We had no idea when we set out for Durlag’s Tower it would prove to be such a huge thing. Honestly, searching a great old ruin for a dagger seemed a little silly. It proved to be a good thing we did it.
The ruins are over a day’s travel from any town. When we arrived it was a grey drizzly sort of afternoon. The ruin seemed almost inviting.
In the end, the clan was destroyed. The tower stands haunted and trapped. Neither is hyperbole. We entered the ground floor, a small tour group was forming up.
Minsc has to be a fun audience for Ike. Imoen maybe less so?
We learned this “tour” would only cover the ground floor and one above it. There were two more floors above that Ike did not reckon were “safe”. Plus a cellar, and hidden floors below that… all “not safe”.
Later, I was chatting with Ike about the need for specific rune stones to get past many doorways.
When a demon knight teleported in amongst us. He was not amused by tours of his home. He started casting and I yelled for everyone to take cover.
I told the survivors to leave or STAY PUT. While we set out to explore the ancient tower. We came here to find a dagger, and no psychotic demon will stand in our way! Silly, right?
From the center of the tower there were stairs heading up and down. We decided to work our way up first, then if need be, we would head down. The first couple floors were mostly deserted. We encountered a thief poking around, looking at old chests that might need opening.
On the next floor we encountered an old mage, he seemed to think I was Durlag?
We battled with his shade… or ghost? Something.
The top floor seemed cleaner? More lived in. I heard a woman humming and the splashing of water. I directed the men and Dyna to stay put! While Jaheira, Imoen and I took a look.
She was furious at being discovered by *women*. We fought, she lost. Unfortunately, I think slaying the demon freed her of this imprisonment.
A couple of tricky fights, but that seemed to have cleared the upper levels. We had little choice now but to head down. At first it seemed downstairs was just a celler. There were some undead, ghasts. Nothing we haven’t fought before. After destroying the undead we found a thief hiding among some old crates. By his age and gear he looked veteren enough, but he was rattled, shaking.
He said there were traps all over, like the traps were trapped. And the tower is not dead, there is life or unlife all over.
We learned some of his friends still lived down below. But not for long. He was sure they would all be dead soon. I asked if Dalton from Ulgoth’s Beard was among them, he said yes. Maybe if we hurry his mother will no longer mourn.
It is hard to explain what all we found as we explored deeper. But Durlag’s Tower was just the top of a residential community, dug into the ground as Dwarves do. The next two floors in particular looked finished, civilized. But there were indeed traps at every turn. Imoen worked harder than any of us. There were also a few fights. Dopplegangers again, impersonating Durlag’s late family. And large spiders. Undead.
In dining halls and libraries, bedrooms, storerooms.
In one bedroom was a real boon to us.
As I’m still on point it was agreed I would wear it. I passed the Ankheg plate armor to Jaheira. We also found a highly enchanted sling, that Dyna would use.
Moving on to lower levels required solving puzzle traps, this was a whole team effort. More than just the mechanical traps Imoen excells at removing.
The next sub-level down was more unusual. We couldn’t even be sure what it might have once been meant for. But to us, it was more traps and more fighting.
By the next level down it seemed we were reaching an end of some sort.
My guess is no. But such spirits are weird, and this place is very weird.
We fought a lot more undead. Parts of this level we covered in acidic slime. And we needed to answer riddles about Durlag’s family tragedy here. Finally, we came to the evil at the heart of this place.
We slew the fiend. We found the lost Dalton and one other member of his expedition still alive and hiding out down here. We also found the demon knight had the Soultaker dagger we had set out to find.
We left this haunted place, happy to see the sun as we got clear. We stopped by the Friendly Arm Inn before heading up to Ulgoth’s Beard, and enjoyed a night to rest up. It was about a full day’s travel up to Ulgoth’s Beard from here. We would be happy to return that cursed dagger.
I had just taken out the dagger out when we were attacked. One of the attackers swiped the dagger from my hands and teleported away. A half dozen of them remained behind and kept us busy for a few minutes.
We rushed over to the inn where Hurgon Stoneblade was staying. We reported what had just happened, he said the dagger held an imprisoned demon. We needed to find it before he could be freed.
As we discussed what to do we walked over to Dalton’s mother’s house to let her know her son still lived. We delivered the news, and noticed a nearby house had a posted guard, wearing the same colors as those that attacked us. Well that was easy…
Except it wasn’t. We had to battle a number of cultists just to enter the large home, and another large number of them inside. Then we could hear a dark summoning ritual of some sort coming from the basement.
We were just too late, the fiend was out.
But our teamwork was effective. We were always able to cover when one of us needed to pull back. And we wore the fiend down. Finally, all was quiet.
We dragged ourselves back over to the inn.
*****
That last big fight in Ulgoth’s Beard is one I’ve long considered the most difficult in the game. For the level the team is at, it may be the hardest fight in any IE game. So I always count it as a big win getting past it. Bonus, this team won it on their first try.
I feel good about where this team is currently at. Very effective.
Durlag’s Tower brought the last levels for the main campaign. Brademante and Amyntor are now 8th Level Paladins. Minsc is an 8th level Ranger. Jaheira is a 7th level Fighter and 9th level Druid. Dyna is a 9th level Mage and Imoen is a 10th level Thief.
They are now solidly a mid-level team with good equipment. Very effective as a local power. Now they will have to prove it.
New armor is always a funny thing to me, the way it is abstracted to one degree or another in most CRPGs. In PnP, as a DM I always ruled that within some broad categories armor could be traded between individuals with a trip to an armorer to make adjustments. The broad categories were about SIZE. So generally armor was listed by race, gender and strength. Then could be modified cheaply if you matched all three, or more expensively the farther you strayed.
But magic armor was different. It could generally size itself to fit individuals who were already similar sized, but would also need help if they were further apart.
Eh, to me it made the world feel more real.
I’ve never seen a computer game fuss with any of this.
DavesGaming 
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