Into the Iron Tower

"Into the Iron Tower" is the first official episode of SuperQuest Saga. Join Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian as they venture into the mysterious Iron Tower in the Chasm of Blackwood. Strange magics are at work here and this monolith of eldritch architecture stands at its epicenter.

Introduction

 * Will Stark shall be your nefarious dungeon master for this evening.
 * Josh Freeland is playing Sebastian Crenshaw, a half-orc paladin.
 * Your Special Guest Jake is playing Persephone Goldpetal the firbolg druid.
 * Brian is playing Carter Huttenburg the human warlock.

Recap
Last episode, the three met for the first time on an assigned mission from the king to discover the source of a weird magical signature coming from the general area of the town of Ashford. They questioned some folks around Ashford and discovered there was some sort of spider monstrosity terrorizing the town. They ventured into Blackwood and the Chasm of Blackwood which held some interesting natural phenomena; overly green plant life, two headed rabbits, and a generally overheated environment that turned into an irradiated wasteland. They found three kruthiks feasting on the carcass of a deer, decided not to fight the kruthiks and instead tracked them deeper into the canyon. At the end of the canyon was a large black metallic tower with very strange shapes engraved into it. The entrance is facing the party, and Carter is walking towards it.

Through the Door
Carter marches towards the door leaving Sebastian and Persephone to stand in confusion. They hesitantly follow him. The door is wide open but it is incredibly dark inside. Carter lights a torch and enters. The torch lights up the area but not as much as it should, the outer edges of the torchlight are quickly consumed by darkness. The walls on the right and left side are made of metallic grating and there are weird tubes embedded into the walls. It’s very strange and oddly dark despite the light. Carter receives a feeling of familiarity from the liaison to his patron. The feelings have a slight curiosity and there is no form of happiness. Carter is always curious. It seems like he is standing in a very large chamber, scattered about are broken black metallic crates and general debris. Sebastian and Persephone quickly try to catch up to Carter.

As Carter ventures further into the room he starts to see the far side of the chamber, it’s a generally featureless wall with one double doorway that is completely flush with the wall. Carter tries to pry the doors open and he manages to widen the slit between them by about half an inch. He turns to see if anyone followed him in, sees Sebastian and asks him to help open the door. Sebastian gets the door open another inch or so.

Persephone doesn’t like this place and asks what it is. Carter peeks inside through the doors and sees a smaller room. Carter tries to speak a verbal password while Persephone starts tapping the walls to see what happens. Carter remembers he has a crowbar and Sebastian is able to pry the doors open. Carter steps through the door first.

This next room is smaller than the first and the floor appears to be a mix of rock and stone, like pieces of this tower that have been crumpled and dented in. The ceiling rises high and they appear to be in a weird shaft. There is a ladder on the left that goes upward towards an identical door to the one that they just entered. Carter hands the crowbar back to Sebastian and tries to convince him to open the door at the top of the ladder. Sebastian is skeptical since there’s no platform and they’d have to pry it open while on the ladder, but agrees to it when Persephone offers to help him. At the top of the ladder Persephone grabs Sebastian’s butt to help steady him. Sebastian is able to pry the door open easily, and when the door opens they are hit with a wave of heat, similar to opening an oven. Sebastian sees a large black pillar in the center of the next room with a glowing white orb in its center. At the foot of the pillar and all around it are some strange eggs in a weird purple ichor.

Sebastian and Persephone lift Carter up so he can enter the room first. He sees three kruthiks curled around the orb in the pillar. Sebastian and Persephone also enter the room.

Fight! Fight! Fight!
One adult kruthik and two young kruthiks crawl out from around the pillar. The adult kruthik moves up towards Carter and stabs him twice. Sebastian runs up to the big one and casts Compel Duel, successfully locking it into combat with him, and attacks it with his morningstar. The adult shrieks. The two smaller ones move in to stab Sebastian, one strikes critically while the other misses. Carter moves back towards the door and sends an Eldritch Blast at a young kruthik. He snaps his fingers and it is profound and loud as it tears a hole in the fabric of reality to release a yellow-ish/white blast of energy. The blast tears off two arms of a young kruthik. Persephone heads toward Carter and casts Cure Wounds at first level to heal him. She then Wild Shapes into a direwolf.

The adult kruthik stabs twice at Sebastian, hitting once. Sebastian looks bad health-wise and casts Lay on Hands on himself to heal. The young kruthiks move towards Persephone, and Sebastian swings at one as an opportunity attack, killing it. The remaining young one stabs at the direwolf but misses. Carter fires another Eldritch Blast but misses, and starts heading around the room to take cover behind the pillar. Persephone in wolf form tries to maul the young kruthik and misses.

The adult kruthik tries to stab Sebastian, missing the first strike but hitting with the second. Sebastian smashes back with his morningstar at the adult and hits as weird, green ichor starts oozing from the creature. The young kruthik stabs and hits the direwolf. Carter shoots an Eldritch Blast at the adult kruthik, missing again as he reaches the pillar. Persephone lands a critical hit on the young kruthik and rips its throat out.

The adult kruthik and Sebastian trade unsuccessful blows. Carter pokes his head out behind the pillar and fires at the adult, missing yet again. Persephone moves in to maul the adult and knocks it prone. It is bleeding all over the place.

The adult kruthik gets up and attacks the direwolf, hitting her twice. Sebastian smashes down with his morningstar and manages to hit again. Carter fires another unsuccessful Eldritch Blast. Persephone finally knocks the adult kruthik down onto the floor and rips its throat out too, successfully ending combat.

Continuing the Mission
Carter investigates the obelisk. It appears to be a pillar from the floor to ceiling made of the same black material as the rest of the tower. The orb in the center is a crystal and as Carter gets closer it starts to get unbearably hot. Carter is uncomfortable in the heat.

On the right of the ceiling there is a huge gaping hole gashed out of the ceiling that appears to go into the rock, where a hole goes into the canyon wall. Persephone goes to listen for any additional creatures coming from the hole, but doesn’t find anything. Carter notices a ladder going up the wall into a trapdoor in the ceiling. Persephone shifts back and compliments Carter on his hiding skills and asks Sebastian if he’s okay, casting Cure Wounds again.

Carter points to the trapdoor as the way they should go, Persephone suggests they could also go down the hole into the canyon. Carter believes that the creatures they fought came from that hole. Sebastian starts to climb the ladder, opening the trapdoor easily. A dark room is beyond. Sebastian listens to hear anything, but it is eerily quiet. Persephone asks what the strange orb was, was it a little sun? Carter believes it's a power source putting off heat and perhaps incubating those eggs. Carter suggests that if the room above is safe, he can take a moment to sit “like a canary” on the ladder and blast the eggs so more creatures do not appear.

Sebastian takes Carter’s torch and enters the next room, he finds a semi-circle shaped room with a table in the center. On the left and right walls are strange looking constructs embedded into the wall, with weird glass windows and buttons all over them. The center table is black and made of the same material as the rest of the tower. Sebastian thinks it is strange and waves Persephone up.

Carter moves up to the top of the ladder and destroys the eggs with his Eldritch Blast. Sebastian and Persephone watch him for a bit and then start to investigate the room.

Sebastian looks at the center table and notices there’s a plate of glass on top of it. When he touches it a grid of lights lights up all around the table. Sebastian and Persephone are incredibly startled. A hologram appears and it appears to be made of pointed lights. Sebastian and Persephone start to freak out. Beyond the table is another identical door to the other doors they had to pry open. Sebastian frantically presses the table to make something happen, becoming more alarmed when they cannot touch the holograms.

Carter announces his egg genocide is complete and finds his companions in terror. Carter investigates and senses energy coming from the table. He discerns that the hologram is a depiction of constellations and tells his companions it is a star map. Nothing happens when he presses the buttons on the side consoles. Persephone starts moving her hands on the console and the hologram of constellations start scrolling to new locations, none of the constellations are recognizable to the party.

Sebastian pries open the next set of doors leading to another small room with a ladder and trapdoor at the top. Persephone, followed by Sebastian and Carter, climbs the ladder and she tries to pry open the door. Sebastian helps by bracing Persephone’s butt this time while Carter adds Mage Hand to assist. Persephone is flustered and cannot open the door. Sebastian opens the door revealing a dark room beyond.

The Source of the Signature
Sebastian takes the torch and enters, there is a large cylindrical pillar blocking a lot of the view, but there is light coming from somewhere behind the pillar. They head left around the pillar; on the far side of the room is a window that looks into the canyon. There is a u-shaped metallic structure with a humanoid figure slouched over a chair in the center. It’s not a human, it looks like an illithid. It’s got the Davy Jones. It is skeletal and dead, its arms inserted into some tubes that go into the console.

When Carter sees this the illithid there is a sense of furious anger that comes from his patron’s liaison. Carter tries to reach out telepathically to the figure and gets nothing, the being is dead. He looks at the pillar, there are two steps that go up towards it and a strange console with buttons and levers embedded in it.

Sebastian and Percy have no clue what to make of the scene. Illithids should be in the Underdark. Carter is inexplicably angry at this creature.

Persephone casts Detect Magic. The moonstone on her staff glows and creates an aura stretching out around her. She gets a sense of very powerful magic coming from inside the pillar. She reports to the others. Carter investigates the pillar and the console, finding many buttons and three levers on the smooth piece of dark metal. He finds a long lever on the right and two shorter levers on the left.

Carter tries to remove the body from the console, the skeletal body falls apart but the arms are stuck inside the attachment. He manages to get the arms out and tries to sit in the chair to put his arms in, but they don’t fit.

Persephone and Sebastian inspect the pillar. Carter pushes buttons and pulls levers. He eventually pulls the big one.

Both consoles start to light up and flash, there is a loud unlocking sound from above and the sound releasing steam or pressure. The metal pillar starts to rise up into the air into the ceiling revealing a cylindrical fluid-filled tank made of glass with a young humanoid woman inside.

The young woman doesn’t look like anything the trio has seen before. She has light blue skin, pointed ears, and a slight stature. She appears to be sleeping in this fluid in the fetal position. She has thick, black, chin-length hair, and dark blue lines that form a complex symmetrical pattern on her body. The fluid glows blue and she opens her eyes, they’re gold with elliptical irises. She looks frightened of the three of them and backs up in the tank. Persephone also backs up. Carter telepathically reaches out to calm the girl in the tank, and instead terrifies her more. He smiles and starts laughing maniacally at her telepathically.

A loud whirring sound can be heard and the room starts to vibrate. There’s a loud locking sound as the doors lock and seal. The girl opens her mouth as if to yell and begins to pound her fist on the glass like she's trying to get out. Sebastian pops Divine Sense, he gets a generally good vibe and both celestial and fiend coming off the girl.

Sebastian and Persephone’s ears are suddenly filled with a loud ringing. Carter hears telepathic Deep Speech coming from the center console. “Systems Rebooting. Structural Damage Detected. Initiating Chronal Realignment.” Carter comments that this is not good.

Outside the window, the world starts to sink away and it becomes very apparent that this room is being launched into the atmosphere. Carter says “hang on we’re going for a ride” and starts laughing maniacally. Persephone screams. Sebastian Screams. The girl in the tank is screaming. The sky outside turns from blue to black. The lines on the girl start to glow and she starts convulsing violently. Time begins to slow down all around. For a moment all is still, then the stars outside start to blur into long white lines. The room lurches and the oxygen is sucked out of their lungs. Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian lose consciousness.

The Party

 * Sebastian Crenshaw: A half-orc paladin.
 * Persephone Goldpetal: A firbolg druid.
 * Carter Huttenburg: A human warlock.

NPCS

 * Dead illithid
 * Unknown young woman

Music

 * SuperQuest Saga Theme -  by Brian

Out of Character

 * The party is currently level 2.
 * Carter has the Alert feat.

Nat 20's (3 total)

 * Will (Attack as young kruthik)
 * Special Guest Jake (Attack as Direwolf)
 * Brian (Strength)

Nat 1's (1 total)

 * Brian (Initiative)