08/10/2024 - Abandoned Keep (10)

Leaving the Farm

Sam notices a big-built young man, hovering on the edge of the field, watching what is happening. Sam invites him over, but the man seems reluctant to get too near. He seems to be nervous about the dead farmer and the woman and her children. The widowed woman calls him Rowan and chastises him for running away when the goblins attacked.

Logan suggests it is time they moved on. Rowan suddenly pipes up and asks if he can come with them.

The Companions consider this. He has no weapons and everything except his clothes, as his possessions were in the farm house that is burning down. Rowan says he was scared and ran away, but he would like to learn how to stand and fight. Banquo bemoans his lack of horse and tells him hard luck.

You can join us

Slowly though the Companions change their mind, deciding they could use someone to do jobs. He would have to ride with Malcolm, who agrees to take him. Rowan is very pleased and promises to do whatever they ask. Banquo gives him the sword and the helmet of the Goblin Leader. He also advises the farm hand to keep quiet and do what he is told.

Rowan gets on the back of Malcolm’s horse and the Companions leave the farm. As they head back to the main road, they encounter a group of local farmers who are rushing to aide their neighbour. They challenge the Companions, thinking they are the attackers. Rowan helps the Companions persuade the men that they were responsible for driving off the goblins.

Banquo tells them they are going after the goblins and invites them to join the hunt, but they do not have horses to keep up. Logan gives Banquo an odd look, as this is clearly not what they are planning to do. The men head onto the farm and the Companions head back to the main road.

Back on the Trail of the Bandits

On the main road, Logan finds the tracks of the bandits who have Prince Edmund and they resume the pursuit. The road has a lot of tracks and following them is not easy, but Logan has got used to what their tracks look like. There is a horse with a twisted horse shoe, which helps him be sure it is the right group he is tracking.

Further along they come to a village that the road goes through. The locals are defensive of riders on horseback and question the Companions, but they soon allow them to ride on.

Later that day, Logan realises he was lost track of the bandits. He cannot find their tracks anywhere. They are forced to go back down the road to find them. Fortunately, he is able to determine that they turned off the main road onto a side trail.

Hidden Trail

The trail is difficult to follow and overgrown. The direction is also much more north, which could mean it leads into the Goblin Kingdom of Thurazur. As they travel, Rowan asks Malcolm where they are going, but Malcolm does not give him any useful answers.

After a while they cross a stream and emerge in a less wooded area, which has signs that a previous camp has been here. As it is getting late, Logan decides this would be a good place to set up camp.

Making Camp

They quickly set Rowan tasks such as collecting fire wood and preparing some food. After he has done his work, Banquo agrees to start teaching him how to use a sword and gives him brief information about their quest to rescue Prince Edmund.

Logan spends a bit of time examining the remains of the previous camp, trying to learn more about this group of bandits.

Once a fire is lit, Sam decides to use his fire magic to divine some information from the flames of the fire. He is able to cause the fire to show him what the camp looked like when the bandits lit their camp fire. He can see there are around a dozen of them and they have Prince Edmund with them, tied up and gagged.

Vision of the Bandits

Sam notices that a grizzled, older man, probably an ex-soldier, is the leader of the group. He also has a skinny, long, red-haired man with a nasty face who is his right-hand man, who Sam had seen in his vision in the Pool of Navron cut the throats of some of the monks. There is also a very large man who bashed the head in of at least one monk and a woman with a bow. They are the most noticeable members of the bandit group, the rest are fairly non-descript.

The group also seems rather sullen, considering they have achieved their goal of capturing the Prince. Sam seems them ungag Edmund and give him food, while they appear to mock the Prince. There is no sound, just a vision, but Sam gets some clues from their faces.

Coat of Arms of Prince Edmund

Sam lets everyone know about the lead members of the bandits he has identified from his visions. The lines up with some of the observations of the tracks made by Logan

Sam then goes to where Prince Edmund was left tied up. He notices that the Prince has drawn the Coat of Arms of the Royal House of Cariele in the ground. They remember it from the tabard Edmund wore at the wedding, before he changed into the pilgrims robes that Brother William gave him in Greenest.

Disturbing Village

Their camp overnight is uneventful. Rowan stays up with one of them to do a watch. In the morning, they resume their journey along this trail.

Further along the trail, it begins to rise into some hills. They come across a skeleton hanging in a cage, which stands before an eerie, abandoned village. There are only a few houses, but the tracks of the bandits go right through it.

They stop to investigate the village briefly. What little is left in the buildings is rotten and useless. Logan finds an old, defiled tree to Eric. Rowan is very spooked by the village, but manages to keep his nerve.

The Hidden Old Keep

They leave the village, which is high up in the hills and the trail heads back down eastwards and they cross a stream. The trail then follows the stream north and leads between two hills into a valley.

Logan then spots a building, what looks like an old, abandoned keep in the valley ahead that is mostly surrounded by hills. The other end of the valley ends in a lake. The stream runs down the middle of the valley and flows into the lake. There is a narrow waterway leading between two hills at the other end of the valley. There is also the ruins of a farm on the opposite side of the stream from the Keep.

It seems like the Keep can only be reached by following the trail, as it is not visible outside the valley.

Hiding from View

They cautiously follow the trail along the side of the hill. They can see smoke coming from a chimney, suggesting someone is living in the Keep.

When they round a corner they are in full view of the Keep. They stop and back off around the corner to avoid being seen.

Slipping through the Shadows

They discuss what to do next. Banquo proposes that he take Rowan and scout the place out, but Malcolm says he can slip into the Shadow Realm and investigate without being seen. They decide that would be a better idea.

Malcolm sneaks ahead then uses his special ability to step into a shadow in this world and tries into the Shadow Realm, but he has not done this for a while and finds it difficult to get into the right mental state to make it happen. Eventually though he makes it.

In the Shadow Realm, he sees that the Keep exists there too. There is a tall tower, with a disturbing, fell light that seems to pulsate in the top room of the tower, which is odd because he usually finds the Realm empty. The whole atmosphere is much more disturbing and some sort of large bird caws loudly in the sky, making him jump.

Inside the Keep Dungeons

Composing himself, Malcolm moves towards the tower and tries to work out how to emerge next to the Keep but not inside it. However, the Shadow Realm is dark and disorientating and he struggles to find a shadow to step through. When he finally doesfind one to step through, he finds himself indoors - in the Keep.

It is dark, but there is a burning torch at the end of the corridor. He soon realises he is in a dungeon and there are cells, mostly rotted and empty. He checks the cells as he moves towards the torch. As he reaches the end of the corridor, there are some stairs going up by the burning torch. In the cell next to the stairs is someone asleep, who is wearing pilgrim’s robes. It is almost certainly Prince Edmund.

Crazy Chase

Malcolm decides not to disturb him for now. He heads up the stairs and finds a guard room, in which a big, burly man is sat. He is awake but has not noticed anything yet. Malcolm realises the man will see him if he crosses the room, but realises he has no choice. The man shouts out and begins to chase him.

Malcolm then runs through the Keep, relying on his instincts to take the right turns. He is lucky and finds a way out. They see him emerge from the Keep, being chased by a large, angry-looking man and another man.

End of Episode Ten