Whispering Cairn: Encounter at the Old Mine Managers Masion (Session One)

So, the first night of adventure goes pretty well I think. The party gets all their characters in order and the fun begins. Let me first introduce you to the party.

Mason, 1st level human Cleric of Olidammara. Born and raised in Diamond Lake. He has some brushes with the law but has avoided any serious jail time. The Heironeous folks seem to have some sort of soft spot for him and have looked out for him over the last few years. His mother died of the plague when he was not much more than a baby and his father abandoned him soon after. He was brought up as an orphan at the Temple of Heironeous. He also seems to have a soft spot for them and one of his close friends a paladin named Wilhelm. Wilhelm is always lecturing him on good and law; mostly good because they has come to except that Mason would never be completely lawful.

Wilhelm Siggurdson, 1st level human Paladin of Heironeous. Born in the Free City of Greyhawk and raised by the Church of Heironeous, he answered a calling and entered into training as a paladin. When he was in his teens he was sent to Diamond Lake to learn the more advanced skills of a paladin. There he meet Mason and a friendship developed. Wilhelm seems to take Mason as challenge and means to turn him to good, or at least guide his decisions in that direction.

Deanr, 1st level human Wizard (Diviner). Born and raised in Diamond Lake. His parents were also a victim of the plague and he was raised in the orphanage setup by one Balabar Smenk, a mine manager in town. Smenk used this as ploy to get labourers that owed him and would have to work cheap. He called it paying back the debt of being raised with his gold. Deanr never developed the strength to be a miner so he ended up in the office doing paper work and accounting. Balabar then sent him to apprentice with Allustan, the local wizard, so that he could use the talents to his own designs. Deanr squirreled away every copper and silver he could until he bought his way out of servitude to Smenk. Smenk was very angry about this, but had to do it to save face. Deanr has been unable to find work since and has been staying at Allustan’s place, doing odd stuff him to pay his way.

Analyn MacNeil, 1st level half-elf rogue. Born and raised in the Free City of Greyhawk. She has travelled to Diamond Lake to seek fame and fortune. Arriving she spent the last couple days scooping out the towns locales.

Alex Lightfoot II, 1st level human scout. Born and raised in the vicinity of Diamond Lake. His mother died of the plague shortly after his birth and he has been raised by his father ever since. Until recently he had been learning the ways of the scout from his father, a rather accomplished scout himself and known in the region. His father was murdered in front of him by six men, four of whom he killed before dying. Alex buried his father and then hunting the two other men. He caught one of them alone in the woods and killed him quickly, the other escaped. Alex tracked him to Diamond Lake.

Ozzie Arrowsmith, 1st level half-orc Barbarian. Born of an orc and human slave, he was raised until his very early teens in the Pomarj. He was captured by human slavers when his village was attacked and wiped out. All the half-orc children were taken to the Free City of Greyhawk and sold as slaves. Ozzie was sold to a mine manager and was taken and put to work there. The mine manager was later killed and Ozzie was set free. He then tried to make his way home, but had no idea where to go. He found himself wandering into Diamond Lake and decided that he need work so took a job in a mine.

Thus you have the characters and the stage is set.

16th Day of Readying, 595 CY

This evening finds the unlikely heroes in various spots on the town square as the sun is setting. Alex comes walking into the square looking for the murderer of his father. Kullen, a half-orc barbarian, who it turns out, has some connection to the guy attacks Alex. He yells at him, “I told you never to return here dog. Now you’re going to pay for your return”. Alex yelled back to him in orcish something about Kullen’s mother. As Kullen charged in fist at the ready, Alex takes him in the belly with his spear, scoring a minor amount of damage. Kullen hits him square in the face knocking Alex out cold. Kullen then kicks him saying “that should teach him”. Reaches down and picks up the spear and mutters something about a trophy and heads into the Feral Dog Tavern.

The other members of the group, not knowing Alex, go over to help him. Mason slips a gold piece from Alex’s pouch saying to Wilhelm, “a tithe for services” and proceeds to cast a cure and heal up Alex. Alex then starts to answer their questions when the Sheriff Cubbin comes up with guards and starts to question them as to what happened. Cubbin then goes into the Feral Dog and questions Kullen. He returns with Alex’s spear and tells them Kullen has decided to not have Alex arrested for the assault. Alex is a little indignant that he has been made out to be the bad guy, but lets it drop at a warning from Mason. Analyn gives Alex the key to her room at the Able Carter Coaching Inn, much to everyone surprise. There were many eyebrows rising at this. Ozzie decides to tag along with Alex. Mason, Analyn and Deanr go into to the Feral Dog to find out more about Kullen and why he did what he did. Wilhelm opts out of any of the above and waits for Mason outside the Dog.

Analyn uses her effective skill of diplomacy and a small bribe to find out some information from the bar keep. She finds out Kullen is some sort of thug in the “employ” of Balabar Smenk. He is a violent person, but not so that he is likely to perform random acts of violence. Though, with that said, once he has been drinking, it is quiet likely. When sober, his violence has some purpose behind it. Tonight, when he attacked Alex, he had not yet had a drink.

Mason actually joins Kullen and offers to heal his wound for a pint of beer. Kullen makes good on the deal when Mason cast a cure spell and heals Kullen’s damage. They then chat for a while. Kullen is allusive as to why he did what he did, but it was evident that he and the murderer of Alex’s father are connected some how. Mason spends some time chatting with Kullen.

By the end of the night, Mason and Wilhelm retire to the temple of Heironeous for some sleep, Mason enduring a lecture on goodness from Wilhelm. Deanr returns to Allustan’s place to spend the night. Analyn return to her room and finds Alex there sleeping and Ozzie is watching over him. She has Ozzie spend the night in a chair propped up against the door and they spend a quiet night.

In the middle of the night Wilhelm and Mason are woken up to hear the news that there is a child missing and believed to be in the Cairn known as “The Whispering Cairn”. Seems he went there on a dare from some other kids and failed to return yesterday. His name is Jarvis Bandylegs. The locals know that this is a dare often giving by kids and they at one time as well; in their teen years have done it. It is rare for a child not to come back. Wilhelm convinces Mason that they should mount this rescue and take along the three people they meet tonight and Deanr. All arrangements are made and a mule is loaded up with supplies.

17th Day of Readying, 595 CY

Mason and Wilhelm arise very early and head over to pick up Deanr. He is in the middle of making Allustan's breakfast and looks at this a chance to out of some mundane work. He yells out an apology as he runs out the door. The three then make their way over to the Able Crater Coaching House to convince Analyn, Ozzie and Alex to go. This did not take long when Mason mentioned something about a reward. Alex did however make them promise to help him avenge his fathers murder. Ozzie wanted to stop at a weapon shop to buy a halbred. Analyn help Ozzie haggle the price of it from eleven gold pieces to ten gold and five silver pieces.

They then headed off to the Whispering Cairn. They traveled up the road and find the old mine manager’s mansion. It is very run down and dilapidated having been abandoned years ago. Alex thinks he sees a small form enter the front door and close it behind him but no one else saw that. They approach the house cautiously with Alex and Analyn sneaking to check it out. Alex scouts around the house and then moves up to the front door with rest of them. He then opens the door and quickly notices five forms trying to hide. They jump up and charge him scoring a couple of hits for minor damage.

The group then spend the next few seconds busting into the room killing a goblin in the process. Analyn sees one peeking out of the window she is hiding below and attempts the shoot through the glass, but it fails to break the glass, the arrow ricocheting off into the yard somewhere. Alex makes his way through the goblins and ends up behind them. Ozzie moves up into the doorway and kills one goblin. The next thing they know, four more come busting out from a behind closed set of double doors attacking Alex from behind. Alex gets hit a couple more time and is in a lot of trouble. He back peddles and sticks one with his spear, but they continue to press in on him. Wilhelm pushes in and comes to Alex’s aid and a wild melee ensues. Mean while the goblin at the window attempts to hit Analyn through the window with his Morningstar and misses wildly. Analyn then step back a few paces and shoots an arrow in his eye.

The wizard Deanr now steps in the room and shoots a goblin with his crossbow and then gets ready to cast a spell. He then hits three of the goblins with a sleep spell and they promptly collapse to the floor. The rest of the goblins are quickly dispatched but Alex hears noise of movement below them so they prepare for more goblins. Mason goes to kill one of the sleeping goblins but only wakes it up, not killing it. It sees Mason standing over him and swings his morningstar at him missing and then drops unconscious. Wilhelm binds the other two goblins up. The group then moves into the room from which the second group of goblins came from and see a dining room with an upset table and another door.

They set up to go through the door and Ozzie hits it with his halberd, destroying it with one blow. Behind it they find more goblins waiting to ambush them. Some javelins are thrown hitting Ozzie and Alex sticks one with his spear. Analyn and Deanr shoot and kill another one. The three remaining goblins have no more fight in them and run out the back door and into the hills. The party decides not to chase them. As this happens, Wilhelm, in the last room watching over the prisoners gets surprised by a single goblin coming through another door trying to smash him with its morningstar. He misses and Wilhelm kills it cleanly with his battle axe.

The group then interrogates the goblins thinking they may have something to do with the boys disappearance. The goblins claim to know nothing of the boy and were only looking for food and “shiny” trinkets. Convinced the goblins know nothing of the boy, they are dispatched quickly. The party decides they are to injured to continue the search for the boy and return to town. They get healed up at the temple of Heironeous and retire for the night. They will take up the search for the boy in the morning.

This was the end of the night. The party did quite well and there was some good role-playing.

They all gained 250 experience points for the night.
Total to date; 250 experience points

Starting the adventure tomorrow night.

We will be meeting and setting up characters tomorrow night and then hopefully getting into the action. I plan on posting here after every session and letting everyone know how it went. I encourage you to post your comments so I can read them and maybe make my session more enjoyable from you input.

Thank for dropping by the blog.

Rob