shifty louts

Arduin Arcade Session #4 - The Howling Tower

Players

Summary

Sarmaht the 29th. The Month of the Boar 5202 & Qwain the 6th. The Month of the Serpent 5202

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Aftermath

The group, consisting of Snarkk the Gnoll Blue Magus, Grennigore, Centaur Red Magus, and Panpoxa Noite, the Silicate Armsman, hire three armsmen (1 ranged, 2 medium footmen) and head back into the Howling Tower.

The group plunges eastward, investigating the “doggie door,” and hears squelching noises after attempting to open it. They err on the side of caution and retreat into the first room and decide to test their luck with unbarring the northern door, knowing from their map that thirteen skeletons have been seen behind it.

They open it to find nothing but the smell of burnt oil. A door along the northern wall bears drill holes, and they inspect it; through the holes they see stacked barrels, perhaps full of brandy!

Panpoxa bashes the door down, and the group is greeted by hunched troglodytic figures, smearing themselves in dungeon grit. They bear red chalk on themselves, taken from a dungeon map on the wall. They stink like ripe, unwashed bodies, and one grabs Panpoxa by the wrist. A few tense moments pass, as they hoot until Snarrk starts to understand their strange language that resembles a creole of orc, gnollish, and common.

The cavemen urge the group to meet the Sleeper. An effigy made of smashed wood, turned into a crude figure of fins, a fishtail, and bulbous eyes made from sludgewort1.

The Sleeper requires food to Dream. It will Awake and take us higher, or so say the cavemen

The group gives rations to the statue while Panpoxa doses the thing in water. The statue turns to a sickening green, black stone and releases a miasma that smells of surstromming.

Snarkk asks where to find more sludgewort after Grennigore speaks of its value, and the cavemen utter, “it's further in, guarded by green things. They grow a forest”. The group knows the green ones to be orcs.

With the miasmic stench too much to bear, the group heads back into the hallway and heads westward, turning to the corner to find the thirteen ebon skeletons with battle axes at regimental rest. The smell of burnt oil and a smashed lantern can be seen. The group plunges eastward following their map.

A group of ebon skeletons finds them, and the group runs westward as the skeleton patrol follows slowly

They turn southward, following the rainbow checkerboard-patterned floor, and the busted door that was operated by the “Broken Doors Trust Fund”. The strange, crossbow beetle carapaces crunching underneath boots as they hear the skeleton patrol pass them.

They enter the small room to the north and find a delicate, lacelike lichen covering a Roman-style mosaic floor. Underneath the delicate fungi, a small, 2’ skeleton rests. The lichen covers it like a grave shroud.

The group covers their mouths as best as they can and steal the coins from the northern door, 100gp and 100sp richer.

They continue east into a large room where nine desiccated bodies of small salamander creatures have been beaten and hacked to death. The room itself is cavernous with many doors, so they opt for the closest one, struggling to open it, and then opting for the second closest door, where Panpoxa’s silicate weight triggers a pressure plate trap.

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A gout of flaming oil drops from the ceiling, catching all aflame, the three hirelings burn to death as our three adventurers are also badly burned but manage to extinguish the fires.

They decide to head out and recuperate2 for a week. Grennigore prepares a Knock spell, as Papoxa decides to buy a shield (money fronted by Grennigore) as Snarkk heals from his wounds. They all decide to buy crowbars3 as well, given their struggles with doors.

The group resumes entering the Howling Tower on the 6th of Qwain in the Month of the Serpent and heads east once more.

Our adventurers retry the original door and find a small room filled with three small wooden pews that bear the same pentagram symbol. The ground is littered with rat skeletons, and Panpoxa smashes some, inadvertently smashing the flagstone to reveal a coin purse containing 300s and 100g. A door to the north bears a copper doorknocker.

The group thinks it's a trap and Grennigore touches it with a 10’ pole, finding the end of the pole rotting away as the pentagram sigil emerges from the door itself in a black arcane film.

Their caution rewarded, the group proceeds to their second door, seeing the trap has reset itself; they avoid the pressure plate and break open the second door to reveal a room with cracking plaster, faded panels of a heroine’s exploits and the room hold dead plants and dead predator birds in cages, some sort of vivarium perhaps?

Snarkk finds one with a dead hawk in it and examines it, finds a copper circlet with bloodstone pentagrams within it. They cast Detect Magic. They find it has a faint aura of Black Magick around it4.

There is some debate about whether to doft the circlet; eventually, Snarkk adorns himself with it, finds a voice deep from somewhere in the aether trying to control them. A passed WIS check and Snarkk keeps the voice at bay.

Grennigore and Panpoxa see Snarkk’s eyes roll back into his head and droll, as their voice becomes delayed and disembodied, floating around the room. However, Snarkk still seems to possess their mental faculties.

With about twenty minutes left, Grennigore opted to use their prepared Knock spell to open the northern door. They cast Knock as red varicose vein lines of arcane energies blew open the door5.

Here they found a large room. Slime trails of pink organic fluids on the floor. It drips from the walls. A fountain of the same coagulated organic slurry squelches and whimpers. A pile of damp lumber lies with hundreds of nails driven through them.

The vibes are extremely fucked, and the group decides to head back. They head southward back towards the room with the desiccated salamander creatures. There they encounter the skeleton patrol once more.

Grennigore and Panpoxa rush for a door on the southeastern corner as Snarkk attempts to see if the circlet holds any power over the ebon skeletons. He can see they bear muskets in the second rank.

Panpoxa fails at opening the door. Snarkk’s hears the voice from the void become stronger as the front rank of five skeletons evaporate. The second rank of ebon skeleton musketmen raise their firearms and aim. Grennigore succeeds at opening the door as the group sprints through the door. A roar of musketfire ripples behind them as they escape through the secret passage they had knocked through from the western rainbow checkered board passage.

The group manages to escape the Howling Tower a little bit richer and with a seemingly powerful magickal circlet

Treasure Found:

Foes Encountered:

Rumors:

Deaths:

XP Awarded:

Notes

  1. A hair-like fungi that the orcs within the Howling Tower grow for food. It can be sold as a stimulant.↩

  2. The game passed a week to account for this exit of the Howling Tower.↩

  3. 4-in-6 to open a locked door using a crowbar.↩

  4. Here we discuss the finer point of the chromatic metaphysics. I’ve opt to say that the strength of the colored aura is indicative of its relative power. With items still being ensorcelled but weaker.↩

  5. There was also a small sidebar on the nature of Knock. Differing texts are unclear if it's noisy or quiet. We opted for 1d100 with ≥50 indicating it was loud.↩

  6. Each party member receives the full XP total per session.↩

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