Wiki of The Dungeoneering Crew

The adventuring party continued their exploration of a slaver stockade situated atop a hill, following a devastating fire caused by Elenor’s fireball. The blaze had scorched a rooftop structure, charring the wooden framework while leaving the concrete walls slightly blackened but intact. Surrounding trees and ground-level walls were singed, but the stone walls near Brandy and Kipp remained unscathed. The fire, though initially intense, was subsiding, and the only accessible doors were located in the northern part of the courtyard. The party observed that the screams they'd heard coming from the burning area had ceased, indicating the immediate danger had passed.

Brandy and Kipp, positioned at a higher vantage point, decided to descend and join the rest at round level. During their descent, Kipp noted the absence of screams and observed that the roof had caved inward but hadn’t fallen through to the ground floor, suggesting the room below, about fifteen feet beneath the debris, remained intact. This prompted the party to strategize their next moves carefully, considering the structural damage and potential threats within the stockade.

The group assessed their health and healing resources. Audra and Kipp were damaged the most. Pyreece administered three cure light wounds spells, restoring 16 points to Kipp and 8 to Audra. Pyreece also possessed a potion of extra healing and an elixir of life, capable of restoring 20% of a creature’s hit points, while Audra had one healing potion. Deciding to conserve these resources, the party prepared to proceed with caution, aware of their weakened state.

Oglesby approached a main door, listening for activity but hearing only the crackling of the wood covered in embers, above. Audra opened it, revealing a dusty stone corridor with torch brackets every ten feet along the northern wall. The passage ran east to west, with faint footprints barely visible in the dust. Kipp analyzed the tracks, noting more led west than east. Oglesby checked the eastern corridor for traps, finding none. At the eastern door, he detected a faint humming but no traps.

Audra opened the eastern door. Within they found a dilapidated room filled with overturned furniture, rotting fabric, and cobwebs. A fireplace adorned the east wall, and a faint glow behind the chimney. At first, a curtain fluttering in a breeze with a faint light appeared to be a ghostly apparition. A bony clatter from the west was identified as wooden wind chimes near a southern door. The party was obviously spooked. Pyreece silenced the chimes, allowing Oglesby to listen at the southern door, where he heard nothing. Kipp inspected the fireplace, feeling a cool breeze but finding no hidden compartments.

Audra opened the southern door, revealing a long, dusty hallway with four western and three eastern doors. Oglesby checked the first western door for traps, finding none, and the eastern door, which emitted a foul odor, was also trap-free. The eastern door led to a bedroom with two beds, rotted sheets, and a desiccated bugbear corpse hanging from the ceiling. A gilded mirror lay on the floor, which Elenor examined and Pyreece picked up, noting its cracked surface. The party found nothing under the beds and moved on, disturbed by the scene.

Behind the first western door, Audra revealed a room with a collapsed ceiling and signs of an old fire. The search of the debris and fireplace yielded nothing. The following western door opened to a storage room with dusty crates, one containing moldy rations. A crate suddenly flew across the room, accompanied by a voice demanding they leave. Despite searching, the party found no source for the disturbance and continued, wary of potential supernatural presences within the stockade.

The next eastern door led to a kitchen with a fireplace, empty cupboards, and a heavy table. A ceramic plate and a kitchen knife flew at Kipp and Pyreece, respectively, but missed. A bloody hand pinned to the wall with a knife pointed downward, accompanied by the words “Behold the harbinger of your fate” written in blood. Audra, undeterred, opened the southern door to a dining room with moldy food and cobwebs, where Brandy’s attempt to provoke a reaction by throwing a plate yielded no response, prompting further exploration.

The party checked another western door, finding a bedroom with a dusty bed and a rocking chair that began to move, accompanied by a luminous figure and a voice warning them to leave. The figure vanished, and Pyreece found nothing unusual. The final western door revealed empty weapon racks, and a thorough search turned up nothing. Kipp revisited the bedroom, discovering a dust-free hole near the fireplace, but inserting an arrow revealed no hidden mechanisms, leading the party to return to the main hallway.

In the western corridor, Audra opened a door, triggering a taxidermy grizzly bear on wheels to lurch out, which she dodged. The floor under Kipp and Pyreece shifted, trapping Kipp and Pyreece in a pit below, where they took five points of damage each. Fortunately, Elenor and Oglesby saw this. The party rescued them using a halberd to block the trap from completing it's rotation as Oglesby triggered it. They searched the study, finding an empty chest and casks. A northern door with light underneath led to a hundred-foot corridor where Brandy and Kipp’s arrows hit an invisible mirror as they fired at bugbears at the other end. The bugbears taunted them before retreating.

The party charged forward to engage the bugbears. Those in the back of the party faced an ambush by bugbears emerging from a secret door. Elenor was injured, but the group fought back, with Kipp dealing significant damage and Brandy killing a bugbear. The battle ended with the party victorious. They explored a barracks and found a storeroom with goods, but Audra fell into a spiked pit, taking thirteen points of damage. The group navigated further, discovering a room with chained slaves surrounded by dark wispy shadows. A cloaker attacked Pyreece. After a tense fight, Kipp pulled the cloaker away from Pyreeces skin. This allowed Brandy to kill it, freeing Pyreece.

Exhausted and battered, the party noted the slaves’ catatonic state and decided to rest. They were beaten down badly and needed healing. The ghostly area near the stockade entrance seemed to be a good place to avoid bugbear activity. They decided they would retreat to that area and recover in the next session. Planning to resume their mission after recuperating, the group prepared to address the enslaved humans and uncover the stockade’s deeper secrets in their next session, determined to dismantle the slaver operation.

That is where this session ended!

Please start the recorder.

Exp: 523 + 52 = 575

Audra and Brandy reaching level seven.

The party continued their investigation of the slaver stockade perched atop a hill. The group observed the fire that had devastated a rooftop structure, caused by Elenor's fireball. The intense blast had scorched the wooden framework, leaving the surrounding concrete walls intact but slightly blackened. The trees and ground-level walls were also singed, though the stone walls around Brandy and Kipp remained undamaged. The only visible doors were to the north, and the fire, though large, was beginning to settle.

Brandy and Kipp decided to climb down from their vantage point, as there were no doors on the second level, and the structure had mostly collapsed. As they descended, Kipp noticed that the screams from the burning area had stopped. The roof had collapsed inward but did not fall through to the ground floor, suggesting the room below remained intact, approximately fifteen feet beneath the debris.

The party discussed their healing resources. Audra was at 12 out of 33 hit points, Brandy at 38 out of 55, and Kipp at 16 out of 57. Pyreece cast three cure light wounds: one to Kipp for eight points, one to Audra for eight points, and another to Kipp for eight more points. Pyreece noted she had one dose of a potion of extra healing, and an elixir of life, which could restore 20% of a creature’s hit points. Audra also had a single healing potion. They decided to hold onto these for now.

Oglesby approached a door and listened for commotion but heard only the crackling of the fire above. Audra opened the door, revealing a bare stone corridor with torch brackets on the northern wall at ten-foot intervals. The passage ran east to west, covered in dust with barely discernible footprints. Audra stepped inside, and Kipp examined the floor, noting more tracks heading east than west. Oglesby relayed this to the group and checked for traps along the eastern corridor, finding none after four checks. At the eastern door, he heard a faint hollow humming sound but found no traps. Audra opened the door.

Beyond was a demolished room with overturned furniture and rotting fabric. A fireplace sat on the east wall, dust filled the air, and cobwebs draped everything. A faint glow appeared behind the chimney, resembling eyes like black holes, and a bony clatter came from the west. A chill breeze blew through. Audra stepped inside, and Pyreece prepared to turn any undead. The glow revealed itself as a tattered curtain fluttering in the breeze, and the clatter came from wooden wind chimes near a southern door. The party entered, and Kipp examined the fireplace, feeling a cool breeze but finding no secret compartments. Oglesby inspected the wind chimes, which were old bamboo-style, clattering due to the breeze. Pyreece held them to stop the noise so Oglesby could listen at the southern door, hearing nothing.

Audra opened the southern door, revealing a long hallway with four doors on the west and three on the east. The area appeared unused, covered in dust. Oglesby checked the western door for traps and listened, finding nothing. He then checked the eastern door, which smelled bad, but found no traps. Audra opened the eastern door, and a stench of decay hit them. Inside was a bedroom with two beds, rotted sheets, tables, chairs, and a blackened, bloated body hanging from the ceiling by a cord. A bloody stain marked the floor beneath, and old footprints led to the body. They examined the body, identifying it as a bugbear, desiccated and broad. A small, gilded mirror lay on the floor. Elenor inspected it without touching it. Then Pyreece picked it up, seeing only a cracked surface. She placed it on a table. They checked under the beds, finding nothing.

The party moved to the first western door. Audra opened it, revealing a room with a collapsed ceiling, exposed rafters, and signs of an old fire. A soot-covered fireplace sat on the west wall. Audra and Kipp searched the debris and fireplace but found nothing of value. They moved to the next western door, which Oglesby checked for traps, finding none. Audra opened it, revealing rows of dusty crates, one broken open with moldy, dust-covered rations. As Oglesby searched, a crate flew across the room, and a voice shouted, “Be gone! You disturb my rest!” Audra checked the corner, finding a clear spot where the crate had sat. She asked who was there, but the distant voice only repeated, “Be gone!” Moving the crates revealed no footprints or signs of presence, so the party left.

At the next eastern door, Oglesby found no traps and heard nothing. Audra opened it, revealing a kitchen with a large fireplace on the east wall, empty cupboards, and a heavy table. As Kipp entered, a ceramic plate flew at him, but he dodged it. A kitchen knife flew at Pyreece, hitting the wall. The party noticed a bloody hand stuck to the wall with a knife, pointing down, and words written in blood: “Behold the harbinger of your fate.” Audra moved to the southern door, deciding not to check for traps, and opened it.

The room contained a long wooden table and high-backed chairs, covered in dust and cobwebs, with moldy food still on the table, as if abandoned mid-meal. Kipp checked the fireplace, finding no secret compartments. Brandy sat at the table and threw a plate against the wall to provoke a reaction, but nothing happened. The party moved to the western door across the hall. Oglesby checked for traps and found none. Audra opened it, revealing a bedroom with a dusty bed, chest of drawers, nightstand, and rocking chair. A ceramic pitcher flew off the nightstand, and the chair began to rock with an eerie creak. A luminous shape appeared by the fireplace, and a voice shouted, “Be gone! I’ve warned you!” The chair stopped, and the figure vanished. Pyreece entered, sensing nothing unusual. The chest contained moldy linens.

At the final only unchecked western door, Oglesby found no traps and heard nothing. Audra opened it, revealing a room with empty weapon racks, dusty and cobwebbed. The party searched thoroughly but found nothing. Kipp returned to the bedroom with the glowing figure and examined the fireplace, finding a small, dust-free hole near where the glow had been. He checked for traps, found none, and listened at the hole, hearing only wind. He shouted into it, hearing a faint echo. Kipp examined the rocking chair, finding a dust-disturbed line but no mechanism. Brandy inserted an arrow into the hole, hitting a backing four inches in, but it didn’t move. The party decided to return to the main hallway and head west.

Oglesby checked the western corridor for traps, finding none, he stepped back to allow Audra to open the door. Audra opened it, shield raised. A low growling noise preceded a grizzly bear on hind legs, a taxidermy figure on a wheeled slant, lurching out. Audra dodged with a successful save versus petrification. As the bear fell, Oglesby felt the floor shift and jumped back as the wall rotated, trapping Kipp and Pyreece in a pit below. The wall became the floor, and another wall rose.

Kipp and Pyreece took five points of damage each and used a continual light stone to illuminate the ten-by-ten-foot pit. Audra pushed the bear back into the room, revealing a study with a wooden ramp, crude table, desk, casks, a leather chest, a fireplace, and a southern door and a northern door with light underneath. Oglesby examined the trap mechanism, finding a lever on the eastern door that released the bear and triggered the wall. He reset the bear and lever but couldn’t open the trap. The party used a halberd to wedge the mechanism, and Oglesby triggered the lever, allowing Audra and Brandy to pull Kipp and Pyreece out.

The party searched the study, finding an empty chest and casks, a pile of wood, and a blackened butter knife. They checked the southern door, finding no traps or sound, but it was locked with a bolt. Unable to open it, they moved to the northern door, where light shone underneath. Oglesby found no traps, and Audra opened it, triggering tin cups hung above, which clattered. A hundred-foot corridor stretched ahead, lit by torches every twenty feet, with an archway and door visible. Paintings lined the walls, and a rag carpet covered the floor.

Brandy stepped out and saw bugbears at the corridor’s end. She shot her short bow, hitting a barrier eighty feet away. Kipp fired, and his arrow also stopped. The bugbears laughed, called them cowards, and left. Brandy charged, hitting an invisible mirror and breaking it, taking two points of damage from shards. She retrieved her arrows. Meanwhile, Elenor was attacked by two bugbears emerging from a secret door behind a painting, taking ten points of damage.

Brandy charged the bugbear that hit Elenor but missed. Kipp pushed his way between Elenor and the bugbear attacking her and attacked, dealing twenty-four points of damage with a natural twenty. Pyreece raced down the hallway and fired a sling stone, missing. Audra was at the other end of the hallway and was attacked by the four bugbears they'd seen at the end of the hall. Audra struck one. The bugbears attacked, missing most strikes, though one hit Kipp for nine points. The party fought back, with Brandy killing a bugbear, Kipp dealing six points, Audra fourteen, and Elenor two. Pyreece moved back to the end of the hallway to help Audra. They quickly finished off all of the bugbears.

Brandy investigated the secret door, finding a narrow tunnel leading to a barracks with wooden beds, straw mats, a table with dirty plates, and cockroaches. Audra opened another door and found herself in the same room with Brandy. The party moved to an unlit, carpeted corridor with faded blue drapes attached to the walls. Audra tore down an eastern drape, revealing stone, and lit a torch. She burned a piece of curtain to light another sconce. At a slightly ajar western door, Oglesby found a room with open barrels, leather chests, and boards and a pouch with 150 gold pieces.

Continuing, Audra fell into a ten-foot pit with rusty spikes, taking thirteen points of damage. Kipp pulled her out with a rope. Audra jumped across but hit an invisible filament, pushing her back. She managed not to fall into the pit again by grabbing the filament. She continued under the filament and cut it so others could cross safely. They found a door on a south facing wall. Oglesby unlocked it, revealing a storeroom with bolts of cloth, iron tools, pots, wooden utensils, and cheap jewelry. The party moved to another door, finding a room with four large barrels of water, buckets, and steps leading downward. Tracks indicated heavy use, likely for slaves.

At the final door, Oglesby found it unlocked. Pyreece opened it, revealing a large, terraced room with a dozen chained humans on raised platforms, dark shadows swirling around them. As Kipp activated his continual light stone, a cloak from the room’s clutter engulfed Pyreece, biting her neck for five points of damage. Audra tried to rip it off but couldn’t find a seam. Kipp pulled the material, but it required both hands, and he only dragged Pyreece. Oglesby slashed it, dealing eight damage, but the sound Pyreece made indicted she'd been hurt as well. The creature somehow initiated a fear spell, causing Audra and Oglesby to flee for two rounds. Kipp continued pulling, failing to loosen the cloak. Elenor poured liquid light on it, illuminating it but not damaging it. Brandy struck the cloak for ten damage. The cloak bit Pyreece again for five points, but while Kipp maintained his grip on the cloaker, Brandy’s final blow killed it, freeing Pyreece.

The party noticed the chained slaves, who were screaming in fear had returned to their catatonic state, lost once again to the shadowy images swirling around them. Elenor tried reaching them but they didn't seem to know she was there. The group decided to pause, having defeated the cloaker. They needed rest badly. They finally decided that the original area they had entered into appeared to be a place that the bugbears would go. They decided this would likely be the best place to get the rest they needed. They would start there in the next session.

That is where this session ended!

Please start the recorder.

Exp: 523 + 52 = 575

Audra and Brandy reaching level seven.