Grembor examines the doors and finds nothing of any interest; they are large, impressive and very solidly locked. They do notice however that there is a pull rope to the side of the door which after everyone back away from the door to a safe distance Sayuri pulls; they hear a bell ringing inside the mansion and a few minutes later a view port opens for a few seconds before slamming shut again. The door remains closed; they keep pulling on the rope for several more minutes but there is no more response from within.
Grembor starts examining the door looking for anything dodgy before applying his lockpicks to the lock; all they find of any interest is the strange clicking sound coming from the other side of the door; after several tries he comes to the conclusion that the lock is beyond his talents. Kat gets bored of this and walks up the wall to the roof where she looks for alternative entrances; all the windows are too narrow for entry and are barred; the other door leading to a balcony on this side is also locked and barred from the inside. The other side of the building however the doorway is not locked and Kat opens the door cautiously and enters; finding herself in a 30ft by 5ft closest was not what she expected however.
Some searching and knocking on walls later locates the expertly hidden though expected secret door which pops open at the push of her hand. This leads to a large dinning room; fires and lanterns are lit and it is very clean as if someone just left the room after tidying up; sneaking through the apparently recently deserted house she finds her way to the front door where she can hear the voices of the rest of the party through the doorway. Kat pauses as she spies the door as on this side of it is a large blue circle engraved with glowing runes that you can see just out of the corner of your eye; she is just about to mention this before the strange clicking noise which was barely registering on her senses gets a lot louder as a large clockwork machine extracts itself from it’s storage place beneath the stairs.
The clockwork horror towers over Kat who is quite tall herself and seems to be comprised of manly clockwork; alchemical and various patches of skin and flesh. However the parts that really interest Kat are the two large scythe like appendages at the end of its arms; they certainly interest her as they swing in her direction cutting a deep wound into her side.
The rest of the party hear Kat scream in pain and are even more disturbed as they notice a thin trickle of red blood appear underneath the door; Sayuri and Pringle start making their way around the mansion climbing over the treacherous rocks upon which the mansion is constructed to try to locate the entrance Kat used while Grembor tries kicking in the large door unaware of the apparent trap on the other side but is unable to force it open. Kat draws her weapons and starts a deadly dance with the clockwork soldier from hell. She scores some good blows but is unable to tell if they actually caused much in the way of damage. However the attacks from the creature is another matter entirely as it swings it’s scythes towards Kat catching her with a strike to her leg which would have been much worse if she was not twisting away at the time.
Grembor tries kicking in the door again but to little avail; while Sayuri and Pringle make it to the rear door which Sayuri opens. Kat swings her swords at the construct with metallic clanging noises which jar her hold on her weapons but she manages to keep them in her grip; her hands are getting sore from the solid blows; however there are dents appearing on the arms and legs where she is hitting it. The clockwork horror swings its arms in a wide arc trying to behead Kat but it catches her shoulder with a deep wound that bleeds profusely; more blood seeps underneath the door as the combat continues making Grembor more frantic in his attempts to open the reinforced door; again he bounces off the solid door almost falling to the floor in his attempt.
Sayuri makes it to the door opening to the combat; she can hear the whir and clicking of the construct on the other side however she would like to get a better position so passes through some more doors to circle the combat followed by Pringle. Kat and the clockwork creature trade blows again and yet again Kat finds herself eating dirt as she hits the floor blood streaming from her nose as a glancing blow to her head almost snaps her neck.
Grembor fails again to open the door resorting back to lockpicks; an observer of which there are thankfully none would see the anger growing on the half elven features as the tips of his ears are getting redder and a vein is starting to throb in his temple. The sudden increase in blood seeping under the door is not assisting in keeping him clam. Sayuri opens the door and finds Kat’s prone form before her and the clockwork terror on the other side. She thinks quickly and unleashes her favorite spell sending three balls of force hammering into the creature; Pringle follows suit and sends more balls of force through the narrow doorway at the looming gaunt metallic figure.
Kat remains on the floor narrowly avoiding being stepped on as her life’s blood is flowing out of her veins onto the greedy floor; The clockwork horror reaches through the doorway and tries to skewer Sayuri with it’s scythe blades and narrowly misses her; Grembor in a fit of anger unleashes a torrent of hammering on the door; Sayuri notices the large blue symbol on their side of the door but fails to make the connection to it being a trap. Shrugging at the pretty artistry on the door she unleashes another torrent of missiles followed by Pringle which render the machine in operational as it breaks apart falling in a series of metallic sounds as it drops to the floor. Grembor kicks at the door finally knocking it open and triggering the trap; he stares on in disbelief as a large rent in space opens and out steps a huge Elemental comprised of air. It swings at Grembor striking him solidly and knocking him back several feet; thankfully it is facing the walkway so he is not knocked off the bridge.
Sayuri grabs Kat and drags her through the doorway closing it behind them; while Grembor retreats to the Gatehouse. The Elemental hangs around for a while looking to hit something that’s no longer there and then fades after the space of a minute back to where it came from. Grembor hurries across the bridge and pulls out his wand channeling the healing energies into Kat which revives her again. She crawls back to her feet looking very sheepishly around at her comrades.
Searching the Mansion they find no other beings; they do however find a fine set of ivory goats; magical items that allow the goats to transform into some interesting and useful mounts. Finding some nice beds upstairs they decide to crash for the day as it’s been a long morning with Golem Hounds; Metallic constructs and a huge Elemental. It’s only been a couple of hours or so since they got up but hey we all need a lazy day now and then. Grembor has the first of the watches and is very disturbed by the activities and noises coming from downstairs; It seems the composite parts of the construct are being carried back underneath the stairs by some invisible force.
Waking everyone up apart from Kat who is fast asleep they head downstairs and Grembor is told that it’s a minor spell effect used to clean up and not to bother him again by Pringle; Sayuri giggles then heads back to bed too. Grembor is left sitting outside on the stairs watching the procession and investigates the growing pile of parts to make sure they are not going to re-construct themselves and be a problem in the morning. Tis a quiet time regardless of Grembor and they spend roughly 15 hours chilling out; eating the owner’s sausage and raiding his wine before they feel up to continuing. Its early morning at about 4am when they decide they are ready to face the horrors ahead. The dawn will soon be here; the horizon is getting lighter as a prelude and it’s time they were finished with what is turning out to be a difficult mission.
Rope Bridges are dangerous ... The party runs away ... again ...
They rise early having had a good long rest; descending downstairs they see the door has been closed, the remains of the construct have been tided away and the pool of Kat’s blood has been scrubbed clean. They sit in the dining room and have some breakfast of eggs and sausages with some rather pleasant wine; whoever owns this place surely knows a good drink when he drinks it. …
They leave the mess of breakfast on the table and walk out; they hear the sounds of tidying going on behind them as they cross the somewhat treacherous narrow bridge to the workshop area which looks like it’s seriously in need of some major reconstruction work. They scout around the room finding only small things of any value; they soon notice a chittering sound coming from the hole in the floor. They are therefore not surprised when the most fearsome monster an adventurer could possibly meet crawls out of the hole. An insect with a long tail sporting a propeller and two feathery antenna crawls out followed by two others; they head towards Kat who has the most of the substance they thrive on. These rust monsters are unfortunately going to be very disappointed as no-one in the party has much in the way of metal on them; Kat is the most heavily armored and she is wearing hide armor. Grembor is wearing studded leather while both Pringle and Sayuri depend upon their spells. Kat however has the most weapons; the party soon demolishes the trio of rust monsters and continues onwards where other parties would be sorrowfully poking through piles of rust while standing there mostly naked.
Kat takes the lead and they are met by a dangerously swinging rope bridge; Kat cautiously starts crossing only checking her balance once or twice; however she nearly falls when her foot steps onto one plank and it flares red with many tightly scribed red runes. Her mind races and several swear words race through her mind as a narrow thin red line shoots up to a height of 10ft and twists sideways revealing an opening 10ft wide and ringed in an arch of gore dripping writhing bones from an infinite of poor unfortunate souls. Gracefully stepping through the rent is a beautifully graceful being with dark feathered wings and eyes shining with hatred and cruelty; gripped in her hand is a bow of exquisite workmanship and burning as hot as the fire wreathed plains of hell Kat can see stretching out behind her before the rent snaps shut. Kat responds quicker then anticipated and starts running back towards the party fear evident in her eyes; the Erinyes leaps gracefully into the air drawing back her bow and letting loose arrows at Kat which all strike true apart from one which slips past her and surprises Sayuri as it sinks into her arm. Sayuri with a quick calculation realizes what the creature is and hastily grabs her rope moving out of sight of the gracefully deadly devil and throws her rope up casting a spell to create a hiding place; she promptly crawls in and the whole party swiftly follows. The devil swoops down and is confused when its piercing gaze can’t locate the victims it thought were there just seconds ago; flitting around she passes the invisible doorway and flies onwards. The party doesn’t see her again; they wait for several minutes before dropping out onto the floor once more.
Again Kat makes her way across the rope bridge; she stubles a couple of times but makes the distance safely. Next comes Sayuri; Monk and all round acrobatics expert and graceful dancer who takes one step on the rope bridge and promptly slips; she makes a grab for the rope to prevent her fall and misses. The last thing they see and hear is a shrill squeal as she drops the 150 ft to the waters below; they look over the edge and all they can see is the ripples from where she hit the water.
Pringle manages to make out a small speck in the water below through the mists and it looks to be moving; Grembor ties off a rope to himself and proceeds to make his crossing; he manages to cross without incident and Pringle soon follows suit.
Kat with a sigh makes her way back across the rope bridge and through the buildings and starts following the river downstream until she comes across a sodden Sayuri clinging to the banks of the river in a very bedraggled way. She is not looking very happy but she manages to get out of the river with Kat’s assistance; Kat and Sayuri make their soggy squelching trek back to the party.
Kat makes it across the rope bridge again but again Sayuri slips but this time manages to catch herself at the last second; hanging from a rope bridge 150 ft above the churning waters. She pulls herself up onto the bridge and cautiously makes her way across to join the rest of the party; they all look at her askance as she never usually falls; not even when she goes down even a short flight of steps.
They open the door to the next building after finding and attempting to disarm an alarm trap on the door; they enter into some weird looking museum. Each room seems to be themed to a certain area; they make a quick check of the rooms and only pause when they find a room with a pile of chains in the centre and a pair of Sarcophagi’s standing against the walls.
Kat cautiously crosses the room but is not surprised when a creature steps from the closest sarcophagi all wrapped up in bandages; it swings a fist at Kat connecting with her jaw and it feels like her head may come off if that happens again. Kat backs away drawing out her swords while Grembor steps up bow in hand and unleashes a flurry of arrows at the Mummy; they mostly hit but cause minimum damage; Pringle backs into the corner next to the other Sarcophagi while Sayuri grabs some chain and moves to wrap this one with the chains and is somewhat surprised when a pseudopod strikes out and tries to smack her across her face; she manages to avoid the blow and quickly backs away. Pringle however is standing next to the Mimic and tries moving away so he can cast effectively; he draws out a wand and sends a missile of force towards the creature.
The Mummy punches Kat in the side and she feels her ribs cracking under the force of the blow; she swings her swords back and strikes out at the creature; they hit but much of the blow is absorbed. Grembor pulls out his wand of healing and stepping forward sends the positive energies running through the Mummy causing it to writhe in pain. Sayuri casts some force missiles at the Mimic while Pringle uses his wand to send a single missile; The Mummy turns and sends a vicious haymaker at Grembor which connects with his cheek nearly snapping his neck; the Mimic strikes out at Pringle as Sayuri is out of range; the blow hits causing some damage but fails to connect as it tries to grapple Pringle.
Kat drops her sword and conjures a flame blade which she swings at the Mummy striking it with the one thing it hates as much as positive energy and makes it scream in pain as its bandages flare and flame. Grembor again directs his healing wand towards the creature causing it to writhe again. Suddenly being a Mummy is not such a good thing as it’s tortured by flame and healing. It is no short time before it finally collapses into a pile of moldy bones and wrappings however Kat is also on the floor again as the last blow from the Mummy knocked her out. Pringle however is not having the best of times with the Mimic as it finally manages to grapple and wraps it’s pseudopod around him and starts squeezing causing his robes and flesh to start smoking from the acid it secretes. Grembor comes to the rescue and buries his sword in the beast and it stops moving.
Kat and Grembor are in bad shape while Kat seems to have thrown off the after effects of the Mummy; Grembor however is looking very pale. They search around the room and find a nice ring on the Mummy’s finger which Sayuri appropriates as no-one else is interested in touching the thing; both Kat and Sayuri look askance at Grembor as he coughs up some blood and some of his skin on the side of his face where the Mummy struck him starts going very gray and peeling.
They hear the noise of something heavy moving around downstairs which seems to be slowly making it’s way up the stairs; there is also the chittering noise of several other creatures which they have difficulty identifying. They wait for a short while as the creature laboriously makes its way up the spiral staircase; Sayuri takes out a vial of Alchemist’s fire and drops it down the staircase where it blossoms into a vivid ball of fire (why she thought this was a good idea in an alchemist’s lab I don’t know). This does not seem to impede the creature as it makes its way upwards through the flames.
Its head appears in view and it looks to have some stitching going on underneath the bandages; this looks to be another flesh golem and they all gulp reflexively as they remember the last flesh golem they fought and the last one was a weaker flesh golem hound. The party retreat back to a hidden staircase they found earlier and try to hide while Kat tries drawing the Golem to the rope bridge hoping to encourage it to fall; however the faceless golem is being led around by 6 small demon-like creatures which are tethered to the golem and are infinitely more intelligent than the mindless golem and they close the doors leaving Kat outside not wishing to risk the dangerous rope bridge or be exposed to possible archers.
Grembor however having found a supposedly safe place and decides to push the envelope and see if he can find some more trouble while the possibility of being squished by the Golem is not enough. Searching the small room he finds a ladder heading up to a trap door and a door leading to some kind of storeroom; Grembor climbs the ladder and cracks open the trapdoor to see if there is anything in the room above. The first thing he sees is that the room is empty; the second and more importantly one would think is the faintly glowing green lines which have been stretched to breaking linking the trapdoor with the floor. The glowing runes flares at Grembor’s eyeline and explodes in a blast of green cloying, burning fog. Pringle immediately drops to the floor as the acid fog envelops him burning away the last few hp’s he had and rendering him unconscious; Sayuri squeals and runs down the stairs hair and skin smoking from the burn of the toxic fumes; followed by Kat’s wolf who also finds the acid fog more then a little distressing. Gembor retreats picking up Pringle on the way; and drags him into the storeroom which is thankfully free from fog. Taking out a wand he channels minor healing into himself to heal up some of the acid damage; he follows this with the same for Pringle bringing him back from unconsciousness.
Sayuri however finds herself at the bottom of the stairs and hears the sounds of something large moving around and decides that coming down the stairs was a very bad idea. She turns and heads back into the fog which causes her damage; she curses in a very unladylike fashion before collapsing to the floor with acid induced burns and her light clothing starting to effectively melt away. Kat’s wolf whines sorrowfully; probably thinking ‘why do I have to keep saving these stupid two legged puppies’ and braves the fog; dragging the slight form of Sayuri back up the stairs to Grembor and his healing wand. Grembor heals up Sayuri with his wand and again all is good in the world as she opens her eyes to see Grembor looming over her with a wand in one hand and eyes hungrily scanning her prone form which has due to the acid become more visible than normal. Let’s face it a tanned, toned semi naked half elf sorceress is something worth looking at.
Kat casts a spell and climbs the wall to the roof of the building; taking out a crowbar she leavers open a vent and looks inside. Lurking inside is a roiling bank of green mist which Kat disperses with a wind spell and drops down into the building. Initial inspections reveal nothing in the room; but on a second look she spy’s a trapdoor in the floor leading downwards which she uses for it’s intended purpose and with another spell cleans out the remaining fog in the room below. Dropping down she is re-united with the rest of the party who are happy to see her.
They search the room and find nothing of much interest bar a couple of severed medusa heads which they quickly close the chest on before they animate and kill everyone; which was lucky as this is what they were going to try to do. They quickly head up the ladder with Kat carrying the wolf and then up onto the roof; from here Grembor uses the Ivory Goat Figurine of Wonderous power they discovered earlier and heads back to Lepidstadt to try to get the disease removed as no-one in the party has the capability or the power to remove it and leaving it will likely kill him. The rest of the party climb down from the roof and head back into the mansion to avail themselves on the kitchen and wine cellar; Kat especially takes a fancy to some wine and takes a couple of bottles with her to her room and locks the door behind herself. Pringle and Sayuri sit up and discuss the days leading up to this and their current circumstances; they are under the impression that they are out matched by the creatures they are discovering here. They will have to fight smarter to overcome the difficulties if they will survive at all.
Grembor on the other hand makes it to Lepidstadt in a little less than 3 hours on the flying nightmare figurine; being a less than obvious person he lands the flying flaming goat outside the temple of Pharasma and walks in. This does have the added incentive of causing the priests to take notice and attend to the obviously powerful adventurer as they always have money. Grembor is soon healed but his attention is drawn to the wanted notice on the wall which looks suspiciously like him. Apparently arson, bodily harm and being a public nuisance are serious offenses round here; in a little more than an hour he is healed and has picked up some extra healing; mounting his faithful goat he rides back to Schloss Caromarc and arrives roughly 7 hours after leaving. Walking into the mansion he finds Pringle and Sayuri sleeping in their respective beds and Kat is locked in her room somewhat worse for wear due to the wine she has consumed.
Waking everyone up they sit around and discuss; they have the services of the flying goat for another 4 hours or so. With which they can avoid the difficult and treacherous climb to the laboratory and be instead knocking on the doors to the lab in no time. The party agrees; Kat slur’s something which they take for agreement and the goat who does not get an opinion in the matter takes them one at a time to the door leading into the top level building.
DM Note: The next session’s may make or break the party; unfortunately there is no good front line fighter as all the members of the group seem to be either skirmishers or casters. Pringle is an unofficial cohort so a couple of levels lower; good spell selections but limited in power; Grembor has decent hp’s but a poor AC and his penchant for rolling natural 1’s is an unsolvable problem. Kat can deal out some good damage with her swords but she is ridiculously easy to hit and her good hp’s soon drop into the negatives in a prolonged fight. Sayuri has acceptable hp’s and a good AC but she does not do much damage; in a toe to toe fight she is often quickly outmatched if they can hit her. Otherwise it’s shooting fish in a barrel as lower level chattel are quickly overcome; she can stand at the back and fire off spells and summon lots of monsters and this may indeed be the saving grace of the party. Unfortunately the thoughts of the party have mainly been running in and hitting things which is the main reason Kat and Grembor have been hitting the floor regularly; that and going off on their own and getting into fights with things too powerful for them. The final combat may indeed surprise me but my professional opinion is that one or more of the party will meet a sticky end in the next session or two. (This in not wishful thinking btw; I am a slave to the dice)
Well to everyone’s surprise they survived the flight up the mountain; they found themselves before a solid and quite sodden iron bound wooden door; rust had befallen this proud portal and there is water seeping through. Discussions were abound regarding the effects of ice on the door and if this would budge it as Kat could not get the portal open. They decided that they would head straight for the tower with the interesting lightning rod on the roof.
Grembor flies up and inspects the roof from a safe distance; he notices that there is a large metal roof that has the capacity to be opened plus a smaller trapdoor leading also down into the room below. The iron construction on the roof reaches 30 feet into the air and is comprised of three triangular platforms at 10 foot intervals; accessible by a narrow looking ladder from the rooftop. Upon the highest platform are what looks to be a couple of machines and they are connected to the very large and impressive lightning conductor that reaches another 50 feet into the sky. Grembor lands the flying goat on the roof and spends several minutes inspecting the trapdoor making sure there are no traps; apparently he learnt his lesson with the last trapdoor he inadvertently opened. Creaking open the trapdoor he looks inside but it’s very dark; he can see a ladder going down and a few close strands of webbing; the size of which makes him somewhat nervous. Grembor gets back on his trusty steed and does a fly around the tower trying to see a better way in but the only way he can find are the trapdoor on the ceiling and the obvious double doors at the base of the tower.
Deciding this is the safest way in and Pringle upon hearing about the machines on the roof gets very excited and wants to investigate them immediately. Ferrying them to the roof they ascend the precarious ladder which the winds make dangerous but they all get to the top without issue. Pringle and Sayuri both start poking at the two machines they found but neither of them can make any sense of them. Pringle even receives a severe jolt of electricity for one of them and is nearly flung off the platform. The resulting drop of 350ft would have caused him considerable issues but this was narrowly avoided by an out flung hand grabbing a support beam. They come to the conclusion that this alchemical / magical machine is beyond them and retire back down the ladder. Pringle casts a light spell on a pebble and they drop it down the trapdoor; it illuminates the inside of the tower nicely; they can see the ladder leading down 60ft to the floor; the many strands of thick webbing criss crossing the room; the leaver at the bottom of the ladder which they assume may control the metal shutters keeping the roof closed and the huge aberrant golem crouched close to the ceiling. Lucky for them the creature while made of several different creatures; none of them are all that perspective or bright so the sudden appearance of light in the room in no way alerts the creature to their presence. They beat a hasty retreat in full knowledge that they would all die a horrible death if they went up against that creature.
After some heated discussion they travel down to the raised walkway before the tower and investigate this as a possible ingress point. However after they listen at the door they are dissuaded by the sounds of something large wandering round behind the portal.
They in instead decide to follow the raised bridge which is only 3 ft wide back into the side of the hill and investigate the area they have not yet been through. They hope that there is something in there which they can use against the huge golem which may prevent their very sudden and messy deaths. They make their careful way across the bridge without any problems and Kat investigates the corridor. This opened out into a long corridor with four doors leading off; Kat enters and opens the all four of the doors. There is nothing inside worth investigating so she closes them off as four large round rooms with 3ft of water in them are not worth their time. Despite the interesting creatures hiding in each which may or may not have killed them.
Giving this up as a bad deal they have a conversation among themselves again and Grembor gets his way finally and they all agree to take another look at the machines on the tower’s roof. They are ferried up again by the flying goat without which they would have been in some serious problems; alighting upon the platform they set to investigating the two devices with Kat and Grembor assisting.
They figure out that one of the devices is a storm caller; a device for summoning and controlling the weather causing lightning to strike the conductor and thus providing energy for the second device. The other device seems to have four headsets and they seem to think that it’s a control device of some sort; pooling their knowledge and after a discussion with Kat and Sayuri Pringle flips a few switches; turns a few dials and presses the big red button. With a crackle, hum and a high pitched whine the storm caller rumbles into action; the sky above soon turning darker and a lightning bolt soon hits the lightning rod above them. Taking some cover from the lightning they apply the same process to the control device; Kat and Sayuri offer up assistance while Pringle does the actual work; however despite their help it seems to work and in no time the control device is up and running adding its deep whine to the noises of the storm caller.
The purple liquid in the devise soon starts bubbling; Kat puts on one of the headsets and can feel the Beast through it; it’s very close so she calls it to them. Sayuri also hooks herself up to the machine; she also feels the Beast and grants it her speed so it can arrive sooner. Sooner would be better than later it seems as the Aberrant Flesh Golem in the room below seems to have woken up due to the noise of the machinery activating and starts trying to break through the iron shutters closing off the room below with deep booming strikes.
The group make preparations for a titanic battle; they are aware of the size of this thing and don’t wish to confront it in any manner. Spells are cast and armor straps tightened; that glove which was not fitting quite right is adjusted for a better grip. Several heavy strikes later they observe a huge claw burst through the iron shutters; gripping the strong metal it twists and screams as it’s ripped from its fastenings and pulled down into the tower. Grembor having tied three acid flasks together drops them down the now created hole onto the upturned face of the monstrosity within. They shatter and burning acid flows across its face; the aberrant seems to not even notice. The rest of the team seems paralyzed in fear and shock. Sayuri is using the machine and is willing the Beast to greater speeds to come fight this monstrosity as they are poorly equipped to do so without its assistance. Pringle mounts the flying burning goat of doom and rides out to a safe distance awaiting his chance to cause the creature some damage with his spells; running through the spells he has at his disposal he mentally notes only a few have a chance of causing it any harm. Kat is searching around the machine to see if it could be used to control this horrible creation instead of the beast they know could be peaceful.
With a grunt the aberrant golem pulls itself from the hole; it’s fully fifteen feet tall; shoulders are wide reaching possibly 7 feet; its arms end in huge pincers with the mouth of a huge ettercap dripping beads of a sizzling poison onto the nest of writhing tentacles that sprout from its chin and neck. Pringle flying his mount and awaiting a good clear shot at the emergent creature fires off his most powerful spell and shoots a stream of scorchingly hot flames towards the aberrant which misses and gently warms the iron framework of the tower; he also notices that there is the large figure of the Beast running across the narrow stone walkway into the base of the tower. The Aberrant turning its gaze upon Grembor who suddenly finds himself way too close for comfort it opens its mouth and emits a low moan that Grembor feels reverberating though his very soul; his jaw drops and he is overcome with a very rational terror of this hulking monstrosity. Only a crazy person would want to stand against it; he turns and starts running away from the aberrant golem towards the only exit available; the trapdoor downwards. However the aberrant has an idea to send him on his way and strikes out with one huge claw catching Grembor with a glancing blow to his shoulder; Grembor feels the bones within his shoulder grating together as it dislocates and screaming in pain, shock and terror he is nearly forced off the narrow ledge to the gushing waters far below to his death. However he manages to stay on his feet through some miracle of agility and reaches the trapdoor and wrenches it open with his good arm.
Kat can find no switches or alternate settings which would indicate taking control of the aberrant golem and returns to trying to see if she can assist with the beast; Pringle clutching his staff recalls the last spell back to mind and fires off another scorching stream of fire which catches the aberrant on the shoulder leaving small patches of charred dust in it’s wake. The spell does not seem to damage the monstrosity however it did seem to have the effect of slowing the aberrant down. It turns its wrathful gaze upon Pringle who suddenly thinks the distance between the aberrant and himself is much shorter than it should be. Sayuri letting control of the Beast lax allowing Kat to continue as she is aware that the Beast is within the tower and will arrive very shortly; she turns to gaze down upon the aberrant from her precarious 30 foot height above the tower top upon which the aberrant is standing. There is a narrow 5ft wide ledge which the huge golem is currently balancing upon and sudden inspiration hits her as she casts one of her least spells. A thin film of grease appears on the walkway underneath the aberrant and it finds the narrow ledge is not so much to its liking anymore; it’s clawed feet seem to loose traction and it falls to the floor; however it is more towards the outside of the tower then the inside and it falls the 100 feet down to the narrow 3 ft wide walkway which it hits with a crushing impact. Thankfully the bridge holds; however the aberrant also manages to gain a hold of the bridge and prevent its long fall to the greedy waters below. It bellows in pain to the skies and the party look on in amazement as a simple spell nearly defeated the hideous aberrant in one fell swoop. They soon recover however; Grembor scrambles down the ladder still in absolute terror not noticing that the source of this horror is now below him. Kat allows control to lapse back to Sayuri while Pringle takes out a wand and starts firing off an arrow comprised of pure acid which flashes past the prone creatures face impacting upon the wall before him sizzling into the fine masonry. The Aberrant struggles back to its feet; the very narrow ledge causing it serious problems as its feet are wider then the ledge is; balancing precariously upon the ledge it looks up at the tower above it and screams in anger; its pincers gripping the stone walk in a tight grasp. Sayuri takes back control of the Beast and finds it’s in the bottom level of the tower and sets it to attack the Aberrant Golem; the Beast runs into the Aberrant trying to shoulder barge it off the narrow ledge; the Aberrant resists this due to its firm grip on the walk way much to the group’s dismay.
Pringle again tries firing his arrow of acid into the creature below and strikes true; the arrow strikes the meaty part of the aberrant’s leg and dissolves into a small patch of flesh eating acid. Grembor recovers from his fit of terror and finds to his dismay that he has soiled himself; he starts looking around the room he is currently in which is filled with thick webs. Kat looks on the battle below unsure what she can do to assist while Sayuri grants the Beast her Monk abilities. The aberrant is only getting a single blow in at the Beast due to its precarious position and it is slowed due to the fire damage. Each blow from the Aberrant however is very powerful and when they connect they knock the Beast backwards a step. The Beast finds it can suddenly strike many times a round and proceeds to pummel the Aberrant around its head and shoulders with its powerful fists. Each strike causing bone shattering retorts to reverberate through the tower with the crackle of lightning. The lightning however removes the slowness from the Aberrant but its position does not improve much.
Pringle fires off another arrow from his wand and this one also strikes true only inches from the last arrow; Grembor ever the rogue starts searching around the room he found himself in looking for something to … acquire while Kat is directing Sayuri from her relatively safe position looking down upon the battle; Sayuri is still granting the Beast the use of her flurry ability. The Aberrant strike true again; it’s attacks hampered by its position; it knows in its heart that it can’t continue on like this and that it is unable to properly retort otherwise it would probably tear the upstart Beast apart. However its blows hit and cause some serious damage even with it unable to apply its full strength to the blows. The Beast delivers a tremendous smack down on the Aberrant Golem with three very heavy blows causing the Aberrant to sway on its perch and re-secure its tenuous grip.
Pringle aims his trusty wand at the creature and lets another deadly arrow fly; the arrow goes wide however striking the bridge; the Aberrant grins up at the look of dismay on the face of Pringle but the ongoing damage from the previous rounds acid takes it’s toll and the Aberrants eyes glaze over and it slips from its perch and drops the 250 odd feet down to the churning waters of the waterfall. Some poor fisherman downstream is going to get a shock when he reels that catch in. Hope they don’t try eating it.
The party looks on in shock as they escaped the fight with only Grembor taking any damage; that was one horrible hit and he will likely be sore for several days but still they survived like they did not expect to.
DM Note: The reflex save for Sayrui’s Grease spell was I think 14; the Aberrant’s reflex saves was a very bad 4 so I needed a 10 which it failed; I granted it another reflex save to grab onto the platform supports to prevent it from slipping over the side which it also failed. I then allowed a 50/50 chance it would fall off the ledge into the tower it had crawled out of or out of the tower to the waters below. I rolled 56 if I recall; so out of the tower it fell. The two reflex saves were both 4’s neither of which sufficient to stay on its feet or to grab hold of something to prevent its fall. Had it managed to grab something it would have gone badly for the party as the only thing it could grab would be the iron structure they were standing on and this would likely collapse if one of the three iron legs holding up the platform was compromised. Looking at the map it was likely to fall onto the walkway from the tower to the main structure this is a 100ft drop; it hit and I allowed another reflex save to hold onto the bridge. This one it made so while the Grease spell very nearly killed off the creature in one fell swoop it was a very close thing. The Beast was to arrive in the next couple of rounds so I figured it was in the tower already so it was in a good position to strike the Aberrant from where it was. I was a little surprised by the turn of events; I love Grease spells when I’m a player; as a DM … not so much.
