Session 49: Castle Black Report

General Summary

Session 49 – Wednesday January 6, 2021

4 Hour Battle Role play session. 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM Party of 8 (The order of Heroes, Inc.): It is the 7th day of the month of Marpenoth (Leaffall) in the 3rd year of the Age of Enialis

• Fredrik Fredson – Human L9 Barbarian/L3 Fighter – Dan King
• Jaquette Mara – L12 Human Druid – Jackie Armstrong
• Lucky Lightfoot – Leprechaun – L11 Bard/L1 Sorcerer – Jacob Munson
• Morgana (Anna) – Human – L8 Rogue/L4 Fighter – Ryan Armstrong
• Vaecaesin – Wizardfolk – L12 - Ryan
• Rolen – Human L12 Warlock – Josh Pozsonyi
• Tyrus Rechs – Human L9 Ranger/L3 Fighter – Nathan Gioconda
• Dr. Douglan Haldopple – Human L12 Artificer/Alchemist – Spencer Armstrong
• Fnipper Sparkelgem Bimpnottin – Forest Gnome Bard

Goals:

• Find Zyark who is controlling the Gnolls and stop his assault on Mirabar.

Yeenoghu

Jaquette, Tyrus and Lucky saw that the large stone doors were open. They put all the children together in a couple of the cells. Rolen opened the door and saw a 14-foot hideous Gnoll that he assumed was Yeenoghu. Rolen started to back out of the room as Yeenoghu offered a deal: “Free me and I shall grant you power beyond your wildest imagination.” Rolen backed out and closed the door. Rolen explained the situation and the party decided to go in and eliminate Yeenoghu.
Lucky and Fnipper cast spells but Yeenoghu evaded them both. Fredrick rushed in and stabbed him with his spear. A massive steel spike impaled Rolen’s leg pinning him in place and Rolen responded with an explosive magical bolt from his crossbow that caused massive damage on Yeenoghu. Yeenoghu then pounded Rolen with his flail.
The party heard the hatch in the hallway open and the sound of more Gnolls coming down the ladder. Tyrus shot his arrows at Yeenoghu, Vae cast haste on Fredrik. Jaquette cast bonfire on the entry way, closed the door and healed Rolen a little. Fnipper cast cutting words on Yeenoghu and whispered dissonantly at him. Lucky polymorphed Rolen into a T-rex. The T-Rex tore into Yeenoghu and Yeenoghu pounded him with the flail causing the T-Rex to be confused. Tyrus stepped forward and boldly fired 3 arrows directly into Yeenoghu’s chest. Yeenoghu burst into flames and then dust that quickly dissipated as it fell to the floor.
Doc put webs in the hallway to slow the approaching Gnolls. One of the Gnolls started attacking Jaquette but Jaquette cast Thunderwave and obliterated it. A nasty looking large Gnoll started into the room and got stuck in the webs. Fnipper knocked out the larger Gnoll with a sleep spell. Tyrus and the t-rex knocked over a few braziers to disrupt the blood runes on the floor. Vae smashed the remaining Gnoll with his nunchucks, Doc splashed him with acid. The Gnoll pulled out a horn and blew it loudly. Lucky cast magic missiles at the remaining Gnoll. Fredrik grappled the Gnoll and yelled “I got him, I got him, I got him!” Tyrus shot the Gnoll with an arrow and Vae finished him off with his nunchucks.

Get out.

Tyrus retrieved two of his magical arrows and the party heard noises from above as if Gnolls were heading toward them. Doc healed Rolen with one of his potions. Capt. Rechs told the party, “The children are our priority, we need to get them out and make a tactical retreat.” Jaquette lit a bonfire at the base of the ladder and Fredrik, Rolen, Doc and Vae waited in case more Gnolls came down.
Tyrus picked up Tamino and Jaquette tried to persuade the children but they weren’t coming willingly. Lucky played his lute and suggested the children follow him. They all succumbed to his charms and followed him. Fnipper blended with the children and helped to guide them out. Fredrik took the bed and added it to the bonfire to cause the ladder to burn more.
Lucky, Tyrus, Jaquette and Fnipper lead the children into the next room in the north. Lucky opened the door and saw a couple Gnolls coming down the ladder in that room. Lucky cast a fireball at the hatch and killed several Gnolls. Tyrus called to the others “Fall back!” Vae cast cloud of daggers below the large hatch. Several Gnolls tried to climb down and were either killed by the daggers or the fire or by Vae’s ice knife or by Rolens crossbow. Fredrick grabbed the unconscious Gnoll and he and the others joined the children in the next room.
In the next room Fredrik started bashing the Gnolls as they came down the ladder. Fredrik slowly sunk his spear into one of the Gnolls and it began screaming. Seeing what was going on, the Gnolls stopped coming down the ladder. Fredrik looked up and saw a larger Gnoll that appeared unphased. Vae cast cloud of daggers just below the hatch. Rolen opened the secret passage with the key he had, the party and the children all ran out and Doc very stealthily closed the door behind them.

Through the woods

The party stealthily made their way out of the tunnels and then into the woods. As they emerged from the tunnel, they couldn’t shake some feelings they had. Rolen and Doc both felt that they cold “get caught up in the flow of anger and would try to stoke others around them into forming an angry mob.” Fredrik felt that “the flesh of other intelligent creatures is delicious!” Tyrus and Jaquette felt that they could “rail against the laws and customs of civilization, attempting to return to a more primitive time.”
As the party moved away from the castle the Gnoll over Fredrik’s shoulder awoke. Fredrik stuffed a rock in the Gnoll’s mouth and gagged him with a rope. Rolen put shackles on the Gnoll’s hands. They stopped and Jaquette and Lucky lead the kids off behind a few trees while the others interrogated the Gnoll.
Fnipper cast comprehend languages as Tyrus asked Fnipper to translate everything for him. Fredrik ungagged the Gnoll. Tyrus asked “Was that Yeenoghu that we killed.” The Gnoll, being quite intimidated replied: “Yes, that was Yeenoghu, but he’s not really dead, just banished back to his plane.” Tyrus asked: “What do you intend to do? Are you going to re-summon him?” The Gnoll replied “Zyark has plenty of Gnolls amassed for his plan.” Tyrus asked: “Where is Zyark?” The Gnoll replied: “Down south just north of Gauntlgrym at the mustering point.” Tyrus asked: “Is there an army?” The Gnoll replied “300 gnolls.” Fredrik started sniffing the Gnoll and licking his lips.
Tyrus asked: “Where are they attacking next?” The Gnoll replied “you’ll have to kill me before I’d tell you that.” Tyrus asked: “What do they call you creature?” The Gnoll replied “I am…” and Tyrus took his axe and buried it in the Gnoll’s skull. Fredrik took a piece of the Gnolls ear and ate it. Doc questioned Fredrik on this and Tyrus explained “It’s a boxing technique he must have learned in Mirabar.” Doc examined Fredrik and found nothing physically wrong with him.

Baldrak Stoneshield

As Lucky and Jaquette headed away from the others so the Children would not witness the interrogation of the Gnoll, Lucky spotted a Massive Dwarf (300 lbs and about 5’ tall) trying to hide behind a small tree. Lucky saw the Dwarf and the dwarf said “Shh… I’m hiding.” But his lips did not move. The Dwarf explained that he’s hiding from Gnolls and Lucky offered him to travel with the party as they are killing Gnolls. Fredrik saw the dwarf, licked his lips and put on a bib.
Baldrak explained (without moving his lips) that he was from Gauntlgrym and his party was looking for an entrance to Gauntlgrym when they were attacked by Gnolls and he was the only survivor. Rolen looked skeptically at him. He explained that he ran from the battle and now has no place to go but he wants to try to kill Gnolls. Fredrik asked Baldark if he could talk to the children. Baldrak said the children are thinking of Yeenoghu and eating creatures. Baldrak explained that Farimour was the one who sent him about a year ago. Rolen explained that Farimour was killed by Gnolls. The party asked how he had survived and Bladrak turned himself invisible.

Mirabar

The party arrived back near Mirabar in the late afternoon. Tyrus found some of his comrades. The lord commander joined them and summoned a few clerics to aid the party. They offered the party food and rest. Tyrus told the Lord Commander that they wanted to mount another attack on Castle Black and an army of Gnolls is mustering near Gauntlgrym.
The Clerics led the children back to the gates and the rest of the party followed. As they passed by the market, they witnessed a wife berating her husband for spending all their money on magical reagents. Doc and Rolen became irate and started inciting a riot. Vae and Lucky tried to calm down the situation with spells. But eventually the towns guards got involved and put shackles on Doc and Rolen.
The Clerics came back and cast calm emotions on Doc and Rolen. The cleric asked the guards to escort them to the temple. Lucky compelled the wife to apologize to the husband and the crowd dispersed. At the temple, the Clerics cast sufficient restoration spells and remove curse on the children and the party to remove any madness conditions they had.
Once Tamino had been healed, Tyrus asked Tamino what happened. Tamino explained how they forced the children to watch the hideous things Yeenoghu did and eventually they became fascinated and wanted to emulate him. Jaquette couldn’t bear to listen and walked away. Tamino explained how they turned the Hyenas into Gnolls and how the Gnolls would eat the hearts of live animals to become larger Gnolls. Tyrus asked what they wanted to do with the children and Tamino believed that they were there just to be tormented for the pleasure of Yeenoghu.
Rolen cashed in the heads for 28gp.

Castle Black

The party debated waiting or attacking right away and Tyrus asked the party and the Night’s watch Rangers to aid them in attacking right away. They party took a short rest while the Rangers gathered about 60 able bodied fighters. Lucky told the story of Yeenoghu to a cowd in the city and the city cheered the party and the rangers as they left the city. Many of the Rangers, after hearing the tale, questioned “Why is Tyrus not the Lord Commander?” The rangers put on war paint and they all headed to the castle.
Captain Tyrus organized the attack using the “Knight’s Fork” flanking maneuver. Using this strategy, the rangers and the city guard overwhelmed the remaining Gnolls. The Rangers tracked any escaping Gnolls and slaughtered them.
Once the Castle was cleared out the party spent hours exploring the whole castle. They found the place a complete mess. In the upper level they found a map and a small treasury with 900gp and 50pp. On they map they found a dwarven letter G with a sketch of hills and a spot marked “Mustering point.”

Bye bye Doc

Doc pulled out an hourglass from his bag of holding and said, “I don’t have much time left with you all, please keep the gold I just need enough to get back to Waterdeep.” Rolen gave Doc 100gp. Doc left behnd a giant bottle full of healing potions. He said, you should be able to have 10 healings from this (cure wounds 2nd level.) He told them that each of the items he infused with magic will last for some time until he needs to infuse something else at least. Doc asked the party to sign the contract so he could get credit for the work he did.

Rewards Granted

28gp for the Gnoll heads
In Castle Black

• 900gp
• 50pp
• A Map showing the relative position of the Mustering point to a cave near Gauntlgrym

Doc Left:

• A gallon jug of Cure wounds (10 uses 2d8+5 each)

Campaign

Rebuilding in the Age of Enialis

Protagonists

Lucky Lightfoot

Jaquette Mara

Fredrik Fredson

Douglan Halfdopple

Rolen Blackstone

Tyrus Rechs

()

8 / 8 HP

STR

DEX

CON

INT

WIS

CHA

Report Date

06 Jan 2021

Primary Location

Mirabar