Ashlei looks worried at the Captain's remarks.
"Let me check upstairs! If it attacks me I have the best chance of fending it off with my magical armor. Stay alert."
She turns and runs up the stairs...
Rhialla nods, letting Ash head up first to scout, and listening for any sound of a fight, or screaming, or thier resident hothead swaring up a storm.
"If you want some back up just let me know." Esmarelda said to Ashlei before she headed down.
"So... What you all thinking about that thing? Might come back?"
B28. GARRISON BASEMENT
Ashlei hurries down the stairs and finds herself in a hand hewn basement.
She can see a keyring with keys on it hanging on the east wall, and notices the secret door to the south.
Note there is no light down here at the moment. What are yhou doing now?
"If you want some back up just let me know." Esmarelda said to Ashlei before she headed down.
"So... What you all thinking about that thing? Might come back?"
"Don't know. If it was some kind of ghost, it could be bound to this place and might not have a choice. But if it's just some weird outsider...why come back when the things you're fighting start kicking your ass on the second try?" Rhialla replies to Esmarelda.
Cass says, "Light, anyone? If I cast a light spell it will dissipate the charge of the curse that I'm holding."
Rhialla utters a brief word of magic, touching the medallion around her neck and setting it aglow with light akin to that of a torch.
Grabbing the keys, Ashlei reviews the doors (cells?)...but keeps an eye out for the ghost-witch-thing as much as she can.
"Come on down! Nothing here but three doors, plus one that looks hidden as part of the wall!"
"Alright then, let's go." Rhialla says leading the way down
B29. PRISON CELLS
The fort's prison holds three cells, each with a door of iron bars inside a wooden frame.
Which way now, upstairs, or the Secret door?
Ashlei will busy herself opening the cell doors and making sure they are truly empty nor containing other secret passages, while the others are come down the stairs.
"If she dies from that I still get paid right?" Esmarelda asked as she watched Ashlei go around with no care. "On a more serious note, I too want that thing back if only so we can finish it and not be worried... As if the face spiders aren't enough..."
The secret door opens easily and you follow the passage as it turns to the west into a small room. The ceiling is only 6 feet high in this chamber.
B31 Vault.
A variety of small chests, crates, and sacks fill this small room.
A corpse lies on the floor among the containers.
This seems to have been someone's treasure vault?
Loot:
The loot in the chamber vault consists of:
a suit of +1 glamered elven chain,
a bag of holding (type II),
Gloves of swimming and climbing,
A helm of comprehend languages and read magic,
an oil of magic weapon,
a potion of lesser restoration,
a scroll of control water,
a scroll of displacement,
a ruby-studded scepter worth 400gp,
a silver tea set worth 75gp,
a gold ring worth 50gp,
two diamonds worth 500gp each,
three sapphires worth 250gp each,
eight fire opals worth 100gp each,
12 aquamarines worth 50gp each,
1,754gp, 2,319sp, and 6,438cp.
The corpse has been here for sometime but still wears its equipment.
A cloak of resistance +2 ,
A headband of mental prowess +2 (Charisma, Intelligence, Bluff),
and a spellbook,
All 0 level spells.
1st-mage armor, magic missile, ray of enfeeblement, shield, silent image, ventriloquism.
2nd-detect thoughts, invisibility, minor image, mirror image, see invisibility, touch of idiocy.
3rd-deep slumber, dispel magic, silent dust of twilight, ray of exhaustion, vampiric touch.
4th-arcane eye, bestow curse, enervation, silent major image, shadow conjuration.
5th-feeblemind, nightmare, silent phantasmal killer, shadow evocation.
Plus add a spell of your choice from 1st to 5th level.
The corpse also has a journal but what is written within is done in code.
.
What are you doing now?
Esmarelda gave a whistle and a smile. "I wasn't wrong I see, sticking with you all will be rather lucrative" She joked with a slight smirk.
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Cass sighs and says, "Guess I'll ditch the spell" as she casts a detect magic spell and then sets about figuring out the interesting things in the hoard.
"That spellbook may be useful. Wonder who it used to belong to..."
"This journal's written in a cipher... hang on, I recognize the Cyclops language... I think I can puzzle this out."
You decipher the notes left by Bikendi Otongu. Whose corpse lays in this room.
Millennia before the formation of the Eye of Abendego, in the heyday of the Age of Serpents, the cyclopes of Ghol-Gan ruled over much of the territory now claimed by the Shackles.
Many of their ruins still stand, including those on the remote island now known as the Island of Empty Eyes. During the days of Ghol-Gan, the cyclopes built a mountain retreat called Sumitha.
This retreat contained an underground vault known as the Eye of Serenity, which held an artifact called the lens of revelation. The cyclops seers of Sumitha guided their fellows in using the Eye and the lens therein for personal sojourns and divine introspection. But with the waning of their civilization, the lens turned dark and the cyclopes abandoned Sumitha.
Many cyclopes retreated into the Darklands, leaving only a handful behind, who gradually degenerated into brutish savages. Centuries later, sailors saw the eyeless statues on the island's shores and hillsides and gave
the island its current name. Long since prized away by opportunists and treasure seekers, the statues' single eyes-once represented by fist-sized gemstones-are now just empty sockets.
In 4110 AR, Chelish explorers stumbled across the island and made landfall. The settlers explored the island's interior and discovered the ruins of Sumitha, stirring up conflict with the few remaining cyclopes in the stronghold.
The Chelaxians lost several soldiers in the ensuing battles, so they built a small fort overlooking the island's inner bay to defend themselves. Eventually, however, the giants' attacks grew too numerous and organized, spurring the settlers to abandon their island home and flee to the mainland, joining the larger and newer colony of Sargava.
More recently, a band of pirates settled upon the Island of Empty Eyes. Led by a Mwangi wizard named Bikendi Otongu, they swiftly restored the Chelish fort and began quietly scouting the island's ruins.
Bikendi used powerful illusions to hide his people's presence from the cyclopes for many months, all so he could conduct his research without interruption. Obsessed with dreams and alternate realities, he believed he could extend his life without relying on an undead apotheosis like lichdom-turning instead to the heartstone magic of night hags.
Using such a gem, he hoped to bind his soul in an arcane ritual, preserving it as he separated his consciousness from his physical form. As his body passed away, his mind would remain vibrant and free to seek out the Dimension of Dreams, living on for all eternity in whatever world he could imagine.
To carry out his plan, Bikendi searched for the perfect gem to create a heartstone, carefully consulting the magic of ancient Ghol-Gan and looking for a flawless jewel among the ruins of Sumitha. He found exactly what he needed in the lens of revelation, and moved invisibly among the cyclopes of Sumitha until he could steal away the stone used in their ancestral divinations.
But to craft a heartstone from the lens, Bikendi also needed to cultivate a relationship with a night hag willing to help him. Thus
he made contact with a night hag named Lodhotha and offered her a hundred souls from captives taken in his raids in exchange for crafting such a heartstone from the lens that he could use for his ritual. Lodhotha readily agreed, accepting Bikendi's hapless victims even as she
made plans to keep the new heart stone, called the immortal dreamstone, for herself. In the meantime, she feasted on the nightmares of those held in the fort's prison, raiding their dreams each night until she could harvest their souls forthe dark markets of her nightmarish realm.
To fulfill his part of the bargain, Bikendi increased his raids, using the island as a base from which to assault passing ships. These efforts attracted the attention of the cyclopes, however, who discovered the lens of revelation was missing from the Eye of Serenity and rightly surmised that Bikendi's pirates had stolen it.
Ishtoreth sent warriors to test the fort's defenses, but the pirates held on, adding captured cyclopes to the allotment of souls due Lodhotha. Bikendi realized, however, that the giants would eventually overrun the fort, so he escalated his plans by imprisoning some of his own men-those who had shown fear or doubt in standing against the cyclopes.
This gave him enough souls to meet Lodhotha's quota, sating the hag's appetite and convincing her to craft the immortal dreamstone. Knowing full well that Lodhotha would rather use the stone on him than relinquish it, Bikendi anticipated her treachery, and sprang his
own trap before the hag could double-cross him.
Bikendi instructed his apprentice, Ederleigh Baines, to pickpocket the dreamstone when Lodhotha arrived, thus depriving the hag of her most significant weapon and preventing her from escaping into the Ethereal Plane as well.
Bikendi and his followers then slew Lodhotha, even as Ishtoreth's cyclopes began their final siege of the pirates' fort.
Ecstatic with his prize, and realizing that the dreamstone's magic would last only 24 hours following Lodhotha's death, Bikendi retreated to the fort's tower to attune it to himself, intent on completing his ritual before the cyclopes breached the outer wall.
Unfortunately, not only did the ritual prove more challenging than
Bikendi had anticipated, but without the wizard's arcane assistance against the cyclopes, Bikendi's forces were quickly overwhelmed. The giants sank Bikendi's ship with thrown rocks, then broke through the main gates and slew the fort's defenders before turning their assault
on the tower itself.
That is where the notes end.
What now?
After a few moments of silence following the story, Ashlei shrugs and starts picking through the loot.
"I could kill some one-eyed giants for a big-ass magic gem. Sounds like 'tons of fun.' Get it? TONS of fun? Giants must weight TONS...right?"
She giggles to herself, afterward. Obviously odd humor is how Ashlei deals with stuff beyond her normal ability to cope with.
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"Assuming you make it out of the brig."
He muttered as he overlooked the haul. It was an impressive amount of wealth, and they would surely be able to use it. He was more worried about the well part of the story where cyclops were assualting this fort.
"Any... gleaning over how long ago this attack against this fort was? would like to know if one eye giant monsters are about to swarm us."
"Not sure, but based on the condition of the bodies here, it must've been relatively recent. Within the last few years," Cass says as she flips back and forth through the journal.
"Um... if the cyclopes got what they wanted, their lens back, then they have no real reason to care about this place any more. As long as we don't do anything to draw attention to ourselves we're probably secure for the moment. But the lens is still out there, as are the cyclopes. At least this Bikendi fellow killed the night hag that he was dealing with. One less thing for us to worry about."
What are you doing now?
Ashlei will listen at, and if its clear, open the new door out of the Loot Room.
B30. TOWER CELLAR
Collapsed rubble fills this dusty cellar, spilling from the east and
northwest walls. Dozens of pale quartz crystals lie scattered among the rocks, and several more decorate the perimeter of the room. A single carved column supports the twenty-foot high ceiling overhead.
There were two passages off this chamber but they are collapsed and would take days to clear. The only was clear is the stairs going up.
What are you doing now?
With the light radiated by her medallion, Rhialla moves to inspect the pale crystals before they move on.
Cass fires off another detect magic cantrip, focusing principally on the crystals, then checking for any area enchantments.
The pale crystals are common quartz, they do bare faint traces of Divination magic about them though.
The room feels cold, there seems to be nothing else magic about it.
What now?
"Maybe this area hasn't been used in a while?" Rhialla says quietly. "We can get a crew together to dig out the other passageways later, I guess it's upstairs for now."
"This must lead up into the main structure."
Moving on, Ashlei leads the others up the new stairs carefully and semi-quietly. Her new copper headband glinting excellently in her flame-red hair as she heads upward.
B17. Anicient Cyclops Tower
Carved staircases rise from either side of the double doors entering this tower. Both lead to landings halfway up the walls holding tall doors, then disappear into the tower's upper levels. To the southwest, another flight of stairs leads below ground.
As Ashlei heads up the stairs she hears a chime in the room above her? B17.
Someone has placed an Alarm spell on the stairs up?
The room seems empty.
What are you doing now?
Ashlei will verify the ground floor door leads back into the courtyard of the fort (open the door looks and closes it), then climbs the East stairwell to check the door to the battlement (towards B3 in the SE corner), then opens that door expecting to see the parapet walk...
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"Bah we need those monsters to poke their heads out of whereever they are hiding so we can put them down. But it seems they've gotten smart. Alright team any ideas?"
He asked as they followed behind Ash with enough of a distance that any traps wouldnt get all of them and they would be close enough to support should the creatures reshow up.
"Well, we should find out if that chime we heard was an alarm that we accidentally set off."
"It definitely was. An alarm spell, meaning that whoever set it is a spellcaster. Even the most powerful spell casters couldn't stretch that spell out for more than 2 days, though I've heard that there's another spell that could make it permanent. So either is was cast by someone well above our power level, or someone set it recently, and is lying in wait, with the knowledge that something is coming." Rhialla explains.
Growling lightly, Ashlei asks a simple question.
"Could it have been our ghost-witch? If nothing else, that could mean we are closing in on her..."
Rhialla follows, wary of any potential magical attack.
Esmarelda grabbed up her bit of the treasure and swiftly followed after the group. "You sure you don't want me in front?" She asked with a smirk.