Our last session had seen four players clearing up the rest of the goblins in Julkoun. This session saw the roster change again – we were joined by two new players, Sondra and Lily. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to walk them through character creation, so we used a couple of pre-generated characters for them; an Elf Ranger for Sondra and an Elf Wizard for Lily. Lily had played 3E before, whilst Sondra was playing her first game of D&D.

Also at the table were Tim and his paladin, Tait and his rogue, Harry and his rogue, and Josh and his half-orc wizard. The other two tables were at three and four players; I might have put Lily at one of their tables but they’d already started when she arrived, and it’s also true that I really enjoy playing with new players to the group. Next week, if everyone joins us, there will be some reassignment around the tables.

The group had learnt from the dryad that the goblins had taken the villagers of Julkoun to the north, but there was a lot of unknown territory up there and they didn’t know exactly where to go (having slain the goblins without talking to them…) Sondra attempted to track their path, but, by now, it had been over a week since they’d been taken, and she soon lost the path. Unwilling to just wander in the wilderness waiting for something to come up, the group chose to return to Daggerford by the land route, taking in the elven mansion of the Floshin Estate on the way.

They were not particularly surprised to discover there was trouble on the estate – a pair of gnolls and their hyenas attacked as they approached. Tim took a few good hits before the gnolls were defeated, the last gnoll attempting to flee to a small depression known as the Swan’s Nest which lay near the stream that flowed through the estate. The group proceeded in that direction, searching for more gnolls. The depression was beautiful, an elven garden containing some statues and a small stone building, as well as a pond and lovely flowers. Cautious, the group noticed a thin plume of smoke rising from the chimney of the building, and descended the path to investigate, crossing a couple of bridges over streams and a waterfall to get there.

Inside the building, a lone gnoll saw the group and ran into its underground chambers to alert its companions.

Lily was quite taken by the pool, which had a statue of a pair of swans in its centre. She noticed that the pool had fish swimming around it, but every so often one would disappear. She settled down to investigate that as the others converged on the building. Harry thought about climbing down the chimney, but upon finding the door was unlocked, abandoned this plan. The group were all surprised to find the building was empty and its fire was unlit; it seemed to just be a gardener’s shed. Where was the smoke coming from? Further investigation revealed that there was a double-chimney… the smoke was coming from further underground! With that knowledge, it didn’t take them long to find the hidden trapdoor and Tim bravely climbed down it. He was met by three gnolls, all firing longbows. He charged them, despite taking several arrows in the process, only to have them disengage and send their hyenas into melee with him while they continued to shoot him. The ladder down and cramped tunnel was making it hard for the other players to reach him!

Lily determined that there had to be an underground stream that the fish were swimming into and, upon hearing the sound of battle, proceeded with Josh into the hut. The other characters had climbed down into the tunnel and were shooting at the hyenas. Tim needed to use his healing abilities to keep going, but the gnolls and hyenas were eventually slain. A small amount of treasure was taken off them, and the room below was all there was: the gnolls had been using it as a base, but no more were present. Tim was still quite damaged and began to take a “short” rest (1 hour in length), whilst the others returned to the surface and continued to investigate.

Harry and Tait dived into the pool to find Lily’s underground stream, and did so, but it wasn’t big enough for anyone to fit through. Tait suggested that he might try to squeeze through headfirst, and I thought it an excellent way of killing his character; alas, the others talked him out of it. The path into the nest led further to a marble archway set into a cliff, its door broken and shattered, and that was where they next investigated, Lily and Tait leading the way. It proved to be a crypt, with a beautiful temple to the tripartite Elven Goddess providing access to the burial chambers. The actual burial chambers, it was found, held a wraith, a twisted elven spirit. Tait ended up in melee with it as Lily and Josh cast spells at it, and was fortunate enough that it was not able to strike him and drain his life before it was banished. Lily prayed at the statue of the goddess, and felt approval – and regained one of her spell slots.

Returning to the surface, the group rested for a while before making their way to the main house. It was a two-level building, with its upper level also being on a high cliff this side of the river, so they’d actually enter the upper level first. However, it also had a strongly defended gatehouse, with gnoll archers behind arrow slits firing at the group as they approached. Tait and Sondra took cover and returned fire, as Lily and Josh ran back to the trees. Tim and Harry rushed forward to the house, and entered the entryway. There they were faced with a portcullis, but Tim was strong enough to lift it and let Harry through. Harry, attempting to enter the side chambers and take the gnolls from behind found his way blocked by the living corpse of an elf! It engaged him as another one came from other side and moved towards Tim. Tim dropped the portcullis, trapping himself and Harry within, and moved to engage it.

Meanwhile, Tait was making some amazing shots to take out the gnolls. With them dealt with, the other four raced into the building to discover the battle within. Harry disengaged and retreated to the portcullis, allowing Lily to cast a Thunderwave spell, knocking back the undead, and giving everyone enough time to take them down. Lily was horrified at the thought that the elves in the crypt had been raised and corrupted – although somewhat heartened by there being only one more elf that could have been corrupted. There had only been four crypts, right?

At this point, we’d run out of time, so we left the exploration of the mansion to next week; it should give us quite a bit of exploration, some combat, and possibly even some role-playing!