After hearing some movement downstairs (soft shuffling noises), Cane repositions himself, hiding behind some debris and taking a bead on the staircase doorway with his bow. Steeljaw drags Aerion’s and Saynard’s paralyzed forms over to the far wall, then hugs the wall next to the staircase doorway with his axe raised. Vic slides into the darkened bedchamber to the south and sets up an ambush. All three active party members now hear a gentle creaking as some creature carefully makes its way up the rickety stairs.
Steeljaw sees a small, green, reptilian head—a kobold—poke through the doorway, glancing furtively around the room. It apparently does not spot Cane, but pauses as it spies the two motionless “bodies” against the wall. Then it notices Steeljaw looming over it. The kobold emits a pathetic squeak as the dwarf clobbers it with his axe. The party maintains their positions, but hears the sounds of several more creatures withdrawing from the stairs and fleeing the library. The party members wait a bit, but detect no further sign of the creatures.
Vic climbs into the rafters of the bedroom and cuts down the two web bundles in the spider’s lair. They each contain another of the green, reptilian creatures, but these have had their juices drained out of them so they appear pale and desiccated. Vic loots the bodies of some copper and silver coins and their crude daggers.
The party rests an hour, giving time for the spider’s paralytic poison to wear off. Once they have recuperated from the intensity of the fight on two fronts, the party wisely decides to stick together as they explore further. They thoroughly search the parlor where Vic finds an old steamer trunk under some debris. He picks the simple lock and opens it to find it full of wadded-up swatches of burlap. Digging through them, he recovers a smoked glass bottle with a cork stopper. A label on the bottle reads: “F’tumsh,” a word no one is familiar with (best guess, pronunciation-wise, is “fuh-TUMsh.”)
Saynard casts detect magic and discerns that the bottle is, indeed, magical. He can also detect the presence of other magical auras nearby, but he can’t yet see any sign of what’s causing them. They search the bedroom to the south, where they find a corroded chain shirt, a broken wooden shield, and a rusted dagger in a busted-up wardrobe. Moving into the study, Steeljaw uncovers a stoppered bone tube in the debris of an old desk beneath the staircase. Saynard looks it over and determines that the scroll inside is written with the arcane spell: misty step. As the only one able to cast the spell, Saynard claims the scroll.
Aerion, Saynard, Steeljaw, and Vic move into the master bedroom, while Cane watches from the doorway to the study, keeping an eye out for threats. As the four party members search the bedroom, they note that the pile in the center consists of the smashed remnants of once-fine furniture: a carved, 4-poster bed, a mahogany wardrobe, and a trunk. Moving the debris aside causes the four bedposts—each carved with the likeness of a wizardly face—to animate. As they float into the air, the carved faces angrily admonish the party members for their rude intrusion into this private space.
Whirling about, the bedposts try to bash the party members. One manages to knock Vic unconscious, but the rest of the party soon smashes the battling bedposts into pieces. During the fight, Cane tends to Vic’s wounds and ensures that the bruised halfling doesn’t succumb. Once the magical bedposts are defeated, the party searches the rest of the room, but come up empty.
Heading upstairs to the sanctum, they intend to further investigate the lantern, which hangs above a thick carpet of clinging vines that drape across the floor and walls of the open chamber. Cane boosts Vic up along the interior wall, allowing him to climb into the support structure of the conical roof. He squeezes through one of the many holes in the sagging tower roof, and climbs out onto the exterior slate shingles.
He begins to climb the steeply-inclined roof, which sags even under his light weight. Shingles slide loose with each footstep, clattering off the roofline and smashing on the forest floor 60 ft. below. Despite the difficulty (and danger) of the climb, Vic makes his way near the peak of the roof, where he opens a new hole and climbs back inside. Leaping dexterously through the air, he grabs the lantern’s chain and slides down it until he is positioned just above the device.
After examining it carefully, he opens the hinged panel and peers inside to see an oval hemisphere about the size of a large egg, made of amber. Resting in a simple mounting, the gem glows steadily with a soft, golden luminance. Vic can also see a small dark shape at the amber’s center. He grabs the gem and tosses it across the vine carpet to Cane, who nimbly snags it from mid-air. Cane looks at the gem and can discern that a bluebottle fly is encased in the heart of the amber.
They return to the parlor downstairs. Even though it is only about 11:30 in the morning, the party is feeling a bit banged up and slightly exhausted, so (having earned enough XP to reach level 2) they decide to make the 3-hour return trip back to base camp, which passes uneventfully.
They rest overnight, examining the loot they recovered and determining that the smoked glass bottle contains an imp, which can be summoned by opening the cork and speaking the word. The imp must perform a task for the summoner, but can only be summoned for one hour at a time, once per day. Cane claims this item. The amber is a periapt of intelligence, which increases the bearer’s ability score by 1 but requires attunement. No one claims this item (for now).
In the morning, the party returns to the tower. Joining them is a sixth comrade, the dwarf rifleman, Flint Weststone. Having shed some excess gear, they make better time, arriving at the tower site without incident two hours later (9:00 AM).
They thoroughly search the downstairs rooms, finding a silver platter and a pair of silver chalices in the debris of the dining room. In the kitchen, Steeljaw uncovers a trapdoor in the floor, concealed under some debris. Opening the trapdoor, they see a wooden step ladder that descends to a landing, where a narrow stairwell winds down to the cellar.
The party makes its way down, where they discover an open chamber. Unlike the floors above which are covered in grime and dirt, the flagstone floor down here is dry and covered in a thick layer of dust. Against the curving wall on the far side of the cellar stands a statue of a stern-looking wizard holding a large tome.
The group fans out along the walls as Saynard moves to get a closer look at the statue. When he crosses the floor, billows of dust kick up, and he notices something unusual on the floor in the center of the room: A 10-ft. diameter circle made of twelve, wedge-shaped stones radiating out from a 3-ft. diameter core. After careful examination, several party members determine that the stones appear to lower, forming a spiral staircase that leads...somewhere. They see no way to activate it, however.
Inspecting the statue, Saynard discovers a small keyhole in the center of the thick book the statue holds close. Vic determines that the iron key Cane found under the rug in the living room is not a fit, so he tries to pick the lock. Tampering with the lock triggers a thunderwave spell, the full effects of which are avoided by both Vic and Saynard, who was also caught in the blast.
Frustrated, the party is unsure what to do next. Flint asks if the party is sure they searched everywhere. After some discussion, they determine that the only room they didn’t thoroughly search is the vine-shrouded sanctum, so they return to the top floor of the tower to take a closer look. While the rest of the party watches Saynard sing a smart ditty, Steeljaw hacks a path through the vines to the opposite side of the room. Getting a better look, he notices something odd along the far wall: A rectangle of floor completely clear of dust. In many ways, the wood still looks polished and nearly brand-new.
Leaning down to take a closer look, Steeljaw bumps his head against an unseen object. After feeling around, he determines that some sort of invisible cabinet stands on this spot. He feels a pair of handles and a keyplate on the front of it, so Cane tries the iron key and, sure enough, the doors swing open to reveal a set of interior shelves. The shelves appear mostly empty, save for seven nondescript clay jars, each sealed with wax.
Vic removes the first jar, which feels empty but is oddly cold to the touch. He sets the jar down on the floor behind him as Steeljaw looks on. The next jar he removes makes a sloshing sound and he likewise sets that one aside. The third jar clinks, as though it contains an object. Vic hands the clinking jar to Steeljaw to inspect.
The dwarf throws the jar against the wall, smashing the vessel to pieces. He spots something glinting among the shards, which turns out to be a platinum key inset with a ruby. He holds on to that while Vic continues examining the remaining four jars: Two lighter ones that make a rattling and a jingling sound, respectively; and two heavier jars, one of which makes a “bloop” sound when moved and the other of which makes a “shooka-shooka-shooka” sound.
They return to the cellar where there is a discussion about which to do first: Open the other jars to see what's in them, or use the platinum key on the statue to see what happens. After voting, the group decides to try the key first. Inserting the platinum key into the keyhole on the statue, Steeljaw turns it and feels three sharp clicks before the key turns no more. Suddenly, the stones comprising the strange pattern in the center of the floor begin to shift and slide. With the sound of grinding stone, the wedge-shaped segments lower into the floor, soon forming a tight spiral staircase that descends into darkness.
Satisfied with that result, the party begins carefully opening the wax seals on the jars, in order to examine their contents. The rattling jar turns out to contain three six-sided dice made of strange bone and engraved on each side with an archaic numeral (I-VI). The sloshing jar contains a potion of invisibility (apparently), while the jingling jar contains 15 gold coins. The blooping jar weighs about 3 lbs. and contains a viscous bright-green slime (the consistency of thick mud) which smells fetid and corrosive. The heavy jar making the shooka sound turns out to be filled with coarse sand, which Saynard doesn’t pour out. The party reheats the wax seals and replaces them over the jars containing liquid and sand.
Saynard lights his lantern, and the party makes its way down the spiral staircase, into the dark vaults below.
The session ends here…
(It is now 11:00 AM)
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