RoT 22: "Xonthal's Tower 3: It's A Mazing"
Expedition
You've fought Chuuls, heaved boulders versus Cyclopes, and made cole slaw out of Carnivorous Plants. But you still haven't found the right path to the Tower yet.
Following the “battle” with the Carnivorous Flowers and returning to the Sundial (or is it a different Sundial?) you manage to rest for an hour as you are both physically and mentally drained from the twists and turns of the Xonthal’s maze. You’re not even sure how much time has passed since you entered!
With the sundial gnomon still pointing North, Southeast, and Southwest simultaneously, you choose to go West. After walking a for a time around corners and turns you come upon an open space with a placid pond filling the center. A stout pagoda rises from a huge boulder that stands in the water like an island. An arched bridge crosses the water to the pagoda, whose red roof is held up by six sturdy pillars and capped with carved fish. A human male wearing yellow silk robes embroidered with red and gold fish stands in the pagoda. You hear exotic music being played on a stringed instrument.
Malice crosses the bridge first and enters the pagoda where the man smiles and offers him a silk cushion to sit on. Malice also notices that pagoda appears to be made of stone not wood and the floor is a rock garden of decorative stone and brushed sand. There is also a charcoal pit smoldering next to where the man sits. He looks around at the rest as though wondering why everyone has not joined Malice.
Despite misgivings, everyone else enters the pagoda and is also offered a silk cushion to sit on. Once everyone is comfortable, a tea pot engraved with a scowling face floats up out of the charcoal pit in which the man pour water from a clay jug and then sprinkles what appears to be tea leaves into the water setting it on the hot coals.
He does not speak but sits in quiet meditation as tea begins to brew. Once it begins to emit steam he looks at each of you, smiles, waves his hands and the pagoda becomes enclosed in solid stone as he disappears into the stone he was sitting on. The now sealed pagoda begins to fill with poisonous gas as Brehana realizes, that wasn’t tea it was drakeswort! Pubert attacks the stone but Hazirawn , while a formidable weapon, is not a hammer (and she complains loudly about it in Pubert’s mind). Brehana manages a huge crack in the wall with the spell Shatter. Malice realizes that the face carved on the tea pot is that of a Dao, and evil genie from the Elemental Plane of Earth and it is watching you all struggle against the poison and trying smash your way out. Pubert, upon Malice announcing this, picks up the pot and throws it against the stone wall (twice) thus smashing the pot and what’s left of the wall but causing the Dao to return from inside his stone seat and attack.
As powerful as the Dao is, he proves no match for The Iron Company and soon falls. You find a jade gemstone near where the tea pot, which you now suspect was the Dao’s Magic Jar, was smashed. Gemstone in hand you make your way out of the area to find yourselves once again at a sundial pointing North, Southeast, and Southwest simultaneously.
This time you choose the path going Northwest and soon find yourselves in an area where six suits of ornate plate mail stand as if on guard. Battered and bashed pieces of armor and weapons are scattered across the carpeted floor before them. Moss and lichen cover the armor, though it remains free of rust. Another pathway opens up at the far side of this area.
Malice sends his Unseen Servant into the area but nothing seems to happen nor does it locate any apparent traps, however once Rikon enters two of the statues come to life and attack! As the battle ensues, each time one of the animated suits of armor is defeated, two more animate in its place until eventually all six statues are in the melee. Each time another one drops, one that was previously down, re-animates. Three of them, upon defeat spill out a bloodstone.
As the battle continues, theories abound among the team as to exactly how to defeat the animated armor once and for all since they keep re-animating. It dawns on all of you, nearly simultaneously, that in all the other areas you’ve been to, having at least one of whatever precious stones were present allowed you to leave that area. Since it’s clear you cannot fully destroy the statues you choose to regroup at the southern pathway and make your exit.
After leaving the statue courtyard, you eventually find yourselves at an intersection where eight paths converge symmetrically. You can see Xonthal’s Tower dead ahead above the hedge wall, but the way the paths curve, there’s no telling which one might lead to it. A sundial stands in the center of the intersection, the shadow from its gnomon pointing North, Southeast, and Southwest simultaneously.
Following the “battle” with the Carnivorous Flowers and returning to the Sundial (or is it a different Sundial?) you manage to rest for an hour as you are both physically and mentally drained from the twists and turns of the Xonthal’s maze. You’re not even sure how much time has passed since you entered!
With the sundial gnomon still pointing North, Southeast, and Southwest simultaneously, you choose to go West. After walking a for a time around corners and turns you come upon an open space with a placid pond filling the center. A stout pagoda rises from a huge boulder that stands in the water like an island. An arched bridge crosses the water to the pagoda, whose red roof is held up by six sturdy pillars and capped with carved fish. A human male wearing yellow silk robes embroidered with red and gold fish stands in the pagoda. You hear exotic music being played on a stringed instrument.
Malice crosses the bridge first and enters the pagoda where the man smiles and offers him a silk cushion to sit on. Malice also notices that pagoda appears to be made of stone not wood and the floor is a rock garden of decorative stone and brushed sand. There is also a charcoal pit smoldering next to where the man sits. He looks around at the rest as though wondering why everyone has not joined Malice.
Despite misgivings, everyone else enters the pagoda and is also offered a silk cushion to sit on. Once everyone is comfortable, a tea pot engraved with a scowling face floats up out of the charcoal pit in which the man pour water from a clay jug and then sprinkles what appears to be tea leaves into the water setting it on the hot coals.
He does not speak but sits in quiet meditation as tea begins to brew. Once it begins to emit steam he looks at each of you, smiles, waves his hands and the pagoda becomes enclosed in solid stone as he disappears into the stone he was sitting on. The now sealed pagoda begins to fill with poisonous gas as Brehana realizes, that wasn’t tea it was drakeswort! Pubert attacks the stone but Hazirawn , while a formidable weapon, is not a hammer (and she complains loudly about it in Pubert’s mind). Brehana manages a huge crack in the wall with the spell Shatter. Malice realizes that the face carved on the tea pot is that of a Dao, and evil genie from the Elemental Plane of Earth and it is watching you all struggle against the poison and trying smash your way out. Pubert, upon Malice announcing this, picks up the pot and throws it against the stone wall (twice) thus smashing the pot and what’s left of the wall but causing the Dao to return from inside his stone seat and attack.
As powerful as the Dao is, he proves no match for The Iron Company and soon falls. You find a jade gemstone near where the tea pot, which you now suspect was the Dao’s Magic Jar, was smashed. Gemstone in hand you make your way out of the area to find yourselves once again at a sundial pointing North, Southeast, and Southwest simultaneously.
This time you choose the path going Northwest and soon find yourselves in an area where six suits of ornate plate mail stand as if on guard. Battered and bashed pieces of armor and weapons are scattered across the carpeted floor before them. Moss and lichen cover the armor, though it remains free of rust. Another pathway opens up at the far side of this area.
Malice sends his Unseen Servant into the area but nothing seems to happen nor does it locate any apparent traps, however once Rikon enters two of the statues come to life and attack! As the battle ensues, each time one of the animated suits of armor is defeated, two more animate in its place until eventually all six statues are in the melee. Each time another one drops, one that was previously down, re-animates. Three of them, upon defeat spill out a bloodstone.
As the battle continues, theories abound among the team as to exactly how to defeat the animated armor once and for all since they keep re-animating. It dawns on all of you, nearly simultaneously, that in all the other areas you’ve been to, having at least one of whatever precious stones were present allowed you to leave that area. Since it’s clear you cannot fully destroy the statues you choose to regroup at the southern pathway and make your exit.
After leaving the statue courtyard, you eventually find yourselves at an intersection where eight paths converge symmetrically. You can see Xonthal’s Tower dead ahead above the hedge wall, but the way the paths curve, there’s no telling which one might lead to it. A sundial stands in the center of the intersection, the shadow from its gnomon pointing North, Southeast, and Southwest simultaneously.