Dearest Grun,

It occurred to me to try and keep you up-do-date piecemeal; I’m currently several flights of stairs below the old Everston Manor. Apparently there’s more here than swamp gas and creaky floorboards (although I must admit, there’s already less here than before we arrived!).

The place was left in a hurry - no signs of packing up, which was the first surprise, to me! The second came while examining the upstairs, in the form of two very large spiders. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the gnome Fafnir could - and did - put them to sleep with some sort of spell, which made them much easier to dispatch.

The downstairs was much more interesting.

Starting with a javelin to the chest (yes, I’m learning some things the hard way!), we found ourselves in a battle with several goblins in the cellar! I’m afraid we’re not a cohesive fighting force at all, yet, but we did put them down.

Poor Drusilia’s got her work cut out for herself, healing this party, I fear.

Of course, we had to chase the last goblin down more steps, which led to new discoveries. The goblin disposed of, we explored several tunnels and rooms below the manor house. I wonder just what this family was up to? These subcellars are the same age as the rest of the place! Quite a mystery..

One room even had some large, misshapen, lumpy creatures lumbering around in it. We tried to put them down, but no luck! They were very strong and dense; I could barely dent one with my axe. I fear we were forced to retreat from such an unnatural onslaught. Luckily, they didn’t leave the room they were in, so we could walk by them down the hall.

At the end, we found what looked to be cells. One even had a three-armed skeleton in it; I really am starting to suspect this family wasn’t into anything good or decent. The halfling Trap was living up to his name until he got bored with checking doors - and wouldn’t you know, the last door he opened “trapped” him? Whatever was in the cloud of gas, he got a full dose, and is now obsessed with discovering how to make a trap just like that for himself. I hope he didn’t learn all his skills in such a way...

So, this is where we’ve stopped for the evening: sleeping in and around the last cell, which has a trap door in its floor which we mean to explore on the morrow. I’m writing this while on my night watch.

Wish us luck!
Moradin Bless -
Ghelt