Session 10: The Ghost and The Mayor

The Adventurers camp for the night in the Armory and get visited by a Ghost. Then they return to Tegel Village and get resupplied. Having resupplied and sold their loot, they return to the Manor and this time they go through the front door.

This write up is from our Saturday, July 3rd 2021 session. The text was written up by Carl with a few edits by myself.  Thanks to Jimmy for taking the screen shots on roll20.

Continued from: A Gazebo and Two Zombies on a Saturday morning.

Location:  Inside Tegel Manor, in the Armory.

Saturday, April 4th, 4433 8:10 AM


We were camped in the armory, resting up for the surge to return to town.

Reebo evaluated the loot for cash vs weight ratios, and decided on what we should try to get back to town for selling.

Syndra has a special arrow that she found at the Gazebo, but we don't know just what it does.

Since we could not start a long resting period for several hours, we spent the time accommodating Reebo, loading ourselves as much as was reasonable without overloading and making ourselves burdened.

We rested, making sure we always had at least one person awake. Usually more than one, since it was daytime.  We relaxed, happy to have the time uninterrupted. By the evening we were pretty well rested, but with it dark outside we were not anxious to start the walk back to town.

Some (all?) of us rigged quick disconnects to be able to DROP the loot if needed. Cord simulating an additional backpack, outside the actual pack we had (if any).

Shadow Walker heard something.  We all quieted down and could sorta hear a woman ranting.  The noise was out in the hallway, somewhere not too very close (so it seemed) We settled down to just wait it out, quietly. Almost worked for us, but NOT QUITE.

Something stepped THROUGH the door, and said 'There you are....robbers, stealing'

Transparent, clearly able to walk through doors. It looked like a withered and old woman.  

Syndra told her that 'Sir Runic sent us'. Aefir added his agreement, but she was not buying it. The ghost let out an eerie wail that caused massive necrotic damage to everyone in front of her, that was everyone except Aefir.

Aefir tried to verbally drive her away, using some paladin thing or the other. It worked well, and the ghost looked scared and just stood there. Aefir told us all to NOT attack, since it would bring the ghost out of her frightened state. As it was, we had one minute to do something. Since we had taken a LOT of damage on her moan, healing seemed like a good idea.

We were really happy to have taken a long rest earlier.

Paraselene tried to turn undead, and while she did a really good job of it, the ghost didn't seem to be affected at first, but then the ghost stepped back through the door.

Aefir moved to stabilize Reebo, who had collapsed on the floor after hearing the wail. At least Reebo was stabilized. Arkelm was next. The rest of us resisted the urges to attack, while Shadow Walker tried to get the pitons OUT OF THE DOOR JAM, so we could get the (*($(# out of there as soon as possible.

Healing spells were fired off where they would do the most good. Shadow got the door unblocked, and we unlocked it. It was a good time to make tracks.

Stepping out, we saw an empty hallway. Aefir led us toward the exit. Oh swell, out into the dark, with undead probably there too.  At least we got to rest, but walking back to town at night was LOW LOW LOW on our priority order...

We hoped the ghost would be unable to get out of the manor once it came back to its senses, or at least to not come very far if it did.  Getting away was the main thing on our minds.

Outside, in the dark, but at least away from the ghost. We moved to the woods where we camped the first night. The plan was to wait for the light of day before we headed anywhere. It was raining, light but aggravating.

We stayed there, short resting and recovering some hit points, til morning. Heading back to town, going along the road we came up before. The goblins watched us from their caves but did not attack this time. We did not attack either.

We passed the temple and saw two guards. They appeared surprised to see us come back.

We made it back to town, still early morning. The town was just coming to life, and the inn was open!  Just as we approached the inn, a merchant with guards hailed us. The square was trampled and muddy, from market day yesterday. His name was Gram and he dealt in weapons and tools, and Reebo set in to dicker with him.

We went inside Altharontha's Boarding House for the negotiations with the merchant. He said that he passes through every couple months, and was a timely visitor.  He could not buy much, already pretty loaded, but did buy some of the weapons that we had looted from the armory.

We figured we could sell some of the rest at Halaf Fec's Trade Monopoly.  

Though Halaf would not take all the things we brought out, we traded what the merchant would buy, got supplies that we wanted. Halaf had one potion, green and labeled Superior Healing. It was too expensive to purchase.

Syndra had enough materials to make 5 regular healing potions in a batch.  Kept her busy over night.

Later in the morning, a couple guards approached Arkelm. The Mayor wanted to talk with him. He did not want to go without us. We were all in the common area, and drifted toward them to be part of the conversation. The guards did not have any problem waiting, an encouraging approach.

Going as a group did not bother the guards, as long as Arkelm went along.

The mayor was surprised, but receptive to all of us. Less so the elves, and mostly focused on Arkelm (he likely thought that Arkelm was the party leader)  Shadow Walker, outraged at not being thought the leader, corrected the position. The Mayor, who's name was Ternelmor, then decided that Shadow was the leader, and addressed him instead.

Mollified, Shadow settled down and introduced the rest of us. He explained that we were wanting to make the area safer for the villagers and passers-thru. The mayor encouraged us to 'take as long as you need' to clear out the manor.

Syndra asked if the town would like to purchase some of our loot, and it looked good for that. The mayor did NOT want Sir Runic to get the manor, and he said that the other Rumps were even worse.

He told us one or Runic's cousins has a gang of tough goblins and waylays travelers.  Since Sir Runic cannot move in til it is cleared out, he encouraged us again to take as long as we wanted to.

This visit turned out to be a really good deal, and we sold the rest of the weapons for a tidy price, five times what the merchant offered. We also offered him first refusal on any weapons we got, and he agreed to that, saying that the town guard could use them.

The next day, after the first decent rest since we left town, we headed back to the manor, ready to rock and roll.

Past the goblins, they again were not interested in an encounter

Almost to the manor, we encountered a group. Pirates this time. They did not want to fight if it could be avoided, and we agreed to bypass each other.  Shadow did the negotiating and made a token donation to their widow's and orphans fund. We avoided combat, for a first. Frumgel, their leader, also told Shadow that the pirates have our horses.

At the manor, we decided to go in the front door. No guarantee, but we were hoping the front area might be a little lighter weight monsters.

Statues at the front had not changed. Same moldy corpses too.

Inside, more portraits on walls, furniture was decrepit and rotted. Aefir advanced into the first room, and something condendsed out of the air.  8' tall, horns and a tail, dressed in formal wear. Flames for eyes and in his mouth. Winged. Demon???? It was floating above the floor about an inch.

'Welcome to Tegel Manor. The master is away. Will you be staying long?'  After an offer to take our cloaks was refused, it turned and walked to and then through a wall in a huff.

There was one door to the east, Reebo could hear a scream in the distance, as if someone was being tortured when he put his ear to it. The door was not locked. After we had looked around a bit, the entry doors closed themselves, with force.

Doors to the south sounded like a party was going on. Reebo did not detect a trap, so Aefir opened the door carefully.  Huge dining hall, or some such. Many tables and chairs, two fireplaces. It sounded like the party was in the southeast area.

The laughing and singing stopped suddenly. "Intruders !!!", they said.  Oh well, here we go again. Twelve skeletons moved to attack us.

Continued in Back to the Southwest Wing