Claiming the Monastery
Boo! I am a Pugwampi! |
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The party told Almah that the monastery was ready to be lived in, but didn't share the whole "Katie ate a slime mold and now has superpowers" part of the story. Almah chose to move into the library with Garavel, with rotating guards to stand watch. The camel drivers took over the kitchen; Jasmine and Othello were envious, but Almah is paying them to be heroes, not cooks. Dashki claimed the room with the gold filigree in the walls and the statue of St. Vardishal. Father Vastoran setup shop in the undercrypt where he could do alchemical research in peace and the mercenaries wanted the cleaned out tower where the stirges had their nest. Everyone wanted a room with an intact roof, which didn't leave a lot of choices for the PCs. Almah said that she wanted them in the dormitory so they could be close enough to help in an emergency. This room had intact beds and roofs so it was acceptable to the group. Around midnight that night a strange howling rose up from the ruined city of Kelmarane; after a minute, an answering call came faintly back from the direction of Pale Mountain. Dashki the gnoll expert said it was the call of the Carrion King, and his minions were singing of their obedience to him. It made everyone a little nervous.
- What are the defenses of the town?
- How many enemies are there?
- Who is the leader and how strong is he?
- Where are the key actors located in the town?
- Are there any allies who might be able to help?
Almah suggested some investigation and reconnaisance to answer these questions. Othello suggested to capture a gnoll, gut it, and wear the skin as a disguise. To avoid this gruesome suggestion, the party agreed to split up. Othello, being small and light, climbed into the rafters where the Pugwampi nest was and spyed on the town through the old stained glass window (the town is about 1.5 miles away). jasmine and Ibrahim decided to help clean up the monastery; it smelled so bad that the mercenaries were burning the mattresses outdoors. Katie and Sandy went outside to explore and find a home for the baboon tribe.
Othello spends the day in the rafters observing the town. He can see some traffic between buildings and food being brought to some inhabitants. There are irregular patrols of 4 gnolls that wander through town. About midday, the smallest and lightest guard brings lunch to the halfling. There's a couple mutton sandwiches, a few cactus apples, some cheese and bread, some jelly and mustard, stewed vegetable, some milk, and a bottle of tea. Overall, it was a pleasant light lunch. Jasmine and Ibrahim managed to clean the dorm room nicely, although there was a tapping sound from above. Katie and Sandy conversed with the baboons who seemed happy with their new home, although they were hungry. Sandy went hunting for food and brought back enough rabbits to feed everyone. She hacked one up at Katie's feet and then looked at her expectantly. Finally, Katie took a bite of the rabbit and Sandy was satisfied.
As it was getting late, Othello decided to exit the rafters and get some early supper. However, a beam that should have been able to hold his weight mysteriously snapped. Othello tried to catch himself but he got a splinter instead and went over the edge. How unlucky! He plummeted to the floor below and lost all of his hit points in the impact. Othello knew he was too badly injured to move without help. Then from overhead came a faint tittering - Pugwampi! Meanwhile, Ibrahim and Jasmine look at each other and say - did you hear something?
The runty monster above continued its horrible tittering and threw heavy objects from the ceiling at Othello, who could only lie there and call for help. Fortunately, Katie and Sandy came into the monastery at that time and raced to help. Eventually the pugwampi realized it was not doing any damage and so it brilliantly threw itself off the roof, with its knife aimed at Othello. Fortunately, it missed and killed itself in the fall (even for a pugwampi, that was not a very good plan). Ibrahim finally wandered in to see what was happening and healed Othello. Almah was very angry that the monastery wasn't actually cleared and ordered the heroes to do a more thorough search of the building.
Ibrahim decided to search the kitchen and found pugwampi tunnels running through the walls. Jasmine and Katie look in Dashki's room to see if they can find the secret tunnel behind the statue of St. Vardishal which their players know is there from looking at the map. Jasmine notices that the coins in the statue's hands are gone, and Katie notices that there are grooves in the floor as if the statue could slide and swing out. They also notice that some of the gold filigree in the walls has been scraped off, and further that Dashki is the only member of the expedition that cannot be found. Jasmine was certain that something came up from the secret passage and abducted Dashki. Everyone was called into the room, including Almah and Garavel. Everyone agreed to work together to move the statue and pushed it aside to reveal stairs going down. That was when Dashki walked in and wondered aloud why everyone was in his room. Katie noticed that Dashki was missing the dead pugwampi from his walking staff. Dashki claimed the thing smelled bad and he decided to burn it. Othello wondered how the human could tell that the body smelled...
The party followed the secret staircase to find that it connected to an undercrypt which ran into Father Vastoran's alchemy lab. He was asleep through all the commotion! They went to bed following the original entrance they had forced a couple days ago, and again heard the tappity-tap sounds. Jasmine wanted someone to go on the roof and investigate, but no one was volunteering so they went to bed instead.
The next day, Othello returns to the rafters to observe, Katie and Sandy go talk to the baboons, and Jasmine + Ibrahim clean house. On the way to the baboons, Katie and Sandy find a stinky pugwampi corpse, which looks just like the one Dashki had hung on his staff. Maybe he lied? The baboons warned Katie about a monster in the earth which they were afraid of. Jasmine finds a dessicated pugwampi corpse in the dorm under one of the beds. There are some white silky bits stuck to it. Othello is in the rafters watching the town when it happens. The gnolls lead a male prisoner out to the town square. He is tied down to stakes, spread-eagled, while the gnolls torture him with hot tools and pull out his guts. It takes about an hour for him to stop screaming. There is a real pall over the party.
Later in the afternoon there is a sound of squawking and the roof is knocked down in places. Everyone rushes to the courtyard and sees a giant bird alighting in one of the trees. Then it would screech, fly up, and attack the roof. Almah shouted for the bird (a geier bird) to be killed before it destroys the base camp. Othello risked burning down the place to cast his elemental ray while Jasmine and Katie were effective with their bolts and arrows. Othello took a crit from the geier and Ibrahim was hurt badly while casting his heal spell. Sandy was ferocious, landing on the geier's back and viciously biting and scratching. When the giant bird was killed, Othello climbed up the tree to see what the geier was protecting - there were eggs! Four in fact, so each hero got one, each as big as a watermelon. Othello wanted to know what good was an egg? You could make one big omelet... Apparently trained geier birds are all the rage as a fashion accessory among the aristocracy in Katapesh, so Almah bought the eggs from Othello and Ibrahim while Jasmine and Katie paid her to raise their eggs while they were adventuring.