Adventurers:
Later joined by:
- Groucho (Fighter 1)
The adventurers opted to spend the day resting in Ximes after their recent travails, Harlin still barely-functioning and needing close supervision. Down their fighter, and conscious of their dwindling stock of loyal mercenaries, they put out notices advertising vacancies in their merry band.
Beerdale tried to cosy up to the scant number of elven outcasts seen around the city in hope of finding some underground magical operation, but they spurned his advances. Tyrion tired listening for more news on the missing people in the area, and heard one fellow discussing his aunt’s concerns about disappearances and personality shifts in her village before her correspondence ceased. Whether that was connected to Ximes was uncertain.
With some time to wait before seeing the fruits of their mercenary notices, they set off the next day for the Tower of Sylaire in hope of a magical cure for their vacant fighter, following the familiar path through the woods. A dark shadow overhead unnerved the horses, and they looked up to see a large winged creature circling overhead. They pressed ahead, hoping it would pass on, but it folded its wings back and swooped down upon the hired non-combatants.
Two were torn asunder and the rest fled. With the creature amongst them already and fearing that fleeing into the trees would leave them even more exposed, the party charged in with their retainers and mercenary infantry. The archers were able to do significant damage and some hacking and slashing brought the beast down, but not before it had clamped its jaws around Beerdale and flung his lifeless body against a tree.
Tyrion tried but failed to skin the creature for anything valuable, and so sadly he cut out one of its fangs to fashion into a pendant for Beerdale’s family in the tower. They wanted to stay in the good books of the Sylaire elves as their only source of arcane support.
The elves did not seem to hold too great a grudge about the death of their outcast, but after an assessment of Harlin did not wish to commit their precious resources to attempting to heal him. They believed his soul had been shocked out of his physical form, and required particularly binding magical ingredients. They gave directions to Puruglese’s Folly, an old wizard’s tower they had once had dealings with before the occupant, a magic user who had provided them with a potent liquid to magically fuse physical and even incorporeal elements, disappeared without warning.
The adventurers set off the next day following the elves’ instructions, find their way up a mountain until they found a three-storey tower perched out near a cliff face. There was a distinct smell in the air, unfamiliar, unnatural, and no sign of life.
There were no windows on the ground floor but some on the upper two. Tyrion clambered upon Roach’s shoulders, the mercenary who’d survived both a wolf’s jaws and a wyvern’s tail having received a promotion to adventurer, and found the window sill almost completely covered in bird bones, with a human hand and a whole human forearm also amonst the debris. The interior was completely bare of anything, including floors, and Tyrion noticed a trapdoor on the other side of the front door.
Hearing this, and seeing a sign saying ‘Please ring to enter’, Bittori sounded the indicated bell and, when nothing happened, tried to open the door. The floor beneath her and Hats opened up, and the two retainers plunged into the earth. The other adventurers heard a splash and saw the ground start to close again. Groucho jammed his spear between the closing doors and everyone gathered round to see what had happened to their hirelings.