Report: The Deadstone Doors
General Summary
The day of the operation had arrived.
After spending a few moments in town to gather supplies, our adventuring party set out towards the Tower. Patrick, Monique, Russell, Stiks, and I (Demirkan Rune) set off down the road. It was going to be a couple hours ride to the Tower, but luckily we all had mounts, easing our progress. Good thing too, cause these old Chef knees aren’t what they used to be.
Spooks, Stiks’ well brushed and strong mount set an impressive pace, but the others managed to keep pace.
As we traveled the sun shined upon us, illuminating our path with its radiance. Years ago, I would have taken it as a sign that Celestine herself had blessed this mission, but those days were long behind me. Now all I knew for sure on this mission was that we had to get to this Tower because it could hold some secrets to Russel’s past.
Of course, Stiks knew if Celestine desired it would be a blessed mission, however with a crew like this, it was not necessary and the blessing of Celestine was within them already, and Celestine herself of course knew this, so we would not need a blessing this day.
Fortunately, we arrived at the Tower with no incident. Before us was a five-story tower made of stone. Quickly, the party fanned out, gathering recon on the structure, looking for the best way to proceed. Patrick found a broken window on the ground floor, after peering in he reported back that the lobby was in shambles. There was broken furniture everywhere and a pile of trash in the center of the room (I guess the house keeping staff hadn’t been around lately). As Patrick gave his report the party was brainstorming the best way to proceed. For as they say, “Only a fool rushes in.”
Stiks then rushed the pile of trash and hit it with… sticks… harder than I would have ever thought possible for someone to hit a pile of trash with sticks before. Yeah he did. A second later a scaly, reptilian head arose from the heap. I ran over to the creature to see if it was friendly, hoping I could deescalate the situation. I was wrong. The creature stood up from its nest revealing itself to be a Chimera. Russel ran past the both of us and grappled the monster around one of its necks and dragged it to the cold stone floor in an impressive feat of athleticism. Fire then sprayed from the creature engulfing most of the party. Luckily for us, our party was pretty shield focused and we were able to endure, mostly unscathed. After a couple of very well aimed attacks from Stiks and I, and an impressive cartwheel with less impressive back popping sounds from Patrick (if you ask me, the man needed to recognize his age, but I empathize), we were able to fell the Chimera.
Stiks of course ran in as he could see movement in the pile, and moving piles in his experience always were bad news. The only answer was to strike first, and strike hard. And when it was of course revealed to be both an impressive hit and a smart one, Stiks didn’t waste any time talking with the beast, cause he knew the legends of the tower and the Nine Eyed Sages experiments on animals such as this.
After its defeat, Patrick began a beast carving session that impressed even this old Chef. We then heard a mechanical voice sound throughout the tower. Stating that it was known as SAM and that there were no less than one thousand things that we should know about the master of this Tower. After the first ended up being a confusing preference of something that was both coffee and tea simultaneously, we paid little attention to the rest and we moved on to the second floor. Here we found ourselves surrounded by shelves. The room looked like something not dissimilar to a library or storeroom. SAM then explained something about a riddle we had to solve to proceed. We needed to insert the exact change into nine (9) different bowls…something….something…. then the smart people in the party solved it and we moved to the third floor.
Of course the strongest of the group maintained a constant visual, protecting the more frail, but admittedly smart members of the group. This, is how a good group of trusted friends operates after all.
On the next floor our little party found itself in a room that looked like it belonged outside rather than inside. Grass floors, a little pond in the corner and a big ass tree in the middle. I would have been quite idyllic had roots not sprung from the ground and entangled a good chunk of the party.
Stiks of course had not hesitated and, with great intelligence, flipped his weapon, the bladed hand guard acting as an axe, perfect for felling trees such as this womping type before him. He would take the heart of the enemy, whilst the rest of the party combated its limbs.
The remainder of the party, after cutting our way out, charged the big tree, which appeared to be the mastermind behind this ambush, and retaliated in force. Hacking and slashing at the tree we appeared to be making good progress. Unfortunately, some other plants and flowers started to appear and either tried to poison us or heal the tree itself. Our little squad moved out focusing on controlling the situation, Stiks and I trying to chop down this tree, Russell, Patrick, and Monique doing crowd control with the other plants and pulling support for the squad. Strange golden whisps of light seemed to dance around Stiks, flitting away to seemingly intercept blows dealt to his allies. I’m not sure if they were like those that dance around Monique, or something else. After a long grueling battle I was able to smite the tree in half, calling upong my own inner strength for an extra kick. It’s all in the legs. Luckily- I mean purposely- I cut it in such a way that it fell harmlessly to the side where none of the party was standing. After a couple of fun quips, we saw that a mummified looking corpse had been inside the tree the entire time. With surgical precision the body was removed and carefully packed away. We then moved on to the fourth floor.
Stiks of course recognized the body, for it bore a striking resemblance to Pinna’s rude brother. The body, was also missing an eye. And with that it all started coming together. Malkor, the Nine Eyed Sage, was collecting people with rare bloodline magics and harvesting it from them by collecting the power within one of their eyes and claiming it for his own, hence the legend of nine eyes, for nine schools of magic.
To my surprise and delight we opened the door to a tavern. Thank the Powers That Be, I could have really used a drink right about then. Unfortunately, when we ordered a drink off the menu a disgruntled wizard in the corner informed us that it was a dry tavern. Enforcing this rule by casting a fireball at us, guess you could say he had a pretty….fiery temper. Luckily Russell counter-spelled the fireball, saving the party a lot of…”discomfort” shall we say. After ordering a couple items from the menu, we discovered that each entrée came with a side dish of consequence. So, we stopped ordering and looked for hidden puzzles. Being shocked to my very core at the concept of a dry tavern, I was no help at all, merely finding ways of how NOT to proceed to the next floor.
Stiks too was confused by the idea of a dry tavern, especially since this one had waist deep water throughout. Either way, again the strongest of the group kept an eye on the large construct pretending to be a bar tender. Its possible it too was an illusion like the wizards within the hall, but one can’t be too sure.
Eventually Monique, Patrick, and Russell were able to combine their brains and find that the specials menu could be decoded to spell CHIMERA and we were allowed to leave. Which Monique had to remind Patrick was our current objective, turns out he was really CHARMED by the food and atmosphere in this tavern.
Finally, we arrived at the fifth and final floor of the Tower. Here we walked past two suits of armor into a big, wide-open room, whose occupants consisted only of a big mechanical humanoid made of metal gears and a giant gem looking power source in the wall. Once the entirety of the party stepped into the room an “intruder alert” alarm rang out and the robot went into attack mode. Simultaneously a small glowing orb slowly fell from the ceiling with a command to “not let the ball hit the floor”. We were quickly surprised to see that SAM had apparently been watching us this entire time and taught our fighting techniques to this Mech, for it immediately used my Smite technique against Stiks, thankfully the brunt of the attack seemed to deflect of his rather sturdy looking armor, else he would have taken some critical damage. Blades and spells whipped back and forth as the battle raged on, all while trying to keep an eye on the ball. Unfortunately, we miscalculated the speed of the ball and it hit the floor, exploding into energy and hurting the entire party. As two new balls began to descend, we vowed that would not happen again. The battle then reached its peak, when both Russel and the Robot were enlarged and there was a wrestling match of monstrous proportions. Around this time I was informed that a sleep spell was being cast. Being the strong warrior that I am I was unconcerned that this could ever affect me and continued with the battle!
It was then that SAM cast some sort of spell and three of the party fell asleep. It seemed dire, but Stiks was holding strong against the now rather large construct, landing blow after blow, distracting the thing from the rest of the party. Seeing that things had shifted not in their favor, he consumed a potion, one that enhanced his already considerable speed. With the extra burst he was able to both combat the beast as well as run to the orb, striking it to keep it aloft, only to again return and stand between the hulking beast and the rest of the party.
He of course could not do everything, but he didn’t have to cause he had friends with him, powerful friends. It was Moniques turn here to show her strength. With her ornate shield glowing blue and powerful whisps of guarding spirits flitting about her, striking any that dared raise hand against her allies, she raised her voice, calling a powerful healing blessing upon the party, dispelling the drowsiness amongst them and lending strength to those that still stood. And, in the same moment, she struck the construct down.
When I awoke the battle was just finishing up. We had won.
Post battle we were able to sort ourselves out, observing the room and the power gem in the wall we suspected was SAM’s battery of sorts. There was some concern amongst the party that it might contain souls, like the gems Stiks and Pales had destroyed, but with further inspection that theory was abandoned and Russel urged us not to destroy it, for it may be the key to reaching the other towers. There were four others named in the rather lengthy notes of the tower’s patron, Malkor. Each seemed to be named for one of the elemental planes, Wind (Air), Water, Fire and Earth. It was stated that Wind may contain memories extracted from SAM, and another may have prisoners or apprentices as the Sage would call them. Though the details are blurry, it was clear there are four, and to access them we need Cores.
With that business handled we set to return to Gravesend and bring the body resembling Pinna’s brother, as Stiks stated, to the pair. Upon seeing the body, it became clear it was the sibling’s father, long thought lost. Pinna’s brother, whom Stiks could not seem to give a straight name on, declared that an immediate return to the tower was necessary so that it may be razed, in retribution for their father’s death and the master of the place dealt swift vengeance. There was some turmoil on the plan, but in the end the brother set out, supposedly seeking other members of his knighthood for assistance in his path.
Scribed by Demirkan Rune, annotated by a X.
Adventuring Party: Demirkan Rune, Stiks, Patrick Smith, Monique, Russel
Adventure Date: 24APR22
Report Date
24 Apr 2022
Primary Location
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