Spoiler Alert! Don’t read this report if you haven’t played Tower of the Mad Mage!

Session: Tower of the Mad Mage (1/14/18)

Neptune Stormbringer (firbolg/genasi druid, aka Drew), Revali (aaracokra ranger, aka Mitch), Rurik (hill dwarf bard, aka Robinson), and Kirby (high elf cleric, aka Caleb) – occasionally assisted by Cloud Serpent and Sir Puggle III – are old friends, chatting with Brottor the bartender in the Gambling Golem tavern in the village of Longsaddle.

Kirby talks about his time in jail and how he’s friends with dragons; Revali notes that he’d never hurt birds; Rurik reminds everyone he’s still searching for his father, and Neptune brags about how long he can hold his breath and how fascinated he is with cataloging monsters.

Their chat is interrupted when Sqwelch the goblin bursts into the bar, crying for help and promising big rewards. Of course the party agrees to help, and they leave town, heading west into the Starmetal Hills, following Skwelch to the tower of the mad mage Hugo Harpell in the Neverwinter Wood. On the way they fight off a wild boar and meet an odd fellow who had crossed the mad mage and was cursed as a result.

The group finds the mage’s tower in the forest and go inside to fight off goblins in the foyer. In the sitting room, they use Animal Handling to calm the wolves in the next room, who heard the sounds of battle. Revali sets a trap outside in case anyone follows them into the tower (+1 Inspiration!), and Skwelch runs higher into the tower after two goblins are caught in Revali’s trap.

The team climbs higher in the tower and finds the Diary of Hugo Harpell, which talks about summoning a dragon. Neptune also finds a Spell of Protection, giving +4 AC for 3 turns of battle.

The third floor contains a cockatrice and a statue of Skwelch, who forgot the cockatrice was in there. The party kills the cockatrice, and Kirby removes its teeth and attaches them to all his arrows: “cocka-arrows” which run a chance of turning anyone it hits to stone (roll Con to keep from turning to stone). Revali and Kirby head off to the kitchen on their own and are nearly sliced up by animated cleavers and pummeled by animated pots.

The entire party makes it to the fourth floor to find eight goblins from the Deathrot Tribe, with their chief Glubnose, guarding a mound of coins and treasure. Battle ensues, but three rounds into battle, a dragon—the true owner of the treasure—returns!  Talantha the red dragon wyrmling is not amused to find all these creatures surrounding her hoard. But she can’t make it into the newly fixed tower.

The party defeats the goblins while the dragon claws its way into the tower, and then they have to decide whether to stay and fight the dragon to get all the gold, or run for their lives and live to adventure another day. After much deliberation and fire damage, the party makes a run for it (after stuffing their pockets with coins and treasure). They charge west into the Neverwinter Wood and don’t stop running until they make it back to Neverwinter, where they all rest and level up to level 2!

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