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TROLLSKULL MANOR
Late into the night, in the Trollskull Tavern, the Owlbear League discusses their future with regard to the tavern, their future direction, and what to do about the evil spirit living in the spaces above. They think about the wine they left behind in Quasqueton, and sending an expedition to gather that wine - maybe spending 100 gold to bring it back, if they want to run a tavern.
Orryn says, "We don't need to overdue it, just have a basic descent place to stay here, but we need someone to run it, we can't have the kids here by themselves, and it's not going to be Gruss the pickle guy."
"But the kids can stay here, right?" Nowhere asks as more of a statement than a question.
Atlas adds, "If this becomes our home base, the kids could stay here, but we would need the tavern running to pay for expenses."
Dain says "I like taverns."
Immeral says "The benefits of a magic-school nearby and the potential to have a library are very attractive."
Altas adds "We can always decide to sell it."
Orryn remarks "Once we get rid of the ghost."
Nowhere adds "Bleen the bard could be our entertainment!"
K'ronk remarks "We already have some notoriety, I believe we can continue to grow that and will attract the right people to run the tavern."
K'ronk talks about how the tavern would be the perfect location to mount the cockatrice head he purchased at a curiosity shop.
They talk about the forces pulling them in different directions - Sir Isteval would be a powerful ally to build a relationship with, and Daggerford is just two days south. They have also failed to return to the mines to deal with a problem at the request of Gundren and Captain Frant. They let the trail go cold for the magical weapons from the Caves of Chaos heading to Red Larch.
Nowhere suggests the following: "Prepare and kill the hag, and by doing so, free Lif's spirit to move on, then bless this place to keep her gone. Then renovate the tavern, maybe find someone to manage the renovation and hire someone to run it. Plus we have to go to the bank and get some gold out."
The team members nod. "After we get this all done, we have to get a back to Phandalin and see if we can help whatever problem is there, then maybe visit Daggerford."
Immeral adds "Maybe Sister Garael can come and bless this building."
Seraphina comments "I can bless the upper floors in the name of the Raven Queen."
Immeral comments "I don't like the idea of blessing this building to the goddess of death."
Seraphina returns "The goddess is a shepard for the departed, not the
Dain says "I like taverns." and with that, they go to sleep.
They spend the next few days waiting for Dain's two-handed axe and Atlas' short sword to be silvered by Avi the blacksmith. The three orphans run off every day down to the docks and bring Lady D. back a bucket of fish heads, although they secure a regular supply of meat from a nearby butcher to feed their stabled owlbear.
Immeral sends a message through their magical message boxes to sister Garael, informing her they are currently in Waterdeep and are now property owners, and letting her know there is always a place for her there.
They close out their bill at the Yawning Portal and as Nowhere and Dain look down the well at the entrance to the well-known dungeon below, Durnan the owner cautions them "you aren't ready".
Immeral is able to purchase a brazier, and recalls his familiar Syldan as a hawk.
The group makes inquiries about restoring Trollskull, and finds out it would be 1000 gold to repair the Trollskull to comfortable status and maybe 250 gold for guild fees per year. There will be maintenance costs of about 100 gold per month.
While returning to The Trollskull, Immeral and K'ronk and Seraphina read over the agreement that Captain Staget left for them to sign at the Yawning Portal, wondering what they would be getting into, but sending off the agreement to stay in good standing with the city.
As a arcanist entering this land, under the watchful eyes of the Lords of Waterdeep and the Open Lord Laurel Silverhand, you swear to render service to the city in times of great trouble.
As a practioner of magic, you swear not to use your abilities on the citizenry of Waterdeep, except in the prudent defense of yourself or others under threat of life or robbery.
As one who uses the weave, you shall defer to the orders from the Blackstaff of Waterdeep, currently Vajra Safahr, as directed at any time, or you shall be banned from the city.
As one who utilizes powerful forces, you will consider joining the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors under the guiding hand of Lady Master of the Order Mhair Szeltune to elevate the art of arcane magic, protect weaker magic-users, and keep safe the Lords and Ladies of Waterdeep and its citizenry.
None of these oaths superscede the Code Legal of Waterdeep.
The League prepares to venture to the haunted upper floors of the Trollskull. They wait for morning, informing the urchins that they must leave the Trollskull and leave the fight to The League.
"But I have a magic bow." Squiggly says, "And the good arrows you showed me how to make!"
"And I have a sword." Nat replies
"And I have a magic scroll." Jenks says.
Seraphina uses her staff of charming on the orphans, and easily convinces them to stay away, hoping that they listen after the spell wears off in an hour, so they run off back to the docks.
Orryn gives the party a 10-minute pep talk, bolstering their endurance for the exploration to come. It will only last an hour, but they do not know what they will encounter.
Immeral then casts Mage Armor on himself and then K'ronk and him cast False Life on themselves, giving them extra vitality for the obvious fights ahead.
They walk up the stairs to the door, which is barred with nailed boards and Atlas uses her gauntlets of Ogre Power to pull them off, easily. People on the street look at the group strangely as they are obviously going into a fight with weapons drawn. They then open the door and are assaulted by the screams of a hundred dying children.
The screaming ends, and the place is silent once more. They hear a voice inside, a kind voice, a grandmotherly voice.
"I'm so sorry, pay no attention to the children, you know what they say, best eaten and not heard. Come in, come in."
They carefully march in single file, Nowhere, Dain, Immeral, Atlas, K'ronk, Seraphina and Orryn.
Inside is large common room. A subtle scent of pipe smoke still lingers here, alluding to late nights of card-playing, drinking and gentlemen's merriment. Hooks and nails in the walls suggest that many paintings used to hang in this room. A frayed musty carpet adorns the center of the room, as well as several small broken tables and stools. Another hearth decorates the north wall, this one in relatively good shape. Intact doors leads north and south.
On a rotten old coach sits a grandmotherly figure. She is clean and dressed well. "A bit early for visiting, don't you think dears? Let's have a little chat. I am Old Mathilda Knucklebones, do come in."
Seraphina casts hold person, but Mathilda disappears suddenly. She reappears opening the door to the south and says "Now let's not get nasty dear, can't we have a conversation first?" The party steps back in confusion.
"We don't want to start off on the wrong foot, we want the same thing..." she says.
"You ate children." Orryn replies.
"That's all in the past, and I suffered for it. What I really want is for the Trollskull to return to glory."
"Why would you eat children?" Orryn continues.
"That's what us hags do to live, but we can put that behind us now, I'm a spirit."
Orryn replies "Why did you try to mind-control our friend?"
Mathilda replies "I don't know what you mean."
Immeral adds, "You can't be here if the inn is restored, children will be here, and you can't be trusted."
Mathilda states, "I'm just a spirit, I can only watch what goes on here."
Immeral comes back, "What about the object you care about so much?"
Mathilda replies, "I don't know what you mean."
Nowhere is getting impatient. "We talked to the spirit of Lif and he assures us you are not to be trusted."
Mathilda assures them, "We can cut a bargain. Us hags sip the dreams of those around, I could provide a love potion, or a set of magical thieves tools."
Nowhere charges the old woman and swings her sword, making it disappear. Even the doorway behind was not really open, just an illusion, now dispersed.
K'ronk yells out. "We're here to end this. No more illusions! The only place you are staying is in hell. Come out!" but there is no response.
K'ronk detects magic and sees nothing unusual, so they decide to open the door to the south.
The group sees a dining hall with a large oak table, now stacked to the brim with various piles of junk. Broken furniture, old crates, and piles of dirty linen make moving through this room challenging. A metal-framed, wooden spiral staircase on the west wall leads to the third floor. Looking over the piles of debris, they notice a door leading south. They hear a growling sound coming from somewhere.
Three shadowy horrific ugly canines leap out of the room and attack, but the Owlbear League is ready.
Nowhere moves backward, as the creatures pile through the door.
K'ronk casts eldrich blast but misses the creature.
Dain swings with his silvered great axe, but it moves right through the mastiff, seemingly doing no damage.
Immeral casts ray of frost and hits the mastiff which seems to damage and anger the beast.
Atlas fires off a flurry of blows enhanced by his gauntlets of ogre power slamming his fists into the shadowy creature.
Orryn pulls out his enchanted dagger and slashes at the creature, hitting it and eliciting a snarling howl.
Nowhere slashes with her sword Icerazor and hits the beast with two slashing attacks, which leaves the creature clearly wounded.
Seraphina swings her mace Lightbringer and hits the wounded beast dissolving it into smoky shadows that dissipate.
The second mastiff attacks Atlas, grabbing him in its horrid teeth and tearing at his flesh and flinging him across the room.
The third canine attacks Nowhere and tears at her leg, raking open the Tiefling's flesh and splattering blood on the floor.
K'ronk tries eldrich blast again, but misses.
Dain backs away from the battle, knowing his weapon is ineffective.
Immeral hits with another ray of frost, wounding the creature and slowing it down.
Atlas hits with another flurry of blows and then turbocharged with the power of his ki, hits with two blindingly fast unarmed strikes for two more hits, but the monster still stands.
Orryn misses with his dagger.
Seraphina hits with lightbringer, and dispatches the second monster.
Nowhere turns to the third and hits it with Lightbringer, wounds it, but it seems only angered.
The shadow mastiff turns and snaps at Nowhere, but she dodges the attack.
K'ronk casts eldrich blast and hits the final beast for some magical damage.
Immeral hits it with fire bolt, and Atlas goes to hit it with a flurry of blows, but misses and strikes the wall, sending debris flying, some crashing into him for minor damage.
Orryn goes to hit the creature with his magic dagger, and stumbles, but with as he falls, the gnome manages a final desperate swing and slices at the mastiff and strikes it, eliciting a furious roar.
Seraphina swings Lightbringer again and bashes the mastiff squarely in the head, knocking shadowy teeth out of its maw.
Nowhere misses with Icerazor.
The shadow mastiff gets a final attack and turns to Immeral, biting down on him, but at the last moment Immeral casts shield, trying to deflect the energy of the attack, but the mastiff's powerful jaws crunch through the magical protection and he tears at Immeral's arm.
K'ronk throws a fire bolt at the mastiff and hits, burning the creature into oblivion and ending the battle!
The League steps into the Dining Hall, wondering for a moment if there is anything valuable in the junk-filled room. K'ronk and Immeral use their ability to detect magic to locate three items of potential importance. The first is a black candle. The second is a brass teapot. It is not obvious how they are magic. The smell of rotten eggs permeates the room.
On the stairs to the second floor, Old Mathilda appears (which is obviously an illusion) and says the following:
"I see now that you are group of hard bargaining young adventurers. Bravo, bravo. Before you go too much farther, I would like to make you an offer. I will limit my travels to the upper two floors of the inn, you may rent out the second floor, and the visitors will be left unbothered by me and my friends. That is my best offer, besides getting nasty of course."
Nowhere states firmly "We don't want you here."
Mathilda continues. "Leave now and give me the upper two floors, and I will give you an ongoing supply of healing potions, and blessings on you to help you during quests."
Nowhere says "give us the item you are attached to, and we will consider it."
Mathilda replies, "I think you are confused, I am tied to this place, there is nothing special that holds me here."
Nowhere adds "I want you out."
Mathilda returns "That is just not going to work for me, and I think you will be sorry that you didn't bargain in good faith."
Nowhere adds "It is our house."
Mathilda replies "Possession is nine tenths, and right now, this place is possessed. Ha ha ha."
Nowhere says, "This would not be good for the children."
Mathilda comes back "The little tots downstairs will be just fine. Just ban them from up here."
K'ronk says "You are a monster, the answer is no."
Mathilda replies "Then we'll see you upstairs." Mathilda disappears and the door to the south opens, a swarm of insects streaming out.
Seraphina casts burning hands and destroys a large portion of the cloud, but they continue to attack.
Nowhere casts cure wounds upon Atlas to restore some of the damage from the mastiff attacks.
Orryn swings his flail at the bugs, but it is ineffective and passes right through them.
Atlas tries flurry of blows but it barely moves the horde.
Immeral tries a poison spray, but the cloud of bugs avoids the splash.
K'ronk tries a fire bolt, and burns some of the bugs, but there are still many.
Dain tries swinging his shield, but it does nothing.
The bugs swarm around Orryn, but he manages to swat and avoid the biting insects.
Seraphina casts sacred flame and and misses the remaining pests.
Nowhere steps back, thinking of what she can do to fight the creatures.
Orryn decides to move into the next room where the bugs emerged from. It seems to be a spare room. The finer linens of Trollskull Manor are neatly stacked into piles here. Some are ripped and moth-eaten, but a few of the better protected sets are still in good condition. Locked double-doors lead out to a small balcony facing east with ornate, iron spiked railings. A few potted plants have been left out and are long-dead. You can get a good view of the east side of Trollskull Alley from here. On the balcony there is a sickly crow, that looks as if its wings are clipped, as it keeps flapping to try to fly, but cannot take flight - it turns to Orryn and roars like a lion, startling him.
Orryn finds a leather bag with something in it, also a large mason jar filled with a thick, clear liquid. Floating in the liquid is a large eye. The eye follows Orryn around the room.
Orryn gives K'ronk the jar with the eye, and Atlas uses a potion of fire breath to blast the remaining bugs, and the battle is over, but the danger is not.
Orryn reaches into the leather bag and learns it is a bag of devouring, and his companions see him sucked into what is basically the mouth of an extradimensional creature. The bag closes and Orryn struggles, trying to open the orifice from the inside, failing, horrified knowing that he is seconds away from being consumed.
"Open the bag!" Immeral screams, "Dain, pull him out!".
Dain pounces on the bag and with all his strength pries it open, and grabbing Orryn by the hair, pulls him from the leathery maw, both of them collapsing on the floor.
Immeral knows the bag can be destroyed by turning it inside out. Will they, or will they keep it to use against their enemies?
The party has spent only 17 minutes in the upper Trollskull and Orryn has nearly died. Will they continue onward and upward? What other tricks does Mathilda have up her sleeve? If they leave the upper floors will Mathilda be even more prepared against The League? Can they get to her within the hour their magical bonuses last and before the charm spell on the children runs out?
NEXT - CAMPAIGN DIARY 34 - Ascending Trollskull
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