RoT 24: "Xonthal's Tower 5: The Search for Iskander"
Discovery, Exploration
You've finally made it out of the maze and into the tower. Now you need to find the hourglass shaped key so you can follow Iskander into the dungeons but it's not where he said it he would leave it. And as you search the tower for it, you find yourselves being ambushed by a group of Cult of the Dragon members!
AMBUSH! Out of the balcony door come pouring several Cult members lead by a Wearer of Purple you’ve never seen before. He casts Fireball in the center of the observatory dealing fire damage to all of you before his followers pile into the room to engage in melee.
You dispatch the cultists quickly, causing the leader to panic and cast yet another Fireball from the balcony into the room to do as much damage as he can before attempting to get across the room to the teleportation sigil.
But he is too slow and Pubert easily intercepts him and severely wounds him, and the magic users finish him off from afar. You search the rest of the room, and the bodies locating the Hourglass Shaped Key on the Wearer of Purple – now you can activate the Teleportation sigil to take you to the Dungeon as Iskander instructed. But first you choose to finish your exploration of the tower, having only one symbol you have not used yet.
You find yourself in a room with a large fireplace in the center that keeps this chamber warm and cozy, its smoke magically vented outside. About two-thirds of the skeleton of an adult dragon is laid out on the floor, curled around the fireplace. Before you have time for further assessment, however, a half-dozen black-cloaked figures move to attack you. Finding yourselves once again in battle but with a group of foes woefully les skilled than you all, you dispatch them with relative ease, but after two battles in a row, especially with a fireball hurling mage, you choose to take a short rest before continuing into the Dungeon level.
Upon activating the Hourglass symbol for the Teleportation circle, you find yourselves in a room that is dark to begin with, but sources of light seem to activate upon detecting your presence. The bodies of three dead cultists lie on the floor here. There is also a trail of blood leading to the doorway to the northeast.
Continuing northeast, the activation of light sources as you pass continues. At the end of a short hallway, you emerge into a 40’x40’ chamber with another doorway leading north. Blood streaks the floor here, including the smeared trail leading back to the teleport chamber and a second trail of bloody boot prints heading up the corridor to the north. Standing amid the gore are three humanoid figures — two that look like misshapen statues of clay and stone and one appearing as a humanoid made of flame. You find yourselves face to face with a Fire Elemental and two Earth Elementals that attack on site!
The Fire Elemental proves tricky as even as Pubert wounds it in melee, it takes fire damage in return for his efforts – Taru, his might wolf sidekick is grievously wounded by the elemental but survives thanks to the healing abilities of Malice and Brehanna. The Earth Elementals prove less of an issue as Brehanna adeptly hems them in with Evard’s Black Tentacles.
Once the elementals have been dealth with you are able to notice the rest of the room. A large, round table with four chairs sits in one corner of the room, with shelves and workbenches arranged along the walls. Books and papers are scattered on the table, along with a locked wooden chest about the size of a shoebox. Malice using Detect Magic and Identify is able to determine that the box is trapped with a Glyph of Warding that triggers the spell known as Slow if the box is not opened properly. Having no key, Brehanna chooses to use her Thieves’ Tools and successfully (but only barely) opens the box without setting off the glyph. Within are three scrolls – ironically, they are contain the spells Protection from Fire Elementals and Protection from Earth Elementals.
Now to follow that blood trail to the north.
AMBUSH! Out of the balcony door come pouring several Cult members lead by a Wearer of Purple you’ve never seen before. He casts Fireball in the center of the observatory dealing fire damage to all of you before his followers pile into the room to engage in melee.
You dispatch the cultists quickly, causing the leader to panic and cast yet another Fireball from the balcony into the room to do as much damage as he can before attempting to get across the room to the teleportation sigil.
But he is too slow and Pubert easily intercepts him and severely wounds him, and the magic users finish him off from afar. You search the rest of the room, and the bodies locating the Hourglass Shaped Key on the Wearer of Purple – now you can activate the Teleportation sigil to take you to the Dungeon as Iskander instructed. But first you choose to finish your exploration of the tower, having only one symbol you have not used yet.
You find yourself in a room with a large fireplace in the center that keeps this chamber warm and cozy, its smoke magically vented outside. About two-thirds of the skeleton of an adult dragon is laid out on the floor, curled around the fireplace. Before you have time for further assessment, however, a half-dozen black-cloaked figures move to attack you. Finding yourselves once again in battle but with a group of foes woefully les skilled than you all, you dispatch them with relative ease, but after two battles in a row, especially with a fireball hurling mage, you choose to take a short rest before continuing into the Dungeon level.
Upon activating the Hourglass symbol for the Teleportation circle, you find yourselves in a room that is dark to begin with, but sources of light seem to activate upon detecting your presence. The bodies of three dead cultists lie on the floor here. There is also a trail of blood leading to the doorway to the northeast.
Continuing northeast, the activation of light sources as you pass continues. At the end of a short hallway, you emerge into a 40’x40’ chamber with another doorway leading north. Blood streaks the floor here, including the smeared trail leading back to the teleport chamber and a second trail of bloody boot prints heading up the corridor to the north. Standing amid the gore are three humanoid figures — two that look like misshapen statues of clay and stone and one appearing as a humanoid made of flame. You find yourselves face to face with a Fire Elemental and two Earth Elementals that attack on site!
The Fire Elemental proves tricky as even as Pubert wounds it in melee, it takes fire damage in return for his efforts – Taru, his might wolf sidekick is grievously wounded by the elemental but survives thanks to the healing abilities of Malice and Brehanna. The Earth Elementals prove less of an issue as Brehanna adeptly hems them in with Evard’s Black Tentacles.
Once the elementals have been dealth with you are able to notice the rest of the room. A large, round table with four chairs sits in one corner of the room, with shelves and workbenches arranged along the walls. Books and papers are scattered on the table, along with a locked wooden chest about the size of a shoebox. Malice using Detect Magic and Identify is able to determine that the box is trapped with a Glyph of Warding that triggers the spell known as Slow if the box is not opened properly. Having no key, Brehanna chooses to use her Thieves’ Tools and successfully (but only barely) opens the box without setting off the glyph. Within are three scrolls – ironically, they are contain the spells Protection from Fire Elementals and Protection from Earth Elementals.
Now to follow that blood trail to the north.