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| Tamily Tanderveil, owner of the Otari fishery |
Party recruited from a local tavern investigate fish missing from the Otari fishery, and battle rats, a spider, skellies & kobold fish-thieves in caves beneath the town. The kobold trapmaster-priestess wears a piece of green dragon shell. Party retire for the night preparatory to a second expedition tomorrow.
The Heroes of Otari - by Judith
Grognar, a Greataxe wielding Dwarven Fighter (Gus)
Keshani, a circus-raised Monk (Judith)
Kyra, a Priestess of Saranrae, whose wit is as sharp as her scimitar (Matt)
Crocus, a Wizard for whom magic is the ultimate power (Bill)
Valeros, a sometime mercenary Fighter wondering if adventuring is a better career (Kermit)
XP: 536 each including session account.
After a slow, unexciting day filled with the mundane tasks of learning haberdashery, I headed for the tavern to meet up with the guys. On the surface I think we were an unlikely bunch of friends, but we’d meet up to chat and drink ale most evenings. Occasionally we’d see the greenish flash from the lighthouse, but paid little heed to it.
That evening we ended up with some unexpected excitement when Bess, an employee of Tamily, the owner of the Fishery, came in to announce that someone had broken in to her basement and stolen a lot of the salted fish that was stored there ready to be sent to Korvosa for sale.
She went from table to table asking for help, and when she came to us I guess we were bored enough to say we’d take a look. For me it was certainly going to be interesting than being shown the correct way to hem a robe – for the sixth time…
We grab what gear we think might be useful: weapons and armour for Valeros and Grognar, Scimitar and holy symbol for Kyra and Bo Staff, Shuriken and Sling for me. Crocus disdained ‘gear’ as it was beneath the dignity of a wizard to rely on anything other than his magic.
We descended into the basement of the Fishery and found several broken-in barrels, discarded salt fish scattered on the floor, and a large hole in one wall. Before we could do much investigating, five giant rats scuttled from the hole to attack us. After a brief skirmish they were killed and, looking through the hole, we found ourselves at the top of a steep incline.
I attached a rope to a pillar, and with casual self-assurance Valeros climbed down to steady anyone less athletic. On the ground we saw footprints of some small bipeds which Crocus suggested belonged to kobolds. After a few minor mishaps we successfully negotiated the slope and started to explore the caves. Kyra summoned the Light of Sarenrae which bobbed overhead and followed us.
After a few yards the tunnel opened up into a large room filled with thick spiderwebs. I was able to spot the spider lurking on the far side of the chamber, while Valeros noted several webbed bundles of the spider’s larder. On the assumption that spiders often use poison, we decided to attack from range. So too did the spider – which managed to cover Grognar in sticky webbing.
I managed to kill the spider with my trusty bo staff, and Kyra got her hands dirty de-webbing the dwarf. In the spider’s lair we found a corpse on which we found a bronze shortsword with an emerald set in its pommel and a minor healing potion.
Continuing on we reached a junction where one direction was barricaded off. From beyond the barricade Kyra sensed the chill of undead. She urged us to go and destroy the undead. I agreed with her as undead normally means tombs, and tombs normally mean loot. Wary of making too much noise I figured out how to quietly shift the barricade with Valeros’ help, and we went through the resulting gap.
Going down some rough hewn stairs we found ourselves in a crypt: a corpse on the floor, five coffins in alcoves around the walls, and a larger, much more impressive coffin in the middle. To nobody’s great surprise skeletal figures started to emerge from the coffins, but we were able to strike them down before they could clamber out.
Another figure, this one still retaining some rotting flesh, slowly moved to attack. Assailed on all sides it succumbed to our attacks. Valeros grabbed a bronze shield embossed with the head of a snarling lion while I grabbed the Everlight Crystal that had illuminated the room. A glance around the crypt told those more knowledgeable than me that it was ancient Varisian work, but the corpse on the floor was much more recent.
We returned to the junction and headed the other way. A high ledge on the left side housed a pair of double doors which opened into a weird shrine. A statue of some kind of squid-thing was in a niche opposite the door, and on an altar was a silver bowl that was apparently filled with water.
Grognar took a swig of the water and was nearly overcome with nausea – only Kyra’s calming words allowed him to push through it. Despite the side effects the water seemed to be beneficial as it was blessed by some water deity none of us could remember.
Moving on we surprise a group of kobolds who had been trying to break into a locked cage which was a storage area for many casks and crates. We kill several of them, but one tries to flee to raise the alarm only to be cut down by Valeros.
Faced with the locked cage, I pulled out my set of picks (I know, legacy of a misspent youth) and managed to open the door. We find some loot within including a magical shortsword which Crocus takes as a focus for one of his spells.
Following the route the kobold had been taking during his attempted escape, Valeros points out a trap in the floor beyond which we enter a long room. In it are three statues – one of them Abadar, the god of money. We’re challenged to complete the Test of Abadar to find the fake amongst nine gold coins.
Crocus easily figured it out, and both Valeros and I knew the trick to solve it. The statue of Abadar was duly impressed and gifted us the eight non-fake gold coins. A room off to the side hosted a large mechanism with a lever which Grognar decided was the control for some kind of device – probably a trap.
Some peepholes in the wall showed us a large room beyond with a distinctive patterned floor. Moving the lever to the ‘active’ position caused the sounds of gears moving from somewhere beneath that floor.
We moved into the room, carefully avoiding all the patterned parts of the floor, and encountered a group of kobolds led by a trap-master around whose neck was a large green-speckled fragment of eggshell. When whole the egg must have been about 2’ long…
During the ensuing fight Grognar discovers what the trap can do by dint of throwing one of the kobolds into it. The kobold ends up skewered by multiple spears so we are now doubly careful to avoid the patterned floor!
In the end we stand victorious! None of the kobolds was able to flee down the stairs at the back of the room to raise the alarm, but more worryingly the eggshell is identified as being that of a horned dragon…
Wearied from our efforts we return to the Fishery to report to Tamily and rest before planning to come back and continue to explore the caves.
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| The Caverns Beneath |
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| The Bronze Shield |
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| The Undead (Artist's Impression) |
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| Kobold Warrior |
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| Kobold Trapmistress |
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