Grimm's Quest of Glory - Episode 4 "The Battle of Evermore"
When last we left our hero, Grimm and co. had just defeated a small group of skeletons in search of a crown. After a moment to catch their breathes and just before they press on further the group hears the sound of loud knocking. Heading to the source of the sound Grimm unleashes his impossible Quiz to the voice on the other side of the door which unsurprisingly fails to answer the questions. The door is opened to reveal Thia, an elf wizard of short stature with blue hair who claims to commune with the dead (Grimm likes the cut of this ones jibe). Grimm whole heartedly accepts this new elf's offer to join them as they clear out the castle further (Another person means less likely to die alone), but Magthrum takes offence with her almost immediately. After a short debate (Most of it being Thia turning down Magthrum's offer of true love) the group presses deeper into the castle.
The group starts down a winding staircase in the throne room cautiously. Being in the lead Magthrum is the first to spot trouble, A warband of skeletons waits for them in the next room. Grimm, being the roguish devil that he is, has a great idea to set a trap for the newfound boney friends. Magthrum then grabs the attention of the boneheads and Grimm spreads out his pouch of ball bearings to give them a proper welcome. After what seems like minutes a single skeleton finally manages to crawl it's way up the stairs to thank the group for the gift of metal balls. The group dispatches it easily and presses down the stairs where they see a large pile of quivering bones being the result of the trap. Thus begins the battle of blood and bone beneath the castle of Tessamir.
The battle is a fierce one, with Magthrum and Thia spearheading the assault. Pushing into the large room the pile of bones gets a good crisping from Thia with her fire magic and is then promptly smashed by Magthrum's Warhammer. Upon pressing into the room the group notices another large hallway filled with skeletons. Magthrum bulrushes his way to the hallway and attempts to bottleneck them before they are able to surround the group. As our heroes continue to battle the hoard of skeletons they note that although the enemies are being cut down their numbers are not decreasing, more skeletons and zombies are pouring out of the doors down the hallway. Magthrum being the juggernaut that he is wades through the sea of skeletons with fire support from Thia in an attempt to close the doors spitting out the undead as they surround and claw at his thick armor. While Magthrum pushes further down the hallway the rest of the party are steadily attacked by a stream of skeletons managing to push their way past the dwarf. After what seems like hours Magthrum manages to close both the doors cutting off reinforcements and our party mops up what's left of the group. Everyone is hurt and winded but miraculously still alive and they decide that it is best if they fall back and recollect themselves before further exploring into the castle depths.
After a good nights rest the group delves once again into the castle depths. After opening both the doors Magthrum sealed and deftly finishing off what's left of the skeleton hoard the group decide to clear the rest of the dungeon before they attend to the magical door they think contains the crown. The last door yet to be opened holds a fair number of undead, but Aazra fears not the dead this day. She hurls a smote of fire into the dry wood scattered about the room and they promptly close the doors to leave the skeletons to practice their fire safety in peace. Grimm decides that while they wait for the fire to die down he should go collect his ball bearings which he does (for the most part). After looting the charred room and finding a few trinkets, including a magical ring, the group decides to get down to business and open the final doors there they spot the crown resting on a pedestal in an empty room. Surprisingly easy to grab with no traps going off the group ascends the stairs crown in hand and decides to have one more short rest with the druid while they decide what to do.
The group finds that it would be prudent to learn more of the crown which is obviously magical before they hand this artifact over to the man who hired them. They set off for Dyvers to have the crown identified and get some much needed supplies before returning to Curdale. The journey to Dyvers is a quiet one for the most part, taking several days before they begin to near Dyvers. A few hours from Dyvers a man on a horse approaches dressed in fine clothing asking that the group assists him in avoiding his pursuers afterwhich he rides off. Not long after a large group of men come riding up dressed as brigands and thugs asking if they have seen a man ride this way recently. Grimm recognizing that these men mean ill to the well dressed gentleman, deceives all but one of these peasants into traveling the wrong way while they search for the man. Further down the road the thug that struck off alone proved to be more foolish than the rest as he lay on the ground dead. Grimm and Co. lighten his corpse of his belongings and press on into Dyvers. Arriving into Dyvers Grimm and Co. are immediately recognized as the heroes that saved the gentleman's life from the brigands and are made friends of the city and granted passes that show that are to receive preferential treatment within the city limits. We leave our hero here with Dyver before them and preferential treatment in hand (as it should be).
Stats:
Number of things insulted to death: 7
Number of party members that have left the group: 3