Jonesomon (Specialist 1)
Ethanna Brightward (Wyrd Paladin 1)
Baihu Cerrit (Magic User 1)
Vergarious (Changeling 1) [NPC]
Just before entering the tower door, a burst of fickle fey magic saw Gnarl disappear and Vergarious, a shuffling changeling with a raspy voice, to appear from nowhere. Taking it all in stride, the party welcomed the newcomer to the party, Ethanna pushed open the door, and all entered the tower. Visibility was poor, as the walls oozed mist or smoke, limiting vision to about 10'-15'. First stop was a room with small three legged stools on the walls, a bad painting of a bee and crocodile on the floor, and exits in the ceiling and east wall. The east exit was very askew, propped up by boards and posts. Some experimentation by Jonesomon revealed that it was possible to walk on the walls and ceiling as easily as the floor. Heading to the ceiling, they noted loud sounds of a horse galloping coming from that opening. Examination of the painting from this angle proved it to still be just an ugly painting.
Back down to the east wall, they choose to first head down the precarious tunnel. From it emerged the sound of knocking, like that heard when outside the tower. Knocking back caused the sound to once more cease. The tunnel itself was crooked and apparently on the edge of collapse, given the range of pit props and supports along the way. It led to a large room of similar decrepitude, notable for the many small (>1' high) tunnels exiting in all directions, and the conical piles of mining spoil on the floor. Jonesomon headed over to dig at one of the piles, which resulted in 6 small creatures emerging from the walls of the room. About 3' tall, they looked like tiny humans with abnormally sized, elastic facial features, wearing leather aprons and carrying mining tools. They started jabbering in a language only Jonesomon and Vergarious could understand, yelling at Jonesomon to leave their mining piles alone. They party learned little from the creatures, other than the fact that someone (thing?) named Blaspheemus lived at the top of the tower. They knew nothing abut the children, and in general payed no attention the the rest of the tower, bring content to mine the walls (although they were coy on exactly what they were mining).
Taking leave, the party backtracked and headed up towards the sound of the horse. They entered a larger room, where they found a pony with an abnormally large head racing around the walls, jumping over hurdles. Getting dizzy and confused as they watched blaze around above their heads, Ethanna, Baihu and Vegarious lost control of their minds and lashed out at each other and at Jonesomon. Baihu and Vergarious loosed their spells to no ill effect, but Ethanna skewered Jonesomon, and the specialist fell to the floor, bleeding the death. This shocked the paladin out of her stupor, and she rushed to Jonesomon's side to lay on hands and bring him back from the brink of death. They then turned to face the other two, who had continued their wild fight. Ethanna knocked Baihu out cold with the shaft of her spear, while Jonesomon used his whip to disarm Vergarious before tackling and pinning him to the floor.
Choosing now to ignore the horse, they headed out a passage to the east. It turned north in a twisting spiral, leading towards a pulsating multicolored light. The tunnel ended at a small round room, in the centre of which floated a pulsating ball of light. Around it orbited three small gemstones. Baihu, being very careful to avoid the room and the light, used her staff to knock one of the gems [pink rhomboid] out of orbit. This caused the light to fade and disappear, allowing Ethanna and Jonesomon to grab the other two gemstones [pale lavender ellipsoid and clear spindle, respectively]. After a little experimentation, the three found they could get the gems to orbit around their heads and thereby gained some particular benefits [Baihu, +1 CON; Ethana, spell absorption; Jonesomon, sustain without food/water].
Moving back the the pony room, and once more taking care to not look at the creature, the party headed towards another ceiling exit. This led down a long hallway to a circular bronze door. It was inscribed with twelve groves, labelled with various mealtimes; breakfast, mid-breakfast, late-breakfast, brunch, first snack, and so on. A handle in the middle could be turned to select the different meals. They ignored the knob and simply knocked on the door. After a few moments, it swung open and they were confronted by a stumpy goblin wearing a greasy apron and holding a large wooden spoon. He seemed happy to talk, especially about food, as he was Blapheemus' cook. However, the conversation went downhill as they learned the contents of the menu, which include human, faerie, and various other meat sources not served on a civilized menu. Including, they learned, one of the children they were looking for (Sim), who had been cooked in a stew the day before. They also learned one of the girls was held at the top of the tower awaiting her date in the stew pot. At which point, Ethanna could no longer control herself, and skewered the goblin with her spear. Kicking the body aside, the party rushed on toward an exit in the ceiling, anxious to find the girl before it was too late. A cursory glance around he kitchen revealed many vile ingredients, but also a fine collection of herbs and spices one would use in any fine cooking establishment.
The exit led into a large room stuffed with precarious piles of junk towering off the floors, walls and ceiling. It was almost impassible, and it was also impossible for some of the party to fight the temptation to poke around. Jonesomon hauled out a fine pewter plate that seemed oddly warm, while Baihu untangled a big ring of keys from one pile. She was unfortunately not as careful as Jonesomon, and the pile teetered and tottered, until it collapsed down with a tumultuous crash, crushing her against the wall. Everyone turned to frantically dig her out, and only timely binding of wounds saved the magic user from death.
Now pointedly avoiding the piles, the party pushed on again though a exit in the ceiling. This led to a red door with a gold star, underneath which was scrawled 'Blaspheemus'. Wasting no time, Ethanna kicked open the door and all charged into the room. Inside was a small table with a bowl and spoon, while high on the north wall was a 7' tall mirror. Mist also lingered here, but it smelled of tobacco smoke. Out of the shadows in one comer came a gravelly voice: 'You boys lost?'. And into the light stepped an ugly gnarled humanoid. It stood there smoking a huge cigar, about 3' tall and wearing nothing but a red tartan vest. He brushed off all questions about the children, and suddenly shouted out 'Get them boys!'. From the mirror then emerged another 8 Blaspheemus', and a mighty melee began. The mirror Blaspheemus' swarmed the party as the real one held back at first. Baihu, worried they'd loose track of the real Blaspheemus, threw her ink pot, covering him in a stain of lilac. Meanwhile Jonesomon tried to cover the mirror with a bedroll, afraid that more minions might emerge. Ethanna and Vergarious, after a few shots at the real Blaspheemus, started to cut through the minions one by one. Blaspheemus himself transformed into a misshapen ogre-like beast and waded into the fray. After suffering several blows, he pulled back to the corner and returned to his small form, before letting out an almighty scream to accompany a newly twisted, frightening and horrific visage (which caused several of the party to quiver and shake). But that was his last action. Baihu, desperate for something to use as a missile, hauled out her tinderbox and hurled it at Blaspheemus, striking the creature in the head and splitting open it's skull.
At about the same time, the other three finished off the last of the mirror minions. And then the tower started to shake wildly, rubble and dust falling down. It was obviously on the verge of collapse, so the party rushed through the eastern exit, looking for the girl. Faced by a series of locked doors barring the way, Baihu used the key ring she'd found to open them all in a hurry, finally reaching a tiny room at the end, There sat a little girl, mute and looking scared. As the tower tumbled down around them, Baihu grabbed the girl and dragged her along behind the rest of the party as they fled. At this the girl started screaming, and her piercing wails accompanied them out of the tower, from which they emerged just before it collapsed into a pile of rubble and dust ....
TOTAL XP
1410
3x Ioun Stones (clear spindle, pink rhomboid, pale lavender)
Pewter Plate of Warming
Blaspheemus' Keys
Pewter Plate of Warming
Blaspheemus' Keys
KILLS/VICTORIES
Blaspheemus and his mirror minions
LOSSES
nil
nil
