Session 09: A Tower Most Foul Report
General Summary
The party decides it would best to have a quick rest before they continue to hike though the jungle to their destination. The hour is quite uneventful thankfully. The party then pushes forward. About thirty minutes after they start walking Hanz is assailed by a tree branch, as a tree the party is walking past comes to life. With his quick reflexes he is able to dodge the strikes from the tree. The party quickly knocks it down and Hanz makes a final strike in full lumberjack fashion as the killing blow. The party moves on with only a couple more hours of travel ahead of them. However as the meet the end of their journey they are ambushed by a lone tiger man with longbow drawn and pointed at them. He is silent in his approach and makes no noise what so ever. He asks the party in common why have their kind come to his hunting grounds and demands the party to answer. Jorin and Rothgar quickly explain they are heading to the Sorcerer's Tower on a quest. The tiger man is slightly disgusted when he hears this and warns them of the danger that hunts his brethren within. He then slips back into the trees. No a sound is made as he does so. The party realizing they may have just talked their way out of a very deadly threat move on to no linger within the tiger man's territory. They break the tree line and see a decrepit tower standing erect one hundred feet in front of them on the coastal cliff in front of them. They realize it would be best to maybe find camp before the tackle whatever the tower might throw at them so they move about twenty minutes away and find an amazing hidden bluff where they will be safe for the night. The party gets well rested, with nothing disturbing them throughout the night. The next morning the party breaks camp and moves towards the tower. As they approach they here a large beast within eating something. It is not a pleasant sound to listen to as brassy burps are frequent and slight grunts and slurps are heard as well. Realizing inside could be what the tiger man warned them about they push in to find a female ogre eating a large jungle cat. The party is quick to slay her when she decides the party would make a good meal. Now inside they see the tower is truly falling apart. Above them is the open sky, the floor boards are all but destroyed. They however find a iron statue in the back of the room covered in a old tapestry. As they investigate they discover the statue has a tablet with lettering, when tapped the letters would light up. Seeing this they discover that the lettering is an anagram. It takes a few tries and some thinking but they figure out it spells OPEN TRAP DOOR. With the statue opening it reveals a stone stair case that descends below. The party pushes on down the stair case, unfortunately the staircase is trapped as steps seem to randomly disappear as someone steps on them. Diala is assailed twice however her short natured nimbleness manages to allow her to catch herself both times. However just as they hit the bottom on the final step it disappears leaving Jorin who was in the front to faceplant. He pride is most likely far more damaged then himself at this point. Before them is a corridor filled with cobwebs and what appears to be a humanoid figure slumped on the wall. As they approach swarms of spiders fall on Jorin and Diala. They party is able to get rid of them thankfully. Ganbold decides to burn the cobwebs to make sure no nasty surprises drop on them. As they check the body, they find it is a half-elf female wearing rotting leathers, has a pair of rusted short swords and a rusty pair of lockpicks strewn beside her. Not the person they are looking for so they move on. In the next room they find a sitting room, in the room is hundreds and hundreds of eyeballs that follow the party as they walk through. They decide to see what happens when you touch one. Diala uses mage hand and quickly discovers it ends in a violent explosion. Seeing the hundreds and hundreds of eyes it is apparent this entire room is dangerous. They decide to push down a corridor that has a putrid smell coming from it. Here they find a room with a pool of water taking up the majority of the room. They can sort of see the shape of what they think is a corpse within the pool. Rothgar decides to enchant a pebble with light and toss it into the pool to give a better look within. However as the pebble hits the water the water coils up and flails tentacles. The water might not actually be water the party thinks. They believe it might be a slime of some sorts. Jorin and Diala hatch a plan to throw a flask of oil on it while Diala hits it with a firebolt causing the water to light on fire. This seems to anger whatever it is and proceeds to attack Jorin who takes a defensive position in the front. The party attempts a few attacks against the water but it does not appear to do much. Rothgar figuring it might be something invisible in the water as he realizes it is indeed actually water within the pool casts See Invisibility. He sees what appears to be a serpent like creature within the water. He quickly calls out a description and now that the party knows the tentacles are coming from the creature begin to attack them whenever they attempt to attack Jorin. It takes less then thirty seconds, but the party manages to defeat whatever it is. Hanz and Diala realize it is a water elemental. A Water Weird to be exact. A creature that is bound to water sources and is completely invisible when it is within the water. Jorin and Rothgar head into the water and drag up the corpse. It is a halfling in rusty chainmail and a rusty sword. Seeing it is not the one they are looking for they head back to the sitting room, now with Detect Magic up Diala notices the eyes give off Abjuration/Evocation magic with the exception of a single eyeball that gives off illusion magic. She realizes it is a hidden handle to a secret door. Beyond lays a rusty gate blocking off a stone chest. The party seeing it locked and Diala sensing Abjuration magic coming from the gate. (She determines it is the Alarm Spell). Decide to quickly break the lock and have one of them run in and loot the chest. Rothgar is unfortunate enough though as he is assailed by a loud piecing scream. He is quickly brought to the ground as he is rocketed by the thunderous noise. Hanz, Diala, and Ganbold realizing they can use the candles to block the sound do so. Hanz drags out Rothgar who is now suffering from deafness from the noise. Meanwhile Diala and Ganbold make to the chest and open it up. Inside they find quite a hoard of treasures. They scoop it up and return to the sitting room. The party decides it is now best to push the only way forward. The stairs on the far side of the room the head further into the dwelling. At the bottom they find a room packed with dust. As they step into the room they manage to kick up a large amount of the dust and Ganbold ends up inhaling it causing a dry heaving cough as his lungs are filled with the dust. Jorin moves to the far side of the room to guard the party from anything that might come from further within the facility while the rest of the party investigates the third corpse within the room. However the party is assaulted by Dust Mephits. It is an easy battle but as they are slain they explode causing both Hanz and Diala to end up blinded as the dust gets in their eyes. They are quick to recover unlike Rothgar who is still deafened from earlier. As they investigate the body they realize it is a human male wielding a rusty mace and has a holy symbol of Laido around his neck. The party takes anything left valuable on him and push into the next hall. Here they find a corridor with painted murals on the walls. Diala realizes they depict the different levels of The Abyss. As they are about to move to the next room two Quasits appear from the murals one in front of them, and another behind them. They are strangely twitching and mutter in a language the party does not know. They move in to attack. The party again has very little problems taking care of them. They move into what appears to be a final room. Here they find a laboratory filled with alchemical equipment. As the party enters most of them realize one of the alembic on one of the shelves holds a green mist. That they could have sworn they see a face within it. As Ganbold and Diala investigate. The rest of the party moves in cautiously. As Diala investigates suddenly a flask of burning oil is thrown at her, she is quickly covered in flames. She also hears a telepathic message when she communicates with whatever is in the alembic. It replies with "Your Death". Diala takes her rapier and smashes it causing whatever that might have been within the alembic to disipate into the air leaving with but a silent scream. As they investigate the room Diala finds some flasks of interest. Four potion bottles and a fifth one that carries what appears to be the missing wizard Amelia Greyheart exactly as described as if it was from twenty years ago. The party decides it is best to carry her back to Freeport as is and leave it to someone more qualified to possibly free her. The party leaves the tower and returns to the surface. Diala and Ganbold seal it back up while Hanz, Rothgar, and Jorn investigate the cliff side to see if their are any alternative entrances into the tower. Jorin checks the area around the tower underwater and finds no such entrances. The party gathers and heads to where they camped the night before to take a rest before they begin their journey back to Freeport.
