A Wine Cellars Tale: Of Ropes and Ladders

Of Ropes & Ladders

This delve took place on Feb 9th, 2019

The Players:
Nate: Grit the Goblin
Mike: Vexus Lustmort - MU & Apprentice
Scott: Ebony Maw - Black Knight
Selina: Maris Izar - Raven Heart

How do they know each other:
Grit the goblin knows Vexus because they both bear some strange resemblance to each other....
Vexus knows Ebony because they are old school chums that hate each other, and secretly plot the other's demise.
Ebony Maw knows Maris because they are step-brothers, that grew up together and are a s close as true-blood brothers.
Maris Izar knows Grit because they are the only survivors of a disastrous former adventure.

This group meets up at the Dog-n-Bone and decides to set off for the infamous wine cellars together. First they form a Group charter and get the local Agent to secure some hirelings for the expedition.

The group calls itself the "The Flesh Wounds".

After a brisk set of interviews the following hirelings were secured by the group:
Grit the goblin hires Freeza a Priestess of the AYU goddess of the winds, and a fearsome masterless War Dog known as Ghost and Derix a Man-at-Arms.
Vexus sends a dirty Torch-bearer named Gildoon off on a secret errand to the Gatehouse, but not before Grit pickpockets a "treasure map" the man reveals he has.
Ebony Maw secures the services of three torch bearers; Cordred former kitchen boy, Hillig of Local 1411 and Gilcox of Local 666. The latter being rivals in the Torch bearer unions.

The party set out at midday for the ruins of Marqest. They hired a wagon to take them to the base of the hill and drop them off. Instead of taking the path they walked up the hillside through the tall grass heading towards the break in the wall between the Square Tower and the Gatehouse.

Outside the ruins Grit produces the treasure map he stole and the party makes a new course of action based upon the following:

Treasure map

 Vexus thinks he remembers being in that old storeroom before, but he never went down the shaft. Grit believes they should try to see if the secret Tomb is actually there as it would be the best location of any possible treasure.

The group splits in two with Ebony, Maris and the torch bears passing through the gatehouse proper then breaking left while Grit, Vexus and their henchman & hirelings circle around the front of the gatehouse and come into the courtyard by circling around to the left and coming in from the right.

Ruined Tower

The courtyard is empty and a cool breeze blows through. Maris notices a flock of black birds atop the ruins of the Manor house proper, and feels eyes upon them.
The doorway of the ruined tower in front of them the group lights torches and prepares to enter...

The upper levels of this tower have fallen in some time ago, and the ground floor is mostly a debris filled disaster. In the torchlight the stairwell to the lower storeroom can be readily seen.

Grit commands Derix to descend the stairs which the Man-at-Arms promptly refuses by stating: "I'm here to fight stuff, not descend stairs first."

Ebony orders his torchbearers to light the darkened stairwell, and both men rush forward to show off their skills! Hillig's torch lands just about six feet down the stairs before they make a sharp circular turn, while the torch tossed by Gilcox expertly bounces of the curved wall and descends beyond the parties line of sight but does not go out!

There is then some arguing about who will descend first and in what order when the Black Knight decides to get things moving by kicking the former kitchen boy down the stairwell!! They watch as the lad tumbles down and around the curve out of sight....

After a few moments of calling out to Cordred and getting no response the group descends with Ebony in the lead.

As the group go down the circular staircase they all take note of the encrusted layers of soot on the walls, a fierce fire once raged down here at some point. Maris discovers the words "Ambrose was here" scrawled into the stone presumably some time after the fire. The circular shaft ends at a landing of some 10x10 feet and a set of straight stairs continues to descend another 20ft or so to an open doorway. Fresh blood can be seen going down the stairs and into the dark chamber beyond.

As the group approaches the doorway the sounds of rabid feasting can be heard and the coppery scent of blood assails the party. Entering the chamber followed by the Union torch bearers a horrid sight is revealed.

Fury of the R.O.U.S.

Cordred the former kitchen-boy turned would be Linkboy is being devoured by a quartet of large and vicious looking rodents!! Ebony Maw flies into action and attacks the rats, he is quickly followed by Derix, Grit and Ghost into battle! The torch bearers stand just inside the room to either side of the doorway with Freeza ready to give support. Vexus and Maris stay on the steps just outside.

The battle is quick and terrible!! In the ensuing chaos the Black Knight is severely wounded, and both Hillig and Gilcox are killed by the rodents as well as the Man-at-Arms Derix.

After healing Ebony, the party discovers there is a large wooden cover over the location of what should be the shaft as seen on the map. Above the cover in the rafters is a block & tackle assembly that can be used to raise and move the obstacle.

Looking into the now uncovered shaft the group sees a set of slick iron rungs set into the side and they just make out a small landing and doorway some thirty or so feet down. The shaft continues down into darkness. A torch is dropped and is extinguished with the sound of a splash from very far below. All agree that the map is probably correct in the assumption of the depth to the water cavern below.

The Black knight volunteers to descend by way of the iron rungs, but common sense prevails and Grit with a rope tied to him descends the rungs first. The wily goblin wipes the rungs off as he descends and discovers a couple are missing just before reaching the landing. Using the Block and tackle the group lowers a lantern at the same rate as the goblin continues to climb down looking for the secret tomb.

At this point Ebony decides it should be safe enough for him to descend to the landing and his brother Maris bids him to be careful. The Black Knight waves this off and climbs down the shaft, looking up to his brother he says, "See, no problem it's fi....aaaahhhh!!!"

There is a soft crack as the iron rung under the his foot gives way!!!

Vexus watches as Ebony Maw begins to fall and mutters a resigned "Oh noooo...." as his old chum falls.

Through a twist of fate, the Black knight lands heavily on the ledge and does not fall any further. Catching his breath and lighting a torch he sees a heavy iron door just a few feet away. The door is slightly ajar. Leaning back out into the shaft he calls up that there is a door here and he will investigate further. Maris thinks this is very unwise but cannot stop his brother.

Turning back to the Iron door Ebony notices it seems to be open a bit more than it was a moment ago!?! He moves forward cautiously and opens the door to the chamber beyond. He sees a small cavern with an exit just opposite of where he is. Notably this chamber floor is littered with a vast amount gnawed upon and cracked bones of all shapes and size. He can just make out in the torchlight that beyond this cavern is a larger chamber but an eerie chill and the call of his companions draws the warrior back to the landing.

In the meantime Grit is sure he has located the entrance to the secret tomb in the side of the shaft wall. Ebony agrees to climb down and help Grit as he needs help dislodging the stones to get in. The Black Knight falls victim once more to the aged and worn rungs as another snaps off and he begins to fall! Grit quickly uses his own rope and hook to catch the falling warrior like a fish!!    

Freeza is lowered by use of the Block & tackle and the three gain entry to hidden 3x3 tunnel that indeed leads to a small chamber housing a stone sarcophagus. Grit deeming the crypt safe allows Ebony to open the tomb and the three see a skeleton adorned in a winged helm, jewels, a shield & spear as well as at least a thousand coins and gems scattered about the corpse.

A thrill of excitement passes through Knight and Goblin as they reach in to scoop up the valuables when the sound of cracking stone echoes up the shaft!

Vexus and Maris look at each other then back down the shaft as they hear the rumble and cracking of stone and the whole room shakes slightly.

The entire floor of the tomb gives way plunging the trio of would be tomb-robbers into inky blackness!!

The ice cold water shocks them into action and Grit, Freeza and Ebony are just able to pull themselves from the dark underground lake. Ebony however had to ditch all his armor and equipment to not drown. Grit commands Freeza to heal his wounds, and she says there will be a price to pay for how many favors she has begged this day. Grit says so be it and has her call upon Ayu. There is a crack of thunder and a lightning bolt obliterates Freeza and knocks Grit out cold!! Ebony sees the cavern for a second in the lightning flash, then after this he scoops up the unconcious goblin and calls up to his brother.

What Ebony saw!

Using the block and tackle both the Knight and goblin are retrieved and brought back up to the storeroom level. The group then leaves the ruins of Marqest and returns to town.

THE END