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PC’s: Tanner and Vec
Extra’s: Bob and Tom

A 5-orb bribe from Tanner to the extortionist dwarves gleaned useful information: Making the sign of the letter ‘I’ across your chest would cause the animated skeletons at the tower entrance to allow you to pass unharmed. Vec wasn’t sure if Tanner had shown him a capital ‘I’ as in ‘Iuz’ or a lowercase ‘l’ as in ‘leprechaun’ and naturally didn’t ask for clarification. Following closely behind Tanner, he rapidly made hand gestures for both letters and the group passed by the skeletons without incident.

With their steadfast allies Bob and Tom leading the way, Tanner and Vec would have little to fear inside the Tower of War. Sighting an orc scout, the group gave chase and closed with the scout in the ruined temple of Nerull. A burst from Vec’s flamethrowing contraption incinerated the fleeing orc as well as some of the rope netting confining a tentacled aberration within the ruined temple’s central crevasse.

With their mercenaries fleeing in terror, a puzzled Tanner and Vec try to spot the source of Bob and Tom’s panic. “Maybe there’s something on the other side of that tentacle beast,” offered Tanner, moving forward to get a closer look. With no sign of anything else of interest, Tanner and Vec chose to indulge their xenobiologic curiousity in a study of the tentacled creature. Their study revealed the creature to have rapid flight, considerable resilience, tentacles coated with a paralytic poison, a beaked mouth capable of rending humanoid flesh, and an alien mind difficult to influence. As they ran for the exit, an exhausted Vec suggested to Tanner “Sometime soon, we must subject this creature to further study, ideally of a more lethal sort.”

Prior to fleeing and heading for a conciliatory lunch, Tanner had a brief time to inspect the debris in the crevasse. Unfortunately for the group, he didn’t find anything of value. Vec accepted this without question, secure in the knowledge that while a stereotypical rogue might ‘forget’ that he had picked up something of value, a stereotypical mad scientist might ‘forget’ to bring any coin to cover an expensive lunch.