We took a side trip to Berlitz to recruit Ark and friends for our assault on the wizard's tower. The dragonborn were excited to be doing something other than guard detail. We passed through one of Katja's portals and stared our march to Helmut's house. Sneakily, and slowly, we crept through Letherna's mountains until we came to Helmut's back door. After we disarmed a nasty death trap on the secret entrance, the stealthier members of the group entered the tower and proceeded upwards.
The Tower Basement:
Helmut's tower is build on top of a very old mine, which his men reported is filled with traps and monsters that Helmut sometimes uses as guardians or test subjects. If we get a chance, we might consider exploring this place sometime.
On the way up, the sniper and the mystic discovered a barracks full of guards. Luckily, the guards were goofing off and didn't notice when my crew locked them on their level of the tower. I suppose they're complacent because not many people are smart or stupid enough to attack Helmut's stronghold. It makes me wonder which class of attackers I fall into. Anyway, we made it up near the top of the tower without alerting anyone. The tower has a nice view of Letherna, I'll give it that much credit. Those weird lumiescent jellyfish things look like fireflies in the forest from up in the tower.
The only obvious way father up was behind a door with a sign that said "WELCOME: ENTER FREELY" which had to be a trap. The dark elf decided to take another (safer?) route to the top---he crawled out the window and started climbing the roof. When he was nearly to the top, a group of huge ravens attacked. It's a good thing he was wearing a safety harness because they knocked him off of the roof. About that time, the box with the feathers vibrated violently, warning us that we didn't have much time before Helmut was going to show up. We barely managed to get my team into the top of the tower before things got messy.
The top of the tower looked as though it might have been a lighthouse at some time in it's life, but the light had been replaced with a large dais with the markings of an arcane portal on it. We didn't have any time to study the portal because a whole horde of guardians burst into the room from one of the doors. We knocked over some bookcases and put up the fight of our lives. Magical guardians and strange beasts assaulted us from the windows and the eastern door, trying to drive us out of the tower, but we didn't give an inch.
After we slaughtered most of our attackers, Helmut and a stone golem friend materialized in the room. We were tired from the long fight, but the sight of our prey gave us new energy and we threw ourselves at him. Helmut threw thunder, lightning and fire all over us, but we did not falter. Outside, I heard more guards coming to help their master, but I think that's about the time Ark and friends found them. Without reinforcements, the wizard was ours. Killing him was very satisfying; it was a long time coming.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Frei's Memories: Day 15
We poked around Nashik, looking for any information that might give us get the upper hand in our fight against Helmut. We got extremely luck and caught wind of some rumors that a large hunting part had recently headed into a large forest. We assumed they had to be Helmut's men out looking for the Nightmare Beast so we set out after them at the first opportunity.
We tracked the hunters to a large coral forest northwest of Nashik. It seemed like a good place to hide; volcanic vents covered about half of the old forest in a smoky veil. It didn't take us long to find their camp, though. There were only a few guards, some of them we recognized from our fight with Helmut's apprentice. They should have found other work while they had the chance---we fed them to a huge, predatory starfish after we dispensed with them. They didn't go quietly, though and attracted some of their friends. The shadar-kai reinforcements were half-bemused to see the starfish munching on their comrades, but their humor didn't last long. Their force was much stronger, but not enough to stand against us. After they were dead, we looted the camp and discovered a few bricks of very nice tobacco.
We engaged another group of hunters about a mile from the campsite. The shadar-kai were trying to separate the Nightmare Beast from its child. We fought the hunters in a bloody and sometimes confusing melee amongst dense corals and clouds of sulfurous smoke. The Nightmare Beast and child seized the opportunity and ran far, far away. In the end, we took only three prisoners from the shadar-kai and killed the other dozen or so.
Not long after the battle, our psychic knight made mental contact with the Nightmare Beast. The creature knew where Helmut laid his head at night and gratefully shared the location with us. Helmut wasn't a very social shadar-kai---he made his lonely home in an isolated tower in the rugged mountains far north of Nashik. In exchange for his life, one of our prisoners even divulged the location of a secret entrance to the tower. That damn wizard didn't have much longer to live.
Luck was with us and we found a coral archway to the obsidian prison in the northern part of the forest. We decided to pay Katja a visit and prepare for our assault on Helmut's tower. To help us fight the wizard, the obsidian dragon gave us a box of feathers. She said that they could reach into Astral space and trap anyone using teleportation for a few minutes. Katja was pleased with our gift of tobacco and broke out the fanciest (and largest) hookah I've ever seen.
We tracked the hunters to a large coral forest northwest of Nashik. It seemed like a good place to hide; volcanic vents covered about half of the old forest in a smoky veil. It didn't take us long to find their camp, though. There were only a few guards, some of them we recognized from our fight with Helmut's apprentice. They should have found other work while they had the chance---we fed them to a huge, predatory starfish after we dispensed with them. They didn't go quietly, though and attracted some of their friends. The shadar-kai reinforcements were half-bemused to see the starfish munching on their comrades, but their humor didn't last long. Their force was much stronger, but not enough to stand against us. After they were dead, we looted the camp and discovered a few bricks of very nice tobacco.
We engaged another group of hunters about a mile from the campsite. The shadar-kai were trying to separate the Nightmare Beast from its child. We fought the hunters in a bloody and sometimes confusing melee amongst dense corals and clouds of sulfurous smoke. The Nightmare Beast and child seized the opportunity and ran far, far away. In the end, we took only three prisoners from the shadar-kai and killed the other dozen or so.
Not long after the battle, our psychic knight made mental contact with the Nightmare Beast. The creature knew where Helmut laid his head at night and gratefully shared the location with us. Helmut wasn't a very social shadar-kai---he made his lonely home in an isolated tower in the rugged mountains far north of Nashik. In exchange for his life, one of our prisoners even divulged the location of a secret entrance to the tower. That damn wizard didn't have much longer to live.
Luck was with us and we found a coral archway to the obsidian prison in the northern part of the forest. We decided to pay Katja a visit and prepare for our assault on Helmut's tower. To help us fight the wizard, the obsidian dragon gave us a box of feathers. She said that they could reach into Astral space and trap anyone using teleportation for a few minutes. Katja was pleased with our gift of tobacco and broke out the fanciest (and largest) hookah I've ever seen.
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