(RoT-13) That was a-maze-ing!

Yes, I said it.

Having somehow survived the third Waterdeep Council meeting, and despite their best attempts to get themselves executed, the heroes of the day have two options; either visit Xonthal's Tower to rescue a potential turncoat from the cult, or visit the Red Wizards of Thay to see if they can help with their rogue mage, Severin. They chose the former - especially as Nandrin is desperate to get inside a famous sage's pants tower.

Starring, in order they sit around the table:

Rodin Halfbeard, (played by Lorne) the dwarven axeman, hedgerunner.
Venmir, (played by Brett) an elven clergyman, Gorgon-bait.
Nyvan, (played by Jason) an elven dwarven knight, and part-time horsey.
Sigurd, (played by Iain) a travelling swordsman, often found hanging around toilets.
Nandrin the Naughty, (played by Hilton), the elven mage, wielder of the mightiest wand in the room.

and The DM, (played by Alex), who loves to comment in blue. And writes this blog. He's also a bit of a git and likes to make life difficult for his players.

Full strength and raring to go, the party are dying, literally, to get to the end of this module and confront the cult - but before that, there are still several issues which need to be addressed. So they find themselves once more on the road, with a simple goal - but isn't that always the case? 

The heroes got a ride to a large town near Xonthal's Tower and Leosin gave them a teleport scroll to help them get back to Waterdeep. They set off, having a fairly uneventful couple of days travel.

They crested a hill and saw the Tower, nestled inside a huge hedge maze, with the village on the other side. Having heard that the tower had magical defences, they decided to visit the village first. They headed straight for the tavern, and approached the barkeep.

"How do we get into the tower?" asked Venmir.

"You don't want to go in that there tower, you'll not make it past the hedge. And iffun you do, you'll go......" everyone leaned in as he started to whisper, "...bonkers!" he finished loudly.

"Really? The place makes you crazy?" replied the sceptical cleric.


"Yer, it surely does," replied the barkeep. "Them what goes in, don't come out the same, iffen they even comes out at all! A prime example is Crazy Derek. Old Ned said he saw a dragon flying about it before as well. It's all bonkers."

"And why is he called Crazy Derek?" asked Nyvan.

"Well, afore he went into the hedge maze, he was just called Derek. Now we call him Crazy Derek.....cos he's crazy!"

"I have some questions....," said Rodin.

"No! No more questions about the tower! It's all madness and you shouldn't go in, and I'll not answer any more questions."

Rodin ignored him. "So, what kind of magic defends the tower?"

"Are you daft, or deaf, master dwarf? NO MORE QUESTIONS!" he said as he turned his back on the party.

"Fine. Where can we find Crazy Derek?" asked Nyvan and he received directions to the house in the village farthest from the tower and the hedge-maze. They made their way over.

At first, all they could hear were ghostly ooh'ing noises, which refused to admit they were Derek. Then when Nyvan entered, Derek dropped down from his hiding spot in the eaves and pretended to ride from Nyvan's shoulders, shouting about his dwarven horsey. He also talked about how his potato had never been the same since entering the maze. It turned out that Crazy Derek was crazy and useless. They left for the maze.

Nandrin scouted the maze by flying over it, but somehow found himself being teleported across the maze every time he tried to land by the tower. After many, many attempts, he finally gave up. From the top, the maze looked like a horrid mess of overgrown plants and broken hedges, but from the ground, it looked like a perfect courtly garden.

They entered the maze, and found a clearing with eight exits and a sundial in it. The shadow from the sundial pointed forward, even though the sun was to their left. They went forward.

After several minutes of walking through the maze, they once again found themselves in the sundial clearing, but this time the shadows pointed in other directions. They realised that each time they made the right choice, they returned here with new options. They went right.

They later found themselves in a large clearing, with an island in the middle of a pond, and a pagoda above it. A monk stood near a bridge, and beckoned them over, smiling. They walked over, and he bade them sit, while he made some tea in a large kettle. The party sat patiently as the kettle began to steam, then smoke. The monk waved one of his hands and the sides of the pagoda were suddenly blocked off with massive walls of stone. The smoke started billowing out, filling the pagoda with acrid smoke.

Both Nandrin and Sigurd tried to use their powers and skills, to no avail. Panic started to set in. The smoke started to overcome them. Suddenly Venmir touched one of the walls and a hole opened, leaving room for them all to escape.

"Why didn't you do something before?" asked Sigurd.

"I was waiting for one of you to succeed first," replied Venmir.

The others tutted and grunted.

Suddenly they were beset by a large creature, with the face of the monk! It carried a huge maul and it had no legs, only visible gusts of air holding it up. Battle was joined, and the creature immediately targeted Venmir and Nandrin, slapping them about with its massive weapon. It took quite a while, but eventually they overcame the beast - although Venmir cursed soundly when he cast a powerful defensive spell and the creature died moments later.

The party left the clearing by the only other exit, and moments later appeared in the same clearing. This was repeated half a dozen times until Nandrin lost his temper and destroyed the kettle in the pagoda. Inside was a jade gemstone. He put it in his pouch, and they walked out again, finding themselves back at the sundial.

They decided to go in a different direction and checked out the shadows on the sundial. They went west and instead of finding themselves in a challenge they found themselves, after going through a maze, back in the sundial clearing. This time the shadows on the symbol had changed yet again and they found themselves having to decide which way they wanted to go.

After thinking too much they spent 10 minutes going through the maze before the heroes found themselves in a large clearing. On one side was a massive cottage and on the other were two Cyclopes, frozen in time.  There were sheep grazing in the pasture and when the characters approached the cottage, the Cyclopes came to life.

The Cyclops appeared to play a game of rock paper scissors and the loser approached the characters. He appeared to challenge them to a test of strength. He picked up a large boulder and threw it across the field. It flew 100 feet in the air and then rolled over 20 more.  He stood with his fists on his waist and looked at the heroes expectantly.

The heroes took some time to try and work out what they had to do. With spells flying and other attempts to move the boulder failing. Rodin bent to lift a stone, not realising it was three times heavier than him. Sadly, his attempt was too much of a strain on his body (he rolled a 1 on his Strength check) and he soiled his britches, much to the amusement of the cylopes and his own companions. He nipped behind a boulder to rip off his pantaloons and buried them in a shallow hole.

 After Nyvan spent some time trying to roll a large boulder, Venmir used a spell to shape it and turned it into a wheel. They rolled the rock all the way past the first one thrown by the Cyclops. at that point the other boulder broke open revealing a gem which the characters took and they left. The path took them safely back to the sundial clearing.

This time they took another exit. It took them all the way around until they came back to the sundial clearing.

This time the hero is found that the sundial pointed in four directions creating a cross on top of the sundial. They went off in a random direction and after some time in the maze they found themselves in a large courtyard with a circular pool of water running from one side to the other. Rather than touch the water Nandrin flew across to grab a gemstone hovering one foot above the center of the pool.  They left the area and once again found themselves in the sundial clearing.

Once again the sundial showed the cross. The characters left the clearing by random direction and before long they found themselves in another maze within the original maze. As they considered their options the pounding of hooves rang out and a Gorgon charged out of the hedge towards them. Many of the characters were knocked over and while it was preparing to trample them to pieces, Nandrin used his Wand of Wonder which summoned a massive elephant behind him, but he didn't realise. The Gorgon breathed on Nandrin with a gaseous green breath. Fortunately it did not affect him, but it did turn the elephant into stone. It ran off again and before they could respond, it charged from a different direction. This caused a mass panic and Nandrin used his wand again and this time he blasted the Gorgon with a fireball. A diamond fell from its nostril and the party took it, moving on again.

When they return to the sundial, it once again had the cross on it. Rodin, in anger, shook the sundial and then disappeared from view. One by one the others did the same until they found themselves in the sundial clearing having fallen from the sky. On the sundial, shadows pointed at every single exit.

They spend some time contemplating their options until eventually Rodin ran head first into the hedge and disappeared. The others were surprised but followed him and they once again found themselves in the maze, but before long emerged into the clearing surrounding the tower.

On the floor was a teleportation circle and the body of a cultist lay sprawling nearby. Looking behind them they could see a straight path to the sundial clearing. Beyond that, the parth continued with an exit to the village. 

They stepped forward on to the circle and it teleported them inside the tower. They found themselves in a strange room. A human female sprawled face down in a pool of blood - she was dressed like a high ranking member of the Cult of the Dragon. On the wall was a piece of metal and scratched into it were a number of glyphs including chairs, an upside down L, a rectangle, a flame, a star, a square and a right-angled triangle.

They paused a moment to catch their breath...