Only Paul and DG responded to the email about what we should do.  Dan called in first and agreed with DG so it was off to the Gauntlight.  But first TerStegan and Oakwood put in ½ deposits on striking weapons with the merchant in town.  We headed to our cabin but had an encounter along the way.  A small (gnome?) well dressed traveling merchant and his giantess (as in giant) companion, wagon, protector.  Jack and Jody.  They were on their way to Otari to do some business at the Founder’s Festival.  Clarisa told them they were a bit late.  He went into his spiel.  He had lots of odd stuff and we weren’t sure if they were real magic items or not.  E.g.  A trap finding chicken and a billowing cloak.  He did say that he was a re-seller and not a crafter.  He did mention selling a dragon egg to a bunch of ignorant Kobalds but it sounded like he thought it wasn’t a real egg.  Eventually, Oakwood bought a lesser healing potion, figuring it was worth a few gold to know if this guy had legitimate goods.  They continued on to Otari and we continued north.  We checked in briefly at the cabin and picked up the raft from out back.  Oakwood thought we might need it, depending on how swampy the path to the Gauntlight might be.  It turns out, it was not needed.  The path led right to the front door.  But the day is young.

One of our first questions was whether the light was on.  Not.  We proceeded in the front doors.  Unless stated otherwise, every room was in ruins, covered in moss, mold and cobwebs, debris strewn about, walls and stairs crumbling, etc.  We entered a gatehouse which was solid enough to put the rafters in shadows.  We could hear scampering up there and talking in a language none of us understood.  Oakwood tied the Everburning torch to the end of his staff and put it up there.  He got a glimpse of a small creature that looked like a cross of a Potter house elf and goblin.  TerStegan advocated for killing them but the reach and the darkness would make that tough.  Brisco was against “murder hoboing” and Oakwood voted for live and let live as well.  Spoiler alert: The correct answer was “murder hoboing”.  We moved on and TerStegan got hit in the head with a small brown pellet of some sort.  Best not to ask.  Across a small drawbridge, we entered a large hall with lots of doors.

The first door led to what used to be a stable.  There was a big hole which granted access to the outside.  And a giant toad which had had its bottom half bitten off.  Some examination said that whatever did this had acid in its bite.  Similar but bigger to that dragon Clarisa had slain? There seemed to be a hole up a level but no good means to get up there so we moved on.  The next room used to be a dinning room however the roof had collapsed.  Eventually TerStegan stepped in and a swarm of Kobald ghosts appeared.  They attacked with a fear power but he saved.  They were quickly critted away.  But were they gone or just dissipated? Brisco was eager to search for treasure, figuring/hoping that the ghosts might have scared away all the adventurers that had come through here.  Rather than continue to argue with him, Oakwood just went in.  And the ghost reappeared.  He charged them but before he could attack, they cast fear and confusion and he didn’t save.  Fear is okay but confusion is rough.  Even though the ghosts were the only things in the room and TerStegan was the only other thing in sight, Brian made his roll randomly against every party member and the ghosts.  (Good thing he didn’t include everyone in Otari too.)  So, Oakwood didn’t attack.  He whirled around, charged the opposite direction, and attacked TerStegan.  Clarisa couldn’t get a shot and made a Ghost Lore roll instead.  Since they were cowardly Kobalds, they might be frightened off.  She then rolled Intimidate and they disappeared.  It was assumed Oakwood was restrained long enough to come to his senses.  No treasure, by the way, although it would take picks and shovels to do a proper search through the rubble. 

There were more doors but the next door to the north was the tower and that was our goal.  That was a circular room with a stairway winding up 100 feet.  It showed no signs of wear.  In the middle of the floor was a pool of blood that looked fresh.  There was a slight ripple which got everyone fixated.  We spent 30 minutes messing with that.  TerStegan wanted to remove the blood but we couldn’t find anything to contain it or wash it away.  Not a bucket or bowl in the whole place.  Or a mop.  Out the next door was a boat house and we thought maybe we’d find something out there.  It had more useless debris however what we did find was the remains of a recent campfire and the footprint of a Giant.  Jack and Jody, we assumed.  Were they just camping here (brave?) or up to something.  We did find a boat in reasonable condition.  But too small for a giant.  In it we found some pastries in a sack.  They were fresh but more like cookies so they could be days old.  Not 500 years though.  No one could make a Recall Society roll so that was a dead end.  And there was a figurine of a bird.  Brisco made enough of a roll to recall seeing something like this in town but no one could remember.  So that was a dead end as well.  We talked about doing a detect magic but there was so much background magic, Brian told us not to waste our time.  Meanwhile, Clarisa used Prestidigitation to clean up the blood but found that it replenished itself.  Finally, TerStegan made a Roseguard Lore roll and recalled that Belacourt was supposedly slain at the bottom of the tower.  This is her blood and it’s been there 500 years so it’s not likely we’d be able to do anything about it.  Moving on.

We headed up the stairs which were solid enough but creaked with age.  At the top, through a trapdoor was the Gauntlight.  We did it.  We’re here.  And..??  We spent another hour trying to figure something/anything out.  The room description was debated.  Basically, the outer “wall” was an iron cage with a “glass like” force field enclosing it.  In the center of the room was an iron cage with a man-sized glass chamber within.  It glowed with blue light but evidently it wasn’t bright enough to be seen from the swamp in the daytime.  There was nothing in there and no door or anything.  We found no levers or dials or controls of any kind.  Nothing else in the room at all.  No conduits or pipes.  It was self-contained.  We discussed theories and possible actions.  Lore rolls were attempted to no avail.  I mean, why was there a lighthouse in the middle of a swamp instead of on a coast.  What was its purpose? Obviously, it wasn’t currently beaming monsters into the Otari graveyard so someone must have been here and done something last night.  We should search for them or evidence of them.  Or it was on autopilot and had recharged after 500 years and fired off.  So, nothing to find.  TerStegan wanted to smash the glass with his axe but that seemed risky.  Oakwood suggested building a wall of stone around it using the debris below but would that even work? Eventually we decided to search more of the ruins.  We’d only seen a third and maybe there were more clues to be found. 

Swift Oakwood was leading and when he got to the door between the tower and the hall, he found 4 of those impish fey and 2 giant magots waiting for us.  Again, they talked in a language we didn’t understand and attacked.  Unfortunately, 5 of them rolled initiatives above anyone on our side.  Oakwood took some hits but at least he made a Will save.  The casters fired over him and when the magots went down, they exploded in a cloud of sickening goo.  He failed that save.  He took an action and saved against it, hit once and backed up a step so that TerStegan could get in there.  He killed one or two.  In their next round, they ran.  TerStegan got one free hack but he only had one reaction.  Two went to a door on the right and one went to a door below.  Oakwood couldn’t reach the one so he went for the two.  Both doors went into another room with 8 more in there.  They were weak but their attack was high.  Oakwood was nickeled and pennied to death.  TerStegan faired better but he was critting and hitting and dropping them at a much faster rate.  The casters supported Oakwood as his hit point bled away.  The last couple tried to flee again.  Oakwood chased his although if DG had realized how few hit points he had left, he might have acted differently.  He caught him, hit once but missed on attack 2 and didn’t kill him.  And was dropped on its next round.  However, that action meant it didn’t get through the next door before TerStegan finished it off.  Clarisa stabilized Oakwood with a cantrip and we stopped there.