That Bloody Tower

General Summary

After their encounter with the Mudhunter insect trainers, the Salty Crackers surveyed their surroundings. Weathered scorch marks and the collapsed roof told the story of a battle with a powerful magic user fought many years ago. Despite its looted condition, the Teleportation Circle in the northern section of this L-shaped corridor indicates this watchtower is part of a much more intriguing complex. The party decided to clear the rooms to the west first.

Bug Pens

Jiim rammed his fist through a rotten wooden door revealed a ruined hall with two Giant Maggots feasting on the rotting remains of a Slurk. The band took advantage by skirting the eastern wall to make their way to a door to the north; This time Jiim pulverized the door with his boot, revealing the remains of a large dining room table and a collapsed roof with various bones spread around the room. The maggots raised their heads to investigate the clamor, Bobbin's eyes glazed over at the promise of loot in the pile.
Hide braced himself for the approach of the Maggots. Bobbin rushed in to declair himself king of the trash pile kicking an uncovered Kobold skull in route. This disturbance woke a torrent of Spectral Kobolds, one passed through Bobbin causing him to shriek and scamper off the pile.
Mellwell and Hide flung Arcs of Electricty and Flames at the approaching maggots; felling them before they could reach the scrum. In a swirl of blue ectoplasm, Bobbin finds hiding in a dark corner of the cabin in Xibeihu Gou were he grew up. The door explodes into the common room, kicked in by a black destrier mounted by a Black Armored Knight setting the thatch roof to the torch. The smell of smoke gives way back to the mire of the swamp and moldering wood; Bobbin recollected his senses and the Kobold spirits sunk back into the rubble pile.
Carefully observing Bobbin's struggle with the ghostly kobolds, Jiim surmises the bones in the room belong to the angry spirits therein. He puts these spirits to rest by performing a burial rite on the bones. The Crackers find a cache of loot in the remains of the table and add its contents to their coffers.
After experiencing what chaos ensues when they smash doors, Mellwell elects to turn the handle of the last door in this wing instead. Inside a Giant Fly charges at the band, catching Hide's fire to the face for his trouble. A Second fly emerged from an opening in the ceiling to join the fray, but both ultimately fell to the band.

The Watchtower

The actual tower of the Fen Watchtower complex lies behind one of the doors on the north wall of the L-shaped central corridor. Behind the door, the Crackers found the most structurally sound room they had encountered in the complex. The smooth gray surfaces of the room were disrupted by a large pool of blood another door on the opposite side, and a spiraling staircase leading to a trapdoor in the ceiling. As the band entered the room a red figure formed from the blood pool on the floor and burst with a bright blue light, the party could feel a force tugging at their vitality as the light washed over them. Jiim positioned himself at the front of the pack while Bobbin, Hide, and Mellwell spread out to harass the seething mass of coagulated blood with ranged attacks. The blood solidifies into the form of an Elvish woman with her face twisted in anger. She drew blood from Hide's body by her will alone. Fire, Scimitars and magical force beat her down until her body exploded into a cyclone of blood that was absorbed into the ceiling.
Toni still sensed the Blood Spirit's presence; the iron smell of blood hung heavy in the air. She led the Crackers up the stairs to the trap door. In the cupola at the top of the tower, the party discovered a large rotating spot lamp emitting blue light with a red fog gathering around it. The femine form began to solidify again more skeletal in nature with long claws and fangs. Hide decided to focus a few attacks to damage or destroy the spot lamp. His fireballs dissipated as they impacted the device. ripples of blue energy flowed down its pedestal and diffused through the floor. Refocusing their attacks on the Vampiric Mist; they quickly dispatched the blood sentinel of the Fen Watchtower.