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 - Sessions 57-58

 Session 57

Goodmonth 25, 622 CY

City of Greyhawk

Old City

“Aye, I’ve been there…” Torsten said. The man looked to be 30, though Niall Brightflame understood this human was even younger. It was with a trembling hand that Torsten picked up his leather flask for another drink. “The Temple of the Latter Day Elder Gods. We believed it was ripe pickings, since everyone’s attention had been on Castle Greyhawk these past two years.

“Our first clue that this would not be easy was just upon mounting the steps to the temple. Day suddenly became night. My companions, all inexperienced, broke ranks and fled just as I was reaching the top of the steps. I called back to them and tried to rally them, but that was when I noticed the …things in the sky. They had wings, but they had little shape to them and were shaped like no bird or other animal I can name. Instead of following the others, I retreated indoors, through the temple doors. The room inside seemed impossibly big, but had no exits. I had no choice but to retreat back out into the starry night…with those …things swooping down after me…”

No sum of money could convince him to guide Niall and the Company of the White Oak to the Temple. But he did give good directions…

Goodmonth 26, 622 CY
The Village of Nameless

Nameless was a minor fiefdom on the north side of the private hunting grounds of the Oligarchs. It was four miles south of the Temple of the Latter Day Elder Gods, the closest civilization came to the old ruins. Only five Companions - Reed Underbough, Percy, Niall Brightflame, Bowie Laughingbottle, and Leif Thunderbeard - and their henchpeople, Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Arlin Fadagoria, Halfdan, and Gremlar Blackstone - and two mules left Nameless bound for the Temple.

There was barely a discernable trail leading to the Temple, and the vegetation grew tall and lush so close to the Temple’s walls that they might have missed it had they not been looking for it. The Temple was a step pyramid, only three tiers, each twenty feet tall, with one ramp of steps leading up the west side to a pair of large, heavy double doors on the top tier. The stone was very old and worn smooth.

First they circled wide around the Temple, as Torsten had never seen the east side of the Temple, but they found no other entrances that way, even when the elves moved around the walls slowly, hoping to detect a secret door.

They formed up into ranks and started ascending the steps. As they did, the sun began quickly moving through the sky, setting just as the front rank reached the top tier. As they stepped up to the double doors, the sun set. Everyone paused to watch the sky for monsters, but none appeared.

The doors were hard to open - Lief and Niall, their two strongest members, had to work together to pull them open. Inside was a room that seemed the exact size of the entire top tier - which should have been impossible, because it appeared to have thick walls, but they had expected this too, thanks to Torsten. The room was empty except for three brass pillars that ran from floor to ceiling, spaced out between the north and south walls. Since the pillars were 8’ wide, there were only gaps in between to reach the other side.

Cautiously, the thieves Reed and Ambrosio went in to search the room. As Reed touched the first pillar, a brass door appeared in the side of it. One by one, they made a door appear in each. These doors opened easily onto hollow tubes going down, with only ladders bolted to the north wall of each tube. The ladders seemed to have been made piecemeal out of various metals, but looked sturdy. To be cautious, only one tube was chanced, and to be extra careful, everyone descending the tube did so with rope tied around them. This turned out to be a good thing because about half of the Companions had trouble with reaching the too-distant ladder and would have fallen 30’ to the floor below. The mules were left behind and unguarded.

As some were still descending the ladder, the front ranks checked out the room below. All three brass pipes descended into this room, with doors in their south sides. In the northeast and southeast corners were piles of old, dusty tools. Three doors led elsewhere in the middle tier of the Temple. Since they were here to find Vask’s undead form and lay it to rest - and retrieve his two powerful magic weapons at the same time - Muelara cast ESP and Locate Object to help them find their objectives. Neither spell initially gave them any clues, so they started with east.

To the east was a long north-south corridor and a side passage east, but they went south, turned a corner west, and another corner south, and went through a door through which Muelara detected animal thoughts. Here were six giant wasps buzzing around a large brass cage, huge dead beetle carcasses, and what appeared to be a stone birdbath. One Sleep spell later, there were no giant wasps flying around, and they were all promptly killed - save one, which Reed wanted badly to extract its poison sac from. Not being an expert on giant wasp anatomy, Reed almost poisoned himself and gave up on the idea. Luckily, poison sacs were not the only treasure in the room. Inside the locked cage (and locked cages were no obstacle to a thief of Reed’s experience) were a couple thousand loose coins of gold and silver, a pair of gems, a jeweled torc, and an old ceramic flask holding liquid. The sweet-smelling goo in the “birdbath” was left alone.

There were sentient thoughts coming from behind the northeast door, and a heard sound like something scraping across stone, so the Companions barged in an old, ruined bedroom with nothing left but three beds in it. Peeking under one of the dust ruffles, they saw glowing red eyes staring back at them. Then the beds were cast aside as three wights rose up to attack. Percy quickly turned them and chased them into the corner. He explained that everyone would get a chance to hurl a missile weapon at the cornered wights, but that would break the turn and they could then fight back. The missile attacks were devastatingly effective, though, leaving little to mop up when the wights retaliated. Under each bed was a gold mask that the wights must have once worn.

Heading south, Leif was about to bust down the next door when he heard a voice in his head that said “Run! Run away!” Leif was freaked out, but convinced to ignore this as a trick. They found behind the door a nearly identical room with another three wights hiding under beds. They tried the same tactic, but this time one of the wights, wearing a ceremonial helmet, was able to take a lot of damage and nearly drained somebody before it was destroyed. Further, under one of the beds was a trapdoor that led down. Opening it, they found what looked like a large empty pit. They considered going down to search it for secret doors, but decided to explore the rest of this level first.

Around the corner to the east was a short dead end passage with a silver statue there. The statue was of a macabre being - semi-humanoid, and yet only part-crow, part-rat, and part-vulture. Leif was strong enough to pivot the statue alone, and Leif and Niall working in tandem were able to scoot it over to the side, but they found nothing concealed behind or beneath it.

Leaving it alone, they went back north, then east, and then found themselves in another long north-south passage. Through an archway to the south they saw a small empty room with a door opposite the archway. As Leif opened the false door - a balista bolt flew down the corridor from the north and stabbed Leif’s own brand-new hench-dwarf Gremlar in the back - and Gremlar fell down, dying.

Gremlar was moved into the empty room while Percy began invoking a cure spell. While everyone was waiting for the spell to take effect, a monster appeared in the corridor that looked just like the silver statue (only black now instead of silver). Muelara bravely moved up to the archway and blocked it with a Protection from Evil spell cast on herself, and the spell repulsed the monster as it charged her. Then missile fire repulsed the monster and it turned around the corner from which it, and the Company, had come. Once the cure spell had Gremlar recovering, Reed snuck out past Muelara and sneaked quietly past the monster. Niall was now hearing a voice in his head telling him not to try anything, for he would surely fail. Niall tried to talk to the voice in his head, but it did not work. Ignoring it, he joined the other fighters charge more noisily out towards it. The monster was meleed from both sides and backstabbed by Reed, ending its existence.

With the Company recovered, they headed north, found a secret panel with a concealed balista mounted in it (which they disabled), and then backtracked to a west side passage - indeed, the very passage they had seen from the opposite direction after coming out of the first room. There were two side doors down this passage. Behind one of them was a ruined bedroom where everything was so rotted that it fell apart when prodded by Leif’s spear. Behind the other one was another ruined bedroom, but in this case the bed was crushed under a 4’ wide statue of a toad made of riveted steel plates. It could be seen through its open mouth that it appeared to be hollow, but it also animated and attacked. It withstood six hits from the Companions, and bit Reed for a light wound, before it was destroyed and fell into pieces. Niall took the pieces with the toad’s eyes to go on his shield.

Heading west and then north of the first room, they came to the end of the corridor to the north, where there were three pewter urns, and a door nearby to the east. Searching the urns, they found one held sand and the other two were empty. They carefully poured out all the sand, but found no treasure concealed within. Behind the door they found a small room holding nothing but three more identical urns, but these were all full of green, slimy algae. The voices harassing Leif and Niall were now, instead of urging them to run away or to give up, were trying to convince them to investigate these urns. They did not fall for it, and everyone left them undisturbed.

Backtracking to a side passage west, they found a door to the north through which Muelara sensed lonely thoughts (casting Protection from Evil had disrupted her Locate Object spell, but her ESP spell was still going). Since the thoughts did not appear hostile, they decided to take a different tact and knocked on the door. A woman’s voice urged them to come in. Curious, they found the door opened onto a small room that held a tree -- what appeared to be a living tree, growing into the walls and ceiling of the room, and growing out of loose charcoal, sulfur, and salt -- all quite impossible. Out of a hollow space in the tree stepped a beautiful woman who had called to them through the door. She told them how she and her sisters were bound to this room to help achieve balance in this temple. They seemed aware that monsters of chaos were running rampant through the temple, but she speculated there might be some champion of law down here for balance as well. The Company was ready to push on, but the woman tried to use some magic to make Bowie stay with her, and a second woman emerged from the hollow to try and bewitch Percy, but they both resisted and everyone left.

Percy cast his own Locate Object spell to replace Muelara’s lost one.

Moving further west, they found a large storeroom with nothing of value left in it, though they were careful to check through the sacks of rotten food.

Taking winding passages south, past the first room, they found a door that led to stairs going down. This more clearly led to the bottom tier than the trapdoor had, but they still resisted going down. Their map showed a little space to the east, and they even knew of a door that likely led into a room there. They were right, but all they found was a moldering bedroom, this time with a dead bugbear inside. The bugbear’s sack held some modest treasure.

Niall checked his map and found this level was twice the size as it had appeared to be outside.

And then they backtracked to the stairs and went down. Everyone felt some unease down here, but none moreso than Halfdan and Gremlar, who were going berserk. They became so obsessed with leaving the temple by any means necessary that they were willing to fight their way past the others, and had to be incapacitated with Percy’s Hold Person spell.

Just east of the bottom of the stairs were double doors in the north wall. When Reed listened at the doors he heard many voices chanting. Some debate followed about what to do here. If it was a large room, perhaps they would not risk the encounter.

It was a large room, the largest yet. Inside were 15 men, kneeling prostrate while chanting, in front of one man facing them, cross-legged. A Sleep spell was cast into the room - and did absolutely nothing. The man spotted them, called out to them, and welcomed them. Niall was willing to interact with the man, but only from the safety of the entrance. He let the stranger in the room know they were looking for a particular undead and described what he looked like in life. The stranger said he had seen who they were looking for and would lead them to it, but only after they had finished their ceremony. When asked about the purpose of the ceremony, it was to achieve balance. When invited again to wait inside, the Companions balked and said they would wait outside, with the doors closed. Not trusting a word they had just heard, they barred the double doors and tried to slip away back upstairs.

However -

The stranger from the room appeared behind them in the hallway and began casting a spell. While everyone else was freaked out and continued fleeing up the stairs, Reed stayed behind and disrupted the spell’s casting with a lucky crossbow shot. The stranger reacted by turning into a large bat and flying straight at Reed. Reed joined in the retreat, but even with his magic leaping boots the bat outpaced him and bit him. Though drained of some energy, Reed was able to produce his bag of garlic and herbs and used it to fend off the vampire long enough to leap up the stairs and join the others as they fled back to the ladders. Now Niall protected their rears, swabbing the doorways with garlic to try to ward the vampire off from following them up.

When Gremlar and Halfdan came out of Percy’s spell, they were humbly apologetic and had no idea what had come over them. Climbing the ladders, they found their mules were still waiting for them. Exiting the temple, they found it was the middle of the night, but they fled down the steps before they could encounter any flying things.


Session 58

Harvester 10, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk
Tower of the Striped Mage

The Mage had agreed to meet with Percy and Runeflinger and a servant brought them to his study, where the Mage (Rodrigo, the former Striped Mage’s chief apprentice) sat with his crystal ball.

“You want me to check for the location of your lost friend again,” the Mage said. “You brought the gold?”

A sack of 300 gold was sat in front of him. The servant began counting it. “Let us begin…” the Mage said, and he peered into his crystal ball.

“No wonder you have not been able to find him…this man Vask, or the man you once knew as Vask…his undead form has left the Temple of the Latter Day Elder Gods. It has been changed by the temple…it is now a wraith, no longer a wight. It now wanders the ruins outside Castle Greyhawk.”

“Can you be more specific?” Runeflinger asked.

The Striped Mage gave him a hard stare. “It’s a crystal ball, not an encyclopedia. This audience is ended.”

Harvester 11, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

Reed Underbough, Percy, Runeflinger, Bowie Laughingbottle, and Leif Thunderbeard returned to their old stomping grounds with their henchmen, Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Arlin Fadagoria, Guardia, and Gremlar Blackstone in tow. Actually, while everyone else walked, the hobbits Reed and Ambrosio were riding armored dire wolves, an extravagant purchase Reed had made since they all last adventured together.

Very little of the terrain surrounding the castle had ever been explored. The closest ruins to the castle were the two outposts at the foot of the drawbridge - two small, squat towers that had housed orcs long ago and been abandoned ever since. Vask was not to be found there.

The drawbridge of the castle was up and Reed spoke the magic command word to lower it. The courtyard looked deserted, as usual. Of course, they were not expecting to find Vask inside, so they stayed out.

They had previously spent some time north of the castle, following the creek through the woods, and that was where they had found the wraith that had been Father Langdon. Was there some property to the creek that drew their old teammates to it? Runeflinger thought it was worth investigating. They spent a few hours searching the woods, but turned up no ruins in that direction.

Returning to the castle, Reed decided to hop up onto the curtain wall and circle its perimeter, for a better view. Everyone else followed on the far side of the moat, with Reed calling down to them if he saw anything. As they went counter-clockwise around the castle, Reed heard some rocks falling somewhere inside the castle grounds as he was crossing the west side of the curtain wall. Although wary, he continued.

At the castle’s southwest corner, Reed spotted something about a mile to the southwest that no one in the Company had ever seen before - what looked like an old ruined fort on top of a hill. Could that be where Vask was? It was decided that a mile away was not a ruin near the castle, so they moved on.

Continuing east along the south side of the castle, they spotted something else of which most of them were unaware - there were the ruins of what looked like a village at the foot of the castle’s hill, almost touching its southeast corner (Haruspex Niv had talked several times about a well at this location that supposedly led deep into the dungeons, but few still-living members of the Company had ever been there with him). Most of the village was nothing more than stone foundations spread out for a half-mile, but there were some intact walls and a few mostly intact structures (only the ones made of stone; the wood-timbered structures were all rotted away). And it was now that Muelara’s already-cast Locate Object spell detected Vask’s magic javelin. Now they were able to head straight towards him, where Vask appeared to be lurking in the shade of a half-intact roof. But then Vask rose up from under some rocks near Runeflinger and attacked with surprise! Only Runeflinger’s magic armor spared him from harm. And despite the benefit of a surprise attack, Vask did not last any longer against the Company than their other undead fallen teammates had. Vask, though, came with quite a windfall - as the wraith disintegrated into a handful of dust, Vask’s magic battle axe, javelin, helmet, and two potions fell to the ground.

That afternoon they spent back in the Village of Hawfair Green, burying Vask’s ashes next to the others and singing his praises. That evening, they were dividing up his magic items, with Leif getting the axe, Arlin the javelin, and Runeflinger the helmet.

Harvester 12, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

Having had a little taste of the castle again, the Company was ready to go back today. The third dungeon level beckoned. More specifically, the unopenable doors on the third level beckoned, and a Knock spell or two might reveal hidden treasure.

The easiest route to the third dungeon level remained the black dragon’s lair, which had remained empty. The first area in the dungeon proper was the gnoll lair, the one that had an unopenable cell door, behind which they saw an ivory box the size of a small crate. Some of them had been excited about this since the last expedition down here when it was discovered, and Bowie reminded everyone of the “box prophecy” they were told involved the White Oak Company. Runeflinger reminded everyone that if it was a magical door, the spell would only open one door, but if it was mechanically locked, the spell would open many in this area.

Knock.

Mechanisms within this vault-like cell door slid back and it opened, as did the other three doors in the room. All of the others led to places they had already been, so they focused on just going behind the cell door and approaching the ivory box. Just not too closely. Reed and Ambrosio checked it for traps and found none. Just to be extra careful, they took the time to tie rope to the lid, pound an iron spike into the wall, loop the rope over the spike, and then pull down to raise the lid up from a distance (Percy was consulted, always being good at this kind of engineering). It worked and…nothing happened. Cautiously approaching the open box, Reed found - dust. It was full of dust. Though, not just any dust, but colored dust, some of it sparkly. There were, in fact, four different colors of dust in the box.

Some debate followed about what to do. Did they dare carry the box with them? What would happen if magical dust mixed? It was decided to carefully remove all the sand from each color and place them in four separate sacks. And then Leif still had to carry the empty box in front of him.

They headed south from there to another pair of doors they had decided to skip going through last time. Then, Muelara had sensed thoughts that seemed to be coming from intelligent undead behind the double doors. This time they felt confident they could handle them. Leif sat down the box and pushed open the stuck doors. It turned out to be an unusually large room, considering the only decoration was a chest chained to the back wall of the room. But guarding it were three wraiths!

Percy was quick with the turning and wraiths were no challenge for a bishop to turn. Once they were in the corner of the room, Reed and Percy decided to combine two previously successful techniques. Percy would hold them at bay while everyone softened them up with missile fire and then, when that ended the turning, Muelara would cast Protection from Evil on herself in the doorway so none of them could get past her, and all the missile-flingers would rush to get behind her in the corridor. Runeflinger cast Invisibility on himself (his previously successful technique). The missile fire, fired from nearly everyone standing in a half-circle behind them, weakened all the wraiths, but did not destroy any of them. Everyone fled back past Muelara as she started casting the spell - but there was one problem with this plan: the wraiths moved faster! So they also wound up on the hallway side of the Protection from Evil, and continued attacking the Company. Although initially terrified, the Company quickly realized they could run back into the room, now trapping the wraiths in the hallway, the opposite of how they originally planned it. But this revision of the plan did not come without penalties -- Reed was energy drained, and Guardia and Reed’s dire wolf mount were killed outright by the wraiths.

Once safely ensconced in the room, missile fire recommenced at the wraiths and finished them off, but not before Muelara received a nasty arrow in the back, accidentally, from Leif.

Now they could finally address the chained chest in the room, but Reed found it was trapped. Working together, the Companions figured out how to circumvent triggering the trap and got the lid open and found - the chest was completely empty.

Disappointed, but ready to move on, they went back out into the long north-south hallway and took the side door west that led to the dwarves’ break room on this floor. It was once more full of dwarves, helping themselves to what looked like ale from a barrel, and they impatiently tolerated the Company cutting through their room.

To the west, Reed led them to a small chapel they had skipped before that had an ogre and two bugbears trying to worship a statue of Erythnul, god of monsters. One Sleep spell later, the Companions were picking up gold pieces off of each of them, plus a few gems.

Moving further west again, Reed led them to the pair of unopenable doors and the remaining Knock spell was cast. The spell not only opened both doors, but ten doors linking eight 10’ x 10’ empty rooms. The Companions moved through each room, looking for secret doors, but found nothing.

Around the corner to the south, Reed knew of another door that had previously resisted opening - but this door was still not open, despite having been in spell range. They marked this as something to come back to next time.

Further south and around another corner to the east was the last long east-west hall Reed had mapped last time. They had tried no doors at the far end last time. Would they be open now? No…but then it turned out they had already strayed out of range. Muelara, using her Helm of Telepathy now instead of ESP spells, detected monster thoughts from behind the south door, but the Company’s interest turned to the north door when, from outside it, they all heard a loud, mocking laugh, followed by a man’s voice booming “I know a secret…!” in the Common Tongue. Intrigued, everyone urged Leif to bash open the door.

Behind it was a short parallel corridor that turned south up ahead, but only after passing under a series of murder holes in the ceiling. There were glimpses of movement above the murder holes. Charm Person was cast up through the holes, trying to target what was moving, but it did not work when their hiding opponent was ordered to come down. Reed watched the holes, entranced, noticing that whatever was up there was repeating the same movements.

The solution seemed obvious to Reed - the monsters above were serving as a distraction so the monsters to the south could sneak attack them, or were being reinforced now by the monsters above. So he turned everybody around and they headed through the door to the south - where gnolls were waiting to ambush them with halberd and battle axes. But there were only four gnolls and the Company made short work of them. The gnolls had some gold, but not a lot, and this whole expedition into the dungeon was turning out to be rather cash-pour, other than the ivory box.

Pressing on (and giving up on the monsters above the murder holes), the Company returned north and continued north, finding themselves at a large chamber almost entirely filled with a pool of water. The pool could be seen to continue into a chamber to the south through a large archway (with no dry path through). Floating in the middle of the pool was a giant sculpture, seemingly made of yellow rubber, and abstractly depicting a chicken or duck.

Runeflinger, still invisible, advised everyone leave, convinced this was a giant’s bathtub. Reed reminded Ambrosio that he had the Ring of Water Walking Reed had given his hench-hobbit. Ambrosio took off the ring and asked if anyone wanted to borrow it. Leif volunteered; he walked out onto the water while wearing the ring and disappeared through the archway.

Leif saw that the chamber was more of a natural cavern with dry shore to the west and southeast. On the southeast beach was a chest surrounded by three dead bodies. Wary, Leif fired an arrow into one and then all three of them silently clambered to their feet. He could see their ashen features and glowing red eyes from here. They stepped into the water and disappeared from view.

When Leif ran back to the others, Percy recognized the description as wights and he calmly borrowed the ring next. He went into the chamber to the south and was ready to turn the wights, but he saw no sign of them - until he spotted them floating up to attack him from underneath! He turned them in time, but since he was directly above them, all he could do was make them turn downwards and try to scratch their way through the cavern floor 15’ underwater. He shouted back to the others that he was basically at an impasse with the wights and, with both sides shouting back and forth to each other, they came up with a plan. It would not involve the floating statue -- Reed wanted nothing else to do with statues, remembering the amber golem! Reed and Ambrosio climbed the walls of the chamber and cavern until they reached the unprotected shore. They found no traps on the chest, and found it was full of gold! They emptied the contents into every sack they had left, carried them across to the rest of the Company, and then went back and refilled the sacks with the rest of the gold. By the time they returned, Percy joined them, gave the ring back, and they all fled with their loot before the turning would expire.

But they had not fled back the way they came. They went north, and Reed was overjoyed when they found the green dragon's lair -- the map fragments now matched up! Then they went further east. They came across a room full of bones and the reek of death, with dead gnolls pinned to the walls with big spikes. Muelara detected animals behind the east door and a monster behind the north door. They went for the monster - and found their first troll (the first troll any of these adventurers had seen -- Haruspex Niv and some others of the old guard had ran from a troll a long, long time ago)! The troll was not hard to beat, but it was hard to keep down. While they were searching its mound of coins (all silver pieces!), the troll they thought they had killed already started to get up and Percy had to smash it back down. Then, disturbed by how it wouldn’t stay dead, they lucked onto the idea of burning its remains.

Now, weighted down with considerable treasure, they finally backtracked the way they had come. The dwarves were in better spirits now in their break room, having thoroughly enjoyed the spirits they’d been drinking. They invited Lief to stay with them, but he went back with the Company instead.

Company of the White Oak - Sessions 55-56

Session 55

Reaping 26, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

It was shaping up to be a hot summer and Reed Underbough, Percy, Eirenden, and Leif Thunderbeard were talking about going on a short, easy expedition somewhere and where that might be - when Haruspex Niv showed up. This shocked everyone because Niv’s name had been on the list of members allegedly killed by the Iron Workers Guild. Haruspex explained that he saw the thieves coming and faked his own death to elude them, and had been lying low since. 

Should they seek revenge against the Iron Workers Guild? No trip into the sewers, where the guild operated out of, had ever gone well for them. And with Lord Ellis gone, the Iron Workers had no reason to keep going after them. Besides, Reed had a suggestion that soon tantalized all of them. With Niv’s magical firepower…maybe they could finally take out that dragon Eirenden had discovered under Castle Greyhawk…

The idea seemed to have a good risk:reward ratio, since they had killed a dragon easily before, and dragons were known to hoard lots of treasure. But they were few in number and ready to hedge their bets any way they could. Eirenden sought information about this dragon he had seen. It was a black dragon, and he paid to learn that they breathed acid in a long line, about as far as a javelin could be thrown. Acid was not something they could defend against…except to keep lots of targets between them…

Reaping 27, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

With the rapidity that came with the promise of lots of gold, the Company had assembled a group of 12 archers and 8 light foot infantry, including Krillin, Patroneous, and Joe, and a medium named Aerik Fenn. These were not henchmen, but hirelings paid in advance, with the promise of a big bonus later. They were told that the Company was going under Castle Greyhawk to retrieve a treasure hoard - but they were careful not to mention that they had to kill a dragon first.  

Reaping 28, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

Having breezed through the Village of Hawfair Green, the Company and their retinue made their way for the lonely castle - but bypassed the upper works and allowed Eirenden to show them the entrance to the dragon lair he and his original party had found on their only foray here. 

There, on the east slope of the bill on which Castle Greyhawk stood, was rubble from some long-lost outbuilding, mixed with loose rocks and dirt. A long time ago they had dug the rubble away and revealed the tunnel to the dragon lair, but now it was all filled in again. The Company put their new hirelings to work clearing the rubble away, and Eirenden and Leif pitched in to display their magically-enhanced and naturally prodigious (respectively) strength. Eventually they had cleared a path they could all use - but making so much noise that the Company did not want to use it. Rather, they ordered everyone to withdraw for the night, hoping to take the dragon more by surprise in the morning. 

That night everyone camped outside around the Leaping Trout Tavern in Hawfair Green. There was much merriment, for the hirelings assumed they were only resting before digging up treasure in the morning. The Companions noticed that Krillin had no official leadership role, but he was more charismatic than the other hirelings and many looked up to him. Aerik Fenn stuck close to the Company, while Eirenden took a liking to Patroneous. Eirenden was thinking about taking him on as a henchman, if Patroneous survived the morning.

Goodmonth 1, 622 CY

Castle Greyhawk

The next morning they all returned to the tunnel and the hirelings were sent in first. The Companions were so far behind that they didn’t even see what was going on when combat started up in the front ranks. It turned out, the dragon had added two goblin sentries to the tunnel since Eirenden was last here, and the hirelings had noisily killed them. Should they return to Hawfair Green and come back still another day? No, they were this close - they would press on. 

And they did - until the front ranks reached the edge of the dragon’s cavern. The pile of treasure was right there in front of them, but there was no sign of the dragon. The cavern smelled like dragon, though, and this was suddenly putting some fear into the hirelings. Many of them were balking at going inside, or angry that they had not been warned about what could be guarding the treasure. The Companions huddled and discussed what to do about this troublemaker, Krillin, who seemed to be leading the others towards mutiny.

Aerik Fenn, unaware of these deliberations, saw what was going on and was concerned that Krillan’s actions would keep his fellow mercenaries from ever being hired again.To remedy the situation, Aerik cast Charm Person on Krillin to get him to stay and convince the others to stay. Ultimately, this worked, though it also took a bribe, the promise that the hirelings would get a greater treasure share. Only one hireling, Joe, refused to go in and kept trying to convince the others not to. Reed led Joe back towards the surface, on the pretense of having a talk with him, but then Reed backstabbed Joe, killed him, and hid the body.

As soon as the Companions went inside - that was when the dragon showed up from a side cavern. The dragon spat acid and it killed six hirelings instantly. The Companions loosed missile weapons at the dragon with ridiculous accuracy, and Haruspex Niv’s lightning bolt from his wand was super-effective. The dragon was killed before it could get in a second attack.

The treasure pile was large and spread out, some of it in sacks and the rest just loose on the floor, and took a long time to count. It proved to easily be one of the largest treasure hauls the Company had ever recovered. It even included what appeared to be a wand and a rod. To the Companions’ chagrin, enough of the hirelings survived that the Company had to give them an entire equal share of the treasure to split between them - and even that was looking like it would come to about 300 gold per man!

Searching the two caverns further, they found a tunnel leading west that would take them deeper under the castle. But to which level? Even Leif, a dwarf, was having trouble guessing. Everyone was curious to see where it led, but the hirelings who had stopped being useful as dragon fodder were now a liability that needed to be dumped back into civilization. They would lead the men back again to Hawfair Green to celebrate (and with a dragon head and body parts to prove the tales they would tell!) and pretend the expedition was over, but then head back into the dungeons the next morning. But first…they had enough experience with Charm Person to know that Krillin had been charmed, and they assumed Aerik Fenn had done so because he was willing to betray his comrades-in-arms for the good of the Company, and so he was offered full membership.

It was the most chaotic the Company of the White Oak, which had once solidly leaned towards lawfulness, had ever been. Percy, the last champion of Law in the company, had been present the whole time, but things were either done behind his back or he turned a blind eye to them.

Goodmonth 2, 622 CY

Castle Greyhawk

Reed, Percy, Haruspex, Eirenden, Leif, and Aerik returned to the dragon’s lair, but this time with only their loyal henchmen Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Arlin Fadagoria, and new henchman Patroneous. Reed, now recognized as their most experienced member, both led the company and attempted to map the dungeon as they went. And in the dungeon proper they now seemed to be, for the rough tunnel soon gave way to smoothly carved 10’ x 10’ corridors that seemed very familiar in design. 

They soon came to a door, and Muelara’s ESP spell revealed sentient beings on the other side. Those beings turned out to be six gnolls, who were no match for the Company and quickly wiped out. Their treasure was a paltry sum of silver and gold pieces, but what else they guarded were two cell doors. One led into an ordinary, and empty, cell, but through the bars of the other door’s window they could see an ivory box sitting alone in the cell. No matter what they tried to get the door open, it all failed. Frustrated, the Company moved on. 

From here they could have moved south, but instead they backtracked east and planned to take a passage they had skipped to get to the gnoll lair. When they reached that fresh corridor, they were confronted by a spectral figure floating quickly towards them. Percy, recognizing it for either a wraith or a spectre, turned it and the thing sped away from them. The Company followed. It was a long slanted passage that was taking them down and around, and eventually took them to a door. But now they chickened out, fearing that more wraiths and spectres were on the other side, and they headed back up.

Now they went back and took that passage south. At its far south end was a pair of double doors and, behind these, Muelara detected the wailing thoughts of those wishing they had stayed dead. Again the Company blanched and took another way, this time a side door to the west. The first little room on the other side was empty, but the next contained a group of dwarves, eight in number, all workers of the Greyhawk Construction Company. Their leader (or perhaps just the most talkative one) was Brynja. For small bribes, the dwarves relayed small pieces of information. Yes, this was dungeon level 3. They described the layout of the corridors to the west of this room (they were particularly proud of the “square roundabouts,” which they seemed to have had some hand in constructing). The Company tried to intimidate the dwarves into giving up more information by telling them how they had slain a dragon. When the dwarves seemed unimpressed and even got all sarcastic about it, the plan backfired and the Company became intimidated. 

Despite having had the area described to them, Reed had trouble mapping the corridors to the west and travel was slowed. They ignored corridors to the north and south and continued west. Behind a door, Muelara detected sentient thoughts worshiping something evil. Still intimidated, the Company decided to avoid it and went around the room to the south. 

Further west, they found two side-by-side doors to the north. The first door opened onto a 10’x10’ room with doors to the north and east (the east door obviously led into the area behind the neighboring door). But neither of these doors could be opened by any means. More unopenable doors! They left, but then thought they would try the other door. That also led into a 10’ x 10’ room with a door to the north and to the west - but they could not open those doors either. Frustrated, they gave up and continued exploring west.

Soon they came around a corner to the south and discovered yet another door they could not open! They mapped some more corridors after this, but were so frustrated by the riddle of the unopenable doors that they left, vowing to come back some day after acquiring a Knock spell…

 

 

Session 56

Goodmonth 9, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

A week had passed and some significant events had occurred during downtime. Reed had the New Thieves Guild’s best forgers on forging a letter of transferral from Lord Ellis to the Company of the White Oak for the letters of credit in his name the Company had pilfered. And it worked - the Bank of Greyhawk believed the letter without even testing it - and the Companions who raided Lord Ellis’ manor found themselves 9,000 gold pieces richer.

Reed and his henchman Ambrosio had been looking into the situation at Mannering Manor.

Lord Ellis’ magic items had been mostly distributed, but there was still some bitter contention over his magic plate armor, with both Niall and Leif having equal claims to it (and the armor was magically able to scale to both their sizes).

With these circumstances fresh in mind, the Companions Reed Underbough, Percy, Haruspex Niv, Eirenden, Niall Brightflame, Runeflinger, and Aerik Fenn gathered to discuss what should be their next priority. Reed tried once more to make a case for the Company raiding Lord Mannering’s manor, but Reed had miscalculated greed being a motivator for adventurers still flush from a dragon’s hoard. Without any evidence of wrongdoing on young Lord Mannering’s part, or proof of mismanagement of his estate, the others were not having it.

Niall favored returning to Castle Greyhawk, and reminded everyone that Prospero had told them long ago that the items they needed to stop The Adversary were hidden under Castle Greyhawk. But he also had another idea. He recalled how John Grond, Father Langdon, and the other “old guard” of the Company had been turned undead and attacked the Company at Castle Greyhawk a few months back. Percy had turned them all and they fled, never to be seen again. But they were still out there, somewhere, and might still have all their old magic items in their possession…

This idea appealed to everyone, both laying their old friends to rest, and reacquiring lost magic items. But how to find them…?

The idea came to them to hire a wizard who could scry the location for them. Prospero was the wizard they knew best, but he was a difficult man to get in touch with. But there was another wizard, the Striped Mage, who they had dealings with in the past, though it had been quite some time.

Goodmonth 10, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

The Striped Mage was intrigued by the idea and, for 1,000 gold, volunteered to track them down. And he did, though they were not together, as the Company might have thought. Indeed, they seemed to be scattered all over the place! Rom Riverbluff’s body was somewhere near Hawfair Green. Father Langdon was in the wilds north of Castle Greyhawk. John Grond was wandering the first dungeon level of Castle Greyhawk. Vask was somewhere in the Temple of the Latter Day Elder Gods.

Goodmonth 11, 622 CY
The Village of Hawfair Green

When the Company of the White Oak was spotted in Hawfair Green, it usually meant they were heading to Castle Greyhawk. People began showing up at once to see them before heading out to the castle, but were shocked when the Company showed up this time with questions. Why yes, there had been strange going-ons lately - farm animals going missing and found later, eaten. Everyone assumed it was a monster loose from the castle, though they did not usually stray this far to the main road. Many people had information on where the monster had struck last, much of it conflicting, but eventually one farmer was able to show where the monster had last feasted on one of his cows.

With a Locate Object spell focusing on Rom's magic shield, they tried to search the area - and got lucky, for the cow-killer was still nearby, lurking in a grove of trees. It was, in fact, Rom Riverbluff, now a wight. A wight that did not last long at all against the combined might of the still-living Company of the White Oak. Why would an undead Rom be feasting on livestock? Various guesses were made, but ultimately it did not matter. What mattered was, what to do with Rom’s remains? It was decided to cremate them on a pyre, during a ceremony Percy would officiate, and then they would retire to the Leaping Trout Tavern to toast to Rom’s memory and, from those who knew him, share stories.

Goodmonth 12, 622 CY
The wilds north of Castle Greyhawk

The Company had never veered off the side road to Castle Greyhawk before on its north side. They found some low hills, lots of trees, and a long creek. Again, they used Locate Object to detect Langdon's prayerbook, but this time it took a lot of searching, well north of the castle, before they tracked down where the wraith that was once Father Langdon was hiding. Father Langdon lasted no longer against the Company than Rom had. When Langdon’s wraith form was destroyed, some of Langdon’s former possessions dropped to the ground in corporal form, including his old prayerbook. Of Langdon himself, only enough ash remained to half-fill a flask. There was not even enough left here to give Langdon the funeral Rom was given. But as close as they were to Castle Greyhawk, and what remained of John Grond, they were uninterested in retreating to Hawfair Green to do any toasting.

The upper works of Castle Greyhawk seemed abandoned until they stopped at the Shrine to Boccob and found a lowly adept manning it alone. He was very glad for company/protection, and not at all interested in going into the dungeons.

The Company decided to use the old trapdoor entrance to the dungeon, something they had not bothered with in a long time. They found the door had a big crack in it now, as if someone had tried to break it, but it still worked, and still led down to a mostly deserted first level. But they did know where they could find some people, or more specifically, some elves. So they headed to the grand spiral staircase.

En route, Niall wondered if they should not dispose of the large weasels on this level, as they passed their lair, but no one else was interested. Haruspex, indeed, was rather nostalgic about the weasels and told everyone of his first adventure down here, two years ago, and how the weasels had saved them from berserkers.

There were always elves guarding the staircase and today was no exception - except there was only one elf, and he was a nervous sentry. Some of his brethren had been slain of late by a wraith wandering this level. The wraith had last been seen to the south.

The party’s map of this level covered some of the south; it showed that two paths split off directly south of here; one to the southeast and one to the southwest, but the southwest path was through a secret door. Surely the elf would have mentioned a secret door if it was relevant? The Company went southeast. They followed a long north-south tunnel for as long as they could, passing several doors, until an ESP spell detected thoughts behind a door. Scared thoughts. Instead of breaking in, Niall just knocked.

It was humans on the other side of the door, but they were not interested in coming out; they knew of the fearful wraith wandering this level. They were not interested in joining the fight against the wraith either.

The Company pressed on, finding another door through which Reed heard a deep, grumbling voice muttering. It sure sounded like John Grond! The Company spent a lot of time planning an ambush for John. Niall, with invisibility cast on him, was going to pound on the door and call to John to coax out his old friend. The Company would be way down the corridor to the north. Reed would be lurking in a 5’ wide side passage that John would need to pass to reach them and Reed would leap out and backstab the wraith.

The problem was, it was not the ogrish John Grond behind the door, but a real ogre! The ogre came out to investigate, charged at the party, and went down in three hits.

The ogre had no treasure on it, but it had a sack of 300 gold pieces back in its room. The room had wooden pillars and, more intriguing, little creatures rolling around on the floor that vaguely resembled goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins. Had this been a daycare for the dungeon? Eirenden was curious if Haruspex knew any mages in the city doing research on monster spawn, to test if nature or nurture made them evil. But no one was really interested in trying to trap and transport these feral little creatures and ultimately the Company decided to just abandon them here.

Moving on, the Company decided to ignore the east door in the room and try the 5’ wide side passage Reed had used earlier. This turned into a larger corridor and doubled back to a room on the opposite side of the door they had just ignored a short time ago; this room had a pool in the middle of the room surrounded by bones. Since there was obviously no wraith here, the Company avoided the pool and backtracked the way they had come. This time choosing a 5’ wide side passage east, they found a long north-south corridor that was 5’ wide to the north and 10’ wide to the south. Pursuing the wraith south, they hit a T-intersection, went east down another narrow passage which turned north, and here they found a series of connected rooms manned by humans and hobgoblins working together.

Armed with glaives, these foes fell quickly to the Company’s smaller, faster weapons - though the Company took two humans prisoner. These men, human and hobgoblin alike, had nothing more than some electrum pieces between them, but they had something more useful - information. They had seen the wraith and were willing to lead the Company to where they saw it in exchange for their freedom.

The Company followed them and wound up backtracking almost to where they had started - with the prisoners saying the wraith was heading towards the corner where the Company knew a secret door to be. Niall was fit to be tied - why had the elf sentry not mentioned this hours ago?!

Locate Object was cast. They headed through the secret door. They went through a normal door, through a side passage, and found themselves at a new room, one of this level’s museum-like rooms. Four stuffed ducks were on display on pedestals, similar to another room they had found a long time ago with a stuffed albatross on display in it. Only this time, they knew John Grond's magic sword was nearby.

Like the others, this wraith failed to last an entire minute in combat with them. Like Langdon, there was a half-flask’s worth of ash to recover. And John Grond’s magic sword clanged to the floor. Aligned with chaos, the Companions were careful to pick it up without touching it directly, and put it in a sack. It would fetch them a tidy sum, if Percy’s church paid them for the chance to destroy it..

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 53-54

 Session 53

Reaping 10, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

Auspiciously, on the very night before the Sword & Spear Inn was due to open, a small group of Company of the White Oak members -- Reed Underbough, Percy, Eirenden, and Niall Brightflame -- were meeting with Leif Thunderbeard, brother of the recently deceased member Sprig. Leif wanted revenge. 

Everyone else was…not so sure about that. They had all had great trouble finding any of the Company members to recruit for this planning session, and without more firepower they were very hesitant to go back to Gaxmoor.

The next most pressing thing on their agenda seemed to be going after Peter. They knew where Peter was; he was staying at that small manor house in the High Quarter, apparently guarded by a rotating group of up to eight fighting men, including the dragon-riding knight they had encountered once at Castle Greyhawk. No one was particularly concerned about the dragon rider…unless he somehow could fit the dragon in his house? There was a lot of concern over that one. Reed also advanced the theory that, if Peter was a “lord of vampires,” then he was probably a vampire himself and they would need to be ready to fight a vampire again. They eventually all agreed that they did not actually know Peter was a vampire, though.

Meanwhile, Ambrosio, Reed’s hench-hobbit, had spent the last week scoping the place out. There was no set pattern to when the fighters came and went, but sometimes they did leave alone or in pairs to local businesses, like the High Tower Tavern. Eirenden had hung out by the manor house, circling around outside it and looking for secret doors, but was chased off by a guard and did not risk returning alone. 

Reaping 11, 622 CY

City of Greyhawk

All of the people at the previous night’s meeting, including the henchmen Muelara and Arlin, joined Ambrosio in casing the manor house, and it paid off with a break that was too good to pass up. A lone fighter - a man in platemail armor - left the house and was heading to the High Tower Tavern. Muelara approached him while disguised by a Change Self spell to look like a human male. She said she had a business proposition for this man, based on his reputation. He was immediately suspicious and told Muelara to get lost. When she offered to pay him 500 gold just to hear her proposition, he became much more interested. In an alley that was being watched by Ambrosio from the shadows and Reed from a roof overhead, Muelara cast Charm Person on the man and made him into her best friend.

The best friend, who’s name was Bolero, worked for the owner of the manor house, Lord Ellis. All sitting together at the tavern, Muelara was able to coax Bolero into revealing all he knew. He and his fellow retainers, eight in number, had all been house guards for Ellis. It had always been boring work, but lately they had an additional charge, watching Lord Ellis, houseguest, Peter. Could Bolero take them on a tour of the house? Here, even for his “best friend,” Bolero blanched. Ellis would fire him, at best, maybe kill him…but for his best friend, he would take them at least as far as into the courtyard.

The main entrance to the manor was inside a walled off courtyard that the building itself circled in a C (or U, depending on how you were looking at it) shape. There were shuttered windows to either side and a door at the far end, with a small fountain and planters flanking it in the middle of the courtyard. There was also a guard stationed in the far corner who shooed them all out, telling Bolero he was in trouble for this. And here they were separated from Bolero, as he went inside.

The Company did exit into the street, but from Muelara cast a Sleep spell into the courtyard, dropping the one guard. Now they all moved back into the courtyard, stripped him, tied him up, and left him in a dark corner (while hiding all his gear in a planter).

There were enough gaps in the shutters to see the building inside - the east windows opened onto a long north-south corridor and the west windows opened into a large, mostly empty room. They had a key to the front door, thanks to searching the guard. Actually, they had three keys. Reed tried one at random -- and a bell started ringing inside, and acid squirted out of the keyhole! Reed tumbled away, missing most of the acid. Leif tried to bash the door down, but bounced off of the solid door. The second key unlocked the door, and stopped the bell from ringing. 

The front foyer was barely more than a small landing at the bottom of two sets of stairs heading up to the upper floor. By now, the front entrance had a few defenders, but they were little more than a delay for the more accomplished Companions. Niall, fought his way past the defenders and bounded straight for the upper floor -- where he was promptly face-to-face with Lord Ellis himself, bedecked in elaborate plate armor, and holding a sword in front of him. Lord Ellis tried to play the Law Card, announcing that he could have them all put to death for just trespassing. 

Meulara, seeing Niall in danger at the top of the stairs, cast Sleep up there -- which did not affect Lord Ellis at all, but put Niall to sleep! 

Percy began casting Hold Person, catching Lord Ellis just as the man bent down, grabbed Niall, and started dragging him away.

With the guards at the front entrance dispatched, everyone headed up the stairs to find out Niall’s fate, only to find that Lord Ellis had only resisted the Hold Person spell for seconds, and was slumped to the ground now, paralyzed, right next to Niall’s sleeping form.

Lord Ellis was stripped down to his gambeson and tied up from head to toe with rope. What to do with him now? While debating what to do, a fourth guard advanced from the west door. He quickly saw what had gone down -- and retreated. Reed and Niall raced each other in hot pursuit, both reaching the guard as he tried to hide in a side room along the west end of the second floor. 

Eirenden stayed behind to guard Ellis. When Ellis came out of the paralysis he tried to struggle to get free, but Eirenden put a boot to his neck and warned him about what would happen if he tried further.

That guard was racing to Bolero for backup, unaware that Bolero was already turned and on their side. Alone, the guard was easily defeated and tied up. They now had nearly as many prisoners as they had dead guards around the front entrance, but they still had no idea where to find Peter. Until someone thought to ask Bolero.

“Sure, his room is on the east end of the building.”

It was suggested that they should do some searching for treasure, in a manor that surely had plenty of treasure in it, but the fear was that Peter might escape if they did not keep after him. On the way to the east end, Bolero gave Lord Ellis a wide berth, despite being pinned to the floor, bound from head to foot and gagged. The east end of the upstairs floor was one long north-south hallway with three doors off of it. Muelara used ESP to determine which doors had anyone behind them and which one of those held Peter (the door with someone terrified behind it). They took out the remaining guard first, then cast a Sleep spell into Peter’s room to see if it worked. And it did.

When they woke Peter up, he insisted that he had been abducted by these people. He had been allowed to leave the building (which was how he was spotted outside), but his life was supposedly in danger if he moved out of view of the building. ESP was not a perfect lie detector, but his thoughts seemed to match up with what he was saying.

So what to do with him? Well, first, now that they had him, it was time to ransack the house. The far northwest room on the upper floor was Ellis’ master bedroom, and this contained a chest with a good stash of loot, though most of his money was being held in the Bank of Greyhawk and there were just letters of credit for it here. The real “wealth” here was the wealth of evidence -- Ellis had written correspondence with the Iron Workers Guild, who he had paid to kill off the Company of the White Oak -- and some names were crossed off a list of their roster already. Now it became frighteningly clear why it had been impossible to contact some of their members lately. 

Further, there was correspondence with the Horned Society, and an almost equally disturbing discussion of how they would divide up the Domain of Greyhawk once an already-assumed takeover of the city had happened. There were no clues in the text as to how they thought that would happen, though.

There were a few loose ends, like the rest of the staff. They found noncombatant staff hiding back down on the ground floor and chased them all out. Bolero was allowed to leave with the rest of the staff, but not before revealing to them that one remaining guard was in the cellars, guarding a grate to the sewers, which doubled as an entrance representatives of the Iron Workers Guild sometimes used to enter. The remaining loose end had been about Lord Ellis’ missing red dragon. It had not been in the house, but everyone was curious to know if it was somehow in the cellars. There was also a barn outside, but this held Ellis’ pet griffon. 

Curious, the Company went down to investigate, defeated the one guard, found the grate but no dragon, and added some expensive wine bottles to their booty. In looting the house, they drew the line at carrying out furniture. Besides, a plan was formulating amongst the Companions to try to gain ownership of this manor, in exchange for Lord Ellis and the evidence against him.

Later, the Company transported Peter out of the city and called for Prospero, as they had learned from Vask to do, and announced they had Peter. Shortly, three lammasu materialized in the air above them and descended, and then Prospero teleported into their midst. Prospero pointed his staff like it was a dangerous weapon and told Peter to get down on the ground. Everyone, particularly Percy, was eager to hear Prospero’s case against Peter, but the evidence that Peter was an agent of The Adversary seemed circumstantial. The lammasu interjected, saying that the danger posed by The Adversary was so great that extreme measures were called for, but Niall made a case for them delaying to gather more evidence. The lammasu would not listen to this advice unless Percy agreed with it, which he did. Once the lammasu were convinced, Propsero was outvoted and the lamassu took Peter into their custody, making him disappear with them. Prospero turned into a pegasus and left by flying away.

Reaping 17, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

Almost a week later, the Company of the White Oak was quietly summoned to the private trial of Lord Ellis. The jury was the Directing Council of Oligarchs themselves. The evidence against Ellis was airtight. In return for securing it, the Council dropped all consideration of charging the Companions with breaking and entering and manslaughter, and further awarded them free use of the upper floor of the manor (they had their own plans for the ground floor).

Session 54

Reaping 19, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk
Shield & Spear Inn

Reed Underbough was anxious to find out when the New Thieves Guild was going to produce the proper paperwork from the guild’s forgers to transfer the 9,000 gold from Lord Ellis’ letters of credit to the Company of the White Oak. Today, though, they had another matter to discuss. 

Reed, Runeflinger, and Niall Brightflame - three of the remaining members of the Company of the White Oak - had been sought out by a medium named Norfolk. Norfolk had come into some money - 200 gold pieces’ worth - and was willing to pay the Company to give him a tour of the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk so he could experience being an adventurer himself. In truth, Niall had recently been thinking about how Prospero had told them the magic they needed to defeat The Adversary was under Castle Greyhawk. This was something they needed to start looking for again, even if capturing Peter had somehow thrown a wrench in The Adversary’s plans.

Reaping 20, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

Reed, Runeflinger, and Niall had hired Brother Vincent to come with again, because they were not sure until the last minute if Percy could join them or not (he did). Accompanying them were their henchmen, Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Arlin Fadagoria, the hireling Brother Vincent, and their hirer, Norfolk. There were still unresolved issues of magic item distribution from the raid on Lord Ellis’ manor, but these were temporarily handled by those coming today being allowed to “borrow” as yet unclaimed items.

The drawbridge was down, the upper works seemed deserted, and the Chapel of Boccob was empty. Vincent delayed them while he undertook long, elaborate prayers in the chapel, but eventually they got him moving. Norfolk had brought his own mule and planned to bring it into the dungeon. The Company’s cart and mules were gone, lost to the gnolls of Gaxmoor, but Reed had replacements stored at a stable in Greyhawk left over from the expedition he once led to the Ruins of Lord Robilar’s Castle. The mules and cart, with no one hired to guard them, were just going to be left in the stables here at the castle, hoping for the best.

The Company was planning on exploring more of level 2 of the dungeon today, so they went down the stairs inside the tower adjoining the keep, and cut through corridors on level 1 until they reached the grand spiral staircase that went down multiple levels. Two elves were guarding the stairwell, and though they kept their distance from the Company, the elves of the dungeon and the elves of the Company shared a solemn salute to each other.

Down they descended to the west-facing corridor that led off the second floor landing. They headed straight for the trebuchet room (still speculating about why a trebuchet was assembled down here) where dwarves of the Greyhawk Construction Company had been found on break before. Sure enough, two dwarves were in here, resting on the trebuchet. The dwarves responded favorably to Norfolk gushing about the Dwarven Tongue, in Dwarven, and told them how they had been busy reinstalling doors because the gnolls on this level had been breaking down a lot of doors lately. Where were the gnolls? Lately they had been claiming the east end of the dungeon level. This surprised the mappers, as they had long assumed the stairwell marked the east end of the dungeon level. This level was larger than they knew!

The dwarves even pointed to the northeast door in their room as the fastest route to the gnolls. The route through maze-like corridors took them east and south, into an area that Reed had once explored before, but they went past that area further east and came, next to a room with an unfinished wooden staircase to the ceiling, but then ESP detected sentient thoughts from behind the next door to the east. Behind it they found, at last, their first encounter with six gnolls. One Sleep spell and some hacking later, there were no gnolls. The gnolls had no treasure between them, but this seemed like a random patrol of them anyway.

This area was a junction of west- and south-heading corridors. Heading south, ESP sensed more sentient thoughts nearby, but the Company ignored them and continued south into a chamber that was the scene of a battle. Gnolls and orcs, stripped of their valuables, were lying dead on the floor, either killed by each other or by others with weapons. Reed found an old blood trail that led south, but they lost the trail.

Where they found themselves was near a door through which they sensed more sentient thoughts - this time frightened thoughts. They found a small group of human bandits had barricaded themselves in here and, after some initial suspicion of the Company, let them in as potential allies. They had been sent down here by the Master of the First Level some time ago (presumedly, before the Company had killed him) as part of an exchange of forces with the monsters down here, but the monsters were too wild, too leaderless for these bandits’ liking. The Companions took pity on the pathetic bandits and the bandits bribed them with half their treasure, 100 gold pieces, to lead them to safety. So they all backtracked to the central staircase so the bandits could go up. Before leaving, they were encouraged to head straight for Hawfair Green and go straight. They winked before heading up.

The dwarves were gone from their room (as they were when the Companions came through with the bandits), so the Companions cut quickly through their room and explored some new side passages, first heading south, where they found two secret doors both leading into the kitchen of the Chefs of the Gilded Spoons, which Reed had visited before. This time there were seven chefs busy cooking in here and they were quick to shoo the Company out. 

Showing no interest in what the chefs were cooking, they headed east again, which led to a door where they detected animal thoughts. On the other side, they just found a huge lizard lounging in the room, surrounded by rocks and sand. One sleep spell and some hacking later, there was a dead lizard in the room. The Company found no treasure, but they did find a secret door. And behind that secret door was a similar room -- with two giant lizards in it! Another Sleep spell dropped those two just as easily. The lizards were killed with minimum damage to their skins, as the plan was to take all three back to the cart and have them skinned back in town.

A door from the secret room led back east towards the sentient thoughts they had skipped over earlier. That turned out to be a gnoll lair, though the Company almost missed it again because they were becoming aggravated with discrepancies in their maps. This was a barracks housing six more gnolls, easily disposed of, but they had no treasure just like the last group. Niall postulated that this had to do with how there were no leaders on this level, that the leaders had made off with all their treasure.

Striking out north, the Company found a room full of webs and 13 large spiders - but burning the webs and throwing yet another Sleep spell into the room made short work of those too. There was no treasure here - no good treasure so far, but no challenges so far either. And then the next room happened.

It looked to be a laboratory, with alchemical glassware on a workbench and three flasks sitting out at the front of it. Runeflinger, Niall, and Norfolk went inside to investigate - and disappeared. Another teleportation trap!

The rest of the Company tried to move on without them, but Reed struggled hard to map without Niall there to help him, and the others only watched instead of helping. Very slowly, they circled the west side of the teleporter lab and were mapping an east-west corridor with many options when they saw a light coming from the east.

 

The three teleported knew something was up when they saw no one else at the entrance, and there were now six flasks on the workbench instead of three. After taking the flasks, they came up with what seemed like a strategy for getting back to the others: stick to corridors (empty corridors, not the garage-strewn ones they found at first to the north) and avoid doors. In this way they wound up taking a long, narrow corridor south and then a much longer corridor west, before it turned north and then flipped back east again. And then they hit the pit trap. Niall made a near-perfect landing in the pit, luckily missing the spikes at the bottom, but a door opened above the pit trap and orcs harassed him with spears. Niall climbed out of the pit and fired arrows at them until they shut the door. But the pit appeared to be a major obstacle. 

Meanwhile, the larger half of the Company met the source of the approaching light -- a human in armor, carrying a lantern and an incense burner with him. This man identified himself as Father Earnest, a vicar, whose task it was to bless all the dead in the dungeon so they did not rise as undead. Reed tried very hard to persuade Earnest to come with them through the teleporter lab, but he insisted he had stayed alive this long in the dungeon by not teleporting. He was willing to give the Company directions back to the exit from this dungeon level from here, telling them to use the room to the west of the teleporter lab, but to beware of a pit trap.

The room to the west had a gong and a chest in it. Everyone wisely ignored the gong and focused on the chest. Reed detected traps on the handles on the sides of the chest - they were sticky somehow, like glue, and had anyone tried to lift the chest their hands would likely have been stuck fast. But the chest could be opened safely, and inside were gold-encrusted cups, bracers, and scabbards. They were all packed into sacks, and the Company would have left then, except that Reed was convinced the pit trap must be in this room and kept searching for it. Percy pointed out that Earnest had said to watch out for the pit trap after mentioning this room, but had not said the trap was in the room, so it likely was behind the west exit.

There turned out to be more windy corridor behind the west door, and at one turn tight of the corridor there was a brass lever in the outside corner. Reed took the time to tie rope to it and pull it from a safe distance, revealing the pit trap they had been warned about. Reed climbed around the wall to the lever to reclose the pit trap and everyone crossed safely over it. They found themselves approaching an east-west corridor that looked familiar to Percy, and he led them back west to the dwarves’ break room. 

Meanwhile, the three displaced Companions were doing a lot of backtracking, finally returning to the teleport lab to see if it would teleport them again. It did for Runeflinger and Niall…but not Norfolk. However, their patience in waiting for him to appear was rewarded 10 minutes later when Norfolk succeeded in getting himself teleported like the others. From here, Niall had a near-perfect map to follow back to the dwarves’ break room, stopping to drag the lizard carcasses with them. En route, they encountered just a single undead skeleton, which Niall tore apart with his magic sickle in sweet release of his frustrations. 

The Companions were reunited at the grand spiral staircase, and returned to the surface with only Niall injured at all. 

Later, they would discover that their greatest source of loot in this expedition came from those three giant lizards - they all had gold and gems in their gullets.