Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.
You can find the previous episode here.
3rd-4th of Waning Fall, 1AL
The 3rd Watch is setting out to continue securing the area around the white stone building so the new settlement, but Patrick - irritable an unhappy about not being able to save everyone - opts to stay behind, and T'Zaric flies off to do his own thing. Fiaeorri leaves Ruby behind with Patrick and the other four head off - first going to the cave that's an hour away that T'Zaric mentioned having dangerous-looking creatures residing in it.
Reaching the cave, the group stand near the pool while Extang sends his snake familiar inside, magically observing through its eyes. The familiar gets a ways inside the cave before the ground begins to tremble, then something bursting out of the ground kills it. Around the same time, a large, stony-skinned creature bursts out of the ground outside the cave, leaping into the air and piling into Quib and Logan.
It is a strange fight for the group, with the tough creatures frequently retreating into the ground, making it hard to fight them. Fiaeorri keeps to her word to not use Renn in this fight - sticking to her bow to prove that the sentient sword holds no sway over her. However, after much maneuvering, and waiting for the next eruption of dirt, they manage to slay the beasts.
Fiaeorri does a cursory sweep of the cave, looking for anything that was missed when earlier members of the 3rd Watch cleared lions out of this cave, but finds nothing more interesting than the child-like drawings on the walls that depict monsters destroying cities and people fleeing. On their way out, they take a brief rest while Fiaeorri sets a trap on the cave entrance.
They briefly head back to the white stone building before setting out towards the castle T'Zaric had spotted. They find the river and follow along it, keeping their eyes open for a good place to cross. As evening begins to fall, they are surprised by an enormous crocodile that comes charging out of the water - but Extang quickly banishes it to another plane of existence long enough for them to get away.
They camp for the night and continue on in the morning, crossing the river with a magical whistle of flying and boots of jumping. After a few more hours of travel, they come to a copse of trees where they can see the castle in the distance, as well as a small group of figures outside it.
Deciding to wait until nightfall, the group makes camp for the rest of the day while sending Extang's familiar - re-summoned as a fluffy white bat - to fly over the castle and report back on its findings. The bat returns, relating the hexagonal shape of the castle with a tower at each point, as well as a taller tower in the middle. There are also two semi-circular courtyards on either side of the central tower - one covered in glass with a hole through it. Though there is no moat, there is a lowered drawbridge at the front of the castle, and outside is a group of five orcs.
Throughout the day as they rest, those on watch occasionally see the orcs on guard change, but other than that the day and night pass uneventfully. Around midnight, they go into action. First, Fiaeorri and the bat do stealthy circuits of the castle, finding no other entrances other than the drawbridge at the front. There are still five orcs outside, bu Fiaeorri is so confident in how well hidden she is that she takes a peek inside - seeing a long, torch-lit corridor with doors off to either side, and a trap that is extremely obvious to her well-trained eyes.
She retreats and regroups with the others, and they hatch a plan to take care of the five orcs outside the castle. Extang magically digs a pit while Fiaeorri and Quib work to conceal it, then the four hide in the woods while Extang uses the light from his magical gem to attempt to lure in the orcs. After some time, they see that their plan appears to be working. Four orcs are attempting to sneak up on the trees - two fall in the pit, and the group attacks, quickly killing the two above ground and moving on to finish off the two in the pit. However, there were five orcs, not four...
Fiaeorri sneaks in ahead of the others, though with them close enough behind to support her if needed. The final orc seems to be watching the castle as much as the direction of the trees, but Fiaeorri manages to sneak up on him without trouble. Unfortunately, Renn, unwilling to be stabbed into something, once again thwarts Fiaeorri's attempts to attach the creature, and her second attack glances off its armor. Her friends rush in to finish it off, but not before the orc begins to cry out. Fiaeorri drags the corpse over to the side of the castle, where Extang quickly buries it with his magic.
They wait, but no more orcs come out, so they head in - Fiaeorri warning the others of the trap, then disabling it. She then tries to see under the first big double-doors on the right, but is only able to see dirt and dry grass, so the bat familiar is sent crawling underneath. Extang, watching observing through its eyes, can see what looks to be an L-shaped stable, with very large wolves in the stalls that wake up and start paying attention to the bat. Extang instantly blinks the familiar into its pocket dimension, then brings it back at his side, telling the others what he saw.
Fiaeorri turns her attention to the smaller door on the other side of the hall. This one has no such spaces to peek through, so she very carefully and quietly eases the door open to peek inside... but, apparently the hinges haven't been oiled in a while, and she hears a grunted, "Huh?" from inside.
And that brings an end to this week's game session. Find out what's behind the door in two weeks in Episode 63.
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