Episode 1403: A little frustration, a little stealth, and a big oops

There's been a bit of a delay between meetings where I missed part of a game, plus holidays and such. When last we left this merry band of misfits we were lost in a maze trying to get to a wizards tower. This cast consists of:

Tsedek, our charming Tiefling Rogue

Itanis, a devious High Elf Wizard, fond of controlling any situation we may find ourselves in

Leoven, our quiet but effective Wood Elf Ranger

Magnus, the Human Paladin of Heironious, he has followed a vengeance path

Elle, the small but sparky High Elf Wizard, fond of blowing things up with lots of fire

In our attempt to get through this maze we had acquired a hireling, the drunk former apprentice of the builder of this tower. At the end of last episode, the poor man ran off back to the village and his drink of choice. The rest of the party had continued down another path, and we had arrived at a murky pool with a garnet floating above the pool. Itanis had used his unseen servant to retrieve the garnet, which triggered these lobster-men to appear out of the depths of the pool. Game on!

We step into battle and Itanis uses his hypnotize to freeze all the bad guys, so we start picking them off one by one. We were fighting well when one of the bad guys grabs Magnus and pulls him into the water. Magnus, being a large human in full plate, pretty much just sinks rather than swim. Before Elle could react to go fetch him out of the water, Leoven uses his spider cloak to go and rescue him. We were successful in dispatching the lobster-men, but were still stuck in this dratted maze.

We continued back into the dratted maze to another one of the sundial courtyards. This time all 8 paths were marked in shadow. So we picked one of the paths and wandered down this. Now, Elle's not known for an even temperament and she's getting kind of annoyed at this whole mess at this point. Sure enough we came to another large courtyard with a pond. This pond was clear however.

In the center there was a rock with a pagoda, and a figure standing in the pagoda. In hopes of getting information out of the figure, we walk over to the figure. Tsedek tries talking to the figure, but all the figure does is start a pot of tea. In all the quiet we start looking at things harder. One of us realizes the figure is a Dao, a malicious genii and quite evil. Another realizes the tea he is brewing is poisonous. So, game on!

He starts to raise some stone shields around the pagoda, but Itanis disrupts the casting of that spell. So the rest of us do what we do best, Leoven backs out of the pagoda and starts shooting, Magnus and Tsedek start smacking the creature, and Elle lights herself on fire. Turns out he wasn't as tough as Elle had expected and he went down quickly. Tsedek finds another gemstone in the bottom of the teapot.

At this point Elle's beyond frustrated and, since she's still on fire, starts blasting away at the hedge walls. It didn't help the maze situation, but it did calm her down some.

We return through our maze wanderings and find ourselves back in one of the sundial courtyards, all paths marked with shadow. We start poking around discussing what to do and in a fit of, well, something Elle goes "Wait, between the paths. Leoven, can you guide us through the hedge plant itself?" And that's what we did, we started down a path of Leoven's making through the physical hedge plant itself.

This time when we get out of the hedge, we're in a courtyard at the base of the wizard's tower. There's a dead cultist on the ground, and a Teleportation Circle*. While a couple of people investigate the tower base and the dead cultist, Itanis takes a minute to learn this circle's address. Magnus puts away his maul, and brings out his sword and shield to better defend the party.

We quickly realize that the only way into the tower is via the circle, so we all step on it, and wind up inside the tower. We're in a round room with two balconies. There is a table and some chairs scattered about, and another dead body on the ground. While people investigated that body, Elle went over and started investigating what appears to be a control panel.

Magnus at this point helpfully states "Elle, your wizard tower can be no more than 3 levels." And Elle, the very smart but sometimes oblivious soul responds with "But I need storage room for the bodies!"

Those are words one should never say around a vengeance paladin. "ELLE! What do you mean bodies?!" She kinda stutters and stammers while he performs an insight check on her - successfully. Which totally did not help, because she truly means it. "We must deal with the current situation now, but we will continue this talk later Elle".

Drats.

Returning to the panel we come to the conclusion that the horribly labeled buttons might activate the teleportation circles inside the tower, so we systematically start trying them one by one. There may have been joking about Elle wanting to push the Flame one first.

The first symbol, one chair, placed us back on the chamber floor with the table/chairs and dead body.

The second symbol, two chairs, swapped which balcony we were standing on.

The third symbol, an upside down L, took us to a 10' round metal room. It's lit, and there's a door. Tsedek, followed by Leoven, sneak out to get the lay of the land while the rest of us wait in the room. They report footsteps so Tsedek turns invisible and Leoven vanishes*. Those in the room sneak up to the door to be prepared to back those two up.

Tsedek then very carefully opens another door, where the footsteps were coming from, to find 5 cultists in there. They're searching around and yelling for the informant we've come to collect. So Magnus does what every sneaky party does. He takes off running in his full plate straight into the room.

And that's where we left off today! We should be able to get one or two more sessions in before the holidays. Here's hoping Magnus forgets Elle's little slip up!

* Teleportation Circle: think instantaneous transportation to a spot if you know the address. Not unlike the Star Gate concept, only with magical sigils rather than chevrons. Itanis is the only wizard that knows the spell, so he gets to memorize the new addresses as we find the circles.

* Leoven's vanish is a ranger ability. It's like a non magical invisibility, kinda.