SESSION 3 - THE NIGHT WALKER

Constable Dreng had always liked to wander the nearby foothills on his extended leaves of absence from duty, mapping the nearby mountains and keeping an eye out for bandits or goblinoids.  After returning from his most recent "camping trip," as he calls them, a strange thing began happening.  At night, he began sleepwalking.

After his first night of wandering he awoke in an empty field badly injured, remembering nothing of how he got there. The second night almost cost him his life when he sleepwalked off a bluff and almost broke his neck rolling down the hill. On the third night, he nearly drowned before the light of dawn woke him up. Recognizing that his somnambulism had become extremely dangerous, he called for the aid of his friends Brother Markus and Councilman Vyrlich. Having found him free from any magical compulsion or curse, Brother Markus was unable to "cure" him.  His companions instead tried locking him in his cabin, but each night he simply escaped and continued his dangerous night march. Unsure what else to do, they took to tying him to his bed at night.

At their wits' end, Councilman Vyrlich and Brother Markus decided that the only thing left to try was releasing the sleepwalking Dreng and seeing where he actually Went-perhaps his destination held a clue to the means to help him. Knowing how dangerous that could be, the Councilman and the priest contacted the local adventurers Donaghast, Moghash, Calgrot and Yorick Mori to escort Dreng and keep him safe while he performed his night march. The group's task was to shepherd him as he sleepwalked through dangerous terrain, and invent ways to keep him alive.

The adventure truly began that very night, in the Constable's cabin. There the group found Dreng lashed to his bed by ropes, struggling madly to escape as part of his sleepwalking frenzy.  Vyrlich and Markus had secured him prior to him falling asleep, and summoned the group as soon as he began to doze off.  They had previously told the adventurers to keep the matter quiet, and so they had.

First, the group traveled alongside Dreng as he sleepwalked northward, during which time they had to help him safely navigate a series of hazards and obstacles. Unassisted, Dreng might have been shredded by razor brambles or fallen off a cliff or drowned by wandering through a deep pool.
Eventually Dreng's journey took him straight into the mouth of a bunker-like structure called the Black Edifice. As the group followed Dreng, they found him stymied by a vault-like door that he could not pass.

Once they had solved the puzzle that opened the door, they descended deeper into the ruin. Finally, they reached the bottom of the Black Edifice where they discovered a mysterious summoning circle, the secret behind Dreng's strange affliction. The circle lay before a massive carved stone disc covered in strange sigils.  As soon as Dreng stepped into the circle, the fallen paladin awoke, the chamber's Chaos Beast guardian was summoned and battle was joined.  

After a mighty contest, the party emerged victorious, and proceeded to loot the cavern.  They made a careful sketch of the disc, and began their trip home.

Along the way,  the party marched into a bandits' ambush.  They defeated these new foes, and continued their way home, arriving after the early morning sun had already risen.  They headed to the Black Kraken Inn for some much needed rest as Constable Dreng went to discuss the evening's events with Brother Markus and Anton Vyrlich.

The Game is Afoot

The Church of the Whispering Wind

Brother Markus sat back and rested his elbows on his favorite leather desk chair.  He pressed his steepled fingers to his lips in a gesture of contemplation and his brow furrowed.  After a few silent moments, he cleared his throat.

"Well, my friends," he began slowly.  "It would seem that there is something more at play here then the Council had first thought."

He gestured first to the rough sketch they had made of the symbol on the defiled altar they had found in the lair of the hobgoblins they had slain.

"I confess that without further evidence, I do not know anything at all concerning this strange sigil..."

A sudden crash nearby drew a sharp turn of the priest's head in the direction of the disturbance.  He frowned deeply at the source of the noise.  "Brother Donaghast I would greatly appreciate it if you could keep a closer eye on your... little friend over there while she is in my study."

The paladin quickly corraled the goblin away from where she was trying to get at the brightly glowing oil lamp that hung on a slender iron chain in the corner of the room, and the priest resumed his analysis.

"Where were we?  Ah, yes, the sigil.  Fortunately, there is in fact some other evidence to be gleaned from the parchments you recovered from the goblins' abode.  I had entirely forgotten that the goblin races' dialect was also a written language, and yet here it is.  A treasure trove of inventories, correspondence, and... well... theatrical scripts."

He shook his head sadly at the last.

"These creatures were keeping careful track of the supplies they had stolen from our villages.  These letters between a personage named Shagrash, who appears to have been the bugbear, and someone named Tilda, who I believe is the hobgoblin oracle you described earlier, prove that these bands were coordinating their efforts in order to prepare the way for something or someone they call 'Graz-Naz,' or perhaps THE Graz-Naz.  The goblin language is very crude, you see, and so I am not certain if this is a name, or even a title of some sort."

"So, what do these things have to do with the sigil?" he asked rhetorically. "These letters also repeatedly use the salutation 'May He who Dreams in Shadow Awaken from the Deep.'  Next to this salutation is always a small mark identical to your sigil.  Given the structure of the discourse between the bugbear and the hobgoblin, the Graz-Naz and He Who Dreams in Shadow are not one and the same.  Their mention of the Graz-Naz is more familiar, while their reference to this Dreaming individual is...," he paused thoughtfully to choose the right words, "more reverential."

"In any event, all this suggests there is a greater game afoot than anyone may have initially thought.  I suspect that given that the last of the goblinoid tribes had been driven deep into the Seawall Mountains twenty years ago, the creatures have rebuilt their numbers while they remained outside the reach of Lord Kell or his cohorts.  It is entirely possible that these are just the advance scouts of something greater to come.  In your adventures in the darkenwood you have encountered goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears working together to some end."

Markus gathered up the various documents and placed them into one of the leather folders he had stacked on his desk.  He handed the folder to Yorick Mori as the party of adventurers rose from their seats and readied to take their leave.

"I will think further on these things, and I will of course discuss them with Councilman Vyrlich and Constable Dreng," he said, as he shook each of the adventurer's hands in turn. As they filed out of his study, he suddenly remembered another pressing item. "Actually, if you have a moment later this afternoon, perhaps you might be able to assist Anton, Mamadou and myself with a small matter.  I believe I can persuade Magda to identify all of your magical loot at no cost to you if you can help us with this engagement.  Your particular skills would be perfect."

"Meet us at 6:30 for dinner at the Black Kraken, and we will elaborate further.  oh and don't forget to see Magda first.  You will want to know what you've got before you have to use it later tonight."

SESSION 2 - THE THEATRE OF PAIN

Once the goblin realized she had been spotted, she made a break for it out the second story window of  the inn, and the party gave chase.  They followed her down the wall, through the courtyard and over the perimeter wall, and then out into the street.  Calgrot was able to tackle her and pin her to the ground, while the others caught up.  Even so, the goblin managed to wriggle free and continue the chase, until the party was once again able to hold her up, and knock her senseless.  Upon interrogation, they learned her name was Mukli, and she was a semi-outcast of a group of goblins that had esnt her as a scout into Dark Oaks.

During interrogation, Mukli took a shine to Donaghast the paladin, and agreed to lead him to where the goblin clan was hiding out.  She explained that she was an outcast and made to sleep outside the caves in the cold and wet.  Once they arrived at the spot, the party entered the lair and made their way through several goblin toughs and their duskhound pets.  Their cleric, Yorick Mori, tried to leap over a pit trap that had been previously triggered, but mistimed the jump and landed in the pit with a thud.  Or rather, with a splash, as he landed on a pooled slime mould that dwelled in the bottom of the trap!

Making their way deeper into the caves, they soon encountered several more goblins, including a mad, bomb-throwing alchemist and a "court bard" who hurled stinging insults at them as they fought.  Very soon, the goblins' store room was ablaze with fire and mayhem, as the party battled the goblins through a series of bomb explosions from the alchemist who paid little heed to what he was doing.  Not to be outdone, the half-orc ranger charged directly through the inferno and blasted through several burning crates, sending splinters flying everywhere as he attacked the goblins.

During the onslaught, the half-orc archer backed into one of the halls to angle for a better shot, only to be surprise attacked from behind by a bugbear warior throwing javelins at him.  As he turned to engage, the bugbear slipped back behind a set of rickety, yet ornate, marquee doors resembling the entrance of a theatre.  Posted on the door were fliers with names of such classic goblinoid plays as "Dwarf Soup," and "Blood! Blood! Boom!"

The party pursued into the larger room once the golins were dispatched, and were taken aback by what they beheld-- the end of the chamber opposite the marquee doors was shrouded by a tattered velvet curtain, through which they could see a ramshackle stage.  On the stage were two blood soaked posts with gory manacles dangling from the top.  A veritable Theatre of Pain!

The paladin, cleric and archer tried to pursue the bugbear through the door, only to become stuck in a tanglefoot trap, which made them sitting ducks for the bugbear to pick off at his leisure.  Thinking quickly, the ranger once again charged headlong into the wooden wall to the side of the door, smashing through completely and bull rushing the bugbear where he crouched.  Donaghast called for Mukli to attack the bugbear, and she did so without hesitation, for she would not tolerate someone trying to harm her 'Pretty,' as she frequently called the paladin.  Soon the others rejoined the fight as best they could, the bugbear warrior was brought down, and the party was victorious!

They gathered up their loot, including several piles of papers the bugbear had in his private quarters, and prepared to head back to Dark Oaks.

As they did so, they considered what to do with Mukli.  Knowing the goblin was both an orphan and an outcast, and had acted (somewhat) heroically in aiding them in their fight against the bugbear, Donaghast weighed how he might see the young goblin into the service of St. Cambrace.  For if ever there was an opportunity to Redeem as wretched a soul as this, he could think of none greater...