Crystal Quest Aftermath, Part 4
7-31-04
Now standing at the base of the tower, the group determines how to best get inside. After determining that the plasma sword Scepter will not cut through stone - or at least, not the walls of this Tower - Akili decides that going through one of the windows, about 30 feet off the ground, would be best. Firing a grapping look from his Scepter, the hook bounces off the pane glass window. Frowning, he tries again, figuring he missed. This time his aim is even worse, so he hands the Scepter to Sarai, who tries her hand. There is no mistaking her perfect aim, but the hook still bounces off the paned glass. Frowning again, Akili contemplates how to best get up there. Andune suggests Spider Climb as a possibility. Akili asks if that can be cast on him; learning that it can, he makes the request.
Climbing easily up the 30 feet to the window, Akili ignites the plasma sword portion of the Scepter and discovers he can easily slice through the window. Finding a latch, he cuts another hole in the glass, waits for it to cool a moment, and opens the window. Now intent on hooking the grapple to the windowframe, he fails to notice the guards moving towards him, and gets an arrow in the shoulder for his trouble. Rapidly retreating to the ground, Akili points out the guards clustering around the window to the others, and combat begins. During the fight, one of the guards drifts out of the opened window, drifts upwards 10 feet, then falls all 40 feet to the ground. The remaining guard at the end of the battle retreats from the window, closing it and wrecking the latch, and yelps.
Climbing back up, Akili carves out the entire windowpane, seeing that the latch is destroyed (fortunately not hitting anyone below with the sliced-out pane), climbs inside, and successfully places the grappling hook and lowers the rope for the others. The room is a large circular area, with a raised dias in the center that a round table rests on, surrounded by chairs. The room has windows spaced equidistantly around the walls of the tower, and there are chairs in front of every window. There is also a stairwell going down. Sarai realizes that her balance feels somewhat strange here, like she's lost weight. She tries jumping, and learns that the ceiling is 15 feet up as she smacks into it. She hesitates there, and calls down, "Akili, this is your doing, isn't it?" Then gravity seems to reassert itself and she smacks into the floor. "...Well, yeah," he responds. "But I didn't *make* you jump." Sarai hesitates, then answers, "It's still your fault!"
Although the group is only partially up the tower, all that is above them is an unremarkable stone ceiling, and no one comes up with adequate ways of cutting through. Giving up, they head downstairs with Sarai in the lead. She is blasted in the face with a spell of searing light; shaking off the effects, she sees the black-haired guy whom they saw in the tower window earlier. In exchange, she shoots him with an arrow, and continues running after him. Continuing down to the next floor, there is another circular room. This one has a square table that's tipped over as a barricade for the three guards hiding behind it, and the black-haired, plate-mailed guy runs through a door down another corridor. Divided combat ensues. Andune and Oy-hat concentrate on the guards, with Akili helping once to chuck a seed of entanglement at two newly-arriving guards, then goes to help Sarai with the black-haired guy. She misses, and the guy is about to get away, turning to slam a door shut, when Akili clips him with a brick from nowhere, knocking him over. Sarai rushes forwards and unsuccessfully attempts to pin him to the ground. He manages to slip away, and resumes running down the stairs. The other few party members finish up with the guards - Oy-aht managing to nearly decapitate one with a single punch - and everyone now races down the stairs to catch up with this guy. Near the bottom, Akili chucks another one of his magic seeds of entanglement, and the black-haired guy is finally pinned.
Upon questioning, they learn that his name is Rolth, and that he's one of the Watchers of the tower... a rather cowardly one, at that, as he was helping the enemy forces after threats that they'd hurt or kill him. They learn a little about the arrangement and positions of the remainder of the forces that are in the tower, and Akili has the bright idea to ask if the Tower has any magical defenses. This produces results, although Rolth doesn't know how to activate them himself... but the rest of the Watchers are still imprisoned up in the higher floors of the tower, accessible by another set of stairs here at the ground floor. Ascending the stairs, they encounter and easily defeat three more guards, although Rolth evidently has run away during the brief melee. Briefly bickering amongst themselves about who was supposed to be watching him, they decide to let him go, and ascend the last flight of stairs.
Once there, they find another circular room with a large table, although this one has no windows. There is a roughly-made fence of iron along one side of the wall, serving as a barricade for what appear to be the surviving Watchers inside. This room also features three more of those creepy golems. These ones are smaller, but it is quickly discovered that they can jump. Everyone magically-inclined is rather tapped out by this point, and these are difficult fighting quarters with two staircases, and the golems are strangely resistant to most of their weapons, but they eventually defeat them. This is due in no small part to Oy-hat's Apparatus of Kwalish and Kaira's driving assistance. While Sarai scrounges the clay bodies of the golems for spell components, Akili cuts a doorway in the iron fence with his plasma sword and frees the imprisoned Watchers, who are quite grateful. Upon being asked about those magical protections, they politely ask that Akili go downstairs first - being Watchers, they instantly know what a Chaos Mage can do to their magic - and he goes with only slight irritation. Even from downstairs, he can feel the immense strength of the magical barrier that is raised, and heads back upstairs when called. Akili also destroys the rest of the barrier with his sword, so that the Watchers can dispose of the remains of the fence, and gain full use of the room.
Now the Watchers help bring the group up to date, although Andune and Oy-aht don't follow some of it, having not been exposed to quite as much as Akili and Sarai have. It is learned that the golems are creations of Matro, who is evidently back and manipulating things, and has also enlisted Koron's aid, and by extension the aid of his people, the Slavaakians. This is unpleasant news indeed to Akili and Sarai, who know more about what Matro is capable of. They also learn that Rolth helped betray the Watchers, evidently siding with either Koron or Matro, which is why the tower was taken over despite its defenses. Even more curiously, teleportation inside the tower is not possible by any magic the Watchers know of - and they know a lot - and yet, that is what the enemy forces managed to pull off.
Before cleaning out the remaining guards in the barracks, who are now blocked from going outside by the raised magical barrier, the group takes some time to rest and recharge, allowing the Watchers to keep watch. Akili and Sarai also give the Watchers a couple random items that they have been trying to identify for some time, which will be studied while the group rests.
Retcon: Akili adds his Lucky Rock and the Bag of Stasis to the pile for the Watchers to investigate.