Rise of the Runelords

You used magic to search the town for the leather mask worn by the priest to no avail. Henrik and Malloric went to the Temple of St Cuthbert (with the dwarves for added numbers) as it was a high holy day for the church. You decided to let the ravens go one at a time and hoped they were 'homing' ravens.

You followed the first one as far as you could before you lost it. It flew down into 'The Shadow' and you couldn't follow it fast enough. The next day you let another raven loose, but this time you were in the district before doing so. While not taking a direct route, it did lead you to a very tall, decrepit, nonfunctional clock tower with a nasty lean. The raven flew up to the top. You invited yourselves in.

Once inside you realized this was a little used building. What footprints in the dust Malloric could find were humanoid and led mostly to a stair that wound up and up along the inside of the walls. The building was at least 150' tall. The group headed to the stair with Bach in the lead when Malloric yelled for everyone to stop. He saw a flash of light or glint of steel from a rubble pile. You went to investigate and a large, fleshy construct rose from the pile and started swinging a very sharp scythe. When it connected, which it did often, it sliced deep cuts into your flesh requiring Edwin to come to heal. Golian moved around to provide assistance and D'Argo tried to slow it with a grease spell. It was a matter of teaming up and beating it down faster than it beat you. A quick detect magic revealed the scythe and short cloak it wore to be magic. You then headed up the stair.

Edwin asked for people to stop and asked if anyone else heard anything. No one had. As you continued, the stairs became herder to climb. They were dry-rotted and poorly attached to the walls at points and sometimes were way out of level. It was slow going - more so for some. Now others heard the noise. It was a female voice from far above asking if anyone was there. You gave no reply. Soon a creature similar to a doppelganger approached from above you and started firing arrows. You quickly realized the tactical advantage the creature had. You were spending all your attention on climbing the stairs and were not able to adequately defend yourselves (making balance and climb checks to proceed left you flat-footed). Return fire from Malloric and attacks by Golian, who could manage the stairs quite well, forced the creature to flee - only to come back and start firing again. You heard the woman cry for help and the creature yelled up for her to shut up. A well placed arrow from Malloric sent the beast falling to the floor below.

Soon a clanging of the bells began. You realized that one had been cut loose. It fell and mostly destroyed a section of the stairs in the corner opposite where you were. Passing this section was very difficult. Especially when another creature came down to harry you. You eventually passed and fought two more of these before that last of them fled up the stairs. You climbed to the roof of the tower and found the creature dead and charred at the top of the stairs. Heading out to search the roof, you encountered two areas of silence. An flying woman came into view and started firing fiery rays at the party. When pressed, she flew off the roof and cast from the new vantage. She transformed into a serpent woman (see image) and periodically came into melee range to land quick, solid blows with her long spear. She was magically protected and buffed. D'Argo went down hard and Bach fell as well. Pirozzi tried a dispel from a wand but luck was not on your side. Edwin spent all his time keeping people from dying. At one point, the eyes of her mask glowed and a green ray struck Golian, paralyzing him. She seemed to have an endless number of the fiery rays until that is - she ran out. She entered melee and was eventually forced to flee.

You didn't find much except for a long list of names. You recognized some from Ardrinn as well as the Lord Mayor of High Mardreth. You hurried as best you could back to the inn. Alive but having had another bad guy get away.

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