Friends! It has been what the youth call “a hot minute”. Our party of heroes have just recently begun to explore the mysterious depths of the Castle Greyhawk ruins.
Fiona: Lightfoot Halfling Rogue (Jenny)
Thalia: High Elf Wizard (Kurt)
Gallan(t): Wood Elf Fighter (Christina)
Ahfa: Human Paladin (Brent)
Zulu: Dwarf Cleric (Javin)
Here’s what they know so far:
Raids on various caravans in and out of Greyhawk have been increasing. The Greyhawk City Watch would seriously like to care about this, but frankly, the policemen are already tapped out from the sudden population swell in the city due to the imminent funeral procession of Riggby the Cleric.
Based on Fiona’s solo surveillance information from earlier in the day, the party opts to investigate the Elevator Room (one chute ascends, the other descends but is unusable). A secret door leads to another little room, but not before Gallant takes 9 points of crush-trap damage. There is another hand-crank elevator that descends to darkness below, which the party decides to use after a search through the numerous barrels here ends in nothing.
The party comes into an other small chamber with, of course, more storage containers bearing the marking of various Greyhawk merchants. But before the investigations get too in-depth, a huge seven-foot flesh golem lumbers in to the room. And the battle begins.
The party gets in a great deal of damage: axes, swords, maces, crossbolts, guiding bolts, sneak attacks, spells…but it is obvious our heroes are outmatched. Soon enough, another golem enters into the fray through the only exit to the chamber. Our fighters are no dummies, they decide to make like trees and leaf before the blood starts flowing for real (their blood, not the golems’). They make their way out of the room, up the elevator, and then up the other elevator, ending up near the very entrance where they began this whole dungeon crawl.
A few restful hours in the abandoned guardhouse/visitor’s center is just what the party needs. To regroup. And recover. And formulate a new plan.
But, dear readers, you are all smart enough to understand the grave danger that awaits. Unless the bad guys below are total dimwits, an alarm will be raised. After all, our fierce fighters have left a body count and it’s likely that will not go unnoticed by the miscreants that have taken up residence in Castle Greyhawk’s ruins. The hunters are about to become the hunted.
Some time later, fully rested and recharged, the party ventures back into the dungeon, now on the super-alert. Trekking back through the kitchen and the dining hall, the group sees the corpses still present here. The enemy has not checked up on these areas yet, but a sense of foreboding settles in for our questers. Instead of going back to the elevator room, the party continues to the east and finds themselves passing a large high-ceiling chamber on their left. Straight ahead is a corridor that leads to a set of closed double doors and Fiona spots a dark lump near those doors. Thalia’s investigation uncovers that this is the half-ogre captain who escaped earlier. Except now he appears to be dead. The rogue, meanwhile, attempts to pick the lock on the double doors near the dead body. To no avail. A spell scroll found on the body appears to be some kind of open spell. An “Open Sesame” utterance from Thalia gets a tiny movement from the barred entrance in front of them.
Meanwhile, Ahfa the Paladin returns to the vast chamber and pokes his head inside. He notes the following: a large crevasse running down the middle of it and entire crumbled platform on the eastern side. He discerns some detects some creature movement at the western side of the chamber. He gets a strange feeling that he is looking at the remains of a temple of sorts. At the far end is a fireplace, a huge one…as would make sense because there’s also what seems to be a desecrated altar there as well. Now it appears to have become a bunking facility for more fighters. He opts to retreat quietly and see what the rest of his friends are up to.
The “Open Sesame” command is enough to open the door a smidge and through brute strength, the group pushes their way into the room. A fireplace is burning brightly behind a large table littered with parchments. Gallant is the only one who rolls high enough to discern that the pieces of paper are lists of goods, reports, records relating to activity in the dungeons. Thalia and Fiona are then able to deduce that based on the lists and the goods they’ve seen so far, much of the stolen merch is elsewhere in the ruins. The two also find a leather satchel on the floor, and just as Fiona goes to open it, Thalia feels a significantly painful poke in her back. Turning, she sees a six-foot tall tiefling wielding a rapier (who came from who knows where, exactly). Between a flurry of guiding bolts, righteous paladin attacks and a sweet sneak attack, the tiefling falls…but not before they activate the two suits of armor flanking the fireplace.
There are quite a few misses on the inanimate objects, but thankfully there are more hits and soon the suits of armor lie in pieces on the floor. A search of the satchel turns up the following items: a ring, a scroll and two bottles (likely healing potions), along with two more rolled-up pieces of parchment. It is unclear what the ring and scroll are, but the other pieces of paper are letters addressed to someone only known as “A”. Whomever is penning the letters indicates supplies and goods are being acquired at an appropriate rate to the development of the plan. Thalia wonders if the “T” refers to the famous wizard Tenser, while the frequent references in the letters to another person only called “G” rings no bells with our courageous crew.
Without exact confirmation, it is supposed that the tiefling (who must have gone invisible upon the party entering the room) is some kind of upper-level soldier. Further searching uncovers a ring of keys and a note from “A” to “Therrat” – providing more concrete numbers. Gallant indicates it may be a request for numbers of troops or soldiers.
There are many unknowns right now…but what has becoming shockingly clear is that there are plans and machinations in place that go far beyond some random orcs hanging out in a random dining room.
What, of course, the party does now is a big decision that will need to be made.
Until then, however, I remain as ever,
Your Faithful WordServant
Heather