Goblins Again

After some discussion over the course of action in the days leading up to the eminent siege of Johkan, the party decided to head below into the city sewers once more to search out Tyrus. They explored the burnt out rooms of the Rat Kingdom, Kort Fatrat's bloated corpse still sitting in his throne where Lucky Luke slew him. They then found their way back to the Slurm Kingdom where they were expecting a warm welcome from Big Flurx, Hoogn, and Grozzy.

In the Sewers Again

The Slurm Kingdom's warren was absolutely stuffed to bulging with bar stools courtesy of Savario's gift to Big Flurx. There was hardly room to push through the room, past the gelatinous cube Shiny, and into Big Flurx's presence. Grozzy was regaled by tales of Merrick's conquests and Grozzy's hat was returned to him.

Hoogn led the party to the Centipede Kingdom, where they eventually found Tyrus trussed up in a corner by their leader, Lanua Many Legs. Eventually, the party came to understand that Tyrus had tried to buy the cooperation of Lanua with the barstools provided by Savario. Insulted, Lanua had taken Tyrus prisoner and eventually traded the stools to Big Flurx in exchange for unspecified agreements.

There were various attempts to interest the goblins in defending the city but no commitments were made. (Really, who would trust the word of a goblin anyways.) The party conceived a plan to bring Shiny to the surface to be used in the defense of the city but the plan was shelved when they considered how that might play out once the mindless Gelatinous Cube was above ground and free within the confines of Johkan.

Hoogn then led the party back to Evard the Hermit in the hopes that he could give directions through the sewers into the castle keep. For 100 gold and the chance to follow the party at a distance and extend his maps, Evard gave over detailed directions on how to reach the sewer gates leading under Castle Hill. A large iron gate blocked the sewer at this point with sewage backing up where it had snagged on the rusted iron grating. A small rusted door was set in the grating with a shiny padlock barring the way. From the previous corner, Evard poked his head around to confirm that yes, this was the correct location. Savario, then Lucky Luke made quick work of the padlock.

The party then made their way inside, passing up into a second tier of sewers by ascending a set of ladders. Eventually these led to a central cistern, a cylindrical room twenty feet in diameter with a staircase around the outside and a cat walk near the ceiling sixty feet up. The party climbed the stairs and found four locked doors at the top. Systematically picking each lock they then opened the last door. Savario snuck inside and heard an approaching guard. Leaping from the shadows, Savario clubbed the guard into unconsciousness and the party snuck past to explore further.

Beyond, there lay a dungeon of some form. Emaciated bodies chained to the walls behind strong iron bars in a limestone cavern that must have been hollowed out by a spring some eons ago. Most of the prisoners seemed to have been down there for a long time, having not seen the light of day in so long they could not remember. It was difficult to get much sense out of the prisoners except that they seemed to have been imprisoned for anything from petty theft to murder. The sentence appears to have been the same. The party then returned to the guard and Savario interrogated the man, finding that his name was Guard Jones and the Captain of the Guards was also a Jones. Numerous prisoners were free-ed but when the party tried to ascend the stairs they were hailed and failed to reply with the requested whistle blow. The party beat a hasty retreat as the main body of the guards organized at the top of the stairs.

As the last man out, Savario slit the throat of Guard Jones, after everyone else had passed beyond the door. Lucky Luke, Grunt, Hoogn, Grozzy, Sellwyn, Merrick, Evard, Mose and Tyrus thinking that the guard was still unconscious on the floor where he had been left to be found by his fellow guards. The door was locked, the party retraced their steps, locking the lower grate with the padlock.

Back to the Light

The fight with the Air Elemental went well until the moment that Merrick was swept up, attached by his climbing line to the top of the pillar, by half the bifurcated Elemental while at the other end of the line, dangling over the edge, Savario and Lucky Luke finished off the other half Elemental. Merrick made a valiant, but poorly aimed, swing with his new long sword. The long sword acquired from the Fire Elemental's room. The resulting miss left Merrick's boot afire. Undeterred by the pain, he kicked the remaining Elemental fragment from within [crit!] and it went up in a thunderclap of combustion. Good thing there was rope; lots of rope.

Meanwhile, wearing doe skin gloves, Luke had discovered that they were gloves of strength by nearly tossing Savario over the other side of the pillar when he tried to ascend.

With the Air Elemental vanquished, the prizes: roman-style sandals (lots of leather straps) and a wood stick were found atop the sarcophagus. The troop returned to the entrance of the room. After a quick bit of detecting magic ("Purple haze man.") the new items were tried out. The stick quickly proved itself to be a wand of magic missiles in Sellwyn's deft hands. The boots, though... well Sellwyn was certain they were boots of flying. He tied a rope around his waist, strapped on the sandals and proceeded to throw himself off the edge of the precipice a dozen times. Thoroughly concussed, Luke took them from Sellwyn and gingerly tried to step up into the air from nice solid ground. After a few unsuccessful tries, they "caught" and he was able to gingerly walk out over the open space, as though stepping along wobbly boulders.

The crew retraced their steps and took on the chamber of earth: a room of stalactites and stalagmites. Various folks were smashed about by a room of rapidly rising columns and opening crevasses, then by an Earth Elemental. In a final attempt to strike down the elemental, Merrick threw his flaming sword at the elemental. With a bit of luck, he hit, the sword stuck, and the elemental sank into the floor. Hey, wait, no! Flaming sword in tow. A maul that somehow disrupts magic ended in Grunt's hands and a gem stone.

Our intrepid crew dug about for a while looking for their sword, then headed off to the next room: time to challenge water. At the intersection, the flaming sword stood, hammered into the ground. Luke noted a face on the wall, and with gem in hand, was able to speak Terran. The Earth Elemental granted the sword to the party: "Take what you have earned through your valor in combat."

Following the blue pebbles, the next chamber was a room divided into quadrant pools of water, depth undetermined. Rocky dividers led to the central hub where yet another sarcophagus lay. Luke made use of the boots of flying to swipe the goods from the sarcophagus: a dagger and hip-waders. Merrick was along for the ride as usual. The Water Elemental attacked Luke when he toppled off the wobbly air steps, landing on the rock divider between two pools. As the combat went on, Savario circled around the pool, locating three levels on the far wall. Through experimenting he figured out that two drain and one fills. Setting them back to safe states (Don't drown the barrow!) the crew defeated the water elemental and returned to the central path leading out of the barrow.

 Arriving at the bottom of the steps up, the formerly well lit entrance way was now blocked by a large round surface. Pushing with all their might, and the aid of the doe skin gloves, the party managed to shove the boulder aside by rolling it back out of the entrance hole.

Returning to the light of a fresh morning, the wagons, horses, Tordek and Nuna's son, Mose, were all missing. Looking about, boulders that weren't there when the party descended had appeared throughout the gently rolling valley in which the barrow lay. Very strange indeed. Looking about, it wasn't hard to find signs of a hasty exit by horse and wagon heading back to the valley entrance. Something had disturbed our intrepid watch.

Then, from over the grass of the barrow hill, shuddering, groaning, ground shaking rumbles were heard. Luke, with the gem of language, understood a being of stone and earth rumble "Who disturbs my rest? Who?" as boulders throughout the valley started to slowly roll towards the disturbed giant. A gentle discussion appeased the giant, apologizing for disturbing his 500 years of rest, and convinced him to head north to crush some unfortunate hobgoblins. It turns out you'd just woken the builder of the barrow, napping after his hard work. As the giant strode off over the hills northward, dozens of large boulders rolled after him. Those hobgoblins are in for a surprise.

The Stone Giant Awakens

The party caught up with the wagon as it rejoined the river-side road back to Johkan. Tordek, passed out with wineskin still to his lips atop the pile of dead lizardmen, had missed the whole affair. The party overtook the merchants from the burned out wagon that the lizardmen had first attacked and provided a ride back to the city where they were assured that starting a new line of work as militiamen was a sure start.

Upon arriving back in Johkan, the city seemed to finally be alive, focused on constructing its own defense. The lizardmen corpses were turned quietly over to the Grey Society and Grunt triumphantly returned to his tribe, encamped inside the city walls but under city guard.

Buckin' the Mud

The four Grue were efficiently sliced to bits by Grunt Jr. A few jabs, from the rest of the party, but Grunt stood tall in the crowded corridor.

Next, the group proceeded on and found an intersection in the packed earth corridor leading off in 4 directions: two to the left and two to the right. Each path had stones packed into the dirt of various colour groupings; red, blue, white and brown. Careful examination by Lucky Luke revealed that they were relatively inexpensive rough gem stones. Who knows how much they'd be worth cut, but uncut, they looked to be a GP a piece for a few dozen stones, scattered along each path. Luke was about to start attemting to pry them out of the ground when he deftly recalled the warning at the entrance to the Barrow and withdrew his dagger. "Take nothing but that which is offered..." whispered through his mind.

A brief discussion and the crowd headed off down the corridor marked with red stones and arrived at a circular chamber 60 feet in diameter with a 20 foot domed ceiling of the same packed earth. A fire burnt in the centre of the room atop some sort of squared off rocks. The dirt was warm there. Savario and Grunt led the way, advancing towards a coffin, those rocks they'd seen from afar, located at the centre of the room. The rest of the party hung back at the entrance. Ten feet in and a wall of flame burst from the ground singeing Grunt and Savario, not quite fast enough to tumble away from the scorching flames. The flames spread into a wall surrounding the chamber, ten feet from the walls, floor to ceiling.

Grunt and Savario advanced, as the rest of the party threw themselves through the wall of flames. As they approached the centre of the room they could see objects moving within the flames and some sort of objects atop the coffin. Advancing further another wall of flame leapt up scorching the crew and then a Fire Elemental attacked, the flames atop the coffin were alive!

Those Flames Ain't Flames!

The adventurers made quick work of the Elemental and recovered a fine sword and deerskin gloves. They returned to the fork in the paths and chose the white stones path.

The next chamber was much like the last, a packed earth chamber of similar dimensions, but this time the floor dropped away just past the edge of the entrance, falling sixty feet to the rocks below. Lucky Luke and Merrick scaled down the walls and crossed to a central pillar where Luke took a few tries before he managed to scramble back up the sixty foot tower. Meanwhile, Savario arranged to have Grunt fire a bolt with a rope attached from Grunt's heavy crossbow. The shot was a bit miraculous and pieced the stone coffin atop the pillar. Savario deftly walked across the rope after a few false starts getting Grunt to focus enough to anchor the near end of the line. Savario, Merrick and Luke arrived at the top of the central pillar at nearly the same breath as the coffin slowly dragged towards the edge. (Savario was lucky to weigh in at a mere 40 pints. Err, pounds?) Grunt made further good use of his bubble pipe.

As the crew stood up and dusted off, where applicable, a being of solidified air dropped from the ceiling. "Air Elemental" hollered Sellwyn, and everyone drew their weapons...

Road to a Barrow

The party completed their return trip to Johkan with Nuna, the advisor to the former Moonless Tribe's War Chief, telling them of the affairs of the Moonless Tribe. The party learned of an adjacent tribe, the Willow Tribe, which was of a more peaceful nature.

Upon arriving back at Johkan, rewards for the destruction of the bridge were collected and the Moonless Tribe were situated outside the walls temporarily. Negotiations were undertaken and eventually a temporary space for the Moonless Tribe near the abandoned cemetery was secured. The Grey Society told the party that Tyrus had gone to negotiate with the Goblin tribes under the city but no one had heard from him in several days. In discussions with the town council, led by Lady Saldor, the party learned that researchers in the White Keep had identified a possible stash of magical weapons within two days of Johkan southwards near or at the Mound of Sorrow. It was hoped that the party could retrieve them to aid in the defence of the city before the advancing Hobgoblin hordes arrived. The barrow where the weapons were stored was supposedly the final resting place of heroes who had once defended the city in a previous age before the most recent sacking of the city some 500 years ago.

There was a brief spate of shopping, mostly for healing potions and a breast plate or two. Then it was time to hit the road again. Jokhan's preparations were well underway as the threat to the city was now apparent. Sharptooth of the Moonless Tribe, son of the former War Chief, joined the party seeking to earn himself a bit of respect that was, so far, sorely lacking.

The cleaned up wagon was loaded with supplies and the remainder of the demolition materials. Most of the party rode in the wagon, Lucky Luke driving, while Savario rode his horse. The country-side, tall dry grass disappearing over rolling hills, passed quickly as the wagon trundled along the well worn road south, following the river to the coast.

Following the River South from Johkan

At a broad bend in the river, eight Lizardmen and a Giant Lizard ambushed the wagon. They were quickly dispatched and their corpses were loaded into the wagon... the rest of the party was now on foot. A burnt out wagon was found in the rushes along the side of the river, all ready stripped of anything of value. Looting of the Lizardmen's corpses turned up 250 worth of gold, presumably from the previously ambushed wagon.

Lizardmen Attack

After cleaning up a bit, the instructions to the barrow led the party down the road a ways and then into a broad valley. The road trickled away to a cartway and then nothing more than some disturbed grass. Looking ahead, a low hill sat at the centre of the valley, grass growing over its summit, with the sun sinking and shadows growing long in the valley.

A survey of the hill resolved that there were no features of particular interest excepting a shallow sunken area on the far side of the hill. Lucky Luke, Grunt and Tordek hauled out shovels from the wagon, left over from the demolition work on the bridge, and set to excavating the area. By the time Lucky Luke had lifted more than a couple shovel fulls out of the way, the two dwarves had cleared the area, leaving a tidy six steps down into the earth and bracing around the excavation to prevent any collapse. Revealed, was a circular stone doorway mounted in a rough stonework frame. The doorway was split into four quadrants.

A few false tries to muscle through the door and the party figured out that four seperate people were required to push on the door; one for each panel. At that moment a voice sounded in their minds

   "Let all who pass be tested and found fair.
          Take that which is offered and nothing moare."

With that the portal swung open revealing stone stairs downwards into the barrow and a passage beyond. The passage was one and a half shoulders wide and, once the party arrived at the bottom of the 20-odd stairs, was found to be a packed dirt passage. Lucky Luke and Savario scouted ahead and Luke quickly spotted two holes, one on either side of the tunnel at shoulder height. After some investigation and no bright ideas, the party carried on. A similar set of holes were found 40 feet down the passage. The holes were six inches in diameter and carried back into the wall some 12 feet or so.

The party carried forward and as the last of the party passed the second set of holes, gunk started to pour forth, disgorging onto the floor in a large pile. The piles picked themselves up and started moving towards the, now reversed, party. "Mud Grue!" shouted Sellwyn, quickly identifying the half-elemental creatures.

[Roll initiative!]

[Missing Posts]

[There are four night's worth of adventures that are missing here. I'll try to fill them in when I have a moment.]

1. Induction into the Grey Society,
2. Arrival at the Bridge over the River Aram,
3. Battle for the Aram Bridge,
4. A Restful Time at the Moonless Tribe's Camp
   

A Pale Day

The troop broke off from the Saucy Mermaid without sitting down to the Temple's supply accounts. Dusty books and concerns over income sources were left in the rented rooms above the Saucy Mermaid. A trip to look into the weapon maker's marks and investigating Tyrus' address seemed like a much more fruitful (interesting?) outing.

The weaponsmith, Dvark Fireborn (just around the corner from Dorg Blackhand, the blacksmith) was forth coming: the weapons found on the Goblins were one of many shipments that have gone to the city's keep to equip the newly expanded militia and city guard. The fact that some items had gone missing was highly irregular. Bribes were awkwardly proffered to avert the need to inform the folks in the White Keep, keepers of the bureaucratic paperwork, that some of the missing equipment had surfaced.

Next over to Tyrus' shop which, as it turned out to be, was on the east side of town. The run-down, dirtier part. His shop lay on a street lined with flea market stalls selling  every imaginable piece of junk, food and fine antiquities (well, maybe). The shop itself was a narrow space with just enough room for a counter and a small pile of old books stashed in the window sill. A conversation with the portly shop keeper (clearly not the famed Pale Man) set a meeting for later in the evening to potentially purchase some valuable books.

Lucky Luke, Tordek, Grunt and Selwyn set up across the street to keep an eye on the back entrance to the shop with Lucky Luke doing his best hide-and-seek. No problem: after an hour or so of waiting around a man matching Tyrus' description arrived clothed in a heavy dark cloak. A little while later, another four similarly clad persons joined Tyrus at the back entrance to the shop. These folks were then tailed by Luke as they made their way to the mausoleum where the coin and the skeletons were found. They then deposited what turned out to be shovels and a pitch fork into a blanket against the wall adjacent to the partially dug grave where Grunt was recently found unconscious.

After Tyrus' party headed back towards the main square, Luke took it upon himself to pee on the equipment left behind, perhaps to "mark" them for later tracking... maybe. Luke then caught up to Tyrus and crew as they entered the Saucy Mermaid. Luke went back and retrieved the rest of the party who were working out how to ambush Tyrus in his shop and what preparations should be made.

Grunt led the way into the Saucy Mermaid and after numerous beer, managed to chase away Tyrus' assistants. Discussion floated back and forth. Tyrus was exceptionally knowledgeable about the Wights the party had encountered, a brief history lesson ensued. It eventually came out that Tyrus was not only a trader in rare books but almost certainly responsible for stealing corpses to use in some sort of necromantic scheme. He was horrified to learn that the Goblins had been killing people to supply corpses to him. Burn them, burn them all! (And as it turns out, that is pretty much the Fate those Goblins received.)

The conversation moved to the rented rooms upstairs, where numerous pieces of information started to fall into place.

There have been a few burnt farm buildings and rumours of unrest far out of town. Rumors of orcs, trolls, even a cyclops: all discredited as whoo-haa from the tribes people and so forth. Crop circles, orcs, cyclops foot prints. Ha. But then there is the militia being built up, and the city guard, and rebuilding the walls. And the Moonless Tribe's somewhat half-assed scouting of the city's fortifications from earlier in the week. Hmm.

More threats, and some menacing looks from Tordek, followed by a bit of smooth talking from Luke and Selwyn and it became clear that Tyrus is part of some sort of ancient secret society of Johkan, from before the last fall of the city. Selwyn is all for getting on board with the knowledge is power bandwagon. The rest of the party has concerns. Luke has already concluded that the potential (rumored) invasion might be the "good guys" coming to cleanse the Lich driven abomination army.

A meeting was set for noon the next day to meet a society member, Kallryn to discuss Selwyn's interest and the potential allies that the party has offered themselves as. Tyrus left a beautiful slate grey business card with two concentric circles as their calling card at Kallryn's address, the Grey Society.

The Grey Society

The moment Tyrus was out the door, the entire troop packed up their gear and moved house, hearth and home down the way to the adjacent tavern, "A Castle."

Luke followed Tyrus as he headed off to the richer side of town and after a while arrived at an abandoned building. Tyrus went around the side of the building past an ivy grown courtyard and out of sight. Luke crept up to the edge to hear the sounds of water running quietly: an eerie ornamental tea garden set three steps down in the inner courtyard. Abandoned building on two sides, small entranceway (maybe a storage area) set into a wall, and ivy grown walls at the back. A server carried tea from a serving table at the back and a half-dozen tables were scattered about the space with nine people, all in those dark cloaks, sitting about the tables talking.

Tyrus was no where to be seen.

Abandoned Building, Tea House

About the Town

Lucky Luke and Merrick followed Ober the Reader to the White Keep at the town castle. There Ober conferred with an older women while Luke and Merrick waited with a clerk at the front desk. Beyond they could see the library stacks: the city's records. Ober arranged for a guard detail to watch the Wight's nest and for the Wights to be recaptured once they returned.

While Luke and Merrick were busy, Savario and Selwyn returned to Dorg's shop and extracted the 500gp reward for finding Krag's body from him.

The party met up back at the mausoleums. Grunt was found in a half dug grave in the new cemetery. Unconscious and worse for wear but not yet dead. He managed to stand and fight off the Wight somehow before collapsing. Selwyn gave him a healing potion to get him back on his feet.

The party retired to the Saucy Mermaid for the night to recover. A much needed rest.
The adventurers regrouped and collected money for a few more of the bodies found in the Goblin's storage. Dorg told Selwyn that the marks on the (too good for the Goblins) weapons, the long sword +1 and a few daggers were from Dvark Fireborn, the weaponsmith around the corner from Dorg's blacksmith shop.

Later that day, the party arrived at the Temple of Kamelius prior to Krag's funeral. They were met by Larwyn, one of the Temple's Adepts who, after some discussion, showed them the store rooms. There, burlap sacks were stored matching the ones the Goblins had used for giving bodies to the Pale Man. While Luke distracted the Temple Adept, Savario found more coins matching the strange vintage of the ones found behind the alter in the mausoleum. He also swiped the records book from the room.

Strange Coins

Larwyn led the group through the maze of ancient hallways within the Temple to the Master of Stores, Torgath, where the group asked about the missing sacks. It was clear that the Master knew of the losses but was both covering his ass by not investigating and not too concerned as many of the missing stores went to those in need. Ober, as his direct boss, had authority of the store rooms, though they were not tightly guarded.

Krag's funeral was held. Dorg, his father, was well liked and many nice things were said to a large group of approximately 100 people. Ober presided over the ceremony. Krag's body was carried in contained in a nice coffin for the ceremony and whisked away to be prepared for the final rights afterwards.

On the grand steps of the Temple, surrounded by mourners, the group had a discussion with Ober about Tyrus. It came out that Ober knew of Tyrus through dealings with him in rare books. Tyrus brought such items into the city and Ober was an eager buyer. Ober gave some vague contact information on how to reach Tyrus in the east side of the city.

The party retired to the Saucy Mermaid to examine the records book they had stolen and to figure out where their next pay check was coming from, given that all the outstanding rewards had now been collected.

Wights not Whites

Selwin, Lucky Luke, Grunt Jr. and Savario climbed from the smoking hole: all that remained of the Goblin Rat Kingdom after the slaughter of the previous hour. Clambering into the fresh evening air, the adventurers found themselves at the back of a mausoleum adjacent to the Johkan graveyard. Eight mausoleums in various states of disrepair surrounded them.

At this point looking around, Grunt had a distinctly different look. Somehow we had missed the fact that he'd lost his armour and stature along the way: Grunt wasn't a human fighter at all, but a long bearded mountain dwarf barbarian with his long long beard tucked into his loin cloth. How'd that get missed. Well anyways...

Each mausoleum was investigated in turn, finding that they were all bare, recently bare, with no dust and accumulation of the ages about. A couple coins were found behind one of the alters. Some had gates in various stages of decomposition. One, the only one with a locked chain baring the gate, was found to still have 8 skeletons in the sarcophagi. One mausoleum had wights and boy... that didn't go well.

Initially, Luke and Selwin correctly identified a chalk line surrounding the building as some sort of ritual preventing undead from entering or leaving the building. Savario crossed the line with Grunt (managing to not break the line) at the pleading of a voice from inside. Grunt and Savario were immediately attacked by what were later identified as three incorporeal wights and quickly withdrew back across the line. The wights tried to negotiate and offered up the information that a Pale Man, Tyrus, had been about and they wanted him.

The rest of the mausoleums were investigated and Lucky Luke drafted up a warning sign, posted on the path leading to the Wight's mausoleum.

Lucky Luke's Helpful Message to Passersby

Savario next decided he needed to know if the Wights could be fed on dead bodies. Lucky Luke, seeing an impending disaster he wanted no part in, left to find a drink back at the Saucy Mermaid. Savario retrieved one of the dead Goblins from the smoking hole of a former Goblin warren and attempted to toss it across the line, tripping in the process. The wights attacked Savario who threw himself back, breaking the line. All hell broke loose and Selwin, Grunt and Savario ran -- all in different directions. Savario, being the speediest had no trouble beating a hasty retreat. Selwin, took a few cuts but managed to escape. Grunt, being the slowest, and slower than the wights was persued and eventually felled by the wights.

Bad News: Wights

 The remaining crew eventually reassembled at the Saucy Mermaid and after updating Luke, went in search of their reward for finding Krag Blackhand's body (500gp). Dorg, Krag's father, took them to the serenity of the Temple of Kamelius (an ancient and majestic building) where they were met by a temple adept in somber robes. There they spouted about wights, zombies, ghosts and so on to the utter confusion of Dorg. The adept retreived his master, a ponderous man: Ober the Reader. Krag's body was whisked away to be prepared for funeral and Ober ushered the remaining party behind closed doors.

[Grunt Jr. is currently dead and will rise as a Zombie in 24 hours under the control of the Wights. The Wights are loose in the city and anyone they kill could become a Zombie as well. Raising Grunt will cost 1000gp diamond (Resurrection) unless some other solution can be determined. Things have gone considerably sideways...]

Rat Kingdom Redux

The last encounter resolved in a bloody draw with both sides withdrawing. Our heroes found sanctuary with Eward the Hermit where they had a chance to rest up and heal over an eight hour period. After some discussion, it came to light that Hoogn knew of a spy-hole into the Rat Kingdom's living space. The crew purchased Eward's handcart for a handsome price. Eward threw in his lamp oil. Hoogn enthusiastically volunteered to push the flaming handcart.

The Rat Kingdom Goblins hadn't been idle while our heroes were gone, preparing for another attack and sending out search parties but to little effect. Lucky Luke snuck up to the spy hole and poured the majority of the lamp oil through the spy-hole into the Rat Kingdom's living room and lit it up. The inferno that resulted drew the guards from the main entrance leaving the way clear for Hoogn, backed by our heroes, to charge the entrance.

A battle followed that resulted in a slaughter where a few Dire Rats and Rat Kingdom Goblins escaped: Goblin babies, children, women and their pets were cut down, burned and pulverized.

The Rat King Korth

In the back room was Rat King Korth, the leader of the Rat Kingdom, sitting on a comfortable chair. Korth was confident and chatted with Luke for a time, revealing that the Rat Kingdom had been snatching bodies (dead and alive) as corpses for a "human" known as "The Pale Man." Just as things were about to get busy again, Luke put an arrow through Korth's throat: "I thought I could knock him out with an arrow and we could question him later!" A number of burlap body bags were about in which Krag Blackhand, the root of this investigation, was found with his throat cut.

A bit of searching turned up: a secret compartment with 85gp in the back of Korth's chair, Korth's +1 long sword, a bunch of nicely made daggers with some sort of makers mark on them, a lot of burlap body sacks some with bodies in them. Selwin identified one of the bodies from the descriptions of missing people at the town gates on the message board.

The crew followed the tunnel out of the back of the room, lifting a large stone that blocked the passage, and re-emerged into the mid-afternoon sun behind an abandoned mausoleum near the town cemetery.

Meet a Goblin or Two

[If I've got any of the details wrong here, post a reply with a correction and I'll fix the text.]

There were a few Goblins to chat with once Grozzy grudgingly led our intrepid adventurers back to the Goblin's Slergrad Kingdom.

Grozzy Slergrad [Brian Froud: Goblins]

The  entrance, guarded by two Goblins, was easily passed when Selwin pulled on a necklace of wire wound in a cube shape. From inside were heard many voices...

The Goblin Song

Goblins chew and goblins bite,
Goblins cut and goblins fight,
Stab the dog and cut the horse,
Goblins eat and take by force!
Goblins race and goblins jump,
Goblins slash and goblins bump,
Burn the skin and mash the head,
Goblins here and you be dead!
Chase the baby, catch the pup,
Bonk the head to shut it up!
Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed,
We the goblins—you the food!

[Paizo -- Pathfinder Staff]

A Crowded Room [Brian Froud]

The group interrupted a Goblin dinner party and after acquiring Grozzy's hat in a bet, they proceeded to the room beyond where a Gelatinous Cube named Shiny was trapped by a collapsed floor. Beyond was the Slergrad Kingdom's King, Big Flurx. Some negotiations got the party a guide, Hoogn, to the Rat Kingdom's location in the sewers where the missing bodies seem to have been going. In exchange, bar stools were promised.

Hoogn the Gasbreather

The adventurers passed through the sewers mostly uneventfully except for

• at an intersection of six sewer tunnels, observing a fight between two Rat Kingdom Goblin's (Rat's on strings around their necks) and 4 Goblins from another Goblin kingdom with some sort of chitinous or centipede type necklace... it got bloody, and
• an interruption when Hoogn spotted a pack of Dire Rats and went to grab lunch.

With a bloody skewer of rat, the party arrived at the Rat Kingdom's entryway, a passage dug out of the side of the sewers.

The largest fight to date ensued when the two Rat Kingdom guards were attacked. They released their four Dire Rats and one managed to throw some form of a fire bomb. Merrick hit the other guard before he could throw his fire bomb which resulted in a fireball that did a great deal of damage to everyone nearby.

The party then backed up at the Rat Kingdom entrance and when Goblins started charging down the tunnel they met them partway. After an extended fight, Lucky Luke and Merrick were knocked out when a final group of Goblins showed up at the far end of the tunnel and fire bombed the tightly packed group of three. (Grunt Jr. was still at the entrance after dealing with the final Dire Rat.) Savario dragged the unconscious bodies back out of the tunnel entrance as the bloddied Goblins fell back. Hoogn showed up to guide the retreating party back to Evard the Hermit's hovel where healing and a safe spot to rest and regroup were provided by the eccentric hermit.

[The final score for the evening: 6 Dire Rats, 2 Rat Kingdom Goblin Guard, 4 Rat Kingdom trained Dire Rats, 4 Rat Kingdom Goblins from within against two fallen party members to call a draw. Both sides were thoroughly bloodied in the skermish. (4 more Goblins showed up and withdrew. Hoogn did not participate in the fighting. In fact he didn't even come around the last corner.]

A Bloody Mess

The PCs

Merrick Undergrave
Gloh in the Gloom Hills
Nathan. Halfling fighter.

Selwyn
Gloh in the Gloom Hills
Paul. Wizard; dead dung beattle.

Grunt Jr.
Casey. Fighter; bubble pipe.

Tordek Brewmaster
Keith. Dwarven cleric of hearth and home; stinky pyramid. Fred the Camel.

Savario
Amos. Rogue

Lucky Luke
Jack. Rogue/bard; purple neckerchief with initials.

Into the Sewers

Our intrepid adventurers met two more companions outside the walls of Johkan after their discussions with the Moonless Tribe's Sharp Tooth, then returned to the site of Krag Blackhand's disappearance, after a brief trouble at the town gates when they returned after sundown.

At the site of Krag's last known location, blood spots, torn clothing and eventually a blood trail were uncovered. These led to a long abandoned public latrine. The latrine, a fine example of architecture no longer constructed in Jokhan, was dark inside at dusk. Selwyn led the search for further clues, disturbing 6 Dire Rats. These were easily beaten off, with a thunderous clap of magic after one took a chunk of Grunt Jr's knee. Following the Dire Rats to a ramp constructed out of a collapsed floor of the latrine led down to the sewers below.

The sewers are, it turns out, of a style of stonework construction not seen in Jokhan today. At the first intersection, examination of the stone work uncovered writing on the wall "Not this one, the other one." and opposite, a bag of 10 platinum behind a hidden stone fitting. Further exploration uncovered a number of rats and a hasty retreat from a pair of Grey Oozes. The Oozes were noticed by Lucky Luke in time and easily defeated by Selwyn's steady rain of ranged fire bolts as the group retreated beyond the range of the Ooze's slow advance. A couple of necklaces were recovered from one of the Ooze's remains.

Into the Sewers

Later, as the group wandered on, those in the rear noticed a Goblin, Grozzy, following them. Savario jumped Grozzy and clubbed him to within an inch of his life. Upon waking Grozzy convinced the group to allow him to live and to lead the way to the Slergar Kingdom, the kingdom of Goblin king Big Flurx.

Beginnings

[You can click links on the map captions to see bigger versions of them.]

The intrepid crew woke up about a campfire just outside of Gloh after having had a rousing night in which two locals met two travellers and the locals decided it was time to blow this popsicle stand: the nothin' happenin' ville of Gloh. After a bit of hi-how-are-you, the crew was ready to set out, but to where? Hmm. No one really knows where else there is... just wandering. Turns out there is an old fellow in town who collects maps, Old Joe. A stop at his place leads to another afternoon of beverages (and a day passing) and a couple interesting maps, one of which shows that the nearest town is Jokhan at the bend in a river that runs to the Dull Sea.

A Map, but Where?

The Lands of Arathem

An uneventful two day walk down the dusty roads, broken with an evening spent overnighting at a farmhouse along the way, leads to Jokhan where numerous tidbits are uncovered in the run down town whence they arrived late in the afternoon:

•  People seem to be packing up and leaving by dribs and drabs. The economy is in bad shape and shops are selling their equipment; this is a bit inexplicable since its been a period of unsurpassed peace and tranquility across the land. Generally one would have expected a golden age.
•  People have been going missing late at night, in particular, the group is following the trail of one Krag Blackhand who has gone missing after a night out drinking at the Saucy Maid with, it turns out, a guy who has some crazy tattooing all over his face.

After having a chat with Dorg, Krag's father at the smithy, the crew tracks down the tattoo-ed man and his comrades outside the city gates. They appear to be a tribe sent to scout a planned attack on the city. The threat doesn't look too real. The tattooed man, Sharp Tooth of the Moonless Tribe son of the Moonless Tribe's chief, looks to be blameless, having tried to help Krag home but when Krag fell unconscious Sharp Tooth went for help. Upon returning, the body was gone.

We know the location where Krag was last seen and we're ready to pick up where we left it, at dusk, just outside the gates of the worn down town of Jokhan.

Town of Jokhan

Background

You find yourself in a relatively rural and agrarian region of the Lands of Arathem. Not much happens out here but its been stable and safe. The Lands of Arathem are surrounded on one side by mountains, and on the other bounded by the Dull Sea. The geography is perhaps largely responsible for the region's security and isolation.

The local area, the farming community that the locals call Gloh, fits into the foothills of the towering Morkhen Mounts. These foothills are the Gloom Hills. Its decent farming country, though its been dry for quite some time. Not quite draught but its hardly a farming gold rush either. Tall dry grasses, sometimes 8 feet tall, ripple in the wind that blows over hills where the occasional copse of deciduous trees breaks up the horizon. Its pretty open country. Plenty of farms spread over the landscape.

But maybe its too safe. Maybe the life of a farmer isn't the life for you. Maybe you've met your inspiration. Time for a change. Time to find your destiny... whatever that might be.