We arrived at the lizardman trading post. A lizardman shaman (sha-lizard?) arrived, with his entourage, and after a bit of sybilant small-talk, informed us that some braves from his tribe had been corrupted by some foulness from a tower near the swamp. This has been happening for the last few months, so the lizardmen have noticed. He wished us to go and investigate it.
Half a day later, we left the swamp and entered the surrounding forest. Sure enough, there was a old stone tower here; about four storeys tall, and over a hundred years old. There was a hole smashed in the side of the tower allowing access to the bottom storey. By the vegetation on the stones, we guessed this hole was about a year old.
Inside were the dessicated corpses of three adventurers, slumped against the far wall.
Whiss did a scan with his affected head-ache stance and barked "I sense EEEEVVILLL".
Just then there was a loud bang and a bright flash of light, outside in the clearing. A wizard fellow in a velour stars & moons outfit, pointy hat, grey-beard and all, appeared.
"I am Axminster," he said in a rich and full baritone. "I have come to help you! My price will be a favour from each of you when you are more experienced."
Since he showed no sign of evil, Me, Whizz [ NPC ] and Peg Groups [ Ian ] agreed. Yeti [ Darryl ], John Wayne [ Shane ] and Light Touch [ Jeff ] refused.
We signed a demonically enforced contract, and Axminster intoned: "Don't go up. What you seek is below the tower. But search first for three indentations in the ceiling."
"And," added Axminster eerily. "Since you trusted me so, when you are back in Shadowlands Keep, you three go to the local potion merchant and ask to see his 'random stock'. You, Carla, take the green potion, you, Whizz, take the blue one, and you, Peg Groups, take the black one. Drink this, all of you, in remembrance of me."
With that, he vanished in a puff of greasy black smoke.
We sent Light Touch in and he did a brief search of the single room, and found nothing at first, though a thorough check of the corpses (three humans; on tea-leaf and two fighters) revealed that one was wearing an excessively evil gauntlet. We buried this foul thing in a hole, deep as we could dig, outside. The bodies appeared to have been killed about a year ago by some trap that they had set off by a loose brick on the walls - some kind of gas. Sure enough, there were several other similar bricks on the walls. Also in the room near the bodies was some relatively fresh lizardman blood, gleaming greenly on the floor. (Lizardmen have green blood - the haem iron in their blood is a different allotrope). We suspect that maybe the lizardmen braves who went mad, entered here and that they touched the cursed gauntlet.
The ceiling of the room was plastered, and through this could be seen three indentations. Under the plaster near these bumps was a recessed pulley. Directly below the pulley, under the plaster of the floor, was a large plug, like a bathtub plug, ring and all, made out of stone. So, we tied some adventurers' rope to the ring, passed it through the ceiling pulley, and then most of us hung from it. Sure enough, the plug lifted revealing a hole.
Down in the dark was a small passage. Light Touch spotted a trapped pit which spanned the width of the passage. It was only a small jump across, so he did ... and triggered an identical pit trap on the far side. Luckily, he was well-harnessed with rope, so ended up dangling over some spears. But beyond that trap was a sturdy floor. However, it was also trapped - darts fired from holes in the wall. After that, a blank wall.
Thorough searching ensued. On the wall of the base of the pit was a small door and through it another short passage. On the ceiling this time, there was a trap door. And exploring it lead to another passage which opened into a room.
There was a statue of a gnome here, wearing a tiara and holding a feather duster and a staff with a glowing end. His name "Hellian" was emblazoned on the stand of the statue, and sure enough, deeper into the room, in an alcove, was an obsidian beir on which was his dessicated body - also holding a staff, feather duster and tiara.
Light Touch skulked into the room, but failed to notice a trip wire on one of the steps. A fireball exploded near him, burning him a little - which I healed. John Wayne, foolishly thinking that the fireball trap was the only one, rushed over to the beir... and triggered another fireball trap. This almost killed him, but again Illana's curing magic saved him from death's dark door. The heat was so intense that it melted the tiara, burned the staff and almost destroyed the gnome corpse. The feather duster, however, was unharmed. Light Touch grabbed it and then felt the unmistakable urge to clean clean clean. And boy, did it clean! He spent the next few minutes satisfyingly dusting away all soot from the fireballs and burnt gnome meat (John Wayne and the corpse).
Now out of power, I suggested we withdraw somewhere safe for me to recharge and rest. We found a spot in the tomb.
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