FreemanGames Campaign Journal

I was standing outside Orek’s bath house and saw some guards approaching.  I went back inside and informed the others.  Hawk wasn’t around.  The guards came in and we turned Triel over to them.  They asked about her stuff since she is bound and naked.  They then asked if we found her this way.  I responded that we found her naked in the bath.  Tom also informed them that she confessed to being apart of Sarcem’s murder.  The guards led her away in manacles.

We discussed about what to do next.  DaVid, Jax, and Xiloscant were going to check out the spell-component shops to see if they can find anything out regarding Skaven.  Tom and I decided to take the wands and Triel’s stuff to Jenya to see about getting them identified.

Jenya told us that three of the four wands are wands of water control and the fourth wand is a wand of ‘cure serious wounds’ with seven charges.  Tom took the wand of cure serious wounds.  They didn’t have anyone around to help with the other items so Tom and I went to the Drunken Warcof tavern to wait for the others.

Hawk showed up and shortly after that DaVid, Jax, and Xiloscant showed up as well.  They didn’t have much luck at the spell component shops but did say that someone reported four gnomes all dressed alike wearing blue hats went into one store and bought-up most of the supplies and crafting equipment.

Tom remembered something and ran off.  As we ate our dinner and contemplated what to do next, Crylscar came and sat down at our table.  Apparently the Union of Justice rescued him in an adventure prior to me joining.

He told us that the Swiftblades are also looking for the wands of water control – so we have competition in that area.  Corsten Pike may know something more about where they are searching.  We asked him about a group of gnomes wearing matching blue hats and he told us that they are some sort of magical special forces group.

Before he left, Crylscar also told us that he’s started a new adventuring group and he’s really excited about it.  He wants to know if we’ll be sponsors of his group.  Hawk seemed pretty happy about this and agreed.

After Crylscar left we had an epiphany:  Hawk and Xiloscant can use their special city-tracking skills to find out where Skaven is based on all of the clues that we’ve gathered so far.  They worked on that and were able to narrow down his location to an abandoned warehouse.  We immediately set out to the warehouse and formed a plan.

There were two visible entrances so we split up into two groups to cover both doors.  Jax, Tom, Kre, and Xiloscant were to take the door on the north-side of the building while Hawk, DaVid, and I were to take the door on the eastern-side of the building.  I stood at the corner of the building so I could see both parties and signal each other when we should go in so it will be coordinated.

There appeared to be some issues with locked doors but they seemed to get them resolved and both groups were ready to go.  As soon as I gave the signal I ran back to my group and we opened the door.

I could see that there was a ton of webbing everywhere inside the warehouse.  It looked just like the webbing we saw earlier in the caverns.  Hawk stepped inside and was attacked by a large spider.  DaVid used a wand to shoot some fire into the building and Hawk got burnt too.

Something else from inside shot out some sticky webbing and encased DaVid.  I took out my new bow for the first time and fired at the spider inside.  I’m not a very good shot with the bow.

We continued in this way for a little while.  I had to use my flaming fists to free DaVid out of the webbing.  DaVid used his wand some more to clear a path free of webbing inside.  Hawk and DaVid went in.  I didn’t know what was going on with the other group but from the faint sounds emanating from inside, there was definitely battle going on.

As I stepped inside, a wide bolt of lightning blasted through us.  It knocked DaVid, unconscious, to the ground and Hawk was bleeding badly.  I was pretty hurt too but shook off the shock of the blast.

I knew that we were looking for Skaven and that he is a spellcaster.  I deduced that this must have come from him and ran as fast as I could toward the source of the lightning.  As I ran, I drew upon my ki power to summon an orb of energy which I hurled at a little halfling against the wall at the other end of the warehouse.  It didn’t seem to do anything.

He cast another spell and a type of scorching ray blasted into me.  I was hurt real bad but knew that he was a potent spellcaster and that we needed to take him out right away.  I ran up to him hitting with my fists and snapping out with a kick.  I think I connected as he seemed to be hurt.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tom running towards us too.  This was a welcome sight because I didn’t think I could withstand another spell from the halfling caster.

The halfling spellcaster stepped away and cast another spell.  There was a shrieking wail but it didn’t seem to do anything to me.  Now it was my turn to retaliate.  This would probably be my last chance to stop him.

I tried to stun him and decisively strike with all my might.  I swung hard and smashed down on his head.  My hit connected and he crumpled to the floor!  Success!  There are still other large spiders and creatures to deal with in the warehouse so we’re not out of trouble yet, but I suspect that this halfling (Skaven?) was the big boss.

After we defeated the slaad, Hawk cast a spell which would allow him to find hidden doors and he found one along one of the walls. Hawk and Jax cautiously opened the door and moved in down a dark hallway. We all slowly moved in, alert for traps.

This hallway curved and came to a dead-end. Again Hawk casted a spell which helps him detect secret doors and indeed there was a secret door at the dead-end. We went through that door and came to a long shadowy hallway with several doors. Because we are keeping to our right, we opened the first door to the right.

The room opened up into a web-filled tunnel. Because we last heard about the wands being delivered to a halfling who was visiting with spiders, we decided that we should continue down this hallway. As we went in, we noticed that the webbing is non-sticky but is very soft, muffling our steps. This tunnel led to a fork going north & south. We opted to keep to our right and continue down the south tunnel.

As we worked our way down the web-filled tunnel we came to the threshold of a large & webbed cavern. There were thick webs everywhere. Despite our better judgement we decided to go in. Hawk and Jax led the way, keeping to the right. As they moved in (I was bringing up the rear) we heard the sound of a siren as two human-sized spiders ran up to Hawk and Jax. Nevercry got stuck in some webbing as in this cavern are thick strands of sticky webbing everywhere.

Tom, Goldie, and I finally managed to free Nevercry. At the same time, Hawk and Jax managed to take out one of the spiders. After that, a much larger spider ran up and tried to bite Cree but missed. With Nevercry freed, I ran up & hit the spider. Hawk went invisible. Tom and Cree swung at the large spider. Another much larger spider ran up to me just as two ‘regular-sized’ spiders ran up to Goldie and Nevercry.

I used my recently-trained decisive strike ability to swing really hard at the large spider and managed to kill it. Tom and Cree ran over to the other two smaller spiders and killed them as Jax and I killed the other large spider. We actually got pretty lucky because someone noted that spiders can inject you with poison if they manage to bite you. Somehow we all managed to escape harm in this encounter.

Hawk and Jax searched around the cavern and found a potion along with a crumpled note in the empty nest of a large spider:

“Skaven, wands for ransom. Don’t lose these. Tarkilar and I have some of them as well.
-T”

Hawk suggested that this may be signed by Triel. We also think that Skaven must be the halfling. We didn’t find anything else in the cavern and continued working our way through the tunnels. We reached another smaller chamber and Tom announced that this must have belonged to a very large spider – larger than those we fought earlier. We searched really hard and found an empty webbing pouch. Tom also thinks that this nest was used as recently as a couple of days ago.

We continued down the cavern and came to a normal room with four smaller spiders which we easily killed. Through the door in that room we came out into the hallway and continued to our right. The next door to our right was locked. It looked to be locked and apparently was locked very well. Hawk and Jax tried for many minutes to open the door but were unable to. Finally someone realized that the door was wizard locked and that we would need someone like DaVid to open it.

So we continued down to the next door and they opened it. Tom shouted something about skeletons and ran inside. I ran after him. I ran up to a skeleton and killed it with my bludgeoning fists. Jax was attacking the other skeleton while Hawk and Jax were attacking the zombies. Goldie was singing songs to inspire courage. Hawk killed one of the zombies with his deadly arrows. Jax and I were having a hard time hitting the last skeleton and Goldie sent Nevercry to attack the remaining zombie. Nevercry bit the zombie very hard and it died. Tom ran up and killed the last skeleton.

After we removed the threat, we searched around. We found four potions and two notes.

The first note said,

“The gnoll creeps me out. I mean even more-so than before.
Yeah since that accident, he looks like he’s dead and his mind isn’t far behind.
He looks at me like food. I want a transfer to Skaven.”

The second note said,

“Did you see that fire giant visit?
Yeah, I almost shit myself.
See you next week when I’m on day shift.
-L”

The zombies and skeletons appeared to be former alleybashers and hillfolk. We went through the door and exited out to the beach of the fluorescent lake.

After we rested, we heard an alarm in the distance. We rushed outside and met Tom and Xiloscent. Tom must have pressed the alarm stone up above. Xiloscent and Jax also found two new notes. Each had multiple handwritings on them.

The first note read,

“I hear Triel has a hot spring where she bathes… a lot.
I’d settle for some… other forms of payment!
You wish you skag!
I am positive that the undead gnoll killed Lars.”

The second note read,

“Every time I’m on watch I swear something is watching me from the lake.
You’re crazy. But somebody is definitely talking to tarkilar. That voice he talks to isn’t his own.
You both krazy!”

Back near the armory we continued going down the hallway and came to a door. We searched it and went inside. It was a store room. We searched around and found a note,

“Since Grehlia left and Turkilar had his accident, this place doesn’t seem safe.
Man I can’t get to the treasury anymore.
The Gnoll talks to himself.”

Jax also found a secret door in this room. It swiveled open. Inside the room were three zombies. Hawk and Jax fired into the room with their bows. As I began to rush into the room Goldie quickly asked me if I knew that healing spells would hurt zombies. I don’t know about such things.

I ran into the room and tried to hit one of the zombies with my fist but missed. Two shuffled over to me and tried to hit me but also missed. Tom threw an alchemist fire into the room at one of the zombies who caught fire and shuffled over to where Tom was. I tried to swing at the same zombie as before but missed again. The two next to me also missed. I finally hit one zombie with my decisive strike ability and hit him really hard. I also tried to stun him but nothing happened. I think pounding may not be effective against them either. When I swing again I’m going to try a ‘chopping’ type attack with my fists.

Before I had a chance to put this to use, Tom took down the flaming zombie while Hawk and Jax took down the one I hit and the last one. After the battle we searched around the room and noticed that aside from the secret entrance we came in from, there were no other exits. There were, however, four arrow slits on the opposite wall from the door. Tom examined these and asked what they were for. When someone told him that they were arrow slits he began to feed arrows through the slits. He also said that he saw out into a hallway with some identical arrow slits on the other side. He shouted across asking if there were any zombies over there. He heard moaning sounds in return.

We also found another note,

“I had to go with Triel to deliver some wand r something to the halfling.
He was in with the creepy spiders again.”

We backtracked to the previous room and went through the other door. This led to a small hallway with another door. Jax and Hawk discovered that it was trapped and disabled the trap. Jax announced that it was a floor spike trap. In that room was another door which led to a large room.

We searched there and found a new note,

“Need the cages by flood festival“

I found four names scratched into the top of one of the tables. The names were,

• Grehlia
• Triel
• Tarkilar
• Shaven

Because we figured out that zombies may be most vulnerable to slashing-type weapons Jax and I ran back to the armory to pick up a longsword for him and Xiloscent. When we got back to the group, we went through a doorway into a long, wide, vaulted hallway. A pile of arrows were on the floor against the right wall. As Hawk entered the hallway he fell through the floor. Like before I threw rope down and he quickly climbed out.

We carefully avoided the pit trip and crept through the hallway keeping to the left-hand wall. The others crept through the door at the other end of the hallway (where there was another pit trap). Jax decided to run and jump over the trap. I did the same but as I ran down the hallway I got hit by an arrow. I think it was from a zombie through one of the arrow-slits. I didn’t realize that they were so quick and good with a bow!

The next room we came to was very large. Hawk searched around the entrance of the room and found a note:

“I always get stuck going to town for Skaven’s spell components. It sucks having a wizard for a brother, I can’t help being able to say all of those long words.
Dude, work for Triel, she’s so hot.”

We also heard a skittering noise. As we continued working our way down the length of the large room, Tom discovered a 5-foot-tall humanoid frog-like creature with sharp teeth and spindly arms. It let out a loud and painful screeching noise. We all ran up to it. I circled around and came up behind it. We had it surrounded. It attacked Tom but missed. I swung at it, trying to hit it decisively and landed a really hard blow. I hit it so had that it actually went down after one strike!

Hawk searched around and found a cloak wrapped around a bunch of platinum coins and a very nice-looking lute. Hawk handed the lute to Xiloscent (since she’s a bard). We still heard a skittering noise coming from the entrance of the room.

The next morning DaVid told us about the upcoming Demonskar Ball and how he is securing us all invitations to attend. We entered the lava tubes and proceeded cautiously. Hawk took the lead and noticed a glowing glyph outlining a door on the wall. He touched it and the wall disappeared, revealing a room inside.

In the room was a pool of water, a fountain, and a movanic deva named Nidrama. She explained that she can’t help us but she did tell us about this fountain. Apparently it is a minor artifact that was moved here by one of the founders of cauldren, Sundabar Spellmason. It is called ‘The Fountain or Fortunes and Follys’. On the edge of the fountain are two cups. One is an ivory cup and the other is a rusty iron cup. If you drink from the ivory cup, three ‘fortunes’ appear and you pick one. After you choose your fortune, a random folly will also befall you. If you drink from the iron rust cup, three ‘follys’ will appear before you. After you choose your folly, a random fortune will befall you.

We all drank from the fountain. Hawk & I chose to drink out of the iron rust cup. DaVid and Jax drank from the ivory cup. When I drank, I chose the folly called ‘hard of hearing’ and my random fortune was that I had slightly more willpower.

After the fun at the fountain, we left the fountain & Nidrama behind and continued down the tunnel. We came to a building, large long rope, and a huge 100-foot deep cavern. Inside the building was a large wheel that seems to lower a large ‘cage’ down into the pit. Xiloscent operated the lift for us and Hawk, DaVid, Jax, and I descended over a large, glowing, algae-filled lake.

As we reached the bottom I saw a building that looked a lot like the wheelhouse above. There were also a lot of ruins which, according to Jax, used to belong to an old grotesque race. We entered the wheelhouse, Hawk leading the way. As he entered, Hawk triggered some sort of trap and part of the wall fell on him. He extracted himself from the rubble and we used the wheel to send the cage back up to Xiloscent.

Once that was complete, we explored the ruins and approached the first building which was octagon-shaped. The door was a special turning-type which opened up to a room. Hawk and Jax went in first and immediately fell through the floor! I heard a distant splash.

I was quick to act and ran to the threshhold of the door and threw my rope ‘down’ into the floor and braced my feet on the doorframe – ready to pull them up. DaVid helped with the rope. I felt tugging on the rope and together DaVid and I pulled. There felt to be struggling on the rope and we continued to pull. Hawk actually climbed up out of the ‘hole’ first and we continued to pull and got Jax out too.

It turns out that there were some nasty strength-sapping oozes in a pool of water twenty feet below. Jax was so sapped of his strength that he couldn’t even stand up. DaVid cast several spells on both Hawk and Jax to restore their strength.

We decided to skip this building and continued on to our right. We came to a diamond-shaped building. This time we were extremely cautious. Jax and Hawk opened the door (after verifying that the door was not trapped) and searched inside. I was near the rear of the group so I couldn’t see much, but I did notice that they stopped searching and began to fire arrows up towards the ceiling. When the ‘battle’ was over I entered the room but didn’t see any enemies or bodies. I’m not sure what they were shooting at.

On the other side of this room was another door. It was trapped but Jax and Hawk disabled it. We opened that door and continued through a short hallway to another door. They opened the door and DaVid rushed in and shouted something. I ran in too but only saw six piles of dust with bows and arrows. It was so odd! Jax searched around and found six potions. I took one. He also found two notes.

The first one read,

“Did you see that Triel was trying to make a new feetshredder trap?
She had no clue about traps!”

The second one read,

“When are we getting paid? Money has been short since Grehila left with those cages months ago.“

I wonder if this is the same Triel that I knew from the town guard? The room looked like a mess hall. We exited and went through the right door into a hallway. We saw a locked door that Jax and Hawk had some trouble opening, but we got inside. It looked like an armory. Hawk and Jax each took a longbow and some arrows. I did the same.

DaVid announced that he was out of spells and we decided to rest for the night. DaVid cast his fancy rope trick spell and we went to sleep.

 

TERSEON SKELLERANG
Human lawman
Captain of the Town Guard

Terseon hired the Union of Justice to solve the Goblin infestation problem.  He paid them 5 gp per goblin ear brought in. 

SKYLAR KREWIS
Human guardsman
Private in the Town Guard

Skylar arrested the Last Laugh thugs when DaVid, Hawk and Tom formed the Union of Justice while saving Rufus Laro of the Church of St. Cuthbert.  He was also the investigating officer who found Ghelve’s Locks to be where the kidnappers were entering the city.  He is an ally to the Union of Justice and even seems to be ok with The Hawk as a vigilante.