Wait, what?
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
Starring, in order they sit around the table:
Rodin Halfbeard, (played by Lorne) the dwarven axeman (missing tonight).
Venmir, (played by Brett) an elven clergyman, mage-ignorer.
Nyvan, (played by Jason) a
Sigurd, (played by Iain) a travelling swordsman, target of the magics of...
Nandrin the Naughty, (played by Hilton), the elven mage, voted most likely to kill his companions, one by one, in great pain.
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.
We were once more down to four (due to illness, and the lack of a melee character would prove important), It proved a good night though, with plenty of combat and lots of opportunities for the party to do some stupid shit. And they did...
The heroes had made it inside Xonthal’s Tower. Nandrin did his best to try and remember what he could of Xonthal and his construction. He knew the mage had emptied his tower of apprentices and servants over 100 years ago. He was a known master of the elemental powers, and his research had lead to many magical breakthroughs before he disappeared. He was well-known, and well-respected. His tower was hidden behind a magical maze, and no-one had seen or heard from him since 100 years ago.
They stood in a large round chamber (except for Rodin, who had seen someting shiny in the maze and ran off to investigate), which struck them as weird, as the tower from the outside seemed square. There was a pair of balconies, as well as a teleportation plate on the floor between them. Each platform had a panel on the wall - it was covered in symbols.
After some time, they worked out that the symbols were part of an internal teleportation system, taking them from one floor to another. The first two moved them from the platform on the floor to the balconies. They decided to use the symbols one in a row.
Nyvan went first. He found himself in a corridor. filled with armed cultists. He stepped off the platform and attacked the cultists. They were unable to all attack at once, but some of them were mages and Nyvan found his body wracked with magical pain. As a last resort, he let out a thunderous smite, smashing one of the cultists into the floor, but the noise was too great, and it slammed into the rest of them, knocking them all unconscious, bar one...and it wasn’t Nyvan.
Sigurd was next, and he appeared in the hallway just as a cultist leaned forward, knife at the ready, to cut Nyvan’s throat. Sigurd moved quickly, slashing his blade across the cultist’s chest, killing him instantly before he could cut Nyvan’s jugular.
The others appeared, and most of them were somewhat shocked to find Nyvan lying unconscious, and Sigurd telling them how he had killed them all, saving Nyvan’s life.
They took a chance to have a brief rest, to ensure they were not so surprised the next time they travelled through a portal.
The next time they travelled in the same order. Once more, Nyvan found himself in a room surrounded by cultists in a room dominated by a large altar with the forelimbs of a black dragon growing from it. He leapt forward before any of them could move, slamming his blade into one of the warriors. He didn’t fall.
Sigurd appeared before the others, and instantly filled the room with silence. The others appeared, and the battle turned into a massive melee - with no-one able to use any spells. It was a long battle, but the heroes fought their way through eventually, even with Rodin still stuck in the maze. The altar was covered in notes and papers about dracoliches. They burnt most, then carried on.
From there one, they decided to travel together.
When they next went through a teleport, they found themselves in a large room, dominated by the skeleton of a black dragon. The room was once more full of cultists - and the combat was once more long and vicious - punctuated by Nandrin hitting the bad guys with a cloudkill, which nearly killed Sigurd, much to his disgust.
The next room lead to an observatory. There was a huge telescope, pointing a crystal set into the ceiling. A ladder stood nearby, and there were double-doors in one wall. As they spread out around the room, at least Venmir and Sigurd kept an eye on the doors. Which was a good thing, as they burst open and a group of cultists ran out.
The cultists spread around the party, splitting them up and keeping them occupied. Venmir shot at the mage at the back, but then found himself in combat with the others. As the heroes fought, the mage lashed out with magic missiles, hurting Nyvan more than he already was. The others continued their focus on the melee cultists and blows were swapped, until the mage unleashed his most powerful magics, hitting both Nyvan and Venmir with a Cone of Cold, instantly dropping Nyvan, and sorely wounding Venmir.
As the other cultists started to drop, the mage continued his magical assault (Nyvan failed two death rolls, and rolled one 20, meaning he was down to his last roll at this point - 11 or higher, and he lived, 10 or less and he died, permanently). Before long both Venmir and Nandrin turned their attentions to him. As the mage prepared a lightning bolt, he found himself engulfed in a huge pillar of flame - and when it cleared, he was dead. They rushed over to Nyvan, (who made his last roll as everyone dashed over - and with some bardic assistance from Sigurd, rolled 14). He stabilised, and they rested, before again destroying more papers on dracoliches. They also found a tiny hourglass on the mage’s corpse.
Nandrin grabbed the hourglass and they assembled on platform. He held the hourglass in the air, and pressed the button, feeling heroic and looking somewhat camp. Nothing happened. He tried several different poses, none of which did anything but leave his companions in stitches. Eventually, Sigurd grabbed the hourglass and pressed the hourglass symbol on the panel - and they instantly found themselves in another room.
Around the platform were a number of bodies, all cultists - most had been zapped, but one had been stabbed.
A trail of blood lead from the room. They followed it and found themselves stood in the doorway to a large chamber. Two figures stood in the middle - one appeared to be made of body parts, and the other made of layers of clay. The room was full of body parts and blood. There was also a desk, with a tempting looking chest on it. The party walked into the room and the figures turned to move towards them. They ran for the exit, and the figures moved towards them quickly. Luckily the figures stopped at the next doorway. There was much in the way of breathing relief.
The next room was a laboratory of some sort, and in the centre of it was a massive tornado, seemingly staying in one spot. The party took one look at the room and left. They walked down some stairs and found themselves in a wondrous room.
A platform stretched out in front of them. All around them was space - huge amounts of black space, punctuated by thousands of stars and galaxies. Along the platform were a number of doorways, surrounded by the black - they gaped in awe for quite some time.
Eventually they approached a door which lead them into a library - they found a hugely detailed map of the Plane of Fire, but left the room without searching. Nandrin did take a rock (which was holding the map down) to test the space room - but when he dropped it off the edge, they didn’t see it again. He advised the others to stay away from the edges. There was much eye-rolling.
Next was a storage room, full of every conceivable alchemical or magical compound. Once more, the party decided that thieving from one of the most famous mages in the history of the world was probably a bad idea, so they decided to move on.
When they entered the room beyond that, they found Iskander. He was leaning against a wall, dead from several wounds, and he was holding the blue dragon mask. Two massive hourglasses flanked his body. They checked his vitals, then nicked his dragontooth dagger, and the mask before hurriedly leaving the basement and the tower, fleeing out towards the village and instantly using their teleport scroll to return the Waterdeep.
They appeared in the monastery and sent word fo Leosin Erlanthar.
Then they waited.
