OOC: Feel free to continue posting in the aftermath thread with Foehammer. This takes place a short time after.

About an hour or so passes since the party woke up. Noon rapidly approaches. A messenger in military fatigues eventually hunts down each of the party, informing them that Lord Protector Daratha Shendrel is expecting them.

It seems that a proper command tent had been erected in the courtyard sometime while the party was resting. Inside, the Lord Protector awaits the group from her position seated upon a thick wooden chair. The muted chatter of the various officers around the tent pause as the group enters, only to resume at a more frentic pace. The air inside is musty and slightly chilly, tinged with the faint hint of sweat and worry.

Now dressed in a more formal military uniform, including an ornate breastplate sporting the three-headed boar of the city, Daratha Shendrel gestures with her remaining good hand for the party to take a seat. Her other arm is a bandaged stump. Wooden stools have been set before a large round desk, over which a tactical map of the city and its surroundings have been laid.

"I'll keep it brief," the Lord Protector begins, tapping a spot on the map, "Hyuth's Tower is located in the south-western district, and was largely unharmed by the fire. It has approximately three floors, few windows, and an aerie of sorts from which his gargoyle pets would fly back and forth on the roof."

"I would have preferred to deal with the orc threat immediately. But a divination cast by Silas there," she gestures at a hunched half-elven man in the corner, who seems to be staring blankly into space, "suggested that having you tackle Hyuth's Tower after the Orcs would lead to 'woe'. Silas is currently monitoring the tower itself via familiar, though he has yet to discern anything unusual in the last three hours."

"Hyuth was an ex-adventurer and a skilled transmuter who had been working with us to shore up Triboar's defences for over a year. Beyond his work, Hyuth was reclusive and secretive- though the man had been known to request food from the local taverns, he never let anyone into his tower proper. Aside from meals, Hyuth handled almost all his correspondences via gargoyles. As you can imagine, it made monitoring his activities difficult."

"Whatever he has in there cannot be anything good, especially with the augury results we have. If its anything like that dragon statue you fought last night..." the Lord Protector pauses, then takes a sip from a flask by her desk, "the four of you are the only ones with enough magical acumen and ability to investigate this wizard's tower, deal with his protections and hopefully neutralize whatever 'parting gift' our resident spellcaster has left us. That is my task for you today."

"Silas has identified the following intelligence about the tower," Daratha hands over a dossier to Moira, "review it, and ask any questions you might have. The armory is open to you, though we cannot spare magical consumables at the moment. Men can be dispatched to quarantine the tower, but I would prefer if you did not bring them into the tower itself. Silas himself is needed for our own operations in tracking the orcs and the giants- I would rather ration his divinations if possible, but should you require it, some sacrifices can be made."

The dossier contains a brief overview of the outer defenses of the tower:

1) The tower itself is made of magically reinforced stone
2) The front door is solid oak and enchanted with auras of abjuration amd illusion
3) There is a side entrance, also oak and similarily enchanted
4) There are two windows on the ground floor, four on the second floor, and none on the third.
5) The windows are warded by auras of abjuration, and appear to be made of wood. They are most likely locked or latched from the inside, though Silas's familiar has been unable to check.
6) Hyuth is a skilled transmuter and has been known to be able to magically shape stone and create minor animated constructs. He has been known to employ some means of magical flight and is speculated to be able to teleport or at least move between rooms unseen.
7) Among the items he provided for Triboar's defense, Hyuth was observed to be able to magically improve the toughness of stone, animate weapons and armor as sentries (used in the sewers), create magical wards that detonated in bursts of lightning, fire and thunder, and reshape the very ground itself to swallow his enemies or block projectiles. This is unlikely to be the full extent of his abilities.
8) Hyuth has an unknown capacity with divination magics. If Hyuth has attempted to magically spy on the Lord Protector, Silas was not able to detect it. Similarily, attempting to scry into his tower is something Silas advises against, since it will likely trigger its own set of alarms or protections.
9) Normally, the tower is patrolled by his gargoyles. With the destruction of the dragon statue, no further such sentries were seen in the last six hours.
10) The rooftop aerie is accessible through a large hatch on the roof. The hatch is open, but is warded by an aura of abjuration as well. Silas has not dared to let his familiar approach.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:00, Tue 05 Jan 2021.

U'lin's finger traced several lines over the tower's drawing as various defences and construction points were raised.

"So not an overly tall tower, limited windows to discourage viewing in - he's secretive, reclusive up to no good... I'd expect the windows carrying even worse than the doors, to discourage snooping noses and eyes - actually, if we don't know if the windows open at all - why would a defensive, secretive mage do so? Especially if he can teleport to warded areas, or have his gargoyles simply lift him up - the better plan would be to make them-the windows and doors illusory, and trapped, and have folk waste time and resources there where they CANNOT enter, but can be detected.

"Sewer entrance?  Something I would put in, especially if I was in control of sewer defender placement. In case everything went to pot, and I couldn't risk being seen.  I suppose it depends how far in distance he could move himself.  Well, before at least.

"The aerie seems the best entrance.  We know it is open, and if Zaiya can defeat the ward, we're inside and exploring in likely the safest areas.  Most open area to maneuver and establish a killzone if we need to enter, lure up guardians, and dispatch them in piecemeal fashion.  And we have a retreat route without releasing a horde of trouble through an open door - in case magic overwhelms, and we need a recoup before re-entering.

"I'd also watch for concealed rope-cutters along the wall, if he has such control of earth and stone.  Grapple hook the upper edge, scale the wall, dispel the warding (if we need to do so), and enter, establishing a beachhead/killbox to manage the guardians, clear them out first if possible, and disable traps as we go to clear the tower.

"If we brought a little of the gargoyle stone over with us, say the rune portions?, it might be sufficient a key to open the ward.  Or not - ward's are funny, depending how they are restricted.

"Yes, if all of his correspondences and deliveries were via gargoyle, they must have option to bring in non-living matter without damaging, so the ward could be as simple as protecting versus living, or keyworded.  Between Zaiya's divination mastery, and Moira's skill at disabling traps, we should be good.  And Claire and Moira will teeup the clearing of ambulatory difficulties.

"Having a cordon outside makes sense, and another in the sewers if there is an exit or passage nearby the tower - it could be concealed."

U'lin looked to the party.  "Thoughts?  Or just head out now?"

Delivering breakfast to everyone and gathering up in time to sort themselves out left no real time to discuss plans before meeting the Lord Protector, but such was life.  Frankly Moira was more concerned about seeing everyone fed and ready for what awaited them in the Tower - any matters of service Triboar might ask of them beyond that could wait.

Claire and Zaiya also get a Reinforced Meat Pie, so they get +1 to their saving throws for the next hour as well.

The actual dossier of what was involved with the Tower frankly didn't surprise Moira too much as she mulled over the details and passed portions along to her companions for their own perusal.  Raiding wizard's homes wasn't exactly her forte, but she'd assumed to begin with the place would be heavily warded with magic; mages always saw everything around them as a nail to the hammer that was their spells.  Moira waited until U'lin had given an engineer's appraisal of the layout before she applied her own strategic lean on the information.  "Well, it's a tower, so that means there's gonna be at least one basement level t'contend with..." Even saying that obvious point made Moira shudder as horrid memories from days prior welled up briefly.  She shook such thoughts away and refocused herself to the task at hand.  "Pro'lly not enough time t'build even basic scaffoldin' or siege ladders t'reach th'aerie, but launchin' some lines - chain, preferably - with th'Iron Beetle should do in a pinch.  Gettin' in behind th'ground-level defenses, same as th'Kobold Tower, should work though... 'specially since I'd rather take out any other Gargoyles what might be in there first lest they go berserk.  Lackin' any real knowledge of what we're gonna be up against, it's best we take it as slow and secure as we can afford t'avoid trippin' alarms and gettin' overwhelmed.  Tryin' t'take a tower in full alert's a much harder prospect."



"All th'ones we killed before turned t'dust, so ain't nothin' t'be done there.  Reckon th'blue gem at their heart was likely th'useful part anyway." the Halfling drummed her fingertips against her breastbone demonstratively.  Not that it did them any good by that point.  "What d'ya think of all this, Zaiya?  Reckon' y'can handle unravelin' enough of th'wards t'get us inside?"

With the papers shuffled off to the Tiefling for her to look over, Moira instead drew out her logbook and a bit of writing stick to start jotting her own notes.  It wasn't long before she had a page torn out and offered over to the Lord Protector.  "Regardless of anythin' else at hand, we need some assurances for those we're with.  Here's th'information y'need regardin' our task and cargo - if we don't make it back outta th'Tower somehow, y'see that Thente and Miss Emma's taken care of, and that Miss Stoor's remains get t'Yartar." While she hated to assume the worst, precautions had to be taken.  The slip included various names and locations of people that needed to be contacted in case calamity befell the party, including Doderic back at Amphail and Grand Trabbar Goskin in Waterdeep.

"Mm.."  Zaiya mumbled, intelligence report in one hand and slice of pie in the other, quietly munched on as she sifted through the data and the numbers.

"This must be what I projected as being the bad time..."  She added after a moment.  "A fortified wizard's tower--even one that had its mightiest defender subverted is bad news, and this had a lot of money and time put into it.  Normally I'd advocate 'The first rule of dealing with a wizard's tower is don't', but that's not an option right now given the omens I've been seeing--so we'll have to take it on the chin and try to realign things so that the bad omens fall on people we don't like instead, and that requires boldness..."

She assessed the layout carefully, and tapped her chin in thought, her tail brushing back and forth behind her.  "I think..."

It looked a fucking mess...

"The Aerie, it'd be our best point of ingress"  She allows after a moment's consideration.  "Every other avenue is defended, but the defenses of the Aerie were expended yesterday in the battle, and what remains will be a tripwire defense at best, because the primary defense was the undead forging dragon construct and its army of gargoyles, you know?"

The Lord Protector takes a quick look through the note, eyebrows raised.

"...ambitious. I can certainly promise that men will be dispatched to handle these tasks, should you be...indisposed," the commander sighs, "were things different...no, nevermind. The four of you should focus on the task ahead. We can discuss recompense once you return."

OOC: Any further questions? Any preperations you guys want to make, additional manpower you want to request?

OOC: What's involved with the aforementioned armory?  Is that weapons/armor only, or is it basically access to the standard Equipment/Gear/Tool list from the PHB?  Any limitations there to take into account for the sake of Triboar's wounded state?

OOC: standard equipment gear- kits and everything. No healing potions. No alchemy. Everything else should be loanable- though if you break it Triboar will request payment.

Claire listened for the most part to the subject-matter experts in between mouthfuls of meat pie. It was at times like these that she appreciated eyes being on someone else.

"Hope those grappling hooks'll be sturdy enough to hold our weight," the steel of Claire's breastplate clinked as she tapped on it. "Perhaps those cordoning the tower could have a couple of tablecloths or sommat ready? Better some insurance than none."

OOC: Note that its really difficult to properly affix a grappling hook to the top of a 70ft tall tower by throwing.

I will be requiring Athletics checks to climb the tower- failure would mean said person falls and takes some damage (mitigated by the blankets to an extent). Basically:

1) Athletics check to scale the tower, DC modified by how well you manage to get the grappling hook + rope secured.
2) Success means you're up the tower. Failure means you take damage based on how badly you failed.
3) Since there are blankets, a DC 12 Dex save to properly land on the blankets will be needed. Success results in no damage taken.

EDIT: This was previously a set of grappling hook rules. I decided against it after thinking it over more as rolling in secret does not sit well with me.

To save some time, I'll outright state that climbers kits won't work- the stone around the tower is magically reinforced, and cannot be penetrated by the pitons to secure a person. It also has virtually no gaps or handholds.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:54, Thu 07 Jan 2021.

Daratha shoots a look at one of her nearby aides, who grimaces.

"...the men are loathe to approach the tower ma'am," said Officer explains, "but if you order it...two teams of two each on standby with blankets should be doable."

U'lin looked up from flipping strings from a spoon - leftover from his meat pie? - using a fulcrum of his dagger hilt.  The strings appeared to have small metal splinters attached, and were catching on the lip of a watercup.  He made a few notes regarding his most recent experiment.

"Oh then, they are not approaching the tower, but protecting the townsfolk from approaching it, hmmm?  Perhaps arrange a few barricades at appropriate chokepoints to redirect traffic away.  Which would encourage the guards to not be approaching the tower, but still fulfilling the duty of being there to protect the townsfolk.  Or if we need to relay a message."

After some discussion, two squads of guards follow the armored form of the Beetle to the southwest district (Emma, Tetri and Foehammer having been relocated to other parts of the keep). There, amidst the half-burnt buildings and cloying stench of ash looms the dark gray stone of Hyuth's tower. A cold breeze drifts through the streets, stirring up dust and flakes of burnt wood.

The southern front entrance to Hyuth's Tower is a grand stone door, engraved with what looks like a stylized dragon's head descending upon a mountain range. Bolts of lightning and flame frame the doorway. Above, a small wooden sign labels this as "Hyuth's Residence, Enter at ye own Peril!"

To the east, a much smaller wooden door sits in an alcove. A little brass bell hangs from the wall next to it, underneath a signboard that states "Deliveries Here! Ring the Bell"



Map is divided into multiple sections (please excuse the crude fog of war the polygon reveal is not as smooth as I'd like). The stone tiles "outside" the circle aren't actually there, thats more an artefact of the tileset I'm using.

Top circle is the ground floor of the tower. Bottom circle is the 3rd floor.

Blue lines along the walls are the windows. All of them are made of wood and appear to be shut except for the small one on the second floor. The grey slab to the south of the ground floor is the front door. The brown one to the east of the ground floor is the side entrance.

The green square on the top floor is the open hatch into (presumably) the aerie. It is 70ft above the ground.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:57, Fri 08 Jan 2021.

With equipment gathered and stowed, and the group ready to face their newest challenge, Moira almost found herself about to look forward to the whole expedition.  There was a part of her that enjoyed the challenge presented in Hyuth's looming tower the same way she'd had some level of enjoyment at the Kobold Tower before all the nightmarish horror kicked in - infiltration of a trapped location had a sort of base appeal.  Much the same as picking a lock, really.  It was like a big puzzle box just waiting to be worked open.  The potential of a lot of awful threats waiting for them inside, however, certainly served to put a damper on any lifting spirits right quick though.

As the group circled the tower to get a look about it, the Halfling scoffed through her nose at the side door with its invitation for deliveries.  "Y'know, if we didn't know better 'bout Hyuth usin' th'Gargoyles for his errands, I'd be tempted t'try that just t'see what happens." she thumbed at the sign absently.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:06, Fri 08 Jan 2021.

"I'd rather it there be no one...or no-thing at home to take deliveries." Claire remarked as she attached her small pouches of alchemical trinkets securely around her waist. "Although, there's no harm putting a piece of bread or something while we get set up here. If anything, maybe it'll draw the butler downstairs while we burgle in from the roof."

Claire squinted up at the small flap marking the eyrie entrance, shielding her eyes from the sun's rays. She'd come a long way from climbing the big oak behind the keep with the boys. Shorn of any unnecessary weight, she flashed an upbeat grin at the Beetle crew. "Well, ready as I'll ever be. Fire away!"

Claire will only be bring weapons, armor, healer's kits, dagger, 1 torch+tinder, rope and all potions, alchemical/medicinal trinkets.

Athletics: 21
00:31, Today: Claire Larkspur rolled 21 using 1d20+5.  Athletics.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:31, Fri 08 Jan 2021.