Session 13
General Summary
10th day of the Snake, 678 AR - The Road into the Vale
We spoke to Sergeant Arnet and told him to go and tell the troops what had happened in the Vale. He took Herecles and headed off. The rest of us were dead beat and so headed back to the silver mines for the night.11th day of the Snake, 678 AR - The Road into the Vale
We set out at the crack of dawn, knowing a long day's travel lay ahead of us. Keeva and Flynn-bird scouted for us. The day passed seemingly without event. The whole Vale was noticeably a lot quieter than usual, obviously. By dusk we had reached the hills above Sibu. From there we could see many camp fires in the Vale, most notably in Sibu and Jukai. There was clearly still a strong Orc presence in the Vale. We could not see the Tower of Shivers and suspected it was higher up into the mountains than our current position. Quintus dug out his arcane tuning fork and struck it on a nearby rock. Within 30 minutes or so a drow band appeared. It was led by Ohraad again. We exchanged pleasantries, and she was pleased to hear we had killed Zarfu. We told her we were now here to kill Ka'har. She told us that a group of senior orcs headed off to the Tower overnight - clearly telling Ka'har about our successes against Zarfu. She also told us there were other humans out and about. Apparently a small band of a half dozen or Rodinian legionaries were on the trail of the Orc leaders. Could they be the elite Rodinian scouts who Quintus and Flynn believe to be responsible for the deaths of Flynn's family? Ohraad told us that the orcs went into the Tower through a previously unopened door and the Rodinians followed. One Rodinian got squished in the door, a happy coincidence being that the door was stuck open. Ohraad told us that should we enter the Tower, the drow would also enter with a view to raiding the place for treasure - and fight any guardians they came across. We discussed options. There was no discussion about whether we should enter the tower or not - we all agreed we definitely should. We asked Thorn to perform a reading on the trustworthiness of the Rodinian Scouts, and he drew The Magician, The Empress and the World. His interpretation was that we could not trust them as they were manipulative and would become our enemy when their task in the Tower was complete. Flynn then flat out asked Thorn for a reading on whether or not the Rodinian Scouts were responsible for the deaths of his family. Thorn looked uncomfortable answering such a direct question, but agreed. He drew The Hanged Man, The Heirophant and The High Priestess. These indicated themes of Sacrifice, Religion and Mystery. Thorn refused to be more accurate than that at this stage. Keeva commented that "anyone would think this was utter bollocks". We were preparing to enter the Tower when the drow gave us some specially enchanted poison-coated arrows designed for undead combat. Keeva, the greedy hunter, took them all. We thanked them and approached the tower, which was a further half an hour climb up into the mountains. The Tower of Shivers was a black stone tower with no indication that it should be able to fly, although it looked out of place in its surroundings. In the base of the structure was a doorway which was slightly ajar. We snuck up cautiously. There were no arrow slits but there were Windows. There was no Orc camp around the tower, just a solitary building. As we approached more drow appeared. Or were they the same half dozen? It was clearly numerically confusing. We decided that this was no time for scouting and tried to get in as a group, with the drow alongside us. We successfully reached the doorway. Here we found the body of a Rodinian Elite Scout. Thorn suggested we search him for any dodgy symbols or cult items. Sadly he did not have any. Flynn got out a small patch of uniform he had and it was the same cloth as this scout wore. Ferrint entered first with Quintus on his tail. As we entered the Tower and touched the stonework for the first time, we all saw a subliminal image of a flock of crows. As we thought harder we realised that each crow was representative of one of these towers. There were hundreds of them. What if they were to descend upon various locations across the world? Inside the tower we noticed that the laws of time and space did not apply. This place seemed much bigger on the inside than outside. It was gothic, dark and cold. Stairs led up and various doors could be seen. Sprawled upon the staircase ahead of us was a dead Rodinian among the shattered remains of some gargoyle creatures. This scout did not have a ripped uniform either. From here we could hear the sounds of combat upstairs. Quintus rushed up the stairs whilst the others followed closely, whilst the drow wandered off, looking for artefacts. Coming out onto a landing we found the Rodinian scouts (3 left alive) fighting 5 undead creatures. Thorn told us they were liches! [Fight 1/4]. The fight was hard fought but we prevailed, although only 2 scouts survived it. After the fight Flynn checked and one of the unconscious scouts had a ripped cloak which perfectly fitted the ripped cloth Flynn possessed. It looked like he was guilty. Quintus smacked him around to wake him up and then he and Flynn prepared to question him about the murders of Flynn's family...
Report Date
30 Nov 2015
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