Lowl's Encampment

"Let's identify this new magic gear we found," Ursina suggested.

"Yes, maybe those magic boots were worth finding," Gavril added.

So Ciprian set about identifying the new items, nothing really stood out but a couple of items were given to Kaklatath to help improve her chances of surviving.

At this point Erevel was more than ready to get a good night's rest.  She was already itching to be back in the city and explore that camp outside the tower.

In the morning the crew again welcomed Agna to the fold and had to fill her in on the specifics as the spell casters memorized their new spells for the day.

After discussion of where to explore next the party decided to head to the camp outside the twisted tower. They set off and reached the area more quickly than before and found the tower still empty of any combatants.  They climbed easily to the jungle room and Gavril was the first the leave the tower into the camp area.

Armania and Agna followed him out, and Erevel moved up to the flap opening in one of the tents.  Ursina followed Erevel out beginning to circle the tent area.  Ciprian, invisibly, stayed in the room with Kaklatath awaiting some action.

Armania moved closest to the well, which rose about 4 feet from the street level.  It was capped with rock and looked to be sealed around the whole perimeter, but the masonry was beginning to decay. The tents were large squares with sides and flaps to enter them.  The ground was covered with footprints between the tents and leading to and from the doors in the tower.

Erevel moved the flap and peered into a tent seeing another of the undead tendril bearing human.  Thecreature did not make a move as Armania looked around for any others to appear.  Gavril held on waiting for something to happen while Ursina circled the tent Erevel was at to try and enter from the rear.

From another tent, a female tendrilled human came charging out to Agna with a flail at the ready.  She flipped the flail and grabbed Agna's bow and flung it fifteen feet away.  Gavril immediately jumped in to flank this new enemy and happily hit the creature.  Ciprian warned Kaklatath to stay in the room while he moved out and started a Bardic Performance seeing that the creatures were the same as the first monsters met in the tower.

Again an undead moved out of a third tent, although there were eight images moving together, and several party members saw their flesh begin to rot and felt their strength reduce.  It then cast a spell which seemed to have no effect.  Erevel the exchanged blows with the creature in the tent who attacked with swords in each hand.  Finally Agna drew her sword and wailed away on the flanked enemy.

Armania cast a fireball on the two northern enemies, excluding her compatriots.  Ursina cut her way into the tent and moved up behind the attacker.  Tendrils reached out for Agna and Gavril but both missed.  Gavril, taking full advantage of flanking, precision damage and the additional sonic damage left the enemy on the ground.  It's body burst open and both Agna and Gavril were left to inhale the foul vapors.  Ciprian cast haste on the party while trying to stay out of sight.  The magic using enemy then moved closer and cast a flame strike on Gavril and Agna.  Again several of the party felt their skin continue or start to rot while the strength reduced.

Erevel again exchanged blows with the creature and as it hit the ground, it's body split open and Ursina and Erevel were left to breath in the spores.  Agna stepped up to hit the many imaged creature and knocked one of the images away.  Armania cast a lightning bolt at the remaining enemy and Ursina went invisible and moved to check the remaining tent. Gavril stepped up to the remaining enemy and began his multiple attacks which knocked off a few images and did damage on other attacks.  Interestingly after one such attack the creature appeared to teleport around Gavril so that he no longer had flanking.  Ciprian took his turn to attack the remaining enemy but only knocked off another image.

Then the party felt negative energy wash over them in addition to the rotting flesh and strength damage. Erevel moved toward the remaining enemy just as Agna swung and dropped it.  Again the group around the monster were in the effect of the body bursting spore attack.

As all the enemy was gone the party rested for a moment then began exploring the camp site.  The tents contained bed rolls and rations, feed, and water to sustain them for several weeks, plus 500 feet of hemp rope, ample writing supplies, and a modest amount of other mundane equipment.  The bodies held a limited amount of magic but the only other magic was a bag of holding that Ciprian found in one tent.  Inside the bag were three noble’s outfits of Ustalavic style, a sun-bleached parasol, several journals of notes, and two dozen books covering an array of eldritch subjects.  Ciprian threw out the parasol but did not tell the others of his discovery.

Ursina, examining a remaining tent noted a very large tome that had an evil aura surrounding it.  She called for Ciprian to examine the tome and the two invisible party members determined that this was the Necronomicon.  As they were deciding what to do with the book and other items recovered from the site the other party members saw the stone well cover shatter into pieces, many thrown high into the air as a nauseating translucent worm, a tapered tower of flesh, eyes, and tendrils, covered in screeching maws and bloodshot eyes sprung up from deep below the city. As it did so, the tents began to tear free of their anchors and papers flew about, blown by the intense winds that guttered from the well in the creature’s wake.  The body constantly flickered and shifted, passing from visibility to invisibility in a seemingly random pattern and often not wholly at once, leaving the creature’s body in what appeared to be multiple sections.

Everyone outside the tent felt sanity drain away as they viewed the horrid monster.  Then a blast of wind buffeted the party members with an intense amount of damage and all but Agna were knocked prone and pushed away from the monster while taking more damage.  Feeling the tent lifting up around them and the yells of their compatriots, Ursina pleadingly asked if anyone needed healing.  All the party yelled for help so she left the tent and circled the well to head for Erevel and Gavril.  In doing so she felt her sanity take a dip.

Agna headed apace for the doors and made it into the chamber ready to close the door at a moments notice.  Gavril crawled along the ground and fired a arrow at the monster, actually hitting it for some damage.  Ciprian valorously also left the tent and identified this monster as one of the Flying Polyps they had heard about taking sanity damage as he did so.  Luckily he also learned it was Vulnerable to Electricity.  He then began a Bardic Performance and cast Glitterdust on the creature.  Noting the Electric vulnerability, Armania cast a Lightning Bolt at the creature and then moved closer to the doors.  Erevel picked herself up off the ground and headed to the doors yelling for the party to reconvene inside.

DM's Notes: The party earned 6400 XP for the night.