• Delemir the Wise - FTR 2 / CLR 2 of Riswa
• Gorvan - CLR 1
• Smedley “Jek” Brinlock - THF 4
• Fenric - CLR 2 / ASN 2
• Dan - MAG

We are all carousing in Mombafra where we found Gorvan. He is a thin and tall Human Cleric with a scowl. He is wearing armor and robes and he obviously works for a god of pain and chaos. He seems to have a lust for money and power.

Due to the renown of our group, we were summoned by Lord Thompson, the Lord of Mombafra. He has heard the tales of the Time Wizard that rules over the Tower of the Forgotten Master. Lord Thompson is an aging lord, showing his age and the stress of the many important decisions made over the city which is one of the largest in the world. He has heard that the Wizard has the secret to prevent aging and it is said that the Time Wizard has not aged…

Lord Thompson will pay out 1,000 gp per person if we find the secrets of the Wizard's agelessness. We have been told of his desire and we know the location of the Tower of the Forgotten Master.

We head out.

The party will be camping in the hills and Jek declares that he will keep watch from the top of a tree on a hill top.

The travel for the first day passes without incident and we make it to Starling, a village of 750 people. The entire valley has a layer of gray smog blanketing everything and a blood red sky looms above. We are in the Valley of the Red Sun.

We spot a tower off in the distance.

It is around noon when we arrive and it is another 12 miles to the tower. The tower has been around for much longer than the town of Starling and the Wizard rules over both the valley and the tower. In town, we do not hear anything new about the tower than what we already know however Delemir asks around about the tower in general. He talks to a couple of guards, a group of them are discussing how the Forgotten Master actually likes it when people break in to test his security.

Most of the guards from the tower live in Starling but there are some other servants in the tower. He asks one of the former tower guards if the Wizard pays well who simply says that he pays well enough but it is boring work.

The conversation continues and Delemir asks about how many Dinosaurs are at the tower as it is known that he keeps flying Dinosaurs to scout the surrounding valley. We learn that he also keeps in his employ an Elf with an aviary that raises the flying Dinosaurs. They often take the Dinosaurs out and fly them around the valley. We ask about how many there might be and he believes that 6 might be closer to the number of flying Dinosaurs but there are other types of Dinosaurs as well of more formidable size. The former guard also mentions that the tower is haunted as there are many noises and echoes in the walls.

We also inquire about secret places where we can find treasure and he says that he leaves treasure out on display as the Forgotten Master is confident in his security. Delemir asks, “How would they feel about us busting into the tower and murdering people?” and the guard chokes on his beer. He responds with a laugh and a cringe and says that people try to break in pretty often.

As we continue talking with the guards, they tell us that there is a group of guards that work there during the day and they would trade off shifts with the group. They would get paid 5x the normal rate which was 5 gp per month and these guards head out at dawn. Delemir takes 200 silver coins and offers it to the guards to switch with them…to act as the guards for a shift. They agree!

The next morning we depart from Starling and during our journey, over the first hill comes the first group of guards. We are riding toward the tower. As we approach the men we yell out, “Hail good men, we will pay you 10 sp to take your shift for the day.”

The Guards say if we double it, they will disappear. We agree, pay them, and ride off to the east. Four more guards come over the hill that the first group came over. After making the same offer, this next group takes it and they disappear as well. Six of the guards were taken care of and there are ten guards in total. We will continue to pay the 10 sp offer to each of the next two guards. Confirming our plan worked, none of the guards show up so we ride across the valley toward the tower.

The tower has large windows on each floor except for the top tier. We ride up to the guards and we tell them we are the new arrivals coming to take our shift. They mention that it is strange that some of us do not have any armor but we manage to convince them regardless.

“Everything seems to be in order then.” the Guard holds open the wooden door and one of them grabs a pack from inside the door. “Our friends should head back now”. The Guards give us a long look and then leave. Four more guards come out of the tower and mount up. The Guard gives them the nod and he nods back.

Around back there is a smaller door and on the 3rd floor there are some windows around, on the 4th floor as well. The walls of the tower are smooth but cracked.

Dan goes toward the back door which is openable. He opens the door and finds himself in the kitchen where a large portly woman is cooking food by a fireplace. She is holding a spoon and there are many eggs and roasting meats on a cooktop. She tells Dan, “Wait like everybody else.”

The rest of the group walks in the front door which open up to two grand staircases that go 15' up from the ground floor. In the center of the two stairs is an enormous Tyranosaurus Rex head with eyes made of rubies.

Two people dressed in robes, obviously Men of Spells, come down the staircase. Arriving in the kitchen with Dan is a man with lanky robes and a woman with greasy hair. They look at Dan but do not say anything and begin eating eggs.

Jek open the door to a room filled with cloaks, boots and hooks. It looks like there is a huge amount of insulation from the weather in here. The group can see that the T-Rex head with rubies is secured to the wall with fasteners.

Inside of the coat room, Jek does not find any coins but there is one boot on the ground that has dust and fly parts stuck to it. The flies that are stuck to it are dead. Delemir comes in, sees the boot, then pokes it with a stick from the coat rack. These boots are not arctic wear but look like plain leather boots that are just covered in dust and fly parts. Fenric comes over next and picks them up and finds that the boots have become stuck to his hands.

Though the boots are covered in dirt and dust, he tries to use a dagger to cut the boot leather away. It is resilient leather and looks like the boots would seal tightly around his feet and they form to his foot size perfectly as he puts them on. Even after putting the boots on, Fenric's hands do not come off. In a nearby trough, Fenric dives in to remove the boots but he is too heavy to maneuver himself even though he was floating in the water. He tries to pull his hand off but finds that his whole hand-skin will rip off if he pulls too hard. Jek's dagger still has the same sheen it had when he previously applied the unknown magic oil he has to the blade.

He decides to apply the same magic oil (id 57) to the boots and to Fenric's hand. Though the boots gain a luster despite being covered in dirt, they still cannot be removed.

Perhaps a solution will be found further inside…with treasure. Jek goes back inside to explore and checks out a parlour with some tables and chairs. There are a total of 6 small tables with 6 vases of a fine quality.

Suddenly six Snakes come out of the vases! The Snakes are in melee with Jek and Dan.

Dan immediately casts Sleep and all of the Snakes are put to sleep by the spell.

Suddenly, two robed figures appear. These were the ones that were eating eggs with Dan. They see us and are immediately shocked as they begin to cast Magic Missile at Delemir. His Brooch of Shielding sucks in the Magic Missile which absorbs 3 damage. The other spell takes effect and Sleep is cast. The 3 of us are put to sleep, including Jek!

Dan sends his Cat Familiar to attack one of them and also casts Sleep. Just as both robed figures produce daggers, they fall asleep. Dan's Cat claws out the throats of the casters.

Fenric sees a 30' wingspan Dinosaur take off from the tower and notices that there are only a couple trees around the perimeter of the tower. The Pteradon dive bombs Fenric, making a charge attack!

As the Pteradon dive bombs Fenric he tries to swerve his Horse. The Dinosaur misses Fenric! Fenric rides over toward the other Horses in an attempt to scare the other Horses, to make a distraction.

Meanwhile, Dan wakes up Jek. Dan and Delemir can hear the call of the Pteradon outside as well as the sound of someone running up the stairs behind us. On the bodies of the two spell casters, Dan finds a Potion Flask and an odd shaped container with a bulbous bottom. Inside the potion is a yellow liquid kind of like water in a waterskin.

• Yellow Potion.
• Bulbous Container.

Fenric's plot works! The Pteradon goes after the riderless Horses! They have a 90% chance to panic in combat. The Pteradon dives and hits one on a 12. The Horse takes 3 damage.

Back inside the tower, Dan casts Shocking Grasp while Delemir wakes up Gorban. Jek sneaks up the stairs.

Fenric rides away and heads back to Starling.

As Jek climbs up the stairs, he comes into a huge room which is suffused with blue light. The room has a 20' high ceiling and the stairwell goes down toward the edge of the room which has a 30' high ceiling. A set of huge windows reveal a resplendent light that falls upon the wooden structure, an apparent high value material. Behind some steel bars is a huge blue crystal that goes through the floor and up into the ceiling. On the north side of the room is a large throne made of bone.

Delemir checks on Fenric and sees the Pteradon carrying a Horse around in the air.

The entire crystal is surrounded by bars, like a jail, which rise up 30' to the ceiling in the center. It is a natural crystal that looks organic. There is an elevated area in the north of the room where the throne sits and there are some doors around the perimeter of the room. A series of ornamental steps go up to the arched windows and the stairs go up to a common area where we can see some damaged furniture that looks like peasant furniture.

We go for one of the doors and see a bunch of wheeled tables inside along with some cutlery. One of the tables has a broken wheel. Dan goes up the wooden staircase and finds a small door. He heard it close just before he got there so he listens at the door (1-in-6 chance). He hears a woman's voice calling for the guards, it is the cook.

Dan says “Cooker of eggs, the situation has been handled”. The Woman turns around with her spoon but she is also holding a shortsword and she does not seem uncomfortable with the sword. He proceeds to tell her, because they broke the vases he had to take care of the snakes. She attacks anyway…

Dan is stabbed for 6 damage and can tell that the Cook is a trained Fighter though her training is like that of a mercenary. Perhaps she was a Fighter in a past life. Her next attack swings wildly and misses but Dan hits her with his Shocking Grasp and does 11 damage. She dies instantly and falls to the ground with a thud.

Jek finds that there is something in the broken serving table, like something that rattles inside of the table. He also finds that the top of the table has been modified to hide something so he looks for traps.

Meanwhile, Dan heads back downstairs.

Jek finds that there are no traps on the table but it looks like the top of the serving table. He fill up the stack with silverware and then opens the door to the right just as Dan joins us and we walk past the dead Cook.

A bunch of nooks are built into the far wall and are filled with wands and scrolls in the north corner. We see a box that rattles back and forth from something inside. In the next room, Jek finds a cramped bedroom.

Through the other door is a vestibule with a staircase going down and Dan thinks it is too obvious but he still grabs a scroll and reads it. The scroll does not have magic runes on it but is the image of a strange esoteric tree along with a treatise on this special tree. There are also some notes regarding charms.

All of the other scrolls also have strange esoteric things scribed on them like the tree. One scroll describes how to grind up some rock to get paint for calligraphy. The other baubles have no value.

The rattling box is equal in all dimensions with a heavy lid that is firmly planted but appears to be made of regular wood. Delemir casts Sanctuary on Dan who then picks up the box. He brings it into the room and finds a human skull in the box. The skull snaps backwards and says “FINALLY! I have been in that box for ages. Take me out of the box, I have existed for thousands of years…Place me on a body.”

The skull continues to speak, “I can teach all the spells and I know where the Magic-User is hiding all his treasure.” Dan returns the skull to the box and then he goes back to the main entrance. Jek earlier mentioned the beheaded snakes so Dan puts the skull on a beheaded snakes body. However, it does not attach.

Delemir sprinkles holy water on the head as Jek asks the skull if it is a Lich. The skull says no.

Inside of the grand entrance chamber, Gorvan starts beheading the body with a blunt object. We see movement coming from down the stairs. In comes an Elf wearing armor and mounted on a Dinosaur. He rides it down the staircase with dexterity and behind him comes a woman with a sword. They were trying to sneak up on us.

• Jek whips out a sling and attacks.
• Gorvan takes up defensive position.
• Delimir casts Command and commands the Elf to kill the Dinosaur.
• Stinking Cloud is cast by Dan.

The plate armor wearing Woman charges forth against Dan. She has a longsword which connects with our Magic-User and Dan takes 3 damage, causing him to lose his spell. The Dinosaur also charges and is charging at Dan. The Dinosaur deals 6 more damage to the muscle mage.

Jek fires his sling bullet but misses the Dinosaur. Gorvan is DEAD after taking 10 damage. After this, Jek tries to jump on the Pteradon to attack the Elf. Dan is hit next by some Magic Missiles but does not take any damage due to his Shield spell.

The Fighter hits Dan for 4 damage while Jek does 3 damage to the Elf. This time the Elf attacks Jek but misses. The Dinosaur attacks Dan again.

Jek does another 3 damage to the Elf and he has successfully jumped onto the back of the Pteradon as Delemir slays it. Suddenly, 3 Stirges manifest in the air and the huge mosquito birds swarm into the melee.

The Elf and the Guard Captain are still fighting while we can hear multiple people coming down from the stairs. Jek stabs the Elf along with Delemir while the Elf attacks Delemir and misses. The Warrior attacks Delemir and hits for 2 damage.

There is a Reaction roll for the forces unseen.

Coming down the stairs are 2 unarmored Men wielding knives. They are trying to decide what to do. Dan casts Slow while Delemir attacks the Elf again. Jek tries to attack the Warrior.

The 2 knife wielders charge into combat just as Delemir catches the skinny man and strikes him to the ground. They are charging Jek but he dodges the blow. Jek also dodges the Warrior Woman and the Elf also attacks Jek. Dan's spell goes off and all of them Slow down.

Delemir manages to kill both the Knife Wielders but also takes a hit for 5 damage. The 3 Stirges are in melee with their huge needle proboscises. Delemir successfully slays the Elf with a mighty blow!

We take the opportunity to make a run for it…

The party runs away and immediately heads for Starling.

After we get a couple miles out, multiple dragon-like creatures begin fanning out from the tower. Suddenly, they seem to be called back and then nothing pursues back to Starling village.

On the bodies of the slain enemies was another potion, 5 sp and their weapons and armor. There was no evil detected but we did detect magic on both potions, including the oddly shaped container, Tbere is also magic on the Elf's shield.

Jek claims the oddly shaped container with the magic liquid. There is another potion claimed by Dan.

The cursed boots are removed and they sell for 15,000 gp! We determine that the medium shield has a +1 bonus and is claimed by Delemir.

The session will be resolved on the 7th.

• 12,965 gp
• 240 gp

Delemir speeds up for a brief moment and the special container seems to contain some type of glue. It is id 61.

• Delemir gets 4,026 xp.
• Fenric gets 5,336 xp.
• Jek gets 9,576 xp.

We all get 640 pp, 2 gp, 5 sp, 4 cp each.

Jek pays off his Loan which was a 3078 gp loan.

However he levels up and must now take out another 6,000 gp loan, starting on the 8th.

Jek start training and his last day is on the 13th. We can continue the adventure on the 14th.