Session 58: Tower of Power Hour Report
General Summary
Finishing their breakfast, as the party looked outside, they saw birds landing in the tree branches, small, and large, including one very large... bird?
Looking outside, they saw a "bird" flap toward them, perhaps 70 foot tall at the shoulder, with a wingspan over 200 feet, and iridescent blue scales. They realized, as it landed, that this massive creature must be a very powerful dragon. As they watched, the creature spoke loudly. "Oh come now, I know you're in there. Come on out; no sense making me knock it down on top of you." The group grabbed a last few bites, and stepped outside to face this new threat. The dragon simply declared that they must turn over the portable hole (the "purse") and its contents, and if they did they could leave with their lives. Roy , in typical pig-headedness, began arguing with this immensely powerful being, even trying to deceive the creature as to the contents, and trying to argue legalities or wording. Jeeves , foolhardy, imagined that their victory over a construct might somehow impress this powerful ancient dragon. Tiring of their insolence, the dragon decided they simply were not going to comply, and it would have to kill them; foregoing any future gains they might find, but ending these insolent insects (from its perspective) and their ceaseless chattering. The dragon breathed out a massive blast of lightning that left Jeeves unconscious and Roy severely injured. Cigfran tried to shoot it, and learned that some ancient dragons have magic as it magically deflected the bolt. Roisin Marshfield ordered Cigfran to attack, but that was also deflected. Roy conjured the same hail of pins and pain that severely injured the construct dragon, but to this real dragon is was a mere scratch. The dragon then bit at Roy , but was distracted by Roisin Marshfield and deflected by Roy 's magic, and clawed the wizard twice, leaving him unconscious. Boris healed Jeeves slightly, then the dragon beat its wings, injuring Roy , knocking Jeeves unconscious again, and knocking both Roisin Marshfield and Boris to the ground. Cigfran took aim and fired another bolt and struck powerfully, but the dragon again gestured magically, reducing the severity of the blow, and then hammered Boris with its tail. Roisin Marshfield ordered Boris to attack, but the halfling priest missed. Jeeves called upon a divine boon to drive the dragon to madness, but all that did was cause the dragon to become obsessively greedy, a trait that had almost no impact, except the dragon announced it was taking all of their possessions, not just some. The dragon then bit and clawed Boris, missing with one claw due to the distraction from Roisin Marshfield crying for attention. Boris rushed over to heal Roy , then backed away. Roy used a divine boon to sacrifice his meager health to temporarily paralyze the dragon, and Jeeves called on a divine boon to empower Cigfran 's attack. Cigfran fired and his bolt transformed into a massive blast of divine energy that disintegrated the foul beast completely. Boris rushed to heal Jeeves , and silence fell over the field. Boris conjured a beacon of hope; Roisin Marshfield rallied Boris and Roy ; Roy sent a, possibly ill-advised, communique to "The Copper Bolt" claiming to have killed their rival dragon. Jeeves used his skill to further heal himself, Boris, and Roy . They took some time to rest after that; even with divine support, facing an ancient dragon is a shattering experience. Before their rest Roy sent, and received a somewhat bemused reply, and interpreted that as support. A blinding flash of light filled the area, leaving everyone, except Boris, blind and unable to see anything but white. Boris saw a massively tall humanoid figure, perhaps 30 foot tall with a massive longbow and greatsword, and with gigantic white feathered wings. Roy mumbled magical words and cured his blindness. Jeeves rooted around to find an herb and used that to cure his blindness, and in doing so his new gloves glowed brightly for a moment, and an incredibly lifelike image of an eye formed on the back of each hand, appearing to be a tattoo of inestimable artistry. This being gently touched Roisin Marshfield and restored her sight. The being also touched Cigfran gently and restored his sight, but sadly informed them it could not heal Cigfran 's feet. This celestial being informed that Jeeves must pay a price, and Jeeves suddenly vomited up a scroll case containing a deed to Carver's shop (Jeeves ' old mentor, now deceased only the day before). Jeeves also found his neck grown to 10 feet in length. The being wondered aloud at the purposes of The Source, and departed, it's mission complete. The group completed their short rest, with Jeeves offering a Chiurgen's Care. Continuing their journey to the South, the group began to climb into the mountains as they approached the location of an ancient Wizard's Tower in a high mountain pass. On the second day into the mountains, Boris stumbled over a strange glowing blue rock, which engulfed him in strange light. As the light faded Boris found himself less personable, but also less clumsy. Jeeves , having spent some time comprehending the changes in his magical gloves, traded his Ghostsight Lantern to Boris, as he no longer needed it (nor any lantern, for that matter). Jeeves also noted that he could now use certain consumables in new ways to assist allies. Some discussion arose around Boris' age, and the differences in human and halfling aging, as well as the appearance of this group of adventurers, with all their injuries and other strangeness. They finally reached the far outskirts of a town as dusk fell, and chose to camp for the night rather than push on and reach the town. Roy saw a person trying to head out of town along the river during the night and mumbling about needing to leave, but they only reached a point nearby; stopped there, then turned back, complaining about not being able to leave. In the morning the group headed toward what they soon realized was a modest city, not a small town. Jeeves activated his ethereal vision, and saw an ethereal fog flowing from west to east in the entire area. He also saw a young boy who turned out to be a ghost, and that brief encounter persuaded Jeeves to be careful with this new capability. Approaching the city they encountered a brothel owner who encouraged them to visit their establishment, noting particularly that Roisin Marshfield and Boris might appreciate the very young workers who were the brothel specialty. Roy also observed a young female who berated a slave for dropping a package and even murdered the slave, declaring to her parents "Get me another, this one is defective" before ordering another slave to pick up the package as the group moved on. In another encounter as the group moved on through town an urchin tried to rob Boris, but was killed by the guard before anything was taken. The guard apologized as he tossed the body in a nearby alley, explaining that "We don't tolerate thieves here".
The group finally left town on the south road, passing many caravans heading east as the road curved to lead the party west. Perhaps a couple hours out of town, they saw a group of bandits ambush a caravan as it passed a small escarpment. The bandits rushed in, butchered every living thing, grabbed easily found loot and fled back over the escarpment. The group continued on, after determining that there were no survivors, and several minutes later observed local militia arriving at the scene and fanning out to search for the bandits. Roy asked to discuss what might be done about this city and the evils the group had observed. The group debated whether there was a safe place to talk nearby, and noted the heavy traffic on the road. Eventually they continued traveling until nightfall and began to setup then, but the discussion became contentious until Roy finally just left the dome he had conjured (causing the spell to end) and conjured a magical travel tent for himself and left everyone else to fend for themselves. Jeeves used a Paper Shelter to provide a dome for the rest of the party, and fortunately the night was quiet, as Roy 's tent was out in the open and could easily have been damaged or destroyed.
Starting out, the group decided to cut a loop in the road, taking the shorter route to save a few hours walking. As they traveled off the road, Cigfran noticed something at a distance, and motioned the party to carefully move up. They managed to sneak within hearing range, and there witnessed a meeting between the "escaped slaves" and a high ranking militia leader; a meeting where they learned that the "escaped slaves" were in fact working with the town leadership to take the goods from some caravans, keep people on the road, and keep caravans afraid of the woods, so they would not venture into places where they might not be wanted. The group managed to move away unnoticed, and discussed this a bit before deciding to move on toward the tower.
As they reached a point where they could see the tower, with help from a spyglass, the discovered it to be a massive shard of crystal, perhaps ten stories tall. The crystal was embedded in the ground in a depression indicating it had fallen from the sky in an impact that must have devastated the land for many miles around. Roy tried detecting magic, in case there was some illusion in the area, but found only that the very air seemed suffused with enchantment. Heading directly overland to save time, the group began to approach the tower, and discovered a partially concealed road coming off the back of the tower and off into the mountains. Assessing their options, the group chose instead to divert away from the tower, into the dense forest at the base of the mountains to the east of the tower. Arriving there just after dark, Roy summoned the wilderness ward, preferred for its camouflage, and the group settled in for a night's rest.
