Monday, November 5, 2007

The Box

I forgot to mention something.

We found a strange box. At first, we thought it converted mundane items into gems. When we placed a hand in the box, nothing happened. But when we placed an item in the box, it was replaced with a gem (a small topaz). Eventually, I realized that the gems must have been stored in the box, for at some point we put in a mundane item and received back not a gem but one of the first mundane items we had placed in the box.

It is some sort of extra-dimensional storage device. Quite handy--just by placing your hand in the box and thinking of the item, it appears in your hand. Weedon is enjoying playing with the box; I am glad he has something to pass the time on the ship while we explore the tower.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

The Tower--Second Visit

Returning to the tower, we were able to bypass the 'wave' trap quite easily (in fact, the lit candle does not melt at all--nice magic, indeed!) and continue our exploration where we left off.

In a corridor, which we thought to be a dead end, a secret door was discovered. (Ravenna does much more than just talk--her talents are proving quite useful in our little journey.) Beyond the door lay a secret library. Before we could investigate the contents more thoroughly, skeletons attacked us. Now, we had already heard Katalla's tale of the undead kobolds, but this was something very different. I know others of my faith would scoff at me for saying this, but these skeletons were not mindless. In fact, it appeared they were reading books when we happened upon them! Curiouser and curiouser....

We battled the skeletons, and with Fharlanghn's blessing and the magical mace I smote two of them myself. With the powerful swords of Aesa and Enzo, Ravenna's many skills, and the powerful magic of Ciris, we defeated the skeletons.

And in the library itself, Aesa found three very interesting items: a map and two traveller's journals! Surely Fharlanghn himself has pointed my journey in this direction.

Revenge of the Snake Things

In the middle of the night, we were awakened by an awful sound. From the hold, it sounded like the moaning of the damned! Worse, it was accompanied by an even more wretched smell.

Investigating cautiously, hands covering our noses in a vain attempt to ward off the evil odors, we quickly realized the problem. The snake things devoured by the kobolds had made them all very sick. Relieved that it was nothing more serious than a little case of food poisoning, we were dismayed to realize that our rowers were incapacitated. The ship will go nowhere until they are well! I actually began to feel sorry for them. Strange as they are, they have kept their bargains with us (so far).

Still, the smell is most foul! I can not wait to get back to the tower--at least it does not smell like kobold sick!

Katalla's Tale

When we returned to the ship, we were in for a surprise. Apparently, while we explored the tower, some of the dead kobolds rose up and attacked! Katalla managed to defend the children (and herself). She was grateful to have my mace at her side.

We gave the bodies of the snake things to the kobolds for food. The nasty little yippers tore into them immediately.

Later, when no one else was around, Ciris asked me to try on the ring he had acquired from Kreon. The mage asked me if anything unusual happened. I lied and said nothing happened. But, in truth, the ring talked to me! Ciris had told me (and only me) that the ring had talked to him, saying it was disappointed to be on the finger of a mage once again. I promised to show the ring something interesting--the strange shadow braziers in the tower. This seemed to intrigue the ring, but it would speak no more.

Brazier, Brazier, Burning Bright

One of the last things we did in the tower, before we returned to the ship, involved a massive room. This room is so large, we could not see across to the other side. In the corner of the room was some sort of large urn or brazier. Eventually, I lit it with the lighting-device I had taken from the candle niche.

When lit, a strange sort of, something shot out of the brazier. Was it light? Or shadow? It's as if my brain does not wish to remember! Whatever it was, it seemed to shoot toward the center of the room. I think. The snake poison was still making me woozy, for I can not recall exactly.

In another corner, we found another brazier. I think we are all wondering the same thing--are there four braziers? And, if so, what happens when we light all of them at once?

No time to find out now. We must return to the ship and rest.

A Candle in the Dark

Continuing to explore the tower, we came across a most ingenious trap. A wave of darkness caused much grief, until we discovered something just beyond the trap: a small niche, with a candle and some sort of device to light it. Once we lit the candle, the wave of darkness ceased its harm. I kept the lighting device, for who knows when such a device might be useful.

We found a door, with a strange rune on it. The rune was in the shape of a flame, though for a moment the plumes of flame reminded me of the tentacled-horror who assaulted us on the ship! Beyond were drow beds. We reseted a few minutes to recover from the wave of darkness and then pressed on. Much to our surprise, we were attacked by a snake-like creature. As I darted around the beast to close the other door in the room, another appeared. The bite was not so bad, but its poison made me woozy. Luckily, we managed to dispatch the snakes, aided much by a mighty blow from Enzo. And raise Fharlanghn for Kreon's antitoxin, which Ravenna gave me! It helped staunch the poison's ill effects.

Not too badly injured, we marched on. This time, the very shadows attacked us! Its touch did not do damage, per se, but seemed to drain our very strength. Ciris suffered the most weakening from the shadow-beast. We could not kill the beast, but managed to fight it to some sort of stand-off. We decided to flee the tower and recover, rather than risk a renewed attack.

Monday, October 8, 2007

The ShadowGate

Entering the tower, we found evidence that it was some sort of military outpost. There was strange writing in several place. It was some form of elvish, but those in our group who know the elven tongue could not read this script. Ciris could make out a few words, and deduced that the tower was called "The ShadowGate."

In the first true room we entered, we found wine bottles with more of this strange writing on them. We also found furniture with odd spider web designs. A drow outpost perhaps? I think this made us all nervous. Kreon had warned us repeatedly about to wickedness of the dark elves. The next room was some sort of barracks. Ravenna searched around and believed that whoever left the place did so hastily. And it was not too long ago, for there was not much dust on the few things left behind. Another barracks contained hammocks of unusual design--they looked like spider webs. All signs point to drow--I hope none remain!

The last room was very different. A round room (the others all contained straight walls, not curved), some sort of circle was etched on the floor. There was also strange writing, but different from the other writing. After all of Kreon's talk about the evil drow, not much could have made me more nervous. But Casis deciphering the script and realizing that the room has some connection to a demon prince (dare I even write the name down?!) has filled me with trepidation.

I do not like this place.

But we need to find some information. Any information. Something to point us in a direction. And if we can't have that, we need to find a place to resupply our ship so we can journey elsewhere for clues.

We will explore more of the tower shortly. But then we must return to the ship so Katalla does not leave without us.




Demogorgon. That's the name of the demon prince. I can not resist the urge to document my journey fully. I only hope that merely writing down the name does not bring ill fortune upon our brave little group.

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