The Haunted Fortress of Isengard

From Lexicanum

Bandits along the Road

The peace of Clan-hold Daigen was rudely disrupted one morning as a trader's caravan travelling from Gondor arrived. The caravan had been attacked by bandits a few days earlier in the Gap of Calenardhon. There were many wounded and Ssheara immediately offered to assist.
The caravan master, Damrod, informed them that bandits had increasingly become a problem along the Great Western Road. The garrison at Angrenost in  seemed unable, or unwilling, to deal with the problem,so the Merchant's Council in Minas Anor was offering a reward of 100gp to anyone who helped deal with the bandits.

Eager to replenish their funds the Party, decided to take this task on. They were joined in this endeavour by two young dwarves, Thorin and Vagnor.

The group set out early next morning, Hazard led the way on horseback, the rest of the Party trudging along behind him. They travelled along the road eastward and swiftly passed from Dunland into Calenardhon - Northen Gondor. The villages and farmsteads along the way were largely abandoned and crumbling to ruin, the area had obviously been decimated by the Plague. At the end of the first uneventful day, the Party camped overnight by the roadside and sampled the delight's of Drukel's cooking!

Next morning, early they set out once again along the road, arriving at the site Damrod's caravan had been attacked mid-morning. The remains of two wagons and the bodies of dead horses, lay on the far side of a stone bridge where the road passed between a wooded knoll and the river. 

Drukel and Hazard were first to reach and examine the site. Two partially wrecked wagons and the bodies of several horses remained. Also, strangely, the various trade goods that had been in the wagons still remained! As they studied the site, they were ambushed by a small group of bandits, presumably left for the express purpose of attacking anyone who stopped to investigate the ruined wagons.

The bandits were swiftly dealt with, after which Drukel and Hazard started the process of back-tracking them.

The Gates of Angrenost

Drukel tracked the bandits northwards across country until they came across a road also leading northwards. There were no tracks on the far side of the road, so the Party headed along the road - directly towards the Misty Mountains. After some time they arrived at the entrance of a sheltered valley. The road continued northward directly to a huge circular structure. The ring-wall of the structure rose more than a hundred feet in height. Within the outer wall it looked like there was a forested parkland  from which a large tower rose from the centre.

As they neared they could see what looked like a gatehouse with large towers  either side, guard in chain armour were posted either side of the entrance. While Drukel and Darowen climbed a nearby hill, attempting to better see what lay within the walls, Thorin and Ssheara moved forward towards the guards who were wearing tabards proclaiming them to be of Gondor. As he moved closer to speak, Darowen realised with horror that the guards were no living men, but rather undead horrors, bearing terrible wounds. As the dwarf drew close the guard made no sound, but jabbed at him viciously with his spear The dwarf swung his hammer in retaliation, while Ssheara dropped back and began peppering the guards with arrows. Drukel and Darowen, seeing what was happening, charged down the hillside and joined the fray.

In short order the zombies were slain and, while the others examined the bodies, Drukel cautiously edged into the entrance - only to immediately be attacked by four brigands emerging from a doorway in the wall. His friends immediately came to his aid, and the battle raged. The Party was just getting the upper hand when a loud howling came form the other end of the gateway and two large wargs began loping towards them. Wisely, the Party decided to withdraw dispersing through the countryside. Strangely the wargs did not pursue them, but stopped in the entrance as if called back.

Hiding in a copse about a mile down the valley, the Party discussed their options. Hazard was to be sent on horseback to the nearest town to inform the locals of the danger, while the other would wait then at dark of night try to enter the fortress once again.

It was a moonless night as the Party made their way once more towards the walls. Thorin scouted ahead and soon found that there were no sentries and the main gates had not been closed. Ushering the rest of the Party forwards, they cautiously entered the darkness gateway. They found that some twenty feet down the passageway a portcullis now blocked the way, so they headed towards the door in the side-wall, which strangely was neither locked or guarded!

A dark narrow passageway led up some stairs to a large guardroom lit by a roaring fire. Their abrupt entrance surprised several brigands there, and quickly battle was joined once more.

Ragnor The Ruthless

Vagnor charged into the room to aid his cousin who reeled from his wounds. With Shheara's help he quickly slew the two bandits attacking Thorin, while Drukel dropped a third.  Across the guardhouse, Darowen stood-off two more bandits while another, at the back of the room,  seemed to pause for a moment as if undecided which combat to join. As the others charged across to aid the half-elf, one of the doors in the west wall opened and a huge muscled figure in a battered breastplate, the Bandit Chief presumably, stepped confidently into the room a curved glowing blade in his hand, he swung at Drukel, wounding him.

Vagnor immediately charged in, warhammer raised. The big man, belying his size, turned swiftly and with a single vicious blow, the wicked curve of his blade cut through the dwarf's upper arm. Vagnor immediately dropped unconscious from shock and blood-loss, his neatly severed arm still gripping his warhammer. As the others, having disposed of the bandits, moved to surround this new combatant, the bandit chief, Ragnor,  swiftly stepped back into the room, slamming the door shut.  This gave the Party a few moments to treat the wounded dwarf and bind the gaping wound in his upper arm.

While they were doing this, a bell rang from within the room and two more bandits entered from the other entrance and the Party moved to engage. As they did, Ragnor stepped out and joined the fray. Most  of the Party turned to face him, leaving Ssheara to mop up the lesser bandits. Although Ragnor proved a formidable foe, eventually the Party managed to swarm round and eventually cut him down.
While Darowen stood guard, Drukel completed patching-up Vagnor and then brewed some healing tea over the fire. Ssheara looted the bodies of the bandits and Thorin searched the room the Ragnor had left, finding various supplies and a chest containing some coin, a ring, a magic silver hook-hammer, and a magic dagger. After this the dwarf followed the passageway out of the guard room and mad his way cautiously to the end of the entrance tunnel. In the distance though the trees he could see the glow of several campfires near the base of the great tower.

Deciding to wait for daylight, the Party rested in the Guardhouse till dawn, then headed out into the interior of Angrenost. Vagnor having recovered consciousness, still adjusting, not very well, to the loss of his arm. They moved cautiously through the trees, paralleling rather than using, the path that led towards the centre of the fort. Suddenly Thorin and Ssheara sensed something approaching - a warg!

Drukel darted from the trees suddenly, drawing the great wolf's attention. As the warg leaped to attack him the others quickly charged-in and the beast was slain - but not before it got-off a single howl!

The Sanctuary

As they stood over the body of the warg, Drukel heard a movement in the trees off to the left. He moved across swiftly and began hacking at the undergrowth, seeking the source. Vagnor moved across to help as four giant spiders dropped to the ground and attacked. The others quickly moved to help and the spiders were slain, but not before the unfortunate Vagnar found himself paralysed and partially cocooned in webbing.

The Party barely had time to extract the dwarf when the sound of something came crashing through the undergrowth and two very surprised orc scouts appeared. The orcs were quickly killed but the Party could hear more coming accompanied by the howling of wargs.

The Party fled through the forest, the orc hot in pursuit. Suddenly Hazard spotted a gleam of white marble through the trees. Heading in that direction they ran into a small peaceful glade dominated by a large statue of an elven woman. The plinth of the statue had Sindarin script surmounted by an arc of stars. Ssheara translated the runes as Elbereth Gilthoniel. As he entered the glade Thorin felt a sense of peace and the presence of magic energy surrounding them. Then he noticed that Darowen had hung back, prepared to hold back the following orcs and give his friends some time to escape.

Drukel meanwhile had gone straight through the glade and emerged into the forest on the other side. Unfortunately he ran straight into the wargs that had been using their superior speed to encircle the Party - and immediately retreated back.

Thorin stepped out of the glade to find Darowen, in a fighting retreat, surrounded by orcs, one of whom swiped a vicious strike across the half-elf's abdomen, opening his belly. Grabbing the stricken elf Thorin dragged hm back into the glade. Strangely the orcs did not pursue.

Arriving on the scene and seeing the extremity of Darowen's wounds, Drukel began  rummaging in his herb pouch proffering healing herbs while Thorin began bandaging the wound.

Orcs in The Forest

After resting in the sacred grove, the Party considered their next move. Drukel offered to scout out the campfires they had seen the day before and began ghosting through the forest. Meanwhile Ssheara climbed up a nearby tree to see what she could see from there.

Unfortunately, excellent as he was at stalking through the forest, Drukel was, he could not mask his scent and ran into one of the wargs.  He managed to hold it off long enough to allow his friends to some help and they killed the best, allowing Drukel to progress on his mission.  From the edge of the forest , Drukel could see a ragged encampment near the entrance to the tower where several orcs moved about. He estimated there were around 14 of them before heading back to warn the others. 

Returning to the grove, he brought the others up to speed an they pondered for some time how to tackle the orcs. Discarding Drukel's suggestion of a frontal assault on the encampment, they eventually decided to try and draw out some of the orcs by setting a fire.They headed back to where the remains of the warg were and at Vagnor's suggestion piled it with brushwood and set it alight. They then retreated into the forest to hide and ambush anyone who came to investigate. Their plan was too successful, as it drew out not only five orcs, but the remaining two wargs, one of which was a Greater Warg.

Heedless of the enemy's numbers, the Party sprung their ambush! Drukel took on the greater warg while the others dealt with the lesser warg and the orcs. Its was a prolonged, brutal, bloody fight. At the end, all bore injuries, but Drukel was particularly badly injured before their opponents were all slain. 

Grishnak the Brutal

Deciding to press home their advantage, Drukel, Hazard, Darowen and Thorin headed forward through the trees to see what was happening at the orc encampment. Vagnor and Ssheara remained behind to deal with the orc corpses. As they reached  edge of the forest Drukel, slightly ahead, noticed ominous dark clouds swirling round the top of the tower and the orcs retreating back to their tents and retreated back into the trees. After a brief, sometimes heated, discussion with the others they eventually decided to head back.

Meanwhile , as Vagnor began heaping orc corpses on the smouldering remains of the fire, hoping to destroy them before they could be re-animated. Suddenly crackling black energy began surrounding the pile and four of the corpses lumbered to life attacking immediately. Ssheara and Vagnor had two zombies each on them, but managed to hold their own until their friends arrived back to help them dispose of the undead. As Darowen began methodically chopping u p their corpses the others held another brief tactical discussion before Drukel's plan - "charging-in" became the default option as no one had any better ideas.

They began moving through the forest when from somewhere above a bolt of darkness descended, plunging them all into utter darkness. The Party all scattered trying to find the edge of the darkness area, Hazard lagged behind somewhat and froze as he felt a bony hand on his should and an icy cold begin radiating from the spot - he screamed in pain!

The others hearing Hazard's scream, spotted their retreat and drew their weapons. For a brief second their magic weapons glowed brightly in the darkness, then were extinguished. Undaunted they moved in, Vagnor immediately tripping over a root! Thorin paused and concentrating furiously looked at his weapon urging it to overcome the darkness. He felt a painful wrench as if struggling against overwhelming power but somehow, his hammer once more began its comforting glow and he moved forward. Hazard,felt the icy cold extending through his body then suddenly the grip was gone and he heard a hissing voice mutter something about a "powerful magic user" and as quickly as it had come the darkness was gone!

Somewhat disconcerted by what had happened the Party pressed on regardless, but when the reached the edge of the tress they found the orc in the encampment ready for arrayed for battle. Vagnor immediately charged forward to meet the foe, the others following, save Ssheara who un-limbered her bow and began firing. Most of the orcs charged forward to meet their attack but a few held back firing bows at Ssheara.

As a brutal melee began in the centre of what were once formal gardens, the orc chieftain, glowing axe in hand strode out from his tent to join the battle. Before he and all his orcs were slain, all of the Party except Ssheara, who had a minor flesh wound from the single orc arrow that hit her, bore fearsome wounds, Vagnor and Darowen nearly dying.

Ghosts of Orthanc

Drukel led the way up the stairs to the entrance of the tower, which was on the first floor. The heavy door was guarded by two undead who proved briefly troublesome. Vagnor however found the stairs even more troubling - falling flat on his face and breaking his wrist as he charged up them. While the others destroyed the ghouls, Thorin patiently bound up his cousin's wrist.

Entering into the tower the Party passed through a wide passageway to a high chamber in the centre. It was a scene of horror, where once the proud banners of Gondor had hung, now hung the decomposing remains of the garrison! Ignoring the gruesome sight the Party began exploring the area, splitting into two groups. While Ssheara, Vagnor and Thorin tried to open a locked iron-bound door near the entry-way, Drukel led Hazard and Darowen though an open door that led past a circular stairwell and then looped round through a waiting room back to the central open tower.

Neither Ssheara or Thorin had much luck with the lock on the door and their efforts were rudely interrupted when two of the corpses on the walls ripped themselves off the hooks holding them and attacked. The others arrived just in time to help destroy the undead.

Drukel led the way once more, this time ascending the stairwell. Stopping at the first level, they found a short passageway which lead to a walkway that overlooked the open central area and several rooms that appeared to be sleeping quarters. Deciding this was a boring place Drukel decided to head upstairs further, only to immediately discover a ghostly figure manifesting in front of him. Both he and Hazard immediately felt an intense deathly cold seeping into them.

Morgul The Dread

The apparition, that of a Gondorian officer, before them raise a ghostly hand and pointed at the Party, it uttered two words "Free us!" and faded form sight, the unearthly cold vanishing as it did. Somewhat shaken the Party took a few moments before resolving themselves to move on upwards. 

They passed by several landing, before suddenly as Drukel stepped onto the next one,  two greater ghouls, dressed in tattered Gondorian uniforms, lunged at Drukel out of the darkness. The combined assault slammed him back into the heavy doorway as teeth and claws bit int him, rending his flesh terribly.  As the ghouls began their gruesome feast, the rest of the party moved to help, but were hampered by the narrow stairway. Ssheara managed to hit one of the ghouls , then the other with a Confusion spell, which allowed the Darowen undead. Vagnor dashed forward, dragging healing herbs from his pouch and  tended to the badly injured wose.

After recovering briefly, the party proceeded up another level. The stench of death and corruption was almost overpowering as they stood at a large wooden door. Vagnor inched the door open to find only darkness beyond. The light of the magic blade he had borrowed from Drukel, stuttered in the utter darkness, but as he resolved his will it flared once more into light.

Opening the door the Party made their way into a large circular room, the light of their magical blades was dimmed by the overpowering magic in the room but in the shadowy illumination they could see a large figure clad in tattered robes holding a skull-carved staff in the centre of the room. The sight of this figure filled them with dread, but they steeled their nerve and moved forward. As they did the figure almost casually raised it hand and waved it towards them,almost casually tossing a handful of finger bones towards them. As they bones clattered to the floor in front of them fiv, Hazard and Vagnor a little more time and space to move in and finally despatch the foule skeletal warriors appeared before them.

The Party powered through the skeletons and charged the wight before them. As they charged they could feel the icy aura that surrounded the wight draining their life force, but undaunted they rained down blows. The wight retaliated with spells, stunning Darowen and Ssheara with its dark magic, then it resorted to defending itself with its staff, a single blow of which smashed Drukel's knee to shattered pieces.

As the Party moved to flanking positions their superior numbers eventually told, their magical weapons cutting at the wight's tattered robes viciously. Suddenly  with a wheezing sigh, it  collapsed to the ground, literally cut to ribbons!