18 Kythorn 1491

Session 6 cont., 11/13/2021

The next morning, the party met downstairs in the common room. Jerry Beard appeared much better, as though he had finally recuperated from the battles 2 days before. He said that although he had dreamed again he was able to rest through it last night.

He then recounted his dream from the night before. It started the same as always, with the women laying, pressed against the floor. Cutting then to a man, held in darkness and chains, with a figure looming over him. The dream then showing him an abandoned tower in the woods, but this time, he heard a women’s voice saying “Please help me, you have to save me before she comes back”.

Since Jerry Beard was feeling so much better, and with the added feeling of a deadline from last night’s dream, the group decided to head out and find Neera’s Tower.

Upon arriving, they found the location to match Jerry Beard description from his dream as well as Kevin Drayer‘s (even though he had never visited, of course). The tower looked old and abandoned and stood in a clearing in the woods. As the approached, a young woman appeared on the room of the building calling for help.

Jerry Beard called up to the lady asking her name and urging her to come down. She introduced herself as Corra and begged for help before the creature returned to harm her. But she could not come down due to a watcher in the woods.

As the party approached the building, a large wooden construct crashed from the woods. Lormin moved to block the beast while the ranged member spread out behind him. They opened up with heavy magic, and the monster was quickly destroyed. Lormin commented on that being suspiciously easy, but Jerry Beard quickly moved into the tower eager to meet and free Corra. Ysildea, on the other hand, hung back a bit, looking over everything with a critical eye. She was definitely suspicious and did not trust that all was as it appeared.

On the second floor Lormin asked Jerry to please slow down so that they could do a quick search of each level and safely ascend the tower. He agreed, and the group spread out to do a quick search. They found a large stone statue in one room, but nothing else jumped out to them. While they were gathering to go up to the next level, Corra descended from above.

We asked her to leave with us, but she said she could not. Her fiancé Darrin was trapped on the 4th floor and she needed help to rescue him. She claimed she did not know how long she had been there, only that she and Darrin were trapped there some time ago by an evil, old hag. Corra was unable to leave to get help because of the wooden monster outside. The hag was currently gone, but would return soon to taunt Corra and torture Darrin.

Ysildea and Lormin remained suspicious, quesitoning her at length, with Ysildea going so far as to poke and prod her to determine if her shape was as it really appeared. But in the end, although her story had holes in it, the group was determined to help her and followed her to the roof of the building.

On the way the magically went from the 3rd directly to the 5th floor. At which point Corra finally explained that she could not reach the 4th floor, it was blocked from all access. She was sure it was there and that Darrin was still trapped there in need of help, but she had no idea how to reach him.

The group did a search from the 3rd and 5th floor, including Jerry Beard climbing around on the outside of the building, but now window or entrance was found. They did notice that on each floor there was a copy of the same stone statue as they had seen on the second floor. The group finished the journey to the roof of the building at that point, upon which they discovered a solid metal sundial.

During the searches first Evelios Liriel and then Lormin had a strange feeling pass over them. As though someone had walked over their grave. But both quickly recovered and suffered no ill affects.

The sundial was large and bolted to the roof. Sylrel verified that the sundial radiated magic of some sort, but could not determine it’s exact use or power. The group spent some time examining the sundial, including magically generated light to cast various shadows upon it, but could find no clue to it’s use or if it caused the 4th floor to be inaccessible.

Eventually, more out of frustration then anything else, Jerry Beard and Evelios Liriel used a crow bar to pry the sundial loose of it’s bolts and hurl it off of the tower. That, of course, changed nothing.

Everyone continued to arguing and interrogate Corra, but could come up with nothing else. Durring this time, Ysildea also felt a strange feeling pass over her. But, being herself, she choose to lean into it and let it play out. She slumped to the floor in apparent exhaustion, but seemed to mostly recover in short order. Again, being herself, she did not overly enlighten the group about her experience.

At this point Lormin decided he would head down the bottom of the tower and retrieve the sundial. Upon reaching the 3rd floor, Lormin luckily noticed that the stone statue had moved and was no longer in it’s original position. This brought him to alert and prevented the statue from being able to sneak attack him when it came alive.

The group was following Lormin to retreive the sundial so quickly joined the battle against the stone statue. The statue proved to be a much more dangerous opponent that the wooden creature from before. Lormin and Jerry Beard engaged the creature directly while the other held back and attacked with spells and arrows.

The creature pummeled both Lormin and Jerry Beard beating them both to within an inch of their lives, but they managed to hold fast long enough for the others to bring the creature down with the powerful attacks.

Although they survived, the group was not eager to engage one of the stone statues again. They finished descending to the ground floor, checking from the stairwells as they went that the other statues had not moved or animated.

Once outside they walked around the tower again surveying it and trying to count floors based on the windows or look for any egress into the 4th floor. They found none, so went to carry the sundial back up the stairs to the roof. But, as they ascended, they agreed they would do a more thorough search of each floor as they went.

They began their search on the 3rd floor since they had already defeated the stone statue there. After much time and effort, they found a loose stone low to the ground on the outer wall of the stair well.
They could not see inside the hole, but Jerry Beard decided he would reach in, despite Ysildea‘s admonishment that you “Never stick your hand in a witch’s hole”. Or something like that.

Inside was a golden death mask and common, unadorned mirror. This lifted the groups spirits immediately, since they had not made any progress in some time. They passed the mask around, with almost everyone trying it on and performing various searches while wearing it or peering at themselves in the mirror, but nothing seemed to change.

The party then moved on to the 5th floor. They were very cautious, as they had seen a stone statue on this floor before. A quick search of the floor revealed it was still there in it’s original place. They decided to chance it and spread out to perform their search. In a nearly identical placement, they found another loose stone.

This time inside they found a scroll. Unrolling it, it was written in common and said “When two becomes one upon reflection, the prize may be seen through the eyes of death”. The group discussed this, but were still uncertain what to do, but decide that perhaps they still needed the sundial returned to it’s original location.

The group finished carrying the sundial to the roof and placed it back in it’s original location. Jerry Beard then put on the mask and circled the sundial looking at it directly and through the mirror. This went on for sometime, but nothing seemed to change. They even had Corra try the mask and see if she could see something different. She could not, and she did not want to let the mask go after using it, but Jerry Beard assured her that it was needed still to try and locate Darrin.

At this point, the group become somewhat frustrated, and decided they would return to the 2nd floor to continue the search. Much to their surprise and they descended from the 5th floor, they entered an area they had not seen before. A number of rooms appointed as a wizard’s study, old and abandoned as the rest of the tower. Apparently they had successfully revealed the 4th floor, but had not yet descended to check on their progress.

Smooth, real smooth.

As the group started to spread out to investigate the new floor, they heard a screech from Corra. She cried out, “Finally, I have found it after so long. It’s all mine!” as she transformed from a comely young woman to a hideous hag. It appeared that the ruse was up, and the truth came out. Corra had been using the dreams to try and lure someone to the tower capable of solving the mystery and gaining her access to the old wizard’s study.

It was hard to tell how long she had been in the tower, because the stress of finally gaining access seemed to break her mind to a point. As she engaged in battle with the group, she spent most of her time chasing the holder of the golden mask, first Jerry Beard and then Evelios Liriel. Screaming the whole time that it was hers and she had earned it.

Due to Corra’s obsession with the mask, the battle did not last terribly long or put too much strain upon the group. They were able to defeat the old hag, while playing a game of keep away, tossing the mask between party members.

Searching the ruins of the study, a number of wonderous items were found.

2 magic scrolls. One (magic circle) of them could be read by Ysildea and she took that one, but the other could be read by nobody.

A small wooden case containing a wand. Experimentation showed it to be a wand of binding.

And lastly, a Deck of Many Things. A deck of cards promising immeasurable wealth, glorious power, eternal damnation and a slow death. It remains to be seen who will be both brave enough and stupid enough to draw from the deck