I met the outsiders in the treasury, a mixed bunch of chancers if there ever was one. The Duke’s son directed us to search the armoury. The special magic sword missing and the room sealed. We’d need that sword to slay the beast of these parts some folks say. The armoury had been opened perhaps once from the scrape marks by the door in recent weeks. Looking round the armoury we discovered a thin wall, so we knocked through the wall. The room behind was an old gaol, with eight cells.

In one corner in a cell, was the remains, entrails, broken bones, skulls and the like of two people, a peasant girl and a guard perhaps were the most likely people. They had been gnawed by some animal monster. A tunnel in the ceiling can be seen above. A carpenter was sent to board it up. We did not venture into the tunnel it being too thin for us.

Then a guard raised a cry. The duke’s elderly mother had died of ‘exposure’. We went to the outside to the scene of her death. She’d taken her warm outer clothes off so would have died soon, being frail and all. We asked a guard about the timing of when she left. He said she’d gone out a couple of hours before and the priest had gone with her.

We made off to see the priest. He got angry with us and said he’d been praying all morn with his apprentice. In search of somewhere to piss, I found myself in his chambers, just noticed that there was only priestly trappings there.

We reported to the Duke’s son. He was upset that we got the priest riled up.

With the Duke’s health failing, word from the servants at dinner was that his son’s marriage to lady Catherine would be brought forward to tomorrow so that he would be a fit and proper married heir to the estate.

In the eve a message was waiting for us ‘Come downstairs at Midnight and see the coven’ or some such. Thorny the bastard son of the Duke spoke with us. He’d had the same message, band up and investigate he said. We said that made sense, not that anything makes sense.

Only ones I half trust are these outsiders. Priest seemed like he was telling the truth, but then the guard is a liar or there is magic at work.

The beast is around here and we need to weapon to kill it. Maybe it’s a changling beast so might be a man or beast at any time. We still need to explore the rest of the castle. As the cell wall was whole there must be another way of the beast getting out of the tunnel. We need to find that part so we can investigate the tunnel or block it up. That’s what I have a notion too anyway.

Editor’s note: Olsen refers to Uther as the Duke throughout, despite Lord Uther not actually holding this senior military title. This is probably a local peasant affectation, referring to the most senior local lord as the Duke.

We were tasked to investigate smuggling. The previous smuggle-busters didn’t return so we went to look for them and crossed the main river channel. The missing ship was found – no survivors. Dead sailor speared by massive arrow.
Lizard men tracks lead us to lair in marshes. We investigate and rescue an injured man. He gives some detail about river pirates before dying. We return to ship but a horde of lizard men is advancing and they are not about to invite us to a party. We exit the area and pass a marker pole. They come no further.

We trek through the marsh along a raised causeway/path. At night several glowing spheres appear and approach. We break through the circle and run. Someone is grabbed by a tentacle – we fight it off. Eventually we reach the remains of a settlement. After fighting off a few zombies it seems safe and we rest up. After a day or so we continue our trek in a punt we found. Ahead we spot two figures – a maiden and an armour clad knight. We leap to her rescue and the knight rides away without attempting to fight us. The maiden is grateful and leads us to a manor house – she is the fiancée of the heir to the manor.

We are welcomed and fed. It is clear that we are regarded a commoners by the noble residents, although the younger family members are friendly (Sara, Konrad and Thorn).
The next morning there is a hue and cry – a young nephew of the baron has been murdered! We are suspected and do all we can to help investigate and prove our innocence.
Another body is found, in the cellars and it shows evidence of animal attack. We explore the cellars but find nothing. The family (Catharine) decide that Dale (the heir) must lead the thorough exploration of the cellars. We accompany him and Dobry, the captain of the guard.
A dark creature is heard growling and Dobry’s men panic and run. One disappears, one is found brutally savaged, the other two soil their britches. After consultation with the resident scholar it is felt that only a magic weapon will harm this creature – the treasured Sword of Uther the First. However, when Dale goes to get it – the sword has been stolen…..!

After finding myself in the White Anchor in Saltmarsh for the third Monday in a row drinking two-for-one pints of fermented urine, I‘d had enough and the talk of a haunted manor house down on the coast seemed a good idea. So I tagged along with some wideboy from the back streets, an itinerant herbalist (who’d been bothering everyone about some plant he was looking for) and “Sir Green Gills” as we set out for the coast. We were stopped at the gate and then “Sir Green Gills” had to go and seeGuildmaster Regan before we could continue.

The journey passed easily enough and we reached Burleigh just as the weather started to break. Conversation at the inn wasn’t particularly helpful; they just set us to see some local nutcase down by the river. But the beer was good so we’ll go back there.

The manor house was up on the cliffs over looking Burleigh. The garden was overgrown, but we made it to the front door ok. No signs of life. We explored the ground floor. The rooms were mostly empty; decaying and dusty. One room had a whirlwind that threw crockery at us. We then heard a scream from upstairs but stuck to exploring the ground floor – it was all a bit nerve jangling and put us on edge. Herbman identified some poisonous mushrooms in one room so we gave them a wide berth. The kitchen had some purple centipedes that gave “Sir Green Gills” a bite on the leg and made him throw up for the rest of the day. I finished one off with an arrow and Wideboy skewered the other. We found a box above a fireplace that had a gold ring, and in the scullery off the kitchen there were some stairs down to the cellars, but we didn’t fancy going down there just yet.

Upstairs Wideboy suddenly decided he didn’t like cobwebs – the place is full of them so why this room gave him the spooks I don’t know. Anyway he got Herbman to light his torch so he could burn them down. Bad plan – he set fire to the room!! Quick as a flash he grabbed the crystal sitting in the fireplace, retreated and we shut the door. In another bedroom we found some bloke from the village tied up. We freed him and persuaded him to stay with us while we searched the rest of the house. Back on the landing I fell through some rotten floorboards and twisted my ankles; damn I hope there’s no running involved later. That meant we couldn’t explore the rest of the landing, so had to risk the back stairs from the kitchen. The rotten stairs held our weight and we found village boy’s clothes in one room and Wideboy thought he’d found some natty new shoes and cloak in a wardrobe, but the cloak fell apart and gave him a lungful of stardust, ‘cos in the next room he started seeing things. Anyway it was getting dark so we retreated back to the hall, to see if the ghosts would come out at night…

The adventurers’ map of the abandoned (and haunted?) manor house at Burleigh

Session 2: 26 May 09

The night passed uneventfully, but at least the rain put the fire out in the upstairs room.
At daybreak we ventured down into the cellars. Wideboy still wasn’t happy about things and started seeing ghosts again, but herbman calmed him down by pointing out it was a just an ordinary room. There was a body on the floor and when Sir Green Gills went to look at it, some worms attacked his hand and crawled inside. In the end he had to hack his hand off to stop the worms reaching the rest of his body – gross man –but respect!

We found a secret door in the back of the fireplace, which led to what looked like a dining room. Anyway it certainly didn’t look like ghosts, more like 6 or 7 men. We found what looked like the leader’s bedroom and Herbman wrote down some code. There was a door marked “Danger” so we went back to look at the other door out of the mess hall. We could hear a scratching sound and as SGG was opening the door and we were about to skewer the dude inside, I got stabbed in the back by the cheating lowlife scumbag from the village – guess he was part of this gang of smugglers. But stabbing someone in the back – that’s not in the rules of the game. Ambush and arrows are different. Anyway SGG sorted the guy in the bedroom out while the rest of us turned on our little turncoat. On top of my sore ankles, the scumbag had poisoned the dagger so I was struggling to get a good shot off, but the other two soon sorted him out – Herbman was looking pretty handy for a medicine man.

SGG captured the guy in the room and tied his hands up. Interrogation didn’t produce much and succeeded in knocking him out. We searched the bedroom and deduced there were 5 others and found the outline of a secret door. More searching found the torch holder was the way to open it. Down the stairs behind and we found some caves and passages leading to the sea. We found the smugglers sorting their booty, but while we were sorting ourselves out for a coordinate attack they must of heard us, and attacked up the passage. The leader guy cast some spell that casued some distracting pretty lights. We finished the rest off and chased after him. We found a cave that opened out to the sea and the marks where a boat had moored, but no sign of the chief bad guy. We continued to search the caves…

The adventurers’ map of the cellars of Burleigh Manor, which prove to be more than they seem