Episode 3: 2/23/08

The Party:
Ashelia Raminas, elf ranger-rogue/1-1
Haroldur, human cleric/2
Sigmund Gorn, dwarf fighter/2
Nineve Floret, human knight/2
Sarek, human wizard/2

We are about to set sail when Nineve is suddenly seized with the urge to buy a warhorse. She does her last-minute shopping, and we are finally underway. It takes the better part of the day to sail across the lake, but the journey passes uneventfully.

However, as we near the Kolbenberg shore, we notice that the boathouse appears to be on fire. As we get closer we can see the cause of the blaze - goblins! We disembark and they immediately open fire on us. We wade into the fray. About halfway through the battle, a shaved dwarf, who has obviously been fighting goblins inside the burning boathouse, emerges and joins us in the fight against the goblins (or, more likely, we're joining him). He fights bravely and after the immediate goblin threat has been eliminated, we learn his name is Tamklar.

Before much more information can be exchanged, he asks for our assistance and leads us through the burning boathouse to a very ill dwarven woman and a tiny dwarf infant. We rescue the dwarves from the burning building and move them to the safety of the Harkness. Tamklar explains that they are his wife and child. He has been shaving his head and beard in hopes of finding favor with the dwarven gods in seeking a cure for his very ill wife. Haroldur and I examine her and determine she is afflicted with Red Ache, but there's not much we can do for her.

We ask Tamklar about Alastair, and he's heard of him. However, he and his family fled to the boathouse when the goblins first attacked, and they haven't been in town or heard from any townsfolk since they went into hiding. His family will be relatively safe on the Harkness with the 6 soldiers guarding it, so he offers to take us to Alastair's house in town and help us in our search for him.

Alastair's house is a smoking ruin, but we search it and find an arcane scroll of light, and some variety of magical oil... No clues, however. The streets seem quiet, but we're cautious just in case. Adjacent to Alastair's house is a barn, and I sneak in to scout it out. Inside the barn, I find 2 goblins in the hay loft and a large spider on the ground floor. After taking a moment to confer with the party, I climb into the hay loft from the outside of the building and silently coup de grace the sleeping goblins. I also get one arrow off at the spider before he spots me and (thanks to his incredible speed and agility) is on me before my companions can open the barn door. The spider's fangs sink into my flesh and poison me, so as the rest of the party bursts through the door, I jump back out of the hay loft. Nineve shoots the spider right in the eye with her bow, and Sigmund finishes it off with his ranseur while I drink some antitoxin.

Moments later, goblin archers in the neighboring building attack, but Sarek's keen reflexes snipe them both before anyone else can so much as lift a finger! 2 more goblins appear in the window, and 4 of them rush out and charge the mounted Nineve, only to be cut down by Sigmund's ancestral hatred for all goblinkind. Nineve cuts down a goblin, and her horse brains another. The last goblin tries to run off and just ends up dying tired after Nineve and her horse chase them down. Sarek takes out another goblin in the window, but before he can finish off the last one, he somehow manages to knock himself out while reloading his crossbow... Sigmund charges upstairs for the last goblin, who sees him coming and promptly leaps out the window. Sigmund follows right behind him, however, landing on the poor goblin and killing it instantly. I enter the house and unlock a padlocked door on the ground level which is full of captive townsfolk. None of the townsfolk know where Alastair is, but they think there are more villagers being held in the northern part of town - perhaps he's with them.

While I'm chatting up the villagers, Nineve finds some strange icky yellow orc zombies around a mutilated corpse. Nineve and her horse tear into the zombies, but they're clearly not normal undead. After they are defeated, Sarek and I examine the corpses and determine that they are in fact plant creatures known as yellow musk creeper zombies...

Once the excitement dies down, we start to hear rhythmic chanting from the meeting hall. I sneak in to investigate. I find 7 goblins chanting crazily, while a leader shaman attempts to raise 3 corpses. However, I am spotted, so I lob a smoke stick in through the window to hopefully cover my escape. Goblins pour out of the meeting hall as the rest of the party moves in to meet the threat. Since most of the goblins are on the outside now, I jump through the smoky window into the meeting hall, just a the shaman finishes raising the first zombie. I try to tumble up to the shaman, but I trip and the zombie slams into me. Then, the shaman engulfs me in a fan of flame, and I'm suddenly alone and in very bad shape. I cut into the shaman, wounding him severely, and then tumble out the window to relative safety.

Meanwhile, the goblin mob outside has grabbed 2 of their number and poured potions down their throats, turning them into fanatics. The fanatics totter around the battlefield in seemingly random directions, haphazardly swinging huge spiked balls on chains. It looks quite dangerous, but I don't have time to notice much because the zombies are climbing out the window of the meeting hall after me! Haroldur comes to my rescue and heals me enough so that I can finish off the zombies and the shaman with little difficulty.

When all is said and done, we find:
a wand of animate dead with 12 charges
a scroll of lightning bolt
a pouch of clear quartz crystals
a MW small steel shield
and a scroll of identify (which we used on the wand)

~Ashe