I (Judge Luukass the Madd), was only able to knock one of them down, who was brought back from the brink of death on his second round of bleeding out.
Official Roster of Tower Out of Time, Presented by The Kalamazoo Alpha Gamers – as run by Judge Luukass the Madd:
Player 1: Crazy Bill Tennyson
Player 2: Christian Smucker
Player 3: Mr. Dan
Player 4: Jeremy Lasseigne
Player 5: Ethan Lasseigne
Player 6: Jackie Tennyson
I started them out in my setting of Queens Brow, in the capital – a strategic city constructed in stages in a massive tiered cliff. The city being steeped in bureaucracy has among its many departments an autonomous unit of enforcement and observation – simply known as the Apparatus. The party all received summons to a controller, and all who receive such summons know to not ignore it – they have a way of derailing you and your family’s lives by doing such things.
The Apparatus handler, Margrave Chip Steele, bluntly put the news to the party that they were conscripted for an indeterminate amount of time. They were all selected for a specific reconnoiter, to investigate the reports of crazed woodcutters in the densely (yet normally controlled) border forest above the city. As this was quite the journey, and just reports – they determined the most cost effective way was to leverage “current resources”. The conscripts were summarily informed they had no choice in the matter as their holdings and families were already being held. The conclusion: 6 proxies of the department were issued mounts to travel the easily 200 miles to investigate said reports.
The party decided to investigate some of the reports before heading out and called upon the city’s foremost astronomer, simply known as “Three Thumbs”. Seeing that the party was acting on behalf of the despised department, he begrudgingly allowed the use of his telescope to peer towards where the reports originated. The great wizard seemed more interested in the comet, however. Indeed, there was a faint light connecting the sky and something in the forest.
The task force made their way through the dense forest, known for its giant trees providing a defensive buffer for the city below. Uneventfully, the group made its way to the source or termination of the red beam they had been traveling to. Finding the remains of a hastily abandoned logging camp nearby, they felt the reports were substantiated.
==SPOILER WARNING==
Without re-writing the module, here are a few highlights of our crack conscripts:
After battling their way through the ground floor; (which included the dwarf being enlarged while a green spitter was attached to his head, cracking it open) the party charged right up the ramp.
The wizard was brought to his knees with insanity due to the mental blasts by the cerebral leeches; having an out of body experience as he watched his limp body rushed to by the cleric. The cleric fumbled his lay on hands for a third time, loosing grace with his deity on the first round! One round remained, and required the Halfling to boost the ability of the cleric to bring the wizard back form the brink of death… the wizard will never be the same, being so close to the sweet release of life. His death would indeed have been sweet; as when he went down, he was bleeding from his eyes, nose, ears and mouth… screaming while holding his head and spinning in circles (did I mention he was hopping up and down too?).
Several truly mighty deeds were done by the dwarf and warrior, while the thief and halfling spun around jumping and stabbing the leeches. Later, the wizard was able after his edification to magically speak with the primitives, and felt it was best to pollute the timeline and let them run free into the great forest.
The group, after hearing a demanding voice of a mysterious lispy host (which, who would have known an effeminate cobra commander was in the tower with them??) - openly cat called and mocked H’lisk, insulting him. Outright ignoring the serpent-man, the party continued to rifle through the boxes and barrels in the room while H’lisk desperately attempted to exclaim the deeds of his master. The Thief started to play with the extinct rodentia. It was his plan to place all the rats in a sack you see; well they didn’t play to kindly to that. The rats started to gnaw through the bag, leading to a wild goose chase while H’lisk gave them their final warning. One rat got away… before they were finally put back in their cages. Angered with the results of the rodentia, the thief simply took the delicate glassware, put them in another sack, and smashed them to pieces. He now has “bag of glass” on his weapons list.
The thief noticed the slab in front of the enclosed ramp, leading them to bracing the entryway… however the group charged right up the ramp setting the pressure plate off. While they were not caught in a massive fireball, H’lisk managed to make some poor attempts to cast mirror image, and magic shield – as the party took quite sometime to knock the door down.
Quite the mêlée and destruction occurred in The Beacon Room. Among many of the deeds done, The warrior - after dispatching one of the ape men guarding H’lisk, decided to take the body of said ape-man, and throw it at one of the mirror images, destroying it. The Halfling, enlarged to ogre size, scored a critical hit, cracking multiple ribs in an ape-man, killing him in the blow…. Only to be covered by entrails and gore as his innards opened up, spilling all over the lucky little girl.
H’lisk was able to mentally dominate the Thief, convincing him to try to leave the tower, and bring his friends with him. When all was said and done, the thief almost left the tower. The wizard scored on an incredibly high color spray, blinding H’lisk – leaving him to cast spells that garnered results regardless of vision – blasting the Dwarf down to one hit point. In a critical mighty deed, the warrior picked up H’lisk and snapped his back over his knee. While the warrior was holding him, the dwarf ran up and caved his head in with his shield, killing him. The warrior then proceeded to throw H’lisk’s body into the beacon, knocking the beam askew.
After the bloody work was done, two of the primitives were dead trying to disable the beacon. One, weak and bleary, survived. The cleric, already in disfavor with his god on a 3 disapproval, beseeched his lord for an augury over the door, as the party already triggered the trap, shocking the thief. Being granted a clue by divine intervention on a 21 score, Artemis granted aid to the party in opening the puzzle door. Before going through the door, the warrior, hopped up on adrenaline – had no more action to abound in! He decided to smash all the equipment in the room, causing the tower to rot exponentially.
The extinct rodents were ultimately dumped into the giant trilobite nest, after the thief considered what was in the nest a danger. The dwarf threw one in at first to gauge reaction, ultimately resulting in the elimination again of said species. The entire time in the room, the trilobites were occupied chasing the rats around the nest. A quick argument over the gems and the party got the hell out of the tower, the primitive following them like Louis Tully.
After the Tower melts into lake, the party sees the comet scream overhead, impacting somewhere far into the forest. A wave as all the trees fling towards them, knocking the party across the lake occurs – as a deafening blast rips towards them. After the party is healed after becoming deaf, they hear the wings of the legendary Red Riders fly over towards the epicenter. The party limps back to the city, and is debriefed by the apparatus for 3 weeks. The party still does not know what landed at the epicenter of the event. (This was described similarly to the Tunguska Event)
Today’s prize was the great module by +Carl Bussler – The Well of Souls, won by +Christian Smucker – beating out all other players with a 29 on a d30!
Thanks for a great game everyone!
Keep a look out for future games in our area. I'll be running DCC games at Grandcon in Sept, and U-con in Nov!