This session was the continuation of the previous session, Return to the Tower of the Forgotten Master.

We had traveled to the Tower of the Forgotten Master after learning that several brigands from a place known as “Dead Man's Stone” had come under the employ of the tower's master. During the last session, the Forgotten Master's tower had been infiltrated and the group managed to gain entrance into the central part of the tower. It was here where the Forgotten Master, along with a contingent of hired guards and fighting men, were defeated but not without nearly losing our Centaur Druid called Galerion.

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For this session our roster included the following characters:

- Iona Arduinha, a 4th level Monk, recently rejoined the party after an absence of some months in Great Hill.

- Galerion, a Centaur Druid, unconscious at the beginning of the session but later revived and moving.

- Paren, 5th level Cleric of Sleal, invisible and bearing questionable or suspicious intent to some in the group.

- Fandillas, an Elf and 5th level Fighter / 5th level Magic-User, bearer of the ring of shocking grasp and follower of Cine.

- Lazathu, the retainer of Fandillas and a Human Magic-User.

- Oriyan, another Cleric under the cloak of invisibility, healer for the group.

- Thorgard, a Dwarf Fighter, tactician and shield wall.

- Tatrin, retainer to Thorgard.

- Jacob, a 7th level Human Fighter, untouchable in combat and a whirlwind of destruction.

- Josalyn, the Cleric retainer of Jacob.

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The story begins in the chamber where the Forgotten Master had been killed, along with all of his guards, except one: the leader of the guards is currently held by a Hold Person spell.

There is a workbench in the corner and a long metal lockbox. The leader of the guards was wearing splint mail and formerly carried a two-handed sword, some arrows and a gold ring. The group tied up the surviving guard leader prior to the ending of the hold placed on him so we could question him.

During this time, we gathered together all of the items near to the workbench and so Josalyn could cast Detect Magic on all the items at once. Iona also searched the workbench and lockbox for any traps but finding none, returned to the doorway to keep watch in case other combatants came from other areas of the tower to investigate.

After a short prayer to his god, Oriyan was able to magically find traps and something hidden and trapped appeared inside the lockbox, something previously unnoticed by Iona. We decided to leave the trap alone but managed to take the lockbox with us. In the meantime, we also gathered up the possessions of the Forgotten Master and his allies: his robes, a cloak, a ring, a potion and a single key. Thorgard was able to locate a vellum scroll from within the robes, of which arcane runes were found upon it. He immediately handed it to Fandillas.

Once finished, Jacob took the opportunity to question the guard leader, who is no longer ensorcelled by a Hold Person spell. His immediate response to this was to declare: “You've killed everyone, why should I help you?” At this point, Lazathu who was observing from a back corner decides to charm him, casting a Charm Person spell upon him and he immediately becomes enthralled.

The guard leader is called Dero and it is revealed that he was simply interested in the money. He did not want any trouble. He also reveals that a dinosaur monster can be found in the room upstairs. Dero is from a thorpe called Hardin, not far from the headquarters of the local brigands found at Dead Man's Stone. He is not affiliated with those men but even Hardin is not his home. He was a traveller and only came to the region for employment.

It was at this point that Galerion, a centaur druid who bravely fell in battle during our initial encounter with the Forgotten Master, regains consciousness. It was his druidic spell of stone shape that allowed our group access to the chamber.

Lazathu asks Dero if this is all the known treasure who says “certainly not, there is much treasure in this tower.” Dero also reveals that there was an assistant from a different town but nobody knew what happened to him after the tower was laid siege by powerful attackers. A key is found upon the guard leader who says that it is used for the front and back doors of the lower level.

Oriyan, who was searching the room, notices that there is a black board without any signs of marking or erasure, as would usually be found on such a board. The black board is also hollow sounding. Fandilas and Thorgard begin searching the board until eventually Fandilas locates an unusual slide of wood on the side of the black board that depresses inside. Thorgard immediately presses the slide and opens a hidden door behind the black board.

A secret room of mirrors is revealed.

A Naked, tattooed hairless man stands inside, looks past the group. Then he rattles the glass chains from his body. He speaks and says that he is called “The Wanderer” and this is his home, the room of mirrors. “I have been imprisoned here five times against my own volition. I have never escaped but have been imprisoned five times. The wizard's magic is powerful and through trickery he was captured and questioned about things he does not understand. I have been here many times, forward and back.” He has many questions about Time…

Someone in the group asks if he believes he knows the key to long life? He laughs and says “I have little to offer anyone except a release from shackles that bind them but my power has waned.” “I exist in all time.”

Iona checks to see if there is a resemblance between the fallen Forgotten Master and The Wanderer but he looks nothing like the Forgotten Master.

The Wanderer looks at the crystal, rattles his chains and says, “The crystal has within it the great power of GEOS. It was a gift to YOU!” We ask if he is he a worshipper of Geos and his response, “I am The Wanderer and I live within Geos, as do we but greater. I have come from a far away land and traveled in many directions.”

The group asks him to identify the body of the Forgotten Master, which he does. Iona drags the body over, “Is this the Forgotten Master?”

“The Forgotten Master did not know his own name. The Forgotten Master was not on his paths through the eons until he summoned and captured me here.”

Galerian examines the sigils on The Wanderer and knows that they are linked to the Planes of Time.

“If I am free, then I will help you. Anything that will happen is already happening and has happened now.”

We then ask him, “Why are you hidden behind this wall?”

“The power of my kind was not to be handled. I was a prize to the Forgotten Master. What is my word when all has already happened?”

Another question: “Are you a part of Geos or a close servant?”

“All of us are servants of Geos. What reward do you want?”

Lazathu says he would like to call upon him when needed to which, The Wanderer responds, “I can release you from the bondage of time.”

Iona pulls out a small pouch, Dust of Appearance. The dust is cast about the chamber and… The Wanderer itself does not change but otherwordly vapor appears around their form, filling the entire mirrored chamber. Reds and blues reflect off the mirrors and the vapor remains. The Wanderer speaks up, “Ahh, my essence.”

We ask The Wanderer, “How were you bound?”

“That is not known to me. I was pulled from all direction and draped in these chains. I am a wanderer, a mortal, a traveler, a prisoner. This plane is not where I travel not until now, and before…”

“Are there others like you or not? There are many like me but not seen them in a long time.”

Someone inquired if he knew Galerian's Future.

“My essence is not grand enough to see what will or has become of any of us.”

“Can you grant wishes?”

“I will free you from the bondage of time and you will have all things. All things on this plane are tied and twisted. I will untwist.”

Galerian accepts their offer and says they will break the chains. The Wanderer squats to the floor and drags his chains on the floor. The being then starts rattling their chains once again.

Jacob drags the Forgotten Master over by the lockbox but does not want anything to do with the wizard's stuff. Josalyn casts detect magic. The Wanderer walks toward the door, chains still dragging, still unreleased.

When the spell is cast, it is revealed that something inside the lockbox glows with magic, as does the two-handed sword, 4 arrows, a suit of splint mail, the ring that belongs to the Forgotten Master, the Forgotten Master's dagger, a cloak, a ring belonging to one of his guards and a scroll.

It is later revealed that the two-handed sword is a +1 magic weapon and it appears that the Forgotten Master's ring is a Ring of Djinni Summoning.

Iona pulled the ring off the finger of the guard.

During this time, Oriyan cast some healing spells. Paren wants to camp to memorize Augury to find out about breaking the chains on The Wanderer, a wise notion but alas, unpursued.

We go down the stairs and check on the group outside. We find that all our mercenaries are dead and a dinosaur is flying around. We bring the horses inside. Looking to the dinosaur, we see that someone is flying the great beast. The dinosaur and it's rider start flying to the west and escape.

The dinosaur did not resemble the beast rumored to live within Castle Elir. The tale of the Courtyard of Castle Elir describes a great beast dwelling inside, a beast that slumbers forever.

Despite the loss of most of our mercenaries, we still have four archers. We take them with us make it back to the top of the tower. Along the way Galerian encounters one of the crystals. He instantly ages 4 months and it JUST AGES HIM, it does not heal him.

As the group re-enters the top of the tower, The Wanderer says something to the Druid, “Hello”.

Fandilas and Galerian proceed to shatter one the chains and quickly the four chains are broken. A great weight is lifted off of The Wanderer. The being leans forward, toward Galerian…

“I will free you from the bondage of time”.

The Wanderer twists up a little bit and there is a POP-POP-POPOP sound! Suddenly, there are four other wanderers surrounding Galerian, they attack him, spraying the centaur druid with a strange vapor. All of his cells instantly age and decay. Galerian takes 34 damage and is dead.

Fandilas says, “…safe journey”.

Iona falls back with her crossbow out and the five wanderers go limp after “freeing Galerian”. They look up at Fandillas and say “See you tomorrow”, then disappear.

After watching the fall of Galerian, Tatrin calls upon Geos to bring him back but he feels that Geos will keep Galerian for now… The divine intervention attempt fails.

Iona collected some of the green powder from The Wanderer's form after they disappeared.

Erasma's ring of protection is retrieved and it is revealed that Galerian's body has aged one year after touching one of the crystals.

Read Magic is cast upon the scroll that we found and it is a scroll of disintegration.

Iona noticed that the floor has fresh, brown dirt and there are footprints, small traces, all around the center column of the Forgotten Master's room. She then checks the steps for traps and none are found.

Jacob knocks out the guard, now a prisoner, and takes off his armor. Galerian had rope, waterskins, sacks, a pouch, a hat, an a 10' spear.

We go up the stairs and move into a grand chamber. There is a central dome, 36' high in the center. There is also a slight smell of chlorine in the air which causes Fandilas to remember the fight with the green dragon.

Walking on old soft carpets and notice that the dome is made of crystal. It warps our vision as we look at it. In the center of the chamber is the top of the blue crystal that rises from the bottom of the Tower of the Forgotten Master, here it comes to an end. Etched in the stone floor are 17 identical perfect circles arranged equidistant. We see a door to the north west.

As we look up we can see the sky through the crystal ceiling and see the night sky. We can see the stars above.

Detect Traps is cast while Jacob, Thorgard and Fandilas open the door. Inside, a hallway is revealed with a door on each side. We head into the room with freestanding shelves. Childrens toys, hobbies, crafts and a painting of a woman of middling years are found in here. The painting looks like it is a couple hundred years old.

We open the right side door which reveals a large chamber with simple furnishings. There are some rugs, some worn cabinets, a bed, and a nightstand. On the nightstand is a tiny hourglass with sand. Checking for traps, we find none however after Detect Magic is cast, there is a faint magic on the hourglass and there is no magic detected in the room with the painting.

Iona checks the walls of the Forgotten Master's Bedroom but finds nothing of note, such as secret doors. We did find some inks, writing implements and sheets of vellum as well as a series of five book-holders for big tomes, knocked over and in disarray. Thorgard finds that under one rug is a trapdoor. He tries to open it but it will not budge.

Jacob and Fandilas come to help with the trapdoor and they are able to pull it open. The open trapdoor reveals an opening to another chamber.

Sitting in a nest in the east of the room is a large dinosaur, resembling a small Tyranosaurus Rex but only 5' to 6' tall. The dinosaur looks up at us, expecting food. We also notice that chained next to the wall, behind the dinosaur next, are 6 tomes.

While looking down the opening of the trap door, Oriyan casts Find Traps and there are no visible traps. Jacob decides to throw rations to the dinosaur. It starts climbing up to the trap door. At this point, Iona jumps back and the dinosaur leaps up into the chamber, charging the group!

It has an AC 5 because it is charging but has AC 4 normally.

Jacob fires his bow and does 4 damage with his arrows. Paren is attacked by the dinosaur and takes 3 damage from its claws. The bite also hits dealing 5 damage and finally, the viscous beast jumps up, and tries to gut his heart, dealing an additional 7 damage.

Thorgard manages to strike the creature for 3 damage while Iona goes to open the door. Fandilas uses his ring of Shocking Grasp but the rest of the group misses, including Jacob.

A moment after its attack on Paren, the creature tries to attack Thorgard with a claw but he fights off the dinosaur. This presents an opportunity for Jacob to strike once again and he hits for 11 damage, felling the dinosaur! Paren is hurt from the fight but manages to heal himself.

Fandilas pulls down one of the books and realizes it weighs 30 pounds! He opens it and inside is a name, “Hollifay”. The rest of the pages reveal that this a 5th level spellbook. The other tomes are 1st level through 6th level spellbooks, all with the same name inside.

We decide to camp at the entrance of the tower. There are no encounters this night and we manage to re-memorize our spells. The next day we go back to the room with the painting.

Iona pulls off the painting from the wall. Suddenly, everything she sees appears to move very slowly. Time returns to normal after Iona set the painting down.

Someone retrieves the hourglass from the other bedroom and searching the room there is nothing behind the wall or painting.

We go back to the upper aviary and Josalyn casts Find Traps, finds nothing of note. Iona picks up the painting and takes it down the stairs, finding that her movement has become incredibly slowed which only gets worse the further she gets from the room. Thinking better of it, Iona then decides to replace it back in the room where it was found.

Checking back on the upper aviary rooms, we find bridles and saddles, some shelves including one empty shelf. Someone was making a longbow out of bone and there are spears made of bone with dinosaur teeth. In the northeast corner is a wooden case, for a bow. As Josalyn looks around the room, she finds that there is magic in the case.

Jacob steps forward and opens the case. Inside, a Longbow made of twisted blue bone. Jacob takes it and fires an arrow. Although the arrow fires incredibly true, one year of life is drained from Jacob. The bow of twisted bone appears to have a +5 to hit and it weighs an extra 50 coins compared to a normal bow. As we examine the bow, contemplating who may have constructed such an item, we know that elves do craft things from bone and it does look like it could have been made by an elf.

We access another room on this level, previously unopened, and find a comfortable well arranged room. There is an armor rack holding a suit of plate armor with inner gold inlay, sized for an elf. There is also a crossbow pointed directly at us. There is a clear tripwire going across the door and the tripwire is only related to the firing mechanism of the crossbow. The ground beyond the tripwire appears to be nefarious.

As Tatrin looks in the room, using a Detect Magic spell, the crossbow and plate armor do not glow with magic. Iona decides to brave the entrance to the room and makes it across without triggering the traps. She is able to get to the armor and crossbow and throws them all back across, to the group.

Josalyn casts Find Traps again and we go through the aviary. We find a hallway with pieces of leather, bones, and jars of fat, There is a barrel in the corner and a door on the other end. The hallway goes down on the south end. The south west door leads outside.

Through the south door is another room and we find a small art object, made of horn and bone. There is also a bed and a side table. Iona checks under the bed and almost pulls open the side table, but Josalyn's Find Traps reveals that there is one!

Jacob ties off a rope to the table and we pull it open, there is a poof of gas and inside is revealed a big, old tome. After the gas dissipates, Fandilas looks inside and grabs the tome. It is a spellbook containing a mixture of spells.

Find Traps is still going and we open the east door. Inside, a room that is knee high with straw and it is warm but we find nothing else.

Back in the main entrance room of the tower, we find that the eyes of the mounted T-Rex head are trapped. The head appears to be trapped with some kind of movable, hidden arm.

We remove the eyes, which are gems that are worth 750 gp each.

The square in the center of the bottom floor is also trapped, which appears to be related to the T-Rex head. We ignore it for now.

We make it back to Starling and will have to wait 2 weeks. Jacob is flying back to the area around Gren, to go to the Druids.

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We head back to Mombafra after a days ride south from Starling. During this time, Jacob visits the Druids who do not hesitate to reincarnate Galerion. They seem disappointed that he has not returned the favors yet but they chuckle it off, just happy he can be recovered.

Back in Mombafra, Iona puts on the Fighter's ring from the Forgotten Master's tower to test it out. Green sparks come out and we find that it is a Ring of Shocking Grasp! Someone tries on the cloak, and it provides a +1 to Armor Class.

The splint mail has a +3 bonus and the Forgotten Master's dagger has a +2. Jacob sips the potion and shrinks slightly.

There is also the box that was retrieved from the same room that we encountered the Forgotten Master. There is magic coming from a trap on the box so we cast Dispel Magic on the box. That breaks the trap! Inside the box are two ceramic containers but they have spilled their contents and inside the container, it looks thick and gross. There is also a staff with a blue crystal on the end. With an identify spell, there 40% chance to identify so Fandilas casts the spell. It fails.

We sell the found ink and sheets of vellum, the crossbow, elf-sized plate armor, which has triple the normal value (1200 gp). The art object is worth 150 gp and the magic longbow made of twisted bone sells for 13,125 gp.

The spellbook from the side table contains the following spells:

1st: read magic, message, sleep, alarm, nystul's magic aura 2nd: bind, strength, darkness 15' radius 3rd: explosive runes, item, haste

The chained spellbooks contained these spells:

detect magic, read magic, read languages, protection from evil, magic missile, light, ventriloquism, detect evil, mirror image, locate object, web, wizard lock, dispel magic, haste, infravision, lightning bolt, protection from evil 10' radius, confusion, polymorph self, wizard eye, anti-magic spell, lower water, move earth

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