2023-03-18 Delve: Great Southern Tower
Player Characters
- Wiznt
- Balasar
- Val & Soonie
- Grey
- Green
Summary
The group trudged through the Shadowglade's muck to the alleged location of the tower, passing the Speartusk Tribe on the way. After a few days off the Boardwalk, they found the enormous Great Southern Tower.
The tower leaned heavily northward and had an enormous cracked opening on the southern side. They examined the bottom floor, which was messy and muddy. Stairs led both up and down, and the lower floor was submerged in murky water. Yogo flew to the top of the tower to look around, and found that the top floor had blurred glass all the way around. The entire structure was protected by magic that would prevent teleporting through it, however.
The Voice commanded Grey to learn why demons are here, and what they're doing.
They decided to travel downward first. Balasar cast waterbreathing on everyone, and the party swam down one floor. The murky water impeded their vision; each character could only see up to 15ft away.
On floor B1 they found a broken clockwork golem carrying stone shields, a metal humanoid frame, and large wheels on an axle, amidst the stone rubble sunk to the floor. They swam down further.
On floor B2 they noticed movement in the dark. Green's divine sense detected two fiends. One was a wastrilith, which immediately fought the party while befouling the room's water. The other was a hydroloth. When Balasar banished the wastrilith, the hydroloth, named Gwiligurg, offered to assist the party in their futur endeavors: in exchange for sacrificed souls, it would retrieve memories from a chosen target, like an assassin of information. The party tried to stall to finish the wastrilith's banishment, and Wiznt and Grey were interested in the offer, but ultimately the Gwiligurg stopped the stalling and continued the fight. The party defeated it and the wastrilith remained banished.
They found a magic trinket called the hindsight lens on floor B2. The stairs downward were thoroughly blocked by rubble, stone, and mud, so the group returned to floor 1 to rest.
They climbed to floor 2 and found a thoroughly battered and burned storage room with many shelves and few charred bits of paper. They used the hindsight lens and saw a hologram of unfamiliar dwarflike beings reading books in the now-destroyed archive.
Hearing shuffling and voices above, they climbed to floor 3 and found an elf and a halfling resting. Green detected them as fiends, as well as another one on a cabinet behind them. The party raised their weapons to fight. The two humanoids turned into gorilla-like barlgura, and the cabinet opened to reveal an alkilith, which summoned Chitzifutzl, manes, and hell hounds. The party fought and defeated the demons. Wiznt attempted to pacify the hell hounds, and tied them up to deal with later. They claimed the ring of psychic resistance that Chitzifutzl had brought to protect against Val. This time, Grey's eldritch blasts caught his attention before the demon fell.
On the fourth floor, they found a large stone statue holding the next floor's door closed. The hindsight lens showed an elf woman carrying a crystal ball. She released some sort of ghost from the ball, then turned and left. A voice spoke up, acknowledging the holographic image of "the master" and asking the party about their intentions. This being, which introduced itself as Cori, informed them that his master had left him here some 20 years agoto guard the tower from vandals and looters. He believed that she would return someday to continue searching the place for useful information from the ancient ones. The party had earned Cori's respect for wiping out the demons, and they easily convinced him to let them through. He possessed the statue and moved it aside.
The Voice indicated to Grey that it was satisfied by his learnings from the arrogant demons: they had come here to destroy whatever they could of the ancient ruin. It gave him a new objective: to find out who Cori's master is.
On floor 5 the PCs found an ancient journal written in hieroglyphs and a set of engineering diagrams.
On floor 6 the PCs found a glass workshop that had flooded with water up to 1 foot all around. The water was electrified by some broken conduit of artifice. Balasar braced himself against lightning damage and walked through the room, searching it for anything useful. Grey's crow carried the rest of the party to the next staircase in the bag of holding.
The next floor was blocked, requiring a 5-number combination to open. They used the hindsight lens, witnessed an ancient dwarvish punch in the numbers, and used the code to progress.
Floor 7 was a brass workshop with clockwork machines attached to the walls and sharp metal shrapnels littered all about the floor. As the party walked in, clockwork guardians attacked. The ballista (oaken bolters) would grapple and drag PCs across the floor, dealing extra slashing damage. Grey's repelling blasts returned the favor.
Floor 8 was an old armory. The party found an ancient note and a mechanical floating lantern, a driftglobe.
Floor 9's door opened and closed automatically by a lever. The party moved in together, and examined the two enormous gateways on either side of the tilted room. The hindsight lens showed the dwarfish celebrating their creation. As the party continued toward the next staircase, an alarm went off, and the portals opened. In the extradimensional space connecting them, a huge wheeled automaton drove out, flails and cannons raised. Barrels dropped from old machinery in the ceiling and began to roll endlessly through the portals. The party were able to destroy the machine and avoid the rolling barrels.
Floor 10 contained bunks and a few very old skeletons of the dwarfish. The party found another ancient journal. The door to the next floor required repairs to continue; they pieced its components back together when it broke.
Floor 11 was a map room. Most of the parchments were faded and eroded by time, but one map was partially intact.
Floor 12 was the top floor. Gauges and machinery measuring everything from temperature to moisture to wind speed were found here, but most were destroyed. The hindsight lens showed a catastrophe- the dwarfish panicked, pointing southward, and were then thrown violently northward. The broken gauges suggested high moisture and seismic activity.
On the way out, Grey asked Cori about his master. He said her name was Carmen and that she was from Solaki.
Documents found
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