Menace in the Zarek Valley - The Curse of Baron Gordham (part 1)

Before moving on, the adventurers had to deal with the fallout of their previous encounter.
Everyone who had been tortured had permanent marks on them. I did not go as far as to affect gameplay in any way[1], but Groin had his beard cut off and Sotocus had a chipped horn. Simple things like that.

Going back to Tallow Falls, the adventurers passed the fountain which they cleaned up and re-sanctified. This proved to be a good move, as the old man sitting by gave them the remaining pieces of the puzzle. He was the spirit of this fountain, called Ath, and he had been weakened greatly by the desecration of the fountain. He was then captured by the goblins and left to die in the dungeon. Fortunately, his powers started returning as soon as the fountain was cleaned up, and in the end he was able to rescue the party. That burst of power took a lot out of him, and now he was back to being a powerless old man.

The adventurers questioned endlessly about other fountains, still thinking at this point (for whatever reason) that they had to clean them all up and return their spirits to power. Ath explained how the fountains were originally created, but their spirits had died since. He and Fe were the only survivors left.

Thoroughly unsatisfied, the adventurers went back to the village, then carried on their road to adventure to Gordham.[2] There they were greeted by the young baron and his elderly majordomo, and kindly asked to lift the curse that was killing all the male members of the family. After learning a few details[3], the party went directly to the laboratory of the long-dead warlock, whose curse they were supposed to lift.

I don't remember what riddle they had to answer, but I'm pretty sure they failed a couple of times.

After finally getting through the riddle door, they descended into an overgrown cavern, taken over by a pair of Owlbears. Combat ensued on sight.

Faced with a door, Solid jokingly remarked: I use Groin as a battering ram. To which I said: Roll a Strength check. You don't just throw around lines like that in my dungeon, good Sir! Everybody was greatly amused, except for Groin, whose head proved a bit stronger than the door.

[1] At this point.

[2] Long-time readers might recognize the title. I just love this adventure so much, I had to run it twice. I'm also lazy to write everything down again, so this post will only contain as much as the notes reveal. (Which is to say, not much.)

[3] And wasting a lot less time than the previous group.