Three Black Arrow Rangers rescued from Graul barn. Mammy Graul and several Graul Ogrekin killed. Party clears farmstead ground floor and attic, explores basement.
Quillax's Journal
Journal (13-Nov)
We snuck along the perimeter of the farm, keeping an eye out for additional scouts, trying not to draw attention. Unfortunately, the barn was over-engineered to cope with the bad construction, so we couldn't simply rip out a few planks to get to the prisoners and the roof was too high for us to easily climb and test the shingles.
We edged along the side of the barn nearest to the woods, aided by the onset of heavier rain. Despite the additional natural cover, we needed to leave Clank in the tree line to await the signal to come help as he was a bit too noisy and may further alert our enemies in the barn.
Our plan required that we get the door open quietly as to not draw attention from the house or send the OgreKin in the barn to kill the remaining prisoners. After a quick discussion, Jarrick agreed to employ his scarf of disguise and appear as the last OgreKin we killed with extra facial injuries.
He pounded on the door and demanded entrance and was able to bluff his way inside and surprise the OgreKin with an attack. As soon as the doors were open, the rest of us moved to join him in the fight.
Jarrick knocked one of teh OgreKin down, damaging it, then moved to the centre of the room to prevent them from dashing towards the back.
Sepheria stepped inside and cast hypnotic pattern, enthralling two, then moved to distract the last OgreKin who had been out of the range of the spell so it would not run to kill the captives.
I took an animal form and killed the one Jarrick had knocked over. Behind me, the non-spelled OgreKin swung at Sepheria but she dodged. Neril ran in and attacked the one Sepheria was distracting.
Kibb followed the Monk, mauling the bespelled OgreKin. Jarrick moved to assist Kibb. Their attacks allowed my passing swipe to finish it off as I moved to assist Sepheria and Neril. My large form drew the OgreKin's next attack but Neril finished it off immediately after.
Clank, Moncey, and Neril watched the house to ensure our fight hadn't drawn attention while Sepheria moved immediately up one catwalk, cracking open the unlocked door to peer inside the next room. She reported back a huge floor-to-ceiling structure of spiderwebs (like an upward funnel) as well as cages.
Jarrick went up the other catwalk and opened the other door, though it was far less used. After some consideration, we threw one of the dead OgreKin into the door on Jarrick's side and closed both doors. We waited for a few minutes, then Sepheria opened her door again and saw a giant spider enjoying its provided meal. We threw the other two bodies in then Jarrick ensured his door was tightly closed before he got off the catwalk and kept Kibb under control while Neril and Sepheria crept past the spider to unlock the chains and assist the three survivors out. The door was closed behind them while Kibb was happily reunited with his human companion, Jakadros Sovark.
Jakadros was the stepfather of Shelelu, the Elven Ranger mentioned in the previous journal entry. He was second in command of Fort Rannick under Commander Lemata Baydon, who was in the Fort at the time of its capture by Kreeg Ogres and was to be presumed dead, though Jakadros thought that his Commander might still be alive despite the odds.
Also rescued were Kaven Windstrike and Vale Temros. All 3 were Rangers at Fort Rannick who were part of the party captured and were the only non-eaten survivors.
As all the survivors were wearing very little, Neril spotted a tattoo on Kaven's wrist - a Sehedron. Kaven tried to hide it, claiming it was old and he had gotten it at Riddleport where the symbol was a fashionable tattoo to get and it was in honour of his love of the stars. We convinced him to let us look at it and from my examination, I could tell it was new, only a few months old. We warned him to be careful as nearly everyone else wearing that symbol was dead.
He seemed surprised to hear that the Paradise had sunk and showed great concern for the proprietress, who we are fairly certain was behind the sinking of the barge and the murder of all those people.
We healed them up a little and shared out our extra gear and took them with us as we went to kill the remaining OgreKin in the house and fetch back their gear.
Neril darted across the yard, keeping to the shadows and peered into each window around the 'toy room' until he spotted the two OgreKin we expected to be there. He then waved us over. Sepheria teleported into the room first and attacked the more deformed one. Neril teleported in after her and assisted her. Jarrick followed them in and killed that one. Sepheria then turned to the second one and attacked, followed by both Neril and Jarrick, who finished off that one also.
The rest of us then carefully pried the boards from the window and climbed inside, trying to be quiet. We all headed towards "Mammy's" room, leaving the injured Rangers with Kibb in the dining room on guard for the eighth mobile OgreKin, which we suspected to still be in the house. Jarrick crept up and threw open the door.
Unfortunately, our fights had not been as quiet as we had hoped and Mammy OgreKin was prepared with Mirror image and a fly spell. Before we could react, three undead OgreKin lurched out of the coffins in the walls of her room. As one of nature, it is a disturbing thought that she slept with undead in her room.
I cast a quick burst of flame at one zombie while Neril worked his Silence spell. Sepheria then cast Fireball into the room. Fire filled the room and backwashed into the hall somewhat but Jarrick and Neril avoided the blowback. The floorboards rippled lifting Jarrick slightly onto his toes and he let us know that the fly spell had been interrupted.
A moment later, he stumbled back as a barrage of magic missile struck him, doing him a fair chunk of damage. Despite that, he still managed to dodge all three of the OgreKin zombies' attacks. I moved forward and worked a touch of healing magic on Jarrick while Neril got out of the way to focus on keeping the Silence spell working. Sepheria dropped another fireball into the room. Jarrick and I backed up, luring one zombie into the hall, but the door closed behind it.
I could hear the crack of wood being broken through in the room next door and I left Jarrick to fight the OgreKin zombie, half-squeezing and half-climbing over the others to see what the noise was. One of the zombies had broken through the wall of Mammy's room into a closet and was in the process of breaking the closet door. Both of us were somewhat surprised by the other but we stuck simultaneously.
I looked up to see Mammy glaring at me from where she had moved off the bed before she wielded the black wand in her hand and struck me with the same Magic Missile spell as Jarrick. It hurt but I was just able to retain my animal form.
I could hear Jarrick and Neril as they struck the other zombie in the hall before Clank moved in beside me and attacked the zombie also. He tried to grapple it but failed and was knocked a few steps back.
Sepheria stepped in beside us and threw another fireball into Mammy's room. There was a quiver of floorboards as something hit them, later determined to be the third zombie and my enemy also fell. Mammy attacked Sepheria with the wand but Sepheria blocked the missiles.
I moved into the room and attacked a nearby enemy, but got a mouthful of air as I dispelled one of the mirror images. Jarrick threw open the door and attacked, dispelling another image, leaving only the real OgreKin behind. He then shield bashed her and managed to knock her over.
Clank followed me in and Neril teleported in and attacked. At Sepheria's signal, Neril dispelled the Silence spell and Sepheria used her own Magic Missile.
Mammy threw more Magic Missile at Neril, striking him painfully. I attacked her in response and Jarrick lunged forward and struck the final blow.
A little toad hopped from her body and under the bed but at her death, it started to fade. Once the familiar was gone, we quickly searched the room with Sepheria finding the spell book. From there, we searched the rest of the floor, finding the remains of many baby girl- OgreKin bodies as well as other disgusting things.
The living room had a trapped couch. In the pit trap beneath it, a mutated plant-looking OgreKin which called to mind a Shambling Mound snatched at our ankles. We left it along as it could not get out, then double backed with the two dead OgreKin from the toy room, pushing them in to distract it. Jarrick informed us that he heard something from the kitchen door leading down to the basement. We left that for the moment also.
Upstairs, a trapped chest nearly poisoned me but the rusted blade was too slow. There was little else of interest upstairs so we moved to the basement. The first room was some sort of Skin-removing room. The second room, Jarrick was surprised by an OgreKin and badly struck and yanked to the floor. He was badly hurt and then to add insult to injury, two enormous donkey rats attacked him also.
Neril went after the rats immediately while Sepheria used Tasha's hideous laughter to distract the OgreKin. I followed in animal form to attack the rats, killing one. Jarrick got to his feet and managed to kill the other before backing into the corner of the room, very bloodied. We then all focused on the OgreKin, who still went after Jarrick, knocking him unconscious. We all struck the Ogrekin hard, with Neril managing a stunning blow and I finished it off.
I managed to stabilize Jarrick and then we poured a healing potion down his throat.
Assured he was safe for the moment, we checked over the body and I tucked away the armour to remove the disgusting bits and resize for myself as it was stronger than my own.
We have one door remaining in the basement, which may contain the Shambling Mound, and we still have not found the Rangers' armour and weapons. If it's not there, we will need to recheck the house and barn as there may be a hidden room.
[XP total 3811 each]
Sephiria's Account
Letters that will never be sent…
My dear Sister, it was so good to have been able to spend time with you recently. I was extremely gratified by the degree to which you managed to conceal your boredom when I presented my initial findings on the research I’m presently carrying out regarding Sorshen and the Lady’s Light. Your presence was much appreciated and I’m sure lent gravitas to the proceedings.
As you know we have been asked to investigate matters around our distant outpost: Fort Rannick. The journey upstream by barge to Turtleback Ferry was not the most pleasant given the increasingly incessant rain. I fear I shall never be dry again.
Turtleback Ferry was everything you would imagine from a small, provincial settlement: poor quality, overpriced lodgings, sour wine and inquisitive locals. Given that we are on an investigative mission, the latter has actually proven quite useful. Certain of the locals were garrulous enough to tell us all about a pleasure barge (if such a thing can truly exist) that recently sunk on the lake with great loss of life. We have spotted more than one Sihedron tattoo amongst the populace and think this may be the “more elegant” means of marking victims that was described in the letter to the lamia, Xanesha, that we salvaged from her tower.
The description of the mistress of the pleasure barge, presumed to have gone down with the vessel, sounds particularly suspect with the term “otherworldly” used to describe her. I think this is almost certainly Xanesha’s smarter (and notably arrogant) sister, Lucretia.
So enabled by Quillax’s mastery of all things soggy, we walked out across the lake to the place where the barge went down and then descended into the dark and unpleasantly cold water to investigate. We found the wreck and moments later we found an enormous fish – I’m sure Quillax will be able to tell you the taxonomy if asked. The druid decided to chat with it but evidently the fish had small regard for her conversation and instead decided she should be dinner. I’m sure I don’t need to go into what happened next, but suffice it to say if we ever decide to open a fish restaurant we have significant stock…
Now able to study the wreck it was clear that the barge had been deliberately scuttled, and with the doors onto the deck barred from above, it was evident that the intent was the maximum loss of life. The cold eventually got the better of me and I’m afraid that I spent the next few days recovering in bed.
My colleagues continued gathering rumours from around the area and aside from the lack of communication with Fort Rannick’s rangers, they heard tell of a group of inbred woodsmen – the Graul family - who had in effect made the Kreegwood a no-go area for the folk of Turtleback Ferry (inasmuch people who did go into the Kreegwood tended not to come back).
Being the bold, intrepid sorts that we are, we naturally decided to investigate. On our way we encountered an enormously ugly man – definitely a fair amount of ogre somewhere down the family tree – along with a pack of hounds hunting a wounded cougar. Quillax decided that the cougar was some ranger’s animal companion which implied that the huntsman was likely up to no good. He then made a bad judgement all and ordered the hounds to attack at which point I fireballed them all. My allies made equally short work of the huntsman.
After a few miles we came upon the Graul homestead and I sent in my Arcane Eye to scout it. I spotted three rangers – presumably from Fort Rannick – imprisoned in the barn, while the house itself was an education in the grotesque depths to which some people can sink to which end I will not append any further details as they were uniformly disgusting and unutterably repulsive. The Graul matriarch was apparently a wizard of some description, though due to extraordinary obesity, a not particularly mobile threat.
Having got the terrain mapped out, we attacked the barn first with Jarrick managing to con his way past the locked door with the aid of his scarf of disguise. Killing three Graul guards and bypassing a giant spider by dint of giving it ogrekin to feed on, we manage to rescue the three rangers: Jakardros (the cougar’s master), Vale Temros (a warrior) and Kaven (whose explanations for possessing a sihedron tattoo were notably unsatisfactory).
We attacked the main house with a view to leaving the matriarch until last. Our earlier reconnaissance proved most satisfactory as Neril was able to hamstring her spellcasting capability with a Silence spell, and neither she nor her zombie kin proved at all adept at dodging fireballs. In the end Jarrick struck the telling blow, though how his dagger managed to find a vital organ beneath all that blubber, I cannot begin to guess.
The last member of the Graul family ambushed us in the cellar and nearly killed Jarrick before we defeated him. We continue to explore the house, but hopefully we have seen the last of the disgustingly inbred Graul clan. I think that once we are finished, Quillax will want to take advantage of the foul weather to lightning bolt this appalling house into oblivion.
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