Episode 42
"Raiders of the Lost Spire"
(c) 2002 Matt Grossman and J. Sage Schreiner

Tron, a lucky elf, Matt Grossman
Norel, a battle-scarred ranger, Tom Morin
Nigil, a mysterious noble from a distant land, Kevin Osborn
All others, J. Sage Schreiner



Thori Rocksplitter the dwarf has guided the party to Nightfang Spire.

Thori: Have fun storming the spire, boys! I wish that I could come
with you, but I must return to Dalic Foehammer in Ratikhill. (heads off)

The party examines the crevasse closely. They see what looks like a
circle of standing stones near the side of the crevasse, close to the
spire. In the distance, over wave after wave of brown hills, they a see a 
dark line of storm clouds with lighting flashing beneath. The hot, 
autumn air is still.

Norel: Let's look at those standing stones.

They go to the standing stones. They are very old, several have
fallen down, and the only object of interest is a carving in orish
signs on one of the stones.

Laurallie: My magic lets me read orcish. It says: "Beware of".
Tron: "Beware of" what?
Laurallie: Just "Beware of".
Nigil: Maybe whoever was carving it died before he could finish.

Tron crawls to the side of the crevasse and looks at the spire. He is
now much closer to it and can look down into the top. It looks as
though at one point the spire was taller; it seems to have been broken
off. He can see part of one floor, and another floor below that.
Beneath the overhang of the broken floor, he sees something large and
pink. It scuttles out of view, before he can make out what it is. The
elf goes back and reports.

Nigil: Maybe it's a very pale red dragon?
Tron: It was hanging from the overhang and it looked... squishy.

They travel around to the other end of the crevasse. The thunderstorm
is getting closer and it is clear that they must take shelter. Also,
it is getting dark and they will need to camp for the night. The best
shelter they can find is under an overhang some distance down into the
crevasse. It is out of sight of the spire and should provide some
protection from the elements.

As they are settling in the thunderstorm arrives with tremendous
winds, thunder, and lightning. The high winds howl over the gully,
and fill the air with a redish dust that burns their eyes. There is very
little rain, but several bolts of lightning strike the cliff near the
characters, deafening them. They huddle back into the shallow overhang.
The storm passes after several hours, but the party's hearing is impaired 
for hours afterwards.

They do not light a fire. As the storm passes the sky clears and the
party can see the stars. The moon (Luna) is only a sliver and the
human adventurers cannot see their hands in front of their faces.
Tron takes the first watch.

The first couple of hours pass uneventfully, although the elf
sometimes thinks that he hears the beat of great wings, and once sees
a dark shape blocking out the stars. As the quiet night draws on, the
elf suddenly hears something scrape against the crevasse. He listens
carefully, and soon hears the sound of powerful wings. A large creature is
flying down the crevasse from the direction of the spire. Tron
quickly wakes the others.

With his elven eyesight, Tron sees a large shape flying towards the
party. The elf readies his bow. Suddenly the shape turns sharply
towards the party and descends. Clearly, it has seen them.

Tron: It's seen us! (He fires two arrows at the creature)
Laurallie: Obad-Hai, bring us light! [bzorm]

A bright light shines from the priestesses shield, revealing the
monster. It looks like nothing so much as a giant cephalod with wings.

Tron: [twang] When calimari attack! [snicker]
Norel: [twang twang] [snicker]
Nigil: What it is with us and seafood anyway?
Laurallie: I don't want to eat that! It smells gross.
Octopus: (swoops down and claws Tron with a spiked tentacle)

The monster hovers about twenty feet off the ground, placing its body
out of range of melee attacks. It quickly does a lot of damage to the party
using its two, brutaly strong long tentacles.

Tron: [twang twang twang] It's more a squid than an octopus, it has
those two long tentacles.
Nigil: (chops off a tentacle) You mean one long tentacle.
Laurallie: Obad-Hai, blast this abomination! [bzort]
Norel: [twang twang]
Octopus: (grabs Nigil and crushes him in its tentacles)
Nigil: Why do the monsters always grab me? (struggles in vain to free
himself)
Tron: That's what she said. Heh heh.
Norel: You've got to stop looking so... attractive.
Octopus: (starts flying back to the spire, still carrying the fighter)

The party chases the monster, shooting at it, but it rapidly flies out
of range. Meanwhile, it bites Nigil with its beak and crushes him with
its large tentacle.

Nigil: (drops his longsword and draws his dagger) Take that! [stab]
Octopus: (drops Nigil)
Nigil: Aaaaagh! [thump]

Laurallie: Did you hear that?

The party runs down the crevasse.

Nigil: Ow... ow... ow...
Norel: He's alive!
Nigil: Gotta... find... my... sword...

Nothing more happens that night. In the morning, they find Nigil's
keen sword (buried hilt-deep in a rock) and head towards the spire.
Laurallie has healed the wounded party members. Nonetheless, they are
cautious as they approach the spire.

Nigil: "Nightfang Spire"... I bet it's filled with vampires.
Tron: We should have loaded up on holy symbols and garlic before we
left Ratikhill.
Laurallie: Don't worry, Obad-Hai gives me the power to rebuke the
undead. Four times a day.
Norel: Great. I'm really good at killing them.
Nigil: My keen-edged sword is useless against them.

They approach the spire and see that the only apparent entrance is the
low stone annex. There is a single doorway. From it comes a reek of
decay, and when Tron crawls close he sees a number of unmoving
humanoid forms inside.

Tron: I bet there are ghouls in there.
Laurallie: (makes a rock burn with pale flame) Here. Toss this inside.

The elf does so. They can see that there are a large number of
bodies, in various states of decay, inside the structure. It appears
to be just a lean-to built against the side of the spire, with no
apparent way into the spire.

Tron: Let's go in and search...
Norel: Wait! Do you see those plants inside, the ivy-looking stuff?
Tron: Yes.
Norel: It's blightweed. It makes a strange music that sends people to sleep,
then it drains their life energy.
Laurallie: (casts Silence on the lean-to)
Tron: Now we can search it.

They quickly cut out the blightweed, drag it outside, and burn it.
Then they carefully search the lean-to. They find about 30 skeletons
and 12 decaying bodies. The freshest is a dwarf with a clipped
beard. He has 10 fine arrows, and a parchment written in dwarvish.

Laurallie: (casts Comprehend Languages) Ahem. It says, "Flee, fool,
unless the cuckoo take you."
Nigil: What is it with this place?
Tron: I always knew this "writing" thing was no good.

Tron and Norel divide the fine arrows between themselves. The party
tries to figure out how to get into the tower.

Norel: It looks like we're going to have to climb.
Tron: You mean, I'm going to have to climb. If we tie all our ropes
together we can have 150 feet of rope. The spire is about 300 feet
tall. I'll climb halfway up, tie the rope onto a likely ledge, and
you guys can use it to help you climb up. Then you can rest while I
go up the rest of the way.
Nigil: It's a good thing this spire has all those weird carvings and
stuff on the outside.
Norel: (to his panther) Stay. Gooood kitty.
Panther: Rar. (wanders off)

The first part of the climb goes uneventfully. The elf is an expert
climber and in addition has a set of climbing tools. After climbing
halfway up the spire, he ties the rope off on a tooth of a huge
mouth.

Tron: The rabbit goes around the tree, then... no, wait, whooops...
where did the hole go again?

The rest of the party climb up, using the rope for help, and
rest in the mouth, while Tron starts climbing up the remaining half of
the spire. The elf ties the rope off about ten feet from the top,
then goes up the rest of the way. As Tron pokes his head over the
rim of the spire, he sees the flying octopus sitting beneath the roof
formed by the floor. A massively power odor of decay eminates from the
tower.

Octopus: (speaking in Tron's mind) Go away. Don't make me kill you.
Tron: (draws his scimitar and jumps onto the rim of the spire) Don't
make us kill you! Oh crap -- there's a dragon down there too! Oh well.

Below, the rest of the party is climbing up the spire.

Norel: What was that?
Nigil: Sounds like Tron's in trouble.
Laurallie: Again.

Octopus: (telepathically) Die unbeliever! (swoops at Tron)
Tron: Bite me! [swish] Dammit!

As the octopus swoops past the elf and hovers over the edge of the
spire, Laurallie leans out and grabs the rope with one hand.

Laurallie: Obad-Hai blast this monster! [bzort] (She nails it dead on
with a fantastically accurate searing light). Booo-yaah!
Octopus: Urk. (telepathically) Though I have failed to ward the door,
Gulthias knows you have come and makes ready his revenge. Let the
world weep at his return. [thump]
Tron: That was anticlimactic.

The situation at the top of the spire is this: About half of the top
is covered by a "roof" formed of half of a floor. The floor below
this is intact. In the center of the floor is a hole. The
decomposing and badly gnawed corpse of a black dragon is lying on a pile
of treasure on the floor. There are two decayed corpses rooting through the
treasure. They are tossing the gold coins down a hole in the floor.
They look blankly at the elf and then ignore him.

Nigil: Looks like the spire is under new management.
Norel: Target practice! [twang twang]

The party dispatches the undead. Tron lowers Nigil on a rope. As the
fighter reaches the floor (about 40' down)...

Tron: Look out!
Wight: (charges out of a pile of dragon intestines) Aaargh! (claws
Nigil)
Nigil: Ouch! (the fighter feels his life energy drained)
Laurallie: Suffer the power of Obad-Hai foul creature!

The wight is consumed by holy fire and blows away into dust.

Tron: Wow.
Norel: Damn.
Nigil: Thanks!

The party descends and searches this floor. They leave a rope
fastened to the wall and leading up to the roof. They find a lot of
coins, which they decide to just leave for now, two potions, and a
blue ring with a picture of a foot and a wavy line on it.

Nigil: Water walking?
Norel: Air walking?
Tron: (puts the ring on and tries walking on air) Nope. Put it in the
kitty.
Norel: It looks like the dragon was hit by lightning, then killed by
bites. Probably from that octopus thing. So either it was lucky and
the dragon was caught in a thunderstorm... 
Nigil: Or this Gulthias guy is a wizard, like Vodius.
Laurallie: The thunderstorms around here seem rather auspiciously timed.

They also find an ivory plaque with some extremely detailed, archic script
that none of them even recognize.

Laurallie: I don't have that spell memorized.
Tron: It probably says "Look out for the" or "Don't".

The party prepares to descend into the spire. It looks as though the
hole was once a trap-door destroyed and enlarged by the dragon. It 
leads down into a room with several intact stone doors. It appears as though
the dragon explored some of the spire, making a passage for itself as it 
went. They still have the glowing rock that Laurallie enchanted.

Laurallie: It should last until tomorrow morning.
Nigil: Let's go!

They descend into the depths of Nightfang Spire. The follow the path
of the dragon's devastation, noting a number of unopened stone doors.

Norel: We'll save those for later.
Tron: Stay fresh!

Norel notices a variety of footprints. Most exhibit long nails and a shuffling
step, characteristic of undead. But he does notice the footprints of a much, 
much larger humanoid.

Norel: It could be an ogre or a small giant. But it's hard to say.

The dragon's path leads to a large pair of metal doors which have been
crushed, melted and thrown inwards. It appears that there is the
representation of a dragon on the outside of the doors. In the room
is an altar carved as a fanstastically detailed red dragon.

Tron: Wait! See that mist?

A mist drifts around the floor of the room and suddenly heads towards
the party.

Tron: Watch out! That's not mist! I see a face in it!
Laurallie: Obad-Hai send you to hell!
Undead: Whoomph. (banished)
Laurallie: I think there were two of them.

They see that there is an open stone door in one side of the room.
Looking in, Tron sees four coffins with their lids ajar.

Tron: Hmmm... two here, three on the roof... so there should be
another coffin somewhere.
Norel: Hey, Tron. It looks like this altar opens up. How about
checking it for traps?

Tron carefully searches the altar and then opens it. Inside is a
chest. The elf removes the chest, carefully examines it, and finally
picks the lock. Inside are a quantity of gold coins of some ancient
mint, two fine gems, and a small, flat statue of a suit of armor about
two inches long and twelve inchs wide.

Nigil: Probably magical.
Norel: Let's keep going.
Tron: (looking into the coffin room) Something's not right, but I
can't put my finger on it...
Norel: Aw, don't be a wuss. (goes into the room)
Vampire Spawn #1: (drops from the ceiling and claws the ranger)
Raargh!
Norel: Ow! (feels his life energy drained)
Vampire Spawn #2: (rises from behind a coffin and swipes at the
ranger, missing) Aar!
Tron: Hang on! (stabs at Vampire Spawn #1) Hey, wasn't this guy in
Shapic?
Laurallie: Yup. Obad-Hai, let these creatures find rest!
Vampire Spawn: (dissolve into dust and blow away)
Nigil: Damn that's useful.
Laurallie: Only once more today.

The only thing they leave behind is a ring of beaten copper. Inside
each of the coffins is a thin layer of soil.

Tron: Dibs! I wonder what it does?
Norel: Doesn't protect from being turned into a vampire, obviously.
Tron: (puts the ring on, but feels no changes. It feels strangely warm
and comfortable.)

There is a closed stone door on the far side of the coffin room. Tron
listens at it and hears a voice calling weakly for help.

Tron: Trap.
Nigil: A gentleman of Keoland never turns aside from danger. However,
keep in mind that our job here isn't to kill everything, but to find
the crown. And if we don't know whether it's dangerous, then I'm not
technically turning aside from danger...
Laurallie: Just open the door.
Nigil: Not that I'm afraid or anything.
Tron: It's a trap. I'm telilng you.
Norel: We could just skip it... although I'd feel guilty.
Laurallie: What if the crown is in there?

Tron carefully opens the door, and recoils from a ghastly stench. The
floor of the room beyond is covered with decomposing bodies. All
appear curiously shrunken. The cries of help are coming from
somewhere in the mass of decomposing flesh.

Tron: I'm not going in there. Every time we go into a place like that
we get attacked by ghouls.
Voice: Help! Help!
Tron: Who are you?
Voice: (Weakly) Yesha... help me...
Norel: Fine.

Using his longspear, the ranger clears a path towards the voice. He
pushes and pokes the bodies out of the way. Unfortunately, the butt-end
of the spear tears through the decomposing bodies, spilling cuts, and
tearing off half-rotton limbs.

Norel: Urp. Belch. Uhhh... hold... crap... (bllleeeaaagh). I don't feel so...
(bleeeerrrrgggg).
Tron: That makes me wanna puke, too. I hate this sort of thing. Ever since that
first experience in the Bone March.

After a few minutes, Norel continues pushing the bodies aside, revealing an
old woman. He enters the room and picks her up.

Woman: Water... please...

They give her some water and talk to her. They learn that her name is
Yesha Faulkin, and she is from Dry Lake, a town near Ratikhill. She
claims to be a scholar who was researching Nightfang Spire. She
hid from the vampires under the bodies, although from the bitemarks
on her neck, it's clear she was bitten at least once.

Norel: Have you heard of a Gulthias?
Yesha: He was an ancient leader of the Ashardalon cult. But
apparently he's still around today. I overheard some talk about between
the vampire spawn. I gathered that he has some necromantic power source
in the spire which he has activated. I don't understand how the same man
could be around.
Nigil: "De-pegged", huh? I'll bet he's a vampire, and was staked, and
Vodius took the stake out. Thus the favor he owes Vodius...
Tron: That would explain all the undead.
Norel: Vampires. I hate those guys.
Laurallie: I fear that he is very dangerous.

Yesha explains that there has been a recent resurgence in the cult of
Ashardalon, and that Gulthias is a fanatical worshipper of Ashardalon.
This cult sometimes calls itself, "The Cult of the Eaten
Moon" in reference to the dissapeared moon, Luna, although this is a new
development. Yesha was investigating a lead
regarding the location of Nightfang Spire when she was kidnapped by
her cultist-contacts and brought here. She was heavily sedated, perhaps
by magical means, on the journey, and remembers little of it.

They bring Yesha up to the roof and she translates the plaque found in
the dragon's treasure.

Yesha: It's written in the ancient dragon tongue. "The Vow: With my
brothers and sisters I abide the centuries, until such time as
Gulthias awakens the relic at the core, and we rise together into
unlife."
Nigil: I hate undead.
Tron: At least now we won't feel bad about robbing the dead. Pholtus
says it's ok to rob the dead if they're trying to kill you at the same
time.
Laurallie: Tron, did you ever feel bad about robbing the dead?
Tron: Umm... no. But I'm supposed to.

Yesha is delighted to see the sky and feel the sun again.

Nigil: Understand, we have a mission here. We'll take you with us
when we leave, but we have to go back into the tower.
Yesha: Something to protect myself with... please...

They leave her a waterskin, some food, and a dagger, and head back
into the tower. They decide to systematically explore this level.
The first two rooms they enter contain garbage, mainly embalming
supplies. They also find a longsword in good condition, a silver
goblet carved in the shape of a dragon, and several dice with the
number 13 on each face.

Nigil: These dice are completely useless.
Norel: Zombies aren't very smart. Maybe they play craps with them.
Tron: Darn, a twenty-six again! [snicker]

The next door opens into a room containing three sarcophagi. The
images of the dead carved on the outside of the sarcophagi do not look
quite human.

Tron: They might be elves, but I can't tell from here. I'd have to go
into the room. There's something... different about them.
Nigil: We're not here to take on all of them. I'll bet there are more
of these guys. From that plaque it sounded like the cult practiced
mummification. These guys have probably been here for thousands of
years. They'll wait.
Norel: Yup.

The next door has a black crust at the bottom, and a sound of bubbling
from inside. It seems that some sort of black liquid is oozing slowly
from underneath the door.

Nigil: It's not tar... and it doesn't seem to effect the tip of a 
sword...
Tron: (takes a piece of beef jerky and dips it into the liquid) Whoah!

The liquid almost instantly assimilates and dissolves the jerky.
The elf barely drops it before it touches his hand.

Norel: (studying the tracks on the floor) I see tracks going in, but I
don't see any tracks going out...
Tron: I say we give this one a miss.

Behind the next door, they find a staircase leading down into musty,
silent darkness.

Nigil: That's good. Let's finish the rest of this floor.

The find two more mummy rooms, similar to the first. Each has three
sarcophagi. They do not disturb these rooms. They also find another
empty room.

Norel: It looks like we have to explore down the stairs.
Tron: There's one more thing I want to check out. There's a space
behind the room with the bodies that isn't accounted for...

They go back to the body room and make a quick bridge across the bodies
using stone coffin lids from the coffin room. The elf examines the
wall and quickly locates a secret door.

Tron: It looks as though it's trapped. Everybody get out, I'm going
to try and disarm it.

The rest of the party withdraws to the far side of the room as Tron
sets to work. Suddenly there is a tremendous blast of cold. When the
party looks, they see no sign of Tron.

Nigil: Trithereon have mercy!
Norel: Poor little guy. I guess he was atomized.
Laurallie: Good rid... I mean, too bad.
Tron: (emerges from under a pile of decomposing corpses, completely
unharmed but covered in vile filth) I, uhh, disarmed the trap.
Laurallie: You... you smell worse than Danic now. I think I'm going
to be ill.
Tron: I need some water. A lot of water. And maybe some of that soap
stuff.

Behind the secret door they find a small, dust-filled compartment
containing a chest. Tron carefully examines and opens the chest,
revealing a stash of ancient silver coins and four odd ceramic
objects. They are egg-shaped, painted red, and carved with a dragon
breathing fire.

Tron: These have got to be magical.

They carefully wrap the eggs in vellum and put them in belt pouches.

Nigil: I have four belt pouches. Just in case.

They decide to wait until tomorrow before going down the stairs.

Laurallie: I can pray for magic to cure the effect of the undead
monsters on Nigil and Norel. Also, I can create water to clean up
Tron.

They go back up to the roof (Yesha is still there) and Laurallie casts
Detect Magic. Both rings, the statue, and the potions detect as
magical. The eggs and the sword do not.

Norel: It's still a nice sword. Worth hanging on to.
Tron: Stupid egg. Here's your belt pouch back, Nigil. (throws his
egg over the edge of the spire)

Several seconds later, there is a fiery explosion.

Tron: Err...
Norel: Cool. Don't drop the other eggs.
Yesha: I have heard than ancient artifacts do not detect as magic with
modern spells.
Nigil: I guess that's what we got here.
Laurallie: Or maybe they're filled with some strange substance that
ignites when exposed to the ether?

Tron washes himself (mostly) clean with Laurallie's magically created
water, the night passes uneventfully, and
in the morning Laurallie removes the effects of the energy drain from
Nigil and Norel. The party prepares to descend further into the
spire.

Yesha: I'll just wait up here, ok?

TO BE CONTINUED...