|
We decide that our group needs a name and a charter. Lengthy discussion follows, only a bit of which is captured by the notes. How about Magical Young Troubleshooting Heroic Adventurers--or the MYTH-Adventurers for short? How about "Kick-Ass Heroes of Justford." Some protest. The Black Hand? The Spider-Killers of Justford? Drow-Killers of Justford? Aha! The Fellowship of Justford. That will do nicely. Now for the charter. Here's the long and short of it. Fellowship of Justford, list of active members (7 of us currently). We will never carry more than 12 active members. Hirelings are salaried only, no share in the loot. No evil beings can be members. We will have a common fund (1/2 of loot goes to common) and the remainder will be split equally among the active members. If a member is slain, we will do whatever is in our power necessary to make them alive again. We shall defend all members. No holding back treasure; all must be disclosed. Unanimous vote required to add a new member; 2/3 majority to kick someone out. Group hirelings require a unanimous vote, paid for by common fund. Individual hirelings are subject to the group's approval(i.e. a simple majority of the group must approve). So what are we doing? Well, the battle is over, and when Beren, Gwaihir, and Landroval tell the others about the cool house with the ballistas, they're interested. Maybe we should all go check it out. Before we leave, we try breaking that lich's amulet to prevent him coming back. Lightning bolt, fireball, Dorn whacks it, the Phae shoots it with an arrow. We manage to bust it open, then we get on our way. Beren says he'll go another way and meet us there. Okay. The six of us have an uneventful journey, and come upon the town toward dusk. Everything looks peaceful. We go to the keep. Wayne (the crossbowman that Landroval charmed last time we were here) lets us in. We go to the library, Sir Jean is there. Apparently he knows Miranda's dad, so that's cool. We ask him about purchasing the manor house. Rough price estimate 25,000gp, but it really depends on its condition. So, we decide to go check it out, and Sir J will come with us to look it over. Heading over to the manor house, we can see from a good ways away that there are lights on at the place! (It's just past nightfall here.) The gate in the 8' high "curtain" wall is barred from the inside, but Dorn climbs the wall (with the help of spider climb from Landroval) and opens the gate for the rest of us. We go up to the house, only to find that the front door is locked. It seems someone is here! Caution is obviously needed. Dorn walks around to the back side and walks up a wall to look into a second-story window. He doesn't see anything but an unmade bed, some plates of food, and general signs of disuse (such as a rat, some cobwebs, lots of dust). It looks like this room used to be a library, but many of the books have been used as tinder in a fire. He checks the roof (old rusty ballista, nothing else) and then joins us back at the front door. Meanwhile, Phae has been exercising her skills on the front door's lock. She unlocked it, and the rest of us opened it. Inside is a large entry way, lots of dust, a large staircase up the center, and doors on either side wall. Miranda and Gwaihir hear some sort of rustling noise, and notice footsteps in the dust. Landroval is the first to go in, though, after he casts invisibility on himself and light on a rock to toss in for illumination. Different tracks of footsteps lead across the hall as well as up the stairs. Dorn hears something to the left--so we go through that door (again, invisible Landroval is first in). Gwaihir hears some kind of hiss and hurries in the room, closely followed by Dorn, Miranda, Phae, and Corbin. Dorn is the first one to spot it--there's a small kitten in the fireplace! He picks it up and pets it. Gwaihir, the druid, casts speak with animals and asks it a question. It meows at him. ACK! DORN, THAT'S NO CAT! But it's too late! The thing has already cast a spell on Dorn, holding him captive! The rest of us waste no time at all in doing enough damage to the cat to kill -- well, enough to kill at least two or three cats. Anyhow, When it's dead, the body turns into that of a Simbian man in broze armor. He's got a masterwork scimitar, pistol crossbow, and two jambian (?) daggers. There are different size footprints around, including out the door on the opposite wall. We go through there, and discover an old, dusty laboratory. Dorn finds a secret door behind a bookcase but has no idea how to get it open. So, we head back to the main room. Suddenly a crossbow bolt comes flying down from the top of the staircase and catches Landroval in the chest! There's some kind of poison on the arrow that makes him very weak, also. He stays downstairs while some of the others rush up the stairs to find the attacker. Dorn and Miranda charge up the stairs under fire, and Dorn also gets a strength-draining crossbow bolt. Gwaihir takes an invisibility potion and runs up the stairs after them. Phae and Miranda are the first two to notice where the bolts are coming from -- there's a small hole in the right-hand wall at the top of the stairs. Dorn decides he can attack anything in any way thanks to his HUGE sword and sticks the blade through the hole. Unfortunately, the sword is wrested out of his weakened grasp. Landroval, having joined us at the landing, casts web into the small hole to cover anything on the other side. With that, we all try to find our way into that room. We dash into the hallway and take it right. There are eight doors off the hallway, so we start kicking in the most likely candidates. The second door on the right is opened by Phae -- and she's hit by something! Dorn runs into the room and swings at the invisible assailant. Gwaihir circles around the center of the room to cover any other possible means of escape (still invisible himself!). Okay, this was a while back and I don't really remember the details. I'll make them up later. But for now, just for kicks, here's exactly what I have written down (maybe you all can help me figure out what it means): "Phae casts MM wand. He asks for mercy, drops crossbow, but sword flies across room. We all go in. Crossbox flies up to ceiling. Miranda shoots it off the ceiling. Dorn hits at it, squishy. It's dead. Dorn pokes poison (oops)." So we killed the guy, but he's still invisible. Sir Jean has some ink with him that we dump over the figure, at least outlining him. We take his weapons off of him, and they become visible. There's a cool bag. Dust of poison (Landroval takes that), some decent gear. A masterwork pistol crossbow, masterwork bolts, dagger, 100gp in his pouch. He's a black arachnid type (Miranda spits). Dorn takes the ring off of his finger, but still the body is invisible. That done with, we split up to check the other doors on this level. There are several bedrooms (one that Dorn saw earlier), one study, one especially large bedroom. We are all looking in an individual room. Phae goes down the left side of the hallway, to the last door on the left. She comes back into the hallway where the rest of us are kind of gathered, and tries to kill Landroval (Ack!). Dorn, Miranda, and Landroval run down the hallway to find Sharee in that last room. The battle with her while Gwaihir tackles Phae and holds on to her (thanks to some really great superior grapple checks!) and Corbin ties Phae up. Sharee is no problem for those three, and Dorn gets her head with one of his vicious strokes. They set the head and body on fire in the yard (she's already come back to life at least once, remember?). Dorn finds a hollow book in the library that contains 4 platinum trade bars, one vial of belladonna/nightshade poison, and one vial of some poisonous powder. We also find a trapdoor in the room where we fought the invisible crossbowman. Under it is a ladder that leads down, down into a big cellar-type area. It looks like it used to be a wine cellar and was turned into a jail--there are six iron cells with skeletons in them. There's also a massive door on the floor of this room, with crossbars stuck through it and thick iron rings, not to mention the excellent locks bolted on all over it. There are lots of siege supplies on the other side, away from the cells and trap door, and a section of the wall that slides away. Inside there is a small room with thick green carpet, a small stove, very comfy-looking chair, and lots of bookshelves. Some plants and trees that are now deceased. The books are all in a weird language that none of us know. Gwaihir finds a catch on a wall in that room that opens a small door. Behind that door is a flight of stairs that lead up to the bookcase in the lab! We still can't figure out how to open the door from the lab side, though. Corbin uses the magical spell open and that does it. So apparently, magic-using people can get into it easier than non. Landroval likes that little room, and claims it rather than any of the bedrooms upstairs. Looking at the heavily-locked trapdoor again, Dorn finds signs of a magical trap on the masterwork locks. Landroval thinks it might be a fire trap (thanks to a +10 in Spellcraft skills). So we work out a deal with Sir Jean to buy the place. Final price is 18,000gp. (In a larger market, a place this size would probably bring about 30,000gp, so we think we're really getting a steal!). We hand him the four platinum bars (at 2,000gp apiece) and a chest with 10,000gp in it. The deal is done! We do a little bit more in town, arranging a headmistress for the household (Olga the dwarf) at a rate of 12gp/wk, and a groom/stablemaster dude, for 10gp/wk. We figure we'll need to hire guards, servants, stuff like that. Plus we'll need all new furniture, and maybe some repair work done to the place too. But all the planning can wait for next time! |