After some debate whether to rest, continue exploring or retreat, they decided to complete the search of the first level. When they’d gathered all members and the elves following them, they noticed the halfling Logstream was unaccounted for. Noting the tendency of the little folk to wander off, they thought no more of it, assuming he’d show up again.
Ferris crept into another unlocked apartment to find a mummified child among several piles of junk. As he and rest picked through the room, demonic centipedes scrambled out. Presently, Tienarth cast a sleep spell, knocking out all but two who were then crushed quickly.
As will other areas, many doors did not yield to force nor insertion of the green card. A plan for going down the central stairs gained consensus, but first Ferris drove a spike into the floor near one of the shafts. He tied a rope to it and draped the rope down the shaft. He argued for it being a secondary escape route and a test of the nature of the shaft.
How deep was the shaft? How many levels of this tower lay below? They wondered aloud, offering figures of 300 and 30.
Collapsing Floor
Filing down the stairs, they pushed open the double doors and walked out into the lobby. Ferris headed first to check the rope from above which did hang down.
Suddenly the floor gave way and all but Ferris tumbled with debris down more than 10 feet. Standing up amidst a cloud of dust, they noted three elves unluckily crushed by chunks of stone. Across this lower area glowed the eyes of two minotaurs.
Magic missiles from the finger tips of the elf mage raced across the gap, stabbing into one of the minotaurs. Ghevont and Aderian charged to pummel the monster with mace and sword, while Ferris let loose arrows. Within moments, the first minotaur fell to the floor with a thunk.
His companion cut down and himself injured, the remaining minotaur motioned surrender. He could not speak the common tongue and neither could anyone understand his grunts. When the chance came, he dashed away to the stairwell and disappeared.
In a sack dropped by the killed monster, Ferris found coins and a blue card with the same shape as the green card found earlier.
Blue Card
The discovery of a another key prompted a return to the first level. On the third level due to the collapsed floor, they climbed two flights of stairs. A previously locked door submitted to opening with the blue key, past which they discovered a bone golem cradling the skeleton of a child. The golem was quickly dispatched, the room searched. They found copper and silver coins, plus a scroll of protection from lycanthropes.
No other doors opened with a blue card. Presently, they returned to the second level and skirted the edge that had not collapsed. In an apartment, before a large window, stood a crude statue of a man formed from brown mud. In his left hand he held a bracelet with a broken clasp. The precise location of a faint buzzing could not be determined, nor the strong metallic odor.
Seeing no obvious valuables, they turned from the statue, returning to the first floor. Experimentation with the keys revealed they toggled locks in the doors. With this in mind, they shut themselves up in a room and locked the door behind them. This allowed for a period of rest.
In the dreary room, Tienarth lightened spirits with a sonnet he composed. He began, “Regarding raiders, our band is best across the land. Imparting sabres, we slay the monsters hand in hand.” And soon completed his recitation to polite applause.
Second Level
The exploration of the second level continued after a breakfast of hard rations. In a dining area, they opened a trunk filled with pieces of copper, discarded, and a vial, snatched by Ferris. By Ghevont’s spell, they knew the vial was not magical.
They also noticed the armor worn by the minotaur corpse held some magical advantage. Ghevont fetched it and exchanged it for his mundane suit. It fit sloppily but was serviceable.
Next, with little explanation, they returned to the statue of mud that was in fact a clay golem. Few individual foes can stand the swift bursts of damage dealt by these raiders. The golem was mashed into unmoving mud once again.
Down the hall, Aderian pulled at a door that did not budge. Out popped a ghostly face. Ghevont attempted to turn it back, with no effect. But magical weapons struck at the face before it could manage to touch any of them. It dissipated into smoke. On reflection, it seemed most like a wraith.
Gogglers
The next apartment they opened smelled stale. Footprints in dirty carpet suggested recent visitors. Just then, they heard talking behind a door. Ghevont listened momentarily, then pulled the door open. Before him was a room full of gogglers, those profane beasts with fish heads and limbs like a man.
Ghevont prepared to cast a spell, but a goggler shaman across the room got his own off first. The area outside of the room fell into total silence, ruining Ghevont’s own spell. And in the next moment, Ghevont felt the icy grip of a paralyzation spell from the amphibious monstrosity.
Ferris rushed up to Ghevont to pull him to safety, as gogglers attempted to push out of the room. Aderian stepped up to slash at them. Tienarth ran into the silence and produced a wand. It shot a beam of light past the combatants and froze one of the gogglers in the back.
Goggler grunts kept at their assault to no effect. Either Ferris or Aderian cut them down as fast as they stepped up. The shaman reversed the paralyzation on his acolyte only to have Tienarth re-establish it.
The crafty shaman healed himself but it only delayed his inevitable doom. Before long Aderian and Ferris killed him, too.
Endnotes
- Treasure:
- Scroll of protection from lycanthropes
- An unknown vial of liquid
- Kills
- 2 Minotaurs 1000 xp
- Bone golem 945 xp
- Clay golem 1765 xp
- Wraith 320 xp
- Goggler shaman 1225 xp
- Googler acolyte 450 xp
- 5 Googler grunts 625 xp
- Characters
- Tienarth/Tre – Use of spells
- Aderian/Jason – Leading
- Ferris/Henry – Scouting
- Ghevont/Jeff – Offered healing
- Virtues: none
- Vices: none