August 23, 1372
The
morning of August 23rd finds you proceeding through the ruins of the
city again on your third attempt to get to the Tower of Golgar. This
time you make it through the city without getting attacked, killed or
eaten, though you have the uncomfortable feeling that you are being
watched the entire way. You recall the Constable's words about his
suspicions that evil was flooding back into the city out of the east.
You pass through a crumbling gate
at the northwest corner of the city and find yourselves standing at the
base of a tall cliff. Atop the cliff rises the black Tower of Golgar,
fully a thousand feet tall.
In the base of the cliff a short
distance away is a short passage. It is 10' wide. There is a door at
the back of it. Standing before the door are two trolls, watching you.
Galil stares briefly at the Tower, awed by the sight but returns her
attention to her surroundings, riding with her weapons at the ready.
"They have two tower trolls," Galil whispers in surprise, waiting for Lord Kadlian's orders.
They are about 100' away.
Niko smirks to Kadlian. "Hmmm...talk or attack...talk or attack..."
"Everyone, let me talk to them first. Trinity, if they attack,
you can toss your fireball at them, even if I will be in the blast
radius. The frostbrand will protect me, if I have it drawn."
"I'll go with you...my ring will protect me."
"From the trolls? Or from the fire? Or...from yourself?" Kadlian grins.
"Heh...nothing can protect someone from me!"
"Okay, Niko, let us go. Trinity, if we get attacked and there are
reinforcements, cast the fireball without my call. Otherwise,
wait for me to call for it. I still have the flame tongue, so I
can stop their regenerating."
They set off.
Kadlian and Niko get halfway to the trolls before Kadlian stops to
gauge their reactions. They make no hostile moves, so Kadlian
moves forward again until within twenty feet. He then stops again
to see how they react.
They turn and run through the doorway, which was ajar, slamming it after them.
Galil winces as she steadies Mouse.
"This can't be good," she says softly, ready to charge forward if need be.
"Oh, this is not going well," says Trinity to those around her.
She casts fly on herself and then turns invisible with her ring before
flying into the air.
Taking a cue from Trinity, Malvis nods and says, "Agreed. Not well at all."
He casts invisibility on himself, and takes to the air on his broom. He
gets up to an altitude of some 30', whereupon the broom suddenly flips
over and he falls off...striking the hard pavement below for 11 hit
points.
Niko eyes the tower critically, watching for movement. He says to Kadlian, "I have a bad feeling about this."
"You are the one that wanted to talk to them."
"I did?"
"Yes, you did."
"We should have the others advance. I think we're a bit
vulnerable out here, as we've just let the trolls alert whomever lives
in there that we're out here..."
"Actually, I suggest we return to our friends. The further we are
away, the fewer options they have. And, if we have to retreat, we
have less distance to run."
Kadlian turns his back to the door and calmly walks back to the party.
Niko starts backing away from the tower and toward the party, keeping an eye on the door.
"I'm right behind you, Captain!"
Suddenly something on his wrists beeps.
"Keep moving, Niko. Talk while you walk."
Niko answers while walking backwards and watching the door, "Niko here. Who's this?"
"RAMAGE HERE, ON THE TRITON," says a familiar voice out of the
communicator. The rest of you medieval types gape in awe. "I'M JUST
SAILING INTO CASABLANCA HARBOUR."
"Ah, Ramage! How fares the Triton? And what cargo are you carrying into port?"
"WEAPONS FROM SINCITY," comes the reply. "WE WERE APPROACHED A MONTH
AGO AND HIRED TO TRANSPORT THE CARGO, PORT UNKNOWN. NOW WE KNOW. THE
REBELS HAVE RISEN UP AGAINST MESTOM AND CASABLANCA IS FREE AGAIN."
"Does this mean that we can't fireball the trolls?" asks the invisible Trinity from somewhere overhead.
Kadlian keeps walking to the party. "If you see them come back
out the door, go ahead. Otherwise, I do not know what you would
fireball."
Kadlian and Niko rejoin the rest of you.
When Niko returns to the party, he says "I think we should pretend to leave and return invisibly."
"Casablanca is free again? That is good news, Ramage! Did you make a good profit, too?"
"WE WILL. THERE'S LOTS OF FIGHTING GOING ON JUST OUTSIDE THE CITY."
"Well, keep my men and ship safe, Ramage. And keep your communicator on constantly. I'd like a daily report while you're in Casablanca on the situation there.
"Now, what news do you have on the war?"
"MESTOM IS CRUMBLING. ALL THE
LANDS THEY CONQUERED LAST WINTER ARE RECLAIMING THEIR FREEDOM. I DON'T
KNOW WHY. ONE DAY, I WAS TOLD, THEIR TROOPS WERE EVERYWHERE...THE NEXT
THEY WERE MARCHING AWAY OR BOARDING SHIPS."
Galil smiles upon hearing this, her eyes speculative.
Niko turns to Kadlian. "Anything you want to know before I end this discussion?"
"By the way, we should take another look at that crystal ball...seems Ramage was at Sincity."
"Find out where the troops are going to and if they were Nolthen troops."
Niko speaks into the wrist communicator. "Ramage, what do you know about where the troops are headed...and are they from Nolthen?"
"WHAT'S NOLTHEN?
"Let's put it this way, what flags were the retreating troops flying? Only Mestom's?"
"I DON'T KNOW, NIKO. THIS WAS JUST GOSSIP I WAS PASSING ALONG."
"OK...keep your eyes and ears open. I'm trying to learn as much
as I can about the armies of Mestom and why they're retreating all of
the sudden. I'll try contacting you in a few days to see if you
have any other updates, OK?"
"RIGHT-O."
"Niko out."
Kadlian and Niko reach the rejoin the rest of you.
"That sounds like a good idea. Trinity, can you check out the tower from the air? Do not get too close just go around to see if there are any other entrances into it.
"Trinity, meet up with us in ten minutes."
Kadlian leads everyone else back through the crumbling gate. Once out of the gate, he hangs a right and pulls the party up against the wall, out of sight of the tower.
You stand in the shadow of a crumbling temple of Bragi.
"Malvis, are you okay? Ragnar, see if you can heal him and check his head for cracks."
Niko shakes his head. "Trinity, perhaps your student needs more lessons before he should try and fly again."
"Kadlian, I'll take to the air with Trinity."
Trinity invisibly flies upwards with Niko following.
Fifteen minutes later they return and report.
There appear to be no entrances
into the Tower. Even the top of the Tower, some 1000' up, is completely
flat and featureless with no sign of an entrance.
"Perhaps there is a hidden door, somewhere..?" speculates Edelle, eyeing the base of the cliff.
Kadlian replies to Edelle.
"Perhaps. But, the only way to find one of those is to get
close. And I think we want the searchers to be invisible.
Trinity, Niko and Malvis, how many people can you make invisible?"
"None, since I have my own Ring, I usually only carry Detect Invisible, which I can cast twice today."
"Depending on the type of secret door, my cutlass may be able to find
if there is one at the base. Otherwise, I was planning to use
Detect Invisible also."
"You know, using the front door is always so, shall we say,
passe. If this is stone, I'd like to make my own opening, say at the
top and we could work our way down," says Trinity. "Passwall
would do it. As would Rock to mud.
"It would be our own secret door."
Kadlian eyes the tower. "Trinity, that tower is thousands of
years old made by the Wizards. What do you think are the chances
that it is protected against those spells?"
"Who'd protect 1000 feet in the air? The roof?" says
Trinity. "'sides, I'd scan the tower first for magical enchantments and
the like before I go altering the ventilation."
Kadlian shrugs. "Go for it. I just would not be surprised..."
"So, will Trinity be checking for magic while I'm checking for invisos?"
"Sure."
"Of course, we could just knock. I have a great spell for knocking on doors," says the mage.
"Did the rocks hit me? Where am I? Brooms really are hard
to ride. Can I get some riding lessons? Isn't the sky a great
blue today?" Malvis moans and holds his head, wondering what happened
to him.
"Ah, reality is a tough teacher, tougher even than me. Kailar
could give you some pointers, I suspect," replies Trinity to the
illusionist.
Trinity flies back up to the top of the Tower to work her magic while Niko turns invisible and goes searching for secret doors.
A half an hour passes before they return.
Trinity reports that the Tower does not radiate magic. However, it was
also unaffected when she cast her passwall and rock to mud spells on it.
Niko reports that he found three more doors in the base of the
cliff...all concealed behind brush and shrubbery. Two are to the left
of the main entrance while one is to the right.
"Let's go to the door on the right," Dor says conservatively.
Kadlian says nothing, but looks smug.
Trinity looks at Kadlian. "Laugh it up, fuzzball."
"I wonder what would happen if we tried to tip the tower over by turning all the ground around it to mud?"
"What makes you think that the tower does not also go further down than what we can see?"
"I'm sure it does...but usually builders carve into existing stone when
putting in their basement and dungeons...the tower just sits above it."
"And how much mud would you have to create to have any effect on the
tower? We are talking about the Wizards. I am sure that the
Tower is designed to withstand massive earthquakes, not to mention
hundred year floods."
Niko shrugs and replies in his best Dr. McCoy voice, "How should I know. I'm a sailor, not an engineer!"
"Then your suggestion to turn the base of the tower into mud so that it
will fall down is not very well thought out. You might need a
battalion of mages each casting the spell simultaneously to achieve
your desired outcome."
"Maybe...or we could just get some ents to re-direct a river through here...I've heard that works pretty well, too..."
Galil nods, "It is my understanding that powers other than those we are
familiar with were used to build these towers. Ancient powers."
She pauses, looking up at the tower once more before saying more
softly, "But even ancient powers have their weakness. As a
youngster I heard tales of of even the mightiest being toppled by
unexpected actions that were not anticipated. There is one tale
where a huge death field was disarmed by a single warrior who learned
of a weakness in the design of the field and used it to bring an end to
the death field that threatened his people."
Trinity looks at Kadlian.
"Give them a little magic power and they think they know everything about spell casting," says the woman.
"If you are referring to me, Trinity, you are mistaken. This has
nothing to do with magic, but more to do with construction. I am
not a dwarf, but even I can figure out that knocking down the tower is
beyond our means.
"Now if we only had a cleric to point us in the right direction with an augury..."
"Let us try the one furthest to the left. We just have to get there without giving ourselves away."
"Well, Trinity could shrink people down and we could carry you guys over invisibly..."
"Do you have the spells available to do that Trinity?"
"No can do boss man. I used them to get us here with the teleport."
"Perhaps we should come back tomorrow. How about we go bust a few bandit skulls on the way back to the inn?"
You hurtle back to the inn.