They find Hydrix curled up on the ground someway off
from the carriage with a woman standing over her. The gargoyle – Gapinyle,
flies over and accosts her. She is Swallow and is searching
for her brother. She readily agrees to join the party. While continuing to
discuss what to do next they spot a trail of dust to the south someone is
approaching.
As they return to the keep Gapinyle spots an elven
fellow skulking near the tower. He is also looking for someone who has gone
missing in this area and joins the ‘safety in numbers’.
They enter the right hand tower and quickly climb a
flight of stairs and explore the floor; rolling up the carpet as they go.
They climb another set of stairs into a room with a
view. The first windows they have seen in the place. Makfire finds a secret
door and sets off a trap. Fleeing down the stairs they wait for the Acid Fog to clear. Opening the door
Hydrix and Makfire clear out all the magic treasure the small room holds. As
Makfire opens the second secret door they all run back down the stairs. The
woman with the white streak in her hair is standing in the darkened corridor
beyond and Makfire slams the door shut.
“Don’t come zis vay. You
are not ready yet.” they hear. “Go back down and get killing things until you
are better sport for usss.”
Hydrix casts Sever
Tie that gets a satisfying squeal and with retreating footsteps they hear
“You haf been varned!”
They decide to go back down to the balcony. They forgot
about the magic fire and since this has died down the second statue attacks
them. Makfire takes the brunt but it doesn’t take the party long to make this
undead completely dead. Swallow jumps over the balcony right in to the water.
Morlaf sets the chair on fire and gets Gapinyle to throw it in. Hydrix casts My light and Spider Climb and joins Swallow in the water. The torture devices in
the water all hold corpses that groan and grasp at them. Makfire uses them for
target practice while Swallow and Hydrix search the room. They wade around and
get attacked underwater by snake like things. Hydrix spider climbs well out of
harms way but Swallow is dangled in the water by Gapinyle who tries
unsuccessfully to lift her out of the water. Morlaf chaos surges and summons an
air elemental. Luckily it is happy to help but doesn’t do a good job of lifting
Swallow. Morlaf summons a huge eagle that also tries to help Gapinyle lift
Swallow. All this time her arse is being bitten by the snakes. Eventually he
drops her and she kills the snakes that Makfire hasn’t picked off.
Meanwhile Hydrix has climbed down the corridor and
is casting Sever Tie on the zombies
found in the half submerged cells. Swallow joins her and finds a secret
passage. She opens the trap door at the top of the chute and marks it as a
trap. She returns to Hydrix and they find some stairs back to the floor above.
The other get bored of waiting for the girls and
start to head back upstairs themselves meeting up with Hydrix and Swallow they
search the remaining sells and find a hidden sword.
They
rest and Morlaf finds that they have gained healing potions, dancing slippers
and a luck sword amongst the treasure.