Fourth Adventure: Murderhobos of Scrubvale
Source: Original
Judge: James M.
Dates: 6/13/19; 7/12/19
Location: Northern Brushwood (Region 01: 3910, Modron 4520,
4522)
Characters & Players
Preacher William Winchester (male Human 3rd level Cleric)
[Will P.]
Initiate Tsun (male Human 2nd level Monk) [Will P.]
Veteran-Prestidigitator Balule the Elf (male 1st level Elf)
[Dan P.]
Gary, Balule’s War-Dog [Dan P.]
Veteran Yarlag the Hideous (male Half-Orc 1st level Fighter)
[Dan P.]
Dave, Yarlag’s War-Dog [Dan P.]
Veteran-Prestidigitator Ayers the Elf (male 1st level Elf)
[Lew E.]
Warrior “Mighty” Konkeror (male Half-Elf 2nd level Fighter)
[Lew E.]
Robber Bernie “The Bounder” Brushwood-Baggins (male Halfling
3rd level Thief) [NPC]
Tales of Adventure
The members of the party were having lunch at Somethin’s
Cookin’ when their friend, Bernie “The Bounder,” stopped by and told them about
another ogre-hunting opportunity near his hometown of Brushwood. “The Sheriff
of Brushwood has offered a 100 gp reward for the head of an ogre that is
raiding the countryside near Scrubvale,” he told them. “This one is working
with some hobgoblins, which is odd, as hobgoblins aren’t usually found in the
area.” After discussing this and other opportunities, the party decided to head
out to Scrubvale.
After the great success of Balule’s war-dog on the last
adventure, Yarlag decided to also buy one, and they both kitted out their dogs
with savage-looking leather armor. As the group was readying for their trip to
Scrubvale, Ayres and Konkeror returned from their trip home to the Adderwood
and rejoined the party.
The party took the Difring Trace across the Gasconfold Plain
to Scrubvale. Slow travel across the near-trackless plain meant they camped
halfway there, just north of an area of rugged, broken lands. Ere the sun set
they thought they could make out tall, ruined towers in the distance in the
midst of the badlands and felt this might be worth looking into at a later
date.
Shortly after dawn before the others awoke, Balule and his
dog were on watch and espied a hippogriff in the distance, heading right their
way! He awoke the others and they loosed volleys of arrows at the hippogriff,
who suffered enough damage such that he felt there would be easier prey on the
plain than the party’s horses.
The party travelled the rest of the way to Scrubvale without
incident and made it in time to join the locals at the local tavern, the
“Basilisk & Cockatrice,” for an evening meal and drinks. When the locals
found out they were there to hunt the ogre and the hobgoblins they were feted
and had not to pay for their meals or drinks.
The locals provided such details as they could about the
inhuman bandits. They knew from chance encounters that the ogre did not reside
with the hobgoblins; the ogre lived in a cave near the ruined Tower of the
Basilisk, while the hobgoblins laired somewhere further south in the Brushwood.
They operated by raiding steadings south of the Difring River; they had started
out further away from the hamlet but had now worked their way to the steadings
nearly within sight of the river, and so the locals had finally been able to
get the sheriff of Brushwood to offer a reward, before the monsters started
raiding across the river in the hamlet itself!
There was then much grumbling about how they had had to go
to the sheriff in Brushwood, for their own bailiff, Malagig, was quite useless,
not even calling together a militia to help defend the steadings. “He takes all
the taxes, and gives nothing in return,” they complained. “Useless,” others
said, “All he does is stay in his manor and party with his cronies and such
maidens as he can seduce to his chambers!” When a deputation of elders from the
hamlet went to him to beg assistance, he had his men strip them, beat them with
sticks, and hied them away covered in horse dung.
As the party listened to the complaints of the peasants,
they asked why they didn’t do anything about the less-than-useless bailiff.
Sheepishly, the peasants respondent, “Well, the problem is that Malagig is the
younger brother of Gakatig, the seneschal of the Duke, and so little if
anything could be done!” It had been heard that, being a complete wastrel, he
had been given this post as a sinecure, and treated it as such.
As the complaints continued, Yarlag noticed that a figure in
the corner, in the shadows by the fireplace, suddenly got up and made his way
to the door. Suspicious, Yarlag followed him out and watched as he tried to
melt into the shadows of the houses and shrubs as he made his way west, toward
the manor of the bailiff. Yarlag quickly followed and ambushed the fellow,
smacking his hooded head with the flat of his blade; down he went with a thump.
Upon removing the hood Yarlag discovered he was face to face with another
half-orc! He quickly patted him down, took his weapons and his pouch, and
gagged him and tied him to a nearby tree just outside the hamlet.
When Yarlag brought back the party, they found him awake and
trying to break from his bonds, to no avail. They questioned him, and
discovered his name was Krann, and that he worked for the bailiff as a
“minister without portfolio,” but yes, that included spying on the locals.
After sterner questioning with both carrot and stick (coin and blade), he
admitted that he was the one who had hired the ogre and hobgoblins (having
recruited them from the clans of the Gilring Wilds to the south), at the behest
of his master, Bailiff Malagig. To what end he was not sure, but he had
overheard discussion with a messenger from the north that if Malagig were to
cause chaos in the region, he would be well rewarded.
Having gotten all the information they felt they needed out
of him, they let him go with a purse of coins, and watched him flee east, out
of the hamlet toward Brushwood, with the promise that if they ever saw him
again they would kill him. They then returned to the tavern, where they flopped
on the floor for the night.
The next morning a local lad led them to the cave where they
believed the ogre slept by day, “for before the arrival of the ogre, there were
no sounds from the cave, but now by day there has been a terrible sound of
snoring and at times, roaring!” The cave was about a mile south of the ruined
Tower of the Basilisk, of which the local reminded them, “Go not to the ruined
tower, as you value your lives! Though it is said that great treasure can be
found there, it is guarded by the basilisk, and said to be encircled by the
stone forms of all who sought his treasure!” And with that the lad hurried back
home, not eager to personally witness the defeat of the ogre… or the
destruction of the party!
Initiate Tsun was sent to scout out the cave, as he was the
most stealthy of the group (not the first time the party missed their good
friend, Bernie, nor the last!) When he entered the cave, he discovered it
quickly branched into three tunnels, one each north, east, and west, and at
their crossway he discovered, to his terror, two statues, perfect of form, one
of a human and the other of a halfling, both with a look of terror on their
face, looking toward the northern tunnel! He also found a midden pile at the
entrance to the western tunnel, and evidence of passage to both the east and
west. But he heard no snoring, nor noises of any kind.
He returned to the party and explained that the cave may
very well connect to the ruined tower of which they were warned, and that there
was activity toward both the east and west. They decided to check out the
eastern tunnel first. There they discovered a sleeping cave bear, which awoke
upon their approach! The bear raised up its head, snuffled and whuffled at
them, and growled… they quickly backed away and hurried to the cross way. They
decided that perhaps the bear was the pet of the ogre, and used to trespass by
the hobgoblins, and so not interested in bothering them if they did not bother it,
which seemed like a very good plan!
They then decided to check out the other cave, and after a
short walk they found the cave ended in a handsome new door, very large and of
stout oak, complete with a shiny new lock! Curiouser and curiouser! Listening
at the door, Tsun heard a terrible snoring within; thus, the answer to the lack
of noise in the caves! Tsun picked the lock, and they quietly filed into the
large room, where they found the ogre sleeping on a large, rough-hewn bed of
timbers and furs, with a chest in one corner and various detritus piled in
another corner.
 |
| The best ogres are sleeping ogres... |
Not believing their luck, they motioned for Tsun to go up
and slit the ogres throat… which he did without incident. And the terrible ogre
died with even less trouble than Hegrash before, and they knew not even his
name. They then looted the room, finding gold and silver and a bag of gems – a
bag of eight zircons, the same bluish-purple as they found in Hegrash’s hoard!
And so now conspiracy theories began to whirl wildly in the talk of the party
as they counted out the loot.
In the end they decided that, since the hobgoblins lived
deeper in the Brushwood, in all likelihood they would meet up with the ogre at
his lair to go on their raids, and they decided to try to pull off a long con –
they would represent themselves as the “new bosses,” sent by the “big boss” to
take out the ogre and “take over the operation.” And so, they beheaded the ogre
and dumped the body in the cross way, then napped and ate as they waited for
night, and the hobgoblins to arrive.
Not too long after dusk the hobgoblins arrived, as expected;
speaking to them in Goblin, the party explained the “new arrangements,” and
passed out several gold coins, which mollified any questions the hobgoblins had
about being led by humans, elves, and a half-orc. They then told them they were
going for a “big score,” the leader of the humans of Scrubvale, the bailiff’s
manor! And so, the party, with 16 hobgoblins in tow, marched back to Scrubvale,
quietly forded the river, and snuck to the manor house. They discovered it was
well fortified, with only one visible entrance, and that up a stair, with the
wooden bridge pulled away; no real windows only arrow slits, and all of stone
until the third floor, which was of stone and wood and wattle and daub.
Fortunately, it was apparent that no guards had been placed
outside, for the bailiff was either too secure or too cheap. But how to gain
entrance? “Do not despair my friends,” said the cleric. “All places like this
have an escape tunnel or three. We just need to find the other end and then we
are easily in!” They spread out and searched the area, eventually finding an
odd trap door in the floor of the stable. Upon opening it, they saw it led down
into a tunnel that headed straight toward the manor house. They filed into the
tunnel and made their way slowly and carefully. Tsun, in the lead, discovered a
tripwire, meant to warn those within against this very kind of assault. He
disarmed it simply by placing bales of hay to either side and everyone
carefully crossed over.
The tunnel ended in a door, locked of course, but picked
easily enough. They found it entered a “panic room,” filled with go-bag
supplies and such, with a door on the other side, obviously of secret sort to
the outside. They opened this door and found it entered a well room, with
another door on the other side. They passed through this door and found it
opened into a long corridor which hugged the outside walls to the left, for
they were in the cellar level on the ground floor. They followed the corridor
and found three doors before the corridor turned left and ended in a stair up.
They listened at the doors; two were silent, but behind the third they heard
some sort of chanting.
One of the other doors was easily opened and found to be a
supply room; the other was locked, as was the door behind which they heard the
chanting (loud enough that no one heard them test the door). Tsun and William
went up with some hobgoblins and scouted upstairs, while the others remained
below and had the hobgoblins break down the door behind which they heard
chanting… and then all Hell broke loose!
 |
| The Sorceress is still at large... |
For they had burst in on the bailiff and his fellow cultists
performing a ritual sacrifice to Set, the ancient enemy of Mitra! There were
four cultists – a priest with a snake staff, a warrior-woman, a sorceress, the
bailiff (obvious from his description from the peasants), and a maiden
sacrifice, all standing before a statue of Set with great gem-stone eyes.
The hobgoblins charged the cultists and engaged with the
bailiff, the priest, and the warrior-woman; sadly, for them, they could not get
to the sorceress, and after the first engagement she caused many of them to
fall into slumber with a spell. But more hobgoblins piled in, as did the party
members, and their dogs; Tsun and William quickly returned when the cry of
“Setites! Setites!” was shouted up the stairwell. Apprised of the dangers of a
priest of Set and the sorceress, William quickly cast silence 10’radius on a
stone and cast it into the room, quashing any enemy spell casting.
It then became a whirling grind of blades and staff against
blades and teeth; but the party prevailed in the end, with the loss of two
hobgoblins and both of the dogs (the last to the poisoned blade of the
bailiff). The sorceress had disappeared, though whether she had used an
undiscovered secret door or gone invisible during the melee, none were sure.
The party was busy looting the bodies and about to check out the statue and
altar when the hobgoblins who had been left upstairs ran in…
“Uh, boss! BOSS!”
“What, what?”
“We killed some guys up there!” the hobgoblins smiled, then
frowned.
“Yes, and?”
“Uh, well, one of them was holding a lantern…”
“And?”
“Uhm and… and it fell when we killed him.” They nodded.
Uh oh… “It fell?”
“Yeah, it fell… and, uh… blew up…”
“BWOOSH!” the other hobgoblin exclaimed, happily, waving his
arms to show how big the explosion had been.
“And… the upstairs is on fire, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, that’s it! The upstairs is on fire!” they both
nodded, smiling.
The party looked up as one at the rafters above, and through
the floorboards they could see smoke slowly drifting down… and in the dead
silence hear the crackling of the floorboards burning merrily above.
 |
| Yup |
“Out! Out! Everyone out!” they cried, as everyone rushed to
the corridor, and then to the well room, and through the panic room, and into
the tunnel to the stables. They peeked out of the stable doors and saw the
local peasants gathering at the manor on the other side, trying and failing to
put together a bucket brigade to the nearest well. Their attention wholly on
the burning manor, the party and hobgoblins snuck out the back of the stables
into the nearby forest. They had brought with them the bodies of the cultists
and the living, walking form of the erstwhile sacrifice, a lovely maiden named
Daniena of Brushwood, who had been enticed hither by the warrior woman with
promises of joining an adventuring group. They had given her the
warrior-woman’s plate mail and long sword, but they had kept the shield, which
they had discovered was magical (as was, obviously, the staff, which nearly bit
William when he tried to pick it up, but left Konkeror unmolested).
They decided to send the hobgoblins home (they had hoped
more would die in the battle and they could finish them off after, but to no
avail); they gave them each some coins or a gem from the treasure they found on
the warrior-woman but kept the ring and necklace they found on the bailiff.
After the hobgoblins left (with the bodies of the priest and warrior-woman “for
their victory feast,” the party started bickering about what to do now?
After much debate, it was decided the safest course was to
bury the body of the bailiff in two parts so he could not be raised. They would
collect their horses and wagon in the morning and go to Brushwood to collect
the reward for the ogre’s head. A simple plan. But then, most plans go awry…
They hunker down and sleep, awakened at the roar of the
manor house as the burning top stores collapsed into the cellar below; a great
ball of fire shot up, visible even from the woods, in the form of a dancing
snake. Mere coincidence, of course…
The next morning when they awake they discover that the
snake-headed staff now looks like a normal walking staff/quarter staff.
Curious, they all think. They then go back in circuitous route to appear to
come up from the south to allay any suspicions. They arrive at the tavern and
are welcomed halfheartedly. “You have slain the ogre!” people say, but then
also lament that they had not found and slain the hobgoblins, for that night
they had attacked and burned the bailiff’s manor (feelings were a bit mixed on
this, of course).
When the party inquired how they knew it had been the
hobgoblins, they discover that though the flames had burned almost everything
from the upper levels, the cellar level was mostly spared, and they had
discovered the bodies of two hobgoblins therein…
They took the bodies of the cultists but left the two dead
hobgoblins! Drat!
The party decided they’d better check out the ruin before
any other evidence they left behind showed up. When they got there, they
discovered most of the fire was out, having blown itself out when the upper
levels collapsed. The found that the two hobgoblin bodies, somewhat charred,
had been dumped unceremoniously off to the side, while the peasants were still
pulling out bodies and remnants from the cellar, whose walls still stood. There
were several partial-bodies, covered with blankets, off to the side, and
various items of potential reclaimable value piled nearby.
They climbed the ladder and looked down into the cellar;
where they thought to find a statue of Set they found instead… a statue of
Mitra! “Set is the Great Deceiver,” Will comments to all, “Obviously, the
enchantment I saw upon the statue earlier allows it to appear in different
forms. This will not go well for us, if we are discovered!”
They climb down to the cellar and start helping the peasants
sift through the ruins. “Any sign of the bailiff?” they ask. “None yet,” the
peasants say, “but with that fire, he may have been reduced to ash.”
The espy the poisoned blade of the bailiff, where they left
it, too worried of poisoning themselves. Even as a few of them discuss what to
do with that, Konkeror looks to his staff, then to the statue; then back at his
staff, and again to the statue. Smiling, he steps over and touches the staff to
the statue… and immediately the statue of Mitra turns into the statue of Set,
and the quarterstaff turns to the snake-headed staff!
The other party members notice this even as the peasants do…
“Setites!” the peasants call out. “You are all Setites!” they cry as they run
to the ladder and climb out.
“No!” William and Tsun cry out. We are followers of Mitra!
It is the statue and staff that are evil!” William and Tsun follow the
peasants, with Yarlag and Balule close behind. Now angered beyond reason,
Konkeror lassos the statue and tries to pull it down… whereupon it turns into a
giant rattlesnake!
The rattlesnake lunges at Konkeror and bites him twice; on
the second bit, venom courses into his body, and the half-elf begins convulsing
and crying out terribly. His half-brother, Ayres, engages the snake in melee;
Yarlag and Balule, on the wall, loose arrows at it. Balule’s arrow strikes it
between the eyes; it shakes, hisses, then collapses into stone kin the form of
a dead serpent.
Ayers kneels by his brother and attempts to help him with a
scroll potent against poison, but to no avail; it is obvious that Konkeror is
dying and will very shortly breathe his last. Yarlag sees that William and Tsun
have given up following the peasants; he turns to look down at the others and
tells them that they are going to have to flee.
“But my brother!” Ayers cries out, “What about him?”
They look down at him, turning black and blue and shuddering,
and shake their heads. “If we stay, we may die as well, accused of being a
cultist like him.” Weeping tears of anger and sorrow, Ayers says a few elven
prayers over his dying brother as the others strip him of his weapons and
valuable equipment, then they flee, with Ayers promising vengeance on Set and
his minions. His last sight of his brother is of him shuddering in a painful
death amidst the ruins of the manor, beside the shattered statue of Set and
next to the snake-headed staff…
They sneak into the forest and around to the blacksmith
where they had left their horses and wagon. Finding there only a young boy,
they pay and tip him generously, the swiftly fell down the road to Brushwood.
They arrive several hours later, hopefully long before any
strange rumors (for they had not been passed on the trail), and quickly seek
out the sheriff, from whom they receive their 100 gp reward for the head of the
ogre. Yarlag and Balule each give Daniena 5 gp of the reward, to help her “get
started as an adventurer, especially if you are going to be sticking with us.”
She thanks them both, and gives Balule a meaningful smile…
Unsure of what exactly to do next, they stop for lunch at
the Tipsy Troll Tavern, on the Difring Trail west from Brushwood, just outside
the palisade wall, to decide what to do next… and to keep an eye out for anyone
from Scrubvale who might call them out as Setites…
 |
| They shall learn why they fear the night... |
Treasure Gained
Ogre treasure 1,000 sp, 1,000 gp, eight zircons worth 50 gp
each.
Set necklace worth 1,500 gp; signet ring worth 500 gp.
Magical +1 shield from the Warrior Woman.
Warrior Woman treasure 10 zircons worth 50 gp each (given to
surviving hobgoblins).
Ayers gets his brother’s magical +1 broadsword and potion of
water breathing.
Poisoned blade of the Bailiff abandoned in ruined manor
house.
Snake staff abandoned in the cellar.
Opponents Slain or Defeated
Hippogriff of Gasconfold Plain
Nameless Ogre
Malagig the Bailiff
Nameless Priest of Set
Nameless Warrior-Woman of Set
Nameless Sorceress of Set (no body found, still alive?)
Companions Lost
“The Mighty” Konkeror
Dave the War-Dog
Gary the War-Dog
Two hobgoblins
Level-Ups
Yarlag the Hideous advances to 2nd level.
