The Company of the Blue Sun regroups at the Tree of Rillifane. Arden supplies the Company with basic needs while they plot and plan. Adrienne and Dell use Speak with Dead and Tongues to systematically question Bugrot's men about Castle Crag. They find that the castle is mainly populated by bugbears, several bands under weaker hetmen than Bugrot. It sounds like about 60 or so bugbears garrison the fortress. Other humanoids, likely trolls and ogres, round out the force. Hanuman rules Castle Crag, and sounds like a spell-casting shape changer, likely an ogre mage. Slaves captured from the Oytwood and other places appear to be being used to excavate beneath the castle and a cabal of priests is ensconced somewhere below.
Arden is able to draw a map from when he traveled through the Castle, on his way to the Earl of Sterich last year. The castle is a four story keep with a three story tower. Priests, slaves, and humanoids combined with a map causes the Company to lean towards taking the castle.
Winthrop uses sendings to get Cedrus's attention, and through a combination of clairvoyance on Cedrus and daily sendings, odd communication is established. Cedrus is told of the freeing of the Oytwood and the search for the Druid of the Dreadwood. The Company asks Cedrus whether he wishes to join the Company in their search in the Jotens, how Longspear fares, what is the general situation, and what's left of the money Dell sent with Cedrus to the Knot? Cedrus replies by writing on a large slate in chalk.
- Happy to go looking for Druid
- Jotens are big - Where is the Druid in them?
- Longspear is ok. Rebuilding mainly.
- Temple to Ehlonna is coming right along. You should tithe. Many followers here.
- Flen is gone
- Cryllor under siege. Clerics mostly holding line against undead.
- Undead in Dreadwood, norther border.
- Sterich is gone
- Yeomanry collapsing. Keoish aid denied. Some big spat.
- Hole disgorged stuff, unclear what.
- Hold of Sea Princes declared war on Keoland. Shipping interdicted. Lord Morgan's men moved south.
- Rumors of Lizardfolk raiding out of Hool Marshes. Guess we should have helped.
- Haven't made any money recently. You should tithe ... more
The Company reflects on this information and then Raven requests Winthrop take a few days to explain the situation with Thomas Louvain and the notes that they found here in the tree regarding the mercenary support. Cedrus replies asking:
- Tell Sir Highrider?
- Come by in ~ 1 month. Temple mostly done by then.
Winthrop warns Cedrus to keep quiet, not knowing how Sir Highrider and Thomas Louvain were connected.
As the Company prepares to head for Castle Crag, Arden gives them a large, unwieldy branch, festooned with white flowers. The branch is a symbol of friendship with the Oytwood elves. The blooms will fall off in the hands of the elves' enemies. Antonus carries it.
Herbert, Eats Salmon, and Eig remain behind at the grove, training the giant owls and helping the five elves in maintaining the grove until the sylvan creatures return. The elves are unlikely, barring sudden reinforcements, to hold Castle Crag, so Arden cares not if the Company razes it to the ground. Diego, who now styles himself a Lord, asks Antonus if he fancies a tower of his own. It's not clear how serious Diego is.
The Company travels westward, coming upon a giant asp and killing it, though Raven almost kills Antonus in the process; being attacked in the night by three wyverns, who slay Al with poison, a problem that Hugh quickly resolves; and encountering two armored centaurs, who fell Rhiannon before Antonus waves them off with the elven branch. The centaurs are not friendly, but faced with Winthrop's words and the presence of the elven branch, warn the Company to continue onwards west in the morning and not to dally. "This part of the Oytwood is not open to raiders and adventurers!" they charge.
That night, as morning approaches, the sky to the south turns red, deep red, and glows a hellish color. The Company is quickly awoken and the mages take to the air to spy out the color. Antonus spots a cluster of seven centaur, only two of which are barded, conversing and pointing to the south. Agreement reached, they ride off to the northeast.
In the sky is a great ball of fire sailing up from the south. Antonus and Winthrop think that this might be some magical manifestation, like a fiery chariot caused by some high-level druidic magics. The ball of fire is preceded by a rumbling and whistling sound that gets louder and louder as the ball approaches. The distance to the horizon was deceiving. As the ball approaches, its great size becomes apparent. Easily thousands of feet across, its turbulence and heat roils the clouds in the sky, disrupting them for miles around.
The ball of fire will transit to the east of the Company, sailing over the Oytwood, and must have originated far to the south, perhaps over Sterich. The wind picks up and the mages get to the earth, where the whole Company huddles low to the ground as huge winds push through the forest, cracking and collapsing trees and limbs. The ball of fire passes by, sailing northward.
Once the winds die down, Antonus flies back up and sees that the fiery ball is dipping towards the horizon. It must have been higher up in the south than it is now.
Castle Crag is visible from the top of the forest. Raised up on a hillock, it no longer touches the forest, but instead has a ring of denuded land around it.
After the Company regains its equilibrium, it travels west to the edge of the forest, where they carefully hide and set up camp. Arden had said that a hidden entrance, an escape tunnel, was known to have been dug under the castle, but he knew not where the tunnel was. Winthrop opines the tunnel must feed into the Javan, as that is the best way to escape, by water.
That night, Jasper speaks with a man, Bruinlein, in bearish and travels with him and his three bear brothers to the hidden cave. The Company is distressed when they hear from Adrienne and Winthrop that Jasper has left with the men, but Jasper returns before the sun rises and claims to know where the hidden tunnel is.
Dell, Adrienne, and Pfiffwin stay behind in the forest edge to act as reserve, in case the Company suffers a defeat. The others turn invisible and sneak around the castle, following the path described by Jasper.
Indeed there is a series of caves at the edge of the Javan, about a mile from the castle. One "smelled of humans" and has, under the water's edge, significant dirt accumulation. It seems the excavated materials spoke of by the dead bugbears was dumped here.
The Company goes within and finds tracks and dirt dragged from further within. The Company hikes down the tunnel a long tunnel leading back into the hillside. After several hundred feet, a natural cavern with a single exit holds a dinghy, perhaps holding 8 people, up on blocks. The Company spreads the oars throughout the room. It appears as if portcullises were in the mouths of both passages, the one in and the one out, but have been removed, complete with winch.
The passageway suddenly drops out under Otto and Jasper, dumping them into a large, spiked pit. They avoid the spikes, though not the drop. Many dead, bloated bodies are in the bottom of the pit, likely escaped slaves. The last one is about a month dead, and quite decomposed. A pressure plate is found and half the pit is covered with a sliding lid and thus bypassed.
The passageway forks and forks again, each time the Company following Otto's tracking ability, taking the passages most heavily used and showing signs of dirt. The Company travels on and finds a large chamber with large mushrooms within it, a single clear path down the middle. The mushrooms move slightly as the Company watches. The mushrooms look like those seen in the sewers of Longspear, screamers. Al looks for the strange purple growths that withered his leg, but can't spot any.
After protracted discussion, Al and Otto are sent forward with a silenced rock and told to slay the fungus. They approach the first one, all of the mushrooms shrieking, a horrible din. Then Otto hits Al and points upward towards the ceiling of the cavern. Otto and Al flee back to the tunnel at high speed, leaving the stone behind.
"Spectres!" Otto gasps out.
The Company sets up a fighting line as the spectres swoop in. The spectres are a variety of shapes and sizes, appearing to be drained slaves and workers. Four bunch in against the fighting line of Otto, Al, and Raven. Two more fly over the top of the line and attack behind the line. Rhiannon is grasped by the spectre and slain, her life force drained. Two of the spectres are turned by Hugh, but the others fight on. Magics and prayers are dashed about, blessings from Perrin, protective magics from Perrin and Antonus. The spectres are dangerous, and only the great experience of the warriors prevents their dire wounds from sucking experiences from their souls.
Hugh pours holy water on the fading Rhiannon, preventing her rising as undead, but Antonus is struck by a spectre. Experience and health is drained from his soul, and he staggers back, grey. Diego and Jasper close on the spectre as Antonus summons copies of himself to defray the attacks.
Raven, Al, and Otto combine to attack those spectres at the line. The spectres are tough combatants and they withstand the Company's assault for several minutes, trading blows with the Company. Jasper, Diego, and Antonus face off on the spectres behind the line, with Winthrop adding magical bolts. One of the spectres grasps Jasper, who falters under its touch.
Eventually the spectres, including their two reinforcements, including the master spectre dressed in somewhat outmoded armor, are slain, and the Company awaits the return of the two spectres turned by Trithereon's might. Winthrop lobs a glowing stone before the Company and so the two spectres fly into sight at some distance from them. Winthrop launches a great ball of fire against the two spectres, incinerating them both.
The Company binds wounds and heals themselves, regretting the loss of Rhiannon. Diego, Perrin, and Raven slay the fungi from a distance, using arrows. Once they are slain, coins, a variety of types and styles, are found spread amidst the fungi. A mold-covered metal flask is found under one of the fungus.
Though Antonus wishes merely to leave, the Company pushes on. Another long passage ends in a cavern with a shaft running through the ceiling and the floor at the end of the room. Marks on the floor appear to be where a ladder sits often. Jasper climbs up the shaft and finds it covered by a wooden trapdoor. The shaft that leads downward is slick and Jasper slips while climbing into it. He plummets fifty or so feet into foul water that eats at him, as if corroding his soul. Jasper pulls himself up out of the water and then drags himself up into the chamber.
Jasper climbs up again to the shaft in the ceiling, dragging a rope up into the shaft, attaching it to the rungs that are in the shaft. Otto climbs up to the trapdoor and smashes it open. The Company climbs up into an odd room with two wells, both covered, and two buckets. A single door leads out of the room.
Treasure784 CP (Geoff)
1,792 SP (Geoff)
897 SP (Unrecognized Mint)
1,276 GP (Archaic Keoish)
1,020 GP (Unrecognized Mint)
4,082 GP (Geoff)
Mold-Crusted Metal Flask