Chapter 15: The Perils Of The Road
After returning to Everlund and selling some of their loot from the temple of Bane, the savage seven gathered their carriage and departed east (with their newest member Yelmic the dragonborn warrior). Pan's cloak of billowing began exhibiting strange behavior, billowing by itself during moments of excitement. As they neared the town of Lhuvenhead, they encountered a strange black tower jutting out from the snowy ground. The strange tower appeared to have erupted from the ground, and was warm to the touch. Its surface was lined with a mixture of arcane runes and drow symbols. Together, Keladrien and Nalzmyr deciphered runes that granted them entry into the tower.
Inside, they found the floors, walls and ceilings of the tower covered in a thick layer of wet, sticky gum. The corpses of drow mages were embedded into the walls, with honeycomb-patterned structures growing out of their chest cavities. A makeshift barricade of bookcases and desks lay shattered at the entrance, and the group discovered a desk with a journal, a tuning fork and a wand embedded in the gum. The journal had several entries written in undercommon and a final entry in infernal:
Tel’zarun opened a portal to sigil, that we might acquire a tuning fork to guide the tower along. We met with a member of the Corcino family, who sold us what we needed after assassinating another faction member for them (from the “Adamantine order”). We returned to the tower after spending a day in the city of doors (and also acquired a slave from a race called the “vedalken”). Something has gone terribly wrong. The walls of the tower are unbearably hot. Our Vedalken slave has perished from the heat. We dare not open the door, fearing where we might be. There are horrible screeches and moans coming from outside, and what little sleep we can manage is haunted by horrific nightmares. The buzzing. The horrible, incessant buzzing. It will not end. We have created a barricade from desks and bookcases, but the buzzing grows louder. Octo portae antecedunt Serpentum qui verbum custodit. Serpens bestia est qua nunquam dormit, bestia cuius occuli videntur in speculo scientiae. Ne timemus nec laqueum, nec gladium,nec venenum. Intacti eamus inter lepra et pestilentia contaminatos. Verbum quad ultima occultat arcana est Novem, Teth, Ennea, Oded. Gloria sit Asmodeus...Keladrien indentified the wand as a wand of magical detection, and Pan picked up the black tuning fork and found it to be warm to the touch. Holes in the ceiling allowed entry into the upper floors of the tower, so the group used their immovable rod and rope of climbing to reach the second floor. Yelmic was the first to climb, and came face to face with a massive fiendish wasp. Its body radiated heat, and every flap of its wings send heatwaves all around it. As it charged at Yelmic, the rest of the group hurried to join him. Nalzmyr used his magic to grant himself and Keladrien flight, Pan teleported himself up and Kathra climbed up the rope. As battle ensued with the wasps, the group found their stingers to deliver a hellish fiery sting and their talons to be as sharp as blades. After a difficult battle, the party defeated the wasps and began planning their ascent to the next floor. After making noise and alerting the wasps on the next floor, they prepared attacks against the monsters as they descended through the hole. Their combined assault nearly felled the first beast to come through, and as the others joined the battle the group's planned efforts proved much more effective than in their previous battle. The wasps were defeated, and they climbed up to the next floor. On the third floor, they found more dead drow mages including one wearing a peculiar helmet with elven ears and green-tinted eye slits. As Keladrien approached it to identify the item (after Kathra's detect magic spell identified it as the source of a faint magical aura), the drow's eyes opened and he gasped as egg secs within his chest exploded and released a horde of hellwasp grubs. Keladrien turned invisible and fled, while the rest of the group made short work of the tiny creatures. After slaying the infant wasps, Keladrien once again tried to identify the item (revealing it to be a helm of comprehend languages). They found the next floor to be blocked by sticky gum, but after a short rest Yelmic used his acid breath to melt away the wall of gum and reveal the way up. On this fourth floor, they discovered a large summoning circle inscribed with similar arcane/drow symbols. Kathra used the helm of comprehend languages to read the runes, revealing them to be the control mechanism for the tower's planar travel. Combined with an entity called the "driver" and the proper tuning fork, the tower could be transported to other planes. Unfortunately, the fork sold to the drow happened to take them to the nine hells. With this information, they came back down and read the journal again using the helm and revealed the meaning of the infernal script:
Behind the eight gates is the serpent which guards the word. Serpent is a beast which never sleeps, beast whose eyes are seen in the mirror of knowledge. We do not fear the hangman’s noose, nor sword, nor venom. We remain intact among those infected with leprosy and plague. The word which hides the ultimate secret is Nine, Teth, Brass, Oded. Glory be to Asmodeus…In order to make sure no more wasps would threaten the region, they slew the remaining grubs on the third floor and cut down all the drow to ensure no more contained egg sacs. They left the tower and made their way to Lhuvenhead. In town, they spoke with a friendy tavernkeep who told them of their worries about the tower. He was grateful for their investigation, and offered them free lodging and meals for the night. The group ate their meals and retired to their rooms, where Keladrien tried to identify Pan's cloak and discovered a latent intelligence within it. Pan used the helm to try to communicate with it, and found that it only communicated through psychic song and dramatic sounds. As he played his flute, the cloak fluttered and billowed and followed the rhythm and emotion of the music. After resting for the night, the group set out on the road again. Several days later, the party encountered a fork in the road and chose to travel north to Hilltop before heading back out east. As they arrived in the village, they found it to be mildly populated with simple folk who appeared normal for the most part. An adventuring school once taught by the famed adventurer Drogan Droganson stood in the town, and the general store sold tunics emblazoned with the symbols of several adventuring companies trained there. They retired for the night at the Gnarled Gnoll inn, and in the morning found the place largely empty. The barkeep, a different person entirely than the night before, stared blankly ahead. The only two patrons in the inn did so as well, with no food or drink on their tables. After speaking with him, the group found him to be cold and distant with an eerrie fake smale. He failed to answer questions and smelled vaguely of sulfur. They left the tavern and visited the other establishment in town, the meady ettin, and found no patrons there and the barkeep in a similar state. Keladrien decided to hit him in the face with his staff, and the blow split the thing's head in twain before its body turned to red ooze and melted onto the ground. Pan tasted some of the ooze and was assaulted with the barkeep's memories, seeing a glimpse of a red ooze attacking him. A slimy tether remained on the ground leading from the melted barkeep into the basement, where the group found a deep well. The savage seven descended down the well, using keladrien's magic to fall slowly 200 feet down. There, they found an opening into a wrought-stone hallway promising unknown horrors and smelling ever more strongly of sulfur...
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