Editing The Chronicles of Far Keep (section)

===Melisende's Account to the Flying Assembly (taking up the story) ===
<br /><br />
'''Thwarting the Red Cudgels Attack''' 
Fearing an attack by the Red Cudgels, the party approach new allies-the Matrons of Bethan and the Protection Society who form formidable armed gangs to surround the Griffon. That eve armoured women patrol the street with lanterns while head-scarved Protection men lurk in the shadows . The Red Cudgels deign not to tangle with such a force.  The next morning The Matrons arrange for the party’s loot to be shifted  to the cathedral coffers. The task of shifting the hoard is handled by a single individual- an ogre trundling a barrow the size of a hay-cart. 
<br /><br />
'''The Village in the Woods''' 
Having disposed of their (oddly disappointing) treasure, the Company  follow the druid into the wilds beyond the town walls. The druid tracks a cluster of giant bombardier beetles which are dispatched. But Oglu the Walker makes a grimmer discovery when he leads the Company on the trail of his second quarry-a troupe of undead. The party find an abandoned graveyard in a forest clearing. They locate some still-animated skeletons and a tomb in which others might be at rest.  These undead are entangled by the Walker’s magic, but a more  powerful foe, a skeleton bowman possessed of mortal-like cunning, attempts to ambush the party as they are occupied. A fight ensues , split along two fronts- some of the Company battling the graveyard skeletons while others pursue the archer. The latter flees but leads his pursuers to a well-shaft in an abandoned overgrown village quite close to the graveyard. The undead thing escapes along an underground tunnel at the well's bottom to a fortified roundhouse further within the village ruins.  Entering the roundhouse in a well-co-ordinated pincer attack (some following via the tunnel, others charging overland) they find the building has been protected with various defensive spells, clearly put in place by Green Star cultists.  Only one activates but summons  a powerful Green Star lizard. This formidable creature is slain surprisingly easily, as Sir Thomas is able to behead it.    The archer is also destroyed in a short exchange of attacks.  The party recover a hoard-no doubt the village’s treasure –somehow more satisfying than their last. It contains some ‘evil’ cult items but also a locked box crammed with gems and a powerful ‘fiery trident’ wand. 
In the village ruins elsewhere a careful search reveals some masterwork bows and arrows which are used to equip the villein soldiers. Some holy items pertaining to Jaser are also found- a silver statue of the Archangel and a strange early edition of The Archangel's Psalter. The fact that these items were hidden suggests that the village had given itself over to the GS cult in the last GS cycle and that worship of Jaser had gone underground. Was this a sign of things to come in the new Cycle (the GM posed exciting little interest) ? 
<br /><br />
'''The Restoration of Guildtown to Farkeep (or the ‘Tyranny of Farkeep’ in the guild accounts)''' 
Rejecting an offer by goblin merchants to exchange the party’s total haul for the price of the crossbow’s promissory note, the Company instead decide to make a bid to reinstate Farkeep’s control over the guilds.  The Friar draws on his connections to receive backing for this plan, securing the support of not only the Matrons of Jaser but also the Cathedral’s worldly Cardinal by gifting them with his Psalter and the silver statue of Jaser. The Protection Society are also successfully canvassed. At the same time Glixie is put to work in the Town’s famous library, collecting legal historical evidence to suggest that the guilds’ long royal lease had expired (it later transpired from the Keep’s ledgers that the last baron knew this, but had been happy to accept cash ‘gifts’ to leave this matter alone) . The Company demand to meet with the Guildmasters and enter negotiations. The Guild is routed from its century-long period of freedom and power. In its place a new Farkeep troika are appointed : <br />
-Toadwhisperer , a goblin merchant <br />
-Ger Coalfinger , the Master of Bones<br />
-Lady Herrin, a Matron of Bethan and leader of the Cathedral Guard. <br />

The lizardfolk guardsmen are dismissed and the Town Miltia handed control over the guildhouse.  Before leaving each of the Company make a speech, sometimes speaking to ease the pride of the wounded guilds. 
<br /><br />
'''The Return to Farkeep''' 
Having set up a ruling council the Company return to Farkeep.  On the way they stay at their usual halfway inn, and hear that the cunning but cowardly troll of Riverbridge has taken up his old station under the bridge, stopping traffic between Guildtown and Farkeep. The Company approach with typical care , guided by their druid. But they are nevertheless quite well tricked. For the troll sets a decoy -the stiffened corpse of the owlbear killed earlier –in the shadows of the bridge, then leaps upon the Company as they prepare their assault on the object. The troll’s success is short-lived, however, as its blows do little harm to the party’s well-armoured fighters. The wretch agrees to quit the land in return for some healing,  its safety and a present of a small gem given by the witch Melisende. 
<br /><br />
'''The Stone of the Hound.''' 
Back at the Keep, Oglu investigates the crossroads reputedly haunted by an immense spectral hound.  He discovers after some sleuthing and chatter with local yokels that the being is a benevolent guardian, which devours monsters that threaten the fields at the core of the Farkeep estate. It manifests through the Stone of the Hound, an ancient menhir that has been refashioned to resemble an Angel Stone roadside shrine. 
<br /><br />
'''The New Castellan'''
[new years’ break-we lose Mel and the Duke]  
After the witch Melisende is recalled to the Flying Assembly the Duke grows bored of his rustic surroundings, longing for knightly fellowship and the glittering world of chivalry. Sir Thomas agrees to accompany him to a joust in the nearby Barony of Pelin. When he leaves, he passes the chain of his office as Castellan to the martial Friar. The Friar determines that he will commence his duties by investigating the Old Wizard’s Tower , mysteriously closed by the Keep’s last mage towards the end of his time there.  '''The Old Wizard's Tower'''
'''The Old Wizard's Tower'''
The party re-open the old tower and discover its layout (see the detailed Wizard's Tower section in the [[The Keep]] page. The adventure proves hazardous-an assassin vine and Devil are met along the way. The exploration finishes when they encounter a dreadful illusion with accompanying siren in the basement that empties most of the Keep of its inhabitants. Not wishing to re-enter and risk insanity, the party decide to find another way to the levels beneath.
During their exploration of the Old Wizard's Tower they also come across Denys, a young sorceress who has been visiting the observatory via a secret a passage, and look upon a terrifying old tome, ''The Tribulations of the Star Times''.
<br /> <br />
'''The Undertunnels'''
As their next step the party carry out a search for another way into the lower levels of the Tower, searching for secret passages reputed to exist in the kitchens and pantries beneath the Great and Fencing Halls. By accident, the druid comes across a grisly discovery of a blasphemous old hidden chapel, within which are interred the Keep's wicked old ancestors. The Friar cleanses the chapel of some of its evil, but leaves the crypts untouched. A second passage is later found wending between the kitchens and leading to the second basement floor of the Old Wizard's Castle. The chamber is clearly a kind of specimen room or museum, full of savage species collected from another planet- the Green Star itself! the Company battle some savage alien baboon-like creatures and slay them. The sharp-eyed sorceress also finds a table top that is etched with a map showing subterranean caverns extending from the Keep into the deep dark earth below. Far far below the keep, the map indicates, is a henge by a lake in a vast cavern. The gate to the Green Star.
 
'''Finding The Long Way Down'''

The party make an essay along a tunnel that leads from the 'museum'. This is long, low and circular and slopes downwards and westwards, having the stamp of uncanny goblin work. After a quarter mile of dizzying progress (the circular walls and steep slope are narrow and disorienting) the tunnel gives way into a larger space. Holding their torches aloft and with the sergeant flashing the beam of his powerful small lantern, the party perceive that they have entered a ledge over a large cavern. The roof is hung with stalactites. The distant floor (50' below and only visible in shadow) seems dusty and empty. The clearest way forward now takes the form of a path, cut like a clean notch into the wall of the cavern and following it round towards some invisible destination. 
<br />
Here Sergeant Lot reveals that he is a royal spy and asks that he be allowed to return to report his findings to the King's Wizard. The Friar, angry at this revelation, declines. But the company soon return to the surface, sensing that they must secure business on the surface of their estate first before continuing their adventure in the underdeep.