Averlorn Campaign: The Wizard's Tower of Mysterica

Recap from 1/22/2011

As we were getting closer to Limus town, we found a well worn path leading off of the old deserted trade road that we were traveling on and decided to investigate. We found evidence of a battle long ago and saw a ruined castle off in the distance on top of a hill. As we approached, we were attacked by a Wyvern! It nearly killed Cyrcla but we managed to defeat it and up the hill we went. When we were about to enter the ruins, two more Wyverns attacked us and in a pitched battle, we slew both of the evil creatures.

There was a stair leading up and as Lucias and Lykaos moved towards it, the Paladin fell in a pit trap while Lucias managed to avoid falling in. Then we were attacked by two giant tarantula spiders. We killed one with missiles but instead of attacking the group, the second one went in the pit with the Paladin. Just as the group was about to help him, they were attacked by two Ettercaps, monstrous half human half spider creatures. While the group was engaged with them, the paladin failed his save against the spiders poison and was mesmerized - he started twitching and dancing convulsively but was still able to fight the creature at a great disadvantage.

Lucias turned his attention to the Ettercaps and Cyrcla fired her bow into the pit hitting the giant tarantula that was in there with the Paladin. She made her save the first time to avoid being mesmerized by the Paladin's macabre dance. The second time she failed her save but Brummbar cast dispel magic on her to remove the magical affect. Lykaos continued his fight with the creature wounding it again but he was wounded badly at this point. Finally, Cyrcla managed to kill it with her bow but once again she failed her save and started twitching and dancing in a herky jerky sort of way.  There was nothing to be done but avert our eyes and wait for the effect to wear off after the rest of the group finally slayed the evil Ettercaps. Eventually it did and the two characters were paralyzed for an hour or so but that too eventually wore off. We then looked for loot and found some treasure in their nesting area.

The group turned its attention to the stairs leading upwards. We went to the top, being careful to check it for traps this time, and found a sturdy door with magical runes on it. A mysterious voice greeted us at the door that said "Mysterica will return shortly" but that was all. Arceus told the others to step back and used his ring of Acid Plumes to spray it with acid in order to attempt to destroy the door to get through the opening. Not only was the door unaffected, but a very powerful fire spell was released which burned off his Cloak of Elvinkind! Both of the Elves surmised that it was a powerful protection on the door and was probably Burning Hands which would make the occupant a 15th level wizard if he yet lived because he took 15 hit points of damage (1 hit point per level). They also realized that while the rest of the complex appeared to have been sacked, the tower itself was quite intact. This meant that it was possible that this Mysterica, a very powerful wizard no doubt, could actually still be inside.

We decided not to risk the defenses of the tower again and gave Arceus the potion of flying that we had in order to take a look at the Wyvern's roost at the top of the tower. That's where he found their loot including a few magic items. We searched the rest of the grounds and found a large cavernous opening in the ground which may have been a mine at some point. Upon closer inspection, Brummbar found what looked to be iron bars in the walls which he surmised were probably installed there long ago to hold up a wooden stair case that had long since rotted away.

We decided to quit while we were ahead and continued our journey back to Limus Town. We eventually made it to town and Arceus and Teth-en-Aire decided to do some carousing once again. This time nothing too terrible happened and they gained some extra experience except that Teth-en-Aire managed to insult the High Priest of Poseidon in the town during a card game. After he made amends all was forgiven.

The group now finds itself at a crossroads with many possible adventure options available. We decided to send Lykaos, Cyrcla, Brummbar, Tok and Tarus off to try and figure out how to dispose of the Midnight Opal while the other core members decided what new adventures to undertake...

TO BE CONTINUED...