Session 5

We met for our 5th session on October 22. Present to play were Lisa (playing Sydney Swann, human swashbuckler), Phil (Finn Longstride, halfling cleric),  Bonnie (Grizena Hemmingsworth, half-ogre barbarian), Caleb (Powder, wizard), Barry (Reggie, ogre monk), Kevin (Clint Carver, butcher and warrior), Adam (as Ash, shadow elf ninja), and Mike (Humphrey Hemmingsworth, holy warrior). Full house!

The first part of this session, the PCs knocked around town some more, going shopping, practicing skills, and meeting some of the characters that Ash and Humphrey made contacts with during the previous session.

Reggie, Clint, and Finn went shopping at the general store. Finn picked up some cured sausage and filled a wineskin with the local beer. The sausage was good, but the beer was nothing special. Clint bought some dried meat and helped Reggie shop. Reggie bought more trail rations, too. Clint and Reggie were referred to the carpenter for a custom project Reggie wanted. Reggie ordered and paid for a bigger barrel to carry his booze around in, to be made by Mrs. Guffin. She was pleased to be paid up front, and gave him a little price break.

Grizena spent some quality time with her bird, Peekaboo, then checked out the Tipsy Mermaid bar. The crowd was thin and the mood unfriendly. She got a little bit of attitude from the staff and patrons, but she tipped well, drank cheerfully, and tried her level best to engage the sullen people in the bar in some morning revelry. The hangovers the local barflies were nursing worked against the efforts of the nine foot tall half ogre and her falcon in making friends.

Sydney joins Griz for a drink, then heads to the Blacksmith to get a helmet made for Maki. He wants to help Maki keep the water in his forehead. The smith says he can make such a headpiece, but he'll need measurements for the kappa's head. Sydney collects Maki at the fountain, startling a man enjoying his breakfast. He decides that Maki should slip back into the water and join the party at the swamp along the road.

Powder stayed in his room at the inn, studying the scrolls that Ash and he has recovered in the caves of the orcs. He determined that one of the scrolls contained a spell for summoning an illusionary warrior. He lacks the prerequisites to learn the spell for now, but he could cast this from the scroll in a pinch, rather than trying to learn it.

Humphrey and Ash mostly try to urge the others to hurry up. Ash slips away to the stables. Humprey introduces Finn to Essentia Nells, who tells Finn that Castellan Josk would love to meet him, but is very busy today. Finn declines to make an appointment for the next day, and the two holy men stop by the church. Finn meets the local priest, Curtis, another halfling. He observes the richness of his home, is offered tea from a silver tea service, and decides he doesn't like Curtis. He talks a bit about endowing the church with money to add another priest and set up more educational programs for local children. Curtis seems enthusiastic, and agrees that Finn can oversee how the money is spent. He offers to set up an interview with Chant Havelove, an itinerant priest who is staying in Broder, to see if he'd like to join the community more permanently. Finn agrees, leaves some money with the priest, and departs with some concern.

When everyone is finally assembled and ready to travel, in various states of preparedness and sobriety, the set off for the valley.

Some time shortly after noon, they have reached the stretch of the road along the swamp. They decide to investigate the abandoned monastery they see through the fog, and have a meal there, perhaps camping until the morning before hitting the cave.

Maki joins the party from the swamp. He tells them that he can find a safe path to the monastery. They follow him, noting the path carefully. Arriving at the ruins, they find that the main building appears intact, while the stone wall enclosing the grounds around the monastery is broken in many places. They carefully peep over the wall, then hop over and fan out to explore.

Ash pats his many pockets looking for something he doesn't seem to find. He approaches Powder, and asks him if he can produce something like a candle using his magic. Powder picks up a piece of wood and casts Continual Light on it, telling Ash that it should be good for at least a day. Ash thanks him and heads around the south side of the main building.

Sydney, Humphrey, and Griz are near a gate in the wall on the west side of the yard when the see movement. Griz runs to the gate, and sees a lizard man running off into the fog. “We're gonna have company, guys!” She shouts to the others.

Humphrey starts asking for Ash, who has disappeared. He wants him to go into the monastery main building and investigate. After some shouted calls, Ash emerges from the building. “Come on, this way,” he hisses, running back inside. The others follow.

The monastery is a big block of a building. Wide archways from the north and south open into an interior courtyard. Looking up, the party sees balconies on the east and west sides stretching upward four floors. With the sky open above them. A tower stand above the arches on the north and south, just visible in the mist. In the courtyard inside, a seven pointed star is worked in stone tiles. But sitting on the star, defiling it, is an alter stone with dried blood streaked down its sides. Humprey and Finn reach for holy symbols and make noises of disgust. Along the east and west walls, beneath the balcony walkways of the stories above, broad doorways gape open, heavy wood doors torn from hinges, two to the west, three to the east.

Griz stays just outside the north archway, watching the outer yard, while the others enter. Reggie stays close to the north arch as well. As the others spread around the atruim, they hear a roar from one of the open doorways, and a huge owlbear emerges.

Everyone quails as they react to the startling noise. Reggie loses his lunch, bending over and retching. Maki shrinks back behind Sydney, who recovers quickly and draws his blades. Humphrey and Clint draw weapons, too, while Powder and Ash step behind their more physically imposing friends. The owlbear charges at Clint, rearing up on its back legs as it reaches him.

Despite everyone's shock and horror, the fight is over quickly. Clint and the beast trade blows while the others rush to help him. Finn prays under his breath, and his eyes grow black with the power of his god. The owlbear is engulfed in flame. Powder, who'd been preparing a spell, dispels the gathering power, sensing that the fight will end soon. As the beast slashes madly at Clint, he swings a mighty blow at its neck, severing the head cleanly from the body.

Reggie regains his composure, embarrassed to have vomited. “I though I could make it a pet, but it startled me.” Ash and Clint stand over the smoking body. “Wonder what it's been eating,” muses Ash. “I also wonder how it eats,” answers Clint in a husky voice, swallowing. He starts to bend down to the carcass with his knife and cleaver.

Everyone is still looking at the owlbear when stones begin wizzing into the atrium from the south archway. Sydney, Finn, and Humphrey are all peppered with stones. Finn is injured enough to stun him badly. Humphrey steps in front of him and brandishes his sword. Sydney jumps to the wall next to the archway. Maki, still shaken up by the owlbear, cowers behind Sydney. Reggie ducks into one of the rooms off the courtyard, making a plan to flank whoever is shooting rocks at them. Ash dashes up a stairway to the second floor. Griz, on the opposite end of the building, does the same.

A band of lizardmen reload their slings for another volley at the party. Humphrey dashes toward them while Powder begins gathering his arcane energy once more. Clint steps behind him, massaging his shoulders. Sydney raises blades, ready to cut down any of the lizard men who enter the courtyard.

As the second volley flies, Humphrey sidesteps more of the stones. Ash and Griz rush along the balcony above, trying to reach the fight. Powder casts a spell to return missiles. Several stones shot his way fly back at the attackers, striking some of them dead. The lizard men advance slowly into the courtyard, where Sydney drops two quickly. Humphrey closes with the band, and injures one, who hisses at him and pulls a crude stone knife. He faces three lizard men in close combat.

Grizena releases Peekaboo, who dives on a lizard man in front of Humphrey, tearing off some of its scalp. Between Powder and Sydney, most of the lizard men die quickly. The last lizard man faces Humphrey, bleeding and snarling. From above, Ash hits it with a shuriken, killing it. Grzena vaults over the railing from the second floor balcony, just in time to run out of targets. Reggie steps sheepishly out of the room from which he had planned to flank the enemy. “You killed them too fast,” he complains.

The party decides to investigate the building further. They find the owlbear's den, with many bones and a paltry collection of silver and copper coin among the remains, a large room with some very old, large, dried out reptilian scales, a room filled with shelves of moldering paper, and a ruined store room. Reggie and Ash explore upstairs, find mostly a lot of small sleeping cells, along with a few smashed up chapels and writing rooms. The two return after a time, reporting that they found nothing of value.

Clint butchers the owlbear. In its belly, they find a bezoar, which Sydney wants to break open to “check it out.” Powder steps in quickly, saying that a bezoar like this is a valuable alchemical component. They others let him collect it and set it to dry on a shelf in the ruined library. While Clint and Finn prepare steaks from the owlbear to consume, Humphrey refuses to have anything to do with the meal. “I don't eat hybrids,” he states firmly. While he eats dried fruit and jerky, the others make a feast of owlbear steak. Maki is given the head of the owlbear, and eats its brain. Sydney decides that the bladder of the owlbear might make a good gasket for Maki's helmet. Reggie sits off by himself, looking concerned. The others attribute this to his chagrin at missing two fights.

The cleric and holy warrior get Reggie and Grizena to help them remove the altar stone to the outer yard. It is heavy, but the four working together manage to drag it out. The two holy men pray for hours afterward, standing at the stations of the star, crossing and praying some more. The rest of the party catches some rest while they do so. Humphrey and Finn eventually seem satisfied, and wake Ash and Powder to watch, who in turn wake Clint and Reggie. Ash station himself in the south tower during his watch, and takes a walk after his shift is over, before turning in. Powder climbs to the north tower, but feels that the fog is too dense to make this an ideal place to guard from, and returns to the ground floor. During the next watch, Reggie remains at ground level, pacing the perimeter with long strides. Clint finds a piece of glowing wood at the top of the south tower. It is cold to the touch, but gives off a bluish-white glow. He examines it, removes it from the railing of the tower, and wakes the rest of the party for breakfast as the last watch ends.