Our last session was a bit short due to two players missing from the start and one needing to bow out early. The party returned from their exploration of the ruins of Valvur Abbey and Goblin Gully. There was a good bit of activity in Bridgeford with many more soldiers than when the party had been here previously. They got to speak to Commander Varos of the King’s Corps…something Aja had wanted to do since arriving in the area. The Commander had a job for the group and would do all he could to help Aja avoid arrest due to her being wanted by the king if they completed the job.
The earthquake from a couple of nights prior had created a new canyon, flooded with water, a relatively short distance from the town…perhaps a mile or two away. A tower stood at the lip of the canyon, situated at the end closest to Bridgeford. The job was to explore this tower/canyon, determine why/how these things appeared, and determine any threats to the town and kingdom. The party accepted and were assigned to Captain Jasmin. There was shopping, travel the next day to the King’s Corps camp a quarter mile away from the tower, and approach to the tower. We pick up with the continued exploration below.
Jen and Savannah were both missing. Alex had not yet completed some penance for a critical failure previously so she remained behind at the camp to do so via prayer and ritual. RJ played Aja.
I don’t believe there are spoilers for any published adventure this session, but portions were inspired/influenced by the old dungeon of Zenopus from B/X, things others have done to expand it (e.g., Zenopus Archives), and various Dyson Logos maps (such a valuable resource regardless of edition or version of D&D you might be playing).
Having scouted around this overnight tower, the party determined that it appeared to be around six stories tall with a side tower extending one more story up. No windows and only a single set of double doors…on the third floor with stairs wrapping around two sides to reach this door. There was some slight damage and possibly wear to the tower and it appeared to be crafted from a single block of granite.
- The party heads up the stairs to the double doors. One of the doors is slightly open but not enough to see in. It is stuck. Norfek, who has clearly done this before, pries it open with a crowbar. Beyond is a dusty and dirty chamber with large hearths and a good bit of smashed/broken/rotted furniture scattered about. Two additional doors lead out of this chamber, both closed.
- The first door opened leads to what was probably once a kitchen based on the ruined furniture, accoutrements, and fireplace. Mold covers pretty much everything. (Fortunately for the party, the mold was harmless.) Another door leads out.
- This next door opens into a chamber with stairs leading up and stairs leading down and two doors (one leads back to the initial entry chamber). The room is spotless…thoroughly and completely clean. The door opens to a small privy. Denton grabs some debris from the other chamber and drops it in. It drops maybe 60 feet based on Denton’s calculations of how long it takes before it makes an odd squelching sound.
- Before proceeding further, a blood red, feathery centipede, the size of a person’s arm, comes up the stairs. The party defeats it quickly and Denton wraps its corpse up and stashes it in his pack…just in case it might be useful in his arcane studies later.
- The stairs lead up to a chamber with two small hearths, more broken and rotted furniture, a door to another privy (fancy place with all this indoor plumbing), stairs continuing up, and a passage leading to three bedrooms. Like the other rooms, these have broken, rotted furniture. Some remnants of clothing suggest that one bedroom belonged to a woman while the others belonged to men.
- Oh, in case it wasn’t clear, with no windows in the tower, it has been totally dark throughout once the party moved away from the initial entry doors.
- Continuing up the stairs, there is yet another chamber with ruined furniture, a privy, more stairs leading up, a large chamber that was probably once a library, and a study for a few individuals. Before any of this can be explored, however, a humanoid with gray skin, a flat and reptilian face, and nasty talons charges forward and attacks Norfek (who was in the lead coming up the stairs). Norfek stops moving as if frozen. The creature starts to drag him away. Before it can too far with its prey, the rest of the characters defeat it. It isn’t long before Norfek can move again. It felt like his blood was freezing and rigor mortis had set in.
- The library had no paper remnants in it all. Bookshelves, yes. Remains of books or scrolls or the like, no.
- In the study, debris had been piled up in front of a fireplace. As the party starts to explore the room, another of the gray-skinned humanoids bursts out from the fireplace and attacks. It too is defeated…although it got close. I believe half the party could no longer move after hits from the creature before it was killed.
- Climbing the stairs to the next level, a door leads out to the roof of the tower. A large, bronze sundial sits in the center. Stairs within lead up to the top of the side tower, ending in a small chamber. Within, hanging on the wall, is a large bronze face. Its eyes and mouth are closed. Denton immediately recognizes it as a Brazen Face, something associated with a group of priests and wizards devoted the Gray Cloaks (the neutral deities). This group was known as the Mystical Order of Vartor Ellekor and was active in a far away kingdom, a long, long time ago.
- As the party moves closer, the eyes of the face open and it speaks, “I’ll answer questions, one, more more. I’ll never speak ’til it be four.” The eyes then close.
- Denton remembers reading in some book or another that this order had towers which would periodically appear from thin air and that the order was preparing for the final conflict between Chaos and Law with the goal of defeating both to strike a balance and bring forth a natural world.
- Heading back down to the third level to start exploring the lower levels, the party spies a dark blob squeezing out from under the privy door…the same privy that Denton had dropped the debris and heard the squelch. Denton strikes it with a magic missile but that seems to have done relatively little damage compared to other creatures. (The players can see a hit point bar in Foundry and the damage barely made, pardon the pun, a Dent to the creature’s hit points.) Norfek attacks with his mace with no apparent effect before the creature strikes him and knocks him unconscious. As the creature oozes over Norfek’s mace and shield, both starting to dissolve, the others grab his body and leave the tower.
- Reaching the camp, they fill in Captain Jasmin with what they’ve found (she seemed a little less than impressed with their progress…jerk.) Alex heals Norfek with the Fist of Janda and some destroyed equipment is replaced and obtained, including some flasks of oil. Denton figures the blob can be burned. Everything burns, right?
- Back to the tower and the party uses torches and oil to burn the blob. They are ultimately successful but not before Denton is badly wounded by the creature (and falls unconscious). They regroup and retreat back to the camp again as they’ve already exhausted all of their healing resources.
And that is where we stopped. This was some of the most engaged I’ve seen the players be (across campaigns) in quite some time. They all got into the exploration side of things and they definitely seemed grabbed by the combats…most of which were pretty tense.
After the final battle with the blob, Rachel said, “I hate having a two hour adventuring day, but Shadowdark is hardcore.” Yes, yes it is.
The group plans on heading back to the tower after Denton recovers, possibly waiting until they recover all of their spells, hit points, and the like. They also discussed trying to get back to the Brazen Face to ask it a question when the sundial hit four. There are also two floors below the entry floor that have been unexplored…sorry, at least two floors as it could descend beneath ground…and there is the issue of the entire canyon.
