Now With Exactly the Same Amount of Thursday
Last week the party decided that the tunnels beneath the hippogriff plateau were entirely too dangerous to continue exploring. Instead, they wandered off in a completely different direction, as per usual. They sought out a quaint hut in the middle of nowhere that Garruk had told them contained a necromancer. Along the way, they had a surprisingly long conversation about the ethics of necromancy and the various... services... undead could perform. I don't know why. When they found the hut, the skulked about for a while and discovered its inhabitant was a friendly looking woman. Naturally, they (mostly) stopped talking about burning the house down and instead knocked on the door like the polite murderous adventurers they are.
Through a pleasant conversation, the party learned that the woman was named Ysmerelda. She was the former apprentice of a powerful necromancer named Zedar who had a grudge against the Rite of Maturity after failing it. She was also definitely evil. The party decided to leave her alive, focusing instead on taking down the mysterious Zedar. They deduced that he was probably the cause of the mighty wizard's tower that Garruk had told them he was going to attempt to destroy. After receiving the antidote to the poison Ysmerelda had used on them, they set off to slay a wizard. But first, they grabbed Deekin, their friendly wizard buddy, to even the playing field. (As a bonus, they finally discovered which protective spell Deekin had been using every time Krunch hugged him.)
The wizard's tower was an imposing sight, standing some six stories tall. It was surrounded by a moat, and even more sinisterly, magical traps that nearly caught Clockwork as he ran up to investigate the tower. Naturally, the party came very close to turning around and leaving immediately. However, bravery (and the desire for sweet wizard loot) prevailed over rationality, and they kept a watch on the tower. That night, Garruk joined them, and together they came up with a plan to gain access to the tower: ambush a mercenary troop that left the tower each night to collect water, steal their uniforms, and walk into the tower dressed as the mercenaries. Their pantaloon pilfering plot prevailed, providing plentiful props for their prevarication. Show up this week to find out what happens as they approach the terrible tower...