We wake fresh the next morning and start making preparations to leave for the Keep. The first thing we do is buy ourselves some horses. We finally manage to scrape enough coin obtained from our looting efforts and the pittance the Lord has been paying us. We also buy some much needed potions of healing. Finally, we say goodbye to Doven and Daniel, who were returning to Scart that same day. Done with our shopping and goodbyes, we head out to the town gates and leave for the Keep under cheers from the townspeople. Apparently everyone already knew what we were going to attempt...
Moving on, we knew that the path to the Keep would take us about 2 to 3 hours. We decide to thread carefully since its our first foray into that area. Along the way we start getting a weird gloomy feeling and sometimes notice movement on both sides of the battered road. We can never get a good glimpse to see if someone is following us due to the thick and overgrown woods surrounding us.
As we start to get close to the Keep, we notice what seems like a large cemetary complex, with three prominent crypts. We decide to take a look around, especially in the crypts. Graverobbing wasn't definitely a problem for any of us... While we were deciding how to best investigate the tombs, thinking they might be trapped, Chuck goes ahead and enters one of the crypts, immediately triggering a trap. Luckily, it was just a fear inducing trap, and whilst the thought of watching the Fighter run around in fear was funny, we managed to hold him down until the effect passed, preventing him from running wild into the woods. We proceeded with much more caution, though. Kralho did his job and investigated all the crypts for traps and treasure, but could find nothing of worth.
We finally reach the notorious Keep, to find it was now mostly in ruins, with debris everywhere. However, there was a large portion of debris that had been removed, revealing an entrance to the underground. Guarding this entrance, were 2 Goblin guards who, at the sight of us, immediately left their posts and ran inwards. Great, we had just arrived and immediately managed to alert whovever occupied the ruined Keep to our presence... Heh, we were already well versed in ambushes, so onwards we go, after tying the horses somewhere. Don't know if they would still be here later on, but one can hope...
As expected, as we went down the stairs , we found an enemy force waiting for us. Looking around we could see that we must be on the underground levels of the Keep as the walls are masonry, although in somewhat poor condition. We enter into a small room with doors left, right and front, with four pillars spread throughout the room. This could prove a nasty tactical situation. Anyway, all that was expecting us were a few Goblin Warriors and Goblin Sharpshooters, including the guards we noticed above.
Battle ensues and i get first move. Overconfident at the small reception comittee, and eager to try for the first time my Prime Shot ability, i decide to approach the nearest foe, perform my Warlock's Curse and attack. Well, the funny thing was that right in the middle of the room there was a 10ft wide pit trap, with a 10ft fall. To make matters worse, i find that i am not alone in the bottom of the pit. There was a Ratswarm looking at me as if it had just found dinner... Luckily for me, being a Fey Pact Warlock has its advantages and i manage to get out of the pit using a teleport power, before the nasty looking rats could strike me.
Things started to go downhill though... Between the pit and the pillars, there was very little room to maneuver and now we had the Ratswarm to deal with as well. The Goblin Warriors advance, covering the Sharpshooters, who were sniping at us from a safe distance. In a bold attempt to flank the Ratswarm, which seemed the toughest of the enemies, Kralho gets beyond the pit and suffers a barrage of attacks that rapidly knocks him unconscious. To make matters worse, reinforcements show up from the sides. With no room to maneuver, Chuck focus the Ratswarm's attention on him, while Sora attempts to reach Karalho, and pull his unconscious body out of the melee, so we can heal him with safety. Ceteribus takes to melee as well and i stay behind blasting away what i could.
While this was happening we notice to the left side a latecomer to the fight. A Goblin showed up, still putting his pants on, and was just watching the fight's progress. Throughout the whole fight he didn't engage once and later disappeared in the direction he had come. Anyway, we manage to kill a few, and after Sora pulled Kralho into the backlines, Ceteribus covered for them as they tried to revive the Rogue. They revive him, and after some effort all that was missing were the 2 Sharpshooters at the enemy backline. Although they were a hassle while at range, in melee they proved very weak and went down easily.
After looting the corpses, we had several choice of paths. We immediately decided against proceeding towards the left path where we had seen the pantless Goblin, because he had probably ran to warn more defenders. In the end we decided to proceed right. We'll look into that in the next installment.
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