Good!Party: Onward Through The Tower

We find another door to try; there’s a Bugbear Chieftain inside. Martini runs in and stabs him. He is hurt. Tavros comes in and stumbles over a chest. Ruin comes in and attacks as well, adding some damage. The bugbear rages and attacks with a pair of handaxes, hitting Ruin several times and doing significant damage. There’s another roar, and the door on the opposite side of the corridor opens behind Geddy, revealing a second bugbear. Geddy steps away from it and fires one of the Formorian weapons, doing a bit of damage. Marshall steps up and attacks the second bugbear with his scimitar. 

Tavros rips his foot out of the chest, repositions, and cuts into the bugbear. Martini is now flanking him; he dies. Martini then moves out into the hall. Leira adds another magic missile to the remaining bugbear, and Ruin gets his bow out and gives the guy four new nipple piercings. The bugbear, raging, attacks Marshall and cuts him up badly. 

Marshall returns the attack, slicing into the bugbear with his scythe (which remains mysteriously magical despite Luthien’s curse). Martin tumbles past the bugbear and stabs him from behind. Injuring him. Leira blasts him with an enhanced Darkbolt and finishes him. 

We pick up 15,000 GP out of the first Bugbear’s room. Martini locates some extra loot (60,000 GP worth) and a Pearl of Power for an 8th level spell. The other bedroom is much more of a mess; it looks like a teenager’s room. 20,000 GP in artwork, and a trapped chest that Martini promptly disables. She adds the Wail of the Banshee trap to her collection. She opens the chest and finds an additional pile of looted art: 148,000 GP worth. 

Martini starts checking the hallway and finds more secret doors. She checks for traps, finds none, and motions for Tavros to get his sword out and get in front. “I say, there appears to be a door there.” He scrambles into the room as another, very large ogre stretches and roars. Ruin tumbles past him and gets into a flanking position as well; he cuts the ogre in the back. The ogre attacks Ruin, doing a huge amount of damage. Leira positions herself and does a magic missile. 

Geddy walks in, sees the thing, and walks right back out. 

Martini moves in and attacks, taking advantage of the fact that this thing is thoroughly flanked. 

It dies. 

Another ogre opens the far door and tries to smash Tavros, and hits him; Tavros is injured but not flattened. Leira moves into the room and fires off a magic missile.  Geddy climbs onto the bed and then falls over and settles in. Tavros steps up and cuts the ogre down; it dies. 

We search this room also. It’s… pretty rank in here. The chest is broken, and the ogre keeps 19,000 GP in there. The other bedroom is in equally bad shape, and has 20,000 and a bag of 25,000 GP worth of diamond dust. This will be used for resurrections if we ever get our damned magic back. 

We check the two ogre rooms for secret doors. We now have two remaining secret doors and one regular door. We head back to the secret door we bypassed, and come in behind a row of Thoughts of Vecna that were waiting to ambush us if we’d come in through the other door. They die. We collect 33,000 gp and depart. We bypass the regular door since we’ve already searched that room, and head on to the next secret door. Ruin can hear people on the other side, whispering their arrangements as they get ready to ambush us. 

Martini opens the door. Ruin charges past everybody and tries to push through the shield wall and fails. The shield wall is a trio of bodyguards, who are protecting a Thought of Vecna and a Secret of Vecna. The bodyguards pile on Ruin, and he goes down. Tavros rushes the guards and pushes right through. The Thought of Vecna hits Tavros with Magic Missile, doing some damage. Leira blasts the Secret of Vecna with an intensified Shadow Bolt and kills him. Marshall Mercy moves into the room, and Martini follows. 

The bodyguards attack Tavros, doing some damage. He kills two of them outright and injures the third. The Thought of Vecna casts Confusion, but we all shake it off. Marshall cuts down the last bodyguard, and Martini moves in and stabs the Thought of Vecna. Tavros moves in and finishes him off. 

Leira moves in and applies pressure to Ruin’s forehead, which does nothing to staunch the bleeding. Marshall moves over and stabilizes him, but Ruin is pretty well out of the fight. They tuck him into the bed and put a Hold Monster trap on the door. 22,000 gp on the the table; there’s also a locked, trapped chest with 68,000 worth of items. 

Martini traps the door to protect Ruin, and everyone else crosses the hall to the next door. Martini opens the door and beholds a room full of harpies. Geddy fires off a Formorian magic missile rifle. Harpy archers shoot at Tavros, who’s beginning to look a bit like St. Sebastian. The other harpies start their song, and Leira is entranced. Tavros charges two of the harpy archers, murdering one and injuring the second. Marshall moves in and takes out a harpy. 

Geddy shuffles up with his crossbow and takes several shots at the harpy archer who dropped his bow; he hits once. Martini gives Geddy a look, then tumbles forward and murders a harpy. The harpy archer reaches for his bow, and Tavros cuts him down. The remaining archers attack again, hitting Tavros once and Martini once. The other harpies continue singing. 

Tavros moves and murders two more harpies. Marshall moves over and kills another. Geddy takes shots at another harpy, doing a bit of damage. Martini move over and stabs a harpy archer, but doesn’t do any sneak attack damage. The archer moves back and shoots Martini at close range. The other archer shoots Tavros; both hit. The regular harpies move in and attack with claws. Tavros murders two more harpies, then crosses to a harpy archer. Geddy fires off three shots at the other archer, then fumbles and drops his crossbow. “I just have butterfingers,” he says in his elderly, quavering voice. 

The archer next to Tavros disengages; Tavros gives chase and cuts him up. Marshall moves on the other archer, and cuts him; Geddy fires off a magic missile with the Formorian weapon. Martin adds another bit of dagger stabbing. The archer attempts to shoot, and Marshall and Martini both stab her. She shoots at Marshall, and hits him. Tavros finishes his archer, and Marshall finishes the other one. The harpies are dead.

We collect 34k worth of gold, and also the room smells like a birdcage that hasn’t been cleaned in years. Our heroes have important decisions to make now: will they rest and heal, with two more floors between themselves and the wicked Kaz Luthien? Will they press on, trusting to luck and skill? The return of Fanaxia and the arrival of Vecna are set to occur in only two days, so they need to get as far as they can; but without their magics they face dire danger if they fall.