The Ivory Tor 13-10-2024 [[Session 17|<- Previous Session]] ### Recap Ready to enter the Ivory Tor, the party prepares for their delve and sets up camp to enter bright and early the next day. However, during the night something goes horribly wrong as the party is abducted to the Shadowfell, losing the professor and Nibiru in the chaos. Stranded in an unknown plane with no hopes of returning, the party uses Drildo's firepower to see in the pitch black. Their welcome is less then warm however, as they are swiftly attacked by a group of banderhobbs. Killing the frog monsters the party ventures onward. Their healing magic had attracted another denizen of the dark, the Hungry. Quickly disposing of the Hungry, the party sees their first sign of light in flashes of fire in the distance. Using the flames as a beacon, the party follows the fire to a rocky arena, where a large shadow dragon is fighting two adventurers. Before deciding what to do, the fighting stops and the dragon flies overhead, spotting the party. Trying to lie their way out of certain death, Bradley says they are here to worship the dragon, but their offer has been stolen. Insulted by this, the dragon asks who stole it to which Blue says Nyx. Seemingly happy with this news, the dragon flies off to tell Trixshade about their new Casus Belli on the court of betrayal. Using this as a chance to sneak inside, the party enters the lair of Shadowfax. In the lair they find the bodies of the fallen adventurers as well as a hoard of petrified adventurers, under which the professor and Nibiru. Allen tries to summon Nyx to escape the Shadowfell, but the plane stops their call. The dragon returns, infuriated by the fact that the party tried to summon Nyx. As the party almost gets blasted with the breath weapon of the dragon a rift opens and out steps Nyx to fight with the dragon. The party escapes through the rift (not before taking what they can from the hoard), while Nyx kills Shadowfax. Nyx explains he was poisoned which waned his powers to conceal the party and apologizes for the abduction. Sending the party back to the overworld, the party once again readies themselves to enter the Ivory Tor... ### Summary Preparing to take the Tor, the party notice that Akhen is no where to be seen. Thinking the beekeeper might have left, they plan on sending Blue ahead for information. Scouting ahead, Blue encircles the tower from a distance. She relays what she has seen to Drildo, telling her about the sandstone structure and that the roof somehow is glinting, as if made of some metal. The professor notices tracks of a cart that left yesterday night. The party quickly deliberates if they want to wait for the night to enter the tower or if they want to go ahead during the day. Pleading their lack of time, the party decides to go forth during the day. Walking towards the tower, the party comes face to face with a horrific zombie. Zombies are never very savoury creatures, but this one seems an amalgamation of different humans, sewn together. Allen tries to approach slowly, however the zombie notices him and asks him 'Ma...ster?'. Allen in respons says 'Master'. Suddenly enraged, the zombie starts to attack allen, but the party quickly fells him, seeing his body melt down into goop. Focussing back on the tower, the party sees two possible entrances: The main door, and a side entrance where the cart came from. Choosing the side entrance, the party lowers themselves using the cart lift into the underground complex. There the find an entrance hall filled with empty carts. Bradley and Drildo find residue of different chemicals and ritual resources in the carts. In the meantime the professor inspects the logbooks, being able to finally determine the current date to be the 9th of Firebright. Majibili speaks with a local spider, who warns him of the creatures inside being 'like us...but not'. Moving on the professor finds a secret entrance into the complex, while majibili, drildo, bradley, allen, and nibiru walk onwards. The group encounter two jackal statues which speak to them, asking for the oath. Not knowing what to say, the statues come to life and start attacking the party. The professor meanwhile finds the secret path leading to a room with three tapestries: one depicting Koth, one depicting Boil, and one depicting Al'Mumit. He desecrates the room with the symbol of the Allfather. Hearing people behind the door, the professor asks Majibili to turn into a spider and see what lies beyond it. There he sees the cultists preparing an ambush for the party. The party decides to take two approaches for the ambush. A part of the group will 'spring' the ambush by going through the main door, while the other part will appear from the tapestry room. Attacking at the signal of Majibili bursting through the main door as a bear, the party started their attack. However, an unexpected fighter entered as well, as from the roof a horrific giant spider stitched together from human body parts dropped on Allen and started to attack. The battle was fierce, but little challenge for the Snigg Squad. However, there was no time for rest, as their noise had attracted yet another battle. Killing the wave of wandering undead, the party could finally catch their breath. While some party members sat and rested, Drildo and Bradley forged ahead to check out the next rooms, finding both the storage room and the kitchen. In the storage room, one of the chests suddenly sneezed. Knowing what it means Drildo and Bradley readied themselves and killed the mimic, finding a few potions inside. In the meantime, the professor was trying to figure out how to walk up a set of enchanted stairs, that didn't let people ascend if they didn't wear a certain emblem. Failing to fool the stairs, the party moved on, entering a wine cellar where there were barrels of happy dwarf brewery ale! (Lets go Gunther). Returning to the tapestry room, the professor found another secret tunnel that lead to the higher halls (finally besting the stairs). The party followed him up, there they found an opulent room with some curious items and a large standing coffin against the wall. After a quick investigation Allen smeared some of his blood on the coffin and it opened up, leading to a room filled with different skulls and a pedestal. The skulls seemed to be the heads of earlier cult members. The party put a skull on the pedestal. Suddenly, the skull got animated and asked what their questions were. The skull they talked to was Zarrak, though he wasn't very helpful. Now knowing how the pedestal worked the party searched for skulls with the knowledge they seek. First they put on the skull of Heidurr, a high priest during the time of the crones. They informed the party about how the Delian knights stopped the crones. Next was Golrin, who turned out to be a Tankard working for both the Reidtir kingdom and the cult. Finally was Benoir, who taught them about the secret doors of the complex. One skull was asked about the destruction of the material plane. Reacting in shock, the party quickly realised the skull didn't know anything about it. In a gut reaction, Majibili smashed the skull releasing a wraith. Felling the wraith, the party continued on. While some of the party rested, Majibili, Allen and Nibiru went on into the library. There Majibili found documents about the different kinds of demons, while Allen found a map with four names written on them: Zephyrus in the Widelands, Boreas in Svenrok, Eures in Grimm Thwaite, and Notos in Aq'Jung. Furthermore, three unidentified scrolls were found. Returning to the junction of halls, the party splits up. Allen goes towards the symbol of Zephyrus, while Drildo and the professor go toward Notos, and Bradly, Majibili, and Nibiru go towards Boreas. Allen fights the strong winds down the hall and finds a broken lift system which seems to lead up. Not sure what to do with the broken lift, Allen quickly joins up with Nibiru, Majibili, and Bradley. There the group finds themselves in a hallway filled with statues of different demons, with at the far end a huge statue of Koth, looming over the stairway up. Trying to identify some of the demons as they pass, the party continues onward. However, once they pass the statue of Koth they suddenly feel a pressing force from within them. Failing to fight against it, Bradley, Majibili, and Allen all are forced to offer some of their lifeforce to Koth. Nibiru persists, but by persisting the offer to Koth the statue punishes her with blindness. Drildo and the professor enter the laboratory area of the complex, needing to cross a bridge where wind is trying to blow them into poisoned spikes. Barely making it across, they stand on an elevator and get lifted up into the labs. Before them they see a strange site. Standing on a balcony closed off with glass walls, they see before them a forest in the middle of this underground complex. The professor looks closer and sees something moving within it, as well as scratch marks on the walls. Trying to sense if any living souls reside in the forest, the professor opens up to the powers of the Gray Lady. There he hears an amalgamation of hundreds of splintered souls screeching in agony. Deciding not to enter the forest, Drildo and the professor turn around and head down a ladder towards a locked door with a painting and a deck of tarot cards. Needing to find the right combination of cards to open the lock, Drildo and the professor try to suss the riddle out together. Entering a junction with a fountain, Bradley, Majibili, and Allen takes a left heading towards a torture chamber, while Nibiru tries to follow them through sound. Though recently used, not much is left in this room to identify what the torturers where torturing, outside for three small holding cells. One of the cells seems most recently used, containing a single human sized manacle. Majibili sees that, though human sized, there are strange claw markings on the wall of the cell. Searching further in the temple, the group finds a room where wind is blowing down heavily into a pit. Carefully looking inside, they see a demon stuck at the bottom. Not wanting to disturb it the party moves on. Entering the temple altar room, the group is confronted with high priest lording a group of Maw demons. Though tired from the previous battles, the group fights through the minions. Finally figuring out the correct combination, Drildo and the professor open the laboratory door. Inside they find a inhumane collection of mangled corpses, being tested on and reassembled in a myriad of unnatural combinations. Before they can continue exploring the space though, to their horror, some of the corpses start to move and head towards them. They quickly rush outside the room and close the door, taking of the cards and locking it. Hashing a plan, the professor and Drildo take their ropes and tie a barrier of ropes to the walls at the door using pitons. Opening the door, the horde of abominations rush towards the party. Taking a short rest after the battle with the high priest and his demons, Majibili goes off to investigate. In the meantime, Allen and Nibiru find a room with a four piece offer basin and a closet full of different objects. In a side chamber next to it, they find a large beating heart on a pedestal. In it, four copper pipes with gauges were connected. Not trusting the heart after Allens description of it, Nibiru steps back and shoots at the heart. The sudden rush of wind building up in the heart causes a massive explosion as both Bradley, Allen, and Nibiru are pushed back into the temple proper and the side rooms are collapsed. Getting tangled up it the ropes, the abominations group up and tear through the barricade. However, being bunched up all together made for an easy target for Drildo's fireball, decimating all the horrors but the strongest and largest. The professor and Drildo swiftly start to attack the hulking figure. Eventually, they too fell this foe and continue searching the labs. Finding a room with five different cylinders with air flowing through them, the professor wants to investigate them. However, a sudden thunderous sound coming from deeper into the complex surprises them. Afraid of what could have happened to their comrades, Drildo and the professor head back. Slowly regaining senses from the massive blast, the party has little to no time to recuperate, as Nibiru was blasted within a summoning circle and now lies face to face with a Shadow demon. Nibiru, still blind and heavily damaged, gets downed by the demon who tries to take her soul. Luckily Majibili and Allen are there to aid her and save her from the demon. Shocked by the walk of events, the group takes a moment to rest and catch their breath. Finally, the group heads back to the main junction of halls and meets up again with Drildo and the professor. Back together again, the party heads to the lift room where Allen saw the broken lift. Standing on it, the lift only brings the party 70 feet in the air. Blue takes three ropes banded together and flies up the lift shaft and binds the rope to the lever. Using this rope, the party climbs up the lift shaft and enters the main hall. Dawning on them that the front door of the obelisk would have lead them here, the party realizes how much time they've truly wasted. Opening the front door, they see a very confused Akhen asking "Where the hell have you been?"... ### NPCs * **Heidur.** One of the first high priests of the cult of Koth, lived around the time of the first occurrence of the three crones. Told the party about how the Delian knights defeated the crones. * **Benoir.** Most recently deceased priest, dying four year ago. The priest told the party a bit about the complex. * **Golrin.** Ancestor of Isembard. Used to work for the cult in the legions of the Reidtir kingdom. * **Zarrak.** First head resurrected by the party. A bit of a dick. ### Loot - _Mysterious Amulet_ - _Bloodhawk Feather_ - _Mysterious Vial_ - 2x _Healing Potion_ - 4x _Pouch of Mysterious Dust_ - *Potion with a storming cloud inside* - 3x _Energizing Tea_ - 2x _Mysterious Oil in Brownglass_ - 4x _Healing Poultice_ - 3x *Unidentified scrolls* [[Session 19|Next Session ->]]