The group finished up Damlagast's Tower this meeting, getting a few magical items and another item nicked off Avulstein's List. At this point they have a day or two grace and then the K'Morat should be at the Base Camp.
Write up follows:
The party gave the first servant’s quarter a last look over, opening the closet door where they discovered another orcish skeletal figure here, broken bones and hunched down, a bronze disk on its chest with a reverse bas-relief of an Orcish “D” rune upon it. We gathered everything together with what care we could and then cast Detect Magic. A spray of spark flew out and although it did flow everywhere, most everything did not radiate any magic – except for the disk – and it was odd according to Shim and Avulstein – faint and outlined, mostly dormant, and appearing as if it was incomplete in some fashion.
This led them to take the disk up the steps to the 6th floor where they approached the barrier that portalled everyone back to the 1st. The detect magic was still going and showed the reverse of the same magic that was on the disk – so they approached closer and closer…and then passed through the area without portalling back to the 1st floor. Perfect.
We continued our way up to the 7th floor where it appeared the dwarves had never gotten to. There was no damage, destruction, or anything else. The door here was closed and there was a lizardlike looking statue poised right outside the door with a sword upraised and ready to chop down. And no one wanted to risk touching the door or lock.
So we went to the 8th floor and the door here was closed and no amount of opening, pushing, testing, or anything would get it to open. We suspected it would require the tower being “on” to get that to happen, and that meant starting the furnace or Heart. Tomorrow.
We returned to the kitchen floor (4) and after breaking up some wood for the stove, lit a fire, shut the door as best we could, and the party went to sleep after confident that the stove was venting smoke not in the room we were sleeping in.
We awoke the next day on Workmonth the 11th feeling pretty good and doles out some healing, ate breakfast, studied and prayed. It was a bit after 8 when completed and we decided to go to the basement and work on the furnace down there.
We gave the furnace a solid once over and talked about options and possibilities for a bit. There was a small door on the left side that had a cup on the bottom and a clamp there and some nozzle was above it fed from the oil reservoir above. We talked a bit a figured a candle would go there so Darius took one out, clamped it in place and we felt like that was a good start.
While that was going on Barb and Einar discussed the oil barrels, having one that was uncompromised. It was thick and crude – and as it was heating oil, had a higher temperature to light. Most likely it was aerated at some point in the furnace which explained the very tiny nozzle above the candle. They managed to lift it, removed the plug from the…bunghole…and loaded about 4 or 5 gallons into the reservoir. Sealing everything back up they closed all the covers and returned the barrel again.
Meanwhile the party was loading the furnace with a couple hundred pounds of hacked up wood as well as much kindling and faster burning material they could find. On the right side of the furnace was a longer door and narrow, when opened had a bellows fall down that needed to be pumped . The leather was in poor condition and had many rents in the fabric. We hit it with a mending spell but needed a second one so we waited for Avulstein to study and fire off a second one – at this point the bellows seemed whole.
As for the catch bin on top, Einar went over the bone fragments and chips we had found down here and discovered rabbits, cats, and large rats. Ok – nothing specific. We did had a number of formerly animated giant rats in Avulstein’s bag so he took out three of them, placed them on the catch offering bin on the top of the Tower Heart and then we lit the candle.
From there we shut the front door and proceeded to pump the bellows. It was very difficult as first but each time we did so the furnace made a low “whuff” noise and the sound of fire inside the metal surface moving about grew louder. The furnace grew warmer as we pumped and there was a chugging sound that was accompanying us per pump. Then the chugging grew louder and the whuffing got very pronounced…and with a final pump the bellows handle snapped back into the side of the furnace.
While all this was going on, the offering bin on top was slowly spinning, chewing up the rats until they too disappeared within.
There was a pause in the sound and then a steady “wum wum wum” noise willed the room and light sprinkled up the central column as the room heated up from 50’s to low 70’s quickly. The water drained down until the floor became dry. On the first floor the column grew ripe with light as it went up to the ceiling and then the floors above – lighting what little sconces were here, removing the stale scent, and for the main floor, drying out the carpet quickly.
First class job. We did it.
Feeling bolstered by our actions, we decided to go back to the 2nd floor and try out the room with the paintings. On the wall was the picture of an empty chair and when Barb entered the room – to the rest of us it appeared she disappeared! To her she was fine and saw everyone as they were .They could hear her but the magical effect was the room would appear empty. Nice.
The 2nd picture we tried was the orcish wedding feast and unlike before we had a plate of fresh fruit, a full loaf of nutty rich bread hot and a long stick of butter, and four dark ales. Very nice and we ate it happily. We then tested the one that appeared to be a wooden gate with a key and when put in place, the wall to the room grew across and closed the room off, sealing it. Nice!
This left the basket and scissors room and it ended every spell in here. Avulstein’s skeleton collapsed to the ground, Barb’s boots fit poorly, and Connal’s headband slipped down. Taking the picture off the wall or leaving the room returned the magical effects but NOT for spells – Avulstein’s skeleton remained disanimated.
As for the 5th picture, the doves sleeping on their back, we did that and about 30 seconds later, every person except whoever was sitting in the chair marked with Damlagast’s marking slumped over unconscious – and only those in the room. Taking the picture off the wall and 30 seconds later they woke up. Very handy I’m sure for the former orcish tower wizard.
From here we decided to go after the crystals and that meant heading to the 8th and final floor. The tower looked a bit cracked and less stable up here but was still sound. The door opened with the disk we had pressing nearby and we entered.
The ceiling was low here, barely 7’ tall, and the floor was covered with about 60 smoky burned out looking crystals. There were 10 or so still hanging from the ceiling. In the middle of the room was comfortable chair and an emaciated looking mastiff black obsidian dog watching the group. It was animated and looked around at us as we flirted with entering. On the back wall was a set of iron rungs that led to a trap door on the ceiling.
Avulstein in the chair near the mastiff and tried a number of ideas to get it to communicate – it did very little, and behaving only as a dog would behave. So Einar had Frey give him the ability to speak with animals and talked to the hound. It was a companion of Damlagast and knew some things but not much. It was a guardian for the older orcish wizard and knew he had died and moved on. Could work with another master and Einar rubbed I’s head and muzzle and then it collapsed down to a foot long figurine.
The figurine had referred to itself as Onycanim, or Canim, and from discussing with it, learned that it could be called 3 times per day for an hour each time max. And as long as the statue didn’t break, it could heal and return again and again. Very nice.
As for the crystals, Avulstein took one, and then a second. This left very few on the ceiling and after the 2nd one, the tower seemed to lean a tiny bit and room cooled off a trace or two. Forcing the door in the roof open, Darius had a chance to look out. He had a good vantage point up here – the tower itself was pretty screwed up and there were only a small scattering of metallic looking trees up here, each about 2-3’ tall. And as he watched, two of them, just about over where the two crystals were taken from, dried up, grew duller, and fell over. One of them tumbled off the tower, the other he managed to grab.
Coming back to the room we discussed not taking any more crystals. These were manatrees and could be ground up for ink, but could also be treated well and planted – hopefully resulting in more manacrystals in the future. We took the one we had and then left the crystal chamber.
We went back to the 7th floor and using the key that Onycanim had been holding for Damlagast long ago, opened the lock and entered. It was the orcish wizard’s workshop and it was not well stocked but we checked it out with great care. The alchemist assembly, 3 potions, two wands (one of fire finger, the other of create water), and a robe with deeppockets as well as a thin spellbook with a dozen spells within had the group pretty happy with all things.
We went down and tested the front door – and it CAN be reopened from the inside. Very nice. We then walked the tower one last time to check if we missed anything, confident we didn’t, it was after 12 on the 11th when we were going to leave Damlagast’s Tower and either return to Base Camp or check the north shore of the lake for K’Morat tracks.
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