409 - Jun 18
June 18 about 1430.
The party decided to investigate the mysterious basalt statue in the forest clearing. Hester and Tarryn entered the clearing and, to their wonderment, the statue suddenly materialised. Hester prodded the strange object in the chest and confirmed that it seemed to be solid and non-sentient stone.
Tarryn rigged up a rope which Aradec used to climb up the statue and examine its mouth. The mouth showed no sign of any shute/throat down which pearls could be poured. Aradec put a handful of the cheaper pearls into the mouth with no discernible result.
Detect Magic cast by Ailell, revealed strong Illusion magic emanating from the statue. The clearing itself did not appear to be magical.
There was some discussion of tipping the statue over or throwing it into the swamp or maybe burying it, but this all seemed too much work. Instead the bold adventurers decided to have a rest in the forest and visit the Tower of Finnuil next morning. A quiet night passed.
19 June
Hefting a bag of pearls and a sack of oysters, the party ascended the staircase to the entrance to the tower. The sinister armoured guard was still there. He (?) was shown the sack of oysters and the party attempted to pass through the door to the tower. The uncommunicative guardian appeared confused and eventually went through the door to seek advice. He returned 9 minutes later with a cantankerous Goblin called Gnakh. Gnakh insisted on being given the oysters and was very suspicious about the party's origins. After several feeble attempts to talk the Goblin around, Alaricus cast Psionic Charm and became best buddies with Gnakh. At Alaricus's insistence the party passed through the door.
They found themselves in a 40' by 40' room with two large trestle tables. Chained to the tables were 10 villagers busily engaged in shucking oysters. Three Goblins were in the room, one with a spiked whip. A confused conversation ensued with Gnakh being asked by the Goblins who his new friends were. It was not going anywhere when one of the Goblins decided to run up some stairs to the next storey of the tower.
Predictably violence ensued with the party making short work of the Goblins stopping the ascending Goblin in his tracks. Gnakh, upset at seeing his Goblin buddies being butchered started to come out of his charmed state so was ruthlessly slaughtered by the party. Unfortunately the noise of the fight (which included lusty screaming by the whip-wielding Goblin) alerted the denizens upstairs. The babble of several Goblins was heard accompanied by the bass growl of something large and non-Gobliney. On the basis of information provided by Creagh and Emale, the party assumed the growly thing was an Ettin.
This proved to be a perceptive assumption as a grotesque Ettin wielding a spiked club with a pack of Goblins behind it descended the stairs.
The party sprang into action. Tarryn executed an improbable manoeuvre and delivered a vicious blow to the Ettin who reciprocated by belting him with its club. While Tarryn looked at the pretty stars orbiting his head, Vincenzo blasted the monsters with a Colour Spray spell which dropped two Goblins and sent the Ettin reeling, dropping his club. Taking advantage of this development, Tarryn shook his head clear and proceeded to hack at the Giant while Alaricus deliverered a series of brain frying mental attacks on the Ettin. Before the poor brute had much chance to fight back it was sent crashing to the floor with ghastly sword wounds and blood pouring out its ears.
The Goblins behind the fallen Ettin decided a strategic withdrawal was probably a good idea and fled back up the stairs.
Using a set of keys found on the whip armed Goblin, the party helped the villagers to free themselves from their shackles. Tarryn noted with distaste that the Ettin had an Elf head on a chain around his neck.
Enraged at this evidence of Elf mistreatment, the party surged up the stairs. Forcing their way through a door they found themselves in an abandoned barracks. No Goblins were visible but the party did notice a headless Elf corpse wearing attractive leather armour.
Eager for battle the party ascended to the second storey. They found themselves in a well appointed room with two well made beds, a nice table and chairs and a chest. Also of note were six rather nervous Goblins in a line. Behind them was Finnuil, (a sinister looking bald tattooed man) and a tough looking female Half Orc (Golbakh) in very fine Studded Leather armour and festooned with daggers.
Vincenzo (who in this entire session displayed remarkably quick reflexes) dropped three Goblins with a Sleep spell. Golbakh drank a potion and, rather worryingly, disappeared. Finnuil tried to blast Tarryn with some sort of magic bolt, but the lithe Elf dodged it. The Goblins raced forward engaging Ailell and his canine friend and Tarryn.
A furious melee ensued with Aradec, Alaricus and Hester firing arrows.
Finnuil tried another magic bolt at Tarryn but clearly needs to consult a optometrist as he again missed.
Golbakh suddenly appeared behind Alaricus and announced her presence by thrusting two daggers into the Psion's kidneys. Crosseyed with agony he dropped, bleeding copiously, to the floor. THe vicious Half Orc cackled with gleeful triumph but her joy was short lived as she was cut down by Alaricus's companions.
Finnuil, obviously deciding that his remaining forces (three outmatched and heavily sweating Goblins) were not going to carry the day, cast some sort of Warlocky incantation and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
The party quickly dispatched the Goblins and raced up to locate the devious Warlock, but he had vanished! (Gosh).
With some difficulty the party located a secret door (what is it with you guys and doors?) in the rear wall. Aradec, (who is really getting into this Rogue business) detected a trap above the door consisting of two nozzles which dripped a particularly powerful acid. Displaying impressive competence (and no little courage), the plucky habitual criminal disabled the trap. Throwing open the door the party saw a wooden staircase descending to some rocky/scrubby terrain. Racing down the stairs, the party came upon a note nailed to a tree which read "I will be avenged! - Finnuil".
Ailell got his wolf to sniff the note and the clever beastie immediately set off following a scent along a narrow path. Ailell and Hester moved off to track the Warlock with the rest of the party following.
Hester had a bad hair day and managed to blunder into several trees and had no idea where he was going. Ailell had more success in following the trail, but lost it after 10 minutes. Fortunely the wolf was on the case and kept the party heading in the right direction.
Breasting a ridgeline the party saw, about 1000' feet away, a small trading ship heading out to sea under a booming sail.
As Finnuil had obviously made his getaway, the party returned to loot the Warlock's room.
Golbakh proved to be the owner of magic armour as well as a potion of Reduce Person. In the chest the party recovered an impressive stash of pearls plus gold and what appeared to be a Crystal Ball.
At this point the party decided to return to the village to see if they could find a way to leave the island. On their way out they discovered they had forgotten about the armoured guardian. It showed no sign of letting them leave the tower unscathed so the party was forced to destroy the monster. It proved to be some sort of construct as no living thing was found inside the armour. It proved to have a magic steel shield plus masterwork Banded Armour (which was badly damaged in the combat).
The party returned to the village to be greeted as conquering heroes by the villagers delighted to be freed from Finnuil's tyranny.
In an impressive dispaly of servile sincerity, Creagh, accompanied by a small troupe of remarkably bad musicians, sang the party's praises and put on a thank you feast.
Asked about transport from the island, he revealed that the village's one seaworthy vessel had jsut left (presumably with Finnuil), but that a trading ship (the "Myra", captained by a Romano-Briton named Ludovic) was expected to call within a week and could probably provide passage to Caledonia for about 50gp per head.
At this point the session ended.
June 19, about 1300.
The party decided to investigate the mysterious basalt statue in the forest clearing. Hester and Tarryn entered the clearing and, to their wonderment, the statue suddenly materialised. Hester prodded the strange object in the chest and confirmed that it seemed to be solid and non-sentient stone.
Tarryn rigged up a rope which Aradec used to climb up the statue and examine its mouth. The mouth showed no sign of any shute/throat down which pearls could be poured. Aradec put a handful of the cheaper pearls into the mouth with no discernible result.
Detect Magic cast by Ailell, revealed strong Illusion magic emanating from the statue. The clearing itself did not appear to be magical.
There was some discussion of tipping the statue over or throwing it into the swamp or maybe burying it, but this all seemed too much work. Instead the bold adventurers decided to have a rest in the forest and visit the Tower of Finnuil next morning. A quiet night passed.
19 June
Hefting a bag of pearls and a sack of oysters, the party ascended the staircase to the entrance to the tower. The sinister armoured guard was still there. He (?) was shown the sack of oysters and the party attempted to pass through the door to the tower. The uncommunicative guardian appeared confused and eventually went through the door to seek advice. He returned 9 minutes later with a cantankerous Goblin called Gnakh. Gnakh insisted on being given the oysters and was very suspicious about the party's origins. After several feeble attempts to talk the Goblin around, Alaricus cast Psionic Charm and became best buddies with Gnakh. At Alaricus's insistence the party passed through the door.
They found themselves in a 40' by 40' room with two large trestle tables. Chained to the tables were 10 villagers busily engaged in shucking oysters. Three Goblins were in the room, one with a spiked whip. A confused conversation ensued with Gnakh being asked by the Goblins who his new friends were. It was not going anywhere when one of the Goblins decided to run up some stairs to the next storey of the tower.
Predictably violence ensued with the party making short work of the Goblins stopping the ascending Goblin in his tracks. Gnakh, upset at seeing his Goblin buddies being butchered started to come out of his charmed state so was ruthlessly slaughtered by the party. Unfortunately the noise of the fight (which included lusty screaming by the whip-wielding Goblin) alerted the denizens upstairs. The babble of several Goblins was heard accompanied by the bass growl of something large and non-Gobliney. On the basis of information provided by Creagh and Emale, the party assumed the growly thing was an Ettin.
This proved to be a perceptive assumption as a grotesque Ettin wielding a spiked club with a pack of Goblins behind it descended the stairs.
The party sprang into action. Tarryn executed an improbable manoeuvre and delivered a vicious blow to the Ettin who reciprocated by belting him with its club. While Tarryn looked at the pretty stars orbiting his head, Vincenzo blasted the monsters with a Colour Spray spell which dropped two Goblins and sent the Ettin reeling, dropping his club. Taking advantage of this development, Tarryn shook his head clear and proceeded to hack at the Giant while Alaricus deliverered a series of brain frying mental attacks on the Ettin. Before the poor brute had much chance to fight back it was sent crashing to the floor with ghastly sword wounds and blood pouring out its ears.
The Goblins behind the fallen Ettin decided a strategic withdrawal was probably a good idea and fled back up the stairs.
Using a set of keys found on the whip armed Goblin, the party helped the villagers to free themselves from their shackles. Tarryn noted with distaste that the Ettin had an Elf head on a chain around his neck.
Enraged at this evidence of Elf mistreatment, the party surged up the stairs. Forcing their way through a door they found themselves in an abandoned barracks. No Goblins were visible but the party did notice a headless Elf corpse wearing attractive leather armour.
Eager for battle the party ascended to the second storey. They found themselves in a well appointed room with two well made beds, a nice table and chairs and a chest. Also of note were six rather nervous Goblins in a line. Behind them was Finnuil, (a sinister looking bald tattooed man) and a tough looking female Half Orc (Golbakh) in very fine Studded Leather armour and festooned with daggers.
Vincenzo (who in this entire session displayed remarkably quick reflexes) dropped three Goblins with a Sleep spell. Golbakh drank a potion and, rather worryingly, disappeared. Finnuil tried to blast Tarryn with some sort of magic bolt, but the lithe Elf dodged it. The Goblins raced forward engaging Ailell and his canine friend and Tarryn.
A furious melee ensued with Aradec, Alaricus and Hester firing arrows.
Finnuil tried another magic bolt at Tarryn but clearly needs to consult a optometrist as he again missed.
Golbakh suddenly appeared behind Alaricus and announced her presence by thrusting two daggers into the Psion's kidneys. Crosseyed with agony he dropped, bleeding copiously, to the floor. THe vicious Half Orc cackled with gleeful triumph but her joy was short lived as she was cut down by Alaricus's companions.
Finnuil, obviously deciding that his remaining forces (three outmatched and heavily sweating Goblins) were not going to carry the day, cast some sort of Warlocky incantation and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
The party quickly dispatched the Goblins and raced up to locate the devious Warlock, but he had vanished! (Gosh).
With some difficulty the party located a secret door (what is it with you guys and doors?) in the rear wall. Aradec, (who is really getting into this Rogue business) detected a trap above the door consisting of two nozzles which dripped a particularly powerful acid. Displaying impressive competence (and no little courage), the plucky habitual criminal disabled the trap. Throwing open the door the party saw a wooden staircase descending to some rocky/scrubby terrain. Racing down the stairs, the party came upon a note nailed to a tree which read "I will be avenged! - Finnuil".
Ailell got his wolf to sniff the note and the clever beastie immediately set off following a scent along a narrow path. Ailell and Hester moved off to track the Warlock with the rest of the party following.
Hester had a bad hair day and managed to blunder into several trees and had no idea where he was going. Ailell had more success in following the trail, but lost it after 10 minutes. Fortunely the wolf was on the case and kept the party heading in the right direction.
Breasting a ridgeline the party saw, about 1000' feet away, a small trading ship heading out to sea under a booming sail.
As Finnuil had obviously made his getaway, the party returned to loot the Warlock's room.
Golbakh proved to be the owner of magic armour as well as a potion of Reduce Person. In the chest the party recovered an impressive stash of pearls plus gold and what appeared to be a Crystal Ball.
At this point the party decided to return to the village to see if they could find a way to leave the island. On their way out they discovered they had forgotten about the armoured guardian. It showed no sign of letting them leave the tower unscathed so the party was forced to destroy the monster. It proved to be some sort of construct as no living thing was found inside the armour. It proved to have a magic steel shield plus masterwork Banded Armour (which was badly damaged in the combat).
The party returned to the village to be greeted as conquering heroes by the villagers delighted to be freed from Finnuil's tyranny.
In an impressive dispaly of servile sincerity, Creagh, accompanied by a small troupe of remarkably bad musicians, sang the party's praises and put on a thank you feast.
Asked about transport from the island, he revealed that the village's one seaworthy vessel had jsut left (presumably with Finnuil), but that a trading ship (the "Myra", captained by a Romano-Briton named Ludovic) was expected to call within a week and could probably provide passage to Caledonia for about 50gp per head.
At this point the session ended.
June 19, about 1300.