Chapter 3 - We're at the Tower. Now what?
Days 5 and 6
Jrak and Trykaar awakened to find that the tower had been cleared of both Genasi and the elven sorceror. Blixhaven and Neela were already searching through the tower and the heroes began to assess their situation.
Of primary concern were the wounded men in the third floor barracks. Of the three men, one had flame-coloured hair that seemed to shimmer in an invisible wind - surely a mark of Genasi blood. The other two had no remarkable characteristics, but the wrists of one were tied to the bedframe. In addition to personal effects, two suits of scale mail and a pair of heavy crossbows were stored in the barracks, and two longspears were propped against the wall. Neela quickly claimed the crossbows, hoping to put her weapon proficiency to use. Assessing the wounded, Trykaar decided that the patient who had been tied down was likely a survivor of the original garrison. After assessing him to be near recovery, he set to tending the man's wounds, once again making use of the medical kit that Blixhaven had acquired from the quartermaster.
Showing a talent for command, Trykaar sent Jrak to the roof, to make use the spyglass mounted there for a survey of the area. Looking towards the docks where they had left the goblins, he spotted a plume of smoke rising into the sky.
Meanwhile, Blixhaven and Neela had set out to reconnoiter the surrounding area. Their first stop was the site where Blixhaven had earlier discovered the bodies of the original garrison. Neela gave them a perfunctory burial in a shallow grave and the two commenced a circuit of the perimeter, in the process finding and burying the bodies of another half dozen members of the garrison.
Returning to the tower and being notified of the smoke at the docks, Blixhaven decided to make use of his keen perception to see if he could discover some details of the surrounding that may have been missed by the half-ogre. His keen eyes identified movement on the river and also on the trail that the party had traveled just a few hours before en route to the tower.
Wanting to find out more information, Blixhaven and Neela decided to scout out the trail, creeping silently through the trees to a spot where they could spy on the pathway, and eventually to a tree that gave them a great vantage point. From there, they observed two parties of Genasi soldiers, apparently organized into groups of 20. They were able to identify stout Earth Genasi axemen, and swordsmen with the traits of Fire Genasi. Both groups wore scale mail similar to the armor that had been discovered in the tower. As the second troop passed into the distance, they returned to the tower to notify their companions of this new threat.
With the party gathered back in the tower, there was some lengthy discussion as to the appropriateness of unboxing and trying to make use of the magic mirror that the party had been charged with transporting to the tower. Over the protests of Trykaar, who feared the disapproval of the governor, Neela unboxed the mirror and spent the rest of the day fiddling around with various buttons and protrusions while reciting a narrative of the party's experiences in the hopes that a message might be sent to the armies of the Empire. Trykaar returned to caring for his patient, who was starting to show signs of improvement. Finally, in the late evening, he regained consciousness and identified himself as Sebestryn Molnar, a militia soldier who had been manning the tower along with 19 fellow soldiers and a commanding officer, Lieutenant Timodi Kertrsz. He told of a being awakened to a sudden struggle in the darkness of night, during which he received his injury and apparently lost consciousness.
The part passed a peaceful night, but in the early morning Blixhaven spotted a party of soldiers coming up the path to the tower. With only 15 minutes until their arrival, the party decided to vacate the tower, leaving the portcullis closed behind them. With them, they took the unconscious elf, Neela pocketing his signet ring and Trykaar taking his roll of parchment pages with the notations in Elven script (illegible to the party members, none of who spoke or wrote Elven). On Blixhaven's urging, Neela carried out the mirror and hid it in the nearby forest as they made their escape. After some discussion, it was decided to make for the next watchtower to the east and, over Neela's protests, to take along the recuperating Sebestryn.
The party made its way slowly eastward. Using the spyglass, Blixhaven had earlier determined the next tower to be about 20 miles to the east. With the wounded soldier and Jrak encumbered by the body of the unconscious elf, the party traveled slowly over what paths they could find, Blixhaven scouting the way. The sky, overcast for several days, turned to rain, further slowing their progress. Fortunately, their chosen pathways were not well-traveled, and they only encountered a single Genasi patrol, easily avoided as it was traveling a nearby path and the party was alerted by the acute hearing of Blixhaven and Neela. Passing through a small village, it appeared to the party as if the local peasants had decided to abandon their households.
As the advance of evening brought heavier rain and lightning, the party's thoughts turned to the night's shelter. Soon after, a bolt of lightning revealed a stonework opening in a nearby hillside. Advancing, they discovered an opening in the hillside, with a stone door broken open by the lightning strike. Jrak was able to pry open half of the broken door, giving the party access to an underground chamber. Exploring the room, Neela's acute darkvision identified three other doors, one on each of the other walls.
The party advanced forward, through the most ornate of the doors, and down a long corridor. Neela scouted ahead, making use of her vision, and found herself in a small room, remarkable in that water dripped through a hole in the ceiling and drained through a wide hole in the floor. As she surveyed a number of mouldering tables topped with the rusted remains of metal instruments, she was surprised by the entry of a pair of hobgoblins through a doorway on the opposite side of the room. A quick melee ensued, with Neela dropping the attackers with a flurry of blows.
Spying a rope hanging through the hole in the roof, Neela climbed up to find that it led to ruins on top of the hill, and what appeared to be the hobgoblins' camp. Comfortable that there were no more hobgoblins about, Neela returned to the party and they continued their exploration.
Traveling down the corridor that the hobgoblins had emerged from, the party arrived at what appeared to be a burial chamber, the corpse of a large knight being laid out with his armour and weapons. A reverant Neela convinced the party that it would be wrong to disturb the corpse, and instead lead them down a small side-passage that lead to a small room. Seeing what appeared to be bodies enshrouded in fine cloth, a curious Neela entered the room, only to find that she had missed spotting a finely spun spider web in which she was now entrapped. Even worse, the owner of the web was advancing from her hiding spot on the ceiling. Neela managed to squirm out of the web, making good use of her training in the cobra strike school. But her training was not sufficient to protect her from the spider's subsequent attack, which knocked her to the floor on the edge of consciousness, poison sapping her strength. The spider then shot a web at the surprised Trykaar, ensnaring him as he approached. Trykaar also managed to free himself and slay the spider with a few swift blows from his mighty ancestral greatsword, but not before suffering a painful bite of his own.
After discovering some gold and a pearl left behind by the spider's earlier victims, the battered party decided to make camp for the night in the darkness of the tomb.
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