Session 32: Between a Rock and His Rocks (7/28/24)

Desnova 14, 1423.

After surviving the attack of the hunting trophies, the PCs continue to make their way around the first floor of Old Bloodwalls. They find a pair of gems in the eyes of a demon statue in a southern vestibule, and then a bunch of chambers that must be used for guests and special servants. In one wardrobe they find a gossamer gown spun out of moth-wings, and Aldren finds a skeleton babe in a basinet beneath one of the beds. They find a hideous shrine with a statue of Eshebel and what looks like a torture device to be used on the flock, and then a smaller organ hall with leads to an outdoor courtyard overgrown with thorns. In that area they find a rapier hidden in a wolf's statue north of the fountain.

They continue to explore more chambers and find a poisoner's kit, and then a washroom which runs with blood from the taps. They then arrive at perhaps the largest room in the castle, an Assembly hall where Grittnar the earth-druid awaits them. He laments that Nebol'shoy couldn't have just kept well enough away from it all, and let his guilt lead him to befriend Rucia after Grittnar apparently dragged the unconscious gnome away form the former Naturalists' slaughter of the dragonborn village under Csunori. The battle is ferocious, with the dwarf summoning up a massive rock form to protect him, while his pet Krusty and a bunch of animated gargoyles harass the rest of the PCs.

At one point, Grittnar slams out a devastating force with shatters the windows of the Assembly, nearly destroys his own gargoyles and items, and wreaks havoc on the partys' magical goods, destroying some outright and rendering others temporary useless. Despite the damage done to them, the party manages to survive the grueling battle, and before killing the dwarf, learn that the Bloodwalls' sub-level has been warded off by powerful death magic to prevent access without two halves of a ruin, one of which the druid has upon him. For the other, they will have to find and deal with Razakhel...

The PCs take a short rest and then trek further into the Castle, finding some scant servants quarters where they uncover a servant's note about the many keys in the castle, and that one important one might be found in the Count's Smoke-Room upstairs. They leave the rest of the first floor for now and head up a stairway, ending up in a linen closet. They exit to another broad breezeway that allows access to much of the upper floor of the castle, and find a maintenance entrance to the chamber where they just fought Grittnar, as well as another linen closet which contains an onyx statue of a cat with a pentagram in its chest and a pair of black wings.

They continue to find an iron statue of the war god Bartan aimed at a great window which looks out east over the clearing in the Tzarswald.

PCs: Aldren, Bjork, Nebol'shoy, Rucia