The Ruins of the Two Fingers
The party rush for the ruined tower, Farfordda gets there first and starts hacking his way through the overgrown doorway with his axe. Magdalena drops her spear and draws her Liuye Dao as she runs, it makes short work of the thorny vegetation and along with the dwarves they get inside the tower before the flying swarms reach them.
The doorway gives entry to a room the entire width of the tower, it is choked with vegetation, every surface covered in moss and creepers, debris litters the ground, a precarious looking spiral staircase laps around the internal wall disappearing through an archway high above. Everything is lit in a dim green lit filtering through from a vegetation throttled hole in the ceiling. In the center of the room stands a dilapidated fountain, a 12' high crumbling elf maid tips an empty amphora from her shoulder. Also webs. There are big thick webs everywhere.
Before fully comprehending this vista the party are enveloped in webs discharged by two giant spiders far above. Farfordda is caught, and tries to free himself. Thindra and Amos release their crossbow bolts into the nearest one doing it awful damage. Norgrim tries lashing out with his whip but fumbles and shrieks in pain as he undoes all the results of his recent convalescence. The spiders scuttle back up the walls and through the archway above.
As the party gathers their breath and Farfordda extracts himself from the web they can hear the bird things squawking round the outside of the tower for a minute or two then dissipate. Thindra and Amos train their crossbows on the archway above as Magdalena and Norgrim search through the detritus and Farforrda climbs the stairs to get a better view of the room as a whole.
Skulls, human, orc and animal are found along with a few weapons, coins and a Sigmarite pendant. It looks as though the walls may be decorated in fine script beneath all the creepers and moss. The tower is clearly High Elven in design, Norgrim reckons it could be as old as The War of Vengeance.
They take a look back out the doorway. The swarms are gone, but mist has gathered, the other tower can be seen clear enough but the mountains in the background and even the trees fringing the clearing have disappeared into the white.
Farfordda exams the door on the other tower with the telescope, he can make out delicate decorative swirls beneath the vines and creepers but no keyhole or handle.
After much deliberation they decide to head up the stairs, Norgrim first. As he hacks his way through the web choked doorway he is smothered in web projected from above, binding him to the spot. One great spider drops down to take a bite at him, Farfordda manages to hit it with an arrow. There is more struggling and web discharged, Magdalena tries to cut Norgrim out, injuring him in the process, and one set of venomous mandibles manage to make contact before the party retreat back down the vertiginous spiral with a sticky, lightly wounded Norgrim.
They rest some and think again. Time to try the door of the other tower.
Farfordda sprints across the gap between the towers. There is no pulse, all is calm, though Magdalena can just about hear a high pitched screeching from high above. Farfordda clears the creepers from the door's surface, Detect Artifact reveals that the door is magical, and locked - but his Open Lock spell does the trick. It glides inwards, revealing a vast chamber like that in the ruined tower but in good condition. He motions to the others to follow and heads inside.
Magdalena rushes across the empty space, but as soon as Amos' dwarven feet touch the ground he sees the sorcerous pulse emanate from the full tower once more. They all sprint, hearing the birds squawking and shrieking in the depths of the mist.
The atmosphere in the tower is still. Although there is some moss, and a little damp and detritus from once organic constructions, the interior is much like it would have been several thousand years ago. The walls are covered in fine eleven script of inlaid silver. There is no water in the fountain, but the statue is complete, and like its ruined sister all is bathed in a soft green light from above. Here it is easier to tell that there is a circular glass panel set into the highly polished pale stone ceiling.
They climb the stairs and enter a great web free chamber, this time with a crossbow bearing Amos on point. Like the floor below this is one vast chamber faintly lit by green light from above, though maybe half as high and with its spiral stairs sheathed behind a stone curtain. A great circular stone table is it's dominant feature, followed by a huge silver housing, like a giant lantern or vast bracket lying in the center of the room, presumably having fallen a long, long time ago from the ceiling above. The party take a breather. It is late afternoon on the 11th of Nachgeheim a few hours before sunset...
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