Gorntar Castle
(Gorntar Castle, Oret, 16th/17th March,
730)
As the others settled down for the night, Surya wandered along
the top of the cliffs to where they'd left their horses. Somewhat
to his surprise, they were still there, and he untethered them
and set off back to the campsite.
On the way, he passed a warren of rabbits, out feeding in the
fresh evening. Quietly stringing his bow, he managed to bring
down three before the rest made it underground again, ensuring an
edible dinner for the party.
Meanwhile, Sack and Hildraft had been searching the orc
village. They'd found the surviving Orc noncombatants, and showed
them the gates of the castle; they'd also found a vegetable
patch, cultivated with typical orcish skill - in spite of which,
they managed to salvage some eatable carrots. The dried meat
stored on racks around the village they wisely left alone. They
also found a small bag of coin buried in the ogres' hut.
Next morning, they approached the main gates of the castle. To
their surprise, they found that the gates were intact, in
reasonable condition, and massively overgrown with vines,
brambles and ivy - a notable contrast to the bare scrublands
surrounding the castle. Unable to move the gates themselves, they
turned their attention to the walls of the gatehouse.
After two tries, Sack secured a grapnel to the battlements,
and, shedding his armour, went up the wall, gaining the parapet
without mishap. Once up, he gazed down into the inner bailey with
some surprise. Within the walls, a miniature forest was
flourishing; oak, cedar, elm, ash trees, all growing close
together, enclosed in the walls, and yet, to the ranger's
knowledgable gaze, looking as healthy as any trees he'd ever
seen. Occasional small birds could be seen flying across the
canopy, but no other creatures were visible.
Turning back to the outside wall, he hauled up the bundle of
his armour and equipment that the others had fastened to the end
of the rope, then watched as the others made the climb.
Nose-biter flew up and over the wall, descending into the forest
and flying through it; through his link with the familiar, Kobort
was aware that the owl rather liked the forest, feeling no
discomfort or trepidation in it.
Examining the ends of the walkways, the party discovered that
the doors at each end leading into the gatehouse towers were
open. They divided into two, and descended the towers, emerging
into the inner bailey at ground level.
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As they peered into the green depths of the unusual
wood, they were suddenly aware they were not alone.
Watching them closely were three slender, extremely
beautiful young women, apparently human, all with either
brown or red hair, and all with green eyes, dressed in
simple though rather revealing clothes. While they
didn’t look hostile or threatening, they also
didn’t look particularly friendly or trusting, and
they obviously did not like the looks of the dwarf
and half-orc. They also weren't impressed with Surya's
torch, which he'd lit to illuminate the gatehouse tower.
Sack had seen this kind of creature before, and managed
to convey to the others that these were dryads, forest
spirits each bound to one tree. The leading dryad
asked the party's intention in "their" wood.
Surya bristled a bit at being so challenged, while Kobort
tried reassuring the dryads that the party merely wanted
to pass through. However, when Sack's suggestion of
telling the dryads that the party had exterminated the
orcs in the outer ward was followed by Surya, the forest
sprites' attitude became far more friendly; they had
lived with the constant worry of attacks from the orcs
for years. Granting permission for the party to pass (to
Surya's quiet snorts along the lines of "like to see
them stop us"), they melted back into the trees and
were gone.
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| Approaching the main keep,
they observed that the front doors, unlike the outer
gates, were not only free of overgrowth, but open,
decayed and hanging off their hinges. There was, however,
no sign of tracks in the thick layer of soil, rubble,
dust and leaves covering the floor of the barbican. After
some considerable pains to establish that the
murder-holes weren't trapped, the group passed through
the inner doors into the entrance hall. There, they found
two skeletons on the floor, and twelve suits of archaic
elven plate armour on stands spaced around the walls. One
of the skeletons had a shield and battle axe which
Kobort's spells revealed to be magically endowed; they
collected these and Hildraft took the axe. Surya examined
the armour, and his early training in armoursmithing told
him straight away that the suits would be useless in
combat; they were display pieces only, styled after the
type worn by the greatest of elven heroes. Oddly, the
hilts of their two-handed swords not only had no blades
attached, they showed no sign of ever having had blades
at all... A hurried search of the ground floor
discovered a kitchen, with a stone-walled well still
containing fresh, clean-looking water, a guard-room with
some dusty but serviceable halberds and shields, and a
store-room with a trapdoor to the cellars. They checked
the cellars, finding little other than cases of preserved
elven iron rations and the stairwell to the lower levels
between them and the quayside they'd visited from the outside.
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Deciding to go up instead of down, they climbed to the first
floor and continued to explore. In the Great Hall, they found a
bare and abandoned banqueting table, and under it a single
forgotten golden plate. Sack had a rummage up the fireplace
chimney and came out with a rather nice ruby. Kobort investigated
the huge chair at the far end; sitting on it did something
strange to his hearing, expanding it somehow, though he couldn't
quite figure out how.
The council chamber table had a small jewelry box on it; Sack
got a nasty shock when its' (unfastened) lock shot him with a
needle trap, but the poison had long since dried up and all he
got was a small wound. In the box was a
twist of shabby twine with five dull, chipped chunks of quartz
hung on it; unremarkable, except that Kobort could clearly sense
enchantment on it. After some discussion, Surya tried it on, and
- with a flash - it transformed itself into a magnificent golden
necklace with blazing rubies set in it. The rubies appeared
detachable, and indeed several seemed to have been removed
already. He didn't experiment with this, though he did
check he could get it off again; successfully, the necklace
resuming its' shabby appearance when not worn.
The ladies' withdrawing room was rather unpleasant, filled
with very rotten soft furniture, but Sack forced himself to the
job and hacked up the upholstery. Down the back of one of the
sofas, he found a nice ivory comb.
Up again. On the second floor, they discovered that the floors
were now wooden instead of the previous stone.
Pressing on, a clearly magical scimitar, well-made-looking, with
a snakeskin-bound hilt and beautifully polished blade, was found
in the Castellan's room; Hildraft took that as well. He was
beginning to look like a travelling weapon-peddlar! Then they
explored the chapel. As soon as they stepped in, a feeling of
peace and sanctity flowed over them, relaxing them as they looked
around at the carven walls, cunningly fashioned to resemble
tree-trunks. Then Sack's eyes fell on the altar, and its' golden
altar-pieces, and he shook his head clear and went for the money.
Approaching the altar, he unhitched his grapnel and uncoiled
the rope. Taking a careful swing, he used the steel hooks to
sweep the altar-pieces off the altar from a distance. A good
decision; with a deafening CRACK! a massive blue spark of energy
lashed across the chapel where a person stealing the altar-pieces
should have been standing. Although Sack was unhurt, his grapnel
was blasted to droplets and five feet were burned off his rope.
The altar-pieces were somewhat bent by their rough treatment;
their value was reduced by nearly half, though Hildraft was
pretty sure they could be repaired.
At the centre rear of the second floor, they entered the
Solar. This room had a huge glass window in the north wall and a
glass dome in the ceiling; and through both, despite the slightly
chilly March morning outside, a bright, sunny summer's day could
be seen. Admiring this magic, they turned their attention to the
doors to the two Lords' Suites. Both were locked. After some
effort, Sack managed to unlock the one on the right, and open the
door. Inside they found furnishings and fitments in better
condition than anywhere else in the castle; the furniture was
exquisite, and the four large paintings were clearly equally
valuable - and immovable..
Turning to the left-hand doorway, Sack unlocked it and opened
the door. As he did so, a dreadful smell wafted out, together
with the sound of many pairs of wings fluttering as something
- in fact, several somethings- took to the air.
Hildraft got brave, and stuck his head around the door. The
room inside, while designed the same as the one opposite, was a
jumbled ruin of scattered furniture, coated in a thick layer of
guano. A slit window in the far wall had collapsed slightly,
allowing a colony of stirges to make a home in the chamber. One
spotted Hildraft's head at the door, and shot across the room
straight at him. Urgently, he pulled his head back and shut the
door, just in time - a loud "thunk!" from the
other side announced the stirge's failure to pull up in time.
After some discussion, Sack relocked the door and the group set
off to explore the rest of the castle before tackling the
stirges.
Each of the corner rooms on this floor had a staircase; it was
apparent that the next "floor" consisted in fact of
four tower rooms above each corner. Three were going to be
accessible without clearing the stirges, and the party elected to
explore those first. The two front towers proved identical; each
contained a huge ballista, mounted on a steel track and
accompanied by a rack of ten massive bolts. Puzzlingly, each was
facing a slender slit window. It developed, though, that if the
ballista was pushed around on its' track, the slit in the
wall moved to follow it. The adventurers were seriously
impressed by this as an invention, and at this point began to
think seriously about the idea of claiming the castle...
The back-right tower room turned out to be a wizards'
workroom; spell components all over the place and a massive
pentagram on the floor. Kobort examined this, but couldn't get it
to do anything. He did, however, secure a spellbook from the
shelves on the opposite wall.
Then they descended to the second floor again to take on the
stirges. The plan they evolved was as follows: Kobort would stand
in the doorway of the Solar opposite the stirge room, with a rope
around his waist attached to the door. Hildrat stood in the other
doorway. Sack unlocked the door, and went to stand with Hidraft.
Then Surya opened the door and ran back to Kobort. They
figured would allow some stirges in, Kobort would walk backwards
and pull the door shut, they'd kill the stirges, and repeat.
The door opened, and, a few seconds later, five stirges shot
through. Taken aback by their speed, Kobort pulled on the rope -
and the door stuck! Another four stirges got through before he
shifted it and banged it shut. Then all hell broke loose.
Arrows and crossbow bolts crisscrossed the solar, in some
cases narrowly missing other members of the party. Eight of the
nine stirges were hit instantly, dropping to the floor. One made
it through, homed in and drove its' long, sharp proboscis through
Hildraft's armour and into his arm. Horrified, he watched as it
sucked deeply of his blood, and a wave of weakness washed over
him - then a superbly aimed arrow from Sack smashed it clean off
in a spray of different coloured bloods.
Maybe this wasn't going to be quite so easy!