The Tower in a Book

 This was the first session after one of the regular players had to drop out of the game. But shortly before the session start time - two players asked to join. I do not like to just drop new characters into the game. I try to have their introduction make sense. So I asked them to play one of the NPC characters in the group for the first session. One player played the party thief. The other spent the session listening and developing a rather unique character concept. More on that next week.

This session occurred almost entirely in an adventure purchased from Creations Edge Games. The adventure is L3: The Sorcerer's Tome by Matthew E. Kline. I made some alterations to it to fit my game and the character levels.

Session 78: The Tower in a Book

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Aashdoshan (human necromancer), Domago (human cleric), Fenris the Filch (human thief), Lantosh (human fighter NPC).

The members of the Company of the Black Dragon take a week off without adventuring in Edgerton. Lakima and Aashdoshan research spells. Eathwund commissions a portrait of Mari Kell (as a ghost) and hangs it in the tavern room at the Sign of the Purple Bugbear. Fenris is sent on a mission by Aashdoshan, spending some time speaking with Fendar the caretaker of the cemetery just outside the town.

Another reported attack by Bugbears occurs in the town. This time the bugbears strike at a dried good store in the middle of the night and vanish before the town watch can respond. Lakima calls a meeting of the company at the manor. He suggests that this sounds like the work of a rogue wizard using illusionary magic. Perhaps someone stealing food for the poor. He suggests they set a trap for the thieves.

Lakima finds a bakery with particularly fine sweetbreads. He commissions a large order to be picked up a few hours after midnight. The baker they commission, Binda, is puzzled by the request but convinced by their gold. As the sun sets, the company sets up positions across the street from the bakery. Fenris climbs onto the roof of a nearby building to get a view of the street. The night is uneventful and they are just about to go pick up the bread when they hear a door open on the deserted street. As they watch, they see bugbears step out of a local bookshop called Pages’ Pages. Four bugbears slip-on hooded cloaks and nearly disappear into the shadows as they make their way down the street.

The bugbears somehow spot Eathwund hiding in an alley just as they pass and one of them swings a club. Eathwund stabs the bugbear while Lakima tells Brice to use his Wand to cast Web over all of the bugbears. A few moments later, Aashdoshan also casts Web further entangling the bugbears. In all of the commotion, the remaining members of the party arrive and they hear distant shouts from the town watch.

Lakima casts Charm Monster and affects three of the bugbears. Using Lantosh as an interpreter he tries to question the bugbears. Lantosh gets some answers but finds that the bugbears refuse to betray their friend the “fat human wizard”. Lakima realizes that the bugbears are already under another mage's charm spell. The Watch arrives and begins to search the bugbears. One member of the watch, Lantosh, Eathwund, and Lakima search Pages’ Pages but do not find anything. Lakima casts Detect Magic and discovers two books are magical. One is called Cherwell’s Misfortune and another called Flying Spells of Jiharu. Checking the strongly magical Cherwell’s Misfortune he finds it is a fairly innocuous story of a farmer with a troublesome goat. He does find a strange illustration of a tower in the middle of the book.

One member of the town watch tosses aside a piece of parchment found on one of the captured bugbears. Eathwund picks it up and finds it is a piece of paper cut out of a book that has been cut in the shape of a key. Eathwund hands the paper key to Lakima. Lakima heads back into the shop and immediately everyone in the shop vanishes. Leaving only Eathwund, Lantosh, and Domago outside on the street with three members of the town watch. Eathwund removes another paper key from one of the bugbears and the three remaining members of the team enter the shop and vanish.

In the Book

The members of the Company of the Black Dragon (and one member of the Town Watch) materialize in a strange dimension of brown fog. They find they are standing on the page of an enormous open book. The strange and enormous text covers the page in ink. Stranger still, a large paper tower rises up out of the open pages of the book. On the side of the tower is what looks like an opening. Lakima tells everyone to be careful. His voice is muffled by the thick, brown fog. Fenris tests a page of the book with his Longsword but finds he cannot damage the surface. Lakima admonishes him to put his sword away and check the doorway.

To Fenris the doorway looks like a door-shaped indentation in the side of the tower. He pushes against the parchment and it swings open into a well-lit room. The room looks like a furnished waiting room in a stone-walled building. A wood door faces them on the other side of the room. The backside of the parchment entry looks like a stout wooden door. Everyone enters with the exception of the watchman who insists on waiting outside. They search the chamber finding barrels and crates of recently stolen foodstuffs. Aashdoshan finds a guestbook and busies himself signing it. He notices that the last name in the guest book is Ud Lux which sounds familiar. Telling Lakima of the name, Lakima tells him that Ud Lux was the wizard who tried to Charm him.

The group opens the door into a corridor and slowly advances down the hallway. As they near another door, it flies open and five bugbears ambush them attacking with clubs. Fenris is struck several times and retreats for cover where Domago heals him. Lakima casts sleep on the bugbears while Eathwund and Lantosh hold them off. Three of the bugbears collapse. Eathwund kills those that continue fighting. Aashdoshan steps into the room and kills the sleeping bugbears. He then raises all five bugbears as undead minions. Fenris comments that he never gets used to that.

They continue to find their way through dark, stone hallways before discovering a barracks full of bugbears (10 total). A large melee commences. The fighters hold the bugbears back while the magic users cast spells. Aashdoshan casts slow catching a number of bugbears (and Eathwund) in the radius of the spell. Lakima raises five of the bugbears that have been killed to this point as undead. Meanwhile, Fenris hears more bugbears behind a door behind the group. He jams the door shut temporarily with finger bones from a dead bugbear. Then Aashdoshan wizard locks the door.

Back in the barracks, Lantosh calls on the remaining bugbears to surrender. Their leader, Xarg, agrees. Lakima questions Xarg through Lantosh and learns that the bugbears are bodyguards for Ud Lux. They claim to be from the Frozen Wastes far to the north. It is clear Ud Lux charmed them. The bugbears tell them that Ud Lux has been missing for a week. They do not know why the book ended up in the shop. But they have been raiding for food to keep a giant that lives upstairs from getting hungry and eating them. The bugbears are all sent into the chief’s room and the door is wedged shut and then Lakima casts a web spell on it.

The adventurers continue on and discover a wooden staircase leading up to a second floor. There they find further passage blocked by four hellhounds. They attack the hellhounds by pushing the undead bugbear minions forward in front of the group. The hellhounds respond with blasts of fire from their throats. This incinerates almost all of the undead and badly injures Eathwund. Lakima casts Lightning bolt and hits three of the hellhounds twice when the lightning bolt bounces back off a wall. All three hellhounds are killed. The last hellhound is brought down by Eathwund using his sword.

The group opens another door and finds an armory. As they enter, a suit of armor animates and attacks the group. Aashdoshan casts Dispel Magic and it clatters to the floor. Another door opens into a treasure room with three treasure chests. Fenris carefully examines the first chest but misses a poison needle trap. He curses and then collapses on the floor. Domago uses his Book of Poison Protection to revive Fenris. The chests are all eventually opened and they find gold and silver coins, gems, potions, and a stoppered bottle full of green mist. Lakima takes the bottle and opens it and a full riding horse complete with saddle appears in the chamber. Lakima is elated and then tries to get the horse to go back into the bottle without success.

At that point it was late and we decided to call it. The new character was almost met in this session but the players just did not get that far.