Scales of War part 5: The Castellan and the Cook

After barely surviving their encounter with the Magma Claws, the heroes decided to keep on the path suggested by Adronsius and make their way east, where they rounded a corner and headed up some stairs. Remembering that this was the place that Adronsius has said has a sticky floor, they were not entirely surprised to encounter some Ettercaps in the chamber beyond. Lucian in particular was not pleased to see them accompanied by the Gnome who had fled from them moments ago, and allowed himself a smile of grim satisfaction when the force of Sayer’s arrow splattered the creature against the far wall. The webs from the Ettercaps limited the heroes’ mobility, but with Grambur quite able to deal with the one who was directly attacking them, and Oro and the others pounding the other with ranged attacks, they did not put up much of a fight. When the Webspinner tried to flee, Grambur was having none of it; he charged the Ettercap and cut it down with one fell swoop.

Sadly, the group found a body in the corner of the room, wrapped in web and with its face contorted in fear and pain. From the description, Sayer and Oro guessed that it was Kartenix, the captain of the guard, who had apparently been trying to escape. He had in a bag next to him a pair of boots, the Boots of Spider Climbing which would help the wearer scale tall surfaces more quickly, and reasoning that the fallen captain would have no further use for them, Sayer took them.

The group decided to head back to the Von Urstadt crypt and investigate the room off the side. There they found a pair of jail cells, one of which contained Sertanian, Castellan of the Hall of Great Valour. Lucian picked the lock and released the old man. He explained that Kartenix had been the prisoner in the next cell, and he had devised a daring plan to escape with his son, Tharuun, who was somewhere in the dungeon, and get help from Brindol. Sertanian was saddened, but not surprised, to hear that Kartenix had died. He said that the captain of the guard was a brave man, if not a very clever one, and that he ought to have known he’d never have stood a chance against the sheer numbers of villains that infested the castle. He also was able to tell them that the cook, Mirtala, was being held in a room south of the Rivenroar Family Crypt. Remembering the way, the group set off towards the crypt, and Sertanian followed them.

On arriving in the Fresco chamber off the crypt, the heroes found the place infested with dire rats, and the poor cook tied to an altar at the far end of the room. There were also statues of Displacer Beasts running up the aisle, and Sayer lost no time in teleporting to the top of one of them and taking pot shots at the rats. Lucian entered the fray but was bitten by one of the rats and contracted Filth Fever. Grambur marched straight into the fray and began cutting limbs off each of the rats and Oro pelted them with magic. Even Sertanian had a go with a hand crossbow given to him by the heroes; he was confident in his ability being a veteran of the previous war, though his accuracy suggested to the heroes that he would be more dangerous as an ally than a foe. A couple of Gnomes made the mistake of appearing out of nowhere to try and disrupt the heroes’ efforts, but Sayer and Lucian were not for a moment fooled by their trickery and dispatched them very quickly.

After the fight, the group went over to the altar, which they noticed was dedicated to the Raven Queen, to help Mirtala. She also had filth fever, and was catatonic with terror. She seemed as much afraid of the heroes as her captors, though the presence of Sertanian prevented her from lashing out in fear. As she was clearly ill, the heroes decided that the best course of action would be to take her, Sertanian and Zerriska to the room currently occupied by Adronsius, which had a clean supply of water if nothing else. Lucian and Sayer tried to convince the cook that they were not a threat and wanted to help, and when that failed, Grambur employed the far more straightforward tactic of picking her up, putting her over his shoulder, and carrying her to the cistern. After some convincing, Zerriska came up to the room as well, and with three other people from the town in the room, Mirtala started to calm down. She knew nothing about the locations of the other prisoners that the heroes had not already discovered, but she was able to employ her skills as a cook to make a mostly edible meal from the roots and herbs that Zerriska had been collecting; no bad thing since the prisoners had not eaten properly for a while and were running short of food. The heroes decided to use this relatively secure area of the dungeon as a base, and took a rest here. Zerriska tended to the illness, and both Lucian and Mirtala made a full recovery. After sharing some of their trail rations, the heroes moved on…

Having explored the lower floor of the dungeon, the heroes returned to the room with the Ettercaps and ascended the stairs to another crypt, this time belonging to the family of Von Adrez-Kauthin. It looked like the Hobgoblins were using it as a guard post, with a Spitting Drake there to supplement their power. A Goblin Hexhurler was waiting on standby in the next room, but unfortunately for him he arrived far too late to aid the Hobgoblins, many of which had fallen straight away to Oro’s magic and Grambur’s ruthless efficiency. He tried to flee, but after being party to so much unrest and destruction in the town, the heroes were not letting him go anywhere…

Exploring the crypt and making some rather out-of-proportion efforts to open the sarcophagi set into the floor, the heroes found two healing potions and 170 gold pieces. Quite why healing potions had been buried with a member of a prominent trading family the heroes couldn’t quite fathom, but they were thankful that they might still be alive to spend all this gold they were acquiring when they got out of this Godsforsaken place. However, there were two more prisoners still unaccounted for, and nobody was leaving the dungeon until they were found…

Experience: 483 each

Treasure:

• 170 gp
• 2 Healing Potions
• Boots of Spider Climbing (lvl. 5)