Ninth Dungeon! Finally ... Inside the Tower of Creepiness!

Readers! So much has happened for our brave adventuring party in previous episodes! If you need help with remembering, please go to girlfriend Claire's kind and generous page of all dungeons so far. It's here!

Dungeon Master: Now begins the dungeon of the creepy black tower! You have the three marbles. You have reached the tower porch. Solving of many mysteries lies before you!
Plummet: Wait ... already, we reached the tower? I don't remember getting there last time.
Helsa: Clearly, a Dungeon Master has impatience for us to adventure into this keep of creepy darkness.
Rouge: Our characters must have rushed here, I think.
Dungeon Master: Yes! So abrupt! Who can explain this speediness?
Pilchard: I can, but not from characters rushing. For our characters, the day of last session or two, there was breakfasting, and also Rouge treasure-digging near a dangerous river. Then, finding a homunculus, then following it slowly to this town's middle area because of oppositional and creepy winds, and also needing to keep eyes down to avoid seeing creepy tower happenings that the notes of a starved skeleton warned us about. Then traveling back to an ale-ery, fighting an ale-emental, meeting a new tiefling, searching for six hours through the town for gargoyle bits, lunch-resting, and fighting a sewing golem. So many happenings already for one day, and additionally, spells were used, and some characters must be pained from being golemed.
Rouge: Actually, by examining my character sheet, I find it's true -- I am so pained.
Bingly: So pained with an "o" or sew pained with an "ew"?
Grolka: A pun that requires explaining this way must be with an "ew."
Pilchard: My reason for disclosing these happenings is, how late of the afternoon is it when the golem has its defeat? My guess is three o'clock or later. Add on short resting from being so or sew golem-harmed and it's almost evening! Do we enter a creepy tower dungeon not so long before night-time, and still with many of our spells missing?
Plummet: Oh! Then a long sort of rest is superior over a short one! I am so tired just from hearing all this explaining, my character must be even more so tired.
Rouge: Or more sew tired.
Bingly: I used zero spells and suffered no goleming. However, after mourning my octopus all day and also after reading rules about familiars, a long resting equals time to cast a Ritual of Find Familiar. What is my new familiar? A bat! This could be handy inside a dismal and dim dungeon tower.
Luce: Why have you used so few spells?
Bingly: My character is unwisdomly and only picks spells he thinks are "cool."
Grolka: She showed me her character sheet. The spells there ... so weak.
Bingly: Yes, but very cool.
Luce: I will await castings of these spells to see, then. Also, I agree to the usefulness of a longish rest over a shortish one.
Dungeon Master: This explanation -- very sensible. Normally, a Dungeon Master would exclaim, "50 experience points!"
Pilchard: "Normally ...?"
Dungeon Master: It's obvious the Dungeon Master wished you to be hurrisome, tower-ward! An explanation this long, full of all these discussed happenings and spell countings and familiar plannings and long-restings ... I can't award more than 10 experience points. Especially due to it being sew pun-full. Please perform your long-resting and then your characters must hurry to the tower!
Pilchard: Yes. Sorry. But I do get 10 experience points?
Dungeon Master: No. The 10 is divided by all characters who made explaining contributions. Generously I will round up, so, 2 experience points each.
Pilchard: It's more than zero experience points, but this feels almost penalizing.
Bingly: Well, my long-resting is accomplished. I only had to erase some hit dice used for healing last time and write "familiar = bat."
Dungeon Master: 5 experience points for this speediness toward allowing the adventure to continue.
Grolka: I am done also, after erasing woundings, uses of hit dice, and one mark of raging.
Dungeon Master: 5 experience points!
Rouge: I had only damage to erase, which is now complete.
Dungeon Master: 5 experience points.
Pilchard: This awarding of experience bonuses to characters who don't need recovering of useful spells the way my character does ... I'm not sure it's unbiased.
Dungeon Master: Is Dungeons and Dragons always a game of equal and fair?
Pilchard: I concede the pointy-ness of this question.
Dungeon Master: No experience points for flatterings like that. Is everyone long-rested?
Pilchard: Now I am.
Plummet: Me too.
Helsa: Entirely.
Luce: I think. Remember, I'm new to these rest rules.
Dungeon Master: So -- now you are on a porch. The tower door has holes of marble size in it. What do you do?
Pilchard: Put our three marbles in? Seems obvious, I think.
Plummet: Agreement from your Plume mage sister!
Grolka: A barbaric orc only grunts and makes ready her battle-axe.
Helsa: Probably anyone who is not in front holding marbles only looks groundward to avoid seeing strange energies warned of by a homunculus.
Rouge: Yes, even a Chaotic Chaotic rogue is sensible enough to do that.
Dungeon Master: When marbles are put in, a clicking sound emerges! The door opens!
Pilchard: Are things visible inside?
Dungeon Master: Dim! On this ground floor, zero windows. Only light that enters the door assists your vision.
Pilchard: I cast my Light cantrip.
Dungeon Master: You think, "Much better!" Now, inside, the room is half a circle in shape. It's so tall! Two stories of room under the ceiling high above. Opposite your door, a flat wall that is stone for 10 feet, then wood above that. Stairs go up along each curving wall and reach doors that enter this wall where it is wood. Here, like this:

Dungeon Master: Also, there's a brief stone platform that faces the door, only two or three feet in height. Upon it is a statue, strange and peculiar of shape. It has many tentacles and three eyes of different sizes.
Pilchard: I observe it for signs of golemry.
Plummet: Me too!
Dungeon Master: No golemry that's obvious.
Helsa: Could be a golem of patience, though.
Rouge: I would like to enter and no longer be in this wind of creepy energy!
Bingly: Yes!
Dungeon Master: All enter, then, followed by an eager homunculus. It sniffs searchingly.
Grolka: I proceed to the platformed statue and examine it for liveliness -- especially hostile liveliness.
Helsa: I am attentive to our homunculus. I ask what it smells.
Dungeon Master: The homunculus shakes its head, frownful. Its moment of hopeful sniffing ends.
Bingly: Everyone inside? I close the door.
Dungeon Master: The clicking sound returns when you do ... then, it's shut.
Pilchard: Uh-oh. Did Bingly just imprison us with a self-locking door?
Luce: I'll determine it. Does the door open when attempted?
Dungeon Master: No.
Pilchard: No problem. We just need to exit and find three more marbles, right?
Helsa: An easy accomplishment. Already, I think, it's almost done.
Dungeon Master: Grolka, you examine the statue. In one of three eyes, there's a gleam!
Grolka: I look to see what is gleaming there.
Rouge: Could be a treasureful gem! Do I witness this gleaming?
Dungeon Master: No, only someone examining the statue with such nearness as the orc, who notices -- in this eye (it's a large and polished black stone), there's a wizardly shape! Tall and thin, in robes. Or possibly just thin. He's gleaming in a statue eye, so it's hard noticing his actual height. You see that he points upward, and raises three fingers.
Grolka: I tell him this is a gesture of severe rudeness for orcs and raise three fingers back at him.
Dungeon Master: He points at his ear and shakes his head. Possibly he cannot hear you. Now he points out, as if at the room. He raises one finger. He points and looks left, then points and looks right, as if at the two stairways of curvy. He raises two fingers. Then he points up twice, and raises three fingers again.
Grolka: I am scowling barbarically. Rude! I raise three fingers again.
Helsa: I ask our orcish barbarian, "What are you doing?"
Grolka: I tell you I am about to fight a rude little gleam of a wizard in this statue eye.
Helsa: I ask for more detailed explanation.
Grolka: I tell you to come look for yourself. Warning! He will gesture rudely at you.
Helsa: I look at the eye of gleaming wizardliness.
Dungeon Master: Inside, you see it seems like a reflection of the wizard I described before. His appearance is also what I described before, except that also he looks possibly impatient or annoyed. He repeats the series of gestures I described before.
Helsa: I'm okay in intelligence, but not ingenious. I try to understand these clues with my Investigating skill. 17. Is this enough to conclude I think he wants us to stair our way up to the third floor?
Dungeon Master: Yes, definitely. Your deducery earns 20 experience points!
Helsa: Thank you.
Rouge: I'm worried. This urging of us third-floorward could be trappery.
Bingly: Could be. Does this mean, let's avoid floor three and any treasure of that floor?
Rouge: No. Only that we should look for all possible treasure while exploring that direction.
Luce: I agree. Should we first search this room for secrets of the hidden sort?
Pilchard: Yes, but my chance is not good. Searching the wall that is northerly ... Oh! My roll is natural 20, so 22 in all.
Dungeon Master: Your searching -- it's commendable. Very thorough! But you find only firmly made wall.
Helsa: My examination moves from gleams in statue eyes to the platform beneath. Any panels of secrecy or messages written? My roll is the opposite of Pilchard's ... a 1 which is a total of 5.
Dungeon Master: Apparently, you are very distracted by the still-gleaming eye. The gleam wizard there has arms crossed and taps his foot. You find nothing.
Rouge: I search the platform as well! For me, the total is 14.
Dungeon Master: Less distracted, but with results unchanged.
Helsa: How are the stairs built? Is open space under them, or could a secret area lurk where they sit on stone-constructed support?
Dungeon Master: They attach to the wall with braces. It's just open room beneath the steps and attachments.
Pilchard: Seems like time to climb them, then.
Helsa: Almost! Possibly first our rogues should examine them for trappery.
Rouge: My examination ... so poor! Only 5 total.
Dungeon Master: Which stairway was this?
Rouge: The eastward one.
Luce: Rouge searches easterly, I will search westerly. 10.
Dungeon Master: No traps found in either direction of stairs.
Pilchard: I roll to see if I notice Rouge examining with sloppiness compared to Luce. Only a 6, though.
Dungeon Master: Any difference ... it's unobvious to you.
Pilchard: Okay with me to go either direction, then.
Grolka: I proceed upward to the west. I know more of Rouge, but so far Luce has shown more sensible behavior.
Dungeon Master: No traps prevent you from reaching the door above.
Grolka: I open it. Unless it is locked.
Dungeon Master: It opens! Here is what you see.

Dungeon Master: It's a narrow room of wood floor all the way across the tower. Or possibly it's a wide hallway. Could be either one. More stairs go up east and west. The other stair's door is seen in the east. Occupying the center of the room (or hallway) -- a strange machine! Like half a cylinder lying flat on the floor of wood, but with squarish chunks missing. From its top, a pipe goes up into a ceiling that is also of wood.
Pilchard: This machine -- I am curious! So, I examine it.
Dungeon Master: Very smooth, mostly. But on one side, there's a hole of familiar size. This hole opens above a long, thin tray. The tray has slight angling. At its bottom end, four marbles are sitting.
Rouge: I search the machine for secret chambers. So weak my searching today! Only a 10.
Luce: I imitate Rouge, except for the part of weakness, hopefully. 13?
Dungeon Master: Neither searching is searchly enough, apparently. Or else there is no chamber to find.
Pilchard: Should we take these marbles?
Plummet: Maybe another door will need unlocking!
Bingly: But ... what if these marbles have not yet used their power of golemizing? If we put them in a pocket, will we have sudden pants golem?
Luce: Are you happy to see me, or are your pants a golem?
Dungeon Master: Do you take any marbles?
Pilchard: Maybe later. If we need them.
Grolka: A strange machine is boring for an orc of barbarism. I go up the west staircase to see where it arrives.
Helsa: I follow in case it's a place dangerous for just an orc.
Rouge: I watch to see if this method finds a trap more quickly than rogues searching.
Dungeon Master: At the top, you see there is no door -- the stairway rises through the ceiling to open in a new floor. The room here has a strange shape!

Bingly: A bat face with large ears! My familiar will appreciate this room.
Luce: It does appear so batty, now that you say this.
Dungeon Master: Unplanned but also correct! 20 experience points. In this room are laboratorical merchandises of many sorts. Tables, and on them beakers, tubes, jars ... things of such.
Grolka: Is a gleaming wizard there?
Dungeon Master: Seems empty and quiet, so far. You notice that from the floor to ceiling, a pipe occupies the same place as the pipe from the machine below.
Pilchard: Could be the strange cylinder machine is central heating, and marbles are compressions of ashes from expired coal or wood?
Plummet: I avoid touching this pipe in case it is so hot.
Grolka: An orc calls downward, "Are others stairing upward to this third floor?
Rouge: Is there treasure?
Helsa: Possibly! A door is visible. Also, laboratorical merchandises.
Rouge: I proceed upstairs.
Bingly: I send my bat. When it arrives I can Bonus Act to see what it sees.
Luce: I follow Rouge.
Pilchard: Fighting types all seem to be abandoning the Plume Mages. I suggest we follow, sibling.
Plummet: I agree. Let's go!
Bingly: I don't wait alone for a bat report, then. Upstairs with me too.
Dungeon Master: You find the room as described before.
Bingly: Aha! So like a bat head! My bat does a flittering dance of happy.
Luce: So, these laboratorical apparatuses ... do they seem more chemical-ish or more alchemical-ish? Wait, never mind. Probably my character doesn't know these things.
Rouge: My character either. Also, she does not care. A better question: do the apparatuses look treasurely? Or boring due to inexpensiveness.
Pilchard: In the Handbook for Players, "Alchemy Supplies" have 50 gold pieces of value for 8 pounds. So a table of similar merchandise may be similarly treasureful.
Dungeon Master: Good! 25 experience points!
Rouge: Excellent! How many pounds are on the table?
Bingly: Hmm. Also in the Handbook, a flask equals 1 pound for 2 pieces of copper. So is the table more like Alchemy Supplies or more like flasks?
Dungeon Master: This question shows honesty! 25 experience points! Does any one have a skill of Alchemy? No? In this case, Medicine seems close enough to make a Disadvantaged roll for determining the treasureliness of these apparatuses.
Pilchard: My roll is 11.
Plummet: Mine is 7. Sad face.
Grolka: A barbarian is disinterested.
Helsa: Likewise a hermitly ranger.
Rouge: My roll is 19!
Dungeon Master: Looks like mostly these apparatuses are wares of glass -- flask-ish and beakerly. Maybe some other supplies are there but spoiled. 20 pounds of it has a worth of 6 gold pieces.
Pilchard: Seems like it would have been better to roll for these values before Bingly's question.
Rouge: Hard agree. It will be troublesome to carry wares of glass around for only 6 gold pieces. If someone falls or drops a bag of them ... crash! ... and, trash.
Luce: I go to the southward door to examine any traps there.
Dungeon Master: Roll to see what you Perceive!
Luce: Almost my best skill! But I roll a 1. Total is 5.
Dungeon Master: You have so much confidence it is untrapped.
Luce: Confidently, I open it, then.
Dungeon Master: Beyond, you see a small office, or living room, or combination of both. A desk, a chair, a couch and small table before it. In the middle of this room, a ghostly figure! Grolka and Helsa recognize this figure as the wizardly gleam from the statue below! The room's appearance is this:

Grolka: I make the rude gesture of 3 fingers at the wizard ghost.
Helsa: I do not.
Plummet: I hope it's a talkable ghost! More interpreting of gestures will be so much work.
Dungeon Master: The ghost speaks immediately, in fact!
Pilchard: I hope it's not a ghost of hauntful shrieking.
Dungeon Master: No, only a little spooky, its speaking. It begins a tale of explanation and request. 
Plummet: A long tale? I notice a comfortable couch.
Grolka: I notice it also. I will walk couchward and sit there. If the ghost occupies my path, I will walk through it.
Dungeon Master: The ghost's speaking becomes grumblesome in addition to spooky. But it continues. its tale is a sad one of prideful and errors. Long ago, this tower was cultish! The cultly villains who owned it -- very evil! In the basement was a pit of sacrifice where the cult would throw victims to summon energies of wicked sorts from another universe.
Grolka: I ask why it is telling us this.
Dungeon Master: Did others enter the room? Or just remain in the laboratorical one while the barbaric orc went to sit?
Pilchard: I am content to let a ghost talk at me from farther away, not closer up.
Plummet: I wanted to sit, but became nervous when our orc walked through the ghost.
Helsa: I share the attitude of Pilchard.
Rouge: I share the attitude of Plummet.
Bingly: I pet my bat.
Luce: No entering rooms of ghosts for me, thank you.
Dungeon Master: In this case, the ghost ignores an orcish barbarian's question and continues its address of everyone in the laboratorical room. It says that when enough sacrifices occurred, the energies of wickedness flowed up through the pipe to a device on the roof. There, they became winds of darkness! Anyone nearby who looked became teleported to the pit below!
Pilchard: I am glad a homunculus told us not to look.
Plummet: I also am glad!
Dungeon Master: Then someone came and heroically stopped the winds of the tower. Also, heroically killed the cult and sealed the tower so no others could use it.
Pilchard: Who did all this? I am curious.
Plummet: Heroes, probably.
Dungeon Master: 50 experience points! Yes, the wizard says long-ago heroes triumphed against the cultly keep. Over time, others forgot them.
Rouge: I hope they demanded treasure for this service. Otherwise, forgetting them seems a doubling of insult.
Dungeon Master: Now comes the prideful and error-ful part. With a face of guilt, the wizard reveals he found the tower and thought, "Hmm! Could be an interesting headquarters!" So he moved in and made it one. Also, he did experiments. Some dark energy remained in the pipe! Not enough to create winds, but it moved back and forth between the pit and the machine on the roof. By trapping this energy, the wizard found he could make marbles!
Pilchard: Seems like a lot of dangerous work just to make dangerous marbles.
Dungeon Master: Do you say this out loud?
Pilchard: Yes.
Dungeon Master: You gloom the wizard's face. But he continues. The magical marbles seemed unharmful, so he gave some to villagers as keepsakes. They found these marbles would make miniature golems of their goods! At first, these were small and entertaining. Villagers who had no marbles became full of coveting. So greatly they coveted their own marbles and miniature golems! But the wizard said his marble-making experiment had very little dark energy left. Some villagers formed a plan. They gave the wizard a gift of ale mixed with a potion of sleepiness! While he snored, they snuck in and explored. Some found the pit ... sadly, they explored it also. Dark energy released! Only enough to make some marbles, though, not enough to make dark winds. Some villagers left with the marbles. Some villagers said, "Wait! Where are our friends who went to explore?" They explored after their friends and, oops, more exploring into the pit of sacrifice.
Helsa: These villagers sound unwisdomful.
Dungeon Master: Yes. And enough explored to start the winds of darkness! Folk of the town looked at the winds! Into the pit they vanished! Fearing and terrored, other folk of the village fled. The wizard awoke and struggled with the energies of darkness. He learned how to stop the energies -- three of the marbles must go into the eyes of the statue. But all his marbles were taken already.
Pilchard: Lost.
Bingly: I wasn't going to say it.
Dungeon Master: The wizard told the townfolk remaining, "Bring me the marbles!" He made the door with holes for marbles and locked it. This way, marbles could be deposited, but no more townfolk could get in and accidentally do fatal pit-exploration.
Plummet: Wait ... if a locked door was to keep villagers out, and a wizard told villagers to put marbles in the door, why did the door open from being marbled?
Dungeon Master: The wizard is too embarrassed to admit that part. Possibly it involved great foolishness from him. Or possibly the Dungeon Master struggled with this plot and just decided, "It was too embarrassing." Who can say?
Pilchard: Hmm! Possibly the energies of darkness cursed the wizard? First, confusing his magic and making the marbles able to unlock the locked door. Then, weakening him until he died.
Dungeon Master: Exceptional! 100 experience points!
Pilchard: But ... the wizard needed only three marbles, and already there were four in his machine. Why not use three of those?
Dungeon Master: This part the Dungeon Master devised, untroubledly. After the wizard's dying by cursedness and dark energies, the tower still stood. The winds still blew! Adventurer types came adventuring and saw the winds of energy, so poof into the pit of sacrifice they went. This made the four marbles you saw. Or possibly only two of them. The wizard's dying might have happened with two marbles already made, since three are needed for the eyes of the statue. Do you ask the wizard for these details?
Grolka: I will growl orcishly if anyone asks questions of that sort. Pointless! We know there are marbles; now we know what to do with these marbles. No more need to discuss with a rude wizard. I stand up to return back downstairs.
Helsa: Wait! I have a non-pointless inquiry for the ghostly wizard. We have seen golems created by these marbles ... will putting marbles in the eyes of a statue golemize it?
Luce: I approve of this inquiry. Appropriate in cautiousness!
Dungeon Master: The wizard shrugs. "There's a potential," he admits.
Grolka: We have killed three golems already. A barbarian is confident to kill another, especially on that is only potential in its golemness. I continue down the stairs.
Helsa: I will follow.
Rouge: I allow others to proceed first.
Bingly: I will also allow others to proceed.
Rouge: Bingly will be one of the others I allow to proceed before me.
Bingly: Very generous ... I am appreciative! Has all of our allowing allowed other party members to return downstairs-ward?
Luce: To be honest -- wait. I am rogueish and criminal of origin, so probably not full of honestness. Therefore, I don't explain my behavior, but I remain on floor three also, observing the contest of allowing between Rouge and Bingly.
Plummet: Already, I went downstairs.
Pilchard: I accompanied my sibling.
Rouge: I scowl at the unnecessary remaining of my two companions. "Really," I tell them, "I am allowing you to go first."
Bingly: But I want to talk to the ghost of wizardly errors and tragedy. I proceed into the room and ask him, "Do you have a spellbook? If yes, can I look within it for cool spells?"
Plummet: Hey! Very unfair! Are these three remainers going to loot a ghostly wizard's room while other party members must fight golems?
Rouge: You don't know yet if a golem will occur.
Plummet: Still ... we will be making efforts to walk downstairs. Rewards should be ours too!
Rouge: Already you are downstairs. So this arguing is not actually able to occur.
Plummet: Oh. True.
Rouge: Since we are asking the wizardly ghost with such straightforwardness, I will ask him what treasure he has, since he is not using it anyway.
Dungeon Master: The ghost is unpleased by your questions. Stopping evil winds first! Discussion of possible treasures and spellbooks later.
Rouge: Hmm. Can a ghost do anything about it if we decide to search this room?
Dungeon Master: It's a Religion roll to know.
Rouge: My roll is 17!
Dungeon Master: The task is very easy ... you think, people are scared of ghosts, so there is probably a reason for it. With such a high roll, you also know some things about ghostish abilities. Very hard to damage! Able to make a terrorizing face! Also, it might possess you.
Rouge: Okay, I proceed downstairs.
Bingly: My roll to know about ghosts is only 8, so I know less than Rouge. This means I am curious! I tell the ghost I would like to know more about what ghosts can do.
Luce: I proceed with Rouge.
Dungeon Master: It's a roll of Persuading to get a ghost to talk. Especially one already irritated by barbaric orcs and plundersome thiefly tieflings.
Bingly: Aha! I roll 19 and have a bonus of 2! 
Dungeon Master: For some reason, the ghost allows your questioning. You may read the page of "Ghost" in the Manual of Monstrousness.
Bingly: Probably, he is charmed by my cute bat.
Dungeon Master: Meanwhile! Others have proceeded to back to level 2. What do you do?
Grolka: Since I am first, I take three of the marbles and continue to the next stairs downward.
Helsa: I follow.
Pilchard: Same.
Plummet: Same.
Dungeon Master: Very speedy! It is quicker to take marbles than to ask a ghost questions and try remembering Religion facts, so this fraction of adventurers reaches ground floor, hmm, two rounds before tiefling rogues do. What do you do?
Grolka: I walk straight at the statue and push marbles into its eyes. If there is a gleam image of a rude wizard in any of them, I marble that one first and hardest.
Dungeon Master: No such gleaming. But with insertion of marble number three ... the prediction of golemry comes true! Roll for Initiating!
Pilchard: Hah! 19!
Plummet: 18 for me. Plume Mages are speedy tonight!
Grolka: An orc also. 19.
Helsa: I am rangering on initiative 5.
Rouge: 6 for Rouge.
Luce: 15 for Luce.
Dungeon Master: No need for Bingly to roll while questioning a ghost. Grolka or Pilchard Initiates first! You see the tentacles of the statue twitch and writhe. It's body of stone becomes slime-dripping and black.
Plummet: Ick!
Grolka: Axe. Sadly, my roll is poor. A certain miss.
Pilchard: I roll for Witch Bolting the statue! 20! Damage is 16 points!
Dungeon Master: Seems like the slimy drippage absorbs some of your bolting. Damage is lessened.
Pilchard: Boo.
Plummet: I will Orb it Chromatically! Foo, I miss.
Dungeon Master: Slime-dripping tentacles slap at the barbaric orc! It has 3! One roll is 16, one 13, one 12.
Grolka: My armor class exceeds those rolls.
Dungeon Master: Then Luce and Rouge move one round closer to floor one. Unless one does something else?
Rouge: No, nothing but stairing.
Luce: Luce also.
Dungeon Master: Helsa! It is your rangerly turn.
Helsa: With my shortbow, I roll 12.
Dungeon Master: Ineffective! Again it is the turn of Grolka.
Grolka: I Bonus Act to Rage barbarically. Then, axing. This time it's a 19, which I hope hits. Damage is 10 if so.
Dungeon Master: You do hit! However, despite its altered appearance, the golem's body is stone, and slashing damage is reduce.
Pilchard: What a tough golem! My Witch Bolt continues for 8 points. I also throw a dagger, but it misses.
Plummet: I am frustrated from missing. So this time, I cast Magic Missile! You know ... it's strange that it has the word "miss" in it but it can't miss. My damage is 9 points.
Dungeon Master: This spell appears to damage it fully. Now the golem! One hit with its tentacles of stoney drippage! 6 points in bludgeoning damage, 6 points in acid!
Grolka: Painful, but my Rage reduces the bludgeoning.
Dungeon Master: Tieflings arrive downstairs! But, no Actioning until next round.
Rouge: At least we're here.
Helsa: I again shoot with my bow. But first, I Bonus Act to cast a spell of Hunter's Mark. My attack is 17.
Dungeon Master: A hit!
Helsa: Excellent. My ability of Colossus Slaying grants one extra d8 of damage, and Hunter's Mark one extra d6 of Force damage. This results in 5 points of Piercing and 6 points of Force. Also, my arrow Vexes it. I can shoot with Advantage next round.
Dungeon Master: The Piercing is reduced. The Force is not. The new round begins.
Grolka: I axe with 17. Damage is only 7 before being golemly reduced.
Bingly: My Witch Bolt persists ... damage is 12!
Dungeon Master: Luce is before goleming; Rouge will be after.
Luce: I attack with shortsword and dagger. 13 for the sword, 17 for the dagger.
Dungeon Master: The sword: miss. The dagger: hit.
Luce: My ally is within 5 feet of the golem, so I apply Sneak Attack damage with my daggering. 14 points.
Dungeon Master: The golem! Luce has damaged it, so it applies one tentacle to her and two to Grolka. Grolka, it misses. But Luce, it hits. Ow! Damage is maximized! 8 of bludgeoning, 6 of acid.
Luce: So painful!
Dungeon Master: Rouge may act now.
Rouge: I do not wish to receive any tentacle-ing, so I will shortbow it. But, I miss.
Helsa: My shortbow attack this round has advantage -- I hit. 7 points of Piercing, 3 of Force.
Dungeon Master: A new round begins!
Grolka: I axe it at 16 this time.
Dungeon Master: 16 is still a hit.
Grolka: Damage, 9 points.
Pilchard: 10 electrical Witch Bolting damage on my turn!
Plummet: More missile-ling on my turn for 12 points!
Luce: I shortsword and dagger. Both miss. Then I Bonus Act to Disengage and move away from these tentacles!
Dungeon Master: You elude them. The golem returns to attacking its orc opponent! Two hits! 13 of bludgeoning, 7 of acid.
Grolka: I announce that some healing would improve my ability to continue living.
Rouge: My shortbow attack misses.
Helsa: I move up to cure the wounds of an orc, then move back to remain unreached by tentacles. 13 of healing, Grolka.
Dungeon Master: A new round again.
Grolka: A miss with my axe.
Pilchard: Only 6 points from my Witch Bolt.
Plummet: I cast a Magic Missile of second level to do an extra missile. 16 point of damaging!
Dungeon Master: The golem is destroyed! 300 experience points each! Bingly can have 100 experience points for Persuading a ghost and learning ghostly things about it.
Pilchard: Only another fight or two and I will be level 4.
Plummet: Maybe 2 or 3 fights for me.
Grolka: Probably 3 for me.
Luce: I don't know how much is needed to increase in level.
Dungeon Master: For level 4, 2700.
Luce: Oh good! That seems soon!
Dungeon Master: Also soon-seeming, I think, is bedtime. The Dungeon Master calls adjournment. Next session, probably, it's the end of this creepy tower dungeon!
Pilchard: It's been less creepy than my expectings, once we arrived inside.
Plummet: Don't jinx us!
Dungeon Master: Possibly I should imagine creepier happenings for next time. We will see!
Bingly: Thank you for such a fun game, Dungeon Master!
Luce: Yes! I'm enjoying it very much!