North of the City of Greyhawk
There was snow on the ground and mist in the air, turning yesterday’s ice to mush. The Company of the White Oak was out on the road in this winter weather for two reasons. One, small sums gained in recent expeditions (and even a net loss in their trip into the sewers!) had dashed their hopes of finding enough treasure to live comfortable on for the winter. Two, when Siliceous Slagg and Jolith Rhygar (and his hench-elf Trebor) went missing on a trip back into the sewers, they had taken Cuthbrid the Fair’s magic key to the sewers with him, and they were not eager to find out what Cuthbrid would do when he found out that they had lost his key.
So now they had trudged off from the Village of Hawfair Green, their launching point from civilization to the wilds at the south end of the Cairn Hills where Castle Greyhawk stood. In tow were their two mules which, coddled by a month of warm stables, were irritated by being led out into the cold on a long trek. This was also the first time they had no hirelings along especially to tend to the mules; Oslo, John’s hireling, was there, but he was going to be expected to fight.
The company present consisted of Haruspex Niv, their resident conjurer (and only remaining magic-user), John Grond, the experienced warrior, the less experienced but still sturdy and dependable dwarf Tuko “Lumpy” Burrstone, the wise but cynical priest, Brother Langdon, and two new recruits, Percy the Adept, and Reed Underbough, a hobbit veteran. Plus Oslo and the aforementioned mules.
Coming around the north face of the castle they could see the drawbridge to the castle was back down – a slightly disappointing development, since Langdon’s superiors at the Chapel of Boccob had given him a magic word that would supposedly lower the drawbridge if they needed it, and now they couldn’t test it. The small gatehouses on either side of this side of the drawbridge seemed abandoned, and no one opposed them as they passed through the barbican and into the courtyard. Tracks in the snow revealed some smaller-than-ogre humanoids had been around the inner gatehouse closest to the barbican. There was briefly some discussion of rooting out these monsters, or finally clearing out the upper works…but the lure of treasure in the dungeons was too great. They made straight for the trapdoor in the courtyard, finding it under the snow.
The mules needed some heavy coaxing to go down the stairs, but it worked. Without Siliceous, Brother Langdon became a front line fighter beside John Grond, with Haruspex Niv carrying the lantern they would be seeing by. Haruspex Niv also cast ESP so he would be unnaturally alert in the dungeon below.
The first thing that was different on this trip into the dungeon (their first visit in months!), was a door left suspiciously ajar. Taking precautions, John prodded the door with his spear and found a wooden plank was resting on top of the door. Prodding further, he was able to upend the plank, sending an avalanche of previously balanced rocks tumbling and clattering loudly into the corridor on the other side. Everyone tensed, waiting for guards to be alerted by the sound, but no one came to stand against them.
Moving deeper into the dungeon, they avoided familiar doors and skirted around the edge of the area known as the maze and the two doors that led into it. Further to the south, in an area they had never been to before, they found an empty room, and just off of that, a smaller room that was a painting gallery.
Langdon examined the paintings themselves and found them of poor quality, while Reed lifted the paintings from underneath to see how they were attached to the wall (by hooks on the frames). Haruspex carefully removed the paintings from their frames and John broke down the frames in case anything of value was hidden inside them. Haruspex felt something magical -- a moment of fear -- but he suppressed it and it went away.
While the others methodically worked on acquiring treasure, Percy and Oslo at the rear were approached by a lone man in heavy, furry robes, carrying a lit torch. He seemed uninterested in combat and was only interesting in watching what the company was doing. Haruspex read his surface thoughts and saw that the man was supremely confident in his abilities thanks to some secret he had, but seemed just genuinely curious about them and amused by them. His name was Lindol, but he could not say much about himself; like Oslo had related to them before, when one spent too long in the dungeon, it changes you. Your eyes adjusted to total darkness (“Try going without light. You’ll like it!”) and you forget your life before the dungeon. Lindol did act strangely, like when he sniffed the mules, but otherwise seemed harmless, for now. He was allowed to follow the company.
Nearby was a long north-south corridor lined with doors, mainly on the left hand side. Each of these led into a museum-like gallery room with some antiques displayed inside. In the first room, the company debated which of these heavy objects were transportable back to the city for sale. In the second room, they discovered a coiled snake behind an antique fire screen -- but John had surprised it, stabbed it, and killed it before it could attack. In the third room, one of the antiques was a silver coffer. To initiate the newest guy, they made Reed open it. The hobbit did, and sure enough there was a second coiled snake inside, but he bashed its brains out with his crowbar before it could bite him. To test Lindol, Lumpy cut off its head and offered the snake to him to see if Lindol would eat it raw. Instead, Lindol tucked the dead, bloody snake inside his robes “for later.” Everyone observed he wore a sword and a large pouch under those voluminous robes.
Exploring more corridors, the party found a small, abandoned bedroom with some bedrolls on the floor. They found a long hall they could not cross because of a 10’ wide, 10’ deep trench cutting across the width of the hall. And they found a room with kobolds in it.
Finding 14 kobolds dancing around a firepit, Haruspex unleashed a Sleep spell upon them, and soon there were 5 kobolds. The kobolds ran around the room, picking up weapons and shields, but they were each met by a company member and lost a solo combat against him. Except for one -- enraged by the death of his comrades, the last kobold managed a moderately damaging wound with his spear on John Grond, but was dispatched soon thereafter. But that wasn’t the last of their problems in that room.
This was the first time Oslo had fought alongside them since being rescued in the moat caves a month ago. Even after the kobolds were all down, he still wanted to fight somebody. He went after Lindol, but Lindol side-stepped it easily and simply batted the weapon aside. Then Oslo started attacking members of the company, but he was surrounded and subdued. The company had to decide what to do with him, so they tied him up and slung him over a mule, to decide later his fate.
The kobolds in that room had been poor, with nothing but copper pieces among their things, but the next door led into an even larger room where 10 kobolds guarded 10 chests. Luckily, Haruspex had another Sleep spell prepared, and soon there were no kobolds guarding the chests. The kobolds were being dispatched in their sleep, but one was kept alive and forced to open the chests for the company, in case they were trapped. It could open six out of ten, and those held only junk, while the remaining four were locked. With no sign of a key, the chests were bashed open. Some jewelry was found, some gold pieces (only 25), and 1,000 copper pieces were inside them.
There were many exits from this room, and it sounded like more opponents were gathering behind a door in the northeast corner, but a chest was pushed against the door, which swung into this room, and the door was spiked shut.
Deciding that their expedition was over, the company circled back to the gallery rooms to pick up some more items to sell. Oslo was awake now and apologetic over what had come over him. He confessed it had happened to him before, which was a relief to some members of the company who suspected Lindol had ensorcelled him somehow. Lindol accompanied them back to the way in, but at the fore of the company some members were whispering to each other about if Haruspex should try to charm Lindol. But Lindol was revealing valuable information in conversation -- he claimed to know of stockrooms, a bakery, a tavern, and stairs down on this level of the dungeon -- and they knew they could not count on his aid if the spell failed. It was decided to part ways with Lindol amicably, and they hoped they would simply run into him again the next time they were down here.
One last obstacle remained in their path, and this was a complete surprise -- the stairs up to the courtyard were blocked by eight walking skeletons coming down towards them! These were clearly undead, so the clerics did their work and turned them all. The skeletons scattered in the courtyard, leaving the way clear to the exit!
Fireseek 7, 621 CY
Halfway to Castle Greyhawk
The Company of the White Oak’s almost full membership -- Haruspex Niv, John Grond, (and his hirelings Oslo and Harvard), Brother Langdon, Percy, Tuko “Lumpy” Burrstone, Vask, and Reed Underbough (missing only Grandma Erin) -- was marching the snow-covered road between the Village of Hawfair Green to the south and the Village of Stonebridge to the north, and intending to take the side road that led to Castle Greyhawk, when they spotted a familiar shade of red.
About 400’ away, off the road, Cuthbrid the Fair (with his red flatcap and cape giving him away) and a group of 11 men and orcs were failing to conceal themselves behind some trees.
The Company backed off a good 100’ behind some cover of their own. They were dressed for travel at speed, with all their fighters in leather armor while their mules carried their armor and their demi-humans, and not for battle. Luckily, Cuthbrid and his men did not press after them and the Company had five minutes to prepare. By then, cooler heads had prevailed anyway and the Company decided to advance and parlay before combat.
Cuthbrid claimed they were only out observing nature, admiring the white oaks in the area, and that the orcs with him were just cheap labor. Because he stayed friendly and non-threatening, and claimed to hold no grudge for the bucket of excrement they sent him when he asked for his magic key to the sewers back, the Company decided not to attack. However, not long after pressing ahead to the castle, they send their hobbit, Reed, back to spy on them. Sure enough, Cuthbrid’s squad was tailing them at a distance.
This wouldn’t do, so the Company hid in a ditch and waited to ambush the Squad when it came past. Again, an attempt at an ambush failed with neither side gaining surprise. Haruspex was encouraged to cast a Sleep spell, but Cuthbrid’s archers were prepared and two arrows not only disrupted Haruspex’s spell, but left him seriously injured. Many of the Company had slings and put them to use, injuring some of the archers back. Lumpy and Oslo, having no missile weapons that could reach at that range, charged. Lumpy took an arrow in the foot, but kept coming.
Back in the ditch, Percy cured Haruspex, who cast his second Sleep spell just as the charge was coming up on melee range. The spell was a massive success, putting all of the Squad to sleep except for Cuthbrid and the one archer with a longbow (and putting Lumpy to sleep too!). Cuthbrid vowed vengeance and used his magic leaping ability to elude the party. Oslo’s axe had seriously injured the remaining archer who was quickly surrounded and surrendered. He identified himself as Iollas, and two of the other sleeping men as Bruyant and Koragos. They were paid handsomely to help Cuthbrid with whatever grudge he had to settle against the Company (Percy was offing the sleeping orcs while the interrogation was taking place and Langdon healed Niv again so he would be well enough to travel).
Hearing they were paid handsomely reminded the Company to search everyone. Iollas had two gems in a pouch and a valuable-looking longbow and short sword. Bruyant had three gems in a pouch and a lizard-skin wineskin that John immediately claimed and found it was full of aqua vitae. Koragos had a gem-studded unholy symbol of Hextor and wore an ermine fur-trimmed cape that looked valuable. Beyond that was a good amount of coinage, including over 50 ep, and armor and weapons with resale value.
It was decided to head back right now to the City of Greyhawk with their prisoners, and still early enough in the day that they would reach it before dark. Most of the prisoners were turned over to the authorities for highway robbery and impersonating law enforcement (that last one was false, but suggested by Lumpy to increase their punishments). Koragos was held longer and ransomed back to his church for 150 gp. His unholy symbol was returned to him, but his nice cape was kept.
The next day Oslo was healed (he had taken an arrow wound in yesterday’s fight). Detect Magic and Detect Evil were cast on all the taken items and they found that the fur-trimmed cape was weakly magical (assuming it offered some protection, it was given to Haruspex, but so far it has only kept him unusually warm).
The rest of the 8th and 9th were spent finding appraisers and buyers for all the items. Iollas’ longbow was of masterwork quality and was worth 140 gp, while his shortsword’s amethyst pommel raised its value to 105 gp. Everything else was of lesser value. They returned to Hawfair Green late on the 9th so they could launch out one more time to Castle Greyhawk from there the next day.
On the 10th, they finally reached Castle Greyhawk. The drawbridge was down, the gatehouses, outside along the curtain wall, and the ruined barbican seemed unusually abandoned. Nothing stopped them from getting into the dungeon through the courtyard trapdoor, and there were no undead skeletons or traps waiting for them in the stairs down or the first corridor. As they moved through corridor after corridor it was the same, the place seemed deserted! Of course, they were not checking behind doors either; they had this northwest portion of the dungeon level well-mapped by now and were heading to a particular four-way intersection at the south end of it that might lead to stairs going down.
What it led to, instead, was a locked door with a lit torch outside it. It was a tough door; they wound up bending a crowbar until it was useless before they broke the lock on the door. Inside was a small, well-furnished bedroom. One of the furnishings was a chest. A treasure chest? Their curiosity whetted, they sent in the new guy, convinced that hobbits were good at checking for traps. He tested the chest, carefully lifted the latch...and found it had well over 1,000 electrum pieces inside, plus other treasure mixed in!
Half the Company was in the small room when a guard came around the corner behind them. Vask and the hirelings attacked the guard as he called out for help. The guard was in platemail, which defended him well enough that he was holding off all three of them, but when Percy added himself to the mix the guard was overwhelmed defending himself while surrounded and Oslo was able to deliver a serious wound. The guard surrendered, but Oslo went berserk again, wanted to kill everyone, and had to be subdued. For the second time, Oslo was strapped to the back of a mule until he regained consciousness.
No reinforcements came, so the guard was interrogated at their leisure. His name was Tom and that was Gregory's room, Gregory being second in command after the Master. Haruspex recognized these names; Eneever Zig had placed a bounty on both of these men many months ago. Tom was full of promises for useful information; he said he knew where two sets of stairs were to go down, and warned that the closer stairs had a magic trap at the bottom. He said he knew where the bakery was and the stockrooms. The Company debated where they wanted to go, but settled on none of these. It made sense to stash this treasure chest up above in the Chapel of Boccob before exploring any further.
The chest was heavy, but the bed's mattress was lashed around it to cushion the sound of it being dragged through the hallways by a mule. There were a few other valuables in the room; Harsupex had found nice clothes in the dresser, and the black stool was actually carved from a single block of ebony wood. These things were brought as well as they headed back the way they came. The route required passing through just one room, which they emerged from, but while crossing the long north-south corridor on the other side, they heard a monstrous roar echo through the corridor. Everyone started to back towards the room to defend themselves, but when Tom seemed unconcerned they questioned him on it. Tom had heard that monster before, but had never seen it. It was just really, really loud and could have been anywhere in the dungeon.
Trepidatiously, this time, they continued their trek out of the dungeon - and emerged unscathed! They reached the chapel on the east side of the castle grounds, but first they had to deal with Oslo and Tom. Oslo had woke up just before the monstrous roar and was deeply apologetic now. John gave him one more chance -- Oslo was to guard Tom in the stables until they got back.
The door to the chapel was unlocked and someone was inside, lighting candles. But it was not a priest of Boccob who greeted them, but Roger Bacon. Only Haruspex and John had met Roger before, in the Village of Faversham, and that was months back when the make-up of their party was very different. Roger had been expecting them. He explained: "“Our mutual friend, Prospero, has been busy trying to find the mystery villain who sent monsters after you in Ashford. The whole matter is more complex, and may have higher repercussions, than we had ever imagined. So much so that he has contacted a higher plane for advice -- and that is how he knew where to find this,” he said, producing a sealed rolled-up parchment. “There are instructions on this for you -- all of you, or at least one of you, present upon the delivery of this parchment, the instructions were hazy on that point. Destroy the parchment after reading its contents. Do not tell me, or anyone else, what it said. It is vitally important that you carry out its instructions, and when the time comes for you to do so, you’ll know."
The Company asked for what clarification he could give, and then parted ways with him as he left. Haruspex opened the scroll and read its contents, sharing them with the Company. They were brief.
"Open the box" was all it said.
The Company looked around for an immediate solution. There was the chapel's alms box. John was tempted to open it, but sought Brother Langdon's permission first. There were only a few mixed coins in the alms box. They tested to see if anything happened if they added more coins, but nothing did.
Then they considered that a chest was a type of box. They searched the chest more thoroughly and found that it did indeed hold an additional secret -- there was a false top in the lid, and under this false top were three sheets of vellum. Two were magic scrolls, and the third was a map depicting a large portion of this dungeon level, more than they had mapped themselves so far!
Was that it? Roger was gone, so they could not check with him.
Now the Company had to decide, did they want to try the dungeon again, or go back home with these new spoils? It was decided they would do the latter. First they checked on Oslo, who had still not killed Tom. John gave Oslo the second part of his third chance -- he was to go into the dungeons alone and find the stairs that the map showed, then wait for them at the chapel. Oslo agreed, and so the Company left Castle Greyhawk, once more bound for the city.
Halfway to Castle Greyhawk
The Company of the White Oak’s almost full membership -- Haruspex Niv, John Grond, (and his hirelings Oslo and Harvard), Brother Langdon, Percy, Tuko “Lumpy” Burrstone, Vask, and Reed Underbough (missing only Grandma Erin) -- was marching the snow-covered road between the Village of Hawfair Green to the south and the Village of Stonebridge to the north, and intending to take the side road that led to Castle Greyhawk, when they spotted a familiar shade of red.
About 400’ away, off the road, Cuthbrid the Fair (with his red flatcap and cape giving him away) and a group of 11 men and orcs were failing to conceal themselves behind some trees.
The Company backed off a good 100’ behind some cover of their own. They were dressed for travel at speed, with all their fighters in leather armor while their mules carried their armor and their demi-humans, and not for battle. Luckily, Cuthbrid and his men did not press after them and the Company had five minutes to prepare. By then, cooler heads had prevailed anyway and the Company decided to advance and parlay before combat.
Cuthbrid claimed they were only out observing nature, admiring the white oaks in the area, and that the orcs with him were just cheap labor. Because he stayed friendly and non-threatening, and claimed to hold no grudge for the bucket of excrement they sent him when he asked for his magic key to the sewers back, the Company decided not to attack. However, not long after pressing ahead to the castle, they send their hobbit, Reed, back to spy on them. Sure enough, Cuthbrid’s squad was tailing them at a distance.
This wouldn’t do, so the Company hid in a ditch and waited to ambush the Squad when it came past. Again, an attempt at an ambush failed with neither side gaining surprise. Haruspex was encouraged to cast a Sleep spell, but Cuthbrid’s archers were prepared and two arrows not only disrupted Haruspex’s spell, but left him seriously injured. Many of the Company had slings and put them to use, injuring some of the archers back. Lumpy and Oslo, having no missile weapons that could reach at that range, charged. Lumpy took an arrow in the foot, but kept coming.
Back in the ditch, Percy cured Haruspex, who cast his second Sleep spell just as the charge was coming up on melee range. The spell was a massive success, putting all of the Squad to sleep except for Cuthbrid and the one archer with a longbow (and putting Lumpy to sleep too!). Cuthbrid vowed vengeance and used his magic leaping ability to elude the party. Oslo’s axe had seriously injured the remaining archer who was quickly surrounded and surrendered. He identified himself as Iollas, and two of the other sleeping men as Bruyant and Koragos. They were paid handsomely to help Cuthbrid with whatever grudge he had to settle against the Company (Percy was offing the sleeping orcs while the interrogation was taking place and Langdon healed Niv again so he would be well enough to travel).
Hearing they were paid handsomely reminded the Company to search everyone. Iollas had two gems in a pouch and a valuable-looking longbow and short sword. Bruyant had three gems in a pouch and a lizard-skin wineskin that John immediately claimed and found it was full of aqua vitae. Koragos had a gem-studded unholy symbol of Hextor and wore an ermine fur-trimmed cape that looked valuable. Beyond that was a good amount of coinage, including over 50 ep, and armor and weapons with resale value.
It was decided to head back right now to the City of Greyhawk with their prisoners, and still early enough in the day that they would reach it before dark. Most of the prisoners were turned over to the authorities for highway robbery and impersonating law enforcement (that last one was false, but suggested by Lumpy to increase their punishments). Koragos was held longer and ransomed back to his church for 150 gp. His unholy symbol was returned to him, but his nice cape was kept.
The next day Oslo was healed (he had taken an arrow wound in yesterday’s fight). Detect Magic and Detect Evil were cast on all the taken items and they found that the fur-trimmed cape was weakly magical (assuming it offered some protection, it was given to Haruspex, but so far it has only kept him unusually warm).
The rest of the 8th and 9th were spent finding appraisers and buyers for all the items. Iollas’ longbow was of masterwork quality and was worth 140 gp, while his shortsword’s amethyst pommel raised its value to 105 gp. Everything else was of lesser value. They returned to Hawfair Green late on the 9th so they could launch out one more time to Castle Greyhawk from there the next day.
On the 10th, they finally reached Castle Greyhawk. The drawbridge was down, the gatehouses, outside along the curtain wall, and the ruined barbican seemed unusually abandoned. Nothing stopped them from getting into the dungeon through the courtyard trapdoor, and there were no undead skeletons or traps waiting for them in the stairs down or the first corridor. As they moved through corridor after corridor it was the same, the place seemed deserted! Of course, they were not checking behind doors either; they had this northwest portion of the dungeon level well-mapped by now and were heading to a particular four-way intersection at the south end of it that might lead to stairs going down.
What it led to, instead, was a locked door with a lit torch outside it. It was a tough door; they wound up bending a crowbar until it was useless before they broke the lock on the door. Inside was a small, well-furnished bedroom. One of the furnishings was a chest. A treasure chest? Their curiosity whetted, they sent in the new guy, convinced that hobbits were good at checking for traps. He tested the chest, carefully lifted the latch...and found it had well over 1,000 electrum pieces inside, plus other treasure mixed in!
Half the Company was in the small room when a guard came around the corner behind them. Vask and the hirelings attacked the guard as he called out for help. The guard was in platemail, which defended him well enough that he was holding off all three of them, but when Percy added himself to the mix the guard was overwhelmed defending himself while surrounded and Oslo was able to deliver a serious wound. The guard surrendered, but Oslo went berserk again, wanted to kill everyone, and had to be subdued. For the second time, Oslo was strapped to the back of a mule until he regained consciousness.
No reinforcements came, so the guard was interrogated at their leisure. His name was Tom and that was Gregory's room, Gregory being second in command after the Master. Haruspex recognized these names; Eneever Zig had placed a bounty on both of these men many months ago. Tom was full of promises for useful information; he said he knew where two sets of stairs were to go down, and warned that the closer stairs had a magic trap at the bottom. He said he knew where the bakery was and the stockrooms. The Company debated where they wanted to go, but settled on none of these. It made sense to stash this treasure chest up above in the Chapel of Boccob before exploring any further.
The chest was heavy, but the bed's mattress was lashed around it to cushion the sound of it being dragged through the hallways by a mule. There were a few other valuables in the room; Harsupex had found nice clothes in the dresser, and the black stool was actually carved from a single block of ebony wood. These things were brought as well as they headed back the way they came. The route required passing through just one room, which they emerged from, but while crossing the long north-south corridor on the other side, they heard a monstrous roar echo through the corridor. Everyone started to back towards the room to defend themselves, but when Tom seemed unconcerned they questioned him on it. Tom had heard that monster before, but had never seen it. It was just really, really loud and could have been anywhere in the dungeon.
Trepidatiously, this time, they continued their trek out of the dungeon - and emerged unscathed! They reached the chapel on the east side of the castle grounds, but first they had to deal with Oslo and Tom. Oslo had woke up just before the monstrous roar and was deeply apologetic now. John gave him one more chance -- Oslo was to guard Tom in the stables until they got back.
The door to the chapel was unlocked and someone was inside, lighting candles. But it was not a priest of Boccob who greeted them, but Roger Bacon. Only Haruspex and John had met Roger before, in the Village of Faversham, and that was months back when the make-up of their party was very different. Roger had been expecting them. He explained: "“Our mutual friend, Prospero, has been busy trying to find the mystery villain who sent monsters after you in Ashford. The whole matter is more complex, and may have higher repercussions, than we had ever imagined. So much so that he has contacted a higher plane for advice -- and that is how he knew where to find this,” he said, producing a sealed rolled-up parchment. “There are instructions on this for you -- all of you, or at least one of you, present upon the delivery of this parchment, the instructions were hazy on that point. Destroy the parchment after reading its contents. Do not tell me, or anyone else, what it said. It is vitally important that you carry out its instructions, and when the time comes for you to do so, you’ll know."
The Company asked for what clarification he could give, and then parted ways with him as he left. Haruspex opened the scroll and read its contents, sharing them with the Company. They were brief.
"Open the box" was all it said.
The Company looked around for an immediate solution. There was the chapel's alms box. John was tempted to open it, but sought Brother Langdon's permission first. There were only a few mixed coins in the alms box. They tested to see if anything happened if they added more coins, but nothing did.
Then they considered that a chest was a type of box. They searched the chest more thoroughly and found that it did indeed hold an additional secret -- there was a false top in the lid, and under this false top were three sheets of vellum. Two were magic scrolls, and the third was a map depicting a large portion of this dungeon level, more than they had mapped themselves so far!
Was that it? Roger was gone, so they could not check with him.
Now the Company had to decide, did they want to try the dungeon again, or go back home with these new spoils? It was decided they would do the latter. First they checked on Oslo, who had still not killed Tom. John gave Oslo the second part of his third chance -- he was to go into the dungeons alone and find the stairs that the map showed, then wait for them at the chapel. Oslo agreed, and so the Company left Castle Greyhawk, once more bound for the city.
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