Halfway through the night, Kern’s watch was interrupted when
Darnorth stumbled into camp with a wild tale to tell. When they placed Morg's
body on the throne, Darnorth, Gurruk and Riley found themselves teleported to a
room occupied by a huge gibbering mouther. The creature telepathically
"spoke" to them in a squeaky voice and said that it was once an enemy
of the might wizard who built this dungeon. He had betrayed the wizard and for
his punishment had to spend eternity in this room. For as long as he was in
this room he could not die but nor can it leave the room; there was no magical
or mundane way to get out. Except one. To pass the centuries, the creature
collected jokes. In order to win their freedom they had to tell it a joke it
had never heard. For several hours the three offered every joke they can wrack
their brains for but to no avail. Until Darnorth finally cracked a dry one, and
the dwarf found himself standing again in the stone circle. The other two,
apparently, were still making their attempts at humor. While of course concerned for their still
missing comrades, the trio decided there was nothing much they could do for
them at this point. They would appear whenever able. As the new day arrived,
they discussed plans for what to do next. Darnorth was torn between trying on
the ring (or not), and going back to
Westmist to check out the portal in the cellar. Erijay thought a visit to
Zoloren to ask about the ring might be in order, but on further reflection decided
they probably wouldn’t be that welcome. In the end, however, they agree with
Kern’s original plan. To head back to the ruins of Mor to see what had happened
since their last ‘visit’ and search for clues to the Baron’s behavior.
After a little back and forth from the mound to the river crossing
(due to a shortage of rope), they headed west towards the foothills overlooking
Mor. An uneventful day and a half ride brought them back to the ridge from
which they observed the city months ago. Although a misty rain obscured their
view of the city, little difference could be seen. Using his spyglass, Kern
could still see figures on the walls of Fort Gainsay, and the smoke of cooking
fires still rose from throughout the ruins. One difference, however, was the
encampment of the 12th Hobgoblin Cohort outside the walls. It
appeared to be deserted. Since little could be gleaned from this distance, the
party headed down slope towards the city. As they came out onto level ground, a
party of hobgoblins and orkin appeared to the east, headed in their direction.
This group halted and moved to battle formation. But instead of attacking, one
hobgoblin stepped out of the ranks and announced he was Phaz’ral, a former sergeant
of the 12th Cohort, and demanded to know the party’s business. Since Phaz’ral spoke hobgoblin, Erijay was
elected to represent the party, as she was the only one who could respond in
that language. But only after Kern applied some of his rouge of liking to the generally aloof elf to make her a little
more personable. In the discussion that
followed, they learned that after the death of “He Who Walks in Metal”, most of
the hobgoblins in Mor had abandoned the city and campaign. They headed west,
back to the hobgoblin homeland. Except
for the 12th Cohort, who had been chaffing under the incompetent
hand of their commander. The hobgoblins mutinied and slew the commander and his
staff, then broke into small bands that now fought for control of Mor. The
bands had also started recruiting orkin to flesh out their ranks.
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Assuming Phaz’ral was telling the truth, his story confirmed there
was no massive invasion coming from this quarter. But the party immediately saw
an opportunity to recover some of the weird technologies they had to leave
behind when they fled the city. Phaz’rel’s band was set up in the ruins by the
breech in the city wall; another larger band had taken over Fort Gainsay. The
party made an offer; they would lead Phaz’rel’s hobgoblins into the fortress
through the secret entrance they used before. In return, the party would be
free to loot the items they wanted from the tower. After some back and forth negotiation, the
deal was struck. The party would lead the hobgoblins into the fortress and get
their loot. But Erijay, Darnorth and Kern would march in the vanguard; Phaz’rel
didn’t trust the party that much. Agreement
made, they all crossed into the city by raft, landing at the breech (their horses
were left in the care of some well paid orkin from the patrol). The party
convinced the hobgoblins to wait a few days while they prepared (i.e. rested
and healed). Reluctantly, Phaz’rel gave them 2 days. Then when night fell, the
trio headed out at the front of a band of 50 bloodthirsty hobgoblins. Darnorth
led the way, and fortunately the dwarf recalled enough of their last march
through the ruins to get them right back to the sewer entrance they used
before. Down into the sewer the band crept, and after a few hours in the dank
dark, they found themselves standing below the grate into the basement of Fort
Gainsay. It had been covered again with
flagstones, and when Erijay and Darnorth tried to lift it, it would not budge. The
elf tried to knock it open, but to no
avail. This resulted in a minor panic, since Phaz’rel was now thinking he had
been led into a trap. After some quick thinking and quick talking, Kern elected
to head back down the sewer to find a way above ground, then sneak into the
fortress using his skill and ring of
invisibility. Hopefully he would be able to find a way to open the grate. Meanwhile,
Erijay and Darnoth would stall the hobgoblins. The dwarf broke out his dwarven gaming
tablets and started a little gambling operation to keep them busy (and made
sure he didn’t win).
Kern headed back to sewer a distance, and found another grate
leading into the ruins above. He found himself about a thousand feet west of
the fortress. Hobgoblin sentries could be seen atop the gatehouse, so Kern
slipped on his ring and looped around
to the north, looking for an unguarded wall.
Finding one, he silently climbed up with rope and grappling hook. Peering into the fortress, he could see a
small hobgoblin patrol in the courtyard in addition to the sentries on the
gatehouse. Below him was a building, with a gap between it and the wall. Kern
lowered himself down into the gap, and then sneaked silently and invisibly
across the courtyard to the main tower. Up the ramp to the massive double
doors, he said a quick prayer to Belix , pulled the doors open a crack and
slipped in. Once past a second set of doors, he found himself back in familiar
spaces and quickly made his way to the basement. Here he saw their problem; a
massive stone block had been placed over the floor grate. Looking for a way to
move it, he found a collection of ropes and slings in one corner of the
basement. He also noted a covered hole in the ceiling above. When he went back
upstairs to check it out, he found the hole was covered by a large stone lid,
and a block and tackle hung from the ceiling above it. And so he conceived a
plan. Using the sling/block and tackle, he moved the stone lid. Then he hitched
the sling to the stone block over the grate and tied the free end of the rope
to a massive wooden throne on the upper level. And then shoved the throne to
the edge of the hole, pushed it over the edge, and jumped in the seat. With
Kern and the throne as a counterweight, the stone block lifted enough for
Erijay, Darnorth and the hobgoblins to get into the tower. And not moment too
soon; Phaz’rel was about to turn his restless troops on the elf and the dwarf.
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While everyone stayed in the basement for now, Kern scouted the
upper floors. The tower seemed empty, and signs of their previous running
battle were everywhere (old hobgoblin bodies on the stairs, blood stains,
scorch marks, etc). So they would have to bring the fight into the open
fortress. The plan was for Kern to sneak back to the wall, and catch fire to
one of the buildings in the courtyard. In the ensuring chaos, Darnorth, Erijay
and the hobgoblins would rush into the courtyard and attack. And all went according to plan. As the
building started to burn, the doors opened and a group of orkin rushed out.
Then as the sentries on the gatehouse raised an alarm, hobgoblins began
emerging from another tower. As the orkin and hobgoblins formed a bucket
brigade to fight the fire, Erijay and Darnorth led their force into the
courtyard and a fight ensued. They had
the upper hand as the fortress hobgoblins were not armed or armored for combat.
As hobgoblin slew hobgoblin, the orkin fled towards the gates to escape. On the
gatehouse, the sentries turned three ballista on the attackers. Erijay cast sleep to neutralize a few, but then she
and Darnorth were stuck in the thick of the fight. In the meantime, Kern worked
his way along the wall to the gatehouse and made his way to the top. There, he
found half of the sentries asleep from Erijays spell, while the rest tried the
wake them. The merchant dove into their midst, sword swinging. He cut down one hobgoblin, which was enough
to frighten the rest into surrendering. Kern questioned them about the
fortress, mainly interested in why the main tower was abandoned. He was told
that a few weeks after the characters had killed “He Who Walks in Metal”, a
mysterious wizard showed up in a flying head. He entered the tower, gathered up
some items from inside, and then left again. After that the hobgoblins were too
freaked out to go into tower; besides, they had lots of room elsewhere in the
fortress.
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Kern let the hobgoblins escape over the wall, and then joined his
comrades in the courtyard. Phaz’rel’s hobgoblin had moved the battle into one
of the other towers, while other hobgoblins were at work finishing off the
wounded in the courtyard. Kern informed Erijay and Darnorth that the weird
technologies they had come for was likely gone. But to be sure, the trio left
the mopping up to the hobgoblins and reentered the main tower. Climbing to the
top floor, they found that the green glowing cylinder was gone. As were all the
automaton parts, and the body of “He Who Walk in Metal”. Disappointed, they did
search around some more. Apart from abandoned rooms and junk, they found a room
with an awful stench; it contained the decomposing corpses of 4 troglodytes.
They also discovered a secret compartment in a bed headboard that contained two
heavy gold and platinum chains. But the greatest find was by Erijay; a secret
room behind one fireplace. In it they found a vast collection of art objects.
Paintings, statues, crystal, china, silverware, etc. All old and covered in a
thick layer of dust, and likely hidden here by the original inhabitants of the
fortress hundreds of years before.
Hearing footsteps on the stairs, they scooped up as much silverware as
they could find, and each grabbed a painting before sealing the secret door
again. Confronted by Phaz’rel and some of his troops, they announced they had
found what they had come for. Phaz’rel looked at the paintings, muttered
something in hobgoblin about how easy it would have been to conquer such fools.
And then proceeded to order the party out of ‘his fortress’, and warned them
never to return. Which was all the encouragement they needed. Escorted
back to the wall breech, they crossed to the mainland once more. Recovering
their horses, the trio prepared to head back to Westmist to see what had
happened in their absence.
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