In our last session, the party was busy exploring Ednowain’s tower. They eventually reached the top level where they found what remained of Ednowain and survived.
There are potential spoilers below the break for the adventures, “The Crucible of Freya,” from Necromancer Games (although a heavily modified version) and, “The Mysterious Tower,” from Goodman Games (also a heavily modified version). I also drew from Weapons of Legacy from WotC for some ideas and images I used.
My players remained slackers so I wrote this up after they failed to do so. Slackers!
Having found and defeated Ednowain’s shade, the party set about enjoying and gathering their rewards. The coins in the central sarcophagus tallied to 276 gold, 2007 silver, and 1567 copper along with eight gems.
Remus studied and learned enlarge from the spellbook found in the small closet bedroom while the rest of the party spent the hours looking around the top floor…hoping to find a secret exit that would allow them to bypass Zotzpox and all of the orcs, gnolls, and goblins that must still be waiting for them outside the tower’s entrance. Nothing of the sort, however, was discovered.
Once he was done with his studies, Remus cast the spell on Clarissa so she could search the ceiling of the top room or see if the ring which had originally opened the tower’s door would open another. Nothing of the sort happened and she spotted no hidden exit in the ceiling.
Romulus realized that Drogar had been coughing throughout the day. Nothing serious but it felt as though he had a slight fever. Concerned for the dwarf but having the bigger concern of the band of bandits waiting outside, the party took decisive action and rested for the night.
The next morning, Remus used the scroll to cast invisibility on Bryn. The plan was that Clarissa would open the door and let Bryn slip out to scout invisibly so they could get a better idea of what they were up against. Opening the door, the party did not expect what they found. Instead of psycho goblins, berserk orcs, and yipping gnolls, they were greeted simply with darkness.
Needless to say, this was something of a surprise but the party stuck with the plan. Bryn slipped out but Clarissa kept the door open. Outside, Bryn heard what seemed to be a hacking or coughing sound made by a rather large creature but she couldn’t see anything. Before Bryn could scout much, the voice of Zotzpox spoke out from within the tower so Bryn slipped back in before Clarissa closed the door.
Clarissa insisted that Zotzpox had to agree to safe passage for the party passed his gnoll, goblin, and orc allies. The imp agreed…perhaps too quickly. Clarissa opened the door again and Zotzpox called out that the party was not to be harmed. Shory insisted that the imp show itself and he did but only after she stowed her bow. He also asked why there were only five adventurers since six had entered…Romulus explained that Bryn and fallen and died while fighting on an upper floor (liar, liar, pants on fire).
Then the divvying of treasure began. Romulus told the imp that the party had found the spellbook, potion of longevity, bracers, and the staff. Zotzpox pushed a couple of times asking if that was all that was found and expressed his doubts, baldly stating that he enjoyed how Romulus was lying to him (something about corruption of a priest). After looking over the spellbook, the imp selected the staff as his first choice (remember the deal was that he got the first pick since the party got the secret of lichdom). Romulus selected the bracers and Remus took them. Zotz picked up the spellbook, indicating that he got the other items as well (remember, her got, I believe, 70-percent of the items). He then turned invisible, claiming that he’d go check out the upper levels.
Shory (or was it Drogar?) closed the door at the top of the stairs that Zotzpox presumably went through. Clarissa opened the front door again and the part heard a loud roar, followed by wheezing and goblins were seen charging towards the tower door. Clarissa shut the door before they could get in. The party then revisited their failed strategy with the ants of letting only one or two in at a time. This time, however, the strategy largely worked. The door was opened and closed several times letting a handful of goblins in at a time so that they were manageable and relatively easy to kill (although the goblins got in a couple of good hits too).
Then, however, when they opened the door next, a dragon shoved the door fully opened with its head, knocking Clarissa to the floor! It deeply inhaled but when it went to exhale its breath weapon, it only resulted in hacking and coughing. A melee ensued and some damage was dealt to both sides before the dragon withdrew its head, apparently retreating around the corner of the tower.
The majority of the party gave chase…except for Romulus who stayed in the tower, picking up the staff. As the party was peeking around one corner of the tower, the dragon came charging from around the other corner to attack.
Outside the tower, the dragon seemed to not be quite on its game, so to speak. His attacks were less than anemic but Clarissa’s were not. With a mighty swing [Rach rolled a 20], she split the beast’s head in twain sending blood, pus, and rotted flesh exploding out. Yes, rotted flesh! The dragon looked to be rotting from the inside out. All of the characters outside of the tower were covered in the disgusting stew of ex-dragon.
Meanwhile, inside, Zotzpox made its return to the scene. Landing on Romulus’ shoulder, the imp told him to leave the staff. Romulus tried to grab the little demon and, as a reward, the imp stung him. Having learned of the fate of the victims of the imp’s sting from Clarissa, Romulus broke out in an immediate sweat. However, either the gods smiled upon him or the imp did not inject its venom and Romulus suffered no ill effects beyond just the wound itself.
Holding the imp, Romulus yelled for Bryn and the dagger. As she came running in, Zotzpox saw the blade she was holding and shrieked in terror. He begged for his life and said the party could have all of the treasures that had been found and that he’d share where even more treasure could be found.
Bryn was not tempted. As we already knew, she is a heartbreaker but we didn’t know that she’s also an imp slicer. That, however, is exactly what she did. With one swing [Rach rolled another 20], she sliced right through Zotzpox with the blade. A shockwave erupted outward from the blow with a loud thunder and it knocked everyone from their feet. The shockwave continued past the characters and on out who knows how far.
With the battle(s) over, the part took stock of things. Romulus set about healing those that needed and the various bodies were searched. Drogar wanted a talon from the dragon as a souvenir. Rather than requiring any effort to rip it from the dragon’s paw, it slid right out. The goblins looked to be of a different tribe than those that had previously occupied the cavern. Each was armed with a shortsword made of a strange metal that looked like lead but wasn’t nearly as heavy or soft like lead. It also left a thin dusty sheen to anything that it touched.
Bryn also noticed [yes, Rachel rolled yet another 20] that one of the goblins was wearing a pair of boots that looked exactly like a pair of boots that she had seen on one of the goblins that they had fought (and killed) at the ruined temple of healing deep in the woods when it was just her, Drogar, and Shory traveling together.
The goblins also had a gray, ashy spittle around their mouths.
Piles of gnoll, goblin, and orc bodies were found in one part of the cavern. Some looked as though they had been killed by blades but others were slashed open by large claws. It was pretty clear to the party that the dragon and its apparent goblin allies had slain the bandits that had occupied the cavern when the party entered the tower.
Drogar’s fever and cough also had gotten worse overnight. He was starting to cough up some gray, ashy spittle (or maybe that was next session…don’t quite remember).
That’s pretty much where we stopped for the night.
