This day is the 12th day of Tarshak, year 1495
This mix of adventure seeking individuals gathered in the Snapping Line for breakfast before setting off to explore this “haunted” house Phesemir has heard about. He recalls for the group what he knows. The house has been abandoned since the alchemist who owned the place disappeared, presumed dead. Folks from town have seen lights from the house and the few brave children who entered the residence had encounters screams coming from the basement. Laddie also tells the group about a dream he had. The house was the right place to go. There is an artifact in the basement that he believes is blue and they should go after it. After a little bit of questioning on Laddie’s dream they head off.
As they are leaving Saltmarsh, Laddie runs down to the river’s edge to gather some water, however the ocean water mixed in here makes this water much too salty for consumption. He returns still on the search for water. A couple of the town’s children are following the group out, asking questions like “Are you really going to go visit that house?” “Aren’t you scared?” Tearmann tries to shoo them away and Phesemir reluctantly placates them with short answers. As the group gets closer to the house the children lose their bravado and run back to town.
They arrive at the foreboding mansion and seeing the gates open and parts of the wall crumbling they enter the courtyard through both available entrances. Laddie sees a well in the courtyard and approaches hoping to find the water he is searching for. He notices the small animal bones around the base and then looks in to find two large snakes who attack at his approach. After a short battle, some minor wounds received, and an attempt to converse with the snakes, the snakes lay defeated. Tearmann attempts to gather some snake steaks, however his butchering job falls a tad short. Meanwhile Phesemir shapes the water in the well to allow him to descend by rope to gather the miscellaneous coins at the bottom of the well. The group enters the house through a side entrance that is standing open. Thrace gets a sense of the ground floor inhabitants as she enters the building, along with a sense that the building structure has several weak places. Upon exploration of the first room Tariq encounters a swarm of spiders who had taken residence in a fireplace. With the flat sides of their blades Jikra and Tearmann assist Tariq with squashing enough of their number to chase them off. The party then deals with the group of centipedes that had taken up residence under the kitchen’s cupboards. In the ensuing battle Tariq falls to the attack of a centipede when he is unable to stave off the poisonous bite. Laddie maneuvers around the room to tend to Tariq as the remaining party members kill off the centipedes. After the battle is over Thrace administers a healing light over Tariq whose eyes pop back open feeling much better.
The group proceeds to the front area of the house exploring a few empty rooms, although Tariq suspiciously approaches the fireplaces expecting more spiders to spew forth. In the west wing the group finds a library, although mostly cleared of its contents there were a few tomes stacked in the corner that were still legible. Phesemir picked up three by mage Tenser and mage Nystul. Tearmann picked up a couple of the remaining books on history of Neverwinter and Mount Note. Tariq claims a book on poetry, he works with what little legible writing is left to put the poems to music and gently plays his dulcimer as the group continues.
Whose woods these are I think I know
His house is in the village though
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake
The only other sounds the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake
The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep
** GM Note – Poem originally by Robert Frost – who knew his work would be located in an house in the Forgotten Realms. **
In a study in the same wing the group came across a desk. Missing the skills of a lockpick, Jikra pried it open with his scimitar. Unbelievable not breaking the glass vial that was wrapped in cloth that lay inside the drawer along with papers containing orders from when the alchemist lived in the house. The last room in the east wing contained a trap door in the floor which Jikra tested by standing on it. They left the door to explore later as Thrace insisted, they should deal with the human she sensed on the upper floor of the house.
The group slowly ascended the stairs and Tearmann attempted to sneak down the hallway in the direction Thrace indicated that she sensed the human. He discovered a man tied up in the corner in nothing but his undergarments. Thrace warned the party that the floor was weak along the west wall and Phesemir sent in Llewella to chew through the man’s bindings. The man explained that he was a traveling merchant heading to Saltmarsh who stopped by the abandoned house to rest since he did not think he would make it to town before dark. When he entered, he was attacked from behind, knocked unconscious and found himself tied up in this room. Laddie examined him and while he did have a nasty bump on the back of his head, he did not believe it was enough to knock him out. They decided to let the merchant follow them for the time being and Phesemir lent him his blanket to cover up with.
In the next room Tearmann discovered some footprints and some markings on the windowsill. A round area where the dust and dirt had been disturbed and scratches in the wood.
After further examination of the second story and some careful acrobatics by Tariq to get across a weak part of the balcony, that unfortunately collapsed a portion forcing many of the party members to find an alternate route to the remaining portions of the second floor. They found the merchants clothing discarded what was once a storeroom and came across a small group of stirges that attacked the party from the attic. One of them attached itself to Phesemir’s leg who used his dagger to pry the thing off, spraying blood down his leg, mostly his own.
With many of the group wounded they decided to take a short lunch break out by the well and recover a few spells and rest up from the damage they had taken so far. Tariq spent most of the time wandering about the areas of the first floor including opening a door they had not opened yet. During the rest Jikra talked about a person in town that is looking for the apparatus of Kwalish and will exchange a magic item for it if they come across it.
During the short rest, the group had a lunch of snake steaks not quite so expertly butchered by Tearmann. Although Thrace produced a wooden container that had her lunch prepared in small containers inside.
They head downstairs to discover a basement room with walls of wine racks and empty storage containers. In the middle of the room was a corpse in armor and weapons that Tearmann proceeds to poke with his sword. Out came large swarms of rot grubs and battle ensues again. While dispensing the rot grubs the group also keeps a close eye on their new merchant friend, not trusting his story. The merchant requests the longsword that the corpse had by it and Tearmann let him borrow it. Jikra claims the splint mail the corpse had on but chooses to wait to don it until a bit further cleaning. It had been on a body for several days and was covered in the remains of the rot grubs.
Thrace senses the occupants of the next room and knows where the entrance in the fireplace is but cannot ascertain how it is opened. She silently alerts the remaining party. Laddie tries to find the entrance, he has become quite the expert on fireplaces, but cannot seemed to locate the door that Thrace is certain is there. Tearmann comes over and immediately sees the handle and opens the door. He charges in and immediately gets struck by an arrow by a female human that was among the occupants waiting for them. The group rushes in and takes down one of the humans quite quickly while the remaining two escape out a secret door in the back of the chamber. Thrace catches the merchant coating something on his sword and she demands that he put the weapon down. He does so while explaining he was just trying to help the fight. Not buying the argument Tearmann binds the merchant’s hands. The group searches a near by bedroom and finds a few more books, a hooded lantern, and few papers. One that the party believes is a signaling system and another is partially in a language that no one in the group can decipher.
They follow the path of the escapees and another battle ensues with a hobgoblin, a few more humans, and a caster name Sambalet but not before Thrace and Tariq attempt to knock the merchant unconscious and tie him to a bed when the rest of the party is not looking.
The battle and out a bit rough when Sambalet charms Jikra who proceeds to try get all of his friend to get along. During the battle both Jikra and Tearmann are knocked unconscious, Tariq dances through the battle fields with amazing speed only to find additional foes around the corner, and Phesemir finds a nice place to duck in and out of as he fires ray of frost at the enemies. Thrace finally lands a few sacred flames on the spell caster while healing Tearmann to get back into the fight. When the din of battle fades the party recovers a bit and searches for useful items on the slain and the collection of trade goods, they found in the cave rooms. The also find an opening to the ocean and a rowboat pulled up into one of the caves. Tearmann also collects the ears off the hobgoblin and adds them to a gruesome necklace that already contained few sets.
Feeling bruised and sore the group decides to rest for the evening in the barracks they found. Tomorrow they will investigate signaling down a possible boat using the code they found.
