Session 18: Foiled

The Cranes start this weeks session by handing the bound Kaevia to Rasool, who picks her up and follows the party as they head south. After they cross a corridor, they find the pantry. At the east end of the corridor, they dimly view a larger chamber, in which two halflings seem to be boxing. The pantry contains nothing of interest, so the party starts heading back to the entryway to continue their exploration of the Sanctum. To their surprise, Manshoon awaits them in the corridor. He appears gracious, and invites them to follow him on a tour of the sanctum. In the foyer, he walks across the mosaic depicting a flying snake biting a coin. Once he stands on the coin, an alarm sounds, and battle is joined.

The fight initially doesn't go too badly for the Night Cranes. Parsain is able to grapple Manshoon, while Me turns into a giant toad and grabs the wizard with their tongue, preparing to swallow him. Xarca uses magic to turn Manshoon's weird iron hand red hot. However, after hearing the alarm, reinforcements arrive for the head of the Zhentarim. Two martial artists from the east, and a fencer and a songster from the west. The Cranes flee to the teleportation circle on the outer landing, some of them barely hanging on to life. Parsain attempts to bar the door, but the bard's shatter spell leaves it in ruins. Marty managed to teleport them out as Manshoon readied a lightning bolt. Thinking about how the search for the Stone has gone so far, the Cranes decide to sell Trollskull tavern and seek their fortune elsewhere.

Session 17: To Infinity, and Beyond! (Hopefully not beyond)

Tarsahk 3 continues in Kolat Towers. The Night Cranes pause to attune to their shiny new wand of binding and plot their next move. They decide to investigate the room guarded by the spectator. Shan and Mr. Me turn invisible, and carry a sheet into the room. They drape the sheet over the spectator, rendering it blind! The party rushes in to take pot shots at it, and it almost manages to eat the sheet off of itself, but only manages part of it before Jeramiah Stel Eo blasts the orb away with a lucky hit. Just then, flying snakes swoop down from the rafters, and almost make a meal out of Shan. Marty is able to take one out with an arrow, while Parsain grabs the end of the sheet and turns the beholder-kin into a morning star, knocking another snake out of the fight. Shan turns one into a flaming lantern, while Mr. Me kills the last one after finally getting a hit in with his shillelagh. 

Eat it, USC

After the fight, Parsain tries to pick the locks but, despite thinking he was doing really well, isn't able to get them open. However, a mage hand reveals them to be illusory, and they loot the boxes. Marty investigates a magic circle in the center of the room, and determines it to be a teleportation circle. After some experimentation, nothing they have seems to be the key. Meanwhile, Shan goes downstairs to investigate Dulakh's library, and is rewarded for his efforts with an attack by a swarm of books. Marty has his back though, and they are able to quell the book uprising. The Cranes head back down to the room with a mimic to check out the outbuildings and discuss strategy.

The door from the mimic room leads into a shabbily decorated reading room, where a half-orc is reading Volo's Guide to Monsters. He seems friendly, so the party engages him in conversation. His name is Yorn, and he's been working for the Zhentarim for quite some time. He doesn't mind the change in leadership, as long as he gets paid, and Manshoon has been keeping him quite busy. He's annoyed, too, because he has to climb the tower to get to the teleportation circle every time Manshoon wants to see him, and he finds the empty tower creepy. Parsain says that the party has a meeting with Manshoon, but got lost. Yorn says that the lieutenants have a ring that lets them access Manshoon's extra-dimensional fortress. One is upstairs sleeping, and the other two are downstairs.

Believing that stealing from a sleeping man is the easiest course of action, the party heads into the next room. The apprentices look like the same ones as were summoning the demon. Marty notices that they are wearing rings that look like the teleportation rings Yorn described. Parsain ethers one and takes the ring. They leave the empty bottle of ether next to another apprentice. After taking a short rest to rearrange magical items, they teleport to Manshoon's Extradimensional Sanctum. 

The Cranes appear on a balcony surrounded by swirling purple mists. There is a figure watching them from a window through the mists, and once she sees they have noticed her, announces that they should wait for their host before vanishing. The party decides not to wait for whatever Manshoon has planned, and Parsain picks the lock to the door. They enter a large room with masks on the walls, a Zhent sigil dominating the floor. Jeremiah, Shan, and Groot try on the masks and are rewarded with shocks, but undeterred, they proceed into the room where they saw the woman. Parsain grapples her and Marty ties her up, and the rest of the party enters the room, hoping to avoid what they fear is a chilly reception.

Session 16: The Two Towers

Later on Tarsahk 2, Parsain hooks up with House Jhansczil, the horse breeders, pretending to have a letter of introduction. He uses their library to research the demon they saw. It's a Barlgura, a lesser ape-like demon that can turn invisible. Barlguars tend to not be very good for horse breeding, as they aren't very bright, and the invisibility can cause problems at the finish line.

On Tarsahk 3 the Cranes go to the guild of masons and try to convince the agent that they are visiting architects looking for Kolat Tower plans. They don't buy it and ask for a bribe. Marty offers 5 and the clerk looks insulted, so Marty offers 6, then 7. The clerk says they should leave before she calls the cops.

Groot goes to investigate the Towers from outside. There are two towers: the main tower is six stories, second tower is four. There are also some attached buildings that are 3 stories. People walking casually in and out, do not appear to be challenged. The Cranes go in, acting like they belong and consider their approach. The first room appears to be storage. They hear voices in the next room, so they decide to leave and go to Yellowspire to use the teleportation circle there. They continue their exploration of the empty towers. Marty wonders why, for someone's house, it seems to be so abandoned. The demon summoning room is empty. The next room up is blocked by a closed door, but the door is not locked. The room appears to have a detachable floor. Shan tried to explore the room, and the scraps of iron form themselves into a suit of animated armor. Then Shan, Marty, and Rasool move in, careful to stay to the edges for when the floor collapses. Parsain pulls the levers, and the floor flies upwards, crushing half the party against the ceiling. Mr. Me entangles the construct, almost catching Marty. A moonbeam from Xarca finally connects. Eventually, a crossbow bolt from Marty and a glaive strike from Rasool do it in.

On the next floor the party finds a flesh golem. They test it with an illusion, and it swipes at it and growls "not dulahk". Parsain uses the hat of disguise to make himself look like Dulahk Kolat and get them through. The next corridor has a rune at the end. Marty finds a secret door. Parsain figures out the mechanism for the secret door, but no one can figure out what the rune does. The door leads to a bedroom. Flameskull! Rasool charges, Marty restrains it, it shoots fire rays out of its eyes at Parsain. Rasool bonks it, and Parsain gets it in the eye. Parsain finds a secret compartment with a wand of binding. 

Session 15: Flumph Mating Rituals

The Cranes continued their exploration of Kolat Towers. Past the bridge, they entered the second tower to find a room that was largely lacking a floor. Parsain jumped across, but the gap was too large for most of the party, so after some discussion, they decide to climb down into the room below. This turns out to be a library, and once the party starts examining the shelves, they find out that the library has guardians -- two gargoyles. Their stony hide is largely impervious to conventional weapons, and they get some good hits on Rasool. Eventually, mainly due to Groot's thorn whips, they are whelmed into submission. While Rasool bandages his wounds, Parsain completes the exploration of the tower and finds a spellbook concealed inside a book of Flumph dating rituals. Why Parsain wanted to look at a book on Flumph mating rituals is a mystery we are content not to explore. Contained in the spellbook are arcane lock, burning hands, comprehend languages, counterspell, darkvision, dimension door, find familiar, levitate, sending, and unseen servant. The party dumps the gargoyle corpses in the bottom of the first tower. Parsain buries the bodies under trash. 

Back on the story with the open floor, Parsain notices an opening in the ceiling. Groot goes to investigate and manages to find an invisible staircase. The staircase leads to ransacked laboratory -- the floor is covered in broken glass and there is an overturned table. Groot, in gecko form, finds more invisible stairs up and sees wizards summoning a Barlgura. Back down, the party searches a third platform in the room with an open floor plan, a platform with treasure chests. Parsain tickles one of the chests with his mage hand, revealing it to be a mimic. He then jumps, and tries rummaging in the other chest. In this one are various arcane foci, and he grabs a crystal for Shan. Eschewing the chance to disrupt the demon summoning, they decide discretion is the better part of valor, and leave the towers to return to Trollskull manor.

On the way back home, they see members of the Fishmonger's Guild brawling with Guild of Trusted Pewerers and Casters. Riff from the Fishmongers Guild is dating the sister of Tony from the Pewterers, and Tony thought he wasn't good enough, so a fight broke out. Rasool buys some hand rolls.