The Green Tower II

The Three Odd Adventurers were stumped about how to gain access to the Green Tower. They had remembered that the only door to the tower was inside the Time Tower, but that door, in addition to all the windows, was covered by the “bark” (shimmery metallically) covering, and that was impervious to their efforts at entry. They remembered that Reidoth had told them that there were three layers of magical shields on these towers: Time, Nature and Magic. Nyx reminded them that they had been told “Nature is a guest, not a foe. Seek Eth-el.” With these warnings in their minds they decided not to try to hack into the bark or burn it.

After much discussion they decided to see if there was a way to get in from the roof, and that would require a ladder to get on top of the Time Tower, and then from there to the Green Tower. So Barbar and Nyx went into the woods to construct a ladder, and Galadan, thinking perhaps that water might be effective against the bark located a stream and using his hat, gathered some water and splashed that on the door - to no avail.

While in the woods, Barbar and Nyx heard the loud snap of a branch, but saw nothing to alarm them. Returning with the ladder, Barbar suddenly thought to hold his magic glove to the door and see if that revealed anything. It did! There was carving on the door…..”K heart B.” This message was beyond them, but they committed it to memory.

Dusk approaching they decide to press on and use the ladder. All three climbed the ladder to the top of the Time Tower and then moved it across to lean against the Green tower. Just as Barbar was about to climb they were interrupted by a voice, Reidoth’s voice.

Reidoth asked them what they were doing, and then explained to them that there would be no entrance to the tower without lowering the wards.

Reidoth told them that he had employed a Native Spirit to ward the tower. That Spirit resided in the King Tree in the Ancient Tree Circle, and both the Spirit and the Tower were protected by a Powerful Glamour. At this point Galadan interrupted Reidoth and told him about the corpse with the wooden knife in its chest that they had discovered under the King Tree. Reidoth seemed concerned and confused by this report. But he went on to tell them that The Glamour was anchored at 4 Ancient Foci. He instructed Companions to visit each of the 4 Foci and find the anchor tokens. Once they have found all four the Glamour would drop and they would be able to speak with the Guardian Spirit.

He also told them that to defuse each Focus they would need to perform an Ancient Elven Ritual “The introduction to the Elven Court.” He then described an extremely complicated ritual involving two “retainers” bowing, scraping, kneeling, circling, spitting and generally cavorting around one person, who must remain absolutely still and quiet. Reluctantly, the Three Companions learned this ritual and decided that Galadan, who was the most attuned to Nature, should play the role of the person to be introduced. They practiced the ritual twice before Reidoth told them his time was up, and that he would like to meet them at dawn, to go over the Ritual one more time before they left and to give them last minute instructions.

The Three decide to spend the night in the Time Tower basement. After warding the door and stairs as best they could, they discussed the day’s events. The big, nagging question they all had was whether they had been speaking or Reidoth or to the Demon. If it was Reidoth, then they felt inclined to follow his instructions. But what if it were the Demon? With some reservations they decided to assume they had spoken to the real Reidoth, and Nyx, exhausted by the days events went to sleep, while Galadan took the first watch.

Just before dawn, while Barbar was on watch, Reidoth suddenly appeared in the Tower basement. He had them demonstrate the Ritual, made a few adjustments, and then somewhat grudgingly admitted that they were adequately adept to successfully disarm the anchors.

He then instructed Nyx to find a strong piece of wood, from which to fashion a magical amulet that would guide them, like a compass, to the Four Foci. He tells them that the Four Foci are at the Cardinal Points relative to the King Tree, each being 17,000 strides from the tree. Nyx took her time fashioning the amulet, and while waiting Barbar circumnavigated the tower, and heard wing beats, but was unable to see the creature that made them.

Nyx finished the Amulet and immediately felt a tug towards the North. And so the Companions set off to find the first Focus.

The morning was lovely, the weather mild and the Three set off expecting to enjoy their walk through the woods. And so they did, for the first half hour, until they suddenly came upon the headless corpse of a deer that had clearly been impaled by many spiky things that left chitinous material in each of the wounds. They were uncertain what could have made such wounds and then, a few yards further, the deer’s head suddenly fell from above. But they could not discover its source.

Walking another half hour, the woods thinned and then failed, leaving the Three on the edge of a large savanna which they clearly needed to traverse. They trudged through the long grass for four or five hours until Barbar heard some rustling in the grass several hundred yards behind them and to the left. This was no bunny foraging for lunch! This was something really big, and there was no cover in sight. They deliberated for a minute about whether to challenge this potential foe or run for it, maybe finding some kind of position of advantage should a battle ensue. Barbar picked up Nyx and he and Galadan started to run north. After a while they slowed their pace, settling into a fast jog and Nyx, looking over Barbar’s should, tried to see whether anything was following them. She could see that they were being followed, but it took two hours for her to finally catch a glimpse of the knobby tops of a pair of wings. The creature had moved from behind them to a parallel course about 100 yards to the west. At that point they were about 100 yards from another band of woods and the Companions quickly decided to make for the edge of that wood as it might give them some cover. Having reached the tree line, the Companions start moving west, towards the creature, and they caught a glimpse of a winged feline creature as it climbed up a tree. Galadan, thinking this may be a Griffin, decided to try to talk to it, so he approached the tree, but heard a loud warning growl that was distinctly un-Griffin-like. Nyx called out in Sylvan and was rewarded with a loud Hiss and just in time saw something flit around the tree trunk and fire a swarm of darts towards them! Two darts hit Galadan and Barbar and Nyx fired off a fire bolt and managed to singe what turned out to be the Creature’s tail, causing the creature to move further up.

The Three quickly discussed how to deal with this creature. They now were sure that what they were facing was a clever and angry Manticore rather than a Griffin. Clearly being in the woods gave the advantage to this creature rather than to the Companions, so they moved back into the grass to see if it would follow them. It didn’t. They waited an hour and then decided to resume their march north. After they had walked two more hours it was late afternoon and Barbar reported feeling “something fishy” and he was sure that the Manticore was back. But they saw no evidence of the manticore and continued to walk another two hours until it was dark, and they suddenly stumbled into some kind of overgrown ruin inside a small clearing in the woods.

The amulet indicated they needed to be in center of the clearing and at the same time they distinctly heard something rustling dead ahead in the clearing.

Nyx moved in stealthily and saw a statue in a pool with a bed of gravel in front of it. She also noticed that the gravel was moving a bit, almost as though something invisible were shuffling about on it. The Companions moved forward and joined Nyx. Upon closer inspection they notice objects hanging on the statue, and there is a golden spike driven into the chest of the figure. Barbar moved in towards the golden spike when suddenly the ground almost under his feet erupted! An enormous land shark surged from its hidden burrow, hideously gnashing and growling. The Three closed ranks and battled with this unexpected and inconvenient Monster! Bloodied but victorious the Three finally dispatch the Landshark. As Galadan and Barbar pause to catch their breath, the ever watchful Nyx quickly investigated the area, looking for signs of other predators like the Manticore and also for whatever loot the Landshark might have been protecting. Indeed, she found 120 gold in its burrow, but nothing else of note.

With no enemies in evidence the Three looked more closely at the objects bedecking the statue. Reidoth’s charm was a fired clay token hanging from a leather thong suspended from the golden spike. There also was a brown woven bracelet and a necklace ornamented with the teeth of some large predator. Galadan noted that the whole area smelled of magic.

Getting down to business, and feeling more than a bit foolish, the Three performed the Ritual that Reidoth had taught them, but nothing really happened. Angry, disappointed, the Three figured they would have to go back to the Green Tower and relearn the Ritual. Nyx glanced at her Amulet, wondering if it would help getting them back to the Tower, when she noticed that the Amulet was no longer at all interested in this spot. The Ritual must have worked! The Amulet was now pulling gently Southwest.

With relief, the Three discussed the other charms on the statue. Nyx cast Detect Magic and determined that all the objects channeled magic but were not magical items in themselves. The spike felt like normal magic, but the other items were definitely of Fey origin. The decision was made to take all the items.

Then, the long day done, the Three crammed into the Landshark’s burrow to take a long rest. But in the morning, when they emerged, they found a ring of Manticore spikes all around the entrance to the burrow, and the corpse of the land shark was gone. Nyx took one of the Manticore spikes thinking it might prove useful. Pulling on their packs, the Three set out to the Southwest in search of the next Focus.

They marched 4-5 hours, always on the alert. About midday the Manticore showed up again, flying high above them. By this time they were out on the plains again, and in the distance to the SW they saw two flying creatures. They kept to their original line of march and after about a half hour the two creatures spied the Three and came to investigate. Once they got close enough the Three saw that these were definitely not eagles. Although clearly large birds, their heads had huge antlers, rather like those of a reindeer. These were, clearly, Peretons - creatures transformed through magic, and who preyed on people, needing humanoid hearts to complete their reproductive cycle.

The three ran over to a nearby tree and the Peretons started circling. This was clearly a stalemate. The Companions could stay by the tree in safety, but were prevented from continuing their quest. Or, they could come out from the tree and be attacked by the pernicious monsters. In unspoken agreement the Three moved away from the tree and the Peretons attacked! Once again, bloodied but determined, the Three dispatch their foes!

Needing a short rest the Companions settled down in the grass a distance from the battle site. They hear rustling near the tree for about 10 minutes. Short rest over, they continue to walk to theSW, and as they passed the battle site Nyx noted a bright spray of blood over the area and that one of the Pereton’s bodies was gone.

Continuing their march to the southwest, the Companions ended up near the Kobolds’ Redoubt. The amulet dragged the Companions into the forest where they saw another Ring of Trees, presided over by another King Tree. This one was considerably smaller than the other, and the branches were full of ribbons, leather thongs, things woven of grass, all holding clay charms. The Compass indicated that high above them, maybe 20 or 30 feet, Reidoth’s Amulet had been pegged into the tree. Above that was another golden spike. They also noticed that the ground under the tree was littered with charms, probably because the straps that had been holding them decayed.

Barbar decided to scout the area, but saw nothing obviously threatening. Everything seemed peaceful so they decided to perform the Ritual. Finished with that Nyx checked the Compass and it still adamantly indicated that this spot held a Focus. Clearly the ritual hadn’t worked! Mystified, the Companions tried many things to get the Ritual to work, but they were unsuccessful.

At this juncture, when frustration was threatening to overcome them, they all heard the voice of Eth-El, first apologizing for interrupting them, and then telling them that they needed to be closer to the amulet. Eth-El’s apology hit Galadan as odd, so he assured Eth-El that (her?) interference was by no means unwanted. Indeed, they so valued her assistance, they would like a way to contact (her?) should the need arise. Eth-El seemed pleased by their appreciation and in a happier tone assured them that (she) was always listening and would respond if called.

In a much improved frame of mind Barbar climbed the tree, unhooked the second of Reidoth’s Amulet (as well as the golden spike) and brought them down. They repeated the Ritual near theAmulet and immediately noted that the Compass now was tugging to the Southeast. But by this time it was full dark, and the Companions decided to rest in the grove for the night and embark on their march toward the 3rd Focus in the morning. Once again, Nyx required a full night’s rest to recover her powers, and Galadan and Barbar decide to split the watch.

Galadan was enjoying the quiet night and the blaze of the stars overhead when he was alerted by the sound of two of the clay amulets clacking together on the tree. There was no wind so Galadan looked into the tree to ascertain what had moved them. There, 20 feet above him perched the Manticore! Seeing that Galadan had spied it, the Manticore it dove down on him clearly meaning to kill him with its vicious onslaught. His startled yell awakened Barbar and Nyx who instantly moved to defend Galadan and kill their attacker.

This battle made their previous fights with the land shark and the peretons seem like child’s play. The Manticore was a cunning fighter and one determined to kill its opponents. Galadan became a Bear, the better to withstand the Manticore’s blows. Nyx and Barbar fought with everything they had. They sorely wounded the Manticore, but it kept on fighting. The Manticore wounded each member of the party, and many times Galadan was sure that he was moments from death. But they persisted and finally managed to drive the Manticore off, but not before they heard it say, “Bangresh will return and will crush your bones!” Barbar wanted to pursue the Manticore immediately, but everyone needed to heal and replenish their spells. Instead, they decided to head towards the Kobolds’ Redoubt to beg a bed and a secure a safe place to replenish their strength.

The Kobolds graciously granted them the security and peace in which to rest, and the next morning they started their journey towards the 3rd Focus. The 8 hour march was thankfully uneventful, and they eventually came upon a river that seemed to run in the direction the Compass was indicating. They saw no sign of the Manticore, but they did find an old ruined Mill consisting of a decrepit enclosure, a rotten and fallen wheel and the millstone laying forlorn in the long grass. This seemed to be the place the Compass had brought them to, so they started looking for the Amulet. Nyx, ever helpful, cast Detect Magic but didn’t pick up on anything in particular. Barbar started looking for something to use as a lever to flip the millstone. Nyx stayed to poke about in the ruins looking for treasure while Galadan went to investigate the mill stream. Wading into the stream near where the Mill Wheel undoubtedly turned, Galadan tripped over a large stone and found that agolden spike has been driven through it, impaling both the rock and the amulet. He lifted that to the shore and also brought up other stones that had been close by, only to find that they were carved with mysterious glyphs and sigils.

With no more ado, the Three perform the Ritual again and were rewarded by seeing the Compass switch its attention from this location to another to the Northeast. Barbar collected the gold spike from the stone, Nyx finished her investigation, finding nothing of value, though she did find a board that apparently couldn’t rot and had a tooth carved into it. They set guards and wards and slept.

Early the next morning the Three started out towards the last of the Focus Amulets. Once again the Three are alerted when they heard rustling ahead of them in the sparse forest. The Companions moved forward warily and the rustling stoped, but Nyx saw an orc up in a tree who alerted his companions to the presence of the Three. Eight orcs converge on the group and a battle ensued. When it was over seven of the orcs lay dead and one spell caster escaped. Nyx, Galadan and Barbar were not unscathed, but they were victorious. The Companions rested for a bit, caught their breath and searched the dead orcs. From their accoutrements and sparse change (70 gold) they decided they had happened upon a mere orc hunting party. Upon resuming their march they heard a short scream and figured that something had caught that last orc. Wanting to assure themselves that the last orc had indeed died they search to the east, but found no orc body. Instead they found dead Kobold with a spike through its head.

The Compass tugging to the NE, the Companions continued towards the last Focus. This direction brought them to the edge of a very large lake and across the lake they saw a village, and theCompass seemed to indicate the Focus was in this village.

The Companions carefully approached the village, coming at it from uphill and giving themselves a chance to study the place. It appeared to be a poor fishing village with 50-60 humble dwellings. There were a few bigger buildings but most of the habitations could only be termed hovels, with the town sprawling out to the right, becoming more scruffy the further it extended. There were two elements of the town that they found mystifying. Right in the middle, on the lake edge were two very elaborate, very large dressed stone docks. And to the left there was a clear line where the town ended and beyond that nothing.

As they Companions descended into the town they encountered a mix of races, but the inhabitants weren’t hostile though most were completely uninterested in the strangers. The Companions decided to stop in at the Dock Town Tavern, figuring that Publicans tend to know everything that’s going on in town. But not this one! The only information that he could divulge was that the town did indeed have an alchemist from whom they might possibly buy healing potions. But other than that he was cheerfully and blissfully ignorant of the history of the town, or the current happenings.

The Amulet guided them to the center of town, but there was nothing there that even vaguely suggested the location of the fourth Focus. They then wandered over to the docks. There they found the immaculate dressed stone, but the metal and wooden fittings normally associated with such docks were rotting and falling apart. Detritus was strewn everywhere. The boats tied to the dock were small, poor fishing vessels which were dwarfed and shamed by this magnificent dock. Galadan smelled magic in the dock vicinity but couldn’t attribute it to anything specific.

They decide to knock on a door and ask about Angie the Alchemist. An elderly lady answered and though confused by the appearance of the Three strangers, she readily told them that they were likely to find Angie walking up and down on the shore. They asked her about the town and she divulged that things have been hard since the mine closed. Jumping on this bit of information, theThree asked her for directions to the mine entrance, which she eagerly told them. Galadan, noting the poorness of her abode and the complete dearth of any food other than fish, offered the lady an apple as a thank you, which she was pleased to accept.

The Three then followed the woman’s directions and easily found the mine entrance. No one was around, and they saw a flight of steps leading down to a natural room, which was open to the sky and from there continued down into the lake water. Clearly no one was going to be working this mine.

Galadan speculated that perhaps the Amulet was under the village and the mine might very well have had tunnels that ran beneath it. So, he turned into a giant octopus and followed the stairs and atunnel into a large room, which led to a small passage which continued quite a ways, and from there to a smaller room. He sensed a flow of water into and out of this room and there were fish and other life forms in the waters. As he was about to explore further he saw two very large, and clearly very hungry Pike. Their presence deterred him and he returned to his friends on the surface. Galadan was still convinced that he would find the Amulet somewhere in the mines, but he also knew he probably couldn’t defeat the two Pike. Perhaps there as another entrance to the mine?

They decide to walk back to town along the beach to see if there are any other entrances, and on that journey they ran into Angie the Alchemist and she turned out to be a half-elf. She told them that the other entrance to the mine was actually in the lake. She also said that the “lake felt safe” and admitted that the docks were charmed and that there were glyphs under the docks. She, however, flatly denied that she could make health potions, but she did mention se was currently working on a potion to allow humanoids to breathe under water. But to do this she needed lake-weed that lived under the docks.

Together they walked back into town and on down to the dock. The Three “borrowed” a rowboat from some unsuspecting fisher person and with that they went under the docks. And there, underneath the docks were glyphs - not as “flowey” as typical fey glyphs, and they noted that there was one carved under each arch.

As they viewed the glyphs Eth-El chimed in and claimed to have seen such glyphs somewhere but couldn’t remember where. While under the docks Galadan stripped off his robe and sank into the water, assisted in his search for the required lake-weed by dancing fairy lights, courtesy of Nyx. He gathered as much of the weed as he could and also noticed that the lake bed was covered with fist sized fish eggs. Angie was excited to get the Weed.

The Companions accompanied Angie and the Weed back to the tavern where she had her lab, and there she concocted a truly evil smelling brew. Taking a mug of the brew the Three along with Angie went back down to the lake.

Barbar agreed to try the brew first and bravely chugged down the foul smelling stuff. Surprisingly, it didn’t cause him to vomit, nor did it kill him, but quickly he became light headed, and woozy and gasped for breath. He jumped into the lake and found he could breathe water! The experiment was a success! He took advantage of this new ability and explored the lake bottom. He noticed the large fish eggs, but also many wrecked boats lying on the sand, including huge ships more often seen at ocean docks.

More light headedness and the choking sensation summoned Barbar to the surface where he reported his findings. Angie, thrilled with her success rushed back to her lab to make more potion. TheThree stayed behind and hatched a plan for obtaining the Amulet. Nyx and Barbar would drink potion and Galadan would turn into the Giant Octopus. He would then pull them swiftly to the room with the Pike, where all three of them would battle and defeat those predators. Then they would find the amulet, bring it out, and perform the Ritual. This Plan seemed good to them, and they went back to the Inn and convinced Angie to given them more potion, this time filling their water skins. They promised to report on the further success of her invention.

Back to the mine entrance they went, Barbar once again drank the potion, and Nyx also, without making too many horrible faces, drained her draught. Galadan became an Octopus, and according to plan dragged them swiftly to the Pike Room. Despite being in water, the Three managed to kill the two hungry Pike and then found that below them was a large boulder that had the Amulet tied to it by means of leather laces. Also driven in to the Boulder was a golden spike. As Galadan was making his second attempt to dislodge the spike from the boulder he noticed that there were deep, regular gouges in the boulder which looked like they had been made by some humanoid with extremely durable claws. While he was focused on the boulder, Nyx, as usual, was investigating and found another tunnel which aimed towards the center of the lake, but alas, she found no loot. Galadan decided to investigate this new tunnel, and went down it quite a ways, and noted the movement in water in that tunnel. But he didn’t want to leave his Companions for too long, and returned to them, and dragged them back to the surface. Immediately upon exiting the tunnel, having looked to see that no one was there to witness, they Three Compassions once again, and hopefully for the Last Time, performed the Ritual. Then they headed back to the dock, secured more Lake Weed for Angie and went to the Inn to take a much needed and well deserved long rest.

However, they were awakened suddenly by Eth-El who first congratulated them on destroying the Glamour and then told them that there was a Major Incursion going on Right Now, and that they needed to run out and deal with it. Still sleepy, somewhat confused and more than a bit grumpy, the Three headed outside and were instantly dumbstruck. The “line” beyond which the town had not existed was now revealed to be a wall with a prosperous city on the other side. They soon learned that this town was Kuto Shadows, and that their wall was guarded. The town seemed prosperous, people were bustling about, big ships were tied to the docks and the town spread up the embankment. But no sooner had they taken note of all this than they heard screaming, and rushing toward them came a pack of panicked people. Behind them the Three could just see a pair of Giant Yellow Glowing Legs stomping behind the crowd.