Last session ended with the players in a circular chamber almost identical to the one on the tunnel level below with a similar spiral staircase and an unusually shaped alcove on the southeast side of the room (room 3 on the cellar level).  Trygvie had just found a secret door in the unusually shaped alcove.  The players speculated that this might be a good place to spend the night, regain some spells, rest and heal up, but, after brief discussion, Trygvie (Steve G.) speculated that with a secret door in the wall, a stairs leading up and a stairs leading down that it was perhaps too exposed an area to stay in.  Using the last of his spells, the cleric cast Bull's Strength on Mace.  With weapons drawn, a newly buffed Mace leading the way, they opened the secret door in the alcove.

The secret door led to a room filled with barrels and kegs that smelled strongly of fish, brine and wine (on the castle's cellar level, but the players didn't know this yet).  The players entered a 20x30 foot storeroom with a sturdy wooden door exit in addition to the secret door they had come in (room 2 on the cellar level).  This place felt a little more secure to them.  Mace used his Bull's Strength to pile kegs and barrels in front of the exits and the whole group hunkered down for the night.

After about ten hours of uninterrupted rest, some food, some heal spells, etc., the players felt better about their chances of survival. Wilbered cast Bull's Strength on Kane and they moved the barrels and kegs back to where they had found them in order to conceal the traces of their having been there and give full access to the exits.  They went out the door, past the stairs (at 1 on the cellar level of the map) and down the hall all the way to a stout wooden door at the end of the hall (room 5 on the cellar level).  The door was unlocked so they threw it open, confronting three fishmen who sprang upon them and attacked with tooth and nail.

The fishmen proved no match for the  party and were quickly overcome.  Kane killed one fishman with a single blow from his fist, thanks to the Bull's Strength spell.  The cellar room was dark and damp (room 5 on the cellar level).  It was furnished with a small table, three stools and some tridents leaned up against the wall.  A ring of brass keys lay on the tables and a row of doors could be seen in the far wall, each fitted with a small window with iron bars.  A human face was peering out from one of the barred windows at them with an anxious and hopeful expression.

"Thank the gods," the unfortunate prisoner said.  "Please, let me out!"  The Kane and Mace questioned the prisoner while the cleric fetched the ring of keys from the table.  He revealed that his name was Rastal and that he and his companions had been prisoners here for several weeks.  They were caravan guards who ended up in Marshville after fleeing the Goblin invasion of the area east of Marshville.  They had stayed at the inn until one night they witnessed a parade of townsfolk and fishmen wearing green robes and crowns late at night.  Apparently they were not supposed to see this, because the fishmen seized them and threw them in the cells, taking away one of Rastal's comrades every week.  Rastal feared his friends had become victims of human sacrifice or worse and begged to accompany the group.  Kane felt that Rastal was being truthful; they released him and armed him with a trident and a dagger.  A search of all of the cells turned up nothing.

 The heroes noticed that the door in the north wall lacked a window or set of bars.  None of the keys fit it so Whisper  attempted (and failed) to pick the lock.  The fighters threw themselves against the door several times and failed to force it.  Finally, their new companion, Rastal, threw himself against the door and it burst inward, spilling Rastal into the room (room 6 on the cellar level).  The party heard Rastal scream and ran to help him.  Inside the room, Rastal was being attacked by two of the giant crabs that the heroes had already fought several times in Marshville.  A scare spell cast by Trygvie caused one of the crabs to scuttle away to the back of the room in order to get as far from the spell caster as possible, but the other attacked with vigor, wounding several players and snipping the unlucky Rastal into pieces with his claws.

After a hard battle, the two crabs and Rastal lay dead.  The players turned their attention to a second door that led to an inner room (room 7 on the map).  The thief picked the lock and the players entered a dark room with two wooden chests.  After securing the door, the thief checked the chests for traps, failed to find any, and started to work on the locks on the chests.  The first chest opened easily and contained a valuable looking coral box.  The bard opened the coral box and found six gemstones and a small bundle of scrolls inside.  One of these proved to be a Remove Curse scroll; the other two were indecipherable.

Meanwhile, the halfling rogue went to work on the other chest.  Suddenly there was a sharp report,  a blinding flash of light and the smell of singed hobbit in the air.  The hobbit let out a howl and fell to the floor, having evidentially triggered a trap while working on the chest.  He didn't seem to be breathing, so Wilbered pried open his jaws and poured one of their heal potions down his throat, bringing him back from the brink of death.  The halfling's greed won out over his sense of self preservation and he set to work on the chest once again.

The second chest proved too difficult for the hobbit's lock picking skill.  Irritated, the magically strengthened Kane picked up the last chest and hurled it at the stone floor.  With a splintering of wood and the shattering of glass, it came apart, destroying most of the bottles of liquid that had been in there.  One small bottle, a bundle of 12 crossbow bolts and a small stone were found in the mess.

The Bard cast Detect Magic on the lot and discovered that the scrolls, the stone, the crossbow bolts and the potion bottle were magical, the coral box and gems were not.

Retracing their steps through the crab room and the jail, the players went west and south down the hall to a locked door.  This resisted all attempts to pick the lock and force the door (room 4 on the cellar level).  Finally, having given up any chance of ever surprising anyone in the room, they managed to force the door open and found themselves in a darkened room furnished with torture equipment.  Judging by the cobwebs, the gear hadn't been used in some time.  A circular part of the room had a stairwell going up to a hatch in the ceiling.

The heroes trouped up the stairs and went through the hatch, finding themselves in a round room with the stairs they had just come up and another curved staircase going up to the next level (this is room 13 on the ground floor on the map).  The room was empty; a brief search found nothing.

Since there was nowhere else to go, the players went up another flight of stairs and through the hatch into the room above.  This was another 20 foot diameter round room with slit like windows looking outside and a door.  A ladder in the center of the room went up to a hatch in the ceiling.  The heroes looked out the windows and saw the catwalk of the castle with it's embrasures and merlons, the manor with a few windows and some doors, etc.  It was daylight and no one seemed to be out  and about as they peeked out the windows.  They could see that they were on the battlement level of the castle; the floor below was on the ground level and there was a floor above on the "attic" level.

Castor climbed the ladder and went out the hatch onto the tower roof.  There were battlements here and Castor could get a good view of the village and the abandoned Temple of Neptune, as well as figures moving around in the village.  He went back down the ladder and rejoined his companions.

The players snuck out the door and headed towards a small unlocked door that gave access to a hallway inside the Manor (location 1 on level 2 of the map).  To their left they say a staircase leading up to the attic level.  Whisper snuck around the corner and peeked into a window (location 4 of the attic level).  He saw a room furnished with a table and chairs, a fancy decanter and some crystal glasses.  The decanter caught his fancy and he wriggled into the window.  The plush carpet felt good under his feet and he briefly considered stealing a wall hanging with geometric designs and sea creatures that hung on the wall but thought better of it when he considered how large and heavy it would be.  He put the decanter in his pack, spilling some of the whiskey in the process.  There were three doors leading out of the room (all locked) and a tall wooden cabinet full of liquor.  Whisper deduced that one door led out to the hall where his  friends were waiting.  He tried to pick the lock and failed, so he climbed back out the window and went round the corner on the parapet, entering the Manor house through the door where his friends had entered.

The rest of the group had not been idle.  They proceeded down a hallway where a portrait of a dour looking woman hung on the wall.  They lifted the painting off of the hook and found a peephole that looked down into the great hall on the floor below.  There were tall windows, pillars and a long banquet style table with silver candlesticks upon it.  The players replaced the painting and proceeded to an unlocked door that led to a small, disused looking bedroom with an empty closet (room 2 on 2nd floor).  After searching the room, they proceeded on to the door to the room that Whisper had entered earlier through the window (room 4).

An overly generous DM allowed the Hobbit to try picking the lock again since he was "trying from the other side of the door --- that's like a whole different lock, right?"  This time, he was successful.  They entered the saloon room and looked through the liquor cabinet.  They concluded that of the two locked doors in the room, the north door led out to the battlements and the south door led to an inner room.  They kicked in the inner door and discovered a small bedroom furnished with a fancy looking four poster bed, a chest of drawers and a bathtub full of cold water.   The dresser contained some garments, a pouch of pearls and a necklace decorated with bits of coral carved in the shape of fish.  The heroes took the pearls and gave the halfling the necklace.

At this point the sound of battering a door in had obviously attracted some unwelcome attention.  The heroes positioned themselves in the saloon with weapons ready, except for the bard who elected to sit waiting with a snifter full of brandy.  The door flew open and obviously angry fishmen with short, broad bladed spears began piling into the room.

A wild melee ensued.  One of the fishmen was obviously a spell caster --- he cast a Summon spell and a wolf appeared to attack Trygvie.  He also cast a Fear spell that caused Mace to turn tail and run.  Trygvie countered with a Sleep spell, Flaming Sphere and Acid Arrow off of a scroll he had been saving.  The halfling got caught up in Trygvie's sleep spell and snoozed through most of the fight, waking up just in time to get stuck like a pig on the end of one of the fishman's spears.  The party got beaten up pretty badly, but finally the Fear spell wore off and Mace rejoined the fight right after Wilbered blasted the Fishmen with his Sonic Blast spell.  The fishman spell caster pulled out a wand and pointed it at Trgvie, croaking out some sort of command, but  Trygvie successfully resisted whatever the Fishman was trying to do to him.

Disgusted with the failure, the fishman muttered an incantation that filled the hallway with swirling white vapors that hid him from view while the heroes finished off the fishman soldiers.  Trygvie fired his Webwand into the mist, filling the hall with webbing, hoping to catch the spell caster in the area of effect.

The party was beaten, bloody and tired -- but still alive...

The adventure ended here for the night.

Experience:
Castor Bean (Steve B.) went from 3395 to 4995 (+1600)
Trygvie (Steve G.) went from 5559 to 7159 (+1600; Level 4!)
Whisper (NPC) went from 2626 to 3526 (+900; Level 3!)
Mace (NPC, normally Mike D.) went from 8626 to 9526 (+900)
Wilbered (Bob S.) went from 6010 to 7610 (+1600)
Kane (Al G.) went from 6010 to 7610 (+1600)