Hmm , interesting ... not sure what the consensus is for the party.
- Enter the farmhouse with the intent to destroy the Grauls
- Get back to town to rest & resupply (sounds like 2 of you lean against doing this, so maybe isn't likely)
- Hang out inside the barn and wait for the Grauls to make the first move.
For her part, Shelalu urges action now. "We should stay on the offensive, before the Grauls have time to better build their defenses."
"Hells, let's just set the house on fire and shoot them as they come out. I'm rapidly losing patience with this clan.'
Setting the house on fire would likely prove very difficult given the amount of recent rains. In fact, you haven't had a day of clear skies since you left Magnimar.
If you do decide to enter the farmhouse, remember there's 2 entrances. A wide front porch on the south side, and tracks suggest that the it's little used. A side door on the east wall showed signs of traffic.
Couldn't burn the briar patches at Thistletop. Can't burn the Graul house. Just what can we burn, Mr. Dungeonmaster? ;)
How do y'all want to handle the rescued rangers (insert 90's Disney cartoon joke)? Tackling the house?
As mentioned above, Lleidr is for healing up the rangers, equipping them with our extra daggers and bows, and letting them act as back up.
With such a potentially large group, moving around in the house could be tricky and dangerous. As Selia suggested, maybe we could ding-dong-ditch them into coming out so we can fight them in the yard?
Ned has a spare longbow he can lend someone.
Lleidr has a extra dagger, short short, and short bow, as well as 50 normal arrows. He'll be glad to pass them around as long as the rangers have an acceptable, non-refundable deposit.
Weell...in my defense, it has been raining a lot lately!
Which makes the roof hard to burn.... :-)
It costs nothing to come back another day - we've blunted their clan and destroyed their guardians. We can always come back.
Jakardros shakes his head. "You'd be a fool to come back to this place, unless you fancy winding up on their dinner table. Help us out of here, back to the village. We need to take back Fort Rannick."
Shelalu gasps. "Then the Fort has fallen? How ... ?"
Kaven nods. "Whatever we do, let's do it now. We can explain what's happened later when we have more time."
Shelalu offers an idea. "Let's put it to a vote. Myself, Kaven, Lleidr want to storm the Graul house now. Parthen, what do you think? You're probably the smartest one here.
"Nicholae, Jak, that's two who want to leave. Selia, you're wanting to wait, right? "
Shelalu then nods to the third former prisoner, a dark-skinned fellow, who has yet to speak. "Vale, you've been awfully quiet. What's your vote?"
Vale points towards the barn entrance, in the direction of the house. "I want to go in that house and kick their collective asses. Besides, I think they hid our gear in there, and I'd hate to lose my beloved battleaxe forever."
Shelalu smiles. "So, that leaves it up to Ned and Parthen: either storm the house now or leave/hold out here. I wish we could simply burn the place down, too, but it's been so wet lately, you'd have trouble getting a match to strike today."
Jakardross nods. "I think the mother is a witch or sorceress of some kind. Probably has the house jinxed against fire or some such."
Weell...in my defense, it has been raining a lot lately!
lol You say that like you have no control over the weather. And now you've got poor Shelalu acting as your puppet in game, supporting your "too wet to burn" agenda? You, sir, are pyrophobic :)
No matter how the decision goes, while the group discusses what to do, Lleidr will give the barn a once over, using Detect Magic and Detect Poison as he feels necessary. He'll also make sure to check the dead ogre-ish guys, the spider's corpse, and its nest, if he can get in there. Not sure what they were feeding it, but there might be clues/remains/treasure in the webs.
Selia nods. "I think if we walk away now, they will be waiting for us... or worst, come hunting for us and find someone else to take vengeance on."
"Plus, there's that battleaxe thing..."
"Let's go in. Might be an idea to avoid the doors though. Maybe go in through a window or something...unless it's been raining too hard of course."
Yes, it's far too damp to attempt a window entry.
Actually, the windows are all boarded up, but you could try to smash through, pry board loose, etc.
There's quite a few boarded up windows:
- 3 on the east side, 1 near the side door
- 4 on the north side, 1 of which is towards the back, on a tacked on room
- 2 on the west side (the back of the house), also on this addition to the home
- 3 on the south side, with 2 on the front porch, and 1 on the room addition at the back of the home
There's also and upper story, with exactly 2 windows, both of which are on the west side of the house, exactly 10' apart
Sounds like the party's in agreement to proceed to the farm house. Just need to know the point of entry. Again, there are 2 obvious doors to the home:
- front porch on the south side
- well-worn path leading to a side door on the east side of the home
Chances are this property will be listed soon, and with the way home prices keep going up in this area, you don't want to miss your opportunity to provide a place for your growing family.
I put together an image of the outline of the house, with the assistance of Selia's Light spell and vision. There's a small line across from each window, all of which are boarded up. The 2 doors are denoted with a crude 'D'
Oh geez, I forgot to mention the cat's happy reunion with Jakardros! Not sure i follow you, though. You want the cat to go into the farmhouse alone and lead the remaining ogre-kin outside?
You can tell it hardly wants to leave Jakardros' sight now that they've been reunited.
Quick update: What Parthen meant was that he's voting that you all go back to town with the prisoners, for safety.
Not sure if that changes what you've already decided.
Zilt, did Lleidr find anything from the barn?
Whether the rescued Arrows head back with, or without, Parthen or stick around and help us out, Lleidr will offer his extra weapons, putting away any that aren't accepted.
Once that's done, he'll sneak over to the house and check out the two doors, starting with the front porch, making sure to look for traps and whatnot on the porch as well as the door.
Ah, sorry, no nothing detected as magical in the barn. The room of cages & webs features a floor carpeted in the bones of various animals and humanoids - humans, gnomes, even a few elven skulls are scattered about.
The front room where you found Hograth, Jeppo and Sugar features a crude still with liqueur that smells so strong, it's almost nauseating.
Porch: This moss-encrusted, decaying farmhouse slumps drunkenly at the edge of the damp forest clearing. Rickety steps crawl up to a porch covered by a huge eave held aloft by thick pillars of pine. These timbers are decorated with crude carvings of manticores impaling children with their tail spikes and women being ripped apart by wolves. The carvings look like a child’s work, but the subject matter grows more gruesome and depraved from one depiction to the next. An unsettlingly large rocking chair of lashed wood and bone sways erratically in the breeze at the far end of the porch under a vast menagerie of wind chimes composed of decidedly humanoid bones. The house’s windows have all been boarded up with thick timbers, although it’s unclear whether this was done to keep intruders out or imprison whatever things make their home within.
A host of ants march happily away here and there on the porch, many the size of a grown man’s thumbnail. A moth the size of a shovel head clings to the porch ceiling, watching you with alien eyes. The scent of bad meat, urine, sweat, and decay wafts now and then from between the cracks in the boarded-up windows.
There are a couple of cunning traps in the porch. One is an array of spikes on a rack hidden in the ceiling, triggered to release upon touching the door. A pair of saw blade are also tucked under the porch's floorboards, ready to slide upward at the slightest touch of the door.
Side Door: You find no sign of traps or anything noteworthy on the side door.
Only almost nauseating? Lleidr won't be able to resist trying a sip. Who knows? Might help him win next year's Hagfish contest!
Re: all the bones. Say what you will, you have to admire a "waste nothing" approach to living.
Lleidr will make a mental note to bring Madfall around for a snack off the front porch after we deal with these ogrekin. He'll make some gestures back at the group that he hopes will indicate the two traps on the front door before moving to the side. Once he's determined the side door is clear, he'll hold his position, listening and waiting to see what the rest of the group is doing.
btw, that was a great description of the house!
Jakardros: "Pah, I won't cower in the barn with some wizard. If you're set upon entering that foul den, I will come with you. Even if that makes us all fools."
You hear a faint sound, squeaking as if from vermin, coming from the other side of the door.
BTW, that sound you heard is from the side door; there was no sound from the front door. Was afraid I was being confusing.
Can I get a round of Perception checks folks?
So, what's the party doing? Going in the sidedoor? Waiting out the Grauls? Going back to town? Disabling those traps you found? Going in the front door?
"Intresting tattoo," Ned says point ion to a small, 7 pointed rune shaped tattoo on Kaven's wrist. "I've seen something like that before. Didn't your cousin have one like that Lliedr?"
Kaven moves to cover it up with his other hand, then relaxes. "It's just something I've had for years, a symbol to show my love of the stars."
"Yeah? My cousin had the same one, except he said he got it from a woman named Lucy who used to run the Paradise gambling boat. You sure you don't have a love of games of chance, instead?"
Hey, Zilt, I was trying to read back over the game posts to figure out what we know about all this, but it's a little overwhelming. I recall we found an amulet on Nualia that had a seven pointed star. We also found victims of the Skinsaw cult that had the seven pointed star carved in them. Is there more info that I'm forgetting? Was this a religious symbol? I thought Nualia worshiped Lamashu or whatever, but that symbol was different that the amulet?
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Lamashtu's symbol doesn't match up with this 7 pointed rune, and you also got confirmation that the rune was representative of the 7 virtues of rule from ancient Thassilon, but is also interpreted as the 7 great sins: gluttony, anger, greed, envy, etc. You got all this from Brodert Quint, a visiting sage residing in Sandpoint researching a Thassilonian ruin in town, the Old Light, which features a lot of similar looking symbols.
So, assuming the seven great Thassilonian sins are the same as the seven deadly sins IRL, it seems safe to surmise we've dealt with wrath previously, and that now we're getting into greed? I seem to recall the letter we found in the clock tower from the lamashu's sister indicated she was focused on the greed of the people in this area?
Yeah, that one...the verbiage of which seems to disprove my theory about seven sins being harvested...
Sorry, I should use the discussion tab more.
Unless Kaven responds in a way that requires action, Lleidr will simply keep an eye on him.
Are we in general agreement about heading inside? If not, someone should stop Lleidr as he reminds the group about the squeaking behind the side door, then heads back over to carefully open that same door.
Yah, let's go in.
Ready
Kaven blushes a bit. "Yah, OK, you got me. It's kind of embarrassing, but I got the mark in exchange for discounts on the gambling barge."
This musty chamber smells of blood and week-old meat, and is thick with clouds of fat, greasy flies. Thumb-sized cockroaches dance along the walls, floor, and ceiling. A thick butcher’s block sits under three cruel-looking cleavers that hang on a rack above. Bloodstained smocks of thick leather, one still dripping fresh gore, hang on bone-spur hooks by the door. A crockery platter of severed fingers and toes sits on a rickety old table next to a dried sinew basket overflowing with hacked-off hands and feet, all sporting stubs of congealed blood where their digits once were. A family of lucky rats gorges itself on the red stumps.
I need a round of Fort checks from everyone to avoid being sickened by the smell.
I forgot to mention exits out of this room. There's 2 not counting the east door you entered.
- North wall has a door in the corner (near Nich)
- West wall has a door near the north wall (also near Nich).
Selia points to the north door. "There?"
, maybe +2 for Hagfish Hopeful bonus vs disease/poison?
Bleh, no matter what, looks like Lleidr's hurling.
I should point out that there is an upstairs in this place ... pretty obvious from the outside and I wasn't sure if I mentioned that before.
We need Fort rolls from Parthen and Nich.
Shelalu and the three rangers are sickened as well as Ned and Lleidr.
"Some seriously twisted people live here."