Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 63-64

 [This was the first of three sessions guest-DMed by Kevin Barrett, who also wrote the write-up for session 63 (the only session of the entire campaign I had no involvement in).]

On this day something felt amiss in the region of Greyhawk, as the company gathered in their meeting room at the Sword & Spear Inn to find a note at the table place that was used by Reed Underbough. As the note was picked up and read aloud it said, “Fellow members of The Company of the White Oak. I need to take a temporary leave from adventuring and being a leading member of the company. I have serious wounds from the Apes in Gaxmoor and in addition have become the temporary head of my guild. Between that and the inn I cannot adventure right now. My hirelings are also taking on larger roles in their guilds as well and are not available. I wish you all safe journeys and you are always welcome to use the Inn as a base of gathering for the Company. While you consider what to do, I am offering an open tab at the pub for the Company this evening. Yours, Reed”

The company members moved to the pub portion of the Inn and enjoyed Reed’s hospitality that evening. Songs were sung, ale and wine were consumed, there was evening a challenge of strength between Leif, Niall and Old Man Herv. The next morning as Percy was praying and tending to his morning duties at the church Prospero appeared to him. 

“Lawful Percy, I come to you this morning with some important and disturbing news. The dungeons of Castle Greyhawk, the Temple of the Latter-Day Elder Gods, Temple of Elemental Evil, Standing Stones in the Menhir Hills, in fact, all the dungeons the Company have explored are sealed and I do not yet know if it is the work of the Adversary or some other evil. I implore you to continue leading the company in the absence of the half-ling Reed. As you know you must be prepared as the Company of the White Oak is the key to defeating the Adversary when that day comes.”

There was no discussion to be as Prospero vanished once he finished talking, leaving Percy to consider the impact of the news he was given.

Later that day Percy arrived at the Sword & Spear and saw some strangers from other lands. Old Man Herv approached him and said, “Percy, this stranger arrived at the Inn today and all he has been asking me is where they can find the Company of the White Oak. When I brought it to Reed’s attention, he said all company business is going to you in his absence”. The stranger approached Percy and asked for a moment to speak. Percy led him to a small dining and the two men sat at the table. 

“I am Bishop Bendix Moontrack of the city Libemen in the Kingdom of Ferrond. I have arrived in Greyhawk from Libemen as word has spread through the Kingdom of Ferrond about the tales of the Company of the White Oak”. My high Priest needs adventures of your skill and experience as we have an urgent matter that cannot be handled by the law. I request an audience with your membership, if possible, to present our case for why the Company should come to Libemen to help us. After which please discuss it amongst yourselves, and we will honor your decision”.

That evening the members of the Company of the White Oak gathered in their meeting room at the Inn. In attendance were Niall Brightflame, Runeflinger & Leif Thunderbeard with his henchman Gremlar Blackstone. Percy relayed to the group that there was a visitor from a neighboring country there to present the Company with an offer. "I will bring him in one to present their offer if there nothing further."

Into the room waleds an average height human male in religious apparel that was unfamiliar to anyone in the room. “As I mentioned to Percy earlier today my name is Bishop Bendix Moontrack of the Church of Heironeous in Libeman in the Kingdom of Ferrond. His Holiness Bardle Shanksworth the High Priest & Patriarch of our Church has sent me as there is a task that only can be accomplished by The Company of the White Oak. One week ago, one of our most sacred texts, the Book of Pentinence, disappeared from our Church. That day, alarms sounded when orcs began to move against the city. As we moved to defend the church a hobgoblin snuck in and killed Vicar Ferrante who was guarding the library’s sacred texts, with what we believe to be a magical blade, based on the wound to the Vicar. We know the orcs left the city in a northeast direction, however our country’s leadership and military does not want to risk open war with the land now controlled by the Horned Society there, outside our borders.  This is a text we must get back. His Holiness has tasked me recovering it and I am bringing this to your Company and the offer of 2000 gold pieces -- half if the job is accepted and the other half should the Book be returned unharmed.” 

After digesting the bishop’s words Niall added that this seemed a noble cause, while Runeflinger and Leif were somewhat sold hearing the hiring fee of 1000 gold. When Percy informed them of Prospero’s message the Company accepted the bishop’s offer.

On the following day as the Company gathered at the Inn, each with their new mount to make the trip faster, to meet the bishop and begin the trek to Libemen. There was Percy with an elf they had not met seated on a light horse. Percy turned to him and said please introduce yourself to the Company. Speaking in Elvish he said, “Greetings Company of the White Oak, my name is Zardoz. My acquaintance, Muelara Wynna, has said you may be looking for an elf to take her place in the company for the time being. Percy has told me you are heading on a quest, and I would very much like to accompany you.” Runeflinger and Niall were not going to argue adding another Elf to their ranks as Leif and Gremlar grumbled about being outnumbered by the Elves. Percy was to stay behind to tend to Church matters but knows where to meet the company or send other company members if needed.

The company ascended their new mounts and departed Greyhawk City on the Menhir Road heading for Libemen. With riding the horses it would shorten the trip to three days. The company took the route previous members travelled when they journeyed to Verbobonc and soon found themselves at the Zagyg’s bridge. As each member crossed the bridge only Runeflinger and the dwarves encountered anything on the other side. Runeflinger enjoyed some of the best fruit and wine he could ever remember tasting. Leif and Gremlar found two mugs of ale which they did not hesitate to drink. After consumption they felt a rumbling in their stomachs followed by the loudest farts the Elves and Bishop have ever heard. Leif and Gremlar had a roaring laugh about it.

That night the Company set up camp between the village of Harrowstone and Zagyg’s Bridge. As they looked for a suitable campsite, they saw the edge of the Gnarly Forest to the southwest and hills with caves in a wooded area to the northeast. Niall advised the party to move to the southwest as he did not get a good feeling about the caves in the distance. Later that night, during Niall’s watch he noticed a campfire in the distance which was a campsite for a party of brigands. Two of the brigands began stumbling toward the Company’s campsite prompting Niall to attempt distracting them by throwing a stick into the distance. When they signaled to the rest of their party that there was something out here Niall woke Runeflinger. As the brigands gathered closer to the Elves they were dropped with a sleep spell from Runeflinger. Niall advanced to their campsite to find 90GP as Runeflinger was tying the brigands to a tree and binding their hands. In the morning they woke to find themselves 90GP poorer and asking the company to be set free. Once they convinced the Company they were of no harm Niall let them loose and they quickly moved in the opposite direction of the Company.

Over the next two days travel proceeded without incident when the destination of the City of Libemen was reached. As the Bishop guided them to the Church grounds they encountered a figure with his back turned. The Bishop proclaimed, “Brother, I have succeeded and present the Company of the White Oak”. The brother turned and said, “I don’t recognize any of these as the Company of the White Oak. Who are they?” The brother revealed himself as Brother Ulrich the Maimed, former member of the White Oak. Niall was able to explain that the members he knew had either stepped away for a time, Percy, Niv & Reed or had perished at the hand of a Necromancer, John, Langdon, & Vask. Hearing how the company was able to subdue the wraths of the most powerful members on the company during Ulrich’s time made him change his opinion quickly. Brother Ulrich took the opportunity to provide the company with intelligence about where the Book was being kept, how to get there and what their scouts had noticed. The dwarves just wanted to be pointed in the direction of the fight and Zardoz while quiet was very observant of his new surroundings, always wanting to learn as much as he can.

The course was set for Fort Bogmuck with Runeflinger, who was ecstatic that everyone in the party could understand his Elvish, suggesting an approach at daytime as Orcs would not be above ground at that time. As the party reached the Fort, Runeflinger cast invisibility while the other four members hid in a nearby tree line. The invisible elf then scouted around the perimeter of the Fort looking for entrances or weaknesses in the wall. As he came around the southeast corner, he began getting a sensation there was a secret door nearby. Runeflinger could not find the exact location, so he marked the general area with oil and returned to the party. Once he revealed his findings the entire party moved to the marked area but even three Elves could not locate the secret door. They marked a tree in the area and proceeded back to the gate. They were able to enter the fort without alerting anyone and Runeflinger scouted the guard towers on either side of the gate. In the east tower he found two sleeping bandit guards.

Runeflinger signaled to Niall and took the guards weapons. Niall was able to gain surprise and easily dispatch of the guards.

As the company moved clockwise around the path of the fort they noticed three statues in the middle of the Fort, an Orc, Bandit and Hobgoblin. They arrived at the first building and Leif had no issue opening the door. Nothing of consequence was in this building except for an opening in the floor that led to a sloping passageway under the Fort. The company followed this passage, with Runeflinger still scouting ahead, to find an Underground Pub. The pub was occupied by three bandits and four orcs but as they drank their respective drinks Zardoz cast a sleep spell from just outside the room and all seven adversaries were asleep. Niall checked the door on the other side of the room as Leif took the coins from the box on the bar. After the enemies were dispatched, the company arrived at an octagon shaped room with an octagon shaped pit in the center. As Runeflinger scouted counterclockwise to the eastern side of the room he triggered a trap door that dropped him into the pit. Niall dove in after him and Lief joined him while Gremlar spiked the trap door open. As Runeflinger entered the pit two gates began to open and nine giant rats entered from one gate and four giant snakes from the other.

Runeflinger cast sleep losing his invisibility but dropping most of the giant animals. At that point it was no issue for Niall and Leif to do away with the remaining snakes.

The company then moved to the east door finding another hallway that they began to explore. As they proceeded down the hallway Zardoz sensed a secret door nearby and was able to find it by pushing a discolored stone revealing a north-south hallway with three levers on the east wall. Zardoz and Leif worked together to find a secret door that was at the north end of the hallway opened by one of the levers, but which one? The rest of the company proceeded back into the main hall while Leif pulled the leftmost lever triggering a beam that swung down from the ceiling. Good thing Leif is a dwarf as the beam swung right over his head bringing him no harm. He then pulled the middle lever and the secret door opened onto a room with an ornately carved wooden casket in the center and nothing else. The Elves seemed cautious as they thought any number of different undead could be resting in it, but Zardoz disagreed. He had noticed it looked very similar, if not the same, as a casket he observed at the church before they left. Niall and the Dwarves backed up with silver arrows at the ready while Runeflinger began to cautiously open the casket. When he did, he found…nothing. Just satin lining and a satin pillow were inside the casket, no undead to combat this time. Thinking there was value in the casket but not wanting to carry it around they moved it back to the entrance of the tunnel and proceeded back into the stronghold.

Niall was skeptical of the direction they were taking and suggested trying the south door of the arena instead of continuing east. Once again Leif had no issue opening the doors of the arena and south hallway leading to a foyer. After checking the two other doors in the foyer they had Leif open the west door to find a study occupied by the Orc Commander and Bandit Chief, coincidently matching two of the statues in the courtyard above. Gremlar fired an arrow striking the Bandit Chief and Leif stabbed him with his spear before he could even attack. The Bandit Chief barely swung his axe before Gremlar landed the fatal blow with his gifted Magic Battle-axe from Leif. Niall was holding his own with the Orc Commander before Runeflinger was seriously wounded from the Orcs flaming sword. With that Niall struck again with his sickle when Leif saw an opening and caved in the Orc Commanders side with a rather vicious punch causing him to drop like jelly. As the company searched the room Leif noticed something odd about the swords mounted on the south wall of the study. He was able to deduce one was the mechanism to open a door leading to a secret room of the study. In this room was the very book the company had been hired to return, the Book of Penitence. Considering the health of Runeflinger and no cleric in the party to heal him, the company left with their treasure and returned to Libemen.

Once they arrived at the church Brother Ulrich was impressed with the “new” company members and shocked to see they retrieved one of the Caskets of Ferrond. Ulrich explained how a recently deceased body could be put in the casket and Blessed by a cleric and then brought back to life if a resurrection spell was cast within 9 days of death. The company accepted the church’s offer of 10,000GP for return of the casket. Niall was able to see the Orc Commander’s sword had no ill effect to him and claimed it. The party rested knowing there was still the matter of the Hobgoblin thief/assassin to deal with.

Sunnsebb 4, 612 CY
The Kingdom of Ferrond
The City of Libeman

The others were content to enjoy the spoils from their last expedition in the cities of Ferrond, but Niall Brightflame and Runeflinger wanted the rewards promised for the prisoners supposedly held in Fort Bogmuck. Two elves alone did not stand much of a chance…but three? Eirenden arrived in Libeman, having heard of the company’s mission there, and wanted in.

They were going to try something new; stealth instead of brute force. They would not need a cleric if they avoided combat. But there was one thing they were lacking: a thief. Reed Underbough had taught them that thieves were lucky. But where to find a thief, without returning to Greyhawk? 

The opportunity presented itself when a grubby-looking thief tried to pick Niall’s pocket. The thief was dragged off for an interrogation. The thief was named Muggby and, while he acted strangely, this was surely a trick to make the elves underestimate him. When Mugby learned of their interest in Fort Bogmuck he claimed to have useful information about the place, which clinched his membership. 

The elves already knew of the entrance to the tunnel under the fort from last time, so Mugby was not needed much as they followed the sloping tunnel north and then northeast. They came to a door, and behind it was a small room that served as a sentry outpost with four orc guards. This was no challenge; Niall or Eirenden alone could have dispatched them. One orc was left alive and interrogated, from whom they learned that the prisoners they sought were to the north. 

Luckily, a corridor ran north from that room. There were side doors to the west that Niall wanted to explore, but Mugby said his flea, Aloysius, told him they should keep going north, and the others agreed. There were two side corridors to the west after that, and the second was lined with doors, as if it held cells. But because they had been told to go north they decided to keep going and see how far north led. It seemed like the corridor soon after the last side passage, but they found a secret door and could continue north even more!

They ignored another side door to the west, but when the corridor finally turned west they took the first door to the north. Here was a torture chamber with a human and an orc waiting for victims. What they got instead was, in the orc’s case, dead, and in the human’s case, charmed. Their new best friend told them that the duke’s son had been moved to Shugub’s Lair, somewhere to the north, but they were on the right track to find any remaining prisoners to the west. Only, there were a lot of hobgoblins between them and the prisoners. The torturer was not kidding - the very next room was wall-to-wall hobgoblins! Sleep spells evened the odds to the point where the fighting elves could easily mop up the rest, and both the charmed torturer joined in the fight to protect his new friend, and Mugby jumped in to help just as the last hobgoblins, including their cutpurse leader that had tried to backstab one of them, were making their final stand. The leader had a pouch of gold and a very nice-looking dagger, either valuable or magical..

The four companions (and their charmed slave) continued west, coming to a T-intersection where they had to choose north or south. Heading north, they found an empty room, and then a chamber with a single statue in it. They spent a lot of time examining the statue, but could find nothing valuable - or dangerous - about it. 

Continuing west from there, they inexplicably skipped a door to the north and continued on to a hexagonal chamber with a pit at its center. A dead end passage headed north from it, and to the south were offices, where they found gems, and a map showing the route to Shugub's lair and the duke’s son!

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 61-62

Patchwall 13-16, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

The plan had been to wait at least four days, until Percy had healed everyone back to normal, and then head straight back to dungeon level 3 and try to retrieve the Azure Enchantress’ spellbooks before the Greyhawk Construction Company found them. 

That plan was not working for Runeflinger and Niall Brightflame. Despite the fact that the Chapel of Boccob had four floors, and nice suites on the upper levels, being cooped up there for four days was too much for them. Wanderlust overtook them and they left the castle. Nor did they leave alone; the Company’s newest recruit, Aerik Fenn, had his first serious brush with death and did not like it. He would return to the city and think hard about if the risks were worth this path to power. 

On the plus side, this made healing everyone take less time. 

During the days of convalescence, they observed many times the giant wasps that had been breeding undisturbed on the upper level of the neighboring abandoned shrine. They could even hear the wasps digging through the neighboring wall!

They also received five visitors. One was Eirenden, who had heard the Company had left for Castle Greyhawk and finally caught up to them. The other four arrived separately as their own group. They were novice adventurers, come to test their mettle against the infamous Castle Greyhawk, One of them, Mialea, was an exotic half-elf magic-user, who made Eirenden’s heart race, despite her naivete, planning to head into the dungeon wearing a revealing elven dress. 

The three adventurers, Reed, Percy, and Eirenden, had a private discussion about what to do about these novices. Reed wanted to recruit them to serve as meat shields. Eirenden wanted to lead them to somewhere in the dungeon they could prove useful, or at least be profitable for them. Percy saw this as a chance for them to prove themselves and advocated for leaving them alone. Percy won out and the four descended into the dungeon. 

Later that same day, three of them - minus Mialea - came running out of the dungeon, all badly injured, and raving like lunatics about the giant weasels. “Giant weasels everywhere!” They fled the castle. 

The Companions also had a prisoner all this time, the thaumaturgist who was going to trade the spellbooks for his freedom. The man’s, whose name turned out to be Wefler, would be brought down with them, hands tied behind his back, and led with Reed’s sword pointing at his back.

Patchwall 17, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

The three party members, Reed, Percy, and Eirenden, were accompanied by their henchmen, Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Arlin Fadagoria, and Patroneous, so while their numbers were lower than normal, it was still a formidable force. They crossed to the entrance to the tall tower adjoining the keep and took the stairs that descended into the dungeon. This put them close to the Grand Central Staircase that was always guarded by elves. Sure enough, there were five elf sentries here this time. Reed saw them as a source of information about the dungeon and asked about the giant weasels. The weasels had broke out of their rooms and been running amok in the dungeon corridors in small groups, but the elves were not overly concerned about them.

Eirenden saw the elves as the source of more important information. Though he engaged them in small talk for about 20 minutes, he steered the conversation towards what motive the elves had for staying down here. The elves - Eirenden learned all their names (Aindon, Aradhel, Eldadan, Gardorus, and Nesnna) - claimed to have altruistic motives; they remembered when the still-human Zagig was lord of this castle and they wanted to keep it safe and secure in case he someday chose to return (the first anyone had heard of this theory!). Eirenden also wanted to know why these elves were able to see in the dark, and he could not. They were elves from the north, who lived underground, and so were accustomed to darkness. 

Having kept the Company waiting long enough, Eirenden resumed his place in the marching order and, guided by Percy’s Continual Light spell, they descended down…down…until they reached the third floor landing and stopped. 

Reed unfurled his map, which was wider than he was. He showed everyone how, if they went south, then east, and then back north, that would be the quickest route back to the Enchantress’ lair. Wefler confirmed this to be true. Reed’s concern, though, was that this route passed through the heavily-trapped checkerboard chamber. No new traps got them this time, though, and they made their way back north through familiar rooms to the door of the Enchantress’ lair. 

Muelara’s Helm of Telepathy detected sentient thoughts inside, though she did not think there were very many. Reed and Percy knew the Enchantress had orcs working for her and they wanted to know from Wefler how many she had left. It sounded like there couldn’t be more than 20 orcs left, all of which could have fit into the next room. Ambrosio listened at the door and heard orcs arguing. 

It seemed they were having a debate over whether they should wait for the Enchantress to return, or appoint one of the orcs as leader. The orc who wanted to be leader was being challenged, though, for not possessing the “Well-Traveled Man.” The Companions quickly figured out this was the doll they had taken from the Enchantress. 

Despite having been present for the deaths of two dragons, Reed was curiously hesitant to go in and face up to 20 orcs, but Percy got impatient and pushed Eirenden into opening the door. Muelara started casting Sleep at the same time. Inside, the summoning circle on the floor was gone. There were rugs and pallets on the floor, and the room seemed to now be the barracks for 11 orcs. One Sleep spell later, there were no awake orcs. After much throat slitting, there were no live orcs. They had little treasure other than the armor on their backs, which all seemed to be new and human quality. One shield in particular appeared better made than normal and might go for 20 gold pieces. It was no great haul, but stripping all the armor off and wrapping it in the rugs would make it more moveable back to the surface. The real treasure would be if the spellbooks were still here. Wefler stood on the spot where the secret door was, or at least used to be.

It was still there. It opened onto a small niche with just three books in it - each a spell book. 

Muelara detected thoughts from the door to the south. Reed, spurred by their rapid success against the first batch of orcs, wanted to continue wiping them out. Percy, whose back was giving him trouble, wanted to get this treasure back to civilization so he could sleep in his own bed again. There were only three votes to determine what to do next, but with Eirenden indecisive, this turned into a power struggle between the two senior-most members of the Company. Percy was reminded of his recent conversations with the lammasu. It would fall to him to strengthen the presence of Law in the Company and cull out all Chaos from it. Was this an occasion for him to lay down the Law? The struggle became moot when Eirenden finally sided with Percy, and they started heading south, to reach the black dragon lair. 

En route, some creatures were in the giant rat lair, and ran when they saw Percy’s light. The thieves snuck closer and hid down a side corridor, while everyone else backed off, and Percy called out to them to lure them back. And it worked -- it was four lizard men, armed with javelins. No one was worried, because they had fought lizard men before and had little trouble -- but these lizard men were great shots and hit Percy with two javelins (now he hurt in front and back)! The Companions could give better than they got, though, and they dropped two lizard men very quickly. The two remaining ones fled south. The thieves gave chase, with only Reed having a chance at catching up thanks to his magic leaping boots. The lizard men turned west, hiding behind the old ogre’s chapel, but Reed held back and waited for everyone else to catch up to him. 

Once reunited, they quickly decided to let the lizard men go and get out of there. They backtracked, picked up their rug-wrapped loot, and went in past the dwarves in the dwarven break room and bothered five of them loitering there. Past that, they had no difficulty exiting the dungeon. In fact, they just kept right on going and headed all the way back to Hawfair Green.

Patchwall 18, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

Percy was taking the spellbooks back to Greyhawk City for safekeeping, and to have his magical necklace of prayer beads examined.

Reed and Eirenden, as well as the rest of their entourage, had come back to Greyhawk with him but within hours were already bored and looking for a fresh new adventure. But where? Should they go back to the Lost City of Gaxmoor? 

They looked into the matter, checking with Eirenden’s clan to see what they knew of the missing elf, Elysande. Since they last checked on her, she had sent a letter from Gaxmoor, explaining that humans and elves, working in tandem, were slowly taking back the city. The letter had few helpful details and they would have to go back to Gaxmoor themselves to learn more.

Eirenden was also curious about the Ruins of Lord Robilar’s Castle, but Reed had no interest in going back and fighting orcs. 

Lastly, there were some locations that were easy to reach at Castle Greyhawk that remained unexplored. One was the fourth floor of the abandoned chapel, the one overrun with giant wasps. The other was the tower adjoining the keep, that had never been explored above the ground floor. Castle Greyhawk won..

Patchwall 19, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

Reed and Eirenden went with just their party of henchmen back to Castle Greyhawk, having re-hired Brother Vincent to cover for their lack of clerical aid without Percy. Several giant wasps were flitting in and out of the upper windows of the abandoned shrine, as if trying to lure them in. The tiny Company went up floor by floor, finding it unchanged all these months since Reed was last here. Like before, the stairs to the fourth floor had completely crumbled, leaving nothing but holes in the ceiling to allow access to the giant wasp floor above. This was an easy climb for the two thieves, Reed and Ambrosio. Soon they were surrounded by giant wasps. Muelara had to drop two Sleep spells up there to thin out the wasps, but there were still some left to kill. The thieves were getting stung a lot, particularly Reed, but they were sturdy hobbits and were able to resist all that poison. Soon the last giant wasp was dead. Eirenden had been ready to shoot any with his bow from below, but the opportunity had not presented itself. 

With the floor cleared, the thieves lowered rope and everyone came up to explore. There was not much to explore, and not many places to walk safely, but the thieves were able to climb the walls to reach a half-buried chest. It was neither trapped nor locked, and contained 200 electrum pieces - small rewards for such seasoned adventurers.

Down below on the third floor was a door that led out onto the top of the wall that bridged the distance between the chapel and the tower. This processional led straight across to a blank wall in the side of the tower - but secret doors were a minor inconvenience to a Company with more than one elf in it. Indeed, they spent longer debating why one would build a secret door in such an obvious place than they had spent looking for it. 

Inside was a bedroom that was inhabited by four elves. The elves were not overly surprised by the intrusion; indeed, one of them was Garadlius, an elf they had encountered before at the Grand Central Staircase. The elves explained that they held the first three levels of the tower, but the upper levels were still dangerous, and gargoyles controlled the observatory. Reed and Eirenden were happy to take on gargoyles, but wanted a little insurance, so Reed suggested teaming up with the elves. The elves were fine with this, but wanted equal shares of any treasure. All parties agreed. Eirenden wanted additional information, though. He had not been satisfied with the elves’ answers in the dungeon. Why were they really here? Who did they work for? These elves responded differently - that Eneever Zig had tasked them with holding the tower. Reed explained, for Eirenden’s benefit, that Zig was a dangerous wizard, but had helped them once too.

Up the tower’s spiral stairs they went, skipping the fourth floor entirely, and exiting onto the fifth floor. Here was a mostly empty room with a fireplace, but through a west door was a study that contained a skeletal snake that attacked them, but was easily defeated. There was a shelf of valuable-looking books, all with a religious bent, and a velvet-lined divan that appeared like it might be valuable. All of these were coming with them, on the way back down. The elves warned them of a trapped door to the south that created a magical burst of bright light upon being opened, but since everyone was warned, no one was blinded by it.

Moving up the stairs again, they found the stairs topped out at the observatory, and sure enough there were four gargoyles just sleeping on a giant astrolabe and sextant, both made of brass. Muelara let loose a Lightning Bolt, that rebounded through two gargoyles, roasting them on the spot - and slagging the astrolabe in the process. A third gargoyle was felled with missile weapons. The last one tried desperately to fly up the chimney and escape, but Eirenden crushed it into the fireplace wall with his magic shield and broke its neck. The gargoyles had no treasure, so they explored more of the sixth and final floor. 

The next room to the east looked like some kind of lounge. When they entered, a quill started writing in a book at a table. On the page read “The Master of the Tower is not home. Who is visiting?” Eirenden wanted to know who the Master of the Tower was, it was bothering him that the Master’s name was nowhere in the Tower. Garadlus pointed out that this tower was a Chapel to Celestian, god of the stars, and that “Master of the Tower” might be a title bestowed to rotating high priests of that deity. 

They decided to ignore this room and moved on to a door to the south. Behind it was a bedroom with a big stained glass window (though the tower had no windows visible from outside). Raiding a high priest’s bedroom didn’t seem like a good idea to anyone, even Reed - so they decided to leave with the treasure they had. The books turned out to be the most valuable prize of this expedition.

Ready’reat 11, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

After a lengthy absence, Norfolk had returned. The medium had heard that the Company of the White Oak was looking to form a second group of adventurers who did not require experience to explore the rest of the first level of the Castle Greyhawk dungeons, and had come back with his own small party, consisting of himself, Zena, a human female veteran, Slim Pickens, a hobbit male apprentice thief, and Minimus, a hobbit male veteran.

Minimus, however, had his own history with the Company, for he had learned to fight beside Maximus, the warrior who had died with so many others at the hands of the Necromancer on level 3 of the dungeon. Minimus wished to push deeper in the dungeon and try to find Maximus’ remains. The senior members of the Company were impressed by this pluckiness, and impulsively offered full membership to all three of them on the spot.

The senior members present that day were Reed Underbough, Percy, Eirenden, Runeflinger, and Lief Thunderbeard. But as impressed as they were with pluckiness, Castle Greyhawk itself was not much on their mind. An expedition to return to the Lost City of the Elders, now known to be Gaxmoor, was in the planning. There was the missing elf Elysande to be found, and her last letter to her clan had expressed that men and elves had retaken part of the city. Did that mean the rest would be easy pickings? They were anxious to find out. It also seemed like a safer expedition to take fresh blood on than a deeper foray into the castle dungeons. And so it was decided - they would all journey to Gaxmoor.

Ready’reat 12, 622 CY
Cairn Hills

The now nine-member strong Company headed out, accompanied by their henchmen, Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Arlin Fadagoria, and Gremlar Blackstone.

This was the second unseasonably cold Ready’reat in a row, with the temperature below freezing, and snow began to fall soon after they set out. Only their determination to make this journey before the weather turned even worse kept them going. On the plus side, this made the journey safer, for neither animal nor monster seemed to wish to be out in this weather, and they encountered nothing but birds all day. This was only disappointing for Eirenden, who had wished once more to see the gigantic, red-scaled lizard he had once observed in these very hills. 

The snow presented an extra challenge to navigation, for landmarks were crucial for staying on the path to Gaxmoor and as snow and ice caked onto everything it tended to change their appearance. The hobbits found themselves tasked quite often with scurrying up trees and looking ahead (though Minimus, not as good a climber as the thieves, demurred).  Eventually they found their way to the lost city and its hidden entrance.

The new people were astonished by the sight of the place, particularly the oliphant skulls mounted on the courtyard pillars. There was discussion about if they were valuable and the senior members realized they had never even tried going up there and see if the tusks were real ivory. The thieves were soon atop the pillars, but at the same time the Companions started splitting up, with some of them moving to recover magic berries from the bushes by the stream. To their horror, there did not seem to be any berries on the bushes to recover, but while they searched, they heard a loud splash in the stream. 

Expecting trouble, the thieves were summoned to join them and everyone watched the water for the inevitable attack -- which came, but it was when the troll jumped out of the tree at them. A long time ago, a lone troll was a threat that sent the Company of the White Oak running scared, but now a troll did not last too long, and the senior members knew how to permanently kill a troll from fighting one a few months’ back under Castle Greyhawk.

Now smoke could be seen coming from the ruins on the southwest corner of the courtyard, so the Companions investigated there next. Elven sentries stood outside one building that was well on its way to being restored.  It was being made into an inn -- and its proprietor was the missing Elysande! 

The reunion with Elysande went well, for the maiden had much news for them since they were last here. The humans of Gaxmoor had made large gains in taking back the north side of the Outer City from the giant’s monsters, and the elves had arrived as their first new trade partners. Why armed sentries were needed outside was underscored by the sentries spotting giant beetles approaching in the nearby ruins, and the Companions rushed out to dispatch them (the beetles, not the elven sentries).

What other threats were there for the elves? Elysande reported problems with undead sneaking out of the nearby graveyard. Now, the Company had never explored south of the courtyard, so they did not even know there was a graveyard that way until being told. This was discussed and the consensus was that they had little to fear from undead with Percy there, but mausoleums could hold lots of treasure. So they went there next to check it out.

The first mausoleum they decided to check out was the most unusual looking one. Indeed, it was crazy unusual, designed to look like a giant ape’s head, with the entrance in its mouth. The Companions’ confidence began to waver after the entrance turned out to be trapped - the upper fangs were part of a portcullis that came crashing down on one of the Companions - and they had not even thought to check it for traps. Inside was a room lined with eight statues of large apes -- which animated and attacked the intruders. The living ape statues proved to be extremely dangerous; one of them tore into Slim Pickens and bit his head off. For the first time since the red dragon, the Company had to run, leaving Slim’s body behind. 

They returned to the inn to rest and talked to Elysande about what they saw and she theorized they were some kind of magical tomb guardians.  The experience was demoralizing; the Company wanted nothing else to do with the graveyard, but they were not done with the lost city. They had better luck in the past raiding abandoned manor houses in the city proper, so they headed inside to find another. 

Inside the Outer City, they disturbed a nest of giant rats and exterminated them. Then they found a manor house crawling with over 30 goblins, with an ogre leader. After a protracted battle, the Companions came out victorious. The manor yielded an assortment of coinage, including platinum pieces, some gems, and the ogre’s two-handed sword was modestly valuable 

The Companions pulled back, unsure if it was worth continuing to explore the city.

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 59-60

Harvester 26, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

Reed Underbough, Percy, Niall Brightflame, Runeflinger, Bowie Laughingbottle, and their henchmen Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Halfdan, and Phodelo, were back for another delve into the Castle Greyhawk dungeons. They had come, as they had on so many visits, with a cart and mules, though the cart was new. They had left last time with so many coins they had not had enough sacks for it all, so they came this time with extra sacks and the cart to toss the bags into. Surely there were still plenty of spoils to be found on the third dungeon level…

The fastest route in was through the black dragon’s lair. Not wanting to leave the cart outside, they brought it in with them. The cart rattled noisily along the uneven tunnel floor, alerting the eight orcs who were camping in the dragon’s old lair - the eight orcs who would have posed little threat to the Company of the White Oak even without the Sleep spell that dramatically cut their numbers to three. One minute of combat reduced them to one seriously injured orc, begging for its life - but being an orc, it received no mercy…

Once they were in the dungeon proper, they made their way quickly through the dwarven break room, where five dwarves were engaged in song (something about dungeons deep and caverns old). They ignored the Companions until Reed tipped them five gold pieces, and then one asked where “that dwarf” (taken as a reference to Lief) was. Since Leif was not coming, the dwarf lost interest in talking to Reed and went back to harmonizing with the others.

Everyone knew their next destination, for they knew of a magically held door that they were unable to open last time, but this time they had two fresh Knock spells prepared. Runeflinger cast the first one and…the door opened onto what appeared to be a small, empty shrine to Boccob, with a statue of Boccob at the back. There was general agreement that this was disappointing, particularly for those who had been waiting two weeks to see the contents of this room. There was also some agreement that Father Langdon would have liked this room…but it held little value for the Companions here now. So they could get back into it again later if they had to, they spiked the door open. The noise attracted no monsters. 

They headed north from there after hearing a door slam from that direction. Reed assumed it was coming from the 10’ x 10’ interconnected rooms, due to the sheer number of doors there, but while having Muelara scan those cubicles telepathically, she turned up the monster hiding from them in the lone cubicle west of them. The Companions spent so long uncertain of what to do about it that the creature - whatever it was, fled through a door to the south and got away from them. 

Leaving that area, they cut through rooms already explored last time until they reached the room of bones and dead gnolls south of the troll lair. Muelara had picked up animal thoughts behind the door to the east last time, and her Helm of Telepathy picked up the same thoughts again. When Reed pressed his ear to the door, he heard scratching and squeaking. The source of this was guessed at, but confirmed when the door was bashed open, revealing a ruined hall where the wreckage of old furniture was thrown into a heap and covered in offal and waste down the center of the room. Climbing on the wreckage, as well as shelves on the walls, were over 20 rats, varying in size from slightly larger than normal to 14 giant ones. A second Sleep spell took out all the smaller ones, leaving a good number of giant rats still able to attack. In the melee that followed, Reed and Percy were both scratched up a bit, but in short order there were only four giant rats left, scurrying to the far corners of the room, where they were easily picked off at a distance with missile fire. Percy thought there might be treasure hidden in the wreckage, but he wasn’t sinking his hands into fresh rat feces to find it and no one else was volunteering.

From here they explored north, and two rooms later found themselves in a mostly-empty room with a red dragon head mounted in the northeast corner, almost facing the door in the north wall. This just screamed trap to them, so they sent Reed over to check it out. Sure enough, the head was fake, but so realistic that you had to get up close to tell, and the tongue was hinged so that any motion would move it like a trigger. After consulting with Percy, Reed tied the tongue to the lower jaw of the open mouth so the tongue would not move as he was cutting the head away from the wall. What they found was that they were pulling a big mask off of a steel framework, with some kind of nozzle concealed in the wall behind it. Bagging the mask as treasure, they moved on…

…around the corner to a smaller room with three levers. Reed detected no traps on the levers, but they still went to a lot of trouble pounding spikes into the walls so they could pull the levers down with rope from a distance (still nothing responded to all the racket; was this dungeon empty?). After lowering all three, they were disappointed when nothing happened, but when they went to try the north and west doors and found they could not be opened, they quickly put together that the levers had locked them. They still had not solved what the middle lever did, though…

Throwing the matching lever back up, they were able to open the north door and found it opened onto a large chamber with four statues and a natural cave ceiling. Shining their light up at the stalactites, they saw bat-like things flying about. When Reed moved into the chamber to examine the nearest statue, some of the flying things swooped down to attack him. Yet another Sleep spell sent them - plus more higher up - crashing to the floor, where they were quickly disposed of. There were still five more of these things, half-bird, half-bat, with long proboscises, but missile fire ended their threat, if they ever were one. 

A second door in the south wall of the chamber opened, seemingly on its own, until someone there unseen let out an expletive. Whoever it was seemed not to wish to stay, so Bowie started playing on his harp and charmed him into staying. This man, Ayers, was invisibly exploring the dungeon alone and looking for treasure. He had left and re-prepared new spells just to deal with these flying things so he could examine the statues, having came to the same conclusion Runeflinger had that they must be magical (since they were free of guano, unlike the floor). From Ayers they learned that the chamber to the south is the one that had the magically-trapped checkerboard floor. Reed was pleased his map matched up again. Runeflinger, painfully aware that this expedition had been exceedingly cash-poor so far, asked Ayers if he knew of any good treasure to recover from this level. Ayers said he knew of a lizard man and an orc lair to the north, and the orcs were said to be guarding good treasure, but he did not know how to get there from here.

The statues appeared to be of a cleric, a magic-user, a fighter, and a thief, in different corners of the chamber When touching the cleric, it recited a strange riddle in an unknown language. When touching the magic-user, it animated and pointed to the northwest corner, where the thief statue was. When Reed touched the thief, it animated and pointed at him. When they touched the fighter, it did nothing. It was all a riddle they could not solve, even with Ayers’ help. So they moved on again, this time with Ayers coming with them…

To the east and north was a long hall guarded by five zombies and a floating ball of light. Bishop Percy blasted the zombies into ash, but the mysterious ball of light had them perplexed. Phodelo reasoned it might be a will-o-wisp, said to be mischievous balls of light that lured people towards danger. Since it was neither attacking them, nor luring them anywhere, they all avoided it and moved to the next room…

Where there were four more zombies, and lots of normal-sized rats. One blast of holy radiance later, the Companions stepped over the zombie ash and the rats scattered. Reed spent a lot of time here fixing his map and trying to get it just right.

Next they followed a long corridor west and came to a room where a man in armor was kneeling before a chest as in prayer. The man said he was Bogomir the Adept, and his style of dress identified him as a Cuhberite. Ayers recognized Bogomir and Bogomir recognized Ayers’ voice. Bogomir had been trying to pray for this chest to open, since it would not open for him and he was intensely curious about its contents. If it was treasure, Ayers demanded an equal share, since he had joined their party. Percy grew impatient for how cautious the others were all being around this chest and he tried to fling it open, but the lid would not budge for him. It opened for Runeflinger, and he found 2,000 electrum pieces inside. Since other Companions now grumbled about Ayers getting a share, Bowie gave up his share for Ayers. The room was searched for secret doors, particularly in the ceiling, as the room had two ladders that seemed to lead up to nothing, but no secret doors (or secret trap doors) were found. Bogomir was invited to come with them, but he insisted it was his task, appointed by Cuthert himself, to wait to be found in the dungeon (in which he could no longer recall how long he had been), in case brave adventurers should need healing from him. 

The Companions were in the process of backtracking when, in the first zombie hall, Arlin spotted a secret door they had all missed before. This door led into a room with three brass, beautifully carved sarcoghagi, which were guarded by three zombies - but not for long, thanks to Percy. There was, true to form, much delay and indecision before opening the sarcophagi, but not this time for fear of traps. At first they feared stronger undead lurked inside, but Muelara detected no thoughts and intelligent undead projected thoughts - indeed, starkly powerful thoughts. Then they hesitated because grave robbing felt like a new low, until Bowie rationalized it for everyone by citing how they were told the items they need to stop the Adversary were hidden under Castle Greyhawk, and these could be where they were hidden. Niall pushed open the lids and they found well-dressed corpses, two wearing gold and amethyst amulets, and the third with a fancy quiver on his chest. Bowie recognized the sarcophagi as the work of a famous craftsman whose sarcophagi were so beautiful that the dead would not leave them to become undead. Phodelo recognized the quiver from the legend of a Quiver of Holding. The quiver had 12 arrows in it, but seemed like it could somehow hold many more. The quiver and the amulets were taken. Bowie put on one of the amulets and, while it made him look quite austentatious, it did nothing else. 

A door to the south appeared to connect up to a north-south passage the Company had passed many times just outside the dwarf break room. A door to the north led up a long corridor straight north, then west, to a door that resisted opening. A man and a woman were arguing loudly on the other side of the door. When Bowie tried to charm them with his harp music through the door, it failed and the man inside shouted for them to go away. But they did not go away, because Runeflinger still had his Knock spell ready. 

The room inside was a conjuration room with a silver summoning circle on the black basalt floor and a gargoyle belching opium smoke into the room. The man and the woman were accompanied by a bat-winged creature that looked like a short, ugly hobbit. The man and the woman were not arguing anymore, they were casting spells. A crossbow bolt from Reed disrupted the man’s spell. The woman was casting Charm Person, but Percy resisted it. Percy was casting Hold Person at the same time and neither the man nor the woman were able to resist his spell. The creature managed to bite Reed, but it was killed by a javelin throw from Arlin. 

A door to the south was open and two waves of orcs tried to come in and save the spellcasters, but the first wave was dropped by the Companions’ last Sleep spell, and the second wave tried and failed to get past the Sticks to Snakes spell Percy cast to block the doorway. The Companions were initially torn on whether to move in and wipe out the orcs, but they had expected to have enough treasure from this encounter to have made the expedition worthwhile. 

Runeflinger had, true to form, turned invisible first thing. Ayers and Runeflinger bonded over their shared favorite strategy. 

The man had been wearing nothing that appeared valuable. The woman was, and the creature’s dagger looked valuable. These things were taken - as were the man and the woman, who had already been tied up and were their prisoners. 

The Companions decided it was time to head back to the surface. En route south, they came across a wandering group of six human brigands - who fled at the sight of the Companions. When they passed through the dwarf break room there were only two dwarves left. The very dwarves who had acted not impressed when the Companions killed a dragon were surprised at their prisoners. “That’s the Azure Enchantress and Weerd the Warlock!” one of them exclaimed. “They’ve been down here for years!”

Patchwall 12, 622 CY 

City of Greyhawk

At long last, they seemed to be making progress. Two strange and unusual items - a chest of colored dust and a strange doll - shared a special destiny that seemed to have something to do with the special destiny of the Company of the White Oak. They had both been found on level 3 of Castle Greyhawk’s dungeons. Would they find more if they went back? It would not be right away that morning, for it was pouring rain outside in sheets - the most rain they had ever seen on a morning when they planned to launch an expedition. It was an ill omen that made them delay until the rain let up by afternoon. By then, they only had time to make the journey to the Village of Hawfair Green and camp out there. Patchwall 13, 622 CY 

Castle Greyhawk

Once more, the Companions Reed Underbough, Percy, Niall Brightflame, Runeflinger, and Aerik Fenn, along with their henchmen Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio (who left his dire wolf mount at home), Arlin Fadagoria, and Halfdan, and two mules (pulling a cart) circled around Castle Greyhawk and came around to the black dragon’s entrance. Its lair was unoccupied again, allowing them fast travel into the dungeon proper (though the cart had to be left behind in the entry tunnel). They made straight for the dwarven breakroom and found four dwarves here today. Reed paid them a toll, as he tried to win them over through positive reinforcement, but they remained unimpressed and disappointed that the fellow dwarf Leif Thunderbeard was not with them this time. They headed north up a corridor they had not explored before and found it led to a new room, a coffin maker’s workshop, that was south of the giant rats’ abandoned workshop. Then they filled in a gap in their map north of the troll lair and found a locked door. Reed wanted to know if the mystery lever in the lever room unlocked this door, but when it was checked, it did not. Reed’s lockpicks easily did the trick anyway, and they found a small furnished bedroom on the other side. Runeflinger went to explore the bed and, moving the blanket - found it animated and leapt for his head! It was not a living thing, but a magic blanket that clung to his face as if glued there, suffocating him. Everyone rushed to his aid, first trying to pull it free from his head - which did not work - and then cutting at the blanket, including Runeflinger himself, slashing at the blanket. Runeflinger was harmed as much as the blanket was, but eventually they managed to cut away enough that he could see, smell, and talk through holes, while the blanket just hung from his head. Embarrassed, but alive, Runeflinger said he was ready to continue adventuring like that. They went west and then south, seeing the Enigma of Greyhawk again. From there they doubled back north, planning on cutting through the east end of the checkerboard trap chamber to new territory - unaware that the east end of that room was lined with pit traps. Niall, Arlin, Ambrosio, and Muelara took 20-foot tumbles, with the elves landing with cat-like grace, but Ambrosio landing wrong and getting hurt pretty bad. Rather than try to go over the pit trap and leave the mules behind, Reed routed them around to another door in the east wall. Inside, they started to go around the pit trap to join the others - when they triggered a second pit trap neighboring the first trap and everyone else (minus the mules) fell into that one. Eventually, they got everyone out of the pit traps (some easier than others), and were approaching the north door of the chamber, when it opened - and a Fireball was hurled into the chamber with them. In tight formation, everyone was engulfed in fire. Most everyone was burning and dying, except for Reed and Percy, badly burnt, but still conscious. The door was now wide open, and they saw three humans who looked like spellcasters. Two of them were casting follow-up spells. They did not affect Reed and Percy, who shrugged off the effects, and Percy was able to finish casting a Sticks to Snakes spell and launched four huge snakes into the midst. While distracted by the snakes, Reed poured potions of healing down the throats of his dying henchmen, carefully enough not to drown them, and they were roused from near-death and able to act. Muelara, now a thaumaturgist herself, cast a Lightning Bolt that fried two of the evil thaumaturgists (and some of the snakes), leaving just one alive, who surrendered. Now it was a race against time to save Niall, Runeflinger, Aerik, Arlin, and Halfdan. They had two more healing potions left in the Company and that went to saving Runeflinger and Niall. But they also knew the good cleric Bogomir the Adept had been last time they were here. If only he was, by chance, still in the same place… Some of them raced to go find out, and indeed Bogomir was in the same room, praying. Cuthbert had told him to be here to aid them, he said. He raced back and cured Aerik, saving him. He also had a healing spell on a scroll that he used to save one henchman, and that went to Arlin out of seniority. They were now entirely spent on magical healing, and Niall’s henchman Halfdan still lay there dying. They could do nothing but watch as the man expired before their eyes, apologizing to Niall with his last breath for some unknown failure. Past death, the damage to the Company had been extensive. Runeflinger had taken the brunt of it, losing his traveling spellbook of first-level spells in the fire, and Niall had both his henchman and most of his non-magical gear. Meanwhile, their prisoner had been bitten by one of the huge venomous snakes and had surrendered on condition of being saved. Percy, being honorable, used one of his Neutralize Poison scrolls to save the man’s life. Now the man revealed that he and his cousins had been exploring the dungeon for he didn’t know how long, trying to hold onto territory, and had thrown in with the Azure Enchantress and her orcs, as most of the spellcasters on this level had. In fact, their spellbooks had been secured under the floor in the Azure Enchantress’ lair, where the Company had just been weeks ago! Further, the man knew that the Greyhawk Construction Company had already gone through and redesigned that room since the Enchantress’ death, but perhaps they had missed the spellbooks…? The thaumaturgists had nearly been their deaths, but they were also their only source of treasure on this expedition. They had carried 30 pp between them, and each carried a gem also (a large violet garnet was particularly valuable). They recovered a small traveling spellbook and several other items that seemed to be magical because of how little the Lightning Bolt had damaged them. They were unusual items for magic-users to be carrying - a sling, a magic necklace of prayer beads, and a magic potion. The necklace went to Percy, the potion and spellbook to Runeflinger (as compensation for his lost book; Aerik’s was fine because he had been furthest from the center of the fireball), and Reed held onto the sling, announcing how he planned to give it to Ambrosio. But while everyone was still alive, they were all weak, low on magic, and completely out of healing. Heading deeper into the dungeon to check on the Enchantress’ lair seemed too dangerous. But going back the way they had come seemed dangerous too. Luckily, they were now closer to the Grand Central Staircase. They convinced Bogomir to accompany them and see them safely to the surface. The sunlight was painful to Bogomir’s eyes and he was eager to return to the dungeon. The Chapel of Boccob in the Upper Works was occupied - but only by a sole acolyte of Boccob, with no spells to his name. He was eager for the company, as he did not feel remotely safe in the castle. The Company decided to stay holed up in the chapel for the next four days, until they were strong enough to go back down and look for those spellbooks… TO BE CONTINUED IN SESSION 61