Castle Whiterock 3 & 4

Returning to the castle the party finally begins to explore the main building. They enter through a broken hole in the wall and carefully avoid a nest of bees. They find several rooms, all that are empty. One of the rooms is filled with rubble with the indications of a trap door buried under it but the party opts to explore one of the guard towers nearby that is collapsed. They determine that while overrun with vines that the vines themselves are not dangerous but that something large appears to be lairing in the tower itself.

Kazmuk examines a corpse from afar and determines that it's probably a giant mantis. Maka and Davor lead the way in unfazed by the threat of a large bug. The mantis obliges and leaps out and successfully clamps onto Davor. The paladin is knocked out and badly injured by the attack. Kazmuk manages to dart in and heal him almost immediately while Maka and the rest of the party lay on the hurt.

Mantis defeated the party explores further. They find the room of the boss half-orc (from session 1) and take a few minor things of his including a key. The also find a secret door leading deeper into the castle.

Exploring through the door they find a dark main room with several side rooms. The main entrance can be seen to be choked with rubble from this end as well. Kazmuk sees several bones lying near it and the party gives it wide berth. In one of the side rooms they find access to the guard tower (from session 2) and opt to not press upwards. Another side room is choked off by rubble. From the looks it used to be a room filled with statues or dummies for holding armor. The group determines it might be a good camping site though.

Finally the party decides to investigate the bones in the rubble. Their investigation is welcomed by a skeletal bugbear raising up and attacking. The fight goes slowly due primarily to the inability of either side to hit the other. Eventually the party manages to shatter the skeleton to bits. Below it they find a chest inside which lies the treasure of the half-orc boss.

A bit weary and beaten up the party decides to rest in the statue hall for the night before proceeding down the stairs to level 2. They also level up.

Moving down to the next level Besh finds two trip wires. She manages to easily disable one but the other she pulls when trying to cut it. Oddly nothing happens. She does hear sounds of movement at the base of the stairs. In attempting to sneak down though Besh isn't quite as stealthy as she believes. An orc jumps out and hits her with a guisarme and pummels Besh. Maka and Davor rush in to protect her engaging the orc and one of his buddies. After healing Besh rolls under the orc that hit her and stabs him in the back. She sees several other orcs hiding behind a low wall with crossbows. Maka finishes off the other orc and then charges the three with crossbows. Apparently these orcs attended the same archery school that Aeryn went to as they can't hit the broadside of a half giant. Aeryn shows a bit of improvement with her bow though and Maka cleaves the other two crossbow-orcs.

Besh hears movement from the room on the right so the party investigates in that direction. Davor gets a spear for the parties' curiosity, thrown by a mini-minotaur. The room is filled with hanging weapons. Maka and Davor wind their way over to the minitaur and proceed to slug it out. It's the toughest thing they've fought yet but Maka pounds on it and it finally falls.

The next room answers the question on where the people captured by the slavers have been going. A ledge goes around the edge of 3 sides of the room. 10 feet below are cages half filled with slaves. The cages are open with wood planks laid out over some of them to allow access to the slaves.

None of the slaves are evil and one was an adventurer previously sent by Lady Chauntessa to investigate Castle Whiterock. Just as Besh is pulling out rope to start hoisting the slaves out an orc guard appears at the far end of the room. He shouts a warning as Davor, Lem, and Maka (in that order) race to engage him. One of the slaves shouts that he will help fight if the party can get him out in time. Besh sends some rope his way and helps pull out prisoners.

Davor gets to the orc just as 7 of his friends arrive. He and eventually Maka duke it out with the orcs while, Besh (who proves surprisingly accurate with her crossbow), Aeryn, and Kazmuk engage in a shoot out with most of the orcs. Lem causes one orc to fall with ectoplasmic sheen but then is unable to it any others with his energy ray. Between Besh's crossbow bolts and Maka and Davor's blade & pick the orcs are whittled down. One flees through a door.

Pursuing Davor is attacked by three dog-like creatures. They have nasty bites forcing Davor to use his remaining lay on hands to keep himself and Maka in the fight. Besh arrives from the far side of the room and adds some crossbow firepower to the engagement. The group needs it as an orc archer adds additional strength to the slavers. The dogs almost have the two melee fighters on the rope before Maka connects with a cleave and clears two of them. The last falls almost right after and the orcs not soon after.

The party opts to leave the mother dog and her pups alone. They find the slaves' old gear and give it back to them before directing them how to escape back to Cilamar. One of the slaves informs the party that her brother is trapped somewhere else on this level in the mines. The party promises to do their best to find and free him.

Castle Whiterock 2

The party makes it through the night without incidence and gathers up most of the remaining fake mining camp supplies (including horses and wagons) and returns to town with the surviving prisoners. They burn a couple tents and the stables to cover their tracks. The prisoners who didn't have much information other then slaves are given to the orcs one level down and there is a watchtower keeping an eye on the approach from the town. The party turns the "monks" over to authorities. The party picks up some healing potions and returns to the castle the next day but stays off the main road to sneak up on the watchtower.

Returning to the fake camp the party manages to find a path above it which leads to a tower. The entrance to the main floor appears to be sealed from the outside but undeterred Maka breaks his way in. A spider looms up from the back of the room and Maka charges in full speed...only to have his armor and dire pick rusted away. Besh attempts to pick her way but fails to see more webs and loses some daggers. Davor is hit by the spider's web attack causing his armor, shield, and weapon. In a stunning display of horrible ranged combat skills the party is unable to kill the spider at a distance. However the spider can only damage metal with its web attack so eventually moves into melee allowing Maka to kill it with his back up weapon.

The next level up is secured by a trap door. Peaking in Besh sees a bunch of large blood raven nests including hatchlings. Using her innate ability to speak with animals she manages to convince the birds that they only want to go up to the next floor. They warily agree and the party sneaks up the next floor. Here they ambush the lone guard and capture him and a caged raven (who doesn't seem to mind the cage). There are indicators that the bird was taking messages back to town. Needing new equipment the party opts to return back to town. They let the guard go outside the town with the hint he should make himself scarce.

In town Besh forges a message and attaches it to the raven which is then released. The message requests a back alley meeting. The party manages to locate where the raven goes, a coffin factory. The party lies in wait in the alley, Besh playing the role of the person who sent the message while Davor and Maka hide behind some barrels. Lem, Kazmuk, and Aeryn hide on a roof to provide fire support.

Soon 5 people appears, a noble looking man and 4 thugs. The man is obviously aware it's a trap and things degenerate almost immediately into a fight. Davor and Maka struggle to land blows but the fire support disrupts the noble's (obviously a wizard) spell. Lem hits the area with ectoplasmic sheen giving Davor and Maka a chance to rough up the guards. The wizard is knocked out by Aeryn before he can use his summoned swarm against the party members on the roof.

The party members relieve the wizard of his equipment (and also some money at his business the coffin factory) and turn him over the authorities. They re-equip and get ready to head back to Castle Whiterock.