Castle Whiterock 29 August 2022: A short delve before cow-tipping

The murderhoboes

Garreth, half-orc swordsman
    Bleu, droning elf wizard
Zaber, suave and debonaire man
    Logan, wolverine
Polly, cute and deadly elf archer
Thrognar, half-orc holy warrior

What they did

We show the pixies the sword and they are happy we found the pixie that was lost hunting Nemoura. They cast water speech spells on us to keep us from going "Glub-glub" when we try to talk. Garreth and Logan sing, and the pixies tell us that their mad musical skills give us the right for the pixies not to eat us. We're not sure how they could eat us, especially Garreth, but every boon is a boon, right?

After leaving the pixies, we check out the stairs past the frond fiends and the wall. A winding staircase about 10 feet wide meanders down the cliff wall. We can barely see it owing to the piles of silt, a scum-like layer of algae, and the rock surface. I lead the others down the stairs, and spot a giant clam hiding in the silt, as well as the outlines of a door beyond it.

I try to get Polly to see the clam, but she cannot until she's almost standing on it. We spot a big pearl, and she and Garreth wheedle me into not killing the clam for its meat. Garreth says, "We can buy a cow with those pearls."

I shrug. "I already go cow tipping with other people's cows."

Garreth says, "We can buy beer with them, too. The ogre thing had a pry bar for this and some little rocks to make more pearls."

The clam is just chilling. Garreth walks up with the pry bar and attempts to wedge it the way the notches indicate.  Garreth is faster than the slam, he starts to put the crowbar in. He gets the pearl and put the pebble in its place. Garreth tosses it in the loot bag, then yanks the bar out. He spots another clam further down the stairs, and another one … ten in all. He does the same for all of them, and gets six dusky pearls, one white pearl, and three cream pearls.

Once Garreth has opened all the clams and swapped the pearls for little rocks, we check out the stairs. We find that the stairs lead to the ruined monastery where we fought the false monks, and the secret door goes back to where the lacedons almost ate me. Satisfied, we go back to Cillamar.