Averlorn Campaign: The Gauntlet of Zingalis

Recap from 3/4/2011

We left the tower of Zingalis and made it back to Medea’s Gate with no problems.  Since both of our thieves went missing in the last session and presumed dead, we had a need to add a trap finder to the group.  We asked around at some of the taverns and eventually met a Guild Dwarf named Gradwin who was both an arcane spell caster and a clerical spell caster.  He wasn’t really a thief but since he was a dwarf and had access to a large number of utility spells he could help us to deal with the many perils of the Laughing Mage’s gauntlet.  He agreed to join us on our next foray to the labyrinth below the Tower of Zingalis in exchange for a cut of the loot.  After that we did a little bit of trading and bought provisions and set off through the woods for the tower with the Ranger leading the way.

The first thing we came across was very odd.  We surprised a group of giant weevil looking creatures that appeared to be wearing saddles that had swords and shield strapped to the sides of them but their riders were nowhere to be found.  We decided to evade this encounter lest we run into their unseen riders and the group pressed on towards the tower.  As we were getting close, we ran into a group of eight orcs including two black orc leaders.  These orcs wore the same face paint and symbols of the household troops of Zingalis that we had encountered previously outside of the tower.  They quickly assaulted our single file line from all sides before the group could get off many bow shots and a savage melee commenced.

It didn’t take long for the group to kill them  and we found that they were carrying a large haul of loot much to our surprise.  We discussed this and came up with some ideas about where they got the loot from and where they may have been heading to but couldn’t really say for sure.  Then Gradwin had a little bit of a surprise for us.  Since he took ritual casting for some of his Cleric spells he was able to perform a ten minute ritual to cast Speak with Dead on one of the deceased orcs to ask its spirit some questions.  He asked it where they had found the large haul of loot that they were carrying and it replied in a ghostly voice “we killed a couple of hill giants back near the lake and though they slew some of our number, we prevailed and took their treasure”.  Then he asked it where they were going to and it said they were headed to their lair to the northwest of our current position which is about a half day’s hike northwest of the tower of Zingalis.  So we finally found out where the orc’s home base was and then the spirit returned to Hades or wherever orc sprits go when they die.

After that we made it to the tower after a bit more traveling through the woods and noticed a few things had changed.  We noticed that the sheep within the courtyard of the outer wall were fewer in number which was not much of a surprise given the hostile environment.  Also, the body of the Hydra was no longer next to the shrine and the body of the Cyclops was still there but looked like it had been partially eaten.  The ranger looked around for tracks and said that there appeared to be both lion and goat tracks near the body of the Cyclops.  Later, when he examined the tracks near the shrine he said he thought that maybe some Chimera had taken up residence in the shrine now that its former occupant was no more.

So we went into the ruined gate at the tower once again and through the hallway with the sleep spell where our lower level henchmen kept passing out until we made it into the Cyclops’ lair beyond the secret door.  Once again, we saw the large fur that the Cyclops had been sleeping on and the three large casks of wine in the room.  Then we went through a door at the other end of the room to explore the tower’s labyrinth further.  We passed through a hallway that appeared to have several rat tunnels in the side walls and then the hall ended in a door.  Beyond the door was another hallway and an opening on the left.  The hallway beyond had a summoning circle inscribed on the floor and some runes on the floor in one of the languages of magic that said “Trap”.

Since we didn’t want to mess with the summoning circle and the possibility of a magical trap, we turned left through the open archway into a large room.  The room had two circular grates in the floor on the left and right both of which had levers next to them on the walls.  These appeared to be oubliettes of some sort (holes in the ground/floor where you throw prisoners to die) and the one on the left had a skeleton at the bottom.  We didn’t mess with the levers and opened up a door on the far side of the room to enter into another small chamber.  The room had a broken lantern in the far right corner but was otherwise empty.

There was an alcove on the left rear wall that contained a door straight ahead and another archway to the left so we went through the archway into an “L” shaped room.  There was a pair of doors on the far wall that were locked and a hallway beyond the door on the right that had some sort of tile pattern on the floor.  Since we feared these were trapped, we went back to the alcove and through the other door into an odd shaped room with a circular wall on one side and an angular wall on the other.  This room was also empty so we retraced our steps to the door to head back to the Cyclops’ room to rest up for the night.

As we opened the door we were confronted by two Oytough’s!  A desperate battle raged as one of the creatures attacked Talus the ranger and the other one attacked Cyrcla the elf while the others came to their aid by attacking the horrible carrion eaters.  Both characters were hurt badly and forced to withdraw while Teth-en-Aire cast mirror image and waded into the fray and Lucias started hacking on the one that had attacked his elf henchman.  Eventually, Teth-en-Aire managed to kill the one he was fighting while Talus fired at it with his bow and Cyrcla managed to cast Web on the one that had attacked her making it much easier for Lucias to slay the horrid beast.  Both Talus and Cyrcla had been bitten by their mouths though and contracted some sort of rotting disease!  So the dwarf cast some healing spells on the ranger (Cyrcla had quaffed a healing potion previously and was already healed up) and we decided to head back to the Cylops’ room to rest up for the evening.

TO BE CONTINUED…