Session 06 - Helping a Dead Kid

9th of Marpenoth, 1371 DR
So, most of us are crammed precariously on the 3’-wide beam while Storn is on the “floor” puttin’ iron spheres into his pack. All I can think of is that if he collects too many of them, we’ll never be able to pull him back up to the beam! Just as he’s debatin’ what he can dump out of his pack to make room for more iron spheres, this green, worm-like creature with four lashing tentacles sprung out at the pack-rat Dwarf!

The creature (later identified as a Grick by Carenthal) narrowly missed Storn with its initial onslaught, distracted by one of Hine’s arrows that barely missed it. Dolgun managed to catch the Grick in a blast of icy breath from his position up on the beam as Carenthal let loose with a pair of Magic Missiles. Then Storn screamed “Worms!” at the top of his lungs and started runnin’ away from the Grick only to run straight into a second Grick that burst from below the spheres!

Hine shot the first Grick, but his arrow bounced harmlessly off the creature’s rubbery hide. The two Gricks now had Storn (who was clearly panicked) flanked. Dolgun leapt off the beam, fell on his face in the iron spheres, but still managed to catch both Gricks and Storn in a line of fire. Somehow, Storn was unscathed while the two Gricks were covered in sticky fire.

I, apparently, am not the only member of our little guild to have learned a new trick. Dolgun is now able to cast a “spell” on us all (although he utters no magic words nor does he make any arcane gestures) that not only keeps us at a constant comfortable temperature, but also makes us impervious to his breath weapons. Fascinatin’.

Carenthal and I switched places on the beam so I could start rainin’ down Magic Missiles and killed the original Grick with my first barrage. Storn ran away from the remainin’ Grick (getting’ a nasty scratch just before he could get away) and the room was suddenly filled with creepy, unearthly laughter.

I only recount all this detail to paint a picture of the chaos goin’ on in the room. Storn runnin’ and screamin’. Dolgun fallin’ off the beam spewing fire. Eerie laughter comin’ from nowhere. That’s when Hine moved along the beam and set off a trap and suddenly, iron spheres were being fired out of the walls at us! Hine took a glancin’ blow, but managed to keep his balance. Luckily for me I had just stumbled and pitched forward to catch my own balance just as an iron sphere whizzed through the space where my head had been!

We ended up killin’ four of the Gricks. I killed two, Dolgun killed one (and hurt all of them), and Storn finally found his courage and killed the third.

After the last Grick had finished twitchin’, a ghostly apparition appeared at the end of the beam in front of the solid-lookin’ iron door. This ghost had been the source of the laughter and he introduced himself as Allister land. Seems the lad had been explorin’ the Whipserin’ Gain some years ago, somehow managed to make it to this very room, was knocked off the beam by an iron ball, and broke his neck. After an extended Q&A session, Allister explained that he could open the iron door for us, but we had to first bury his remains with the rest of his family.

Feelin’ glad to be out of the cairn, I decided to pull a couple of gags. While Hine was tellin’ us all about his childhood, I salted Dolgun’s ale. Magic Missile is still my favorite spell by far, but Prestidigitation is much better for jokes. I thought it would be funny, but he got really pissed off! It was all I could do not to laugh myself silly as he hurled the keg in the air and burned it!

After that, I tried to convince Storn that the iron spheres he was carrying around in his pack were probably Grick eggs. Big mouth Carenthal had to ruin it by assuring Storn they were not Grick eggs. So I used Prestidigitation again (almost modified to a Ghost Sound spell) to make Storn hear scratching comin’ from inside his pack. He rifled through it, but of course found nothin’.

We agreed, collected Allastor’s bones (along with some treasure off some other unfortunates), and headed off the Land farmstead. We found the farm in terrible condition. It had obviously been abandoned for some time and the local fauna was actively reclaiming the small house. When we went to investigate the small, personal graveyard near the ruined house we discovered that someone had recently dug up Allastor’s whole family!

Allastor was understandably upset and now asked us to find his family’s remains and rebury the lot of them. At this point, we really couldn’t refuse. Before leaving, we decided to investigate the ruined house to see if we could find any clues as to who would have dug up the Land’s bodies. Instead, we found a wounded mother Owlbear defending her cub. (Is it a cub or a chick?) The Owlbear put up a brief fight (nearly killin’ Dolgun in the process), but a horrifically powerful attack by Storn killed the enraged beast.

Ironically, the Owlbear cub/chick actually ended up bondin’ with Storn! Perhaps my makin’ him smell like bacon wasn’t the best of ideas. Now we have a trio of wolf cubs and a baby Owlbear at the guild house. Jasper doesn’t look too pleased. I don’t think Morgan and company kept pets.

Before leavin’ the house, we found an arm with a tattoo on it. The same tattoo Kullen has on his forehead as a scar.

Crap.

Looks like we are about to run afoul of Kullen and his gang.

Visited the Cult of Final Passage to ask about who might be stealin’ bodies. They were no help. Hine’s mom is kinda hot, though.

That night, we went to the Feral Dog in search of Kullen. We were hopin’ to tactfully gain some information. When we saw the group of strikin’ mine workers outside the tavern, however, we diverted down a side street and ran straight into Kullen and a dozen cronies (including’ Kullen’s pet mage and Todric).

Carenthal, Dolgun (who insisted), and I approached Kullen. I had intended to buy the information from Kullen, but then Dolgun started makin’ a mess of things. He started showin’ off for Kullen (gods know why), blowing fire and ice into the air. Then the other waitin’ in the back decided that was a “sign” and start charging down the street!

Kullen’s men beat Trogdor to within an inch of his life and stole everything he had on him while Storn ran off into the night howling about worms. Everythin’ almost fell apart right there, but I managed to salvage the situation and got Kullen to agree to give us the information we wanted for a sizeable amount of gold. Of course, then Kullen started talkin’ about old times and basically told Carenthal and Dolgun that I had help kill Tobias Flen!

Why was Kullen takin’ supplies out to the Dourstone Mine in the middle of the night? Is Kullen workin’ for Dourstone behind Smenk’s back? I may have to see if I can make some discreet inquiries about that.

Back at the house now. Dolgun has just confronted me about what he thinks he knows. I feel some responsibility to Dolgun (and the rest of them) even though he’s a drunk. I didn’t want to lie to him, so I told him the bare minimum I needed to in order to satisfy his curiosity. What does he care anyway? That was almost ten years ago!

10th of Marpenoth, 1371 DR
Ha ha! All my work is startin’ to pay off!

Over the last week or so, I have been methodically adding tiny slices of wood to Storn’s bed, his chair, and every other piece of furniture he uses. Now this mornin’, he showed up in the common room, lookin’ really worried and started measurin’ himself! I think I’ll try to keep this up all month, leave it that way for a bit, and then go the other way!

Kullen came through with the information this mornin’. Apparently Smenk had him and his boys move some guy into the old observatory. Kullen described a bunch of liquid-filled bottles and jars along with big vats of somethin’ else. Then this stranger tells Kullen and his boys to bring him bodies – bones, fresh corpses, whatever they can get their hands on. Kullen’s guys dig up the Lands, fight the Owlbear, and bring the bones back to the Observatory.

So, it now sounds like a Necromancer has moved into Diamond Lake. As if we don’t have enough problems already! And, it looks as if Smenk is sponsorin’ him! What is Smenk up to now? Maybe he’s thinkin’ of replacing all his “high-paid” miners with Undead slaves. More likely, he plans to kill all his employees and have this Necromancer animate them to work the mines forever!

After a quick vote, we decide that even though it is likely a stupid idea, we will storm the observatory with violence in our hearts. We intend to kill the Necromancer, destroy his Undead minions, and hopefully find some sort of evidence that connects his foul work to Smenk.

We found our first Undead creature under the observatory in the tool shed. I didn’t get a good look at it before Trogdor used Lathander’s holy power to force it to cower in a corner, but Carenthal claimed it was somethin’ called a Tome Mote. Nasty, but not overly dangerous.

We battered down the door to the observatory and ran smack dab into a barricade manned by the skeletons of the Land family! There was a brief scuffle and then Trogdor obliterated them with Lathander’s power again. Out in the hall, another pair of Skeletons put up a bit of a fight, but Storn crashed though their barricade and smashed them to bits. Another Tome Mote attacked us from a side room, but Dolgun killed it with his icy breath.

It’s funny. I thought I might be scared to fight Undead creatures, but it’s not so bad. The Skeletons are actually not that bad considerin’ Trogdor can blast them to pieces with a prayer. The Tome Mote is kind of creepy and too fast for comfort, but so far so good.

We now stand outside the main door to the observatory. This Necromancer is obviously prepared for us, but so far we have proven superior to his defenses.