Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 61-62

Patchwall 13-16, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Patchwall 17, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Patchwall 18, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

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

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

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

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

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

Patchwall 19, 622 CY
Castle Greyhawk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ready’reat 11, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

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

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

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

Ready’reat 12, 622 CY
Cairn Hills

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Company of the White Oak - 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 Campaign - Sessions 51 & 52

 Session 51

Reed Underbough’s prospects had only improved since coming back to the City of Greyhawk. Blodgett, head of the New Thieves Guild, had only seen his approval of Reed rise as Reed ambitiously continued to oversee construction of his tower-based inn. “You really remind me of myself,” Blodgett said one day. “We may be the little guys, but we’re tough, and we can grab this city by the horns and throw it to the ground and…well, let’s not belabor a poor metaphor, shall we? What I’m trying to say is…I want you to be my right hand man. The public face of the guild, as it were. We’ll have to upgrade your income, though…what say the guild moves you up a social class?” To which Reed immediately agreed. The new role seemed to come with no new responsibilities…so far.

Reed did approach Haruspex Niv about trying to find out where his errant henchman Peter had gotten off to, and what mischief he might be causing. While Haruspex agreed that sounded important, he was not prepared to leave his studies to explore it himself, but gave Reed his blessings to kill Peter. 

Percy has easily adjusted from the comforts of his inn to the comforts of the church-provided bishop’s house. Although he shares it with another bishop, the design of the building is like a duplex, so Percy has as much privacy as he wishes. But the new digs have done little to keep him safe - less than a month after that attempted break-in at the inn, Percy survived an assassination attempt, where someone shot him with a crossbow bolt, from a concealed location at long range, while he was out for a stroll. It was a light wound, and so far an annoying inconvenience. 

Six weeks ago, Niall Brightflame was attacked by brazen thieves on a city street in broad daylight, lightly injured, but they got away with all the money he was carrying -- 10% of his accumulated wealth. Niall gave chase, but they lost him in the nearby market. Since then, Niall was lying low, hoping to catch the thieves who did this to him, but when that failed he approached the Company of the White Oak about working with them again.

The three of them met up at Reed’s place to discuss what to do about these issues. Of everything on their plate, attempting to assassinate a bishop -- and the Company’s only still-active cleric -- seemed the most serious pressing issue. Percy was even prepared to make use of Reed’s questionable contacts to find more information, and put up 150 gold to fund an investigation.

Days later, Reed returned with 30 gold unspent and a satisfying lead -- the Iron Workers Guild - their old enemies -- were behind the attacks on Percy, but on commission from someone else. That someone else owned a small manorhouse in the High Quarter of the city, one which, when Reed spied on it, had fighting men routinely coming and going from it. The owner, though, remained unknown.

Wealsun 15, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

The issue before the three Companions was, should they now do something about this? Their numbers were low for any major challenge. And where was the profit in taking out these men after Percy? The lost city, on the other hand…there was still the promise of 1,000 gold in return for a finished map. How hard could that be, as long as they avoided that huge bear…?

They decided to go, but needed more help, as too many Companions were occupied elsewhere. Luckily, Old Man Herv had a recommendation. He had recently run into a dwarf named Sprig Thunderbeard who was a veteran figher, looking to become an adventurer. Sprig bragged about his strength and there was precedent for the Company extending full membership to people who displayed great physical strength. Niall also possessed prodigious strength, so the elf agreed to meet this dwarf and throw down with him. The two grappled for a long time and, in the end, Niall had to concede that Sprig was even stronger than he. Full membership was his!

Lastly, Niall used some free time, and his contact with Haruspex Niv, to access the Grand Library of Greyhawk. Here he did some reading up on the lost city. This city, known as the Lost City of the Elders, had once been located at the southern edge of the Domain of Greyhawk, but had vanished -- all of it -- about 60 years ago. It was not the first time the city had vanished; it had a tendency to disappear and reappear in different locations. The Elders were the Ur-Flan, the first humans to live in this region. 

Wealsun 16, 622 CY
Cairn Hills

Reed, Percy, Niall, and Sprig started out, with their henchmen Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Arlin Fandagoria, and the hirelings Bella and Everard. Niall was decked out on a brand new warhorse and rode ahead frequently to scout. Although he hills were alive with wild animal fauna, none of it proved dangerous to the Company. And so…

Wealsun 17, 622 CY
The Waterfall

It was late when they found the waterfall. Did they want to explore the lost city at night? The answer was a resounding no. Watches were set up for the night…

Wealsun 18, 622 CY
The Lost City of the Elders

This time, before heading into the city, the Company checked out the rows of buildings on the south side of the courtyard. There was little to explore, but at the far end of the rows was a cluster of buildings within the remnants of its own privacy wall - an inn? Sprig deemed the building to look unsafe, so they decided not to investigate it.

Nearby was the eastern gate to the city. The towers here showed battle damage and the gates between them had been long ago wrecked down. But beyond that point…the road just inside was in immaculate condition, as if just laid down! 

Muellara cast ESP and they moved from building to building so she could try to sense thoughts from inside. They did not get far - not even to the plaza at the end of the street - when she sensed the thoughts of a sentient mind that was watching them.

Reed leaped up to the roof with his magic boots, but not before a small creature also hobbit-sized started racing across the rooftop away from him. The creature had red eyes, but otherwise appeared to be made of stone, though still wearing regular leather armor over that stone-like skin. It leapt to a second rooftop, then jumped over the back of the building. Reed pursued across the slanted tile roofs, producing rope, and intended to lasso the creature. But he was not fast enough before the creature vanished from view. Approaching the back of the second building, Reed was able to see the sentry was now joining a crowd of similar creatures, all armed, gathered around a collection of tents. 

Reed returned to the rest of the Company and told them what he saw. They walked around the small buildings, found the campsite of these small, weird creatures, and approached openly. The Company wanted allies here in this strange city, and thought these small creatures might want allies as well. They did not seem to; they swarmed around and encircled the Company, threatening them with spears. After a short standoff in which the Companions tried every language they knew to communicate with them, Niall had enough and drawing his weapon initiated combat. It did not go well for the little monsters, who were weak enough that both Niall and Arlin could sweep through with their attacks. Soon, two dozen of these monsters were dead.

Looting the tents, there was little in the way of treasure - except for, incongruously, a traveling spellbook. The Company was quick to snatch up this rare prize!

Shortly thereafter, they heard a booming voice coming from the south. Moving around a building and outdoor statue, they spotted an amphitheater surrounded by trees. On the stage of the outdoor auditorium was a giant - literally, a bigger humanoid than the tallest ogre they had ever seen by two full feet. It had black skin and a red beard and it was clearly calling out to them in a booming voice, though they did not understand the language. 

The Companions shrugged and left, which was apparently not the reaction the giant was hoping for. Angered, the giant came after them. The Companions moved quickly around a building and then tried to duck into its entrance. Muelara’s ESP detected angry thoughts approaching them, from above. The giant was coming over the roof towards them! Sure enough, the giant appeared at the edge of the roof, but the last of the Companions were inside the building by now. It proved an uninteresting building, gutted and long-since looted, but the giant was either unwilling or unable to follow them in. 

Searching the building, they found nothing of interest except for a stone coffer. Everyone was cautious about traps and the coffer was opened at a distance after tying rope around the lid and pulling it from around a corner. It was found to contain…1,000 silver pieces. Being treasure-poor, the Companions decided to take the silver, and maybe the coffer itself would be worth something too. As they were transporting it to the cart, they found out how right they were, for a beautifully intricate mosaic incorporating ornamental stones was hidden on the bottom of the coffer. 

After securing the coffer on the cart, and sensing no thoughts outside, the Companions trepidatiously reemerged into the light of day. Indeed, it appeared the giant had given up on them and gone away. 

The Companions headed southwest and then west, following this main road as it seemed to wind clockwise through the city. Niall, in particular, cautioned everyone from doing too much exploring and concentrating on just getting the map done. Percy, though, was curious about a statue of a weasel perched atop a box. When he investigated it, the top of the box sprang open, tossing the weasel statue into the air, and it landed hard on Arlin. 

But that was not the worst of it, as a hideous, tentacled monster, its body resembling a gigantic centipede, crawled out of the box. As fearsome as it looked, though, it was easily felled by a Sleep spell, and soon its head fell off as well, after some deliberate chopping. Searching the pit concealed under the statue’s base, where the monster had crawled out of, they found a dead body covered in slime. Feeling around the body at a safe distance with 10’ poles, they uncovered a silver ring. Niall used his magic sickle to retrieve the ring without touching the slime. Although the ring looked valuable, the Companions vowed to examine no further statues. 

Much further down the road, indeed, in the southwest part of the city now, Muelara detected sentient thoughts again, coming from inside one of the buildings. It seemed like a sizable force was marshaling to come out, and the Companions did not particularly want to deal with more sizable forces. They decided to detour back and go north, up a side road that ran past what looked like a chapel. 

As they passed the chapel, they heard what sounded like children crying from inside. This seemed like a trap and everyone was very leery, but they ultimately investigated anyway. All signs of religious iconography had been scraped away from the building long ago and only the shape of the structure suggested what it might have once been. By now Muelara’s ESP spell had expired, so they would have no clues before entering what was waiting for them. 

They strode through the front doors anyway. What they found was horrific - human women and children chained to the walls, and eight orcs terrorizing them with cat-o-nine-tails. 

Those orcs did not live very long. Luckily they had keys on them! 

The women and children were unshackled, but attempts to communicate with them were meeting with failure; the women spoke some strange dialect. Niall tried the Elven Tongue, which had undergone much fewer permutations over the centuries. Success! Two of the women spoke Elven, and now they could relate their story. The City of Gaxmoor had been a peaceful one until, months ago, an army of monsters laid siege to it. The outer city fell quickly, but as far as they knew humanity still held the inner city. 

Plans to double back and lead the women and children safely out of the city were kiboshed when they returned to the main road and spotted a sizable force of orcs and ogres assembling in the street to the west. The Company’s spellcasters were low on spells, and the goal was to keep the women and children out of combat. Fleeing east and outrunning the orcs seemed too chancy, so they doubled back again, this time heading north towards the gates to the inner city. 

The gates of the inner city had been breached some time ago and were no longer manned by anyone. The inner city seemed deserted. The Company quickly discerned that, if there were any humans left here, they must be barricaded in somewhere. An office building nearby showed evidence of having withstood a siege. The Company approached it and urged the women to call inside. 

Men responded! Barriers were cleared and fighting men in familiar armor (the Company had seen men like these in the hills outside the city after their last expedition here) let everyone in. There were some reunions between the men, women, and children, but everyone was happy to see each other even if they were not family. Here, a few of the men also spoke Elven and were able to continue the story.  When the gates of the inner city were breached, the imperial soldiers fell back towards the palace, but were cut off and had to hole up here, where they had been holding out for weeks. It was a spacious building, with room to accommodate all of them, as well as the Company’s cart and animals.

Percy had his traveling prayerbook; he could prepare some of his spells again. If they could get through the night and rest, maybe they could push their way out of the city. 

The monsters were not ready to let them have that restful night. Six ogres, the same ones they had seen marshaling in the outer city, it seemed, had decided to end the stalemate at this office building that night. What they had not counted on was the Company emerging on an upper balcony and pelting them with blistering missile fire, while distracting the ogres on their flank with a remaining Phantasmal Forces spell of elven archers. It took some time to wear down the ogres, but they did eventually retreat. 

Everyone braced for the ogres to come back with reinforcements, but to everyone’s surprise that never happened. The sun rose to a new day.

Wealsun 19, 622 CY
The Lost City of the Elders
The Inner City

The imperial soldiers were not interested in leaving. They even paid the Companions to lead the women and children to safety. But Niall gave an impassioned speech about how their home was their people, not their city. He convinced all but two to come with them. 

The plan today was no different -- push through the city as fast as possible and try to get out. But the inner city was not empty this morning -- nearly four dozen gibbering gnolls stood between them and freedom on the open streets, as the monsters patrolled. The Company had never had trouble defeating gnolls before, but had never met them in such numbers. The soldiers and the Companions were able to push through, but at great loss. Niall was pulled down off his new warhorse and his horse was slain. Bella, everyone’s favorite carter, was slain. The cart and mules were lost, including the stone coffer secured to the cart. Five imperial soldiers, five of the women, and - worse - seven of the children were pulled down by the gnolls’ superior numbers before everyone else was able to pull through to freedom.  

Session 52

Wealsun 26, 622 CY

City of Greyhawk

It had just been one week since fleeing the Lost City of Gaxmoor; those members had been back to the city for just days, but already they was discussion about going back.

The conversation was between Reed Underbough, Runeflinger, Eirenden, and the newest member, Sprig Thunderbeard - the first time an entirely non-human contingent of the Company had decided to take action together. To Reed, the task seemed simple: Elysande had hired them to produce a map of the city. The imperial soldiers (of who’s empire? The Companions had never bothered to ask) had said that a complete map of the city could likely be found in the palace. If they went in fast, and found the map fast, they could be in and out of the palace before the giant’s forces could be mustered against them.

The elves had alternatives. 

Eirenden had been saving this, but he finally told the Company of what he had run from on his first foray to Castle Greyhawk - a black dragon, in a hidden cave around the side of the hill on which the castle stood. Surely his new companions were powerful enough to take a dragon?

Runeflinger had news of yet another job offer - this time from the wizard Prospero. Prospero had contacted Runeflinger to remind him that he was increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of Peter. The whereabouts of Haruspex Niv’s former henchman could not be detected by any divination spell or scrying. Prospero was offering a 250 gp reward for Peter alive -- 500 gold for him dead. 

Reed was initially enthused about this offer of quicker cash, but as the four Companions went back and forth over this, the idea of returning to Gaxmoor won out.

Wealsun 28, 622 CY

Gaxmoor

Reed, Runeflinger, Eirenden, and Sprig had returned, along with some familiar retainers - Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Eirenden’s new henchmen Lautre, and Brother Vincent was rehired to come with, so they would have a cleric. A team of eight was one of their smallest in a long time. Would it be enough? 

This time, they decided to take a look over the hills at the city before entering, but they found something very strange when they ascended to the top of the hills -- ahead, where they should have seen the city sprawling out below them, they saw only more, taller hills. This was less surprising to the elves; Runeflinger explained how fairy realms were well known to the elves, and it seemed likely this city existed in one.

Having learned that their only way in was behind the waterfall, they went through again, finding the city unchanged from last time. Again, there were no guards or sentries at the far eastern courtyard -- but this time they did spy armored figures moving from the city’s west gate into the outer ruins, indeed, towards the ruined inn. From here, they could not tell if these were monstrous humanoids or humans - so rather than take chances they avoided them.

They almost did not, but before going into the city they did decide to stop at the bushes above the canal and collect more of the magic berries there. After that, they entered the city through the gap in the eastern outer wall. They avoided the fireballed manor. They found unguarded stables, occupied by horses. Here, they paused and debated if they should take the horses. The question was, whose horses were they, and if they belonged to the monster or the humans? If they were the humans’ horses, they did not want to lose the humans as allies. It was decided, not only to leave the horses alone, but to avoid the humans as well. 

Which worked for only the next few minutes, when they came to another building within sight of the northeast gate into the inner city. There were human archers up on the roof, and these humans were not wearing the livery of the imperial soldiers. Unfortunately, these humans did not speak Elven, or simply chose not to reveal they did. The building they guarded smelled like a brewery, and likely was a brewery. The archers even gestured for the Companions to come in and drink. Though the archers were not hostile, they did begin trying to warn the Companions away as they began to move away towards the gate to the inner city. After more attempts to communicate with the archers, the Companions believed the warnings were because the gate was guarded. 

Luckily, there was another way in, for they could see a ruined gap in the east wall of the inner wall, as there had been with the outer wall -- only this time the inner wall was mounted on a 10’ tall steep mound. The Companions began climbing up, but before they reached the top of the mound - they saw eight gnolls staring down at them from above. The fight was initially tricky, while the Companions were climbing, but when they reached the gnolls the fight was soon over. The gnolls had even, conveniently, been playing a game of pitching coins into a pile and there was ready treasure to collect, though it did not come to much. Their chainmail seemed in good shape, so they started stripping the armor off the gnolls. 

They were halfway done when another gnoll patrol came around a building within sight, this one led by a bugbear. One Sleep spell later, there were not many gnolls left, but two of them did manage to get away, fleeing towards one of the palaces. 

As the Companions looked around, they realized there were actually two buildings in the inner city that were palaces -- the governor’s palace and the royal guest palace (both had been mentioned by the imperial soldiers). Which one would have the map? Unsure, they opted not to follow the gnolls, as they would surely be raising an alert in there, and they settled on the other palace. First they killed the sleeping monsters and looted the bodies for coins, having learned their lesson not to spend too long stripping corpses in case another patrol turned up first.

The main entrance to the Governor’s Palace had a towering, ornate portico lined with caryatid columns and topped with gargoyles. This entrance looked dangerous, so they circled around and found a portico back entrance almost as grand, but missing the statuary. When Muelara attempted to detect thoughts inside, she sensed sentient thoughts - thoughts that had already been alerted to the Companions’ presence. As she “listened” longer, it became clear they were planning an ambush inside the back entrance.

The Companions conferred. There was, as Reed pointed out, no evidence from the thoughts if they were human or monster, as the spell could not discern the difference. Was the palace held by humans, who would not attack when they saw who the Companions were? Or was it held by monsters, who would attempt the ambush, already foiled by this spell? The double doors at the rear of the building, inside the portico, were wide open, inviting them into the ambush. The Companions decided to risk it. They went in, three abreast, ready for melee.

And found five ogres waiting for them. Again, the combat was swift and brutal - but this time in the monsters’ favor. Lautre went down in the fighting early, dying slowly. Reed went into the shadows. Runeflinger went to his go-to for survival, invisibility. Two ogres doubled up on Sprig, one knocking him down, and the other bashing his head in with a morningstar. Of the remaining Companions, Eirenden was seriously injured. Their morale broken, the Companions went into full retreat, leaving the dead and dying behind to the victorious ogres. 

Not in their finest hour, the remaining Companions ran to hide behind the rubble around the gap in the inner curtain wall. They watched to see if the ogres would pursue, which they did, albeit slowly, still celebrating their victory with wicked gleefulness. Rather than push their chances further, the Companions abandoned the inner city. 

In the shade of the stables, Brother Vincent healed Eirenden. Should they stay in the city to rest? No, that seemed too dangerous; it was time to abandon the city altogether. If Sprig and Lautre were to be avenged, plus all the people slain last time, it would need to come another day.

Richfest 3, 622 CY

City of Greyhawk    

The city was in the full swing of Richfest festivities, but the Companions who returned from Gaxmoor were not feeling it. Many were licking their wounds, but Reed, looking to find something that would give them an easier victory and restore the Company’s morale, spent some money on trying to locate Peter, putting out there Peter’s description and a bounty on information of his whereabouts. And he got a response pretty quickly.

Peter was staying with the fighters in the manor house, the ones who had hired the Iron Workers Guild to kill Percy.

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 49 and 50

 I had to cancel session 49.

Wealsun 3, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

Although Reed Underbough had big long-term plans, initially, the Sword & Spear Inn was going to be a small, very exclusive inn, considering the size of the tower Reed had bought. That said, there was already a waiting list for people wanting to stay at the inn run by the famous Company of the White Oak. Herv was more than happy to just sit in the unfinished common room, telling stories to the hanger-ons who assumed - because of his apparent old age - that Herv was the senior-most member of the Company and trained all of its members. They also assumed this because Herv actively encouraged it. Herv had also been dodging some legal problems he had in the recent past by pretending to be his own grandfather whenever anyone from the city came around.

Reed learned from the guild, rather than Ambrosio himself, that the hobbit footpad had asked to be reassigned. When confronted on it, Ambrosio claimed to fed up with dangerous dragons and ghosts, but when Reed mentioned that Ambrosio was now due for a 20% share of the loot, Ambrosio came around - but insisted on a contract stipulating that he would never be in the front half of the marching order.

Haruspex Niv had sequestered himself away during downtime, not with his beloved books, but with the Magicians Guild, and specifically those magicians who said the witch's wand of lightning that had been retrieved broken from Castle Greyhawk could be restored. It was a costly process, practically cleaning out Niv's hoarded treasure, but now he had a wand of lightning, and felt very powerful indeed.

Percy was a bishop of his church now, a role that came with new responsibilities for leading church services on godsdays. Although Percy had long been comfortable in his secular lodging at the Blue Dragon Inn, his superiors now fussed that he should take a bishop's proper house in the Garden Quarter. This was not only about rank and privilege, but practical concerns as well - a few weeks back, a woman had tried breaking into Percy's quarters at the inn, only to be caught by the inn's security.

Arlin Fadagoria, his elven bodyguard, had now irritatingly reminded Percy multiple times that he should have not left so quickly on that last expedition to Castle Greyhawk without him, and perhaps Herv or Lim Rem Grink might have been spared.

The elven community in Greyhawk apparently thought Runeflinger, of all the elves now in the group, was the most important member (perhaps they thought he was too important to learn the Common Tongue of Man, though he had secretly run into debt funding tutoring for himself). He had been approached twice about work for the White Oak Company by other elves.

An elf child went missing, seen dragged into the sewers recently. Unfortunately, the long-lived elves lacked the proper perspective for timeliness and told Runeflinger this a week later.  Further, Elysande Barohir, a female elven explorer (the closer translation for the elven word for adventurer) had recently followed the rumored route to the Hidden Dale of the Ringstones, only to stumble across the ruins of an unknown city! She wanted to hire the Company of the White Oak to explore and map the city, and could front 2,000 gold to entice them.

Eirenden was now considered a full member of the Company, so valuable his information about the upper works of Castle Greyhawk had been. Recently, he was approached by the Fellowship of the Torch, a mercenary company that considered the White Oak Company rivals, and they had tried to poach him. The Fellowship claimed to have a lucrative contract to go east and clear out the Troll Fens, and while they were big on pie-in-the-sky promises about shares and bonuses and glory, they were sketchy on details unless they were sure Eirenden was onboard.

Now they were gathered together, at the unfinished Sword & Spear Inn, the three senior-most surviving members of the Company of the White Oak, and the two newer members who were already proving to be invaluable, to decide where to go next.

Castle Greyhawk had lost its luster for much of the Company, having proven to be a deadly place. The Greyhawk Sewers had also proven to be deadly. Rumor had it that Robert the Burglar had died while taking a splinter group of the Company to the deadly Temple of the Latter Day Elder Gods. The Hidden Dell of the Ringstones was deadly. Basically, they were surrounded by deadly everywhere they looked - and yet here was promise in the newly discovered -lost city. It had killed none of them yet!

They went to talk to this Elysande.

Elysande was, officially, staying at the Blue Dragon Inn. She spent a great deal of her time away from the inn, though, so the Company had to arrange to meet her in the morning when she went to the stables to see her horse.

“Runeflinger I was expecting, but I welcome everybody’s presence,” she said. “I will tell my story briefly, for there are non-elves present and I do not wish to age them unnecessarily.

“It was 25 days ago today that I found myself in the Menhir Hills, seeking the Hidden Dell of the Ringstones. I had heard they had been found, the missing menhirs that had once stood near Greyhawk City, and wished to see them again for myself. I had, in fact, paid for directions from a guide who said he had once led your company there, but on that day I thought myself led astray. The hills were not as had been described to me. I investigated further, until I found a waterfall and, by chance, glanced behind it. There I saw a vast city, ruined and overgrown in neglect, and weird in design. I had no desire to risk exploring it alone; the hills themselves were dangerous enough, as they are crawling with orcs these days. I would like to see this city explored and mapped, even if not by my hand. Which is why I am willing to pay 2,000 gold in gems or jewelry for such a map, half up front and half upon completion.”

Little did she know the trouble that last part would bring to her…

Should they, Eirenden wondered, hire a guide? Perhaps the same one the Company had used in the past? No, the senior members were confident they could find this city, if it was in the same location the Hidden Dell had been. Reed had been there more recently than anyone, so he would lead the way. Did they need anyone else? Surprisingly, the Company, which once leaned heavily towards fighting men, now had a shortage of them amongst its active members.  Eirenden decided it was time to get his own henchman to fight beside him. The others, particularly Reed, impressed upon him that the Company had no dwarves among them and could use a dwarf for their innate abilities. So Eirenden recruited Lautre, a dwarven veteran, to accompany them.

Wealsun 4, 622 CY
Cairn Hills

The route was a familiar one, at least to the Company’s senior members. Reed Underbough, Haruspex Niv, Percy, Runeflinger, Eirenden, and their henchmen Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Alrin Fandagoria, and Lautre set off north from the City of Greyhawk (Niv had actually planned to ask Peter to accompany them, but Peter could not be found!). The courting couple, Bella and Everard, came along to tend the mules and cart.

They passed through the Village of Hawfair Green, the edge of the cultivated world of Greyhawk, without stopping, and also passed the old side road that led to Castle Greyhawk.  They reached the Village of Stonebridge, the edge of civilization in the wilderness, atop the gorge in which the River Selintan flowed. Crossing west, they passed the gnomish villages of Grossettgrottell before camping under the stars.

Wealsun 5, 622 CY
Menhir Hills

On the second day of the trip, the Company crossed through the long north-south valley that marked the boundary between what was known as the Cairn Hills in the east and the Menhir Hills in the west. The hills here were taller, more rugged, and the trail they followed was often obscured and hard to follow. Indeed, many of the Companions who had last been this way were no longer with them. Several times they thought they were lost and it led to long delays.

Wealsun 6, 622 CY
Menhir Hills

Come the third day in the hills, the Companions were sure they were lost. They had thought this was the way to the Hidden Dell of the Ringstones, but the hills here were much higher than they thought they would see. A waterfall crashed off the top of the highest hill, no doubt fed from a spring at the top.

Elysande had mentioned a waterfall. Could this be it? And who was going to look behind it first?  Before they could decide - two giant trapdoor spiders sprung from under the rocks and attacked.  The spiders were quickly dispatched. Then there was, half-joking, talk about pushing the new henchmen through first. Lautre was willing to try it if rope was tied off to him, but Reed glanced first. One by one, so did the others.

A strange sight greeted them on the other side of the waterfall -- a 15' tall pillar with a large tusked skull atop it, like the mythical oliphants of old. Beyond it was a large open courtyard, its flagstones broken up and now overgrown with ivy and other lush vegetation. Other pillars, with similar skulls, could be seen around the perimeter of the courtyard, all of them free of the ivy.  On the north side of the courtyard was a long ditch lined with trees, and it looked like the ditch had a stream at the bottom of it. On the south side of the courtyard were some diagonal rows of old crumbling, overgrown buildings, surrounded by more trees. On the west end of the courtyard was a tall curtain wall, maybe 25' tall. Some towers and other high-roofed buildings could be seen over the curtain wall.

Shambling towards them was what appeared to be an undead bugbear. Moments later it was gone, when Percy turned it to ash.

Everyone moved into the courtyard and started examining the pillars. The tusks looked valuable, but no one wanted to risk retrieving them. A cursory search of the rest of the courtyard turned up nothing else dangerous or valuable, so they moved to the ditch. It was only a ditch on this, its easternmost end. To the west, closer to where it met the curtain wall, it was well-constructed and obviously a canal. There was a pool surrounded by high reeds at its mid-point.  While they were looking around, some of them had rocks thrown at them. The rocks were coming from (slightly) large black squirrels hiding in the trees. Rock-throwing squirrels was definitely something unusual, even in a world with giants and dragons. When someone got hit with a rock, the Company’s magic-users had enough of that and dropped all the squirrels with two sleep spells. Then the Company had to decide if they would kill the squirrels. It was actually a difficult decision for the Company to make, but the squirrels’ side lost in the end and the Companions dutifully went around killing every one that had dropped out of the trees.

Following the ditch-canal to the curtain wall, they found the bushes growing here were covered in unusually colorful berries. No one was interested in experimenting with them, but they filled a sack and the remainder of a mostly-full backpack with them.

Ahead, there was a large, crumbling gap in the wall they could climb through to explore the city inside. But first, Reed used his magic boots to alight on top of the wall. Now he could see that this was once an upscale part of town, but the mansions on the other side of the wall were crumbling ruins. He could also see the scope of the city, and how much there would be to map.  He climbed down to discuss it with the others.

How much were they really supposed to map? Suddenly, the lack of details to their arrangement with Elysande seemed to gain new significance. Would a rough map suffice? Were they to only map out major streets, or every street and alley? Every building? The project now seemed daunting. Eirenden suggested they go climb the hills that appeared to ring the entire city, as if it were sitting in a giant crater that covered many acres, and circle the whole area first, to get a sense of the perimeter of their map. But no one else was crazy about doing any hill climbing; they were all interested in those crumbling mansions.

The mansions won out. Climbing through the gap in the curtain wall, everyone found themselves outside the nearest old manor. To the north were what looked like short silos, while to the south were more once-nice homes, and spread out around the homes was various statuary. But before anything could be examined, Haruspex’s ESP spell picked up that they were not alone. There were intelligent creatures planning an ambush attack on them from inside the nearest mansion. What should they do? Try to bait them out into the open? Lob spells into the building? They spent too long debating it - they were under attack! Arrows flew out of the mansion’s windows at them!

The Company’s archers gave better than they got, picking off what appeared to be hobgoblin archers at the windows. Hobgoblins did, then, emerge from the building. Instead of nice neat rows, they poured from every door and window, coming out with swords and other weapons to melee. This frustrated Haruspex, who had a wand of lightning now, but no nice neat rows of opponents to wipe out. The hobgoblins did not last long, but the second wave that came out, about the same size as the first, fared better. The Company was made up of adventures too experienced to be overcome by mere hobgoblins, but their henchmen and hirelings were not faring as well and began dropping one after another.

Runeflinger had evaded the whole battle by turning invisible early. Now he snuck up to the manor and peeked in, only to see a third wave massing to come out. He informed the rest of the Company, and Haruspex responded by launching a fireball into the ground floor of the manor.  When Runeflinger checked inside, the entire third wave was charred corpses. The remains of the second wave stayed a minute longer, but then tried to flee. Only one managed to get away.  Runeflinger was, while still invisible, pursuing the one who got away. The hobgoblin was pausing for breath behind a smaller building nearby. Runeflinger attacked, killing the hobgoblin, but not quickly or silently.

The noise from the fight disturbed the occupant of the house -- as an enormous cave bear emerged!

Runeflinger wanted nothing to do with that and ran back to the safety of the group. The group did not want anything to do with that bear either, so as it came at them they tossed a dead hobgoblin at it to slow it down. The bear, glad for a snack, tore the hobgoblin in half. Haruspex took advantage of the bear’s pause by aiming a lightning bolt at it, but when the bolt only succeeded in making the bear mad, then no one wanted to stick around to deal with it! More hobgoblins were tossed in the bear’s path to distract it, but the Company ran for the hills.  Literally for the hills - the hills outside the city. And the trails leading east to…

Wealsun 8, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

The Companions found Elysande and asked for their remaining 1,000 gold. The elven maid had not, after all, specified exactly what had to be on the map, and they had made a map - just a very incomplete map. Elysande was displeased that they were not respecting the spirit of the agreement. Finally, after much discussion, it was decided a written contract was necessary.  Every street larger than an alley would need mapping, and every significant building, with very tight definitions of what constituted as significant. Finally, the contract was finished and notarized, giving the Company the promise of another payout ahead.

Unexpected revenue came from another angle - when they took the berries to be identified by an herbalist, they learned the berries were magic! They got 60 gold for the berries they brought back.