The party decided to camp for 8 hours to refresh their resources and approach the Keep in near darkness (it is 2 days past the full moon). Before sleeping, Luna tells the story of the keep as she remembers it.
Vraath Keep has a tragic history, as the ruins and skeletal remains attest. For centuries, trade through the Witchwood used the Dawn Way, and the soldiers stationed at Vraath Keep were the primary defenders of the region. Their presence kept the road safe for merchants to travel. A few years before the fall of Lhespen, an ambitious young man named Amery Vraath inherited control of the keep. After the Lhespilor kingdom dissolved, Amery laid claim to the entire Witchwood and sought to rid his new domain of its evil reputation. Chief among his targets was a tribe of forest giants that dwelt deep in the woods. Known as the Twistusks, these forest giants generally kept to themselves but raided merchants on the Dawn Way from time to time.
The brash young lord gathered together an impressive group of mercenaries and adventurers, and early one summer day led his force against the Twistusks. The battle was furious, but in the end Amery’s men won the day and forced the Twistusks to flee into the mountains. The soldiers burned the giants’ steading to the ground and returned to Vraath, victorious. Yet their victory was short-lived. One week later, the surviving Twistusks returned and attacked Vraath Keep during a tremendous thunderstorm. The giants bombarded the keep all night long with hurled boulders and massive poisoned arrows. When the sun rose, four of the Twistusks lay dead amid the ruined keep, but none of the keep’s soldiers or residents remained.
Those who had survived the battle were taken away to be eaten by the giants in their own victory feast—all except for Amery Vraath. The young lordling retreated into the vault below his keep after he was shot by a forest giant’s poisoned arrow, hoping to elude death, only to perish slowly of his poisoned wound. Rumors persist that Amery’s ghost haunts the ruins, and that those who dare to travel the Dawn Way at night say they sometimes hear the sounds of his anguished cries coming from somewhere deep underground.
Eryk and Shade climbed up the hill in relative silence and scoped out the area.
Looming out of the shadowy woods ahead is a haunting sight—a ruined keep. The old castle sits on a small rocky hillock, and you can catch glimpses of a broken tower between the trees. A moss-covered stone at the side of the road you’re following marks a footpath that looks like it leads up to the keep.
A 20 minute scramble up the hill side provided more information:
The old keep is in very poor repair. The gatehouse is partially collapsed, as is a section of wall to the south. A small wooden building sits next to the remains of a long-abandoned garden in front of the structure. The walls surrounding the keep are about fifteen feet high, with a two-story tower looming in the southwest corner of the courtyard within. Large boulders lie strewn amid the ruins of the two watch towers, and a massive humanoid skeleton slumps amid the ruins of the northern one. This skeleton still wears tattered fragments of hide armor, and a large club lies next to one of its bony arms.
Additionally:
A thin plume of smoke rises from the southern portion of the keep. A sickly greenish-yellow light flickers inside the second floor of the ruined tower, and the faint sound of eerie moaning can be heard from within.
They returned to the party and gathered everyone deciding that the best approach would be through the hole in the southern wall. Amazingly, they were quiet enough on their approach that the inhabitants were initially caught unaware. The keep contingent consisted of 6 Hobgoblin Veterans, a minotaur, 3 goblin warg riders, a manticore, and a bugbear sorcerer.
The battle was suitably epic [add details you would like here]. All of the creatures were slain except for the sorcerer, who escaped using a potion of gaseous form [Knowledge (arcana) DC 20 check to guess this]. Unfortunately, the sorcerer was able to blind Shade before he fled [though Luna can fix this after another night’s rest].
Vraath Keep Descriptions:
Courtyard:
This courtyard of hard-packed earth has an eerie air of desolation. Jagged boulders embedded in the ground seem to have been dropped here, or thrown from a great distance; many of the walls bear large dents and cracks where these boulders might have once struck. Two massive skeletons lie at opposite ends of the courtyard, one propped up by the watchtower and the other sprawled at the far end by a building that could be a stable. To the south, where a section of the keep’s outer wall has collapsed, a third giant skeleton lies partially buried in the rubble.
Barracks:
The interior of this stone building is open and spacious. Wooden timbers support the roof above, and here and there the remains of what were probably once interior dividing walls are evident. Two large boulders sit on the floor to the south, near a large hole that has been knocked in the southeast wall. Rubble from this hole has been piled in a circle to form a crude fire pit. Against the west wall of the room are arranged four double-bunk beds, each strewn with filthy covers. Another bed, this one larger, sits near the south wall, partially obscured by a badly damaged wooden screen. A poorly stuffed owlbear looms in the center of the room.
Stables:
This large wooden building has a thin layer of dry, moldering straw strewn across the floor. To the east, an open area contains a decrepit, dust-caked forge and a large mound of moldy straw. A battered table
with four chairs sits in the middle of the room. To the west, four horse stalls divide up the remaining space.
Bedroom:
This circular chamber has been outfitted with a mix of furniture, including a large desk, an overstuffed chair, a massive four-poster bed, and a large easel that holds a sizable canvas covered with a sheet. A flight of stairs arcs up along the south wall to the upper floor, and a fair amount of rubble from a hole in the ceiling lies heaped on the base of these stairs.
END EPISODE 3 [+2375 xp for day]
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