587 CY, Wealsun the 4th: Once More into the Moathouse!

10 June 2015

With all the party members hale and well rested, all spells prayed for or memorized as required, the party broke their fast in the common room of the Inn of the Welcome Wench, preparing to set out once more for the moathouse in the swamp, the warning post of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Before they had finished their breakfast, the tall, awkward, birdlike trader, Gremag, found the party. His purpose was to let his customers know that the boy they had rented, Ulfric, would require proper protection if he was to accompany them into danger. A leather jerkin was not nearly sufficient—the lad required a chain hauberk, or better. Fortunately, Gremag had a hauberk of stout chainmail back at the shop, which he thought would surely fit Ulfric.

Though everyone played along to the point of heading to the shop, in the end, they decided they didn’t need Ulfric at the cost of 2 gold pieces per day plus 75 gp up front (or the payment plan, of 12 gp total per day for 7 days). Haggling didn’t really get them anywhere, nor did Billet Graham’s attempts to elicit holy zeal in the fight against evil. And so they left without their archer. Gremag wished them luck.

On the way out, Kheldar kept his eyes open, and was able to befriend a muskrat, with pieces of biscuit and promises of more. Two hours hiking saw the brave band to the moathouse, where they were, as feared, set upon once again by giant frogs, though this time only two, and small fry at that. The frogs were dealt with at no cost to the party, who confidently crossed the drawbridge into the courtyard (confident once Kheldar had again scoured the eastern half of the drawbridge for traps.

They had a quick peek in on the spider’s lair. Though most of the body had been carried off, the legs and head remained. Kheldar tried to find the venom gland(s), but failed his Lore check and so just made a further hash of the already well distributed remains.

Rather than heading straight to the double doors atop the stairs, the party scouted around the courtyard, where they found bootprints in a track between the front gates and the double doorway atop the stairs. They made good use of the thieves, who climbed the walls to peer into arrow slits with their infravision. Anaïs even gained the parapet, and walked the rear half of the fortress, hoping to find a back way in. The reconnaissance proved largely fruitless, however. The rooms appeared to be empty, or filled with nothing more interesting than shattered furniture or ruined taxidermy. Where she was able to investigate, the collapsed walls didn’t appear to offer passage inside to anything larger than a rat.

And so, to the doors at the top of the staircase. The thieves scanned the left doorway for traps, and finding none, sent the redoubtable Graham through first. Feodoric followed quickly, with a torch, for the large hall beyond the doors was gloomy. Everyone came into the 50-by-50 room. Kheldar examined the stout door in the easternmost end of the north wall, evidently leading into a square tower that jutted off that corner of the moathouse. He found no traps, heard no noise, but did discover that the door was barred and bolted from the inside. The party elected to leave that door alone for the present.

There were few surprises in the south wing. They found a wide staircase leading up, though Anaïs could confirm that there was nowhere for the stairs to go beyond the ceiling, and the pile of rubble on the landing appeared to be the legitimate end of the staircase. One room contained a lot of dirt and little else, despite a lengthy search. Another held the remains of at least one large bed, split and hacked until the largest piece was no larger than a foot in length. Another sheltered a small bat colony.

Even the giant snake in the largest room was no surprise, as Anaïs had spotted it from the outside. While the bulk of the party set up in the hallway outside the room, Anaïs climbed back to the parapet and sneaked around to toss a Molotov oil flask through the ruined wall, onto the snake. This she did very well, and the flask shattered on a rock, showering the snake in flaming oil. The snake fled blindly from the conflagration. When it tried to flee down the corridor, the party set on it, fanning the flames with their widely missing swings … except for Kheldar who had successfully hidden from the beast (not so hard, since it was on fire and thus a bit distracted). He backstabbed it with a natural 20, thus doing quadruple damage and killing it. (We’re trying a new rule to keep natural 20s and natural 1s from making a mess of combats: a natural 20 will do max. damage, but will only indicate a Critical Hit if a 6 is rolled on a further d6; a natural 1 will always miss, but will only indicate a Fumble if a 1 is rolled on a further d6.)

After the requisite rest, the party searched the large room, while Kheldar butchered the snake further, seeking any treasure it may have swallowed—none, as it turned out—and attempting to harvest its venom glands. The venom hunt was a complete success: Kheldar rolled a perfect success on his Lore check (a 1, rolling below Wisdom, though it should have been Intelligence to know/remember a fact) and was able to cut the gland out and secure it in an empty flask brought along for that purpose.

Someone (Graham, I think) found a jeweled dagger among the rubble where the snake had rested. That went to Anaïs, at least temporarily, so she now has two fancy daggers, neither of which she really wants to throw.

When they got back to the large hall at the top of the stairs, Kheldar’s muskrat buddy was nowhere to be found. The rat!

The north wing didn’t go so well. Actually, it didn’t start out so well: Kheldar peeked into a narrow-ish (only 5 feet wide) passageway, finding a horde of giant rats looking back at him. He ran away, and the rats did not follow. The party used that bit of good fortune to their advantage, rigging another Molotov flask. Kheldar went back to the opening and tossed the bomb more or less blindly, setting fire to several of the critters. That time, the rats followed. Wisely, the party was ready for the burning rodents, and swung … and swung … and swung, mercifully sparing the rats from contact with the weapons of any but the wizard, who killed one before it expired from the flames. In the ensuing melee, the rats were eventually killed, though Anaïs Fumbled (a 1 followed by a 1 on the d6), striking Valiniriel— mercifully just 2 points. The first rat to attack Kheldar rolled a natural 20 (but not a Crit), and bit him for a full 3 points of damage. Feodoric was savaged for 1 of his/her 2 hit points. Kheldar and possibly others were upset that Valiniriel didn’t see fit to use Magic Missile to finish off the rats. Feodoric had the bad luck to catch Giant Rat Rabies from her/his bite, so that’s a ticking clock on the party, and probably an expensive cure, unless they want to leave Feodoric laid up for about a month, with a chance of death. The fire bomb had set a fire that didn’t look to be abating, so they left that passage/room unexplored.

The room full of mounted animal heads and pelts turned out to be infested with ticks up to 1 inch in diameter—they left that alone. The other small room they had been able to see into from the courtyard was similarly uninteresting. They had a listen at the double doors leading into the large barracks room at the end of the corridor, where Kheldar heard sounds of movement, something man-sized, probably. Kheldar went back out, to have a peek in through the arrow slit again. This time, he spotted a giant lizard in the south end of the room, quite close the arrow slit.

After a hasty conference, they sent Anaïs out with Karox’s bow, to climb the rubble and throw flaming oil through the arrow slit. She would then shoot it with arrows, and the party would rush it from the double doors (I don’t know why they didn’t just have her shoot it until she killed it). That kind of worked: Anaïs dropped the oil flask almost on her feet, and had to retreat to let the flames burn out. She only had the one flask, so she shot the lizard with an arrow, doing four points of damage. The uproar kicked the combat off. Karox’s door wasn’t stuck, but Billet Graham’s was, and he failed to force it. Sigh. They had terrible luck with opening doors all night. When Karox got inside, the lizard had moved around, and was right next to the doors. It surprised her, and got a free hit, but missed because of her armor and large shield. They mobbed the thing, and failed to kill it. Graham got bitten for 5 points, and Anaïs slipped and fell on the rocks rushing to get back inside, also taking 5 hit points, so Valiniriel hit the thing with Sleep, making for an easy kill. Loot from a chest in that room: some copper pieces, given to Feodoric; a suit of scale mail, possibly to be used to equip Ulfric; a light crossbow; a case of 24 crossbow bolts. Keeping to the tradition of gutting their kills, the party also found a medium shield in the belly of the huge lizard. It’s a nice looking shield, with bronze chasing and fine detailing, though it will require a new leather handle.

Still feeling pretty good, and with a few unwounded members, the party proceeded to check out the last door in the corridor: the kitchen. Hmm … avoid the butcher-block table mounded with mold … oh, a small cask … AAH! GIANT TICK IN THE FIREPLACE! GETITOFF! GETITOFF! GETITOFF! Such was Billet Graham’s nasty surprise. The thing bit him, most foully, and latched its sharply pointed legs around him, holding tight. Though Karox gave it her best shot, her blade slid off the thing’s hard carapace. Anaïs stuck it with her shortsword, with little apparent effect. Graham spent his round casting Cure Light Wounds on himself, to keep death at bay, though he knew the blood drain would take more of his life. Shortly thereafter, he fell unconscious. Oh no!

But all was well: Valiniriel had used his last Sleep spell, allowing the party to finish off the horror without further mishap.

Still somehow confident enough to continue, the brave adventurers went back to the rat room. Now that the fire had nearly burned out, the remaining two giant rodents were able to come squeaking and spitting out of the passage. They were dispatched without incident, and the way was found to lead to a staircase down. Dunn-dunn-dunn!(geon)

Putting that to their backs, they went to the barred and bolted door, hoping to clear the upper works before venturing below. The party arranged themselves, and Karox threw her (considerable) weight against the door. It creaked and groaned (or was that she?) but did not give, and she had to admit defeat. Two plans were put forth for breaching the portal: dousing it in oil and burning it (slow but sure), or battering/hacking it down. It was hung such that it swung into the space beyond, eliminating the chance of removing the hinges with anything short of an axe. It was decided to fetch the sturdy work tables from the kitchen and have the four strongest members use them as battering rams.

In all of this time (3 hours), no wandering monsters were encountered, and the day had turned out quite fine. Valiniriel has three Magic Missile spells, ESP and Wizard Lock remaining. Billet Graham has two Cure Light Wounds and Sanctuary.