November 26th, 2017
Into The Tower
From my left:
Nicholas playing Merrick the 7th
level human fighter
New Connor playing Iloxiron the 4th
level half-elven spellsword
Mikey playing Ivan Lok'tar the 5th
level dwarven fighter
Zack playing LaVeya the 7th/3rd
level human druid/magic-user
and the DM playing Ydee the 7th
level half-elf thief for the absent Catherine
The adventure began with the characters
at the edge of the roughly 500 foot diameter clearing with the tower
in the center of it. The tower was huge: 200 feet on a side and
square. Its main body was roughly 300 feet tall and on the very top
of the tower was a dome that seemed to glow with a bluish light. The
clearing was fairly overgrown with high grasses and brush, but the
adventurers could easily see the door into the tower ahead of them.
Boldly they moved forward, opened the door, and went in.
They entered into an entry hall that
was roughly twenty deep by thirty feet wide. A door was in each side
wall in the far corner, a small table sat in each near corner, and a
dark red tapestry hung on the far wall covering it entirely. The
tapestry was carefully examined revealing that it was warm to the
touch, roughly body temperature, and when the dwarven test of
materials was made (licking it. Don't judge), it was determined to
taste slightly metallic. This made the party somewhat uncomfortable,
but examination behind the tapestry showed a blank stone wall with
nothing of interest, and the party followed the right hand rule and
proceeded through the door.
The next room was similar to the
previous being twenty deep by thirty wide. The party entered in the
center of the western wall this time instead of the southern wall in
the room before. One door was on the opposite wall across from where
they had entered, and a tapestry covered each of the north and south
walls. These tapestries were deep blue and had no warmth of their
own, though dwarven testing revealed that they tasted of metal as
well. There was little else of interest in this room, so the far
door was unlocked by Ydee and the party continued on.
Beyond that door was a thirty foot long
hallway that ended in a door with another door on the right halfway
down. The right hand door was opened and a ten foot by ten foot room
was on the far side. The room was unremarkable except for the four
wooden pegs on each wall, each at about shoulder height for Merrick.
None of them seemed to open any secret doors or panels so Merrick
decided to test their sturdiness by hitting one with his warhammer.
The peg broke into several pieces on impact without doing anything
else. LaVeya gathered up the fragments and then used the mending
power of her warp wood spell to reshape the peg back into what was
more or less its original form. Merrick decided to perform a more
typical test of the pegs and pulled his wadded up spare cloak out of
his pack and hung it on a different peg. It hung there nicely as it
should and after a few moments of seeing if hanging something on a
peg would cause something to happen Merrick took his cloak back. In
the process he noticed that it was no longer wrinkled. He wadded it
up and wrinkled it again before hanging it on the repaired peg.
While it was less wrinkled after a few moments, it seemed that
destroying and restoring the peg had eliminated some of its
capabilities. With this experimentation in home ec completed, the
party continued on.
After reaching the far end of the hall
the adventurers passed through the door and into another twenty foot
deep by thirty foot wide room. A dark green tapestry hung on the far
wall and there was a door in the north and south walls in the far
corners. This fact bothered Merrick, who was mapping, quite a bit,
as any door in the southeast corner would lead outside of the
building. Fearing a trap he asked Ydee too see if the door was
trapped. Ydee detected no trap on the door but Merrick was
absolutely not convinced by this at all. He voiced his concerns to
the rest of the group, whereupon Ivan said “I'll take care of it!”
and went to smash-force the door open while Merrick retreated quickly
back out into the hallway because paranoia and half a clue. The door
shattered when Ivan forced it, sending little slivers of wood flying
around the room like angry wasps. Ivan at ground zero was badly
damaged by these fragments of wood while several other members of the
party took less damage. Even Merrick, who hadn't gotten out of the
room yet, was stung by these taking noticeable damage. After tearing
into the party members the slivers returned and reformed the door.
Ivan had at least seen the blank wall behind the trap door so he knew
there was no reason to try to open the door again. The other door
out of the room was checked for traps and unlocked, then opened by
Merrick, who felt a stabbing in his thumb as he opened the door. A
trap that Ydee had missed had pierced the skin of Merrick's thumb and
a discoloration was spreading. LaVeya cast remove poison and the
discoloration vanished leaving Merrick much happier.
A sixty foot long hallway was on the
far side of the door with one door at the far end. Merrick searched
for secret doors and actually found one roughly twenty feet down the
hall on the left. After fiddling by several members of the party
Ydee was able to open the secret door and the adventurers continued
through.
The room beyond the secret door was
shaped like a cross. The center section of the room was thirty by
thirty square with a ten foot deep by thirty foot wide section on
each of the four sides of the center area. There were light gray
tapestries, roughly the same color as the stone of the tower, on the
back walls of the other three sections of the cross. The section
they entered through had no such tapestry. As the adventurers
searched the room and applied the dwarven testing methods to the
tapestries here (no odd warmth but an odd metallic taste, which had
also been true of the dark green tapestry in the last room), there
was a metallic jangling sound from the center of the room behind
them. Nothing could be seen on the floor when they turned to look,
but when Merrick moved closer to check a strange form seemingly made
of liquid metal landed on the floor behind him and attacked him. The
gallium golem (shaped like a great ape) had apparently been in the
chandelier overhead (the ceilings in the tower were at least fifteen
feet high) before it had attacked. The battle cost the adventurers
two weapons as a silver-bladed short sword and a normal dagger had
their structures fatally weakened by the successful attacks on the
golem, leaving Ivan and Iloxiron holding hilts. The golem was
defeated before any more permanent damage was done and the gallium
seemed to seep into the stone of the floor. Looking up at the
chandelier overhead Merrick noted that the supporting chain hung
straight down from the stone above, though there had apparently been
a fastening plate up there in the past as Merrick could see the
outline of where the plate had been. The walls behind the tapestries
were searched for secret doors as was standard operating procedure at
this point but none were found. As the party turned to leave Merrick
glanced up and saw that the bright silver fastening plate was back in
place; its silvery coating reflecting the party's light throughout
the room as it was designed to do. This sudden inexplicable return
made Merrick very nervous and the party vacated the room quickly.
Continuing down the passageway the
party entered the door at the far end into the southeast corner of a
twenty foot deep by forty foot long room. There were two doors in
each of the long walls, one in each corner, and between the two doors
on each wall was a large floor to ceiling painting. The paintings
were very lifelike and featured an outdoors scene with an army of
human-sized figures charging towards the room. The figures in the
northern painting were wearing white armor while the ones in the
southern painting were wearing black armor. As the adventurers
started to examine the room six armored figures charged out of each
painting and attacked, some at their opposite number but the others
attacked the adventurers who were caught in between the two forces.
As the battle raged the figures were successful with some attacks.
When one figure hit its opposing figure the opposing figure crumpled
to the floor before vanishing and the survivor continued on to the
next opposing figure or to attack the nearest member of the
adventuring party, whoever was closer. When characters were hit they
took damage and had to make a saving throw. Those who failed
crumpled seemingly lifeless to the floor but did not vanish like the
opposing figures did. Iloxiron was dropped in the first wave, but a
second wave of eight figures from each painting and a third wave of
ten figures were encountered before the last player failed a save and
collapsed. After a while of being unconscious the adventurers awoke
and much to their dismay discovered that they had each lost an item
of value: Ivan, Merrick, and Ydee had each lost one of their favorite
weapons while both LaVeya and Iloxiron had lost their spellbooks!
Luckily neither of the magic-user types had been dropped to less than
zero hit points so they retained their memorized spells, but they
lacked the ability to change those spells! In a rush to recover
their lost valuables the adventurers departed through the door in the
northeast corner of the room, continuing their journey around the
exterior corridors of the tower.
Beyond the door was a thirty foot long
hallway that ended in a door. Halfway down the hall on the left side
was another door. First come first served was the rule for this
situation, so the adventurers opened the door on the left side of the
hallway revealing a ten foot by ten foot room with an enclosed wooden
bench running from the north wall to the south wall on the far side
of the room. On closer inspection there were two holes in the top of
said bench and the purpose of the room became obvious. As Merrick
and Ivan moved to look closer two large tentacles came up from the
holes, one from each, and began to attack. Merrick and Ivan began
their attacks, Ivan using the warhammer he had borrowed from Merrick
since Ivan's weapons were gone, and Merrick scored first ichor by
hacking through the tentacle before him. As the severed tentacle
fell flopping to the floor and its stump disappeared back down the
hole, two more tentacles slithered up through the opening. The first
one attacking the fighter while the second one hung back. This
second one was narrower with a broad section for the last foot or so
of it, and a living lidless eye could be seen in the wide part
staring at the group. This horror encouraged further attacks from
the fighters, plus a shot at the eye from Ydee's bow. The attacking
tentacles were chopped and smashed quickly and their stumps and the
eye-tentacle withdrew into the holes again, with no more coming out
to attack. Merrick, in hopes of killing the whatever-it-was in a
methane explosion, lit a torch and dropped it down the hole, but the
flame only flickered briefly before being squelched. The party
decided that they had had enough of this and left the room.
Through the door at the far end of the
hall, and with another prick to the thumb of Merrick due to a trap
Ydee missed, the party entered into the southeast corner of a dining
area that was forty feet by forty feet square and which had a large
table in the center of the room with eight comfortably squashy
looking chairs around the table. Against the far wall was an
enormous sideboard. Two more doors left the room, one immediately to
the west of the door they had entered through and in the south wall
and another in the west wall just slightly south of the sideboard.
There was a chandelier much like the one from the cross room hanging
over the center of the table, but several shots at it with bow and
arrow only resulted in metallic 'tink' sounds as the arrows
ricocheted off of the metal plate. Iloxiron settled down into one of
the squashy chairs and found it to be extremely comfortable.
Relaxing in the chair he tried to put his feet up on the tabletop
only to have them pushed off immediately. The general consensus over
this was that there were an unseen servant or two keeping the place
tidy as the dark wooden surface of the table and sideboard had an
almost mirror-like shine to them. Cautious examination of the
cabinets of the sideboard revealed many clean and sturdy stone
plates, bowls, cups, serving dishes of any imaginable sort and the
utensils required for serving and eating. Some time was spent
sitting in the comfy chairs before the decision was made to continue
on. The second door in the south wall with its odd double hinges was
the next to be explored and they continued through.
The door opened into a short ten foot
hallway that led to the northeast corner of a twenty foot deep by
thirty foot long room that was obviously outfitted as a kitchen.
There were shelves and cabinets, counters that bore the faint marks
of many cutting knives, and what looked like a brick and iron grill.
There were no foodstuffs in this area, but plenty of dishes and
utensils for cooking. A door in the south wall at the southwest
corner and another door in the east wall in the southeast corner were
the only exits. The door to the southwest seemed to lead back to the
battle room, so it was ignored in favor of the odd metallic door in
the southeast corner. Upon opening a white fog rolled out
accompanied by a wave of cold. There were four large hooks in the
ceiling in the ten foot by ten foot room, and smaller hooks mounted
on the walls. The floor was made of metal and a step up from the
kitchen floor. A quick look revealed nothing else and the party left
the cold room alone.
Back in the kitchen Ivan decided to try
to make some soup out of the iron rations the party had. Salted meat
and hardtack biscuits might become a reasonable meat and dumplings
meal, and the food he prepared was very reasonable. He had already
set the dining table earlier, and with the help of the unseen
servants everyone had a good meal. After the meal the comfy chairs
were used as beds and the party rested for the night.
Upon rising the next day LaVeya
expended quite a few spell points to get the badly battered party
back in better shape and they moved ahead after Ydee unlocked the
western door in the dining room. Beyond was a forty foot long
hallway that ended in a door, and there were two doors side by side
in the middle section of the north wall.
The first door was opened, and it led
to a small room with pegs on the walls like had been in the front
hall. Since it was a known quantity the party continued on to the
next door which led to a ten foot long passage with a door at the far
end, which again made Merrick somewhat nervous. Ydee found no traps
on it and opened the lock which required turning a small knob set
into the door. When it was opened it led to the clearing on the back
side of the tower. This also being a known quantity the party
returned to the long hallway and explored further.
The door at the end of the hall led
into the northern half of a thirty foot across by forty foot long
room. A tapestry of a forest scene covered the north wall, and
another door was directly across from where they had entered. On the
east and west walls in the southern half of the room were large
bookshelves with many books on them. In the center of the south wall
was a door. Examination of the books led to two disappointments.
First, none of them were either Iloxiron's or LaVeya's spellbooks.
Secondly they all appeared to be written in gibberish. Read
languages didn't make sense of the language, and the writing didn't
look magical or seem to be a code. Frustrated by this the party
continued through the southern door when Ydee couldn't pick the lock
in the western door.
Through this door was a thirty by
thirty foot room with a door in the center of each wall and an
engraving taking up most of the center ten foot by ten foot area in
the room. The engraving was of an octagon with lines radiating from
each apex to the opposite apex. Letters and symbols were visible on
the radiating lines, but they made no sense to the viewers.
Choosing the east exit from the room
the party found another forty foot hallway with a pair of doors on
each of the north and south walls in the center of the hallway. The
hallway itself was a dead end otherwise. Quick explorations showed
that each of the doors led to unoccupied twenty foot wide by thirty
foot deep bedrooms with similar and empty furnishings in each.
Searches revealed nothing of interest beyond the fact that the rooms
were clean and the bedding, sheets, and blankets were clean and
unused. Bored with this the adventurers returned to the octagon
room.
The octagon room was no different
except for the fact that the octagon had a pale light blue glow
coming from it. Certain that this had not been there before, the
adventurers ended up doing the only reasonable thing and standing in
the octagon. Anyone who did so vanished and soon the adventurers
were somewhere else.
The adventurers found themselves
standing in a featureless twenty by twenty room with no exits. Not
panicking much, a search revealed three secret doors, one in each of
the east and west walls in the northern corners and the third in the
south wall in the eastern corner. The party chose to go east and
found themselves at the north end of a sixty foot long north-south
hallway with a door at both ends of the hallway. Turning right they
went down to the far end of the hall and through the door to find
themselves in the room with the green tapestry on the east wall and
the door trap in the southeast corner. Having explored here
previously they returned to the north.
The adventurers stopped to look for the
secret door to the twenty by twenty foot room but though they knew it
was there they could find no way of opening it from this side. They
went north to open the door to the battle painting room and there was
an encounter instead!
And there we ended for the evening.
Experience points for the adventure
Merrick – 780
Iloxiron – 780
Ivan – 780
LaVeya – 780
Ydee – I don't ask about your
experience points, do I? Return the favor.
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