The Swamp Castle

I took the ring to Pickman as I do not have the spells yet to determine what it can actually do. His price seemed fair for a human I suppose. He had maps of the swamp to the south layed out that he appeared to be studying. I asked if he knew much about them and he told me he had a client that was interested in a few points of interest there. Remembering that Dram said we could do more to help, I offered up that I knew a few people that may be interested in assisting. Once he found out the enchantments on the ring he would bring it back and let us know if his client was interested.
 
Over the next few days I started working on my duet idea. Brina had some excellent wine and even gave me a discount when I told her it was Rhiannon and I working on a song together! I stopped by the library and picked up the book as well. It’s very exciting to be collaborating with such a fine artist in addition to her wonderful company as well. Pickman also came by with the ring and to tell me that yes his Client was most interested in gathering a party to head into the swamps. The ring had a minor enchantment on it making the person a bit harder to hit.
 
One morning I met Dram at The Sarcastic Goat and sat down for a meal and to catch up as I was supposed to meet Rhiannon on this day. While we were sitting the mercenary Ap Hen came in and just sat down with us at the same table! I was astounded by the rudeness but not sure what to say. He did eventually say that Pickman was going to meet us here this morning about this Client and the mission and he was going to join the expedition. Fantastic.
 
Pickman explained that we would be heading to the ruins of Kraal castle to investigate why it happened. There was a base pay plus many bonuses depending on what we were able to retrieve and any information we could find. It pretty much all revolved around the Commander of the Garrison as it is believed she betrayed everyone and that is why the Castle fell. There was a long history of the Castle which I may need to research later as it could make a grand and epic tale.
 
We went through some of the details and some others signed up as well. This seemed pretty serious as the pay seemed quite high. This was good as I would find Rhiannon has expensive taste in wine but then so do I so I suppose it matches fairly well. After leaving The Sarcastic Goat Rhiannon actually came to Melinir to meet me and was most excited to get started. That was excellent as I was too. I did suggest that we go to her home instead as it was far more peaceful then this town and she agreed,
 
The next two days were fantastic. We worked on our music, we took walks, she showed me some dance moves and she fell asleep snuggled up to me under the stars. She told me I would need the dance moves later so I paid close attention. She was quite disappointed when I told her that I would need to leave for our expedition. She does seem to be quite emotional at times. Perhaps that is why her songs focus on love. With her emotional music and my epic tales we can definitely compose some beautiful pieces together. I left her the library book and a short note I would return.
 
That morning we loaded onto the boats that would take us across the lake. They provided a salve to keep the bugs away and it was necessary we found out. The bugs in the swamp were horrible and the salve only kept a majority of them away. You would still get bit from time to time. We made good time to cross the lake and follow the river that runs through the swamp to get to the Castle. It must have been a great feat of magic to raise the land to build a castle here but Pickman did say elven magic was used so it does make sense.
 
We made it to the outer walls and were able to navigate fairly close to an entry point to the inner keep. It seems that something destroyed a large chunk of the wall. It also looked like something else had made a home here as there were some very rude fortifications built to try and defend this entry. Nothing was there so we made our way to the small courtyard. There was definitely something living here and it did not seem to like Lizardmen as there was one gutted lying there. Maybe whatever is here eats them?
 
There were a set of doors entering into the keep. They opened quite easily and we made our way inside. It was essentially a “T” intersection. Dram and I stayed behind to cover the intersection while Sorin and Durbin ventured into a room just down the hall. Suddenly there were sounds of battle and a cry of “spiders!”. I rushed down the hall and saw there were indeed some large spiders in there. Apparently Durbin finished one quite easily as it was all over him. The other two were proving to be very elusive.
 
Fearing the worst I wrapped them both in mana and pulled them up and away from the pair. Some spiders I know can definitely be very poisonous and if they are this large it would likely kill quickly. I asked Pickman if he wanted them to study and he said yes so we grabbed Dram’s new net, I moved them together and we wrapped them. We will definitely need to ensure there are no egg sacks, we don’t want any more of those running around.
 
There wasn’t much else down that hall so we moved down the other hall into the keep further. We found a very nice scabbard and bag that had not degraded via decay so I am assuming they are magical, perhaps part of the Commander's gear? The next room seemed to be the Commander's quarters and inside there were three salamander type creatures hiding. Durbin and Sorin made quick work of them. I was going to assist but the combat was so fast and furious there was nothing much I could do.
 
Pickman was ecstatic after he entered. There was the body of the Commander, books, notes, etc. He even said there seems to be proof she was not related to the fall of the castle but not definitively. We were back to having multiple paths to go and Dram was getting worried about someone attacking from behind if we moved forward. I shaped stone in one hall leading towards the center of the keep and blocked it off. So now we only have one path.
 
Moving forward we found stairs going up and another hallway. Down the other hall there were some large frogs but also I could see something glowing with essence down at the end. Perhaps another magical item of the Commanders? Dram came up with an idea to lure the frogs out and kill them for their “giant frog legs”. I wasn’t so sure it was a great idea but we needed to get down there. They threw a large rope with rusty bits on it and coaxed the frogs out who attacked. The fighters made short work of them although one did comically bite onto Durbin’s head. If I do write a song for this that would be very humorous.
 
Dram and Sorin swam down to the end and found something quite interesting. A dead frog that looked like it had been slammed into the wall at the very end. They threw a log in and watery hands grabbed it and smashed it against the wall. I made my way down there and called out in elvish to show itself as I believed it to be a water elemental” Sure enough it came out of the water and spoke to us. I called out to Pickman if he knew any spells to help and he did. I quickly swam back, he cast it upon me and I swam back.
 
The elemental said it was placed here by a sorcerer to kill the garrison and destroy the keep. It’s binding was not yet completed so it cannot leave. It had an anchor item in the corner of the keep. It said the only way to get rid of it was to either destroy it, sending it back to its plane, or it finished its binding mission. I’m not quite sure what to do. I don’t have enough knowledge about these elementals as those are pretty advanced spells. I know fighting it would be dangerous. We decided to back off for now until we gathered more information.
 
The stairs up just went to the roof where there wasn’t much of anything. Another room we skipped had two lizardmen tied up probably awaiting the same fate as his gutted brother outside. We ended up letting them go as they don’t really attack and raid humans on purpose, only those who go into their home.
 
The last area was the hall I moved the stone to block off. Of course that is very tiring so undoing it is a lot of work. Pickman lent me one of his charged stones and I used that. Afterwards I needed to rest. Dram wanted to check out the room so I wrapped a lit stone in mana and moved it into the room to light it up. It seems to be the main chamber of the keep. On a hunch I shifted my vision to mages eyes and saw three items in there glowing. Dram also found a giant crocodile in there. Not just giant but monstrous. I needed to rest though as I was exhausted.
 
To be continued….