Mandalar's TowerMandalar's Tower DM Note: Strictly speaking, once inside the Forbidding, there'd be no realistic way new characters could join the party. Sod it. Spike was always there. Didn't you see him? |
 |
Now safely within the Forbidding, and joined by the sell-sword Spike, the party cautiously approached the looming tower, checking magically and physically for traps and ambushes. As they walked, Trixis Shadom the paladin of Korsta leaned across to Captain Davin and asked, "Do you worship a God? Have you considered the path of Forgiveness?" Davin eyed him a little oddly. "I revere Nolat of the Swords, friend," he said a little stiffly. This didn't seem to discourage Trixis from continuing to try and convert him. Tallan suppressed a chuckle; her admirer now had other things on his mind!
Though it was daytime, Tallan the vampire could feel the beating of many non-human hearts from inside the tower, especially the ground floor, where twenty or thirty were gathered. None, though, were the hyper blend of the demon-monks.
Ozymandias and Spike had crept forward to scout the gateway, and examined the stout oak doors. A large, prominent keyhole was visible in the face of the doors, but no easy way to get them open. Reflecting that an "expert treasure hunter" would perhaps have been useful, Ozymandias used his mimicry to imitate the sounds of the demon-monks' speech and called out. There was no response, however.
 |
Rative the Air Priest arrived, and cast a Warp Wood on the doors as the rest of the party scattered to a safe distance and readied missile weapons. For a moment nothing happened other than a few creaks and groans. Then an increasing popping, crunching, splintering noise arose and the planks of the doors bent and bowed, forced outward by the unyielding archway and floor beneath. With a loud bang, several pieces shattered and bits of torn wood tumbled out along the drawbridge.
The resulting holes were quite large enough for the party to get through, and Spike made his way through, closely followed by Baron Iraj and Trixis Shadom. As he crossed the threshold, Trixis called out brightly: "Hello! We are pilgrims of Kosta; can I interest you in the God of Forgiveness?" Iraj slapped him on the top of his round head to quiet him. Trixis grinned at his fellow dwarf. "I forgive you," he said.
 |
On the far side of the door, stairs led up through the thickness of the curved tower wall to a flat landing. Stairs led up and down, following the curvature of the wall. Ahead, more stairs led back down to ground level and into the room in the centre of the tower. Invisible to everyone else, Kry'Ojenix skulked to the back of the party.
Most of the party paused, examining this layout cautiously, but the sell-sword Spike headed stealthily up the stairs to the landing and looked down into the room beyond. It was circular, occupying the whole interior of the tower There were two rows of four pillars making an aisle from the stairs to another flight of stairs at the far side. Next to each pillar was a large round clay jar about 4' across. The floor was filled with moving figures.
 |
The beings were clearly demonic in origin; faintly luminous red eyes peered out from twisted, corrupted faces. Sagging grey skin covered bloated bodies equipped with claws. However, in one major respect these demons differed from the two gate-guards they'd fought; these were only about three feet high. There were more than twenty of them.
They also seemed not to be especially bright as they sauntered around the circular room. Walking softly back to the other side of the landing, Spike beckoned the others up, suggesting that some concentrated missile fire could probably take them out. As the inevitable arguments broke out about this, he slipped down the right-hand stairs towards the cellars of the tower.
As Rative the Air Priest cast a Prayer to boost their efforts, the party unleashed their assault on the hapless Manes. Iraj, Tallan, Benedicta, Davin and the two soldiers all shot pretty much simultaneously. Expecting tough opposition, they were startled and a little relieved to see their arrows reap a terrible harvest, felling demon after demon.
 |
Siân elected to get closer, and charged down the stairs into the room with her rapier. Her first lunge went straight through a fiendish eye and the demon dropped dead. Its' neighbor raked her with its' claws but without inflicting any serious harm. Trixis spent a few seconds preaching the Word of Korsta, then sent a wave of arrows down to fell two more demons. "Forgive me!" he called down after them.
Ozymandias had hidden himself, and was using his assassins' skills to murder demons from concealment instead of risking his neck if they made a rush.
Still invisible, Kry'Ojenix lurked at the top of the stairs, waiting for a moment to make his mark on the fight.
As the dim-witted little demons realized they were under attack and began to converge on the stairs, the party continued to pelt them with missiles of one kind and another. As this went on, Trixis suddenly felt a tremendous shove in his back, and found himself propelled violently down the stairs. By a miraculous feat of dexterity, he managed to remain on his feet, though he was now moving faster than he could run - or stop. Winding up at the bottom of the flight and still upright, he straightened up and appealed to the demons to cease hostilities in the name of Korsta. Basic self-preservation had not deserted him, however, and he dropped his bow to swing his halberd from his back in case forgiveness wasn't at home today. Disdaining missile fire, Rative followed him down the stairs to engage hand-to-hand as well.
Down below, Spike had discovered the tower's cellar. Poking around with interest, he discovered the expected stores and supplies - and a large windlass and mechanism in the centre of the floor, with chains running up into the ceiling. Intrigued, he released its' brake and began to turn the wheels.
 |
 |
Things seemed to be going well, and at that point something usually goes wrong. Ozymandias launched a hand crossbow bolt, missed, and hit one of the clay jars. It exploded like a bomb - obviously the contents had been under some pressure - and a thick, glutinous black substance started to spread across the floor. For a moment it just sat there, and then it started to ooze towards the fighters on the stairs.
As this sight registered with the party, another surprise was sprung as a Web appeared at the foot of the stairs, entangling all the nearest demons - and Rative and Trixis. Siân took a couple of quick steps and evaded the sticky strands, only to stagger as a mis-aimed arrow from Benedicta tore into her leg, smashing the bones to bonemeal and knocking her to the ground. Rather taken aback by this, Benedicta shot again, and winced as a distant crash announced the breaking of another Black Pudding jar.
Two manes closed in on Siân, but with skill born of desperation she blocked their attacks with her rapier as Bendicta headed down to try and rescue her. Trixis, meanwhile, was backing up the stairs, trying to reason with the Black Pudding with no results. He gave up as an unfortunate Manes was caught by the second Pudding and was consumed with a scream.
A loud metallic grinding suddenly began behind them, terminating in a ground-shaking crash. Looking back, the archers on the landing discovered that the tower's portcullis had dropped into place behind the smashed gates, blocking any path to retreat. Below, Spike completed winding the mechanism he'd found and peered around with interest, unable to see anything that had changed. Shrugging, he paused to pick up a small golden trinket that he noticed near one of the grain sacks, and headed up the stairs again.
Rative cast a Dispel Magic and removed the webs, allowing those down in the room to retreat as the archers finished the last of the Manes. A little experimentation discovered that arrows did some harm to them, fire rather more, and soon Fireballs and burning arrows had eliminated all the Puddings - including the ones still in their jars.
Iraj turned on Trixis. "Your God is shit!" he complained. With the majestic dignity of complete faith, Trixis ignored him.
With the fight over, all the healing magic available to the party was used on Siân's leg, getting her to the point of being able to hobble but not fully mobile. Leaning on her comrades, she accompanied them as they began to ascend the curving stairs. Spike and Ozymandias went ahead to scout.
Before long they reached another landing with double doors presumably leading into a room. Spike decided to bypass this and explore further up, so the pair continued to climb up the curving flight and out of sight of the doors.
 |
As the rest of the party passed those doors, with no warning a transparent unsolid form drifted through the wall. Misty though it was, the shape was quite visible - a woman of heartstopping beauty, a beauty marred only by the heavy, bat-like wings that rose from her shoulders to above her head. As she passed Trixis, she placed an intangible kiss on his cheek and whispered in his ear in a voice that sent strange urges rippling up and down his spine, paladin or not: "Slay your friends." Then she drifted on through the other wall, unaffected by the sword blow that Tallan managed to strike before she went.
Trixis' eyes went flat, and the rest of the party reached for their weapons. His action took them all by surprise, however, as instead of going for a weapon, he spoke a Word, and a rip in reality appeared right in front of him as his family ability of reaching out into the Planes opened a hole to ... somewhere ... Something hideous and tentacled tumbled out, and all hell broke lose.
 |
Rative prepared to cast a spell, but much to his and everyone else's surprise, found himself gently drifting into the air towards the ceiling of the landing. Benedicta reversed her warhammer and tried to stun Trixis, but the paladin was swinging his own weapons to bear now and her strike skated off his helmet. Siân shot an arrow but in those close quarters it was never likely to hit the Charmed paladin.
Further up the stairs, Spike and Ozymandias just had time to see the same lovely, evil woman fade through the wall before everything went black as magical Darkness enveloped them both. Reacting instantly, Ozymandias hurled himself backwards down the stairs, tumbling painfully around the curve to crash to the floor in the midst of the fight with Trixis. Left alone in the dark with who knew what, he stared around wildly, striving to locate his foe. A pair of sweet-scented lips brushed his ear, and a voice murmured sexily to him - then suddenly the Darkness and the woman were both gone. Spike blinked. He didn't feel any different...
 |
Below, Trixis suddenly dropped as the flat of a huge greatsword smashed down onto his helmet, stunning him (and breaking the Charm). Kry'Ojenix appeared amongst the party as his Invisibility broke. The tentacled horror from another plane (christened "Dave" for some reason by the party) was just trying to work out whether to eat Trixis, Siân, or the equally helpless Ozymandias, when the dwarvish battlemage's greatsword slashed it in half and it began to deliquese into a bubbling, noxious pool of slime.
Rative was now bobbing gently level with the ceiling, and was just about to try and pull himself along the ceiling to the wall when he found himself inexplicably sinking again. Bewildered as to the cause, he breathed a sigh of relief as he reached the ground.
Session Date: 15th Mar 2016