Gamble looses his arrow at the first orc he spies .
One orc is hit by Gamble's arrow but not enough to take him down .
Elendyr casts a powerful spell on the orcs. One seems completely blinded by the spells while most of the other are clearly impaired by the spell to the exception of one who seems completely unaffected by it.
The two front orc retaliate but both miss.
The corpulent orc that seems to give order draws a hatchet and throws it at the mage. Elendyr is severely hit
The other orcs move next to the mage and tries to knock him down, without success!
Grimacing in pain, Elendyr casts an arcane shield again, strides away with elven speed, and looses an arrow at the green orc.
Gamble drops his bow and draws his longsword as he advances upon the nearest orc. He thrusts his blade at the warrior .
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Deerslicer pulls himself up to look over the palisade and hurls the lesser bottled lightning down at the big guy in front of the gate.
Or at least he attempts to. After failing to pull himself up to the top of the palisade, he changes his tactic and tells Gracie to go attack the orcs. The bear climbs down and attacks one of the orcs attacking Simon and Gamble.
The fight...was a bloodbath. Between the plethora of orc warriors, the very large Lord Nar with a club taller than Deerslicer, and the sharpshooter Graytusk in the watch tower, the group had their work cut out for them. Whether by skill or luck, the group takes out the foes one by one. The group recovers a key off of the largest orc, Lord Nar.
In the center of this wooden hut is a massive stone throne. Crudely carved with howling orc faces, the chair is clearly intended to intimidate. Flanking it on the walls of the hut are two massive leather canvases featuring simplistic paintings. On the left is an image of a mountain peak with an orc head howling up at it from a great cavern at the mountain’s heart. On the right is the image of a tall, slender woman with black hair. Her ears suggest she is elven or half-elven. In one hand, she holds a large beaker overflowing with green liquid; in the other, she holds naked fire. At the back wall, you can make out a curtain partly concealing an opening into the cliff face.
Inside this room there were various pieces of treasure though nothing particular noteworthiness. Through another crude leather tarp the orcs' sleeping quarters was found
The cave opening reveals a connected pair of cramped chambers that stink of sweat and campfire smoke. The floor is covered in debris and piles of filth. Almost a dozen sleeping mats are nestled in nooks and built into the walls throughout this space.
The sleeping quarters were empty, having raised the alarm and attracted all of the orcs' attention previously. Inside of the sleeping quarters the group found some more treasure but most noteworthy was a potion of invisibility and a silver key.
Entering the larger part of the fortress had two routes-- the side guard tower which would've had to have been entered to get rid of the pesky sharpshooter. Graytusk was found with a quiver of 40 arrows and a bucket of 100 more...she could've kept up target practice for quite some time.
From the yard, the group sees two double doors with heavy wooden planks and reinforced with iron bands. The doors are locked and emblazoned with an image of a small village in flames. Using the key from Lord Nar, the doors swing wide open.
A worn carpet stretches from the doors to another double door across the way. To the right is a curved wall with a map of the nearby area painted on it. Spite’s Cradle is in the center, with lines drawn to all of the nearby major settlements and noting travel times by horse. Where Etran’s Folly should be, there is only a simple legend that reads “Ruins of Plaguestone.”
Suddenly after entering the room, however, wind starts to gust around and two elemental hawks appear. The Zephyr hawks, as you soon learned they were called, put up a fight though were but a little challenge. Heading deeper into the fortress, the group finds a study with a bookshelf filled with alchemical lore from top to bottom. To the south of this study led to a locked door that was unlocked with the key from the orcs' sleeping chamber.
The door swings open to reveal a well-appointed lounge. Off to one side, a pair of padded chairs sits in front of a fireplace lit with faintly glowing embers. Two bookcases flank the fireplace along the curved wall; they are filled with tomes, scrolls, and an assortment of odd and esoteric objects. Nearby, a staircase goes up to a second level, and a door stands partly open, leading into a kitchen.
The room is otherwise uninteresting other than the sound of some pots banging together coming from the kitchen. Peeking through the door....
Dirty pots and pans are piled high on the table in the center of this room, obscuring the view of the fireplace that sits beyond. Something in this kitchen is making a terrible racket; it sounds like a wooden spoon clattering against an iron pot.
You see a tiny, flying creature inside that is stirring the pots. It turns around to see you, shrieks and throws a pan at you before trying to run away. It's harmless, or so you think...one of you soon learn this is Homunculus which are telepathically linked to their master. if its master didn't know you were here already....it does now. Whether you kill the creature or otherwise restrain it, you move up the flight of stairs.
The stairs ascend into a small hall. The curved wall here is covered in paintings of a woman whom you do not recognize. There is a set of double doors. Attempting the door you find that not only is it locked, but also trapped! A freezing alchemical liquid drops from the ceiling and covers everyone in an alchemical slurry that deals a bit of damage but wasn't life threatening. Using the key found earlier in the sleeping quarters, the group is able to unlock and open the door.
The doors open to reveal a bedchamber with a large bed opposite the door, flanked by a desk and a dresser. The heady scent of lilac hangs heavy in the air, emanating from a cone of incense that is still smoking faintly.
searching the room the group finds the desk to be filled with personal effects and correspondence. Reading the letters you uncover the letters confirming delivery of various shipments of alchemical reagents. Additionally, another piece of parchment contains dates and notable occurrences; near the bottom it shows the date of when the caravan arrived to town with a note "Tied up lose end: merchant." Two separate entries are below. One is dated yesterday, "The last reaction is in place." The last entry has no date but the comment "Mother avenged."
Unsure what to make of this, you head back to the study, and then up the stairs to open the doors to a new room.
Standing at one end of this long chamber is a marble statue of an elven woman holding a flask. She is dressed in a flowing gown, and liquid tears streak down her cheeks into a small pool surrounding the statue’s base. Other than the faint burbling of water, this chamber is peaceful and still.
The burbling of the water was a little unsettling, however, rather than leave it alone one of you decided to approach the pool for a closer look. A pair of brine sharks jump out of the pool to attack! Like the last pair of elementals, these too were no match for the group.
To the right, you find a storage chamber that is piled high with boxes, barrels, and crates. Searching it you realize this is a vast supply of alchemical tools, reagents, and supplies, though you'd need to find some way to transport it all if wanting to keep it.
Returning to the shrine, you head north and open another pair of doors.
The doors open into a long chamber packed full of alchemical gear and experiments. Cauldrons stand next to tables where even now volatile mixtures are brewing and bubbling. A large furnace is opposite the door, just behind a long pool of water with a statue of a woman standing at its head. To the east, a passageway reveals a set of descending spiral stairs.
The tables to the north and south are covered in alchemical equipment, and you spot several creatures working when you arrive. The creatures look like large, wingless homonculi . These creatures attack on sight and put up a fight! They strike with various alchemical attacks and vomit pools of caustic alchemical reagents. They too prove to be no match for you and fall after some resistance. The central table has an assortment of alchemical items that appear ready to be shipped. Among the supplies there is a small crate containing 6 vials of lesser alcheemist fire, and another with 4 lesser acid flasks. Lastly, there is a small, velvet lined box containing a single dose of a lesser stone body mutagen. A note on the table indicates that these items are intended for an address in the Chelish capital of Egorian.
The statue in this room looks remarkably similar as the prior statue, though slightly different subjects. This statue is in the same pose, but does not have tears streaming down her face. Instead the statue depicts a hard, cold, and calculating expression.
The spiral stairs from the laboratory descend fifty feet before ending in a narrow hallway. To one side, more stairs descend further to an iron door, while the hallway continues south to a simple wooden door. Along the wall is a carving of a small farming village surrounded by an immense graveyard.
From the hallway you see two doors. One door is to the west, down a flight of stairs. The second door is straight ahead to the north. You check the eastern door first, it is barred shut from this side. Whether it was a good idea or not, you unbar the door and try to crack it open....
Screeching open on rusted hinges, the door opens to a room that is quite large, with a ceiling twenty feet above. The north side of the room is divided into three cells by iron bars. To the north is a high platform overlooking the cells. Two of the cells are empty, while the third contains a pitiful mass, huddled in the corner even though its cell door is open.
Taking a closer look you see that this pitiful mass seems to be composed of dozens of creatures and is only recognizable as a mass of flesh and limbs. Meet, the Amalgam . Seeing this monstrosity you quickly close and bar the door shut.
Back up the stairs, and opening the north door....
This large chamber contains an alchemical laboratory, but unlike the one upstairs, it is clear that this is a laboratory for only one alchemist. Everything is meticulously cleaned and well organized. Two cauldrons bubble alongside a central table covered in alchemical equipment. The walls are lined with shelves that hold old books and orderly rows of glass bottles, each containing reagents and ingredients. Three pits, their contents hidden from view, fill one side of the room; nearby, a tall glass cylinder contains the blackened corpse of a dwarf surrounded by a swirling green mist.
This...is where it all went wrong. It started out simple enough, you see some more alchemical drudges along the south wall that don't seem to notice you, but when you enter the room a flaming rat jumps out of one of the cauldrons and begins to attack. Then, the alchemical drudges move to attack as well. Of course none of this is all that quiet and while you're working on protecting yourselves your friend from the prison cell climbs up platform to investigate. You hear the lumbering mass in the distance but don't see it until it is too late -- It has joined the fight! The fight is your toughest yet-- smoke filling part of the room, alchemical supplies being thrown every which way and to make things worse the Amalgam strikes not once, not twice, but FIVE times in one round. It swings its many limbs every which way-- a fist here, a claw there, jaws for one target, a tail swipe for another. If the ever was an end to your adventure, it might have been here. But with some clever thinking and teamwork, you're able to take out all the creatures with perhaps only a few of you going down.
Having secured the laboratory you look around and find a plethora of things. Among your findings there is a formula book which details many alchemical formulas but two new ones-- energy mutagen and stone body mutagen. You find seveeral minor and lesser elixirs of life, alchemist fires, acid flasks, frost vials, and more inside of the room. You also notice that some of the tools here are tainted with an oily green residue. Gamble studies this consults the formula book. After inspecting all the available ingredients he believes this is a side effect of viridian vapor. The formula book describes inhaling the vapor to cause an absolutely lethal disease where fungus grows in the lungs within hours leading to death with no potential cure.
It's at this point you cross reference all your other notes and logs from Bort's shipments and one thing becomes absolutely clear: there was enough ingredients delivered to create 500 batches of viridian vapor and worse yet, none of these ingredients can be found in the laboratory in any quantity other than a number of empty containers that may have held the supplies.
A parchment is also tucked inside the formula book, it bears a simple diagram of a round, flat-topped rock with a depression on top. The diagram depicts a procedure for using acid to create a reservoir inside the stone. There is only one note on the illustration reading "Mother's ring will be the key"
You ponder this for a moment, but perhaps don't understand what it means. You search more in the laboratory and see in a tall glass cylinder on the east side of the room is the remains of a dwarf. Studying this closely and combining this with the knowledge Gamble shared, Simon confirms that the dwarf in the chamber died from viridian vapor-- the dwarf's skin split open revealing fungus that had consumed his flesh. Vapor still swirls around in the closed chamber...
All leads explored in this room, the group makes haste through the double doors to the west.
The stairs descend into a rough-hewn chamber, the far side of which looks like a natural cave. In the southeast corner, a passageway winds off into darkness. A sputtering torch is mounted next to the door. In the distance, you can hear the sound of rushing water.
Deerslicer notices veins of green in the rock, and after looking at it more closely he realizes this ore is called flaystone. The group knows from the formula book that this is one of the key ingredients in the creation of viridian vapor and part of the reason it is so deadly. When ground up, the green rock deals serious damage to the lungs which allows an infection to hold and grow within hours.
The twisting corridor opens into a large cavern filled with large, glistening stalactites and stalagmites. Puddles of brackish water dot the floor, and while the sound of rushing water seems to be close by, the source is not in this room.
In your haste to locate the missing supplies you make a bit too much noise and find yourselves attacked by a giant bat and a vampire bat swarm. No matter, just a minor nuisance for heroes such as yourselves. After healing any minor wounds the group moves towards the sound of water...
The winding passage ends in a large cavernous chamber. Running through the middle is an underground river rushing from east to west. A narrow bridge crosses the water; it looks slick with moisture and mold. On the far side of the chamber are immense formations of cloudy, green rock, and in front of them is a large black cauldron with a fire burning at its base. Light filters into this chamber from above through a twisting crevasse in the ceiling; the far side of the cavern is lit by glowing green orbs suspended by chains from stalactites.
Stepping out from behind the massive cauldron is a thin woman, gently pointed ears rising up from her oily, raven-black hair. She is wearing stitched leathers bearing countless pouches and pockets filled with glass vials. She looks at you with a sneer.
“So, you must be the fools that arrived with Bort. Sorry about your friend,” she says, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “I couldn’t let anyone piece together what had happened here, and he knew too much. I am sure you think you can stop me and save the town. You shouldn’t have bothered. They are a wicked, worthless lot and don’t deserve compassion. How could they, when they let their own suffer and die in agony? Scorning a child out of spite?” As she says the words, she looks at each of you in turn. “Leave now and never look back. No one need ever know you were here.”
Of course, no one accepted such a ridiculous offer. You confirm this is Vilree, and between you and her is another monstrosity, deemed "The Behemoth" , that stands on the narrow bridge blocking you from easily getting to Vilree. Any pleasantries soon expired and Vilree made it clear the she was going to be stopped by nothing. The final encounter followed and the Behemoth might as well have been a brick wall. It stood tall and stomped on the ground to make nearby creatures fall prone. It also would strike a creature and knock them back 10-20ft in one hit! All the while Vilree stood afar and shot alchemical-doused crossbow bolts or lobbing alchemical bombs at the party.
Once the Behemoth was dispatched by Leofric, Vilree didn't stand much of a chance by herself. Refusing to surrender, she fought to the end. Just after a near-death spell was delivered by Elendyr, Vilree looks at you with contempt. “It doesn’t matter, you know. I’ve already won. I dispatched my minion to destroy the town just before you arrived here. Everyone in Plaguestone will be dead long before you ever get there!”
After finding the trail, it is a simple matter to follow the plodding footsteps of Vilree’s minion as it makes its way toward Etran’s Folly. Miles pass, minutes turn to hours, and the unsuspecting town grows ever closer. Vilree’s alchemical servant never seems to tire, and there is no sign that it ever stops for food or rest, but it does seem the distance is closing. The trail looks more and more recent.
Just as Etran’s Folly comes into view, so does Vilree’s drudge. It is close to the town but with haste it is still possible to catch it before it can complete its grim task!
When the party catches up to the alchemical drudge it is making a beeline for the plaguestone, just some 60ft from the stone, and the party 30ft behind the drudge. You remember the drawings earlier...the stone carved out...was it the plaguestone? The drudge is seen carrying a ring, the ring previously described as being the key. After a short chase the drudge didn't stop for anything other than death-- just a few feet short of its target! The ring is inspected and found to have been enchanted to explode if made in contact with stone. The plaguestone is also found to have been hallowed out and sure enough, 500 batches of virdian vapor have been stored in the stone. Had the drudge made it to the plaguestone then the ring would've exploded causing the vapors to blanket the town---the entire town, and you, surely would've died.
Tamli invites each of you to the funeral and gives each of you a chance to say a few words to the caravan master that treated everyone amicably. In spite of any shady deals he might have made over the years with questionable characters, he was genuinely kind and fair to his staff and those who rode with him. Tamli sheds more than a few tears as she says goodbye and attempts to make peace with the situation.
After the ceremony, Tamli approaches each of you and gives a gift-- Bort was fond of rings and collected a variety of them throughout his travels. She wishes to give one ring to each of you and states that many of them are magical.
After that, the world and its open roads are open. Where each of you go next...well, that's a story for another time.
Kunsheng also chooses to stay put, but Elendyr returns to his home, the mystery of the missing caravan solved and a small piece of the world put right.