Friday The Thirteenth

As on their second attempt upon the tower, they start off by checking the area that they have already cleared to ensure that nothing is hiding in those areas. However, the ground floor and cellar are exactly how they left them.

They move up the stairs, into the corridor. They see the now dried blood of Viirin coating the floor.

'Look' says Will, pointing to the floor. 'Footprints. And they are from none of us.'

He follows the trail which leads into the room now containing the burnt remains of the zombies, and follows it out again. The bloody footprints lead back up the stairs to the third level, although they peter out before they reach the top.

"Well, whoever he is, he got our calling card" adds Bennett. "I think that before we go to the fourth level at all, which seems to be this cat's HQ or quarters at least, we need to be geared up at tight as we can be. I get the feeling this guy is going to be ready for us. Also, whatever else he's got in the tower that works for him will surely be ready for us as well. We need to be extra cautious. Oh, and I won't be pushing us any farther than we need to go anymore. I learned my lesson."

'Hmmm' ponders Winnacer. 'We definitely need a decent rearguard in this case. Xavier, would you be willing to take that position?'

'Certainly, my lord. It would be an honor' the now completely cured Saxon replies.

'Jihan, could you see if there has been any change in the status of whatever is behind the two doors?'

Jihan agrees and gets out his listening cone and listens to the two doors.

'Same as before' he reports. 'I can't hear anything behind either of them, but there's a terrible smell of rotting, moldy food behind the door to the right.'

'In that case, I think we should start with the other one' Winnacer replies.

They assume the revised positions for going through doors. The front rank now consists of Bennett and Zsolt at the sides and Hrust, as usual, in the center, with Winnacer and Will in the second rank and the others close behind.

'Are we all ready?' Winnacer whispers. 'OK, let's do it!'

Bennett opens the door quickly and the front three all look in, weapons ready to take out anything that is in there and Hrust with holy symbol to the fore. They see, however, that there appears to be no hostiles within the room.

The room is a large one, some 40' wide by 30' deep. It is obviously a dining room from the fact that it contains nothing but an enormous 'U' shaped table, surrounded by some 30 chairs. In its day, the room was obviously very well decorated, although the room now appears to be almost derelict, with cobwebs (regular, not giant) coating the whole area as well as a thick coating of dust, undisturbed for centuries.

Cautiously, they enter the room, checking under the table to ensure that there is nothing lurking there ready to pounce upon Them. They see that the walls are covered with what were once luxurious drapes depicting a horde of undead dressed in finery sat around a table identical to the one that you are looking at. The table is laden with a huge banquet. Although the drape is faded and crumbling in many parts, they can make out the form of a tall, distinguished looking man at the head of the table, toasting the undead with a goblet in hand. The floor of the room has a number of large animal skins carpeting it. They crumble to dust as they step on them.

Faewen'il scans the room with the Witchfinder rod to determine as to whether there is anything magickal within, but the gem does not glow.

Jihan walks up to the table to look at it in more detail. Pulling out a rag, he picks up one of the plates and blows the dust off it. His eyes light up as he sees the dull glint beneath. He carries on to pick up a goblet and his eyes open wider as he rubs it and sees the sparkle of tiny gemstones embedded into the base. He casts his eyes over the table and sees that there are thirty different sets consisting of a plate, knife and fork plus goblet, all made from solid gold. He shakes his head in disbelief:

'This is truly a set made for royalty. The whole lot has got to be worth 2500 gold pieces at least.'

He picks up a plate and examines it in a little more detail. He sees that there is a motif on it in the form of a tower topped by a crown, although it does not bear much of a resemblance to their present location.

'Will, does this motif mean anything to you?' the elf asks.

Will picks it up and scrutinizes it carefully.

'I'm afraid not' he says shaking his head.

Tehy look around the room a little more and see that there is a door in the north wall a little to the left of the one that you entered by.

Jihan goes up to it and has a listen:

'I think that it leads to the same room as the other door from the corridor. I can't hear anything, but the stench from there is terrible.'

'Well it looks as if we have to go in there and check it out in order to finish with this floor' says Winnacer.

Bennett is more interested in the drape than the tableware.

"What the hell would undead be doing with a banquet?"

Bennett asks Winn, or anyone else handy, to briefly recount the story that Kesryk told them about Boscobelous.

He asks Will if he has heard anything of the story as well.

Will takes a closer look at the drape at Bennett's request. He peers closely at the form at the head of the table, but does not touch it for fear that it will crumble to dust:

'The figure looks definitely alive' he says as he investigates it closely. 'Yes, see the expression on his face? It definitely looks highly animated. All of the undead which we have seen show no emotion. The person in the drape seems to be quite mad from the pose he has here. Look at the undead as well. Notice how none of them are eating and there is no food on their plates, only the tall man, presumably Boscobelous, is eating. All are wearing clothes of exquisite quality for the period.'

Bennett is becoming more and more certain that this Boscobelous is the one who walked downstairs in the blood. He starts to think that his death almost certainly did not end him. The more he looks at the drape and thinks about the Tower, the worse he starts to think the condition of the group is. He starts seriously considering Winn's thought of burning the whole place down.

Winnacer's eyes open wide at the estimate as to the worth of the banqueting set:

"It seems that the revolution just got a large donation. Let us move it out towards the entrance..."

Quickly, Jihan gathers up all he can of the glistening set and places them in the large sack he has been carrying, to be more easily carried out later when the party is ready.

"Please leave it here for now" says Bennett as Jihan starts to put the table ware in the sack. "No one's coming in here any time soon and I don't really want to steal Bosco's silverware until we deal with the residents of the tower."

Though he recognizes the value of the flatware, Bennett has a real creepy feeling and doesn't want anything to do with looting it. He doesn't object as Jihan puts it in a bag, but won't carry it or touch any of the items.

'I guess that we must check out the mold' says the young lord with some degree of reluctance.

He then lights a torch which he carries in his off hand, ready to use or to drop depending on what is in the room. He also is ready to close the door quickly if things do not look particularly favorable.

Jihan nods agreement with investigating the foul smelling room, saying to the others in the back rank:

"Keep your eyes on the ceilings to keep an eye out for anything that may fall on our brothers at the fore. My mind is drawn back to the lessons of my master... Luhhan told me of foul smelling beasts that attached themselves to the roofs which were used to take unsuspecting rogues in sewer entrances or within houses themselves, with their foulness concealed by olfactory magicks. If not that, then make sure to cleanse your wounds well. I do not like the rotting foulness of this place..."

Bennett votes that they go in from this door, as the other door would be the main entrance and whatever nastiness dwells within might be pointed in that direction. He looks toward Winnacer's torch and hopes that Hurst has his flaming sparks thing ready to go.

Firming his jaw, the elf looks towards the room steadily, but cannot suppress a shudder of apprehension as the door is about to be opened.

Once again they get into position, with Winnacer replacing Hrust in the front rank, as they are fairly sure that there will be no undead to contend with in this room. Whether the occupants are better or worse adversaries, you don't want to consider.

At the end of the countdown, Bennett kicks the door open, but no one rushes in.

Nothing or no one stirs as the door is flung open. The room was obviously a kitchen in its day, but, as is the case with every room that they have entered in the tower, it has suffered through centuries of neglect. On the left wall, there is a large open hearth with long-cold embers at the bottom. Next to it, in the corner closest to them, is a large oven.

It is the far side of the room that is of most interest to them. It is obvious that it was this area that once contained the food store for the kitchen. Over the centuries, the food has rotted and decomposed and has gone moldy, growing as if it were some primeval garden. After 500 years of growth, the mold has blossomed to take over the entire far side of the room. Although the stench from the rotting food is almost nauseating, the look of the mold is almost beautiful to behold as it looks as though it is some kind of fungal garden, with several different colors to the mold. Yet none of them are too interested in its looks, only what danger it may hold for them after their recent encounter with the ooze from the cellar.

They pause at the door for a while, observing the mold for the slightest sign of movement, yet there is none.

'I still don't like it' says Bennett, his hand clasping the handle of 'Retribution' in order to give him comfort.

Zsolt reaches into his backpack and pulls out an earthenware container. He takes it within his hand and then hurls it with all his might towards the wall of the kitchen behind the mold. The container shatters upon impact and showers the mold with a thick, sticky liquid which starts to seep into it. They wait to see if there is any reaction from the mold, but there is none.

Zsolt points to the torch that Winnacer is holding. Winnacer knows exactly what to do.

Cautiously, he moves a few steps into the room. The rest of them step behind him in order to give him some support if things go badly. Winnacer then hurls the torch on top of the pile of mold. The flickering torch catches the oil, and there is a satisfying 'WWWOOOOOFFFFF' as the mold starts to burn.

It is difficult to make out through the flames, but they think that they see the mold begin to shudder a little. Suddenly, a long stalk rises up from the burning mold and they think that you can make out three eyes on the end. As the eyes swivel in their direction, the moldy mound trembles and an incredibly bizarre looking creature drags itself out. The creature is huge, having a bloated body covered with a rock-like skin that is brownish gray in color. The 7' diameter creature stands on three legs. What is really terrifying about the creature, however, is the large mouth that they can see possesses some very sharp teeth. The creature's other armament takes the form of two tentacles with leaf-like ridges.

The tentacles are heading towards them very fast.

They don't have any time to react as the tentacles come flying through the air towards them. One of them smashes Winnacer in the side, before it wraps around him and starts to drag him towards his gaping maw. The other tentacle performs the same action upon Zsolt, hitting him and dragging him forwards also.

The two warriors lash out at the creature as they are drawn forwards. Winnacer gets a good hit on the creature, but its skin is thick and so very little damage is caused. Zsolt is taken even more by surprise as he is dragged forwards. He lashes out wildly at the creature and tries to sever the tentacle. His shot is off-target, however and he hits the floor instead, sending pain shooting up his arm from the force of the blow.

As soon as he sees his two friends being dragged forwards, Bennett immediately runs towards the creature with 'Retribution' in hand. He manages to get a decent blow upon the creature.

Jihan's eyes are burning with intensity, and his hands strike swiftly, without hesitation, as he launches towards the creature with both Todtaenzer and Todgeschenk in hand. He hits with Todtaenzer, but the damage is not at all severe.

Will is next into the fray. Timing his blows carefully, he searches for a weak spot in the creature's hide and plunges both his longsword and magickal dagger towards it. Both his blows are true and the bard does as much damage as the rest of the others put together.

Xavier rushes up from the rear to join in, but he cannot find a way to the target. Shaman Hrust and Yaz both start casting in order that they can get fiery blades to assist in the melee.

Winnacer and Zsolt are both squeezed by the creature as they are dragged towards it. The Pannon is lifted up into the air as he is dragged towards the mouth and bitten by the teeth within.

As the creature starts chewing on him, Zsolt strikes back at the beast. With the creature's body surrounding him, he can hardly miss, and so manages to plunge his sword deep into it. Winnacer also gets a good hit on the creature with 'Old Bohavia'. The creature starts to lurch slightly on its three legs.

Then, Bennett raises 'Retribution' above his head and brings it down upon the foul creature with all of his strength. The axe's head carves into the creature's squat body with terrible force, hacking out a huge chunk of it. As its entrails start to spew out onto the floor, the creature keels over and expires among the still burning mold.

With the creature dead, it is easy for the two warriors to cut themselves free of the creature's tentacles. They both breathe a sigh of relief at how easily the creature was killed.

Shaman Hrust lets his fireblade dissipate almost as soon as it was cast and he comes over to the two injured warriors. He casts a healing spell upon Winnacer which has an excellent effect, after which the young lord feels almost perfectly well again.

Then Hrust investigates Zsolt's wounds, particularly the one caused by the bite of the creature. The bugbear looks a little concerned and growls something to the Pannon. Zsolt looks a little concerned after hearing the news and is quiet for a short moment, but then nods his head. The bugbear pats him on the shoulder.

Cautiously, Jihan starts to delve into the scorched mold using one of the spears from the armory downstairs. He spends several minutes prodding through the fungus and rotting food in order to see whether there is anything of value hidden within, but there is nothing but more revolting filth. As the nauseating stench is getting him close to gagging, he gives up his search, confident that there is nothing hidden within.

'Well' sums up Winnacer, 'that could have been a lot worse. I believe that this makes the second level clear. As we all seem to be in fairly good shape still, I believe that we should carry on upstairs and see what lies in store for us up there.'

They file out of the room and make their way back to the staircase. Although the trapfinding ensorcellment that Yaz cast the last time they were here should have covered the stairs, Jihan still checks the staircase carefully, step by step as he goes up. However, Yaz's spell was true, and he gets to the top without incident. The rest of them follow him up.

The area where they find themselves standing is quite different from the other floors, which each had a corridor leading off from the stairs. Here, they find themselves standing in what seems to be a small entrance hall, just ten feet long and fifteen feet wide. There is just enough space for all of them to stand. The area is totally black in color, as opposed to the rest of the tower that is constructed from a light brown sandstone. The walls, floor and ceiling are clad in what appears to be black marble, although most of the cladding has fallen from the ceiling onto the floor and has come away from the walls in places, revealing the sandstone beneath.

Will touches the stone to see whether it is simply soot or dirt that is making the stonework seem black. However, the color does not come away and the stone, indeed, is black marble.

There is just one exit from the entrance hall, and that is through a large pair of doors straight ahead of them. The doors are imposing, made out of solid sheets of iron that are black in color, although patches of rust can be seen in a few areas. Set out in silver relief on both doors is the form of a huge skull emblem, each of them standing some three feet tall.

'Let me see is there are any traps on the doors' says Yaz.

With this, he begins to cast. As the spell becomes operational, he turns around, scanning the entire floor as well as the stairway up to the next level. He shakes his head as he completes the operation:

'No, it all seems quite all right to me' he says. 'Over to you, Jihan.'

The elf performs a rudimentary check of the door until he is satisfied that there are definitely no traps there. He then checks the lock on the door and finds that it is unlocked. Finally, he starts to listen at the door. He appears to be very nervous as he reports his findings:

'I can hear wailing. A lot of wailing, and it doesn't sound to be living in origin either.'

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Winnacer says as he views the large skull emblems upon the doors.

"Wailing? What sorts of unnatural beings spend their eternities wailing? Nothing corporeal I would guess."

Winnacer cleans off Old Bohavia and replaces it in its scabbard.

"I guess we will see if this blade was worth the price."

Winnacer draws the silver longsword, holding the beautiful and shiny blade in front of him. He also keeps his torch handy as well.

'I've got a bad feeling about this room too' says Yaz. 'I'm nervous about getting involved in a tough fight without knowing who or what is in this building that could attack our rear as we fight. I think that Raaka should check and see who's around.'

With that, Yaz begins to cast upon the worg, who has remained close to him ever since you entered the building. As the spell is cast, Yaz's eyes go glassy as Raaka returns to the staircase and begins to follow the trail that leads up to the next level. Yaz describes all that Raaka is seeing as the worg makes the journey.

'He's at the top of the stairs now…. He's walking down a short corridor 15' wide that leads to a T-junction, with a 10' corridor going from left to right…. There are three doors facing him, all identical. He's heading for the one on the left…. He's stopped before the door…he wants to get in…he's starting to scratch on the door … now the door's opening…Oh, Prirodna! There's a cracked and yellowing skeletal figure covered with shards of decaying flesh at the door. Its eyes are black holes containing pinpoints of reddish lights. It is wearing chainmail and is carrying a shortsword…He's about to strike Raaka …Raaka is turning tail and running from the creature…Ooof!.. Raaka got hit by the creature from behind…but it didn't bring him down…Raaka's running for his life now…I can hear that the creature is following him…but he is slow'

"Son of a bitch!" Bennett yells to no one in particular.

He then speaks to the group:

"This is not the place to do this. Let's go down to the second level and set up some sort of ambush for this creature, maybe from the zombie room. No, how about the dining room, no stench to deal with. No way do I want to get caught between a banshee and some skeleton warrior!"

"The wailing from behind the iron doors didn't sound like a banshee to me" interjects Jihan. "Banshees are female and these voices were definitely male, and there were quite a few of them.

"Anyway" continues Bennett. "We need to make sure the creature can see us head in there so it continues to follow us. If it's not intelligent, then an ambush should work pretty well, no?"

His continual loud talking as the group makes to head downstairs grows increasingly annoying.

At that point, Raaka comes dashing down the stairs…and keeps on dashing, yelping wildly with his tail between his legs. From the speed at which the worg is moving, it looks like he's heading out of the place as fast as his four paws will carry him.

They decide to follow him, as fast as their legs will carry you, not daring to turn round to see if the skeleton warrior is following them.

They get to the second level and run down the corridor and see the arrangement of three doors.

'This should make a good ambush site' says Winnacer. 'Quickly, into the doorways, three in each.'

There is little time to argue with Winnacer's planning.

Winnacer, Will and Bennett head for the door to the dining room. Will and Bennett nock magick arrows into their shortbows while Winnacer gets a vial of holy water ready to hurl at the creature.

Jihan, Faewen'il and Xavier are in the doorway to the zombie room. Jihan has his weapons ready to backstab the creature as the warriors in the dining room lure it forwards.

Yaz, Hrust and Zsolt stand in the entrance to the moldy kitchen. Both priests have fireblades in their hands waiting for the skeletal form to pass by.

They don't have long to wait.

The skeleton warrior comes down the stairs and enters the corridor.

The warriors in the dining room entrance are the first to see it.

'AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' they all scream as they behold its terrifying visage. They drop their weapons and rush towards the back of the dining room.

The lumbering form of the skeleton warrior lumbers after them, coming to pass by the open doorways of the zombie and mold rooms.

As soon as it passes them, both Faewen'il and Xavier let out screams too. Seeing a clear exit as the horrific figure passes them, they bolt towards the staircase to take them out of the building.

Jihan manages to control his fear, however. As the figure passes him, he tries to stab the evil figure in the back with both of his shortswords.

The creature's armor is tough, but still he manages to pierce it with one of his shortswords, doing a fair amount of damage to the abomination.

The creature wheels as it feels the strike.

Yaz has a very vengeful and disconcertingly evil grin on his face:

"C'mere, Bosco," he whispers, "come to Yaz, you bastard."

The creature does, and as the druid beholds its skull-like face with its eyes like pinpoints of reddish light, he lets out a shriek.

His fireblade dissipates as he bolts away from the door, heading down the stairs in the direction that Faewen'il, Xavier and Raaka headed.

Somehow, Zsolt and Hrust manage to remain calm, and the two of them bring their swords down upon the creature.

Hrust strikes at the creature and his fireblade cuts deep into him. The skeleton warrior locks his shortsword against the fireblade, however and their two swords are locked.

Seeing the skeleton and the shaman locked together, Zsolt cannot find a gap between them in order to find somewhere to plant his sword. The skeletal figure pushes Hrust away from him and the bugbear struggles to stay on his feet. The abomination strikes at him as he is trying to keep his balance and the creature's shortsword plunges deep into the bugbear's side, leading him to howl out in rage.

The skeletal form is quick and immediately counters with an attack upon Jihan in retaliation for the backstab. Jihan's armor is no match for the creature's powerful blow, and the blade bites into him.

Jihan immediately retaliates, but he cannot manage to find a way through the warrior's mail with either of his swords. Zsolt is similarly unsuccessful, as he cannot manage to harm the abomination either. Hrust makes up for them, however as he again manages to plunge his blade of fire into the side of the creature.

The skeletal form retaliates and aims another blow at Hrust. Once more, his flimsy brigandine armor is no match for the creature's glinting steel and he once more yelps with pain.

Jihan and Zsolt both lash out at the creature in fury. Jihan catches it with one of his blades. Although the damage is not inconsiderable, the undead figure hardly seems to flinch. Zsolt also manages to catch it with a massive blow from his bastard sword. Hrust, however, fails to strike it with his flame blade.

The abomination is slow to react, and so the three of them go to strike it again. Neither Jihan nor Zsolt are able to find a way through its armor, but Hrust strikes it once more with his fiery sword, the burning blade causing considerable damage to it. At last it looks as if some progress is being made against the creature.

It strikes back at Hrust again, and again its blow is true, causing massive damage to the bugbear.

Hrust starts to cast again, realizing that he is close to death unless he can heal himself. He lays his hairy paw against his wound and is slightly better as a result.

In order to give the shaman time to repair himself, both Jihan and Zsolt strike back. Jihan's blades both fail to strike, but Zsolt's blow is true once more and the creature starts teetering from the damage. In desperation, it lashes out at Zsolt again, piercing his mail.

While lashing out at Zsolt, however, it gives Jihan an opening. In a flash, Jihan brings up Todtaenzer and plunges it up under the skeleton warrior's armpit which is not covered by the mail. As the blade pierces the warrior, it goes rigid, before it falls to the floor and the bones that make up its body scatter around the room.