Session date: 12/28/2019, Dave’s house

Previously On

The party is taking a break from dungeon crawling Tobart Tower.

Session Notes

• The party learns about an exciting new real estate development trend — stronghold building — and decides they’d like to get in on the action. Two strongholds are planned.

Stronghold 1: Grimbok-Marvus Tower

• Irtep Tower will be converted to Grimbok-Marvus Tower. Grimbok will build a subterranean temple to Carnifex below the tower, and the above ground levels will be the HQ for Marvus’ new army/guild/gang.

• Marvus pays half-price (because he’s rebuilding a “ruin”) but can’t expand the tower. His area will be a “keep” that allows him to attract and maintain “troops.”

• Grimbok pays full price because he’s creating new rooms, and can design it how ever he wants. The temple will let him summon a servitor of Carnifax when he’s in her good graces.

Stronghold 2: Flynn-Ovek Tower

• Tobart Tower will become Flynn-Ovek Tower, and will contain research facilities for creating new spells/psionic powers.

• Both will pay half price to convert the “ruin” to a joint tower.

• Tobart Tower is currently an active dungeon, though, and has to be cleared before construction can begin.

Downtime Activities

• It takes the party an entire month to get back to exploring Tobart Tower, which they fill with stronghold-planning and various other non-adventuring activities.

• Flynn compiles a big class-spanning list of spells he’d like to learn, and goes looking for scrolls.

  • His friends at the Temple of Ishtar (in exchange for appropriate donations) provide light, prayer of healing, and revivify scrolls.
  • Flynn would like to learn some druid spells, but there aren’t any druids in the city (adventure hook?)
  • He spends two weeks carousing in the Wizard Quarter in search of new contacts for wizards scrolls. It goes much better than the last time he tried this.
  • One of the new contacts, Shreve the Diabolist (see below), trades polymorph and banishment for some of Flynns spells.

  • Two unspecified new contacts sell him stone shape and maybe a few other scrolls.

• Marvus commissions custom full plate to fit his mini-storm-giant stature.

• Grimbok tries on Marvus’ old Eld ceramic plate, but it doesn’t fit at all, and modifying it is well beyond the kin of any local armor-smiths. He also summons a mount- Bartlebee (Bartleby?) the undead dire wolf.

• Ovek spends most of the downtime time in Tobart Tower, building a rope and pully system to operate the control wheel without the need for high STR manual labor. Flynn helps with this after he’s finished with his carousing and spell acquisition.

• The party also begin plans to turn thier galley into a floating brothel/tavern/casino river boat. Later, it will become a flying establishment using the spelljamming furnace. When making these plans, the party is perhaps overestimating the size of thier galley.

• While carousing, Flynn befriends Shrew the Diabolist, who lives in the tower one block to the west. There’s a dock on his property that would be a convenient place to moor the party’s party galley.

• Shrew the Diabolist is totally ok with the idea that Flynn destroyed Flumph Tower and possibly assassinated Osgood Flumph, who nobody really liked, and tells Flynn he’ll put in a good word for him at the Wizard Council. He also mentions that joining the Wizard council involves spell duels, and that the Council is organizing an expedition to Flynn Island.

Back to the Dungeon

• With Ovek’s control wheel jury-rig in place, Tobart Tower’s door settings can be easily changed and held in place, allowing easy access to explore the lower levels. A rope-ladder is installed in the central shaft.

• The party heads for the Golem Lab on Level 2, where they are immediately attacked by several flesh golem crawling hand swarms.

• Bartlebee makes his combat debut in the ensuing battle.

• Also in the battle, Marvus’s AC is revealed to have been calculated 3e-style, and is thus outrageously broken.

• A one-way secret door leading to a hidden staircase is found. It looks similar to the staircase the party used on their first vist Tobart Tower. The door can be opened from the lab, but not from the staircase.

• A beholder door in the ceiling leads up a level to a cold-storage room. It contains frozen golem parts and an entire flesh golem beholder (currently frozen and inert).

• This room also has a one-way secret door leading to the staircase.

• Flynn tries to stone shape through a wall, but is blocked by a layer of lead. This would have lead to a room directly above the demon summoning room, so it’s totally reasonable for there to be lead here, and it’s definitely not something the DM made up on the spot because he didn’t consider that stone shape might be used.

Foes Vanquished

• flesh golem crawling hand swarms

Loot obtained

• Flynn’s scrolls and spells
• an inert, frozen beholder flesh golem
• Marvus’ new armor

Goals Achieved

• none

New Goals

• Kill 10 opponents in one round (Ovek)
• Go back to space (Marvus)
• Get a one-shot kill (Grimbok)
• Craft a flesh golem (Flynn)
• Turn the galley into a flying party boat

XP Earned (per PC)

• 1600 (flesh golem crawling hand swarm battle)