The Return to the Tower
Cast of characters: Morley the Shaman (Bbn3/Drd3), Stormwalker (Psychic Warrior, played as an NPC by Mike the DM), Shyla (Ftr/Wiz), Tearin (pronounced TAY-rin)(Cleric 6), and Serina (Rog/Sor).
After some rest, we were invited to a dinner in our honor in the local castle. The head of Tearin's order locally was there. (He tried to make some moves on her, but was shot down harder than a dragon on a steer.) We got our thanks, free food and drink, and a small bag of "appreciation". Then we went shopping. Turns out the armor I took off of that bugbear was enchanted dragonhide scale mail. Fits good and looks even nicer. Tearin bought a shield for Stormwalker and enchanted Shyla's sword and shield. Serina and Shyla spent some time learning new tricks. Then we were summoned for a "simple" job. We were to escort a wagonload of supplies back to the tower we first cleaned out. It only paid 25 gold each and we'd rather have gone back to clean the mines out of undead, but the sheriff had a "bad feeling" that something was wrong and wanted us to check it out. "Experience is the best spy", or something like that.
We left the next morning and it took all day to get there. The mules pulling the wagon were balky and mine followed suit. When we got there though, things looked wrong. The fires were out and the stones were cold. Not a good sign. We had a couple of potions of invisibility from the orcs so we asked Serina to drink one and sneak up to the door and look in. Of course, she "knew better" and didn't drink them. As she got halfway there, an ogre's head popped up out of the door and looked right at her. Damn! We were caught unawares and we had two locals with no fighting skill to protect. The ogre hollered something down the hole and came out. Shortly after he did, a second one came out. We fought like wild animals. The ogres were tough and nearly did us in, but we bested them.
Entering the tower from the cliff top....(wait, did I ever explain how this place looked? It's a "tower" in that a 200 foot tall cliff face has been carved and hollowed out for folks to use as a lighthouse. The top of the "tower" is level with the ground behind the cliff, which gently slopes down over a long way to the town.) So, entering the top of the tower, I take the lead down the steps and check the floors as we go. Things are too empty. Then we hear noise downstairs. I go down and encounter another ogre on the stairs. Thank Iloura that the steps were made for humans and not ogres. I'm able to pound the ogre to pulp while getting hammered a few times myself. At the bottom, Serina jumps ahead and enters the main room where another ogre (at least) is standing. He pulls out a stick, says something, and two balls of energy fly out and hit Serina hard. At that point, we all decided to run like hell because we had all been beat up and our spell casters were out of spells.
We hoofed it back to town pretty fast with the two locals in tow. The sheriff is surprised and commissions us to get rid of the ogres. So we rest and re-equip and head back.
When we get there, we're ambushed by two ogres as we near the top of the tower. We defeat them after taking a few blows ourselves. Turning to the tower entrance, things don't look good. Shyla got the idea as we left of dumping a barrel of oil down the steps and lighting it on fire. Apparently the ogres hated and liked the idea. Because looking in the trapdoor, we see about 2 inches of oil on the floor. We immediately pooled our knowledge and made a plan. Two other potions that the orcs had were levitation potions and they would be very useful now. We figure that there's a trap in there to light the oil when we walk in. So, we're going to use it against the ogres. It's half a day to go around the cliff and come at the tower along the beach, so we head off. The plan is: get to the front of the tower, Serina will drink a levitation potion and go up, at the top she'll drop a lighted torch into the oil and start screaming, then after a few seconds, we barge in the front door and catch the ogres from behind on the stairs. Good plan, but we didn't figure on Serina's willfullness.
At the bottom, we're ambushed again by two ogres (this is getting tedious) and we take them out. At the base of the tower, Serina drinks her potion and up she goes. We wait at the bottom. After a little while, there's fire blowing out the upper level windows and Serina's screaming. We then barge into the main room and start looking for ogres. They aren't there. Then we're hit with a web spell from behind as ogre voices come from around corners in front of us. We try to get loose and fight off the ogres. Eventually, we defeat the guys inside and go after spellcaster ogre outside. By this time, Serina's coming down and she's lost most of her clothes and her hair is smoking. Unfortunately, we're too busy fighting the big ugly to get a good look.
Well, it was a tough battle but we killed the ugly bastard. And we learned that Serina again went on her own which is why she was singed. She climbed down the ladder into 2 inches of oil and pushed open a door "to listen". It dropped a pot of smoldering coals into the oil which quickly ignited. I thought her screams sounded awfully real. Oh, and as we killed big ugly, the fire had reached the room where the ogres had stored the other barrels of oil. They all ignited spectacularly. The tower is now missing the upper two floors. I hope the sheriff doesn't take that out of our pay.
Next stop, a light down the road. We noticed a light up the beach where there shouldn't be one. We'll have to go check that out next.
After some rest, we were invited to a dinner in our honor in the local castle. The head of Tearin's order locally was there. (He tried to make some moves on her, but was shot down harder than a dragon on a steer.) We got our thanks, free food and drink, and a small bag of "appreciation". Then we went shopping. Turns out the armor I took off of that bugbear was enchanted dragonhide scale mail. Fits good and looks even nicer. Tearin bought a shield for Stormwalker and enchanted Shyla's sword and shield. Serina and Shyla spent some time learning new tricks. Then we were summoned for a "simple" job. We were to escort a wagonload of supplies back to the tower we first cleaned out. It only paid 25 gold each and we'd rather have gone back to clean the mines out of undead, but the sheriff had a "bad feeling" that something was wrong and wanted us to check it out. "Experience is the best spy", or something like that.
We left the next morning and it took all day to get there. The mules pulling the wagon were balky and mine followed suit. When we got there though, things looked wrong. The fires were out and the stones were cold. Not a good sign. We had a couple of potions of invisibility from the orcs so we asked Serina to drink one and sneak up to the door and look in. Of course, she "knew better" and didn't drink them. As she got halfway there, an ogre's head popped up out of the door and looked right at her. Damn! We were caught unawares and we had two locals with no fighting skill to protect. The ogre hollered something down the hole and came out. Shortly after he did, a second one came out. We fought like wild animals. The ogres were tough and nearly did us in, but we bested them.
Entering the tower from the cliff top....(wait, did I ever explain how this place looked? It's a "tower" in that a 200 foot tall cliff face has been carved and hollowed out for folks to use as a lighthouse. The top of the "tower" is level with the ground behind the cliff, which gently slopes down over a long way to the town.) So, entering the top of the tower, I take the lead down the steps and check the floors as we go. Things are too empty. Then we hear noise downstairs. I go down and encounter another ogre on the stairs. Thank Iloura that the steps were made for humans and not ogres. I'm able to pound the ogre to pulp while getting hammered a few times myself. At the bottom, Serina jumps ahead and enters the main room where another ogre (at least) is standing. He pulls out a stick, says something, and two balls of energy fly out and hit Serina hard. At that point, we all decided to run like hell because we had all been beat up and our spell casters were out of spells.
We hoofed it back to town pretty fast with the two locals in tow. The sheriff is surprised and commissions us to get rid of the ogres. So we rest and re-equip and head back.
When we get there, we're ambushed by two ogres as we near the top of the tower. We defeat them after taking a few blows ourselves. Turning to the tower entrance, things don't look good. Shyla got the idea as we left of dumping a barrel of oil down the steps and lighting it on fire. Apparently the ogres hated and liked the idea. Because looking in the trapdoor, we see about 2 inches of oil on the floor. We immediately pooled our knowledge and made a plan. Two other potions that the orcs had were levitation potions and they would be very useful now. We figure that there's a trap in there to light the oil when we walk in. So, we're going to use it against the ogres. It's half a day to go around the cliff and come at the tower along the beach, so we head off. The plan is: get to the front of the tower, Serina will drink a levitation potion and go up, at the top she'll drop a lighted torch into the oil and start screaming, then after a few seconds, we barge in the front door and catch the ogres from behind on the stairs. Good plan, but we didn't figure on Serina's willfullness.
At the bottom, we're ambushed again by two ogres (this is getting tedious) and we take them out. At the base of the tower, Serina drinks her potion and up she goes. We wait at the bottom. After a little while, there's fire blowing out the upper level windows and Serina's screaming. We then barge into the main room and start looking for ogres. They aren't there. Then we're hit with a web spell from behind as ogre voices come from around corners in front of us. We try to get loose and fight off the ogres. Eventually, we defeat the guys inside and go after spellcaster ogre outside. By this time, Serina's coming down and she's lost most of her clothes and her hair is smoking. Unfortunately, we're too busy fighting the big ugly to get a good look.
Well, it was a tough battle but we killed the ugly bastard. And we learned that Serina again went on her own which is why she was singed. She climbed down the ladder into 2 inches of oil and pushed open a door "to listen". It dropped a pot of smoldering coals into the oil which quickly ignited. I thought her screams sounded awfully real. Oh, and as we killed big ugly, the fire had reached the room where the ogres had stored the other barrels of oil. They all ignited spectacularly. The tower is now missing the upper two floors. I hope the sheriff doesn't take that out of our pay.
Next stop, a light down the road. We noticed a light up the beach where there shouldn't be one. We'll have to go check that out next.