The Sinister Spire

The Earth Node

The Party pondered for some time as to how to proceed , before deciding to headed back up the tunnel which eventually led to the surface in the hills a few miles from the town.  Lefrassa volunteered to head into Kingsholm to buy more rope, but Truldan, conscious the bad guys were getter more of a lead on them said he would try with what rope they had, and they headed back to the chimney.Truldan began a cautious decent, and made it about two thirds of the way down before losing his grip and crunching into the base of the chimney below. Up above Elred suddenly realised that he actually had another 50ft of rope that he had looted from the corpse of one of the tomb robbers and they quickly used that and the others began their descent - only Elred himself making it without mishap.

At the bottom, there was no exit save several small tunnels it would be almost impossible to navigate for anyone other than Truldan. As they looked around, even the  members of the Party with no spell-casting ability could feel the magical energy here humming in the air, so powerful it was. Lefrassa informed them that she believed they were in an Earth Node and that once attuned to the node she could use it to teleport them to another linked node. After resting and fending off an attack by huge cockroaches, Lefrasa was able to harness the power of the node.

They found themselves standing in a crater which they quickly clambered out of. Beyond the crater opened a wide Underdark vista lit by pale light shining through enormous columns of stone that marched into the misted distance. The benighted waters of a sunless sea met a pebble-strewn shore a half mile or so away. Across that dark water, a city glimmered. A cobbled road, which emerged from an opening in the dimly glowing cavern wall about a quarter mile to the left passed within 10 feet of the crater and continued on to the right. It finally connected to a narrow but elongated stone bridge-like formation that spanned the shadowy sea, reaching more than a mile to the city. Just across the road from the crater, a strange covered wagon sat. A broad and dusky dwarf, bald but with a while beard, stood in front of it, smiling. He wears a thick. leather coat and gloves that have gold piping. Two large grey lizards stood idly nearby. The grinning dwarf called out in a deep baritone in perfect Common, "Node travellers, and unless I miss my mark, surfacers too! I am Bruthwol Coalhauler, a humble merchant! Perhaps you would like to see my wares?"

The Party went forward and chatted to Bruthwol for a time, gratefully accepting mugs of beer. Bruthwol told them he had been camped here for a few days waiting for his partner to catch up to him before heading on. Hank asked him whether he had seen anyone else leave the earth node, and Bruthwol informed him that yesterday a cloaked female had arrived and headed towards the city which he told them was  called Pedestal, a city built built by the drow that had fallen on hard times following a plague some years ago. The city now was riven by infighting between three factions, House Dusklorn who want to re-establish drow control, the Assassin's Guild, who want to stop them and a third group known as the Inheritors who nobody is quite clear what they want other than to thwart the other two. As they took their leave Bruthwol told them to look him up in the market and recommended they  stay at the Dripstone Inn.

The party thanked the merchant and headed towards the bridge, which they eventually crossed after a brief altercation with some skum servants of an aboleth looking for new delicacies. Arriving at the far side they found the nearest city gate was guarded by kuo-toa who seemed to take exception to the presence of surface-dwellers and immediately attacked - the last mistake they ever made.

A Hero Falls

Moving deeper into the city, the Party noticed that many of the buildings were shuttered and some falling to ruin. There were various people out on the street and although they  attracted a few curious looks it was no more than that. Hank  stopped a passing grimlock and got directions to the Dripstone Inn, which they arrived at more or less safely after a brief altercation with some dire rats.

The inn seemed pleasant enough, though it was, somewhat unusually, staffed by undead. They secured accommodation easily enough and ordered a meal. As their food and drinks were brought, they noticed a hooded figure in a robe covered in eyes sat on a stone chair overlooking the whole inn. They retired early that night and although the accommodations seemed pleasant enough they took sensible precautions and set watches. In the small hours Truldan thought he saw a hooded figure watching their room from the walls of in inner city opposite.

Next morning they set out to find the bazaar did some trading. They arranged for the mithral breastplate to be resized for Truldan. They also located a magic user, a svirfneblin called Winya Quartzviewer  with whom they arranged to identify their magic items. They then spent the rest of the day wandering the city, attempting to get used to the layout and pick up what information they could. They picked up discussion on the current political situation on the city, three factions House Dusklorn, the Inheritors and the Assasin's Guild fighting each other for control, and about a mysterious killer roaming the streets. Many of the rumours circulation were speculation about which of the other two factions had attacked and slain the Inheritor guards at the South Gate. However any mention of the name Fadheela caused people to abruptly clam-up. Returning to the Dripstone Inn they saw that Bruthwal and his partner Athwel were enjoying a meal and joined them. He informed them that if they wanted to know anything they should speak to Es Sarch and pointed to the robed figure across the inn.

After dinner they approached the mysterious figure who seemed interested in their story - particularly references to The Vanguard. He told them that he knew a little about Fadheela, but in order to find out more he would have to expend considerable resources and as payment for such he required the Party to perform two services for him, to which they agreed.

Next morning, after retrieving their magic items from Winya, they returned to ES Sarch to receive their first mission - which was to retrieve some mushrooms for him, black with red hand-shaped spots, from the centre of Rikaryon's Isle, an island offshore. He warned them that the spores on the island could be dangerous, but as the island is not very large and they had had limited exposure so far, they should be able to cope. They headed off to the docks and and after managing to get buy a rowing boat from some duergar there, for an outrageous price, set off.

About a half-hour of hard rowing later they arrived on the island. Pulling the boat up onto the shore, they could feel the blue spores in the air and pulled up coverings across their faces to give them some protection. They made their way through the fungi forest for about 500 yards when the island's mushroom trees gave way to a wide space that was roughly circular. Within this clearing, the blue spore-haze hung particularly thickly. Broad, tall mushroom stems covered with short, stiff bristles share the centre of the clearing with tiny black mushrooms that sport red spots in the shape of little hands.

Elred and Truldan were first to move in - and first to come under attack from invisible phantom fungi. Truldan did his best to ignore the attacks fighting defensively and snatching up mushrooms. Lefrassa dashed forward and grabbed some mushrooms also but was quickly diverted on to healing duties and Elred and Hank both came under attack from their invisible foes, falling to the ground badly injured. Eventually, somehow they harvested  enough mushrooms and fled. Lefrassa grabbed Elred and Truldan hoisted Hank up onto his shoulder and they charged back through the forest. Unfortunately, when they reached the relative safety of the boat, they discovered Hank was dead.

House Dusklorn

Returning to Pedestal, they buried Hank outside the city, then handed themushrooms over to Es Sarch.

Next morning in the bar, sharing a melancholy beer in memory of Hank they eventually went to get their next mission. Es Sarch told them he was concerned about signs of a possible alliance between House Dusklorn and the Assassin's Guild. He wished the Party to remove the Matron Mother of House Dusklorn and he would see the Assassin's Guild got blamed. 

While they were speaking to Es Sarch, Elred noticed someone watching them form a nearby table - as the figure appeared to be another surface elf he went across and introduced himself. Lefrassa invited the stranger, who introduced himself as Talonux, to join them at their table. Talonux told them he was revisiting Pedestal to honour  a fallen comrade who had died there 15 years ago. After sharing breakfast, the Party offered to show Talonux to the Bazaar. On their way to the Bazaar  they were ambushed by Inheritors, but dealing with this proved supereasy, barely an inconvenience, and they finished their shopping in peace.

They spent most of that afternoon trying to keep Truldan away from the bar and then, later that evening, followed the instructions given to them by Es Sarch to a secret entrance to House Dusklorn  in an old tannery. After rousting out the mad drow prophet living there and completely ignoring his incoherent ramblings, they made their way through the tunnel and successfully ambushed and killed the Matron Mother and the magic user with her.

Returning to Es Sarch, he told them that Fadheela could be found in the Necromancer's Spike in the inner city. He warned them that the Spike was protected by powerful magic and guarded by House Dusklorn, who also controlled the one open gate, the East Gate, to the inner city. He gave them a ring that he assured them would briefly bypass the powerful magic guarding the entrance to Spire and said that if they returned with information about The Vanguard, he would make it worth their while.

As they returned to their normal table , Talonux suggested they try infiltrating the inner city via the West Gate which he remembered from his previous visit but had seemingly been sealed when thingg began falling apart in the city.

Plagueburst

The Party decided to take a walk round the inner walls of the city to work out their plan of attack. The walls were 20-30 feet high, sheer, and looked like they had been carved from the rock of the cavern itself. There were two gates, the east one guarded by House Dusklorn with a heavy troop presence following the assassination of the Matron Mother, the west gate was unguarded but had been blocked with rubble, something that they noted would actually be easier to climb than the sheer walls. On their way they spotted the hooded figure watching them, and decided to confront him. The watcher turned out to be a mind-flayer who tried to escape by levitating away after mind blasting Talonux and Truldan however a combination of Lefrassa and Talonux's spells soon put paid to him. Searching the body they  found a masterwork dagger marked with the sigil of the assassin's guild.

The climb over the rubble-filled gate proved really easy. On the far side of the wall rubble and the remains of manors surrounded an enormous depression or crater. Flares of emerald radiance danced and swirled through the depths of the crater, highlighted by sudden appearances of humanoid and animal forms composed of ash and thousands of tiny moles of green light. The forms came into being, danced and staggered across the crater floor, then dissolved again as if they were nothing more than figments of imagination. As they moved though the ruins, several ghostly figures attacked them, but only the first, a monstrous spider, proved any real danger and they arrived at The Necromancer's Spire relatively unscathed.

The House Dusklorn Guards at the entrance were quickly disposed of and, ensuring the ring ES Sarch had given them was present they moved forward through a chamber obscured by a green haze, giving it a strangely aquatic look. The floor was tiled with slabs the colour of bone, and the walls were crowded with what appeared to be hundreds of vault doors, each bearing the crude Iikeness of a humanoid. Drifts of grey dust were mounded here and there, piled thickly in each corner. A chill radiated from the chamber, oddly penetrating and portending death. Fortunately, the ring seemed to work and they passed thorough without incident.

Beyond they found several storerooms with cobwebbed shelves/nooks, and pedestals lining the walls, boasting dusty relics of a life spent in the study of magic and death. Next they found a dining room illuminated by soft lights from a candelabrum full of black candles sitting ill the centre of a huge stone table. Ten ironwork chairs, the most elaborate of which is at the head of the table to the north, surround this slab. All the places were set, though dust and cobwebs covered everything. Nearby was a room empty except for rows of bed and a Temple of Lolth, which they decided to search later, preferring instead to search the kitchen. Talonux decided to search the pantry shelves, only to discover it was a mimic - and an undead one - when he was grabbed by it. Fortunately his friends rallied round and managed to despatch it.

The Charnel House

Elred searched the kitchen thoroughly but apart form disturbing some tomb motes he found little of interest except a secret door that led to a hallway with an ascending spiral staircase. Rather than head upwards, the Party decided to check out the remaining rooms on the first level.

One turned out to be some kind of deep-freeze for limbless bodies, the other was the web shrouded room that Lefrassa had informed them was shrine of Lolth. Talonux disposed of the webs by the simple expedient of tossing a fireball in through the door and Truldan and Elred led the way in. They rapidly discovered that the statue of a skeletal spider atop the altar was in fact a Bone Spider Golem that spawned swarms of spiders. Talonux dealt with the spider swarms with a judicious use of  more fireball spells.  Truldan and Elred dealt with the golem while Lefrassa, once realising her spells were useless against it, concentrated on keeping people alive. The golem defeated, they retreated to the bedroom they had found earlier where, apart from those on watch occasionally being plagued by undead remnants, they had a more or less peaceful night's rest.

Next morning they braved the spiral staircase. Elred unfortunately missed the warding spell at the foot of the stairs which Truldan duly triggered.

The stairs led to a massive chamber. A wide elevated walkway led west through the room, a deep pit yawning on either side. Heaps of bodies and body parts formed an obscene landscape at the bottom of the northern pit, some jerking spasmodically and moaning. The southern pit was full of skeletons and bones, some of which rattled and twitched. A pair of smaller catwalks ran around the room's perimeter, but these were cut out of the wall, not supported by the floor like the central walkway was.

A flesh golem guarded the area who grabbed Truldan and tossed in into the pit of body parts - an extremely unpleasant experience. While Elred and Lefrassa dealt with the golem, Talonux rescued their compatriot by lowering down a rope. The golem disposed of, they headed across the walkway to be confronted by two doors.

The Graveyard

The doors exiting the Charnel House were barred, so they headed back to to the entrance hall and checked out the secret door Elred had spotted. This led to a secret passageway that passed under the walkway, avoiding the unpleasantness of the pits to either side. The passageway led through to another spiral staircase. Which Elred  checked for traps and then cautiously ascended.

The staircase led to a massive chamber with stone pews, some kind of Audience Hall. On the farthest end of the room was a stone stage, and just in front of that was a huge stone platform or table at least 10feet long and darkly stained. It had shackles attached to it. Three smaller stone desks and chairs were arranged between the dais and the pews. Two stone doors both open stood near each other on the northern wall and a closed door was farther to the east on that same wall. A shut stone door was set in the southern wall not far from where they had entered. Almost immediately they were attacked by three strange oozes and then a shadow, but these proved but a minor inconvenience and were quickly destroyed.

Searching the rooms nearby, a study and a library, Elred and Talonux found some interesting items, including a spell-book, some scrolls and a pair of soft black gloves as well as another secret passage. Truldan meanwhile got bored with all the searching and opened the shut door which led into a graveyard, which didn't look very interesting so he went back to the others. They eventually decided to check out the graveyard first where they were attacked by a wraith  and an entomber which burst out from a shallow grave. They retreated, but the wraith followed them till eventually Lefrassa destroyed it with a turn undead.

They decided to leave the graveyard fro a bit they headed along the secret passageway and though another secret door which took them out to an area that overlooked the graveyard. An Advanced Evolved Dessicator and an Illithid Forlorn Husk awaited them there, but a combination  of turn undead attacks from Lefrassa and multiple fireball spells from Talonux soon put paid to them! After this they decided to rest, which apart from a few annoying visits by undead remnants they managed to do successfully.

After resting they followed the passageway to where it lead to a dead-end, some kind of disposal pit covered  by an iron grate, and headed back to the graveyard to finish exploring there.

The Temple of Orcus

The Party headed up the spiral staircase in the Library, emerging into a room with scrying mirrors hung on the walls. A shardcaster construct stepped out of one of the mirrors and attacked, proving briefly inconvenient before being shattered to pieces by the Party's combines assault. While Truldan went round methodically smashing the remaining mirrors, much to Talonux's dismay, Lefrassa searched for an exit from the room finally discovering a secret door in one corner. The secret door led to a short corridor where they decided to rest, which apart from various interruptions by undead remnants they were used to by now, proved uneventful.

Moving on they made their way across several rooms, bypassing a set of huge double doors and finding another spiral staircase, this one leading down. Truldan stepped onto the staircase, which groaned alarmingly and he stepped back quickly. Lefrassa meanwhile had decided that they should investigate the double doors so Talonux cast invisibility on Truldan and sent him to investigate.

There was a temple to Orcus behind the doors, the temple was lit by violet light flickering from two large braziers and initially seemed empty, until Lefrassa stepped in! Immediately two necromentals launched themselves from the braziers and attacked the cleric. As battle was joined, a voidwrath seethed out from the altar and joined the fray. Eventually the Party were triumphant through most bore terrible wounds and were severely weakened by the encounter.  After all that, there was little of interest in the temple, but Talonux did prize two glowing gemstones from the obs held by the statues of orcus.

Moving on, Truldan decided to brave the staircase one more. This proved to be  foolhardy and the staircase immediately collapsed causing Truldan to be plunged 30 feet below and then buried under rubble. Talonux tossed down one of the glowing gems trying to to help illuminate the area below - unfortunately the gemstone shattered and a large fire elemental manifested and then, getting no instruction from the sorcerer, wandered off in search of enemies.

Truldan managed to free himself from the rubble as the others joined him. Talonux tried to chimney down the shaft and made it about halfway before falling the rest, while Lefrassa fixed a rope to the remnants of the staircase at the top and climbed down using that.

Fadheela's Nest

Moving forward down the gallery, they passed more drow statues ,some of whom still had fleshy parts exposed. At the end was a rubble-strewn room with four more statues, this time of various yuan-ti. There were three doors from this room, under one of which they could see the glow of electrical discharges, the other two were a privy and a storeroom.

Elred cautiously opened the final door and stepped back, allowing Truldan to charge in, where he was immediately attacked by a bloodhulk and four grimlocks. While elred fired his bow and Lefrassa moved to support, the grimlocks were quickly disposed of by a couple of fireball spells from Talonux. Truldan was holding his on in battle when suddenly he stiffened and a grey cast came over his skin as he was turned to stone!

The bloodhulk picked Truldan up and threw him at Lefrassa, who managed to dodge and then leaped in to attack Swinging her war-axe. Talonux unlimbered his bow and began firing at the bloodhulk, Elred too fired of a couple more arrows before the source of Truldan's petrification, a medusa appeared from behind a curtain and turned him to stone as well!

Lefrassa shook off the medusa's gaze attack allowing her to finally destroy the bloodhulk allowing her to charge. Talonux followed her, though this proved to be a mistake as he was almost immediately petrified by the medusa's gaze!

Things were looking decidedly parlous for the Party as the sole surviving member of the Party engaged the medusa, presumably Fadheela. Fortunately her fortitude was sufficient to allow her to negate both the medusa's gaze attacks and the venous bites from her serpents long enough to slay the creature!

Searching the area she found some stone salve in a chest along with a goodly portion of treasure and was able to return her friends to normality.

Elred thoroughly searched the area retrieving some interesting paperwork - informing them the king's bones and some of his companions items had been sent to someone called Gazaron, who was apparently The Vanguard of Sertrous . They also found various magic items including a staff which appeared to be one of the missing King's Companion's items they were seeking, and a portal key. Finally they identified the source of the electrical discharges as some kind of portal, they returned to report back to Es Sarch.