Lord-Mayor Grobaras instructed us to meet with Eliatris Dawnstalker, aka “Tris”, a paladin of Magnimar. He wanted Tris to join our party as a city representative. We met with her and introduced ourselves, then proceeded to do some shopping to prepare for our mission. After that, we went to the Dockway, and got dinner from the open market.
After dinner, we headed to the Underbridge area. As we looked out over the sea, we could see the pylons that once held up the Irespan. Tris explained that each pylon had a name based on the carvings that adorned it. One of the pylons closest to our location was The Gecko, which was covered with carvings of lizards.
We noticed that many of the roads in this district were missing most of their cobblestones. We soon saw three children who were in the process of prying up a cobblestone, but we left them alone. After we turned a corner and the children were no longer in sight, we heard them singing the “Mumble Mumble Scarecrow” song, but when we looked back for the children, they were gone.
An old seaman whose breath smelled of alcohol ran into Tris as he stumbled by, and warned us not to go the way we were headed. He also begged for some coins for his “midnight milk”. Devin tossed him three copper pieces, and in return the man warned us that some Hellknights were presently conducting a raid on a warehouse up ahead. Ash scouted ahead and confirmed this to be true, so we took a different route, down a dark alley. In this alley, we were attacked by three shriezyxes, which are large spider-like creatures. We killed two of them, and the third one ran off frightened when Gulnyr caused his sword to become flaming. After the fight, Devin tried to use the wand of Cure Light Wounds that we had taken from Judge Ironbriar, but it did not work because it was powered by the god Norborger.
We arrived at the Shadowclock to find that its doorway had been boarded up, but the boards had been pushed aside. A sign in front read “Beware the dangerous stairs”. Tris detected the presence of evil beyond the entrance. We entered the building; the inside at ground level was a tall room, several storeys high, with rickety stairs spiraling upwards against the wall. We could see four large bells suspended from the ceiling high above us. On the ground was a wagon, and some heaps of plaster. A scarecrow emerged from the plaster to attack us, and we killed it. It was armed with a scythe, and was wearing a Cloak of Elvenkind, which Ash chose to keep. Underneath the wagon we found a moldy leather sack containing a silver ring, a silver mirror, and some coins.
We began climbing up the stairs. Ash scouted ahead, while the rest of us followed far behind; we stayed spread out enough not to put too much weight on any one part of the stairs. Suddenly, one of the bells dropped, injuring Tris, and smashing an eight-foot gap in the stairs. Gulnyr and Tris had to use rope to cross the gap to continue the climb. When Ash reached the topmost platform beneath the bells, and the rest of us were fairly close behind on the stairs, we were attacked by three faceless stalkers. They had crossbow-like devices that fired ropes that they could slide along to reach us. Unlike the faceless stalkers we had fought in Aldern Foxglove’s apartment, slashing weapons were more effective against them than bludgeoning ones. After killing them, we followed the platform to the outside of the tower, where the stairs continued around the outer wall, and then back into the tower at a higher level.
We came to a small square room containing a cabinet with a messenger raven inside. Beyond this was another room filled with clockwork. From here, we climbed some more stairs that went outside the building again, and then onto the roof.
On the roof, we saw an onyx statue of an angel. Beneath this, under an overhang, was a nest of cushions and silk sheets, and among these were seven chests. Suddenly, a winged demonic or devilish creature swooped in as though to attack us, but we realized that it was an illusion. Then Xanesha, a lamia who had been waiting nearby while invisible, appeared and attacked Gulnyr as he moved forward to explore the roof further. She was also under the effect of a Mirror Image spell. We fought her, but as she was able to climb around the walls of the building, while we were having trouble moving due the unevenness of the roof’s terrain, we were at somewhat of a disadvantage. She was also wearing a Medusa Mask, which at one point she used to attempt to turn Tris to stone.
Eventually, Xanesha managed to push Ash off of the roof, and she fell to the ground below. At this point, Devin was nearly out of spells and had no more uses of Channel Energy left, so he ran down the stairs to try to tend to her, leaving Gulnyr and Tris to fight Xanesha alone. When Xanesha was almost dead, she threw herself off of the roof, using Feather Fall to glide down slowly.
When Devin got to Ash, he found her unconscious, and used Rebuke Death to revive her. Just at that moment, Xanesha landed nearby. Ash tried to attack her, but missed, and fell prone. Meanwhile, Gulnyr hurled himself off of the roof and onto Xanesha. Then, Devin delivered the final blow that killed her.
Xanesha had in her possession a +1 longspear called “Impaler of Thorns”, which can cause a despair effect on the wielder’s enemies. She also had the aforementioned Medusa Mask, a sihedron medallion, and a snakeskin tunic. We also looted the chests in her rooftop nest, and found a number of coins and gems of various types, four potions, a kukri, a ring, a scarab gem, and a letter.
After reporting back to Lord-Mayor Grobaras, he rewarded us with a total of 18,000 gold pices.