Flaurmont 26

Weather: Clear Skies and a Light Breeze

(Night Watch - Resting): With Grabdar apologizing for not turning their friend into stone, the party spent a restless night among the trees, driving off insects and moisture. The idea of heading back into the open with the bats was terrifying. More soul shaking was the reality that one of their own was gone.

Would one of them be next?

(Dawn Watch - Travel to the Known): Recouping from the loss of their trusted companion Nostecaf, the party was beginning to feel safe enough to emerge from the underbrush. They were about to head back to his body when they were nearly ambushed by two other explorers. One of them, Bobah they recognized as another victim of the Martel company. The second, Eadstart, they soon learned was a  guitarist aboard a luxury sailing vessel. He had been shipwrecked for a few weeks on the island. Eagerly welcoming the new additions, the party quickly looted Nostecaf and headed off into the woods to find the tower in the distance.

(Day Watch - Explore a Location): Arriving at the base of the tower, the party found a campsite set up at the base of basalt outcropping on which stood the white and gold tower. A broken staircase wrapped around the tower in some places, and sitting on one section was a set of large eared, large nosed creatures wreathed in steam. As the party approached the creatures began jabbering to one another and exchanging something between them. Introducing themselves, the party found the creatures to be unrepentant gamblers, willing to gamble on anything. They invited the group to meet The House sometime so that they could get chips to play with. Looking for one more gamble, the creatures offered to spot the party some chips if they would go into the tower and find out the current disposition of the previous group of adventurers that had entered the tower.

Climbing to the top of the outcropping, 150' in the air, was no simple feat filled with many near mishaps and injuries. Eventually a rope was secured and everyone was able to climb to the top of the basalt structure to find themselves on what seems to have once been a terraced patio perhaps. Looking for an entrance, the party quickly found that a section of the wall opened up. As soon as it did, they found themselves facing a statue covered in some kind of orange sludge. The sludge shrieked with a misshapen mouth while lashing out a with a balled pseudopod. The statue lunged, attempting to rip the shoes off of Eadstart. The orange sludge seemed enraged and attacked indiscriminately until finally being put down. Once everyone took off their shoes, the statue settled down and stopped bothering them.

Looking at the statue, the saw that it was shaped like a king, carved crippled and deformed with no eyes. It seemed to be made of baked and glazed from white clay, then rudely inked. When it moved it sounded like the breeze moving through young saplings. It began polishing a glass lenses that it had kept in some kind of chest cavity.

At the end of the hall was a dark area with no light. Stepping through, Vladimir found himself in an infinite expanse filled with stars and comets and moons. After a few hesitant minutes, the rest of the party joined him in the room. There were no discernable entrances or exits. Eventually a haze shaped and glowing humanoid figure was visible in the darkness. Speaking with them, he welcomed them to the Hotel Lapis and offered to have their luggage taken to their rooms. A door opened on the far wall. Crossing through it, the party noticed a spider web hanging above the door.

The room they walked into was a long hallway of white marble. To the left and right were high lattice work walls carved in an impossible mathemagical fashion. Orange crystal covered much of the lattice and flooring except in a few locations. Here and there, tree branches and roots pushed through from the right hand side of the hall, cracking the lattice and impeding movement down the hall.

Looking through the holes in the lattice to the right they saw a large garden all carved in white stone. Numerous stone forest creatures dotted the area, all covered in a thick layer of orange crystal. A series of large stone bushes with enormous seedpods lurked in among the foliage of a tree that had worked its way into the building somehow. To the left of the walkway was a large room filled with chairs, small tables, ruined shelves and books. The entire area was covered with thick orange crystal and numerous orange sludge like creature moved throughout the room.

As they were looking, a large bird like creature spied them, from down the hall and began beating its wings at the party. Fearing for their lives, the party charged the beasts. A terrible battle ensued as orange dust from the flapping of its wing filled the air. Eventually the beast succumbed to numerous wounds and perished. Looking around the saw the hallway continued forward as well as to the right and left. Stone stairs, covered in orange crystal flowed downward in the rooms they had seen previously as well as a two more straight ahead.

While Vladimir carefully chipped a gold arrow out of the floor in the central area, the rest of the party investigated. To the left was a third large room. Numerous large cubes and spheres easily 10' across hung from the ceiling. Each one had a large whole in its base. Under each sphere was a sunken depression in the ground and small pedestals sat near each one. They area was covered in orange crystal and numerous writing sludges. To the right was what appeared to be a large gymnasium. Archer targets, pummel horses, mirrored walls and orange crystal covered the area as the orange sludge like creatures slithered across the floor.

Looking to explore further, the party headed down in to the stone garden. Rooting through the place they found a spider web covering the back wall with a single cocooned form hanging from the webs. Uncertain what to do they struck the web and a few foot long spiders faded into view. They watch the party for a few minutes before fading away again. They party moved forward to interact with the cocoon but found the it was insubstantial. They eventual burnt the web down and opened up the now physical cocoon to discover the withered husk of a humanoid creature. They promptly looted the body. 

(Day Watch - Explore a Location): Continuing their exploration of the tower, the party moved carefully forward ten feet. They spent a lot of time allowing the Vladimir to chip away at the golden arrows. Eventually, that being done, they quietly snuck down the left hallway where the light was coming from.

A couple dozen feet from the area, the smell of carrion rose up choking them. A large glass window was cracked, allowing light to stream into the building. The floor was covered with loose leaves and debris. Several of the large bird like creatures rose from the debris and began to squawk and take aggressive postures. Choosing caution over bravery, the party retreated back to the center of the room.

Opting to explore to the right, they moved carefully, aware of the numerous sludges swarming in the lower areas of the floor behind the lattice work. The found a small room in fairly reasonable shape. Broken vases covered the floor and a large obsidian block stood in the middle of the room, with soft light glowing on its sides. Several couches covered in orange crystal stood in the corners. The back wall of the room was covered from floor to ceiling in lapis lazuli. Searching the room they found a several old books, a painting of a woman at a stagnant oasis in a sandstorm and a small crystal frog in a broken vase.

The Eadstart spent some time singing to the crystal and was developing a rapport with it. Donjon investigated the painting. The frame is covered in strange elven glyphs. While studying the painting, he noticed that the inhabitant moved. Wigged out he put the painting face down. In the meantime, Vladimir decided that lapis lazuli was a gem stone and a whole wall of it was worth something. Additionally he wanted to make a new window in the marble walls of the building. Looking for a weak spot, he struck it with a piton and warhammer, achieving an amazing success. The entire veneer came crashing down, revealing the marble wall behind it.

The massive crash of 200 square feet of lapis lazuli crashing to the ground thundered through the building. The noise was quickly squashed by the cacophany of dozens of sludges screaming and surging for the creators of the noise. Deciding to move quickly the party attempted to fly but were cut off. Donjon and Eadstart bolted for the main doors and made it through where they were instantly assaulted for their shoes. Vladimir was swarmed by the sludges and fell to their overwhelming numbers. Seeing their fury fall on his companion, Bobah opted to hide in a cupboard built into the backside of the obsidian stone.

Donjon scrambled down the rope to the camp. Eadstart followed him quickly but was trying to hold on to the vase he had taken for the crystal frog. He slipped and fell 80 feet to his death, smashing the vase and its contents on the rocks below. A flurry of activity erupted amongst the steam imps watching.

(Day Watch - Rest): Donjon and Boren setup camp and wait to see if any of their friends get out. They tell the steam imps that the other party was eaten, burnt, wrapped in spiders and stabbed. The imps, pleased at the report pay up the ten chips and depart. They encourage the two to come visit them at The House sometime.

(Dusk Watch - Rest): Trapped in a cupboard, Bobah gets a cramp. It's bad.

(Night Watch - Rest): The cramp get worse.