Summary
Daelius pushed open the heavy steel door and the party saw a coffin on a dais. The spread out to explore the room while the paladin approached the coffin and knelt before it in prayer. A rumbling grew and coffin lid was pushed aside as a heavily armored skeleton rose up and brandished a ornate sword at them. "The rift must never be re-opened! Are you friend or foe!" said an unearthly voice.

The party assured the skeletal figure that they were trying to stop the cult, and learned that this was all that remained of Sir Keegan, the knight of Bahamut that originally imprisoned the shadow dragon Shadraxil many centuries ago. Sir Keegan fell prey to Shadraxil's machinations from beyond the veil, though, and slew his family and underlings before falling himself. In penance he was charged with guarding Shadowfell Keep for eternity, but he had been confined to his tomb by some dark and powerful force. He interrogated the party about their strength and resolve before deciding to aid them, first giving them information about the remainder of the dungeon before reaching the veil and second gifting Daelius the sword Aecris.

The party bid Sir Keegan farewell and followed his instruction on reaching the lower levels of the dungeon. Daelius kept turning Aecris over and over, feeling its weight and marveling at the pommel carved into the likeness of a dragon, and so intent was he on the sword that he did not notice the pack of zombies guarding the top of the stairs. Luckily the rest of the party covered his mistake and quickly cut down the zombies. Vaunea was traveling in the rear and being used to the outdoors was confused by the echoes cast by the fight, becoming convinced that another lot of zombies were moving in from behind. With a shout she rushed back the way they came. Pale Noon and Daelius followed in a parallel hallway, but so surprised her when the corridors intersected that she hurled a javelin at them before recognizing them, nearly slicing a finger off of Daelius' shield hand.

A rather embarrassed looking Vaunea returned to the rest of the party and the slain zombies, and they began to walk cautiously down the stairs. A cold voice hailed them, saying "Shadow seeks shadow." The party tightened their grips on their weapons when Pale Noon called out "And life fails in the dark," for he recognized the phrase from his lessons on the religion of Shar. The hobgoblin guards at the base of the stairs continued to eye them cautiously but Pale Noon convinced them at the party was there to reinforce the force on the orders of Kalarel. They were escorted to Murthog, the hobgoblin warchief, who sent them to the mess hall while a messenger was sent to Kalarel for his instructions.

Finding himself in a room full of noise and eating could not help himself, and leaped onto one of the tables to sing a ditty. The hobgoblins were less discerning than the crowd back at the Drunken Druid Inn, and as they focused on Rolen the rest of the party slipped into position around the room. At the final note of Rolen's song the party drew their weapons and began to kill the unsuspecting hobgoblins. Galstaff covered their noise by replicating Rolen's song once again while Vauena wedged the door shut, and at first the surprise worked perfectly.

With just a few hobgoblins left standing, Fizzwig flung himself onto the back of one right before Daelius cut open its throat. The dead hobgoblin stumbled awkwardly and with a shriek Fizzwig found himself pinned underneath it. Vaunea moved away from the door to help him but slipped in the pool of blood forming, and instead fell upon corpse and elicited another shriek from the pinned Fizzwig. Ruhsbaar tried to help Vaunea up, but the goliath's weight imbalanced him and he pitched forward as well, with only a weak gurgle coming from the gnome at the bottom of the pile. Daelius turned as Galstaff slew the last hobgoblin and his eyes widened as the saw just a small tuft of purple hair poking out from underneath so many prone figures. With a grunt he lowered his shoulder and pushed Rushbaar, Vaunea and the dead hobgoblin off of Fizzwig who gasped for breath and was unable to speak, an oddity to be sure.

Galstaff let the ghost sound drop and rounded a side corridor in time to see three wide-eyed hobgoblins, one of whom darted off towards Muthrog's chambers. There was only a moment to catch their breath before a horde of hobgoblins rushed down the narrow corridor leading to the mess hall. Galstaff was in his element, though, with a large number of foes and no allies in the way. Lightning and flame punished the cramped hobgoblins, and only Murthog and a few of the sturdier soldiers managed to burst through and fight the rest of the party. Galstaff became so confident he was lazy with the incantation for his force orb, and it flew off too early hitting both Vaunea and Pale Noon as they kept guard over the vanguard.

The armor of the hobgoblins that had made it through were deflecting many of the party's attacks and Daelius was grievously injured. Rolen pulled him back to heal and then took his place on the front lines as Pale Noon began shouting where the chinks in the armor were, turning the battle once again in their favor. Just then another well armored hobgoblin charged through Galstaff arcane barrage and time seemed to slow as his flail screamed towards Rolen's unprotected head. With a shout Daelius threw himself forward, catching the blow awkwardly on his shoulder. Baelfius and Pale Noon combined to bring down Murthog the warchief, and the rest of the hobgoblins morale broke and they began to flee.

Rolen walked up to the tiefling paladin as he probed his injured shoulder and offered him the health potions from the temple of Chauntea. "I have misjudged your character paladin, truly you are an honorable man."

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OOC
The crit fails continue to provide ample amusement, so keep them coming! I think most people are hitting level 3 now, so remember to update your character sheets and post in your individual threads the changes you are making. Cheers!

Experience

• 100xp (800/8) for talking your way into the area

  • Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Daelius, Ruhsbaar, Vauenea

• 220xp (1760/8) for slaying many hobgoblins

  • Pale Noon, Galstaff, Rolen, Baelfius, Fizzwig, Daelius, Ruhsbaar, Vauenea

Loot

• Plenty of food and water... and BEER

• 40g from the assorted coin purses of slain hobgoblins

• A heavy iron-bound chest in the warchief's chambers (locked)

Hobgoblins like wine!
Hobgoblins like cheese!
Hobgoblins like meat!
Hobgoblins like meeeead!

Hobgoblins like fighting, Hobgoblins like action!
...Keep paying attention to this big distraction!

<ooc> I wish we had written down the song at the time, since Fizzwig chiming in at the end about the distraction/diversion was the best part.

The party begins to explore their immediate surroundings and find a few coins on the hobgoblins, plenty of provisions in the larder off of the mess hall, and a heavy iron-bound chest in what appears to have been Murthog's personal chambers beyond the meeting room they originally met him in.

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OOC
Blessing asked OOC for a map of what you have seen. I think in the future I will only be providing maps of places you have not seen that are described by NPCs, so you may want to designate yourselves a map maker so have a good idea of what is going on layout-wise. For now you have a map marking the sleeping rooms (z), rooms with tables (t) and that mysterious beast room (b). Murthog's personal chambers are marked with a plus (z+). After your battle you have moved freely about in the right-half of the map (marked off by the dashed line), so feel free to RP and continue to explore over there w/o risk of provoking enemies. Cheers!

Pale Noon was intrigued about the purpose of the wells, so he wanders over to the two rooms and peers down.
Pale Noon looks around. 21 (Perception)

He also wanders closer to the mysterious beast room and sees if he can identify the creatures.
Pale Noon tries something natural. 3 (Nature)

Ruhsbaar stands up slowly, rubbing the muscles in his legs and scolding himself for his failed attempt to lift Vaunea and Fizzwig, leaving his meager clothing soaked and stained in the dark Carnelian blood spewing from the neck of Daelius' latest kill.

Back on his feet, the monk looks around the room, noting the location of his companions and scanning for any other imminent danger. Satisfied with his own safety, Ruhsbaar begins a thorough inspection of this latest set of rooms in the Shadowkeep.

Unconcerned with gold and treasure, Ruhsbaar instead is hunting for information. Making his way to each of the fresh corpses, he empties their pockets in search of notes or other cult communications and ruffles through all of the furniture hoping to find a book of Sharran history or perhaps a log of the cults activities in the Keep.

** OOC **
Perception Roll: 27
Dungeoneering Roll: 15
** OOC **

Content with his investigation for now, Ruhsbaar heads back to the mess-hall and helps himself to a bit of bread and water. Hunger appeased, the tall human shoves the table he was seated at away and clears the corner(town) of the room. Reaching into a small pouch dangling at his waist (OOC: inside the waistband, hands off Riot) his fingers come out clenching a small stick of dusty white chalk.

The monk seats himself cross-legged in the clearing and begins drawing a simple but imperfect circle around him, pausing at the four cardinal directions to draw a set of small symmetrical runes that cross the jagged circle. Finishing the circle in a sweep of his arm, Ruhsbaar returns the chalk to his pouch and places his hands down atop his folded knees. Exhaling sharply he tilts his head down to the floor and begins talking softly in an unknown language.

Perhaps ten minutes go by like this before Ruhsbaar lifts his head up again and opens his eyes, slowly lifting himself to his feet again. Shuffling a few steps to the displaced table the monk grabs a decanter of water and drinks deeply, then upends the vessel above his circle, washing away some of the chalk and breaking the off-white circle on the floor. Refreshed and centered mentally, Ruhsbaar walks back to his teammates.