Great session last night. We went straight for Highcliff Village, found the mayor, got directions to the castle, and headed out expeditiously. We get to the area and see the a wisp of campfire smoke off in the distance somewhat near the castle. We investigate and find a fisherman. I thought it strange for a fisherman to be out in the wild with wolves about and a haunted castle. We talk, I ask questions, intimidate a tad, he offers to bribe us to not tell the village. Turns out, he was running away from his wife and family. Couldn't handle the responsibility. I talk him into returning to his family and give him some gold to return proudly. After the encounter, the DM tells us that's the same encounter from the Neverwinter video game. I like encounters like this and apparently so does the DM. My son and wife were like, "No! No! Let him be! Let him fish!" I was like, "No way, this is suspicious." LOL. Apparently he felt intimidated when I asked him why he didn't want the village to know, why a fisherman was in a dangerous place, and my hands were reaching for my manacles.
We head into the castle and the atmosphere is awesome. DM is playing spooky cathedral music. He's really good at narrating suspense. We begin to explore cautiously with our bard's light spell. We head down a spiral staircase inside one of the turrets. More slow movement. I'm checking for traps the whole way. We hear a guttural praying sound. We inch down a long narrow hallway and see what appears to be a dead spell caster figure praying. It stands up, turns toward us, and says, "I knew intruders would be coming." It then casts darkness which snuffs out our light spell and the session ends.
