Session 2 - Part 1 - Bucket and Shovel but where's the Sand!

We find our band of heroes travelling along the west coast road towards the town of Poisson, a small coastal town upon the cliffs of the west coast and due to a long history of pirate attacks from the sea the town is heavily fortified to protect its citizens.

As the group entered the town they immediately noticed that for the size of the town there wasn't a tremendous amount of citizens walking around for the middle of the day. Some quick questions to the locals and they find out that near by within the woods of Holden a wizard by the name of Sionaas has been building a tower as a permanent place of residence.

In order to complete his tower as quick as possible the wizard has been hiring the local towns’ folk at more than average daily rate of pay to help construct both the tower and the dungeon that will exist below it.

So the reason why there was hardly a person around in the town was due to the fact that the majority of the populous was off helping build the tower. Though recently news had come from the construction site that there has been a cave in on part of the dungeon site and now the wizard was looking for aide to help search for and dig out anyone possibly still alive.

With the lore of a possible award the group head straight to the construction site which after a short 2 hour trip the tower came into site just above the tree line. As they approached it was clear that a mass dig had been taking place and numerous people where wielding shovels and pick axes whilst others where moving around large boulders and rocks.

To the edge of the dig site a lone figure stood upon an outcrop of rocks dressed in silken robes, leaning against his staff the man looked distantly over the site not paying any attention to the comings and goings around him.

Govan approached the robed man and politely waited for the figure to acknowledge his presence, after a short wait Govan made a subtle noise of clearing his throat to grab the wizard’s attention. Sionaas raised one eyebrow and slowly turned his head towards Govan and with an egotistical tone said "Yesss...what do you want!"

Govan explained that the group was here to help search and rescue anyone trapped by the cave in and all they wanted in return was for the wizards assistance in identifying a number of magical items that they had acquired during they're last adventure and a small amount of gold to cover any expendables used in the rescue attempt.

After some lengthy negotiations between Govan and the wizard a deal was finally struck but with one additional condition from Sionaas, the reward would only be paid in full on completion of the rescue and if no magic is used in the process.

Not understanding the reason for the last condition, Govan inquired as to why the group could not use magic as this would mean that both he and Marina would be of no help in the rescue effort. The wizard responded "The ground around this site has been magically enchanted to prevent spells moving or disturbing the ground and other spells could risk further cave in's..thats why!".

Leonid, Ivan and Ox eventually grabbed an pickaxe each and set to work at digging out the collapsed areas whilst Govan and Marina did they're best to help move rubble and boulders out of the way, they dug for over 5 hours before finally stopping for a break and something to eat around the cooks fire.

As they sat around the fire the group talked about the cave in and the wizards reasons for why the group can not use magic eventually leading to a debate on whether Sionaas could have ulterior reasons to why they can't use magic.

After a short break they all returned for another haul of digging and shifting spending about 4 hours this time doing the manual task, during which Govan decided that he did not trust Sionaas and wanted to know if what he had told them was true so decided to sense the magic within the area discreetly.

Studying the area Govan sensed no mass auras of magic enriched into the ground, in fact there was no magical auras in the area except that of Govan, Marina and Sionaas, the question now in Govan's mind was "Why?...why would he lie? What is the wizard not telling us?"

During the groups next break a shout was heard from the dig site and everyone that was still awake ran to the source of the shout, a stout man had found a young boy alive amongst the rubble by the name of Eli, the lad seemed well despite his extended time trapped amongst the rubble.

The group spoke to Eli as Marina looked him over for any signs of illness or injury, as the lad spoke about his experience he recalled that he had felt something had been nibbling at his legs whilst trapped but found he could not scream.

Marina gave Eli the all clear but noted that there appeared to be a large number of tiny bite marks around his lower legs of an unknown source which seemed to fit the lads tale.

Once the excitement of finding someone alive amongst the rubble had calmed down, the workers returned to digging with renewed vigour hoping that there maybe more still to be found. Govan asked to speak to the group in private before they returned to digging, as they gathered Govan explained what he had been up to and that he discovered there was no magic on the land compared to what Sionaas had told them originally.

After a discussion amongst themselves it was decided that the group would go and have a chat with the wizard and see what he had to say for himself. Sionaas was found at his normal perch point watching the over the site and noticed the group approaching, he turned to face them as they drew nearer "and!....what is it now?" he muttered.

Govan informed the wizard of what he had discovered in regards to the magic in the area and Sionaas did not appear happy, "you insolent fool!! do you have any idea what your meddling may have caused!!" an argument forth spewed between Govan and the wizard about each of their actions.

Govan eventually admitted that any spells he had cast had been down away from the dig site as he was avoiding detection from Sionaas in the first place. The argument subsided and normal conversation resumed, they talked about finding Eli and the injuries that he had sustained whilst trapped which obviously meant that there had to be something lurking beneath the dungeon dig site and needed to be taken care of to prevent any further incidents to the workers.

Sionaas agreed that if there was a threat lurking beneath then it would have to fall to the group to deal with the issue as part of their original contact, this the group did not agree with and Govan again attempted to re-negotiate the groups final reward after all his attempts Govan ended up with only an extra 20 gold coins for each party member in return for slaying whatever creatures may be lurking below the dig site.