The main party: Arek, Felicia, Ronalt, Yesil, Vestan, Drake, Tindo, Markus Sielaff
Second party: Rolf the Strong, Kalador, Elmo, Shaddowfoot.
The rescue of the innocents complete, the party sets out once more for the moathouse. Electing to approach via the back entrance that Drake had found they circled around cautiously and approached. The entrance was guarded by some ruffians identified as bugbears, fierce relative of hobgoblins. These were quickly dispatched and the party started exploring.
Meanwhile back in Hommlet, Elmo had been getting nervous. The previous battle had been such a hard fought affair with many killed he felt the party maybe overwhelmed by what they faced. On his own initiative and with the druid, Jaroo’s approval he recruited two warriors, Rolf and Kalador, and the scout Shaddowfoot to assist the assault. Knowing he would be too late to catch the main party he elected to approach the moathouse from above hoping to create some sort of diversion.
The main party reached a branch in the corridors and elected to turn into it. This unknowingly brought them directly to the domain of Lareth the Beautiful. Pushing forward they reached a room which appeared to be a barracks. Entering this they encountered an ambush! Several more bugbears and an elven priest, were waiting in a chamber off the main room and struck. The cleric plunged the main room into darkness, then brought down a silence! Only a few of the heroes were caught in this trap, the others having stayed behind but it caused mayhem. Those in the chamber knew where the enemy were and pushed forward in ones and twos to confront them. The others could only wait or worse explore in the darkness.
Those that found their way out, Ronalt, Markus, Drake and Felicia confronted the bugbears and their master. In the fight that ensued, Ronalt unfortunately was frozen and could only watch the battle unfold. It was a close run thing before the bugbears were killed, bar one that surrendered and the priest escaped. The bugbear informed them that the priest was ‘Master Larry tha heid bummer’ or in other words Lareth.
Meanwhile the others in the party had been attacked by some dog faces, or flinds at the corridor end. These had been dispatched except for one who had been charmed by Tindo. Growing restless, with the exception of Vestan, they moved off into the darkness and by fluke avoided the priest coming the other way. He would have escaped except the flind had been left with instructions to make anyone leaving wait for Tindo’s return. This seemingly innocuous request confused the priest enough to stall his departure to allow Vestan to try and backstab the priest. Although successful, he failed to kill him and was, in turn, charmed by the priest and sent into the dark. Fortunately Drake and Felicia returned before the priest could escape and attacked. Drake struck the final blow and the priest collapsed unconscious. As the sounds of more pursuit could be heard from the south, Arek, Yesil and Tindo emerged from the darkness to the north.
While this was going on, the upstairs diversion went into effect. Entering the courtyard, the party were taunted by a human behind a newly erected barrier. For some reason this caused them to enter the half ruined tower next to the gateway. They were attacked by a giant spider which killed the scout Shaddowfoot. Rolf and Elmo remained outside to begin with but were driven in by a hail of arrows. They dispatched the spider but this gave time for the defenders of the moathouse to bar the door and begin piling stones against it. Trapped inside, the party were at a loss what to do next. Rolf attempted to climb the stairs but only succeeded in causing further ruin. Finally the three collected a wooden beam and using it as a battering ram managed to force the wall of the tower, falling though and into the moat with the tower collapsing further behind them. Withdrawing to a comfortable distance Elmo, rolf and Kalador watched the moathouse to try and determine what was happening.
Attacks continued on the now recombined party. A magic user of some power with an ogre and warrior escort arrived and began to make life uncomfortable. The party were gradually getting weaker. Drake was killed after coming under some form of enchantment which made him neglect his defense and become an easy target. Just as it looked like they would succumb, the treachery of their foes proved their salvation as the magic user was assassinated by one of his own men! This attack staved off, the party faced their final challenge. A warrior of great prowess entered the battle and started laying about him. None could stand with him, Ronalt and Marcus were both laid low. Yesil, severely wounded, finally dealt a blow which caused the warrior to call off his attack and retreat back into the moathouse. It was confirmed, by Elmo, that several goblinoids and humans fled through the upper entrance in the general direction of Nulb. One of them was clearly the warrior.
Whether the diversion had made any difference to the battle for the moathouse was never resolved. The poor coordination of the attacks on the main party suggests this was the case but it may have been the chaotic tendencies of the defenders. What was clear, however, was that a coordinated attack would have overwhelmed the party resulting in disaster for all and the enemy free to subjugate Hommlet.
The menace from the moathouse was finally blunted. Only pockets of resistance would remain. The party however were too grievously wounded to continue and carrying their dead and injured returned to Hommlet to recover.