Session 15: Cave under the Tower

General Summary

The group was awoken by a loud crash and the sight of a giant dust cloud. The wizard's tower at the eastern edge of the town had collapsed. The party squandered to collect their things and investigate. They approached the wreckage and were soon met by the rest of the town who also came to investigate. The townsfolk were led by a properly clad woman who introduced herself as the baroness Devy. She was accompanied by the town guard, as well as two hooded men with long green-scaled cloaks who were carrying magical longbows. She inquired what the party had witnessed and if they knew what happened. She then offered them a reward if they could go in and search the wreckage and the supposed tunnels underneath, now that the wizard was missing. The party asked why she didn't send in her own guards, to which she replied that it was because of the danger of the tower collapsing even more. She offered them a hefty reward for their work, which they accepted.    The party climbed up to the now exposed second floor of the tower, where they found a trapdoor that had been magically trapped. Trinky noticed this though and Bert managed to scratch the writings out on Julians orders. They then reached the ground floor but found no wizard, but rather two dead kobolds beside an iron trapdoor. To Trinky's chagrin, Bork was too big to follow them down into the tower. Thus he had to stay but above the entrance. The rest headed down the second trapdoor as well. When they reached the bottom they found a big room with beds and an Iron Maiden along the northern wall facing the door on the other end. Through the door, they found a dungeon filled with jail cells. As they walked along these cells Trinky found a secret door leading to more cells, as well as a bigger room with a ghost in it. The ghost told them that he had been put in this cell for poaching by the baron. When they had dealt with the ghost, the party also found a rune on the far wall, as well as a small rock with the same rune on it. Not daring to experiment with these, the party continued to explore.    They stumbled upon a room that looked like a torturers chamber. Inside they found a creature with thick, barbed skin and a noble demeanour. He welcomed them to his chamber. The party asked a bunch of questions and found out that the creature too served the baron, but had not been fed what he needed in hundreds of years. He offered to help them in exchange for a drop of blood from each of them. Having a distrust for these kinds of deals after their meeting with Granny Patty Fattyfiddler, the group promptly rejected the offer. Instead, they headed back to the room with the rune. Upon touching the two runes to each other a faint glow that lit up in intervals could be seen from the one on the wall. The intervals intensified and the party fled the scene just in time to avoid the wall exploding.    On the other side of the now exploded wall they found a narrow path leading to some form of mechanism, with a lever pointing towards them. Their path was then blocked by a being of pure air, which asked them for the baron's seal to prove their allegiance to him. The party then gave up and tried to leave the dungeon. That's when the door to the first large room was blocked by the barbed creature. It was carving runes into the door. When they asked it if it could move, the creature obliged. However, it told them that for safety it would seal the door behind them, disallowing them to reenter. In lack of better solutions, the party attacked the creature. Together they managed to hold it at bay, but it managed to get a few hits in on Quinumo. That's when Julian summoned and spectral sword behind the creature which distracted it, allowing him to close up and then blast it in the face with holy radiant light. The light was so blinding that Trinky missed the creature and instead shot an arrow into Quinnie's shoulder. The creature fell to its knees and began to pray for its life. It offered to help them if they spared his life.   The party followed the creature back to his chamber, where he gave them his seal of the baron. He then showed them the secret pathway that led to the baron's treasury. As the party discussed how to deal with this being now, it managed to slip away and into the secret path. Quinumo was the only one fast enough to keep up with it, until they reached a pool of acid. The creature jumped in without hesitation and disappeared. The party gave up on catching the being and instead headed back to the room with the mechanism. There they presented the seal and were allowed access. The cogwheels turned and a tank in the room filled up with acid. They went back to the pathway with the pool and found it empty.    The QQQ followed the path, now dead set on the treasury. They masterfully avoided a pit trap and got past a clockwork monster by presenting the seal again. When they reached the treasury, they found the chests surrounded by bars without any openings. Inside they saw three ghouls, wearing ancient towns guard armour. Julian stepped forth, grabbed his amulet and channelled the divine force of his goddess, utterly destroying the undead with radiant light. Aurora then managed to teleport inside using her magical arrows. After fighting three mimics that were hiding among the chests they found themselves four magic artefacts and 300 gold richer.    That's when they found a tunnel that had been recently dug into the wall of the treasury. They followed this tunnel and came upon a cavernous opening where the tower debris had managed to reach. There, underneath the rubble, the party found the corpse of the wizard. As they were digging out the corpse, a large group of green kobolds entered the cave. They reached for their weapons and ordered them to halt, in the name of the great green dragon. When the party explained their mission the kobolds asked for the name of their employer. When they answered with Niarvenax's name, they lowered their weapons somewhat. But when they finally got a good look at Ravojhan they became awe-struck. After inquiring about his last name, they began to praise him as a great noble knight of their master. He ordered them to return and meet up with the party to the north in order to bring them to their master.    The party took the corpse of the wizard with them and returned to the surface, in order to claim their reward from the baroness. When they finally made it back to the second floor of the collapsed tower. That's when they found that Bork the worg was no longer waiting for them. He was gone.