Adventure #23 - Beneath the Wizard's Tower

General Summary

Adventure #23 - Beneath the Wizard's Tower 11/8/24
Players: Karl: Erberk Toruń Sean: Felicity (Teifling) Seth: Gimp Chris: Dimple Nackle Kira: Tesh
Synopsis: Unable to resist the allure of mysteries hidden within the Black Ridge Mountains, Erberk gathers together Pappy, Lionel, Cecil, Gimp, Tesh, Dimple, and Felix at the Elderflower to discuss his plan to explore the mountainside. The members arrive one by one, with Felix arriving last with someone new following behind him. Felix greets everyone, and then introduces his new assistant Felicity, a bubbly tiefling caster who is apprenticing under Felix in the ways of magic. Before the details of the exploration of the mountains are discussed, Tesh asks in passing if everyone's hair has started to grow back yet since the townwide magical hair-loss incident, and its revealed by Pappy that not only has no one started growing their hair back, but there isn't a clear plan on how to remedy the situation. Erberk, being a proud dwarf and not wanting to remain in a disgraced state of hairlessness, is outraged, claiming is people will shun him or even kill him for such an embarrassing look. Desperate to at least cover his face, Erberk drinks a triple concentrated potion of Dimple's Beard Growth potion that he crafted for the Bonnie Beard completion months back, which causes long silky straight hair to flow out of his face for 30 full seconds, reaching the ground and coiling around in a pile on the floor. Pappy pulls out his a boot knife to cut Eberk's temporary beard to a tolerable length, and the group decides that they'll resume discussions on the town's hair-loss another time.
Erberk begins the mountain exploration discussion by listing off the many unsolved mysteries that they've encountered, including the Myneheart Delve, the abandoned tower on the mountain, the kobold warren known to use high tech tools, and what lies beyond the mist far out at sea. Erberk suggests that the adventuring party start at the abandoned tower, where Zorka and Ragnar found the wolfsbane and the giant eagle eggs on a previous adventure, and move outward from there. Lionel mentions that he hasn't seen or heard of any unusual activity since he has begun excavations of the collapsed tunnels of the Myneheart Delve, but will alert the town if anything unusual develops. With no questions coming from the table, the party gears up and meets at the Zephyr Express, where Cecil has the hot air balloon waiting to depart. With the party consisting of Erberk, Numbers, Gimp, Tesh, Dimple, Felix, and Felicity, the hot air balloon basket is packed pretty tightly, but Cecil still manages to get the balloon off the ground and lifts the party into the sky.
After an uneventful trip, the Zephyr Express reaches the abandoned tower and Cecil tethers the basket to the top of the structure, allowing the passengers to walk directly onto the tower's roof. The party then begins to examine their surroundings, including the impressive view over the landscape and the view of Aberystwyth, and Felix finds himself enamored with the tower. Dimple examines the empty giant eagle nest centered on the tower's roof, but finds only the old bones of large prey animals, such as deer and mountain goats. Erberk suggests the possible use of the tower as a watchtower for the town guard, but since it requires hot air balloon transport to travel to and from the tower, Gimp isn't convinced that it's a good idea. Inspired by its age, history, and vantage point, Felix asks if he could claim it as a home and restore the tower, explaining that it's many wizard's dream to have a wizard tower of their own. With no objections, the party agrees, and then descends the steps to the floor below. Once there, they find a room with a broken bed, an empty dresser, and a shelf containing old plates, rusted silverware, and 11 jars of black sludge. A party-wide investigation takes place, and it appears a large animal broke the bed, someone already cleared out the dresser, and that the jars of black sludge seem to be remnants of ancient fruit preserves. Interested in trying the salvage the food with a Purify Food and Water spell and perhaps use the seeds to grow ancient strains of fruit, all 11 jars of black sludge are collected and placed in a Bag of Holding for safe keeping. Afterwards, the party descends a few more empty floors before reaching the bottom floor, which appears to be ransacked; they find a smashed desk, an open chest, a fireplace with an ancient deer head smashed on the ground, and front wooden double doors left open to the elements. The party scans for magic, and detects scant traces of it at the smashed desk, but nothing worth note was to be found, aside from broken glass, disintegrated paper, dried blood, and tufts of brown hair. Dimple and Erberk examine the dusty fireplace, and upon close inspection find a button hidden among the engravings on the mantelpiece. Erberk runs his thumb over the button, which suddenly causes the floor to rumble as the section of floor by the fireplace begin to descend into the ground, forming a staircase that leads beneath the tower. The party closes and secures the double doors leading outside as to avoid being surprised by any unwanted guests, and then descended the stairs, Erberk leading the way.
The stairs lead to a dark, stale, and dusty hallway, with a thick layer of dust coating the floor and walls. The walls are lined with unlit wall sconces, as well as four paintings, two on each side of the hallway wall and each depicting a portrait. After Gimp lights the wall sconces, the party examines the portraits, along with the name plates below each. A description of the portraits include:
Boris Swiftbeard, an middle aged man in noble clothes Opron Tanglehat, a dark skinned woman with giant hair Lenyrd Ollizon, and old bearded man in a cloak Trigga Poffin, a old woman appearing very much like a classic witch
The party continues down the hallway, which stops at an ornate set of double doors, with elegantly carved gold filigree on a black background. Dimple and Felicity inspects the door for traps and magic; Dimple finds no signs of mundane traps, but Felicity detects electricity magic emanating from the doors. Despite Felicity's warnings, Erberk grabs a door handle and immediately gets electrocuted, taking a significant amount of damage. Once he recovers, the party decides to take a moment to reassess the situation, and Felix suggests, knowing how wizards are, that it's likely the door can be deactivated by means of a spoken password. The party return to the portraits for any clues they might have missed, and Felicity finds a possible code using the first letter in the portrait names. She then says "Bolt" aloud, causing a single click to sound from the doors. Confident in her sleuthing, she grabs the door handle to open it, and then also gets badly electrocuted. With the smell of singed hair filling the air, the party backtracks, and Felicity realizes that the passcode was incomplete and includes the beginning letter of the last names, and says aloud "Bolt Stop", causing the door make the sound "click, click, shuck". This time when Felicity reaches for the door, she finds that she can touch it without harming her. However, for some reason Erberk says "I can't believe the answer was Bolt Stop!", which causes the door to reactivate as Felicity attempts to open the door, electrocuting her again, but this time into unconsciousness. Felix quickly runs to her aid, and casts Cure Light Wounds to heal and wake her back up. As her eyes open, Dimple is already halfway in his attempt to force feed her a Cure Light Wounds potion, and Felicity finds a bottle forced into her mouth. For some reason, Dimple didn't remove the cork; Felicity removes the bottle and rejoins the party. Now ready to enter the room, Erberk says the password, but incorrectly, and tries to open the door, resulting in him getting electrocuted again. Carefully, the party says "Bolt Stop", deactivating the door again, and cautiously opens it into the next room.
The next room reveals an immaculate room adorned in purple and gold, appearing very much to be the private quarters of a wizard. A purple and gold king sized bed sits at the far wall in front of them near a fireplace, an elegant dining table and chairs sit on the right side, and a library with a desk sits to the left. The party fans out to investigate, and finds that this room is entirely free from dust and perfectly clean. On the mantle, Dimple finds a Hand of the Mage beneath a glass dome, Erberk finds Bracers of Steadiness upon a wooden mannequin hand, Tesh finds a Goblin Fire Drum and a merchant scale set, Felicity a Ring of Featherfall, and Gimp a container of Dust of Dryness. The papers and books upon the desk are inspected, and aside from some magic spell scrolls (Boiling Blood and Blood Armor), all other books and papers are mysteriously blank, although magic is detected within the pages. The party seeks more hidden buttons to reveal possibly reveal another hidden staircase, but none are to be found. Satisfied enough with their findings, Felix talks about his plans for hiring the Alliance Construction crew to renovate and restore the upper floors, and that he will reside here in these living quarters, determined to learn as much as he can about the tower, its history, and whoever lived here. Felix also suggests that this could be a place the party can use as a home base and resting point during their continued exploration of the mountains, and that they will always be welcome within its walls. Before the party wraps up the start of their mountain exploration, Dimple returns to the first floor of the tower and goes outside, finding the ancient overgrown garden behind the structure. Although most of the garden is a tangled mess of wild overgrowth, Dimple is able to spot the rare and toxic plants Id Moss and Bloodroot beneath it, safely collects it, and brings it back to his green house in Aberystwyth.

Report Date

08 Nov 2024

Primary Location

Aberystwyth