Golem amok

This session was something that came together quickly. The players deftly avoided some travel encounters by risking using teleport from the end of the last adventure directly to their home. I had nothing ready. I did have a former character for a player that left the group due to scheduling. His character, a necromancer, had been gradually sliding towards chaos and the player suggested to me that his character get taken down by his own undead minions. Since the character is carrying an artifact that is central to the overall plot I had been running him as an NPC for a few sessions trying to figure out what to do with him. The need for a quick adventure for the week was the impetus to come up with an idea. I took some location maps that were already done and added a free-willed golem created by a Cursed Manual of Golem creation.

Session 94: On the trail of the Monster

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Domago (human fighter), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC).

The adventurers spend a week resting and recuperating at their Manor House in Edgerton. Eathwund checks in on the tavern he owns and finds everything running smoothly. Alrix goes to merchant Clearwin and commissions a device that will make his physical attacks magical – at a cost of 1,800 gold. Domago speaks with Clearwin and then commissions Cromly the smith to make him magical sling bullets that will explode with fire on contact with a target – for 1,500 gold. Domago also asks Cromly about elemental sling bullets.

Lakima prepares magical protection circles and releases the Efreet Khisa again. He bargains with Khisa. Khisa offers the location of the arch-mage Keraptis’ tower in exchange for his freedom (an obvious adventurer hook). Lakima successfully gets Khisa to agree to the year and one-day standard agreement of service with the promise that he will break the brass jar when the service is complete (so much for that side quest).

After eight days of quiet, breakfast is interrupted by Sergeant Frans of the local Watch. Frans asks to see Aashdoshan but the latter is not around. Frans explains that a Tower appeared overnight in a field near the cemetery south of town. There must be some strong necromancy involved because some of the dead have risen from the nearby cemetery and are preventing the watch from investigating. Frans asks the adventurers for help.

Lakima agrees to help on behalf of the group. Frans tells him the watch will escort him to the tower. When Lakima dismisses the escort Frans insists. The watch is needed to keep locals away. Eathwund, Alrix, Domago, and Lantosh get prepared for some fighting. Flora, Fenris, and Aashdoshan are missing from the Manor. Lakima does go in search of Aashdoshan in the cellar but finds the chamber empty.

Sergeant Frans leads the adventurers south of the town along the Dolm river. Soon they make out the shape of a square tower with a wide base resting crookedly in a field where no tower stood before. Trees and dirt are tossed aside around the base of the new tower. Lakima immediately realizes that the tower is the same shape and form as Aashdoshan’s Tower in a Book that they have used so often. This one is made of stone and not paper. This confirms his suspicion that something must have happened to the Infinity Glass in the tower while it was in Aashdoshan’s possession.

A group of a dozen zombies can be seen standing idly around the base of the tower. The tower has no windows and only a single door where the zombies are the most concentrated. Domago steps forward and presents his Holy Symbol to the zombies causing several to stagger away toward the cemetery. Lakima unstops the efreeti bottle and releases Khisa. He tells the efreet to raise a Wall of Fire to keep the zombies at bay. The men of the watch are terrified of the flaming efreet but Lakima puts their fears at bay.

The adventurers and the efreet enter the tower one at a time. They find themselves in the familiar waiting room of the Tower in a Book confirming their fears. The adventurers make their way through the tower finding many doors open. On the second floor, they encounter some zombies which Domago turns. On the third floor, they find the iron gate torn off its hinges, and in the prison, they find the door of one cell knocked to the floor. They also discover Fenris, badly injured and hiding in a locked cell.

Once released Fenris tells them that he was doing a job in the cemetery with Aashdoshan last night. As they approached the cemetery Aashdoshan cursed and tossed the Book of the Tower to the ground. A moment later the tower appeared with a crash. Aashdoshan ordered Fenris into the tower with him. On the top floor, they encountered a berserk Golem made up of human body parts. Aashdoshan clearly recognized the creature and tried to calm it down but the creature grabbed Aashdoshan by the neck and snapped it. Fenris decided to run but he was struck by a hurled table. He managed to get to the prison cells and locked himself in. He heard the creature pass down the hallway many hours ago.

On the top floor of the tower, the adventurers find the workshop in shambles. Lying near an overturned table is Aashdoshan. Not only dead, but he has rapidly aged to a skeleton. They also find a shattered Infinity Glass and the Manual of Golem creation lying on the floor. Lakima takes the Manual and Aashdoshan’s Staff of Undead Command. Eathwund picks up Aashdoshan’s duffle bag. Domago takes the time to pray over Aashdoshan’s remains but tells the group that Aashdoshan’s soul is gone. He cannot be raised from the dead.

The adventurers leave the tower and begin searching the grounds for footprints. Their activity attracts the attention of several zombies. The zombies all walk into the Wall of Fire and are burnt to ashes. Lakima finds giant footprints leading west from the tower through farmland toward the nearby forested hills.

Lakima tells Sergeant Frans about the escaped Golem and that the tower belonged to Aashdoshan. Frans asks several questions about the responsibility for the golem. Lakima convinces him that Aashdoshan is to blame and not the Company of the Black Dragon. He tells Frans that the tower is unstable and should not be entered. As if to punctuate this point, the tower settles and parts of one wall collapse. Lakima tells the group that they need to follow the trail of tracks. Lakima asks if everyone is ready to leave and Fenris says that he is too injured to join them. Domago casts healing on Fenris removing that argument. Fenris still says it is more important to clear the tower first. Since no one wants to go back inside Fenris goes on his own while the group speaks with the watchmen. He emerges a half-hour later dragging a large sack he has filled with Aashdoshan’s belongings. Lakima forces Fenris to hand each item over one at a time and place them in the Bag of Holding. Domago suspiciously asks Fenris several questions about his motives – seemingly convinced that Fenris is under a charm or up to no good. Finally, the group sets off following the trail of large footprints.

The trail leads through several farms. The adventurers question locals and learn that the creature has gone this way and has stolen a live cow. The trail leads up into the hills to the mouth of a cave on the side of a hill. A rotted rope hangs from a nearby tree.

The adventurers enter the cave and find a recently killed bear lying in a pile of leaves. Beyond the immediate cave is a chasm that cuts across the path. A crude bridge formed by logs has been pushed down in the chasm. At the bottom of the chasm, they spot giant fire beetles moving about. Eathwund tells everyone that this is the Alchemist’s Cave that they explored a few years ago. Lakima tells Khisa to lift the logs out of the chasm to reform the bridge. He descends and with some effort manages to lift the logs into place. Fenris runs quickly across. The logs prove to be slightly unstable so the rest of the adventurers are ferried across by Khisa. He sets everyone down in a large cave with another exit. Half of the cave is flooded with the freshwater of a spring. Khisa looks curiously into the pool and sees a ripple of colored water moving toward him.

A Potion Weird, twenty-feet tall, erupts from the pool and bites Lantosh. The heroes slash away at the weird until it settles back down into the pool and dissipates. They leave the cave and continue on entering the large cavern where the mad alchemist carried out his experiments. Pools of liquid are scattered across the cave floor. A few of the pools are dried up but most of them still contain some liquid. Fenris carefully walks out amongst the pools and the rest of the group starts to spread out.

“Careful, it must be here, there are no other exits,” Lakima warns.

With a loud roar, the golem strides from the shadows and swings at Eathwund with a fist the size of his head. The punch misses, and Eathwund quickly counters with his sword, cutting deeply into the golem’s side. Blood and viscera splatter onto the cave floor. Domago blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla summoning two berserkers to the fight. Alrix attacks with his Sword of Dancing and Lakima strikes the golem with his staff of striking. The staff seems to misfire but the other attacks strike the golem – which appears clumsy and easy to hit. The golem does manage to punch Lantosh in the shoulder knocking the fighter down, but soon the sheer number of adventurers slash the golem to pieces until the light in its eyes is extinguished.

Lakima orders Khisa to return to town and come back with many glass containers. The rest of the group sits about in the cavern waiting for several hours for the efreet to return. Eventually, Khisa does return with a sack full of mismatched glass bottles. Lakima rebukes Khisa for taking so long.

“I had to steal them from several different shops,” Khisa replies.

The adventurers drain the remaining pools into glass containers and then leave the cave. They return to the tower near the cemetery and let Frans know that the monster has been killed. Then they return to their Manor House. Alayna agrees to identify the potions.