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.
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.
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.
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