Who I'm Reading Today

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Continuing the diary of Ellikae “Kae” Sugarfoot, soon to be a famous hero and musician (she hopes), with annotations by her younger twin sister, Pippiana (known as Pippa).  [This will serve as my repository for campaign notes and observations and will be, of necessity, incomplete as it is restricted to what the characters know.  I may add clarifying information as needed and feel free to ask questions.]

—–

We took the frogs’ legs and stuffed their bodies back into the water. Clove used some druid tricks to draw plants around them. Hopefully, that will keep the least damaged one safe until we can return to harvest their organs for Burney.

Then arriving, at last, at the moat house, so-called from the diverted stream that forms a moat around it. The drawbridge is down but in poor shape, the chains that once allowed it to be closed have corroded to uselessness. Pippa makes sure the bridge is safe for our more substantial members.

We cross over the bridge, one at a time, and through the damaged gates. The courtyard is abandoned and overgrown, some of the walls have started to tumble down.

The drawbridge is down and is not coming back up, the chains to do so having rusted and fallen. The drawbridge is not in much better shape, the iron-bound wood having started to rot. Brave Pippa when over first, making sure the bridge would hold the heavier members of our party, especially Billy and Hellor. Judging it secure, she scouted to the inner gate, one of which had fallen the other seemed intact. While she scouted ahead, we crossed over, one by one. Hellor went first in case there were threats. But, none appeared yet as we moved into the courtyard. It is overgrown and cluttered with rubble, but there are some indications that people have been moving through.

-0Several of the external walls have begun their slow collapse. The tower still stands but the main hall has lost its upper floors. Hellor announces that he spots some coins on the floor of the tower and before we can say anything, he steps in. Only to have a giant spider pounce upon him.

I am afraid that I was so shocked by the sudden appearance of the spider that I did not move to help Hellor as quickly as he deserved. I am glad he was not hurt, I would have felt terrible if my inaction had caused him to be hurt. But I did apologize, next time I will do better.[1]

Quickly, we dispatch the spider between magic and force of arms. While the others gathered coins, Pippa bravely headed up and found a clutch of eggs which she cast down to the floor of the tower to be destroyed. Beyond the coins, there was an inadvertently hidden box, which turned out to be made of ivory. We packed all of that away in Billi’s saddlebags, which we hid away.  We ground tethered Billi so he could run away if attacked.

I may have been showing off going up the tower. I felt I needed to do something brave after my failure to attack the spider.

Treasure hidden away, we move into the main building. It was once quite grand, with the remnants of tattered tapestries on the walls.the broken remnants of furniture, rubble, quite a mess! But worst of all, a giant tick fell on me! I hate, hate, hate bloodsuckers even when they are small! It was smashed and smashed again but not before it had bitten both Lia and Clove! I cleaned their wound carefully and Hellor healed their wounds with a mere touch of his hand. Quite impressive.

There were two corridor choices, we worked our way down one. Finding a rioned trophy room. Then someone’s quarters, perhaps the commander? Since we found the barracks next?

Whoever’s room it was, we found a nice chunk of silver in it!

The barracks were partly collapsed and we found

Or did it find us?

A giant lizard! Which was quickly dispatched by our teamwork. But its nesting place revealaed a chest,

For which we followed the proper procedure, checking for traps and all.

Inside was a suit of scale armor, sized for humans of course, a crossbow without string and a box of twenty bolts, and some coins. We took the coins and left the armaments for later recovery. Lastly, on this corridor, and most tragically, a kitchen abandoned, sometime ago, seemingly mid-meal preparation and allowed to fester. There was rot and mold everywhere. And, worst of all, another giant tick! This one bit Hellor before being brutally dispatched.

So, down the other wing. Nothing much of use, one wall having slid into the moat, another having become the home for a bat colony. A stairway up to the collapsed upper levels seemed like a good metaphor for this wing. Though a diligent search did find a concealed long sword of exceptional make which we put into Lysia’s hands, much to her delight. Unfortunately, Lia stumbled on a giant adder which promptly attacked but was soon dispatched.

Burney’s curiosity about giant animals will be well rewarded from our visit here. We will have frog, snake, lizard, and spider bits for him to examine.

There was a stairway down and one door off the entrance hall left to finish off the ground floor. We decided to finish our exploration of the ground floor and then head back into town so that the giant animal bits would not spoil too much.

Of course, it would not be that simple.

Hellor opened the door and from within, there was a shout of “Get em!”

Notes: Ending the session on a cliffhanger! We are now off for two weeks, what with Thanksgiving and all.

[1] That was a roleplaying choice informed by a die role, while halflings (in D&D) are by definition brave, this was more shocking than frightening and made sense. Luckily, Hellor came to no harm.

Flip back to the Previous Diary Entry. Turn the page to the next Chapter.

Image upper art of Pippa and Kae from the artist V, who is taking commissions, lower also from pxhere and in the Public Domain.

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