Master of the Ruined Outpost Report
General Summary
Harvester 29, 2321 AR
2021-11-17
The second set of guards, who looked like they just scrambled out of bed and hastily threw on their gear, wasn't much of a challenge either. Then something surprising happened. Not a minute after the last guard fell, the only door in the northern room opens, and another guard comes out and announces, "the new master will see you now." Entering the room, fully expecting a trap, the party notices that the room is lavishly decorated. One guard stands at the end of a short hallway, where a very attractive man, with long blonde hair stands with a grizzled warrior, obviously the leader of the guardsmen. The blonde wears black lacquered plate mail, with a spiderweb symbol on his chest. He apparently went through the time and expense of having musculature etched into the armor, and even had the codpiece oversized. "Impressive. You made it through all of my guards, and I assume you carved your way through the gnolls and bugbears as well." were his first words. He introduced himself as Lareth, and when the whole party entered his chambers, he mis-identified Balan as Gymno before saying hello to "fair Elyot" and Crasock. To Adrea, he commented, "I don't know of you, yet." He then thanked the party for solving that "nasty goblin problem" before saying that "we" could use a team like yours. He offers the party a deal, they return to Hillsboro as the heroes, and he would leave the Ruined Outpost to them. They could likely get "the lovebirds" to give them the rights to the place. "We" would help you rebuild the outpost, and all the while giving you assignments to help our cause. Your missions would come from Dornath, and they would be similar in scope to what you're already doing, wiping out humanoid lairs and bandit nests who won't cooperate with "us." We would need to be sure of your loyalties before any of our people in Hillsboro revealed themselves. Elyot asks who "us" and "we" refer to, but Lareth plainly states that they would need to earn much more trust before learning anything else. He suggests feeling out the rest of the companions back in Hillsboro. "We" can arrange for accidents for the ones who don't cooperate. He seemed absolutely giddy about their involvement, imagine if when we finally attack Hillsboro, their great new heroes were leading our forces. It would demoralize them completely. You may even save some of their lives as they run in despair. He does warn the party about being too vocal in Dornath, because "the lovebirds" certainly have spies of their own there. At that point, Adrea asks that they be able to talk it over in private. Once the companions were out of earshot, they all agreed that this Master Lareth needed to pay. Walking back in, the battle was joined. Lareth wasn't surprised by the attack, and actually seemed to relish it. Using the powers of his God to coat his weapon in necromantic energy and to guide his strikes so that they hit true. Adrea was almost brought down, a lucky dagger strike would have killed her. Balan was soon on the ground dying. Elyot managed to seriously hurt Lareth enough that Crasock was able to bring him down. Then kicked him in the head for good measure. Taking some time to rest, the companions gathered Lareth's treasures and headed out. Unfortunately, the bugbears that Lareth mentioned, and the party didn't meet set up an ambush just outside of the guarded area of Lareth's domain. Though the bugbears inflicted some damage, they fell fairly quickly. Based on the conversation with Lareth, they knew that there was a way to raise the portcullis trap from this side. Searching, they found a secret room with the controls. Raising the portcullis, they made their way back to the secure bandit base and reconnected with the merchant Osgar and the miner Cuthred. It would take some time and coordination to get everything they've uncovered back to the Black Quartz, and to let the powers that be in Hillsboro know of the threat.Character(s) interacted with
Lareth
Crasokk
Balan
Adrea Ravensworn
Elyot
Report Date
17 Nov 2021
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Characters
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