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Previously on Call from the Deep
Starring:Gotwald Ironhorn, level 6 minotaur Rune Knight Fighter
Mac, level 6 tortle Drakewarden Ranger
Savra Akkedis, level 6 lizardfolk School of Necromancy WizardTorrel, level 6 kenku Fathomless Warlock Pact of the Amulet/Fighter
In this unique two-player side-venture, Mac and Savra hunt down the criminals who stole Savra’s freshly repaired Cube of Force!
This adventure is “The Guildmaster’s Retreat,” from 12 Peculiar Towers, published by Kobold Press, and available on Roll20.
After the big tavern brawl at the docks, the party enjoys a long rest in the city of Neverwinter. Before starting their next big quest, the team splits up to take care of errands and other tasks around town.
Savra goes to pick up the broken Cube of Force she had dropped off at a local magic shop for repairs. Mac accompanies her, but when they arrive at the old Cloak Tower, they discover it’s been ransacked.
A pair of guards stand outside trading notes, while the mage owner, Mardred, is still picking up the pieces.
Mac, a former Neverwinter Watchmen, chats up the guards. He learns that the culprits were a former merc company who used to work for Neverwinter, Vaine’s Gang, named after their leader, Jarron Vaine.
Lord Neverember refused to renew their latest contract, and the gang turned to more nefarious means, selling their services for protection and other tasks.
They showed up to the magic shop, and when Mardred refused to hire them or pay them any money, they began tearing it up.
In the scuffle, they swiped a few items, including Savra’s freshly repaired Cube of Force.
Savra learns this from Mardred. The store owner apologizes, and reveals that the cube had Savra’s name all over it, so the gang is probably prepared for them to come for it.
The guards tell Mac where the gang is located — an old watchtower near the harbor district known as Wayward Tower. The group is armed and dangerous, and the Watch has their hands full with the recent siege.
Mac and Savra don’t even hesitate — they’re going straight there to get her stolen property back!
They arrive at Wayward Tower. Mac has Cheese and Savra has her two summoned zombies. The three-story tower features a single front door entrance. All the windows are boarded up. There’s a balcony on the second floor, and what looks like a flat roof above.
Mac and Savra are both capable of climbing walls, but their summons are not. Mac unsummons Cheese and drinks a potion of growth to be able to carry the zombies up the roof, one at a time (area 14). Savra follows using her slippers of spider climbing.
The roof isn’t empty, however. A large winged contraption rests here, a getaway glider, along with a patrolling gang member (spy, MM). Savra reacts first, and briefly considers knocking him off with a gust of wind spell. But she settles on her wand of sickness, nailing him with a critical hit!
The gangster goes down, and our twosome soon find a trapdoor leading down.
Mac uses both his level two spell slots to cast darkvision on him and Savra, letting them see without giving away their position. The enlarged Big Mac has difficulty maneuvering down the regular-size trapdoor and ladder, however.
The ladder leads to a small closet (area 13), but Mac finds the secret door, opening into a trophy room (area 9).
The focused party ignore the objects on display, listening at the doors to the northwest and south, both quiet.
Savra opens the door to the south, seeing a small room with a spiral staircase leading down.
Mac opens his door, and is immediately shot by a crossbow attack — critical hit with sneak attack damage brings Mac down to half health in a single volley!
They found Jarron Vaine (thief lord, Creature Codex), and his two highest-ranking lackeys (guild thief, 12 Peculiar Towers) hiding out in the guildmaster’s bedroom (area 10).
Another critical hit from thief sends Mac reeling, but Savra sends her zom-boys marching into the room to absorb some blows, and she follows up with a nasty shatter spell.
The spell alerts other gang members downstairs, and they begin rushing up to defend their turf.
Mac leaves Savra to the boss room while he sprints down to the staircase and summons Cheese to help defend (and also quaffs a potion of greater healing!).
Vaine taunts Savra, realizing she doesn’t have the whole crew with her, and uses the Cube of Force to create the spell field forcefield. Then he tears down a nearby tapestry, revealing a hidden door, and flees through it (area 12), along with another of the guild thieves.
Savra casts Nathair’s mischief in the false treasure room. It doesn’t affect Vaine (much to her chagrin), but the other thief is taken out of the fight through various conditions.
Savra tells the thieves to stand down and they can live, she just wants the cube. But they refuse. They start to lose their bravado when they miss several attacks in a row — including two attacks against a dang AC 8 zombie!
The lizard wizard loses a bit of her bluster when Vaine reappears from the shadows, launching a sneak attack crossbow bolt, and dealing over 20 damage with a single strike.
He confidently strides up to her and takes out his rapier, ready to end her next turn while hungrily staring at her other magic items.
But Savra isn’t done. She notices her zombie can still reach through his forcefield — it only blocks spells. She reaches her hands through, puts an outstretched arm on each side of his head, and upcasts a lightning chromatic orb into his face.
The badass move sends the bloodied, smoking Vaine stumbling back, though Savra is forced to burn multiple shield spells to keep herself alive from an onslaught of attacks.
Meanwhile Big Mac and Cheese are keeping reinforcements at bay. Three more gangsters (spies) have run up the staircase, hacking away at Cheese. Big Mac uses his scimitar of speed, then switches to his longbow to take one of them out.
Suddenly a false wall opens up, revealing a secret passage between the false treasure room (area 12) and the staircase.
A smoking, wounded Vaine is trying to escape!
He’s irritated that his men have made little progress on Mac and his pet. He takes out his rapier and ends Cheese with a critical hit, then flees toward the hidden ladder toward the roof.
An enraged Big Mac faces Vaine and triple attacks with his scimitar of speed, putting down the guildmaster before he has time to react. Mac grabs the cube and tosses it to Savra.
Savra and her surviving zombie take out the other two guild thieves, while Mac kills a second subordinate. The third one flees back down the stairs yelling for more reinforcements, and announcing the death of Vaine, which sends a shockwave through the remaining gangsters.
Mac sends several ball bearings tumbling down the stairs, while Savra quickly summons another two zombies from the dead bodies and sends them down below to cover their own escape back to the roof, where they take the glider and sail off into the sky. Then drop fairly quickly because of Mac’s enlarged state!
The pair recovered the cube and leave the Wayward Tower mess of destruction and death. Did we expect anything less? Savra has the idea of claiming the soon-to-be-deserted tower as their own new base of operations in the city of Neverwinter, and the city is down one less troublesome faction.
MVPC – N/A (Mac and Savra both earn MVPC by the DM)
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