Sarah loads one of her few remaining magical crossbow bolts, steps back, fires . . . and misses.

19:13, Today: Sarah rolled 10,7 using d20+3,d6+1 with rolls of 7,6.  Crossbow (13 to hit minotaur).

Sorry. :(

 Marklin nocked an arrow to his Longbow,drew back,then left fly. The clothyard shaft split the air to imbed itself, into the Bull creature.


21:09, Today: Marklin rolled 7 using 1d8 with rolls of 7.  arrow damage.
21:08, Today: Marklin rolled 16 using 1d20 with rolls of 16.  Longbow arrow at Minotaur.

The enraged minotaur is no match for the adventurers' combined martial attacks and succumbs to its wounds. It stumbles backwards and slumps against the tower's exterior wall, expiring in a pool of its own rapidly expanding blood. It appears the adventurers have emerged from their assault on Vraath Keep, victorious!

Valthur heaves a big sigh of relief, then looks over his shoulder to Marklin. "Well fired, my friend. Your arrival is well timed." Then turns to Kane. "I didn't know such bravery was possible in halflings. Your blade was the difference in this battle."

He pulls the axe from the minotaur's grasp and tries a few practice swings. "A little unbalanced," he concludes aloud. "But crafted well enough to draw more than its fair share of my blood."


OOC: Well done, one and all!

Not even bothering with her errant dagger, Aldara lets out an audible sigh of relief.  Her eyes are not on her companions, but on any sources of danger.  At all.

Taerix answers Valthur, "I'm very relieved to see you still upright, my dwarven friend. I was merely hoping to distract the beast from you or Eoni, but any opportunity given is one I'll take."

The halfling looks around for that flying bugbear in case he turned around somewhere, and, like Aldara, scans the area for any other enemies.

"Did anyone see any more of them?" Eoni asked, looking down at the courtyard.  "What about the towers that first fired on you when you approached from the front?"

She eyed the two entry towers from her vantage and wondered how many more were out there.  Valthur had said that the archers within had fired upon them as they approached in their first attempt to reconnoiter the fortress.  It was probably not been left unmanned during the day.

"They were loaded with archers when Marklin and I first visited. We've taken a few out on the ground, but could still be more in the towers." Valthur looks up to the towers to see if they look into the inside of the keep or just to the outside. He also scans the interior for more foes.

Sarah looks with disgust at her crossbow, which she puts away while she waits to see what the party does.

The keep appears as if it has truly been abandoned and no foes are immediately visible. Based on initial observations, it appears the forces behind its wall may have been quite small indeed. Surely not an army large enough to sweep in and sack Drellin's Ferry. After several tense moments of waiting, no new foes emerge.

A handful of hobgoblins, a few dire wolves and their riders, a minotaor, a bugbear sorcerer, and a manticore, all of which have either been dispatched or slain.

 After several moments of silence, Marklin snorts and heads for the nearest building. "C'mon, we're burning daylight."

"Agreed," Valthur concurs. "Let's see if they have anything of value before they come back with reinforcements." The dwarf starts by checking the minotaur for treasure, then follows Marklin to the door.

"Gaston," Eoni called down to the armsman, "stick with Marklin with Lenny and Anders.  Jorr, keep an eye on the woods and the approach.  Let us know if you see anyone coming."

The Sister watched the dwarf climb down to join Marklin and the others in their search.  She then returned her attention to the parchment they'd found.  The one with the impressions from a previous written page.

"I can almost read this," she said, trying to hold it up to the light.

Aldara lends a hand to Eoni's efforts to examine the papers...in the form of eyes.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:08, Wed 08 Nov 2017.

Marklin enters the keep through the breaches south wall and proceeds directly to the first door he sees, located about 20 feet beyond the breach, leading into a squat building. Throwing the door open, he peers into the squat building, what it might have once been used for is unclear. All the furniture has been crushed into rubble, and a large nest-like mound of tree branches, bones, bits and pieces of foul-smelling animal parts, and long thin spikes of some sort of black material fill the northwest corner of the room. A gaping hole in the roof in the northeast corner provides a view of the sky above.

Meanwhile, Valthur pries the battle axe from the minotaurs hand and assesses it to be rather crude in construction, but still useable nonetheless. The minotaur has no other possessions.

Aldara and Eoni scrutinize the impressions on te parchment and determine a map of some sorts was scribed on the sheet that must have once laid over it. Enough impressions exist to determine it is a map of Elsire Vale, with several towns and key locations denoted. Unfortunately, this is not the map itself, rather just a few impressions here or there and the picture is incomplete. But from what the women can assess, it appears to be a battle plan of sorts. Several features and writings are visible in the impressions however, among them: Skull Gorge Bridge, Drellin's Ferry (with the annotation, Attack - Day 5), Brindol (annotated with Heavy Resistance Possible), Witchwood and Take Prisoners, and Turgarum Wants Halflings to Eat!

Sarah ventures past where the minotaur appeared from (perhaps disappearing from view).

[Private to DM Pawn: And looks for interesting things to grift.]

The minotaur emerged from the second story of the southwest tower. Disappearing through the hole where a door once stood, Sarah enters into a circular chamber, the southeast roof partially collapsed. Massive timbers slump against the floor, fallen from the rafters above. A huge gap in the tower's east wall allows a brisk breeze into the chamber, which has four windows in the remaining walls. Three large boulders lie on the floor amid a halo of fractures and cracks.

Mounted about ten feet from the hole in the wall is what looks like a humanoid figure, lashed to a framework of wooden beams, arms upraised. A glow from beneath it illuminates the figure in a pale light. The reek of rotting flesh fills the room. The glow emanates from a rune circle beneath the figure.

A winding staircase leads downward to the tower's first floor. Aldara and Sarah previously entered the first tower's first floor. This was the room they discovered the easel and parchment.

"Day five?" Eoni said in some confusion.  "What day is today?"  She looked around the ruined keep as if to find some answer clearly hung from a crumbling wall.  Finding none, she rolled the parchment and moved to return to where she'd found it.

"We need to finish this search and get back to Drellin's Ferry," she announced resolutely to those nearby.  "We've done well today but this is much bigger than we thought.  It's not a raid, it's an invasion."

Taerix is still watching in the direction of the flying bugbear, but after a moment climbs down the breach in the wall if it has enough handholds and footholds for him. The halfling would like to check out the workshop just outside the gate.

Valthur gives the minotaur's axe a few practice swings, then discards it with disappointed harumph. "Not as good as mine." He joins Marklin back on the ground, searching for a door to the building on the western side of the keep. He listens at it for a moment before entering with axe readied.

Gardener's Shack:
Taerix passes through an overgrown patch of weeds that might have once been a fine garden and approaches the small wooden shack that sits just east of the keep. Disappointingly, the shack is largely empty and verging on collapse.

Peering through the doorway, Taerix sees a few old and rusty garden tools: hoes, shovels, trowels, stakes and the like discarded here or there, but little else of interest.

Southwest Tower (Upper Floor):
Inside the tower, Sarah examines the humanoid figure more closely. The body appears quite human-like, albeit well into its rot. The human is dressed in farmer's garb, perhaps a victim of the hobgoblins' recent raidings.

Private Quarters (Southwest Tower - Upper Floor):
Valthur passes through the tower and descends the winding staircase, and comes to the circular chamber Eoni found the map. It has been outfitted with a mix of furniture, including a large desk, an overstuffed chair, a massive four-poster bed, and a large easel (the canvas of which is the map impression Eoni found. An opened door on the circular room's northeast wall opens into what looks to be a barracks...

Barracks:
Peering through the doorway, Valthur sees an open and spacious stone building. Wooden timbers support the roof above, and here or there the remains of what were probably interior dividing walls are evident. Two large boulders sit on the floor to the south, near a large hole that has been knocked in the southeast wall. Rubble from this hole has been piled in a circle to form a crude fire pit. Against the west wall, four double-bunk beds are arranged, each strewn with filthy covers. Another bed, this one larger, sits near the south wall, partially obscured by a badly damaged wooden screen. A poorly stuffed owlbear looms in the center of the room. Two doors are located on this room's north wall, one leading to the courtyard and the other to a smaller room...

Small Room Northwest of Barracks:
Inside the small room, a large table fills this room, barely leaving enough room for the half-dozen  chairs arrayed around its edge. Four pins are affixed to the large table, scraps of parchment still pinned beneath, though the map that must have once been there seems to have been removed in a hurry.

Eoni paused seeing Sarah examine the splayed figure.

"We should cut him down," she said, stepping forward resolutely.  "Create a rock cairn to set his soul to rest."

Ignoring the decaying stench and slippery feel of what was left of the man's flesh, she reached up and began removing his bonds.  They had little time to spare, but this man deserved better than he'd received. The Sister of Avandra would do what she could to ensure that he rest in peace.

Valthur scans the barracks and small room for anything of value (monetarily or strategically), admitting to himself that he wouldn't necessarily know a strategic paper if it kicked him in the rear end. Nonetheless, he looks.

He shuffles through the scraps of paper on the table in the small room, hoping for something that Eoni might find useful. He also spends a little time sifting through the larger bed in the barracks, hoping the lead hobgoblin squirreled away a few valuable items for himself.

OOC: Does Eoni already have the canvass from the easel? If not, Valthur will take that and show it to Eoni, as well.

Aldara hesitates and then assists Eoni, cutting the unfortunate soul's bonds with her dagger and helping to move him as carefully as possible, down.

While Aldara and Eoni are ensuring the unfortunate farmer receives a proper burial, Valthur rifles through the barracks and private quarters downstairs hoping to find valuables. The dwarf finds a sack beneath the large bed in the barracks. The sack is filled with 350 gold pieces, somebody's ill gotten gains.

In the smaller room adjoining the barracks, Valthur finds little of obvious value, save for some writing quills, inks and the like. The real treasure here was likely the map, and that probably left with the bugbear sorcerer that flew away to the north.

OOC: Yes, Eoni took the canvas. It contains a few impressions of the map.