The Inn of the Whispering Elm

The Inn of the Whispering Elm is an adventure by Matthew Carlson that we downloaded many years ago. It's not especially long or complicated and has a different sort of feel to a lot of adventures. Some people might like it, others not.

This continues the tale of half of the Pre-Fosweld group and follows on from Garak's End.

Chapter 1 (02.10.2024) - Soggy

27.04.1259 The next morning, after breakfast, Lilly went into the town of Nirsrenib to buy five pearls for her Identify spells. The others waited until she was back, Starzio casting a Detect Magic on the mystery items. There was still a necklace and a battleaxe from the Improved Skeleton and three throwing daggers with dwarven fire runes, as well as Aixy's new incense and Lilly's earrings to Identify.

When Lilly returned, she identified the necklace. Nobody could quite decide who wanted it and in the end Crimsy took it. The item was powerful enough for her to almost gain a level. The daggers were Identified as well. Nuxi and Animataa each took one, as did Spoglifromp, despite not actually participating in the Garak's End adventure.

Lilly also argued that it was not fair that she should pay for the pearls alone when they were of benefit to the whole party. In the end she was given 500 gp from the party stash for her five pearls. Lilly also sold a few items while she was out but nobody bothered to buy better armor. Aixy even forgot to learn new spells!

It was time to leave. Everybody climbed on board the wagons and they all set off. The sky was dark with clouds and just as the party reached the edge of the town, rain began to fall. Before long they were plodding through a storm, getting rather wet and muddy.

Suddenly a pair of osquips jumped out from their holes and snapped at the horses pulling the front wagon. The horses reared up and Zharzhar had to control them to prevent them from running off. Several members of the party dismounted and prepared to fight the creatures off, with Animataa rolling a 01% on his Hide in Shadows. Zharzhar and Lilly stayed on board the wagons, trying to control the horses.

During the first round of combat, Aixy took a nasty bite and so did Zimbi. Aixy scored a return, with Nuxi backstabbing from the shadows to good effect, and Spoglifromp's new dagger also found its mark but without invoking the weapon's firebolt. Four more osquips appeared and on the next round they won initiative.

Starzio took a nasty bite from an osquip's N20 and was immediately down, the first damage she had taken while she was with the party. Aixy and Zimbi both suffered deep painful bites, with Aixy reduced to just 2 of 22 HP.

Zimbi cast a Light spell into the eyes of the osquip attaching her and Spoglifromp leapt onto the foe snapping at the horses, scoring a critical with a backstab and killing it in one blow. At last one of them was down!

There were still five osquips remaining and the party won the next initiative roll. Animataa attacked with his warglaives and ended one of the osquips attacking Nuxi. Lilly jumped down from the rear wagon and poured a dose of her Potion of Healing into Starzio and it did just enough to revive her to 1 HP.

By now the party were gaining the upper hand, especially with Zharzhar joining the combat. Crimsy's Speak With Animals spell had proven ineffective as she had not persuaded the osquips to stay their attack, and her scimitar spoke far more clearly. The battle was finally ended by Starzio, who had recovered enough to clonk the last one on the head with her staff, scoring a critical hit.

A few healing spells were cast and this enabled Crimsy to reach level 3. Climbing back aboard the wagons the party trundled miserably through the storm until an inn came into view. They decided to stop and seek shelter.

Outside there stood a huge tree that looked like an elm. Crimsy used her new identify plant ability to discover it to be a treant! She greeted it and it greeted her in return, although nobody else in the group noticed.

Inside the inn they were greeted by the owners of the inn, a pair of elderly halflings called Tiddle and Martha Thundernose. After some pleasant conversation the two old hobbits told the party about what they had discovered in their store room while starting their renovations.

The party agreed to help Tiddle and Martha Thundernose. Once they had all finished their meals, they were taken to the heavy oaken trapdoor.

Looking down the shaft they could see the skeleton at the bottom. Animataa climbed down and found an old rusty needle poking out of the wall where two circles, one inside the other and offset from the centre, were engraved. Unable to remove the trap, he climbed back up and asked Nuxi to investigate.

Chapter 2 (03.10.2024) - The Halfling Thieves' Guild

27.04.1259 Nuxi climbed down and had a try but was unable to find any needle sticking out of the wall, so she climbed up again, assisted by Zharzhar and the rope. Spoglifromp climbed down, found the needle and disarmed it. As soon as he did so, another one appeared in its place!

This one was harder to remove, so Spoglifromp drew a circle around it with chalk and Animataa was lowered back down again. Animataa was able to remove the next poison needle, and then another one came. Spoglifromp said that there was now a circle in a circle in a circle on the wall and Nuxi joined them at the bottom of the shaft.

With the three rogues all gathered in the small space, inevitably somebody kicked the bones of the skeleton that had lain there for an unknown number of years. Nuxi saw a small tattered leather pouch and quickly secreted it on her person. Zimbi asked what they were doing down there, but nobody at the top of the shaft noticed what Nuxi did, only her two roguish companions at the bottom of the shaft.

Nuxi managed to disarm the needle this time and thankfully no more came. By pushing on that particular section of wall they discovered it moved ever so slightly. The three rogues tried to find a secret door, but none of them could.

They asked some of the feyfolk to try to look, and Crimsy tried first. She also looked at the scimitar lying with the skeleton at the bototm of the shaft, cleaned off the dust and found it to be rather shiny and beautifully crafted. After a quick spar with Animataa, she decided she liked this one rather better than her old scimitar.

Eventually it was Zharzhar who found the secret door, drawing round the outline in chalk. Once the lock was picked via the tiny hole where the needles had appeared from, they opened the secret door to reveal a corridor beyond. The corridor was only 4' high, so Animataa led the way, followed by Nuxi and Spoglifromp. Zimbi came too. Anybody else would have to stoop, or squat.

Poor Animataa was bitten by a rat that was lurking in the corridor. Its hole led up to the outside, but nobody checked it. Animataa contracted a nasty acute nose and throat disease from the bite. He finished it off quickly with a slash of his warglaive. Cutting through the webs, he reached the door at the far end. There he found and read some runes written in halfling thieves' cant.

The runes read "Thieves Guild! Enter at your own risk!" and Nuxi told Zimbi that she wasn't allowed in here. She agreed that if her presence was against the rules, she ought to leave. She climbed up the shaft again on the rope, leaving just the three rogues to continue the investigations. Spoglifromp congratulated Nuxi for getting rid of the annoying cleric.

Animataa had an outbreak of sneezing and coughing, then knocked three times on the door with the runes, and... it opened! Doing so gave him enough XP to finally level up as an illusionist to level two, the last one of the group to do so.

Beyond the now open door they could see the top of a set of stairs which led down into a dusty room. Animataa entered, his lantern lit, calling to see if was anyone there. He continued to do this for about 20 minutes, slowly creeping down one stair at a time as he did so.

When Animataa was finally convinced there was nobody in the room, he moved to the large table and started looking at what was there. Nuxi and Spoglifromp joined Animataa and they had a look through the papers, maps and then the two books at the end of the big table.

The first book was a ledger and the second contained details about the history of the guild. The most recent transaction in the ledger was dated just over 100 years ago.

Then they discovered a recipe for a legendary halfling ale, Gorkus' Special Reserve. A local wizard of tremendous age called Angus Podgorny was fond of it.

Nuxy discovered under one end of the table a loaded crossbow, ready to fire. She carefully released the tension in the weapon and then discovered a pair of throwing daggers, similar to the ones they found in Garak's End, but with halfling ice runes instead of dwarven fire. Nuxi and Spoglifromp took one each.

Next the three rogues turned their attention to the three chests. The first one contained coins, which they shared out between the three of them, promising to keep it secret from the others.

Nuxi cleverly disarmed the trap in the second chest but was unfortunately incapacitated by the bottle of sleep poison within when she unstoppered it and had a sniff. Spoglifromp looked in the two pouches and pocketed the ring, and shared the coins and the gem with Animataa.

Zharzhar, Lilly, Crimsy and Starzio came to join the three rogues and wanted an account of what they had done and found so far. Zharzhar cast a Detect Magic, which revealed the potion that had sent Nuxi into a stupor was magical, along with the throwing daggers and Crimsy's +1 scimitar.

The final chest was unlocked and it was carefully opened. It was full of oil and a strange glowing white rock floated just below the surface. Zharzhar reached in, grabbed it and lifted it out, whereupon it burst into flames, doing six points of damage and nullifying the six points of healing from Crimsy's last remaining Cure Light Wounds spell a short while before.

Once Zharzhar had returned the strange rock to the oil, the flames went out at once. Zharzhar closed the lid and carried and dragged this chest along the low corridor to the shaft, gathering dust and cobwebs on its oily surfaces as she went. She carefully tied a rope to it and Zimbi and Aixy hauled it up.

At the same time, the others were investigating the casks. Four contained the Gorkus' Special Reserve in superb condition, but the other two had spoiled. These were also lifted by rope by the two clerics.

Animataa began to feel worse and asked the clerics to haul him up as well. Crimsy and Zharzhar went to examine the vat. As they did so, the strange wooden wolf skeleton golem that was made of the same wood as the vat itself to not alter the flavour of the ale attacked them. It had been constructed by Angus Podgorny. The two adventurers quickly finished it off with a hit each. Crimsy decided she liked her new scimitar!

Chapter 3 (03.10.2024) - A Happy Ending

27.04.1259 The party turned their attention to the desk, which was beautifully made and in itself quite valuable, although probably impossible to get out of the place. There was nothing the party found in the drawers that was especially interesting or valuable, old quills and dried up ink and documents that crumbled with a touch.

One of the drawers was locked. Nobody had found where its key was hidden, so the lock was picked by Nuxi. Inside they found a metal flask containing some yummy blue hobgoblin after-dinner brandy, which was passed around the party and kept for later. There was also a brass key, which was in fact the one for the chest containing the weird rock in oil, explosionite.

Starzio felt a little light-headed after the brandy, which was very strong, and sat down on the chair, gripping its base. As she did so, she felt a slight prick on her finger which drew blood! She was surprised, and after further investigation it turned out there was a beautifully engraved non-magical +1 dagger attached to the underside of the chair.

Everyone turned their attention to the crates, each stamped with a date from about 100 years ago. They decided to search them by jumping in. The first, which was very heavy, contained a set of three beautifully crafted stone gargoyles, probably valuable to someone with a castle or a temple.

The next one contained a ballista, with a plaque: "Seige weapons by Alphonso". The party considered keeping this, but as none of them had a castle they thought it might be better sold instead.

The third crate was full of rotten skins and hides that created a ghastly dust and made some of the party sneeze when somebody jumped in.

The fourth crate contained lots of tiny wooden statues of what was probably some deity, unknown to the party, in various different poses. The statues were probably worth a gold piece each to the right buyer.

The final crate contained some ghastly gunge that smelled so foul that Zharzhar was sick at once, into the crate, on top of the gunge. She closed the lid again.

The room was now completely searched and the Thundernoses were informed that the cellar was safe. They were also advised not to open a particular crate as it contained sick.

Of course, they were delighted at their new cellar! Martha was especially pleased with the extra space and the brewing equipment, and Tiddle was fascinated by the documents and the recipe of the legendary ale. They invited the party to stay overnight and celebrated with them. During dinner, Crimsy mentioned that the big old tree at the front was a treant, but the Thundernoses shushed her and told her that it was a secret, and it was important that nobody else should know.

The party agreed what booty to leave with the Thundernoses, and everyone enjoyed a delicious meal and a peaceful sleep. The next day, the party set off on their carts and ponies northwards, on Rongal's Freepath towards Shé-ek. The Thundernoses wished the party well and told them that if ever any of them were passing, they would be welcome to stay at their inn for free.

To continue this part of the story, see Crossing the Barrier Peaks.