After we were released from our bonds by the most evil, we wearily headed back to the tavern, where of course Brand had to once again argue with the tavernkeeper over price. Krusk set back out to find his ship, so we were down a party member. Te'los and I sat drinking together. He looked different, I think releasing Cyris Maximus had quite a bad (or maybe good) effect on him. He confessed he didn't feel as evil as he once did.
While Te'los and I sat drinking in the tavern, Brand was actually speaking with the tavernkeeper about an ad he saw on the bulletin. It was supposedly a tower, once occupied by the Duvan'Ku. Brand was trying to get some information, anything about the tower.
He willingly parted with two gold....he wouldn't do it to stay in the tavern but to keep the man talking, sure....Anyway, what he didn't notice was a thief cutting his purse and stealing the rest of his gold. We don't know who did it....(it was the Rogue).
Brand got no useful information from the tavern keeper, and he finally came back. It was then he noticed his purse missing. I admit, Te'los and I snickered. Anyway, we decided to leave in the morning. I think Brand went to sleep in the temple, having no gold, while Te'los and I enjoyed our respective beds.
We left at the dawning, just as the city began to wake up. There was traffic going in and out of the city. Moon Moon was just where I left him, at the gate. Consulting our map, we saw it would be about a days walk, give or take a few hours.
We weren't too far past the city when Brand noticed someone was following us. He pointed and we saw a man not too far behind. He continued to follow us for quite sometime, making Brand more and more agitated--Te'los and I collectively rolled our eyes when Brand shot back to yell at the man. We were following the damn road.
After a few testy words, I saw the man reach for something, so I sent Moon Moon back with Brand. He circled behind the man, preventing his escape.
Finally Brand stomped back to us and yelled "If you follow us, I will kill you!" ( he's the Lawful Good one)
Another shared eye roll. I called Moon Moon back and we carried on until dusk. Of course we did not make it to the tower, because of the delay. We were about to set up camp when I saw the man again. This time we weren't on the path. I pointed him out to Brand who went after him with Moon Moon. Te'los and I followed, this time readying spells and an arrow in my bow.
We tracked them through the woods, only to see a rather large brown bear looming behind the unknown man...Did I mention we didn't get his name? Yeah we're bad at that apparently....
Brand leaped over the man, straight into glorious combat with the bear. The man joined in with us, fighting the bear off. Te'los charred the poor bear into just a hunk of carcass.
"Think we can pass it off as a black bear?"Brand asked jokingly, referring to another sign (black bear pelts wanted) from the bulletin.
"Doubtful,"Te'los said, nudging the charred fur with his foot. It disintegrated.
Brand eyed the man suspiciously. "You want to join us? You're coming with us."
We spent the night in the woods, taking turns watching Mr. Cool Dude. In the morning we headed back out to the tower, Mr. Cool Dude in the lead, with Brand pushing him forward. Our lovely meat shield...
We arrived at the tower. At its base were thorny, thorny bushes with red roses growing from them. The tower was about 5 levels tall, one window per level and one door. Guarding the door was a stone golem. Greeeat...
Te'los and Brand determined there was a magical barrier beginning at the end of the thorns. We pushed Mr. Cool Dude first. The only thing that happened was the stone golem standing up, so the four (five if you count Moon Moon) of us approached him.
"Answer me this,"he said in a gravelly voice. "Twelve is to six as six is to three, but ten is not to five."
Te'los grabbed a stick and we sat trying to figure it out. Brand thought it was doubles, so he shouted "twenty" at the golem, who shook his head. "You have two tries left,"it said.
Something in my head kept screaming three. I don't know why, but it did. My logical side went straight to math too.
"See, it's three because you can divide those by three, but not ten, see what I mean?"
Te'los and Mr. Cool Dude nodded in agreement, but Brand didn't think that was right. Brand shrugged though, so I said. "Three."
"Correct,"said the stone golem.
(At this point we argued how I got the answer was completely wrong, but I was still right. The correct way to solve the puzzle was not math, but to spell the problem out completely, which I did above. Ten and six have three letters, while three, twelve and five did not. So ten did not go to five letters, or five, as six went to five letters.)
We entered the tower, only to find it in ruins. Straight ahead were four stone statutes facing inwards, towards the center of the room. Once again Mr. Cool Dude was voluntold to go first.
The statutes began to speak:
"The princess awaits the pure of heart and peace."
"Throw away your weapons! Don the garments of Love!"
"Only the pure may awaken the princess!"
"Untold glory and wealth to those who free the princess."
Each of us removed our weapons and stood in the middle of the room, to no avail. We donned our armor and weapons again and ascended the ladder ahead. Brand shoved the stuck trap door open and we were on to the second level.
Was the Princess captured by Duvan'Ku? We decided then and there to rescue her....
There wasn't much here but a bunch of tattered robes and deprecated swords. They crumbled to the touch. We assumed these were the garments of love, and the swords were left behind. There was a mural showing knights donning said robes, throwing aside their swords and meeting the princess. An instruction manual.
We shrugged and climbed the ladder to the next floor. Once again the trap door was slightly stuck and Brand had to shove with all his might.
On the third level, there were two skeleton guardians at the ladder. We approached and they attacked. It was just another battle, and we quickly took them both out.
We ascended to the next level, and that's when things got hairy. When we climbed through the trap door to the 4th level, we saw another sarcophagus in front of us. Te'los and I unfortunately crept closer to look at the carvings. Elven mages were placing the princess in the sarcophagus, and on the carved sarcophagus, the same etchings were infinitely repeating. I didn't know it, but merely looking at the carving was a nearly fatal mistake.
Speaking of stupid things, Te'los and I pushed the lid off the sarcophagus, the better to release the "princess." Or in our case, the wraith. That's right, our princess was no princess, but a blood curdling wraith.
I could not get my shit together. I came extremely close to dying, and so did Moon Moon. We just barely defeated the wraith. Inside the tomb, there was a box, which Brand removed. I cannot remember if he blessed it or not.
After the battle, I rubbed my head. "Is this how you felt when you were retarded?"
"I don't know,"Te'los said in a french accent. "I don't remember."
Te'los and I stopped for a breather whilst Brand decided to search the 5th level. After a while he came back down, shaking his head. "Totally dark, we should search it."
We decided to spend the night before going back up to the 5th level. We took the box down to the first level where we heard rats, rats and more rats in the walls. Brand replaced the box and then the rats were no more. At last we learned from our stupidity (sort of), and camped outside.
In the morning, it was lather, rinse, repeat. Only this time, we screwed ourselves sideways. Well, we screwed Mr. Cool Dude sideways....Once again we had to fight the two skeletal guardians. Only this time. Mr. Cool Dude didn't make it out alive. Afterwards, the three of us just stood around his body staring in shock.
Then Te'los decided to be...well, Te'los. He searched the body since "he's dead and doesn't need this shit anyway."
And yet again we fought the wraith, and yet again Moon Moon and I nearly died. Brand and I looked at each other and we basically said "Nope, screw this."
Te'los of course went up to the fifth level. And Brand and I left him to it. We left the tower completely and waited for him outside.
He finally came out shaking his head. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."
"So much for the secrets of Duvan'Ku,"I muttered.
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