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October 19, 2004

New Aspirants

Voern Grey Shadow had travelled from the Harrowdeep on the understanding that the Bounty Day festival in Gahanis would feature an interesting ceremony for the faen. A female quickling was planning on ascension to the spryte form. He felt he would learn something from the experience at least, hopefully finding some other interesting individuals with which to continue his travels.

Ke-Herram had wandered for some time, somewhat aimlessly adding his sword arm to the defence of caravans, towns, local lords and whoever would take him on. At the Bounty Day festival he hoped to take part in the first Shu-Rin ceremony for a young giant. He did not really have a plan in mind, but he hoped to hear word of his elder brother, Ke-Werrik, who had left his family home years before in search of magic.

Salesat also searched for magic. His burnt fur and scarred visage was testament to some torture or other hard travail in his past. But he was silent on the matter, saying only that it had happened on his naming day. His search was for his hope, a way of restoring his vitality and the strength of his feline limbs. Although the tribes had gathered for their own portion of the festival, Salesat was keeping well away from the Litorian tents.

Migar was quiet about his past or his reason for being in Gahanis, other than the obvious pleasures of a festival. He tried to cut his own particular dash through the crowds as he also searched for a way of earning some coin to keep him in the style to which he had become accustomed.

Aspirants’ Beginning

Voern Grey Shadow met with Ke-Herram and Salesat while searching for a place to stay for the night, once they had booked themselves in to an inn owned by a giant named Ae-Radona. Ke-Harram had been drawn to the place by its size and the giantish inscription over the doorway. They went to the barracks after reading a notice about some bandits who were wanted for spying on the caravans in the area and who had holed up in the Battlehome, an ancient fortress in the battles with the dramojh. Migar had already reached the barracks for similar purposes. There they all met with Mynorath the Peacekeeper, a sibeccai who was captain of the guard. He informed them that there was a bounty on the head of these bandits. One was known as being a scribe, Den Rudiger, the other was a snake totem warrior called Merril Yannis. Due to the Bounty Day festival, Mynorath felt that he could not spare the men to search for these two. The bounty would be two hundred gold pieces for each bandit if brought in alive, half that if they were dead. After obtaining quick directions from the captain the group repaired to the hostelry for the evening to be ready for an early departure. Voern generously paid for the lodgings as the others had spent their last coin on equipment.

Descending the gully, the party arrived at a flat stony area at the foot of Veil Mountain. Before them was a massive cave sealed by a long wall of stone across the lower half of the opening and covered by a latticework of stone spans across the upper half. Massive gates stood precisely in the centre of the stone wall. Two towers flanked this gate rising to the height of the latticework above. On closer inspection, the tower on the left had a smaller door at its base. Heading straight for this, the group saw that this entrance had once been chained and padlocked, but now lay open, with the chain on the ground. A notice mounted on the wall, warned trespassers that a permit was required for entry. The doorway opened into the bottom of the tower, which had a wide stair spirally upwards around the wall; there was no other exit. The party started their ascent, when they got up to the next level they could see a walkway extending along over the gate towards the next tower. This had murder holes set into it. This walkway reached beyond both towers to the ends of the wall where it met the wall of the cavern. They could see spiral staircases of iron leading up and down. They started by sweeping the various levels of the gate wall to see if any creatures were present. They found nothing alive, only a dead body in the well of the westerly gate tower. From the levels high over the gate, the party could make out a large central tower in the cavern, as well as a small building against the eastern wall. On the western side, some buildings were hidden beneath a shelf of stone that covered that area of the cavern from the tower to the wall.

They headed for the small building on the eastern wall. It was once padlocked, but now the lock dangled in the latch of the door, which was shut. Salesat opened the door and peered inside. They noticed a rune on the floor, which they could not identify. Salesat threw a piece of rubbish into the room, which disappeared. Ke-Harram thought that this might be a way of gaining entry into the innards of the complex, but was dissuaded from stepping in by the others. Across the cavern under the stone shelf, the group found some stables that were sized for the radont mounts of the giants who used to dwell here. Further south, they came upon what seemed to have been a forge (from the large hearth and the quenching trough that they found). There was also a well, which had a grappling hook attached to its stone lip. A long knotted rope fell down into the darkness below. Salesat came over to look down the well in the hope of seeing the bottom, but he couldn’t, so they pulled up the rope and attached a lantern to the end of it, lowering it slowly. The well seemed to be about eighty feet deep ending in a natural looking cavern, that although damp, was not filled with water. They could not make out the dimensions of the chamber. They pulled the rope back up and detached the lantern, before dropping the end back down the well.

The group turned their attention to the tower, entering it by the large double doors that faced the main gates of the Battlehome. A fifteen-foot long iron slat leaned against the inner wall of the tower to the right of the open doors. Moving through the double doors opposite the entrance they entered the other half of the tower base. Here another set of doors led out of the back of the tower and a spiral stone staircase led up one floor. They followed this path, climbing forty feet to a room with a thirty-five foot ceiling. Only Ke-Herram felt completely comfortable in this environment. The room was huge, but also had many openings and exits. Four large doorways into open air were set into the circular wall of the chamber diagonally. At a separation of six feet, arrow slits circled the remaining wall. On the northern wall, in the centre, ten feet up, a six-foot square window looked out on the main gates. Immediately to the east of this window, a stone pedestal stood five feet high, with a lever mounted into the top. A stone spiral staircase led upwards through the centre of the tower. Ke-Herram took an immediate interest in the lever and persuaded the others to allow him to pull it from its vertical position. When he did so, they were all deafened and somewhat shaken by the awful screeching sound of the main gates slowly edging open. The whole tower shuddered as the portals swung back to stand wide open, perpendicular to their previous position. The group looked at each other, ashen-faced, then quickly took up positions at the various openings and windows in the hope of spotting anyone approaching the tower. Indeed, it was not long until Salesat saw a large black shape emerge into the courtyard south of the tower. He loosed a volley from his crossbow, but failed to strike home. Ke-Herram and Salesat then moved to the top of the stairs, ready to engage the creature. It came on quickly, swarming up the stairs as if its legs were not its only means of propulsion. Ke-Harram and Salesat waited at the top of the stairs, swinging at it when it came within range. The burning heat of the creature’s body meant that for every blow that it struck, there was an additional searing pain suffered by the victim. Unfortunately, the creature’s blows were strong and Ke-Harram could not stand before it. He fell, bleeding, to the ground. Migar stepped in, lightly stepping over the giant’s form as Voern tried to attack the creature with an animated weapon. Salesat was the next to fall, then Migar, but Voern did manage to slay the beast and then had enough healing magic to restore Salesat.

October 28, 2004

Goblin Forays

Over the next hours those who remained active tried to plan their best strategy, but they realised that they would have to wait until the next dawn for Voern痴 full healing to be available. In the meantime they had one other, wounds-transfer spell, that brought Migar to consciousness, but incapacitated Salesat for some time. They watched out from the tower, hoping that no creatures would come looking for them after the awful noise that they had caused.

Salesat, when it came time for his watch, and while Migar was meditating to change his prepared spells, spotted a goblin approaching the tower from the direction of the smithy. He fired down, missing it by a large margin. So he moved to the stairs getting another shot in at the creature before it managed to reach him. He missed this time too, so had to engage the creature in close combat. Luckily, the goblin was not very adept at fighting, as he failed to land a blow on the litorian, while Salesat eventually managed to slash it once with his scimitar, which was enough. The creature had nothing of value on its person, apart from its morning star and ragged leather armour.

Salesat was curious as to where this creature had come from; so he went down to investigate. By the well that they had seen earlier Salesat could just make out the form of another goblin. So he quickly retreated back to the tower. Shortly thereafter two goblins appeared, creeping along the base of the tower towards the door. Salesat shot down at them, managing to strike one with his crossbow bolt. The creature was sorely injured and fell. The other ran back to the shelter of the overhanging rock that covered the smithy and stables. After a while, a rope lasso began to be thrown from under the overhang, landing near the fallen goblin. Salesat attempted to split the rope with a finely aimed bolt, but he failed. As the success of the goblin痴 tactics became clearer, Salesat decided to be more pro-active. He shot the fallen goblin with his crossbow to ensure that it did not survive and then went down after the other creature under the overhang. But the goblin had given up hope for its companion and had disappeared back down the well. Salesat decided to drop the rope and grappling hook down after it. He then returned to watching the others.

When Migar had changed his spells, he cast a Transfer wounds on Ke-Herram to raise him to consciousness and shortly thereafter the whole group left the Battlehome through the main doors and returned to Gahanis. There, they rested and recuperated, preparing for another trip to find the bandits. Two days later they returned and headed straight for the base of the tower. Passing straight through they entered the double doors beyond which lead into the stony core of the mountain. They followed a westerly path, which led to a series of interconnected chambers. They found little here until they came to a room with a staircase leading downwards, that also had a well. The group believed that this well reached down to about the same level as the one they had previously encountered. It also had a rope attached to a grappling hook on the outer lip. Not wanting to risk a hazardous descent, the party headed, for the stairs.

In the stone clad room below, they encountered two dire rats with iron collars, which scuttled to attack them immediately. Now back at full strength, the party had little difficulty finishing the creatures off. While searching the room, Voern came across the tell-tale signs of a secret door which opened to the south. The room beyond was carved roughly out of the rock and a natural tunnel led off from here towards the southwest. After following this passage for a short time, Migar noticed a carved warning in the wall, which they chose to ignore. Rouhgly one hundred feet later, a side passage to the northwest was visible ahead. Following this route they came to a rough cave with three other exits. Three goblins had been preparing food here and they quickly raised their weapons to attack. Ke-Herram strode forward to attack and swept one goblin aside immediately. Migar and Salesat also wounded their opponents quickly and soon all had fallen. Moving quickly northwards, past the goblins� cooking fire they entered a fan of caves with more goblin sleeping caves. Only one contained goblins, and these seemed to be suffering from a strange disease, which had fungal growths sprouting from their bodies. They were also slow to react and easy prey for the now-confident party. In the last cave of the sequence, two more dire rats were chained up using their iron collars. The fearless group finished these creatures off by using the limitations of the rats� reach to their advantage.

To the west the passage met another long corridor running from northeast to southwest. A quick inspection to the southwest revealed an overabundance of fungal growth that blocked further passage. To the northwest they found the base of a well and the body of a dead goblin covered in the loops of a long rope. Returning to the cave with the firepit, the party went southwest through some narrow corridors of stone, which led to a chamber, that contained two saw horses, upon which rested two bird coups. Several pigeons pecked about inside. Along the next narrow passageway they encountered a snake, which bit Salesat on the ankle. He began to feel unwell. The others didn稚 particularly appreciate the appearance of a human in snake-skin armour to back up the small reptile. Ke-Harram was up to this challenge and he stepped forward to meet the new threat. Meanwhile Migar and Salesat dealt with the snake. Once the small reptile had been skewered, these three managed to bring down the snake warrior. They the bound his wounds and tied him up. Migar watched him closely as they moved on to the next opening, which led to a cave that was occupied by a human, passed out on the floor. A table was strewn with papers in the corner of the cavern. A bed stood unused on the opposite wall. Salesat subdued the human with a few blows of his club.

About October 2004

This page contains all entries posted to Aspirants of the Diamond Throne in October 2004. They are listed from oldest to newest.

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