(G255 13/11/2015 via Roll20 - Guru(GM), JF)(5e 4)

(G255 13/11/2015 via Roll20 - Guru(GM), JF)(5e 4)

Before I get back to what is going on in the Plane of Shadows, here is the second part of the tale that Sylvia had been telling us...

Random's Adventures in the Castle of the Vampire Queen (Episode 2)

DAY 9

Random did his best to take in as much of the castle as he could on the first day. It was an immense building, in the shape of a spider, with each leg being a separate wing. Some of the wings were not in use.

Vampires went about at all hours. There was no real day or night here as the castle and the surrounding lands were kept in a kind of perpetual magic gloom. The servants were separated into three eight-hour shifts to keep the castle running at all times.

Even so, Random could tell that the castle was very underpopulated, there were not enough servants around to do everything so a lot of stuff was done by magic. The first time he saw a tray of food floating magically by him in the corridor he was startled, but then after the tenth time it became a common place thing to observe.

The big welcoming dinner they had attended had been at four in the morning so Random didn't get to bed until six. Once Rodger and the kids had been sorted out he got to his room. Instinctually he checked it out before sleeping.

It was a very large room, bigger than his entire house back at Riverbek and with a domed roof. He noticed there was a small trap door at the top of the dome where the chandelier was. It was perhaps just to let the staff clean it, or perhaps it was a spy hole. The room had no windows, but plenty of bookcases and one of them had a peek hole in it and the outline of a door, but no way of opening it that he could find.
The door to his room was thick and seemed to prevent any sounds being heard from outside, perhaps by magical means.

Rodger was down in another wing, in the servants quarters and the kids were just up the hall in the chambers belonging to Varus. Rodger popped by before he too retired and reported that his room had a trap door in it as well. He was in a communal servants barracks, and said there was a system of bells in use for summoning him if the need arose.

Varus had also explained this to him earlier so Random was just nodding and yawning,
'Yes, yes.There is a note here. One bell for any servant, another to summon you. The red rope for emergencies. I'm not a simpleton.'
'Just letting you know Random', laughed Rodger.
They were speaking in thieves' cant, a very special language used between thieves. Anyone listening in would have heard a very mundane conversation about bedroom facilities. The true meaning of the conversation lay  below the words, in nods and hand signs which modified the meaning of the words. Random knew that Varus could also speak this language, but they used it out of habit as much as anything else.

Random just had a short nap and woke at ten o'clock. He got all his stuff stashed away in an empty cabinet and cast his appraising eye over the contents of the room. There were lots of valuable things here, not least of which was a picture of a demon and an angel fighting that was hung over the fireplace.
He resolved to steal nothing in here though, he would be bound to be caught.

Beside the bed had been laid out some clothes for today so he dressed. They were not practical, but well made.

Not long after he had dressed, Rodger arrived, his pockets stuffed full of cutlery all bound up in cloth.
Before they got down to the business of burglary they had breakfast and joined the kids. Wyvern was showing off a new short sword that Varus had given him and seemed very happy. Naga talked to Random secretly though and told him she was nervous of the vampires. Random did his best to sooth her, but in reality he knew there was not much he could do.

After breakfast Random and Rodger sat down to have another 'innocent' conversation about the paintings in the room and the wonders of the castle. Under that though, they talked about their plan.

Like many of Random's plans it was a thing of wonder - right up until the point where it was put into practice - at which time it would usually begin to unravel in spectacular failure. However, for the  benefit of the record, here is:

....oooo0000 THE MASTER PLAN 0000oooo....

The Set up

Rodger needs to be settled in the servants quarters.
When he is there, he needs to be as friendly as possible. He needs to get a room assigned to him.

We steal small things, jewels and rings are perfect, but nothing that will be noticed as missing straight away.
It's very very important to not get caught!!

The Patsy

We need to find a suitable servant victim. A man preferably and one with a job that gets them about the castle a lot, something like a lamp lighter or cleaner.

We need to be able to break into his room easily and without detection. He's just a servant right? He may not even have a lock on his door.

If it is known that he has family outside of the castle then that's perfect.

The Jailer

As a guest in the castle I will make a request to see the jail and if there is one, the torture table. I'll have a sharp knife in my pocket. I'm looking for an arm or a hand, but all I need is a finger. A fresh one. If I can't get one then I'll just have to murder a servant. Preferably female.

Setting up the Pasty

We want this guy to take the blame for all the things we are going to steal.

If we manage to find the right guy for us then the next day. Lets say day 3 of the 9 days until the ritual:

I go out for a look around if that is possible, but then come back in disguise and ask for the Patsy at the gate or whatever.
When the guard says 'Why do you want him?'
I'll just say 'Tell him its time!' and scamper off.
It doesn't matter if the guard does or not, he will hopefully remember it though when days later its all  under investigation.


The Horses

We need to be able to get into the stables for this.

I don't know about this bit. But these undead horses, they are skeletons made to look alive right? So they must be stuffed full of straw or something and the skin sewn on? So all the little jewels and silver spoons we are stealing, we wrap them up in rags to stop them from jangling and put them in the horses.
I'm not sure how to do that, but.. well.. up the bum seems the easiest way since they are full of straw right?
I keep the horse calm while Rodger hides the loot!

They loot stays in the horses until we get back to Riverbek and then we break into Varis's stable one day and retrieve it.

5% of the loot we hide in the Patsy's room in a place he wouldn't usually look, under the wardrobe or something.

The End

The last day, assuming we've made it this far and not been caught, we break into the Patsy's room and wait for him to get back from work. We then strangle him dead and hang him from his rafters.
We do it masked and from the back so he doesn't see us (incase they resurrect him later!)

We then write a note saying 'Get me more vampire treasure or I'll chop off another one of her fingers!! Do not defy the Black Bandit!' and we wrap the finger I have in the note along with a few drops of blood.

The note gets hidden under the wardrobe with the treasure.

We then leave the Pasty hanging there until someone discovers him.

I'm hoping they think its a suicide, find the stuff and the note and assume he's killed himself because the kidnapper has killed his wife or daughter or whoever it was because he was late with the treasure.

Now when all the bits and bobs are discovered to be missing they assume its already in the hands of the Black Bandit.

They may 'Speak with dead' the Pasty or even Rez him and ZOT him. But hopefully the fact that he knows nothing will still not make them 100% sure that the Black Bandit doesn't exist..

Summary

Steal small items. Stick them up undead horse's bums. Make it look like a servant did it.

....oooo0000 HERE ENDS THE PLAN 0000oooo....



Rodger liked the plan well enough and so they firstly set off for the stables which was in the 'Animal Wing'.
The stables were not particularly busy, but neither were they deserted.
Random found the team belonging to Varus and selected one with a white spot on its nose at it seemed the least intimidating. There was stitching under its belly and a hole in its chest which lead to a metal canister inside the beast. The canister was full of blood.
As they loitered around the stables they witnessed someone else's horse being filled up by servants, a rather grizzly operation as the blood was put in through the horses backside. There were mechanisms hanging from the roof of the stable that were used for storing and pumping blood for vampires to use on their travels.

Picking at the stitches a little either side of the orifice at the front Random saw that the horse was filled with fine white quartz sand.

Random reckoned the horses would do for his plan so left Rodger to his own devices and around eleven o'clock went for a walk in the grounds. Trying to look as innocent as possible he watched the road into the castle and estimated that only one cart came along it every two to four hours, and even then it was just to the harbour within the castle grounds.

He walked all the way to the exterior fence and approached the gate. On each gate post perched a gargoyle.
Some of Random's best friends were gargoyles so he knew how to speak to them,
'You up there! Stoney! Am i allowed out then or what?'
The gargoyle addressed pondered this for a moment, then replied, 'We haven't been told not to let people out I suppose...'
'Oh well that's ok. I have restless leg syndrome you see and like to go long walks.'
'You shouldn't go out there though, the road might not like it.'
This made Random remember what Varus had told them when they had been travelling and had met the farmers.
The road was a living thing and it liked to get people lost. Well bugger that, thought Random.

Feeling that he had lost that part of his plan then, Random made the best of things and chatted to the gargoyles for a while. The one on the left post was called William and the one on the right was Robert. The gargoyles amused themselves by giving each other puzzles. When he asked if he could help, they said they had a message for their cousin Ian who was back in the castle. It was a set of twenty numbers and Random said it would be his pleasure to pass them on. Ian was a guard in the labour wing.
He asked them about the prison wing as well, but was told that only vampires were allowed in there. Already Random's plan was hitting difficulties.


On the way back Random passed only one person on the road, a single man carry a load of lumber on his back. Scratch the message delivery part of the plan thought Random to himself, it would be obvious it was me. His plan was falling apart before it had even begun.

The labour wing was where the forges, carpentry workshops and other such places were. Random even saw a workshop were an undead horse was being fitted with a skin. Eventually he found Ian and gave him the numbers. Ian was bigger than your average gargoyle and looked down on a crossroads.
While he was there Random asked,
'Where would i find Trash the jailer?'
'Ask one of his servants.', replied Ian, 'He'll be in the prison wing mostly likely, or near the Queen.'
Random prodded more information out of the gargoyle. The Queen's wing, was the central area of the castle, the spider's body, and consisted of two main layers. The lower floor was for the servants and then there was a sort of void of several floors until the Queen's chambers were reached. There were no stairs, the vampires used their spider climb ability and scaled the inside of the tower, the servant's used rope ladders and dumb waiters.

Random next decided to check out the three closed off wings and headed for the nearest. It was guarded by a big fat gargoyle that had difficulty staying up on his perch. Random easily talked his way past it.

He saw other gargoyles in this wing, about one every fifty metres, but they did not bother him. The area felt  cold and judging by the lay out of the rooms and the furniture it had once been a barracks. There were lots of things under dust covers and suits of armour and the like, but nothing small. He spotted a nice looking long sword in a display case but decided to leave it for now.

Finally he left the wing entirely and tried the next. He couldn't get past the gargoyle here though and gave it a miss, but he did notice that the engraved stone above the door said 'Arcanium'.

The last wing gave the best results. It was an empty area once used for living quarters. Random found some stair leading down into what appeared to be a bank vault, with stonework that looked a mixture of dwarven and elven and was strangely out of place when compared to the rest of the castle.

There was a corridor with doors either side which terminated in the slightly open door of a vault. All the side doors were locked, but Random could open the vault door enough to get in and when he got a good look at the room his jaw dropped. Here was row upon row of safety deposit boxes, built in a dwarven style and 53 of them had not yet been opened. To Random's eyes this was just fruit waiting to be plucked. And unguarded and open bank vault?
How could anyone expect him to resist? It was practically a crime NOT to rob the place!

It took a while, but with his lock picks Random managed to open a safe box and he found a diamond  ring and a pouch of coins inside it.

Happy, he took his loot and went to lunch. He then returned around five in the afternoon.
Random could not believe his luck as he opened several more boxes and found loot including land deeds and magic gloves.

Around midnight he returned to his room and summoned Rodger. His companion reported he had found a suitable patsy (a halfling) and a needle. Random thought they may not need the patsy after all as this vault seemed  to have been forgotten about (or so he thought anyway), but the needle would come in handy with the horses.

DAY 10

After a short nap they headed to the stables where they chatted to the stable man, a fellow in his forties who mainly just sat and watched other people work.

They sent him off to get them beer and sandwiches, and since the old fellow walked with a limp this gave them plenty of time to interfere with the horses.

They inserted the ring and the coins into the friendly horse with the white spot with no great difficulty. They shook hands and nodded to each other. This part of the plan seemed to be working.

Eventually Old Benjamin, this was the stableman's name, returned with the drink and food and they sat and played cars for three hours or so and Random gently pulled information out of him.

At about nine in the morning they returned to the vault and began raiding it again. As he worked Random thought about the vault and recollected that the Golden Peaks Bank had a similar set up and he wondered if the vampires had somehow teleported it, or part of it, to their castle.

By the end of the day they had opened 30 boxes and amassed a fair quantity of treasure.

This included lots of coins and gold bars and;

Three diamonds
A Belt of hill-giant strength
A Bag of Holding
Two land deeds
One elemental gem of earth
A Tan bag of tricks
Bracers of defence
A Tiara of Dreams
An Immovable rod


DAY 11

They left all the treasure in the vault and returned to their rooms.

Random spent four hours after breakfast passing messages for the gargoyles and trying to make friends with them, in the hope that this may prove useful later.

Then he and Rodger returned to the vault.

Their avarice lead to carelessness though and their inevitable discovery. Random was on to his eighth box when he heard a cough behind him.
There was a word of magic then Varus appeared.
Random put his lockpick behind his back and crossed his fingers,
'We haven't stolen anything guv, we just got here.'
The first part was sort of true as the Bag of Holding had all the loot in it and was stuffed into an open lock box.
'I don't believe a word of it.', sneered Varus, 'I spotted a pattern in your movements. If you are going to steal, you should try and not get caught.'

Random stammered out more excuses as Varus calmly took the Bag of Holding and put it over his shoulder.
'I'll hang onto this.', the vampire said,
After a pause he continued, 'What AM I going to do with you?'
Random tried his most ingratiating smile.
'Very well, if you can bring me three items belonging to Ormund I'll give you this bag back and not hand you over to the Queen. The items are; A skull of a pit lord, Ormund's spell book and a Wand of Gates.'

Random bowed as the vampire left and when they were alone he turned to Rodger.
Rodger wiped the sweat from his brow.
'Random, my boon companion, you've really landed us in it now.'
Knowing the task in front of them was all but impossible the teifling decided to put a brave face on it anyway,
'Oh, I'm sure Varus wouldn't have told us to steal those things if he didn't think we could do it. All
we need is a cunning plan....'