The Assault Upon The Castle On The Coast
The party arrived with their new priest in tow. Their objective, according to the map, was obviously the ruined castle sitting upon the island, a mere 100 yards from shore. When the party gazed upon the castle, they found that it had changed. No longer did it appear to be a ruined castle in the process of being rebuilt. Now it was gutted by flame and gaping holes appeared in its walls. No sections appeared rebuilt. No sea cave was visible below.
The party searched the graveyard and found no bodies, no blood even. Green grass was growing where the scorch marks from the fire should have been. Some one had gone to a great deal of trouble to mask their presence.
Callister and Kramtha both believed that the best way to enter the castle would be the sea cave. Although it was not visible, the mariner and the cat warrior believed that it was merely hidden from the sight by some spell. In the pre-dawn light, Shr'lee summoned a magical fog to hide them and the party paddled up to the castle's sea cave in the boat they had purchased earlier.
The sea cave was large and deep, thick with rotting seaweed and crusty barnacles. The surging waves found it difficult to navigate the boat into the cave, and even once inside it took all of Callister's skill to prevent the boat from smashing into the cave walls with each wave. Twenty feet into the cave, they found a rusting iron portcullis. Beyond the portcullis, standing at attention on a rocky ledge was a skeleton warrior, grasping a large wooden wheel with both its bony claws. Obviously this was some sort of winch mechanism to raise and lower the portcullis. The skeleton made no move to attack. It simply waited and watched.
Stryfal, thinking she might be able to slip through the bars, jumped out of the boat and into the water. Underwater, she found one portcullis bar had broken off at the tip, leaving a small gap. She stripped off her leather armor and squeezed her slim body through, only to get stuck half way. No matter how she wriggled, she couldn't manage to get through the gap, forward or backward. She struggled against the bars as her breath began to run out. It was at that moment that she noticed a huge red crab (two feet across) swimming through the water toward her. Meanwhile…
Up above, Shr'lee cast a Rope Trick spell and the party climbed up into the dimensional pocket. They then dropped down the rope on the other side of the portcullis. A unique use of the spell.
Once on the other side, they saw the crab and Stryfal's predicament. Callister stuck a sword through the crab while Kramtha pulled Stryfal free from the portcullis. She came up sputtering, but otherwise alright.
The party snuck along the cave wall and found a wooden dock inside the cave. A large sailboat and two longboats were tied up. On the dock were various boxes, crates, barrels, etc. On the opposite side of the cave was a small beach and hundreds of the giant red crabs were feasting on the dead carcass of a small whale. Callister examined the sailboat (a small ship, really) and took the captain's logbook. It detailed numerous supply runs between this island castle and the Coalition. Proof of Coalition activity in Mercian waters. He stuffed it in his small pack for later study. A pair of large iron doors sat at the base of the dock. These were guarded by a pair of skeleton warriors, which Willum, the priest, turned to dust with his holy symbol. Stryfal managed to pick the lock on the iron doors and the group proceeded up the stairs.
The level above consisted of roughly hewn stone corriders. Four armed men sat at a table playing cards. The party attacked the guards, and thanks to the element of surprise, quickly dispatched them before they were able to summon others.
As the others searched the bodies of the guards, Stryfal's attention was caught by a small iron door in a wall. The iron door swung open unleashing a foul stench. Mounds of garbage were piled high in a tiny chamber. Rats scurry away from the light and slimy white worms writhed in the garbage. She looked up to find that she was staring at the bottom of a great shaft, its walls coated in slime. Apparently this was a garbage chute that ended at this level. The shaft went up at least four levels in the castle. She tried to climb it, but the walls were too slick, even for her excellent climbing skills.
The party continued their journey up through the castle. They didn't know what they were looking for, only that the map indicated it was in this castle. They decided to maintain stealth as much as possible. At each level, they encountered at least one guard. Each battle was done quickly and quietly.
After ascending up two levels of "dungeon" they came to the main level of the castle (level one) and managed to capture a guard alive and interrogate him. After sufficient threats, he readily answered their questions. The party learned this:
The castle was ruled by a member of the Death Knights and two witches. The witches were sisters. One specialized in the creation of undead beings - skeletons, zombies, etc. The other in the creation of all kinds of golems including several she had designed herself. The whole operation was jointly sponsored by several Coalition military companies, who believed the sisters' research to be potentially useful to their interests. The necromancer witch would often take a few guards and raid the graveyard on the coast, digging up the bones of the long dead from which to create her skeletal warriors. Recently, she dug up a skeleton that was infused with great magick. Unable to decipher the strange auras of power that played about it, she brought the bones back to the castle for further study.
Callister had a feeling that the bones were what the map was leading them to. He couldn’t prove it, but it seemed like too much of a coincidence. And he didn't believe in luck. Not any more.
The party bound the guard up so that he could not alert the castle and continued their quick search of this floor. Nearby, they found a small gaming room in which four guards were relaxing during their off duty hours. Rather than blindly burst in and fight, the party had Shr'lee cast a carefully placed silence spell so that the battle would not be heard. The plan worked and soon four guards lay dead with out so much as a whisper of noise.
The group quickly went up two more levels, not stopping to look about. On level three, they ventured out to explore. They found a throne room in which several officers were beginning to gather for a meeting and a large feasting hall (with a sleeping drunken guard). Not wanting to meet all of the officers as they gathered on level three, they quickly slipped up to level four. There, they met an undead skeletal warrior - a powerful one. No doubt, one that the necromancer witch had spent much time on. Calling upon the power of his deity, Willum was able to hold the creature at bay, but not destroy it as he had done earlier with the two weaker skeletons in the sea cave.
The party ventured out into level four and found a half orc officer lounging in a bathing hall. This one they killed quickly and quietly. They then found a conference room with maps of the castle they were in, the immediate area outside the castle and the coast of southern Mercia. A treasure of tactical knowledge. Callister grabbed some ink, a quill and blank parchment and began rapidly copying the maps he saw on the wall. When he had sketched them all, the party continued on. Kramtha, wanting to try out the Battle Spice he had purchased, consumed the entire dose. As the others continued to explore level four, he allowed the battle fever to come over him. His vision blurred, he frothed at the mouth and a tremendous heat came over him. He felt as if fire were roaring through his blood and felt ten times stronger. Taking his blade, he returned to the stair well and began to battle the skeletal thing which Willum had held at bay.
Stryfal, narrowly avoiding a swipe of blade and claw, scooted past Kramtha and the skeleton warrior and returned to level three. She found a small passageway with stairs leading up to balcony which overlooked the throne room. She hoped to get a good view of all the officers and soldiers that had amassed in this large hall and perhaps overhear something useful. However, she ran into a guard on the balcony. He turned around, startled. Fearful of a confrontation, Stryfal turned and fled. The guard raised his horn to his lips and sounded a long, clear note. He called down to the others in the throne room and warned of intruders. The ranking officer in the hall began barking out orders. Soldiers ran to carry out his commands. Within minutes, the entire castle was on full alert. Armed patrols of soldiers were systematically sweeping every chamber and corrider. Stryfal began running back up to level four to warn the others of this turn of events. However, she was forced to turn away from the stairwell when she heard soldiers in it, a level below. She ran back to the feasting hall where they had found the sleeping guard. She crawled out a window, scurried up the outside of the castle, and crawled into a window on level four.
She arrived back at the stairwell just in time to see Kramtha cleave the skeleton's head clean from its shoulders. The skeleton instantly collapsed into a pile of bones and dust. Its death howl echoed through the stairwell. She told the others that the guards were alerted. Sure enough, the party could hear booted feet coming up the stairs. Shr'lee grabbed several lanterns from hooks on the walls and threw them (and a generous amount of oil) down the stairs. Soon, the stairwell was ablaze and the guards found their path cut off.
The party decided to go up one more level. Running through flames, they arrived at level five and burst into a magnificent bedchamber. Here they encountered a witch and two warriors, who looked up with a start. A tremendous battle ensued. During the battle, a wizard arrived on some sort of fixed teleport pad in the bed chamber. The battle was a long and bloody one, but the party triumphed, thanks in part to Kramtha's newly-acquired magical ring, which seemed to obey specific one word commands. When Kramtha concentrated on the ring and screamed "FIRE!" a stream of flame burst forth, engulfing his opponent. Kramtha looked over his bejeweled ring after the battle and noted that one of the diamonds on it had disappeared. So, this was apparently an enchanted ring with only a certain amount of charges. He'd have to save them for when he needed them most. The Battle Spice had almost completely worn off, leaving Kramtha with a horrible ringing in his ears and a splitting headache. He privately swore that he'd never touch the stuff again. To lose control when so much was at stake would foolish and eventually suicidal. But for now, they were victorious, and the castle had only just been alerted to their presence. Good work, considering they had already advanced to the bedchamber of the master of the house. The mariner indulged himself by stealing a quick moment to smear an angry and triumphant message to the bedchamber wall. It read, "Thanks for the Tour... -Callister Draabyn and the Conclave Defiant." He wanted to make sure every mercenary in the Coalition knew his name. If he was going to fight the Gods, he might as well fight everyone else. Bring it on...
From the witch's body they took a wooden box in which they found the magical bones they had seen in the graveyard. Callister believed that this was the prize they were seeking. Shr'lee again used fire as a defensive weapon and alit the teleport pad, just in case more opponents were soon to follow. His timing was perfect. Someone teleported in and instantly caught fire. Callister and Kramtha, realizing that they were trapped, began doing what they could to make the bed chamber a defensible position.
And so ended the fifth session. Quite the cliff hanger. How would the party get out of this one?