Session 24 Recap & Experience Points Awards

A harrowing fight with two river elementals had almost proved deadly for the sun-starved Wildcats.  But all had survived, and after an uneventful recovery on a broad landing across from  the site of this battle—the wizard Gibrondol’s meditation chamber—the company rose to continue exploring this buried tower of Admark.

Though the meditation crystal beckoned still, the cautious voices prevailed and the company promptly resolved to descend another level rather than risk facing whatever the crystal might next conjure up. So the Wildcats proceeded to the nearby staircase, and on reaching the bottom found the narrow landing preternaturally quiet--their footsteps, words, and all other actions emitting not the faintest sound.  The silence being an obvious product of magical means, the cleric Gambol stepped back on to the first stair and called upon the nature god Cygnival to dispel magic.  The incantation was an uncommon success, and instantly the long-suppresed waves of sound washed acorss the dim chamber.  But not all would approve.

“Aw, whadija do that for?” cried a strange metallic voice. “Can’t you see this is a library?”

The voice emanated from the most unexpected source—a two-dimensional animated face called Ezros, who “lived” upon a disc of elven metal affixed to a broad twin door at the north side of the hallway.  The group was more than welcome to explore the library, Ezros soon explained—provided they had a key, of course. 

The Ezros’ disc, the door handle and lock to were crafted of glistening elven mithril and surely resistant to bashing, lockpicking, or other conventional methods of ingress.  But the company had recently found a key, made of the same shimmering metal, amid the refuse and debris of an umber hulk’s nest—that of the same umber hulks who had no doubt burrowed into the tower from the nearby soil and smashed all in their path.  The gnome Schlemeel confidently slid the key into the lock and turned, and in moments the Wildcats strode into the musty remains of Gibrondol’s modest old library. 

Though much on the wizard’s shelves had not borne the years well, still the company found plenty of interest.  An old volume called Oloxalim’s Guid erevealed the secrets of basilisks, ettins, and hill giants.  Nushala’s Calligraphy was filled with masterful works of the art form, likely commanding hundreds of gold pieces in the right marketplace. Heisys Opis featured a selection of bard songs in the old Q’in tongue.  Various texts on golems gave the party insights into spiritcatchers, heartstones, the animation process, and the fates of golems.  And the Tome of Nuovis, written in the Old Encrod, held instructions for producing some kind of device—though a speaker of the Encrod tongue would likely be needed for its proper translation.  

Another text, Raunaeril’s Conjurations,[1] held the instructions for three arcane spells—though not discernable without the invocation of read magic.  A similarly unknown fourth spell was found on a vellum scroll, while still another scroll granted the reader protection from fire.  

A mock candle with a continual light “flame” brightened a table, on which the company found still more intact works.  These included Tadyll’s Monstrosities—open to a tract on lycanthropy; Tammaneuth’s Odditorium—open to an odd story of some murderous changeling; and the Book of Syldrae—open to some record of experimentations around the construction of “simulacra.”  Ezros would later confirm the wizard Gibrondol to have been studying various categories of shapechangers, though to what end the disc could not say.

Beside the library, dozens of metallic hung as ornaments from the tree that occupied the center of the tower.  A boot, a quill pen, a goblet, a broom…  The gnome Schlemeel lifted a set of metal spectacles from the tree and tried them on, but to no effect.  Yet he kept them, just as the cleric Gambol carried away the continual light “candle” to illuminate the Wildcats’ path.

That path took the Wildcats down to yet another level of the buried tower, where they found several guestrooms arranged around an even wider tree-filled berth.  More of the strange ornaments dangled here, refracting specks of light back on the company as they inspected the guest rooms one-by-one.  A couple of the rooms held nothing but rotting and decrepit furniture.  Another the same, yet the party did find an old, discarded backpack in a wardrobe there. Along with a few coins, the pack contained the diary of a long-ago Balvin merchant with remarks on the Lady Sekana, the majesty of the crystal tower, and some “rock golem” that the mage Gibrondol was supposedly constructing.  While these and the merchant’s other dubious opinions may have been of little use, the diary also contained a sketch of the Admark region (as it was in the merchant’s time), which the Wildcats hastily gathered up.

Another of the rooms turned out not to be a guest room, but a teleportation chamber instead—much the same as those the company had found in the Doom Ramps and in the Salt Cavern of Graven.  Only the last of the guest chambers bore signs of intrusion—a two-foot hole burrowed into the far wall.  Within seconds the party would learn of the creatures responsible, as a powerful slyvrock leapt from room.  The slyvrock knocked Schlemeel to the floor and trampled him, as several more slyvrocks approached from their nearby hole.

The conflict was short-lived, however, as the mage Greyndalf called a gust of windto push the additional slyvocks back and his companions muscled the door closed.  The mage then employed a sleepenchantment to disable the remaining beast, allowing the ranger Unagi to unceremoniously slaughter the sleeping foe in the guest level hallway.  The remaining slyvrocks tried briefly to claw through the door that restrained them—but they soon seemed to relent, and the Wildcats continued down still another floor.

These stairs opened to a giant courtyard, with lush vegetation growing between stone pilings that held the massive crystal tower above.  On a platform across from the steps stood the Lady Sekana, who cordially greeted the company as they came into view.  She assured the party that her lord would soon return, and offered them lodging in the tower’s guest level to await his arrival.

Though known as the “lady” of the tower, a moment’s conversation with the uncommonly aloof woman dispelled any thought of refinement.  “My father is the saltminder of Graven,” Sekana blurted, before descending into sloppier language.  “Chuffed to make your ‘quaintance.”  She proved unable to answer simple questions relating to time or duration, and  Eeen more stunningly seemed unable to grasp, acknowledge, or accept that the tower she occupied is buried underground.

Before long, the mage Greyndalf volunteered that the company had already explored much of the tower, and had observed some of Sekana’s artwork on higher levels.  “I rather fancy a pretty picture,” Sekana responded.  “Painted them once, I did.  ‘’Twas a doddle.  Alas, my lord has forbidden it.  Perhaps with fortune, he will someday relent.  Anyway I haven’t my bespoke brush.”

The conversation turned next to the meditation room, which Greyndalf admitted having not only entered but having used.  After some initial reluctance, the lady agreed to accompany the group up to the meditation room to experience the crystal’s wonders for herself.  

The first vision showed two elves—an older man with a rough bearing, and a younger elf with magical endowments—conversing in a cavern of magnificent salt crystals.  “Cracking!” Sekana declared this image, and identified the pair as her father (the Saltminder of Graven) and her lord (Gibrondol).  She urged a second meditation, and was rewarded with the image of a regal winged lion soaring through endless, sunkissed skies.  

The celestial gave the name Aleksantari and spoke openly with the Wildcats of his contempt for The Betrayeds and his knowledge of Gibrondol, the “elven mage of antiquity.”  When the Betrayeds left the Wan Temple, Gibrondol had been a mere child among them, Aleksantari explained.  “But he rose to perhaps the greatest of their kind—great, and terrible.”  The celestial went on to say that for every creation of great beauty that Gibrondol produced, he built something else of even greater dread. The Doom Ramps to ensnare and devour outsiders.  A great rock golem to destroy Jith Wan and his loyalists.  

Sekana grew seemingly more and more distressed as Aleksantari continued his account.  But the final portion seemed to upset the lady most of all.  For the celestial explained that a golem can be animated only by capturing and embedding into it the soul of a living a being—and that to animate the rock golem, Gibrondol’s most ambitious creation, the spiritcatcher took “the soul of a Betrayed who betrayed Gibrondol.”  

When at last the vision of Aleksantari faded and the crystal again went quiet, the visibly agitated Sekana beseeched yet another vision to replace that of the celestial.  And so the company mediated yet again, with the crystal conjuring the image of stunning crystal tower above a dais ringed with flowers—“the scene of my wedding,” Sekana declared.  “But I don’t know that old wretch in back of the crowd.”

Meditating yet again, the crystal produced the chaotic images of numerous small, laughing devilkin who blinked and flickered though dimensions at seemingly impossible intervals.  The beings were suddenly in the room, and suddenly not.  Gone with them momentarily were many of the Wildcats’ gear and personal belongings, replaced only by a random collection of junk and hodgepodge.  The cleric Gambol found that his gem-studded belt was missing, replaced by a crooked candlestick. The mage Greyndalf found a platinum piece from some far, unknown land in place of his trusty hand axe.  The ranger Unagi’s short sword was gone, with only the bones of some strange fish it its place. Even Sekana found her pockets stuffed with useless miscellany when the devilkin had gone.

With Sekana seeking a dose of spirits to calm her nerves, the company finally paused in its mediations and proceeded down to the courtyard, and then to the tower cellar.  It was here that Greyndalf’s habit of tossing bedrolls before his path paid its greatest dividend, for when tossed into a pile of decomposing food crates the bedroll awakened a fearsome ochre jelly that the party was able to engage and destroy from distance.

With the ochre jelly out of the way, the party investigated the small tower cellar, finding ten barrels of various liquids and a small dungeon with the shackled bones of some prisoner.  While most of the barrels turned out to hold spoiled or rancid beer, wine, or oil, one held vodka of unknown provenance and three others exquisitely–aged elven wine, dwarven ale, and hobbit olive oil. 

The Wildcats filled several bottles of the held well-preserved demi-human products, and climbed back up to the courtyard.  Handing a bottle of the elven wine to Sekana, the group wearily hunkered down for a rest.

It was then and there that the mage Greyndalf used his read magicability to examine the magical documents found in the old library above.  Beginning with the scroll, the elven wizard found it to contain the transmutation polymorph.  As for Raunaeril’s Conjurations, the pages contained directed the reader in the use of three spells: call lightning, conjure animals, and Gibrondol’s Encasement.        

As the hours passed by and the fatigue passed slowly from the Wildcats’ joints and muscles, Sekana remained ever afoot, patiently strolling across the dais and through her botanical courtyard.  The lady of the tower, it seemed, had no need of rest.

Adventure Notes

• Slyvrock.  The company encountered a group of incredibly strong, armadillo-like burrowing creatures in this session, noting their triangular heads and canine-like stature.  While individuals are not especially stout (~25 HP), the slyvrocks travel in packs and proved both aggressive and incredibly puissant.  One slyvrock inflicting serious harm (2d6+3 damage) on a single strike, which knocked its target down and rendered him defenseless.

• Ochre Jelly.   You’ve seen many strange and dangerous creatures in your own adventuring career, and heard many tales of others dark, mighty, and terrible.  But the ochre jelly was simply disgusting—a sprawling, sentient mass of acidic slime that lashed out in ambush at any who passed it by. You really did not get much sense of its true capabilities in the brief encounter, noting only that the jelly was happily an easy target (AC 8) and not overly formidable (~50 HP).
  

Experience Points & Inspiration 

            Combat/Encounters

The party fought and defeated an ochre jelly in this session, and also killed one slyvrock while managing to evade several others.  Full experience points are awarded for the ochre jelly and one slyvrock; 50% of the experience points are awarded at this time for the remaining slyvrocks as (i) the party didn’t really “face” them and (ii) they remain at-large and a potential danger in the confines of the Buried Tower.  These awards total 2,200 XP, which divides into six equal shares of 366.67; we may round that up to 370 XP per character.

                  Interactions/Role-Playing/Quest progress

In a session light on combat, the company interacted with several unorthodox NPCs and made significant progress toward unlocking the secrets of their current environment:

• The party received four more visions in the meditation crystal (Gibrondol & the Saltminder, Aleksantari, Crystal Tower Wedding, and the Devilkin), and is awarded 125 XP for each.  Additionally, the party is awarded 100 XP for a successful interaction with Aleksantari;

• The party is awarded 250 XP for gaining access to Gibrondol’s library;

• The party is awarded 900 XP for dispelling the silenceeffect on the landing outside the library and then gaining valuable information from Ezros, the animated mithril disc. (If you are surprised by the size of this award, refer to the inspiration discussion below);

• The party is awarded 50 XP each for recovering the pages from the Book of Syldrae, Tammaneuth’s Odditorium, Tadyll’s Monstrosities, and the Balvin merchant’s diary;

• The party is awarded 500 XP for finding and interacting successfully with Sekana;

• The party is awarded 150 XP for recovering the elven wine, dwarven ale, and hobbit EVOO from the the tower cellar; and

• The party is awarded 65 XP for reaching the courtyard level.

These awards talley up to 2,615 XP, or 435.83 per character.  We will round this up to 436 XP apiece.

            Inspiration

The adventure gods eagerly anticipated the Wildcats’ arrival on the magically silenced landing outside Gibrondol’s old library.  There, the odd being Ezros was expected to silently taunt the party from his mithril disc as the party members struggled with the impossibility of oral communication.  That one of the company’s spellcaster’s might try and ameliorate the burden though means of dispel magicwas undoutedly anticipated, yet presumed futile—as only the most expertly performed incantations could have any hope of overcoming this ancient elven magic.  But that, as they say, is why the dice are rolled.  And so it was that Gambol’s simple spell transformed this interaction from one of noiseless frustration to something altogether…inspirational.

Final Session 24 totals:

• Jowdain acquitted himself well in battle, garnering 806 XP.

• Gambol pleased his deity and is rewarded with 806 XP and a point of inspiration.

• Greyndalf remained a cunning and resourceful (and mostly naked) adversary, earning 806 XP.

• Schlemeel still don’t give a f*k, but he picked up 806 XP.

• Onog played it cold as ice, and acquired 806 XP.

• Unagi looked fresh as ever and gained 806 XP. 

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[1]It occurs to the adventure gods at this late moment that the dungeonmaster may have neglected to mention this volume in the commotion of the dungeon exploration.  But, rest assured, it was there on the shelves along with the other detected tomes.