Into the wild Green yonder

Resuming their trek south to the Cloak Wood, the party soon left behind the few scattered settlements and fortified inns that dotted the Trade Road below Daggerford. Although circling a majority of the Trollbark Forest, the route did pass through its outskirts before turning to take a more southerly route. The party scouted carefully for campsites whilst in the Wilds and maintained a rolling watch to ensure they were never surprised by bandits or worse.

On the one night they had to spend inside the Forest, they found a dell to camp in and defended the accesses with some sharp stakes. Sure enough in the middle of the night a group of hungry trolls descended upon them, roused from sleep it was a tough fight, though Kaddim_Sul's fire attacks proved highly effective at ensuring a downed troll stayed dead.

Skirting the rest of the Forest, they still had to pass through the Troll Hills at its southern border, as the road swung west towards the coast. The road wound through a low pass and in a rocky defile the party spotted signs of watchers in the surrounding rocks and scrub. They moved carefully and that night found the best possible spot to make camp in, though still just a slight recess in a low rock face, it gave them something to put their backs to in case of any attack.

That they were attacked later in the night came as little surprise then, a group of Orcs accompanying a pair of Ogres tried a subtle advance on their position from the east - undoubtedly the 'watchers' from earlier in the day. The party's stake defenses aided their position, though the Ogres found them little difficulty - the fight proved tough and an Orc shaman caused them to have to leave their position to deal with him. Once dispatching their opponents, the party found little on the bodies excepting a roughly scrawled note to the shaman:

"harass the Trade Road, harry travellers and disrupt the caravans, cause fear in the area and cut the cities from each other - Red Knight."

Crossing the Winding Water, the party entered the coast lands surrounding Baldur's Gate and the signs of civilisation slowly grew as they approached the great city, making their last days on the trail uneventful.

Rather smelly .....

The party set off on their trip south and reached Daggerford without incident. Setting off from the town the following day, it was mid afternoon when they came across a wrecked carriage on the trail side and some bodies scattered around. A low moaning from a ditch further away alerted them and they discovered a guard, badly wounded, lying there.

Providing some aid to ensure he survived, they listened as he hastily explained the carriage belonged to Lord & Lady Cadmere of Daggerford and they'd been attacked by a troglodyte band; the guards had been killed except himself and he believed the Lord & Lady were still alive, when the troglodyte's carried them off to a nearby lair. Some ruins a short distance away, called Brigand's Hold, seemed the most likely refuge of the band and he begged the party to attempt a rescue.

The party agreed to assist and set off briskly to find the ruins; a rough track led about a mile, to grass covered mounds and some low walling, all that remained of the settlement that had stood in the past. At its centre were slightly taller walls, of some hall or main building; the party investigated here first and found a flagged floor, towards the rear of which a hole revealed a rough stair leading down into the ground. They descended carefully and found a short tunnel leading to a rough chamber of some size, three other tunnels led off from it - a low chanting issuing from the central passage ahead of them, they moved slowly towards the middle of the chamber in its direction.

When no nearer any one exit, troglodytes loped from the other three tunnels and moved towards the party, brandishing large clubs and spears. A couple hung back to throw javelins, whilst one muscled creature leapt forwards in a berserk manner. Their odour hampered the party some, but the troglodytes still proved no opposition to the readied heroes, even with a carrion crawler pushed into the fray by a goading troglodyte handler. When the sounds of the short fight ended, the party still hear the chanting and moved purposely forward, the passage descending downwards again after only 20-30 feet.

The rogue slipped forwards and saw another large chamber, here with more troglodytes, many facing the tunnel entrance, looking prepared; the passage ending in a steep ten foot slope down to the chamber floor. He reported back and they advanced promptly hoping to save any captives inside. Using strong light sources, the main fighters moved directly forwards, letting Faweh slip to the right attempting to pass the main line of opposition. The troglodytes here seemed even more brutish than earlier and swung about with their large clubs - the leader at the rear interrupted from his chanting threw a few spells into the fray, but once he was faced by party members, reverted to his lethal spear.

Vanquishing this last batch of troglodytes, the party released Lady Cadmere, who'd been draped over a rough altar, as well as a gnome who'd been bundled in a corner. Unfortunately Lord Cadmere had been sacrificed earlier and they could only recover his body. Lady Cadmere, once recovered, was most thankful for her rescue and promised rich rewards if the party would escort her back to her Daggerford estate. The day delay seemed a small price to pay and they returned to the road to collect the surviving guard, before making back to the town.

Old Leads ....

Talking with Trader Brasshorn, she confirmed that both Karne & Ellaria were known Zhentarim agents, though Ellaria was a more mid rank operative, Karne was linked to the higher circles of the mercenary group.

The Party reviewed their remaining leads - an old reference to the Red Fang base near the Cloak Wood below Baldur's Gate; a map to the same base, they took from the body of Argesh, leader of the Hands of Glory; the journal they found in the Bloodmire basement, an apparently coded tome with references to the Zhentarim activity on the Sword Coast - a short study by Kaddim-Sul led him to believe he could de-code the tome given time.

A letter inside the journal was signed by 'Lady F', Trader Brasshorn wondered if this may be Lady Firewind;  an independent noble with a manor and estate on the northern edge of the Cloak Wood, the Harpers had suspicions of past activities involving the family. She also mentioned their agent in Baldur's Gate was named Jherek and the easiest way to contact him would be to leave a message in the Elfsong Tavern, should they need his help.

Deciding to travel south to the Cloak Wood firstly and sort out the Red Fang Goblins, the journal could be de-coded on the trip for any further clues to the Zhentarim plot. The Party elected to take the Trade Road south to Baldur's Gate and then skirt the city to the Cloak Wood.

Nice Doggy .....

Making little effort to be quiet, the Party descended the stairs to the large lower chamber. Reaching the floor they slowly advanced towards the center, watching the opening on the far side. Un-surprised, they readied as several golem hounds launched themselves forward and whilst busy with this onslaught, a larger three headed monster stalked forwards towards the fight.

Scaled, spike tailed and slavering from three large toothed maws, it entered the fray snapping and swiping the Party members as they came in range. Efficiently dispatching the smaller hounds, the Party grouped round the larger monster hound and co-ordinated attacks soon put paid to its existence. Briefly checking the corpse, they noticed a chain and tag round its chest, the tag read "Atrocious".

Resting briefly, they then studied the doors to the right - finding them unlocked, they opened them to reveal a further set of steps descending downwards. These dropped over 50 feet until they opened out into a large chamber, the Rogue slid forwards to check the space. From the entrance he saw the chamber to be ovoid, stone clad with heavy iron banded doors at the far end and high above a crenelated balcony. Two figures, a man and woman, stood there and Faweh caught the end of their terse conversation.

"Worry not Karne, our plans are not threatened"
"They'd better not be Ellaria, Lord Xantum dislikes set backs, especially if they are through an agent's foolishness."

Sensing an opportunity, Faweh had beckoned the Party forwards and they moved into the end of the chamber at the end of the conversation. The man glanced towards them and added:

"Dispose of these meddlesome fools quickly and move your plans forward, no further delays can be tolerated".

He turned and left through a door barely visible at the rear of the small balcony. The woman turned to face the chamber and the Party:

"So .... you made your way down here. I'm impressed you passed Atrocious, you didn't strike me as being that resourceful" she smiled cruelly and then her features shimmered and changed, become more chiseled and saturnine "Ah, Luvia was a useful cover, but I have no further need of it now. Our plans to disrupt this city are near to fruition and I can dispense with hiding. I must leave now, but I have one last parting gift for you ..... I doubt you'll be bothering me again."

She laughed and turned to leave through the same rear door, as the lower gates at the chamber end burst open to release a huge golem into the space before the Party.

They spread apart and readied for its attack as it sped towards them; near suicidal in its rampage, the mighty golem moved around the group lashing out with immense fists, ignoring the cuts and stabs they inflicted upon it. A quick but tough fight saw the Party eventually bring the creature down and they pulled their battered bodies to the far end to study the wall and higher balcony.

Faweh launched a grapnel and rope high up and snagged the low wall clambering quickly, he made the balcony and found himself facing a large mirrored surface. This reflected the concealed space to his right where Ellaria and Karne had stood, impervious to any below in the chamber. He quickly checked the door  as the rest of the group laboured up behind him.

Finding it unlocked, he looked through to find a narrow dark winding staircase leading up. Moving as fast as they dared, the top ended at a wooden trapdoor above their heads. Carefully opening it, they found themselves in a windowless room and moving out the only door, they realised they were in a cellar of another building. A small dwelling, they found the street quickly, however there was no sight of two Zhentarim agents. Leaving a small courtyard they found themselves across from the Bloodmire mansion and with a cold trail, they returned to their inn for the night.

Who runs the Asylum?

Dismissing the rear door leading to the rough tunnel, Faweh checked the left door and determined it operated by a hidden catch mechanism; once found it was simple to operate and the whole Party remembered the process. He opened the door, startled as Neebin rushed past into the hallway, but recovered to lock him in for a few minutes; nothing appeared to occur, so the rest followed through to examine the hall more closely.

At a right angled turn the found it stretched away for a fair distance and revealed many doors lining its sides; checking the nearest, they saw a golem standing inside motionless. Deciding to open the door, Faweh crept in and despite careful contact, it didn't react in any way. Neebin now set off down the corridor and at around the halfway point a loud click caused him to pause; they all observed the doors on all sides swing open and from many of the cells golems shuffled out including the one infront of them.

The golems turned on the party members and a swift fight ensued, but aided by the narrowness of the corridor the Party won through with little injury. They moved to the far end and the door here lead to a long cross corridor; unable to see clearly through the window, but seeing some motion, they opened the door with care. Moving into the corridor, they caught sight of a number of golem hounds quietly loping towards them from both sides. A further swift combat saw them dispatched and finding doors leading to other cell corridors further along, they devised a plan which let Faweh trigger the cell doors, whilst they secured the entrance and allowed the sorceror to pick off the golems inside with minimal threat.

Having cleared the immediate area, they checked the ends of the cross corridor to find two smaller chambers - on the left a small office, where they found a letter and a coded journal and to the right what seemed an alchemical laboratory; numerous potions were stored on one wall and the Party stowed them all with care.

From the far sides of each chamber a further corridor lead away, both turned sharply after a matter of feet angling inwards to some central point. They carefully advanced along the left side to discover an open room, Faweh scouted it to find six golems lying on benches, however Neebin rushed forward causing them to react and rise. Managing to turn back he led them into the Party ranks and though tougher than others they had met, they were defeated quickly. Deciding to split and cover the right hand side from both directions, the Party managed to time a joint assault on the last chamber, disturbing four large hulking golems that had stood in the room's corners. A tougher opposition again, they still overcame the mindless golems and resting briefly the Party moved back to the only corridor leading away.

Faweh scouted down first and here he found broad steps leading down to a wide open chamber, at the rear wall paired doors closed off a further exit on the right side, whilst the left held a low dark opening that led back into the rock; eight or nine bright red eyes glowed from within the unnatural murk. He crept back to inform the rest and they descended carefully to the chamber prepared for combat.

What the Butler saw

Returning to the trader's warehouse, the Party then questioned the servants. The butler seemed the most collected and he relayed that the Lady Luvia had been more reclusive of late. She had left on a trip some months back and returned due to illness. He recalled she had been cloaked and spoke little on her return, retiring to her rooms for a few days, none of the servants saw her. Shortly after she left, seeming recovered and advised them all to retire at dusk to their rooms and stay within for their own safety. Their room doors were locked after they retired and many had heard occasional shuffling steps outside, during the night.

Lady Luvia spoke little to them and the butler usually had communications by note; none of them ever saw her properly. The only other fact he recalled was that shortly after they retired, he heard the same strains of odd music from the harpsichord in the music room. A short piece, oddly discordant which lasted only a couple of minutes - he hummed it for them as best he could, but it had no meaning for any of the Party.

They elected to return to the mansion that night and set off on foot this time, bearing a scroll to use as cover should the Watch accost them. Making their way close to the mansion district, they heard a Watch patrol and hid well to escape notice - all except the Cleric. Once noticed though, he bluffed his way through superbly and sent the Watch away on a wild chase, allowing the Party to make the Bloodmire estate without further incident.

Entering the mansion once more, they worked through the rooms, battling numerous golem guards and hounds. A search of the music room enabled them to discover an oddness to the floor under a large rug, maybe a secret stairwell and a sheet of music notation, which appeared to be one of three. Covering the rest of the building, they found the other two sheets and the Sorceror played the tune on the harpsichord. As the notes rang out, the circular pattern in the floor fell away, dropping to form a short circular stair leading to a small lower room. Here the found another regular stairwell descending downwards yet further.

Neebin sped on ahead rashly, but in the dim light he tripped and tumbled to the bottom, fortunately close, he suffered little from his fall. Faweh was close behind and they observed that the lower chamber was of an odd design; white tiled walls to about five feet and then plastered and white-washed above, with regular pale stone slabs for flooring. The ceiling too had been sculpted to form a low arch, again plastered and white-washed. The chamber had four doors in it, all were of an odd design, being clad in metal sheet with a small high window set in them and no handles or locks they could see, though the doors did not open. two to the sides and one infront led to straight hallways, whilst the fourth off to their right only showed a dark rough stone tunnel leading away.