"Guard duty, huh?" Tell scratches her head. "Kinda weird of this Keraptis guy to both guard the place and tell the folks he stole these weapons from where to come look for 'em, isn't it? Seems like it'd be less hassle to just not say anything and let the guards handle people who happen to stumble by, not go makin' more work for everyone by practically inviting folks like us to come and repossess. He tell you anything about what you're s'posed to be guarding and why, Pluto?"

"I didn't deal with Keraptis directly," Bluto explains.  "He acts through his second-in-command, Qesnef.  As I'm sure you'll ask, he's an ogre mage.  Didn't ask too many questions.  I'm paid to guard the wizard's treasure, all I needed to know.  Not too long ago, a few collectible weapons came through.  Don't know why Keraptis bothered with 'em.  He's eccentric.  Maybe he just wanted to make mischief, taunt the weapons' owners.  See if they'd be dumb enough to chase after them."

A look of realization crosses Bluto's face and wonders if maybe your group is the rescue party for the weapons.

"Where is this...Qesnef, the Ogre Mage? Are they any tricks or traps we should expect on the rest of this path?" Kevash narrowed his gaze at the fallen knight, pondering what all of this could mean. Why all the guile? Why would a wizard try to bring in adventurers to their doom? How is Keraptis even still alive? 

"If you're that eager to rush to your death, you can go through the un-trapped door that way," Bluto says, pointing to a door in the lower left corner of the room.  "There's a trap free corridor that leads to a terraced room where Keraptis keeps his pets.  If you manage to survive that, Qesnef is right next door.  I'll enjoy watching him shred your little party to bits."

 Riya nods her head briefly, glancing between the various figures within the group, before asking in a jovial tone. "So does anyone remember if we can collect his bounty with just his head?"

"Well then I am not sure we need him anymore!" Kiellie said to anyone who was listening.

"Before we go raising his shoulders by a foot, how about this: Who holds Wave and Blackrazor? What do you know about this ogre mage other than danger and, I'm assuming, that he's ugly? Aside from the ogre and the mage, who or what else is in this mountain? What other secret passages do you know of?"

Bluto sighs at the flow of questions.  "I wasn't given a grand tour," he replies.  "I'll tell you Qesnef has blackrazor.  And yes, as an ogre he's not going to be winning beauty contests any time soon.  I was shown the barracks here, Keraptis's menagerie preceding Qesnef's chambers and that's it."  The knight closes his eyes in frustration and leans his head against the wall, disbelieving his bad luck.    

"Good. Now about Wave? You may have seen it? Trident? Like a spear, but triple the fun times? I could find it myself without leaving this room, but it much easier and faster if you just tell us now. Who knows? Maybe we arrange a little deal where everyone wins?"

Bluto thinks on it for a few moments.  "When I got to the mountaintop I saw smoke rising not far from the stairwell.  Probably how the place got its name, white plume mountain.  I heard talk about a heated lake somewhere under here where the smoke rises out of a natural opening.  The underground lake would be a fitting place to hide a trident.  I'd start there."    

"You mentioned a 'menagerie' guardin' Mr. Ugly back there," Tell cuts in, motioning toward the mentioned hallway. "What sorts of pets does Keraptis-or-whoever keep back there, precisely?"

"Let's see," the knight says.  "There's the giant crayfish, the giant scorpions, the sea lions..."

Bluto drifts off for second.  "Oh yeah and the wing clipped manticores."

The knight grins to himself, no way the party could survive all those.

Kiellie slaps the knight "So tell us away around this room cause either they have a lot going on in there or you are lying!" she demanded.

Intimidation 12

The knight glares menacingly at Kiellie, not intimidated.  "There is no way.  You  go through them to get to Qesnef or not at all!"

Kevash gives a sigh. " I believe we have gotten all we can out of the knight. Anything else is just a waste of time." He turns away and walks toward the door. "We know what lies ahead. Let us plan and move"

Riya listens to everything that goes on, loosing an all-too-familiar sigh. She'd retrieve her bottle of liquor, taking a couple gulps before setting it aside. From there, she would approach Bluto, taking her spear into her hand. When she spoke, her voice would be quieter than it had been at any time before, and her tone would be sobering and even. "Sir Bluto, as a knight of this realm, you had a duty to uphold which you discarded for your own selfish ends. By the will of Torm, The Loyal Fury, I condemn you to death. Do you have any final words?"

"Even a disgraced knight can serve...Would be nice to have a permanent favor in hiding...Jail-breaking is also easy enough..."

Good game so far everyone, I appreciate the group's commitment to the module.  I know things can slow down a little over the weekends, which is fine.  We're almost at the second of the three weapons.  Don't want to lose too much momentum.  I'd like to ask the party if they're ready to move to the next area, or if they'd rather check out the underground lake?  Only other thing to decide is what to do with Bluto.

OOC: Kevash is more than ready to move on lol

(I'd like to make a side-adventure out of our epilogue with Sir Bountyhead. Turn him in, then subsequently jail-break or save from execution. We give him a small cut of the bounty to disappear but stay in contact should we need a safehouse or small fighting force.)