Mission 05, Not Exactly A Journey to Shadowed Keep…
Party: Hilniflit, Franmar, Fledermaus, Ioelena, Finial, Callehalahath
Day 0: Settled up with the city taxes for Mission 04 loot. Guild Kitty after buying supplies: 906 GP, 18 CP
Day 01: Party heads out of town with the intention of returning to the Shadowed Keep and clearing it of its goblin problem. Hilniflit was a bit distracted the first day, but something about meeting and talking to squirrels happened?
Day 02: (P) decides to take a new approach to the Shadowed Keep via the town of New Keep after hearing about a giant destroying the town's bridge. The journey on the new trail is otherwise uneventful and (P) makes camp an hour or so just outside of the town.
Day 03: New Keep turns out to be a hamlet of some 30 homes and an unfinished keep. When (P) arrives, they find chaos as a two headed giant (a ~15' ettin) is rampaging the cattle stock, swinging a massive piece of timber, killing townsfolk, smashing structures and stealing cattle. The ettin roars at the party and retreats into the surrounding woods before the party gets a chance to attack. The village is too preoccupied with tending the wounded and hastily repairing structures to give much detail, but the party is pointed in the direction of the Iomedae temple where they find the priest Restic.
Restic explains that for the last few weeks, this ettin has been coming by day in a rampage as witnessed by the party, but has also been spotted sneaking around at night, quietly. It is even suspected of scrawling a riddle on the wall of the temple:
Two heads have we but born with one,We avenged, healed and protected,Our master was invincible,But punished all we who objected,He did we the six-armed king,And so by our god were rejected,Thus, this is our fate,One head, twice bisected.
Restic tells the party that he even suspects the paint and brushes that were used for the riddle were stolen from Jolden, a farmer in town. The party's line of questioning leads them to the village elder, Hanah who fills in some of the local history: Hanah tells the party about Aranda, the mayor of new keep and Malwick, the half-elf son whose father was killed by the ettin after his father shot it with an arrow.
The party, suspecting a mystery afoot with the strange behavior of the ettin between night and day, heads to the mayor's keep to meet with her. Aranda, the mayor, fills the party in with some more local history: New Keep is called New Keep because the villagers had to flee Old Keep (a few hours South) because an evil wizard took up residence in the Old Keep and drove them away. They were just starting to scrape out an existence when this ettin arrived and started causing problems and smashed the town's bridge, hindering their ability to seek help.
The mayor points the party in the direction of Malwick, the young half-elf whose father was killed by the ettin. Malwick is obviously distraught and only has thoughts of slaying the ettin. The party suspects there's more to the story, so they decline his company in their plan to track the giant.
Following the ettin's trail cautiously (and surprisingly stealthily for this group), the group stumbles upon a party of 8 hobgoblins lead by a hobgoblin named Boothram. Hilniflit, scouting the forward position, decides that now is not the time for a rousing scrap and instead decides to try speaking with the hobgoblins – who seem a little rattled. It turns out they have also been harassed by the ettin – even after trying to ally with it in common, bad-humanoid agendas. They tell the party that the ettin is holed up in Old Keep. The party suggests if they can resolve the ettin problem for the hobgoblins, the hobgoblins will leave the town of New Keep alone. The hobgoblins agree to this deal and both parties part peacefully.
Shortly after, the party stumbles across a smaller giant with beady eyes, standing in the middle of the road – an ogre. Before the party knows what's happening, another ogre steps out of the woods behind them. Diplomacy is clearly off the table, so Fledermaus knocks an arrow and buries it deep into the rear ogre's eye. The ogre bellows and charges Iolena and smashes its club into her. Callehalahath's tiger springs into action to attack the front ogre and is joined by the rest of the party. Finial races to Iolena's aid and tends to her wounds despite an ogre bearing down on their position. Fledermaus somehow escapes near death this time and actually manages to drop the rear ogre with just three arrows – an impressive feat, really.
With a combination of fire, weapons and tiger teeth, the front ogre is eventually dispatched as well. The ogres were carrying 100 GP and a very old, gold ring etched with fish designs. The party learns it's a Ring of Swimming that allows the wearer of the ring to swim far beyond any natural ability (+5 to swimming skill worth 1000 GP).
The party nears Old Keep as it gets dark and decides to make camp in the nearby woods.
Day 4: The party observes from afar that Old Keep is a squat, old stone tower with a circular parapet. The same riddle from New Keep seems to be scrawled on the outer wall with blackened firewood, but much is smudged. They also see a few relatively new gravestones with the names Zimian, Kordel and Thorvald Halfgranite inscribed on them.