The Greyhawk Expedition – Dinner and the Tower

    This particular gaming session brought a couple of observers…friends of the DM: Emily and her BF, Dan.  Both have relatively little D&D experience, but oh boy, are they about to be thrown into the thick of things…

And why not, really?

   Taking over the playing of Krispy the Fighter is Emily, and Dan decided to take the Player’s Handbook and make himself a new character. And just like that, we were off.

To remind the readers, here’s our party as it stands:

Brent: G'leric, a gnome wizard, and his familiar, G'at the bat
Spencer: Eric, a human paladin, and his mount, Zeeb
Kirby Emily: Krispy, a human fighter
Elliot: Lance Dallas, an elf druid, and his familiar, Lionel 

Dan: A to-be-introduced-later Elven character

     When last we knew, the party was at the Able Carter Coaching Company, where Thalivar had just offered a hefty reward for the return of any missing/stolen goods.  The late afternoon sun was burning down brightly as the group stood outside the ACCC office, discussing their next move.  Two options were available:
      Head on straight to the castle ruins outside the city of Greyhawk, as all signs seemed to point to there as the place to start.  OR head back to the Drunken Dog Inn for dinner with Ricard Damaris, the proprietor.  While the group is pondering this, the fighter simply appears out of nowhere right beside them (much in the manner of Harry Potter or similar).  The party exchanges mildly surprised greetings with Krispy, but are otherwise non-affected by the sudden appearance.

     In the end, the group opts for dinner, and the DM exercises her power of Time Fast Forwarding, and it is immediately eight pm.  The atmosphere of the pub/inn is much more lively and animated.  Shouts of ‘Ho, there!’ carry across the room as Ricard spots the party and gestures them over to sit at the six-top where he presides.  Lance does an incredible Spot check on the evening barmaid and realizes she’s an elf, like him.  Urik’s horrible Spot check enables the paladin to do nothing but look at the elf’s breasts…but being a paladin, he feels guilty and looks away immediately.

     Ricard recounts for his friend, a man sitting next to him, in a great, booming voice, the events of the attack that morning and of his noble rescue by the players.  Then, he asks to know more of the characters themselves; Urik states he is here to see Riggby’s body in its funeral state, Lance is here to study animals (Ah! exclaims Ricard, then I will take you someday to see Lord Henway’s menagerie…quite the collection of exotic animals he has!) and Krispy informs Ricard she was hired by the paladin’s parents to protect him on his travels.

     The barmaids bring food and drink (prompting the players OOG to retrieve their own victuals and libation in the form of meat and cheese and crackers and some home-garden salsa).

     The Lord’s Table conversation turns to the other man sitting at the Lord’s Table.  He states that his name is Elten and that he is a City Watch Agent.  This piques G’leric’s interest and he attempts a Bluff, stating that he too is a City Watch official.  When it’s obvious that Elten’s not buying it, the gnome gets goofy and laughs it off…which impels Krispy to declare the wizard’s had too much to drink.  The DM has the fighter roll a Bluff check for fun, and Elten is far far far too clever to fall for Krispy’s lies.

      Eventually, most of the party notices four figures enter the bar, and all are wearing rough brown robes, like those of an ascetic monk order.  They move from patron to patron, speaking to each (or trying to) and gesticulating wildly at times.  It seems they have some kind of urgent message, but it also seems like most of the patrons are rather uninterested. G’leric casts Message, which allows him to speak telepathically with a target for 10 minutes per level (nearly an hour and a half in this case).  However, he has to point at the target whilst he speaks, which just slightly ruins the effect.  The wizard, so as not to make it too obvious, sends the cryptic message of “I see you.”  All four robed figures hear the message and look around for the source, but to no avail as the wizard lowers his hand and resumes looking casual.  The paladin does a Detect Evil and senses no evil intent among the group of men.  Krispy decides it’s time for another pint of ale and meanders over to the bar…very close to the group of brown-robed crazies.  A good Listen check allows Krispy to hear snippets of talk like, We are the clerics of St. Cuthbert, the eyes of the Evil One are upon the city of Greyhawk, prepare for the reckoning…

      Krispy makes her way back to the table and shares the Armageddon talk with the rest of the group, asking if anyone knows about a St. Cuthbert.  Urik (after a decent Knowledge: Religion check) explains St. Cuthbert is a god of revenge and retribution, and while he’s LAWFUL neutral alignment, most of his followers are good since usually evildoers are the ones who break laws.  However, even the good ones can go overboard…

     Like Krispy the fighter, who decides inviting the religious nuts over for a drink would be a good idea.  The barmaid is prevailed upon for more chairs, and Ricard takes a moment from his conversation with Elten to watch the new development at his table.

     Lance is prevailed upon to provide more information about Krispy’s eavesdroppings about “The Evil One”, and he recalls the local lore of Greyhawk and an evil demigod named Iuz (the paladin nods his head as Lance tells it, he recalls the stories as well) who was imprisoned by Riggby the cleric many years ago.  And now that Riggby has passed on, the time is ripe for Iuz to seek revenge upon the cleric and the city he held dear.  The brown-robed clerics approach the party and say many of the same things Lance has said, albeit in a lot more raspy, agitated, and cuckoo tones of voice.  They advise (rather loudly at this point) that Greyhawkians should abandon the city if they treasure their lives.  And just as it seems that the you-know-what is about to get real, Ricard bounds over and shoos the clerics down from the table and out the door.  He returns, smiling and laughing, claiming those rascals come in about once a week, preaching the same message of revenge.  The party lets the incident go…for now.

     Not long after this, a Spot check by the party denotes about a half-dozen young people have come in the door.  They retrieve pints from the bar and sit at a nearby table, glugging the ale immediately in one go.  Not that this is terribly out of place at The Drunken Dog Inn, but these kids seem awfully young…prompting Lance the elf to reflect that “I’m like their grandparent.” The kids are already on their second tankard and appear to be drinking it nearly as fast, and the party discusses for a moment what they should do…if anything.  The Drunken Dog Inn crowd is not what one would call an academic, studious bunch; it’s entirely possible things could get out of hand.  But, eventually, the party decides they are not being paid to babysit and head upstairs to their rooms for the night.

******************** THE NIGHT PASSES UNEVENTFULLY *************************

     The next morning, the party arrives down at the inn for breakfast (eggs and biscuits and gravy, it would seem), and in an instance of a late-night identity crisis, Krispy declares she will now be known as Ember the Executioner.  OOG, Emily likens her sudden change to what Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner is experiencing in today’s world.

 
     The party sits down to eat in the near-empty sitting area.  There is only one other patron in the Drunken Dog Inn, a slight-of-build yet striking elf is seated at another table…and he is watching the party with interest.  G’leric, the ever-friendly gnome, says, “I see you”…to which the elf responds cheerily with, “I see you too!”  He asks to join the party at their dining table and proceeds to tell them a sorrowful tale about a group of students who met a tragic end last night in this very barroom.  As it goes, according to the elf, the students had been drinking and aggravating the patrons, to which point the main young aggressor found a knife shoved in his back.  A moment of silence ensues as the party mulls this over, no doubt considering what they might have done to prevent it (or not).

     The dark-haired elf is not one to dwell on sadness, because he moves on quickly, asking, “So, what’s up right now?” (Make no mistake, this elf may be 234 years old, but he still knows the lingo of the young people)  The elf goes on to tell the party he is a trader, recently being the victim of an ambush and subsequent theft, and G’leric conducts a Sense Motive check.  For all practical purposes, the elf appears to be telling the truth, but G’leric is going to play that information close to the vest for now.  

     The general idea of the morning is to visit the Castle ruins and attempt to track down the goods of the Able Carter Coaching Company.  The elf, perhaps feeling like this party’s a little short on manners, finally introduces himself as Fayt.  The other characters greet him, and because that’s how the dice roll, the orc-hewing, tough-as-hell female fighter finds herself a little on the smitten side with this newest party addition. Oooh la la.

     Elves know their stuff when it comes to adventuring, obviously, because Fayt is the one who suggests shopping for adventuring supplies.  G’leric is in desperate need of rope, and so the group trudges on down to the Petit Bazaar to find some.  Sometimes the universe has a funny little sense of humor as G’leric purchases rope that is actually too heavy for his little gnome self to carry and thus, passes the new purchase to the meaty paladin for safekeeping.

     Zeeb and Lionel do the lion’s (and the zebra’s) share of grunt work as they ferry their party of adventurers to the fabled ruins of Castle Greyhawk, some hour or so north of the city.  The party is keen to point out Zagig’s bridge, the place of Ricard’s rescue just 24 hours previous.  A gray fog has settled in around the party as they traverse the path, and within minutes the crumbly ruins of what once might have been a great tower looms up in the near distance.  Lance seems to recall from some deep reserve of old Greyhawk lore that there may have once been three towers here, despite the presence of only one tower at present.  The wizard and paladin cast various Detect spells, and while there is no sense of immediate evil, both Urik and G’leric are unsettled by the stillness and dense fogginess of the environs.  Ember, always the fighter, has her greatsword at the ready.

     If the party is paying any kind of attention to the new guy, they’ll realize that the elf indeed has a pretty particular set of skills…in the area of ROGUE.  Fayt branches off to the right and keeps near the trees that skirt the ruins while the rest of the group continues along carefully into the clearing.  Fayt eventually rejoins the party, informing the group that it is ominously quiet, enough to alarm the rogue elf into pulling out his bow and arrow.  Lance the druid announces that he remembers that once upon a time, three great towers stood here: a Tower of Magic, a Tower of War, and the Tower of Zagig.  However, the Tower of War is all that remains…or that can be seen at any rate.  G’leric sends G’at out on a recon mission, and the bat returns to confirm the druid’s story – there are three sets of ruins, but G’at was unable to see more than shadowy outlines through the mist.  The druid also notices wagon wheel tracks leading up to the Tower of War (the only visible tower).

  
     Move Silently checks by the party determine that only the rogue and the druid are careful and quiet enough to advance closer to the tower for a closer look…everyone agrees the poor MS check by the fighter is a good enough reason to leave her behind for now.  Lance and Fayt creep close and notice a squat blockhouse positioned in front of the tower ruins…it’s obvious that the blockhouse is nicer and newer than the ruins…signs that the structure was built long after the tower.  Both characters see a lone dwarf standing the door as a sentryman, but to their delight, he has not noticed them, even though they are within one hundred feet.  Lance decides to return to the party and bring them around through the trees. Fayt hears the post dwarf whistling and opts to stride up, confidently, to the guardhouse door, to engage the dwarf in an interlude that looks a little like this:

F: Good day!

D: Well met, are you looking for entry into the Tower of War?

F: I am an explorer.

D: Ah, well! Then you come to the right place.  The Tower here is only the beginning of innumerable treasure to be found within in the depths of the dungeons here. 

F: Can I take a look around?

D: We are the Wardens of the Wartower, and none shall pass without our permission.  Come with me and I will take you to see our Guild Head, Stillguar.

The dwarf still maintains a sense of civility, and Fayt follows the dwarf inside the blockhouse. 

Meanwhile…

     The rest of the party approaches the ruins, and G’leric speaks with G’at, who informs his human that Fayt has gone inside with a dwarf.  Ember and G’leric listen at the door, rolling well enough Listen checks to hear the low tones of dwarves talking in relatively calm, friendly terms, but not well enough to discern the topics of conversation.  The blockhouse wall is roughly seventy-five feet long, and Ember can see windows at various intervals.  The party decide to move quietly down to one of the windows, some fifty feet down the way, and trying peeking in.

     Fayt, seated on a stool in the guardhouse common room, awaits the arrival of Stillguar.  A few other dwarves and other various humanoids are seated at tables in this room, smoking pipes, drinking out of a tankard, playing cards - the atmosphere is jovial.  Fayt has no problem with a Listen check, but he does not discern any piece of information of value.  It’s clear that while the dwarves here are friendly, they certainly aren’t free with their topics of conversation.   The dwarf who brought Fayt in has now disappeared into one of two doors on the southeast side of the room.

     It is widely know that wizards have a special, “favored” spell, and it seems that G’leric’s is Invisibility Sphere.  Casting it on the whole party, the group moves down the blockhouse wall to a window fifty down from them.  This is super-effective as it allows the party to peer into the windows and get a handle on the situation without alerting the dwarves to their presence.  The window provided a look into a room that resembles a dining area, complete with tables and chairs and cupboards around the walls.  G’leric volunteers to go through the open window and check out the scene further.

     The gnome gets a few feet through the large room and is beginning to sneak down a corridor when he passes gas.  There are several doors leading to small room all along the corridor, and when none of these doors open in alarm of the noise, G’leric breathes a sigh of relief (though he does not inhale right at this moment) and continues to a closed door at the end of the corridor. A solid Listen check indicates that there are humanoids in the room beyond, but their sounds of those of joviality, etc. Very carefully, he opens the door into the large common area beyond.

     Fayt has been sitting quietly on his guest stool, just as instructed, when he notices the one of the two doors open slightly before shutting quietly.  The dwarves in the room do not notice this, and the elf surmises someone has either entered or exited the room, unseen.  But before he can ruminate too much longer on this, the other door opens a rough-looking dwarf enters with the dwarf who brought Fayt in.

S: Grebold here says you wish to enter the Tower?

F: Yes.

S: We will allow you passage, but you will bring me a quarter of whatever you bring back with you to the surface.

     Fayt, in typical cagey rogue fashion, does not answer yes or no, but instead informs one of the card-playing dwarves, “Hey, he’s got an ace there,” on his way out the door.  G’leric realizes he’s in a bit of a sticky situation now, and carefully makes his way back through the door he came in. 

But, he's not careful enough.  A decent enough Spot check by the card-playing dwarves allows them to see a door randomly open...and then randomly shut.  And there's nobody there to do either of those things.  Thus, the investigation is on.  Fortunately, G'leric realizes this, and casts Ghost Sound, summoning the loud roar of a lion to distract/throw off his pursuers.  But what he wasn’t quite prepared for was the druid’s familiar, Lionel, who answers the Ghost Sound with a mighty roar of his own.  Things seems like they could fall quite apart here, but G’leric hustles back to the window he came through and hisses to Urik to throw the rope to him.  Excellent teamwork abounds as the party outside makes short work of hoisting the gnome back through the window. 

The gnome instructs the party to hustle back out to the treeline for cover.  Once everyone is safe and sound, G’leric informs the group that Fayt is also okay…as just said person is seen moving back towards them.  The rogue informs the party of the Wartower Wardens’ terms, and not one of the characters seem daunted about having to hand over a quarter share of treasure to a group of card-playing, ale-guzzling, lazy dwarves.

     And with that, the party appears to be on the edge of a night of danger and daring! Until next time!