Dragonbane

In retrospect, finding an orc helmet discarded on the grass outside the castle should have been a warning. However, Krisanna was her usual impatient self and wanted to claim the best bedroom in the tower, so raced in and failed to spot the trip wire alarm with bells on and narrowly avoided falling into the put just inside the gateway. As she teetered on the edge, some goblin/schmoblins were laying in wait and unleashed a volley of arrows at the impetuous halfling and only Makander’s intervention by diving in front of her saved her skin.

The others followed through the gate, also narrowly avoiding the pit. Orla shot one of the goblins with an arrow before tripping and smashing her favourite bow. Krisanna then raced for the base of the north east tower to get out of sight of the goblin archers and promptly fell flat on her face as she tripped on the marbles that had been scattered on the stairs. This made her mad and she threw a knife, skewering one of the critters. Bastonn followed and got his sword stuck in a luckless goblin. The last one tried to jump for safety, but fell and broke his neck.

Meanwhile, Aodhan had spotted another pit, covered by a trapdoor and rescued the prisoner shackled within - one Leadbelly Sockhealer. We all introduced ourselves and welcomed him to the party. After a brief rest and some healing we found a scroll with references to an artist called Embarius who seemed to have had a grudge against the previous tenant Lord Wolfsbane. A gurgling sound from a cupboard also revealed a drunk goblin called Jaldo, who thankfully didn’t attack anyone and was happy to receive a biscuit from an unexpectedly flirtatious Krisanna.

Our sleep overnight was disturbed by the unholy roar (and definitely not an unruly whore) of a headless ghost making a circuit of the castle, who was guessed was the late Lord Wolfsbane in search of his head. Finding his head and banishing him became a priority on our castle renovation project checklist.

The next morning saw us exploring the base of the north west tower with Krisanna crawling through a crawl space, finding trotter prints in the dust leading to a very friendly pig (possibly to be called Princess Porkina) who had been living amongst the rubble and was also very happy to be given a biscuit. The next run of bad luck happened when exploring the tunnel when a large bolder was dislodged, hitting Leadbelly and knocking Orla into the flood water in the lower part of the tower. Krisanna immediately jumped in to rescue her friend, forgetting that swimming was not really one of her best talents, but fortunately Bastonn was able to grab on to her ankles and between them they pulled a bedraggled and not best pleased Orla from the water.

We pushed on further into the tower, past a sign written in goblinese saying we were not welcome here, past some pigeons and a broken chandelier before we heard the unmistakeable chatter of goblins! 

To be continued!