Rise of the Runelords

Heading down the stairs by torchlight with Henrik in the lead, you heard goblin voices ahead shouting "Longshanks! Longshanks!" followed by padded footsteps moving away from you. There was a bit of a jumble as people tried to jostle past each other on the narrow stair to be the first to skewer a goblin. Order was maintained and by in large you all moved down as a group. The main hall went straight where you saw four goblins waiting. Henrik, Bach and Wolfgar headed that direction. To the left was a narrower hall and Golian and Ishan went to check it out. Right around a corner Golian confronted a goblin in the very narrow hall.

The first two goblins dropped quickly. The rest were significantly tougher. Several rounds of blows were exchanged and the goblins looked like they were gaining the upper hand. Malloric and Pirozzi were moving from side to side trying to get angles for missile fire and spells. Wounds forced Golian to withdraw and the goblin he was fighting was ordered by someone in the darkness behind it to press the fight.

Bach fell and was stabilized by a quick spell from one of the clerics and the group finally started to gain ground, even in spite of a goblin warchanter harrying you with spells and aiding his fellow fighters. He moved into a dark hall and you followed. The other side finally dropped that goblin after Malloric joined the melee with his greatsword and moved in from the other side.

You converged on the one last goblin and a man in fine dress with a short bow slung on his back. Henrik dropped the goblin and the man quickly stepped up, tripped Henrik and then punched him hard. He dared Henrik to get up. No one on the other side really wanted to press due to pretty significant wounds. A few shot were taken and Henrik got back up. The man looked around and said "My work here is done." and ducked into an open door. Following him into the room you found a section of wall that had once been bricked up and a tunnel beyond. Most of the group gave chase but you soon realized you were not going to catch him. You did find another side passage that had also been bricked up and recently re-opened.

Examining the few other rooms in the basement you found what must have been the monk's quarters. In a desk you discovered a journal he had been keeping. In another room you found Amieko, the owner of the Rusty Dragon and the reason you ventured into the Glassworks. Considering the devastation above and the extent of your wounds, the group decided to regroup and inform the Mayor of what had happened. Edwin went for Father Zantus and Pirozzi went for the halfling barmaid that informed you Amieko was missing.

You showed the Mayor the mess in the Glassworks and had to escort her back out. She ordered guards to board the place and not let anyone in or out. You discovered in the journal that there may have been a different motive for the recent goblin attack and Ishan asked about it. Turns out Father Tobyn's grave was in fact robbed - his body was taken. This had been kept quiet by the Mayor, Sheriff and Father Zantus. You confirm the glass covered body to be that of the head of the Farfaren House in town. The monk was indeed Tsuto, Amieko's half-brother. There was no love between Tsuto and his father. There is also information pointing to Thistletop (home of one of the local goblin tribes) as well as the catacombs beneath the town where a quasit and her freaks are found. It seems there is some attempt to get Tsuto, Nualla and the quasit to join forces to destroy the town. See > this document < for more information.


You entered the first room and someone spied a misshapen beast lurking in the back. The front of the party charged in and killed it with a few blows from each. You noticed that it's wounds rapidly healed, but stopped after it was beaten down enough. See > this map < for details.

Continuing along you came to a small shrine with an alter on a raised dias (B12). The alter was filled with murky, foul smelling water. It was unclear whether is was merely old, naturally fouled water or intended as part of some ritual. After opening the stone double doors to the SE, you entered a large shrine. Apart from the natural features, there was another of those deformed creatures on the other side of the pool of water. Shortly after combat started, a small, winged demon/devil appeared hovering above the pool in the rear of the room. She cast sound burst, damaging a number of you and stunning less. She proved very difficult to hit and when you did, your weapons did not even do full damage. She healed even faster than the other beasts. In the course of the fight, she summoned a a couple of fiendish spiders and periodically sliced her palm and let a drop of blood fall into the pool below her. After hitting the liquid in the that pool, the drop of blood began to coalesce. One round later, another of these deformed creatures would crawl out and join the fight. It was nearly all you could do to keep their numbers down.

After a few lucky blows on the quasit, she turned invisible and you lost track of her. Rounds went by and Henrik determined that she was still in the room flying high out of reach. To goad here into action, some of you started to destroy the room by breaking off some of the stakes with skulls on them that were arranged in a circle in the first pool. That seemed to work. She reappeared next to Henrik as she touched him. He was racked with pain and wounds appeared all over as he fell unconscious into the pool. Wolfgar ran to his aid, cast a minor cure to stabilize him and pulled him from the water. Bach and others charged and tried to beat her down. It was even more challenging to land weapon blows on her now.

With flash of insight, Bach tried to grapple here as she hovered near chest height. She manged to fend him off. Henrik had been cured and was back on his feet. He tried as well. He failed but drew her attack which allowed back to finally get his arms around her. Looking a bit surprised and confused, Bach stood there for a moment as she went invisible in his arms. No one quite knew what to do next. No one thought they could help for fear of hitting Bach. Just then Edwin, who had been holding his tower shield over the far pool to prevent her from shedding any more blood into it shouted, "If you really want to kill it, why not drown it!" It seemed a brilliant idea and Back threw himself into the pool of water. It took nearly three minutes of wrestling, but she finally stopped struggling.

The small side rooms are prayer chambers and had a few wooden kneelers in each. She had some treasure on her including a small magic dagger.

You lopped off her head to make sure she wouldn't heal and stuffed her two pieces into a sack and headed back into town to inform the Mayor and Father Zantus of what you found as you also were in no shape to continue exploring. You debreifed Ardrinn officials and found you had new abilities. Welcome to 2nd level.

End

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