H&Y Infinite Open Table Session 2 Notes (Barskol)
In attendance:
- Ronby the former magistrate (played by Duress)
- Arthur Underbone, human miner (played by Punz)
- Flamagio Delecino, elven wizard (played by Reeves)
Starting Date: Summer 03, 6023
The PCs met up with the local magistrate of the Redmountain orc clan, Rolof Redmountain. They thought to head south to the orcish ruins of Barskol and thought to consult with the local orcs before doing so. Rolof told the PCs that they'd seen winged humanoids near the humans and smelled the stench of undead near the ruins as well. He offered 1000 coins to the PCs for knowledge of what happened to the orcs that lived there (the Greenhill clan) as well as a map of the ruins.
Ronby rented a cottage for 100 coins a month within the protection of Circlebrook. Arthur rented a stable for 90 coins a month for his mule. Both of them paid half their monthly fee up front.
The party headed across the river Guldak to the south, which is 100' wide and 30' deep. They paid a local fisherwoman (Connie) 1c for each person andd mule to be ferried across to the other bank. Once there, they climbed the switchbacks up to the top of the cliffs and the fort up top.
They entered the gatehouse, leaving behind the two mules and Vincent the mercenary. Arthur used a spell from his Tome of Lighting to turn his waterskin into a lantern, Flamagio lit his lantern.
Spent 2 turns carefully knocking on the door and entering the gatehouse + mapping the room of the gatehouse (broken furniture, pair of thick leather boots). Entered the courtyard to the west, saw it was unroofed and covered in dead leaves. Arthur walked through the dead leaves, discovering the broken glass underneath when he took damage. He replaced his thin shoes with the leather boots from the gatehouse, cursing the thin construction of the previous ones. The party saw that the north tower of the fort was partially destroyed and had some perched gargoyles atop it.
The PCs left the courtyard, heading to the great hall to the west. They spent some time mapping in the large dark room, heading south to find chewed humanoid skeletons on the tables and an internal door blocked and pinned to the wall with silver caltrops. They spent some time arguing the finer points of caltrops before returning to the courtyard, where they headed north.
In the room to the north, Arthur saw that the floorstones were loose and the sand + dirt beneath and between them had been pushed out. He continued into the room, noting that it was full of bunk beds. He almost slipped and fell into the hunting pit of some kind of huge sand crab living underneath the floor, but was able to scramble out of the room back into the courtyard. The PCs decided to move as far away as possible from the crab and headed south.
Arthur smelled undeath in the room up ahead and so cast Ghostlight, a spell that let him repel the undead and hide from their view for 1 hour. The PCs entered the room, corraling the zombies inside as they searched it for supplies. They found some standard outfitter's gear (knife, pestle and mortar, charcoal stick, etc) and a set of stairs to the west blocked by a wall of salt. Arthur and Flamagio busted down the walls with a pickaxe and hammer, gathering the big chunks of salt for later use.
Past the salt wall, the party entered another inner courtyard, this one with a well and a caged zombie surrounded by a circle of salt. The zombie was jumpy and looked ready to scream at any sudden movement. Arthur used the last of his Ghostlight spell to get the party past the caged zombie into the southern hallway.
In the hallway, the party found the fort's old library, still filled with books. Flamagio found research supplies to help with questions of EXPANSION, AXES and MEMORY, while Ronby found a spellbook (the Tome of Stone). Arthur entered the other room accessible from the hallway to find a conference room with maps and charts within. While Arthur checked the maps, Flamagio attempted to kill the zombie in the courtyard with an arrow (missing entirely).
The arrow triggered the zombie's shriek, which immediately alerted the ghouls in the nearby south tower. The party hid in the back hallway while 8 ghouls rushed to the courtyard and sleepily looked for any intruders. They didn't find the party, which the party took as a Great Sign. They spent half an hour arguing on what to to do next.
Flamagio ended up casting Split Stone from the Tome of Stone on one of the walls in the conference room, opening up a way to the outside. Separately, Arthur determined that the ghouls had another way in and out of the fort via a secret set of stairs, and that there was also a chapel accessible from the inner courtyard that they could have accessed. The party escaped out of the new hole in the outer wall, returning to Vincent and the mules in the late afternoon.
The PCs re-entered the fort via the gatehouse and went towards the north tower. They figured that the ghouls and the gargoyles were likely at odds based on the conversation they had heard from the ghouls, and feared staying near the fort past nightfall when the ghouls would go back to hunting. They found some bulk supplies in the base of the north tower.
Flamagio called out to the gargoyles from the base of the tower and attempted to parley. The gargoyles were interested in hearing out the adventurers, they wanted the fort cleared and the fort returned to the previous owners, the ones who constructed them. The PCs agreed to bring back an armed force to clear out the ghouls, the gargoyles promised access to their cache of silver blades when they returned.
The PCs left at this point, ferrying back all of their loot back to their mules and returning to Circlebrook (paying Connie once again for her time). They slept in town in their rented lodging (Flamagio slept at Ronby's house).
Summer 4th
In the morning, the PCs woke up and went to Rolof. They explained what had happened (the ghouls likely killed the Greenhills orcs) and the situation with the gargoyles. Rolof took this information as well as the old structural map Arthur had found and promised to send a force to reclaim the fort in the future. He paid the PCs 1500c for going above what he had asked and offered them another job mapping the shores of Lake Dak for another Redmountain outpost to supply his sister, Lord Megara of Skybreaker Stronghold, with a better supply of food. The PCs got +3 favor with Rolof for their work.
The party sold the majority of the supplies they had found to the outfitter's and apothecary shop in town. Ronby sold the barrel of moonshine they found within the fort to the local innkeeper, gaining +1 favor in the process.
XP and Cleanup:
- 662 coins split from the loot
- 1048 xp split from the loot after taking into account the loot the PCs were keeping
Appendix: Follows are the text for the magic items mentioned in these notes.
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Tome of Stone
Can cast each of the following 1/day:
Multiply Stone Caster touches an object comprised mostly or entirely out of stone and duplicates it, placing the duplicate adjacent to the original. Effect is permanent.
Split Stone Caster touches a stone surface and splits it into two at the touched location. If necessary, the depth of the fracture only extends into the stone as far as the height of the caster. Effect is permanent.
Speak with Stone The caster poses 3 questions to a stone or object mostly comprised of stone. Stones know a lot about which creatures touched them and how long ago, a little about events that happened within 5' of them, and nothing about anything else.
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Tome of Lighting
Can cast each of the following 1/day:
Sense Life The caster closes their eyes and opens them to a new sense for 10 minutes: lifesense. They can see the auras of living creatures within 60' of themselves and nothing else. This includes tiny lives like vermin and massive lives like giants. Caster has enough sense to be able to still move at half speed and can attack normally, assuming their target is alive and thus sensed. Lasts for 10 minutes.
Liquid Light The caster transmutes a gallon of water into liquid light. Liquid light gives off light like a lantern but acts otherwise like water. It pools and melds with other water, obeys gravity, freezes, etc. A glass bottle of liquid light is indistinguishable from a normal lantern. The water reverts back at the next sunrise.
Ghostlight The caster summons a small blue flame at the end of their fingertips. Spirits and the undead will not approach within 10' of the light. The caster knows the cause and time of death of any creature lit only by ghostlight. Lasts for an hour or until next sunrise, whichever comes first