21/07/2020 - Bashing a button, Falling Forever and Chatting with Chests

## TL;DR

* The undead penguins didn't like to stay dead for long, but were all eventually killed
* When the penguins were all dead the floor became a massive portal which led to the top of the tower, leading to an endless loop of falling over and over again
* Breena knocked herself out
* Everyone made it out of the cycle of falling forever, and landed back at the bottom of the stairs
* Frederico's office at the top of the tower contained many interesting items
* The party left with most of Frederico's belongings, plus the Giant's Runic Items and the pieces of the spell casting focus which had previously been pointing into the sky presumably helping with the illusory spells around the island.
* No-one made any wild magic happen, unfortunately.

## A Battle with Penguins Who Just Won't Stay Down

Whispers of intruder echoing around the tower as the party fall into a pit of slowly rising undead penguins. The button which rose out of the ground (on a rock at the top of a sheer ice slope) is marked by a rune which Narko  would recognise as a fire rune.

Rocky , going first, attempted to reach the button, but slid back down the slope landing prone on the floor. From here he projected an image of a fishing trawler coming towards them, resulting in three undead penguins recalling the meaning of fear and deciding that this Goliath was probably not worth getting too close to.

Leo  meanwhile used his divine-granted powers to blast the penguins around him with just the power of words. The penguins retaliated against Leoven  with enthusiasm and anger resulting in some considerable damage to his being. Another targeted Azurial  but failed to make contact, as did the one attacking Caitlin. Meanwhile the three remaining penguins ran from Rocky  in terror.

Narko  attacked one of the penguins which had targeted Leo , resulting in a very sorely wounded penguin but no deaths as yet. Caitlin dodged the penguin which had attacked her and thwacked another one pretty hard.

Breena’s enchanted arrow appeared briefly to kill Narko’s  penguin but bizarrely the creature regained an upright position and continued to stand against the party. Pierce however managed to destroy one penguin with a blast of thunder, blowing it apart, and leaving on other looking pretty shaken as well.

Azurial , seeing his party thoroughly smashing the penguins decided to try the button. Using a lot of movement and misty step he reached the button and attempted to press it, but with no effect. Rocky  returned to his favourite activity, launching Rosie into action, though his targeted penguin proved tough - completely tanking the resulting hole in its chest.

Leoven  completed the destruction of another penguin by shouting “ashes to ashes and dust to dust” at it. The penguin’s response was largely ineffectual, with Pierce, Leo  and Caitlin being struck, but only Caitlin taking any damage.

Narko , taking advantage of Leoven’s  location, attacked one of the remaining penguins, and noted that the flesh of what appeared to be its entirely cloven body re-knitted itself in such a manner as to remain standing. Despite her close proximity to her target Caitlin’s attack was successful, but also resulted in an enemy who continued to stand despite being to all appearances being completely destroyed.

Breena’s bomb completely demolished one of the penguins which had been made afraid by Rocky . Pierce meanwhile continued to smash his way through penguins all around, killing yet another and leaving great damage in his wake.

Azurial , still by the button, and observing that the rune glowed orange realised he had no way to cause fire damage, so instead attached a rope to the pillar, and threw it down towards the others in the pit. Rocky , completely ignoring the rope at his feet, instead approached the penguin attacking Caitlin and attempted to rip it in half with his bare hands. Sadly the slippery penguin evaded his grasp.

Once again Leo  yelled at penguins, resulting in the skeletonification of one, though it was apparently still standing. The penguins’ responding attacks were ineffectual, bouncing off the kneecaps of Rocky  and Narko . The fearful penguins attempt to flee from Rocky  resulted in the death of the skeleton penguin at the reactionary hands of Leo , whilst the other fell to the ground having slid back down the slope once again.

Meanwhile Narko  managed to absolutely wallop one penguin, but the scattered pieces of its corpse returned to each other in a truly horrific scene. Caitlin had more success ending the penguin close to her, and still had time to shoot at another, finally destroying Narko’s  re-knitted enemy.

Breena launched Alchemical fire at the pillar resulting in the rune changing to a blue “ice” rune and somewhat singeing the rope in the process. Pierce continued his campaign of destruction, though not actually killing anything this time around.

Azurial  swore at Leoven  for pointing out the burning rope, and threw his javelin un-nervingly close to the priest, hitting the penguin beside him. Once again the creatures appeared to be able to return to movement and “life” at least once after being smashed to pieces. However a second javelin did the trick.

## Falling

On the death of this final penguin a bright blue light from the floor gave warning of the horror to come. The floor vanished from beneath the party opening a portal which created an endless loop of falling from the very top of the tower to the very bottom over and over and over again.

Rocky’s  attempt to throw Rosie at the button on the pillar just knocked off a piece of ice, which he instructed Azurial  to try to use on the button as he fell past. Leoven  attempted to lasso the pillar with his rope, but struggled to tie a lasso into the rope in order to do so, due to his repetitive falling through space. A second attempt was however more successful.

Narko  just fell and screamed. As did Caitlin.

Breena’s attempt to grab at the rope on the pillar resulted in her being knocked unconscious, though she was successfully wedged on the base of the ice slope.

Pierce just about managed to manoeuvre himself closer to the pillar, and cast a ray of frost at the now blue rune, turning it the crackling purple of the storm rune. Azurial , grasping tight to the rope, slid one handed down the rope to the aid of Breena, stabilising her and returning her to the land of consciousness, before returning to the rope to add strength where the fire damage had caused issues before.

Rocky  managed to hit the button with Rosie, but the result was a “non-negligible crack” in the button so the effort wasn’t entirely appreciated by the party. Leoven  attempted to assist Rocky  in his repeated attempts to throw Rosie again and again as they continued to fall. Narko  carried on screaming and falling.

Pierce turned to Rocky  and asked “how would you like to toss something larger than that hammer” and suggested that he was able to cast lighting damage, but only on touch so needed to be thrown in the right direction. Azurial , having asked Narko , decided that thunder damage would probably do the job, and was proved right with the rune finally disappearing to not be replaced by anything at all. Azurial  therefore pressed the button, and the falling party members levitated their way gently back to the floor, to everyone’s relief. Better still the floor of the pit began to rise again, lifting the party back towards the bottom of the re-formed ice stairs.

## Narko and the Icy Stairs ft. Rocky feeling sick

As the floor raised the party Leo  encouraged Narko  to take a run up and told him he’d be fine with the stairs. Narko  questioned the logic of this advice and instead announced that he would go last. Rocky  announced that according to his insane detective skills the stairs were totally safe, and proceeded to demonstrate the fact by climbing to the top. At the top Rocky  waited to vomit, hoping that Narko  wouldn’t take too long to get to the top. However, the world did not have a positive feeling about Narko  climbing icy stairs and he fell back to the bottom from close to the top. Rocky , seeing this, laughed heartily and vomited. Narko  attempted the stairs again, and succeeded in making it to the top, though the process was slow and inelegant.

Halfway up the stairs a door to the side appeared to lead into the pirate’s keep, and Azurial  spotted several more undead penguins on the side of the stairs above this door, causing some concern for those to whom it was pointed out. Leo  ensured that none of the party were allowed to exit through the side door, insisting that burning the bridges which had been built with the pirates was a very bad idea.

As he passed them Pierce launched a firebolt at the frozen dead penguins, thankfully with no adverse effects. To everyone’s surprise Narko  suddenly put on a spurt of speed, racing past everyone else on the stairs with serious aplomb.

## Frederico's Office

On arrival at the top Rocky , Pierce, Breena and Leo  all checked for traps, noticing none, but spotting instead a button buried in the ice beneath their feet. Above the party’s heads a hole in the ceiling about 10feet up indicated the presence of another room. Rocky  meanwhile began to hit the ice in an attempt to access the button. Assisted by Azurial  he made steady progress towards the plinth.

Meanwhile Narko’s  attempt to rear up and see into the room above resulted in a crash to the floor. Instead Breena climbed onto his shoulders and peered in to see the room and look for another way to get the party into the office. In the room she spotted a substantial desk, a pile of snow, lots of books, as well as all the runic items they were searching for mounted on the wall.

Rocky  was persuaded not to press the button, in favour of climbing in to the room using a rope, just in case the button was a trap. The presence of Ves  the wise was lamented and he wasn’t very happy about the situation, but accepted that this might be a good idea.

Breena clambered into the room, and found no traps so was happy enough to be joined by the rest of the party, mostly assisted by Azurial  who practiced his pull ups on the way in!

Narko  examined the runic items:

* 1 pennant, moving in a non-existent breeze and a wind rune on it

* 1 triangular gem, with a fire run inside

* 1 sharp shard of ice, with ice run inside

Narko , on reaching for the pennant felt a strong wind whistle past him, but no-one else noticed this, and there seemed to be no major ill effects from him handling the item.

Breena picked up the gem, feeling a sharp burning sensation up her arm and into her body, fading before it could reach her heart. The gem remained warm. She cast identify on it to see what the item actually was.

Azurial  took the shard of ice.

Everyone else searched the rest of the room for anything interesting or useful. Rocky  failed to look at anything, being thoroughly distracted, but Pierce spotted a chalice and blue gem stones on the desk. 2 potions of healing (red) and one which was orange and unknown. Centred on the desk is a blank piece of paper and nearby a spell scroll for the dispel magic spell.

Caitlin’s search of the room at large was thoroughly distracted by Rocky  plonking himself down on the pile of snow in the corner. As a result she noticed that the snow appeared, in fact, to be the bed of a fairly eccentric penguin complete with snow slide for getting out.

Instead Caitlin looked at the books, finding one section on Arcane magic, one on Runic magic, and one on Ancient history.

Leo  looked at the bed, finding out only that the bed was pretty well packed and had probably been there a while. He was called across by Peirce to detect magic on the paper. He observed that there was an illusory spell on it, hiding words. Azurial’s  following light spell revealed words written onto the paper.

Addressed to “Big Frederico” the letter was written in very fine calligraphy, contained words like “do your duty”, “at the corporation’s grace” and was signed off by “S”. This ‘sassy but in a very curt way’ letter appeared to be reprimanding the penguin for something.

Leo  checked the books further but found no connection between the ancient history ones. Caitlin meanwhile was focussed on a book on giants, and Narko  went over to look at any which looked at runic magics.

Caitlin learnt about giant culture - ordaining (structural formation of giant societies), and giant’s gods (all father and the stone giant’s gods). Narko  leant about the runic magics, specifically “On the Scribing and Mastery of Runes” which appears to be Frederico’s own work as it is incomplete and contains knowledge which Narko  did not yet have.

## Meanwhile in the roof...

At this point Azurial  observed that there was a hole about 15ft up in the roof, so asked Narko  for a boost. After a couple of minutes of effort Azurial  was successfully boosted into the ceiling room which contained a spiral silvery metallic thing, which pointed straight up into the sky, between the 4 turrets at the top of the tower. A quick check allowed him to notice that there were various runes and engravings carved into the surface.

Breena asked to be boosted up to join Azurial  and was speedily boosted by Leoven  into the roof space looking at the artefact.

## A Brief Interlude ft Chris the Chatty Chest

Rocky  meanwhile continued to mess around in the snow, digging his was further and further into the bed. Eventually he hit something solid and began crazy digging. Pierce was persuaded not to cast a fire spell in the ice tower so refused to help the digging, but Leo  was willing.

Together they found a metal bound chest, out of which a penguin’s face morphed and spoke:

'Chris' the Chest: *“Who are you, I do not know you?”*

Rocky: *“We are the cleaners.”*

Chris: *“We don’t have cleaners.”*

Pierce: *“We do now, the unions agreed.”*

Rocky: *“What are you doing?”*

Chris: *“Defending the master’s goods.”*

Pierce: *“Well we now need to clean inside the box”.*

Rocky: *“Why does he sleep on you?”*

Chris: *“He doesn’t, he sleeps on the snow.”*

Rocky(?): *“What does he keep in you?”*

Chris: *“I’m not at liberty to say.”*

Rocky spotted that the box doesn’t have an opening mechanism.

Rocky: *“Do you think that you’re being fairly treated here?”*

Chris: *“This is the perfect existence for me”.*

Rocky: *“Open up we need to clean inside you”.*

Chris: *“It is a while since I have been cleaned.”*

Rocky: *“I will sparkle you up real good baby.”*

Chris: *“You are trying to trick me I think.”*

The box fires a ray of frost at Rocky’s feet.

Rocky: *“All I want to do is make you shiny and clean. All I want to do is do my job”.*

Chris: *“I like you but I cannot let you in here without a test. I will set you a riddle which you must solve. Actually it will not be a riddle, it will be a test of your knowledge. You will give me the names of the mages who founded the five great schools of magic, and you will enter my box.”*

Pierce (?): *“Can we consult here?”*

Rocky (Adam?): *“For the record this is the hardest I have ever found it to get into a box.”*

Chris: *“Thank you.”*

## Back in the Roof

Meanwhile upstairs: Breena cast identify on the item in the roof. It was a spell casting focus for some very substantial spells, one of which appears to be heavily illusion based and spreading around the whole place. The other is more subtle, but something else is being channelled more widely.

On explaining her findings to Azurial  he cast Smite on the object, but ended up strongly damaging his own great hammer. A second strike with a magically enhanced weapon resulted in a hit to the spiral, which, with smite caused some reasonable damage, tilting the spiral off to one side. A third hit causes the spiral to begin to crackle and the spiral is fully tilted. A few hits later it was totally destroyed, knocking the central beam off to the side, and causing a ripple effect down in an arc to the sea’s surface in a dome. Together Azurial  and Breena took the pieces of the spiral and scattered them around the tower and carried the most important bits down into the tower again as they return to the party.

## Riddles

Together Narko , Leo  and Azurial  managed to find/recall the information from which they might be able to riddle the answer.

> *“Algernal Gerbolsh and Elspeth Idweedle were good friends; they bonded over their shared fear of necromantic magic, and neither of them liked conjuring either.*
>
>

> *Bertha Crab did not know a single Evocation spell; she considered them classless and flashy, and regarded her colleagues in the Evocation faculty with disdain.*
>
>

> *The faculty founded by the elf wizard Crestion Ezzil starts with the same letter as one of his names.*
>
>

> *Drom Kaz-Kar, who hailed from the distant East, was a powerful Abjurer, but an equally skilled Illusionist; he was a giant of a man who never spoke, but communicated only through his homunculus familar.*
>
>

> *Elspeth Idweedle’s school did not start with the same letter as either of her names.”*
>
>

The party told the box that the answer was

A - Evocation
B - Necromancy
C - Conjuration
D - Illusion
E - Abjuration

And the box opened:

Inside there were coins, stacked obsessively with a specific ratio of gold to silver, 2 reddish potions (more viscous - greater healing), 2 deep blue gem stones (cut and beautifully carved - 1 sapphire in royal blue (1000gp), and 1 aquamarine (500gp)), 1 colour changing potion and 1 white milky potion.

Rocky  swooped up both Chris the Chest and the sapphire.

## Fleeing Frederico's Fury

The party begins to scarper towards the bottom of the tower, concerned about the imminent return of Frederico. Heading back through the same entrance that they came in through, they found the pirates in a huddle concerned about how long it took them to come back down. Narko  handed out 1500 silver pieces to the pirates which cheered them up no end, fortunately given the scouts on the wall announcing the rapid approach of the penguin. There were some pretty strange looks from the pirates at Chris the Chest, still carried by Rocky . The party hurried out of the back gate through which they had entered, on the opposite side of the fort to Frederico and were last seen hurrying for the hills where they know the giants are likely to be.

Discussion between Narko  and Leo  on the move agree that they will head North straight to the closest mountains away from Frederico, around the edge of the lake. Vague sounds from behind don’t provide too much for concern, and the cover from the walls is reasonable. Vague planning was discussed on the walk.