SR41: The Crooked Tower

This session happened Friday, April 1, 2011, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.

Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
– Dame Yasha of Bereste (Su Bel’s human cavalier cohort)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
– Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Alys Kaah (gnome summoner/cavalier) [via Skype]
– Mr. Boodles (Alys’s owlbear-looking eidolon and mount)

Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table and then on my laptop via Skype.


In-game Starting Date: September 17, 23rd Year of King Nikola V

Between sessions (prior to the in-game starting date), a few things happened. Alys went to Iron Keep looking for a bard. In one of the “townie” taverns, she found Thomin, an orange-haired gnome bard. After getting him over to Spider’s Bar, she hired him to spread good (positive) stories about her in town, paying him 20 gold coins.

Back at Drop-off Tower, Thorngrim was able to make a good showing on his lyre of building, converting all of the available stone supplies into the keep walls and completing one of the corner towers. This moved the keep well ahead of schedule, but left the workers without much to work with until more stone could arrive. This forced Agnes and Tycho to go to the quarries to place an emergency order for stone. Mog wandered off somewhere and the three wizards (Sal, Maenwen, and Xin) were performing arcane research.

Once the available adventurers assembled, the small group decided to go to Old Stones and attempt another breach into the Elemental Chaos. When Alys asked for explanations of what this entailed, they essentially talked themselves out of doing such a dangerous thing and instead decided to explore the Edge Hills north and west of the Old Road.

On the first day of explorations in the hills the group was attacked by a manticore, a fight that went quick, and found giant ant trails. Later in the day, they were attacked by three wyverns, during which Su Bel summoned a bishonen warrior, er, a Bralani azata to assist in the fight. Much later in the day the group located the wyvern nest and found quite a bit of loose loot, including a set of platemail +1. Sadly, the only one who could wear it was wearing better armor. With “waste not, want not” as their motto, the armor was packed away for later use.

Without several people who had become part of the groups camping SOP, a new plan was devised: Thorngrim would use wall of stone to build a stone tower for the group to camp in. While a fine idea, without a good set of plans and Sal’s engineering expertise, Thorngrim created what is now known as the Crooked Tower. Plus, it was relatively short – only 20 ft tall. Thorngrim would come to regret this.

During first watch, a dire tiger, the one creature whose lethality the adventurers truly respect, moved into the area, tracking the scent of wyvern steaks. Alys wanted to go out and charge it on Mr. Boodles and had to be physically restrained by Dame Yasha. Sulking, Alys returned to the roof of the Crooked Tower where Thorngrim watched the dire tiger’s approach. The tiger was attacked at range [I don’t remember by who, but the PCs definitely initiated the fight]. When the tiger attacked, it charged the tower and leapt up at the top, catching hold just enough to lash out with a claw and grab Thorngrim, pulling him down to the ground when it let go of the tower.

Thorngrim, rather than attempt to escape (which he knew he would fail at), cast scorching ray at the dire tiger, one of his two rays burning the skin and much of the flesh off the animals head [a critical hit for near maximum damage]. Hearing that Thorngrim was on the ground from Alys, Kainen bolted out the tower door and attacked the critically wounded dire tiger, putting it out of its misery.

After the fight, Alys was very contrite and apologized to Thorngrim for pushing to attack the dire tiger. Thorngrim accepted the apology and they were good friends again.

The next day, the small group explored further, reaching the northwest tip of the hills, following signs of a bulette. They eventually cornered the bulette. During the fight, Alys charged the beast and Su Bel summoned an earth elemental. Between Alys and the elemental, the bulette did not stand a chance.

The beast killed, the adventurers returned to the Crooked Tower to camp. In the morning, they made their way back to Drop-off Tower with their loot and trophies.

*End of session*

[This was a short-ish session as we did not get word that Agnes and Tycho would not be available until later than normal. That said, the group did get most of the hills north and west of Old Road explored and created a new landmark on the map – the Crooked Tower. I like it when players physically add to the world as it gives me things to work with that are tied in to the world in a way the players have a stake in.]