Session 278 - Norlak's Tower
General Summary
9th to 10th of Peonu (Second Month of Spring) 726TR
The Story So far
The heroes continue their exploration of the Tuzmyr Embankment. This mysterious parcel of wasteland appears to be the center of a conspiracy.
They have discovered the ruins of an ancient tower and survived crazed goat attacks.
While resting up for the night, shadows swirl around Valeria and coalesce as a black tattoo of a hound. Her mastery of Shadow magic continues to evolve.
This is the continuation of Session 277 - Yellow Musk Creeper.
Location - The Tuzmyr Embankment in the Kingdom of Kaldor.
Part 1 - On the Way To The Church
The ruin is badly overgrown and covered in thick vegetation, including abundant blue-purplish berry bushes. Dryueh cannot identify this plant. It appears very similar to Baneberry, a.k.a. the false blueberry, which is highly toxic, except Baneberry is usually found in the colder northern mountainous climates and is blue, not purple. The characters recall the goats they fought had mouths stained the same purplish blue and speculate that this berry has made them so aggressive.
Part 2 - The Green Assassin
Stealthily approaching the ruins, the characters spot a body, likely only a few days dead. Before they can investigate, vines begin wrapping around the character's legs. An Assassin Vine strikes and Valeria is caught in its tendrils. She unleashes a Kinetic Blast, which propels the murderous plant back, allowing her to move out of range of its control over the nearby foliage. It slowly shambles forward, catches Rycon in its thorny grip, and constricts. As he grasps for air, Dryueh stabs and Valeria summons darkness and poison spells. Soon the creature is bleeding sap but is far from defeated. Valeria's shadow mastiff tattoo on her back is charged with magic and leaps out of her body. A shadow hound emerges and joins the fray. The malicious plant is eventually hacked to pieces.
The corpse has been dead for only two or three days, murdered by strangulation, and probably the last victim of the Assassin Vine. He was obviously an arcanist, as a ruined spell book lies nearby, and strangely, he has a tattoo on his forearm, a symbol that no one recognizes. He also has a bag of strange berries and a map in a leather satchel.
The map has a drawing of a three-story tower with annotations saying;
"Norlak's laboratory is in the basement."
"Where is Norlak's recipe book?"
"Did he complete his experiments?
Part 3 - A Big Block of Jelly
Moving the rubble from the floor, the characters find a trap door leading to a spiral staircase. This enters an underground complex filled with broken furniture and dust layers indicating that it probably has not been visited in centuries. One chamber has a stone bench with a book, paperwork, and burn scorch marks on the floor. Dryueh spots a magical rune fire trap and quickly disables it. The book is Iggava's Tome of the Green, an ancient workbook for herbalists, although it may be out of date.
The documents are more intriguing.
Emperor Lothrim demands a status report. What is the progress on the project?
The passage from that chamber opens to reveal a hard-to-spot wavy distortion; at first, Valeria thinks it is a magical barrier, but it does not radiate magic. The wavy form lurches forward. A massive cube of acidic jelly envelopes Valeria and her Shadow Hound bodyguard. With her flesh burning and resting the paralytic poison, she casts a Kinetic Blast again, propelling the Gelatinous Cube back 20 ft. Rycon and Dryueh slice chunks off the ooze, but it slides forward again, but this time Rycon, Valeria, and the hound are ready for it and narrowly avoid entrapment. They cut the blob into pieces.
Part 4 - Skeletal Orcs
Exploring a side passage, they find a locked door that opens to a small room, and inside are standing three skeletons. These animated Orc Skeletons charge forward, badly injuring the Shadow Hound. Valeria discovers her Chill Touch does not damage the undead but staggers them, allowing her friends to smash them to pieces quickly. When destroyed, the skeletons explode, bone shards lacerating the flesh of the living nearby.
The room is wrecked. However, the characters find a cache of well-hidden alchemical bombs and more paperwork. This has more interesting information.
A requisition request for more experimental subjects.
To be continued.A statement that Project 33 has failed. The elixir causes permanent blindness to the test subjects.
NPC Interactions
Nil.
Challenges
3 x Crazy Mountain Goats.
1 x Assassin Vine.
1 x Gelatinous Cube.
3 x Orc Skeletons.
Various traps.
Rewards
2 x Bottled Lighting.
1 x Vial of Alchemist Fire.
Iggava's Tome of the Green.
Created Content
Iggava's Tome of the Green.
Related Reports
Player Characters
Valeria - Human Magical Experiment - L2 Shadow Sorcerer - Beastmaster.
Rycon - Human Rebel Knight - L2 Fighter - Liberator Champion.
Dryueh - 1/2 Elf Scout - L2 Thief Rogue - Martial Artist.
Next Session
The Strange Symbol
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