The Tower of Black Flame - "I pet the cat." Report

General Summary

• This 5-foot wide stone door has a ring-shaped metal pull-handle set into a metal plate at the midpoint of its left-hand edge. The metal plate is pierced by a keyhole, and appears to be the door's locking mechanism.
  

Zath Sev picks the lock and disarms the trap in one smooth motion. Baelok inspected the trapped door to try and understand how the box attached to the back of the door works. After some time all he could determine was that there were holes in the box.
 

First Flight of Stairs

• Just beyond the door, a narrow stairway leads steeply up to the right, climbing up into darkness. There is no light in the stairway, and the air smells of mold and damp.

• This 3-foot-wide stair climbs 20 feet to the level landing in front of the Second Floor Door. When Zath Sev reached the seventh step, the footprints of a bare adult human foot suddenly appears on the step, glowing with an eerie greenish-yellow radiance.

  The moment Zath Sev moved past the seventh step, a voice whispered from the empty air farther on up the stair:

• "Come closer." A few moments later, it repeated, "Closer."

Zath Sev investigated the sound and determined it was coming from somewhere near the door but no ill affects were caused by the eerie words. The lock on the door was easily picked and no traps were found.

The Second Floor - It's a kitchen

• This square stone room is the same size and height as the room below. It seems to be divided between storage of personal effects, magical reagents, and a pantry.
  
• To your left are rows of cabinets and wooden shelves. The cabinets are filled with a wide variety of small clay jars. The shelves are crowded with fat glass jars filled with all sorts of things. Among the cabinets stands one whose entire top is a copper sink. A hand-pump, identical to the one you saw in the room below is fastened to the back of the sink so its spout pours into the sink. To your right sit sacks of flour, a "tower" of six stacked wheels of cheese, and an A-frame of wooden poles from which hang nets of onions and garlic, strings of sausages, and a net holding an open box containing round loaves of bread.
  
• Across the room are two ornate stone doors, side by side. These doors are carved with two different but similar scenes of dragons flying amid clouds, apparently engaged in aerial combat with each other.
  
• Out from behind the stacked cheeses comes a black cat. It stares at you, and meows plaintively.
  

  Bronan the Wildbearian, using his connection to the wild and the power of Thuule, "The God", befriended the cat.
  As soon as Skar started rummaging through the cabinets another message was delivered by the same disembodied voice:

• "What is the secret that will keep you alive?"

Again, The Bear-Downers were undeterred by the "spooky" voice.
 

• Skar continued to inspect the kitchen. He found many clay jars in the cabinets containing ointments and potions (medicines, not magical) for the Kelauklyth's personal use. The glass jars contained strange and unpleasant materials such as pickled human eyeballs, pickled squid tentacles, chicken bones, the claws and paws of many small birds and animals, a large number of small cloth bags that contain teeth and fangs from many creatures (one sort per bag), mummified bats, dried severed human fingers, charcoal, iron nails, and powdered human bone.

Second Flight of Stairs

  While attempting to pick the lock on the dragon carved doors, Zath Sev sets off a spear trap which impaled him in the neck leaving him unconscious. Luckily the Soothsayer, Ralornan, called upon the powers of Thuule, "The God" and Zath Sev was healed. The Bear-Downers decided that instead of disarming the trap they would put the table against the wall where the spears ejected from so that any when the trap triggers again the spear would hit the table instead of them. Furniture to the rescue! Once through the door and into the stairs leading to the 3rd floor, The Bear-Downers saw a ghostly, wraith-like human figure appear at the top of the stairs. They tried to attack the apparition but none of their clubs or darts seemed to cause any damage. Bronan the Wildbearian came up with, what he considered, a brilliant plan to present the cat from the kitchen to the ghost. Oddly enough, this did seem to distract the figure but then it turned to The Bear-Downers , screaming, as it rushed down the stairs, through Bronan the Wildbearian, Ralornan, Baelok , Skar and Zath Sev on it's way to the first floor. Baelok and Zath Sev chased the ghost only to lose sight of it on the first floor. But luckily, while pursuing the wraith the team heard someone at the front doors attempting to gain entry into the tower. Baelok and Zath Sev locked all the doors behind them as they ascended the stairs.  

The Third Floor - Bedroom - "Snakes in a Basket"

• This square stone room seems to be divided between a living area and a sleeping area. A closed stone door stands on the opposite side of the room. A large wicker basket with a lid stands just to the right of the door. There is a curtained-off alcove in the room's northeast corner, with a cabinet sink and hand-pump nearby.
• A table and pair of chairs stand in the middle of the room. On the table is an unlit oil-lantern that looks full of oil, flint and steel, a tankard, a fine wineglass, a plate, a bowl, two small eating knives, a pair of forks, and a ladle. Everything's clean, and you can't see any food.
• In the middle of the south wall, curtains hanging from the ceiling enclose a large triangular bed that has posts at its three corners, supporting a heavy cloth canopy above it. The posts are made of gilded wood. They are carved to show multiple snakes coiling up each one. The wooden serpents are posed with their wide-jawed heads raised to spit or bite.

The Bear-Downers searched the room. Bronan the Wildbearian caught a glimpse of something shiny under the bed. He bravely approached the snake carved bed to pull out a small wooden chest. Inside there was gold and silver, some gems and an herbal potion. Baelok eyed an object sticking out from under one of the pillows. It was a stick carved into the shape of a snake. Skar then turned his attention to the large wicker basket sitting next to the door. He poked and prodded the basket but nothing happened. He then decided to shake the basket and that is when 3 flying snakes bust out of the basket. The Bear-Downers proceeded to kill the snakes one by one. Baelok landed an interesting blow by first attempting to use the snake stick as a wand and when that didn't work he threw it like a dart. It was more effective than one would think.
 

THIRD FLIGHT OF STAIRS

After defeating the giant snakes Zath Sev easily picked the lock and opened the door to the third flight of stairs. He looked in and saw:

• A noose of black tarred rope hangs down from the ceiling above the seventh step. It seems to dangle through a small aperture in the ceiling, not much larger than the diameter of the rope.

Rewards Granted

• 110GP
• 400SP
• 3 Agates worth 10GP each
• 3 Giant Snake heads (poison expires in 1 day if not extracted)
• 1 Wand carved to look like a snake