6 Flamerule, 1368: The Tower and its Guards

5pm

Finally, the castle is in view! It's a series of three circular floors, each smaller than the one below. There's a small wooden and thatch building to the side. The tower is surrounded by a fetid, stagnant moat without any visible bridge, only a small wooded dock on either side. From where the PCs stand, a bleak field is between them and the moat, with a broken path leading to the moat's edge.

They walk the path and skeletal hands reach out of the earth and attempt to grab the feet of the party. All, except Stago, manage to jump aside. Skeletal hands firmly hold Stago's ankles.

Four human skeletons erupt from the ground the party stands upon. Merle runs away in horror. Routunious successfully turns the undead and the skeletons sink back into the earth.

The party walks to the 25' moat surrounding the castle. There are neither windows nor arrow slits. There is no bridge across the moat. A pile of leaves are in the middle of the moat between the end of the path and the castle.

Stago tosses a live chicken at the pile of leaves. Two vine-like arms grab it and pull it under water. There's a discussion of what to do next. In addition to the high probability that the water itself might cause disease, at the very least nausea, it appears that at least one shambling mound resides in there.

Selina ties a rope around Elessaria, who goes to the edge of the moat.

"Let's shoot it!" Stago shouts.

"Shoot what? You can't see it." The elf replies without looking at him.

"I wasted my chicken!" The gnome mourns.

Stago and Merle throw rocks into the moat, but nothing happens. Stago starts talking about swimming across in pairs, but the rest of the party decides the water is incredibly filthy, of un-known depth, with at least one monster, if not more.

"How many monsters can there be? They're expensive." Grumbled Stago.

Selina lassos a pier on the opposite side of the moat. She uses her amazing skills of rope-craft to build a small rope bridge very similar to what we crossed earlier. She walks across and discovers a box on a pole. She pulls and turns a valve in the
box and a metal bridge extends across the moat. The party walks across.

Selina knocks on the iron door of the castle. Suddenly a trapdoor in front of the
castle opens, but Selina manages to hang onto the handle until the trap closes
a minute later. She tries the handle again and again the trapdoor opens. There seems to be a long, dark chute leading to the bowels of the castle. Selina tries to pick the lock from several difficult positions because she doesn't want to fall down
the trapdoor.

Failing that, she climbs up to the top of the castle, but has several nasty falls which do a lot of damage. She ends up drinking a draught of the potion of extra healing. At the top, she sees a metal door with a handle. She can't open the door, so she ties a rope to the handle and tosses it to the party below. They give it the old heave-ho, but nothing budges. Selina shimmies down the rope and tries to pick the lock while hanging upside down. Finally, she disables the trapdoor, stands at the door to the tower, and successfully picks the lock.

Behind the outer doors is an iron portcullis (a vertically lowered gate consisting of horizontal and vertical bars, the latter pointed at the bottom) and behind that
is a wooden door.

"We've answered your summons! We've faced your challenges! Let us inside!" The party shouts through the closed door.

Someone on the other side yells back, "Come in."

Elessaria attempts to lift the gate using her incredible strength, but fails. Tick-A-Tick then tries and slowly lifts the portcullis and holds it above his head. The wooden doors are barred from the inside, but Elessaria bursts through, breaking
the bar.

Inside, a group of people are in the antechamber, applauding. "You are the first to pass my tests," Says the one in wizard garb, the man they recognize as Shandar, "You're very welcome in my home."