02.3 The Ruined Tower

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Carlton Blacks Mercenaries
Company members:-
Krachtig (Vervalsing Voorwerp de Meesten Krachtig) – Gnome Illusionist/Thief
Taran – Half Elf Fighter/Priest of Mannnanan Mac Lir, cousin to Carinne and Galvish
Carinne Rhianne Talynnart – Half Elf Ranger/Mage, Cousin to Taran and Galvish
Galvish – Half Elf Fighter/Thief, Cousin to Taran and Carinne
Barrigan Stonebeak – Dwarf Fighter/Priest, Company Engineer.

The Ruined Tower
Upon hearing the news of orc and humans scouting the peripheral farms we talk with Jaryd Stone, the erstwhile scout from this area and he confirms that there are some tracks which seem to lead to a Ruined Tower.
We set off on horseback through the woods in the direction given, after some time an ogre is spotted to one side of the trail, Taran engages him in conversation and it is evident he is collecting a toll from all who pass through these woods, we hand over some silver and he says that we are not likely to return if we are going to the ruined tower as there are many bad people there including elves.
We proceed cautiously and come to a halt as Carinne just makes out a couple of figures hiding up ahead off to the side of the trail. Galvish and Krachtig make their way stealthily around the pair but must make some noise as they bolt.
Soon we gaze upon the towers ruins and carefully scout the perimeter, as we hunker down to continue our observation a spotty rabbit hops into view and turns into our friend the druid.  She warns us that the inhabitants of the tower are contaminating an underground stream with their waste and asks us to stop them, she also warns of denizens on the lower levels may still guard the old place.
We note a copse growing hard by the cliff and using spells turn invisible to look closer at this area.  We make a little noise and orcs are sent out to look, luckily they do not see us hidden there.
We discover a secret door and proceed until it ends at a door.  We enter and disturb an orc who is very surprised to be assailed by unseen individuals although he does manage to raise the alarm before we overpower him.  We quickly cover the other doors from the room but all seems quiet.  We scout up some corridors leading out of the room and hear voices behind one of the doors, we steam into the room and have a short battle with a group of Orcs before emerging triumphant.  We look around the room at what appears to be a sepulcher and notice a secret trapdoor in the floor, we shift a bed aside and open it up.  It appears to lead down into what are probably the burial areas, with the druids warning of undead guardians fresh in our mind we head down into the undercroft.  
We come out in a mausoleum and inspect the sarcophagi noting the Barelin names.  Exiting this room leads to a corridor with several barred doors leading off.  We remove the first bar and head into some natural caverns which contain an underground stream, several old barrels are positioned by the edge of the water covered in mold and some green goo, which is seeping into the water and is probably the cause of the contamination the druid told us of.  We approach closer and the slime is over the ceiling as well and drops amongst us, Krachtig is covered in it and quickly uses his wand to freeze the burning slime off him but injuring himself in the process, we finish this organism off and check there are no more contaminants entering the water course.
Moving back to the main corridor we remove the next bar and are assailed by the stench of undead, expecting this to be a ghoul lair we cautiously enter and are not surprised to see a mass of ghouls close on us, as before it is a see saw battle with several of us getting paralysed and casting spells to remove the paralysis, just as we are finishing off the last of these creatures a number of ghasts enter the fray.  Barrigan starts turning them and we gain the upper hand, we end up finishing off these creatures with our bows as they huddle away from the shining might of Barrigan. Exploring further we come across some shadows which drain Galvish and Krachtig of some of their strength, after defeating these we run into a group of wights which steal some energy from Galvish, lastly we encounter a spectre which emerges amongst our party but we overcome it with no further loss on our side.
After further exploration it would seem that we have finished off the undead threat down here, we go back and check the barracks were we had encountered the orcs and see that the bodies had not been discovered, we decide to take a nap down here in preparation of exploring the area above.
Just as we are rousing ourselves to continue our exploration do we hear voices outside in the corridor.  We throw open the doors and rush out to see heavily armored men and elven archers in the corridor, having the element of surprise Carinne launches a lightning bolt down the corridor injuring the archers, being at some distance we launch arrows at the foe before advancing with swords drawn, we hear the Gnome mumble some spell and some of us are shocked to see a fireball explode down the corridor and quickly fill up the entire space with smoke and flame, Barrigan fails to realize that this is an illusion and is sorely tested by Krachtigs thoughtlessness, although most of our party are unscathed and it does take down most of the elven enemy and wound the heavily armored fighters before us, Taran and Barigan go to work and quickly defeat these soldiers.
We head up into the complex and find ourselves amongst the enemy priests and their cohorts. A vicious battle ensues with most of the party dropping at one time or another and many of us staggering on our feet, only the fact that others from Jans Landing are within view keep us going.  Unfortunately for Krachtig he is stabbed in the back by a holy assassin and dies instantly.  The last of the enemy is killed and wounds are bound and healing undertaken although nothing can be done for the gnome.
Moving further into the ruined tower we encounter some guards and a healer and scribe, cowering behind these is a person with a midnight black sword who we later learn is the Spymaster, through several fireballs from Carinnes wand and hand to hand fighting we beat them down.  Galvish chases after one of the soldiers who escapes through a door, while Taran feels the bite of the spymasters sword and loses some life energy.  We kill of the last of them and the Healer and Scribe have surrendered to us.  Galvish soon comes running back and barricades the door saying theres a bunch of orcs with a shaman that will be here any minute.  We turn to face the new enemy who are battering the door down, after a brief moment we are in combat once more, these black orcs are tougher than ones we have met before but they still die when sharp things are stuck in them. The shaman is wearing some magical skin armor which frightens off Barrigan and Galvish when they close in with him, although Taran manages to overcome this and chop him up.
We decide on what to do next following some discussions with our prisoners, they say that we have killed off about half of their force including all the priests and most of the ranking soldiers, there are just some mages, a Paladin and the commander left at the top of the command.  We decide to go after the commander as this should break their force entirely, using the last of our invisibility potions we have been carrying the four of us turn invisible after the dwarf drinks a potion of speed and some defensive spells are cast from scrolls.  Going up the stairs we espy the commander and the last of his officers as well as the mages, casting slow and fire spells we charge into combat, Galvish moves up behind the Paladin and plunges his sword into his back, Carinne shoots arrows at one of the mages and Taran and Barrigan are in the thick of the battle.  One of the mages points a wand at Galvish and he turns into a slug, suddenly we are down to three and although we have whittled some of them down they may have gained the upper hand as the paladin and the commander are still on their feet, Taran manages to avoid the wand being turned against him and suddenly the paladin and commander are dropped through the dwarfs mighty blows, the dwarf is then turned into a slug by the mage and Taran has to quickly read from a scroll to restore the dwarfs true shape.  Arrows seem to bounce off the mage and when Barrigan finally lands a blow on him he is struck by a cold shield around the mage, Carrine finally manages to slay the mage with more arrows and we take stock of the situation in our battered state.
It is very quiet after the fury of the battle, we look for Galvish and by following his trail see his slug like form, we pick him up and hear some noise.  It would seem that the remaining rebels are leaving the ruins following the death of their leadership – a wise move.
We gather our loot off the fallen enemy and have to load up our horses with the help of the rest of the company stationed out at the copse.  After a rest we manage to turn Galvish back to his true form, this was necessary as it’s going to be really hard to find lettuce what with winter coming.
We wrap Krachtigs corpse in a blanket and tie him over his mount, hopefully our ally Sharin Cal the Druid can reincarnate him as a weasel or fox or something similar in keeping with his character.  Upon seeing us she is happy that we have stemmed the contamination of the stream but saddened upon seeing the bundle on Krachtigs mount.  She volunteers to bring him back to life and we argue that surely he can be reincarnated as a centaur or other creature quicker than a gnome, but she resolutely brings life back to his child like corpse, before he can be shaved or painted blue.  She also restores Galvish and Tarans life energy to them but asks for a means of restoring her age to her, we must keep a look out for potions of longevity or elixirs of youth.
The healer and scribe are handed over to the Lord of the Manor to deal with these rebels, we say that they did not fight against us and the healer actually cured some of our wounds.
We then spend a long time counting our money and sorting out the spoils of war from the vanquished foe.