Session 31 – Saramuthak’s Tower

[avisarr]

Session 31 – Saramuthak's Tower

Kaelig confirmed what the party had heard earlier from the Magrakians and the Aukarians... the Chaddamarians consider any form of necromancy an act of heresy against the gods. Even healing was considered illegal. A walking undead zombie/golem like Grimnoth would certainly scare the local church and the party would be hunted, imprisoned and executed as necromancers. So, they would have to be careful in this nation.

The party decided they were interested in Saramuthak and wanted to know more about him.

Lesoth told them about Saramuthak and that Saramuthak's Tower was north, on the coast, not far from the Wall. They decided to travel north to investigate the tower. They windwalked to the Tower.

According to what Lesoth looked up, this tower has been declared off limits by the Church. The locals fear it and don't come near it. It's been essentially abandoned. According to the information that Lesoth looked up, Saramuthak was imprisoned over a year ago. So it's possible this tower has been abandoned that long. It certainly looks empty.

The tower is circular and appears to be eight stories tall. It has windows at various heights, but all of the windows are closed and shuttered with flaps. Can't tell what those flaps are made of from here. Wood, or possibly rusted iron.

The tower is made of a veiny grey stone. A short flight of stairs leads up to the main door.  A double door, looks to be made of iron. Surrounding the door are a series of sockets from which protrude skeletal arms. These arms are all folded over the door and grasping each other, forming some freakish sort of barricade of bone in front of the main door.

Floating about the tower are horrific undead constructs. Each undead construct appears vaguely spherical. It consists of a central clump of stone and dirt. Protruding from this central lump are pieces of armor, skeletal limbs, skulls, blades and bits of chain. These things drift silently around the tower in a very slow orbital dance. They drift at different levels. There are 24 of these things.

Any  creature killed by the tower sentries is absorbed into one and becomes a part of it. If anyone does a detect magic, there are some magic items in some of these things.

Several of the constructs were armed with magic items. One used a want that spouted great streams of fire. Another held a pair of enchanted short swords and a third wielded a crossbow to great effect.

After several unsuccessful confrontations with the floating sentinels and the front door, the party searched around and managed to find an alternate entrance. A few hundred feet away, they found a door in the cliff face over looking the sea. It was obscured by bushes.

The party used magic to penetrate the door. Within they found a guard, an animated skeleton of some great humanoid beast, which they quickly killed. The passage beyond led to the underground chambers beneath the tower.

Once inside, they began systematically exploring each level, every chamber. The tower was filled with every conceivable type of golem, construct and simple undead. Many of these were hybrids – bizarre combinations and others were only half finished. Some were even integrated into the very tower itself.

Such an example was the following – a simple platform with four humanoid skeletons (upper body only) bolted to the corners of the platform. These four skeletons hauled the platform up and down which was attached by rails to a frame. This bizarre contraption behaved much like a living elevator, transporting the party from floor to floor.

Small constructs even scurried about cleaning the chambers.

The party spent a full two days exploring the tower. In addition to the crafted denizens of the place, it was filled with magical apparatus, half finished experiments and other oddities. Beyond this, it was deserted. It seemed that no one had lived here in years.

While exploring, they found the lab where they believed Grimnoth had been created. (They had known for some time that Grimnoth was one of Saramuthak's creations). They found a new power source for Grimnoth and were able to make significant repairs to him.