This session happened Friday, October 22, 2010, and was the only session I ran this past weekend. This was a relatively short session adventuring-wise as the players spent time (and gold) upgrading Drop-off Tower to be a place they could rest at, avoiding the necessity of returning all the way to the Iron Keep every time.
Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Tycho von Helmont (elf alchemist)
Agnes Sunbeard (dwarf rogue)
Sal Ty (elf wizard)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table.
The adventurers took a month off from adventuring. Sal took the time to craft a number of magical items for the group, which kept him busy for most of that time. What time he didn't spend creating magic items, he spent searching around the Iron Keep for any that might be available for sale, particularly scrolls of spells he did not know.
While Sal was busy with that, Agnes and Tycho contracted skilled craftsmen to improve Drop-off Tower, making it usable as a base of operations. They had iron stoves installed, the water damage on the fourth floor was repaired, a new roof was added, and all the windows were shuttered with heavy wooden shutters. The interior was also fixed up, rough furniture assembled, and the old back door was replaced with a new, brass-bound door. All the timber used came from the surrounding trees, which were cleared out to 50 feet. Two guards and two caretakers were also hired and established on site.
Thorngrim spent the time training his and Su Bel's dogs new commands. He was mostly successful.
At the beginning of the new year (the following month), the adventurers were ready to return to the morlock area under the tower. Returning to the hallway the last of the morlocks fled down, the adventurers entered the last door they listened at. Beyond it was a relatively small room the morlocks used as a guard post. While checking the room, a secret door was found. The secret door led to a series of chambers, also linked by secret doors. The rooms were dedicated to the worship of the Forbidden God, a deity of evil reputation, almost lost to time, each room covered with murals showing acts of violence and madness. The final chamber included a faceless statue of the Forbidden God, along with golden altar accoutrements. Sal viewed the room with detect magic. While nothing detected as magic, Sal may have seen more than he wanted. Despite the high gold content of the room, the adventures left every alone, touching none of it.
Somewhat unnerved by the palpable evil radiated by the chamber, the adventurers backtracked to doors near the original morlock guard room. They found the doors led to hurriedly abandoned rooms once occupied by morlocks. In what may have been the leader's room, another secret door was discovered, beyond which was a treasure chamber. This chamber was heavily dust-coated, suggesting that the morlocks had never found this chamber. Inside the adventurers found three chests. Su Bel cast detect traps, identifying all three chests as trapped (which led to Agnes wondering out loud why Su Bel hadn’t been doing that much earlier).
Agnes investigated the chests and determined that all three were triggers for a room-wide electrified floor trap. She carefully disarmed that trap. Mog then carried two of the chests safely out of the room. With only one chest at risk, Agnes then disarmed the trap in the remaining chest. Inside was a bag of gold coins of elven minting. The disarming process was repeated and a sack containing four items was found. The third chest was brought in for disarming and turned out to be nothing but one big trap, unleashing a hail of arrows. Agnes was able to flip up over the chest and out of the arc of fire while the rest of the group (safely in the previous room) heard the clatter of tens of arrows striking the far wall. Agnes decided to pack up the trapped chest into one of the groups bags of holding, seeing no reason to leave behind such excellent workmanship.
Having expended the possibilities of this chamber, the adventurers pressed on down the hall to a large, square room containing a 20-foot square obsidian cube surrounded by 20 inanimate skeletons. Sensing danger and a mystery, the adventurers cautiously moved around the cube, being careful to not touch anything. After finding nothing but the cube, the skeletons, and a door on the far wall, the adventurers started discussing what the obsidian cube might be. Sal suggested that it might activate if touched or struck, to which Mog replied, “Like this?” Mog then threw a javelin at the cube. The surface of the cube was solid, but a wave of sparks rippled out from where the javelin struck it, seemingly just under the surface of the stone. The skeletons immediately animated and attacked.
The ensuing fight could have been dire, as the adventurers were unprepared for so many foes, but Su Bel called upon the guiding light of her deity and a wave of pure light radiated out from her, shattering almost all of the skeletons into fiery shards. After that it was minor mop-up duty to eliminate the last two skeletons. Words were then said to Mog. Stern words.
A more thorough search of the room unearthed an additional exit from this chamber in the form of a secret door. The adventurers chose to explore beyond the secret door first, finding an extensive library of books. The room appeared to have been undisturbed for a very long time. Having noticed a pattern of secret rooms having additional secret doors, the walls were searched and another secret door was discovered. This secret door led to another altar to the Forbidden God. In the center of the room was a statue with an altar in front of it. The statues arms were upraised to the ceiling, its hands thrust into a blood pool which was covered the ceiling! The adventurers quickly decided that they wanted nothing to do with this room and closed the door.
Returning to the obsidian cube room, the adventurers moved through the remaining door, discovering a passage way that led east down into a tunnel of unknown length and west to another door on the opposite side of the hallway. The adventurers explored through the door and found a final morlock guard post. It showed signs of now being abandoned and they found no secret doors.
Feeling that they had reached the end of the environs immediately under Drop-off Tower, the adventurers returned to the surface. Comfortable in the newly improved living conditions in the tower, they took to planning their next moves...
*End of Session*
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