Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 66 [RPG]

 [Wealday, 29 Erastus 4708 A.R.]

 

In the supernatural gloom caused by the uncanny black tower that looms over them, The Reckoner and Goldcape talk about what to do next.  The Reckoner’s sapient armor, Plate, says they have to intervene to save Korvosa from living in permanent shadow!  Goldcape is more reluctant, but is persuaded that the danger to the city warrants the tower being investigated.  She earns the concession that they’ll enter in the morning so everyone will be at full strength.  Oddly enough, during the conversation, Anorak has been completely silent.  When the invisibility he cast on himself during the vescavor swarm attack finally wears off a dozen minutes later, the others see his eyes are vacant!  Could his mind or soul have been drained away when, as “owner” of the box, he destroyed it by placing it in the bag of holding?  The others drag Anorak to safety and then, at Plate’s suggestion, heap piles of rubble in front of the tower’s lone door to make sure nothing else emerges.

 

But as the improvised barricade is being assembled, it seems the presence of a massive black tower suddenly arising in Trail’s End hasn’t gone unnoticed by those across the river!  Four Gray Maidens, mounted on hippogriffs, are streaking tower the tower from Castle Korvosa.  Eager for a fight, The Reckoner uses an array of wands to prepare himself, while Goldcape conjures an ettin out of pure magical energy!  Once the Gray Maidens get close enough, Goldcape starts summoning bolts of lightning, knocking one of the riders and her mounts into a spiral they can’t recover from.  The other Gray Maidens circle the tower once and then fly back toward the city at top-speed, obviously having been briefed that a direct confrontation with the Harrowed Heroes is sure to end in utter defeat.

 

Once the Maidens have fled the scene, Goldcape buries the slain hippogriff while The Reckoner recovers its rider’s weapons and armor.  One of the few remaining Varisians in Trail’s End, a farrier named Giorgio, gathers the courage to emerge from hiding to ask what’s going on.  Goldcape speaks with him and shares what she knows.  When the two agree that Queen Ileosa may see the tower as a challenge to her reign and that its mere presence poses a threat to Trail’s End, Giorgio agrees with Goldcape’s advice that the remaining residents of the little community should leave for their own safety.  Giorgio says his people know the ways of the road and will be gone at first light.  Goldcape gives Giorgio a letter to show to Jasan Aldern in Harse if they need a temporary place to stay.

 

In full knowledge that, come morning, she and The Reckoner will enter the tower and perhaps never come back, Goldcape leaves a note for Anorak explaining what happened and flies quickly on Rocky to drop off Blackjack’s costume at the safehouse (along with instructions to Sergeant Clenkins to forward the trunk to Vencarlo Orisini if she never returns for it).

 

[Oathday, 30 Erastus 4708 A.R.]

 

In the morning, as The Reckoner and Goldcape are getting ready for the ominous task ahead, Goldcape receives a mental message from Yraelzin: “I’m with the Brotherhood of Bone at the skull-topped tower on the shores of the crater lake.  Laori is endlessly entertaining!”  Goldcape tells The Reckoner the Brotherhood of Bone are a small sect of the faith of Zon-Kuthon (the god of pain and shadows) opposed to Kazavon, and must be the allies The Harrower told her about.  She adds that one of them will betray the other.  But The Reckoner is more interested in the present than the future, and only nods as he goes to investigate the only entrance to the black stone spire.  The tall door is located in an odd-shaped recess and emblazoned with a bas-relief of people having their skin and muscle torn out of their bodies by unknown forces.  The Reckoner’s keen eyes discern faintly glowing magical runes around the edges of the door—a magical trap!  As neither of the pair are trained in trap removal, they try a variety of things to discharge it harmlessly, but none work.  Finally, Goldcape hits on the clever idea of conjuring the magical simulacram of a mite—a small, three-foot-tall, blue-faced fey, and instructing it to touch the door.  When the mite does so, an incredibly powerful surge of foul necromantic energy completely drains the life from the creature.  But the runes no longer glow, indicating the trap is in abeyance.

The Reckoner pushes the heavy stone door inwards to reveal a vaguely diamond-shaped room with ceilings almost thirty feet high.  The dark stone walls seem to absorb light, as do two triangular pools filled with what looks like roiling ink.  In the center of the room stands a waist-high pedestal that has a round platform mounted on it; the platform has a sharp, needle-like projection pointing to one of four arcane symbols along the edges.  Before The Reckoner can venture far to explore, an enormous, bat-like creature shaped from utter darkness descends from the ceiling to attack!  With one bite, The Reckoner feels the chill of the grave and notices some of his defensive magics vanish.  But his heavily-enchanted silver battle-maul leaves deep sizzling wounds on the creature as it rages in the guttural Infernal tongue, “Trapped! Return Home!  Mortimont!”  In seconds, the creature lies dead at The Reckoner’s feet.

When it’s safe, Goldcape joins The Reckoner in the interior of the tower.  She can discern the pools of liquid and the pedestal mechanism are magical, but not how they function.  The four symbols, however, are apparently planar sigils—one for the Material Plane (where the platform is pointing), one for the Ethereal Plane, one for the Abyss, and one for the Plane of Shadow.  Empty squares indicate that perhaps other sigils could be added.  The Reckoner surmises that this entire tower could travel between planes!

 

One door stands closed across the oddly-shaped chamber.  Goldcape stays back some distance as The Reckoner carefully opens it to reveal a small chamber filled with obsidian chests etched with words in exotic tongues.  At first glance, the room seems safe, but seconds later a ghostly presence emerges from the very walls of the tower, its face and clenched fingers delivering a silent message of utter rage.  Then, the silence is broken by an unearthly wail of heartbreaking tragedy.  The Reckoner claps his forearms to his ears, staggering from the overwhelming assault to his senses, but he remains standing.  Fortunately, the potentially-fatal sound has ebbed by the time it reaches Goldcape and Rocky.  But The Reckoner’s reliable battle-maul proves far less effective against this new threat.  The banshee plunges a ghostly hand into his chest to squeeze his heart!  He collapses, dead, until Goldcape uses her most powerful magic to get his heart beating again!  And with a cry, she sends Rocky to swoop in and help The Reckoner battle the insubstantial menace.  With an enchanted talon, Rocky adds to the damage The Reckoner has already inflicted and tears away the last wisps of semi-corporeal substance that formed the undead being.  It slowly dissipates.

“I would be dead without you! That was a close-run thing!” says The Reckoner in gratitude to Goldcape.  He uses a wand to heal his wounds further, and then the two investigate the obsidian chests.  Between the two of them, they can only discern the words on one of the chests—written in Infernal, it says “Blasphemous”.  The Reckoner decides to open one of the other chests, and finds a morningstar, a longbow, and a longsword.  When the other three chests are opened, they reveal similar contents.  Goldcape can discern that all the weapons are magical, and that one of the chests contains a holy weapon.  Concerned that the others could be evil or cursed, Goldcape conjures another mite to place them all in a canvas bag for safekeeping.

 

The Tower of Passage has been explored, with near fatal results.  But now a new question arises: what should be done with it?

---------------------

GM Commentary

I think I may have adapted some of the layout and foes in the tower from one of the optional side quest adventures for Curse of the Crimson Throne presented in the Pathfinder comics.  I added all the material about the plane-shifting ability of the tower.

Anorak's player was absent this session, which is why the character was incapacitated.  (I always try to come up with semi-plausible reasons a PC can't participate)

It was a good thing they detected (and cleverly discharged with a summoned creature) the trap on the door; it was a CL13 harm spell, and 130 hit points of damage could ruin someone's day!

The first foe in the tower was a nightwing nightshade, while the second was a banshee.  Both are pretty nasty foes, especially given the PCs' levels and number.  Goldcape used heroic recovery to keep The Reckoner from becoming "dead dead"!  The rewards in the chest were pretty sweet, and I think the holy weapons were used until the very end of the campaign.