Return to Under Drop-Off Tower

This session happened Friday, April 23, 2010.

Adventuring Group:

• Armok Cursegazed (died)
• Zog Ironskin (died)
• Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
• Sal Ty (elven wizard)
• Agnes Sunbeard (dwarven rogue)
• Tycho von Helmont (elven alchemist)

Gathering up some additional companions (for safety's sake), Agnes and Tycho headed back to Drop-Off Tower. After two hours travel on the trail to Edgewood, just inside the forest the group stumbled upon a giant scorpion at the woodcutter's camp. Literally. It caught Armok completely by surprise, killed him quickly, and attempted to drag off his remains for a meal. The rest of the party kept up the attacks with long bows, killing the creature before it could disappear into the woods with Armok's body. They buried Armok on site (after removing the two potions he was carrying and his armor) and headed back to the Iron Keep to see if they could find a replacement. In town they brought in Zog Ironskin, a very similar half-orc, but one whose name sounded more propitious.

The four adventurers headed out the next morning, trying a different route to their goal, marching past the grave of Jericho on the coast and then cutting into the forest. They made camp when the sun set and set watches. On Zog's watch, a tiger attacked, nearly dragging away Zog before the others had a chance to be awakened. By the time all of the sleeping adventurers were awake, Zog was dead with the tiger nearly untouched. The adventurer's grabbed Zog's pack and fled. [They used a resolve token to escape – the players have taken to saving one or two tokens at the end of a day for just such an occurrence.]

Somewhat demoralized, the adventurers returned to the Iron Keep again (Agnes refusing to enter Under Drop-Off Tower without at least four adventurers in the group). This time they hired Mog the Doomed (whose name they didn't even ask for until much later). They headed back out in the morning. After a little more than a day of traveling through the Edgewood (they got a little lost), the group arrived at Drop-Off Tower. Pleasantly, they found the doors they put up still in place and the interior clear of vermin.

Prying the barricade off the stairs down, the group entered Under DOT. [Yes, I'm getting tired of typing that out the long way.] Sal was able to identify the purple fungus as violet fungus, which can be dangerous if/when it grows stalks. The group chose to follow the mostly clear hallways to the northeast. Forcing open a fungus-covered door they previously ignored, they found a room clear of the fungus containing a clear, clean spring. They carefully removed any fungus that might have entered the room when they opened the door and resealed the room.

At the statue room, the adventurers investigated west, into the fungus covered area. They found another side room that was clear of the fungus, but with little of interest in it. Sal spots violet fungus stalks at the dim edge of their vision ahead and shot a lit arrow ahead to illuminate the area. The group spends time shooting all the stalks until they are no longer active. Investigating further, they found an alcove that is magically clear of the fungus. In the alcove is a statue of an elven woman wearing armor and holding a sword in her hand. There is a placard identifying the woman (in Old Elven, which only Sal was able to read) as Ilazki of the Cloud Forest. The sword and an amulet she was wearing were clearly separate items and detected as magic!

Sal removed the amulet and sword, breaking a finger off the statue while removing the sword. The group retreated to the Water Room to rest and let Sal re-memorize his spells. [Agnes and Tycho also level-up at this point.] The next morning, Sal returned to the statue and re-attached the finger with a mend spell. He then returned to the Water Room and cast identify on the sword and amulet, learning their properties. [The sword is a +1 long sword, the amulet an amulet of natural armor +1.]

Not wanting to go any deeper into the fungus covered area, the group headed north from the statue room. They found another large room mostly covered with fungus, which two rust monsters were eating on. Sensing a preferred food source, the rust monsters moved towards the adventurers. Quickly thinking, Mog pulled out his iron spikes and threw them in front of the rust monsters, distracting them. The rest of the party followed suite and retreated while the rust monsters went after the tasty, tasty iron.

Feeling that they were beginning to push their luck, the party decided to return to the Keep. Sealing up the stairs again, they left Drop-Off Tower. In addition to getting VERY lost in the forest, they shot down a giant stag beetle during the day and fended off a dire boar during the night. The next day they finally found their way out of the forest, appearing on the coast, and followed the edge of the forest west.

Just as the adventurers were rounding the western end of the forest, they spotted a flight of cockatrices. [Yes, a flight of eight cockatrices.] They wisely avoided them by cutting through the edge of the Edgewood [another resolve token spent]. They camped one last time on the plains between the Edgewood and the Iron Hills before making it back to town and splitting the loot.