The Tower of Corbies Part 3:
The Wizard's Private Sanctum
The Wizard's Private Sanctum
Dramatis Personae:
Lady Claire Thundersword, the Human Wererat Swordcaptain of the Purple Dragon Knights
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Riddle, Claire's baby Basilisk
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut who plots the murder of anyone who slights her
Lit, Mezzem's baby Basilisk
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion
Osaw, Tali's baby Basilisk
Rosebud Goldenrod Petunia, the Halfling/Shetland Pony "Centaur" Wererat Berserker; who sees magic where there is none
Lily Trillium Petunia, the Green Dragonborn Lore Bard, and Rosebud's "Momma"
Hans, Claire's Basalt Wolf Figurine
Riddle, Claire's baby Basilisk
Mezzem, the Kobold Wererat Priestess of Bahamut who plots the murder of anyone who slights her
Lit, Mezzem's baby Basilisk
Natali, the Tiger Therinthrope Beastmaster
Yklwa, Tali's Deinonychus animal companion
Osaw, Tali's baby Basilisk
Rosebud Goldenrod Petunia, the Halfling/Shetland Pony "Centaur" Wererat Berserker; who sees magic where there is none
Lily Trillium Petunia, the Green Dragonborn Lore Bard, and Rosebud's "Momma"
Seluna, the Moon Elf Drow Totem Warrior Circle of the Moon Druid and Silverstar of Selûne
Flimflam Pebblehead, the Deep Gnome Arcanist who really likes killing things, thinks he has powerful enemies out to get him that are telling him what to do, he has a voice giving him directions in his head, and is enamored with every beautiful voice he hears
Roswyn Darkshooter, the Deep Gnome Delver from the Miner's Guild
Medic Stonebandage, the Deep Gnome Priest of Smoothhands from the Stoneheart Enclave who can't take a joke, and often reacts violently, if not murderously, to them
Smoothpalm, the Deep Gnome Monk of Smoothhands
Terrik Stoneshot, the Deep Gnome Gunslinger from the Bounty Hunter's Guild
Niles Rubusthorn, the Moon Elf Shadow Dancer
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Scout
Geophry, the chair that used to be a boy
Flimflam Pebblehead, the Deep Gnome Arcanist who really likes killing things, thinks he has powerful enemies out to get him that are telling him what to do, he has a voice giving him directions in his head, and is enamored with every beautiful voice he hears
Roswyn Darkshooter, the Deep Gnome Delver from the Miner's Guild
Medic Stonebandage, the Deep Gnome Priest of Smoothhands from the Stoneheart Enclave who can't take a joke, and often reacts violently, if not murderously, to them
Smoothpalm, the Deep Gnome Monk of Smoothhands
Terrik Stoneshot, the Deep Gnome Gunslinger from the Bounty Hunter's Guild
Niles Rubusthorn, the Moon Elf Shadow Dancer
Twyla Alderleaf, the Moon Elf Scout
Geophry, the chair that used to be a boy
Comrades we have lost:
Ront, the Orc Fighter- turned into hamburger by Pwent
Buppido, the Derro- smashed by Orvald
Eldeth Feldrun, the Shield Dwarf- killed during escape
Hera Adaar, the Abyssal Tiefling Wild Sorceress- swept away
Luna Trelawny, the Human Divination Wizard- skull caved in by rock thrown by Fidget, then finished off by black pudding
Sarith Zekarit, the Drow Scout- drowned
Phillip Johnson, the Human Cleric- in a seemingly irreversible coma, left in Hemeth's care
Jim Jar, the Deep Gnome- eaten by grell
Prince Derendil, the Quaggoth- killed by sea troll
Shuushar, the "Awakened" Kuo-toa- turned into shuushi by sea troll
Hemeth, the Duergar Arms Dealer- parted with group in Gracklstugh
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-became a squeaky toy last seen in Bahamutsville under Zin-carla
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-abandoned the party because Orvald died last seen in Bahamutsville
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Thimblepwent Battlehammer, the Dwarven Battlerager Barbarian- turned into dog food
Orvald Abershaw, the Mousefolk Barbarian-
Zenit 'Dracon, the Drow Fighter-
Lythana Belmyr, the Half-Drow Blood Hunter of Eilistraee- sacrificed to Demogorgon
Codsworth, the polite Flumph- shredded by crossbow
Zarrus, the Tiefling Favored Soul Sorcerer of Mephisto- vanished during gnoll fight
Ol' Sparky, the Deep Dragon- last seen thrown into a portal to the Abyss by a glabrezu
Aura, the Air Genasi Storm Sorceress- accidental self-vaporization (bitch blew herself up)
Kyri, the Minotaur Scout- vaporized by a jackass
Fidget Stonegear, the Deep Gnome Inventor- big badda boom
Miarielle, the Lythari Priestess of Corellon- bigger badda boom
Kazul, the Copper Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Kazul, the Copper Dragonborn Shadow Monk of Bahamut- skull caved in by another rock from Fidget
Glabbagool, the Gelatinous Cube- stayed with the kobolds
Kara Reginleif, the Half-Valkyrie Wererat Champion from the Zhentarim- vorpaled to pieces by demon Easter bunnies
Stool, the Myconid Child- unwilling dance partner to drunk stone giant
Rumpadump, the Myconid Child- frozen by demon Easter bunny
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin- got stoned and kissed a pretty Medusa
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut- retired in Blingdenstone
Topsy and Turvy Goldwhiskers, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins- stayed in Blingdenstone
Friendly fire overall: 159
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Marpenoth 1, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), the tower
I only really needed an hour to recharge myself, so I asked Lily if she could get Grazilaxx to swap me out for Flimflam during this rest. I didn't like leaving the caravan untended for so long, and wanted to check on things for myself. Lily said he felt like he was hitting a wall when he reached out to Grazilaxx. Rosebud volunteered to try as well, since he had also been tentacle mind fucked by this guy, and the lad nearly shit himself in the attempt. There was nothing I could do, so I settled in to relax and rest.
***** The Caravan
The group began seeing some flesh showing through the stone of Seluna and Terrik; the spell turning them to stone was breaking, as Sloopidoop and Grazilaxx had promised. After about five hours they were about half flesh again.
Roswyn was guarding the overlook to the tower, in case that demon returned, and Twyla was guarding the tunnel that led into the clearing they were stopped in. Twyla heard something- a shuffling noise, followed by something similar to a whistle, and spider things approached. A group of duergar began to appear behind the spider things, and the moment Grazilaxx saw them he turned invisible.
The duergar in charge was Hemeth- the same Hemeth that the old party had met in Sloobludop! Unfortunately there was no one at the caravan- or with the party in general- who knew Hemeth, so it was not a reunion. Hemeth was on his way to Mantol Derith with 100 sets of weapons and armor for trade, which he would be willing to trade for the salt the group had been carrying. They invited him to join them for a rest and share their fire.
Hemeth asked the group if they'd heard of Orvald, since he knew the mousefolk had been heading to Blingdenstone. Roswyn told him there were only wererats in the svirfneblin city, which prompted him to ask about the twins; the duergar was not surprised to learn that they were now the leaders of the wererat clan. Hemeth told the group that they didn't want to go to Gracklstugh, the whole city had gone mad. The city had descended into chaos and everyone who wasn't duergar had been kicked out of the city or killed.
While Hemeth was with them, the stone on Terrik finished melting, and the gunslinger was finally freed. After trading the salt for the weapons, Hemeth let the group look through his personal stock of magic armor and weapons, and from the money they'd made killing the dracolisk, they completely cleaned the dealer out. When Hemeth left, Grazilaxx and Sloopidoop left with him.
An hour after Hemeth's departure Seluna was freed from the stone. Shortly after that, Flimflam, Medic, and Roswyn got hit with a nasty psychic attack- which killed Medic's sense of humor. Shadow demons swooped in, possessing Roswyn and Medic. Two more shadow demons hovered above Terrik and Flimflam, as the demonic knight returned. Roswyn turned her blades on Terrik and sliced up the gunslinger quite badly. Terrik cautiously backed away from Roswyn and began shooting her.
Seluna cleared Flimflam's mind a little to let him cast some spells. The arcanist was still paralyzed, but he didn't need to move to cast his magics. Medic turned his crossbow on Seluna, and missed horribly; the priest was not a very good shot. Niles stepped into the shadows and aimed his bow at the knight- he not only hit it, but he actually hurt it this time! Meeting Hemeth had been very good for the elf. Twyla charged the knight and hit it with a sweep of her sword.
Flimflam shot fire from his nostrils at the shadows hovering over him and Terrik, and they both screeched in pain from his flaming snot. The knight stabbed at Twyla, but now that she had proper armor, it didn't do much to her. Roswyn continued her attack on Terrik, she couldn't expel the shadow possessing her. Terrik continued trying to evade Roswyn, and turned his gun on the shadow above him. Seluna turned Flimflam into a monkey so he could move around; he could still use his spells as an ape.
Niles injured one of the shadows, and Twyla pressed on with the demon knight- though she barely scratched it this time. Flimflam slapped at the shadow above him, and Seluna finished that one off. There were still three remaining shadows and the knight, who could conjure more shadows. Medic summoned his spirit weapon and sent it after the knight, landing a blow right away. Flimflam shat in his hand and cast a catapult spell on it, launching the shit at the demon knight. His wild magics surged around him, and for the next hour Flimflam heard "bing!" whenever anyone was within 10 feet of him- he was completely insane. The shit connected with the knight and hit it so hard that it fell to one knee.
As the knight raised its sword at Twyla, Medic's spirit guardians killed it; only its armor and blade remained. There were still three shadow demons to contend with, one of which was still possessing Roswyn. Seluna turned to Roswyn and expelled the demon from her body, the scout was finally in control of herself again. Niles shot at one of the shadows, finishing it off, and leaving only two more to contend with. Twyla pounded on another one, who Medic's spirit guardians finished off. Flimflam chucked the shit covered helm of the knight's at the final shadow, killing it.
They inspected the knight's armor and weapon, and had no idea what it was or could do, so they put it in the cart with everything else, hoping Lily could tell them what it did later. Twyla was quiet interested in the armor, and began contemplating taking it for herself before Lily returned.
Flimflam announced he needed sleep to recover, at which time Seluna realized that a superior healing potion should help the arcanist. It indeed fixed him up physically, and the insane svirfneblin passed out. Medic decided to wake Flimflam, and paid for that- Flimflam awoke shooting fire at the priest.
***** The Tower
Rosebud began getting restless while we rested, and corbies were beginning to surround the protective bubble of Lily's Hut. When we were about halfway through our rest, he decided to throw out a card and summon something to clear out some of the corbies lurking nearby. An erinyes appeared and began hacking through the corbies like they were nothing. In the minute the creature was there, it killed about 45 corbies! The boy is definitely a powerful summoner.
When our rest was complete, we waded through the carnage Rosebud's erinyes had caused, and realized the room we were in was once a magic laboratory of some sort. Anything useful was long gone, caked in corby shit. Instead of taking the stairs to the next floor, we decided to just climb up from the outside. Tali shifted, and I climbed on her back, the plan was for us to tie a rope to the balcony when we got up there so the others could climb up.
The room looked like it had once been a library, though it was as disgusting as everything else in this damned tower. Before we could set up the rope, a screech rang out in the room, and there was a whooshing sound, followed by warm, putrid air, as a vrock flew at us. The sound of its screech stunned me, and I couldn't move. Down below, Yklwa was also stunned by the demon's cry. Rosebud attempted to shoot at the vrock from the balcony below, to no avail. Smoothpalm began molding the stone wall to make handholds so the party could climb up to help, while Lily grabbed his boy and dimension doored up there- since Mezzem was still on Rosebud's back, she was drug along.
Yklwa began looking for stairs to get to Tali, he couldn't climb well, and would probably have fallen to his death if he tried. Unfortunately, the party hadn't cleared out this floor as thoroughly as they had thought. The dinosaur rounded a corner and was faced with a group of albinos, who instantly pounced on him, ripping the poor creature to shreds. The party couldn't revive him without a very powerful resurrection spell, which Tali would later choose not to do, since her companion was with their god, and she didn't want to take Yklwa from Ubtao's side. Many tears would be spilled by the loss of Yklwa.
While I was stuck in place, Tali drew her bow and began peppering the vrock with her arrows. Lily began singing a spell, which attracted harpies to come investigate the room we were in. One tried its siren song on him, but it failed- the bard was no as easily charmed as his boy was. The next harpy sang and hit Rosebud and Smoothpalm- again. Those two are charmed far too easily. I can't say much through, the fear shriek hit me and terror gripped my heart again. I had to get away, so I jumped off the balcony- catching myself on the one below, before losing my balance... I was plummeting toward what could very well be my death.
Lily summoned his Hand and began squeezing one of the harpies with it. Tali continued peppering the vrock with arrows, intent on getting rid of it while the others dealt with the harpies.
I landed on the ground with a thud, that shook my bones. Thanks to being a wererat, the fall didn't kill me, or even hurt. I was still terrified of the damned harpy, and could only run in one direction: around the tower, so I began circling it, terror still clinging to me.
A dread corby came after Tali, and hit with a nasty attack that badly wounded the ranger. Mezzem smacked some sense into Rosebud, bringing him out of the harpy's charm, again. Smoothpalm, still enthralled, moved up to the harpy before coming to his senses. Since Rosebud had his wits about him again, he moved up and pounded on the dread corby, badly injuring it. Lily finished off the harpy in his Hand, and polished off the dread corby that Rosebud was wailing on. Tali unleashed a lightning arrow at the vrock, but it didn't do much to it, the beast seemed to be resistant to lightning.
I continued sprinting around the building, and was about halfway through my second pass when I finally came to my senses. I then remembered that my Rod turns into a ladder... I didn't need to jump off the balcony to escape, I could have just shifted my Rod- but terror had a bad hold on me at that moment, so I wasn't thinking clearly.
Smoothpalm and Tali were on the receiving end of some nasty attacks by the remaining harpy and the vrock; but fortunately for them, Mezzem was there to patch them up. Smoothpalm began beating on the harpy, and bludgeoned the beast to death with his staff. The vrock released spores, poisoning Tali in the process, but Lily finished the demon off right after. Tali began shooting another dread dread, and another harpy began pounding on Lily.
I set up my ladder and began climbing back up the tower to the group, it was a much quicker- and cleaner- route to my friends.
Rosebud splatted the harpy, and got to Tali so Mezzem could heal the badly injured, and poisoned, therinthrope. There seemed to be no end to the beasts, harpies and dread corbies just kept coming at them. Lily sent his Hand to another harpy, which it grabbed and began squeezing, while Lily insulted the dread. Tali, freshly healed, began shooting another dread.
I reached the balcony I'd fallen off of, and adjusted my ladder so I could go up one more floor. I wish I'd remembered this sooner, it would have saved us a lot of trouble.
The dread had decided it didn't like Tali, and unleashed a flurry of hits on her, leaving her badly wounded again- but Mezzem healed her right away. Smoothpalm used an ability called Stone Maiden on the dread, encasing it in stone to hold it in place.
I scrambled over the ledge, just in time to see a dread corby break out of some stone prison. It stumbled and swung at me, I returned the blow, stumbling myself, but I didn't fall off the balcony again. Rosebud aimed his bow at the dread, and hit me with the bolt instead... it stung a bit, but didn't seem to hurt me much. Smoothpalm chucked some darts at the dredge, and Lily insulted it- his Hand still squeezing the life out of the harpy; it looked like the harpy was about done, the juices and viscera oozing through the fingers were a good hint at that. Mezzem finished off the dread, and its body almost collided with mine. I managed to catch the dread and keep myself and the corpse from going over the edge.
That seemed to be the last of them in this room, but we could hear more coming our way. I took up position just outside the door they'd be coming through so I could pounce on them as they entered. Rosebud summoned a frost giant to help us deal with the beasts, his summoned creatures had done a lot of good for us thus far. The harpies entered the room singing, and suddenly they were the most beautiful creatures in the room. Rosebud was also enthralled- again- by the harpies song. Lily's Hand blocked anything else from coming through the doorway, but it didn't matter, the beautiful harpy I adored was with us.
Lily found a hidden doorway in the room, which he believed led to some stairs. As Mezzem smacked some sense into Rosebud- again- Lily cast knock on the door, opening it up. They decided to go up the stairs to finish the fight. Tali began singing to me and bitch slapped me, bringing me out of the harpy's charm; she is a good friend. The stairs had another door just inside, and we found ourselves trapped between the fiends and a door that Mezzem couldn't open. I pulled out a broken lock that had the knock spell enchanted on it, opening the door up. As the door opened, fire came pouring out, hitting all of us.
That door opened up to another fucking door. This stairwell was miraculously shit free, it seemed the corbies had never discovered it, or just couldn't get it open on their own. Lily began checking this door for traps, and his tool got stuck to it. Then, part of the door lashed out with a tentacle thing, swiping at Lily; the door was a mimic. Down below, Rosebud's frost giant was polishing off the corbies for us. We killed the mimic, and behind it was a very posh sitting room.
Rosebud wandered in and lied down on the lush, shaggy carpet. In the corner of the room was a quivering armchair... It began speaking to us with a voice that trembled as badly as the rest of it. The chair introduced itself as Geophry, and told us that he was about 10 years old, and had been the wizard's apprentice. One day the wizard got angry at the boy and turned him into a chair, which he has been stuck as ever since. Lily and Mezzem both tried different means of removing the magics that had been put on the boy, to no avail. Whatever this wizard had done to the lad was beyond their magical abilities. They said he had either been hit with a true polymorph spell, or was some sort of chimera.
We befriended the chair, and he instantly loved Rosebud, who started calling him Chairy, because I had called him cherie before we learned his name. Geophry took us to his master's lab, which was full of potions, and had a powered up magic circle in the middle of it. Apparently that is how the chair eats, by sitting in the circle. He told us that one day his master had gone into the circle and never came back; he had been gone for a very long time.
The next room was a library, which Lily and Rosebud instantly started cataloging; Smoothpalm joined in. Off of the library was a set of double doors which Geophry said led to his master's bedroom. Mezzem examined the doors, which were covered in runes. Since Lily was so focused on the books, Mezzem took his pipe that allows him to detect magic. She said the door was very magical, and there was a barrier of some sort on it. Rosebud came over and kicked the door, hurting himself in the process. Since the door had hurt his boy, Lily came to help us with it, and his attempt to dispel the door's magic backfired- we all got hurt from the magical backlash.
At this point Tali and I were annoyed with the door and went to go see what potions were in the lab. Among the potions available was a potion of longevity, which I downs right away, and I became young! I'm not sure my actual age, but I know I'm now much closer to it than I was before. I'm young again!!! I danced around the room singing "I'm young again" to Tali, and tried to get her to dance with me.
In their attempts to get through the door, they set off a ward that shot two lightning bolts at the group. Lily was so badly injured by the bolts that he got dizzy, and began puking his guts out for the next couple of minutes. Rosebud retaliated on the door for hurting his momma, and began pounding on it, eventually hurting it enough that the magic sputtered out. Even once the magic was gone, Rosebud was so angry about the door hurting momma that he kept pounding on it the entire time his mother was ill.
They told us they'd gotten the stupid door open, so I stopped the celebration of regaining my youth to go see what was beyond the doors that had taken so much to open. Rosebud stepped in the room first, and was attacked by a candelabra and an ewer. The fucking furniture in this room was enchanted to attack intruders- this place is fucking ridiculous. The mirror began taunting Rosebud as Tali climbed the wall to shoot it.
Rosebud moved forward and shattered the mirror, then reduced a broom that was coming toward him to splinters. Lily threw a magic missile at an animated dagger, destroying it, and I destroyed a stool and swung at a picture frame. A pot and the ewer hit Tali, and a pillow hit Mezzem- this place is fucking weird. Lily began insulting a pillow, but nothing seemed to happen, I guess pillows are immune to mental attacks; though it didn't like his insult, it responded by whacking him in the face. Rosebud sliced through the pillow, and feather rained down on all of us. I finished off the candelabra, and that seemed to be the end of it- though Rosebud decided to attack the bed, just in case.
In the armoire of the room, Lily found a wish ring with one wish left, and announced he would use it to restore the tower to its former glory, and hopefully turn Geophry into a little boy again. Through a spell of his that tells him the history of something, Lily learned that the tower had been here for about 200 years, and was created out of nothing by the wizard Narrus. He had only a minor magical talent until the tower came to be, and he loved to collect apprentices. Narrus held the tower for 100 years, until something in his own dorm ended him. The tower then sat empty until the corbies moved in. He also learned of the roof entrance, and the word Narwhal, though that didn't come with any meaning.
Lily opened up the passage to the roof, and a very large vrock was perched on the ceiling of the cavern. We began to move up, preparing to fight the beast, and it screamed, freezing Rosebud and Smoothpalm in place. It released a cloud of spores from its wings, poisoning Mezzem. Lily cast a spell to calm its emotions, attempting to make it indifferent to us instead of hostile. It began to fly away from it, and Rosebud shot it... breaking the zen that Lily had just given it. The vrock swooped back down at us, screeching, stunning Tali and Smoothpalm. Lily insulted it, but nothing seemed to happen, and my javelin had a similar effect. It screeched again, and I felt my muscles lock up- it seemed to have hit Rosebud and Mezzem too. This wasn't going well.
The vrock dived at Smoothpalm, picked him up, flew over the chasm, and dropped him in it. It flipped around and dived at me, pain lanced through me as it connected- though thankfully it didn't grab me. Lily put a dimension door under the falling monk, bringing him back to the roof. Its scream stunned Rosebud, Tali, and Smoothpalm this time, and I shot it in retaliation. The demon swooped at Tali and blood spilled from my friend, then it jabbed its beak at Mezzem.
As I began wondering if we would survive this, Lily's voice rang out in the cavern: "I wish for the tower of Narrus, and its inhabitants before the invasion of the creatures tainted by the demonic influence, to be restored to former glory, all traces of the accursed beasts that desecrated this place to be removed, while myself and my allies are maintained safely within."
We found ourselves standing in the circle in the lab, and heard shouts of confusion from other rooms in the tower. Everyone Lily has ever considered an ally was brought to the tower by the wish. The wish didn't work on Geophry though, he was still a chair, but we were hopefully safe now.
The tower was back to how it was before the corby invasion, everything was in perfect condition again, and the shit paint was gone.
Lily exclaimed Narwhal, and I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as the floor dropped out from under me...
145 corbies were killed in the taking of this tower.
Sajin Silvertongue, the Deep Gnome Wererat Assassin- got stoned and kissed a pretty Medusa
Thecker Powdercraft, the Deep Gnome Wererat Gunslinger and Inquisitor of Bahamut- retired in Blingdenstone
Topsy and Turvy Goldwhiskers, the Deep Gnome Wererat Rogue Twins- stayed in Blingdenstone
Friendly fire overall: 159
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Claire's perspective, anything with italics is from a third party, since the knight can't be everywhere at once.
***** Marpenoth 1, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), the tower
I only really needed an hour to recharge myself, so I asked Lily if she could get Grazilaxx to swap me out for Flimflam during this rest. I didn't like leaving the caravan untended for so long, and wanted to check on things for myself. Lily said he felt like he was hitting a wall when he reached out to Grazilaxx. Rosebud volunteered to try as well, since he had also been tentacle mind fucked by this guy, and the lad nearly shit himself in the attempt. There was nothing I could do, so I settled in to relax and rest.
***** The Caravan
The group began seeing some flesh showing through the stone of Seluna and Terrik; the spell turning them to stone was breaking, as Sloopidoop and Grazilaxx had promised. After about five hours they were about half flesh again.
Roswyn was guarding the overlook to the tower, in case that demon returned, and Twyla was guarding the tunnel that led into the clearing they were stopped in. Twyla heard something- a shuffling noise, followed by something similar to a whistle, and spider things approached. A group of duergar began to appear behind the spider things, and the moment Grazilaxx saw them he turned invisible.
The duergar in charge was Hemeth- the same Hemeth that the old party had met in Sloobludop! Unfortunately there was no one at the caravan- or with the party in general- who knew Hemeth, so it was not a reunion. Hemeth was on his way to Mantol Derith with 100 sets of weapons and armor for trade, which he would be willing to trade for the salt the group had been carrying. They invited him to join them for a rest and share their fire.
Hemeth asked the group if they'd heard of Orvald, since he knew the mousefolk had been heading to Blingdenstone. Roswyn told him there were only wererats in the svirfneblin city, which prompted him to ask about the twins; the duergar was not surprised to learn that they were now the leaders of the wererat clan. Hemeth told the group that they didn't want to go to Gracklstugh, the whole city had gone mad. The city had descended into chaos and everyone who wasn't duergar had been kicked out of the city or killed.
While Hemeth was with them, the stone on Terrik finished melting, and the gunslinger was finally freed. After trading the salt for the weapons, Hemeth let the group look through his personal stock of magic armor and weapons, and from the money they'd made killing the dracolisk, they completely cleaned the dealer out. When Hemeth left, Grazilaxx and Sloopidoop left with him.
An hour after Hemeth's departure Seluna was freed from the stone. Shortly after that, Flimflam, Medic, and Roswyn got hit with a nasty psychic attack- which killed Medic's sense of humor. Shadow demons swooped in, possessing Roswyn and Medic. Two more shadow demons hovered above Terrik and Flimflam, as the demonic knight returned. Roswyn turned her blades on Terrik and sliced up the gunslinger quite badly. Terrik cautiously backed away from Roswyn and began shooting her.
Seluna cleared Flimflam's mind a little to let him cast some spells. The arcanist was still paralyzed, but he didn't need to move to cast his magics. Medic turned his crossbow on Seluna, and missed horribly; the priest was not a very good shot. Niles stepped into the shadows and aimed his bow at the knight- he not only hit it, but he actually hurt it this time! Meeting Hemeth had been very good for the elf. Twyla charged the knight and hit it with a sweep of her sword.
Flimflam shot fire from his nostrils at the shadows hovering over him and Terrik, and they both screeched in pain from his flaming snot. The knight stabbed at Twyla, but now that she had proper armor, it didn't do much to her. Roswyn continued her attack on Terrik, she couldn't expel the shadow possessing her. Terrik continued trying to evade Roswyn, and turned his gun on the shadow above him. Seluna turned Flimflam into a monkey so he could move around; he could still use his spells as an ape.
Niles injured one of the shadows, and Twyla pressed on with the demon knight- though she barely scratched it this time. Flimflam slapped at the shadow above him, and Seluna finished that one off. There were still three remaining shadows and the knight, who could conjure more shadows. Medic summoned his spirit weapon and sent it after the knight, landing a blow right away. Flimflam shat in his hand and cast a catapult spell on it, launching the shit at the demon knight. His wild magics surged around him, and for the next hour Flimflam heard "bing!" whenever anyone was within 10 feet of him- he was completely insane. The shit connected with the knight and hit it so hard that it fell to one knee.
As the knight raised its sword at Twyla, Medic's spirit guardians killed it; only its armor and blade remained. There were still three shadow demons to contend with, one of which was still possessing Roswyn. Seluna turned to Roswyn and expelled the demon from her body, the scout was finally in control of herself again. Niles shot at one of the shadows, finishing it off, and leaving only two more to contend with. Twyla pounded on another one, who Medic's spirit guardians finished off. Flimflam chucked the shit covered helm of the knight's at the final shadow, killing it.
They inspected the knight's armor and weapon, and had no idea what it was or could do, so they put it in the cart with everything else, hoping Lily could tell them what it did later. Twyla was quiet interested in the armor, and began contemplating taking it for herself before Lily returned.
Flimflam announced he needed sleep to recover, at which time Seluna realized that a superior healing potion should help the arcanist. It indeed fixed him up physically, and the insane svirfneblin passed out. Medic decided to wake Flimflam, and paid for that- Flimflam awoke shooting fire at the priest.
***** The Tower
Rosebud began getting restless while we rested, and corbies were beginning to surround the protective bubble of Lily's Hut. When we were about halfway through our rest, he decided to throw out a card and summon something to clear out some of the corbies lurking nearby. An erinyes appeared and began hacking through the corbies like they were nothing. In the minute the creature was there, it killed about 45 corbies! The boy is definitely a powerful summoner.
When our rest was complete, we waded through the carnage Rosebud's erinyes had caused, and realized the room we were in was once a magic laboratory of some sort. Anything useful was long gone, caked in corby shit. Instead of taking the stairs to the next floor, we decided to just climb up from the outside. Tali shifted, and I climbed on her back, the plan was for us to tie a rope to the balcony when we got up there so the others could climb up.
The room looked like it had once been a library, though it was as disgusting as everything else in this damned tower. Before we could set up the rope, a screech rang out in the room, and there was a whooshing sound, followed by warm, putrid air, as a vrock flew at us. The sound of its screech stunned me, and I couldn't move. Down below, Yklwa was also stunned by the demon's cry. Rosebud attempted to shoot at the vrock from the balcony below, to no avail. Smoothpalm began molding the stone wall to make handholds so the party could climb up to help, while Lily grabbed his boy and dimension doored up there- since Mezzem was still on Rosebud's back, she was drug along.
Yklwa began looking for stairs to get to Tali, he couldn't climb well, and would probably have fallen to his death if he tried. Unfortunately, the party hadn't cleared out this floor as thoroughly as they had thought. The dinosaur rounded a corner and was faced with a group of albinos, who instantly pounced on him, ripping the poor creature to shreds. The party couldn't revive him without a very powerful resurrection spell, which Tali would later choose not to do, since her companion was with their god, and she didn't want to take Yklwa from Ubtao's side. Many tears would be spilled by the loss of Yklwa.
While I was stuck in place, Tali drew her bow and began peppering the vrock with her arrows. Lily began singing a spell, which attracted harpies to come investigate the room we were in. One tried its siren song on him, but it failed- the bard was no as easily charmed as his boy was. The next harpy sang and hit Rosebud and Smoothpalm- again. Those two are charmed far too easily. I can't say much through, the fear shriek hit me and terror gripped my heart again. I had to get away, so I jumped off the balcony- catching myself on the one below, before losing my balance... I was plummeting toward what could very well be my death.
Lily summoned his Hand and began squeezing one of the harpies with it. Tali continued peppering the vrock with arrows, intent on getting rid of it while the others dealt with the harpies.
I landed on the ground with a thud, that shook my bones. Thanks to being a wererat, the fall didn't kill me, or even hurt. I was still terrified of the damned harpy, and could only run in one direction: around the tower, so I began circling it, terror still clinging to me.
A dread corby came after Tali, and hit with a nasty attack that badly wounded the ranger. Mezzem smacked some sense into Rosebud, bringing him out of the harpy's charm, again. Smoothpalm, still enthralled, moved up to the harpy before coming to his senses. Since Rosebud had his wits about him again, he moved up and pounded on the dread corby, badly injuring it. Lily finished off the harpy in his Hand, and polished off the dread corby that Rosebud was wailing on. Tali unleashed a lightning arrow at the vrock, but it didn't do much to it, the beast seemed to be resistant to lightning.
I continued sprinting around the building, and was about halfway through my second pass when I finally came to my senses. I then remembered that my Rod turns into a ladder... I didn't need to jump off the balcony to escape, I could have just shifted my Rod- but terror had a bad hold on me at that moment, so I wasn't thinking clearly.
Smoothpalm and Tali were on the receiving end of some nasty attacks by the remaining harpy and the vrock; but fortunately for them, Mezzem was there to patch them up. Smoothpalm began beating on the harpy, and bludgeoned the beast to death with his staff. The vrock released spores, poisoning Tali in the process, but Lily finished the demon off right after. Tali began shooting another dread dread, and another harpy began pounding on Lily.
I set up my ladder and began climbing back up the tower to the group, it was a much quicker- and cleaner- route to my friends.
Rosebud splatted the harpy, and got to Tali so Mezzem could heal the badly injured, and poisoned, therinthrope. There seemed to be no end to the beasts, harpies and dread corbies just kept coming at them. Lily sent his Hand to another harpy, which it grabbed and began squeezing, while Lily insulted the dread. Tali, freshly healed, began shooting another dread.
I reached the balcony I'd fallen off of, and adjusted my ladder so I could go up one more floor. I wish I'd remembered this sooner, it would have saved us a lot of trouble.
The dread had decided it didn't like Tali, and unleashed a flurry of hits on her, leaving her badly wounded again- but Mezzem healed her right away. Smoothpalm used an ability called Stone Maiden on the dread, encasing it in stone to hold it in place.
I scrambled over the ledge, just in time to see a dread corby break out of some stone prison. It stumbled and swung at me, I returned the blow, stumbling myself, but I didn't fall off the balcony again. Rosebud aimed his bow at the dread, and hit me with the bolt instead... it stung a bit, but didn't seem to hurt me much. Smoothpalm chucked some darts at the dredge, and Lily insulted it- his Hand still squeezing the life out of the harpy; it looked like the harpy was about done, the juices and viscera oozing through the fingers were a good hint at that. Mezzem finished off the dread, and its body almost collided with mine. I managed to catch the dread and keep myself and the corpse from going over the edge.
That seemed to be the last of them in this room, but we could hear more coming our way. I took up position just outside the door they'd be coming through so I could pounce on them as they entered. Rosebud summoned a frost giant to help us deal with the beasts, his summoned creatures had done a lot of good for us thus far. The harpies entered the room singing, and suddenly they were the most beautiful creatures in the room. Rosebud was also enthralled- again- by the harpies song. Lily's Hand blocked anything else from coming through the doorway, but it didn't matter, the beautiful harpy I adored was with us.
Lily found a hidden doorway in the room, which he believed led to some stairs. As Mezzem smacked some sense into Rosebud- again- Lily cast knock on the door, opening it up. They decided to go up the stairs to finish the fight. Tali began singing to me and bitch slapped me, bringing me out of the harpy's charm; she is a good friend. The stairs had another door just inside, and we found ourselves trapped between the fiends and a door that Mezzem couldn't open. I pulled out a broken lock that had the knock spell enchanted on it, opening the door up. As the door opened, fire came pouring out, hitting all of us.
That door opened up to another fucking door. This stairwell was miraculously shit free, it seemed the corbies had never discovered it, or just couldn't get it open on their own. Lily began checking this door for traps, and his tool got stuck to it. Then, part of the door lashed out with a tentacle thing, swiping at Lily; the door was a mimic. Down below, Rosebud's frost giant was polishing off the corbies for us. We killed the mimic, and behind it was a very posh sitting room.
Rosebud wandered in and lied down on the lush, shaggy carpet. In the corner of the room was a quivering armchair... It began speaking to us with a voice that trembled as badly as the rest of it. The chair introduced itself as Geophry, and told us that he was about 10 years old, and had been the wizard's apprentice. One day the wizard got angry at the boy and turned him into a chair, which he has been stuck as ever since. Lily and Mezzem both tried different means of removing the magics that had been put on the boy, to no avail. Whatever this wizard had done to the lad was beyond their magical abilities. They said he had either been hit with a true polymorph spell, or was some sort of chimera.
We befriended the chair, and he instantly loved Rosebud, who started calling him Chairy, because I had called him cherie before we learned his name. Geophry took us to his master's lab, which was full of potions, and had a powered up magic circle in the middle of it. Apparently that is how the chair eats, by sitting in the circle. He told us that one day his master had gone into the circle and never came back; he had been gone for a very long time.
The next room was a library, which Lily and Rosebud instantly started cataloging; Smoothpalm joined in. Off of the library was a set of double doors which Geophry said led to his master's bedroom. Mezzem examined the doors, which were covered in runes. Since Lily was so focused on the books, Mezzem took his pipe that allows him to detect magic. She said the door was very magical, and there was a barrier of some sort on it. Rosebud came over and kicked the door, hurting himself in the process. Since the door had hurt his boy, Lily came to help us with it, and his attempt to dispel the door's magic backfired- we all got hurt from the magical backlash.
At this point Tali and I were annoyed with the door and went to go see what potions were in the lab. Among the potions available was a potion of longevity, which I downs right away, and I became young! I'm not sure my actual age, but I know I'm now much closer to it than I was before. I'm young again!!! I danced around the room singing "I'm young again" to Tali, and tried to get her to dance with me.
In their attempts to get through the door, they set off a ward that shot two lightning bolts at the group. Lily was so badly injured by the bolts that he got dizzy, and began puking his guts out for the next couple of minutes. Rosebud retaliated on the door for hurting his momma, and began pounding on it, eventually hurting it enough that the magic sputtered out. Even once the magic was gone, Rosebud was so angry about the door hurting momma that he kept pounding on it the entire time his mother was ill.
They told us they'd gotten the stupid door open, so I stopped the celebration of regaining my youth to go see what was beyond the doors that had taken so much to open. Rosebud stepped in the room first, and was attacked by a candelabra and an ewer. The fucking furniture in this room was enchanted to attack intruders- this place is fucking ridiculous. The mirror began taunting Rosebud as Tali climbed the wall to shoot it.
Rosebud moved forward and shattered the mirror, then reduced a broom that was coming toward him to splinters. Lily threw a magic missile at an animated dagger, destroying it, and I destroyed a stool and swung at a picture frame. A pot and the ewer hit Tali, and a pillow hit Mezzem- this place is fucking weird. Lily began insulting a pillow, but nothing seemed to happen, I guess pillows are immune to mental attacks; though it didn't like his insult, it responded by whacking him in the face. Rosebud sliced through the pillow, and feather rained down on all of us. I finished off the candelabra, and that seemed to be the end of it- though Rosebud decided to attack the bed, just in case.
In the armoire of the room, Lily found a wish ring with one wish left, and announced he would use it to restore the tower to its former glory, and hopefully turn Geophry into a little boy again. Through a spell of his that tells him the history of something, Lily learned that the tower had been here for about 200 years, and was created out of nothing by the wizard Narrus. He had only a minor magical talent until the tower came to be, and he loved to collect apprentices. Narrus held the tower for 100 years, until something in his own dorm ended him. The tower then sat empty until the corbies moved in. He also learned of the roof entrance, and the word Narwhal, though that didn't come with any meaning.
Lily opened up the passage to the roof, and a very large vrock was perched on the ceiling of the cavern. We began to move up, preparing to fight the beast, and it screamed, freezing Rosebud and Smoothpalm in place. It released a cloud of spores from its wings, poisoning Mezzem. Lily cast a spell to calm its emotions, attempting to make it indifferent to us instead of hostile. It began to fly away from it, and Rosebud shot it... breaking the zen that Lily had just given it. The vrock swooped back down at us, screeching, stunning Tali and Smoothpalm. Lily insulted it, but nothing seemed to happen, and my javelin had a similar effect. It screeched again, and I felt my muscles lock up- it seemed to have hit Rosebud and Mezzem too. This wasn't going well.
The vrock dived at Smoothpalm, picked him up, flew over the chasm, and dropped him in it. It flipped around and dived at me, pain lanced through me as it connected- though thankfully it didn't grab me. Lily put a dimension door under the falling monk, bringing him back to the roof. Its scream stunned Rosebud, Tali, and Smoothpalm this time, and I shot it in retaliation. The demon swooped at Tali and blood spilled from my friend, then it jabbed its beak at Mezzem.
As I began wondering if we would survive this, Lily's voice rang out in the cavern: "I wish for the tower of Narrus, and its inhabitants before the invasion of the creatures tainted by the demonic influence, to be restored to former glory, all traces of the accursed beasts that desecrated this place to be removed, while myself and my allies are maintained safely within."
We found ourselves standing in the circle in the lab, and heard shouts of confusion from other rooms in the tower. Everyone Lily has ever considered an ally was brought to the tower by the wish. The wish didn't work on Geophry though, he was still a chair, but we were hopefully safe now.
The tower was back to how it was before the corby invasion, everything was in perfect condition again, and the shit paint was gone.
Lily exclaimed Narwhal, and I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as the floor dropped out from under me...
145 corbies were killed in the taking of this tower.
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| The first two levels of the tower |
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| The second two levels of the tower |
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| The final level of the tower and the roof |
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