The Cloud Castle

A few weeks ago the players in my Swords & Wizardry campaign took on the Sky Raiders - a group of cloud giants with a flying castle in the clouds. I used "Palace in the Sky" by John and Martin Szinger, published in Dungeon Magazine 16 in 1989. I kept the noted palace and its inhabitants changing the statistics from AD&D to Swords & Wizardry (which are really similar) but I removed the rest of the adventure. I changed the hook to fit my campaign and I did not want the semi-solid cloud with its enchanted forests and inhabitants. Instead, I moved the gatehouse to be directly connected to the tower and had the flying longboat tied off to the gatehouse. This is a large castle map and I created seven battle maps in Dungeoncrafter for Roll20. As written for AD&D levels 7-10 this is a really tough adventure with a lot of rewards (including a flying ship).

Session 111: The Cloud Castle

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Aldus (human cavalier), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Domago (human cleric NPC).

The Company of the Black Dragon has accepted a contract to put an end to the raids of a group of bandits that are called the Sky Raiders. In return, they have a contract from the Earl of Calwell granting them possession of the raider’s flying boat.

On new years’ day, 498 the Company pack up and prepare to leave Dolmvay. The elven adventurer Flora tells her companions that she has decided to stay in Dolmvay as a guest of the Irrlenov family (this was a player character but the player has vanished without any message, which happens sometimes at virtual table games like Roll20). The rest of the company make their way by carriage to the river docks. There they are able to find a boat headed upriver to Edgerton. Lakima informs the captain of the ship, Brent, that they wish to be set ashore at the Hillside Farms ferry. He is then to take their trunks of clothes on to Edgerton for delivery to the Black Dragon Manor. It takes a day to make it to the ferry. The captain tells them he is going to dock here for the night. The company sleeps onboard. The next day they wave goodbye and take the road north into the Kingswood. The squire Ian carries Alayna’s remaining travel trunk on his back with the aid of a harness that Aldus rigged up. When the road fords the Corabel stream the company turns into the forest following the stream. They have a brief encounter with some Elven rangers who allow them to proceed into the forest. By late afternoon they arrive at their destination, the Bridgeway. The custodian of the bridge, Ezmerladen, greets them and agrees to send them to Edgerton and watch the Asboro bridge in Edgerton for an hour to re-open the bridge so they can return. Alayna is reluctant to step off the Bridgeway at first but follows once Lakima leads the way. The entire group pops out onto the bridge in Edgerton startling some locals. They head over to the Manor and Lakima heads up to the rooftop aerie to get their Hippogriff Gnomeat. Alayna tells everyone she is going to surprise the riverboat crew by greeting them when they arrive in Edgerton in a day or so. The company heads back to the Asboro bridge and Lakima leads the hippogriff there. The portal opens and they step through to the Bridgeway again. They then ask Ezmeralden to send them to the old stone bridge in Wolford in Calwell.

The company, Lakima, Eathwund, Alrix, Aldus, Fenris, and Domago step off the Bridgeway again and arrive in Wolford in the early evening. They apparat into existence in the middle of the bridge and startle several local fishermen who were fishing off the bridge. One fisherman is so startled he topples over the rail and falls into the frigid, fast-moving river. Alrix quickly steps behind a building and turns into his true form of a couatl and flies over the river and rescues the man. He changes to his half-elven form just in time to pull the man from the water. The grateful fisherman invites him to his home for dinner. Alrix accepts but says he first must check on his friends.

Meanwhile, the rest of the company with a hippogriff walk from the bridge to the town gates.

“Hold on there. You canna bring that beast into the town!”

The town guard at first refuse to let the adventurers enter the town with the hippogriff. The guards are a little familiar with the beast as hippogriffs are a menace in Wolford valley. The company insists that the guards send a messenger to Seneschal Glint to announce their arrival. While they wait for the messenger to return, Alrix arrives and tells them he will meet up with them later. Alrix then returns to the cottage of the fisherman to enjoy a fine stew. Unfortunately, he lets slip during the meal that he and his friends were the reason the fishermen landed in the river – and he is asked to leave.

Word is brought back to the town gate to let the adventurers enter – with their hippogriff. The guards still caution them to find a safe stable with few horses for the hippogriff. Eathwund, who grew up in Wolford, suggests stabling it at the Pikeman inn. They do find the inn is willing to take the beast. Lakima pays for stabling and also purchases an old nag to feed the hippogriff. Alrix joins the group as they head across town to the palace to meet the seneschal. They learn some details of recent attacks, one of which occurred a few days ago and was just outside of town. They return to the Pikeman to get rooms but find that only the common room is available. Looking about at the dirty, flea-ridden common room they decide to find another inn. The nearby Grey Willow inn does have rooms and they settle-in. Fenris leaves to get up to his usual mischief, Aldus declares that he is going to sleep. The rest of the company gets a meal and listens in on the conversation in the Inn. The guests include some travellers and merchants, all of whom are talking about the sky raiders' attacks and speculating about the source. Lakima buys some merchants some drinks and listens to their tales. One man is sure that the red dragon Skorn is involved, probably carrying the flying ship. Another man scoffs at this saying that Skorn is old, fat, and sleepy and never leaves his lair. Another suggestion is that the bugbear raiders are really disguised agents of the rival realm of Thurmany.

The company has an uneventful night. The only interruption is when Fenris returns very early in the morning. The next day they talk about where to look first. Fenris tells them about a local mage named Isorin who went missing recently. He got directions to the wizards’ tower from a local friend of the mage. The company walks a mile north of town to the wizard’s tower. It is a small two-story tower that looks undisturbed from the outside. The front door is ajar so they enter. Inside they find clear indications that the tower was ransacked. Food and valuables have been taken although Fenris finds a lockbox with some coins in it that was missed. They do find a spellbook but the explosive runes trap protecting the spellbook is triggered by Lakima when he opens it. The book is turned to ash and Lakima and Fenris are injured in the blast. Domago uses some healing magic to heal them.

On the roof of the tower, they find a looking glass and a notebook. The earlier notes in the book detail the number of hippogriffs, griffons, and giant eagles in various nests throughout the valley. But the last notes detail the arrival of a strange cloud in the valley near Eyebrow peak. Isorin’s notes make mention of the fact that the cloud hung unmoving near the peak for days. Then he notes the appearance of a flying ship appearing out of the clouds.

Eathwund points out Eyebrow peak and Lakima uses the looking glass to view the cloud near the peak. He notes that it is indeed unmoving. The cloud is fairly low in the sky. Lakima estimates it is no more than 2,500 to 3,000 feet up. He says that with his memorized fly spells, the hippogriff, and Alrix’s flying form they should have no trouble reaching the cloud. Alrix and Lakima discuss the cloud and come to the conclusion that it is probably magically solid so they can land on it.

The group travels on foot across the valley and sets up a camp beneath the mysterious cloud. They camp for the night and Lakima prepares three castings of the fly spell. The night is uneventful and, in the morning, Lakima sets to work casting spells. He casts fly on Eathwund, Domago, and Fenris. Domago asks repeatedly how long the fly spell will last and Lakima assures him it will last more than long enough. Domago keeps asking. Lakima finally takes out a scroll and casts fly on himself. With Aldus on the back of the hippogriff and Alrix in his true form, the group flies up into the clouds. It takes about a minute to reach the clouds. They find they can fly right through the cloud. When they emerge above the cloud, they see a magnificent stone castle floating in the clouds a short distance away. The castle seems to rest on the clouds with no visible means of support. Tethered to the gatehouse is a pair of flying ships.

They decide to fly down into the clouds a little to arrive at what looks like a gatehouse. As they approach the castle, they do see some movement on the battlements but as far as they can tell no alarm is raised. They land on a wooden platform extending out of the front of the gatehouse. A portcullis blocks the entrance and they see two bugbears wearing blue tabards standing guard inside the gatehouse. Before the surprised bugbears can react to their presence, Lakima casts Charm Person on them. One bugbear falls under his influence. Lakima asks them to open the gate. His new bugbear friend tells him that he will go instruct his friends on the winch to open the gate. He turns to leave but is held by the second, uncharmed bugbear. Then Lakima casts sleep and the uncharmed bugbear slips into dreamland. The charmed bugbear waves and heads off. A short time later he returns and the gate slowly rises.

“Let me send your friend somewhere more comfortable,” Lakima says and touches the quill of laminae to the sleeping bugbear. The unfortunate bugbear is sucked into the book of monster summoning. The bugbear who remains tells Lakima that the main gate is just up the stairs he points out. The company slowly moves up the stair. Behind them, the gate starts to lower trapping poor Gnomeat outside on the landing.

Fenris silently climbs the steps and surveys the room above, he comes back to the group and tells them there are four bugbears. Eathwund and Aldus ask about the plan.

“Should we rush them?” Aldus asks.

Lakima tells them they need to be quick and quiet about it. Everyone runs up the steps and they catch the four bugbears flat-footed. Aldus and Eathwund each quickly kill a bugbear, while Alrix (back in half-elven form) and Lakima kill another with magic missiles and Lakima’s Staff of Striking. Domago is less successful with the bugbear he is fighting and the humanoid is able to bellow for assistance several times before being killed. A door opens at the end of a nearby hallway and more bugbears run toward the adventurers. But Lakima casts a Wall of Iron completely blocking the south side of the gatehouse from them. Fenris is then sent up a stair to scout the next floor. He returns a short time later to report eight to ten bugbears and he eagerly tells them that the flying ships look to be tethered to the tower at the level above.

Lakima tells them that they need to take out the bugbears quickly and then steal a flying ship. Domago questions that they are here to put an end to the raids.

“Without their ship, there won’t be any more raids,” Lakima says.

“Now let’s get ready.”