Tasha frowns a little, sure that she's being slighted somehow, but unsure with whom she should take issue.
"Enough joking around," she says finally. "We need to head towards town. We'll meet Tom there."
Grelda’s eyes flicker between Ashlion and Tygrah. ”Well indeed. Now, as Tasha says, we have work to do.” She smiles enigmatically.
You find Somber Tom outside the Mean Mug Tavern. Once the group is assembled once more, you begin to head towards the Erran Tower. It’s about 15 miles to the southwest of the Hermitage of Blessed Lightning, on a route through rolling grassland. The 200-foot-tall tower is visible during most of the trip, making it nearly impossible to get lost while headed there.
The Erran Tower is a pyramidal structure composed of mud brick with steep sides and a flat summit. The aeon orb that circles the top of the Erran Tower is about 3 feet in diameter and sheds light visible for miles.
As you draw near, you discover the tracks of reptilian humanoids that crisscross the area, remaining out of sight behind low ridges and high clumps of brush. Up ahead, you can see a band of five creatures dragging a dead ox towards the distant tower. Their scaly hide is dull gray. Their frames resemble that of a cave lizard, with long tails and crests on their heads and backs. A foul stench trails in their wake. These must be the xulgaths Harlock mentioned.
The xulgaths are about fifty feet away. Caught up in their task, they haven’t noticed you yet...
"Shall we attack or shall we try to negotiate?" Tasha whispers to the others. "I have a feeling that negotiating will be fruitless, but I don't think I have it in me to just step up behind someone and ..." she makes a stabbing gesture with her blade.
Ashlions’s sudden charge catches everybody by surprise! Though he misses with his initial attack, his second one tears into the rearmost xulgath, badly wounding it! Up close, the stench is overwhelming...
Tom {A}smears a thick liquid on one of his knives and throws them at an unharmed xulgath. The poisoned knife lodges in the xulgath's abdomen and the other flies wild.
"...How direct of you." he says with an odd smirk.
"Shall we attack or shall we try to negotiate?"
Ruinë nods, "Yes, we should try to negotiate first. We should always-" she fades off as Ashlion charges ahead, letting her head sag to her chest with a sigh. She draws her crossbow and fires, reloading and firing again.
"So much for diplomacy."
Tasha shrugs and charges forward with her weapon.
Ruine's first bolt goes wide, but her second one strikes the wounded xulgath, taking it down. Tom's knife stabs deep into another xulgath's stomach, and it collaspes, gasping as the poison ravages its body.
Grelda withstands the xulgaths' stench as she hurls a rock at the third creature. Tasha moves in and stabs the same one with her blade, seriously wounding it.
The wounded xulgath retaliates, bashing Tasha with its club and critically slicing her belly with its claw. She manages to parry its third attack, but the lead xulgath slips around behind the tiefling and drives its dagger into her back! The final xulgath moves to engage Ashlion, and while his armor protects him from its club, its claw finds a gap in his defenses.
It didn't seem to matter that Ashlion was here, Tasha was still getting sliced and shredded. Ruinë started toward her and was suddenly overwhelmed by a horrendous stench, causing her to stop and retch. Wiping her mouth, she staggered forward to Tasha's side and was able to focus completely on the task at hand.
Tom, seeing everyone retch when they get close stays back, content to throw his knives. Tom {A}Strides around to be opposite Tasha before throwing two knives.
Tasha slips her wooden shield from her back and readies the clumsy thing.
She then stabs away at the creatures that are attacking her.
"You do know that your supposed to be attacking that nice gentleman over there, right?"
Ashlion’s maul leaves craters in the ground as he misses his foe. Ruine moves in to heal Tasha even as Tom kills the wounded xulgath with a dagger to the back. Tasha slays the other xulgath attacking her with two perfect thrusts of her rapier! Grelda misses the final foe.
The last xulgath drops his club and raises his hands, snarling something in Draconic. ”He is offering us his surrender,” Grelda says.
"Very well," Tasha says, standing imperiously and holding her rapier at the ready. "Tell him that we accept."
Grelda has a harsh conversation with the xulgath in Draconic. When she finishes, she turns to the rest of the group. "He says there are over a dozen of his kind in the tower, along with several dinosaurs and demons. The xulgaths’ leader is a priest of Zevgavizeb named Cavnakash, although they don’t see much of him, as he’s involved in a lengthy ritual in the tower’s highest chambers. Instead, they take orders from their war-leader, somebody named Ashagith."
Ruinë nods, trying to ignore the horrific smell in this room, "Of course we do."
She looks to her companions and asks, "Should I see to their wounds now that they have surrendered?"
"Explain to him that we will be exterminating everyone in the tower and so if they'd like to continue to breath, they'll make haste to anywhere other than here," she says, sending a glare in the direction of the humanoids.
Grelda snarls something to the xulgath. The reptilian creatures nods vigorously before slinking off in the opposite direction of the tower. "I don't think we'll need to worry about that one any more. Just the others that wait for us in the tower," Grelda says, adjusting the turban on her head.
The cleric listens to Tasha's words and nods to herself, Okay, I suppose that is a NO to healing then."
"I wouldn't worry over much about the runners. The town is angry, and they've committed hangin' offenses. I might have told the Muggers where we were going, and that anyone we don't put down ourselves might be inclined to run."
Tom takes time to wipe his knives clean before inspecting the wounds of the poisoned xulgath.
"Well.. that certainly did what it was designed for."
As you continue on towards the Erran Tower, you recall what Harlock told you about the structure. Its entrance is 40 feet up on its western side. He gave you a map of the rooms inside the tower, including a secret door. When he was last there, the rooms all seemed empty and abandoned. He also warned you that an ooze might be present, as the rooms and corridors were suspiciously clean.
Soon enough, you find yourselves standing at the base of the tower, gazing up at the glowing aeon orb circling around its top. A switchback ramp leads up to this landing, but it is made of the same smooth mudbrick as the rest of the tower. It seems the xulgaths have hammered bits of wood into the ramp to make the ascent a bit easier.
The eye-watering stink of xulgaths coming from the entrance is unmistakable. Exceptionally steep stairs descend into the tower.
Grelda lays her hand on Tom's shoulder. "I have prepared a spell that can render you invisible for a few minutes. Would you like to scout ahead?"
"I'm your guy Grel. If I don't come back in 5 minutes, you're probably on your own.
Tom pulls out a handkerchief and ties it over his nose and mouth. and skulks through the secret door.(coronastyle)
Grelda murmurs her incantation and Tom disappears! The nimble juggler makes his way down the stairs.
G2. A campfire burns in the southwest corner of this room. The remains of two messily butchered cattle are heaped near this fire. In addition to the staircase leading up to the west, passageways exit from the north and south in this room. Three stacks of heavy stones—each stack about 4 feet tall—stand in the southern opening. Four xulgaths are on duty here along with a pale deinonychus .
Tom slips past them and heads north...
G3. This odd-shaped room is divided by several piles of stacked stones, each stack about four feet tall. Large nests made of sticks and mud are spread around the room on both sides of the stone stacks. The northwestern corner of the room contains a large hut made of poorly tanned hides and topped with the skull of some enormous fanged beast. The eye-watering smell of xulgaths, animal dung, and unwashed reptiles fills this room. The only two dinosaurs present are a pair of pinacosauruses, smaller versions of the better-known ankylosaurus. The dinosaurs are penned in the area north of the stone columns so they don’t roam free.
G4. Three stacks of heavy stones stand just to the east of the corridor leading to the north. A tattered black curtain conceals the passageway leading north.
G5. This chamber contains a row of square columns that stretches from west to east. The columns are covered in a phosphorescent lichen glowing with a dim, green hue. Tattered black curtains hang between many of the columns, obscuring much of the room. Three xulgaths are here, training a pair of velociraptors as hunting animals, using a wicker basket filled with a half-dozen rabbits hanging from the ceiling.
That's as far as Tom is able to get while still having time to return before the invisibility wears off.
Some time goes by before you see Tom sneak out of the stairway. Once he relays what he saw he says to Tasha, "I don't think any one group of them would stand a chance, Sef. But, two or three groups would put us in our grave."
Tom looks over at Ashlion. "Anyway we can do this... quietly?"
The cleric speaks up "I have a spell that I've learned which allows me to make someone silent for a few minutes. But it is only a single person at a time though." Silence.
"Of course we can do it quietly," Tasha responds, giving Ashlion a meaningful gaze. "Right, Ashlion?"
"Better give Ashlion the silence spell. He is, uh, not exactly what you would call subtle."
The acrobat makes her way up through the trail with ease.
When he's ready, she says "Alright. Hold still Ashlion, I don't think you are going to like this very much.". She cast the silence spell on him. "There you are now. You have nearly five minutes before it wears off. No one can hear you roar, but we still know you have it in you." she says with a smile.
Tasha bows towards the half-orc and gestures grandly for him to proceed.
You quietly creep down the stairs, taking the xulgaths by surprise!
Tasha quickens her pace to move to a flanking position for Ashlion.
"Sorry we didn't knock," she says. "But we just couldn't wait outside."
Tom takes full advantage of the xulgath's lack in vigilance and lets loose; {A}smearing an ugly liquid along the blade of the first.
"So sorry to barge in like this... do you know the name Thunder?"
Tom hurls two daggers at the closest xulgath, taking it down. Grelda bashes the next one with a large rock, then Tasha tumbles around it, threatens it, and dispatches it with style!
Of course, moving into the room makes the tiefling a target. The remaining two xulgaths move to flank her, attacking with clubs, while the deinonychus darts in to attack with its jaws and foot talons.
Tasha raises her wooden shield again, hoping that maybe if she remembers to use it, it might actually help.
She then moves past one of the lizard creatures to keep from being flanked.
Seeing Tasha in need of healing, she reaches out with a healing spell to help close the worst of the wounds.
Tom unleashes three knives in one fluid motion.
Ashlion strides forward and promptly crushes the skull of one of the xulgaths, badly wounding another one with his second swing. Ruine heals Tasha, then Tom dispatches the wounded xulgath with a precise knife throw. His second and third knives miss the deinonychus, though.
Grelda misses with her thrown rock. Tasha tumbles around the dinosaur and stabs it before raising her shield
The dinosaur lashes out at the tiefling again, but the shield proves to have been a smart move, as the swashbuckler blocks its teeth and talons.
Ashlion crushes the beast into pulp!
Although all of the xulgaths wear gruesome trophies harvested from past victims, only one has a trophy of any value: a bloodseeker beak.
As soon as the beast is crushed into a pulp, the cleric continues her persistent work of keeping her special friend up and functional. She puts a hand on Tasha's back and says "Just a moment." as she opens her pack and gets to work.
"Thank you, Milaya," Tasha says in a soft voice, touching the woman's arm.
"So, do we try to avoid the other dinosaurs and lizardfolk by going that way?" Tasha says to the rest, indicating the rubble-strewn passage. "Or, since we know we're going to have to deal with them one way or another, do we continue through them that way?" She points to the north.
Grelda inspects the piles of rocks. "It looks like the xulgaths put these here for a reason. To keep something large out, perhaps? It might be the ooze Harlock suspects dwells here."
Ruinë speaks up "Maybe we should exterminate this ooze ourselves to ensure no one gets hurt."
"According to Harlock, the ooze was here long before the lizardfolk came along," Tasha says with a thoughtful look. "How about we leave it to last - if we deal with it at all. If there's not supposed to be anyone here, then it has no one to hurt and keeps the riff-raff out." She points to the north. "Let's head that way. We have to deal with the lizardfolk eventually."
You head north into the next chamber. When they see you, the two pinacosauruses begin to grunt aggressively, tails thrashing in agitation.