“You’re in a cult!” Kildo Hammerhand pointed accusingly at Gardner.
“No, I’m not.”
“Exactly what I be expecting a cultist to say,” Kildo replied eyeing the hermit suspiciously.
“Then what is the purpose of the Order of the Green flame?” Kai asked.
“We maintain peace and protect the barriers between worlds.”
“Bah, you all probably be having green rings with a lantern imprint on it too,” Kildo scoffed.
“No, no ‘green rings’.”
“Peace and protectors, eh? So, ye be knowing how to destroy the blue gem?” Kildo asked.
“No, but if you come across anything in your travels, bring is back to me, as I’d be glad to take a look,” Gardner said.
“Yeah, like that is going to be happening,” Kildo mumbled under his breath.
After saying their goodbyes to the Gardner, the Gem Bearers moved north east towards the haunted house that Scaren wanted them to investigate on behalf of Anders. Camping for the night near the large lake in the middle of Scarlet Peek, it was late morning the following day when they found a dusty path that led them around a hill and then on top of a cliff was a lone manor house. It was decrepit and not managed for quite some time. The roof was a patchwork of missing shingles. The wind off the coast was strong, blowing everyone’s hair, those who had it, with a cooling breeze.
A stone wall surrounded the structure, but had crumbled in several spots. A heavy and ornate metal gate swung partially in the wind and still seemed functional. Drawing closer there was a garden, which was overgrown and didn’t appear to have been tended in years. Plant life was growing wild everywhere else.
Silently approaching, the group looked inside the windows on the main floor, but they were dirty and hard to get any fine details. However, it was apparent no one was inside.
Testing the front door, it was unlocked. Entering, the air smelled of musk. Smashed furniture littered the floor. There was a staircase, which seems stable, climbed to the next story and turned into a balcony, which overlooked the hall traveling along the north and west side of the room. Several of the rails were broken. On the main floor, a long corridor traveled west with three doors. One door was at the far end with the other two, north and south. Two other long corridors traveled north and east past the staircase.
Kai led the group down the west corridor. There was silence at the south door. Testing the door handle, it was unlocked. Opening it, the room revealed what appeared to be a library. Shelves were empty and some were broken. Someone had been searching for something. Whether they had found it was unknown. In the southwest corner of the room were a pile of books. From the dust on the covers, it appeared to have been like this for years.
Moving on, the party tested the west door, which was also silent and unlocked. Entering it appeared to be a living area with a fireplace on the west wall. A door to the north exited to a patio. From their vantage point, the backyard of the manor was also overgrown with plant life.
As Mufi explored the room, a deep and haunting voice howled from everywhere and nowhere. It surrounded them.
“Welcome fools! Welcome to your death! Muahahah!”
The party stopped, gripped their weapons, as their eyes darted around the room for the threat.
Mufi asked, “Who is about to kill me? May I know the identity of the person about to slice off my head?”
There was silence for several heartbeats.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Kai said when he noticed something off on the ground. Examining closer, he brushed and blew some dust away. Coughing, he pulled up a secret, trap door in the floor. A set of stairs going down.
Guo Gan bent down to examine the steps for traps. However, the lizardfolk Zzee brushed past him and walked down the creaking stairway.
Along the south side of the room were ten crude beds with a wooden box in front of each. A long wooden table was in the middle of the room with eleven chairs. It had a mix-mash of plates and tin cups. In the north section was a tandoori oven with a small fire burning. Also in the room were three rough-shot bandits, which stared at the party as they entered. A dwarf and a female human sat at the long table and a third dwarf was at the far, eastern part of the room. The bandits scrambled pulling crossbows and fired. One bolt struck Zzee.
Guo Gan ran past the lizardfolk and jumped on the table and attacked the dwarf. He struck him with his quarterstaff. Mufi also charged and casted; poison spray. The dwarf began to choke and gasp as he inhaled. Grabbing at his throat, he fell dead.
Zzee looking at his wound, hissed and charged the human female. Slashing with his scimitar, he missed once, but struck with his second attack. Kai also followed the lizardfolk, slashing with his glaive, but she was faster and dodged out of the way.
Too close to use the crossbow, she dropped it and pulled a longsword and slashed at Kai but missed. The other dwarf loaded another bolt and quickly fired, but in his rush the missile went wild.
Guo Gan moved on the female, striking her with his quarterstaff and then swept her leg. She fell striking her head hard on the edge of the table. She fell and didn’t move again. His opponent down, he moved to engage the last opponent.
Kildo stared at the remaining dwarf. He appeared rough, dirty, and scared. He had not had an easy life. He reminded him of what his brother might look like. He was probably someone else’s brother. He couldn’t kill him. Pulling his own crossbow, he pointed it at the last dwarf shouting, “Surrender!”
Zzee not waiting to see if the bandit’s moral had broken, charged the dwarf slashing him twice with his scimitar. Kai was right behind the lizard folk and finished him off with a brutal attack with his glaive.
Searching the bandits, other than three poor quality long swords and crossbows, they didn’t have any money on them. However, rummaging through all the footlockers, the group found a total of 70 gold pieces. Also, at the far end of the room there were two doors. One led north and the other east. However, the east door was bar from the outside and someone had written in large letters in chalk the word, ‘DANGER!’.
Examining the warning, Kai said, “Well, let’s try the north door.” The rest of the party rapidly nodded in agreement.
Unlocked, inside was a relatively clean, living area. There was a comfortable bed with a wooden locker box at the end, which contained clothing and worthless items. There was a small wooden table with a padded leather chair. On the table was a brass candlestick with 3 used candles, while not fresh were far from finished. Under the table was a small wooden box. Searching inside it was a bullseye lantern with a shutter. Several candles, flint and steel, and a piece of paper were also there with what appeared to be some type of cypher.
· Long – Short – Short – Short = It is safe
· Short – Long – Short – Long = Everything safe
· Long – Long – Long = Ready to unload, come to the ship
There was also a bookshelf with two books. Kildo pulled both down. Thumbing through them, the first was a naval almanac showing the times when the tide came in and out for the surrounding area on Scarlet Peek. Pocketing this book, he flipped through the second, stopped on a page, and read.
A curvaceous lady named Mary
Just loved having sex in the dairy
When smothered with whipped cream
Her beau would lick her clean
His calorie intake was scary
Kildo’s eyes went wide as it was fully illustrated, but with humans. “Bah! Where’s the hair!?” He then returned it to the shelf snorting in disgust.
Exiting the furnished room, the group was hesitant to go through the eastern door. They examined the barracks room a little further and both Mufi and Guo Gan found two sets of scratch marks on the floor, each revealing a secret door. One was on the north wall next to the tandoori oven and the other in the south west wall of the room.
The group decided to go through the north secret door first. It entered into the house’s wine cellar. There were wooden racks with broken bottles scattered around the area. A set of stairs went up on the eastern side of the room to the main level along with two large and empty storage bins. However, the most interesting feature was in the center of the room. A human corpse was in full plate mail, along with a long sword and shield. From the smell and appearance, he appeared to have been dead for some time.
Kai moved closer to the corpse. Examining it, it began to move. No, something under its skin began to move. It was writhing as if something was trying to get out. Then like curdled milk being squeezed from a bladder, finger-sized maggots burst from the dead body.
“Rot grubs!” Kai bellowed as he slashed at two swarms oozing and spilling from the body. The maggots then began to crawl up his boots. “Get them off! Get them off! Get them off!”
“Life is death. Death is rebirth. Rebirth is life. Let’s fight!” Kildo yelled touching his holy symbol, as Kai, Guo Gan, and Zzee began to glow from the cleric’s bless.
Mufi began casting; ice knife. The magical weapon exploded into the maggot’s midst. It killed several, but more took its place and undaunted by its fellows’ death. They were hungry for fresh flesh.
Zzee also slashed at the rot grubs, but the bladed weapons didn’t prove very effective against the swarms.
Guo Gan seeing the ineffectiveness of the bladed weapons bashed with his quarter staff and crushed the maggots with his foot. It was more effective.
Seeing the monk’s action, Kai dropped his sword and began to slap himself to crush the grubs and danced around trying to shake them off his person.
Kildo also engaged by stomping on the swarm and smashing a good number with his war hammer blows, wiping out the second mass of the creatures.
Zzee and Guo Gan helped knock off the maggots trying to burrow under Kai skin using their feet and weapons to crush them.
Careful to ensure the nest of rot grubs was purged, the deceased human had an explorer’s pack, his plate armor, long sword and shield. A thick crossbow bolt was in his chest, along with sword slashes. Searching the rest of the room, a bottle of wine had rolled under the shelves, which the room’s previous looters had missed.
Kai and Guo Gan then began to move the body, as Kai said, “Kildo we could use a hand.”
“Bah, I not be touching that plague infested corpse.”
Waiving off the dwarf, the two placed the corpse in one of the larger bins for later. Deciding to explore the rest of the lower level first, they exited back into the barracks and closed the north secret door. They then made their way to the southern secret door. A cool blast of air greeted them. A set of stairs led down to a cave-like area below. As Guo Gan began to examine for traps, Zzee just strolled past the monk and continued on. “Oh, come on!”
There was a natural rocky fork east or southwest and Zzee headed to the south direction. Walking boldly, he heard a drip. Then a sizzle. Then a sharp burning pain. Something was eating into his skin. Looking up, he saw a green, plant-like growth on the ceiling. It was moving. It dropped on top of the lizardfolk.
“Green zlime! Get it off! Get it off!”
Guo Gan yelled, “I don’t have anything that’ll get rid of it!”
“I can cast ice knife, but it’ll kill Zzee!” Mufi shouted.
“I don’t have anything either!” Kai stammered.
“I’m a healer, not a fire breather,” Kildo said.
While the rest of the party was shouting in full-on panic at each other, not knowing what to do, Zzee pulled out the flint and steel and lit a torch. He systematically began to bring the fire next to the green slime, which shriveled up and dropped off. There was movement to the south east. The lizardfolk then held up the torch and saw three bandits staring at him.
“Bandits!”
The rest of the party stopped their arguing and jumped into action.
Guo Gan threw a dagger striking the bandit.
Mufi began casting; frostbite. A numbing frost struck the first bandit. His movements slowed, it missed slashing at Zzee. The two other bandits fired arrows with two striking Kai. The half-elf fell bleeding.
Seeing his ally fall, Guo Gan snarled as he ran up to engage the first bandit striking him with his quarterstaff and kneeing him in the groin. He went down.
Seeing the bandit archers were skilled marksmen, Kildo ran up to engage the other two bandits and struck the second one with his war hammer. Mufi followed up and casted frostbite and the bandit began to stiffen from the cold attack. Zzee then moved up and finished him off with his glaive.
The third bandit pulled out his short sword and lashed out cruelly at a break in Guo Gan’s defense. It was a critical hit. The monk fell, succumbing to his wounds. However, if that wasn’t bad enough, three more bandits entered the cavern.
“What do we do!? Do we run!” Zzee yelled across the battlefield.
“No, lad! We dwarves fight!” Kildo bellowed, as he moved to engage two of them to keep them from using their bows. Swiping, he missed with his war hammer.
On Kildo’s heels, Zzee moved up and slashed at the fourth bandit in the room. Mufi was right behind the lizardfolk, as he casted; poison spray. The rogue breathed in the fumes, choked and fell to the ground.
The sixth bandit in the back drew back an arrow and aimed it straight at Kildo. However, the bandit seized in place as a sword burst out his front. He fell to the ground and behind him was a man wearing grey clothing with some sheep wool padding around his shoulders. He had bracers on his arms tied with multiple claps and high boots that were tied with rope to help keep them together. His head was covered by a forest-green cowl. It was Imago!
With renewed momentum, Zzee struck down the third bandit with two broad scimitar stokes. Mufi casted poison spray at the fifth bandit, which dropped the group’s last opponent.
Imago said, as he was cleaning his weapon, “Hey guys, I know you said not to follow you, but the house you were heading to looked kind of scary so-”
Kildo interrupted Imago and he gave him a great hug. “Ye did great lad.”
“Thanks, I don’t know if it’s safe here, so we probably should all go outside and regroup.”
“Agreed.”
Kildo bandaged Guo Gan who was still down, but fortunately Kai’s bleeding had stopped, but he was still out. Mufi began to strip the leather armor from one of the bandits he had poisoned. While not new, it would provide the same protection, but had less metal in it. Something the druid preferred.
As the party exited the house on haunted hill, it was getting dark. The moon was their only light source. A tempest started to brew out to sea in the distance. Lighting flashed. A storm was coming.
07/11/2021 – Treasure
· 70 gp – Party Split 14 gp
· Explorers pack - Included a backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also had 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it.
· Suite of Plate Mail – Needs fire cleansing and a good scrubbing.
· Six shorts swords, three crossbows, four longswords, a shield, and four longbows.
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