[This is the forth part of the story I heard from my brother Corum about an unlikely band of adventurers known as the 'The Habibi Club'. They were: Ewiz the Great a human wizard, Sir Buttskii a gnomish bard, Tate a halfling rogue, Kayne a human sorcerer, Goobus a rather fat human bard, Gilbert a human monk and Walter the White a half-elf druid. They have now arrived in Ottery Saint Mary.]
DAY 3 cont ...
Late at night, in the dark and after much tribulations they arrived at Ottery Saint Mary. They were expected and let in through the sturdy wooden gates.
Ewiz met them there and they continued through the village and along the road to the Kryptgarden Estate and my father's castle.
Sir Humber was in good spirits and ushered them all in and made sure they had plenty to eat and drink in the main hall. I should imagine they were initially impressed by the castle, but seeing it by candlelight is to hide a lot of problems. Years of neglect mean that the place is practically falling down and most of the rooms are home only to rats. When I was young it was not so bad, but now that me and my brothers have left my father keeps to his rooms and everywhere else is locked up. There are guards and servants of course, but they are poorly paid and almost as old and idle as my father.
Sir Humber told them why they were there;
'There is this dreadful fellow running around the place at the moment. His name is Zallater and he is a half-fiend Durzagon, a sort of tiefling dwarf you could say. He's a mason of sorts and built a dungeon and secret tunnel for that awful fellow Yardpike some time ago. That's all by the by now though and resolved as far as I know, but Zallater just won't go away. He caused all sorts of trouble in OSM, ran up a huge tab at the Tavern which he never paid, startled the cattle and poked the mayor in the eye. Now he's left the village, but not far north of here he is building a dungeon in the forest and filling it full of monsters. That's the last thing we need around here! Time for him to be moved on I think!'
They were all shown to their dusty old rooms. Tate and Ewiz were far too excited for bed though and decided to go and do some night time fishing. With no idea of how dangerous it is at night around the estate they armed themselves with a crossbow and spear and set off into the darkness.
A sensible guard followed them with a lantern. If he had not done that you can be sure that they would never have been heard of again! Sir Buttskii followed with the guard, but when they were down at the river the guard left them too it. Buttskii was too nervous to stay and went back too.
The attempt at fishing was about as successful as you might expect. All they managed to do was wake the fish up and scare them away. After some time they decided to leave. Tate, a lover of tree climbing, stopped and decided to go up one in the dark for... some reason...
Ewiz stood at the bottom of the tree, completely in the dark. He did not have the night vision of Tate, a halfling, so after ten minutes he lit a candle. He listened but could hear nothing, it was like Tate had disappeared.
Not knowing what else to do, he walked back to the castle alone.
DAY 4
As everyone else was tucking in to a big breakfast Tate appeared at the door, covered in dirt and cobwebs. A giant spider had got him in the tree and paralysed him. It hadn't been until much later he had managed to escape and crawl back to the castle. In the process he had lost some gold coins.
Once they were all fed and watered anyway, they walked back down to OSM to get some supplies.
There is not a formal shop as such in the village but the Badger's Breakfast Inn did trade in common items.
Ewiz and his team seemed mainly interested in buying crowbars though.
Back at the castle once they were ready to set off it was revealed that Goobus would not be going with them. He had a 'special mission' of his own to carry out.
Zallater's Tower was about ten miles north, deep into the forest. If they had not had a druid in their party they would have got lost. As it was, it took six hours to get to their destination.
They came on it abruptly, there was no opportunity for spying out the place first. The Tower seemed to be under repair - or being built - it was hardly a tower in fact, as it was only the first two floors with scaffolding being put up for the third.
On the right was a large tent or pavilion and on the left was some sort of crypt with gargoyles on the roof.
Walter tried to keep things calm, but it was impossible. Ewiz and Tate went charging off towards the crypt and started throwing crowbars at the gargoyles. Ewiz managed to hit one.
'What was that for?' said the gargoyle and threw it back.
Walter noticed that Zallater had stepped out of the pavilion to see what was going on.
Kayne waved his arms around in a threatening manner and somehow managed to intimidate the gargoyle into backing down. 'They started it!' it grumbled.
Even though there was no need for the fight to continue, Ewiz threw another crowbar. It missed and landed on the roof.
Full of high spirits, Gilbert decided to join in and tried to throw Sir Buttski up onto the roof. Light as he was, the gnome missed the roof and hit the wall. He tumbled to safety and was unharmed.
Walter tried to explain that he really didn't know why his friends were fighting the gargoyles, since they were not threatening. Zallater shrugged. 'They shouldn't really go near that crypt. It's very dangerous.'
Ewiz had run out of crowbars by now and finally tried some magic. He cast Magic Missile and it hit and hurt the foremost gargoyle. Angered it flow down, landed on Ewiz and clawed him into a bloody mess.
Sir Buttski ran over and checked on the silly wizard. Ewiz was alive, but bleeding out. The useful little gnome bandaged him up, probably saving his life.
Zallater waved away the gargoyles and they all flew off north into the forest.
It looked like things had finally settled down, but Tate was determined to keep the chaos going.
He went to the crypt door and found that it was locked. He took out his Thieves Tools and stated picking the lock.
Walter was frustrated, they were meant to be a team and everyone was doing their own thing.
'I wouldn't open that door if I were you!' Zallater called over. 'It took long enough for us to just get "it" in there!'
Tate wasn't listening. He had opened the door and was determined to see what was on the other side...
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