Dragons Demand - LJM table 1

Game Master Liam Mooney

The witch tower is the remains of Castle Tula, named after the towns founder Tula Belhaim, a famous dragon-slayer who killed the dragon who destroyed her village as a girl not far from here earning the title of Baroness. The tower was razed in 4500 A.R. following an ill-fated attempt at rebellion against the Grand Prince.

Rushing to the Witch Tower you see a crowd gathering nearby a collapsed ruin with only the first two floors still standing, you can see two kobold corpses in the wreckage. There are two sheriff deputies there, one scratching her head and the other standing with his hands on his hips, chewing on a stalk of grass.

You should check if Hunclay knows anything someone from the crowd shouts out to them, "the wizards long wanted the tower knocked down for spoiling his view."

At this the two deputies turn to each other and start arguing over which of them will knock on the wizards door.

Halders' run slows to a walk, then a saunter as he approaches the crowd. He sees the arguing deputies and walks over to them.

What time of day is this?

OiOi lads, whats all this then? Whos this Hunclay the rabble are sqwakin'bout?
diplo: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

It's around 8pm, the suns starting to go down

The woman who was scratching her head turns to Halders "You must be new here if you don't know who Hunclay is. Anyway, you and the rabble should go back where you came from and leave this to us." She turns back to the other guard, "it's your turn anyway, I had to break up the argument between Nilos and Eupaphenia last week......."

Ragnar catches up and works his way through the crowd to look over the collapsed ruins and the dead kobolds. He scans the area with detect magic before searching for anything out of the ordinary and if the kobolds have anything on them.
Casts guidance
Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16

Rabble? Shondra clears her throat. "We are skilled troubleshooters, and it would appear that you have troubles. Thus, we may be of assistance to you." Rabble. Hmph.

”Leave them be to their own problems then.” Galessa shrugged. Then, out of earshot, she whispered to her companions ”We’re out of a job. But that place is a ruin that the locals don’t go to. Let’s loot it and see what we can salvage from this mess.”

Halders' ears prick up when Galessa says something about loot.
He turns back to the guard who dismissed them; "Did I say 'who'? I meant to say Where- Where is Hunclay?
bluff: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

If he can't get information out of the guard he'll talk to the person who suggested Hunclay was the reason for the trouble
perception to find the voice in the crowd: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

"Oioi, Halders Isgood at ya service. Me and the troup 'ere are lookin to right wrongs and wot not. I 'eard you say somefing about Hunclay being the problem- now, jus between you and me, those guards are dragging their heels and we can get the job done quick smart - for a small fee ofcourse, must pay for the dwarf an'his mule feed- Now, who and where is Hunclay so we can confront the mucker who caused this catastrophe."

Halders grins hopefully.
diplomacy to gather information: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

"Hunclays an astronomer wizard who moved here a few years back from Rahadoum" one of the townsfolk says before pointing to the house that shares the hilltop with the Witch Tower "that's his manor there and it seems to have a much clearer view to the East now."

"Hunclays definitely been up to something" another villager adds "that towers been there as long as the town has and now that some wizard comes and says he wants it gone it collapses, he must of done a spell on it."

Walking out from the crowd the local undertaker, Calladastina Hodas grumbles in exasperation at the two guards who are still arguing over who will knock on the door "if you two don't want to go I'll do it for you" she says.

Ragnar detects no magic in the area and the 2 kobolds seem to have nothing of value on them, whatever mundane things they did have are too small and damaged to be of any use now.

”Locals seem pretty set on taking care of this themselves. Anyone want to go see what we can scavenge?”

Calladastina approaches the Wizards manor but stops when she finds another kobold body on the doorstep, this one scorched to death. The deputies finally take action and Hodd (the man who was chewing on grass) bangs on the door but gets no reply. Mulle (the woman who was scratching her head) reaches for the door handle but Hodd stops her "Whatever magic did in that kobold could still be active" he says.

At this point, a well dressed woman and her son (he looks to be in his early twenties) arrive and quickly take charge of the situation. She gets a report off the deputies and then one of the locals she knows before she scans the crowd. Her eyes briefly pass the obviously overmatched deputies before falling on the party.

"Who are you?" she asks.

Ludvic will do a quick glance over to the rest of the party before nodding.

”We are some guards who were accompanying a caravan through town. Recently out for hire! I can’t help but notice you may need some bodies to investigate inside. We would be happy to take on the job with the guards blessing.”

“Today’s your lucky day. Mulle and Hodd here can’t handle this without the Sheriff to hold their hands, and I want to know what happened here. You seem to be a capable bunch. If you go in there and look through the rubble—find out what happened and why there are kobolds in my town—I’ll pay the lot of you 500 gold pieces. While you’re looking around in the ruins, keep an eye out for any signs of our local eccentric, Hunclay. It seems somewhat suspicious to me that he’s not answering his door. Let me know what you find.”

Sensing the stress the woman was under, Galessa decided to push her luck. ”Five hundred to investigate seems fair enough. And negotiable if what we discover leads to more dangerous work?”

Halders shares the glance with Ludvic; [b]"Yes, our contract was terminated prematurely after our employee was done for smugglin' - such a shame, we worked so long and 'ard to offer the best of services."[b]

"Five hundred sounds agreeable. I'm in. I assume that we can keep anything of value that we find?"

"Yes, if your investigations lead to further work I may be able to offer it to you and if you find anything valuable in there you are free to keep it.

"Be careful though, my fool husband lost his life poking around in that damn tower, I'd begun to think of it as his memorial. I'm not surprised that it fell though, Hunclay has long been pestering me to sell him the tower so that he can knock it down and his absence in the crowd here is suspicious."

Ragnar nods and rubs his chin, happy to hear a voice of authority.Done and done. Ragnar Barrowheim at your service. He confers with the rest of the party. I gave the rubble a once over and was not able to find anything out. Before we dig into this much further, I need to grab my armor and some gear from the inn. He waits to see if anyone needs anything or if they will be accompanying him before leaving the tower area.

Ragnar is able to collect his equipment (and anything anyone else needs) before approaching the collapsed tower.

Only the first two floors of the tower still stand and the main door to the tower has been blocked by rubble within and so is inaccessible.

New map slide

An enormous heap of cracked stone and splintered wood from the tower lies in a low mound here, tumbled partially down the hill to the southeast. The mound of rubble forms a natural ramp that leads up to the now-exposed second floor of the tower above.

Knowledge Engineering if anyone wants to scan the ruins, I'll need a climb check if anyone moves up the rubble/climbs the building.

Ludvic will start walking the perimeter of the building, trying to see if there is anything spilled out on the ground or on the ground floor of the building before he risks climbing up it.

Halders followed Ragnar back to retrieve his gear. He sullenly remained a distance behind the cleric but would perk up when greeting people on the way to and from.

After arriving back at the ruined tower he gets to searching through the rubble looking for any trinkets hidden amongst the rock. He'll venture across the rocks, picking through them.
perception hidden loot: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20

Do I understand this correctly that the doorway to the ground floor is blocked so the only way in is the first floor climbing up the rubble?

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

Galessa stood back, watching for any signs that the tower was still unstable and might collapse further.

Halders doesn't find anything of value in the rubble of the tower.

Yes, the main door is blocked from the inside so the only way ups over the rubble or climbing the outer walls (climb check either way but the walls a higher DC).

Knowledge Engineering is needed if anyone wants to check over the rubble before climbing it.

Knowledge Engineering Untrained: 1d20 ⇒ 6

Deciding that she had no idea how safe it was, but that she wanted to get paid, she began to climb...

Climb!: 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (17) - 3 = 14

...and against all the odds wasn’t half-bad at it!

If we can try the engineering roll untrained I'll give it a go
know(engineering) untrainted: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16

Halders will scamper up the rubble after Galessa.
climb check: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (3) - 1 = 2

Shodra tries to climb the rubble carefully, looking for hand and footholds and tumbles back down, not having gotten far enough to wound anything but her pride.

Climb (untrained): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5

Ludvic will wait for some one to attach a rope to anything sturdy for him to climb up. He is not confident in his own abilities.

Which Galessa did, once she reached where she needed to be.

Halders can't figure out anything from the rubble

As Halders tries to climb up the rubble he slips and dislodges some rocks which fall down on him as he tumbles to the bottom.

Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Shondra also makes no progress but doesn't dislodge any of the debris.

From the top, Galessa is able to get a better view of the area:

Open to the sky above, this exposed upper floor contains only some smashed furniture and a sprinkling of rubble. A trap door is set in the floor against the northwest wall, but a stout timber has fallen across it.

With Galessa's rope in place the rest of you can get up the side of the tower without difficulty.

Halders' hubris gets the better of him and as he reaches the next floor he slips and tumbles down the rubble (doing significant damage to both his HP and pride).

He lets out a tirade of profanities, kicking the rocks at his feet. He glares at the rope as it is flung down and waits until everyone else has climbed before he hoists himself up.

Once up he'll, draw in a breath, steadying himself and sidle up to Ragnar, tapping him on his arm.
"I... I got... me arm is banged up... d... d'ya have anyfing for it?"

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

”Desna blesses the brave and the foolish.” She said with a smile, touching his arm, causing it to instantly heal. ”Ready to explore?”

Halders smiles softly at Galessa, "Fankyou, lady" He pats himself down, wiping the blood and checking his clothes for rips (this one is gonna need a stitch of two) and stretches, swinging his arm.

And now that he's all warmed up;
"alright me muckers, no point in dilly-dallying, lets us get paid"

"I like being able to afford things!"

Ludvic will shout as he reaches the top thanks to the rope. Rubbing his hands together, he will take a 10 to help assist anyone who tries and moves the beam from on top of the hatch.

Ragnar makes his way carefully up the rope with assistance muttering under his breath.I am going to feel this in the morning, maybe a century ago this would have been no problem. He nods to Galessa. Well done that, both the rope and the arm.

The dwarf frowns at the beam and moves over to one end to assist in moving it.
Strength check to assist: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (4) - 1 = 3

Galessa silently glowed from the compliment. She kept her mouth firmly shut though. It was as her father said to her time and time again. Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Between a few of you the timber is lifted out of the way, revealing another room below the trap door.

The tower’s large ground floor has mostly collapsed under the rubble, but along the western portion of the room a section remains clear of debris. An iron trap door set in the floor is directly below a companion door in the ceiling above. Shattered wooden furniture lies scattered around the corpses of two small, green-scaled creatures.

The only light in this room is what's being let in through the door you've opened above it.

Being able to see in the dark, Galessa went over to the corpses. Both to check them for anything of value and to see if she could tell what killed them.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15
Untrained Heal: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Shondra finishes the climb and lets out a breath. The effort was hardly exhaustive, but she did not want to make her allies feel bad. She patiently waits for Galessa to offer her report.

Halders climbs down after Galessa, searching the area in the Dim light.

"If'n we go any furver, we'll need torches- I canna' see a fing."
perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

"I have a similar issue, my small friend. Not all of us have the excellent eyesight of the elves or the dark-accustomed eyes of the dwarves."

Galessa and Halders aren't able to find anything of value that hasn't been damaged by the fallen rubble. The kobolds appear to have been crushed by rubble that fell from the ceiling.
There's another trap door below the one you've descended down that leads underground.

”Anyone have any torches? Desna has blessed my eyes, but I can’t make light. And there is a door here that leads underground.”

"Kobolds! caught ina collapse or is it a nest of the beasties?
He nudges the creature with his boot.

"I 'ave a couple a'torches, but left most of'em back at me room... you can carry this'n.
Halders will happily hand the torch off to anyone else to carry.
"me mum always said, moths and beasties are drawn to the light."

Ragnar sets his pack down and opens it up and pulls out 4 torches as well as flint and steel. He grins a bit satisfied."Here we are who all would like one? I need both hands free for my crossbow." At the sight of another trapdoor he shakes his head and begins knotting a length of rope. "I really hope there will be an easier way out of this place than getting in."

Shondra takes a torch.

The trapdoor leads to a large and dark room below but luckily there is a sturdy looking ladder that's survived the towers collapse intact.

Perhaps too eager to explore, Galessa made her way down.

Ragnar puts away up the rope and any unclaimed touches and re-shoulders his pack. He climbs down the ladders and peers into the darkness to watch for any more scaly denizens. He mutters under his breath. "Stay alert, I'm not going to let it happen again."

He rubs the holy symbol around his neck and draws his crossbow, leaving it unloaded.

"I will need both hands free for exploring so I will stick near to anyone with a light source."