

After a restful night at the Dancing Dwarf Inn, they kept going east, passing a border into a small country, where according to the border guards, was having some problems with brigands in the woodland areas.

Our heroes just kept on walking down the road, following it southeast and even noticed the slight warped appearance of the woods slightly off the road.

Still, they eventaully came upon a walled monastery and that's where our story stops, until next time...

No such thing as Kobolds

Having found very little about the disaster in Lakedge, the four adventurers decided to take one last walk around the area to make sure what little they had found was as much as they were going to get.

An few minutes into this last patrol, and the loud sound of many steps was heard. Other than Sarlahan, the fancy elf, the group was caught in the sudden stampeding of about fifty kobolds, all running away from something.

After the miniature horde, a straight line of ugly goats pursued. The line of goats stopped near our intrepid and dusty group, apparently having been the cause of the kobolds mad run. Soon enough, the line of goats disappeared, leaving only one goat and it's rider. Our adventurers soon figured the other goats had been a mere illusion and as quickly noticed that Mirage, the elven sorceress, had disappeared, much as her name would suggest.

Much like their previous encounters with each other, the three remaining adventurers introduced themselves to the Leprechaun, who quickly took it upon himself to care for the groups hygiene. The water pouring down on them did nothing to really clean them up, and even less in impressing them.

Having somehow decided to join the group, the loopy leprechaun replaced the eccentric elf at the back of the group as they decided to pursue the dust cloud they had noticed earlier that they moving east, and coincidentally follow the kobolds, who they assumed had grabbed Mirage and were also moving east.

A few miles to the east, the road forked to a few dirt trails, one of which was obviously the way the kobolds had gone. After much deliberation if they even wanted the eccentric elf back, they still decided to go after her supposed kidnappers, and took the south bearing trail.

After a thirty minute walk, they came to the end of the trail at the foot of a large hill where they found 3 dead kobolds with darts in their necks and a large stone door in the side of the hill. A quick search uncovered the dart trap that had killed the little buggers, but it was already spent and no danger to the group. Larry, the Moonling also spotted an inscription on the door which read:

"Enter in pairs and speak only when spoken to."

Trying to find some way to open the doors through mundane means, the group finally gave up on the idea and decided they had to do what the inscription on the door commanded. What that command exactly meant was not very apparent to them.

A sudden inspiration came to Larry after about an hour of staring at the door. He stood in front of the door, Pot O'Gold, the Leprechaun at his side, and spoke "Two only!". The stone door quickly opened and closed behind the two as they entered. Kolban and Sarlahan quickly followed their example.

Inside the hill, the four were standing in a large hall with another dead kobold it's only occupant.
They found only one way to go forward and entered a short hallway, leading to three different directions. Larry spotted something in the hallway ahead and quickly went to work disarming a pressure plate trap.

Larry was still working as footsteps were heard from the doorway to the right. Quickly finishing his work, Larry stepped aside just as two goblins appeared in the doorway. The leprechaun quickly summoned a hawk to his aid, while Koblan immediately attacked.

The half-orc's great-axe cleaved cleanly through the two goblins in front, only to be replaced by another two. Those were taken down as well, revealing a goblin spell caster of some sort and two dire wolves. Magical energy hit of some sort hit Kolban in the chest, not having much of an effect on the massive brute.

Taking the advantage of their positions, the group flanked their remaining enemies, Sarlahan taking even more of an advantage by grabbing the goblin and sinking his teeth into him and in doing so revealing his nature to the rest of the group. Needless to say, the goblin and wolves did not last long and the four so called heroes promptly searched their enemies bodies and the room they were in without much reward.

Moving on, the group came upon a prison, a trapdoor at one end leading down. The intrepid Larry went down the stairs silently, keeping to the shadows, noting the fifteen sleeping kobolds at the other end of the room. Thinking to dispatch the buggers in their sleep, he came closer to their beds when the sound of an alarm went off, waking the kobolds. Fortunately for Larry, they were still groggy and sleepy-eyed and did not notice him as they went for the stairs and the trapdoor.

Waiting at the of trapdoor, Sarlahan, Kolban and Pot O'Gold triple teamed the arriving kobolds while Larry tried his best to alleviate the press of kobolds swarming up the stairs, mostly by backstabbing them. In a completely unfair battle, the kobolds were cut down by crossbow bolts, swords to the back, darts and fire. Definitely NOT a good way to wake up.

Not finding any other way to continue, the group returned to the first short hallway and entered another room which was dominated by a huge statue of an elven warrior. A lever behind the statue was found and pulled with some difficulty. A mechanism seemed to come to life, but what kind of mechanism was not immediately apparent. Somewhat mystified and annoyed, the four moved on to the next and last choice of direction, finding stairs leading up to a door, with the distant thud of feet coming from behind it. It quickly became the sound of battle.

Entering cautiously, the group found the hallway behind the door to be empty, but the sounds of battle were coming from all six doorways ahead. A peeking Larry brought news of every room having groups of kobolds fighting two steel statues bearing a remarkable likeness to the huge statue they had just left behind. The group decided to let the battle take it's course.

The elven statues eventually won, leaving about fifty kobolds dead and dying and a minor scratch on one of the steel constructs.

There was no such thing as kobolds anymore. Not in this place, anyway.

Fearing the unstoppable nature of the statues, the lever was pulled again. Of course, this resulted in the statues now blocking the hallway. A plan was thought out, a rope was tied around the legs of the unmoving constructs and the lever pulled yet again. The resulting noise was astounding. Pulling the lever one last time brought the noise to a halt and the group moved on, finding only one interesting path which led back down.

Next: The half-orc and the scent of fish...