Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 72 - The Beast(s) are Beaten

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 5)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Wealsun 8 (evening) to Wealsun 8 (night)

... the buzzing man-thing advances on the druid and rewards Skeef with a massive number of bee stings. The party, a couple dozen feet away, turn to assist their comrade and the shambling insect collection is soon dispersed. Checking out the wooden boxes that first attracted the druids attention, they are found to be ordinary bee hives. Leaving these behind, they continue down the pebbled path, only to be accosted by the nearest scarecrow. But finally they make their goal, passing through the flower gardens and up to the tower itself. They circle around to the back servants entrance, where a smear of blood leads up to the door and through a hinged flap at the bottom. 

Entering, the party follows the trail of blood downstairs and through a wrecked kitchen. The blood leads through a partly smashed door, which proves difficult to open due to the half-eaten dead donkey behind it. They enter this next room cautiously, Skeef and Baqua gliding through shadows as the rest of the party turns the corner to get a better look inside. They find a charnel house of mostly devoured bodies, and from a nest of table linen in the far corner leap two sleek cat-like beasts with tentacles growing out of their shoulders. They are slain in a relatively short combat, and the party moves on. 

They next encounter a strange mummy-like creatures to which both weapons and Skeef (transformed into a giant beaver) get stuck. Further rifling of the erstwhile-servants quarters gave them some loose change, and they ultimately end up back in the kitchen and in the adjacent cold room. Apart from various dried and packaged foods, the only thing of note in the room is a covered well from which traces of a ghostly blue light emerge. Uncovering the well releases a swarm of odd flying creatures, looking like a bundle of bristly grey hair with two bulbous glowing eyes and a long tail. These are vicious, and attach to their victim with a bite and then sting with an electrical jolt with the tail. And they keep emerging from the well. Goro swiftly throws the lid back on the well, and the party retreats from the room before getting overwhelmed. 

GAINS

300gp

Silver Holy Symbol of Trithereon [25gp]

86cp

KILLS/VICTORIES

1 Scarecrow

2 Displacer Beasts 

1 Adherer

6 Volts  

LOSSES

none

 

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 71 - Asflag's Tower

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 6 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 6) 
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 5)]

Date/Time

Wealsun 2 (morning) to Wealsun 8 (evening) 

The party pokes about for some rumors of adventure, while Skeef heads off to fence the brilliant Helm of Morandril Hath he'd been lunging about since winter. Two items of interest, both linked to wizards, are learned. One rumor speaks of the mage Meldime, who awaits some unknown but mysterious cargo to arrive by ship. But said ship seems to have been lost in fog off the port at Brampton, and he is looking for help to find it.  The second speaks of strange creatures and monstrous killings in the night around the wizardly towers in the Seers District. The party opts for rumor #2, as Solcha wanted to make  contact with locals  mages and learn some new spells anyway. 

And so they find themselves at the College of Wizardry and Thaumaturgistry, meeting with the vertically challenged gnome illusionist Endoc and the frumpy wizardous Mirim.They explain one of their guild, Asflag,  appears to have disappeared from his tower; likely carried off during some summoning ritual he was known to perform. Of no real concern to the College, except now the strange creatures the wizard used to guard and staff his tower have begun to escape and terrorize the district. Which puts the unspoken agreement (to police their own) the College has with her Nobel Brilliance the Countess Belissica in peril.  So on behalf of the College the two (joined now at the last minute by the dandy mage Tullintot), offer the party 2000gp (half up front) plus whatever the can recover from Asflags tower, as payment for dealing the the monstrous menaces inside the lost wizards' abode. The two also offer rewards for recovery of two items Asflag had borrowed and never returned to them; a crystal ball of Endoc's and a carpet of flying of Mirim's. The party mumbles a non-committal answer to this last request, and negotiate 2000gp in value of spell training for Solcha before closing the deal. 

The party scouts the lost wizards' home, finding it to be a smallish tower inside a large walled estate. Noting a smear of blood near the south east corner of the wall, they surmise the electrical security system of which they were warned has failed there, allowing monsters out. And so perhaps it will let them in; and indeed they clamber over the wall and safely get inside. They find themselves in a pleasant refuge, facing an extensive water garden, with formal and vegetable garden leading towards the tower itself towards the other end of the enclosure.  Beginning their exploration, they follow a path past a series of grotesque statues, which spring to life as gargoyles and attack. They slay three, while the other three flee to the top of the tower. Dusting off, the party's next stop is a series of utility buildings along the west wall. They mostly ignore the zombie gardeners and animated garden tools found therein, and head along the path to the tower instead.  Skeef detours off into the trees to investigate some square wooden boxes; and discovers a swarm of bees forming a man shaped monster that buzzes towards the curious druid ... 

GAINS

none

KILLS/VICTORIES

3 gargoyles 

LOSSES

none