As the caravan continues north, Nimby (gnome ranger) fumbles through her pockets for several minutes. “That castle looks familiar,” she mumbles to herself as she eyes a castle slowly becoming visible over the next hill. After a few grunts, she pulls a crumpled and smeared piece of parchment out of her pocket, and tries to smooth it out on the floor of the wagon. “Aha… I knew it.” The paper she unfurls contains a rough sketch of the castle on the hill. “Leosin said it would be along the caravan road.”

Initiation: Witnesses have seen lights appearing in Dragonspear Castle, previously abandoned for decades. Sneak inside, recon, and report. Do not engage. Use extreme caution. Dangerous ground.

Back in Elturel a few weeks ago, Nimby had showed an interest in joining a group known as the Harpers. For initiation, she was given a recon task to investigate and report on this castle. Now, after verifying that her sketch matched the castle up ahead, Nimby hops down from her wagon and seeks her companions. After showing them her mission, the other women are easily persuaded to assist her in exploring this mysterious castle. Leaving their posts in the caravan, they trek up towards the spooky castle and its crumbling stone wall. Four towers loom over the walls, casting dark shadows down the path. At first glance it looks completely abandoned…

Still, the woman remain cautious and approach slowly, watching for signs of life. It is Thia (elf monk) who finally perceives a small trickle of smoke rising from one of the towers, and silently points towards it. The rest of the group nod as they spot it,  and redirect their approach to that tower. From the outside, the tower appears unstable, but as the group sneaks closer, they discover a set of stairs still intact, spiraling along the inside, leading to the top. Creeping silently upwards, Zelena notes that the castle courtyard is littered with black poppies. The sight sends a shiver up her spine; there is something very wrong about this place. 

As they reach the top of the crumbling tower, they find a dwarf alone, standing next to a telescope. Nimby’s eyes sparkle with excitement; she loves meeting people her own size. He looks up, barely glancing  at the lot, and then back down at his leather-bound notebook, and continues to jot down notes, completely unperturbed. “Hello, ladies,” he says absentmindedly, “have you brought my dinner? I’m starving up here.” He then bends over and takes a long look through his telescope.

Enraged at being mistaken for kitchen maids, Phoebe (human paladin) immediately tenses, reaching with both hands towards her broadsword. The light drains from Nimby’s face. A small fire begins to grow in Issa’s hands as she preps a spell. Zelena, however, steps forward quickly, with her index finger up, signaling the group to pause. Taking a deep breath, she speaks in a clear authoritative voice, “No, we are here for your report.”

“Ah,” scoffs the dwarf, “Change of management I guess.” Looking down at his notebook again, he continues, “Well, I am just the intern, I don’t know why they had to send a whole crowd to check on me.” At these words, the group relaxes. Issa extinguishes the growing fire in her palms and folds her arms. The dwarf finally puts his notebook down, and looks up at them again. “I’ve been studying Orion’s Belt for three weeks now with absolutely no changes. I came here to get real mage experience, you know. Say, when can I join the group in the basement, eh? I was top of my class after all… Hey… you know, you all don’t really look like Thayans, nor mages… How did you manage to get your positions?”

Zelena clears her throat, “If you must know, we just arrived from the caravan. It sounds like you came straight from your studies. Honestly, if you want to grow as a mage, you will need real-world experience. That is why we are so highly regarded.” She sticks out her chin looking down her nose at the very short student of magic. “Well,” she said as she turned to leave, “tell us the moment those stars move.” The others follow behind, back down the tower stairs. Before Issa (tiefling druid) descends, she uses two fingers to gesture at her eyes then back at the dwarf, then wild-shapes into a cat and sulks into the dark within the tower.

The dwarf quickly calls out after them, “Hey, I am still expecting to be fed more than once a day up here! Why don’t you send up that little gnome kid next time!” The last thing they see is him summoning a book out of air to sit back to read. Issa the cat pauses to pee all over the top of the stairs before running down after the party.

At the bottom of the stairs Nimby sighs, “Wow, such an awful dwarf.”

Thia cracks her knuckles, “I could have smashed his face in, no problem.” Cat-Issa jumps into Zelena’s arms and purrs loudly. Zelana laughs and says, “Guys, he was just a lonely, privileged kid. And we learned something useful. There is a secret basement we need to get into, and it sounds like they have a captive gnome child who needs our help. The next person we meet probably won’t be as talkative, so just save your punches for when they are actually needed.” Thia shrugs in agreement.

Before continuing further, Nimby casts the spell Pass Without a Trace on everyone. It is already nighttime, but now darker shadows cover each of them as they move, making it look as though a cloud has passed over the moon, even though the sky is  clear tonight. They squeeze through an opening in the wall, entering the main clearing of the castle. Before heading to the center, they first creep along the edge of the wall, peering at the other towers.

The air feels oddly warmer in the courtyard, already about ten degrees warmer than just outside the walls. Nimby signals to the group to halt; a few feet into the grass, between the dozens of poppies, something shiny has caught her eye. Bending over, she picks up a gold chain with a green gemstone. It is small enough to be a bracelet for a very large person, or a necklace for a very small person. She pockets it, smirking happily; she loves jewelry. 

The next corner tower they reach has a clear entrance, with a door standing ajar. Phoebe inspects the door for traps before giving the all clear. The air is cooler inside the tower, which smells of rot, and the party finds several large barrels full of a clear liquid. Zelena drops a fresh green leaf into one, and the leaf turns brown. “This is poison. Don’t touch it.” She whispers. Looking up, the stairs of this tower are completely disintegrated, and the night sky is visible far above. Seeing nothing else of interest, they shuffle out of the tower back into the courtyard. 

The next tower is past an intact building, and quiet animal noises are emanating from it. They walk closer as quietly as possible, and peer through the double doors. This is clearly a barn,  containing a dozen horse stalls and riding equipment off to the side. A few of the sickly-looking horses stick their heads out and munch on the hay from a shared trough in the center of the barn. It is difficult to tell whether the hay was being eaten or not, as it just falls from the horses’ mouths after being chewed upon. There is a horrible stench of death coming from this building, worse than from the tower with poison barrels. One of the horses seems to have a lazy eye that looks over toward the door without moving the head. Phoebe lets out a tiny squeak and retreats from the doors shaking. “Those… Those are undead horses.” She says with a tear. ” Oh, those poor things. It’s an abomination to do such a thing. They should be released from their pain.” She tries to pull out her sword, but Zelena grabs her hand. “No, it would make too much noise. We have to be quiet. They are not harming us, so let’s just move on.” Reluctantly Phoebe re-sheaths her sword and the group moves on. A few bats fly toward the tower with the dwarf, and clearly get zapped by some type of missile spell. They make a small thud noise as they drop on the far side of the courtyard.

The next tower has a closed but unlocked door. Thia pushes it open with her staff and peeks inside. There is no necrotic stench here, and it is quiet, so she steps inside. She immediately sees a bed with neatly folded sheets, and an opening to another room. Below the bed is a huge axe, a pair of boots, and a bag of coins. Cat-Issa follows Thia to investigate the next room. A few broken barrels lay on the floor, however the wall glows with burning letters in a language unknown to Thia. Issa pops out of her cat form to translate the infernal phrase, “Free us again,” She explains. Wherever this language is written, it glows bright red and yellow like a fire. Thia nods in understanding, thoroughly creeped out. They take the axe and the coins from under the bed, but leave the boots, and head back outside to inform the rest of the party.

-This castle was fun for me to play because it was all home-brewed. I started with an idea and a map.

-Zelena assisted in the editing of this episode. It needed a LOT of help this time. Thanks.