Bila – A large group of us set out for the Tower in the Copice Lakes region. It’s definitely time that we go back and finish all these half explored places. There was a giant turtle-like beast in the lake, which was frightening for its potential to force us to all regret not spending more time practicing swimming. Fortunately, he went down quickly and only Keller ended up in the water. We were able to fish him back out with an oar before he sank too far.
The tower itself was just as we left it. We carefully explored the areas we’d already cleared and then headed for the rope. Eiger went up first and I followed on his heals, the rest of the party took their time following us up. The top level where we’d cleared the air elementals last time provided some nice loot and then we followed the stairs down. Upon opening the cabinet, we finally found the fire elementals…figured they had to be here somewhere. Tarmon and I, since we were closest, took the brunt of the elementals’ wrath, but we healed through it while the rest of the party easily dispatched them. More loot here, then back to Blackmire. It’s good to have cleared an area. We need to do more of that!
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Keller’s Journal – Jan 12th
I heard a group was heading to a half explored elemental tower that some adventurers had explored before, I offered to lead the group, which they immediately accepted.
We hopped onto this magical boat that some of the adventurers in town have access to, that thing was really neat. It unfolded from nothing into a huge boat. We climbed aboard and set off across the lake for the elemental tower. I spotted a wave in the water and I knew that wasn’t a good sign. It jumped from the water and into our boat. It tried to attack, but my quickness caused it to miss. I stepped back about 5 feet and fired my bow at it. My arrow just bounced off of its thick shell. Eiger, luckily, was on board and easily hit the beast, twice, and killed it. As it fell into the water it dragged me in with it, I need to practice swimming in my armor some more. I sank about 10 feet into the water before I knew what was going on. The rest of the crew, thinking quickly, extended an oar down to me and I was saved.
We got to the towers and explored a little. Our light wouldn’t penetrate deep enough into the darkness to see the ceiling in one of the rooms we were looking at. I don’t even want to know what used to kept in a room like this that needed ceilings so high. I asked Tarmon to cast light on an arrow and I sent that arrow to the ceiling sticking it into a beam. I was surprised to see that ceiling so far away, 120ft high!
We couldn’t figure out a way to leave that room so we went back outside and climbed a rope some previous adventurers had left hanging from the top floor of the tower. Eiger and Bila made it up easily, the rest of us took our time as we weren’t sure what we were doing. Once inside we found quite a bit of treasure. Someone had been here before, but left all of the loot. What were they thinking?! We gathered it up and piled it near the window to be taken back out with us when we left.
We went down the stairs from that room into another room that we could see where some living quarters. Bila and Tarmon opened an armoire and poof, some fire elementals appeared from no where! We were able to quickly defeat them, though Bila and Tarmon did take their share of hard hits. I’m glad that he wasn’t close enough to be hit. We gathered our treasure and headed out of the tower and back to blackmire to divide the spoils.
I took the stories of an elemental tower from the other adventurers at face value for the longest time. Until I overheard one of them mentioning that they never did fully clear the place. This put things in a new light! No longer was it a ransacked tower, but the potential for untapped arcanic wealth! Our trip to the lakes was quite uneventful, with companions that were familiar with the area and the out of doors, I expected nothing less.
Once our watercraft was fully assembled, a wondrous foldable boat, we set sail with myself at the tiller. As we closed to the tower, others started murmuring of a disturbance beneath the choppy water. Suddenly a strange beast surfaces and flung itself to our deck. Part turtle, particle tentacles, part who knows, it was a challenge. Especially for little Keller that ran up to face it head to head to waist. With enough of us focused on this new threat, it was short lived. But the treachorous beast had one last surprise as it pulled Keller overboard with him. Lucky for him I was thinking quick and reached a oar over the sidewall to rescue him. The corpse was so interesting, we decided to save it to bring back to town. Surely someone would be interested in studying it further.
Before putting in at the tower’s dock, I directed Terranmy crew to do a circuit around the tower. I was able to distinguish the words Fire, Earth, Air, and Water in a variety of languages including Verundian, Hellic, Aquan, Auran, and Ignan. I was also able to ascertain the tower was approximately 200 ft tall.
Upon entering the tower, signs of a ransack and disregard were noticeable. Asking Bila and Eiger, that is how they left the place. I guess they have no interest in a slow methodical search. A quick estimate put this level at about 20 ft. Proceeding to the next level, which appearted to be a kitchen and servants quarters, we once again performed an exhaustive search. This time an estimate of the ceilings height eluded me, for it was so tall I could not see. On a vary good suggestion, we used a light arrow to illuminate it. With the added illumination we were able to ascentrain the height at approximately 140 ft and a trap door high in the western ceiling. What a tall room for kitchens and servants, perhaps this was to allow smoke to collect from kitchen fires.
After racking our brains for how to access the trap door, we gave up and scaled the outside of the tower using rope from the previous foray. Just to be safe, I doffed my armor. The climb was slow, but I never once felt my grip slip during the 140 ft ascent. On entering the highest window I found Bila cast a detect magic spell and found numerous undiscovered potions and scrolls. The place was obviously a work room and stocked with very fine equipment and texts. Collecting this in a pile we proceed down a set of stairs to what I surmised was the only remaining unexplored area. It appeared to be a once opulent livining quarter, but now full of mildew and moldering furniture.
Only one thing of interest caught our eye, a glow due to a detect magic spell. Perhaps foolishly I opened the contianer with people to clustered. There must have been some sort of magical trap, for 3 flaming elementals manifested. The first one burned me severely and it was all I could do to not cry out in agony. Luckily, Bila and I were able to last until my friends and particularly good ole Eiger were able to defeat them. With the healing power of Bila’s deity my most grievous wounds were healed. Since the armoire was now open, we were able to ascertain the magical emanations came from a fine looking robe.
Our return was uneventful and we can now say that the Elemental Tower holds no more mystery.