Gilraen exclaims, "Ah, good Gil-Gandel, you are right, the Knight of Eonwë should be able to help."
Still April 3rd
Gilraen exclaims, "Ah, good Gil-Gandel, you are right, the Knight of Eonwë should be able to help."
Still April 3rd
Last edited by What Exit?; 16 Sep 2010 at 10:41 AM.
Thoroncir will look in the immediate area, if Theogrim will watch his back, for long, strong poles or rods - perhaps loose building materials? - to make, with the parties' cloaks, either a stretcher or a travois for the brave Gwaelur.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travois
Having headed outside, both hobbits feel better for the fresh air.
Seeing that Gwaelur is being well cared for, Rorimac scouts the nearby area to make sure nothing else is coming our way. The last thing wanted now is to be surprised by more enemies.
As Mulligan is easily the lightest in the party, she offers her horse to make a stretcher between Gwaelur's and her own horse to get him back to camp. She can fly alongside and be no burden at all.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
On second thoughts, as the horses are at the camp, we might need to think of something different.
I guess the stronger members of the party get to carry him.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Since Ithilneth is in good shape and not especially strong, she'll help scout around looking for threats.
Ceol steps up to the stricken Dwarf. Asks that Bitur helps him remove his armor. He then checks the wound and performs a pray to ready himself and he casts the disease out of Gwaelur. In very short order Gwaelur's fever goes down and he feels fine.
The party can retreat in good order back to the camp or press on.
How long until sunset?
Given we arrived in the city after lunch, have slain some undead, smashed a house up and chased down a Giant Spider, you want to do more before sunset? Given our current state, we could probably muster enough energy to make funny faces at a Barrow Wight.
There is always tomorrow, you know. I suggest returning to camp and tackling the top fort tomorrow.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
That's fine with the knight-errant.
And is what I suggested in post 900 anyway.
The party pulls back, this is much slower going that probably expected but on the other hand there is currently no timetable and why risk lives.
The party makes it safely back to the horses. A strange hawk is waiting near Drinoleth's owl and above Hound his odd wolf steed. The hawk brings word from the army.
"We could use the party back sooner than later, the spellcasters and healers will be needed soon as will the fighters for a large battle. Do you need help? Can you complete the mission within 3 days? If not please make plans to pull out within three days."
Does the hawk actually speak, or is that a written message attached to its claws? I suspect we could complete the job in three days, if we have indeed killed the biggest beastie in the whole city, but it's impossible to know for sure yet.
Thoroncir will speak to his horse Baygir and the others, in Horse, and find out what, if anything, happened while we were gone. Then he will feed, brush and curry Baygir.
Drinoleth was relaying the message from the Hawk.
Baygir reports, "It was a calm day and animal life is rare around here. There is a dark presence to the whole area and even the grass is bitter somehow."
Unpleasant for our poor beasts, but there will be hay and oats soon enough. Let us prepare to rest and draft a quick report to go with this hawk. We've made sizeable inroads into the local nuisances, at least, but it remains to be seen if three more days is enough. Still, a battle will be... not welcome exactly, but maybe more agreeable to some than this, for want of a better phrase, "bug hunt".
Librarians rule, Oook
I think that we'll be able to wrap this up in less than three days. Let's send a message back implying such.
Mulligan ponders the news. "Hopefully we can finish in 3 days, not much should be left in a city with that giant bug. I'm not looking forward to another pitched battle, twice was once too often. Thrice is getting silly."
"I wonder if they will want us to do something else instead of fighting with the troops", says Rorimac, "and who knows what the current situation is?"
"I know what the current situation here is, and it involves getting washed and trying to get rid of the smell." replies Mulligan.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Drinoleth can at least help the animals. He takes a sack of oat and barley seeds he carries and scatters it about a large area. He then spreads some additional seeds about. Finally he casts a Plant Growth and a second one. About half the plants he just grew have gone to seed and he asks for some help in harvesting a sack of seeds. The horses are quite pleased. He feeds Hound a goodberry as there is no hunting for him.
Gilraen, "If we stay and I think staying is right, let us try to get to the upper part of the town, that is where any great undead should be. I think with the great spider dead we can handle anything that tries to attack us from behind. We should try to get up there as early as possible."
Last edited by What Exit?; 04 Aug 2010 at 08:31 AM.
Right, then. Let's find some defensible ground for the night, have dinner, and post our usual watches, then at first light return to the city to resume our exploration and cleansing, if our Elf-captain concurs.
Ithilneth concurs.
He did not mean you.
Carry on, Sir Thoroncir.
Librarians rule, Oook
The horse camp was picked as a safe place fairly far from the hill. No undead attack the camp this night. There were some strange noises and spooky howls and groans during the night but most of the party slept through it. At its worse Gil-Gandel strum a lullaby that worked wonders to help those disturbed back to sleep.
If there are any other changes please post a fresh list.
April 4th: Morning comes and Gilraen takes Cure Disease in place of her Cure Blindness as one of her third level spells.
Spells: 5/5/4/3
1st: Cure Lights of double affect; Purify Food & Drink; Detect Magic; Detect Evil, Song of Estë that gives friends a +1 Save and -1 to be hit and damage will discourage others from attacking me even more. It lasts as long as sung. It is similar to the second level chant.
2nd: Goodberries, Hold Person, Find Traps, Slow Poison Resist Fire
3rd: Estë Prayer song: 12”r, last 2r/lvl after done singing, Cure Disease, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic*
4th: Neut Poison, Cure Serious 4d8+9x1.1, Protection from Evil 10’r
The party heads back to the town and using precautions can make it back through the lower gate to near where the spiders were.
Last edited by What Exit?; 16 Sep 2010 at 10:45 AM.
No spell changes. Ready to go.
Onward, my friends! Refreshed and renewed, Sir Thoroncir is eager to proceed.
Mulligan hopes that the opportunity to go flying again occurs, but failing that takes the lead in scouting through the city for the group.
Let's see what else we can find. The main gate to the upper part of the town seems like a good place to start.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
The party reaches the final gate with little problem. It is well locked and requires scaling walls again. The gate towers however both show signs of evil and undead within them. The gates are in very good shape and sealed tight.
"Could a lone halfling open the gate with minimal risk? I fear that this one may be well guarded. But neither do we have siege engines. What other options are there?" ponders Ithilneth.
It seems like an invisible halfling could scale the gate quietly and unobtrusively.
Exactly - and either open them from the other side, or let us know how and by whom/what they're guarded. And our Elves are pretty good at scaling walls, if memory serves.
By all appearances the gates are locked into place internally along with the other side. It might be a case of some scaling the walls and hauling the rest over the top and back down. This presents a serious escape route issue though.
It might be that there may be a way to open the gates from the inside that is not apparent from the outside. I say we send a hobbit to find out.
I will happily come and provide at least a little extra muscle.
Librarians rule, Oook
Rorimac smiles, "I wonder where you would find an invisible hobbit".
Mulligan muses and holds up her ring. "Well, this won't work on the undead, but it will still be a job for stealth regardless. Time to get climbing boots on and see what is on the other side. Gil-Gandel, I would welcome the company, but I would suggest the pair of us until we know more."
"You know its a shame we can't get to the top of each tower and then haul Ceol and Gilraen up floor by floor, blessing each level as they go."
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Mulligan and Gil-Gandel gain the roof with little problem. From the roof they see the upper part of the town is indeed in surprisingly good shape. The gates are indeed secured to each other and into the rock below the gates. Additionally the Dwarves can confirm that the hinges are recessed and almost surely blocked.
Undoing the middle locks and bars should be short work and Bitur believes that the party might then be able to pull the gates apart at least far enough to let people through single file. Something like a Lightning Bolt or Fireball might not hurt.
Last edited by What Exit?; 09 Aug 2010 at 01:20 PM.
Thoroncir is all for it. He's willing to go through the gates first, once they're open.
"Once we pry the door open, perhaps we should let one of our party with sharp eyes peer through the opening, before you head in, Sir Thoroncir. We might then have a better idea of what we face there, if anything."
You have Elven eyes at your disposal down there, and none but the Eagles of Manwe Sulimo himself can boast of keener.
Librarians rule, Oook
Prying the door sounds good to me. I'd rather not use a spell on it, though, unless it looks like a Knock would work.
Gwaelur says, "I believe a knock on the internal locking system of the hinges might make one gate easy to push open, it surely cannot hurt."
Mulligan and Gil-Gandel work on the middle locks and bolts and bars and Deor casts his Knock spell with a satisfying clunk sound. The party uses ropes high and low and all hands to pull the knocked gate open. It gives surprisingly easy. The gate seems to have been somehow maintained over the centuries.
The party can now easily enter the upper town. Any other precautions with the gate or off to the main tower up the switchback?
"The dissonance between the level of maintenance and the lack of occupation disturbs me greatly," worries Ithilneth. "Is there a path we can take to the tower without being an easy target for any hidden bowman? And if we must make an escape, we will find ourselves trapped very easily."
"Perhaps we can make our way along the outer wall?"
By "along" I mean "atop".
"Having it maintained means problems in the upper city. Although if I had a Giant Spider living next door, I would keep the gate bolted as well." says Rorimac. "I might take a look at some of the nearby houses and see if this blade glows."
"I think I will take a look up the towers by the gates", says Mulligan, "best not to leave enemies behind us."
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
"I shall see if I can detect any malign presences."
Ceol begins to scan the area, using detect evil to do so.
The towers have undead within them and the towers do detect as evil within. The towers are however closed off with the arrow slits bricked up. The doors are sealed.
As long as sealed means locked, barred and bolted, possibly bricked over, and not just on the latch then we may as well leave them.
There is a good chance that whatever evil is in them should stay there and there may be other ways in from another direction. But we won't know unless we look around.
Let's start looking through the houses towards the main keep.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
If it's understood that we won't eventually leave the city before cleansing it of all evil, then Thoroncir has no objection to moving on to the houses.
"I would like to hear a Dwarven appraisal before turning our backs." Ithilneth visually scans what she can of the tower, looking for hidden egresses.
"Well the stonework is solid but not all of our foes are." says Gwaelur.
Ceol nods. "I do not like the idea of leaving the undead here when we depart. But, if we feel that they are unlikely to be able to pursue us as we enter, then we should proceed for now."
He stares at one of the towers, deep in thought. "I do wonder what agency sealed them in the towers."
"Well, let us proceed then, but I for one am going to keep a watchful eye on the towers," proclaims Ithilneth.
We might want to investigate the towers anyway. After all, if they are being sealed in by some malevolent force, we don't want that force surprising us by unsealing them and trapping us between it and them.
Well if you want to crowbar a door open so we can have a look inside, go ahead. If there is anything there, we may as well deal with it now.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
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