M.A.G.U.S. adventures - the road to level 3

The wizard's tower

Introduction

The adventurers were partying in a local tavern as usual, when their next adventure found them in the person of a mysterious wizard. He told us about some kind of trouble in his nearby tower, which he cannot solve right now, and offered a substantial reward for the adventurers to take care of. Now, any sane man would sent him off to hell - but we were adventurers, so what's the worst thing that could happen, right? His summary description mentioned a string of challenges to be solved, a kind of puzzle designed for apprentice wizards. This would grant us access to the tower, and the possibility to investigate the problems.

So we got to the tower, passed through a wall, and found ourselves in a round chamber. Many doors opened from the chamber, each marked with different symbols and inscriptions. So why does the team need a knight with basic training in high magic? So he can deduct that the passages each lead to a puzzle in a certain area of high magic. These were to be our challenges.

By the way, a new member was added to the team. A waiter, eager to become an adventurer, joined us in the tavern. We were happy to accept him - someone needs to go in front and absorb the traps, after all.

First challenge - elemental magic

We entered through a random door. The hall bore the inscription: "Gallery". In the four corners, there were four elementals, isolated in their own mini-realm: fire, water, air and ground. We spent some time experimenting, until we found out what they like and dislike. The fire elemental immediately made a move on living tissue entering its realm. The earth elemental tore my cloak to shreds when I used it as a fan on it. The funniest moment was the waiter entering the air elemental's corner. All of his metal objects immediately rusted, including all weapons!
Armed with such knowledge, we headed towards the exit and ploughed through the challenges without much difficulty. Well, almost. The firemage extinguished a huge flame wall. We crossed an icy pool by raising our body temperature with Psi (except the waiter, who used ropes and pitons to climb the walls instead). High order mathematics helped us compute the exact sequence of the spikes coming out of the walls in the earthen corridor. We illuminated our path with torches in a totally empty room, while an unknown entity - perhaps a demon - was lurking at the edge of the light.
After all this, feeling very content with our progress, we crossed the last threshold - and found ourselves in the original round room. A faint glow on the symbol above the door signaled the completion of the elemental challenge. Just great. Do we have to solve ALL of this?

Pause

This adventure was followed by a one-year-long pause (or was it more?). We could no longer count on the waiter boy (who turned out to be a cleric of a night god), as the player was no longer in town. The three of us continued to unravel the mysteries of the tower.

Second challenge - necromancy

We remembered quite well the frustration caused by all the puzzles, so we went somewhere were we hoped to engage in some combat, as well. We got what we came for - but of course, not the way we wanted.

In the necromancy gallery, a number of undead were standing around, each in its own runic circle. Aegon and Phempheus sat down to play chess with a mummy (which seemed a good idea at the time), while I took the time to look around. I got a bad feeling when the lich offered me to save my life in exchange for his freedom. Then I started feeling sick. In a few moments, I managed to faint, with the cause immediately apparent. The werewolf spirit escaped its runic circle, and possessed me!

My friends tried to tie me up, and I also got a dose of sleeping poison, but the transformation was too quick, and combat was upon us. I rolled very, very well playing the werewolf. The firemage barely managed to hold me up. The warlock went to ask the lich for help. He got out of his circle, then started casting a dark spell that hurt all of us. This was getting better and better. Finally, Aegon picked up the silver sword next to the werewolf's runic circle. He attacked me from behind, causing enough damage to knock me out. 

So far, this seemed to be going well. We didn't even get past the gallery, and already my armor was ruined due to the transformation (I tied it up using some rope, heh). The werewolf spirit was exorcised, but it escaped. According to the description, it will take one month before it becomes strong to possess someone again. The lich simply blew up half a wall, and walked out of the tower.

After recovering, we pressed on. We killed some zombies (finally! honest combat), we chopped up another one and threw its parts through a grating to activate a trapped tile. We had a jolly good time, and then we got back to the round room.

Third challenge - sympathetic magic 

I hope I got that right. It's magic based on the link between similar objects.

Anyway, choosing this challenge proved to be our biggest mistake. 

We realized in the gallery that you link different object through magic: if you extinguish the candle, the stick discharges electricity and knocks out the warlock. Yay. On to the challenges.

First task: a nail half-hammered into a door, a haft and a stack of hammerheads. I picked up the haft and tried to fit it into some hammerheads. The first one electrocuted me. The second one burned me.  The third one got me a frostbite. Oh well, a knight can take it. The fourth puts a spike through my palm. The fifth crushes my fingers. There goes my right hand. Phempheus manages to get it right with the next, and hammers in the nail. We move forward.

We see a long corridor, overgrown with spiky vines. The firemage deliberates on how to put it to fire. The warlock is still out. I try to go in, hoping that my armor will protect me. The vines start moving. I protect my face with an arm, but a vine slips past, with a spike stopping at a hair's breadth from my eye. I pass out from the pain. Phempheus pulls me out, and takes out the spike. 1 more on that die, and there goes my eye. Then he puts the corridor to flame, and we move on after recovering.

After that, we had quite enough of the challenges, so we check whether we can move on. We can. Yay!

The mystery of the tower

We have successfully deduced that the tower was damaged by an earthquake. It damaged the runic circle of the werewolf, enabling it to escape. As we climbed ever higher, it became apparent that it was part of a targeted attack (top investigation skills! also, burned corpses). Soon, we became targets ourselves, as we were greeted by a fireball on the next floor. All our equipment burned, my rope-held armor fell to pieces, and we were damaged ourselves. No matter, we can sit down and meditate. We get another fireball. OK, no sitting down anymore.

Finally, we got to the living quarters, were we found two dudes just sitting there, looking at a wall inscribed with runes, their faces expressionless. Phempheus was unaffected by the runes due to his superior willpower, and he walked into the room, covering up the runes. Immediately, the dudes jumped up and started attacking.

We fought desperately. I swung my sword left-handed, to little success. Not to mention that I was also affected by the runes, engulfed by both abject fear and the desire to kill. This was also making our opponents fight ferociously. In our weakened state, it looked like we would perish. Still, we managed to hold on until the effects wore off, and we soon ended the pointless fight.

Soon, we got the two dudes talking. They realized that an attacker altered the tower's defensive systems, making them turn against the inhabitants (and us). They created the runes on the wall as a form of defense of their own, with the tower unable to detect them in their mindless state. We proceeded together to the final floor, where we disabled the defenses. Mission accomplished!

Rewards

We found out that our employer was living in the tower, and that he was the only one to successfully escape by teleportation during the attack. As we had suspected, he was a powerful wizard. As our just reward, we each got magic items. Phempheus got a gauntlet that enabled him to draw more mana from fire; my new armor was self-donning as well as self-repairing. Aegon, like all warlocks, only wanted more knowledge - he got training in gem magic instead. Besides, we had our employers funds and extensive network of acquaintances at our disposal for whatever training we desired. This is how you get a knight with 95% danger sense!