All of our regular crew shows up, unconstrained by the normal bounds of Space and Time: Paul (Marik), Chris (Gruul), Chuck (Galen), Tim (Antok Six-Hearted) and Bruce.
The dawn of the 163rd day of the 3086th Stay finds our valiant heroes lurking upon the second floor of the Great Tower in Tettek's fortress. Antok Six-Hearted remains almost unnaturally hurt from the characters' encounter with the stone golems. Marik, Galen and Antok all work together to patch him together. This effort proves to be enough to drop Antok into a "healing sleeeep." Everyone else debates where to rest until they realize that Antok doesn't have a choice. They settle themselves down on the first level of the tower and stay there for an hour. Marik catches a nap, as he is nearly as exhausted by the process of saving Antok's life as Antok is.
Noting that half of his companions are enjoying a nightmare-wracked nap, Gruul asks himself, "Are there any instruments around, something that could have signaled an alarm?" Thinking in reasonable terms, he expects to find a bell. Or possibly a large drum. He is rather bemused to find nothing but a sort of ukulele instrument hanging upon a peg in the wall. Concluding that the speedfreaks who constitute Tettek's staff are no longer able to think like reasonable beings, Gruul takes the thing.
The one Ungulfinling that Antok bravely slew in his bed proves to have been equipped in a manner similar to that of his fellows in the town, including the same ragged leather armor, spears and daggers. Plus a couple more of the omnipresent Chiron potions. The entire lower room of the tower looks like someone's quarters, complete with two beds (one of them rather occupied by a dead Ungulfinling) and lots of refuse. A spiral stairway in the center leads to the underground level.
Once Marik and Antok wake, the characters move down to the lowest level of the tower, beneath ground level. They find even more living quarters. The whole place looks like a frat-house decorated in the very best Gothic Primitive style. Six beds are arranged around the edges of the room, blocked off from each other with cloth hangings. In one quarter, a brazier glows, a bundle of drying leaves upon its grate. Concerted about the risk of fumes, Marik very carefully Apports the things away. On the opposite side of the chamber a mucky liquid bubbles inside a cauldron. A desiccated body, apparently once an Ungulfinling, rests against a wall.
As a final touch, a weighty stone statue faces the doorway. The characters are quite alarmed by this discovery, fearful that the thing is yet another golem and quite likely to spring to vicious life at any moment. They are stricken with apprehension when Gruul simply walks up to the thing and knocks it on the head, utterly without fear. With Gruul rather blithely ignoring the thing, Galen asks Marik to figure out what will set the thing off. Marik takes a more expert look, finding a few damaged runes upon the thing's back. He concludes that whoever cared the golem body mucked up the job. Gruul grates out, "Aha! Maybe the body in the other part of the room was the clumsy artisan!"
The characters search the place. Marik does the best, noticing a purse of 38 Green and 16 Yellow that Antok knocks off a shelf. Nobody finds much else except for old pottery and oily clothing. They do figure out that the heavy door leading to the rest of the fortress is securely locked.
The contents of the cauldron turns out to be some kind of a stew. It looks deeply unpleasant, but this doesn't stop Marik and Antok fiddling with it. Gruul complains, "I don't want mushroom-skulfish stew! We should be worried about the left-handed mad librarian!" Marik responds, "But we haven't eaten hot food in a long time!" Antok decides to try and allay the others's suspicions by casting Purify Water on the stuff. The spell works, but it does nothing to improve the quality of the broth. Antok samples it, then proudly tells the others, "This is what I like to think of as oil-change soup!" The rest of the group grimaces at the sight of him slurping down ladle after ladle of the grey stuff.
The characters advance into a short corridor towards the Main Hall. They pass a side corridor to one of the other towers. The hall is shadowy and rectangular, supported by ranks of columns. The characters can see four doors in the hall.
There is a rustling movement in the darkness. Galen and Gruul sneak in, hiding themselves behind the columns. Antok takes a different approach. He stands in the center of the passage, casts Continual Light upon Ogango's Hound, then tosses it straight at the movement. He is terribly dismayed to see the shapes of two golems striding forth. Ogango's Hound spends its wrath uselessly against their stone skins. They raise their terrible flanged maces. There is a moment of silence, then the quiet shatters. Antok screams at the top of his lungs and charges forth, spear clutched in his hands. He hammers the head into the first golem's chest, striking for all he is worth.
The golem staggers, deeply pierced by the blow, but then recovers. It and it's companion gaze upon Antok, then dispassionately pulverize him with four mace blows. Antok staggers, having taken enough damage to kill a normal man several times over, then returns to the attack.
Noting the relative success of Antok's fighting style, Galen runs in after him. He strikes a golem with an aggressive attack, hitting it so off-balance as to leave himself open to multiple blows in return. The golems smash Galen to the floor, stunning him in the process.
Both Marik and Gruul take note of the way their compatriots are suffering against the golems and elect to have none of it. Their decision is reinforced by the fact that Marik notices four razor kites flying in to the attack. Marik changes himself into a tiger and prepares to meet the kites head-on. Gruul simply brings out his mace. They fence against the flapping menaces, quickly knocking two of them out of the air. In return, one of them manages to deliver a vicious cut to Marik.
Of course, by this time Antok has taken another group of huge mace blows. He notes that since the beginning of the combat he has taken some 70 points of damage, and is almost dead. In fact, if it weren't for his extravagant HT roll, he would have been dead long ago. A wild and unrestrained tactical debate between Gruul and Antok ensues. The central point rests upon the virtues of rushing madly into the fray. Antok argues that, "At least we're not all pussies." Gruul is not impressed by this argument.
The last surviving razor kite does a flyby on Gruul. Gruul responds by pulverizing the creature. Picking bits of razor out of the head of his mace, he notes that creatures built out of leather and kindling don't last long when hit by four kilograms of iron.
Sadly, the debate is cut short when one of the golems manages to get past Galen's defenses, knocking him down. Galen triumphantly cries out, "I'm not stunned, just unconscious!" then sags to the floor. Gruul and Marik abruptly realize that things could be looking bad, as both Galen and Antok are just about out of the fight, but the one remaining golem is still moving very deliberately. Marik rushes in and proves himself the hero of the day, delivering the last two points of damage to the golem, shattering it. Galen grumbles, "You're lucky I'm unconscious..."
Gruul picks up his weapons and looks for any other foes, fully aware that half of his companions are either down or savagely injured. He sees nobody. Antok lies down. Marik casts a series of healing spells on him, returning 25 hits and leaving him only 32 hits below zero (47 points of damage total). Unable to do anything more for Antok, Marik casts spells to restore Gruul's Lifewell armor.
Both Galen (-25 hits) and Antok (-32 hits) are basically in comas. Gruul pulls them back to the tower area and sets a guard so everyone else can rest. Time passes, after which Marik is able to cast enough healing spells on Galen to bring him to -2 hits. Gruul pours a Chiron potion down Galen's throat to bring him back around at 2 points. Galen indicates that he's more than ready to rush back into the fight. Gruul rolls his eyes skyward.
Antok asks, "How many Chiron potions does the group have?" Gruul counts (carefully) and responds, "I have seven" Antok cheerily offers, "I'll buy 'em off you." Gruul looks over and rather dismissively points out, "You're unconscious." Antok remains quiet.
Concerned that a counterattack might be only minutes away, Gruul drags down the dead Ungulfinling and the two broken archer-golems from the tower. Scavenging among the debris and discarded loot, he brings along clothing and anything that resembles a weapon. He comes up with four daggers, two spears, and an extremely nice shortsword in a polished wooden case (he can tell that the edge on it is very good). He dresses the golem pieces and the corpse, then props them out into the hallway as "guards". He also moves the brazier to the side of the tower opposite the stairway so it doesn't reveal the contents of the tower. He then watches from the doorway. Galen contributes by placing a Watchdog spell upon the hall.
While the characters rest, they determine that they have a total of 18 healing potions: four from Galen, and seven each from Gruul and Marik. Antok (still unconscious) licks his lips.
The characters realize that something is up when Galen wakes to announce that his Watchdog is calling. They make themselves ready and watch the door. They are more that a touch horrified to see a tremendous reptilian fist crash completely through. Things get even worse, as the creature on the other side simply reaches through and crumples the door into splinters.
As the door falls away, the characters are able to see a tremendous reptilian demon stomp through. Behind it, a mass of snaky heads and tentacles writhes down the corridor. The characters move forward to engage, chopping and slashing away at the demons and the two Ungulfinling warriors behind them. The Ungulfinlings hurl painful magics at the characters. Marik is stricken by a Choking spell, but the luckless Ungulfinling caster is slain before the magic can cause any lasting harm.
Things take a turn downwards as Gruul steps forward to chop away at the snake-pit demon. He raises his axe, then freezes into immobility as the dark-clad figure of the thrux sorcerer Tettek emerges from the depths of the corridor. Terrible power flows from Tettek's outstretched hand, transforming Gruul into stone.
Galen and Antok step forward to attack the thrux and avenge their stricken comrade. Antok howls out a traditional Dost death-prayer and makes a wildly vicious attack, which Tettek simply sidesteps. The thrux brings around his Great Staff and strikes Antok across the back, cursing him with Clumsiness. Antok finds that he is now at a terrible disadvantage, as he can no longer wield his spear with any accuracy. Galen notices that the thrux might be a bit tougher to crack than his demons were and fights a defensive battle as he searches for better options.
Marik finally provides the solution, casting a Tickle spell upon Tettek. The thrux sags to his knees, incapacitated by hideous, maddened laughter. Galen brings the threat to an end by striking out with Ghelgul's Terrible Heartseeker again and again, until the thrux no longer moves.
Antok gathers up six Chiron potions from the fallen Ungulfinling goons and passes them out among the characters. He is personally at -6 hits and can't be healed any more by spells (thanks to his very-recent recovery from the golem mauling). He drinks two Chiron potions instead. Marik realizes that he still bears the injury taken during his fight with the razor kites. He chides himself for thinking of others before looking out for himself, and promptly fixes the situation.
Antok and Galen drag the demek statue back into the tower room. They fret about how to defend the doorways, given that they were torn asunder by the spiky reptilian demon. They decide that they'll just have to risk it, as Marik will be able to use his Dispelling Staff again in only an hour. Galen asks Marik, "Should we do something to Gruul before we turn him back to flesh?" Marik responds, "You mean something humorous, like with these pots of ink? I think that would be a terrible idea. You know what Gruul's temper is like. Plus he'll probably still think he's in a fight when he comes to."
Antok thinks about resorting to cannibalism until he realizes that the characters brought some rations. He does use the flensing knife to remove the remains of Tettek's heart. Not satisfied with only the heart, Antok goes on to vivisect Tettek's body. He notices that thrux really do have skin made of bronze, and that while Tettek appeared to be flexible when he was alive, he is now rigid like a statue. Antok settles for trying to figure out how to cut off the skin for possible future use. He does cut off Tettek's head as evidence, and removes one ear as a trophy for Galen.
By the time Antok is done, he has removed Tettek's hands and feet, plus large sections of the skin on his torso and limbs. He despairs of being able to convert these pieces into armor, primarily because Tettek was in an oddly-contorted position when he died.
After an hour has passed, Marik uses the Dispelling Staff to bring Gruul back to normal. The burly demek is very put out that he missed the most interesting part of the fight. Marik is just thankful that Gruul didn't come back in a berserk frenzy. He turns about to realize that both Antok and Galen were watching him work the dispelling from some distance away, with weapons drawn.
Confident that they are safe for the time being, Marik starts casting a series of Analyze Magic spells on Tettek's things. Each casting takes him an hour, plus an additional twelve minutes to recover the energy used. He is able to identify:
Tettek was also carrying 3 Chiron potions, 1 Agni potion, and 1 Daedalus potion and a big ring of keys to open all the doors in the complex. The whole process takes him almost sixteen hours, half of that just to work on Tettek's Great Staff. Once he finishes, Marik comments, "The staff is useful for Antok, so he should have it. Everything else sounds like good salable stuff." Antok points out, "Remember, those bracers are powerstones!" Marik brightens up, "Oh, yeah! I just wish they were lighter."
Never one to let civilized matters and respect for the dead interfere with his behavior, Antok eats Tettek's heart and spends two experience points to learn the skill Knowledge: Tettek the Thrux. He proceeds to remember all he can about the dead thrux. He finds fast success as he remembers the name of Tettek's Great Staff. He then proceeds to tell the other characters about the layout of the place. And the folks who live there. And some very creepy images of inter-species ritual sex with the alchemist Zhelk. He is easily able to determine that Tettek's big motivations were feverish paranoia and an obsession with protecting the Chel Auxur Dau.
The characters retreat to the Entry Hall and lock the door behind them. They find that the main door is still locked. The characters are reassured by this, though they note that it's entertaining that the Ungulfinling who ran away hasn't come back to check on his boss even after sixteen hours. They speculate that Tettek might have been so mean that his goons had to draw lots to see if he was okay.
Gruul comments that everyone in the fortress so far has been well-equipped with potions. Antok explains that Zhelk is an alchemist, and that she is still at large. Gruul suspects that she might be worth bringing back and locking to a wall. Marik tells the big demek, "You're the reason demons can hurt us." Gruul responds, "I'll point out that those things Tettek brought along never managed to hurt me at all." Gruul goes on to say a number of really sexist things about women who know alchemy and apparently willingly sleep with horrific bronze-skinned thrux. Antok suggests that if she's a nuf addict then the characters might be able to extort services from her. Nobody speculates upon the odds that she might simply poison any alchemical goods she makes for them.
Galen tracks the blood trail from the one survivor down to the lower Guard Post. The door is locked. Antok uses an Illusion Disguise to make himself look like Tettek, then opens the door with the keys. He orders the two scavengers inside, "Come with me now!" They obey without thinking. Gruul and Galen kill them in seconds. Marik comments, "You know, this seems vaguely unfair. I don't even really want to kill these guys anymore. Let's try to get the next group surrender."
The characters move back to the first level and take a quick survey for survivors. They find that there are two more archer golems, one in each short tower. They elect to leave the things alone. They also find a truly murderous spear trap set on either side of the trench leading to the main gate. The trigger is in the guardroom. When set off, dozens of jagged-tipped spears shoot across the entryway, skewering anyone so unfortunate as to be standing in front of the door. The characters deploy the spear trap to make it harder to get through the Main Gate. They also have Galen place a Watchdog spell on the level two Guard Post door leading into the Main Hall. Antok recalls that there is a second set of keys, and that it should be hanging on the wall in the second level Guard Post. It isn't there, or on any of the dead bodies, which suggests to the characters that Zhelk probably has it.
The characters find that the armory does not appear to have seen much heavy use in recent weeks. The forge is cold and dark. There are a number of spear-heads and dagger blades set on tables, plus a huge pile of charcoal and an anvil, but not much else.
The cistern is a large round chamber containing (at a rough estimate) enough water to keep eight people going forever.
The storeroom features rank upon rack of dried mushrooms in netting, great quantities of powdery (mushroom) flour in bags, and huge slabs of mushroom hanging from hooks. It looks like the slabs are sections taken from the top caps of the tree-sized things that grow out on the island. Gruul scowls and notes, "With a diet like this, I bet Tettek wasn't paranoid before he showed up here. It must have only taken a few weeks before he was howling, 'Everybody's against me except the mushrooms!'" Nobody contradicts this opinion.
The dungeon pits turn out to be rather more interesting. They are clearly hollowed out from natural caverns, and may extend much deeper into the hill than the fortress proper. Four prisoners are chained to the walls with shackles. All are Ungulfinlings, and the characters quickly determine that two are thieves, one tried to kill Tettek, and one killed his brother's wife. Antok is amazed at the last fellow's crime, asking, "He imprisoned you for that?" The prisoner clarifies that he was sent up to the fortress by the Arcul Pox of the town of Dulp.
Gruul is hard-pressed to not laugh at the fellow's plight. He is amazed that you could get in trouble for killing women. Noticing that none of the prisoners is in particularly good shape, he goes back to the storeroom to get some mushroom steaks and some water for them. The characters leave them locked up. Antok remembers that Tettek's interest in the guys in the dungeon was low, and that he'd occasionally forget to send anyone to feed them.
The characters finally locate Zhelk in the Ritual Chamber. She manages to hide herself from their initial search, but gives away her position with a horrified gasp as Marik moves to enter Tettek's Consecrated Circle. The characters waste no time in dragging her out into the open and interrogating her. Antok translates, "If you go in there, Tettek will be very mad at you." It is clear that Tettek didn't want the circle to be a heavily trafficked area: it is blocked off by a curtain in one corner of the room. Galen peers inside to see a 3x3 meter area covered in ornate arcane patterns, many of them drawn with colored chalks and dusts. A golem stands in the center of the area. The whole place glows with a faint blue light. Galen decides to simply walk on in. The light vanishes. The patterns on the floor are instantly destroyed as the pigments seem to almost flee contact with his feet. The partially-finished golem simply crumbles into dust.
Galen pokes his head out from behind the curtain and calls to the other characters, "Hey guys! I just killed a golem by accident!"
By this point, it is clear that Zhelk is in shock. The characters take her to the dungeons and lock her up, but not before informing her that they will want her to make them some Chiron potions.
The characters sit down for a moment to take an inventory of Tettek's surviving minions. They determine that there are still two golems unaccounted for. They suspect that the things are down in either the lower Guard Post or Tettek's Quarters. A quick flight of Ogango's Sparrow confirms that they are waiting in the lower Guard Post..
Gruul estimates that in the last two sessions, Antok has consumed eighteen Chiron potions. The other characters wonder what the long-term effects of this behavior might be. Antok shrugs with disinterest.
The session ends with the characters resting in the remains of Tettek's ritual chamber. Each character gains five experience points.