Pawns and Patrons: Episode 01

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==Synopsis==
The party, working for various patreons, enter the keep in search of missing people. The party fight vine horrors at the front gate of the keep, with 5 party members slain. The party head into the courtyard and the last person into the courtyard is impaled by the falling portculus. One person dies falling to their death near a pit. The party head into a door nearby and fight some mutated villagers. 3 people die in this combat. The surviving party members save the captured 7 villagers.
==Characters==
Grannneal, age 85, escaped a match-maker trying to set her up with the local carpenter. Hagatha running a con feeding the people. Guy Claypool lives in the town, Barbara's ancestors are dead.
Frog Dude has family in town. Fran is here to pay a debt (borrowed someone's horse), Shambler has a romantic interest in town, Pbeggi is in town to sell a goat. 
Redreh is in town on temporary profession work. Del Derp is in town on itinerant labour, Mom Shuro has always lived in town. Growl A Bless lives in town too.
Agnes is in town selling chests (has a dog named Steven). Beverly lives in town. Cyrie lives in town. Dunnaetouché is here on seasonal work.
==Recap==
The story begins in the hamlet of Oakwell. It is ruled by Justice Snish. People have been going missing in town, even the son of the local smith. Then one night one of the missing people came back into town, deformed terribly, saying "the keep" as his last words. The party have heard of the ruined keep nearby.
Rumors the party know:
* Beware the well.
* Nothing good can from distirbung the evil ruins. You'll only disturb the horror beneath the hill.
* The keep was once ruled by a pair of brothers- chaos lords, the foulest champions of evil stalk the land.
The party are watched in a crystal ball by 4 people Patron Anoir of the Whispering Cowl, Patron Peterhof the Prophet of Teotwaki, Patron Vallery of House Callie, & Patron Cara of The House of A New Day
===Vine Horrors at the Front of the Keep===
At the entrance to the keep are some dead bodies, those of the blacksmiths. As the party approach, vine horrors appear. A vine horror attacks Frog Dude, killing him, then slays Pbeggi. Another vine horror attacks Del Derp & Mom Shuro, killing them both. 
Beverly & Cyrie, lovers, fight together at the vine horror in front of them. Dunnaetouché throws a dagger. Redreh joins Beverly & Cyrie and attacks their vine horror, but misses with their staff. Growl A Bless hides. Shambler moves 10 feet and sends a dog in to get attacked. Fran attacks with a pitchfork, killing off one of the vine horror.
Granneal, Guy Claypool, Barbara attack the other vine horror. Hagatha takes Frog Dude's body away from the combat. Hagatha wants to stuff Frog Dude but doesn't have the skills. The vine horror attacks Guy Claypool killing him. Barbara avoids an attack.
Beverly & Cyrie go over to fight the other vine horror, but they both miss their attacks. Dunnaetouché misses with his dagger. Redreh convinces Growl A Bless to join the fight and they both attack the vine horror.
Neal the horse does not help with the fight, which annoys Fran. Fran attacks the vine horror. Barbara finishes off the vine horror. 
Dead: Frog Dude (Anna), Pbeggi (Anna), Del Derp (Gen), Mom Shuro (Gen), Guy Claypool (Neal)
===Aftermath of Vine Horror fight===
Hagatha starts to gather some of the vines the dead vine horror. Growl A Bless finds a shovel on one of the dead. The party decide to dig the party a grave. The dead party members as well as the dead blacksmiths are buried. Growl A Bless puts down 7 glass beads above the grave. Dunnaetouché steals the glass beads when no one is looking.
Cyrie looks around and finds tracks from some large cats, like a cougar, but there are some differences. Fran want to protect the horse Neal and the goat from the big cat. 
===The Courtyard of the Keep===
Barbara scouts ahead to the gate ahead of the party. She enters the keep courtyard and sees a sinkhole as collapsed a tower and some of the walls. Next to the sinkhole is a landslide that has damaged the rear wall of the keep. Beside the landslide is a well. On the section of keep that in-tact has two doors inside. When Barbara reports in what she saw, Growl A Bless warns of the well being dangerous. 
Barbara goes investigate the sinkhole that is emitting vapors. In the vapors Barbara can see visions of faces for a moment. Barbara has a premonition of that the ground under her is hollow, like walking over a frozen lake. The ground then collapsed under Barbara and she falls, dying somehow to whatever exists beneath. Cyrie goes to run to Barbara, but Beverly stops her. One of the faces in the mist looks like Barbara.
Beverly looks at the pathway and sees there are footprints of the animals, so it should be safe to keep to the path and not fall into the void. Hagatha suggests that the animals could be coming from the well itself. The tracks do go to and from the well, but no evidence that they go into the well.
As the party group up on the path, Cyrie throws a rock into the well from a distance. The well deeep and the party hear no sound of water as the rock sounds fade away.
The walls of the keep are burnt and the 2 bronze doors have hundreds of wailing demonic faces cast into them. There are toad-faced gargoyles on the walls above. One of the bronze doors are barred from the outside. Grannneal suggests they avoid the door barred from the outside. The brass door to a tower isn't barred. The part go to investigate and see the footprints head into the door. The party are paranoid about the gargoyal above the doorway. Redreh throws her grappling hook up at the gargoyle and climbs up. She looks in the arrowslit and sees a Minotaur (mutated villager with messed up limbs wearing a chaos rune on a torc). There are other twisted villagers within the room as well. Along the back wall is 7 people hanging up-side down by their ankles alive. 
===Battle with the Minotaur===
Redreh gathers the party together to explain what is happening. As everyone enters the keep, 2 monsters drop the portcullis on Hagatha, killing her, but the party don't notice. The party talk tactics of what to deal with those inside. Shambler climbs up to look in the arrow slit but the minotaur sees them. The minotaur swings their axe, killing Shambler.
The brass door bursts open and the minotaur leads the group of 5 twisted villagers to confront the party outside the tower. The party defend themselves.
Graneal kills one of the twisted villagers. Granneal is slain by the twisted villagers. The party focus damage on the minotaur. The minotaur slays Cyrie, Beverly falls down in despair at the loss of her lover. Redreh gets the killing blow on the minotaur. The twisted villager despair. Two twisted villager flee from the party. Growl A Bless kills a twisted villager. Beverly kills another twisted villager. The rest of the twisted villagers flee. 
Dunnaetouché loots the minotaur's silver torc. Fran wants it, so trade Fran's bag for it. 
Dead: Barbara (Neal), Hagatha (Neal), Granneal (Neal), Shambler (Anna), Cyrie (Rachel), 
===Into the tower===
The party go into the tower and find the 7 prisoners still chained up alive, hanging from their ankles upside-down. After the 7 people are freed, they agree to join the party.
Dunnaetouché looks around for loot and finds a secret alcove containing coins (53 sp 23 gp and 2 pp_, a finely crafted elven shortsword and a cloak. Dunnaetouché takes the money and reveals the cloak and sword to the party. Beverly takes the sword from Dunnaetouché.
There is a large double door leading from inside the tower.
==Deaths==
Deaths this episode:
* Anna: Frog Dude, Pbeggi, Shambler,
* Gen: Del Derp, Mom Shuro, 
* Neal: Guy Claypool, Barbara, Hagatha, Granneal
* Rachel: Cyrie
Category:Pawns & Patrons Episodes
Category:Pawns & Patrons