Rivergard Keep

Arrival at Rivergard Keep

After two uneventful, yet tense, days and nights travelling up the Dessarin River, the keep came rising up out of the early-morning fog. It appeared that repairs were ongoing, yet parts of the complex appeared to remain inaccessible. The upper floors of the north tower and the water tower were crumbled and filled with debris, alluding to the age of the old haunted keep.

The trail of destruction blazed by Kahntun, Leopold, Alexander, and LiKi. They also mixed in subterfuge, bluffing and trickery.

The Water Gate

Alexander skillfully pulled their "borrowed" keelboat up to the most southeastern tower. The keep's eastern wall was built into the river, forming a long pier that enclosed a boat basin. A heavy chain emerged from the tower to the south, stretching across the entrance. Alexander hailed whoever stood guard in the tower. A male human with lank black hair looked out of the arrow slit in the tower by the river. He had a drooping mustache and a sour expression. "What do you want?" he asked.

"We are here to join the gang!" Leopold blurted out.

After a moment of silence, Alexander added, "Shoalar Quanderil should have foretold of our arrival. He said that we would be granted an audience with . . . with Old Jolliver."

"Oh! Did he indeed?" The mustachioed face replied. "Well, I suppose you better come in then. Tie that heap up beside the stairs. Your escort will arrive shortly my lords." After a moment of silence, the party heard the turning of a large crank which lowered the chain enough for Alexander to navigate the keelboat through. After disembarking and tying up their boat, three odd-looking escorts arrived. As they walked up the path toward what looked like the main keep, they could hear the chain being cranked and tightened once again. They tried not to show how this disconcerted them.

The shrouded, creepy face that greeted the party when they arrived at the Water Gate.

One of the strange warriors sent to escort the party to their audience with Jolliver.

These warriors seem to take their affiliation with the water seriously. Are those shark teeth lining their swords? Dafuq?

The party followed a short path up to the Great Hall of the keep. It was two stories high, with stone stairs on both sides of the room leading up to a stone balcony at the west end of the chamber. The party entered through the two heavy double doors on the eastern side of the room. Arrow slits looked out to the north and the south.

At the west end of the room, below the balcony, a large wooden chair sat behind a wide table littered with papers and discarded plates. A second table, this one long and furnished with benches, ran down the middle of the hall. The walls were painted in green and blue, decorated with tattered banners showing nautical designs.

Grimjaw sat at his desk beneath the balcony. He was accompanied by a woman who stood off to the north, and two more of these weird water warriors, bringing the total up to 5 if you include the escorts who remained in the hall. The big doors through which they entered closed suddenly, echoing ominously through the hall. Without greetings or salutations, Jolliver Grimjaw unceremoniously began, "Who are you? Why are you here? Speak."

The shrewd, cunning, creepy leader of the pirates at Rivergard Keep, Jolly Grimjaw.

Here's what happened during their audience:

Leopold tried to charm the hardened criminal Jolliver. He kept up the pretense that the party was there to join Jolly's gang. "We have certain people through whom we can sell valuable items attained in less-than-forthright ways. We can be invaluable to you.
Despite all appearences of sincerity and honesty, Jolliver became suddenly (and intensely) irritated by Leopold. After allowing Leopold a moment to enunciate his ruse, Jolly abruptly commanded him to "Shut up." Then pointed to Kahntun, "You! What are you doing here?"
Taken by surprise, and not really good at making shit up, Kahntun fumbled with the lie for a moment, then admitted that the party was there to see what was going on at the keep. "What are you and your associates up to? We have the interests of the people of the Dessarin Valley in mind."
Jolliver responded, "Yes. And now you have my full attention. You have shown some audacity entering my keep and challenging me in this way. I would commend you on your bravery if I wasn't so certain of your stupidity."
Kahntun growled, reaching for the hilt of his famous sword Talon.
"Hold on a second." LiKi jumped in. Then, remembering the letter they found in Wave Echo Cave and inferring Jolly's desire for arcane items, added "We can help you attain powerful magic items. We are treasure hunters of a sort and have some skill."
"What have you brought me?" he rejoined. After an extended pause and receiving no reply, he guessed "Nothing, I see. You continue to demonstrate your uselessness. I should kill you for your insolence, but I will let you live. Thank you for the gift of that keelboat. You didn't actually think that it'd be leaving Rivergard Keep again, did you? Hmmm?"

With that Alexander unsheathed his sword. Negotiating with the villain had gone way further than he would have allowed. Talk of not being able to return the keelboat to its rightful owners was the tipping point past which there was no return. Combat had begun!

This mysterious woman stood silently behind Jolliver during the brief exchange between her boss and our heroes. Hey, check out her eyepatch Leo!

Suddenly the eye-patched woman shifted her shape into some type of water elemental thing.

As the party engaged with the weird water warriors enroaching in on them, Jolliver suddenly flexed and busted out of his mail, transforming into what looked like the hybrid form between a boar and a man. "Ummm...oh shit..." Leopold muttered.

Battle in the Great Hall at Rivergard Keep

Here's what happened during the battle:

Jolliver transformed into a half human, half bore. He charged LiKi and missed an attack with his tusks.
LiKi took a piece of fur out of mysterious looking bag at her side, threw it ten feet away, and it transformed into a giant rat, gnashing teeth and all! As you will see, this rodent of unusual size was not fucking around.

LiKi pulled this giant nusance from her bag of tricks.

Jolliver yelled out, "now Ushnora! Submerge these cretins in pain!" At that, the eye-patched woman transformed into a weird, slithering water elemental thing. She seemed to soak into the material in front of her as she moved across the room and attacked Alexander.
LiKi picked off a couple Crushing Wave Reavers with firebolts; Kahntun and Alexander did the same with their longswords. The giant rat got in some good shots of its own, the little creep (that last bit of metacommentary demonstrates the DM's frustration).
Having taken a severe wound across the chest from one of the shark teeth-notched blades, Leopold cast invisibility and climbed the stairs to the stone balcony above Jolliver's desk to observe.
When he got up there, three more Crushing Wave Reaver's rushed past him, even bumping into him, but didn't seem aware of his presence. From the balcony, they began chucking javelins at our party, wounding Alexander and Kahntun.

Suddenly, Jolliver bore his tusks into Kahntun's side; twisting and thrashing, he ripped significant hunks of flesh from the half-orc. Kahntun felt a sense of hatred and determination wash over him, closed his eyes, and spoke with his god, calling up a cylinder of hellish flame that engulfed the wereboar. Jolliver screamed in pain and a sickly stench filled the air of the hall.
The paladin then followed up this attack with a divine smite of his longsword which he infused with radiant energy (45 hps in one turn). Jolliver's courage was noticeably shaken; he screamed in rage, pain, and fear.

The Battle Rages on . . .

One of the warriors on the balcony suddenly ran off. Leopold followed her, still invisible. She made her way out of a doorway leading south from the second story of the keep, down a flight of stairs that led from the wall to the castle yard and toward what looked like a barracks. She banged on the door, trying to alert the ruffians inside.
This is when Leopold, in the most sinister and haunting voice he could muster (he had been the understudy in a play once, and his performance in the role of a sadistic drow warlord who would flay his victims piece by piece, then feed them to dogs was, in his estimation, underappreciated) growled, "be gone if you value your life. You do not know the evil powers your terrified boss currently battles with. You do not know what torment awaits you. Can you imagine how it would feel to have your skin turned inside out? You will live through the procedure, but not long after."
At that, the crushing wave warrior ran up the stairs to the east and flung herself from the castle wall. Leopold checked to see if the bandits in the barracks had been stirred; they had not. He smirked, then returned cautiously to the Great Hall.

After hearing Leopold's disembodied voice deliver his most convincing performance of sadistic intentions, the crushing wave warrior ran for her life.

When he returned to the balcony, he pushed the remaining warrior off the balcony ledge. He fell, hitting his head, and died.
He then witnessed Alexander delivering two vicious slashes to the weird water elemental which then lost its form and crashed to the ground in a spreading puddle. The corpse returned to the human form of the woman Ushnora.
Jolliver was at this point attempting to escape, apparently making his way as quickly as possible toward the door in the southwest corner of the room. Just as he was about to slip through to the courtyard, that damn giant rat came running up behind him and jumped on his back, digging its teeth into the wereboar's back. This must have been the last straw because Jolliver crashed to the ground, returned to his human form, and died.
The room was suddenly still and silent once again; death smeared the floors, tables, and walls.
Kahntun felt a sudden chill and fever overtake him. It was subtle, but he could feel it building slowly. The wound at his side pulsated with a dull, spreading ache. He was sweating and pale as the snows of his native lands of Vassa.
The party searched the room, made a pile of the dead bodies in the northeastern corner of the room, and investigated the Great Hall.

Looting the Bodies, Searching the Room, Moving on

The party found 102 gp worth of valuables on the dead crushing wave warriors. On a thin silver chain around Jolliver's neck, they found an oddly shaped key that emitted a dim teal glow when touched. LiKi put this in her pocket. On Grimjaw's desk, they also found some reports from gangs of bandits and smugglers throughout the area, routine notes about Rivergard supplies, boat sailings on the river, and logbooks and manifests taken from plundered ships. One of these reports detailed caravan traffic in Red Larch. It made note of a band of "troublemakers," but the letter was unsigned.

A Note, A Spy

It appears that there is a spy in Red Larch, secretly reporting on the party. But for what purpose? And who writes like that???

In the Servants Quarters and Kitchens

The party then entered the rooms to the west of there great battle. Here's what happened:

They found five human commoners who seemed to have abandoned their duties and were cowering in the corner. It was apparent that they had heard the battle raging in the room next door.
Two of them were helpful, Lathna and Oric. They were being held against their will. Three of them were defiant. Although they were scared, they were loyal to the gang of pirates and hoped to join.
Alexander discovered that these three were the missing youths from Womford. He suddenly had an idea: if they could return these wayward kids to the town, and bring back their keelboat, perhaps his sparkling reputation with the smallfolk need not suffer a permanent hit. This became his driving focus at Rivergard Keep.
The party tied up the three youths, Gorm, Herek, and Shadnil.
Alexander asked if there were other bandits in the castle. Oric explained that there were about ten bandits in the central barracks, four or five under the command of a greedy, unliked cretin named Holger in the Gatehouse tower, and a scary "fathomer" named Reash in the river tower (this was the mustachioed guard who lowered the chain and let the party in).
The party asked Oric and Lathana to serve the gang as they typically would and try to keep the death of Jolliver a secret.
They searched the second floor of this tower, found Ushnora's study (an old library) and a secret passage to the Lord's Chambers where Jolliver had taken up residence, and collected some loot amounting to about 500 gp.
They then took a short rest and prepared to explore the rest of the castle.

The group next exited the door leading south from the second floor of the keep, chased a guard along the western wall, and entered the gatehouse. There they intimidated and tied up the guards, including Holger, then made their way eastward along the southern wall.

Here they banged on the door to the river tower. Out came Reesh, the creepy fellow who originally let them in to the castle. Alexander delivered most of the damage, but as Reesh was about to cast a powerful Vampiric Touch spell, LiKi cast Counter Spell. The power of Reesh's spell fizzled in his hand. Alexander finished him off. Leopold cut his head off and dragged his dead body into the tower. There the party barred the door, took shifts on guard, and took a long rest.

The party made short work of the villain Reesh.

LiKi blocked Reesh's spell.

Having slept the night in their uncomfortable armor, both Alexander and Kahntun woke up less-than-fully-refreshed; they suffered from one level of exhaustion.

On top of this, Kahntun spent the night shivering with a fever and grappling with unsettling dreams.

A New Day Dawns Over Rivergard Keep

The party awoke and stretched, exchanged a few words, and nibbled on some hard crusts of bread and some fragrant cheese, washing it all down with a few mouthfuls of wine. LiKi splashed some water on her face, then looked in disgust toward Reesh's area of the tower where his lifeless body and head occupied different corners of the room. The soft sound of the river rippling against the castle walls accentuated the otherwise deathly silence.

From just beyond the secured tower door,Alexander heard the plaintive sounds of a muffled voice. "Quiet! Listen!" He ordered. It sounded as if a small child was calling for help. He opened the door a crack and saw Oric (the kitchen boy who was helping the party keep an eye on the wayward teens from Womford) standing in the middle of the yard. Alexander was about to rush out to assist the lad when Leopold stopped him. "Something's not right here. Let me check this out." Leopold tapped a quick rhythm out with his right foot, then vanished.

"Oric? Is that you?"

The water genasi pirate, Shoalar Quanderil disguised himself as the young boy Oric in order to lure our heroes into an ambush!

Here are some of the highlights from the fight:

The one-eared thug, Pike, as well as both bandits, missed every single crossbow bolt they fired at the party.
Shoalar conjured up two massive tidal waves that crashed down upon Leopold and Alexander, then Alexander and Kahntun.
Leopold lost concentration on his invisibility spell and suffered significant bludgeoning damage. He retreated into the water tower to heal himself.
Kahntun chased down and slaughtered one of the bandits with a javelin and a slash of his longsword.
LiKi sent steam shooting out of the genasi Shoalar as she landed powerful firebolt after firebolt.
Alexander killed one of the ambushing bandits, then rushed up the stairs to finish off both the pirate leader and his first mate, Pike.

Shoalar had a powerful control over water.

These bandits could not shoot for shit!

Pike was a tough little bugger, if a pretty unskillful crossbow bolter.

Mopping Things Up, a Grizzly Discovery, and a Deranged Priestess

While Leopold, Alexander, and LiKi took a breather, Kahntun searched the dead bodies, then the cabin of Shoalar's keelboat. In total he found 145 gp in small coinage and small valuables and a potion of healing. He also found the cargo hold beneath the stern loaded with stolen goods: casks of ale, salted fish, and twelve large bundles of cured pelts worth about 40 gp each. A map was sitting on a table. It seemed to show the Dessarin Valley and mark Rivergard Keep with that now-familiar X looking symbol.

Chopping heads off, kicking doors in

Hoping to take any remaining bandits by surprise and terrify them, Leopold gathered the head he had dislodged from Reesh's body. They kicked in the door to what looked like a central barracks. The room was dead silent.

The party:

Entered the barracks and found evidence that this room had previously held several bandits, but had been recently (and hastily) abandoned.
Entered the room directly to the west, finding an armory with racks of weapons along the wall, shields hanging from hooks, and armor piled in boxes.
Leopold found a shield shaped like a horseshoe crab shell that he liked and traded his own for this more stylish one. He also refilled his crossbow bolt quiver to full.

The party traveled north into what appeared to be a bathhouse. Two big wooden washtubs occupied the middle of this room, and a row of curtains along the west wall provided privacy for several privies. The dead bodies of the tied-up youths lay beside the washtubs, apparently drowned to death.
Upon witnessing this, Alexander turned ghostly white. Leopold assured his companion, "we'll think of something to tell them. It wasn't our fault."
They looked into the long narrow building to the south and discovered that it was an old, abandoned stable. They did a quick search, but found nothing of note.

Next, Alexander looked into a window on the southern wall of the old chapel just to the north of the barracks. Inside he saw two bored, exhausted-looking warriors attending a long, rambling sermon being delivered by a wild-eyed woman wearing an odd looking crystalish headpiece. A crude, X-like symbol was painted on the wall above the altar. He couldn't make out all the words, but caught snippets like "and the prophet shall raise Olhydra from the depths of time" . . . "rinsing the world in her purifying torrents and floods!" etc.

The party barged in:

Alexander asked the priest to surrender. She suggested Alex surrender to the strengthening undertow, adding "submit to its pull and be reborn in the Crushing Wave's eternal inertia."
At this point the warriors were making their way toward our party. Battle ensued.
As the priestess was conjuring something up, LiKi interrupted her by casting counterspell.
Leo used his wand to deliver magic missiles with deadly precision.
Enraged, the priestess hissed, "how dare you affront Drosnin, servant of the prophet?!" She conjured moist magical energy, summoning a powerful cloud of sleet that left the area dangerously slippery and heavily obscured.
Kahntun and Alexander destroyed the two warriors. Alexander slashed at the priestess, breaking her concentration and ending the sleet storm.
Suddenly, risidual water on the ground hardened and formed into an evil-looking knife. This knife flew out and hit Alexander, splitting into smaller shards and causing further damage to both Alex and Kahntun.
Alexander faultered momentarily as icy tendrils worked their way toward his heart, but he fought them off.
Kahntun then cut the priestess' head off.
At that exact moment, three bugbears ran into the room..
Alexander commanded them to leave Rivergard Keep and never return.
Seeing the headless priestess, they obeyed and went running from the tower and were not to be found in the northern tower they had apparently been holed up in.

No sign of the missing caravan, but perhaps an entrance to the missing dwarvin kingdom of Tyar-Besil . . .

LiKi was curious about something she had noticed earlier: a wide stream flowed out of a cave mouth into the boat basin. An iron grate blocked access to the stream. The party investigated:

The water was ten feet deep.
The partied tied ropes around LiKi and Leopold and Kahntun and Alexander lowered them down to the gate. LiKi used the iron key recovered off Reesh's corpse to open the gate.
The two intrepid adventurers swam in the darkness for about 150 feet before coming to a small boat landing. Two row boats were tied up.
Leo and LiKi each used a row boat to go pick up Alexander and Kahntun.
At the landing was a spiral staircase leading upward. This turned out to lead to a secret room behind a secret door behind Jolliver's desk in the great hall.
The stream continued into the darkness to the east.
They took the rowboats westward, deeper underground.

After a long, winding way through creepy caverns and tunnels, the party came to an impressive iron gate with another swinging door. As they approached the door, a keyhole began to illuminate, burning painfully bright in the dark of the underground tunnel (see above).

Immediately after the strange arcane key hole began to illuminate, the above image burned in each of their minds. Although just a simple geometric pattern seeming to resemble an inverted pyramid, the image was deeply unsettling. The ominous creepiness of the subterranean stream, the supernatural killers they had just been dealing with, and the whole confounding mystery plaguing the Sumber Hills seemed to overwhelm them. Each felt a sudden urge to depart, to seek out the shining sun as soon as possible.

But before they turned to leave, LiKi noticed that the key she had retrieved from Jolliver's dead body was emitting a pale, teal radiance. This radiance grew in intensity as she felt a powerful compulsion to move it closer to the shimmering keyhole they had discovered. She inserted the key and turned it and the pirate gang's symbol joined the other ominous symbol burning in each of their minds.

It was obvious that they had discovered a piece to a larger puzzle. But they would have to look further into this later, as they were desperate to get out of the stifling confines of the underground stream which apparently lead to Tyar-Besil. They would return again perhaps once they knew more.

TL;DR:

The party entered Rivergard Keep under the pretense of joining the gang of pirates.
They were escorted to the Great Hall for an audience with the gang leader Jolliver Grimjaw.
Grimjaw turned out to be a wereboar. They killed him and his followers, including his important Lieutenants, Ushnora and Reash.
Kahntun is feeling feverish.
They found a note from a spy in Red Larch reporting on their movements and actions.
They rested over night in the water tower.
They fought off an ambush and killed the pirate Shoalar Quanderil.
They found the barracks abandoned. The bandits had apparently fled, however, not before drowning Lathana, Oric, and the other three youths from Womford. This troubled Alexander and Kahntun deeply.
The party killed a priestess who professed her fanatical devotion to a prophet and/or a deity called Olhydra or "the Crushing Wave."
They appear to have found an entrance to Tyar-Besil, but the one magical key they possess only disengages 1/4 of the lock.
They haven't found any new clues leading to the missing Mirabaran caravan.