Faldyra accompanied the adventurers for the remainder of their trip to Castle Inverness. She is thankful for their rescue earlier and converses with them warmly. As the adventurers crest a hill, castle Inverness come into view in the valley below. Faldyra looks at the party with a smile on her face and says: 'Welcome to Castle Inverness.'
Brother Splintershield calls a halt to the caravan. The characters wonder what is going on and approach the cleric as to why the caravan does not move into the grounds of the castle. He informs the adventurers that the ruins are rumoured to be haunted by the restless spirits that once dwelled here. He does not want to risk the loss of the whole caravan. He asks the adventurers if they woul mind scouting the ground of the castle to make sure there is nothing about to harm him and his ritualists. If the party agrees to the task he will then begin his cleansing ritual to consecrate the surrounding grounds. The party agrees and march towards the ruins of the Castle.
As the party move onto the grounds of the interior of the castle, a feeling of dread passes over each character; a strange feeling like they were actually somewhere else. Jerren attempts to discern what may be causing this effect. Unfortunately, with a little thought, he shrugs it off and attributes this funny feeling to the rumours of the hauntings around the area. The ever so curious wizards looks to the left and spots a fountain to the north-east of the grounds and decides he wants to inspect it. Keira pipes up and says sarcastically 'slow down Faldyra!'. Jerren waits for the rest of the party and they approach the fountain with all senses alert. As the party approaches the fountain, Jerren jumps back as a slurping sound alerts him to the presence of a pair of jellylike globs erupt from the water.
Bolash charges in an trips over some debris and impales his greataxe into the ground next to the jelly. The jellies are quicker than they appear and attempt to engulf, both the slayer and the wizard. The slayer comes out unscathed, but Jerren screams as acid starts to eat throungh his clothing. The wizard moves back and throws lightning from his hands, hitting one of them; and then manages to get rid of the extra damage from the acid.. Keira shuffles to the other side of the blob and waits for Valenae to move into an advantageous position. As soon as Valenae is in position, she attacks and gores a huge chunk out of the blob. Valenae follows up with a blessing of battle and the fighter can resist some damage for the following round.
Bolash divides the blobs by stepping in between them and attacks. He hits the jelly with a resounding smack, and now the jelly knows it has to concentrate on the fighter. The jelly retaliates with a huge pounding and the fighter manages to shrug off some of the damage, but he as well has been affected by the acid damage. Keira is then pummelled by the second blob and her leather starts to fizzle as she reels in her bloodied state. Jerren retaliates once again with a lightning arc and bloodies the creature that attacked Keira and Valenae. The creature splits in half, with both halves of the blob now able to fight. Keira, still under the effect of the acid, attacks one half of the jelly, killing it. She moves away and takes her second wind, and shrugs off any future effect of the acid. Valenae attacks the other half and throws some healing at the rogue.
The fighter and the other jelly are continuously trading hits. The fighter spilts this one in two with another critical hit. He is his again and sustains ongoing damage, but Valenae steps up to the plate again and allows the fighter to shrug off the acid. Jerren makes quick work of the jelly fighting Valenae. Keira sees a perfect opportunity to help the fighter and flanks it killing it in one swift blow. Short work is made of the remaining enemies.
The mostly bloodied party stops and rests for a few minutes. Valenae explores the fountain and pulls a +1 magic weapon out of the bottom of the fountain: but not before she falls into the water. The party had a good laugh at this one.
Upon exploring, the remainder of the ruins, they stop at an old graveyard and discover that the graveyard is well tended compared to the rest of the ground. Of the many tombstones one bears the markings 'Oldivya Vladistone. Wife and Friend'. Jerren recollects the name as one of the adventurers from Sliver Company about 60 years ago. They were active in this area and she died during one of their outings. She was married to one of the party memebers Salazar Vladistone. (Jerrens check was a natural 20=29).
Moving on to the base tower, Bolash the fighter sees strange symbols on one of the stones. Unable to decipher it, Jerren copies it onto a piece of parchment to Show to Faldyra upon their return. Having encountered no other resistances the party returns to the caravan and show Faldyra the parchment. Consulting one of her very old tomes, she comes to the conclusion that it says it is from a language calle Oerth and it says 'Galap-Dreidel'.
Brother Spintershield wastes no further time. After thanking the adventurers, he motions the caravan into the compound to begin casting his cleansing ritual.
The party seems to be coming together with tactics and strategies as of late. I wish that they would have given us a map of the whole compound for this part of the adventure. One of the players saw the fountain...hence the rush to the back of the compound right away. I talked to him about the metagaming thing afterwards. I am just happy it was not during another encounter that could have ruined it for the rest of the party.
I am really enjoying the timing on these encounters. With 5-6 players per week we have still been finishing the encounters within 1-2 hour time limit. I still have to commend WotC for the quality they have put into this season. I am excited to play out the rest of the encounters. It has been a long time time since I have been so excited to DM. I am looking forward to it every week and my players are having a blast.
What ar your feelings on this season of Encounters? Are you having fun? Tell us about your gaming group, I would love to hear about it.