Dalliance wrangles additional assistance in the form of Aftoun Phaxer (10th level High Priest of the church of Lathander) and Kaz’n Ifect (his Ranger Lord bodyguard), Oryndel (a fighter/rogue from the hinterlands), Demming the Druid from the edge of the badlands and she also enlists an old acquaintance – Ron’j! – a 12th level master monk.
Additional defenses in the from of scrolls and a ring of spell storing are also purchased. The group is swiftly reassembled on Sentinel Island – and then teleports to the far side of the Lich’s island paradise. Another set of hurricanes lash the area and the weather does indeed rage between blizzards, howling winds and calm sunlight. After a day they depart, making their way across the island under cover of vegetation and into the shadow of the lich’s tower. They stay as hidden as possible, but will eventually need to traverse 500 yards of cleared terrain.
Pausing at the edge of the clearing the party deploys Bud Feaster’s magical elephant statuette. It turns into a full-sized elephant and the party uses it like an infantryman might use a tank to advance upon a position. The group is nervy and jumpy and it takes only a few seconds for Barada to spot the lich – standing on the side of the hill about 150 yards away. Fireball!…and the elephant is down. Luckily the group has deployed globes of invulnerability on Barada and Daliance and thus the group is spared the worst of the damage. Barada lets fly with an arrow that passes right through the lich. Dalliance uses a dispel magic to get rid fo the projected image. They start to run up the side of the hill, looking for the lich all the while. As they draw closer, a section of ground is turned to mud, making the group split in two to encircle the barrier. As they win through that, they watch as a wall of Stone blocks access to the door. Rock to Mud and the obstacle is removed. All the while, the group is drawing closer to the base of the tower. Reza and Ron’j! draw closer to the door, but Reza falls victim to a Maze spell and vanishes. It falls to Ron’j! to smash through the door. Beyond the door is a room full of death and rot – old furniture, clothes and corpses. On the other side of the room, a staircase twists around the wall and the group rushes towards it, leaving Oryndel to watch the door. As they climb the stairs they trigger a symbol of fear. Demming and Ron’j! fall victim to the magic and they flee at top speed – exiting the tower and running into the vegetation. Barada tries to dispel the magic but it takes a second attempt by Dalliance to succeed and the group presses onwards. A fireball detonates in the ground floor, cast by the lich from outside the tower. Oryndel dives out of the way and almost everyone else is protected by globes, but the cleric and the ranger take terrible damage. BArada deploys his Decanter of water and extoinguishes the blaze…and the cleric. Outside, Oryndel has a close encounter with the lich but the creature ignores him and steps into the sky and vanishes.
The second floor is made of two rooms. One contains a large cauldron firmly bolted to the floor – some sort of scrying device. The other room is a bedroom, though long disused. They search for a bit and as Reza exits the maze, the group finds a secret pull-down staircase near
the bed. Reza and Oryndel move to rejoin the party. The stairs open
into ‘the mad wizard’s laboratory’ – full of glassware and beakers, jars and folios, notebooks and urns and all manner of twisty glassware and oddly shaped containers and vessels. Across the room, another set of stairs climb upwards – but the lich is here. He dispels the party’s protective spells and fireballs them, nearly slaying several party members. As they move to engage, he vanishes. Although invisibility is detected for, the lich is not seen. The group decides that they must press on and do so swiftly, crossing the room and ascending the stairs.
Dalliance’s detect magic reveals another symbol waiting for them atop the stairs. As she uses scroll after scroll of Dispel Magic to remove the threat, Reza is turned into a fish and dies on the steps before anyone notices. Atop the stairs is a library which is quickly plundered of the few magic items it holds. Stairs are sought, but none are found. It is clear that there is a level of the tower below the torture chambers and above the library, but it is apparently inaccessible! The group turns around and descends, debating about the possible entrances and the likely location of the lich. As they enter the bedroom, they spot a twinkling rotating gem-like orb. It turns out to be a delayed blast fireball and the resulting conflagration takes the lives of Aftoun, Kaz’n and Bud. As Barada hoses off the survivors and tries to extinguish the blaze that threatens to deplete all the oxygen in the vicinity the group is faced with a terrible choice. Is it better to try and press on – counting on the lich having exhausted much of his arsenal of magic, or is it better to fall back and try a third assault on the tower, though that means braving the entire gauntlet of spells with which they have just contended.
A third (unspoken) option is to say farewell to these lands and seek a new life in the Shadowdale….
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