Daisy quickly attaches a rope to the table and lowers it down into the arena. Dov makes a run for it from his opened cell, leaps onto the rope, and scrambles up the center tower – just in the nick of time (thank you, Brega) for the sabre-toothed zombie tiger is right behind him, slamming the bottom of the rope in a vain effort to rip him down.

With Dov still in one piece (and not multiple sabre-toothed pieces, thankyouBrega), you all continue your search of the basement of Trimphid’s mansion.

You discover the wizard’s workshop hidden behind a secret door which is opened by inserting a blade into a slit in the neck of a small stone bust of a wizard (a famous one that Dov can’t remember the name of) in the master bedroom. Inside is everything you might expect to see in the laboratory of an arcane transmuter: the usual vials, beakers, measuring devices, and components – plus eyeballs and tentacles in jars, stuffed unnatural creatures hanging from the ceiling, oozes in cauldrons, a throbbing gooey egg,  and papers and magical texts all over the place.  There’s an angry, abused-looking dweomercat cub in a cage and strange wall-eyed fish-men in tanks.  You take what you can that’s magical and valuable.  One item looks like a tiny king suspended in a canister of goop. That one you leave where it lies, backing slowly away, and trying hard to forget you ever saw it. *Shudder*

Elsewhere in the basement, you find two doors in the gallery of morbid art: one leading to a wine cellar, where Dov takes a few bottles and smashes the rest.  A secret panel in the wall reveals a compartment with an organized stack of large grubs.  How eerie, you think.  Who or what are the grubs for?  And why are they hidden?

The second door from the gallery is a secret one – and leads to a large room that has been magically filled to the ceiling with a jungle environment.  A giant preying mantis hidden in the dense foliage (the likely eater of aforementioned grubs) strikes from out of nowhere when you try to trudge your way across.

You dispatch it (not necessarily with ease) and find another secret door on the far wall leading to Trimphid’s other secret laboratory. This one isn’t for show, oh no. It’s his necromancy workshop, and though more sparse than his other one, it contains all sorts of nasty, creepy things that give you the willies.  Upon entering, you notice a rat nibbling on something below the table, but it scampers off before Ambrosius can catch it. The thing it was nibbling on turns out to be some kind of weird, lifeless homunculus made of a white fatty substance, its previously sewn-shut belly ripped open and emptied.

You all stay in the necromancy workshop for a while, trying to find any clues to where Trimphid went. You examine the wizard’s various accoutrements and paraphernalia, digging into the details of his most private investigations, and what you find is all very distasteful so I won’t go into it here and it’s best if you don’t dwell on it in future. Everyone’s getting pretty frustrated as the time ticks on, with evidently no indication of Trimphid’s destination or details on Daisy’s brother.  Eventually Daisy notices that the door in the lab everyone entered through is now closed. And that it’s been blocked from the other side.  She breaks it down and finds an imp –

– trying to eavesdrop on you. It flees through the rest of the basement level, trying to make a beeline for the griffon to rouse him into defending the master’s estate, but Daisy (mounted on Ambrosius) charges and soundly cuts him off.

You interrogate the loathsome, pitiful little devil creature. He tells you his name is Grimgew and he’s Trimphid’s familiar. Or was, anyway.  It’s hard to tell what to believe since pretty everything he says is a lie.  He makes a vain attempt to wheedle for his freedom, showing you the sign of the inn door with Daisy’s flower symbol that the Overseers pillaged.   He admits he was the rat you saw when you first entered the workshop and eventually coughs up the handwritten message he tore out from the little homunculus’ body:

I’m coming to see you and I’m bringing a present. These grunts they’ve set me up with to make use of while I’m at Hawkperch are imbeciles. Utter idiots. They’ve made a mess of things and I’ll have to do a bit of clean up when I return. I’ll tell you the tiresome details when I see you but one good thing came of their blunderings. By sheer dumb luck, they found a halfling who might know the right words. He has the false flower name. So blood, yes?  He’s a complete idiot of course, country bumpkin, knows nothing, but I’m sure you can get what we want out of him. You can thank me when I get there. I’m going by way of Tupelu, my halfling “ward” in tow, and I’ll take the Court to the grove near the Mound.  So stand down your bugs for my arrival. In Tupelu, I’ll need to avoid Ruthorian. Can’t let him know I’m there. I’ll bring evidence to show you  that he’s a traitor – working with Artivole’s little club. We’ll want him killed. But maybe not ’til he finishes his latest masterpiece.I’m using one of Abs’ Lumpen-men for the message though I can’t see why. Utterly disgusting. And this is preferred over a spell? Anything for the good of the cause, I suppose. At any rate, I expect my new gift I’m bringing will improve my standing considerably.

Lord Arrowhawk

Figuring not much more info can be intimidated out of him, Daisy kills Grimgew.  But you aren’t all merciless : Nim frees the dweomercat cub (who thanks you all in Common before teleporting away) as well as the caged bats (who don’t thank you – how rude!) found among other immobile “Lumpen-men” in the storage closet of the necro lab.

It’s decided that the group won’t head back to Smidge, and despite having stayed awake all night, will forego any rest for the time being. Instead, you begin walking (betrudgingly, as you are fatigued) in the direction of Tupelu, getting as far from the village and the mansion as you can, with a plan to stop off in the halfling village of Yonbrook on the way.  You have a lot of interesting loot that you don’t know the significance of.

To Be Continued…