Part 27: Session 19: Have Fun Storming the Castle!

Session 19: Have Fun Storming the Castle!

…And that’s why the moon lantern made her explode.

“I still don’t get it.”

“Oh, come on, even I understood that.”

If it helps, the next area has someone who actually knows what’s going on.

“Someone with exposition? Be still, my beating heart!”

“Can we just get started now? This is getting kind of ridiculous.”



I wonder exactly how Tarik would know about that…
“Now, the interesting thing is: they have disappeared. One of my informants saw a squad of guards with some prisoners on the night of their disappearance. Everything points to them being held prisoner at the castle. They might make good allies for you.”
Why would the trademaster care about a bunch of wizards stuck in a castle?
Oh, I don’t know, maybe there was supposed to be a daring escape from the castle at some point aided by a few captured magicians, but someone decided they’d rather fight their way through all the guards instead.
Totally worth it. If I weren’t doing anything, I bet our capture tally would be in the double digits by now.
Anyway, the trademaster explains that he’ll send his people out to gather some more information. If you return in two or three days, he’ll be able to tell you a way to enter the castle unnoticed.
We’re still pretty beaten up from last time. Can we just spend the time here, recuperating?
I suppose so. Mark up your hit points. So, a few days later,



A water dragon? Sounds exciting. But if it blocked her escape, how did she get out of the castle at all?
She tells you that she eventually just jumped over the wall into the river Kvill. Unfortunately, the water wasn’t deep enough, and now that you notice, you see that her left leg is thick with bandages. Looks like she isn’t using the stick for show.
That’s hardcore. And we get to kill a water dragon; awesome! I always love when the games get around to this part.


Oh yeah, but before we go there, where did that one passage lead?

How is it you guys can remember about obscure passages but forget the entire plot every time we get back together?

Years of practice.
So what’s up there?



It’s a hidden passage that goes outside the city gates. Not that there’s anything left to do out here, but there you go.


How do we even reach the dragon? Because Kara does not want to swim through the sewage.

One of the guild members left a conveniently placed raft here. You can pole down the passage on it.


Hell. Yes.



The second boss battle of the game. It’s generally recommended that you get everyone a missile weapon for this fight, but as you saw, it wasn’t completely necessary. The dragon spits water at you dealing damage in an area, but even vVhorpax, whom the dragon was aiming at (again), wasn’t reduced past 2/3 health before it died. He did run almost completely out of AP, though.


It seems rather odd to put the boss combat at the start of the adventure, rather than the end.

Why yes, I suppose so. It’s almost as if, had you been captured, your daring escape would have led you into these sewers, where you would have encountered a final confrontation with a dragon.

I would likely have been drained of AP, though.

Yes, but there are five mages in the castle who would have come with you.

Hell, I prefer our way, then. Shows that we can kill whatever’s in our path even without a bunch of sissy wizards helping out.


Huh? Oh, right, cool. Go ahead and keep going while I roll this.
Actually, I’d rather not continue at all if we can help it. Assuming the magicians can wait, I think we should rest until my AP are back up to full.

Oh, fine.


One long wait later…



(Backup)

Finally some new music.
The sewer theme was getting on my nerves by the end there.

You are currently in a hidden room at one side of the castle. A part of the wall looks like it can open up, and then you’ll be in the hallway.


Most of the castle looks like this. As such, I’ll be skipping over a lot of exploration.


So where does this door lead?

Hey, William?

What?

You get a bad feeling when you approach this room, as though there is a strong sense of danger coming from behind it.

Oh.
Let’s go in.
You heard Bob just now, right?
Yep. That’s why I want to go in.

Fine, if he wants in, he goes in. And he finds:



At the four corners of the castle, there is a set of stairs which leads to a watchtower. Every time you open a watchtower door, you have to fight a good five guardsmen. When you finish the fight, the door closes again with you outside, and if you open the door again, you fight another set of guards. It’s a decent place to grind experience, but as levels don’t honestly matter, by this point, I’m just going to move along.

Did my sword just break? Again?!
At least all the guards are carrying sabers.
I just got this thing! How do they break so fast?!
Hey, man, I’m all out of arrows. I’m, like, five times as useless as your sword right now.
You still have magic, though.
Yeah, but now I have to use it, and I’ll run out of stuff to cast soon enough.
Stupid breaky kunchomer piece of crap.


A stone chest? Why a stone chest?
Well, now we need to look inside.


Mother fuck!
Step aside; let me give it a try.


…Crap. Well, let me try again. Can’t get any more poisoned than this, after all.


Wait, that’s it? Me and Suzie got poisoned for a goddamn health potion?
Oh, relax. Kara’s Treat Poison is good enough to heal you both.


See? Now you’re both fine, plus I was able to heal you back up to full.
And no tetanus in sight.
Hey.



The place is stacked full of crates and barrels. You suspect the room must be used as storage.

How about that hay? It seems like an odd place to stack it. I want to take a look.

Really? Well,


Spiders don’t do that.

I think it’s been well established by now that fantasy spiders are a lot more aggressive than ours.

I dodge the spider! *Roll*

Ooh, too bad. You try to dodge, but it’s no use. The spider lands on your neck and bites you. You let out a scream, and the spider jumps to the floor, where it’s squashed underfoot.

“Curse it, tha’ vermeen is worse than a horde o’ orcs!”
It’s not that bad.
“Aye et is, I cannae get cured again so soon!”


I do still have a spare couple of antidote potions.
Oh. Then it really isn’t that bad. But let’s not waste time on the hay bales.

There isn’t much else in the room. There’s a barrel full of tar—

I wonder if they use that for tar and feathering troublemakers?

—there are several boxes full of trophy heads, but they’ve gotten quite moldy, and there are a few more barrels to one side.


That was mean!

I didn’t ask for your character to go tasting random substances. Oh, and there’s also a box full of lighting material, just in case you didn’t have any with you.


But instead, we have me, which is far more useful.


Not that much more useful.
Couldn’t you just tell us “This lock cannot be picked?”

I’m trying to be realistic here. After all, how would anyone know a lock couldn’t be picked except by giving it a shot first?

You can bet your ass we’re coming back, though.

Oh, no doubt.



I don’t see why, but okay. You quickly step up to the beds and overpower the servants. Tied up and gagged with some pieces of clothing, they cease to be any sort of threat. Not that they were one to begin with, mind you.

Anything good in the room?

Just some spare clothing. And no, Hal, none of it is “fancy.”

Aw.



You’ve found the kitchen. There is a soup on the stove, and it’s still warm, so you know the cook must not have been gone long.

How does it taste?

Not very good; it’s just the stuff they feed to the night watch. On the other side of the room, you see a door which leads…



…To the inner courtyard. It’s quite dark outside, and you can only barely see around yourselves.

I don’t suppose they hide any valuables out here?

Not really, no. There’s the cook’s herb garden, a well, and couple passages out.

A well? I hope it goes deeper than the sewers we came up from.



Right, the southeastern passage leads to the stables. There’s a cart here, along with several empty stalls. No horses around at the moment.

Let me search the cart.
That doesn’t seem like a good idea. You remember the spider?
Oh shit, you’re right.

Too late. Kurzmann searches, and finds…a ring that someone must have lost in the hay.

Really?
And that, dear friends, is why I stick my hand in places it doesn’t belong.


This is a map for the north half of the castle. The large room furthest northwest is the secret room we entered from, with the watchtowers branching off to the north. As you can see, this place is basically a square castle, with watchtowers to the north and south. On the larger map, the party is in the middle of the courtyard, with the kitchen to the northeast, the stables to the southeast, and a tunnel that links up with the main hallway heading straight east. But we’ll be traveling that way later. See you next time!