Baltron's Beacon The Gatehouse

Two weeks ago the players in my Swords & Wizardry campaign got into the meat of adventure I7: Baltron's Beacon. They spent the entire session assaulting the brigands holed up in the Gatehouse to the keep.

This session was a struggle to GM. Most of the action occurred in the gatehouse. For Roll20 I had created a map for each level. But since the gatehouse was comprised of two towers I was constantly moving between the three maps. I could have put all of the maps on one page but I have tried that in the past and found it was also a problem. It felt clumsy.

Of course, if I were running this on a tabletop face-to-face it would not have been a concern.

Session 58: Assault on the Gatehouse

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alonso (human fighter), Aashdoshan (human necromancer), Domago (human cleric NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Vervork Merwin (human fighter NPC).

First, going back a few days, Aashdoshan the Grey directs a pair of lizardfolk zombies to carry the corpses of Sakatha and one of his vampire brides up out of the Tomb of the Lizard King and into the sunlight. Both corpses burst into flames and are burned down to ashes. Aashdoshan sets out on a raft in the direction he believes leads to Whetwhistle. But after two days of travel, he realizes he is lost. In the distance, he can make out the beacon from the Tower of the Green Flame. He makes his way toward it recognizing that it is near the Dolm River. He passes near the beacon and continues east in the direction of the river but stops when he sees the smoke from cookfires signaling a settlement. Aashdoshan enters a small hamlet of a few buildings in the swamp. He does not realize it now, but he has arrived at Bleakmarsh.

Back with the rest of the Company of the Black Dragon, they rest overnight on the floor of the Mended Net Tavern in Bleakmarsh after an evening spent killing weretoads. In the morning they are surprised when Aashdoshan enters the tavern alone. Lakima and Alonso get Aashdoshan caught up on their latest mission – to destroy the source of the magical component of the potions of Human Control they found in the Tomb of the Lizard King. Aashdoshan meets Petra the tinker/entertainer. Lakima explains that they pulled Petra from the swamps the previous day. Petra tells everyone that she will need to convince One-eyed Harald to loan her some horses to pull her wagon from the swamp. Aashdoshan tells her that he might be able to help her if she waits a few days. Petra asks how but then waves him off telling him that she needs to pull the wagon out now. There are valuables in it. Aashdoshan then asks the rest of the adventurers if they want to help pull this wagon out of the swamp. After some reluctance, everyone agrees to do it.

The entire Company of the Black Dragon walks with a Petra a mile away to where her wagon is slowly sinking deeper into the swamp. On the way, Aashdoshan waves his arms and a pair of undead lizardfolk emerge from the swamps. Petra is concerned at first but seems to accept the new companions, although she keeps her distance. The two zombies are sent with a grappling hook and rope out to the wagon. The zombies affix the hook and move to the far end of the wagon and try to push it free. The rest of the company grab the rope and tugs. Eathwund and Alonso, who are doing most of the work, find they have no purchase in the loose soil of the causeway. They get out the block and tackle from the Bag of Holding and attach it to a nearby tree trunk. With the increased leverage they slowly drag the wagon out of the mud and up onto the causeway. In the process, one of the front wheels is shattered. Petra heads into the wagon and retrieves some valuables. Aashdoshan suggests she might want to join them on their expedition to the nearby keep but she declines. Lakima suggests that she move to Whetwhistle where she can find work and he would be willing to stake her some gold. Petra tells them she is not interested. She enjoys her traveling life.

The adventurers wave goodbye to Petra and set out across the causeway. They pass Bleakmarsh and march the short distance to the Keep. From the causeway about a mile from the Keep, they can see that it is perched on a tall hill, surrounded by ruined walls and towers. Only the Gatehouse appears intact. The Keep itself partially collapsed in one corner from which the beacon of light emerges and shines straight up into the sky for hundreds of feet. The causeway continues directly to the keep crossing two stone bridges.

Lakima sends Fenris ahead to the first stone bridge. Aashdoshan sends two zombies to accompany him. Fenris carefully crosses onto the bridge and waves everyone ahead indicating there is no danger. The adventurers walk along the causeway toward the bridge with Keep on the hill looking down at them. As Fenris crosses the bridge, two enormous trolls emerge from the reeds of the swamp and rush toward him. Alonso and Eathwund rush onto the bridge but two more trolls rise up on their side of the bridge and attack as well. Eathwund activates his ring and his sword bursts into flames as it strikes the troll nearest him. The troll shrinks back from the flaming sword. Meanwhile, Alonso strikes the other troll with his sword. Fenris runs back to the center of the bridge with two trolls following him. Two more trolls emerge from the river beneath the bridge and make from the riverbank. Aashdoshan sends his lizardfolk zombies to aid Fenris and they manage to allow Fenris to get to safety. However, the trolls soon destroy both zombies. Lakima shouts at Fenris to get out of the way and then he casts Fireball, enveloping four trolls in an explosion of fire. When the fire clears, two trolls are down seemingly destroyed. One jumps in the river and swims away to the north. Eathwund chops down one of the trolls with his flaming sword, and Vervork and Alonso attack the other troll. A second, badly burned troll flees to the north. Alonso kills the final troll and Lantosh uses a torch to light the corpse on fire so it cannot regenerate.

The adventurers discuss whether to follow the trolls who appear to have entered a cave on the side of the riverbank. At first, they decide to follow but once Lakima sees the swamp they will have to wade through he calls it off. The trolls are allowed to escape.

Fenris takes the lead again and walks to the second stone bridge. He checks the banks and under the bridge carefully, all of the whiles carefully watching the looming gatehouse a short distance away. He returns and tells them that the bridge looks safe. They pass over the bridge without incident. A crude temporary bridge of wooden blanks crosses the final river in the shadow of the gatehouse. Aashdoshan sends his remaining skeleton across the river and it wanders about the gatehouse. But there is no sign of life from the gatehouse. Finally, everyone crosses the plank bridge and stands in the entryway between the two four-story towers of the gatehouse. There are a few arrow slits in the tower walls but no sign of activity. Fenris slips through the open gates and under the portcullis into the yard of the keep. He comes back and reports that the south tower has a door on the ground floor facing the keep. He also notes that there is a piece of parchment attached to the door. Lakima asks Fenris what it says on the parchment and he shrugs his shoulders, “I did not think to look.” Fenris goes back to check the door again just when Lakima says, “Wait it could be a trap!” At that moment there is a loud boom and a flash of fire from the front of the keep. The adventurers run into the courtyard and see a blackened wood door still smoking. Also, still smoking is Fenris crumpled on the ground before the door. Aashdoshan runs over to Fenris and performs a life transfer ritual to heal Fenris of most of his wounds. Fenris staggers to his feet as Lakima admonishes him to be more careful.

As the adventurers are discussing the trapped door, the door swings inward and they see a surprised man standing in the doorway. He yells outs something and quickly tries to slam the door shut. However, Eathwund leaps forward and stabs the man in the chest killing him. Alonso rushes through the door and sees a second man. Before this man can even draw his sword, Alonso has run him through. Inside the first floor of the Tower, they find they are in a stable. Two agitated horses are standing in a pair of wooden stalls. A ladder leads up to a trapdoor at the far wall.

The rest of the company follows Alonso and Eathwund into the tower room. Alonso heads up the latter to a trap door and shoulders it open. He looks into the room above and sees a large number of surprised bandits. Some are grabbing for weapons but others look like they are just awakened from a nap. Alonso quickly ascends the ladder followed by Eathwund. The two heroes push into the group of nine bandits. Within moments Eathwund and Alonso kill six of the bandits. The bandits barely get a chance to slash at the two heroes with their blades. As Lakima climbs up the ladder into the room he sees the bandits’ leader drop his weapon and yell, “Wait! Wait! We surrender!” Aashdoshan, Lantosh, Vervork, Domago, and Fenris also climb up the ladder into the room. The bandit leader tells them that he works for a brigand named Leptor. But that they have not been paid and just want to leave. The adventurers accept the parlay and let the three remaining bandits leave down the ladder. They watch from an arrow slit as the three bandits jog along the causeway toward Bleakmarsh.

A ladder in the room leads up to a trapdoor in the ceiling. As they discuss who should go up Fenris tells them he can hear several footsteps approaching from the door to the west. Lakima tells the fighters to get to the front of the group and everyone else to get behind them. The door swings open and a bugbear armed with an ax stands in the doorway. The bugbear snarls and steps into the chamber only to be felled with one swing by Eathwund. Two more bugbears appear and are dispatched by Alonso with help from Eathwund and Vervork. Alonso sees another bugbear at the end of the hallway. He runs after it as the bugbear tries to flee. Alonso catches up to the bugbear as it opens a door onto the battlements. He cuts it down before it can escape. While most of the adventurers look about the chamber of the bandits, Alonso and Eathwund search amongst the other chamber. Fenris reports that the trapdoor overhead is bolted shut from the other side. He tries but he is unable to get it open.

The adventurers head to the southern tower room. Lakima spots a trapdoor under some crates that have been packed full of rocks. Lantosh removed enough rocks to be able to move the crates aside unblocking the trapdoor. Eathwund opens the trapdoor and peers down into a chamber with no doors. It looks like a storage room but one wall is collapsed allowing the weather into the chamber. Everything looks like it is rotten and useless.

Unable to access the next level by the trapdoors the adventurers congregate in the chamber where they fought the bandits. Fenris says that he can hear several large animals moving about above their heads, including what sounds like a horse? Lakima asks Fenris if he can climb up the exterior wall of the keep to the next level. Fenris steps out the door and onto the wall and looks up spotting an arrow slit. He nods and scrambles up the wall until he can peer into the arrow slit. Fenris climbs back down and reports that the chamber above them is crowded with several men, most of whom are armored. He also tells them that he saw an enormous wolf and a hippogriff.

Lakima asks Fenris if he can climb all of the ways up the side of the tower to the roof to see if there is a trapdoor down into the 3rd floor above them. Fenris climbs up, stumbles once, and makes it to the top of the tower roof which is lined with battlements. Fenris spots a trapdoor on the floor and signals for everyone else to come up. Fenris ties off a 50-foot rope to a crenelation and tosses the rope down to the lower level. Alonso climbs up followed by Lantosh and Vervork. Eathwund comes up next. As he is passing the arrow slit on the third floor, he hears a shout of alarm and someone shoots at him with an arrow but it misses. Eathwund climbs up the remaining distance and makes it to the roof. Down below, Lakima and Aashdoshan witness the attack on Eathwund. Lakima tosses a fireball in through the arrow slit. What follows is a large explosion and fire and smoke shoot out of the arrow slit. The heroes on the third floor hear screaming and yelling from above. The heroes on the roof see the trapdoor heave up and smoke pour out from under it. They hear cries as well but it sounds like a horse screaming. Alonso takes his sword and smashes the trapdoor. Eathwund looks over the parapet and sees a burning man run across the parapet one level below and open the door to the south tower and vanish inside.

Alonso gets the trapdoor on the roof open and descends a blackened ladder into a scene of carnage. Dead bodies are piled all over the floor. He sees several humans, a huge wolf, and what he at first mistakes for a child but is relieved to see if actually a gnome. In one corner of the room is a panicked and badly injured hippogriff straining a rope attached from its muzzle to the wall. Alonso and Eathwund descend into the chamber.

Below on the second floor, Aashdoshan, Lakima, and Domago see a man slide down the ladder in the south tower onto the second floor. The man then angrily advances toward them across the hall with a murderous look on his face. Aashdoshan sends three zombies he raised from dead bandits to confront the man. The man proves to be a skilled fighter and one zombie quickly falls. Lakima casts Charm person but it fails to stop the man. The remaining zombies do slow him down. Lakima yells at the man to surrender but he just laughs. Behind him they see Alonso and Eathwund climbing down the ladder into the south tower 2nd floor. Aashdoshan casts hold person on the man but it does not work. The man turns to face Alonso and Eathwund. He manages to expertly parry the blows from both fighters although one strike from Eathwund does get through his defenses. The two zombies continue to attack. With the man concentrating on defending himself from Eathwund and Alonso, one of the zombies is able to repeatedly strike the man in the back. Lakima tries again casting Mikda-Err’s Practical Tilt – but the man seems unfazed by it.

The man now has had enough with the spells being cast him and he turns and rushes toward Lakima and Aashdoshan. Before he can get to them Lakima casts Wall of Iron and an enormous wall springs up blocking the hallway (and extending out into the countryside). On the other side of the wall, one of the zombies hits the man again. Eathwund stabs him again. The man finally, tosses down his sword and surrenders. But to his dismay, the zombies follow their last command and continue to attack. Eventually, with Alonso and Lantosh shouting for him to stop the zombies, Aashdoshan gives the command for them to stop fighting.

Eathwund and Alonso question the man and learn his name is Leptor. He claims to be a poor bandit just trying to earn enough to feed his men. They correctly deduce that he is a ranger tossed out of his order. The man claims the title of Giantbane. After a few hours, the Wall of Iron spell comes to an end and the wall vanishes. Aashdoshan and Lakima join the interrogation. Lakima questions the man for an hour and learns that he is working for a mage named Antarcus who is on the keep on the hill. Antarcus hired him to provide protection with the promise for a share of the vast treasure that the mage Balutron was said to have kept in the Keep. They learn that Balutron came to the abandoned keep forty years ago and apparently perished in a failed experiment that produced the magical beacon. Lakima tries to bribe Leptor to work for the Company of the Black Dragons with an offer of 200 gold but Leptor sneers at the paltry fee. Aashdoshan touches Leptor with his staff of withering aging Leptor ten years. He leans over to threaten Leptor but finds he is unconscious. When he is brought back awake, Aashdoshan threatens Leptor with more aging and worse. Lakima manages to talk down the necromancer but the die is cast and it is clear Leptor has nothing more to say to them. Lakima and Alonso decide to let him go if he leaves the area immediately. Alonso even returns Leptor his longsword and frees his legs. But he leaves his hands tied. Leptor is allowed to leave and they watch him limp down the causeway toward Bleakmarsh.

Lakima, Eathwund, and Alonso check the injured hippogriff and find it needs to heal before it can fly. They also realize that this is the same hippogriff they sold to a mage almost six months ago. Lakima looks about the chamber for something to feed the hippogriff. When he returns to the beast he finds it munching on the dead gnome. They make a search of the second and third floors of the gatehouse and find a small amount of gold and gems. Lakima also finds the Gnomish magic-users two spellbooks. He gives one to Aashdoshan.

It is now well into the afternoon and a number of the heroes are injured or without spells so the decision is made to fortify a room of the gatehouse and rest for the remainder of the day. The Keep and the mage Antarcus can wait until the morrow.