SUMMARY

Session of December 7, 2003

Covering morning of Evensday, 22 Greenmoon, through noon Sunday, 26 Greenmoon, CY 937

"Beneath the Keep on the Borderlands"


You were lounging about your new castle when Thomas the Paladin had a vision and
decided he had to leave you; further, you were joined by a large half-orc barbarian
named Tak, who seemed nice enough.

At about noon on Trawlday, Greenmoon 23, an Arcallan agent hailed you, seemingly a
Rogue (his name, you have since learned, is Jalminx), and with him you reached an
agreement. By its terms, you would vacate Found Castle on Sunday, Greenmoon 26, and
surrender claim to the Hoist Tower; you would never to speak of the existence of
Found Castle (though later, Aziz, presumably in some kind of gambit, pretty much
violated this by mentioning it to Seven); the Arcallans, in return, would pay you
4000 Gold, guaranteed your safe exit from the Castle, and in the future would be
willing to receive you at Hoist Tower if you ever wished to arrange a meeting with
the Red Dragon you spotted on the way in... The Arcallan Jalminx promised: "We have
no ambitions against Delran, certainly none in your Hillbay. We just want the
mountains, and we use this castle against the Orcs, who we despise."

Now, with about three days left in the castle, you agreed there was no time to lose.
Except for Fimbulwinter, who underestimated a bottle of Montevoran blueberry wine
the night before.

First, you unboarded the keep, and soon discovered a ghost haunting its upper,
shattered floors. What made this particularly interesting was the ghostly image
that replayed of this man's death, as two red dragons -- one old, one young --
breathed fire into the keep, quite possibly bringing the ruin that that is its lot
to this day. When Footstool was struck with fear and attempted to flee the room,
Aziz, having cast his magic missile begun to feel useless, tackled the gnome,
thereby assuring the entire party (except hungover Fim) would be in the room to
witness the startlingly brilliant series of Enlarge, magic weapon, and rotating
battle positions that took the ghost down. For now.

Poking around the castle generally, the dwarves among you noted it was of human
construction, possibly aided by magic, and that it was about 800 years old --
theoretically impossible, as no humans were known to find Landen's shores until
about 670 years ago -- nevermind penetrate this far to its interior.

Next, you popped the cover off the well, and descended into a large natural cavern.
Once there, you quickly discovered why the Arcallans were not making use of it --
as many disconcertingly large spiders descended from the shadowy stalactites,
mandibles a-snappin. Luckily, Thaed was able to hide, but at the end of this battle,
the party retreated up to the castle to recuperate from the mainy draining bites sustained.

Heading back into the cavern, a few more creatures were bested (thoqqua, dire rats,
and some very irritating grick), and two interesting discoveries were made. First,
a narrow passage opened into the chasm beside the castle, which would allow attack
from below and within. Second, much deeper into the mountain, a passage led to a
series of large, carved-out rooms, hung with banners preserved by magic. Possibly
military, regimental banners, they bore the image of a falcon or hawk, and matched
a banner that you saw in the ghostly vision atop the keep.

Proceeding past these unexplained rooms, you found a smaller natural cavern -- home
to a Minotaur, and thus ensued the most spectacular combat in your own personal history
up to this point. Aziz, thinking fast, Greased the Minotaur's Large Axe, leaving it
totally weaponless. Except, um, for the giant horns. Which it lowered and charged
into Tak. Sadly for the bright-eyed young half-orc, this proved fatal, and Thaed
very nearly met the same fate a round later, despite hiding and tumbling and crying
out "Whattya mean Natural Cunning means it can't be surprised?!?" But Thoor, Footstool,
and Tharamil bravely took the battle to the Minotaur, and finally a fatal blow came,
from a single crossbow bolt fired by a wizard who never thought it would work.

After killing the Minotaur and claiming his horde, you discovered in the next room
a trio of big crystal formations and puzzling arches. You studied the way they lined
up, figured that light reflected through the crystals and could be focused back at
the arches, but you couldn't get it to work, or guess what exactly would happen if
it did work. So you collected pieces of broken lens and reflecting dish (presumably),
hoping to research the magic it radiated at a later date.

The day you killed the Minotaur was Fireday, Greenmoon 24. Satyrday, as you
mourned the friendly half-orc, came a heavy knock on the castle door. And there
stood a similar half-orc, named Tak -- who related the tale of his evil impersonator
who stalked the land, and would surely have killed you all in your sleep, had he
survived.

Your XP total, hard-earned with blood, courage, smarts, and the occasional very wise
retreat -- cleaning out, it seems, the entirety of Found Castle's infested underchambers
-- was a very handy 1,683 each (except for the highly mobile Thaed, who thanks to his
lone Battle with the Dire Rat gots 1,783, and possibly Filth Fever). Anyone who
leveled easily added their 3rd level Feat during two more uninterrupted days at
Found Castle before the Arcallans returned per the Deal you struck.