Mirtul 29, Mysterious Tower, continued

Having nothing left to burn in the courtyard, we turned our attention to the tower. It stood four stories high, and some of the windows appeared lit from within. Seren flew past a few windows and determined that there was some sort of burning man walking around in charred rooms— I’m sure it will appreciate our handiwork in the garden! Mishklo seems hesitant to explore; Kor’tac decided he would scale the outside of the tower to see the roof, where Seren had also discovered a trapdoor. Windy and I decided to try the double doors on the front— and— surprise! — They were not locked. They opened into a 40’ by 40’ room with a staircase leading to a balcony that wrapped around the perimeter of the chamber. The floor was littered with humanoid bones and rusty metal, and, more importantly, there was a large iron statue standing in front of the stairs. I think maybe it looked at me. We quickly shut those doors!

Next we decided to climb up the wall and see how Seren and Kor’tac were progressing with the trap door. Mishklo waited on the ground; he did not want to leave his wolf alone, and apparently, the wolf has not mastered rope climbing. We got to the top pretty quickly— in time to see our huge orc friend jumping up and down on emptiness. He’d managed to get the trapdoor open, but some sort of force was preventing him from entering through it. We told him about the iron man, while I tossed a blanket over the side of the building to Mishklo, figuring we might be able to make a wolf harness (because Mishklo refused to even try Seren’s suggestions on how to get the wolf to the roof). Kor’tac descended the rope before Mishklo could get Moonlight to cooperate anyway.

Kor’tac decided to attempt to attack the iron statue, which did move forward to meet him in melee. The orc walked backwards through the doors, hoping to lure the statue out into the open, but as he passed over the threshold, the construct reached out and closed the doors! While he pondered what to do next, Seren and I attempted to smash some windows with blunt weapons, but had absolutely no luck doing so.

Soon the five of us (and the wolf) were back at the front entrance, and seeing as it was the only way in we could find (Seren having determined that the house was on a precipice and would not have a back way in), we opted to go in and face the creature head on.

I must confess that, even though I managed to hit the creature every time I attacked, I never did a bit of damage that I could see. I tried singing to boost Kor’tac’s attacks, as he seemed to be doing some damage, and Windy took over there with a story when I moved to try magic attacks (also apparently ineffective), while Seren attempted to shoot it from above. Mishklo did a good job keeping the orc healed up, as the statue chose to consider him the only real threat. Kor’tac did eventually defeat the iron statue, and though fully healed, decided his arm was a bit tired.

We checked the area for anything useful, as there were so many remains of others that had arrived here before us, and we found some neat things! Windy cast a spell to detect magic, and picked up some magic arrows, potions, a dagger (with the symbol of Tymora on it), and a plain (but magic) steel ring. When I came over to see the ring, he dropped down on one knee and acted like people do when they are proposing— he’s such a joker sometimes! I think I have a scroll to identify the magic, but I doubt I have time right now to cast that kind of spell. I imagine we’ll be heading up the stairs in a moment.