The town of Homlett is bustling with adventurers looking for opportunity. Most have heard that a few years ago a great evil had risen up nearby, and it was conquered, but things have gotten more dangerous again lately.
Dardenne (Jon) and Darius (Steve) are strangers at the Welcome Wench, one of the inns in the town of Homlett. Dardenne is looking for work and tries to get in on conversations. He sees that there are some others here who seem to be well equipped and look dangerous, and sits at the next table and tries to listen in. He asks the barmaid if she knows them, but she says no. He sees one of them walking by with a sword and shield, and asks him why he’s loaded for battle. The man asks him if he’d like to find out and they exchange hostile words. The man ends up walking away as Dard calls after him. Frustrated, he calls for another ale. The barmaid expresses her pleasure that people wouldn’t be killed in the inn. Dard says that he can handle himself.
Two men, Hadrian (Bill) and Brother Gregory (Brad) enter the inn. Hadrian is a large man in chain mail carrying a shield, and Gregory looks like a cleric. They are clearly of the order of St. Cuthbert based on the color of their clothing and religious symbols they carry. They order food and sit nearby Dard and Darius, offering to buy them a round. Hadrian says that he needs to tell us about St. Cuthbert in order to get the mean, to which Dard rolls his eyes, but then Hadrian says that he’s kidding.
Another couple of men come in — Filarion (John) is a half-elf bard that seems familiar with the locals, and his friend Mord (Jeff), another elf who appears to be a druid. The Cuthberts strike up a conversation with them. Filarion says that he is from a far-off country, the Grand Duchy of Geoff. He regales us with talk of his father, who was a hero there.
A man named Zert approaches the group and introduces himself, and says that there are opportunities here. He is grizzled and his clothes are worn. Hadrian looks him over and determines that he has an evil aura about himself, but remarks quietly that St. Cuthbert is patient.
Hadrian offers to get everyone a drink, and on his way to the bar, Darius tries to pick his pocket. Hadrian catches him and asks him to apologize. Hadrian buys a round. Afterward he asks if we are all interested in adventuring together, and we all agree. He asks for us to all promise that we won’t go against the others in the group. We agree to this as well, and we decide to meet up in the morning to travel out. Dard tells Darius that he will help protect him as he is quite young.
In the morning, Dard learns his spell and does his maneuvers. Everyone meets up and we head out on foot. The way is not far but it is difficult due to the fallen branches. After a mile, things thin out. After 2 hours, we reach our destination. The road turns to the north and it becomes boggy. Here we see the Moat House.
The bog here stinks and there is a foul wind. Suddenly we are jumped by a group of huge frogs. They attack with long tongues and Dard is entangled. Darius strikes the tongue and it retracts. One jumps up and swallows Hadrian whole. Mord is also swallowed. We are slightly damaged but manage to kill all of them and free those who were swallowed, however Hadrian noticed that Zert did not attack right away. He asks Zert about it, and Zert says that he was surprised by the attack, however it’s clear that he was not pulling his weight in the fight. A few of us are injured, so Hadrian and Brother Gregory say prayers over us to restore our strength. They mention that they can offer no more prayers today for healing, however. We search the bodies of the frogs and Dard finds an amethyst in one of their stomachs. There is nothing else of interest.
We continue on to the Moat House. We see a rotting drawbridge with two broken gates behind it. Darius is the lightest of us and decides to cross. We head into the courtyard and Hadrian sees some boot prints going to the building across the way. He also senses evil inside the nearby tower. We decide to go to the tower first, so the archers may have the high ground if anyone comes out of the building across the yard. We see that the tower’s doors are broken open. We go inside and see that the inside is a ruin, and there are holes everywhere. However, something is glinting on the floor nearby . We move in to check it out and suddenly a huge spider drops on top of us. We attack, but everyone misses except for Hadrian, who cuts it in half with his sword. We find the treasure we’d been seeking, including some gold and other items, and afterward decide to rest for a bit.