map by Gunther
Eight adventurers, Ruu Dawnhammer, Almalexia, Sauroff, Silvermoon, Koravhik Agu-Vakanu, Squirrelly, Cressidien, and Cernan decided to make camp and rest after their battle the previous session against the owlbears and giant boars. Almalexia did her best to serve a delicious meal of roast boar, but perhaps the giant pieces of meat were a bit larger than she realized.. Fortunately, her fellow party members did not appear to suffer any ill effects from eating the under-cooked pork - so far...
Setting out the next morning westward on the Tri-Boar Trail, the party soon spotted the Old Owl Tower in the distance, south of the road. The tower stood on the north side of a walled enclosure. The upper portion of the tower was carved with a stylized representation of an owl's face, hence the name. The ruin was at the end of a ridge extending down from the higher mountain range which separates the province from the oceanic strait linking the
Solaran and
Inner Seas. Unusually for this area, the ridge was rocky, and devoid any large trees. As they followed a beaten path from the main road up the ridge, they deduced that the type of rocks which make up the ridge are what is inhibiting plant growth. Only a few grasses, weeds, and thorny scrub brush is able to take root among the rocks and infertile soil here.
As they approached the ridge top, they saw that the crenelated walls which form an courtyard around the tower were mostly intact. Only a few scrawny vines here and there cling partway up the stone walls. A ten foot gap in the curtain wall showed where a wooden gate once stood facing south, now long rotted away. Atop the walls on each side of the gateway stood two figures. The figures wore hooded cloaks, drawn tight to hide their identities.
Approaching the gateway revealed a 6 foot tall pile of freshly excavated dirt. The dirt pile blocked ready access to the courtyard except for a narrow gap to the east, currently blocked by a large wagon. Standing partway up the far side of the dirt pile was a pale, bald man wearing red wizard robes. Two large, red streaks stretched down the front of his head on either side of face over his eyes. His robes were decorated with bone fragments, and his staff was topped with a human or elven skull.
The red wizard called out in a thick accent to the party as it neared, gesturing broadly with each sentence. He said that he now owned the ruined fortress, and that the party should "Shoo!" Cernan then held up
Halia Thorton's eviction notice, and told the mage that it "says" that he had to vacate the premises. After a few communication difficulties were resolved (apparently in his native tongue, stating that something "says" such and such means that it "spoke", which paper obviously cannot do), Cernan was able to convey to the mage that he was not allowed to own the ruins.
The mage then explained that he was an archaeologist, and needed to keep people away from his dig site until he finished digging up his artifacts. He then suggested, while gesticulating wildly, that perhaps he could rent the ruins for two months while he finished his dig, then he would leave. In fact, he was casting Charm on the two party members who were speaking the most with him, Cernan and Almalexia, to get them to head back to Phandalin with his proposal. However, neither party member succumbed to the spell, and combat ensued.
Once battle was joined, the two cloaked figures a top the wall were revealed to be skeletons. Two other skeletons were also crouching on the wall, hidden by the crenelations, as was the wizard Glasstaff. The two wizards were soon hard-pressed by the party. While the wizards could each cast Misty Step to teleport around the ruins, the party was surprisingly mobile, and skillfully employed spells to lock down their opponents.
Glasstaff was able to paralyze Cressidien with a Hold Person spell, leaving him at the mercy of one of the skeletons on the wall. Eventually evading Web and Silence spells cast by the players, he dashed into the tower's second floor, followed closely by an enlarged Koravhik. Inside the tower Koravhik was assailed by four zombies as he pursued Glasstaff up the spiral stairs towards the upper floors.
After Misty Stepping up onto the wall, the red wizard was also immobilized by the players with an Earthen Grasp spell [should that have worked on a solid stone artificial surface?]. He cast a Darkness spell from a scroll in an effort to blind his ranged assailants, then in desperation cast a spell which caused one of the remaining skeletons to explode into whirling tornado of sharp bone fragments. As the whirling bone fragments scythed into Ruu, the wizard Misty Stepped to the edge of the darkness field atop the wall, then disappeared into the darkness.
Inside the tower, Cernan, Sauroff, and Almalexia dispatched the zombies, then dashed up the stairs to join Koravhik (whose movement was restricted by his large size) in pursuit of Glasstaff. They finally cornered the exhausted and severely-wounded mage near the top of the tower, and demanded his surrender. Panting heavily, Glasstaff announced "No! You won't take me back to face her wrath!" He then pulled a poisoned dagger from his robe, and cut his own throat.
Outside, Ruu was pursued by the large slashing skeletal swarm, eventually jumping off the wall to escape it, acrobatically landing safely outside the ruins. The rest of the party searched the darkness field for the red mage, eventually finding his dead body at the base of the outer wall near the gateway. Apparently he was not as dexterous as Ruu, and he fell to his death while trying to climb down off the wall.
The murderous bone fragment whirlwind was eventually destroyed, but the party was heavily wounded themselves by the end of the fight.
Glasstaff's body revealed his namesake glass Staff of Protection (+1), a modest coin purse, and his spell book. Sauroff determined that the spell book contained the spells Charm Person, Detect Magic, Magic Missile, Unseen Servant, Identify, Hold Person, and Misty Step. No additional papers were found, beyond those which the party discovered in his quarters under the ruined manor back in Phandalin.
Searching the necromancer revealed that he was wearing a Ring of Protection (+1), a hefty coin purse, a large pearl, and small silver pendant of a feminine hand grasping a red orb. The pendant had faint auras of divinity and necromancy. Searching a large tent in the courtyard revealed the red mage's journal written in an unknown language. Fortunately, two party members have the ability to read unknown languages, so they learned that he was looking for an artifact that a dream revealed to him was under a stone owl. The mage was convinced that this was the correct location, but so far he had not found anything. Oddly, no spell book was found for the red mage. Halia Thorton's eviction notice was left pinned to the necromancer's body - process-served with extreme prejudice!
Squirrelly then remembered a passage from the mysterious old journal that he found before joining the group. The portion he has partially deciphered reads:
In the dusk-shadow of the stone owl,
lies the hidden door.
Across the chasm lies sdk^noi iosj'iomk pem,
gmoens opjn'ed.
The party then investigated the ruins of an old stable to the east of the Owl Tower, and found a hidden trap door in the floor. They resolved to investigate the passageway below in the morning, after resting and recuperating overnight.
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