RED OAK: Return to the Pass of the Hounds

[Woe]

"Absolutely, little friend. But if we don't come back by tomorrow morning, assume the worst." says Tiana in Sylvan. With a quick hug, she'll leave Abigall behind.

Time to storm the castle (part 4)

[Longman]

Well I'll be hornswoggled.

You make it into the castle by any route you choose.

The screaming noise from the lower level has stopped - although that doesn't mean the thing isn't still down there. There are no encounters as you enter. The place seems deserted.

You can:
- go up the tower again
- investigate the stairs down below
- search the area - referring to the picture for area numbers.

[Woe]

Can I see an elevated area where we'd have a clean shot on the stairs, but it'd be defensible e.g. a rooftop or parapet?

[Longman]

Yes, there are the walls of area 19 - an old one-level building of some kind. Those could be stood on, or hidden behind, giving good cover.

Archers can take up positions on those walls and have a ahot at about 50 feet straight to the top of the stairwell coming up from under area 13.

I'm presuming that's Kilian, Anna, and maybe Talin as well?

What do Freya and Tiana do? You have all entered via area 17 and are assessing your options. Only 1EP down the day.

[Woe]

Tiana too -- she will have her net out. Only Freya will stay down, and the others will leave a rope down for her. Then, she will start to cautiously head toward that tunnel.

[Longman]

She gets within 10'of the top of the tunnel and the screaming noise starts up again.

Her save is a fail, so she retreats back to the others as fast as she can go.

She thinks the thing is only about 20-30 feet down the stairs and a corridor, but can't get much sense of the layout down there, apart from that.

The thing does not chase her out of the tunnel.

[Woe]

Hmm... she's climb up onto the parapet/rooftop, and Talin will attempt to have Fido flush the creature out of its cave.

[Woe]

I have a plan C if needed. If plan B doesn't work out, I'll need to know the distance between the archers and the mouth of the cave.

[Longman]

Archers can take up positions on those walls and have a shot at about 50 feet straight to the top of the stairwell coming up from under area 13.

Fido goes over there and investigates...he also fails his save and scuttles back to Talin, hiding behind the wall of area 19.

The creature is still making the noise and still doesn't come out of its hole.

Bruce offers to go over with some flaming oil and lob it down the mouth of the stairs, as far as it can go. He is unaware that just yesterday, Kilian ran sobbing from the frightening noise...

DM hint - sooner or later someone is going to make a successful save. You've just been unlucky so far, even with the mud / wax.

[Woe]

Mage hand has a range of 40'. She'll move 30' away from the entrance (20' away from the archers), mage hand a torch down there, and let's see what happens.

Bruce has an excellent plan D! If Tiana can't get the spell off, we'll then try plan D. He's a poor archer anyway.