A Maze of Twisty Passages

A'Chiad 9-14, 6638; next holiday: Dragonning, Treas 35 (the spring equinox)

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Sal Rrentath, Thrassian Gladiator
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Gottes Segen, Cleric
  • Betül Tirmizi, Ectomancer

The adventurers once again returned to the tower, certain that they were near the lowest levels. The winding passages of the 9th floor turned this way and that - a maze!

Laying out the occasional chalk lines, they slowly moved through the maze, looking for traps and fighting the occasional zombies or hulked-out skeletons. Down one corridor, hidden in a secret passage, they found a group of creatures, huddled at the dead end. One had a gold ring, which Quetgar took.

Deeper and deeper they went, stopping only to lay some magical planks across a chasm. Finally, they reached a room full of large skeletons; they quickly finished them off. Opening the door, they found themselves face to face with a slavering creature - a Chaos Hulk! Thinking quickly, the priestess cast Protection from Evil, Sustained; as the others waited, blocking the evil creature from entering the room, Gróin began to cast Dispel Evil. They held their collective breath... and the foul creature was sucked back to the chaos plane from which it originated! Breathing a sigh of relief, they worked their way down the stairs, and into the 10th level. This, unlike the other floors, was carved out of bedrock; the walls were rough, and the floor uneven. The rooms were large, and connected with basic tunnels. Altogether, apart from slime trails left by the hulk and a single, rotting zombie, there was nothing to stop them.

Finally, following their noses towards the smell of smoke, they found a single locked door. Beyond it was an elderly man, and a wall of books. After a few minutes of guarded conversation, they entered the room; the man explained how he had come to be there.

Long ago, his tribe had been tasked with protecting the tower. They were there for the building of the wall, and decided to remain in the tower's lower levels until such a time as they were needed. Some time later, an evil creature moved into the tower, spreading undead and decimating their tribe. As they moved lower in the tower, the undead advanced, until there were only a few families left. The old man's parents were separated; his father, and a few of the last remaining guards, took him down to the storage level (the 10th level), and hid him in the room, telling him to stack boxes against the door. He did; after a few hours, he could hear a muffled battle outside the door. Finally, there was silence. He hid, scared and alone, as footsteps came closer. Then... a click. The door was locked from the outside. The footsteps retreated.

He was left with a few years supplies, some tools, and crates of old books. For the next... well, he wasn't sure. He was a young child when he was locked in, and he is now an old man; he could have been locked in for 50 years, or a thousand. The only contact he had with the outside world was the occasional mad gibbering of the chaos hulk as it wandered past. He read his books, and cultivated a garden of moss and fungus, as well as a few hardy trees that he managed to grow by magical light. He made chairs and tables, and paneled the room and floor in wood veneer. It was a very boring existence.

As he followed his rescuers from the tower, he noticed the gold ring - it was, as it turns out, his mother's ring. He asked to keep it, and Quetgar agreed. As they reached the Wall, he stood outside breathing in the cold, clear air, and staring up at the night sky in wonder. He had never seen the sky. He seemed to stand a bit taller; he asked if it would be all right to look over the wall. The others escorted him there, just over a quarter mile across the top of the wall. Smiling - grinning, really - he stepped onto the wall, and handed a small token to Caranthir. Then, stepping backward, he fell off the wall. As a few of the party rushed forward, they heard the rush of wings, and suddenly, an enormous silver dragon was hovering in front of them! The dragon spoke, thanking them once again, before turning and flying away.

As a guard ran up, demanding to know what was going on, Caranthir fumed. "I knew it was going to be a dragon! I knew it!"

Once the treasure had been sold or loaded up, the group moved on to Wallace. Llarm then turned East, to Riverbend, while Rig left for Forreston, and Quetgar stuck around in Wallace to get his magical ring looked at, waiting for his Thrassian Gladiator to heal up (which will happen on 2/22/6638, or just under 5 weeks). Llarm may choose his new spells; additionally, see the next blog about what the library itself contains.

The only creatures Rig encountered on the way to Forreston was a herd of horses; 20 light horses were grazing near the road, and the caravan spotted them before they spotted the caravan. The caravan guards, thinking quickly, were able to capture half of the horses, adding 10 wild horses to the caravan. The weather held, and apart from the cold, there was no snowfall or storms.

• XP from Encounters:
  • 10 zombies (290 xp)
  • 12 dire skellies (2580 xp)
  • 1 chaos hulk (3650 xp)
  • 1 broken zombie (5 xp)
• XP from Treasure:
  • 1 gold ring (returned) (100 gp)
  • 1,000 Electrum
  • 1,000 Platinum
  • 1 crate of monster parts, worth 300 gp (5 stone)
  • 2 ornamental jars of rare spices, worth 5,000gp (8 stone)
  • 3 crates of fine wine, worth 560gp (16 stone each)
  • 11 ingots of precious metals, worth 3300gp (22 stone)
  • Rare and magical books worth 300,000 gp (300 stone)
• Total XP from Encounters: 6525
• Total XP from Treasure: 314,760
• Total XP: 322,285
• XP per PC: 42,971
• XP per Henchbeing: 21,486
• Gold per PC (not counting library): 3690 gp
• Starting XP: 42,865