"So Grimjaw's the one who became invisible..." Morg says as he looks over the papers on the desk, concentrating on finding details of
Rowan's sword,
if the people here really are bandits,
the cults,
the lost delegation from Mirabar,
any clues of the dwarven stronghold.

---

19:50, Today: Morg Danforge rolled 17 using 1d20 with rolls of 17.  Investigate check looking thru Grimjaw's papers.

"Don't mind me, as I'm new here, but who is Grimjaw?"

Tana whispered so that her companions might hear her, but those they guarded would catch little meaning from her raspy tones.

Shrugging his shoulders in an 'I don't know either', Durik turns to Morg-"A temple you say?  Perhaps we should keep investigating the Keep and find this temple or the invisible person you keep speaking of..." he finishes looking around

Makari slowed and then stopped. He turned back to Morg and the others, clapping his hands once. Then he pointed at the wall, and mouthed "SECRET. PASSAGE."

He then reached over to the latch and tried to open the secret door he'd found.

Morg sifts through the disorganized mounds of paper strewn over the desk, some of which have fallen onto the stone floor.

Some sheets report on the activities of gangs of bandits and smugglers throughout the area. Others contain more routine notes about Rivergard's supplies, boat sailings, and guard schedules. Still others appear to be logbooks and manifests from plundered ships and caravans, marked up with vague locations in a messy scrawl. One sheet of stolen goods indicates a "wagonload of flour" was stolen "near b", and another that "40 silver was stolen from a traveler near W."

Two reports in particular catch Morg's eye. One is for a "heirloom sword", apparently delivered to "the hag in the CW Temple."

The other report notes caravan traffic in Red Larch. It catches Morg's eye because it is written with a strange mix of block letters and script. Partway down the page it describes the arrival of a number of individuals to town and their meeting at the Swinging Sword. The report clearly describes the presence of a drow, three half-elves, a dwarf, and a human who met in the inn's common room.

Makari pushes the secret door open easily, revealing an unlit spiral staircase leading down.

Morg collects the writings as evidence and says to the group: "Aye, they're thieves."

He walks over to Rowan and hands the page about the sword to him, "CW Temple... CW...", then counting on his fingers "air, earth, fire, wa-, water cult!"

Seeing Makari's discovery, Morg says to Durik "Can we take a rest before we go check down there, which may be the temple? And wait for the wizard's invisibility to end? Also, anyone have rope to tie up the bandit?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:24, Tue 11 Aug 2020.

Still blocking the door, Tana pulled down her backpack and began unwinding a long length of hempen rope from it.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Durik follows the others down the secret passageway.

Makari gently put out a hand to stop Durik as there seemed to be some confusion. "So...are we going forward or are we resting first? One dwarf says stay, one dwarf is going." He smiled slightly.

He gave a shrug. "I would be fine with taking a small breather, though we run the risk of letting them get away, or other persons in this building coming upon us since we haven't searched the entire place yet."

Stopping at the doorway and turning around, "Aye I could use a short rest as well before we go on."

The bear finishes eating it's berries and comes back inside the outer room, settling down just inside the door to join the others in their rest.

Tana darted aside as the bear lumbered through, and then closed it behind the beast.  If she had anything to say about the matter, she kept it to herself.

"What would be the plan after we've rested then?"

She rasped, sitting down along the wall where she was out of the way.

"After we've rested, shall we check those 2 doors first?" Morg says, pointing to the western doors, "Before we go down the secret spiral staircase?"

He hogties the bandit with Tana's rope, and then shows the rest of the party and looks thru the papers listing supplies and guard schedules.

---

Map: https://docs.google.com/presen...e=id.g8618a01c77_0_0

Do the papers with Rivergard's supplies indicate what's behind the 2 western doors, and in the towers and other buildings?
Do the guard schedules indicate how many guards there are in each building?

The woman resignedly allows herself to be tied up.

---

It's hard to tell from the disorganized reports how many guards are in each building, though you do find a roster of names for the barracks that includes 16 names. There's no indication from the pages what is in the various buildings within Rivergard.

Makari thought about Morg's words for a moment, the suggested course of action. He glanced at the secret door and then closed it. He finally gave a small shrug. "I suppose we could do that, as much as I want to dive down in to the secret area." He sat down to the side of the secret door, cross-legged, to rest a bit.

"Leave that open, if you would."

Tana rasped, pointing at the secret door.  Then she closed her eyes, settling down into some sort of reverie.

The group settles down in the common area as cool night breezes waft in through the narrow arrow slit windows. A heavy silence falls outside, undisturbed by the sounds of wildlife.

Malz slips through the open secret door and finds a cold stone spiral staircase leading down into darkness. At the bottom of the stairs, they find a chamber brightly lit with torches where a single boat bobs in an underground stream. The boat is tied to a simple metal ring set in the chamber's floor, and another ring is set into the floor six feet away. The stream flows from west to east, with darkness beckoning in both directions.

Tana sits with the potions the group found earlier, examining the liquid contained within, smelling the liquid, and finally taking a small sip of each. Morg turns the mermaid figure over and over in his hands.

After a few minutes, a timid face peeks over the edge of the balcony into the common room, then shrinks back away from the edge quietly.

---

Gorm obtains Inspiration for obtaining access to the secret entrance to the Keep!

Tana finds that the potions are wolfsbane (which will cure 1 person stricken with lycanthropy) and healing.

Morg doesn't find anything particularly remarkable about the mermaid figure, other than its 10gp value.

Feel free to roll any hit dice, other light activities you want to also do during the short rest, etc., with your next post(s).

This message was last edited by the GM at 22:25, Thu 20 Aug 2020.

Makari flipped through a large ornate black book that he pulled from his pack. An owl flew in and landed on his shoulder once he had settled down in to a seated position. Makari's only reaction was to move his to one side, away from the owl, as it landed and got itself situated.

Near the end of the hour, as a precaution mostly, he once again cast a protection spell on himself.

Magrak sits down with his back against a wall, staring at the captive with an occasional glance toward the secret door.  He pulls a small bit of food out of his pack, chewing on it slowly as he watches.

---

OOC:

Move to S12 and sit down
Take Short Rest
Use 2d10 HD to restore 16 HP

00:18, Wed 19 Aug: Secret Roll: Magdrak rolled 12 using 1d10+3 with rolls of 9.  HD - Short Rest.
00:19, Wed 19 Aug: Secret Roll: Magdrak rolled 4 using 1d10+3 with rolls of 1.  HD - Short Rest.


Current HP: 43/51
Current HD: 3/5 (d10)
Lay on Hands: 20/25
Channel Divinity: 1/1
Current Spells:
1st: 2/4
2nd: 0/2
Heavy Armor Master (DR 3/magic)

Durik finds a place to set his stuff down and after checking if anyone wants some healing, he grabs some of his trail rations and some water from his skin.

OOC:  SHORT REST Take 1D8 and restore 6 HP.

If anyone needs some healing let me know

"Hmmm."

Tana contemplated.

"Were any of you bit by that Boar thing?  I think this will cure the curse which took it."

She rasped as she held up the potion bottle, pocketing the other one.

"I emerged from the fight unscathed."

She added to Durik's query, inspecting the hole in her armor that the quarrel had punched.  The flesh beneath was raw, but unharmed.

"A wereboar?" Morg says to Tana, putting the mermaid figure on the table.
"No more eating boars then. It can't happen to chickens right?"

"I'd never heard of anything of the sort. But between the Giant boar turning back into the form of... what was that, a dwarf?  Add this?"

She held up the vial.

"I mean, maybe they only come in wolves.  It's wolfsbane."

She shrugged.

"I'll admit I'd be curious to learn what lycanthropy feels like.  Not personally, as I wasn't bitten, but how would any of you who were even know that you needed this?"

She shook the vial, sloshing the contents around.

"If any of you who were want it, it's all yours.  But please, let me know if you feel anything."

She sounded excited at the prospect.

Magdrak sniffs and grumbles.  "I got gored by that boar.  It felt all tingly and weird for a short time, but it passed.  I feel fine now; not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing."

"Do you want to be our experiment then?"

The minuscule gnome asked inquiringly, raising an eyebrow beneath the long streaks of her tattoos.  Her raspy voice was bursting with anticipation at the idea, but that didn't stop her from losing focus trying to rally the group into action.

"And shall we get hunting?  Was it a bandit or a cultist you were after?  Or both?"

She cocked her head to the side, as if listening to something that only she could hear.

"Grimjaw."

She confirmed.