Session 66: The White Tower Report

General Summary

Session 66 – Wednesday January 17, 2024 – The White Tower.

4-hour Battle session 6:00 PM to 10:15 PM

The Stone Bearers. Party of 6

It is the 24th day of the month of Nightal (The Drawing Down) in the 50th year of the Age of Enialis (Late December.)

• Abrash – Wood (Desert) Elf, L10 Druid – Jacob Munson (Remote)
• Ajani– High Elf, L10 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda (Remote)
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L10 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Cassidy – Human, L10 Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L10 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L10 Paladin – Will Johnson

Keep the guards from running for help!

Juan rode bird across the bridge and struck one of the guards leaving him badly bloodied. Ajani shot a chromatic orb but it missed (unfortunately Gazlowe was not around to witness the miss.) One of the blinded guards ran to the stairs but couldn’t find where to place his feet. Cassidy ran across the bridge and critically hit one of the blinded Knaves, killing him. The 4th knave ran to the stairs, and he too couldn’t find where to place his feet.
Cassidy sneezed and Abrash and Gazlowe joined the fray. Isabella finished off the non-blinded Knave and threw his body off the edge of the tower deep into the ravine. Isabella then struck another guard leaving him bloodied. Bird and Juan ran up to another Knave and together killed him. Ajani shot a chromatic orb at the last Knave and chose to knock him unconscious. The guard fell to the ground unconscious.

Turning the guard

Gazlowe tossed a rock off the tower and determined they were 140 feet above the bottom of the ravine. Juan smacked the unconscious guard, restoring 1 HP and waking him up. The guard was able to shake off his blindness and the party quickly persuaded him to help. The guard was happy to arrange a meeting with Xorannox. Abrash could tell that he was very afraid of Xorannox and Abrash peered into the inner thoughts of the guard. Abrash got a glimpse of the large Overmind creature Xorannox eating another guard. The party insisted that the guard (Heinrich) take the party to Xorannox.
The party asked what Xorannox was doing here. Heinrich explained that Xorannox was summoned by a powerful wizard to get rid of two Illithid colonies. The party convinced Heinrich to spill all the details on the guards. Heinrich explained that most guards are upstairs in their quarters and Vor’pat, the Gith Freebooter is probably in the war room. Abrash read Heinrich’s mind and understood that Heinrich will certainly lead the party, but he doesn’t believe they’ll make it very far. Heinrich led the party down to the next level.

Vor’pat

The party walked into an ornate throne room and saw a four-armed humanoid (Gith) examining some writing on the wall. When the party entered the Gith touched the wall and the writing quickly vanished. The Gith told the party and Heinrich to stop. Heinrich told the Gith (named Vor’pat) that he was taking them to Xorannox. Vor’pat (being the administrative aid of Xorannox and knowing that all meetings would be held in the throne room) immediately stopped their progress and began questioning the party.
Abrash’s insight picked up on the fact that Vor’pat was sizing up the party and perhaps Vor’pat didn’t trust Xorannox. Abrash psychically communicated that to the rest of the party. Ajani (who took Gith as a 2nd language at university) began to speak to Vor’pat in Vor’pat’s native tongue. Vor’pat was immediately impressed by Ajani and listened to him. The party decided to speak the truth and told them they were there to kill Xorannox. Vor’pat knew that Xorannox would eventually turn on him but Vor’pat was currently allied with Xorannox who was here to destroy Illithid. Vor’pat made a deal with the party. He would help the party eliminate Xorannox if the party promised to help rid the Illithid.

Promise to kill the Illitid in Kortar

Vor’pat explained that he is aware of 2 colonies of what he called Voiceless talkers and other Illithids / Mind Flayers that he and Xorannox were planning on eliminating. Currently the colony in the tunnels below them (in Gauntlgrym) have been severely disrupted, but there is another in what he called the “Forest High.”
Beneath the Nameless dungeon lies the ruins the ancient elven city of Kortar. A group of Illithid led by a powerful Voiceless talker known as Lord Syull is there certainly doing nefarious deeds. The city is protected by a powerful undead Elf named Ashyra (ah-SHEE-rah.) The city Kortar is rumored to be home one hundred undead sorcerers. Vor’pat explained that a powerful elf empress known as the empress Tina Palp is planning on resurrecting these sorcerers. This could lead to a war between powerful forces or an alliance that could destroy the world.
Vor’pat, however only cares about eliminating he Illithid Lord Syull and his minions. He had the party promise that they would do this if Vor’pat helped them destroy Xorannox. The party promised.

Learning to fly.

Vor’pat explained that there is a large section of the tower that has no stairs, and the party will need to fly. He asked if the Stone Bears could fly and they said no. Vor’pat told them to go back upstairs, “Kill Heinrich and take his amulet, and that of his companions. The amulets will give you the ability to fly in the tower.” Gazlowe ran up and quickly killed Heinrich.
Realizing that they threw one of the bodies off the tower, Cassidy activated her boots and floated down into the ravine. At the bottom she found a river, but no body. Cassidy followed the river, and she eventually spotted a trail of blood. It took her about 15 minutes, but she eventually found the body of the dead guard and took his amulet. The then made her way back to the others.
The party had 4 amulets. Cassidy, Isabella, Juan and Gazlowe each wore an amulet. Abrash turned into a giant spider and carried Ajani on his back as he climbed down the walls. Vor’pat pulled out his sword and led the party down the stairs. They went by the guest quarters and to...

The library

Vor’pat opened a door at the bottom of the stairs and the party looked down. They saw that all the floors for the next 60 feet were removed but there were bookshelves and books floating at different heights. 60 feet down were two platforms and just below the platforms were two balconies with doors. In between was another 60-foot drop to a pit of water covered with green slime. Green slime also covered the walls. There were a couple of Gnolls, a bugbear, and an orc floating around the library looking at books. There was also a small book podium that floated about with a sign that read: “Be quite or else.”
The party floated down to the balcony on the right that Vor’pat pointed to. Abrash, as a giant spider, touched the slime. He immediately took poison damage when he touched the slime and calculating the distance to travel through the slime and the damage he’d take for each step, Abrash decided to wild shape into a giant eagle.
The party landed on the balcony which was a bit cramped. Vor’pat opened the door and they saw Xorannox and his 8 eyes sitting a large tub soaking. Xorannox was disturbed and screamed, “Intruders! Vor’pat, you will pay for this!”

Battle begins.

Xorannox flew past the party, and everyone took a swing at him. Everyone landed a hit except Abrash the giant eagle. Gazlowe tried to cast Vortex warp on Xorannox, but Xorannox sacrificed one of his eyes to avoid the spell. Xorannox took quite a beating, but he still looked pretty healthy. He taunted the group, “Come out here and face me!”
Xorannox shot a beam from 3 of his eyes, the first was an explosive beam that immediately bloodied Ajani, took out Bird and destroyed Abrash’s wild shape. Isabella flew out and had a critical hit on Xorannox, Ajani hit him with a 3rd level chromatic orb. Cassidy flew over and also landed a critical hit with her whip. Cassidy tried to curse Xorannox, but Xorannox sacrificed another eyeball.
Gazlowe looked up at the other creatures in the room. He looked at one of the Gnolls and cast dispel magic. The Gnoll fell to his death. Vor’pat hit Xorannox with his blade and then Juan blessed everyone except Ajani.

Xorannox gets serious.

Xorannox’s center eye went black as it dispelled magic in front of him. Cassidy and Isabella’s necklace lost its power and they fell 70 feet into the water below. Everyone’s bless (except for Juan’s) was dispelled. Xorannox tried to charm Ajani but Ajani wasn’t having that. Xorannox then shot a beam that exploded into a gas ball that poisoned Ajani. Xorannox shot a lightning bolt at Ajani that even though Ajani evaded part of it, it still hurt a lot.
Isabella, now in the water, drank a potion of water breathing and dove into the water to see what she could see. Xorannox turned invisible and teleported somewhere in the room. Gazlowe called out to Vor’pat, “Where did he go?” The floating sign that said “Be Quiet or else” made a loud shushing sound and inflicted a bit of psychic damage on Gazlowe. Ajani cast dispel magic but was able to ward off any psychic damage from speaking the words of the spell. The 2nd Gnoll fell to a watery grave.
Cassidy, floating in the water used her boots of levitation and rose out of the water. Abrash summoned his fey spirt who tried to grapple the orc but missed. Gazlowe cast dispel magic on the bugbear and Gazlowe took a bit of psychic damage from the shushing sign and the bugbear fell into the water. Juan flew over to the Orc and hit it with his hammer and then smote it to death. Juan grabbed the necklace from the Orc as it fell.
From the Lair, a bubble of poison gas appeared near Abrash, Ajani and his Green. Abrash and the Green were poisoned. Xorannox re-appeared with one of his eyeballs restored. A red bolt of explosive energy hit Abrash, the Green and Ajani. Ajani was knocked unconscious, and the Green was reduced just to a few HP. Xorannox targeted Gazlowe with 2 beams but Gazlowe evaded them.
Isabella, now underwater, found a couple dozen large eggs at the bottom of the slimy water. She started slashing them and destroyed 6 of them. Xorannox used his last legendary action and shot a massive beam at Gazlowe and Vor’pat. Gazlowe was hit with another lightning bolt and the death ray but he evaded the death ray and part of the lightning damage. Vor’pat was hit by the explosive ray and was critically hurt. Xorannox then used his telekinetic ray to slam Vor’pat into a wall, killing him. Vor’pat fell to the balcony below.

For Vor’pat!

Cassidy hit Xorannox with a crossbow bolt. Abrash cast his healing spirit on Ajani bringing Ajani back to life and dismissing his the Green. Abrash then hit Xorannox with a bolt of radiant energy. Gazlowe yelled out, “For that guy whose name I can’t remember!” and shot a lightning bolt at Xorannox and fried him! Xorannox fell lifelessly into the water along with 7 lifeless eyeballs. Gazlowe ran to Vor’pat, pulled out a couple of paddles from his armor, and placed them on the chest of the unconscious Vor’pat and yelled “Clear!” as he cast Revivify on Vor’pat. With Xorannox dead, the psychic energy holding the shelves up ceased and everything started falling. One of the shelves hit the bugbear in the head, killing him.

Searching the lair

Cassidy went down into the water to see what Isabella was doing. She saw Isabella smashing all the eggs. Cassidy grabbed one of the eggs as did Juan. Isabella continued to destroy the rest. From 2 of the eggs emerged an infant Overmind. Isabella killed them as fast as she could. After destroying the eggs, Isabella found a door. Opening the door, she found a passageway to the river outside.
Ajani and Gazlowe began examining the books that had fallen. They found quite a few but 2 were most interesting. Gazlowe found a book on seafaring and tucked in its pages was a consumable folding boat. Ajani found a magical book of secrets that can be used to obtain a secret about a public person and the secret can be used against the person to gain a bonus during negotiations.
Gazlowe yelled down asking for an eyeball. Isabella grabbed one and threw it to him. Ajani and Gazlowe then searched Xorannox’s room and found a hoard of treasure (See treasure found below.) Gazlowe cast identify on the tongue they found and discovered that the Overmatter totem allowed someone to detach a body part and use it.
Cassidy tried to remove the large eye from the dead Xorannox but unfortunately damaged it during the process. She instead grabbed one of the small eyes and cut off some of the heavy hide from the creature and grabbed a dozen of its sharp teeth. Gazlowe lowered a rope to those in the water and they climbed up.

Rewards Granted

Treasure found:

• Book on seafaring with a consumable folding boat tucked inside, marking Xorannox’s place
• Book of secrets
• Overmatter totem
• Wand of wonder
• 1 Splash potion of the bestest supremeior healing.
• 1 Splash potion of Superior healing
• 1 potion of gaseous form
• 1 potion of invisibility
• 1 Potion of water breathing
• 1 Splash potion of Greater Healing
• Spell scroll of teleportation circle
• 1 vials of torpor poison
• 7-piece set of emerald dice (worth 840 gp total)
• Ornate silver hand mirror (worth 1,000 gp)
• 1 ruby (worth 2,500 gp)
• 519 sp
• 1,952 gp

Campaign

The Forest

Protagonists

Thomas Elliot

Abrash Asim

Chaotic Good Moon Wood Elf (Folk Hero)
Druid 1

9 / 9 HP

STR
7

DEX
10

CON
13

INT
8

WIS
19

CHA
14

Report Date

23 Jan 2024