Gavril shifted over to flank the axe wielding woman and attacked with fury. His thrusts were successful enough to drop her to the floor of the chamber. As the body hit the floor it burst open releasing spores that Ursina and Gavril breathed in.
Armania again grabbed Ciprian and the two stepped to the highest stairway they could see. With this vantage point they could see an undead man standing on that stairway somewhat lower than their height. The creature was popping in and out of ethereal being as they watched it. Armania fired magic missiles at the creature but they stopped short of its body. She recognized this effect as a shield spell. The flaming sphere continued on the cocoon.
Meanwhile Erevel was watching her blood on the floor ooze toward the walls where it climbed upward in the etchings like it was being pulled upward.
Ursina fired her crossbow at the caster but did little damage. The magic user stepped away from Ciprian and a arc of lightning appeared between Ciprian and Armania, sizzling them both with Electricity. Gavril suggested that Ursina throw the body on the burning cocoon and he headed for the stairs. It was difficult moving through the Tentacles but he was not grappled and made it close to the spell caster. With the shield down Armania cast magic missiles at the undead enemy. Erevel, frustrated climbed back down the stairs and headed to the battle but too many people were in her way. Paullus continued firing flaming arrows and now they did some damage but not as much as he would expect. Ciprian attacked with her echoblade and Ursina dragged the body of the axe woman to the burning cocoon. There he was surprised to see a human, not undead, emerging from the burning embers. She quickly assessed that he was weak and delirious probably from starvation.
He began babbling with evident fear and almost panic in his eyes "We camped where Lowls left us. Everyone began turning into monsters with tendrils growing out of their orifices." He continued with incomprehensible babbling.
"Get him out of the flames. He knows about Lowls," Armania yelled down.
"We need to talk with him," Ciprian seconded.
The group gathered together on the floor of the chamber, Kaklatath joining them after hearing the battle sounds die down. The man on the floor was babbling on about invisible monsters as Ursina became visible once again. He jumped backwards from the sight, but Ciprian began to question him in dulcet tones.
"Were you traveling with Count Lowls?" Ciprian began.
"Yes we were hired for an expedition. But as we crossed the desert the scorpions attacked us. Oh they were terrible. Scorpions, Scorpions everywhere." the man said as he continued to ramble on about the desert heat and scorpions.
"What is your name?"
"I am Havigan Krast. The spores, the tendrils. Monsters beyond description!" he mumbled as he returned to a stammering, frightened state.
"What was Lowls doing?"
"He was obsessed with three rune-inscribed Star Stelae, in fact one is near this tower. He told us to make camp 'just outside, upstairs'. We moved back inside after we were under attack."
"Is Lowls still in the building?"
"No, he is out searching for the other two Star Stelae. He left us all alone, everyone began dying and then becoming something resembling plants. They could even attack with tendrils."
The party recalled that the three undead they had killed in this room had tendrils.
"Do you know how to go upstairs?" Gavril inquired.
"That stairway that ends in the middle of the wall above leads up." Havigan responded in a slightly more sane state.
After this exchange Havigan became increasingly jumpy, every noise caused him to leap and begin shaking. The party decided to leave him alone for the present and began their healing from the battle. After that Ciprian convinced Havigan that his best choice was to go along with the party, albeit manacled for his own good and health. He agreed after some coercion and the party headed up the stairs after looting the bodies of the magical items.
The stairs led to a hexagonal hole in the wall about 60 feet up from the floor the passage led into the wall and then bore to the left. Gavril led the charge with Erevel behind. Ciprian passed the sunrod up to the leaders as no light was evident in the passageway. After several feet, with the passage still climbing, Gavril came upon a round chamber. He did not detect any traps and the ceiling was beyond his sight. He stepped into the room and swiftly fell upward.
Ciprian immediately cast Feather Fall on Gavril just before he fell out of sight. Gavril then landed lightly on the ceiling/floor and peered into a triangularly shaped room to the east? A few bedrolls, a handful of spilled grain, and the ashen stain of a long-dead fire occupied the center of the room. At one of the three vertices, a hole in the wall opened to the outdoors. Gavril was in another vertex and the third appeared to open to another chamber.
Meanwhile, below Ciprian was rigging some rope and anchoring himself to the floor of the cylinder. The remaining party members plus Kalkatath and Havigan proceeded to climb down the rope upwards. Gavril began exploring the chamber heading toward the apparent third room, Erevel headed to the open air vertex which was open to the air, well above the ground level. Armania and Paullus also began to explore the chamber just as they started to sense a growing, unholy energy.
The four explorers began to see a dozen of humans listlessly gathered around a small dung fire. Suddenly, one fell over and convulsed as fungal tendrils emerged from his eyes. The others reached for weapons and begin striking their fallen comrade before heaving his corpse into the fire. The heroes felt themselves being thrown to the ground and beaten before also being hurled into the fire.
Ciprian and Ursina saw their comrades fall prone and then seem to be pushed to toward the ashen stain. Then they heard Armania and Paullus yell about being burned. Ciprian and Ursina saw no one else in the chamber nor any fire.
The affected heroes began attacking their assailants and before any more damage was taken the ghostly figures faded away. At this point a complete search of the room began. The southern vertex led to another cylindrical chamber with reversed gravity but this one smelled of sewage and filth. The ceiling was only eighty feet above the floor. Gavril decided not to explore that chamber more than likely used as a dumping ground. Ciprian moved to the opening in the eastern wall and saw that there was a walkway wrapping counterclockwise around the outside of the tower like a balcony without a railing. It was probably about two hundred feet down to the ground at the entrance and the walkway rose as it began its traverse. The view seemed to be looking toward the east as described by Barnabas from his over city flight.
Gavril searched the bedrolls and found nothing interesting but a page apparently torn from a journal.
The page gave an account of the experience of the Lowls hirelings succumbing to some anomaly or virus. It appeared that all probably were finally affected.
"Havigan, are these names of your compatriots?" Gavril asked.
Havigan began trembling as he concurred that these were fellow mercenaries.
The group, led by Erevel and Gavril began moving cautiously along the walkway. They came upon a corner where the passage continued to the west. The view from this area was clearly of Neruzavin's western skyline. They could see where they had approached and entered the city. Ciprian thought this very strange and tried to reconcile the view from the corner. As he began this he felt vertigo and began swaying. Gavril and Paullus grabbed him so that he did not topple over.
After moving away from the corner Ciprian recovered and Paullus bade Barnabas to circle the area of the tower from the sky. Barnabas returned quickly stating that as he began to fly around he lost track of the walkway and the heroes altogether. Along the western side of the tower the view was again of the eastern sector while on the south side it appeared as though the tower were atop Neruzavin's eastern mesa looking toward the west. Shortly along the south edge the walkway turned to re-enter the tower.
DM's Notes: The party earned 9600 XP for the night's work.
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