13^th of Mirtul of the year 1492

Still inside the ancient Dwarven fortress, the party decided that resting was the wisest choice they could make.  However, realizing that it was still early afternoon, they should use the rest of the daylight to finish exploring the ground floor of the ruins.

Moving back to the corridor where they had finished off the giant lizard, they started looking into the last of the rooms on this wing.  One of the last rooms that they had not yet entered proved to be an old kitchen with rusted utensils and mold everywhere.  There were a few barrels in the room that vaguely smelled of ale and piss.  ISAC decided that he by himself was sufficient to examine the room and look for any remaining treasure.  While peering into one of the barrels a giant tick dropped on his back and was able to attach and start sucking on his fluids quickly knocking him unconscious leaving his body hanging half in and half out of the stinky barrel.

Giant Tick

Vladimir was the only one that saw the large bug drop on upon ISAC and as he started intercepting it, it climbed up the wall near the ceiling attempting to escape.  Fwoosh was able to get off a shot with his bow, while nicking it, did not do much damage.  Many others ran into the room, but no one else was able to find the tick as it continued to escape.  Vladimir was able to yell out the location of the bug, run inside and took a swing with his axe, he hit, but it was insufficient, and it was able to escape into the ceiling where there were many holes large enough to allow it to exit.  Fogo applied some healing to ISAC, and everyone seemed confused on what had really happened.

Given the large number of holes in all the ceilings everyone was a bit more paranoid about dropping insects or anything else from that point forward. The exploration then continued.  Another chest was found, this time in the giant lizard room, which contained some armor and a crossbow.

Moving on to the southern corridor, the group started opening doors and looking into each room.  One overly smelly room proved to be filled bats which when disturbed flew around biting anyone in the room until they all managed to fly out of the room.  Nothing was found in that room besides many inches of guano covering everything inside the room.

Swarm of Bats

In another room Vladimir found hidden behind a wall case, a long sword which was then just tossed into the party’s pile of growing loot.  When trying to situate themselves more tactically Fogo backed up into the room at the end of the hall which disturbed a giant poisonous snake within. Another short battle it was killed off and the exploration was completed for the day. After some discussion it was decided that resting would be best for everyone because of the quick arriving evening and darkness.

Giant Poisonous Snake

Blocking the doors with all the available chests that had been found, as well as closing the secret entrance to the lower level, everyone settled in for the night.  A fire was lit in the large fireplace in the north, and a watch schedule was set.  The weather and general temperature was cold, but it only continued to get colder and fell into the freezing temperatures quickly.  That caused everyone to start huddling closer to the fireplace to stay warm during the night.  After setting the watches everyone hoped for an uneventful night.

Before everyone truly settled in, ISAC gave everyone a surprise by removing his mask and explaining a bit more of himself, or at least what he knew.  None of the party had ever seen an artificial person before and there were many questions that were asked about ISAC.  He mentioned that he had only been awake for about three years and had awakened in some sort of hidden and abandoned facility in the hills south of Waterdeep. He knows nothing of the location, or about himself. He also talked about his invisible friend Kieran that was around some of the time. ISAC also asked questions about items he knew of this past to see if anything was familiar to anyone else.  He mentioned Revenant.

ISAC

Revenant

The only person that could come up with anything was Angelica.  She seemed to remember reading from an ancient history book, whose contents were most burnt, that there was a reference to something about a black person, an undying person, and that the information was over 400 years old.  No one else seemed to have anything that might be related.

With story time over, everyone settled down for a nice long rest.  Who was on what watch had been determined and each member of the watch shifted around a little from before, but it remained at four watches.  The cold continued to roll into the room from the holes in the wall, especially the large one in the southeast corner which was large enough for a person to go through. More wood was added to the fire, and everyone settled down.

However, since they had not cleaned up their massacre of the bandits, the bodies had all been left in their positions where they were killed in the large hall just outside of the door of the group’s new sanctuary.  First watch came and went, but during the second watch a loud pounding occurred on the door of the room they were all in.

“Let us in, why in the hell is the door blocked?”

Sky, who had been on watch, started yelling for everyone to wake up, which was successful in awakening the party, but also was clearly heard by those outside the door.

“Who was that? Open this door now!”

The party started scrambling to get up and prepare themselves.  ISAC changed his mask to appear as the bandit captain they had killed previously and left his body in the hall on the other side of the door.  Sky and Vladimir rushed to the door to start defending.  

“Who the fuck are you guys?  Bust the door down!”

Without any movement on opening the door, the bandits on the other side began chopping it down.  It did not take long, and the party could finally see their opponents, five veteran bandits and a bandit lieutenant leading them.

Bandit Veteran

Bandit Lieutenant

There was a lot of running around and at one point the bandits managed to push their way into the room, but it did not matter much, the group with a lot of effort was able to take down the bandits that intruded on their sleep.  Once the combat was completed and the bodies looted, the group decided to move all the bandit bodies to the room filled with the bat guano and complete their rest in another room to not be a target again. Hopefully.

Rest came quickly for everyone except ISAC, who seemed to be rocking back and forth and gasping for air.  An interesting issue for someone who does not breath.  The issue with ISAC was ignored and the evening came to an end.

14^th of Mirtul of the year 1492

When morning arrived, everyone slept in a bit more to make up for the loss of sleep and a bit stiff and cold from the uncomfortable arrangements last night.  The only thing of note was that something had climbed into the ruins through the large hole in the wall and had dragged out the giant lizard from where they had killed it.  Something very large had been right next to them unnoticed.  There were also paw prints crisscrossing the large hall through all the bloody drag marks left from the movement of bodies.

It was decided that Fogo would use magic to disguise himself as the bandit captain and head down the ladder first.  The ladder dropped down 20 feet before opening into a small room that had a staircase that led further down.  Another 40 feet later Fogo was within yet another small room without any exits.  The rest of the party joined Fogo as they looked for a possible exit.  ISAC was able to spot an incongruency in the southwest wall which turned out to be a secret door.

The door led to a much larger room.  Hoping his disguise would work, Fogo started slowly and quietly moving into the room.  He was able to hear some loud and rough snoring coming from the northwest corner.  It was a deep and rumbling sound, a sound from something large.  When Fogo moved further in, the snoring stopped and the sounds of a large person getting up and moving closer.  Meeting near the center of the room, Fogo faced off with an ogre.

Ogre

“Ooo are you? You don’t look like dinner. What’s the word?”

Fogo’s only response was to yell out “attack”.

Campaign Notes

The party continues to move through the Ruined Moathouse.  Holing up in the old bandit lair while nice, was an open target when additional bandit patrols came back in.  Will there be more of those?  Ending things by yelling attack on an ogre?  What run.