Baltron's Beacon Assault on the Keep

In the last session, the players continued their assault on Baltron's Beacon (called Balutron's Beacon in the Dolmvay setting). This time they assaulted the Keep. In the previous session, they had taken the Gatehouse from a number of brigands. All of the brigands were killed or chased off. They then rested and regained spells.

This gave me a week to think about how the wizard in the Keep would react to having a group of adventurers attacking him. He had lost all of his hired brigands but still had two companions. A charmed ranger and a weretiger. The write-up of I7: Baltron's Beacon gives a detailed suggestion for an ambush if the players attack the Keep head-on. I decided to run it pretty much as detailed in the module. The wizard was definitely aware of the intrusion from the adventurers. They had cast a fireball spell and set off a pair of Explosive runes traps. Also, I did not feel that the Wizard would leave. He had great confidence in his abilities and had not found any of the treasure he came to the Beacon to find.

The second half of this session, after the combat, became more of a puzzle-solving mystery. Here the players struggled. If they want to go further they are going to have to reason some of this out.

Session 59: Assault on the Keep

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

Late in the evening around midnight, the adventurers rise from their rest. The wizards memorize new spells and Domago has prayed to St Aleena for new miracles. Lantosh and Vervork stayed alert during the rest as they were not injured. Aashdoshan busies himself raising several skeletons (now six in total).

The adventurers make a direct approach to the keep. It is dark but the night is filled with the sound of insects. A set of stone steps leads up the side of the keep to a door. Fenris climbs the steps and passes over a pair of wooden boards that bridge the gap to the entrance. He immediately comes back and excitedly tells the rest that there are a pair of crawling creatures in the entrance hall.

Aashdoshan decides to send one of his servitor skeletons to draw out one of the crawlers so everyone can attack it. The skeleton makes its way into the entrance and then backs out followed by a crawling creature whose mouth is surrounded by eight tentacles. The creature is attacked by the skeletons and by missile weapons from the adventurers and it soon collapses, and rolls off the platform to fall 15 feet down onto the rock below. The second crawler is more reluctant to come out of the entrance. So eventually, a skeleton followed by Alonso goes in and gets it. They kill it in the entrance hall. The rest of the adventurers come up to join Alonso. Fenris finds the end of the hall is blocked by an iron portcullis. Lantosh and Eathwund try to lift it but they are unable. Just then, a wooden table resting against the wall animates into a mimic and attacks Eathwund. It is unable to get past the hero’s defense and he soon hacks the mimic down. It dissolves into a puddle of sludge. Just as the mimic dies, steaming hot oil pours down from murder holes in the ceiling, and arrows fire at the adventurers from slits in the walls. A barrage of magic missiles strikes Eathwund and Alonso. Alonso runs back out to the outside but Lakima, Eathwund, Fenris, Aashdoshan, and Lantosh are caught partially under the oil and injured. A flaming arrow fires out of a slit lighting the oil and a fire breaks out. Only Fenris is caught fully in this fire and he staggers outside where Vervork pats out the flames. Lakima casts Aztazibar’s Acrid Finger and burns a hole through the portcullis allowing those trapped in the hall to escape.

Once the fires subside the rest of the heroes join those who have passed through the portcullis. They find a deserted dining chamber covered in cobwebs. An arrow flies past the heroes striking the far wall and they see a figure to the south firing arrows at them. Alonso and Eathwund charge down the hall – but by the time they get there the attacker is gone.

In this chamber, they see a trapdoor in the floor – a ladder leading down into a cellar and a staircase leading up to the next floor. After a brief debate on which way to go – Fenris is sent up the stairs. He reports back that the stairs lead to a landing on the next floor with a door. Another stair continues up to the next level. Fenris is told to check the next stair. He leaves and comes back quickly yelling, “Dragon!” Lakima questions Fenris on what color of dragon and he has problems remembering. He tells them it was blue or maybe purple. It appeared to be sleeping.

The entire company moves to the next level landing. There is a door here but they decide they should deal with the dragon first. Ascending the stair, they come to a room with one wall collapsed and looking out over the open roof of the keep. In the corner of the chamber is a hot stovepipe ascending from floor to ceiling. The “dragon” is curled up sleeping near the pipe. Lakima immediately states that the dragon is a wyvern. Wyverns are not as smart as dragon’s but they are large and have a poison stinger.

Aashdoshan sends all six of his skeleton minions to surround the wyvern and hold down its tail. Alonso moves up and takes a swing at it but misses. The wyvern immediately awakens and screeches in anger. It snaps at Alonso with teeth and claws. The rest of the heroes join the fight and the wyvern – which appears old and frail – is quickly killed. Aashdoshan sets about examining and removing its tail. Fenris yells, “Look out – here comes another one!” and a larger, younger wyvern lands on the roof and moves to attack them. The skeletons form a line blocking the entrance from the roof and they attack. The skeletons are tossed about by the wyvern and two of them are bitten in half. Alonso and Eathwund join the fight and the wyvern is beaten back. Then Alonso strikes it with a mighty blow to the neck and the beast is killed.

On the open rooftop, the adventurers see some of the damage caused to the keep by the beacon. A stream of greenish-yellow light erupts from a hole in the roof and shoots straight upward into the sky for hundreds of feet before dissipating. They stand on the edge of the hole and look down but do not see much. Aashdoshan orders one of his skeletons down into the hole and it drops down to the floor. Nothing happens to it so everyone leaves the roof and descends down the stairs.

Eathwund and Fenris find the door is being held by something but they manage to shove it open. They see a thick carpet fall to the floor. In the room, they see murder holes in the floor and empty pots. At the far side of the chamber before a door a man in plate mail stands ready with a bow. He fires an arrow at Eathwund which is deflected aside. Alonso charges the man – who drops his bow and draws a longsword. The two fighters exchange strikes and it is immediately apparent that the man is a masterful fighter. Eathwund, Lantosh, and three skeletons join the fight. Lakima calls out to the man to surrender. But the man grips his sword grimly and continues to fight despite the hopeless situation. Unable to get past the defenses of Alonso or Eathwund – the man slashes down one of the skeletons but this is the opening Alonso was waiting for and he stabs the man with a killing blow.

The adventurers look about and see two doors from this chamber. Vervork and Fenris move to the door the man was defending and Fenris whispers that he can hear some sort of “four-legged beast moving about”. Lakima gestures at the other door and they open it into a warm chamber that appears to be an alchemy lab. A workbench and shelves are covered with bowls, pitchers, glassware, and jars. In one corner they see an iron stove that is putting out a lot of heat. In another corner is a large wooden closet. Fenris opens the closet and they find a number of strange items including the skull of a unicorn. Fenris opens a door to the north and they find a small library with a desk and chair. Lakima and Aashdoshan enter and check about the shelves. One large shelf holds all manner of books on a range of subjects. Aashdoshan takes a book on diseases. On the desk, they find two journals. One is very old and belongs to a High Priest of Hool who once lived on this site hundreds of years ago. The other is a journal of the wizard Balutron. Lakima flips to the last page of Balutron’s journal and learns the wizard was preparing to attempt to summon a spirit of the swamp. It is dated 40 years ago. One small shelf is protected by wizard-locked, unbreakable glass doors. Behind the glass are 12 books.

Satisfied that there is no one in these rooms, the heroes go back into the hallway where Vervork and Lantosh have stood on guard at the door. Fenris checks the door and declares it free of traps. Then he moves back – far out of the way. Alonso swings open the door with Vervork and Eathwund backing him up followed by two skeletons. A huge cat-like beast with a strange striped hide (a tiger) leaps onto Alonso tearing away at him with teeth and claws. Alonso struggles to keep it at bay. Eathwund strikes the beast a few times and Alonso is raked with a claw again. Then both Alonso and Eathwund strike the beast killing it. They hear someone cry out, “Virna! No!” and they see Antarcus the wizard at the far side of the room – a bat resting on his shoulder. Antarcus casts a spell and a hail of biting ice strikes at all of the adventurers. After a moment the hailstorm is gone but the damage is done. All of the adventurers are badly mauled. Lakima says, “Now you made me do it!” and he tosses a fireball at Antarcus. The flames expand outward from floor to ceiling and blossom out toward the heroes but just fall short of enveloping them. As the smoke clears the room beyond is blackened and burned. The bat has been vaporized. Antarcus is alive but is clutching a door frame and muttering incoherently. Alonso rushes in and stabs the wizard, ending his life just before Lakima shouts, “Wait!”

The heroes take a moment as Domago tends their wounds one after another. He prays for healing for Eathwund and Alonso. Some of the other, badly injured heroes like Vervork and Lantosh are advised to stay to the back of the group. They search the chamber. Find a cluttered closet which they check briefly, they find the blackened remains of Antarus’ spellbooks. One was destroyed but two escaped serious harm. In the chamber where Antarcus died, they find a strange stone platform with a keylike depression in the middle and five runes around the outside. Lakima casts read magic and reads the runes as, “mountain, shrine, swamp, island, dungeon”. He guesses that it is a teleport portal but he has no idea how it operates. Lakima tells everyone to look about for a key. They search the chamber and the dead bodies. The cat-beast has turned from a beast to a young woman – apparently, she was a were-creature. They do not find anything else interesting.

The entire group heads down to the entrance level to check for more rooms. Lakima finds a chamber with a layer of mist curling about his ankles on the floor. As Alonso walks into the chamber, the mist forms into three humanoid shapes that attack. The mist brushes past armor and clothing and seems to draw blood right out of the skin. Eathwund is attacked and injured but one of the creatures. But they do prove susceptible to damage from corporeal weapons and two of the creatures are killed, a third flees outside.

Next, they investigate the cellar from the trapdoor. Fenris peers over the edge and spots a group of trolls searching for food in the cellar. Lakima casts Fireball into the cellar catching all of the trolls in the blast. They descend the ladder to the cellar and find three badly injured trolls that are killed quickly. Lantosh puts their corpses to torch. In the cellar, they find a lot of rotted foodstuffs and other supplies. Lantosh does find a set of eight rusty keys. He pockets them thinking they might come in handy.

Upstairs Lakima tries the keys in the indentation on the platform but they are far too small. He notes that the end of his staff might fit and he tries inserting and turning it but nothing happens.

The adventurers head back up to the roof and peer down into the hole where the beacon resides. Fenris is berated until he agrees to climb down and investigate. He finds a brilliant beacon that seems to appear out of nowhere and blasts high into the sky. He also finds Aashdoshan’s skeleton minion standing dumbly by the beacon. Everyone else climbs down and they try to examine the beacon without touching it. Lakima guesses that this is not the Green Flame source of the potions of human control. Aashdoshan instructs his skeleton to walk into the beacon which it does. It stands in the beacon for awhile and then slowly starts to crumble apart. Eventually, collapsing to the stone floor a few bones and a pile of ash. Aashdoshan takes off one of his gloves and extends a finger into the beacon. It feels sort of like flame but it is cool to the touch. As he watches, the tip of his skeletal finger begins to age and corrupt. He immediately removes his hand from the beacon.

Perplexed by the beacon the group climbs out of the beacon chamber and heads back downstairs. Lakima casts knock and removes the enchanted lock from the bookcase. He removes and checks all 12 books on the bookcase. All of them radiate magic. One is a fake book with a scarab inside it, a couple function like protection scrolls and some are deeply disturbing. Then one book explodes when he opens it. Lakima, Aashdoshan, and Fenris are all caught in the blast. Lakima is knocked down but barely retains consciousness. But Fenris and Aashdoshan are knocked unconscious. Domago rushes into the room and declares that Fenris and Aashdoshan are dying but there is nothing he can do. Luckily, Lakima remembers the 3 pots of healing potion they found in the Lizard Man tomb. One is given to Aashdoshan and one to Fenris reviving the two lucky heroes.

After this incident, the entire group decides to rest for a while in the alchemy lab (the bedroom is a burned mess of debris and ash).