I return to this chronicle not with joy, but with disappointment.
The phrase, *"I can't be racist because I have a dwarf friend,"* has always served me well. Yet, old grudges aside, I find myself asking an uncomfortable question.
"Am I a racist?"
Now safely outside after our fortunate escape from Black Peaks Mine, we turned our attention to the tower in the distance. Before jumping back into the fray, Igor healed our wounds and I tapped into my knowledge of the arcana to inspect the snazzy shield we had recovered from Gutbags. It proved to be an item of exceptional dwarven craftsmanship, affording its bearer unparalleled protection.
As we approached, we came under arrow fire from goblins skulking around the base of the tower. Viggo reacted decisively and came up with a plan of attack. Viggo's part in Viggo's plan was to hide in the shrubbery and shoot with his crossbow. Emboldened by my experiences in the mines, I advanced menacingly, scaring the goblins with my elven aura and firing Magic Missile at them. Deagol and Igor charged their position. Igor was much fleeter of foot and Deagol stumbled trying to keep up with him. Deagol at least fulfilled his primary role and drew their arrow fire. As if in sympathy, one of the gobbos also fell over, sustaining a rather nasty torn muscle. Igor showed the lame goblin no mercy and hacked him to death.
The remaining goblins fled into the tower and we pursued them inside. Entering the tower, everyone was very impressed by the wonderful dwarven stonework. We found two doors, one to each side of the entrance corridor. We heard strange shufflings and snufflings and concluded that this must be where the gobbos kept the whargs.
Igor, filled with righteous zeal, charged straight into the circular chamber at the centre of the tower. It was a very impressive hall, rising two storeys beneath a glass ceiling. Several doors led from the central chamber while a spiral staircase climbed the walls to a first-floor gallery. The gobbos had taken up position on the stairs and immediately began firing arrows down upon us. Deagol resumed his role as pin cushion whilst Igor fought his way up the staircase. Seeing that I was not the most hated person in the room, I devoted myself to firing Magic Missile, delighted to discover that I could now spread the missiles across multiple targets. Viggo took an ingenious approach to securing the entrance doors, fashioning a Scooby Doo-style rope from his fancy clothes and tying the handles together. It appeared to hold. He then got a shot off at the gobbos with his crossbow to remarkable effect.
Igor and Deagol fought their way through the barrage of arrows to the first-floor landing. The final gobbo opted for a desperate leap from the gallery rather than face Igor's axe and died upon impact. I remained downstairs with Viggo and so the party, fatefully, split up.
Deagol and Igor searched a library, a bedroom with nasty goblin droppings, a storage room and a laboratory. They discovered correspondence between Etelka and Teugen, together with several useful items of resale value, including fine parchment and expensive quills.
Deagol also demonstrated that there are few obstacles which cannot be overcome through determined bodgering, uncovering a concealed compartment containing further valuables and yet more incriminating evidence.
The search upstairs proved highly productive. Having left the wizard and the socialite to secure the ground floor, they naturally assumed everything below was progressing equally smoothly.
It transpired that the wharg-like utterances had actually been coming from two innocent hostages, Hans and Gurde, so everything initially seemed under control. The dining room yielded a further victim in the form of Pudding, a halfling who had, through circumstance or thrall, become Etelka's cook.
Pudding, in the face of Viggo's skilful, dare we say seductive, interrogation, proved remarkably forthcoming. She remained in awe of Etelka but spoke with particular distrust of a weasel-faced individual who had recently arrived and persuaded her mistress to embark upon a mysterious quest into the Kemperbad Hills. She also revealed that Etelka had previously been in league with the goblins, but that four days earlier they had taken advantage of her absence to sack the tower and adopt it as their headquarters.
Viggo was skilful and admirably circumspect in his interrogation of Pudding, but she insisted on showing him her kitchen. Sometimes hubris exists where we would otherwise see virtue and I would add a small note of caution here. As seductive and charismatic as Viggo might be, he lacks the realisable qualities that actually count when the rubber hits the road. Let's face it: he had one job, and he allowed it to run out of hand. Of course I'll never admit that to him.
**Mental note:** Always make sure Viggo feels like a valuable member of the team, even though I absolutely don't think that deep down.
It transpired that there were, in fact, snottlings in Pudding's kitchen. The lowliest of foes, yet they somehow managed to overwhelm both Pudding and, as it turned out, Viggo. Pudding lay bleeding on the floor whilst Viggo desperately attempted to save her.
Meanwhile, I worked my way methodically through the adjoining rooms, roasting snottlings with Magic Missile as I went. By the time I reached the kitchen, Viggo was in dire need of my help and I quickly dispatched the remaining snottlings with my Magic Missiles.
The experience appeared to affect Viggo deeply. He questioned his place within the company, wondering whether the party would have fared any differently had Pudding not first fallen victim to his considerable personal charm. I'm definitely going to have to double down on making sure he thinks he's a valuable member of the team.
Taken together, our discoveries painted a troubling picture. Etelka is a member of the Order of the Red Crown and seeks to aid the return of the Chaos God Tzeentch. She has travelled into the Kemperbad Hills in search of an artefact of great importance, whilst her correspondence with Teugen confirms her connection to the failed summoning at Bögenhafen, which we so heroically foiled.
We took as much from the tower as we could carry, though there was precious little worth taking. Accompanied by Pudding, Hans and Gurde, we headed back towards town.
Along the roadside we discovered the aftermath of what appeared to have been a beastman ambush. We approached cautiously and found the remains of two finely dressed gentlemen. One still carried a letter commissioning him to seek us out and dispatch us.
Feeling that we had enjoyed sufficient excitement for one day, we thought it prudent not to enter the town. Instead, we sought shelter with the dwarves at Karak Slumber. There we handed over the signet rings, hoping they would serve as evidence that our mission had been both legitimate and successfully completed.
I am nevertheless left with several unresolved questions.
Will Pudding accompany us upon our travels?
What, precisely, does Viggo contribute to this enterprise?