The Blighted Tower

The streets of Paris were now much safer as the group saw no more gendarmes patrolling.  They headed down the river Seine, which still smelled foul and the sky was almost dark even with the light of the two suns of Carcosa.

As the river curved to the south in the distance they saw what appeared to be a blunt tower.  As they moved closer the remnants of a fantastic iron tower stood here over a broken and rubble-strewn street. The tower was fashioned from a lattice of riveted iron girders. The shattered remains of an elevator system occupied the leg area along with a set of iron stairs. The height of the tower was once approximately one thousand feet, though it had since been snapped in half. The base and two floors were still somewhat intact, although wreckage and twisted metal littered the structure and surrounding area.

The two floors overlapped each other the first rising some 200 feet above ground level.  The second deck was almost twice as high. The stairs were not complete and looked partially filled with debris.  Armania saw this and immediately cast mass fly on the group.  Gavril and Erevel ascended to the first deck which was filled with rubble, some of which certainly was the remains of buildings. Flying around higher than the shattered walls no one saw any evidence of the stela.

Gavril and Erevel then kept rising to the second deck. In the middle of the building was the remains of a building.  One possible room had the remnants of some food.  In a larger area of the building was the stela.

The remainder of the party headed up to the second deck as a result of this discovery.  Ciprian headed to the stela, circled it and then took a position twenty feet above the floor.  

"We should be on the lookout for a enemy to attack us.  This has happened twice before, I'm sure it will occur once again," Gavril said as he moved to the open area to the west.  Erevel headed to the south, Ofraham to the north and Ursina to the east.  Armania was in the midst of the deck where she could look up past the remnants of the girders which rose higher haphazardly above the deck.

Ciprian invoked his ring of Invisibility and began the ritual, hopefully for the final time.  As before the stela began humming and vibrating as he started the ritual.  The first ten minutes passed as he succeeded at the first test and then the second ten passed also.  The humming and vibration began to increase just as four creatures popped in, flying outside the tower at the cardinal points.  The group recognized them as Shantaks.  They recalled flying to the moon in the Dreamlands upon the back of one such monster.

Gavril, recalling the timidity of that Shantak spoke to the nearest one, "We are not here to hurt anyone," he said.

"You will stop the ritual on the stela or die quickly," it responded.

The Shantaks attacked but with their flyby attack and long reach the heroes could not reach them to attack.  Ofraham fired successful arrows at one of the Shantaks while Armania again used Starfall.  Erevel took a defensive stance guarding Ciprian.  Ursina caste haste upon the party.   Armania and Ursina were grappled by the Shantaks.  After the party had finalized their turns they felt the ground below the tower shake.  An immensely long head and worm body erupted from the ground.  The head rose on the substantial body to the first deck.

Erevel stared down with disbelief at the colossal head rising up toward her its mouth filled with a massive set of hooked jaws.  Armania stepped away from the grapple but Ursina failed to cast as spell in the hold of the monster.  Gavril whipped out his bow and began to fire arrows as Ofraham continued attacking.  Ciprian moved to secret himself in the iron work and Erevel kept up her defensive stance.  A second Starfall dropped the Shantak holding Urisna to the deck of the tower while another fell to its demise from four hundred feet in the air.  The other two continued their flyby attacks.

The next round began with Ofraham killing the prone Shantak and delivering more damage to another.  Gavril continued firing his arrows while Armania's Magic Missiles dropped another Shantak.  Ursina cast Greater Invisibility on herself and Ciprian kept cowering.  Erevel began to fly down and around the colossal head but too an opportunity attack at a great distance.  The head rose above the level of the second deck and let loose a prodigious gout of thick black slime from its gullet.  The whole deck and more was covered by ten feet of the filth.  Ciprian suddenly became quiet, the ritual had stopped for some reason.

The party continued the attacks against both remaining creatures.  The large mouth was very difficult to hit with weapons.  Erevel's attempt failed, Gavril and Ofraham fired arrows to little effect and Urisna cast a prayer while trying to get out of the way while identifying the monster as a Bhole with Resistance to Electricity.  Armania also tried an identification and found it was immune to fire and had resistance to Cold.  It could also Block Attacks and seemed a terribly hard monster to defeat.  Armania used her Dragon's Breath twisted to Acid and found that that also did no damage.  Ciprian did not speak but the party could not see her to notice if there was an issue.

The Bhole bit Gavril who took a massive hit and fell motionless into the slime on the deck.  Erevel was slammed from the head on its rebound from biting Gavril but she stayed upright.  Gavril lay with his head barely out of the slime as Ursina hurried over to cast Heal on him.  Erevel and Ofraham continued their attacks as the last Shantak fell to the ground.  Armania cast a lightning bolt which had its damage reduced but what else could she do.  Ciprian was still unheard from as the party began to worry. Now it was Oraham's turn to be attacked by the bite of the Bhole, he came away very bloody and Staggered while Erevel again took the brunt of the slam rebound.

Armania continued with attacks that had their damage reduced.  Erevel and Ofraham continued their attacks as Gavril fled far away but took opportunity damage in doing so.  Ciprian was finally heard from as he flew away from the deck and began a Performance against the Bhole while then casting Deafening Sound Burst as Ursina cast Harm on the monster.  Again the Bhole attacked but it missed both Ofraham and Erevel to their surprise.

The battle finally ended when the Divine damage from Ursina's Flame Strike killed the Bhole.  Ursina then began healing the damaged heroes while Cirpian started the Ritual once again.  At the final check the sound from the stela became a high pitched whine and ended with an flash of light from the stela.  Ciprian dropped to the floor exhausted and injured from the Ritual as usual.

Moments after this final stela had been deactivated, Queen Cassilda appeared at the side of the heroes.

“Friends, you have deactivated the Star Stelae that bind your world to Carcosa, but I fear I bring awful tidings. The spawn of Carcosa, Xhamen-Dor, has completely subsumed a man from your world and so has returned to life, as only the Great Old Ones can! The Inmost Blot has not recovered its full power, but the connection to the man from your world lets it reach across time and space and maintain a hold on your home. Soon your home is to be pulled into Carcosa’s maw. You must regain your strength, and I will transport us to where this terrible new Thrushmoor is to be born.”

"We need to replenish our spells and probably rest once again to regain our strength," Armania said respectfully to Cassilda.

"Certainly, you will need to be at your best to be prepared for this battle.  But you have no more than 12 hours in which to tarry.  I can stand watch while you rest." she responded.

DM's Notes: The party earned 34,133 XP for the night.