The Knights of the Spoon

Olsen readies his bow as we ascend the stairs up to the tower. He releases an arrow…it hits a rat. It squeaks and runs back into the tower. We hurry up the stairs, two steps at a time. Six rats leap out at Nailen and Olsen. Nailen slices into one and it flies over the wall. Four others leap at him and bite.

Nailen and Olsen are pretty heroic and kill some rats, however more and more stream down the steps. Nailen calls for a retreat. The rats don’t follow us down. Nailen dons one of the bracers of healing. His wounds magically heal, but the magic power seems to drain something out of him – the colour drains from his face and he falls to the floor in a heroic faint.

Mahan stops fannying about at the back and shoots a flaming arrow into the tower. It vanishes and does chuff all. He fires another. Olsen tends to the fallen hero.

Mahan imagines the voice of Nailen saying not to bother going up to the tower, maybe focus on the gaol instead.

The party pass beneath a rickety balcony and enter through a pair of doors, which hang off the frames. A semi-circular room – doors opposite with alcoves to either side. They contain rotten furniture. It’s a foyer. The doors are stiff, but Mahan kicks them open. A hall is beyond with several doors inc. 2 sets of double.

The door to the left open onto a long, darkish corridor. Several doors line the right, a single window on the left.

Suddenly, the other doors in the hall burst open, 8 or so disembodied heads fly out, circle the room and then exit. The doors slam shut behind them. It now turns out that Olsen and the unconscious Nailen are still in the hall and Mahan and Rufus are in the foyer. The double doors seems solidly closed. Rufus hits on the idea of hacking a hole in the wall instead! Olsen and Nailen exit and Rufus enters. He quickly opens another door and closes it again. He gets a chance to see a large room with a row of iron bars. Soon after the doors all burst open and the heads reappear. They exhibit signs of burns and are spectral rather than corporeal.

Everyone exits the building and brews up in the grounds. While waiting for the kettle to boil, Rufus tries to look in through the windows. There’s some more fannying around. Nailen has been left outside while Mahan and Olsen go back into the hall and open the door that Rufus looked through earlier. They hold it open this time and take a closer look. The room seems to have benches and a stage. Then the other doors open, the heads reappear and whirl round, then leave and all the doors slam shut again.

Rufus searches the house for a large piece of wood. While he is doing so, Nailen wakes up. Hurrah, they all cry! The new plan is for Rufus to open the door that causes the ghostly heads to appear. When the doors open, Mahan and Olsen slip through into the first corridor discovered. The first room seems to be an office. All the other rooms seem to be offices too. There don’t seem to be any spell scrolls or gold pieces present. What a let down!

Nailen asks Rufus to give him back the bracer of healing, and he puts it back on.

The room at the end of the corridor has a lighter feeling, less oppressive, more light. It has a safe, but we are unable to pick the lock. We return to the hall. After some testing, we have sussed the door locking issue – need to wait a couple of minutes, and the doors will always open to allow us back into the hall.

We enter the ‘Audience’ room – Olsen comments that the middle of the room is notably colder – painfully so. We pass through the double doors on the other side into a large room. It’s bright due to a large hole in the roof on the far side. We can see the ‘pond’. There is also a big hole in the floor…

We come to the conclusion that there is nothing else to do but go up to the gaol. We decide to go up there at dawn.

Rosy fingered dawn reaches through the mists.. We follow the path out of town, up the hill to Harrowstone.

There is a central building and then grounds surrounded by a crumbling stone wall. One end seems to have collapsed into a sink hole in the ground. There is no bird life to speak of, simply an eerie silence. The sinkhole is full of water – it’s been here a while, reeds and cat-tails are growing.

We walk through the gateway, the gate sags off the gateposts. The place is looking in a pretty sorry state. As Mahan passes through the gate he gets a feeling of being trapped and on fire. But he mans up and ignores it. There’s a small house off to the left – we go take a look at it. The roof sags, plaster has fallen off the ceiling… It looks shitty and abandoned. Mahan explores and nearly falls through the floor – he is hit by some falling plaster.

We exit the cottage and go to look at some towers in the curtain wall. As we approach the tower we see a couple of MASSIVE rats run along the walkway at the top of the wall.

On the way to the wake Mahan starts to chat with Master Grimburrow, and attempts to convince him that we have been sent by Tyrwhitt, the priest of Zalatun at Itea. He is not convinced…

At the wake, Nailen attempts to re-open discussions with Grimburrow, to no avail. We have a brief discussion amongst ourselves and agree to listen in to other conversations to see if we can pick up clues.. We aren’t getting anywhere.

We decide to wait for night fall and attempt to find the false crypt in the cemetery.

Time passes…

Time passes…

Dusk falls. We prepare to advance on the cemetery, as luck would have it, there’s plenty of moonlight. We leave the Halvenstromm house and sneak to the cemetery. He shin over the walls and orient ourselves. As we slowly creep through the cemetery we all get an unnerving feeling of being watched. We get to the junction that Petros mentioned and there is one mausoleum here, the rest are simple graves. The mausoleum has a pair of stone doors fastened with a padlock. Olsen approaches to investigate, and beckons Nailen to accompany him. Mahan and Rufus keep watch for Brookies and Mr Bronson.

Nailen fiddles with the lock and quickly realises that it’s been burnt away with acid and just left to look like it’s locking. It must have been done recently as there is no rust on the padlock. The door swings inwards… The Scooby Doo incidental music starts to play. It smells musty and earthy.

We light the lantern and Rufus, Olsen and Nailen slowly descend.
The steps only descend about four feet into a large room, we judge that it fills the mausoleum. There are around 20 niches around the room – 4 sets of 5. Between the columns of niches are 2 statues of an armoured man. One on each side of the chamber.

The niches appear to be empty. We check them, and they are all empty. The statues are definitely made of a single piece of stone – they don’t look likely to come alive.

We stop to look at the dust on floor and spot some tracks that lead to the back corner – we find a secret door. It opens into a corridor along the back of the mausoleum and there are more steps leading further down. We gird our loins and then descend. These steps open into another chamber, bigger than the previous one. There is a semi-circular dais with a stone sarcophagus on it. Otherwise it is empty.

We enter the chamber, and approach the sarcophagus. There is some engraving on the top, however, we can’t read it. But Rufus thinks it is Old Lordling – he notes it down for later translation.

Nailen and Olsen push on the lid and manage to open it quite easily – metal runnners will do that. Within are several cloth wrapped bundles. We make like Christmas.

The first 4 bundles are similar – 1st one is a quiver of 12 arrows, 2nd is a quiver of 10 arrows with red fletching, 3rd is a quiver of 5 white fletched arrows. 4th is a quiver of 2 black fletched arrows.

The next bundle contains 4 2ft long rods, with gold heels. They all look the same.

The next bundle has 6 crystal flasks with clear, colourless liquid.

The next bundle has 5 flasks – clear pale blue liquid.

The next bundle has 2 flasks – opaque dark blue liquid with a sparkly silver sediment.

The next bundle has a leather cylindrical case – contains several sheets of parchment. Rufus examines them.

Underneath all of the bundles is a mahogany brass bound case. It contains some kind of instrument. On each side are 5 holes, 6 are empty, 4 contain some kind of crystal flask with silver ends. Within the flasks are some kind of silvery vapour.

We shut the sarcophagus and the secret door and return back to Mahan. On the way back into the first chamber, a creature drops onto Rufus and bites him on the neck! He falls to the floor.

Nailen, the bane of centipedes everywhere, kills it. Another appears and leaps at Nailen but he skillfully deflects it with his dagger. Olsen strikes a puny blow on it before Nailen kicks centipede butt! He really is a hero!

Olsen goes to get Mahan and we make our excuses and leave the mausoleum. Nailen attempts to dress the door as it was when we arrived. We get back to Kendra’s house. She makes us some cocoa when we get in.

The rolling land stretches out before us… Our road keeps to the foot of the moors. The land is more settled outlying farms, villages with no palisades. We are stared at by passers-by – seems they are not used to seeing armed men on the roads. We are approaching civilisation!!

We stop at a reasonable sized village – we can tell it’s posh round here, no ones got shit on ’em! There’s even a choice of inns. Halventromm mentions that tomorrow we will leave the main road to leave for Harrowstone. At the mention of that name, a hush falls across the room. Mahan eyes up the buxom bar wench. He orders a round of ale and then asks her about the reputation of Ravenshill.

She is surprised that we haven’t heard of Harrowstone prison – a high security prison, scene of torture and execution until a terrible fire that killed many of the inhabitants. It’s now considered to be haunted. Harrowstone is a thriving village, but populated by weirdos…

The next morning, we take the side road and head up onto the moors. We reach a village come mid-afternoon – Halvenstrom thinks that this is Ravenshill. It sits on a river and has two bridges. At a fork in the road at the edge of town is a post with bits of paper nailed to it. It seems to have job ads, notices, advertising etc.

Further up the road is a circular town square. This town seems well equipped with traders. Forge, apothecary, inn, temple to Helim etc. We go to pray to Helim and make a donation, then head to the inn.

We speak to the matronly barmaid. Petros Halventrom is the person we seek, but sadly he died two days ago. He was crushed by falling masonry up at the old prison. His daughter, Kendra, found him. His house is back down the road we came in on, and we will find her there.

It seems he was not popular in the town, many were scared of him. It’s claimed he was a necromancer – raising spirits of the undead. He always denied these claims. Kendra is fairly private, but is popular with some of the young lads. No mother came with them to the village when they moved here.

We head to the house with the red shutters. It’s reasonable sized with a lovely vegetable patch behind the house, and partially coming round to the side of the house. We also spot some men in nice red uniforms hiding behind the coal shed. We go and knock on the door. A tall young lady of medium attractiveness opens the door. She recognises Uncle Actos, surprised that we got here so soon as she only sent the letter yesterday. He explains he’s already received one from Petros.

Apparently there were strange goings on at night at the prison and Petros was investigating. We go to look in the study to see if there are any clues. After just a few minutes looking we find a journal. The final entry reads:
Tomorrow evening I return to the prison. It is imperative the Way does not finish. My caution has already cost me too much time. I am not sure what will happen if I am too late, but if my theory is right, the whole town could be at risk.

The previous day reads:
I see now how ill-prepared I was when I last set out for the Harrowstone. I am lucky to have returned at all. The ghosts, if indeed they were ghosts (for I did not find it prudent to investigate further) prevented me from transcribing the strange symbols I found etched along the foundation – hopefully on my next visit I will be more prepared. Thankfully, the necessary tools to defend against spirits are already here in Ravenshill. I know that the temple of Zalatun used to store them in a false crypt in the Restlands at the junction of Eversleep and the Black Path. I am not certain if the current clergy even know what their predecessors have hidden down below. If my luck holds I should be able to slip in and out with a few borrowed items without them knowing.

A few days before that is another entry referring to ‘The Way’ and seeking a list of all who died in the fire.
It is confirmed. The Way seem quite interested in something, no strike that, someone who was held in Harrowstone. But who, specifically, is the Way after? I need a list of everyone who died the night of the fire. Everyone. The temple of Zalatun must have such a list. Or the temple of Helim a list of the prisoners.

Another 10 days previous, refers to The Way again:
Whatever the Way seeks, I am now convinced their goal is connected to Harrowstone. In retrospect, I suppose it all makes sense – the stories they tell about the ruins in town are certainly chilling enough. It may be time to investigate the ruins, but with everyone in town already so scared of them, I would rather not let others know about my curiosity – there are plenty of folks who already think I am a demonologist or necromancer or something – the ignorant fools. Typical country bumpkins.

Another month before – The Way is interested in something here in Ravenshill, but what could it be:
It is as I feared. The Way is interested in something here in Ravenshill. But what?

Rufus finally comes across an entry from several years ago, that is circled in red:
The Whispering Way is more than a cabal of necromancers. Undeath is their fountain of youth. Their desire for imortlity makes them more dangerous.

We stay in the house and the funeral of Petros is tomorrow. That will take us to the cemetery.

The next morning, we attend the funeral and Kendra asks us to be pallbearers. We go to the temple of Zaloton to collect the coffin. Things turn a bit nasty in the cemetery – some local lads try to stop the funeral. Nailen tries to talk to them – one pushes him over. When he gets back up another swings at him with a club but misses. Nailen punches him and tries to intimidate them into backing down. It fails and 4 of them advance menacingly. Nailen draws sword and dagger, and they lose their nerve and back away. Kendra thanks us for averting an ugly fight. We pick the coffin back up and continue on to the grave. There is a small gathering of locals, a brief service and the coffin is lowered.

The notable locals are Vashian Halfmount – head of the council, Garren Muricar – another, younger member of the council, Zirkar Elkarid and his son – tavern keeper (not the one we went to) and Jarminda FallenBridge – apothecary. And of course the priest who was with us – Master Grimburrow.

We quiz Grimburrow on the names of the paths in the cemetery – this will allow us to find the crypt mentioned in Petros’ journal.

After a few days rest, all are recovered.

Aged, yet virile, Clavados debriefs us – he is the Lord High Bailiff of Itea. He also introduces us to a chap called Rupert, black armour, well armed. He recognises us – he is the chap we encountered in the marsh. He is disdainful of us and our poor judgement. They then ask us for a sketch map of the temple.

During our rest time we feel our skills improving, and Nailen speaks to the armourer about what the dashing rogue about town is wearing this season. He finds a particularly sexy ring mail jerkin. The chicks will dig it! Mahan is a big smelly copycat and takes one too.

During one of our chats with Clavados a trumpet fanfare sounds, and we all exit to the courtyard. Turns out it is Lord Uther. The situation has changed – Doc Halvenstrom has to leave to meet his brother, so Uther traveled here with him and brought Rosalind. He goes to freshen up and we will explain the adventures over dinner.

While waiting, Doc Halvenstrom asks what happened at Ashwell. He is concerned by our story.

We enter the dining hall…and explain again what we saw and found. Another character, Calunas, the head librarian exclaims that he has read of the skeletons of Shandar. They are a standard temple guardian – class 1.

Uther says he will return to Dragonsfall and question Athangild further. Meanwhile, he asks that we accompany Doc Halvenstrom to Harrowstone – the road can be dangerous, and the town itself is definitely dangerous.

The next morning, we prepare to depart. We are lent some horses and some pack horses to carry food. We leave the marsh behind and eventually rise up into the hills. Towards evening we make it to the market village that was our goal. We get rooms in the Wonky Donkey inn. The night passes without incident. The innkeeper has warned that the days journey will be more dangerous – in the morning we will pass through the Plains of Low Risk, in the afternoon we will enter the Forest of Certain Danger, preceded by the Glade of Mild Peril. We will have to reach the far side before dark.

We reach a stream and a bridge – an encounter is expected. Mahan wonders if a white stag will appear. It doesn’t and we ford the stream. The forest is even darker on the other side, and colder…

We catch a glimpse of something off to the left. Possibly it was a barrow. However, we elect to continue. Night falls so we prepare a camp for the night. Watch order is Rufus, Olsen, Mahan, Nailen.

Olsen noticed during his watch that a light had appeared off to the left. During Mahan’s watch, he kept the fire going and claims he can hear music. At watch switch over, Nailen confirms that he can hear it too. It starts snowing again during my watch and it is starting to settle. We cook breakfast and then ride on. After a few hours we notice that the snow lessens and it isn’t so cold. A few miles further and the snow is all gone. Sometime later we reach another stream. After fording it, we find it feels as warm as before we forded the previous stream. Mahan now starts muttering about a White Witch… We reach the far side of the forest. There is a sense that we dodged a bullet back there – possibly the gods were trying to tempt us from our path. For better or worse? We’ll probably never know.

We leave the pillared room and head back to the tower. Olsen leads the way…

The ladder that we came down has gone. We move furniture around in order to be able to climb up. Olsen clambers up and is instantly assailed with two javelins. They both bounce off his helmet. He advances and engages. Nailen attempts to scramble up to help his friend. They both slip over on oily straw. The lizardmen then lob torches and set light to the oil further up the corridor. We retreat back, close the door into the room and descend.

We make our way to the balcony over the watery room. Olsen climbs heroically down the rungs to check how deep the water is. He takes his armour off so that he won’t sink… The water is knee deep! And the bottom is solid.

We descend and start to wade out. There is a step into slightly deeper water, but Olsen still manages to keep his balance. Another step comes a bit later. We head towards the side of the room and it gets shallower again. At the main exit we discover that the step we were walking along ends. Olsen strips off his armour, planning to swim out, while Rufus heads back to get a bench.

Olsen discovers that the water is only about 5′ deep. He wades and swims his way out, occasionally dipping below the surface. He finds the punt and returns with it. We load Salmer onto the punt and pole across the chamber, calling to Rufus. We get no response and so Nailen and Olsen climb back up the rungs.

There’s no noise coming from the room. One of the tables has been moved. Beside it is a guttering torch and Rufus’ helmet.

We scout about and eventually notice a glow from the skull chamber. Rufus is lying on the altar, wearing a crown, pectoral and armband/manacles. Nailen and Olsen attempt to grab Rufus. Nailen is overcome by violent images and cannot contribute. Olsen is more heroic and manages to rescue Rufus. We make it back to the punt and escape.

We punt through the night, and when dawn breaks we realise that we are lost! We can see a collection of buildings, including a tower surrounded by a stone wall to the north east. We aim for it and get there approx 20 mins later. We are tired and hungry. Rufus and Salmer are still unconscious…

There’s a landing stage, so we land. Above the gatehouse is a black flag with a white skull on it. Nailen recognises it as being the same symbol as was on the black knight who we rescued Helena from.

As we finish tying up the punt, we see a tall man. He greets us and Nailen explains our plight. He introduces himself as Clavados and welcomes us as Thanes of Lord Uther and invites us inside. We go through an outer courtyard into an inner courtyard. A low octagonal tower dominates this area. He facade of a temple is to one side, a taller tower to the other. He takes us into none of these, but into some somewhat cold, bare rooms. A servant appears to light a fire and attend to the wounded.

Clavados re-appears, with another man in black robes, but shorter and plumper. Clavados introduces him as Tyrwhitt, a priest of Zalatun and one of the three Lords Spiritual of Itea.

We explain to them about what we found below Ashwell tower – it’s a useful discussion.

We take Salmer and Rufus to the temple.

We are in the laboratory below Ashwell tower. We decide to head to the pillared room to the south of the dining room and the statue room. We meet another skeleton guard.. Nailen is nervous but we fire a few arrows. Then we close for melee. Mahan breaks it’s staff and a flash of light and electrical energy blows him back against a pillar.

Nailen tries on the crown that the previous skeleton wore – it was a pretty trippy experience. The room swayed and swam, then he was able to see the others ads figures of light and the broken staff was glowing with a blue light. He took the crown off and told the others about it. He put it back on, this tie it gave the the irresistible urge to walk through the hall. Olsen and Mahan grab him and remove the crown.

We walk in the other direction, to the west. Another large vaulted room, there are faint murals on the wall showing processions of people advancing east. To the south is a door with a moon rune on it. Mahan attempts to open it and is blasted by a bolt of electricty. Rufus quickly administers first aid and keeps him alive. Mahan’s hand gently smokes as we drag him away and head back to the large hall where we head south. The resulting room has a large bowl and a large set of scales. We are stumped as to what they are for. The room to the west is a store room, and includes some weights.

The room to the east has an odd low bench in it and doors on all sides. The room to the south contains many cubbyholes with scrolls. Only one survives our attempt to open and read. It’s a request for Shandar to bless a voyage. Rufus continues investigating and finds a room with two divans, then he finds a room with a desk and some chairs. As he enters smoke starts to emerge from behind the desk. He leaves and closes the door. We head in the other direction and enter another large room. It has an altar on a dais. Behind the altar the wall is lined with niches, a number of which contain skulls with gems in their foreheads that glow with a slight blue light. There’s a big statue of a naked woman with a book, we assume it’s Shandar. There are rods in front of the altar similar to those held by the skeletons. Rufus picks one up with no ill effect. Nailen puts the crown on and the experience is overwhelming – the skulls on the wall behind the statue glow brightly in his vsision and they are speaking in violent tones. Nailen has an overwhelming urge to grab the other rob, but Olsen removes the crown.

Rufus attempts to smash a skull with the rod – it shatters as it gets close.

Rufus and Nailen head to the store room to grab some of the weights in order to throw them at the skulls. They hear a scream from Salmer as another skeleton appears. We fight, Rufus hits it with the rod and both rod and skelly explode!! Salmer has been hit and is paralysed…

We elect to retreat back up to Ashwell tower and then back to Dragonsfall.

We are in the vestry room with the robes, pondering on what to do next. Nailen is conscious of his numb arm so proposes a rapid retreat at the first sign of danger.

We look to the south of the statue room – a laaaarge chamber. Mahan is a big scardy cat, so wants to go back and look at the room with the long table.

North of that room is a kitchen – long abandoned, heavy with dust. Back into the dining room we look at the door. It is heavily bound. We hear nothing the other side. The door squeaks as it opens. The room beyond is a large vaulted ceiling. The back of the door appears to be a massive complex lock. The room appears to be a massive laboratory. There are footprints in the dust and disturbance on the benches.

The benches seem to have alchemical equipment and bits of metal mechanisms… There’s a throne at the far end with pipes feeding into it from four benches – possibly a location of blood sacrifices although we can’t detect any bloodstains. There’s a door at the far end with some old Lordling runes – Rufus notes them down in preparation of being able to translate them later. The footprints exit this room to the north. Through that door is a balcony looking over a water filled room. Light enters from the far end. Our sense of direction tells us that this matches up with the tunnel we found in the punt.

There are chains hanging from the walls, curving down into the water. There are rungs heading down, but no walkway.
Back in the throne room we examine the benches again. We find some books and pieces of paper. The pages refer to a Lord Margane and his quest for increasing power, vitriolic guardians, a dragon and many many sacrifices.

The side doors off the laboratory open into small ‘cells’ with metallic walls. The metallic walls are untarnished.
At the far end is a stone room, dominated by a large crystal sarcophagus. We can see a body within. 8 Feet tall, dressed in robes. We don’t like the look of this so we exit and attempt to lock the door.

The legible bits of the notebook you find.

We rest for the night at the top of Ashwell tower. Come the morning we break our fast and agree to explore the tower cellar. Salmer opts to come with us rather than remain alone.

We check the ground floor first. Appears to be a single room used for storage – barrels, boxes and crates. Barrels are ale, sacks are grain, crates are dried fish and meat. Looks like we can survive on this for a while. Something has been in here and had a sample of everything..!

We head further down tithe basement. The door is ajar and opens into a corridor. Smells mustier… Nailen girds his loins and opens the door. A corridor indeed, while an open door on the right. No sound emerges so we enter the room. More barrels and boxes, plus shelves on the walls. As we are checking the floor some rats appear and want a fight. In fact, they stream past us although one takes the time to bite Mahan’s leg.
The barrels contain spoiled water. The bottles contain wine and the boxes contain dried fish. We exit the room and head down the corridor, suddenly a well appears as if someone just thought they needed to put one in… The well appears to provide potable water. Nailen speculates on the possibility of there being an entrance to the Newtling lair…

Next to the well is another door, strongly bolted from this side. We ponder what mightbe behind it and then open it. The room is half paved, there is a ladder on the floor and a hole in the floor in the far corner.. The edges of the hole are stonelined and there appears to be a room below. We lower the ladder and descend with gay abandon. The room contains a bed, desk, chest of drawers all ornate and expensive looking. We search the room in pairs. Someone else has been searching the room as there are marks in the dust. We find nothing of interest.
We open the door with bows drawn. It opens into another room, furnished and carpeted. The room is large with divans around the edge and an oval carpet. Again the furnishings are ornate and expensive looking. A 7 foot tall skeleton advances towards us, bearing a staff with a blue crystal. Before we can consider retreating, MahN fires an arrow and Olsen does too. Nailen draws Trollbane and charges. During melee he suffers an electric shock to the arm but still manages to drive his dagger into the chest of the monster and it collapses. His arms hurt! We scavenge some gold from the skeleton.

the room it emerged from has 4 statues of tall people – the Lordling race, and a large oil burner in the centre. the statues are all of the same lady with different phaes of the moon carved into her chest. she carries a cup at full moon, a book at waning crescent, a sword at new moon and wears a headress at waxing crescent.
The west exit takes us to a long room with a long table and long benches. In the other direction from the statue room is a vestry, with many sets of robes, again corresponding to the phases of the moon, plus a mirror.

We spend a quiet night in Ashwell tower – Mahan feels a bit better in the morning.

Nailen chats with Athangild about staying on as reeve – he’s not really with it. Nailen then takes Athangild back up to his quarters to get some clothes, ready to travel back to Dragonsfall. We also take 6 bags of lizardman kit – totems etc.

We depart for Dragonsfall; along the causeway we are attacked – a hail of small javelins! Mahan and Nailen are hit! Nailen’s arm is really sore! We dive for cover on the other side of the causeway. Olsen fires some arrows but the lack of squeaks suggests that he hasn’t hit anything.

We attempt to pacify them by throwing one of the totems we took from Ashwell tower, and leave the bag where we were taking cover. Another volley of spears comes at us but no one is injured. We make it to the gap in the causeway and Nailen wades across first. He throws another totem. A lizardman appears and grabs the totem then scurries back into the reeds. Olsen suggests we throw another totem and then fire arrows. It works but we fail to kill the lizardman.
We return to Dragonsfall. Athangild is shaken by the attack. We don’t present a pretty picture on our return.

We are washed and dressed in clean clothes and join Uther for dinner. We recount our tale. Uther says the lizardmen sound like newtlings – a smaller species. He doesn’t know anything of the marsh light men things… Some discussion with Halvenstrom suggests he knows nothing of the marsh men. We have little to go on apart from the possibility of exploring the channel that passes through the gap in the causeway. Dr H. suggests we should be able to get a punt and a local to propel it for us. We train and heal for a week.

Salmer the boatman appears at the end of the week, ready to take us into the marsh. We load up the punt with all conceivable pieces of equipment. Mahan sits up front with bow at the ready. We reach the breach in the causeway and then turn to the north. The channel appears to be following the edge of the hill on which Ashwell tower sits.

Eventually the channel reaches the base of the hill and seems to enter a tunnel. It is mid-afternoon so we elect to drag the punt out of the water and camp out in the tower. Salmer takes a little convincing that it will be safe, but Nailen convinces him that we will take care of him. From this side we see more houses and it seems that the outer houses are not as burnt as the ones in the centre. At the door into the tower is a human skeleton. On closer inspection it seems to be lashed to wood and have feather decorations – a talismanic warning from the lizardmen perhaps…

Nailen takes this large talisman and dashes it to the ground before striding heroically into the tower. We barricade the outer door behind us then ascend the stairs to Athangild’s rooms, barricading other doors as well.