After some days of travelling
deep into the mountains, following Shraevyn’s long-lost instructions, the party
crested a hill to see the tower, standing amidst a ruined keep, still
gleaming with white marble and glowing with an iridescent blue glow. As the
rode towards the entrance to the ruined keep their horses shied and refused to
enter.Hobbling the horses by a nearby stream they made their way into the ruin,
almost immediately being attacked by a trio of bombardier beetles scavenging in
the ruins.
The beetles were swiftly disposed of, and the party moved forward to investigate the tower, only to find a ghastly
apparition, a ghost behind the wall of force. As the ghost saw them it emitted
an unearthly howl which drove a spike of fear into the hearts of the party.
Only Nystrae seemed unaffected, but the others quickly rallied - realising the
ghost was trapped behind the force-wall. Ramas first then the others.
Moving on, they decided to investigate the overgrown orchard where Senella fell
foul of an assassin vine, nearly dying before her colleagues despatched it and
Nystrae healed her. Scavenging some small bits of treasure from the assassin
vine's previous victims, they moved on to the ruined stable block -
disturbing a flock of bats apparently roosting there.
Moving through the stable block, noting the hole if the floor the bats had
flown up from Seladrin spotted a large carapace sticking out from a pile
of rubble and decided to indulge in a spot of target practice ! As the giant
stag beetle reared angrily from the rubble, Nystrae and Senella charged the
giant insect - a furious melee ensued where the party took some serious damage
before disposing of the vermin.
Finding a trapdoor in
ruined officer's quarters the party made their way down to the dungeons below
the ruined keep. After a brief altercation with an otyugh lairing in the keep's
prison, the party moved on and disturbing a nest of owlbears, which proved a
more serious challenge as the owlbear managed to severely wound Senella forcing
Seladrin to retrieve her injured colleague and retire from the fray, which
unfortunately left Ramas exposed to the owlbear's tender mercies - forcing
Nystrae to swiftly interceded with the healing power of her god. Eventually
managing to kill the owlbear they had scant seconds to prepare before a second
charged them. Fortunately Randall, stepped forward and, bracing his longspear
against the creature's charge, skewered it !
After resting for a day to recover from their wounds, they moved on discovering
passageway - apparently dedicated to a mysterious god, no one could identify
although Nystrae guessed it was probably some minor local deity. Beyond they
found a crypt infested with skeletons and wights. A vicious little melee
ensued, while Senella, Randall, Seladrin and Nym carved a path through the
undead, ably aided once again by Nystrae's tuning abilities.
Bravely pressing on without
resting, even though their supplies had run out the day before, our heroes
decided to press on exploring the dungeons beneath the ruined keep, finding
more and more iconography of the mighty bowing before the meek. In what seemed
to be the final room of this level, Senella found a large statue of the aged
blind deity, that they'd seen elsewhere, as she strode confidently towards it,
she barely had time to throw herself to the ground before a scything blade
nearly took her head off!
As Nym moved cautiously to
disarm the trap, Randall, Nystrae and Ramas postulated that if one knelt before
the statue (following the hints in all the murals and statuary) the blade would
pass harmlessly overhead. Once Nym had disarmed the trap she noticed that the
large statue had begun to sink slowly into the ground, to reveal behind it a
secret door, that too was beginning to open. Moving forward to investigate what
was beyond a hissing corpse-like form leaped at her - it was another wight. As
Nym reeled from the creatures foul life-sapping blows, her colleagues moved to
her aid. Nystrae first attempting to turn the foul creature before summoning a
moonblade to combat it. As Nym withdrew from the fray and Ramas, Senella &
Seladrin, mindful of their previous encounters with he foul undead peppered the
creature with arrows and magic missiles, Randall stepped forward into the
breach until the foul abomination was despatched. Within the ruins of the
creatures coffin they recovered a few precious items, including a curious
wooden practice sword, that they'd found pictured in a manuscript.
After resting and
recovering from their wounds and briefly exploring the remains of the owlbear's
den, wisely avoiding conflict with a female protecting her cubs, they decided
the hunger pangs were getting too much and decided head back up to ground level
and check on the horses and hunt for supplies, they discovered to their horror
that the owlbears had slain some of the horses and the others had fled. The
settled down in the ruined officer's quarters while Seladrin went hunting for
food.
Next morning they
recommenced their exploration of the ruins, deciding to investigate the
sinkhole in the north western tower. Seladrin went first as Senella rappelled
him on a rope. Within the sinkhole she found four immovable rods, spaced at 5
ft intervals that made the climb easier and dropping to the floor of the cavern
below, called for her comrades to follow - as they did they joined Seladrin in
a large cavern, the extremities of which were covered in strange fungal
growths, Seladrin began searching for a way out, and spotting what looked like
a thinner patch in one area began making her way cautiously through the forest
of fungi. As she moved into the "forest" an unearthly shrieking set
off, as she made her way through, she was attacked by two violet fungi, as the
poisonous tendrils lashed at her, Seladrin called for aid, barely hearing over the
shrieking noises her friends moved to help, just as Seladrin fell to the
ground. Nystrae first healed her fallen colleague, then joined the others in
disposing of the violet fungi.
Exploring the cavern beyond
they discovered a nest of ankhegs - which were swiftly disposed of - and also a
curious, obviously man-made structure leading from the roof of the cave down to
underneath the floor. This structure was obviously a conduit of some kind –
possibly leading to another level below. Nym and Senella spent some time on the
revolting task of wading through the mountains of waste left by the ankhegs and
retrieved some interesting items. They returned to the surface and Seladrin
again went hunting for food this time accompanied by Ramas. Nym and Senella
bathed in the icy stream watched over by Rafe while Nystrae puzzled over the
mysterious conduit they’d discovered below.
After an abortive attempt
to discover a way into the conduit from the surface, Nystrae eventually worked out
that he entrance must lie in the dungeon level below and they had missed it on
their previous explorations. After a night’s rest they returned to the dungeon
level and, after some careful searching discovered a secret doorway in they
hidden torture chamber they’d rested in some days before. Behind the doorway
lay a spiral staircase leading downwards.
Heading down onto the lower
level the party discovered what was obviously some kind of fiendish trap
involving a cunning arrangement of force fields and levers. Moving forward cautiously Senella
deactivated the first force field however when Nym moved forward to the second
lever, joined by Nystrae and Seladrin, the wizards trap was revealed and the
first force field sprang back to life trapping them as gouts of acid gushed
from hidden sprinklers in the ceiling. As Nym, Seladrin and Senella frantically
tried reversing the levers to escape the trap Nystrae tried to keep her
comrades alive with her healing magic as the corrosive burned into them.
Eventually, just as Nystrae’s healing abilities were becoming exhausted,
Seladrin spotted another hidden lever which was swiftly revealed as the
mechanism for deactivating the trap.
Moving on the party
discovered another forcefield the key to this being the “skeleton” keys
obtained from the dungeon above – beyond this forcefield at the end of a
corridor was a curious room with a carved mouth on one wall. As the party moved
to investigate this curiosity, a huge steel plate slammed down behind them
trapping them. As it did so strength-sapping gas began seeping from the mouth,
which began to repeat over and over again “You’re all going to die”. As the
party searched for a way out they began to realise with horror that the air in
the room was becoming stale – the room was sealed and the breathable air was
rapidly becoming used up. Redoubling their efforts, despite being weaken by the
gas, Seladrin and Senella , finally managed to break through the steel seal on
the doorway before serious damage was done.
Barely pausing for rest,
the party pressed on down a corridor, till Nym suddenly called a halt – she had
spotted a pit trap ahead, moving forward cautiously she leaped across the pit – only to find to her
horror that there was another pit, more cunningly hidden, behind the first! She
fell 20ft below onto the vicious spikes below. After much debate and
tribulations about how to proceed – her companions eventually managed to rescue
her and retrieve her from the bottom of the pit.
After successfully
traversing the dual-pit trap, Senella confidently led the party down the
corridor only to nearly fall into another one !!! Much jumping about by Randall (and falling into ! ) later and
this next series of pits was bridged with ropes. After this the party decided
to rest in the corridor between the two sets of pits while Nystrae variously
cured and restored drained strength. Next morning after a cold, uncomfortable
and hungry night the party moved on, successfully negotiating two more pit
traps spotted by Nym and skilfully bridged by Randall, however the party were getting a little concerned as they were
rapidly running out of rope!
Fortunately these pits
proved to be the last and the party were confronted by a large oval room with a
locked door in the north wall and a small metal check bolted to the floor in
the centre of the room. As Nym moved cautiously forward every nerve-ending in
her roguish body screaming "Trap!", Randall and Senella moved with
her, Nystrae and Ramas holding back in the entranceway. Nym spent some considerable time examining
the chest, the floor around it, the walls, the ceilings and then repeating the
process just to make sure there were no nozzles that might start spouting acid
over her - obviously an experience she didn't care to repeat. Eventually she determined
there was only one trap - on the chest
itself - and she set about carefully trying to disable it. Unfortunately she
failed, however her excellent roguish reflexes enabled her to avoid most of the
damage for the fire trap spell. The trap deactivated she swiftly set about
opening the lock. Within the check was a single silver key, which after some
brief examinations appeared to fit the locked door in the north wall and
cautiously Nym opened it.
She and Senella just had
time to note the blank wall at then end of the short corridor beyond, before
the three rust monsters that had been held in a stasis field charged into them.
One went immediately for Senella and her nice shiny armour and shield, one
headed for Randall and the other for
Nym.
As Nym and Randall swiftly
withdrew, Senella drew the wooden practice sword they'd found earlier and
attacked the creature that had destroyed her armour. The other two rust
monsters made a bee-line for the metal chest and began snacking down.
Eventually the rust monsters were slain with only the additional loss of a spear head and a lantern!
Moving on into the corridor
beyond, Nym found a secret door - beyond that they entrance to the tower, still
shielded by the wall of force> Depressing a lever on the nearby wall, the
forcewall was deactivated and the party were finally able to enter the room
beyond, finding richly appointed living quarters and the skeleton of the wizard
slumped over his desk. Exploring the laboratories within Ramas began
researching through the wizard's books and notes, discovering he had been a specialist abjurer who had worked with Shraevyn on ghost touch
weapons and armour. He had designed the ultimate forecage to protect his tower
that could be operated by simple levers however he discovered to his horror
that due, to a simple miscalculation, when he'd finally cast his great spell
and made it permanent, the off switch was outside the wall of force! He'd then
spent the rest of his life trying to find a way out of the cage he'd build for
himself - unsuccessfully!
While Ramas studied and
Nystrae rested the other prowled the tower, Nym in particular inventorying and
appraising the wizards stuff (not to mention nicking his silken undergarments).
Nym managed to free a couple of earth elementals who'd been trapped in a 10x10
extradimensional room for the last 342 years, who unfortunately swatted her
somewhat badly in their eagerness to escape! Fortunately Ramas was on hand with
a potion and Nystrae's healing powers were called upon once again. They even
found the wizards treasure chamber guarding by an extremely nice djinni, who
although frightfully apologetic about not being able to let them steal any of
the treasure as he was bound to guard it for another 659 years, was terribly
friendly and even offered to feed them. Hungry bellies being more important
than gold at this point, the party readily accepted the djinni's offer.
They spent some days in the
wizard's tower, resting and recuperating, and Ramas in particular spent some
time chatting with the djinni about the elemental plane of air, and the great
caliph. After a few days they realised that they were not going to get any of
the wizards gold unless they fought and killed their new friend, which none of
them had the stomach for - especially as he was filling those very stomachs
every day! Eventually some of the party
made the long trek back to Shadowdale to obtain some wagons, and returning,
stripped the tower of anything valuable outside the treasure room