Most of us head off early in the morning to catch a matinee of Black Hawk Down, concluding in the end that Good (Ridley Scott, directing) has triumphed over Evil (schlockmeister Bruckheimer, producing). The exception is Tim (Antok of the Storm Tribe), whom Chris (Gruul) nominates as "Butthead of the Day" due to his contrary plan to catch a 12:00 showing of Brotherhood of the Wolf. Paul (Marik) and Bruce remain silent on this matter. For his part, Chuck (Arnoux Urag, then Galen) comments, "You better mention that this was all Chris' idea."
The characters are camped out atop the Tower of Swords, only minutes beyond their victory over a pack of three menacing sludgelings. Gruul asks the others, "What shall we do? I say we go through the floor hatch." Marik thinks on this suggestion, then suggests, "You realize that the entire Tower might be full of those slime things..." Gruul is unmoved by his logic, answering "It doesn't matter. They can just ooze through the floor, so we'll meet up with them tonight one way or another. But now that I have my axe out, I'll be a lot more effective. So, is anyone still badly hurt? Arnoux?" Arnoux Urag adopts a hurt tone, answering, "Why do you assume I'll be the one who's hurt? I could use a bit more of Marik's medical arts, though." Marik sighs and casts more healing spells.
Gruul pulls out a lux gem and inspects the top of the tower for valuables. He concludes that there are none. Marik had already checked the roof hatch for magical traps and likewise concluded that there were none. Gruul takes advantage of this information with tremendous confidence and pulls the hatch open, noting that the iron ring bolted to the center of the hatch has almost separated from the decaying wood. He rips it out and tucks it away in his pack, reasoning that this looks like a low-profit adventure.
The characters look into the room below and see that it is a chaotic maze of ancient, water-damaged furniture and random boxes. A ladder leads down from the roof hatch.
Gruul leads the way, with the rest quick behind him. Marik assesses the situation and decides that levitating down is a far better plan. As Gruul and Arnoux crunch around through the debris, he floats effortlessly above their heads.
It is at this point that the locals make themselves known. Three ragged hurbauskings storm out from their hiding places amid the boxes to assault Gruul and Arnoux, who respond in kind. A second later, Marik is forced to phase his way past a quick-flying shard of ice. While Gruul and Arnoux make quick work of one of the attackers, Marik casts about for his attacker. He finally spots the hurbausking shaman hiding along the edge of the room just as that worthy hurls another spell his way, drawing forth some of his juices to evaporate into the air. Groaning, Marik responds in his magical duel with a poorly-cast Mental Stun that the doughty hurbausking shrugs off with barely a thought. Noting that his shaggy foe is preparing yet another spell, Marik dashes out a quick Sleep charm, sending the hurbausking peacefully to the floor.
His own conflict ended, Marik turns back his attention to the melee on the ground. He finds that Gruul has been assaulted by a hurbausking ravager, the creature blessed with preternatural speed enough to evade Gruul's blows and magical rage to shrug off those that hit home. Gruul fights on, striking past the boiling mists rising from the creature's skin first to incapacitate it and then to drop it dead.
Arnoux spends some effort stabbing at the hurbauskings, finally concluding that their heavy armor and tough skin are making a mockery of his blows. He responds by changing tactics, stabbing the remaining two warriors in the face. This proves much more effective, particularly after Marik launches a quick Glue to immobilize two of them. Arnoux quickly drops the two hurbauskings.
The characters find themselves in control of the scene. Gruul makes quick work of the sleeping shaman with his mighty axe, allowing the other characters to loot the dead and bind their wounds, as Arnoux has been hit by spear, and Marik stricken by magic. This latter effort proves troublesome, as Marik has already used his powers to heal Arnoux several times today. He makes a First Aid attempt instead, which works out into nothing more than chewed grass and monk spit. Marik informs Arnoux, "The trouble is that you've got too much blood, so we'll just have to lower your blood pressure!" Arnoux groans as he takes two more hits of damage.
Finally convinced that his mundane efforts are doing little good, Marik spends a HT point to cast one final Major Heal upon Arnoux. His efforts successful, Marik collapses and does not stir for 22 minutes.
With the excitement of battle and the agony of repair gone, the characters are able to notice that the room is very humid and hot. A low rumbling sound crawls up the walls from far below, occasionally accompanied by a rhythmic thudding.
Most of the hurbauskings' gear is quite primitive. It includes:
The characters generally decide that none of this stuff is worth their trouble. Marik tries an Analyze Magic on the Ravager's club, concluding that it was made to destroy Outsiders (that is, anyone who is not Created of Yaggo). Considering that all of the characters are Outsiders, they decide to leave the thing where it lies.
Antok of the Storm Tribe comes on the scene just in time to cut out the shaman's heart and eat it. Marik winces as he watches Antok expertly dissect the hurbausking with the Flensing Knife, then asks, "Can't you cook those before you slurp them down?" Antok explains that cooking an enemy's heart would hurt the magic. Marik refrains from further comment.
Antok is about to do the same to the ravager's heart when Arnoux calls out. While all the rest were watching Antok's Iron Chef performance, Arnoux had been watching as the creature's body decayed into a desiccated husk, shrunken and wrinkled. Nobody needs tell Antok that the meat no longer looks good.
The characters spend the night in the top floor of the Tower of Swords, setting their camp near the inner wall of the castle. They find no bedding among the hurbauskings' goods, and conclude that the creatures probably didn't plan on staying long, so they refrain from starting fires or otherwise drawing attention. Half in jest, Marik asks, "Why don't we go up to the top floor, start a fire, get drunk, and I'll play the flute." Gruul fails to hear the joke and answers, "Because then the owls would peck our eyes out." The characters eat cold five-day-old vegetable cakes, except for Antok, who tells the others, "Thanks. I'm not hungry. Schlurk... schlurk... schlurk..."
The characters make camp and prepare to rest for the night. Arnoux is given the third watch, the most evil part of the night, and Marik chooses the fourth watch, just before daylight.
Marik recognizes that something terrible has happened when he wakes late, finding Arnoux gone. He searches around for a moment, then spots a glimmer in the corner that turns out to be Arnoux's sword, fallen next to a newly-made hole in the floor. The whole area is covered with sludge and slime. There are plenty of signs that Arnoux might have been dragged off.
Marik wakes the other characters, who jump to action. Antok casts Continual Light upon a nearby brick and casts it down to the level below, finding that the floor there is incomplete, with many missing sections. Marik uses his magic to lift the rest of the group down to the first floor of the tower.
Gruul reaches the ground floor first. The entire floor is consumed by a single circular room scattered with random junk, including a number of goat skeletons. Among them, Gruul locates a human skeleton in a worn cloak, fastened with a cicada-shaped brooch. Gruul pockets the brooch and throws the cloak over his shoulder, still reasoning that this might represent a good part of the group's profits.
Antok investigates the three doors leading out of the ground floor. The largest door is ajar, and looks out onto the Upper Courtyard. The two other doors are closed, and appear to lead into the castle walls. A slime trail goes down a spiral stairway to the basement.
The characters venture down the spiral stairway very cautiously. The stairway opens on one side to a red-lit room. The thudding sounds that were faintly audible from the upper reaches of the tower are almost deafening now. Antok peers around the corner to see a creature with the form of a half-completed statue bent over an anvil, hammering ceaselessly upon a piece of iron. The circular corridor around the edge of the tower basement continues on beyond the Maker-Thing's forge, and Antok is able to see Arnoux's motionless body lying there, in the shadows. A sludgeling is hovering over it, apparently feeding. Antok waits until the other characters catch up to him, then holds the creature in place with Shape Water until Gruul can chop it to pieces.
The characters investigate Arnoux's body, happy that the Maker-Thing has ignored them thus far. They find that Arnoux is quite dead. Most of his goods are still on his body, and the characters reclaim it. It includes:
Antok takes stock of the situation: "Okay, they got a giant statue making weapons for them. I think we can probably just leave it alone. The last giant statue we messed with taught us a lesson." He sneaks into the Maker-Thing's forge, noting that it includes two massive fiery hearths, and weapon racks containing an array of sword blades and axe heads. Antok sneaks into the room, careful to avoid drawing the Maker-Thing's attention and brings back an axe-head. He and Marik notice that the blade is very similar to the oddly-identical swords the forest brigands had.
Fearful that the Maker-Thing might become enraged when it finds that someone has taken one of it's axe-heads, Antok gives his prize over to Gruul, commenting, "Here you go, Gruul. I got you an axe head." Gruul beetles his brows and shoots back, "You stole this?" Antok elects to take the flippant road and breezily comments, "No, I just took it off the rack." His attitude is not enough to prevent the subsequent wider discussion about not wanting to be around when the golem finishes with the axehead it's currently working on. The characters also conclude that the brigands are probably operating from the castle.
The characters drag Arnoux's body up to the ground floor. Antok says, "You might really object, but I'm eating his heart. He willed it to me!" Gruul: "I have an axe, you're not eating his heart." The disagreement continues, with both sides backing up their points with weapons. Antok decides that now is not the time to press his point.
It is at this point that the characters hear the distinctive sound of arrows thudding into the tower door. Antok moves swiftly to shut and bar it. Just at that instant, something heavy collides with the other side. The characters hear an aggrieved yell, as the newcomer yells, "Open the door! Open it! Open it up! Quick!" Against some of the other characters' better judgments, Antok opens the door and lets in a slightly crazed Faian human in armor.
Leaving the other characters to deal with the newcomer, Antok sneaks up the stairs to see who is firing the arrows. He is able to see the shapes of shadowy archers in the Tower of Eyes and the Tower of Owls. On the way back, he stops by Arnoux's body and uses his Flensing Knife to quickly cut out the heart while nobody is looking. He puts his prize into the Traveling Bag.
The other characters interrogate the newcomer. He claims that his name is Galen. He says that he is a swordsman and sometime magician from the village of Chost-by-the-Spring. He says that he is looking for Hulfri Wren, the wife of the Headman Hulfri. He knows only that she was recently abducted by the servitors of the shaman Surgul Bloody-Arms, and that she's somewhere in the castle.
The characters decide that they had best not try to make their way across the courtyard. Remembering the other doors in the basement of the tower, they had down to investigate them. They check the first door and find that it is both locked and covered with magic. It looks quite stout, probably highly resistant to damage. Fearing that the magic might be some kind of horrible trap, Marik tries to use Apportation to open it from a distance. He finds out that the door is magically locked.
Everyone is ready to give up on the door until Marik remembers, "I have a Staff of Dispelling!" One quick tap later and the door is opened. Behind it is a long, straight corridor adorned with lots of dungeon dressing. Antok takes the lead in investigating it. The place is dusty, but there is no slime on the floor. There are quite a variety of tracks among the dust. Marik inspects them, identifying three types: some were made by booted feet, others were huge and shapeless, and the third group appear to be mismatched.
The characters express great interest in this last group of tracks. At this point, Marik mentions "There are a lot of Sewn Men in this castle. There were at least a dozen of them shooting at me earlier." Gruul looks at him, growls, and responds, "A dozen! No problem."
As Antok proceeds down the corridor, he sees two staircases to the left (one down and one up), and five doors to the right. The staircase down is broad and wide, and leads to a chamber that glows dull green. The staircase up is blocked by fallen rubble. The doors lead to rooms that look like storehouses, most of them full of old rotting bales. Others look like they might have seen more recent traffic, but are locked and closed.
Antok sneaks into one storeroom. He sees something lurking in the shadows. Very quietly, he takes out Ogango's Hound, places a Light spell upon it, and hurls it at the mysterious form. He is rewarded with a blood-curdling scream as the Hound strikes home against the sleeping man lying on a blanket in the corner. Unable to stop the Hound until it has exhausted it's rage, Antok waits until it rests then moves in to take the man captive.
In the light, the characters' prisoner is visible as a Faian human. The characters spend a long time interrogating him. He tells them that his name is Rob, and that he works for and learns from the "great shaman" Surgul. He admits that he knows some spells, but he hasn't yet talked to the Voice in the Basement. He doesn't know how many Sewn Men there are, but explains that Surgul and his followers don't deal with them much. He explains that the Sewn Men control the upper reaches of the castle, while Surgul rules over the lower reaches and the Main Hall. Apart from both groups, there is the great fire-spirit Thukurukah, who lives in the Tower of Flames with his kin. He also says that the Tekkuturling tribe of hurbauskings often sends warriors up from the Bilges into the lower parts of the castle, especially when they want to gather weapons from the Maker-Thing's forge. The characters eventually determine that the Maker-Thing's forge is treated as common ground by the three factions, as none of them has the strength to hold it without taking unacceptable losses.
Having learned something more of the local landscape, Marik rather incredulously asks Galen: "Did you know how bad this place was?" Galen nods. Marik goes on, "And you still came here alone?" Once again, Galen confirms that he did. Marik concludes, "You must be either powerful or stupid. Or powerfully stupid."
Antok sets up a simple deadfall trap at the door of the storeroom. Within a few minutes, he is rewarded by the appearance of a small air elemental. The spirit blunders into Antok's trap and is crushed into nothing.
The characters ask Rob what that was. Rob explains that Surgul can makes spirits, and uses them as scouts and servants. The characters conclude that Surgul probably knows that they are there, and prepare to move out. Lacking anything more merciful to do, they slit Rob's throat before they leave. Thinking that he may need a quick disguise, Antok memorizes Rob's appearance (without the slit throat) so he can cast an Illusion Disguise of him in the future.
The characters come to another massive door at the end of the corridor. Antok disguises himself as Rob and goes through, finding himself in a large kitchen. The cook spots him, and immediately yells at him for shirking his duties. Antok deduces that he was supposed to be peeling potatoes. He returns to this task, disappointed to see that the cook remembered to close the door to the corridor.
Knowing that he cannot keep the Illusion Disguise active for long, Antok decides to try and open the door. He tells the cook that he forgot his pack in the storeroom and wants to go fetch it back. The cook reacts quite badly to this request, assuming that his lazy assistant simply wants to avoid even more work. He rather angrily tells Antok that he will get the pack, and heads towards the door. The instant he opens the door, Gruul strikes him down with his mighty axe.
Gruul drags the body back into the corridor, then drops it down the green-glowing stairway. A deep voice answers him, "Thank You." Crunching sounds follow it. Gruul backs away from the stairway.
When he returns to the kitchen, he finds the other characters watching as Antok stirs a big pot of stew. Everyone is enjoying Surgul's stew when another fellow comes down the stairs from the upper reaches of the tower, carrying a dead goat on his back. Marik Dazes him, then Gruul kills him. Antok throws the body down the basement. The deep voice responds, "Two" Gruul catches a view of something massive moving with preternatural silence in the greenish darkness below. He grumbles, "Damn. It can count." In a louder voice, he yells down the stairway, "SHOW ME FAR!"
Gruul had hoped that his command would persuade the thing to wander off, but instead it serves as the opening of a longer conversation. The thing rumbles up, introducing itself as Joluth. Joluth says that he can give knowledge. The characters are understandably concerned about the possible consequences of learning anything from Joluth. Marik goes so far as to joke that someone's got to tell the new apprentices that when they lose something they shouldn't go talk to Joluth to learn "the secret of their lost stuff" He also suggests that if the characters can hide sufficiently well, Surgul's men may conclude that yet another cook has fallen to the secret promises of the "garbage disposal", and that nothing out of the ordinary has happened.
The exception to the characters' caution is Antok, who proves to be surprisingly willing to deal with the creature. The other characters suspect that this might be because Antok has never before encountered a thing like this that has been willing to talk first.
Antok bargains with Joluth, agreeing to "pay the price" to learn the location of Ghelghul's Heartseeker and 4 points of the Ur-Naska language (what the hurbauskers speak). Each time, Joluth reaches out one long claw to draw a long, bloody scratch upon Antok's chest. Each scratch inflicts 1 point of damage upon Antok, damage that cannot be healed by magic.
The characters are returning to the corridor when they hear the clatter and clang of arms and armor from the kitchen. They draw out their weapons and prepare to face the assault of Surgul's men.
The session ends with the characters preparing to face down the assault of Surgul's minions in the tunnels underneath the Tower of Swords. Each character gains four experience points, except for Galen, who collects eight points under the "double experience" plan. Galen also rolls on the infamous Table, getting Unbreakable (+2 Hard To Kill).
Antok spends one point on Darkness and one point on Illusion Disguise. Marik spends two points each on Hinder and Mental Stun.