The wayfinders of the floating tower

THE WAYFINDERS OF THE FLOATING TOWER
“THE ROAD OF SLAVERY”
SEGMENT 031
1/10/15

VULT 23, 999 THE COGS

It has been another 30 minutes since the group left the Red Hammer. They find the tunnel used easily enough. Shadow weave cloth was used to hide the entrance behind some large stones.

They enter a large cavern with several ruins on the four corners and the remains of a manmade structure in the center.

Vydaer peeks into the closest building. While inside, the others believe they can see something else within the cavern and go to it. The goblin spots recent footprints in the sand and lose stone. He then spots something small and round in the corner of the first room. He carefully picks up four small stone disks. Ancient goblin coins! An artifact of great value!

He hurries out of the building to show the others what he has found. He is watched by small yellow squinty eyes.

The goblin is not ready for what he sees next. The others are looking up at a tall statue. The statue is cruel and evil. It is from the darker days of the goblin nation. It is a jackal headed bloated female. The Matron of Monsters.

Gabriel walks up to the base of the statue and looks around. He spots something wet and lumpy. Looking closer, he sees severed fingers and entrails. Fresh. Undaunted, he pulls out a metal pointer he uses when investigating things he doesn’t want to touch. He pokes and prods the fleshy lumps and spots a panel under. Boar looks over his shoulder as he prys up the panel. He looks inside the exposed space and sees a small tube with a stopper on it.

The warforged reaches in and pulls it out. The warlock keeps his distance. The goblin looks up in deep curiosity. Boar fingers the stopper and pops it off. A powdery residue floats into the air. Curious the warforged pours out a little bit of the contents. Powder. The goblin smells it. No smell. He wets his finger and dabs it onto the powder and tastes it.

Nothing.

They move on to the closest building as Mortar talks about his find that no one seems to care about. Looking around they finds evidence of people being held here. They move to the next building. They make quick work of a snake here before moving again to a new building. Boar spots something behind the building. He breaks through the thin ruined wall to collect it. It is an old pack. Inside it they find little of use. 25 silver and a small stone owl with quartz marble eyes. The warlock asks to look at it. It is magical but requires a command word.

As they return to the first building where Mortar found the stone coins. They also look at the central structure. Boar spots something in the shadows. A rat. Whether at a nasty whim or a sense of fear he blasts it. The sand and stone burst into the air and out of the cloud leaps an Imp!

“raghh! Why shot me?!?”

“Demon!”

“No- Snot!” declares the imp as it flies directly at the warforged. He catches the creature in mid-air and squeezes it hard. The fiend stops and its eyes bulge as ribs crack. “Owwww! No hurt!”

“Oh- a talker. Maybe we won’t hurt you if you help us. Maybe you can answer some questions for us.”

“No! No! Noooooooooo! Snot a talker. No talker!” and the little imp thrashes about trying to get free.

The four of them look to each other in a mix of amusement, bewilderment, confusion and wonder. “Have you seen bugbears and women here?”

“No talk! I will not tell you that I saw them!”

“What if we….. pay you?” asks Vydaer smirking.

“No talkie! No talkie! No- …..pay me? I likes things. Many things.”

“Maybe our lawyer can write up a quick contract. It will get you some of those things you like.”

“Like my stones you took?”

“Better….. shiny gold ones.”

“ooooooohhhhhh…… Shiny instead of dull…. I likes.”

The copper pinching lawyer writes up a quick contract. A copper a day for helping them. He signs the parchment then hands the ink quill to the imp. It looks at the quill and smiles as if a grand thought comes to mind. It sticks the quill tip into its nose and routes around. The eyes move about as if testing the feelings of the quill …. And liking it. It draws an ‘x’ on the paper. The first line is green and lumpy, with the second line being ink.

Gabriel takes back the quill and flicks it away.

“Now, what do we call you?”

“Snot”

Sigh….. of course it would be.

“Now …… what can you tell us of Bugbears in the tunnels?”

THE WAYFINDERS OF THE FLOATING TOWER
“THE ROAD OF SLAVERY”
SEGMENT 032
1/10/15

VULT 23, 999 THE COGS

“They travel through here every…. OH HEY! THERE THEY ARE NOW! HELLO BUGBEARS!”

“What the ….. shut him up!” grunts the warlock. Boar moves for the front door.

Dancing up and down, the fiend points out a crack in the wall- “GOOD IDEA HAVING THE WARFORGE GUY ATTACK THROUGH THE DOOR!”

The startled bugbears charge suddenly. Boar hurries now to intercept them. They leap and plow into the warforged driving him into the weak and heavily damaged wall.

“Incoming! Stupid warforged ran and alerted the bugbears.” Calls out the imp as he leaps into the air and flaps to the distant corner. The four bugbears and the warforged crash through the wall. The first bugbear is badly injured as he is forced onto the brawler’s spikes.

Vydaer runs out of the building. The goblin takes a potion that increases his speed and reflexes while changing his body. The warlock begins to back out while blasting at the bugbears. In the chaos, few blows are landed during the fight.

Eventually they defeat the bugbears. They loot what they can from them and decide to go down the tunnel they came from.

“Good idea! You have done this before! I love shiny stuff!” exclaims the little fiend.

They travel this tunnel as quietly as possibly considering the oversized warforged and the talkative Imp. They enter a large cavern and begin to look around. There are two exits from it. They turn to travel to the right when they hear something to the left. Five bugbears charge them. This time they have weapons, not just chains.

Vydaer immediately decides to check for more bugbears the way they came. The warforged rushes to them. The goblin, imp and warlock hold their positions. Many of the bugbears go for the warforged but two go after the others. The goblin takes a potion that distorts his features and he begins to climb the wall. The lawyer moves to the original exit he was going to while blasting arcane energy at the bugbears. The imp holds its ground screaming something about shiny things for blood.

The warlock is clocked solidly by a bugbear morning star and decides just to run away and hide. He finds some crates and a bundle of cloth and does so. With a wand of healing he begins the long process of recovering (rolled a lot of 1’s and 2’s for healing  ). The imp fights for a while. Finally a solid blow is given to the imp whom decides Vydaer had the right idea. He flutters down the tunnel until he finds the hiding human. He too then hides with him and to his utter fear- the imp continues to talk loudly about how much better it is to hide behind these rocks to the right of the tunnel. Unknown to Vydaer, the bugbears did not follow the imp. They are instead throwing rocks at the goblin in hopes of knocking him off the ceiling.

The warforged and three bugbears cannot hit anything. Slowly the warforged is backing down the opposite exit in hopes of finding a point of advantage. The goblin quietly and quickly moves overhead and discovers something in the next room- prisoners!

Three human women ages 16 to 35. They are mostly undressed and scared. The goblin feels a warm sensation inside. A primal need but ignores it as he continues overhead.

The battle goes slowly as neither side can gain an advantage. In the cover of the melee, the goblin frees the women. They are at first as fearful of him as they are of the bugbears but then rush out of the cage into the darkness. The various torches and fairy fires give little for light.

The warforged gabs and rams the leader of the bugbears into the cavern wall driving his spikes deep into the screaming goblinoid. With the leader down the others decide to run.

Gabriel is discovered by his bugbear pursuer and finds he needs to use his charm and talkative nature on him. He speaks of the dragon within the tunnels and how it was after anyone within the tunnels. The slaver falls for it and rushes for the nearest exit.

With their dark vision they go down a narrow tunnel to a ladder leading up. The warforged attempts to keep up but has problems moving through the tunnels and then without light finds himself in utter black darkness. “Uh guys….. HELP!”

They investigate the lair and find little of use but the goblin spots a body down one of the branching tunnels. It is either heavily armored or a warforged. Moving closer, it is the latter. His head is largely caved in and the upper body badly damaged.

With the use of a repair oil potion and a little luck they revive him. (players are hoping for DM supplied muscle LOL) Introductions are made and CY-81 was a Cyrian warforged that in 989 (10 years ago) was here looking for ways into the city of Sharn undetected. He was attacked from behind and disabled and left inert all of these years. When told that his country not only lost the war but was destroyed he doesn’t believe them. An entire country cannot be killed.

They leave by means of the ladder and discover a means in from just outside of the city limits.

CY-81 leaves them to discover for himself what has become of his home. The imp is given a task that will keep him busy as they look for the watch the next day.

THE WAYFINDERS OF THE FLOATING TOWER
“THE ROAD OF SLAVERY”
SEGMENT 032
1/10/15

VULT 24-25, 999 SHARN

The city watch is thankful for the deeds done. They arrange to have the entrance sealed by the end of the week.

The imp proves to be annoying but a good rat catcher and watchdog.

That night Mortar cannot sleep. He is obsessed with sex. He paces about but nothing. Snarling in frustration, he leaves his home and does what he has never done before- He finds escorts of a special kind.

The local Madame is amazed by the stamina of the little goblin. He leaves the house in ruins with several ladies of the night done for the night.

He finds himself thinking about sex all day while cleaning and organizing his stuff. He strikes another house that night and again impresses the workers.

He sleeps the next three days straight.

Unknown to him, the powder he sampled was the Dust of Lamashtu. Each of the women he had in the past two nights will become pregnant and give birth to a human child. This child will age quickly…. Months vs years and mutate. Will they seek out dad? Will they understand why dad abandoned them?

Time will tell…… and the whims of an evil and demented DM that oversees all of this…… 