| Session Date | December 15, 2018 |
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| Base XP Gained | 2500 |
The party, led by the Ranger Calidor, moved north along the western side of the hills within which they knew lay the brigand's ruined keep. Though past sunset, it was a near full moon and, with snow on the ground, was exceptionally bright out. This proved helpful, as the Ranger noted numerous wolf tracks crisscrossing the snow. He was most concerned that they seemed less random than might be expected for such creatures. The party suspected they might be a patrol of some sort for the brigands, and the party now decided to at least mask their trail by dragging brush. They hoped it would snow again soon to better hide their trail, as Calidor noted that "wolves are more dangerous in the wilderness than brigands." Iban and Cadwallider both became invisible at this point, and Iban ranged ahead slightly. Soon, the party turned west and found a somewhat sheltered area in the fringe of the hills, where they opted to cold camp for the night (very cold camp!). It snowed over the night and no wolves disturbed their rest.
A few hours before dawn, the party crossed the hills. They crested and, above the location of the Keep (itself now in deep moon-shadow) they noted a pall of smoke. When closer, they now paused to all apply dust of disappearance to themselves. They then closed to the keep from the north. When in visual distance once more, Iban slipped ahead. When near the walls, he levitated up to look around. Atop the corner towers he saw a pair of spear-armed brigands in the two closest. inside the courtyard were another pair, standing around a fire burning in a pit. The Keep was in terrible shape. The inner building's upper story had fully collapsed, and several other outbuildings were nothing but piles of rubble and rotten wood. A small portion of the northern curtain wall had collapsed, and likely was the entry point the dead brigand to the north had alluded to. But, crossing was potentially noisy, even when invisible. To improve their odds of entering undetected, Iban now casting a sleep spell at the brigands on either flanking tower, putting all four to sleep with only the noise of dropping spears to disturb the morning -- the courtyard brigands did not react. As he prepared to descend and return to the others, the double doors on the main building within the courtyard flew open and a rider came out, rapidly passing the two sentries with a wave and riding out through the gate opening (the gate itself was missing) and then south.
Iban now rejoined the others and gave them the lay of the land. The party then slipped over the rubble covered hole in the north wall and into the courtyard, still undetected. Iban and Aldeberon then slipped up to the two sentries and killed them, remaining invisible thanks to the dust of disappearance. The party now slipped through the double doors into the main keep, which were unlocked. They immediately saw a dim light ahead and were assailed with a strong horse smell -- the brigands were using the keep's great hall as a stable. Several of the horses were already saddled. There were numerous doors leading off this hall and they first took the southwestern most one. Beyond was a room with a half-dozen brigands in it. ll were awake, armed for battle, and busily at work with some additional saddles and other harness and gear. Surprise was rather easy when invisible, and all six were quickly slain before they knew what was going on or could get help. The only other door went into a thick stone wall, probably the base of the southwestern corner tower of the keep. They then went over to the northwestern door and found much the same, though the room contained a large quantity of stores instead of brigands -- food, barrels, and other supplies in quantity. From this room, Iban passed through the door to the north and into the northwestern corner tower. He went up one floor and found a few brigands, all awake and gearing up. They seemed quite intense and talked a bit about preparing for battle. He slipped out quietly and rejoined the party. At some point, he took a look at Winfrith with the crystal ball - the ranger was still alive and imprisoned, but Iban made note of the stone around him. It seemed to indicate the prisoner was underground, not in the Keep itself.
They now tried another door to the south off the great hall and entered a corridor. Beyond were numerous doors. Opening one, they found a single brigand in his quarters, awake and armed for battle. Iban and Aldeberon rushed him. From an adjacent door, a second brigand noted the activity, popped out, then fled back into his own room. The first was cut down as ZZ and Cadwallider entered the other room. It was small and appeared empty, so Cadwallider detected invisible. And there, briefly, ensued a battle where everyone was invisible. The brigand soon became visible, but proved to be a very tough foe, holding his own for a short time against invisible foes. But, he was eventually cut down and some of his gear taken as it looked valuable (he had also left behind a pair of empty potion vials). Nothing else found in this area, they tried across the great hall to the north. One of several doors beyond they found locked; behind another they could hear movement and talking. Cadwallider now cast knock on the locked one and it opened to reveal a a dozen Hobgoblins, awake and armed for battle. A melee ensued as Iban, Aldeberon and Calidor attacked. Meanwhile, behind the party, the other door opened and a number of Brigands rushed out...and into the invisible ZZ. Cadwallider began hitting them with magic missiles in support of ZZ, who in turn cut down brigands with regular precision. All were eventually slain.
One door on this corridor proved to open to stairs down; from below flickered torchlight. By this time, the dust of disappearance was wearing off and no longer useful. So, Iban became invisible with his ring and silenced by a spell from ZZ, slipped ahead to scout. He found a pair of sentries in a torchlit room below, and numerous passages off of that place. He scouted as far as he could without having to open any doors; one door caught his attention, at it was rather ornate and of heavy construction. He returned to the party, which now descended silently. They quickly overwhelmed the two sentries, who tried to raise an alarm but could not. To the south of the sentry post was a larger room, filled with a large quantity of stores. They drug the dead sentries here and extinguished and took one of the torches form their post (to make it appear the sentries had left). They used this storeroom to reapply dust of disappearance on everyone. Beyond one door off this room they could hear a good deal of activity. When they were ready, they burst it open and found sixteen brigands -- Cadwallider blasted them all with an ice storm. The party then returned to the sentry post and turned west. Iban now cast ESP to reconnoiter beyond a few doors. Beyond one he gathered were a few officers or leaders of some sort, while beyond another were a very large number of brigands.
The next door they actually opened, and found what was clearly a dungeon. Three brigands were present, but were quickly overwhelmed. Within the cells, the party found three humans and a dwarf. One of the humans was Winfrith, in bad shape but still alive. Of the other two humans, one claimed to be the innkeeper of the Lost Inn, a place some 30 miles south of Grilbie. He said his inn was overrrun by the brigands weeks before. He was taken away as a hostage in order to keep the rest of the inn staff in line, who were thereafter under the eye of several brigands staying within. The third human claimed to be alone traveler from Wellington taken on the high road weeks before and thrown in here he knew not why. The dwarf also claimed to be alone traveler, taken on the road between the dwarf citadel of Ballak as he traveled to Grilbie for a late, post-trading season visit. The party now took the rescued prisoners to the storeroom and told them to wait there (here, ZZ healed the ranger, helping restore some of his vitality). The party now returned to the other doors. Before the one with numerous brigands, they laid a large quantity of oil. Cadwallider then lit it as they rushed into the room with the suspected officers. The plan worked well enough, though the brigands proved to be armed and quite alert -- several managed to get lucky and hit Cadwallider with arrows before he could get clear. Meanwhile, the other room was found to contain four brigands with heavier armor. They did not last long, however.
But, as these brigands were slain, a loud noise of alarm erupted form the sentry post. Rushing back, the party found Winfrith. He told them that the "traveler from Wellington" had suddenly leapt up and ran off, raising the alarm before Winfrith could stop him. The whole complex, already awake, armed, and alert, would soon be on them. The party now fled rapidly back up the stairs to the ground level, and into the great hall. Fortunately, there were sufficient horses already saddled for them all, so they mounted up and, taking the all of rest of the horses, fled the keep and galloped away at full speed. Brigands atop the towers fired at them, but ineffectually. They rode south along a light path in the snow (other horse tracks marked the way). When clear of the hills, they split up. Cadwallider and ZZ, accompanied by the rescued dwarf, turned east towards the Dwarf Kingdom and the nearby citadel of Ballak. The others turned west, riding hard for the Paren River and Grilbie.
Although the road to Ballak lay south of the Paren, and the three riders were north of it, the way proved manageable on the horses, and they arrived there a few hours. The presence of the rescued dwarf (who they learned was missing and presumed dead) and ZZ, not to mention Cadwalldier's Dwarven Ring of Power, opened doors quickly for them. Soon they were brought before Falor, the garrison commander of Ballak. He listened to their story with some skepticism but (thanks to the influence of Cadwalldier's ring), he at least considered their story. ZZ and Cadwalldier told him of their connections to Nali and the rulers of Kazakh to the north, which helped their story, it seemed. Finally, Falor called for one of his servants to "get the Kazakh runerock." He soon had a weird, cylindrical stone brought to him, with small runes carved across some of it. He then took a small tool and carved more runes into the stone. After about a half hour, more runes began to appear on the stone. Falor read them with growing astonishment. Looking at the two adventurers, he was clearly eying them with new interest. He had received direct and specific orders, he told them. First, the four members of the party (ZZ, Cadwallider, Aldeberon, and Iban) had been appointed subalterns in the army of the Kingdom of Khwarizm. Further, they had been deputized to accompany "any relief force immediately available" to Grilbie to aid in the defense of the town. Additional messages had been sent to Azzimar and the capital (Inziladun) requesting reinforcements as swiftly as possible, though they would take days at best to reach Ballak. Falor then sent for one Ziglir-Zurash, captain of the Iron Helm company, the only force immediately available to deploy. The captain elicited only the slightest surprise at the rapid orders he now received from the garrison commander. He could have his full company ready to march in an hour so, 80 strong. He made no comment about the two new officers who would accompany his force, though it was clear he was not thrilled. After peremptorily reminding the two new officers that the company was his alone to command, he told them to meet him at the citadel gates in an hour and left to see to his preparations. This was all accomplished, though Cadwallider lingered in a quiet room to rest and memorize spells -- he would fly to catch up with the company before they reached Grilbie.
Meanwhile, Aldeberon, Iban, the two rangers, and the rescued innkeeper rode hard towards the recently demolished brigand camp along the river. A quick search revealed a half dozen boats loosely hidden on this side of the river. They set all the boats into the river to float down towards Grilbie, taking two for themselves after cutting the horses loose. They arrived in town not long after and made their way immediately to the town master. He was more skeptical of their story than even the Dwarves were, though he clearly knew the rescued innkeeper. However, a pile of coin soon changed his tune, and he accepted their money for "the defense of the town." Iban urged him to immediately begin dispersing grain stores throughout the town, as having them largely all in a single wooden building was inviting disaster. Meanwhile, the town master would call up the town militia, something which had not been done in a decade or more. The party began to plan out possible defenses they could put the villagers to work on. Of course, who would actually come remained to be seen...