Hello! Sokal Keep Has Been Cleared, The CORRECT Way This Time

I don't see why not. 

Well, this time I tried things a little different. I went exploring the keep the same way that I did last time, giving the skellies the passcode every time they wandered up to see what I was up to. Every three or four steps. You can't say the skellies aren't dedicated to the point of being thoroughly obnoxious.

Grah. Got choice of plans for life insurance. Grush. Only pennies per day.  Gnnshh. You interested?

I fought the small army of ogres, hobgoblins and goblins in the central hallway leading to the center of Sokal Keep. This time most of the bad guys surrendered. Funny that- you'd think watching half of their party being violently and mercilessly murdered was influencing their actions. Weird. 

Remembering what happened last time when I reacted even halfway poorly when I saw dead things, this time I fairly offered the backs of my characters as end tables when a ghost sauntered by.

Excuse me, ghost being? Before I act hastily, I can cut the throat of the girl and you can use her corpse as a darling coffee table. I really want to make this encounter end well. (Female character in background- "Hey!")

When I found Martinez this time, I again erred on the side of caution, and this time instead of disintigrating over half of my party, he gave me info I already had and offered me treasure I had already looted. Hey, he tried. 

You give me this info after I already found the passcode outside in the dirt? Not very valuable info, was it?

After this pleasant encounter (We had cakes and tea, laughing into the night. All ended well, save for the corpse of the girl. Turns out we didn't have to murder her when we saw the ghosts. Oh well, you win some...) we went exploring. The only thing that happened was we caught crabs.

Well, scorpions, really. But the joke doesn't work if you say "we caught scorpions."

When we got back, it turned out that clearing out Sokal Keep was exactly what was needed when they wanted us to clear out Sokal Keep. Funny that. Tyranthraxus' popped up again. Well, his name did.

Who are these other losers? 

Got a right amount of XP we did, and a few of my characters hopped up in lvls- my fighter/cleric became a better fighter, and both of my fighter/magic users became better magic users. All the magic user spells suck at low lvl, but we have 'em!

Hotcha!

We met some bozo named Braccio over at the temple to Tyr on the east side of town (you know what they say about those Eastsiders- they stink, they drink, they steal. And that's the good side of town.)  He introduced us to some bozo named Dirten who managed to join our party. Hey- I'd been wondering why on Earth I couldn't hire an NPC and as it turns out there was a bloody good reason.

We had all caught crabs. B'DUM CHIK!

But with Sokal Keep clear, the docks are now opened and we can go many many different places now. Add this to the open space at the top of Castle ArgleBargle and that's a LOT of free choice open to me now.

Damn boy, you ugly. And ya wearing a funny hat. 'N' ya smell bad.

Next time, I'll see what's going on in Valhingen Graveyard, since I have to clear that place out as well. Many many missions now. I only heard ONCE about getting this once guy's fortune back- I guess I still have to do that but no one ever talks about it. I think they're all embarrassed they even brought it up.

Because they have crabs. Good lord, I don't ever let a joke die, do I?

I have achieved more than I have mentioned in this post. Things are looking up. My characters are horrified to learn that this Tyranthraxus is pissed at THEM but they still aren't the types to just back up and leave. I won't let them :) Free will- HAH! I spit on the concept!

See yez all again very soon!

See? Didn't even mention these guys in the normal text. I think someone else, about a different situation and in a different blog, mentioned due process. Feh- rumour and innuendo are enough to convict a man in THIS city!