G12 - In a Pickle

Date: Planting (4), 12th, Earthday 760

Night came, but they continued walking in the dark. The wizard informed them of a spring about five minutes away from the tower. They eventually found it, fresh water coming out of a gargoyle lion statue. Jimmy Sprockets noticed that the woods were unnaturally quiet.

The party, after 8 days travelling with the wizard, suddenly became suspicious. They asked for his name, he replied that Mel already knew his name, something she denied.

After suspiciously dealing with his flying monkey Julius and the wizard, they started to ask questions about the wizard tower. The plan was to go to the alchemy lab on the 6th floor, on the left 3rd row of a bookshelf they should find an orange potion that smells like pickles. The wizard warned them that no one should visit the 4th floor under any circumstances. The tower itself is about 90ft tall with a 20ft radius, comprised of 7 floors.

An uneasy night watch followed, however nothing happened, morning came. The large birds flying around the tower could still be seen. They formed a plan, Jonom's war bunny was going to go to the front to distract the birds. After giving Jonom the stink eye from their previous interaction, the war bunny went forward. The fight was brief, the guard birds attacked the war bunny and within 6 seconds had sent him back to its realm.

Olar noticed that the radius of their attacks was about 50-60ft, and their speed about 80ft. Jimmy tried to entice the birds with rocks, but it had no effect, after some experimentation that left him with cuts and bruises the party came up with a better plan.

They knew that there was a key by the door in a fake rock. Jimmy felt that two rocks looked the most suspicious. Aka Noone was turned invisible and run towards the rocks, the 2nd rock proved to be false with a key underneath. With the door open, the party rushed through, making it into the entrance with the birds attacking them as they could.

Inside the tower, multiple bookshelves adorned the walls. In the center, a large world globe stood with a star map surrounding it that moved as the globe moved. Circular stairs formed against the far wall going up to the second floor.

Once Olar, the last of the party member to go in, the door slammed shut. No locking mechanism could be found from the inside to unlock it. With no way out, the party investigated their surroundings. Some books looked barely touched, while others had multiple marks in them.

Scraping of claws running against stone were hurt, and the party prepared for battle. Jonom and Volgis moved up the stairs, but it proved to be a mistake a Gray Render, a fearsome foe, could face them one by one. Jonom teleported forward and hid in his shell, while Volgis tried to move backwards to a more open position. The first few rounds of battle went unevenly, with the beast gaining the upper hand. Once it was out in the open, abusing its low intellect, with Jimmy's automaton giving temporary reprieve to the party, Olar healing and the rest attacking the beast they managed to slay the Gray Render.

Exhausted from the fight and hurt, the party looked at the stairs spiraling up. This was just the first floor, what else awaits them up above? Two things are for sure, they will probably kill the wizard if they can get their hands on him, and they are going to loot as much as they can of this place.

...if the pickle lets them.