Journal #5 - February 2010

Real Date: 07-Feb-10
Game Date: 08/01

After resting the party check the store room and, not unsurprisingly, find stores of food and drink, so head back to the excavation room to search for another entrance to Balgron's chambers. They find nothing in this room but do find a secreet door in the corridor outside. Tryn opens the door at the other end of the secret passage and sneaks into the room that he finds there wherein he finds the slumbering form of Balgron the Fat. Masterfully exercising his skills for sneaking he creeps up on the sleeping Balgron and slits his throat. This didn't immediately kill Balgron who then leaps up gurgling and stumbling around. Tryn deftly finishes him off and the spray of arterial blood is dazzling in its beauty as it arcs across the room. The crumpling figure of Balgron pulls down the drapes that were segregating his sleeping area and reveals the guard on the other side who hadn't heard the scuffle until the last dying burbles of his leader. Arannis takes the initiative at this point and casts a Magic Missile at the guard, knocking him sideways as Ash finishes him off with a blast of Divine Light from upon high. More goblins try to rush into the room and general melee ensues. Arannis Twists the Arcane Fabric of time and space to move Tryn out of his way so he can cast another spell and the Thunderwave knocks his opponents over who die from the force of the Thunder. Only one goblin is left standing so Arannis uses his mastery of space and time again to Phase Step into the corridor behind this goblin and Magic Missiles him. The goblin dies as the energy bolt impacts his body but the sounds of more goblins hurtling down the corridor drown his screams of agony. A quick skirmish with the fighters leaves the remaining goblins dead and dying in a heap after Balasar breathes his deadly dragon breath on two of them and Baeshra deftly slices the others.

Balgron's chest yields 560gp and a mysterious wand

[Encounter Experience = 175xp]

The party head back down towards the zombie infested area by way of the rune trapped corridor that Tryn previously fell foul of. Thinking to himself, "what could possibly go wrong?" Tryn tries to disarm the trap but unfortunately sets it off again and finds himself fleeing in terror, running as far and as fast as he can away from the terrifying rune. Tryn eventually calms down so they decide to take a different route and they find a room with a number of sarcophagi. They are inscribed in Draconic, but are still unreadable by the dragonborn members of the party. The engravings on the sarcophagi are human in form. As they pass the last of the sarcophagi the lids crash to the ground and a horde of skeletons emerge, with two of them looking much stronger ("meatier") than the other eight. Balasar takes two of them down pretty quick with his Dragon Breath and slices another one, sending the bones crashing to the floor. Baeshra kills another one and mightily cleaves a "meaty" one. Arannis kills two more with his Flaming Sphere spell while Ash blasts one with the divine might of Pelor, Turning the Undead to dust... And then more skeletons appear! Baeshra decimates another "meaty" one as Arannis rolls his Flaming Sphere into two more skeletons, burning the bones to dust where they stand. Whilst Ash continues to call upon Pelor's might (to little effect, "why hast thou forsaken me, oh Lord of The Morning?") Baeshra and Balasar mow their way through the remaining skeletons ably assisted by Tryn and Arannis. Baeshra moves into the next chamber to see where the skeleton reinforcements are coming from and finds an altar to the Dragon God, Bahamut - "The Platinum Dragon" as he is known, for none shall name him and live. Baeshra pays homage to the altar, the light emanating from this room bathes the corridor and the skeletons retreat, leaving the party alone.

Tryn opens the door to the next room and finds a raised dais upon which is a single coffin. There is a human figure engraved upon the lid that Tryn was reaching for... but it bursts open before he can reach it and a mightly skeletal warrior rises and declaims loudly that "The rift MUST stay closed!" He quizzes each party member in turn to seek th truth of their words. Baeshra and Ash are quickly conving in their open and honest responses, but Balasar and tryn take longer to convionce the skeletal warrior of their pure and just intent. Ash decides to ask the undead warrior about Sir Keegan, the knight who had gone mad and killed everyon in the keep all those years ago. The answer they receive shakes them to the core - this IS Sir Keegan! He didn't go mad, he had been possessed by the will of Orcus and forced to kill everyone, including his own family. Sir Keegan hands his sword (named "Aecris") to Baeshra and asks him to use it in battle to redeem it's honour and asks that the party seeks the "Platinum Dragon's Boon." He also says that the goblins are digging in vain and that he doesn't know the use of the mirror that they found earlier. Aecris was given by Elyder to Sir Keegan when he was knighted.

Leaving Sir Keegan to sleep the sleep of the undead, the party move back into the altar room and try to figure out what "The Platinum Dragon's Boon" is... until Tryn finds five figurines of silver and platinum hidden in the altar. Aha!

Having reached a logical breakpoint in their quest, they decide to head back to Winterhaven to rest and recuperate overnight but they find the gates closed. Lord Pardraig says that dead villagers are rising from the grave and that people have gone missing. To show his generosity, Lord Pardraig pays for the party to stay at the inn for the night.

Game Date: 09/01

They enter the grave yard and are soon attached by a skeleton horde while Arannis investigates this blue glowy thing in a far corner. There are some dog things at the doorway of a big mausoleum and a dark elf at the doorway of a smaller tomb. A dog thing does some necrotic damage to various members of the party but the skirmish is soon over. The female dark elf was Ninaren who they had met on a previous visit to the inn... she had been the spy in Winterhaven. She had a note on her body which read as follows:

I received your report on the strange adventurers. Next time you see them, put an end to their meddling. Mix the blood of ten people with the elixir my messenger brings. Then trace the following pattern on the ground of a graveyard and pour the liquid into the lines. That should supply you with a force to thwart them. Return all their possessions to me, especially any rings or jewelry they may be wearing.  I am very interested in those rings.


I’m very close to completing my work and cannot be interrupted. As you already know, if you do come to the second level of the keep, the pass phrase is “From the ground, some magic was found.”

They head back to the town for a well-deserved rest...

Game Date: 10/01

...and then back to the Keep the following day...

Journal #4 - January 2010

Real Date: 17-Jan-10

Game Date: 06/01

The party head back up the stairs and stake the door shut, deciding to explore further on the level they came in on rather than plumb the depths of the undead horde they fear below. They hear some goblins arguing and discover three of the ugly spuds accompanied by two drakes. Naturally, a fight follows... The room the goblins had occupied was heavily excavated. Amongst the gold and weapons on the goblin bodies they find a holy symbol shaped like a dragon's claw.

Treasure Haul
22GP
3x Shortbows
3x Crossbows
40x Crossbow bolts

Experience: 125xp each

After an extended rest whilst on watch with Arranis, Ash hears the distant sounds of battle. He asks Arranis but he can't hear it... and neither can anyone else in the party. Ash also feels colder and is suspicious that this might be a targeted attack on him but isn't sure... maybe he's just more sensitive to the memories of the keep than the others and can hear the echoes of battles long fought? Time will tell...

Deciding that they are now brave enough, they descend the stairs and find a roughly hewn room or cavern in which they are attacked by giant rats and an ochre jelly. The jelly is really nasty, causing acid damage and even subdividing into two equally vicious jellies - twice the jelly, twice the fun! In combination with the rats the jellies prove to be formidable foes, nearly finishing off Balasar with their deadly secretions, so they bravely run away and rest overnight to lick their wounds.

Experience: 60xp each

Game Date: 07/01

Exploring further they hear more goblin voices behind closed doors and formulate an elaborate plan to draw them out with halfling taunting whilst the burly fighters hide behind the doors, ready to ambush anyone that comes out. The plan works insofar as Tryn gets shot in the arse with a crossbow bolt! A second attempt at the ambush draws out a hobgoblin who is quickly dispatched in one round, thus proving that it WAS a good plan after all. They rush into the room from which the hobgoblin had emerged and find a torture chamber with more goblins. 

After finishing off the goblins they find one imprisoned in a cell. They question the wretch, named Splug, who says that Balgron had ordered them to dig but doesn't know what for. Bartering for his life and freedom he completes as much of the map as he can for the party and tells tham about Balgron and his goblin retinue of five elite warriors and eight normal fighters. They set him free after Ash tries to bluff him into believing that he has cast a spell on a rope to bind him that will explode if he betrays them.

Treasure
55GP
55SP

Experience: 125xp each