The Evils of Illmire: Curiosity Killed the Cleric

Spoiler alert: if you plan to play The Evils of Illmire, don’t read this!

• Our heroes climb the ladder that ascends to the upper part of the tower: the part that defies gravity and floats unsupported by the lower part of the tower. A near mishap avoided they climb onto a small ledge facing a wall with a single bronze door.
• A bronze face in the centre of the door greets them, it has the features of an elven woman and asks for the password. Without such a thing our party are stumped until they figure out the lonely door face is obsessed with it’s own beauty and unable to see itself. With a jury rigged mirror and a ton of flattery they convince her to open.
• Beyond the door are tables with a handful of magic items; a smattering of knowledge and a little experimentation reveal the function of most of the items. The party debate the morality of taking these items; after all they do belong to the powerful sorcerer who summoned them.
• Moving further up the tower they encounter a bunch of bullying gargoyles who tease and insult them, but are ultimately placated by valuable gifts and gold.
• In the next room up they find two tapestries with an eye symbol and edging filled with arcane runes mounted on opposite walls. Looking on the wall behind there are etchings in the stone which show what can only be elves of some kind building the tower.

• Further exploration leads the party to a corridor with two doors. The first looks like some kind of treasure room, although the door isn’t locked; inside are three chests. Kristos gingerly opens the first, which tries to bite his arm off – yes, it’s a classic mimic which despite it’s sharp teeth is quickly dealt with. Inside the other chests are a fortune in gold coins, but it’s far too much for the party to carry right now and they move on.
• Evalore spots a glowing rune on the second door in the corridor, and after some consideration he pushes it open with his staff which is long enough to keep him out of the blast zone of the spell that is triggered. There is a loud explosion like a thunderclap and a blast of force which shatters his staff, but everyone is unharmed. Within are more crates and boxes and two weird floating eyeball creatures (not beholders, phew!), these strange beings have tentacles and a huge beak. Not taking any chances Evalore fires an arcane dart at them and so we’re into combat. Turns out their beaks are quite deadly and a couple of criticals delivers some serious damage, but the party prevail.
• Opening the crates and boxes they find a range of magical goodies and feel no concern over taking these from the sorcerer – they should help if it comes to a battle. One in particular is a large blue stone the size of an apple which Evalore feels makes him more dextrous and light on his feet – but only while he holds it in his hand. Kivarg takes the time to dole out some healing.

• After a brief rest the party move on. Knowing they must be near the top of the tower they reach the sorcerer’s laboratory… and meet the sorcerer. This being emanates power, another floating eyeball with smaller eyeballs on stalks and a huge monocle! This creature, know as the Observer just doesn’t seem bothered by them, like they are annoying gnats rather than mighty heroes. His laboratory is filled with tubes, alembics, strange experiments, hybrid creatures and worse. Yorivar the druid is suspended in a huge tube, seemingly unaware of his circumstances.
• The party ask for the Observer to release Yorivar who they need to help them defeat the cult. The Observer suggests that as they have caused him some consternation, undoing his work in the area, they should carry out tasks for him until he feels sufficiently recompensed; then he will release the druid. His first task is for them to destroy the Chimera Goblins at the bottom of the tower… being decent sorts the party aren’t keen on this and suggest moving them out to another location, but the Observer wants them wiped out. Before they can agree to the task, the Observer is distracted by one of his experiments and they continue up the spiral stairs to the penultimate level of the tower.
• The room they find themselves in has four tapestries facing north east, north west, south east and south west. The tapestries have the same pattern as that previously seen but no etchings underneath. However, while examining the first tapestry, Evalore touches the large blue stone against it and a portal opens, showing a scene of a cavern… there is a low moaning of an underground wind and the drip of water. The group decide to check the rest of the tapestries.
• The next one activated leads to Kivarg’s doom! The portal opens to a blackness filled with stars and luminous gases, a portal to space which sucks the air out of the room. Evalore is in danger of being pulled through the portal into the void beyond and Kivarg stays behind to use his strength to save the magic user. As it turns out, Evalore makes the roll to grab hold of a railing, but Kivarg doesn’t and without anything to hold onto is unable to resist the pull of the vacuum and is sucked out into space… the party see his body floating and twisting into the blackness, on his way to join his god.
• Using the hand rail the remaining three are able to move to safety, but without their cleric they are in a tricky situation. Perhaps they need to rethink their plans, getting Yorivar out of here may not be worth it.