Brian didn’t want to get bogged down with searching for treasure on the pirate ship and simply stated there was none.  Or that it wouldn’t be ours, regardless.  Likewise, the surviving pirates were declared to know nothing of the spy in Otari which saved us with the moral dilemma of threatening to chop off toes during interrogation.  So, we moved on to the trip to the big city of Absolm.  He wanted to use the Earn Income rules to cover the 7 days of travel.  Unfortunately, the options were few as were the Lore skills possessed by the group so we had to get creative.  We spent some time trying to come up with uses of the skills we did have, knowing that if it wasn’t a Lore, it wasn’t as profitable.  We also realized that the jobs available going there (two ships) would be different than going back.  So, he split it into two rolls.

Xeelie chose to use her Craft skill to fix up the pirate ship so that it would fetch a better price.  Unfortunately, Brian rolled a 1.  And used a hero point and rolled a 2.  But a failure was better than a critical failure.  She earned coppers and was told her services as a carpenter on the return trip would not be needed.  TerStegan used his Intimidate skill to serve as a bosun on the pirate ship.  Ordering people around.  That was an officer level job so the pay was higher but so was the DC.  He got a critical success and earned gold.  To add a little spice, Brian said that his chair disappeared late into the voyage.  An Intimidation roll got two sailors to finger Julian.  He had tossed the chair off the ship.  Another Intimidation roll and Julian became his chair.  Oakwood used Athletics to work in the rigging.  That was a low-level job but Brian gave him the night shift (darkvision) for a one step up.  Brisco used his Nature to act as navigator.  That was also an officer job but since we really just needed to follow the other ship, it wasn’t worth much.  Both of them succeeded for silvers.  Evidently Clarissa was sea sick and didn’t earn anything.

In Absolm, the pirate ship and the remaining pirates were handed over to the authorities.  Our share was 50 gp, well above any treasure we might have found.  We also had a chance to do some shopping however no one had enough to get magic armor or a striking rune for Xeelie.  (Xeelie’s 50 went to Clarisa for past debts.)  Brisco went to the local Druid temple (park?) and made an offering.  Oakwood accompanied the merchant captain to the lumber buyer.  He wanted to determine what the current lumber demand was so that his father’s company could be shipping what was desired most.  Xeelie wanted to buy the recipe to create magic armor.  It was 8 gp and everyone attending kicked in 2.  Although, after discussing, having a player do it doesn’t save any money and having the recipe only speeds up the process by a day.  So, I’m not sure there was a point.  I guess Xeelie can do it on demand although the town NPCs play more often than Brian.  Xeelie also bought a couple of cantrip scrolls which a witch can feed to her familiar and add it to her cantrip options.  She’s still limited to two but she can choose them in the morning. 

We sailed back.  TerStegan and Brisco kept the same jobs and Brian let them use the same rolls to speed things up.  Oakwood rolled anew and got a critical success this time.  Xeelie took a job as a cook although they made her audition first after her carpentry failure.  That was still a Crafting roll.  (The super skill.)  Once in town, there was a feast in our honor.  Brisco chose not to attend, wanting to get away from the city.  The only thing we did in town was TerStegan.  He went to the town library/temple to see if they were interested in any particular books from the Gauntlight.  (He talked to the town wizard earlier.)  The priest’s first thought was that any books from there must be evil and therefore should be burned.  Not what TerStegan was fishing for.  Maybe they should be studied first in case there was something useful but it didn’t sound like he’d be getting much from them.

The next morning, we went back to the dungeon.  By Brian’s reckoning, there was one door on level 2 still not opened.  (Plus any secrets missed.)  That led to a big room with a long dead purple worm decaying on a sandy floor.  There was also a magically energy vortex going from ceiling to floor.  Some Lore rolls revealed that this was similar to the energy tube we saw in the library.  It somehow fed energy to the Gauntlight but again, it was beyond our level to mess with.  TerStegan carved up the body and was rewarded with a +1 war hammer.  It’ll be melted down for parts.  Or sold.  It’s the same difference.  And distributed, I hope.

In there, was another door into what turned out to be a dead end.  There were 6 alcoves, each with a sarcophagus.  Once Xeelie and Oakwood snuck far enough, two Shadow’s attacked.  Sadly, those two rolled at the bottom of the initiative and got in the way of the high man TerStegan.  It was tight quarters but Xeelie used her Tumble Through to good effect again.  They did significant damage, including negative, and also tugged on your shadow.  That gave Enfeeble 1.  (Minus 1 to STR stuff.)  Oakwood got critted and reached Enfeeble 3 at which point his shadow was removed and became a weaker shadow and attacked.  Xeelie used her healing focus spell on him to keep him up and Brisco cast a couple of heals.  But no one went out but now that we’re 5^th, the monsters are tougher still.  These resisted all damage for 5 which I’m betting we’ll be seeing more of.  Lore rolls revealed that it would take 1 hour to recover 1 level of Enfeeblement.  With 1 hour, TerStegan and Brisco were good but Oakwood was still at -2.  He voted for moving on, figuring it would take an hour of deciding and searching before the next fight anyway.  But he was out voted.

It was near midnight and we considered stopping for the night but continuing on won out.  We took the elevator room down to the 3^rd level.  TerStegan was eager to talk to the ghoul librarians about books.  After picking a lock, we ended up in a ghoul craftsman’s room.  At first, it looked like he was making books but upon closer examination, he was tattooing illustrations on skin pieces.  And he was very annoyed at being interrupted.  Xeelie was planning to pick up a tattooing feat and tried to engage him in conversation but he would have none of it.  TerStegan came in and stood by the door out and got his dose of insults.  When Oakwood moved to open the last door, that was enough.  The ghoul started to attack and we rolled initiative.

Oakwood managed to hit him and he critically missed his Stunning Fist save.  That lost him his first round.  We beat on him.  When he went, he tried to eat one of the skins on the wall to heal himself.  However, that was a manipulate action so TerStegan got an opportunity attack.  That was a crit so the action was interrupted.  He didn’t live long after that however the fight alerted some of the ghoul librarians.  They opened the door but TerStegan took them out, one a round, mostly by himself.  The last one closed the door and fled.  Xeelie and Brisco started gathering loot and TerStegan and Oakwood were not eager to charge off into a den of ghouls by themselves.  So, to Brian’s surprise, we ended the fight and went into exploration mode.  That’s probably the end of TerStegan’s plan to talk with them but we should probably be killing them anyway.  Xeelie got some tattoo books and tools.  Beyond stacks of Morlock bodies, the only other thing of interest was a silver hatchet which TerStegan took.  No one attacked us yet but we hadn’t done any healing yet either.  We had lost our momentum so we declared it “late” and quit for the night.  Next game in two weeks. 

Brian was willing to assume that we could cure the Ghoul disease, given enough downtime, so we didn’t have to wrestle with all those rules.  We gave Tangletop a funeral pyre send off.  After a couple of days, we all went into town to take care of business.  TerStegan talked to the rare book seller about learning the Underdark language.  (He intends to up his INT at 5^th so he’ll get a new language.)  Unfortunately, we didn’t know what language it was.  The book seller was going to do some research based on the few bits of information we did have.  Nobody else had any business but some side quest advancing things came up.  The girls noticed Xeelie’s mother putting a basket into the river and letting it drift through town towards the sea.  Xeelie could not resist and grabbed it.  The basket was filled with spicy food.  Enough to feed someone for a couple of days.  She put it back and followed it.  At the ruined tavern, a Kobald emerged with a long pole and fished it out.  Xeelie was told her mom had “a lot” of baskets.  They left it at that.  The boys went to talk to the head guard.  They were making progress on the bandit problem and asked them to help scout and/or fight once they found the camp.  The weaker members of the group could come too.  Evidently, he valued brawn over brains.

However, the big topic, which took up most of the night, was the pirate problem.  The girls noticed a small white bird flying over the town.  It didn’t look native and seemed to be flying awfully straight for a bird.  Xeelie tried to take action but Brian by the time they realized it was odd, it had passed.  That was the end of that clue.  In parallel, the boys were told of the pirate problem during their discussions with the head guard.  Oakwood had overheard a discussion about this at his father’s house several games back.  Ships loaded with lumber were being attacked at sea.  The valuable lumber was taken, the rest dumped and the merchant ships and crew spared.  All 3 lumber companies were being hit.  Anyway recently, townsfolk have been noticing small birds flying across Otari.  They came from “north” and were headed “to sea” and always at dusk.  One of them was shot down.  A lucky shot at that distance.  It turns out, the bird was made of paper (medium level magic) and it carried a note.  No one Longsaddle had access to could read it but the shipment that went out that day, was not attacked.  He was trying to keep it quiet.  The players made some suggestions about shooting more down or tracing them backwards or forward but that was “too hard”.  Oakwood borrowed the note and took it to Xeelie.  You know, the smart one.  It was in a formal older Goblin script.  It was a description of the shipment.  Ship, date and time, cargo, crew, guards.  There’s a spy in town. 

I think the intent of the module is to give us bits of information on these side quests so that we could make slow progress while we attended to the main quest of the Gauntlight ruins.  Brian even tried to get us back on the rails by saying that the next ship out wouldn’t be for a couple of days so you might as well go back to the Gauntlight.  However, given a mystery to solve, we could not stop.  In our defense, this threatens the livelihood of the whole town so it’s a pretty serious threat.  Not “end of the world” but pretty high.  More than a missing son or a rare book.  However, once we started down this path, we could not get back out.  Some of our players are pretty tenacious on this sort of thing.  The first thoughts were to trace the birds back to the source or get on one of the ships and fight off the pirates.  As for the second, Xeelie was all for it but she’s the only one with a long-range bow.  The rest of us would have to wait until the sailors got us very close before we could do anything.  And assuming we succeeded, we would have saved one ship.  Can we assume there are more than one pirate ship? We can certainly assume the captured pirates would give us nothing.  The better plan is to find the brains on land and shutdown the whole operation.  The boat plan was rejected but might still be the way to go.  At least it’s actionable.

But two days later, Brian sent out more information on the pirates, making that a more viable plan.  Firstly, the “reasonable” rules on swimming and drowning and fighting in water.  And then this list, that 3^rd bullet, in particular.

• • The merchant ships have all been quickly chased down by the Pirates.
  • Any merchant that surrenders have been left with their ships and lives intact, only goods have been taken / destroyed.
  • It’s the same pirate each time, Captain Bellafide of the Dread Design.
  • The pirates don’t always descend on the merchant ships at the same point, even if on the same route.
  • Merchants hiring additional fighting crews significantly cuts into the profits.
  • Merchants hiring escort vessels makes the endeavor non-profitable.

As for tracing the birds, that turned into a morass.  We returned the note and talked to the head guard for more details.  Brisco showed up around here.  Turns out the bird was shot down by a farmer on the east side of town.  The straight over town turned into somewhere to the north and somewhere at sea.  That’s a much bigger area to cover.  And we’d have to project backwards which is much harder than following it forward.  We at least needed to know when the next shipment was so that we’d know when to look.  Oakwood was hesitant to ask around since their ships were being attacked.  We might get accused.  He talked to his father.  The next ship to go was the #2 company but he wasn’t sure when.  His ship just left so it’ll be a week for him.  It’s fluid because it’s a matter of when a ship is full.  He did caution Oakwood about being careful and forbade him from going to sea.  We talked to TerStegan’s adopted dad at his suggestion.  He works at the mill that all 3 companies use.  He might know.  He said her ship would be ready in two days.     

DG tried to get back on the “two day, go back to the dungeon” path but the rest could not give it up.  DS, who was fresh and ready to go since he missed the first 1.5 hours of investigation, was eager to use his +0 CHR skills.  We went to the #2 owner.  She was also the one who had those accountants nosing around her rental properties.  (Another side quest.)  One of those properties was Clarisa’s home.  Somehow, they got an audience, despite the late hour.  The pirate stuff got deferred and Brisco and Xeeile dove into the accountant’s quest.  She was told she was guilty of some sort of fraud and depending on the judge, she could be in big trouble.  They were “suggesting” she pay a hefty fine, however that fine alone might ruin her.  The players asked if she had any “assets” that they might be after.  Only the lumber company.  So, they convinced themselves that the two quests were linked.  I.e. financially ruining one company is linked to ruining all companies.  They promised to investigate it more but other than strong arming the accountants, I’m not sure they had any real ideas.  Go to law school? Back on the pirates, Xeelie suggested she cancel her next shipment at the last second in hopes of throwing them off.  She reluctantly agreed but the accountants are pressuring her to send out her best lumber ASAP in hopes of getting the needed cash.  Her ship might be the ship we fight on if we go that way. 

We had a bunch of discussions about the note.  (Brian added some more info via email:  When the origami bird was brought down, it struggled to continue its flight.  After the arrow was removed, it nearly got away.  The farmer doused the paper with water and the struggles reduced significantly.  By the time the farmer brought it to the guards, the origami bird had ceased functioning and was just a damp parchment.)  The paper was unremarkable but the penmanship was excellent.  It was more likely a learned man who was using Goblin rather than a Goblin.  A Wizard? The equipment also had to be good to write so much information on such a small piece of paper.  The book seller in town best fit that description but that’s hardly proof.  It was also noted that the notes were sent from the north but the information had to come from Otari.  So, someone was going out there.  Brisco asserted that he’d know about everyone that goes into town since he hangs out in the forest.  Brian didn’t buy that but Brisco proposed that we could watch the roads to see who leaves or returns when the notes get set.  A tough task given a lack of walls.  We also discussed who the spy could be in town.  Who knew all that info for all 3 companies.  That was a short list but following all of them wouldn’t be easy either.  And finding evidence? There was even talk of going to the thieves’ guild, opening that side quest box, and seeing if that would help us.  And probably more ideas that I can’t recall that were even further afield. 

Anyhow, we were spinning in circles and half the group had given up listening or caring.  Xeelie tried to reach some sort of actionable conclusion but nobody had any brain power left.  Paralysis of choices, none of them good.  So as midnight approached, we decided to defer the pirate quest for a couple of days and go to the Gauntlight for some minimal thinking, hacking and slashing.  Brian pulled up his summary email and said we had 9 choices on where to restart the dungeon.  Doh! TerStegan voted for Oakwood’s idea of following the other adventuring party down the hole to the “mushroom eyed” people.  Good enough.  Once there, we could see their campsite and their excavation in the pit room by Boss Skag’s throne room.  We went down the rope and landed in a big dark room with many doors.  Through the fog of war, we could see it connected to areas we had already been to.  There were no signs of the adventures but before we could start making tracking rolls, a half dozen Lurkers appeared.  They would not answer our questions but would take us to their king.  He does the talking.  We decided to agree.  We started moving down a corridor and were “handed off” to two bigger dudes.  At this point, it came to light that these guys would not permit any light.  There were some tense moments but eventually Brisco turned off Saps’ light spell.  We figured he and Clarisa didn’t need to see to do the upcoming parley and if there was trouble, he could just turn it back on.

The conversation with the king was basically a repeat of the one with Boss Skrag above.  He was the absolute ruler of all his people.  And the ruler of his domain which consisted of one level of a ruin fortress.  We asked him about the adventurers but he would give no straight answers.  We did get him to admit there was some sort of disturbance two days ago but he didn’t concern himself about such things.  Oakwood found it surprising he didn’t know if his people were killed or not.  Basically, if we wanted anything from him, we had to kill the Swamp Dragon to the north.  Since the adventurers did not go this way, they must have killed some puds and went another way.  But since we had to kill that dragon eventually, we decided to just go for it.  (Tiredness and boredom usually make for poor decisions.)  We came to an underwater lake access with several ruined boats.  We could see big footprints in the mud but we had no wish to fight a dragon in the water.  So, we went up.  The first door was locked.  Xeelie critically failed her open locks roll so TerStegan busted it down.  Oakwood was watching the lake behind us.  In there was a big teleportation circle, similar to the small one we found in the closet upstairs.  This one at least had the rare metal in the inlays although it would take quite some time to dig it out.  The next door gave us two more doors.  One to stairs up and one back to the mushroom eyed folks, we figured.

However, at this point, the River Drake emerged.  There is no surprise round in PE2 so we went straight to initiative.  And since it was a big monster, its was 32.  DS used his Hero card, giving Oakwood 5 points of damage resistance for a round since he was the man to hold the line.  It used its breath weapon, a glob of acid that hit Oakwood and the two casters (those in the back) for significant damage.  Oakwood and Clarisa also missed the save and lost 10 feet of movement plus 1d6 persistent acid damage.  It also did a reach tail swipe at Oakwood.  TerStegan did his Sudden Charge and got in front of Oakwood and did his damage.  Oakwood missed twice and then Tumbled Through to get on the other side to give flanking.  (He should have done that in a different order.)  Clarisa and Xeelie cast cantrips and Brisco healed Oakwood.  The dragon slayer was also able to frighten it.  However, after a round or two, it turned to flee back to its water.  TerStegan hit but Oakwood missed his opportunity attack, even with his hero point.  And it got away.  However, Brian decided he didn’t want to deal with the hunting of a wounded drake and gave Oakwood another parting shot.  This time he hit and finished it off.  We signed off with visions of dragon treasure hoards.  

We started in the small elevator room that they ended in last time.  There was a door to the north and south.  We went south.  In a small hallway, we could smell something bad coming.  The next room had soil on one side, the rotted remains of some sort of organic material.  Xeelie was hesitant to enter so Oakwood stepped up and prodded the soil with his reach Bo Staff.  A fungus creature emerged and let loose a gas cloud.  Unfortunately, it extended to where Oakwood was but fortunately, he saved.  We rolled initiative and moved up as we could.  It was tight quarters.  The two of them weren’t much of a threat and only TerStegan was hit for little damage.  Xeelie did her Detect Magic and as usual, she detected something new but we had no idea from where.  We did the dance of moving around to no avail.  There just wasn’t any room.  TerStegan even dug through the dirt.  Eventually it occurred to someone that the elevator might be magical.  A Crafting roll said that it didn’t sound mechanical when we rode it so it must be magical.  We moved on.

The next room had a big pile of flesh parts.  The source of the smell.  Oakwood thought it looked like another Gibbering Mouther which turned out to be true.  Thankfully, it was dead.  There were also two, what turned out to be, ghouls in there, praying to it.  Brisco went first and fired a cantrip.  On its turn, it ate a chunk of flesh and healed itself.  TerStegan was hit on that first round, infected with Ghoul Fever and paralyzed.  He stayed that way throughout the fight.  The save DC was stiff although it did lower by one each round.  He could do nothing.  Xeelie did her Tumble Through thing and Oakwood moved up to give an alternate target to TerStegan.  And then one of them leapt across the front lines and landed between the two casters in the back.  One of them got paralyzed too.  2 of 5 unable to move and it looked dicey.  Oakwood managed to Trip one which gave Xeelie two sneak attack hits, one of which was a crit.  Oakwood also crit and then finished it off when it tried to stand up.  3 against 1 swung the odds back in our favor and it was dropped, trying to get to the healing flesh. 

We made a bunch of rolls.  The disease increases in severity once a day and Treat Disease took 8 hours of care so we couldn’t really do anything about the afflicted TerStegan and Brisco at this time.  Oakwood did Treat Wounds on TerStegan while Brisco and Xeelie searched.  With Xeelie’s new witch healing focus spell, TerStegan was good to go.  We found nothing although we did avoid messing with the mound of flesh.  We decided to press on after talking Brisco into taking 10 minutes to Treat himself.  The next room was back to the library we had seen before.  We saw a ghostly figure that looked a lot like the portrait of the head craftsman we saw in the workshop.  He took a book from a ghoul and then faded into the floor.  In the center of the room was a column of blue light with bits of flesh flowing through it.  The light looked a lot like the Gauntlight Tower light however we didn’t think we could stop it here.  We had to go down and stop it at the source.  The librarians seemed ghoul-like but not as menacing.  One asked what she could help us find.  Xeelie spoke up from the back and asked for a book on Haunts.  We were told we needed to go to the scriptorium for that.

So, we were led through the library, past shelves of books, ghoul librarians and lots of closed doors.  The scriptorium had many desks for scribes to transcribe books.  And a skeleton on the floor.  Soon enough, a Haunt appeared and told us to get to work.  She was the head librarian and assumed we were new scribes.  Xeelie agreed that we were and got to work.  Oakwood tried to explain that we weren’t scribes but was mostly ignored.  Once we got to work, the Haunt touched a secret button which would open a secret door (to her office?) However, since she was a ghost, she just walked through it.  One of our books had a letter put in it.  Another letter from the Dr whose footsteps we seemed to be following.  What I can remember, it said that as long as we worked, the Haunt wasn’t a problem.  That the temple to the north was “interesting” but the priests were “touchy”.  And something about a grand spiral staircase.  It also guided us to a sack with some gems.  Oakwood searched the skeleton and found a small portrait of the chief craftsman.  He was a Cavern Elf although the Haunt of him looked a bit different.  He also found a tiny iron key but no one saw anything to use it on in this room.  Lastly, he removed the Chain Shirt.  At this point, we decided to head home and deal with the disease.

Back in the library, one of the ghouls invited us to meet the high priest in the temple.  Clarisa made a Recall Knowledge on the carvings around the door.  The goddess of death.  That told us they likely wanted to sacrifice us.  We said, no thank you and moved on.  There was some debate as to the quickest way back to the stairs up but Xeelie got that right.  From there, it was up and out.  We had no trouble until we met a 4-person adventuring party around a fire by the entrance.  Evidently it was almost midnight in the above ground world.  They were eager to trade information but since we knew way more than them, we didn’t give them much of anything.  It helped that we were ”just kids” so they assumed we didn’t know anything.  Evidently, the mayor had invited them to come over here and they were pleasantly surprised that someone had already cleared out the first level.  You’re welcome.  TerStegan suggested they start with the Gauntlight tower, to face the blood Delcora.  Was that evil? Brisco mentioned our run in with undead.  They had heard about the graveyard attack from the mayor, and again it didn’t occur to them that we could be the heroes that fought them off.  They said they had found a way down a level to the mushroom men and were tackling that in the morning.  At least they’re going a different way.  If they get killed, we’d get lots of good stuff.  Is that evil? But they look more formidable than the town guards.     

Once we got TerStegan to stop talking about the Rose Guard Lore, we made it back to the club house.  Brian assumed we could deal with the disease.  And also assumed we could identify magic items.  The bag had 4 one-use weapon talismans.  We decided to sell those.  And some medium strength anti poison potions that got distributed.  The doctor’s letter had warned us about poison users coming.  The miscellaneous wealth got distributed as well but it wasn’t much.  The big ticket was the +1 chain shirt.  TerStegan was eager to convert it into something he could use.  But it was a 5^th level item so, while we could use it(?), we couldn’t Craft with it.  Oakwood asked if anyone could use it in the meantime.  The Rouge could but since she lacked the STR, it would give her -1 on DEX skills.  Plus, it had a DEX cap of +3 so she’d be losing out on some of it.  The Sorcerer spent a feat to be able to use light armor so she could use it.  She also lacked the STR but didn’t care so much about DEX skills.  But she didn’t fight much.  We assumed the Druid could not use it since it was metal but further research says PE2 removed that WotC limitation.  We gave it to Clarisa for now, however when she turns 5^th, she’ll likely bump her DEX to +4 at which point, maybe it will be converted.  She went from the least wealthy to the most wealth and now Oakwood is on the bottom. 

We started with the fact that Oakwood and Xeelie were already wounded from the game previous.  It was successfully argued that when the rest of the group healed up last game, the non-existing two would have been healed as well.  This allowed us to get going.  As usual, we had a myriad of options but the main two were to go down the mold infested stairway or into the room with the animating bones.  It was decided to stay on this level rather than go down although with all the twists and turns, no one was sure what “level” we were even at.  However, a discussion was had on the mold problem regardless.  TerStegan argued that since it absorbed heat, attacking it with cold would be good and heat would be bad.  Several made Survival rolls and Xeelie was “fairly certain” she knew what to do.  I think that was GM speak for “hazard avoided.”  However, Paul and BTO demanded details (that Brian didn’t have) and guarantees (that Brian wouldn’t give).  They were still thinking in terms of avoiding an encounter.  And they could be right.  But again, we decided to table that discussion until our mold talking Druid showed up and go the other way.  To the Giant Skeleton.

The door was reopened and the bones started to pull together again.  Initiative was rolled but until it was rebuilt by whatever background evil was present, there wasn’t really anything to do.  Xeelie moved to the other side of the small room and opened the exit to give us more options.  Clarisa hit the skull with a Telekinetic Object but at this point, it was only a thing and not a monster so it did nothing.  TerStegan ran in and tried to stand on the large glaive but didn’t roll high enough on his Athletics check.  Oakwood readied an attack.  When it did form, giant-sized, he missed with both flurry attacks.  TerStegan got into his Stance after two tries but we quickly found that it was too mindless to be affected by fear.  (As are most undead.)  It did a lot of damage with its sweeping glaive.  We did a lot of missing.  TerStegan did the lion’s share of damage and after a few rounds, it was over.  Oakwood did some Treat Wounds for 2d8 while the others searched.  Xeelie’s Detect Magic detected magic but again, that spell is not specific about the location.  So, we had to play 20 questions as she moved about the dungeon, trying to zero in on what new thing was magical.  Eventually, Brian gave him an Investigation roll and said that it seemed to be background magic and nothing specific.  She determined the glaive had no value and that moving the bones would not be necessary.  Moving along.

The next “room” was a large corridor with more doors than TerStegan could count.  After some debate, we decided to defer the door that was glowing greenish and open the double doors to the north since they were closest.  That was another hallway with little dioramas in alcoves along the way.  Each depicted a great city being destroyed by some catastrophe.  Closer examination revealed that each had a tiny Gauntlight in the scene.  Xeelie was quickly convinced it was Absolom, the biggest city on the island, but they weren’t really detailed enough to confirm that.  She and Brisco tried to triangulate the position of the Gauntlight with their knowledge of Absolom using their various skills.  But were told, repeatedly, that it was not to scale, only representative, move along.  At the end were another set of double doors.  It was a large dining room or meeting room filled with webs.  In there was a Web Lurker.  It was commanding us in a language none of us understood.  A good Society roll from Oakwood thought it was some sort of Underdark language.  TerStegan planned to research that language in his downtime.  We faced the usual murder-hobo dilemma.  We knew it was evil but couldn’t attack it until it did something evil.  TerStegan decided to Demoralize it with a growl.  That succeeded and it cowered in a corner.

However, that worked.  Its two Dream Spiders and two Giant Spiders attacked from the shadows.  They moved up, attacked with immobilizing webs and poison stings and then moved back out of range.  Oakwood and TerStegan, at the bottom of the initiative again, just stood there and took it.  Although they both got 1 reaction attack at least.  They were both immobilized and poisoned but thankfully, the poison was Stupefy (i.e. mental) so it didn’t bother them much.  The rest fired into the room and Xeelie tried to do her Recall Knowledge to get her extra 1d6.  Oakwood managed to rip free and choose to step into the room to lessen their hit and run tactics.  It was a fight and we took some damage.  About the time we had them on the ropes, both the frontline guys got caught in web traps.  But the spiders were finished off soon afterwards and they were assumed cut down.

What followed was over an hour of downtime.  Oakwood Treated the barely wounded while Brisco Treated the badly wounded.  Meanwhile Xeelie and the rest searched.  They found a web pouch full of shiny bits and bobbles.  However, in there was a necklace with 3 Fireballs (1 use) that went to Clarisa.  Some glowing sling bullets that would continue to glow if they hit their target.  Again, one use.  Brisco took those since he didn’t have any enhanced sight.  Lastly was an opal that when placed on clothing, it would bump up a Deception roll one level.  We were going to sell it, not thinking of a reason we’d ever use such a thing, but the eventual Bard ended up taking it.  One Treat Wounds was not enough to get TerStegan back to battle ready so we waited an hour for that clock to reset.  During that time, everyone was topped off and we were good to go.

The glowing room turned out to be a wash room with glowing green slime within.  That slime moved and spelled out the following message, one letter at a time.  “I am Otari.  Save me, below.”  Or some such.  And then proceeded to move across the floor.  We followed it and it led us back to the mold infested stairway down at which point, it disappeared.  This reopened the mold debate, with our Druid.  TerStegan asked if Brisco could use his Ray of Frost cantrip to clear away the mold.  (Sneak peek at the answer: It was no.  He could not.)  This sparked a bunch of questions from Dave.  Why do you think that’ll work? Why do we have to go this way? Why are we here at all? Why should we attack innocent mold? The bottom line was that Plant Druid Brisco would not attack a plant without cause.  By sticking to his character concept at the expense of the group and all of our time, he earned a hero point.  But again, we came back to the same conclusion.  We’d like to finish this level before going down.  So, we went back to the washroom.

That’s a problem with these modules.  They are full of details but they are also full of “useless fluff” that don’t advance the main plot.  But we, as players, don’t know what room is pointless and what room has an important clue, a valuable item, a secret door, etc.  So, we have to grind through each room, one at a time.  What’s in here? What’s it for? Is it important? Is it dangerous? Is it trapped? Everyone wants to use their skills.  Each room takes time.  I guess each is its own encounter to be overcome.  So, the next room had a small demon who, we think, was conjured to do the cleaning down here.  He “seemed” evil but wasn’t doing anything evil.  He talked but had nothing useful to say.  The fact that it had been a hundred years since anyone was down here didn’t seem to faze him.  Eventually, we just left him behind.  The next room had two large constructs and seemed to be in storage.  Is this area a storage warehouse or living quarters for minions or what? I went to bed at this point, unable to face another pointless room.  I assume nothing happened.  Hopefully they grinded through some more and dare I hope, stopped at something significant? Not much learned, not much gained, no character advancement, no closer to any campaign goal.  Until next time… 

We returned home with our grim cargo of 6 guardsmen bodies in tow.  Brian hadn’t had a chance to come up with any sort of reaction from the town so there wasn’t much of one.  He rolled randomly to see how Derric Longsaddle’s father would react and rolled very low.  However, he forgot to declare whether low was good or bad.  Having declared, he rolled again and got very middle so there wasn’t much.  The town gave them a Viking funeral and we prepared to return to the Gauntlight.  We were assumed to have healed up after a couple of days.  DG suggested we buy a human drawn cart and load it with construction items for use at the dungeon.  So, we could repair the drawbridge, fix wooden shields without searching for timber scraps and sift through the debris for loot.  That was met with enthusiasm although it took surprising long to agree on a price and a cart.  That sort of cart wasn’t on the list in the books and we ended up on a sled with wheels and spent 1 silver ring worth 5 gp for the package.  We attempted to get to there several times but got derailed by Darkvision discussions, encumbrance discussions, Dave’s detailed discussion on the spells he had access to that wouldn’t summon something to pull the cart, etc.  Eventually, we got there.

We repaired the drawbridge and stashed the raft under it.  We parked the cart in the entry tower so that it was at least out of sight.  Brian exposed the map so that we could remember the areas we have explored.  Other than going down a level or searching for more scraps, the only part we hadn’t done was a small outer building on a small island to the northwest.  Through the castle, the only way there was past the pool of blood so we elected to avoid that and go around the castle to the east.  (Retroactive play.  Paul said he wanted to ask Xeelie’s mother and the town Cleric about that pool of blood.  After being interrupted by Xeelie and Brisco wanting to make knowledge rolls, Brian said they said it sounded like a Haunt. That usually required it to be put to rest.  But to put such a powerful Haunt to rest would take a significant event.  I.e. the end of the adventure.)  There was also discussion on where that alleged Swamp Dragon lived.  Over by the boat house and not here.  The doors were unlocked but jammed or blocked.  TerStegan made a critical Athletics check and managed to open them without destroying them.

The first room appeared to be a study with books tossed about on the floor.  We heard a disembodied voice claiming to be a Wisp.  It offered information if we’d retrieve “the shiny” from the next room.  That required a lot of discussion.  We then saw a light fly through the closed door.  Xeelie made an Arcana roll and said that was a Dancing Light spell.  We searched and gathered and talked.  This was the lab of Belcora’s apprentice.  The voice urged immediate action but we were growing suspicious.  It seemed like the books were tossed “recently”.  We searched a door to the south and found some construction supplies.  The next was a mold filled room with stairs down.  Brian said it looked like no one had been in there for 100s of years.  Brisco used his Talk with Plants ability to talk to the mold and determined that no one had been in there for 100s of years.  TerStegan suggested that perhaps there was an invisible something in the book room so a more thorough search was made.  He found a tiny Brownie hidden under a table.  We talked and bargained and threatened and failed to coerce and kept coming back to the same spot.  Open the last door and face the monster.  Eventually, Oakwood opened the door into the hallway but it didn’t work.  The rest of the group couldn’t leave the Brownie.  He’s hiding something.  Of course he is.  He wants us to fight a monster for him.  Of course he is.  Where did he come from? It’s as if he just exists so that we can encounter him.  Of course he is.

Eventually, we opened that last door with TerStegan begrudgingly leaving the Brownie behind.  A tiny bird like construct was in a lab that made lenses for an immense lighthouse.  It asked what we were up to, didn’t like Oakwood’s answer and charged in a rage.  What followed was a night of extremely poor rolling on our part.  It had a beak attack that did persistent bleed damage and since this was Pathfinder, it could do up to 3 attacks a round of decreasing bonuses.  All of its stats (initiative, AC, attack bonuses, damage reduction, etc.) were scaled up to be a medium challenge.  Oakwood got battered.  TerStegan missed a lot.  Classira cast cantrips that usually missed and since they took 2 actions, she only got 1 shot a round.  Xeelie tried to get flanking for her sneak attack bonus and then couldn’t decide what to do when she couldn’t.  Brisco couldn’t decide what to do every round.  The floor was uneven and required an easy Acrobatics check or fall prone.  Luckily, it seemed everyone had that skill except for TerStegan who spent most of the fight crawling on the floor.  After a round or two, the Brownie danced past us to grab the spyglass on the other side.  We envisioned him stealing it away as we fought.  Xeeile tried a Lightning Arc from her sword and targeted the spy glass as the second target in hope of dissuading him from taking it.  For that, the Brownie “attacked” her with a confusion effect that caused her to attack someone at random.  At that, TerStegn charge crawled over to it, crit and killed it with one mighty blow. 

Towards the end, 3 of us were taking persistent bleed damage.  Brisco got critted and then got attacked by Xeelie who thankfully missed twice.  With a couple of us down half, a couple untouched, it finally fell.  Brisco started reading the First Aid rules for alleviating persistent bleed damage and the chronicler went to bed as it was after 1 AM.  I assume we spent time healing and searching and identifying the spyglass and then stopped.  Or stopped with that to do first thing next time.  We’re still doing 1 room a night.  At this rate, it’ll take years.  But maybe next time we can at least go down a level?         

We were down to 3 players and back to Foundry.  It took a bit to get re-familiar with it and there had been updates so that didn’t help.  Plus, Brian had to rebalance the likely encounters for the fewer characters.  We were about to approach the altar in the cursed chapel yet again when Paul noticed Ter Stegan was down significant hit points.  This surprised us since we didn’t do much last time and thought we started that game by healing up.  Brian had gone back to FGU to transfer our current hit points but it didn’t seem right.  After much discussion, he double checked and indeed he had shorted him 20.  We were finally good to go.  As we approached, a blue light appeared in the chests of the 3 skeletons.  As it floated up, it pulled the bodies into a standing position and they attacked.  Brisco went first and cast an Arm Shield spell on Oakwood that gave him a virtual shield without needing a free hand.  But he had to use an action to raise it and a reaction to block with it.  (It saved him 4 hit points and one miss for their efforts.)  When one of them went, it hit Ter Stegan twice, once being a crit, and he was half dead.  Start to worry.  Damage is big in this game.

It was a fairly typical fight.  Ter Stegan did most of the damage although it took him 3 rounds to get into his Dread Marshal Stance.  Only to discover that these were immune to fear.  Oakwood did a lot of missing including missing on a Trip in round one.  He gave up on that tactic and just got flanking instead.  Brisco cast a spell per round but that took a lot of time.  We had to figure out how the spell worked, how it worked in Foundry and then apply it all.  It was 20 minutes per spell.  Same with Battlefield Medicine on Ter Stegan.  It had just been too long since we played PE2 and used Foundry.  As for the monsters, it was claws and bites.  They also had a 30-foot cone blue glow power than did damage on a save and more damage and fear on a failure.  But fear is only -1 to everything (i.e. no fleeing) and goes away the next round.  The only surprise was when the first one went down.  The blue glow floated over to the thief body and animated that.  Luckily, the original skeletons, once dropped, were too broken to reuse.  BTO showed up late but didn’t enter the fight.  One blue light tried to float past us and into the rest of the keep but Ter Stegan cut it down with a Reactive Strike.  Brisco was knocked out at the end but they were defeated soon after.

Brisco did his Risky Surgery on himself.  Xeelie searched with knowledges and Ter Stegan and Oakwood searched with perception.  Oakwood found a secret compartment in the altar which contained a scroll and a wand.  Xeelie eventually identified them as a scroll of restoration-like that went to Brisco and a wand of Harm which will go to the missing Clarissa.  (Cast Harm, once a day.)  If Brisco spent another hour on himself, he could double the hit points gained and since he rolled a 20, he did that.  Oakwood Treated Ter Stegan and those two were “topped off” with Xeelie’s free Elixirs of Life.  Xeeli rolled a great Recall Knowledge but to BTO’s disappointment, there was nothing else to be learned.  Evil Undead god chapel, etc.  She also tried to repair Brisco’s wooden shield but Brian ruled that she needed some quality lumber beyond the repair kit she had in her sleeves.  The only wood in the area usable was the door to the unexplored south.  (Because it amused Brian.)

At this point we had the usual debate.  To continue or go home for a long rest.  Hit point wise, we were good but Brisco was out of spells.  And to keep playing or call it a night.  DG pointed out that the next room was the last room on this floor in this main part of the keep.  So sleepy Paul had Ter Stegan just open the door.  I guess we’re continuing.  In there was a huge scorpion and a large one.  More combat.  They had reach, enfeebling poison, a grab and the first appearance of a monstrous Reactive Strike.  Xeelie could not make a Recall Knowledge to get her sneak attack dice at range.  After two rounds, she pulled a short sword and attacked.  Brisco used his last spell (maybe he meant it this time) and gave them Fungus rot.  Ter Stegan hit a lot and even Oakwood hit.  We took some damage and Oakwood got poisoned but we won.  Brian accelerated the healing (including the Fly Pox), the transportation on the bodies and the successful return home.  We stopped there, with ramifications of the death of the town guards to come.  No experience with mentioning.  If Brian plans to get us back in sync with the module expectations and get us down a couple levels in the keep before leveling up again, at two rooms a night, it’ll be a while.   

The immediate issue was that Forge would not work.  Or more precisely, that we could not access Forge on Brian’s computer.  Something about granting enough access through Brian’s firewall.  He tried a bunch of stuff and eventually had to give up.  So, we temporarily switched back to Fantasy Grounds.  That took some time but thankfully most of us were 4^th level on it so there wasn’t too much to do.  But it took a bunch of time.  We finally started and tried to deal with the Fly Pox problem.  However, it was pointed out that Treat Disease took at least 8 hours of care so we couldn’t do anything about that.  Next was healing Ter Stegan.  Dave was having trouble remembering how to use his Risky Surgery to Treat Wounds with Aid from Oakwood.  In his defense, switching from D&D to Pathfinder to Owl Bear Rodeo to Forge to FGU was taking its toll.  Eventually, he was healed.  During that time, crafty Xeeli built some travois to drag the bodies back to town.  Two bodies per and 6 bodies.  We placed them by the entrance in case we had to make a hasty exit.  And with that, we started exploring some more.

The first order of business was tracking down the Flies.  We figured they’d return to the Fly room, as labeled on Boss Skrug’s map.  We had some discussions on who was doing which Exploration Mode tasks.  Those roles were assigned and then reassigned.  It was a small but tall round chamber that used to be a tower.  In the middle was a pile of rotting carcasses.  Fly food, we figure.  No Giant Flies and nowhere where they might perch or stay.  We were expecting access from on high but the ceiling looked intact.  Ter Stegan was eager to burn the bodies so once everyone got their chance to search and recall and detect, we used some torches and a pot of oil to burn them.  Once that was done, Brian revealed that there was a trap door on the ceiling.  A bit late as the room filled with smoke.  But it would be a near impossible climb to get up there and it didn’t seem logical that flies could be using a trap door?  We moved on. 

Brian declared that it was now night time.  One of the things we wanted to do was to check out the Gauntlight Tower in the night since that’s when the attack had occurred.  We lined up and Ter Stegan bravely opened the door.  He saw that the pool of blood had formed into a vague humanoid shape.  He immediately closed the door but turn-based games don’t work that way.  His Roseguard Lore told him it was shaped like Belacor (which we figured) but smaller than he’d expect.  We postulated that the pool was short of blood.  Or perhaps she was a gnome all along.  He and Clarissa were in the line of sight.  They took 8 points of damage as a glob of blood was extracted and flew into the pool. They also missed a stiff Fort save and were Dazzled (partial blindness) for a round.  (Perhaps this pool has been growing over the decades on fools that happened by in the night? And is now big enough to light the tower?)  Once Brian had his say, Ter Stegan could finally close the door.  Expect that it wasn’t his turn.  Initiative.  Brisco went first as usual.  He moved up, closed the door and pulled Ter Stegan back a square or two.  (He ran out of actions.)  He did notice a secret door in the corner he cowered in.  Basically, we fled and it didn’t open the door.  With a +15 initiative, that big Fort save, the fact that our weapons would likely be diminished against a “pool of blood” and any damage to us would possible “feed it”, it seemed like one of those things we should flee from.

We regrouped at the entrance.  We decided to avoid the tower and proceed on to the ghost infested chapel.  But first we checked out that secret door.  It led to a 5x5 room with no other exits.  An examination of the floor said that it was once a teleportation circle but that it had been disabled and any precious metals used in the seal had been removed.  We went back through the secret door into the chapel where we had turned back due to lack of numbers almost two months ago.  After arguing about traps, we piled in.  The same scene as before.  Oakwood grabbed some stuff from the dead adventurer including some potions.  We eyed the skeletons on the altar and looked for ghosts in the eerily cold.  However, when Clarissa came in, Brian revealed some back history.  She realized she was a blood relative of Belacor.  That her Blessed feat was from the god of death that Belacor evidently worshiped.  Brian offered Dan the chance to change the Ghost Knowledge to God of Death Knowledge.  And replaced the Guidance cantrip he got from that feat with the more “deathly” Vitality Lash.  Basically, a ranged undead damage spell. 

We stopped there before Shimota could declare that we must kill her now.  Experience was minimal but so was the progress.  No game in two weeks because Brian will be out of town.  So, in four weeks we’ll fight ghosts and/or skeletons and whatever goes “buzz buzz” in the room south of this one.                 

BTO needed to get his character into Foundry.  Paul was going to attempt to attend from Mexico via his phone so Brian had to transfer TerStegan as best as he could.  That gobbled up some time but at least they got a head start.  We agreed to go take out the Mudmifts rather than mess with the ghosts in the chapel.  So, we backed away from the secret door.  We successfully lobbied that it had been an hour of conversation with Boss Scrag and exploration so Brisco did another Treat Wound on Oakwood.  And now that Xeeli existed again, she topped him off with an Elixir of Life from her Alchemist dedication feat.  Once again, we struggled to get Foundry to work right.  There were some discussions about exploration activities options which is a feature that Pathfinder seemed to think was important.  I’m not sure it had any impact.  We prepared for the fight outside the door and so did Brian.  He tried to balance the encounter for the full 5 character set.  (So much for our plan to better our chances by waiting for more players.)  He had some problems with that but eventually Xeeli opened the door and the party started.

She fired some arrows into the room.  And then a spider attacked her from above and crit.  This was our first combat with the new program and it was a struggle.  There seemed be stuff that happened automatically but only if you entered stuff manually first.  Figuring out how to attack, use skills, target foes and friends.  We rolled the damage but Brian had to apply it.  And others.  We piled in.  Another problem was that the spiders Brian placed were all the same spider so when one took damage, they all did.  Brian was tired of dicking with it and just let it be so.  That made the fight much easier as when that first spider dropped, they all did.  The boss, which I think we assumed was a spell caster, just seemed to have a blow gun.  It only took a couple of rounds to clean them out.  The Boss successfully pleaded for his life.

That was good and bad.  He provided crude maps of the first and second floors.  There were several foes still to be discovered.  Next to the old stables, they were breeding giant flies on which they’d ride on their assault on Otari.  There were some other bugs before the chapel that we avoided with the secret door.  And something in the water.  And a layout out of the next level, the most important of which was the access point under the dock.  There were discussions on whether that would be under water, since the dock was over water, but maybe not.  But the big news was that the lair of the swamp dragon was at that point.  Several intimidation rolls were made on him and he mostly spilled his guts.  But he didn’t know everything.  He knew nothing of the lighthouse other than to avoid it.  He had no treasure.  The bag of gems he offered us last time was merely pebbles, shells and worse.  The bad news was that we had to figure out what to do with him.  We decided to head back to Otari and hand him over to the “authorities”.  Not sure how that will work out since we had no evidence and a semi confession forced under duress.  But TerStegan was eager to pick up his new weapon.

Back in Otari, it would take two days for the weapons to be complete.  In that downtime, each character had a chance to do some stuff.  The amount and success of those activities varied greatly.  TerStegan wanted to talk to Xeeli’s mom.  (And the priest but she was too busy.)  She had one piece of advice that we hadn’t already thought of.  Since the lighthouse attack happened at night, maybe we’d have a better idea what was going on if we went there at night.  Xeeli spent most of her time getting started on her sleeves of holding.  Brisco spent most of his time at the clubhouse, fixing up the grounds in particular.  Oakwood attempted to get a start on the Mayor Election side quest but he had no social skills and couldn’t roll above an 8 so got nowhere.  Dan was distracted with home issues and Clarisa didn’t do anything that I can recall.  We also talked to Honest Jack.  He had definitely been out there which wasn’t too damning however he seemed very well versed in the Mudfits plans.  Brisco found this suspicious and Oakwood thought it at least warranted a mention to us on our way there or to the Otari authorities.  There was also some investigation on the boat.  The bird statuette we found was an osprey and there was a bar in town for which that was their symbol.  And they happen to specialize in pasties.  Pirates? We weren’t even sure if that boat could get to the ocean from the swamp. 

Next time, we’ll have to decide (again) to continue on the main quest or get diverted by side quests.  We earned no treasure and any experience was negligible.  Hopefully combat goes smoother next time and we can make more progress.  Maybe finish off the ground floor.  Brian said that our level progress will slow while he tried to get us back in sync with the level expectations of the module.