The
Adventures of The Unknown
Episode 5
“The Wizard’s Tower - Part III”
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Manderkarr: Dwarven master of Axe
and asskicking.
Seth DeCalea: Half-Elven Ranger
Issic: Half Dragon from Sigil
Flower: Elf.
Shanagra Darmal: Nyandarian Druid
late of Drychtnoth.
Adas Jou'Nar: Lamapachan rogue
Ghallan Hired man-at-arms for the
wizard
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The Place: The Unknown Lands,
The Time: Spring, 24 Artim, Sixth Year, Eighth Age.
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Shanagra said, “Well, anyone in this tower now knows we are here...”
“Well lets go see this mage,” said Seth.
“With the explosion earlier, I think we got their attention already,
Shanagra,” commented Manderkarr gruffly.
“Like they did not know that from the previous explosion?” said
Issic at the same time as the dwarf made his comment. Issic laughed. “Great
minds, Eh Manderkarr?”
“Never been accused of being a great mind, but what the hell,” said
Manderkarr.
Issic started pulling up boards, searching for the entrance to the
next level. He soon completely uncovered the stairway down. Manderkarr mosied
over to the stairway. Shanagra commented that Issic or Manderkarr should go
first down the stairs.
“I would suggest the shield to go first,” said Issic with a smile,
lifting his shield.
“Not a bad idea, Demon,” said Manderkarr, readying a shield as well.
He and Issic, shields up, went cautiously down the steps. Seth followed them.
Shanagra and Flower took up the rear.
Manderkarr came to a door made of wood and reinforced with steel.
“Poor humans, cannot even make a solid door,” said the dwarf. He
gave it good look over and pushed it with his axe. He found the door locked
with a bar on the other side.
“Probably done after our entrance,” said Issic.
“Talk about a paranoid wizard barring the upper entrance door, anyone
gots a better way to open the door beside me tearing into it?” asked Manderkarr.
“Yes, but nothing as entertaining,” said Flower.
“This one could be... what did you call it Shanagra? Wizard Locked?”
Shanagra, his eyes glowing brightly from underneath his hood, nodded.
“Then I'll use my lock pick and give the wood a good split just
inside the hinges,” said Manderkarr, lifting his axe.
“Flower loves to see doors explode when people try to open
them,” the elf said with a smile. Suddenly the door cracked when Manderkarr’s
axe descended upon it, and the door burst into a mushroom of fire and shrapnel
as the door exploded.
“I HATE mages!” exclaimed the dwarf as he picked himself off the
floor. Flower howled in pain, “I don’t like seeing doors explode anymore!”.
Manderkarr kicked through the remains of the door and charged on through, ducking
under the bar on the door (which was still up).
Seth followed, cursing every god he could think of.
They found themselves in a laboratory facing a pair of man-wolves.
One grabbed Manderkarr and flung him across the room.
“I hates dogs too!” yelled the dwarf as he flew into a wall. Issic
swung with his large weapon as the man-wolves howled and charged in. Manderkarr,
finding himself next to a shelf full of concoctions, started flinging vials
of liquids at the wolves. Shanagra whipped out his scimitar and ran in swinging.
Seth was right with him. Flower started chucking vials and chemicals as well.
Issic’s heavy sword crashed into the nearest wolf-man, doing no
damage, but throwing the werewolf into a shelf of chemicals and scrolls.
“Thats for the door!” yelled Seth. Manderkarr roared, “YES!”
Manderkarr started the werewolf on fire with the stuff he threw.
Flower turned the other werewolf, the one Issic hit, into a little potted plant
with her chemicals.
Seth and Shanagra slashed into the burning werewolf and blood splashed
out everywhere. The werewolf slashed at Seth, but missed.
Issic picked one up and heaved it across the room.
Seth and Shanagra hit and the werewolf fell, a bloody mess. Manderkarr's
chemical (black dragon acid) burnt a hole through its spine and Flower's chemical
(red dragon blood mixed with chimerae saliva) killed it.
Issic picked up the dead body and flung it across the room. “No
more live ones?” he asked. “Too bad.”
They were now standing in one hell of a smashed laboratory.
“My work here is done, now. Any exits?” asked Manderkarr. Flower
picked up a few more vials and carries them with her, “That was fun!” She also
nabbed the potted plant.
There were two doors in the laboratory. Manderkarr raised his shield
and readied his axe. “Looks like fun,” he said as he checked both of them.
“Stand back and cover all.”
“Now nobody touch these doors,” said Seth. Manderkarr looked back.
“You got a better idea, Seth?”
Seth threw a chemical vial onto the door. Everyone ducked behind
heavy tables. Flower cried out, “Mixing chemicals can be ugly. I don't like
explosions any more!”
The door erupted in flame. The door exploded outward with a loud
kablam and billowing fire and smoke.
“Surprise, Surprise,” said Seth.
“Get out of the way now,” exclaimed Issic as the half-dragon threw
the body of the wolf man thru the door into the hallway.
The wolf crashed into the next room. It was a library.
“Can anyone read?” asked Issic.
“No,” said Seth.
“Uh, why bother? It brings trouble, Issic,” said Manderkarr.
Shanagra said, “Well, who is going to try the next exploding door?”
Seth threw another chemical. Everyone ducked behind tables.
“Hold your breath!” said Manderkarr.
The vial broke and a greenish gas started to expand outward quickly.
Shanagra said, “By the gods of nature! Green dragon breath! Chlorine gas!”
Seth yelled, “Back up the stairs! Now!” Everyone backed up the
stairs toward the demolished attic. Manderkarr got ready to throw another vial
at the door, which had not exploded with the breaking of the chlorine vial.
Issic grabbed up a table and waved it around to disperse the gas.
“Move Demon, you'll flood the place with gas,” said Manderkarr.
He flung the vial and ran toward the stairs. The door exploded, revealing a
staircase going down. The chlorine gas was sucked into the new stair and slowly
started to vent outside the tower.
“Yes, that should clean the place out nicely,” said Manderkarr with
a grin. “Damn mages! We should kill them all.”
Shanagra and the others came back down the stairs to the laboratory.
The chlorine started to disperse. Shanagra examined a dragon skull on a table.
Shanagra said, “I think the mage was trying to make a magic item
and we disturbed him.”
“I'd rather kill him. Let's find him and roast him alive,” said
Manderkarr. The dwarf indicated the dragon skull. “Shall I smash it, Shanagra?”
“Yes, Manderkarr. Please do.” He ducked under a table as Manderkarr
brought his war hammer to bear, smashing the dragon skull into a thousand shards.
“Hear that Mage! You're next!” shouted Manderkarr.
They went to the newly revealed stairway and watched the last of
the chlorine disperse away. Manderkarr heard sounds behind the wall. Everyone
stood back as the dwarf pulled down the loose rubble that composed that wall.
A man, in shackles, hung in a recess there. He introduced himself as Ghallen.
He claimed that Udolph Ess, the mage of this tower, sealed him in here due to
paranoia.
Shanagra, with glowing eyes, said, “Welcome, Ghallen.”
“Thank you, Shanagra,” said Ghallen after the introductions were
made.
“Hey, demon Issic, care to rip this human off the wall? I may shatter
his wrists if I hammer the shackles,” said Manderkarr.
The druid bows to Ghallen and turns to Issic, a tall half-dragon,
“Can you free him?”
“Can you move, more like fight this mage?” asked Seth of Ghallen.
“Me? I can fight if you get me out of these shackles,” said Ghallen
while Issic examined the shackles. He grabbed the chains and snapped them easily.
Ghallan looked at the large half dragon and said, “Ah thank yo..... What are
YOU?”
Shanagra said, “He is half man, half dragon.”
“Aye...what a beast....he won't try to eat me will he?”
“I am Issic,” said the Half Dragon. “What are you?” he asked, showing
a mouth full of fangs.
“Not unless he's hungry,” said Seth with a wink as Ghallan put on
his armor and sword, which he found in a chest nearby.
“Nah he's harmless as long as you behave,” added Manderkarr. “Disobey
once, and you dinner, got it?”
Shanagra said, “We had better hurry. Either the wizard will escape,
or will find a way to utterly blast the top of his tower off... and us with
it.”
Manderkarr nodded and dashed down the stairs taking a deep breath
first. He fell promptly down a pit trap that opened under his feet.
“I HATES MAGES!” screamed Manderkarr before unleashing a barrage
of expletives. He had crashed down 13 feet.
“You ok down there?” asked Ghallan.
Shanagra lowered a rope, and asked, “Are you still alive?”
“No luck. Damn human architects. Just a bruised pride,” the dwarf
said.
Shanagra handed the rope to Issic to pull the heavy armored dwarf
up.
“I swear I'll flay this mage,” said Manderkarr as Issic pulled the
dwarf up.
“Only if you get to em first,” said Issic.
They went around the pit and reached the bottom of the stairs and
they found another door. Shanagra ducked when Manderkarr yelled, “Everyone
back!”
Manderkarr raised his shield and tested the door. It failed the
test and exploded in anger. The next room seemed to be a sort of game room.
“More waste of space, damn mages,” muttered Manderkarr. “Time to
wreck this room too.”
“Wait up guys, I can show you through here,” said Ghallan.
“Where do we go?” asked Seth.
“I suggest everyone get behind what's left of the last door and
let me throw my hammer at the next one, well get the hang of this yet,” suggested
Manderkarr.
Ghallan shook his head and pointed at one of the four doors. “Thats
the one you want to take, sort of.”
“Shall I smack it or is there some sissy words for these damn things?”
asked Manderkarr, without waiting for more information from Ghallan. Seth quickly
picked up a game and threw it at the door indicated.
“DUCK!” said Manderkarr, raising his shield as Seth dove down.
“I dont know! WAIT!” yelled Ghallan. “Wait!”
“What?” yelled back Seth, his eyes on the game that was hurtling
across the room.
“Damn it, Seth!” cursed Manderkarr. “You should warn us first!”
“That's his conjuration room, this where he usually is....I'd would
be really careful with this one!” Ghallan ducked down.
“Sorry, just want to get our blood running,” said Seth. The game
smashed into the door. It was absorbed by the door, and then returned back
out in a compacted cube.
“Wow,” said Seth.
“I've been here for a while and know my way better, so just wait
up,” said Ghallan.
“Okay,” said Seth.
“Humans...so weak they gotta play these games,” said Issic. He
picked up the largest table and tossed it at the door. “Watch out for the outcoming,”
he warned. The table disappeared and then came back in splinters.
“I wonder if we can overload it?” wondered Issic.
“I want to throw the mage into it! I could use a door like this,”
commented Manderkarr. “Trying to kill us Ghallan? How'd hell we suppose to
go thataway?”
“We don’t,” said Ghallan. “It’s an illusion. Don't touch the door
or you go bye bye to another dimension He uses something called "Passwall"
to get into that room.”
“Then why did you say that's the door?” asked Manderkarr.
“I just pointed; I never said it was a door.”
“I got's a passwall, but I don't think the tower'll stand up to
it,” said Manderkarr, testing his hammer's weight. “DUCK!” The hammer smashed
into the wall to no effect. Issic tossed a large game table at the wall beside
the door. Manderkarr walked up to the wall to look for weaknesses, but found
none.
“Maybe we can blow the other doors or one will lead us to thru,”
suggested Manderkarr.
“So you worked for him?” Issic asked Ghallan.
“Yes, I worked for him, but I started to doubt him and became paranoid,
when he found out I wasn't completely with him, he sealed me up in that wall.
Now all I want is his head.”
Manderkarr started tapping the wall with his hammer.
“Are you a mage?” Seth asked Ghallan.
“No, by all means no,” he replied.
Manderkarr looked up from his toil. “He's got armor and a sword,
he's no mage Sethy boy.”
“What exactly did you do for him while in his employ?” asked Seth
and Issic, in unison. They looked at each other.
“I was just a hired hand,” he said.
“Hired to do what?” asked Issic.
“I was just a hired guard,” he replied. Manderkarr went to rap
on the door.
“Don't touch the door,” warned Ghallan.
“Not just yet, call me cautious,” said Manderkarr and moved to the
next section of wall, where he found that the wall was an illusion.
“Well, we gots a hole in the wall!” exclaimed Manderkarr. He threw
some debris through the false wall, not standing in the way.
“So lets toss a table in the hole and see what comes out,” said
Issic.
“Just a sec, Issic,” said Manderkarr. The debris passed into the
wall, and he heard a man curse. Manderkarr smiled and turned to Ghallan. “And
this is where the mage passwalled?”
“Yes, I believe so,” said Ghallan.
Manderkarr heard someone start to cast a spell from behind the wall.
The dwarf laughed and threw in his hammer, full force. “Take that, damn mage!”
Issic threw in a table after the dwarf threw in the table to block
anything the mage might throw back out at them.
Manderkarr apparently missed the unseen mage. His hammer crashed
audibly into the room, then a Lightning Bolt launched out, slamming into the
table Issic threw, smashing it into burning tinder. Shanagra and Manderkarr
charged into the room. Issic grabbed another table and rushed through the wall
with Seth and Ghallan.
They saw a bald man in a linen kilt. He stepped back from a lectern
with a large book on it. Manderkarr slashed at the man with his axe, cutting
into his kilt. Ghallan missed completely, then Seth and Shanagra harried the
man with their swordplay, positioning the man around for a blow from a table
by Issic. The wizard punched Seth, throwing the man ten feet against a wall.
The table crashed down and broke across the wizard’s back.
Issic swung a punch of his own at the mage, seeing if he could take
what he gives. The man faltered, backed up toward Ghallan as the others pressed
him with their weapons. Ghallan swung and took off the wizard’s bald head.
Blood sprayed upward, and then a darkness seemed to enter into the room. Manderkarr
continued to slice the mage up, yelling, “I HATES MAGES!”
The darkness, seeming to drip from the corners of the room, coalesced
into a single mass and enveloped the mage.
“What in the name of the dark gods is this?” exclaimed Seth as the
darkness tried to envelope Manderkarr.
“Clear the room,” said Ghallan, grabbing the book on the way out.
“Back off devil spawn!” cursed Manderkarr as he retreated with the
others.
They could hear the cries of the damned come from the darkness.
They saw the spirit of the mage try to leave his body, but the darkness grabbed
the spirit and the spirit screamed as it was torn asunder and absorbed. The
darkness disappeared.
Manderkarr smiled with a smirky grin.
“I believe you got your wish Manderkarr,” said Issic.
“What was that black cloud?” asked Seth. “Darkness of evil, dear
Seth,” said Manderkarr. “It goes with the book.
Seth indicated the book. “Shanagra, may I touch it?”
“Or shall I destroy it?” asked Manderkarr. “Shall I mash it good?”
Shanagra shrugged. “I don't know much about such things. The cloud
was probably the manifestation of the entities he gained magic from.”
“Ghallen, do you want it destroyed?” asked Seth.
“What do you want with the book?” demanded Manderkarr. He picked
up his thrown hammer.
“We'll settle it once we get out of here, he may have the rest of
the tower trapped,” said Ghallan. “Maybe even ready to collapse.”
“Let's leave like we came; less doors thataway,” said Manderkarr,
still wondering what Ghallan wants with the book. He started climbing the stairs
up to the laboratory.
“Thanks Manderkarr.....I think.... “ said Ghallan
“Ghallen, are the others in this tower innocent or do they deserve
punishment?” Seth asked, looking to his sword then to Manderkarr’s axe.
“He has two werewolf guards at the bottom of the tower and his treasure
kept on the top floor of the tower in a wall. He has some clay tablets from
the ruined city near here.”
“Don't you think he has some treasure?” Issic yelled from the other
room.
“What treasure demon? Now talk about torn between the devil and
the way out!” commented Manderkarr. “Hmmm. Top floor here we come!”
“Well, Manderkarr, did you get the fight you were hoping
for?” said
Seth.
“I thinks so. He's dead and I'm not yet.”
“Well, the top floor is now a little lower,” comment Seth.
“Hey we do have our own little tour guide here,” said Issic looking
at Ghallan. “I bet he could lead us to the mage's treasure.”
“I wouldn't mind a nice strong ale right about now,” said Seth.
Everyone trekked carefully back up the stairs. Soon they were directed
to a section of the wall by Ghallan. Manderkarr knocked in the loose masonry
and pulled out a small chest. They noted the hinges of the chest were on the
outside.
“Now, I'm worried! I busted the wall and found this here chest
with hinges on the outside. I say it's definitely trapped,” said Manderkarr.
He put his shield up between him and the chest. He bashed the hinges with
his hammer, using his shield as protection.
The hinges broke open. Manderkarr cautiously lifted the lid.
Inside the chest was 30 gold coins, 40 silver coins (both of
Drychtnothian mint), 12 gold coins (Khemian mint), and 14 large clay tablets.
Shanagra warned that the writing on the tablets was Angustian.
“Shall I bash them?” asked Manderkarr, wanting to utilize his universal
solution.
“Eh...smashing is not always the solution,” said Ghallan.
“And the book?”
“I leave the future of the book up to you guys, it does not benefit
me, but I know it was important to the mage. You can do whatever you want with
it.”
“The book is a Khemian alienist spell book,” said Shanagra. “And
the tablets could be sold to a collector for a lot of money, but I recommend
smashing them.”
“I likes a druid who lets me smash! I may have to be kind to some
of his trees for now on,” joked the dwarf. “I'll let ya'll decide, I's don't
like the book. Them thare tablets are dust and evil.”
“Books are for those who cannot beat a solution out of something,”
said Ghallan.
“Nah, you need a bigger beater if you can't beat the solution,”
said Manderkarr.
All Characters received 2,000 exp.
Finished Campaigns in Inzeladun
| The Adventures of The Unknown 4 | The Adventures of The
Unknown 6