Tower of Test

The party was faced with a room of black iron spires that toppled and twisted in a domino effect.  The spires smashed into each other, reformed, and righted themselves, altering the pathways erratically.  Demin and Pretis were the first to make a move into the room, either slipping between the spires or forcing their way through them.  Gofin and Alhellara followed with Mara hanging back and them pushing her way through with brute force.  


Melisana was concerned as she was neither athletic nor acrobatic but she used her Arcana to help the the others make their way through the spires. Lythandar also used his Arcana to assist.  Gofin took some damage from the spires and was pushed back toward the entrance as the spires shifted into a more complex pattern.  Everyone found it more difficult to advance at this point.  Melisana finally moved into the fray, took an action point and flew a greater distance through the smashing spires. 

Just as most of the party moved into the next less dangerous room two Banshees moved through the walls to attack.  Pretis and Demin immediately moved to attack but were hindered by a Terrifying Shriek.  As the group battled the Banshees others assisted Melisana to move through the spires and she finally emerged with little damage.  The Banshees soon fell to the combined attacks of the party.

The adventurers moved on finding and entrance to the inner black core area, but it was blocked by fallen rubble and no advance in that direction was possible.  As they moved forward the outside wall was completely missing and the next rooms were open to the outside darkness and cold.  An entry to another room was right at the edge of the missing outside wall.  Pretis again moved forward and looked into the next chamber.  Dozens of 2-foot diameter colored glass spheres hung from the ceiling on corroded copper chains.  A barely audible hum filled the area.  Pretis pushed forward and a series of musical tones rose to weave a chaotic din.  The spheres shimmered in time with the storm of sound, and the party's ears pounded and their stomachs began to churn.

Pretis moved forward ignoring the effects of the sound through endurance whilst Demin identified spheres that didn't affect him to move into the area.  Gofin followed pushing her way through with endurance.  As the rest of the party tried to move past the doorway another Banshee appeared and Shrieked pushing Lythandar and Mara close to the edge of the floor.  While Alhellara toppled right over the edge and was last seen falling into the blackness.  Pretis and Demin continued through the spheres assured that their fellow party members were following.  

Lythandar looked over the edge and saw Alhellara laying on a ledge one floor below.  He lowered a rope and Alhellara was able to climb back up to join her fellow adventurers.  Melisana and Mara attacked the Banshee as Pretis and Demin moved out of the spheres on the far side of the chamber.  As Pretis looked over the debris strew area another Banshee moved into sight and Shrieked pushing Demin back into the spheres.  

Mara, Lythandar and Melisana dispatched their Banshee quickly as Melisana took away its insubstantial quality.  Then they moved into the spheres using various skills to disrupt the arcane energy or find the easiest pathway.  Some damage was taken during the passage but they emerged on the far side to see Pretis and Demin in battle with the Banshee.  A short time later the Banshee was dispatched and the Gofin moved ahead to find the interior still blocked by debris.  Demin followed the exterior to another doorway beyond which he saw hundreds of steel blades suspended on shimmering lines of force.  The blades slashed past each other in a dizzying blur.  Their movement formed an impenetrable barrier except for a few narrow pathways - open for a moment, then gone within the haze.  In the distance a spiral staircase was spied.

Pretis again crashed through the blades with brute force while Demin sent is glove in toward the staircase, hoping to Teleport to the glove's position.  Melisana and Alhellara carefully assessed to predictable movement of the blades to avoid them.   Lythandar also crashed through the blades while Demin found that Teleportation wasn't working.  Gofin and Mara tried to crash through the blades also but found themselves being slashed and gouged by the steel blades. 

Finally the whole party was on the staircase which extended both up and down.  Moving upwards the party found an undead nest filled with bones, cloth rags and desiccated skin.  Also their was a bridge leading to the east.  Downward they found broken statuary, slashed art and smashed jewelry.  The party was feeling very exhausted from both their adventures and the bone chilling cold.  An extended rest was called for.  So finding an interior space they started a small fire to provide warmth and rested.

As they arose the group moved up to the bridge, followed it to a fork, they took the left hand fork and moved northwards to another ruined tower.  Moving out of that empty tower to the northwest they were best by a group of bow wielding skeletons.  As a couple of the skeletons were dispatched 5 larger shrieking skeletons appeared around the party and a full battle was on.  The close skeletons grabbed Mara and Melisana while the group was peppered by arrows.  The bow wielding skeletons fell easily and after taking some damage Mara and Melisana escaped and the Marrowshriek Skeletons were killed.

The party continued on the bridge which came to a T intersection.  To the west the bridge was destroyed after a short passage.  To the east it continued to another spire.  This spire was open to the darkness.  Its central stone core had been sheared off cleanly to create a three foot high platform of glowing black stone.  There were no outside walls of any kind on this level of the spire but there were some great slabs of stone rising up from the tower to about 20' high.

The party moved closer to the central platform and Lythandar and Melisana both examined the area for magic.  The glowing platform was imbued with powerful planar and teleportation magic.  If is was a portal to somewhere else, its destination could not be determined.  Also powerful spellcraft protected the platform against access, but it was not the ancient magic of Moil.  These wards were newly made, perhaps no more than a week ago.

Scorecard:  The party received 2871 XP for the two battles and skill test.  They now have 53871 XP and need 3129 more to reach 15th level.