2023-05-23 Delve: Wallcastle
Player Characters
Summary
The party began in Saldynn, and each purchased the tour and blessing of health from its old temple.
They traveled along the road for a few days, arriving at Wallcastle against the cliffside.
Wallcastle's surrounding wall had an enormous opening from collapsed stone. The party walked over the rubble to enter its grounds.
There were several decrepit old farms within, as well as some other buildings and the main keep. The main keep had a front entrance and two side entrances. The party skimmed the dilapidated buildings, finding nothing useful.
Remly attempted to use the east gate, but found that its portcullis was not only shut, but blocked by rubble.
The rest of the party approached the front gate, where the portcullis was also closed. While examining it, someone shouted a warning to them as stone statues and bricks animated in the form of gricks and gray ooze. The party fought off the attacking monsters.
The person who warned them stepped out, and introduced himself as Dover. He said he was curious about the ruins, but had no party to travel with. Essa encouraged him to join them, but Dover decided to cow out and leave, bidding them good luck.
Igneous climbed over the portcullis, as the room beyond it had no roof. He landed on the other side, found the winch in the guardroom, and opened the gate for the others.
Remly check around the other side of the building while the others entered. He found the west gate and attempted to get inside the portcullis. Unfortunately, his mage hand was not strong enough to move the winch, and there was no other apparent way to get in. He rejoined the group.
The entry room had side doors, and another portcullis beyond which was a grassy courtyard. Three humanoids wandered around it as if looking for something.
Essa called out to them. The three people approached. They were suspicious of the party, and mostly only spoke of Zlaredd, someone who they all cared for deeply. They said they were looking for pretty treasures to give to Zlaredd. Essa asked how they got on that side of the gate, and they said there was a way around through side rooms.
The party traveled through a side hallway, investigating dusty old chambers with partially collapsed walls and roofs that bled sunlight. They found multiple chests, crates, strongboxes, and hidden compartments, all which had been thoroughly looted already.
They found a party with a copper line, zinc line, and bas relief of burning coals. The door was magically sealed. After experiments involving electrical conductivity, they decided to revisit it later.
They found their way to the central courtyard. The three people from before were busy huddling and searching different corners of the place, so the PCs avoided them and explored side doors. They found a well and ancient rusted gardening supplies in side rooms.
The party spoke to the Zlaredd people, one at a time. Each one had found an item they felt was impressive, and were unwilling to show to the others. One man had gathered glass shards from stained glass windows, which the PCs helped piece together and sealed in place. The other two, a man and a woman, had different halves of a stonecarved object with golden trim. The two pieces together formed a large acorn.
The central temple contained two broken windows, a pedestal with dirt, and a pedestal with a missing small broken statue.
Essa convinces the three strangers that the PCs will help them judge whose gift to Zlaredd is the best, if they cooperate and let the party handle the items. The people agree. They try putting the stone acorn back in place on its pedestal inside the central building. With the pieces in place, nothing seemed to happen.
Igneous searched more side rooms from the courtyard, and found a journal. Since noone in the party could translate it, the Zlaredd mage did so. The journal mentioned password-protected doors with hints outside for the forgetful queen. It also mentioned that the queen was paranoid and wanted lots of traps put in place.
The PCs stood in front of the door, trying different words. Once Auri said "Oak", it opened.
The Zlaredd folks began to fight again, clearly agitated by their competition for Zlaredd's favor. Essa convinced them to each take credit for one item out of the two windows and gold-trimmed acorn. The three each claimed an item, but continued to bicker as they left the castle.
The party continued through the temple. A hallway split into a looted dining room and the throne room. The center of the T intersection had an emblem depicting a horned quadraped with a glorious mane.
The throne room had bars separating the throne from the monarch's subjects' side of the room, and doors on the other side. The audience side also had side doors. Essa fey stepped to the other side of the bars, and pulled gems out of the throne's back. She took the south door afterward, and the rest of the party took the south door in the audience hall.
They all traveled down a hallway that ended in a chapel. Essa stepped into a confession both, exiting through a secret door.
Remly searched the chapel for treasure, and found a gold censer in the main pedestal.
Igneous realized there was a missing space between the hallways, and found a secret door in the middle confessional. The room beyond was chapel storage, and had a valuable gold unicorn statue among rotted chairs, books, robes, and pews.
Auri discovered that one of the keys of the pipe organ was out of tune. She slammed the key, causing a spider to flee out of it. She hit it again, and the spider went back for its egg sack. Little things blocking the organ popped out again and again until she gave up clearing it.
The party continued through the hallway Essa had taken. They passed the throne into another hallway.
Igneous set off a pressure plate and evaded flying darts.
The next room had a sealed back door, three statues, and a rubble-filled hallway with two accessible doors. Remly opened one door to find it trapped; he dodged more darts. The room beyond was empty, serving no other purpose. He discovered another pressure plate in the larger room.
The statues were of a lion, a goat, and a snake. Auri spoke the password and the door opened.
This area of the castle was very dark and somewhat cold, as it was deep in the ruined keep and close to the cliff wall. A shut portcullis blocked the party from reaching a cavern in the cliffside, and a winch was in there connected to the portcullis. From a different direction, there was a smaller closed portcullis, and the winch for it was in the PC's room.
Dover appeared on the other side of the other porcullis, stating he had changed his mind about exploring the castle, and found a way to climb in from above. He promised to open the gate for the PCs if they would let him into the cavern entry room to do so. When they pulled the winch to let him in, he laughed at them and waltzed into the cavern, leaving the party locked out behind their gate.
Remly used his grappling hook to grip the winch on the other side. With Igneous' strength, they were able to open their gate.
The party pursued Dover through the cave. The deeper they got, the more they saw strange dark roots wind around the cave's walls. These roots pulsated slightly. When Igneous cut one, gross ichor poured out. The party passed a few obstacles; they descended down a vertical part of the cave and crossed water that Auri had frozen.
The cave widened into a dead end. Inside the room, a dark necrotic blob throbbed as though alive. Three adventurers, including Dover, were unconscious and attached to the blob by roots.
A few grimlocks and cranium rats guarded the room, and the PCs sprang into action. During the fight, the party set the others free, who helped fight (except Dover, who cowered). The dark tumor pulsed with gradually increasing dark energy. The party picked up some crates of equipment and treasure they found in the room. As they destroyed the necrotic cyst, the cave began to rumble and cave in!
The group fled for the exit. Dover tried to run ahead and leave everyone behind, but they slowed him down as they rushed up the vertical section and carefully slid across the ice.
Everyone escaped to the room in front of the cave's entrance; from there, they were safe from the cave-in. Essa magically put Dover to sleep, and they decided to leave him there.
The other two adventurers were grateful for the party's help, and left them all the loot that had been carried out.
The PCs returned to the copper/zinc door and said the password, opening it and finding more loot.
Post-mission, Essa slowly fey stepped through different parts of the castle, napping whenever she needed to recover it. She did not find anything else of note or value.
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