The Huntsilver Castle Crashers

Four strangers, making their way in the adventuring world of Faerun, mystically meet in the mind of an old man. That old man, known throughout the realms, is The Narrator. And to be in the mind of The Narrator, you must be someone very, very special. Simply because once he begins to tell you his tale of you, he releases you from his mind, and you are then on the path of your own destiny to be fulfilled. And the destiny of these four heroes, written in the final pages of The Narrator's tale, was to save Huntsilver Castle, the last bastion of defense in the great country of Cormyr.

Within the old stone walls deep in the bowels of the castle, there entered the Cleric Dende, bringer of his God's vitality giving power. Enveloped in the shadows stood the trinket-loving Rogue, Doc. You had the free-flowing robes surrounding the free-flowing Monk, Tin-Yasa of the Old Order. And looming among them all, stood proud the Barbarian, Devon DeJesus, known to his closest allies as Tracker. They answered the call to these ancient halls, to reach their destined end. Saving Huntsilver Castle from falling into enemy hands, keeping the capital city Suzail safe from further losses in it's ongoing batles against an enemy not yet fully known.

After simple introductions were had & deciding it was best to work together & methodically, the party set out on their entry to the sub-basement of the castle. The Barbarian giving the party a taste of his feats of strength, easily lifts the large portcullis gate that was preventing them from moving into the hallway before them, itself barely lit by a far off weakly burning torch. They pass their first taste of what may be found in these old walls, as a darkened room tempted them to enter. Upon peering in through the openings in the portcullis using light from Dende, and seeing a set of manacles hanging from the back wall, they decided it would be best to continue on. This action heralded them a small notion of confidence as their Survival skills increased due to avoiding whatever may have been in that dark, smelly old space. Upon reaching the end of the hall, they discover another room with a fortified wooden door, naturally locked in place. As usually expected, Doc the Rogue made his way over and slipped his lockpick into the lock and after a few maneuvers....SNAP! "Huh, that lock felt funny" he thought as his attempt to pick the lock failed. Tin-Yasa provided a crowbar(Monk with a crowbar...huh), and with the help of the others, including Tracker holding the door steady, they managed to pry it off it's hinges and set it aside, gaining them entry into the room. It had been lit by an arrow that was tossed in and enchanted with Dende's light. This revealed a skeleton slumped on a stool sitting a desk. And also the first piece of a puzzle that would entwine their fates inside the castle's walls. Doc had used his medicinal skillset to determine this individual suffered many stab wounds. The puzzle piece, an old letter found in the pocket of the skeletal's remains' jacket, was read aloud and revealed a differing opinion between a brother and sister, named for only the signatures of the letters 'I' & 'L'. Seems one of them wanted to gain help from Cormyr's powerful internal War Wizards regime, and the other thought the mages were a sham, only seeking the riches that comes with the job. As the party discussed this blossoming revelation, their perceptive nodes pinged and made them look down the hallway. Firelight gaining in brightness and moving in their direction. Turns out the noise the party was making in the room drew the attention of something else down in the dank corridors of the sub-basement. The party entered instinctive defensive and cautious stances, weapons getting at the ready when two goblins made their way into view. Little green ugly things with leather armor and black daggers yelling at the "stupid humans" about not having "the shiny" whatever the hell that could be. And just as things were about to go down, the goblins pulled the most peculiar move. They seemed to call up a friend in a very odd tribal manner. And the friend showed up. An over-sized goblin that was either rabid or possessed. The Barbarian suffered a bite from the enlarged bugger, but suffered no ill-effects luckily so we'll just say it was crazed. Still, the hair on it's back and it's elongated claws & teeth made for a very odd looking creature. Either way they are goblins after all so they were dispatched rather easily, even for adventurers who were not exactly of the "seasoned" variety. It wont be mentioned in too much detail now of how a Barabarian and a door should not be used in conjunction when facing down monsters in a battle. Combing through the loot left behind, the most peculiar black gem was found. Held onto just in case, the party then made their way out of the sub-basement and into the actual basement level of the castle.

Seeing this as a completely uneventful, and trashed to the state of empty, floor of the building, the party rested for a spell and explored a bit. Tin-Yasa decided to take a breather as she expends quite a bit of her energy when she hands out those....hands. The rest of the party searched around, finding various items, even a couple magickal ones that either raised their eyebrows, or even a chuckle. The dried bloodstains? Well, it's a castle. Infinite possibilities to explain those, but the party was starting to see more pieces of this castle's puzzle. Eventually it was time to head into the main castle area and really lock down what had to be done to save the old haunt. As they made their way up the steps, the big strong Barbarian proved maybe not so much, as sure he could turn the door handle, but the damn door wouldnt budge! So naturally he did what a proper Barabrian does. He took a few steps back, alerting his party members to do the same as a precaution, and just....charged forward & blasted himself through the door. Dusting himself off as he walked in through to the main level, it was clear why the door wouldn't budge. The place was a wreck. In ruins you could say. Piles of debris everywhere (including against the basement door as if it was being barricaded), small smoldering piles, and an overall sense of dread. Ahead of them was a grand foyer, complete with twin winding staircases that made their way up to a 2nd floor landing. And at that landing hung on the wall was the giant portrait of a family. A man and a woman, and two children. Not surprising to see such a giant portrait in the halls of a castle. What was surprising to see was way up at the top of the far right wall, clearly out of anyone's reach except for maybe a storm giant with long arms, a most peculiar structure. Was it a door? Was it abstract art? Two large grey stones put together to form an arch, set into the empty wall space. The party as curious as a cat in a market, but also as puzzled as a cat in a market, decided to instead for now do some investigating.

Doc the Rogue decided to walk upstairs and check on the painting. And as he stood in front of it, somehow a thousand years of Cormyrean history began flashing through his mind. But to the rest of the party, he was just standing in front of the painting staring at it, frozen in time, swaying like a stiff leaf in the breeze. The first room of four seen to be searched was by Tracker who ended up in a study. It was in pristine condition. Not a mote of dust out of place. After finding a book hiding a key, and a wardrobe, he did his best Rogue impression after casting Detec Magic and discovering the key goes in the lock. And his prize? Another set of skeletal remains! This one with its hands bound and itself locked in the wardrobe. The binds on it's bony hands made of the same leather strips wrapped around the book he found in the desk with the letter O on it. 'I' 'L' 'O'... hmm wonder what that is trying to spell. Dende, who had entered a master bedroom also in pristine condition, retrieved a golden pendant with the letter 'N' upon it from the clasped hands of a perfectly preserved woman sleeping forever, veiled in some sort of magick upon her four corner post bed. 'I' 'L' 'O' *& 'N'. Discussions were had among the group about their findings so far. The bodies, the letters, and the castle. The Rogue had finally awoken from his trance and his simple reaction was to take one of the odd daggers from the goblins earlier and slice the painting. When he did, the daggers revealed themselves to be daggers with a touch of shadow magick, and the gash in the painting grew until it devoured it all, leaving just the massive frame keeping it on the wall. After some deep thinking together, they learned the portrait is of the Huntsilver family. Oren the husband and father. Nanette the Mother and wife. And their two children Lianna and Idric. This line of thinking led to the belief, along with the evidence, they had found the skeletal remains of Oren the patriarch, his son Idric and the pristinely preserved matriarch Nanette throughout the castle. Yet no Lianna. "It's gotta be LOIN!" exclaimed Tin-Yasa trying to fugre out this puzzle piece. "Bah, it must be LION" said the Rogue. As the party discussed this, they heard a grinding sound. The trigger of all four rooms being opened and closed revealed a hidden corridor in the back wall underneath the 2nd floor landing. They entered, shook seeing themselves as the entire corridor was made of reflective glass. At the end, the final puzzle revealed itself in the form of three statues, all with a missing black gem for an eye. But which one? A bird? A horse? A lion? Ahhh 'L' 'I' 'O' 'N'! After nearly giving his party a fright by placing the gem taken off the goblins earlier into the wrong statue(which would have led to horrific results), Tracker slipped it into the lion's open eye socket and heard a 'click'. Making their way back out to the main area, the castle had come alive! Sections and pieces of the entire floor magickally broke and shattered and swam around them until it formed a patchwork walkway up to the stone inlay high up on the wall!. Once there, it was revealed to be a door, and with a ring of the Chime of Opening found in the basement earlier, the stones shifted open revealing the rooftop courtyard of Huntsilver Castle.

A terrible storm raging around the perimeter of the castle gave the party enough pause to realize they were not alone on the roof. The thing that had laid claim to Huntsilver Castle knew then it itself had intruders. And it didn't like this. This was "its" castle now, not theirs! It's Master ensured no one would disturb its plan of increasing its numbers at this particular location, which would allow the grand plan of the dark ones above, to come to fruition. The party had other ideas though as the current tenant of the castle revelaed itself...

The Beast of Huntsilver Castle, a mighty chimera, slinked out of it's nest and approached the party. It's 4 heads a mix of goat, lion and serpent, roared into the skies and prepared to feast on its favorite cuisine. The party, good to the core, valiantly struck their blows, and even had to dodge the storm which seemed to have a mind of it's own, it bringing down pain and panic with bolts of hot lightning. Head by head lolled, the beast in its last efforts, tried dragging itself back to the nest from which it came. Instead the Barbarian and the Monk, struck their mighty killing blows to the beast sending it instead straight to the Nine Hells. For the baby chimera left behind in the nest, all one can hope is that it would be set free to live among the wilds from whence it came.

As the party reared back in their victory of saving the castle, the now storm-less sky cracked open and an ominous vestige made of thick milky black shadows appeared "You may have won this battle," it hissed, "but you all shall lose the warrrrrrr.."and as it dissipated the party saw off in the hazy horizon the crown jewel of Cormyr, the capital city Suzail, in flames. Yet whatever tragic events may be occuring there, at least now there may be hope after all as in this very moment in time, Huntsilver Castle was saved.