Hey folks!
After almost nine months of break in our group, I'd love to get the Taxidermists back together! I'd love to meet again on Sunday, April 15th in the afternoon or evening.
Thankfully, I wrote another post right after we last met, and I rooted it up from July 20 to post today. Refresh yourself and jump back in to the world you've created...
Wednesday, March 22, NY 931
The worg was felled, the goblins were slain and all obstacles have been dispatched. The sun is racing to meet the horizon in time for its shift, and the quiet of the night is beginning to subside. You feel the cooling grass beneath your feet abandon its refreshing wash of dew. The twilight breeze flutters the trees around you, and birds begin to serenade the pre-dawn cliffs. The Gall laps against its eroded banks behind you, soulfully ushering water to its destination down the cliffs.
Seyer seats his purloined oars in a makeshift sling around his back. His bags are getting full of armor, gold and loot, and he best not test them anymore. Dutifully, he cleans the blood from his venerated sword in the banks of the Gall. The blade glows a periwinkle hue as the last throes of the cool evening fade behind the southern mountains.
Naya catches her breath, wounded by the fiendish goblins we had just encountered. Her owl’s eyes slump. The nocturnal bird coos softly, more like a dove then a raptor. Naya grips her newfound morningstar; hewn from what appears to be a single length of wood, the sharp points around the cylindrical head are splintered and warped from use. Naya eyes the tall cliffs beside us, searching for a clandestine threat.
Raina rests quietly on the grass, her knees bent. She counts each arrow from within her quiver and messages the fletching on each, checking their integrity. The calluses on her fingers are worn from climbing and archery, but she has a better knowledge of each from her experiences.
Kalecgos mutters to himself in a series of grumbles and breaths, mumbling incantations in arcane and elemental tongues. Small fizzles erupt from his fingers, and he smiles with pride. He adjusts the crossbow on his back, as it has started to hurt his shoulder. After seating it more comfortably, he gropes at the hole in the center of his tunic. Not a drop of blood remains from his grievous wound.
Seyer and Naya survey the path to the castle through the dim morning light. We could proceed directly, or approach through the trees at an angle, masking our paths and our intent. Naya, with her calm and demure voice, suggests the forest’s furtive path. We proceed together, finding the stand of trees behind the castle ample grounds for approaching the castle in secret. Each of us moves carefully to avoid a rogue twig or unseen critter hiding beneath the foliage.
Soon, we emerge on the other side, just a few hundred feet from the castle. We see neither goblin nor beast, so we move closer to the stone fortress. The sun seems to rise higher with each moment that passes; soon, the sun will burst over the horizon behind us.
Suddenly, we see an obscured figure climbing the castle in the distance. The lithe creature scales the eastern wall with a taut rope and climbs into the window from which the rope is tethered. The figure climbs in the window, and the rope is retracted. The window through which the figure entered closes with a pronounced “clack!” – it is all that can be heard in the solemn dawn. Silence returns to the cliffside.
Even Naya’s razor sharp vision cannot resolve the creature that climbed the castle wall. The party proceeds to a stable at the rear of the castle. We hustle across the open meadow beside the castle, quickly finding cover in the stable.
The stable in which we arrive is uncomfortably vacant – four stalls meant to retain the Lord’s horses lay empty and silent. The wood awning overhead is slanted, and the planks of wood which comprise it are well-maintained. At the party’s feet, they find hay scattered around haphazardly, and they also find a goblin, slain several days earlier. The skin of the goblin is tight and translucent across the skin, and its bleak face has twisted from the beginnings of decomposition. It has a rusted blade in one hand, and it is coated in dried blood. No food, water, or supplies meant to keep a horse are present, and we decide to explore the outside of the castle, hoping to find a secret entrance in.
The vegetable garden beside the stable appears to have once been well-tended, but now, it is ransacked and pillaged – irrigation ruts have been perturbed from their parallel lines into upturned soil. Small footprints litter the garden, and many of the choice fruits and vegetables grown here have been plucked from their manicured stalks; cabbage, rutabagas, grapes, and carrots had been violently evicted. Some remaining leaves flapped in the gentle morning wind, a lingering testament to the bounty that once grew here. Regarding the castle, tall windows fill the southern wall; internal curtains had been drawn shut, and careful study wouldn’t reveal a break in them.
We elect to inspect the perimeter of the mighty castle. Trimmed bushes line the outside, and tall, tapered stained glass windows tower above us, offering brief, hued glimpses into the castle’s interior. Raina wants to get a closer look, and Seyer hoisted her tiny frame to the window’s sill. Stationary and beautiful, the window offered sight into what appeared to be a well-stocked armory. Although difficult whilst teetering atop the fighter’s hands, Raina peers in and sees a pair of goblins making their rounds down the castle hall. Quickly, Seyer brings her back to the safety of solid ground.
The party is resolute – it is time to proceed towards the front of the castle to where we presume the entrance is. We march around the western tower at the bow of the castle. As we round the corner, the sun’s first rays beam back at us; however, it’s what we hear that startles us.
A gruff voice emanates from the opposite tower, giving an order of rank and file to a detachment of goblins at the opposite tower’s base. With the renewed energy of the morning sun behind them, they charge into battle!
Seyer is immediately injured by a frenzied mace strike, but he rallies and slays several goblins. Raina fires her arrows with clear vision of their target; although she strikes two goblins, one is healed, and the other prepares to protect itself against the forces of good. Kale recognizes one protecting itself with a thin corona of white light. Despite this, Raina does not relent, and she plants arrows deeply into the flesh of the goblin spellcasters. Naya fells a goblin or two with her own strikes. Nimbly she bobs and weaves to avoid sword blow and heaved projectile, sustaining only a scratch. Kale attempts to assist Naya, though his shortspear remains somewhat impotent in his frail grip.
Despite the setbacks, we conquer each and every one of the goblin assailants, and the same powerful voice cries out again; skittering and scraping can be heard from within the nearby walls, and the lovely courtyard in which we stand comes to a sudden silence. We peruse the flowered courtyard where a statue stands. The statue, as the accompanying plaque describes, is of a Squire Gattwie; he wields a flag-bearer’s pole, but atop it, a crude goblin flag flaps noisily in the breeze. Kale suggests the blighted flag be removed. Naya investigates the statue and its surroundings for a moment, but finds no loose gravel or stones to speak of.
Ahead, the front door looms, but Raina is not content to charge in willy-nilly. She asks Seyer to hoist her up again to look into the adjacent wing not previously viewed. As she peers into the east wing, she sees several bookshelves, tables and a couch, which rests before a burning fire. Attempting to look in the west wing yields a similar result as the first reconnaissance.
We agree to forgo stealth, as it seems clear that the goblins and their ruthless taskmaster are already well aware of our presence. Seyer, going for bravery, shoves the mighty doors open with each arm. They smack against the stone walls within.
After entering the castle, we find ourselves in the main hall. The ceiling overhead is tall, arched, and constructed from solid planning and thought. The floor beneath our feet is a smooth, worn flagstone. The walls are thick, naturally fitting stone, and before us, a glass portal hangs open, leading to a once beautiful promenade. The windows that partition the hall from the promenade are a pure and beautiful glass, but one large window near the center has been shattered, and glass lay strewn across the main hall and the grassy periphery of the promenade.
Naya moves forward to the promenade, poring over each blade of grass, the stones beside, and the ruined accoutrements of the promenade – a once sturdy bench lay in splintered shards, and the topiary bushes are slashed and broken, appearing now as little more than a bundle of leafy twigs. She picks up the musty, dank scent of goblins on a patch of upturned dirt; she surmises some had slept here last night.
Kale’s greedy gaze darts towards the tall wooden doors which lead to the armory, and we agree to pursue that next. Seyer and Naya move to the ajar door and together, they push the doors open, hoping to surprise the incumbent goblins. Although we failed to surprise them, we defeated them without contest. Each blow against the goblin, however, felt less significant against their crusted flesh.
After the goblins were slain, the display of arms and armor was our next goal. Handsome and sturdy weapons of war lined the walls, and antique suits of armor adorned several mannequins as well. Heavier and more brittle than their modern counterparts, we elect to leave the armor behind for another time. Seyer’s bags already rattle with every step. At the north side of the hall, a door stands locked, but we do not wish to break it down just yet. Instead, we head back to the other wing; this door stands open, and upon entering, Raina and Kale immediately come under fire; both are struck with two hurled javelins from a balcony above us. Immediately, Naya and Seyer dash up the stairs to dispatch the two attackers; with some help from Kale’s furious incantations, Naya’s sure strikes, Seyer’s killing slashes, and Raina’s precision, little other damage was done.
As the room falls silent again, we investigate the door at the top of the balcony, but it’s locked tight. We separate to search the room for anything of value; books of history, mathematics, folklore, and culture fill the bookshelves to the brim. The amount of books and their quality suggests without a doubt that Nadmum is either a man of supreme means, supreme birth or supreme luck. Kale finds an abandoned scroll on a table. He unravels it, discovering it is a page of a spellbook, but the runes and ink mask the intent of the spell hidden within it. After a moment of examination, Kale cannot ascertain the nature of the scroll.
This wing bears a tower as the other side does, and we proceed to its door, which opens without force. Inside, three neat beds sit in a wide circle at the bottom of the tower. A pail of water sits at the end of the bed to our right, and a ransacked chest of drawers stands opposite us. After neither reveals anything, we go upstairs to find a single bed and empty chest of drawers. Windows poke out from three equidistant places along the walls of the stone tower.
Disappointed, we descend to learn more about the other tower. We march back around the castle and we encounter no further goblins, and as we pass, Seyer grabs a warhammer from the weapon racks, swirling it in his hand as he approaches the door. We look up and down the hall to see if anyone approaches, and our reports return negative. Seyer rears up, and with a grunt, he brings down the warhammer with a “clang!” against the lock, which buckles on impact. The door swivels idly open, and we proceed inside.
The west tower is a crude mirror of the other; three beds dwell on the first floor, but the mattresses and bedframes are overturned, broken or missing. A pail of foul-smelling water sits to the right, and the chest of drawers lacks drawers at all. Upstairs, a single bed is found; a sharp, thin cut lies in the middle of the mattress, and a deep red fluid has stained the mattress. Naya investigates the mattress by lifting, twisting and flipping it, but she doesn’t find anything but a handful of downy feathers.
We walk out of the tower and to the end of the hall, where a larger set of double doors stands. Seyer and Naya press their head against the barred doors. After hearing nothing, we pull on the grand doors, and we hear a gruff laugh from inside.
There must be a way to get through these doors. We return to the library and return to the top of the stairs where we slew the two javelin-heaving goblins. A large, powerful door dominates the wall. Seyer takes his trusty hammer and brings it down hard against the lock, but the hammer bounces back cleanly. Suddenly, from inside, Naya hears a faint voice. Clearly, the female’s voice cries “help!”
Has the party found Nadmum’s lover? What stands between the party now? What other people will they meet within the confines of the stone castle? Find out on Sunday, the 15th!
Nine months has passed, but I hope you're excited to hop back into Alora. See you soon!
- Matt the DM
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