DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7)
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 7 / Fighter 6)
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 7)
Chanee (Human Paladin 6)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 6)]
Date/Time
Goodmonth 10 (night) - Goodmonth 11 (night)
The night passes without incident, except for Skeef's sudden return from whatever space/time warp he'd stumbled into. After preparing spells and healing, the party enter the last, south east, tower. This one warns them to "TAKE CARE WHERE YOU STEP". And the first room they enter has a floor inscribed with a black 10'x10' grid. So they very carefully tap and search their way across the room, Skeef in the lead. They cross without incident, but when the druid/thief tries the same in the next gridded room, a giant lizard materializes in front of him and must be slain. So instead, the party rolls out the carpet of flying and fly over the grid. Except Baqua, who uses her gauntlets to work her way across walls and ceiling.
After likewise passing through another gridded room, they next enter yet another gridded room in which 16 bugbears stand statue-like scattered across the space. And at the far end can also be seen a stone sarcophagus. The party attempts once more to fly over to the sarcophagus and avoid all trouble. However, this time that does not work; four of the humanoids animate and race to attack them when they land. These are slain with relative ease, and the lid of the sarcophagus is removed to reveal a mass of copper and silver coin, a small number of gems, and the fourth "key".
Grabbing the key, the party flies onward, once more animating 4 bugbears when they exit the room. They are able to out-fly (and Baqua out-climb) them, reaching the end of the passage facing yet another blue-ish metal wall with the ubiquitous 'key' carving. After turning to face and slay the four pursuing bugbears, the party opts to rest here in the corridor to allow the spellcasters to rest and memorize spells once more. By that time, the full moons will have risen above the horizon, giving them access to the ghostly tower above.
When everyone is ready, they place the four key pieces in the engraving. This causes the wall to slide open, revealing a 20'x20' room furnished with 8 thickly padded reclining chairs. Which everyone rushes to, assuming the worst. And they are just barely seated when they all feel themselves slammed back in the chairs by a great force, which dissipates after about 10 seconds. Looking up, they can now see a 5' opening in the ceiling that had not been there before. Skeef once more leading the way, they climb up ...
... into clouds of billowing warm mist that block view of anything more than 10' away. Underfoot is stone and rubble, but otherwise there is no sign of anything. Flying up with the carpet, they find the room is about 80' high. The party then proceeds to march in a straight line until they hit a wall, and then walk along it to see what they encounter. The room proves the be circular, and after getting about a quarter of the way around, they suddenly hear a flap of wings and a thud as a creature lands in front of them.
It is a gynosphinx, and the lion-lady immediately begins to question them and leave unsubtle hints in her husky voice that she is in need of male companionship. Unwilling to contemplate interspecies liaisons (although she was clear none of them is 'man enough' for her), the party tries to reason with the sphinx. Maybe if she tells them about the soul gem, they can help her leave the tower to "find a man" herself?
This seems to enrage her, and screaming something about being trapped here by Galap-Dreidel, she attacks. And is joined by two massive pteranodons who'd been ciciling in the mist above. It is a short combat that sees Chanee and Baqua suffer a symbol of pain before the three beasts are slain.
GAINS
gems (10, 50, 50, 1000)
KILLS/VICTORIES
4 Bugbears
1 Giant Lizard
1 gynosphinx
2 pteradons
LOSSES
none
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