You are in Absalom, the might City at the Center of the World, and you've always longed to explore one of the countless ruins of failed conquerors that litter the plains outside the city's walls.
You've heard rumors that one of the sealed siege castles has been laid open by a minor earthquake. Word on the street is that no one has yet entered the tower, which folks are calling the "Fallen Fortress." What better way to start a life of excitement and adventure than by exploring its long-abandoned, dusty halls and perhaps claiming its ancient treasures?
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A bald and slim elf with grevious but otherwise selfconfident look, steps close to Orophin after hearing the recent news.
"Look what we have here. This sounds as an interesting place to look for loot and adventure." he makes a small pause, looking at the people around "So you are interested to join forces in this exploration? Ok, count on me. My name is Eldon García. I can look for and disable any menace they owners of the tower have left behind, and if combat arises my rapier will be of help".
Then he starts trying to recall all knowledge about these towers he has heard before.
"But please Sir Orophin, enlighten us with those histories you have heard of."
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A halfling clothed in scale mail with a pronounced limp hobbles in, leading a leashed wolf. He has a morningstar and a sling on his belt. He says: "Hello, my name is Billin, and this is Remue. I have just returned from Razmiran, and I am eager to see what the towers may hold. I am pretty decent with a sling, and I have some modest healing abilities as well as the ability to get the spirits to help my companions."
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"Good day, everyone." A woman in her early twenties, her long and black hair reaching halfway her back, approaches the others.
"So you're the others who want to explore this Fallen Fortress people have told me about? My name's Salena, nice to meet you."
Salena's wearing a standard explorer's outfit, consisting of a red leather jacket, skirt, and boots. Her jacket's open and reveals a black cloth shirt, and at it's collar the kikko armor Salena also wears is slightly visible. Two sawtooth sabres, sheathed in red sheaths, hang from a black belt.
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"So you guys are heading to the Fallen Fortress?" he asks Salena, overhearing some of the conversation. "Good. I want in." Standing five-and-a-half feet tall and with a hulking form, Silas is a brutish specimen. His ugly face and short stature (for his race) have placed a chip on his shoulder he carries with him at all times. He wears kikko armor painted black, and around his neck is a holy symbol bearing a black bat with outstretched wings. A large falchion is strapped across his back. Just hope no one else has reached it yet, he thinks to himself.
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"Wait!" Pellor is nearly out of breath by the time she barrels through the door, clutching a pair of tomes to her side. "Have you left for the fortress? I'm here! I'm Pel-- oh. You're still here." She shrugs her hair out of her face. "Good, good, very sorry, had to get this armor f-- oh, a doggie!"
"Oh, yes. Right, then. I'm Pellor Fodexencil, the bibliognost sent from the University? Is this the entire gr-- oh, swords, good, good; ooh, Tian armor, very interesting! Is that lacquered? I've read a fascinating book about Eastern armor construction. I'll need to examine both of you when I get a chance..."
She trails off, muttering to herself as she swings her stuffed backpack around to load her books into it, morningstar's haft swinging about carelessly from its hook on her hip.
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His mood brightens a little when he realizes that one of his new companions is a halfling, someone he had overlooked at first. Gnomes, halflings, and others much shorter than himself always had that effect on him. "Silas Proth," he says when Pellor makes a rather hasty introduction, realizing he hadn't given his name. He gives an inquisitive look at the books she's carrying. "So I guess biblio-whatsit means you read books a lot?"
The journey out to the tower takes you through the Cairnlands, a vast plain of shattered weapons, barrow mounds, and mass graves that surrounds the city of Absalom. All around countless siege castles, towers, and fortresses of would-be warlords who tried to take the great city rise up from the earth like grasping arms of the dead.
Luckily, the tower you are looking for is not far from the city, only a few hour walk. You catch sight of it as you crest a hill. The ruined siege castle now being called the Fallen Fortress rises out of the earth of the Cairnlands. No doors or windows mar the otherwise smooth expanse of the tower's walls. The tower is quatrefoil in plan; its eastern wing has largely collapsed, exposing the interior floors to the open air. Only the topmost level seems whole, though its eastern portion hangs precariously over the mountain of rubble left by the collapse. At ground level, the rubble frames a gaping hole in the side of the building that provides access to the tower's darkened interior.
Once closer you estimate the tower is close to 80 feet tall, and you can see the exterior walls are amazingly smooth, thus being difficult to climb. Though the ragged remains of the east wing's walls do appear to be an easier place to climb, but that will only allow you to scale so far.
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Of course, Eldon's off-hand comment about dire bats in the city sets Pellor off onto an hours-long diatribe that persists, in some form or another, right up to their approach.
"And they don't see very well at all--echo-location is how they perceive things, using little noises outside our range of hearing--even maybe your elven hearing--and then listening for the reflections! Very effective in the caverns they favor. They can lift cows! And they're very stealthy--no sound when they hunt, striking from above. There's an entire ecological dissertation on them in Lilektas's Mythos of the Wild, you know." She idly fishes around in her backpack without stopping for so much as a breath. "I don't think I brought it--the University is very reluctant to let me bring their tomes into the field, and I can't blame them--the humidity alone! But as I said, I'm a bibliognost--I know books, I can repair them, restore them, transport them, catalog them. And as long as Lord Asmodeus is my co-signer--" She abruptly grabs her morningstar and lifts it up while still fishing about in her backpack. "I can defend them, too!"
She looks up, just now realizing she's followed the group all the way to the fortress itself.
"I... sorry. The fortress, I presume?"
Pell gazes at the tower and the grounds around it, looking for any signs of life.
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Silas is perhaps the only one who listens intently to Pellor's long aside. "Such awesome creatures, bats" he says when she finishes, absently rubbing his holy symbol. "Heralds of the Master of Caverns himself. We should be so lucky as to find some." One tradition had it that if you killed a dire bat and drank its blood, the dark lord Camazotz would bless you. Silas fully intends to test that theory. As they approach the tower he assumes is the Fallen Fortress, he smiles a toothy smile. He may just get his chance.
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Eldon walks through the piles of longtime abandoned weapons looking at the air with resignation.
Why have I asked... "If nobody makes her stop that blah I will go crazy"
Then he suddenly realizes about the massive tower sitting just in front of them. "Wow! That might be at least 5 or 8 floors!" He closes to the ruins rubbish and tests it's stability. After confirming nothing is to move he starts speaking again.
"It seems we will need to climb this up. Fortunatelly I have taken some climbing material. Maybe someone can explore the sourrondings while I try to mount up a climbing path for us". Then he looses his backpack and starts looking for something. It passes no more than 10 seconds he draws a metallic hook and a hemp rope and starts binding one to each other with all his care.
"Let's see if I can do this" Then he starts to balance the rope with the hook in order to get some inertia. He throws it over his head with a dexterous movement of this arm. After some trial and error, he finally manages to hit a safe hooking point in the top of the broken stones that makes him satisfied.
"Voilà! There it is!" He then steps aside drawing his shortbow and fletching and arrow. Pointing towards the darkness he adds "You can go up now, I will cover you from here. If you feel unsure I can go climb the first one otherwise, but I still think I can better cover you from here". Then he looks deep in the tower trying to spot any potential danger.
Eldon snatches up the rope, secures his feet over the stones and starts to climb with decision.
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A bit too lively... If this continues my ear will starts bleeding...
Salena takes a quick look around, but Pell's chatting distracts her. She decides she needs to get away from it, even if it's for just a moment.
"I'll go check out the inside of the tower first. Perhaps there are stairs."
The difficult terrain slows her progress, but Salena is determined to get to the tower's interior. Once she's past the rubble she looks over here shoulder to the others. "Anyone else minds searching the ground level first?"
Salena takes a torch from her backpack and lights it so she can see the interior of the tower. Here, she takes another look at her surroundings.
It's obvious Salena's able to focus better without Pell's voice ringing in her ears.
Pellor's diatribe takes the group up to the base of the tower. Once she stops and begins to glance around the rubble, Eldon and Salena move to begin to explore the tower.
Salena and Eldon make their way onto the rubble and toward the tower itself. As Eldon begins to root around in his pack, Pellor notices movement coming from the north side of the tower, and just as she calls out several low growls and barks are heard.
Moving slowly over the rubble, a trio of unkempt, dirty looking dogs growl and bark at the party. The creatures look like they haven't fed in a while and find that the new arrivals may be a great meal.
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"Dogs!" She squints at them, and as they prowl closer, she frowns and readies her morningstar. "Oh, but these look to be in poor shape. Shoo! We have no time to rescue dogs who can't help themselves!"
She approaches the spot of the rubble where Salena and Eldon are preparing to climb, then grips her weapon and invokes Asmodeus' rule to help her and her contractually obligated traveling companions bring order to the coming chaos.
Moving up Pellor scolds the dogs, adding to the point by calling out to her diety. Her morning star flies from her hand, slamming into one of the dog's shoulder, gaining a yelp of pain and surprise from the creature.
The dog staggers a bit, but regains it's feet and growls directly at the halfling as it and it's partners move in, the rubble slowing them down but two of them manage to get close enough to try and bite. One snapping at Pellor the other trying to bite Salena.
Both attack miss, Pellor dodging back out of the way of the starving dog's jaws while Salena is saved by the armor she wears.
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Eldon only realises about the dogs once Pellor starts to scream at them. He moves his attention over the new menace when the bibliologist releases his hit. He balances his body towards the dogs aiming with his shortbow at the one Pellor just hit and he is up to lose his arrow when the dogs jump over the party. "Tsik! Caution Salena!" The cover his mate offers the dogs makes Eldon shot difficult, thus, he changes his initial idea. Instead, he drops his shortbow and draws his rapier. He then moves boldly 10 feet northwest over the rubble trying to flank one of the dogs. He starts to spin around while trying to avoid the dog attacks.
His feet though get in trouble with some of the rubble lowering his defences for a second.
As Eldon tries to move quickly through the rubble, his footing is precarious and the stones slow him down enough for the dog to see an opening.
It's teeth flash at the elf, but he is able to step back just as the beast lunges at him avoiding the attack.
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Pellor gasps as she dodges the dog's attack, then raises her morningstar over her head, swinging it downward with both hands. "I said shoo!"
Despite her tactical advantage, her imbalanced backpack throws her swing off enough to send it uselessly smashing into the rubble. She shrugs it back onto her shoulders and holds her position, hoping one of the others is able to dispatch the mangy beast.
Billin guides his wolf around behind one of the dogs and gifts it some of his blessing just before it lunges at the dog. Remue's fangs sink into the flank of the dog, tearing flesh and trying to force it to the ground. The dog is driven to the ground and lays there, unmoving and bleeding from it's wounds.
The sudden drop of the beast causes the forceful blow of Pellor to miss and smash into the ground near the creature, throwing up chips of rubble.
With an easy and practiced motion, Salena draws her deadly looking weapons and slices at the offending dog. The strike is true and the blade carves a deep wound into the dog's side. The creature lets out a high pitched yelp before collapsing to the ground, the wound leaking blood quickly.
Silas, seeing the other dogs fall to his new companions moves to attack the remaining beast. With a powerful slash, he drops the final beast. All three dogs now lay dying, blood seeming through the rubble.
As the rush of combat fades, Eldon moves up toward the tower looking over the ruins for traps. He does notice what could have been the mechanics of an old trap that now lies ruined within the rubble, but nothing appears to be active.
Through a high archway you peer into the southern wing of the tower. Inside you can see that this portion of the tower is completely filled with rubble from the collapse, but the northern wing looks more hopeful.
Another tall archway, with the remnants of a heavy wooden door laying nearby leads into a wing of the tower that seems to have escaped the worst effects of the collapse. Rubble still litters the floor and everything is covered in a thick layer of stone dust, but it does appear to be passable. Thick cobwebs cloak the ceiling and hang down the walls like gossamer tapestries and another archway can just be made out in the southwest wall.
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As the last dog falls, Billin says: "They were only following their nature; there's no need for them to die. I'll keep them from bleeding to death, but I won't let them harm us..
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Billin carefully urges Remue into the tower. When Eldon shouts the alarm, Billin starts looking around and says, "What about you, buddy? Do you notice anything?
Billin takes a few moments, as Eldon searches the ruins, to tend to the animals, knowing that that beasts only attacked due to hunger.
As Salena moves toward the archway, a torch held high to look into the area, she too spots the vast network of webbing covering the walls, and within that webbing the shadows of some creature moving about.
As Billin and Remue slowly move into building, the hairs on Remue's neck start to stand as a low growl begins to rumble from his throat. The wolf turns his head toward whatever he smells just as Eldon slips past both Billin and Salena, shouting a warning and firing an arrow up into the webbing.
The arrow catches itself within the webbing, falling far short of it's target. AS the arrows hangs there, it's target comes fully into view. A massive spider the size of a man, it's exoskeleton looks to almost be covered by small scales, slides out from behind a veil of webbing. It's legs move and a mass of web flies out from it's body toward Eldon.
But the ball of webbing falls short, sticking to the ground in a mass.
DC 10: The spider is known as Scaleback spider, due to the way the coloration on it's back seem to mimic scales.
DC 15: The bite of a Scaleback spider is unusually painful and debilitating, sapping the victim's strength unless it is cured.
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Eldon jumps to one side and runs to the west getting far from the just thrown web as he fetches another arrow into his shortbow. "Spiders!"
Then aiming with high precision he shoots at the spider hitting just over her head.
He tries to get a glimpse into the next room but the focus on the combat does not allow him to see much past the arcs.
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-- after dogs --
With the dogs dropped, Pellor hooks her morningstar back to her belt and squats down to inspect the corpse nearest her, looking for signs of disease, modification--anything unusual.
Whatever she learns, she's interrupted by the spider dropping from the tower! Her back to what remains of the wall, she peers around the doorway inside.
-- combat --
"S-scaleback spider! Page 47, Giant Vermin of the N-n-north by Alin F-f-fallodere!" Not helpful, Pellor! Stop cataloging! She shuts her eyes and fills her mind with Asmodean tenets of law to calm her mind, then lightly touches Salena's shoulder as she mutters a profane prayer for guidance.
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As the last of the wild dogs drops, he decides that eating them probably wouldn't be a good idea. Who knows what they might be carrying! He wipes his blade clean on the fur of his kill, slides it back into its sheath, and follows the others into the tower.
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His sword doesn't stay there long-- he rips it from its sheath again as danger presents itself inside the tower. He doesn't know what a "scaleback spider" might be, but it sure looks dangerous. "Just shut up and help us get rid of the thing!" he yells at Pellor as he charges in.
Moving across the room, Eldon glances into the adjoining chamber before letting lose another arrow. This one flies past the hanging webs and drives deep into the spiders body, a wet crunching sound accompanying it.
The spider glides along it's webbing, dropping down to just 10 feet from the ground, stopping in line with Eldon. It's body convulses and another all of webbing flies at Eldon.
The ball of webbing slams into the elf, quickly wrapping around him, entangling his limbs. The webbing seems to give a little but is strong.
Seeing it's target ensnared, the spider bobs up and down on it's webbing, looking very happy.
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The elf fights in the web trying to get another arrow from his back. "Heeeeeeeelp!" You can sense his desperation in his tone of voice. Despite that and the big physical effort he has to do, he manages to place another arrow in the string of his bow.
Even webbed the shot is precise and strong. It hits the spider not far from where the previous arrow hit.
"Someone without a bow, come here and help me out. Throw it the cold iron dagger in my belt.". Eldon looks for his dagger and places it in his hand offering it to others.
Struggling against the pull of the webbing, Eldon manages to let off another arrow, again striking the massive spider in the abdomen with another wet crunching sound. Then calling for aid of his fellow adventurers.
Salena feels the frustration at the spider for not coming down into range of her swords and in that frustration flings both of her weapons at the creature. The first sword tumbles end over end in a perfect circle before stabbign point first into the spider's head, burying itself several inches. The second blade throw is not as good, getting snagged by some hanging webbing and ends up clattering against the far wall.
The spider seems stunned by the blade lodged between it's eyes, finally the body begins to tilt as a small pebble hits against it's side. Teh spider tumbles from it's webbing crashing to the ground and throwing up a cloud of rock dust all around.
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Eldon says "Eeeyuu! That was repulsive." as he makes his best to get out of the webs and clean himself as much as he can. It takes him a lot of time while the others inspect the room.
"I hate those spiders. My family had to fight against them in the past. Some... creatures- back in our territory loved to use them against us. But this is the first I have to fight myself. Well done Lady Salena, I am in debt with you". Then the elf walks around the room picking up as much arrows as he is able to recover.
"I have seen through the tall archway another room choked in rubble, but some of it may still be accessible." Again, he shakes his cloths cleaining the remaining web fibers stuck on them.
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Salena picks her torch up again and walks over to the sword that missed. After picking it up and sheathing it she walks over to the dead spider and pulls her other sword out of its body. She gives a swing with the blade so the spider's blood is mostly removed from it.
"Luckily you weren't hurt," Salena says to Eldon, looking at him while he tries to clean his clothes, "but yuck..."
"I don't like spiders either, but I hate it when I can't reach them." Salena walks into the western wing, and takes a good look around.
If there's no clear threat she'll walk up to the door, sheaths her other sabre, and tries to open the door. In case the door doesn't open Salena will bask her shoulder against it several times in an attempt to force it open.
The western wing of the tower is mostly choked with rubble, but enough room is there to make your way to a strong wooden door. Salena sets herself and pulls the door hard, her hand slipping slightly but the door swing open easily.
The room beyond holds a large spiral staircase. From the looks of it, the staircase use to go both up and down, but both ways are block as rubble from the tower itself has sealed the staircase in both directions.
Searching around the spider's webbing, you find a small cocoon hanging among the webs. Within the cocoon is the remains of a dog that fell intot he spider's clutches. The sarcass is still wearing it's leather collar, which appears to be studded with gemstones and bears a silver tag reading "Kita".