2. Welcome to Borovia

[Zhym]

Date: Nouluna 2, 1221
Time: 7:00 AM
Weather: 56˚, overcast
Moon: Waxing gibbous
Location: The road to Borovia
**************************************

You decide—reluctantly, in some cases—to answer the Burgomaster's call for help. After morning ablutions, prayers, and studies, you set out.

The old Svalich road looks deserted and disused. Black pools of water stand like dark mirrors against tthe muddy roadway. Thick, cold mists spread a pallor over the road. Giant tree trunks crowd both sides of the road, their branches clawing into the mists. In every direction the mists grow thicker and the forest more oppressive.

For five hours you travel, meeting neither man nor beast. Then you come upon something. Jutting from the impenetrable woods on both sides of the road, high stone buttresses loom up gray in the fog. Huge iron gates hang on the stonework. Dew clings with cold tenacity to the rusted bars. Two statues of armed guardians silently flank the gate. Their heads, missing from their shoulders, now lie among the weeds at their feet. They greet you only with silence.

As you approach nearer to the gates, they open with a screech. The road leads on through the beckoning gates.

I'll need a marching order, please.

Status: Robert: 37/37, Iluq: 39/39, Vokarth: 40/40, Tibbius: 22/22, Randolph: 4/4, Tumbler: 39/39, Agrippo: 52/52

[Eulalios]

Spells for the day are set. The wizard prince rides amidst minions.

How interesting. Tibbius glances languidly at the statues, and at their tumbled heads, wondering what weirdness might linger here. What do the faces look like? What emotions are shown?

Easy in ... like a funnel trap ... should we jam the gates open? There's a chain and spikes in my saddlebag. Or could we just scale the wall to get out?

[Computer +1]

Tumbler grumbles What a gloomy dump. Sure looks like a place to make our fortune, or wind up dead.

Tumbler will not be in the lead.

[Stirling]

Startled at the gates opening by themselves, "seems we are being invited in then lads!".

Agrippo will be on his pony, in the eeerie stillness and fog he will be mindfull of surprises and the pony fretting needlessly. If the pony needs encouraging to move on then he'll dismount and walk alongside, shouldering his shield, spear in hand. Don't mind being in front.

He'll expect the gates to clang with a shut behind us "perhaps this castles' mage has an unseenservant", wry smile.

[Bouv]

Robert walks along, using his quarterstaff as a walking stick, with the rest of the party, occasionally feeding his chipmunk companion a nut here and there.

Headless statues? Self-opening gates? Nothing says "danger" about that, now does it. However, we haven't gotten where we are in life by running away from danger, now have we?

[NJWilliam]

Iluq, cleric

As the gates screech open, Iluq cannot help but chuckle.
"Do you think we are expected or do you think they open for anyone who nears them?
"Before we spike them open, perhaps we should close them while we are still on this side of them? It would be interesting to see if we can."

[Grognardsw]

Vorkath / at the gate

“Whoa there, Repentance,” says Vorkath Tsaridian, reining in his powerful warhorse in front of the eerie gates. The self-proclaimed Sword of the True God pauses, concentrating a moment to reach out with his sixth sense to detect any nearby evil.

“It seems we are expected,” says the paladin. “Let us not disappoint.”

I didn’t interpret there being a wall, just stonework buttresses with gates. Is that correct?

Suggested Marching Order:

Single File:
1. Vorkath – Paladin
2. Agrippo – Fighter
3. Tumbler – dwarf thief
4. Tibbius – Magic User (cast over dwarf)
5. Robert – half-elf druid
6. Iluq – drow cleric

Double File
Vorkath – Agrippo
Tumbler – Robert
Tibbius - Iluq

[Zhym]

The gates swing away from you. And, yes, there is no wall—only the forest, standing thick on either side of the gate.

Spiking the gates open would be tough. Spiking a door in a dungeon works because the spike gets wedged between the door and the floor, or is pounded into the floor, in a way that jams the door open. The bottom of the gate is a few inches above the ground, which is mostly dirt or mud. It might be possible to force the gate to stay open some other way, but "spiking" it open isn't really feasible without more detailed information about how you plan to use a spike to keep the gate open.

[Eulalios]

magic- not tool-user ... was imagining one of these
and jamming the spike into the hoop ...

[Zhym]

Interesting idea. It'd be like trying to wedge a door open by cramming a nail in the hinge. It's probably not the surest way to jam something open, but I'd give it a chance of working.

[Zhym]

Should I assume the party rides through the gates after Tibbius has attempted to spike them open?

[Stirling]

Agrippo will laugh at vain attempts to secure the gates open. "surely you can climb over again or just run through the trees".

"Barovia...my mind recalls it a place of misfits and mavericks, superstitious peasants and wanton wenches..." Agrippo is unimpressed with what legends he has learned despite never travelling this far east. Big know-it-all know nowt!

Hunched over his pony Agrippo will try to engage Vorkath with information regarding the request for help and offer of payment for services rendered.

[NJWilliam]

Iluq, Cleric

Iluq, ever forging his own path, walks around the gates to the other side.

[Eulalios]

Tibbius relents from his efforts to work a spike into the hinge. "...sort of rude, anyway," he mutters, "dilapidated gates without even a lackey to greet us." He spares a few moments for careful examination of the nearest statue, then remounts his pony.

[Computer +1]

Bah, waste of time this whole thing is turnin' out to be grumbles Tumbler.

[Zhym]

Date: Nouluna 2, 1221
Time: 12:10 PM
Weather: 56˚, overcast
Moon: Waxing gibbous
Location: The Gates of Borovia
**************************************

The party spends several minutes contemplating the open gates.

Iluq walks around the gate. He must hack away some of the thick ground cover and fight his way through tangled branches to do it, but he reaches the other side having avoided the easy way in.

Tibbius examines one of the guardian statues. It is a statue of an armored man carrying a polearm—perhaps a glaive, or maybe a guisarme, or even a glaive-glaive-guisarme-glaive. The statue's head, as previously mentioned, lies on the ground. Tibbius remounts his pony.

Tumbler complains.

Iluq has passed into Borovia. Will the rest of the party continue forward?

Status: Robert: 37/37, Iluq: 39/39, Vokarth: 40/40, Tibbius: 22/22, Randolph: 4/4, Tumbler: 39/39, Agrippo: 52/52

[Eulalios]

Tibbius nudges his pony with his heels. Presumably, it advances through the gates.

[Computer +1]

It is a statue of an armored man carrying a polearm—perhaps a glaive, or maybe a guisarme, or even a glaive-glaive-guisarme-glaive.

Hysterical!

[Grognardsw]

Vorkath / riding through the gate

"Careful all! I sense evil all about," warns the Paladin of the True God. His hand is on the hilt of Excommunicator, his bastard sword. As he rides slowly with the party in double-file marching order, Vorkath watches the trees to each side, and any overhanging branches, for signs of ambush and danger.

"The burgomaster offered all that he had in return for help in healing his sick Ireena from some unnamed evil ailment," answers Vorkath to Agrippo's inquiry about the danger and reward. "How much treasure that really is, I'm uncertain. But the vanquishment of evil is its own reward, my Spartan friend."

[Computer +1]

Tumbler sits up, more alert, his eyes scanning the area around them. Yeah fighting evil is its own reward, but getting a reward is an even better reward.