We continued exploring the farmhouse. We went upstairs to the attic, and came to two doors. One led to a room filled with junk. There were crates, barrels, tools, furniture and all kinds of assorted items. Gulnyr opened one barrel, which turned out to be filled with rusty parts of animal traps. He opened a crate, which contained stained bedsheets and bits of razor wire.
The other door led to a bedroom containing a large cedar chest. The chest was unlocked, but the lid was too heavy for us to open by hand, even with several people trying. Eventually we managed to open it using Ash’s shovel for leverage, and inside was a sack of coins. When Eliatris retrieved it, a blade trap was sprung and injured her. When we looked inside the sack, we found that it also contained the skeletal remains of severed ogrekin fingers.
We returned to the first floor, and then went downstairs from there to the basement, to find a corridor with several doors. The first door we entered led to a storeroom containing broken farm equipment and miscellaneous tools. There was a set of double doors in this room, which led to a corridor with another set of double doors at its other end. The walls of this corridor were covered with some kind of green slime.
Suddenly, we heard a sound coming from behind another door in the first basement corridor. It was the sound of someone accidentally striking his thumb with a hammer, and then swearing. We opened that door to find an ogrekin in the middle of building some chairs. Also present were two donkey-rats, who the ogrekin commanded to attack us. Their names were Chuckles and Drooler. We fought and killed the donkey-rats and the ogrekin carpenter.
We opened another door in the first basement corridor, which led to a skin-shucking room. Then we returned to the corridor of slime, and opened the double doors at its far end. This led to a room filled with fungus. A giant plant with tendrils and a mouth, which Shalelu identified as a Tendriculos, occupied the room, and attacked us. As we fought it, it grabbed Gulnyr and put him in its mouth. Gulnyr enlarged himself, but this did not prevent the plant from swallowing him. We discovered that the plant was regenerating during combat, but damage from fire prevented this. So Ash attacked it with Alchemist’s Fire, and Devin cast Sun Metal to make Eliatris’ sword flaming. We managed to kill the plant, but when it died, it released a cloud of spores which knocked us unconscious for eight hours.
When we awoke, we investigated another door that was in the fungus room. It led to a closet which contained a chest and some equipment belonging to the Black Arrow Rangers. The chest contained a ring, a necklace, gloves, and some coins. Among the ranger equipment was a longbow which belonged to Jakardros Sovark, Shalelu’s stepfather.
We then decided to go outside and investigate the barn. This time, its doors were open when we got there. Mammy Graul was waiting inside for us, along with three of her henchmen: Hograth was the eldest, and had an extra arm; Jeppo was the tallest, and the most handsome; Sugar was the shortest, and had crooked, stumpy legs. We fought them, and after we killed the henchmen, Mammy Graul started levitating to try to avoid us. We managed to kill her, and found three wands and a spellbook in her possession.
The barn had a second floor, with two catwalks leading up to it on opposite walls. Doors at the end of each catwalk led to a large room that contained cages and lots of spider webs. There were three unconscious Black Arrow Rangers in the room. A giant spider attacked us, and severely weakened Eliatris with its venom before we killed it.
We revived the three rangers, whose names were Jakardros Sovark, Kaven Windstrike, and Vale Temros. They told us that the other Black Arrows were killed. They were out on patrol when their fort was attacked by ogres, who now occupied it. The fort had been under the control of Commander Baden, who they now presumed was dead. They asked for our help in retaking the fort.
They told us that there was a secret tunnel that led to the fort, which was sometimes patroled by shocker lizards. The entrance to the tunnel is hidden behind a waterfall. Another way into the fort is through a sluice gate. They also mentioned a barracks that was built 20 years ago, but was abandoned because it was a deathtrap, as it is highly susceptible to fire.
We left the barn after learning all this, and the cougar we had rescued came back to join Jakardros. We rested for the night, and headed towards the fort the next morning. On the way there, we noticed that some of the trees had hooks, and there were bodies strung up on them.
We camped for the night in the forest, and the next morning we entered the secret tunnel behind the waterfall. The ground was slippery due to the presence of fungus. We encountered two shocker lizards, which shocked Gulnyr and Jakardros, but then ran away. We found a room that contained some crates, and we found six Shock Burst arrows.
We came to a fork in the tunnel: one way led down some stairs into the basement of the keep, and the other was a side passage that led to a secret entrance in the keep grounds. We decided to take the latter path. Soon we came to a bridge, which Vale noticed had been set to collapse, but we were able to reinforce it to make it safe to cross.
We came to a room which contained some skeletal remains. A ghostly figure, who Jakardros identified as Lorgus Fenker, appeared and attackes us. We killed it.