Castlecrashing

After about a month of scouting done by Roddy and Ripley, the Runners were ready to claim the bandit-infested Morningstar Keep as their own -- and the perfect opportunity provided itself when part of the bandits broke off to raid the nearby town of Glimmerton. Hansel, Mishka, and Ripley took on the task of defending the town, while Nixie, Goro, Roddy, and Larkin set to work infiltrating the castle.

They used the secret entrance behind the waterfall to creep directly into the basement, where Roddy reported a dungeon and vault. There, they met Gwydion, who'd been captured by the bandits and tossed into a cell -- as well as Vincent, a thief who'd gotten himself captured as well, but seemed unbothered about it and was chipping away at the wall in his cell. He told the Runners that the vault was just on the other side of the wall

Goro objected to this on grounds that the gold in the vault was going to be theirs soon, so this was a Problem for him, and after some bickering and bantering, Vincent revealed himself to actually be Ombre, saying she was there to get some gold for some friends of hers who were in financial straits. This pacified Goro and the rest, and they left her to it.

The gang continued to scout out the castle, but it was strangely empty, even for a chunk of the bandits to be in town. Then they discovered a dead body in the dining hall, and soon after, a pair of injured bandit archers who told them that there was a group of thieves sweeping through the castle killing everyone. Sure enough, the Runners found several more corpses littered around the place, including a bunch of them in the guardhouse -- all slain by arrows and many, many stab wounds. They also found some living bandits to fight, though every chest they ran across had already been cleaned out except for the ones in the keep's attached tower, where they found an unrelated thief but let him live. Goro nabbed himself a restorative ointment, and Nixie got a Constellation Cloak that allowed her to cast more Magic Missiles.

When they bumped into Ombre again, Goro asked her if she knew anything about any deities related to storms and the sea, and off the top of her head she mentioned Auril, Umberlee, and Talos, and also the fact that the Runners had been the only actual friends she had in this century, which made Roddy sad.

Finally, the gang ascended to the top floor of the keep, where they encountered more bandits -- locked in a fight with a group of red-clothed rogues, including Jonn.

Nixie fireballed the entire group of them at the first chance she got, and Goro was so eager to run into the fray that he got beaned by an arrow trap, but the thieves -- two of whom were spellcasters -- made their escape with a teleportation spell after getting singed. Jonn blew Gwydion a kiss before he disappeared, which was not lost on Larkin.

But the good news was that the Runners had now acquired a castle of their very own -- including a teleportation circle in the dungeon, a large library, a war room, a stable, a boathouse, and plenty of bedrooms and cozy sitting areas. Plus, they were heroes to Glimmerton for getting rid of that bandit problem.

There was definitely nothing more to worry about.