Castle Caldwell and Beyond: (A 5e Campaign) - The Wrecking Crew (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

Perry wishes the kobolds the best of luck, and then joins in the continued exploration of the manor.

Histoff wishes the kobolds good luck and goes with the group thinking abot whether their paths will cross again.

" Well, good luck Finnogun, Marolyn. " Niall waves and follows the rest of the group up the stairs.

The party shakes hands with the three kobolds, which seems to take an unusually long time to complete, and the three small friends gather their packs, and leave, saying they are going to grab a few chairs and head home, but that they might be back tomorrow.

When the kobolds have gone the party backtracks to the entrance hall and approaches the stairs once again.

Victor takes a good long look all along the upper floor where the hall can be seen and does not spot any obvious ambushes or signs of traps, while Klodd heads up the stairs once again.

Slowly the others follow, and the group finds themselves on the second floor, in a gallery like area that runs around the perimeter of the entry hall.

Valarie tries to stay in the middle of the group, holding her staff high so that the light shines all around.

To the east (to the right) there is a ten foot wide arched opening in the wall that leads into a large, deep room that you can see is shadowy, and empty. Going south from this opening, along the east hall wall are three doors spaced about fifteen feet apart

To the west you can see five doors along the west hall wall.
Each of the hallways, the east and west halls, go to the north, but from your place at the top of the stairs you cannot see what lies that way.

Victor heads up the stairs to join the others. He unslings his bow and draws his blade. He gestures to the west hall and begins to move in that direction.

Niall nods and follows Victor, holding his magically lit torch aloft. When (if) they make it to the first door, he pauses and looks it over for any obvious traps and listens for any noise from the other side.

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Ayita follows quietly.

Magnus nods at Victor's choice.

"You soft Alodoans usually associate the left-hand path with evil. But wise men follow the sun on its journey west. Only fools hasten the day by turning east."

perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17
Histoff looks for anything that might be of interest
So basically Magnus says that we should keep ourself under the sun light as much as possible.
Am I wrong Magnus ?

"I think he is saying that despite the fact that he believes I am a fool he agrees with me that this time I am right in choosing to go this way. Not that it matters, let's just get through this manse as we are losing daylight...?

Magnus smiles and follows Victor.

"And who but a priest would be so foolish as to stand around in the dark arguing philosophy?"

Heading toward the west second floor hallway, Victor stops when he reaches the intersection. Looking to the north he sees an opening on his right, which seems to open up into a parlor, or sitting room, and across to the north through this room he can see a set of doors which once night have held expensive glass panes, but are now boarded up tight.

The hall goes north, past this opening and ends in a small round stair going down.

In front of Victor is a heavy wooden door, shut, but it does not appear to be locked, while to his left, he sees the rest of the doors along the west wall going south.

Niall and Lijan pauses for a moment to listen for an ambush, or other danger, but all is quiet here and nothing looks out of the ordinary.

Valarie comes up the stairs last holding the light as high as she can.

Victor looks to Niall and Lijan and whispers, "Southern doors first?"

Currently Histoff is split apart between opening the door or not

I don't know looks the door looks really tempting.
Histoff says with half a smile.
But I don't know what is on the other side that might be waiting for us.
Histoff pauses for a moment.
Naa let's not open this door shall we, I prefer it shut.
He proceeds to walk 2 steps towards the south
Any objections ? Histoff whispers looking at the group while taking out his Thieve's tool and stepping back near the door.
just in case
Histoff then begins to check the door and unlock it if the party approves it.

Thieve's tool: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9

Niall just shrugs and then nods following Lijan and trying to hold the light so that the man can see what he's doing with the door.

Lijan examines the southernmost door, finds it is not locked, and he can see no sign of any obvious traps. There is a faint light shining through the crack under the door at the floor.

Opening the door, he sees a young human male, lying on a large comfortable, but very old looking bed. The bed clothes are new, but the frame of the bed is aged wood and the stain is eroding in places.

The man sits up in the bed when the door opens. He hands are bound in a leather sack, tied with leather straps in front of him and his legs are tied with good thick rope, fastened to the posts of the bed. He is gagged with a white cloth, but otherwise he appears to be in good health.

He looks at Lijan in surprise, and then he begins to try to speak, and it is obvious he is pleading for help.

I found something !
Histoff tells the group
A prisoner of some kind
Histoff lets the group come to see what he sees before he releases the white cloth from the man's mouth and untie the man from the rope.

"Wait! The room could be a trap. Let's proceed carefully."

As others look in the room, Victor peers around to see if opening this door has alerted whoever kept this captive here.

Perception 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

"Let this be a lesson for those with less experience in such matters -- Best to leave the rope and knots on the longship, but if you're going to bring them into the bedchamber, be sure to be the one doing the tying."

Sword drawn, Magnus keeps an eye out for the knot-maker.

Victor chuckles at Magnus' statement until he realizes the Vangar is not kidding then has to suppress the urge to laugh even harder...

Klodd walks in, see's the situation is well in hand, and stands down.

"I'll keep an eye out while you talkers deal with that one".

Looking all along the upstairs walk, pausing for a moment at each door, Victor checks to see if opening this door might have set off a silent alarm. No doors open, no armed men come rushing out to confront the group, all is quiet.

Ayita quickly calls out a warning to Lijan to proceed with caution, should this room be some sort of elaborate trap.

Lijan reaches for the gag around the man’s head, stuffed into his mouth, and hesitates for a moment.

When Lijan hesitates, the man’s eyes shift from pleading, to one of sad resignation, and he mumbles

ormh, mrrr banndth

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

"More bandits? Not us."

As Lijan removes the gag, Perry asks the man, "Are bandits the reason for your current predicament?"

The man takes a huge deep breath, and then whispers,
Thank you, yes. My name is Avell, Avell Gasperi. My family is in Seaport. I was travelling with a merchant caravan headed for Vurespania. We were attacked just as we were about to cross a bridge. Our caravan master charged the wagons ahead, and my pony bolted the wrong direction. I was never a great horseman. These ruffians caught me and put a sack over my head. I told them my family would pay a ransom for my return and they insisted I write a demand for a thousand gold pieces. I did. But it has been two weeks since I was taken. By now my wife or father would surely have paid the ransom, unless these bandits kept the money and are demanding even more. Can you get me out of here?

INT: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

Ander's face takes on a pensive look. "You're actually not the first victim of bridge-side brigands we've encountered recently. This is starting to sound dangerous."

INT 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11

Victor listens but does not respond to the man's tale.

INT: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0

"We can absolutely get you out of here. Can you tell us more about these bandits? It'll help to know what we are up against."

Intelligence: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (15) + 0 = 15

"And when did you last see these thieves? How many do they number?"

Klodd squints and watches the man closely as he speaks, to see if he's telling the truth.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18 Insight

1d20 - 1 ⇒ (8) - 1 = 7 INT Check

When the man mentions his family name he looks across the faces of his liberators and seems disappointed that no one recognized his family.

There were, five, maybe six of them, I can’t remember for sure, but their leader is called Faran, I heard some of his people call him by name. They are filthy vagabonds, Iarisheans. They did not seem to be wearing armor, but they had swords, and crossbows.

The man says trying to answer the questions about his captors.

Ayita consults with the group. "We should be able to handle six bandits. Do you think we should bring Avell to the shrine where we rested last night? He should be safe enough there until we can properly escort him back to town."

Ayita turns back to Avell. "How often do the bandits feed you? You obviously haven't starved after two weeks."

Ayita turns back to the group mischievously. "Maybe we can set up a trap for the bandits. At least one of the bandits will probably come back here soon. If we can ambush him, maybe we can get him to lead us to the rest. Eliminating the bandits will make exploring the rest of the mansion a lot less hazardous."

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24

Any good places to hide in the room or nearby?

They bring me a plate of bread, sometimes fruit, and some cheap wine, or sometimes just water, in the morning, and again they come to take me outside so that I can do my business, once in the afternoon and once at night*. There are always two of them, and one is always armed with a crossbow, but it is not always the same two. There is one of them, she is very attractive, and I’ve tried to get to know her, but she will not say anything.

*There is a boarded up window well in the south facing wall of this room, and you can see daylight filtered through the spaces between the boards, this must be how the man knows what time of day it is, and how many days have gone by. There is nothing else in this room, and upon closer inspection you can see that the bed is very old, and does not have a proper “mattress” but is stuffed with blankets and pieces of cloth. The bed sits a good foot and a half above the floor, but hiding under it would be difficult, as the bed cloths do not drape over the edges of the bed far enough to make it difficult to see under the bed from the doorway. There is nothing to hid behind in the hallway outside of this room either. Now, there are other doors, going north, along the same western wall, and it might be possible to hide in one of those rooms, with this room being the furthest south, you could rush this room once you know someone passed you by in the other rooms to the north

Perry raises an eyebrow.

"You're being held captive, and you're trying to flirt with one of your captors?"

There is a distinct air of disapproval in Perry's voice.

The man gives Perry a condescending look

I was trying to charm her into possibly letting me go, and if not that, at least try to get something out of this other than being held captive by a group of half starved immigrants. They haven't harmed me, yet, and I am beginning to think they are not the cold blooded killer types their leader claims them to be. Where's the harm in that?

So one of the captors is a female....interesting.
Histoff says and thinks for a second and then replies.
I think ambushing the bandits would be a very nice option.
Unless someone has a better idea ?

"Ambushing sounds fun. My blade has a thirst, and our exploration so far has done little to quench it," Magnus says, looking about for suitable positions.

"An ambush? How long do we wait? An hour, a day? I think we need to continue to explore this place, once it is secured the bandits will be much easier to deal with..."

"If this room is no good, let's check the other rooms along this wall and see if they are better. We should probably take Avell with us."

"Agreed," Perry says, nodding. "Let's secure more of the area before focusing on what to do later."

When it is finally decided that securing more rooms is the best course of action, Lijanb begins freeing the man, while everyone else files out into the hall.

Magnus is first, and as soon as he clears the door, and looks north, he is surprised to see two elves standing fifteen feet in front of him.

They are males, and look to be young (perhaps in their twenties). One of them carries a wooden bowl with pieces of cheese, dried fruit, and a few turnips, and the other carries a crossbow, held down at his side, unloaded.

"I guess we don't have to wait after all."

Ayita charges in before the elves get a chance to react.

Unarmed Strike: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
Damage: 1d4 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4
Short Sword: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
Damage: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

She kicks through the bowl that the one elf is carrying and straight into his face, then swings her sword around toward the second elf with the crossbow.

"Idiot," Magnus mutters, seeing the unloaded crossbow.

In one smooth motion he grips one of the javelins from the satchel hanging over his shoulder and throws, the missile arcing toward the elf with the unloaded weapon.

Javelin attack: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 241d6 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

"Boy! You sure live up to your nickname don't you? Would you quit attacking everything you see? I bet school was a challenge for you".

Klodd stands ready, but does not attack waiting to see the reaction.

"She started it," Magnus growls over his shoulder.

"Seriously guys?" Ayita questions. "These are clearly the bandits who've been waylaying travelers and who've imprisoned Avell. They are dangerous men and a disgrace to elven kind. We can subdue them but its best we don't give them a chance to bring their weapons to bear."

Ayita did not attack the kobolds. She doesn't attack everyone on sight.

" Woh! " Niall exclaims in surprise as a bolt of green crackling energy arcs from his free hand almost unintentionally, towards the elf with the crossbow.

Eldritch Blast : 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16
Possible disadvantage due to cover/allies in the way : 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
Force damage : 1d10 ⇒ 8

Klodd was making his usual bad, miss timed joke, playing upon her name "First to Dance".

Hoping they are not starting a war they can't win, or killing a potential ally, Klodd attempts to defuse the situation. He carefully sights his crossbow and bellows for the elves to surrender.

Ready action to shoot his Crossbow, triggered by the elves aggressively attacking, and not trying to defend themselves.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13: Intimidation
1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10: Insight

If needed

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11: Crossbow
1d8 ⇒ 7: Bolt

"Stand down, and raise your hands, and you might survive to see the light of another day, you lilly livered tree huggers".

Victor turns to the doors to ensure none open and if they do, he is ready to attack any who may exit to threaten the group.

Perception 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18