The Assault and Siege of Fort Grundetjern

The heroes followed a trail north from the village, past a quarry, and into the path of a small band of goblins and wolves. After a brief fight, with much running and sparring, the heroes were wiping their weapons clean of goblin guts.

The team arrived at the fort as night settled over the highlands peak, and with the dusk came a cold, hard rain. Spotting guards in the small fort's two front towers, the adventurers circled around to the back of the fort. There they found two unoccupied towers. They clambered up the useful grappling hook's rope-line under cover of night and stormy rain. Sneaking into the first structure inside the compound, the team surprised a lone goblin priest praying to some obscene god and whipping a lone, barely living man chained to a wall. Although they quickly killed him, the noise from the fight brought the attention of a rowdy gang of goblins, who were soon bashing down the double doors of the chapel the adventurers quickly braced themselves behind. The goblins were bottle-necked outside the chapel doors, but the heroes found themselves staggering from the onslaught of blades and arrows. They released the prisoner and provided him some weapons to help resist the goblin force. The samurai scaled the outbuilding across from the chapel and took out a goblin firing from the rooftop with a swift slice of his sword. The goblin's commander, Gaumukh the Fetid, only went down after the adventurers were able to eliminate his minions. The team was badly wounded, and one of their number was unconscious before the fight was ended. Their victory was hard won and their morale was low, but they were pleased to heal the wounds of the survivor of the goblin's takeover of the fort. This was the proud and bruised Captain Kybalian, former fort commander. He had little information to provide, but noted that the goblins had been operating in connection with an entity from farther north of the fort, in the Lockwood Caverns, near the Harhai Berzaiti crypts.

The team investigated the fort and found several rope traps in place on doorways. One harmlessly caught the wizard and hung him up by his ankle until others could cut him down. Another, spike trap, was disabled by the able rogue, Jad Feyr. Along with the goblin warchief's belonging the team found a small blade with a mystical design on it resembling a head with a dagger thrust straight up from under its jaw.

The cold night had more in store for the heroes, as the howling heard outside the walls alerted them. The team moved towards the fort's large front gate doors, to investigate scratching noises, but was attacking from above by winged, rotting creatures. As they traded blows with these unreal monsters, the fort was suddenly inundated with disembodied crawling hands, some of which opened the fort's gate for a few ravenous gravehounds. After a complicated brawl, which included a rooftop race between a spry rogue and a flying zombie, the creatures were destroyed. Some undead were killed instantly by a lucky blow to the soft, spongy brain.

Finally, the weary travelers rested before setting out the next morning to the crypts of Hahrai Berzaiti, in search of the mastermind behind these unholy creations: the necromantic cleric, Tanjisoo, an evil Minister of Szickszai.