Far Isles Session #36 - Curiosity Killed the Cleric

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 1), with henchman Corvus (Fighter 1)
Chaff (Vivimancer 4), familiar Pretty Bird, and henchman "No 7" (Halfling 1)
Torak (Cleric 4)

The party waited a few hours after Rodrigo returned from his poisoned monkey-chow bombing run before sending Pretty Bird up to investigate. The parrot noted there were three immobile flying monkeys on the top of the tower, presumably deceased from eating the poisoned food. As the bird circled, another group of the apes emerged and several started chowing down. When these started to keel over from the poison, the few remaining apes got very angry and started shoving the poisoned food and dead apes off the tower.

Thunderhead Manse

Uncertain if they'd gotten all the remaining flying apes, Chaff next sent Pretty Bird to check out the the next part of the cloud complex; a square, pillared building connected to the ape tower by a narrow stone bridge. It appeared to be a temple of sorts, with an outer pillared cloister and an inner sanctum with solid walls. The whole structure was made of a fine, cream coloured marble. The party decided to land here, and had the fly transport them one by one up to the cloister. Once there, they parked the fly and cautiously entered the inner temple. They found a large room with a blue and green mosaic floor, at the far of which stood the 10' tall statue of a bearded scholar, and a set of verdigris covered bronze double doors.  Several party members examined the mosaic floor, trying to find a pattern of clue. But apart from  a general sense of order and 'rightness', none could decipher a deeper meaning. They next turned their attention to the doors, and Chaff sent No. 7 to investigate. As she approached the door, however, she noted the statute turned towards her and raised it's fists as if ready to spar with the cigar smoking halfling. No 7 reacted quickly, however, as did the rest of the party. A trio of pistols were raised and the room erupted in a loud crash of musketry and smoke. One ball, unfortunately, hit No 7 rather than the statue. As everyone else started reloading, Chaff dropped a web spell on the statue to hold it in place. Chaff, No. 7 and Corvus turned to beat on the statute with sword and staff, but everyone was surprised when 4 flying apes appeared behind them and attacked. With the statue still encased in Chaff's web, they turned to deal with the new foe. More pistol fire ensued, which took out a couple of flying apes. Unfortunately, Torak's misfired and exploded, showing both him and No.7 with shrapnel. A few sword strokes from Rodrigo, a  spore cloud from Chaff, and a trio of tossed daggers soon ended the monkey threat.

Turning back to the statue, the party could see that it was almost free of the web. So Chaff cast another web, and everyone turned their attention on their bronze foe. In spite of multiple hits, the statute broke free of the web and cut down poor Rodrigo just before it was finally sliced in twain by the mighty Corvus. The swashbuckler still clung to life, however, so he was bundled onto the fly  and  returned to the "Purple Haze" to recover in sick bay. With the statue gone, No.7 now approached the bronze doors, deftly picked the lock, and with Corvus' help threw open the portals.

On the other side was what appeared to be ornate bedchamber, with a dark oak wardrobe and footlocker, a shell and bronze bed, and steep stairs heading up. Of more immediate notice, however, was the series of glass tubes filled with discharges of lighting which illuminated the room.  This was matched by an organ which had the pipes replaced by similar, but smaller tubes. While the rest of the party fanned out to explore the room (No. 7 filching a fine set of blue silk sheets from the footlocker), Torak sat at the organ to practice a few tunes. His long latent musical talent came through, and the cleric was soon belting out a jaunty jingle. As he did, the lighting in the organ tubes flared higher and the sounds of the rainstorm outside became louder. And then he played another tune; and another, and another, and another ... as the sweat poured off Torak's brow, it was apparent the cleric was trapped at the keys. Corvus flexed his muscles, grabbed the cleric in a bear hug, and hauled him away from the infernal instrument. 

Cleric go "Boom!"

Eager to put as much distance as possible between him and the organ, Torak led the party up the stairs to a library or study. Tall bookshelves filled the walls, although only one section was filled with tomes. There was also a huge shell-inlaid wood globe in the center of the room, depicting an unfamiliar world, and a fixed ladder led to a trapdoor in the ceiling. Everyone started hauling books off the shelves. Flipping through them, they found most were rather serous treatises on magic, alchemy and astronomy. Torak found a bundle of scrolls, and started to examine them. As he unrolled the first, however, it exploded in a brilliant flash of light. The cleric was thrown right across the room, to crumble dead in a smoking heap at the base of the ladder.  That discouraged anyone else from looking at the scrolls, but Chaff did pocket them for future examination. The party decided to get Torak's body back to the fly to return him back to the ship, but not before No 7 and Chaff made a quick check of the level above. It was an open platform with a roof supported by pillars, and a turquoise inlaid magical circle in the center. 

They carried the cleric back to the fly and sent him on his way. They then decided, short-handed as they were once more, to go finish off the flying apes and get the treasure left behind last time. They made their way into the tower chamber where they'd fought the ape's last time. It was now deserted, but they could hear movement in the chamber below. As No. 7 and Chaff readied their pistols, Corvus threw open the trap door. One ape died in a rattle of pistol fire, and a second was cleaved in half by Corvus' great-sword when it tried to fly up through the door. The other two wisely turned and fled out through the windows, quickly disappearing from sight into the clouds. Triumphant, it was left to Chaff, Corvus and No 7 to simply gather the coins and miscellaneous valuables scattered throughout the monkey-litter, and then head back to the "Purple Haze" to plan their next moves.

TOTAL XP
5557

GAINS
800sp
950gp
195pp
Set of Blue Silk Sheets (100gp)
Shell cameo (125gp)
12 silver place settings (12gp)
Porcelain teapot (10 gp)
Bolt of blue silk (500gp)
Quartz orb (90gp)
Small crystal vial full of liquid [perfume] (500gp]
3 scrolls (control weather, feather fall, and lightning bolt)

KILLS
12 flying monkeys
1 animated, bearded, bronze statue

LOSSES
Torak
Rodrigo (Temporary) 

Far Isles Session #35 - Flying Monkeys and Resurrection (Redux)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 1), with henchman Nico (Specialist 1)
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 4), with familiar Hermes and henchman, Xavier (Swashbuckler 2)
Abdul el Abdul (Fighter 4)
WHO WERE LATER JOINED BY:
Jaz (Elf 1)
Corvus (Fighter 1)
Otock (Dwarf 1)

As the party brainstormed how to best get everyone up to the cloud tower, Chaff and No. 7 suddenly remembered an important experiment they had to run with the three eared rabbits. Torak likewise recalled today was the Day of the Putrid Deep, an important observance of the Bloated One. So the three hightailed it back to the ship, leaving the rest of the short-handed party to tackle the tower. At lest Chaff left the ebony fly in Rodrigo's care, so the five adventurers were simply airlifted one by one to the balconey at the top of the main tower. A door opened out onto the balcony from the tower, so Abdul el Abdul pulled it boldly open. Inside, it reeked of monkey feces and and unwashed animal. Strew about the room was a litter of silk and other cloth, and a large oak throne stood at the far end. And the room was also occupied by eight of the flying monkeys. Abdul el Abdul, Xavier, Roderigo and Nico rushed into the room to fight the beasts, but Kwinsea hung back and cast a seasong, which put all but one to sleep. This last monkey, seeing his comrades fall, quickly surrendered.

Abdul el Abdul, Rodrigo, and Nico started to root around the room for treasure and simultaneously slit some monkey throats. Amidst the silk and monkey crap, they found a wonderful set of golden plate armor (which Abdul claimed and donned), a pearl necklace, and piles of gold and platinum coins. They also found two baby flying monkeys, one of which took a liking to Abdul el Abdul and would not let go of his leg. They also located a trapdoor hidden under the detritus. Meanwhile, Kwinsea tied up the remaining flying monkey (wings and all) and took him outside to interrogate. Through a series of grunts and gestures, she gleaned that there were no other monkeys about, the person(?) they served was gone, and the trap door was simply a hatch for throwing garbage out of the cloud tower. She relayed this information inside, and Abdul el Abdul opened the door and started shoving dead monkeys through it. He was only able to get a couple through before everyone realized their captive was a lying monkey; Abdul el Abdul found himself staring into a seething mass of flying monkeys who were rising through the air and headed right for him.

Abdul el Abdul slammed the trap door shut and then stood on top of it, keeping the monkeys from getting in the room. As the party tried to figure out how to get out of this one, Kwinsea shouted from outside; more than a dozen monkeys had flown out of windows bellow her and were headed their way. The aquamancer shoved their dishonest captive over the edge of the tower, then joined the rest of the party inside. Rodrigo make a bomb out of gunpowder and oil, and he and Abdul el Abdul dropped it through the trap door. There was a loud BOOM and the sound of screaming monkeys, but the pressure from below was abated only momentarily. Meanwhile, the rest of the monkeys flew into the room through the open windows, and the party was now trapped. A furious fight ensured, and it was not long before Kwinsea, Nico and Xavier had fallen victim to the flashing monkey sabres. It looked hopeless, but Abdul el Abdul then recalled the flying monkey rugrat clinging to his leg. The fighter grabbed the cute, furry little creature and put his axe to it's throat. The monkeys got the implied threat, lowered their blades, and backed away. Through a series hand gestures, Rodrigo and Abdul el Abdul let the monkeys know that the little ones (Rodrigo had grabbed the second baby and was likewise threatening it) would live if the monkeys let them escape. The flying monkeys cleared a path to the door, and Rodrigo and Abdul el Abdul (dragging Kwinsea's body with them) made their way out onto the balcony where the ebony fly was parked.   Abdul el Abdul leap on the fly, tossed his fuzzy hostage to Rodrigo, and headed back to the "Purple Haze"  at top speed. Rodrigo then recalled the fly, and after dropping most of his and Kwinsea's equipment, threw the aquamancers body over the fly and then climbed aboard himself. As the fly vaulted into the air, Rodrigo tossed the two baby monkeys onto the balcony. He to headed for the "Purple Haze", but was this time was pursued by a half dozen flying monkeys. He managed to keep ahead of them though, and the monkeys turned around once the fly pitched on the ship's desk.

Captain Lynessa turned the ship towards the anchorage, and after several days of uneventful sail, they were back in "civilization". Once more they carried the body of their fallen comrade to Bellephrone to seek her assistance in bring back the mage. After a little jovial ribbing about their luck, the witch agreed to run Kwinsea through the vat once more to bring her back to life. The price was steep though; the iron rose, pearl necklace and Abdul el Abduls' new shiny golden armor.

While waiting for Kwinsea to be simmered back to life, Rodrigo and Abdul el Abdul went about some other business. First of all, they went to recruit some hired muscle to help in their next assault on the cloud tower. They found a pair of fighters, the beefy brute Corvus and the weedy looking Otock, and a spry elf by the name of Jaz. Abdul el Abdul tried to recruit Nilex the Whiskey Priest, but to no avail. It seems the cleric was deathly afraid of boats and was not going anywhere that involved travel over water. Which begged the question of how he made it to the Anchorage in the first place, but the drink sodden priest couldn't remember exactly how that had happened. They also went slumming around the shantytown, making discrete inquires about monkey poison. This bore fruit, and they were approached by Mikal, one of the adventurers who'd become the rulers/enforcers/entrepreneurs of the ramshackle little settlement. He offered to sell them enough poison to kill a troop of monkeys for the bargain basement price of 1000gp. Although that didn't seem like much of a bargain, they decided to take the deal.

After a quick stop on board the "Three Sided Coin" to get some supplies from Jobber Wok, they pickup up a resurrected Kwinsea from Bellephone and headed back to the cloud tower. Again, it was an uneventful voyage, and they were soon back at the rain sodden village. Rodrigo summoned the ebony fly, and lifted off carrying a huge cargo net full of poisoned monkey chow. He dropped this on top of the monkey's tower, and then dove for the ship below before he could be seen. Now to see if their efforts at pest control worked ...


TOTAL XP
2210

GAINS
Golden Plate Mail (800gp)
Pearl Necklace (1200gp)

KILLS
14 flying monkeys

LOSSES
Kwinsea
Xavier
Nico