I want to say hot garbage, but that would be a gross understatement. Maybe…

Congealing conglomerations of discarded food from several ethnically diverse restaurants, baking under a summer, desert sun near a road where a hungover construction crew laying fresh asphalt, sweats profusely and vomits last night's whiskey, beer, and nachos. And then, as you turn away from the whole gods-damned mess before your own roiling stomach releases its contents someone farts in your face. Yeah, on the outside the Gnolls smell of acrid body odor and rotten fish, but once you start spilling blood and viscera then you start to get to the really offensive smells.

There might also be a hint of something like oranges in there, but that's only if you rupture their liver. I'm pretty sure its the liver, and that bonus aroma doesn't stick around too long before it gets buried by the other smells. Its almost as if the smell were meant as a deterrent from being eaten by large predators. Only after wading through a sea of Gnoll funk would I rather fight a dozen Wyvern over a tribe of the cackling, anthropomorphic hyenas.

And since we didn't have the numbers to scour the entire encampment surrounding the tower, we simply carve a bloody path up to the massive double doors, inching the vardo closer to them. The Gnolls, though unafraid of taking over the rest of the area, were still wary of the moss laden, dark grey tower overflowing with eldritch energy and gave it a wide berth.

The Kobolds and Scouts with their bows form a half circle perimeter around me and Sarnus jumps down to join me as we check out the fifteen foot tall, dark wood door. Dark iron rings larger than dinner plates act as door handles and a keyhole in the shape of a sea urchin sits just off center on the right door.

There weren't even signs of any attempted entry through the unsurprisingly unlocked doors. Since the key is sitting in our possession and who knows where before that, Dez didn't have any means of locking up behind him. I take a peak with Arcane Sight and the whole doorway including about a foot of the stone frame around it erupts in an almost blinding aura of mana. The energy the doors exude is most likely something meant to protect it against magic so Dez probably wouldn't have been able to set up his own barrier of some kind to keep anyone else from waltzing right in.

I push one door open and it moves with great ease, an action belying its great size and probable weight, and the other swings in just as smoothly. The sound of weapons firing and target calling goes off behind me and I order everyone inside. I let off a Hellbent Roar, startling the encroaching Gnolls long enough for me to slip in behind the others and Plisk helps me close up. I use the key to lock the doors from the inside and receive several prompts.

[Arcane Lock III activated!]

[Reinforce Barrier III activated!]

[Zone of Temporal Disruption II activated!]

[Alarm II activated!]

A flurry of colors flash across both doors like the surface of a soap bubble. The sounds of dozens of locks clicking and clunking into place echoes throughout the entryway. I use my senses to sweep the immediate area and the only thing I find is the green scent trail leading off to what I believe is the place where the players are being kept. Before I can give out orders, another notification pops into view.

[The owner of the location,Tower of Archaic Secrets, is no longer available to defend the rights of its title. No record of an heir in the case of such an event has been made so Tower of Archaic Secrets returns to Status: Unclaimed. As the holder of the Key of Secrets, you may claim this building and its surrounding property as your own. Would you like to lay claim to Tower of Archaic Secrets Y/N?]

I choose no, unsure of what the ramifications would be. If I chose yes, and for some reason the tower resets to a kind of default setting or something, then who knows what would happen to the players.

[A 24hour time limit for a claim will be imposed as long as you, the wielder of the Key of Secrets, are within the confines of the building. Once you leave, you will have 5minutes to return and claim the Tower of Archaic Secrets otherwise the building and everything inside its confines will reduce themselves to 0Durability.

[Time Remaining: 00:23:59:07]

The Quest updated to show we found the place (as if we hadn’t have noticed), but it also gave us the total number of prisoners (0/6 prisoners). Nothing else important seemed to change .

[Major Quest: A Hole in the Ground II

[Dez Driftwood has hinted that he has imprisoned a group of Travelers. Search the Tower of Archaic Secrets for their location. 0/1 holding area discovered, 0/6 Travlers rescued. Time Limit: 00:03:07:17]

[Reward: 3000XP, ???

[Bonus: 1500XP, 1*Knight Chest per Traveler rescued safely.

[Failure: More than 3 Travelers die during the rescue: -10,000XP, ???]

Well, I’m not sure what would constitute them being rescued, but three hours seems like a lot of spare time to do it. This makes me nervous, but I tell myself that if we can get them into the vardo then that should be considered a safe zone, especially with all of the modifications we’ve made. We also have a whole day to consider what to do with the tower itself.

I guess this gives us time to sleep on it and we can continue house-hunting. I mean, there was that lovely townhouse owned by that delightful Faunus couple. A few scratches here and there on the oak wood floors and maybe a pee stain here and there, but nothing a little elbow grease and a cantrip can't fix...

"Sir?" Conner's voice reaches me through my wandering thoughts and I shake my head back into the moment. I ask if something like what I imagined-- not the made-up townhouse, but the tower reset-- would happen and he just shrugs his shoulders. "Not that I'm aware of, sir, but I wouldn't be surprised. Mage towers are strange buildings. A hundred times more complex than the apartment building, for sure."

Our original idea was to park the vardo behind the doors to reinforce it, but since they've been magically bolstered we just get her turned around and ready for our later departure.

"That's strange, I can't send any orders to the girls in the sky," I muse and chalk it up to the Spells on the doors.

"Security Spells, sir," Conner adds, "Don't try to use Blink Step either. We're in a level two no port zone. That means nothing gets in or out of the building and no popping around like we normally do."

"Damn. Small price to pay, I guess." I join the others in scanning the large entryway we find ourselves in. "I'm guessing a powerful mage would prefer to swan about their home, self-agrandizing, rather than utilizing the low-class temporal magic of something like Blink Step."

"That--" Sarnus says while readying a crossbow bolt, "--and they probably don't want rogues porting in; Ganking their stuff or trying to Assassinate their boney butts."

"Fair point."

I cock my head at the moldy wooden torches affixed to sconces on the walls. Though they burned the regular hues of red, orange, and yellow there is a feint aura of neon green surronding the wooden part incased in the flickering flames. I observe them for a moment and notice that there's no sign of soot or ash anywhere on the flagstone wall or mosaic floor. Bits of black rocks take over most of the ground, while splashes of sickly green and mana blue stones intrude like sudden brush strokes. If I wasn't standing still, I wouldn't have noticed the streak of blue at my feet ebbing slowly to my right as if the very ground was shifting and swirling around like clouds in the sky. That's also when I notice that we're not standing directly on the rocks, but on some kind of invisible barrier.

The others also notice, the Kobolds hissing in wonder and Sarnus dropping to a knee to inspect it closer. "Plaguerine … skydalite… midnight obisidan. Nothing too rare, but to have so much just to use as decoration is just obscene. And there's so much of the obsidian, wasted I think. In whole pieces the size of a hand they'd be used as staff components, perfect for shadow Spells."

Jahda cocks an eye ridge, “I think this person has good taste.”

”Yeah,” Sarnas replies, “But he’s probably the asshole that spawned the Wraith so forgive me for disagreeing with his aesthetic preferences.”

”Men with excessive wealth and power are always into the strangest things. Why, one of my clients couldn’t go three days without begging me to wear spurred boots and force him to wear a—“

I silence the two with a look, though now I’m curious what her patron wanted. I’ll have to inquire later. Sarnas stands while shaking his head at Jahda and I summon my Dark Whisp and Stalker Queen while motioning the others to gather around us.

"Come on, we can admire the palace later. Plisk, Sarnus, and Blue will keep an eye on the entryway. Make sure nothing and no one gets too close to the vardo. I don't think they'd be able to get out without the key or drive the vehicle without the command words, but I don't want anyone trying to get any funny ideas. Milli, take Jahda and your team up floor by floor and make sure we don't have company hiding anywhere. We can always loot the place later as long as we're alive to do it. Meet anything too big, fall back to the vardo and let us know. Conner and Faye, you're with me."

I take a sniff of the air and strengthen the green trail leading deeper into the tower.

"We're going to raid the basement."

From the rather expansive entryway, there are three ways for people to head. Hugging the left and winding its way up the tower's many stories is a set of wooden stairs wide enough for people to comfortably pass by on either side. Also on the left is what looks to be some sort of great room with a large hearth decorated with black velvet furniture, torn tapestries of magic circles where the line thickness ranged from playing card width to pinstripe, and shelves full of nothing but dust. This room doesn't seem to connect to anywhere else and we all left it as it was, Milli in the lead as her team stalks up the stairway.

The third doorway looks to be where a kitchen would be found if the owner didn't become some undead servant of darkness that subsisted on the pain and misery of the living and drank of the ethereal mist of the cosmos. The last squatters, however, did leave behind crates of random stuff all over the place that we had no intention of going through at the moment.

Two more doorways branch from here. One goes to the servant's quarters complete with four cots in a corner; a shallow, square pit with a drain in the center in the opposite corner; and a few ransacked trunks near the doorway. The second doorway has another winding, stone stairway wide enough for two people to uncomfortably squeeze by each other. This is where the scent trail is taking us. I lead with Conner in the middle and Faye floating behind, her softly glowing form barely lighting the steps below her let alone the walls. After going down what feels like a couple of floors, we can hear a tired and frustrated arguement. We creep along slowly, a Spell Division touched Body of Smoke ready to deploy in my left hand.

"Come on, guys. Alls I'm asking for is some loyalty," a familiar, whiny voice pleads. "You gave it to Dez and I'm practically his second in command!"

A hoarse, exasperated, and angry voice calls out from what sounds like a great distance, "And we told you to go fuck yourself! We're never going to catch up to the others now and it's all your fault!"

"My fault? It was Patrick's fault! He's the one who told Dez about--"

"Just shut up and get us out of here!" a shrill, female's voice sounds, on the verge of tears. "You said if I had sex with you you'd let me go! You fucking liar!"

"I did let you go… let you go back in the pit! Not my fault you're such a slut!" Raucous laughter is countered by groaning, profane screaming, and vicious threats. "Now, now--"

A flash of light and pained screaming stops us in our tracks. After a few moments the smell of burning hair and seering flesh hits my nose hard and the sound of suffering fills the stairway. We press forward.

"-- Once my minions learn to behave, I'll consider throwing them some scraps. Maybe some of that Vile Crawler meat you all like so much." More cackling follows this proposal.

With only a few steps before the landing I send the notification to Conner to accept Body of Smoke. After training together for a while with it, he already knows what I plan to do after I cast it and he nods. All three of us poof out of our physical forms, taking on our basic silohuettes that are filled in with roiling, storm-cloud colored smoke. The other two slink carefully to the right edge, behind more crates and low tables. Conner positions himself behind a large clay pot, a thin crack running from lid to floor, while Faye continues to the room's twelve o' clock spot. My own cloudy form also moves unnoticed by the lone figure in the cavernous basement. The other voices must be the trapped players somewhere in the pit in the center of the room.

Black robes with neon green sigils burning eerily bright across the back hang loose on the Fizzet's presumably gaunt figure. The bottom of the robe bunches on the ground, the robe obviously meant for a much taller, and more imposing figure. His right hand grasps an ash grey, wooden staff with three, large soda bottle sized fragments of wine-red crystals orbiting lazily around the tip. As he gestures with the staff, the crystals continue their path around the staff unmolested.

"Or maybe you can suck on another one of my balls?" Without waiting for a response one of the crystals flashes with red and yellow lights. "Fire Bolt!"

He launches the destructive orb into the pit at a shallow angle, the sound of a minor explosion, rock cracking, and startled cries echoes wildly followed by maniacal laughter.

I give my summon a mental command and she appears from her hiding spot directly in front of him and across the room. She launches a Shadow Bolt at him mid cackle, almost catching him unaware. With his staff tip still outstretched he shouts the words of power to summon the Arcance Shield. The lens only covers his front so the arrow flying in from the side buries itself under his armpit.

Not able to Blink Step, I dismiss my smoke form for my sprint at William from the rear. Before he can utter a single word I wrap an arm around his neck, crushing his windpipe with my forearm and driving my other arm's claws deep into his floating ribs. The damage this and the recent arrow strike deals is overwhelming and William's body falls limp in my arms. The little bit of extra Strength I get from my Prismatic Mask helps me from losing balance, but I have to drop the extra weight to the ground like a sack of laundry. I contemplate ending the insufferable rat man's life again and shake my head to myself, not knowing where he'll respawn.

"Conner, keep an eye on him please? Faye, can you scan the room for anything of interest?"

I lean over the edge and the need for caution is somewhat diminished. A web of metal bars spans the seven foot wide opening, though the hole itself seems to double in size on the way down past the bars. Though four magical torches in sconces sit a few feet below the grate their light barely touches the bodies sitting a couple dozen feet lower.

"You all alright down there?" I knew it was a stupid question as the words spill out without consideration.

“Fuck you, man, just get us out of here,” the hoarse voice growls back. A short, muscular male steps into the center, trying to peer up at me.

I can hear the woman whispering to another person, asking who I am and it just leads to them arguing about the importance of such knowledge instead of whether I intend to help them or not. They carry on in frustrated, hushed tones as Faye hands me a key. Something catches my attention in the corner of my vision and I’m not sure if it was something in the room or my mini-radar. Nothing seems out of place and I unlock the grate with a loud echoing sound.

“About fucking time,” the gruff man grumbles, “Did you kill the idiot up there?”

”Not yet. How’d you all end up in here and not William?”

”Fuck you, man, we don’t have time for no twenty questions.” This man’s voice is panicked, words coming out in a rapid staccato.

I chuckle, “Well I do.” Surreptitiously, I check the Quest timer and do indeed see a little more than a couple hours left to go. “I just want to know a little about the people who sided with a murderous psychopath like Dez Driftwood when there was a whole world of options to choose from.”

The female’s shrill voice shoots out from the darkness, “He tricked us! Offered us power and protection and then farmed us for XP instead!”

The three who spoke up move away from the center when they finally notice the grate is unlocked and seemingly meld into the darkness, but a quick switch to Arcane Sight shows me exactly where they are. There are three other males sitting on the floor and I see them get nudged to their feet in the same standing position. I Scan the girl.

[Bonnie Midges. Level 19. 5/217HP, 7/288MP, 2/123SP]

She wasn’t kidding, those numbers are just awful and why are they so low? I wonder for a moment what they might be doing and figure they must be making room for a rope or something to be let down the middle so they can climb out. Just as I finish that thought a stream of grey bricks cascades from above and forms a growing pile at their feet. I look up, wondering why there isn’t a huge hole in the ceiling and chalk it up to magic. The bricks swirl around like a slow tornado, forming a spiraling, floating staircase.

From above I notice a few of them look meaningfully at each other and give the faintest of nods. Feint pulses of light from their left wrists indicate use of magic and I screw my face up in thought. What the hell was that and why does it feel so familiar?

I glance down at the bracelet on my own left wrist and the jolt of realization hits me right before an arrow finds a new home in my face. I roll away from the ledge and shout out orders over the WPL Ability. In the corner of my eye, their dots instantly switch to enemy red and I mentally chastise myself for not seeing this coming.

“Everyone, the prisoners are armed and hostile. Defensive measures only, the Quest is still active and I’m pretty sure they need to be alive when they walk out the doors.”

According to the Quest we’d be smashed with a -10,000XP punishment if three of them die. Specifically, if three or more of them die, which I wonder if it is meant to include the rat bastard. Well, he wasn’t actually a prisoner so maybe we could kill him? I certainly wasn’t going to go out of my way to save him from the others.

“Meet me at the vardo,” I tell Conner.

Faye zips ahead of us up the stairs while I snatch up Will’s staff so I can fire some warning Arcane Bolts toward the grate as cover fire. Conner trails closely behind her. If they want a fight, they’ll be ill-equipped to face us upstairs. If they want to leave, we’ll probably have to at least clear the entrance of gods know how many Gnolls are still out there. If we’re lucky, just stepping foot outside will be enough for them to be considered rescued otherwise we’re looking at a massive pain in the butt. The first escapee will just have to be our guinea pig. For now, though…

I burst out with a Hellbent Roar, almost dealing sonic damage in such an enclosed space, but the effect is worth it. No one avoided getting the Enfeebled debuff, so I wait for them to get in a little closer, dodging or simply tanking their weakened hits. Lethargic Miasma creates a hazy pink mist in a fifteen foot radius and I spew it out at the top of those stairs. With the prisoners Slowed and/or Enfeebled, the time to run like hell has come.

I tell my team of Kobolds and Jahda continue to clear the tower while I meet up with Plisk, Sarnas, and Blue in front of the door. If we need to, we can force a pincer maneuver with them coming downstairs behind the prisoners. We carefully make sure the vardo is out of the door’s way and form a half circle perimeter around it. The prisoners arrive soon after.

”Easy there,” I warn, motioning my open palms in a placating gesture, “I didn’t hurt you earlier and we’re not planning on it now. And… we’re certainly not trying to keep you here any longer than you need to be.”

”Bullshit!” One of the dual knife wielding males screams before trying to activate a Spell. This guy must be the manic speaking one from earlier. A burst of blue light later and he’s rolling on the ground, screaming and writhing in agony. There are shouts of alarm and it takes a Healing Breeze for them to even stop to give me a moment of their time.

“The tower has new defenses in place, not sure what Dez was doing while he lived here, but the previous owner had some kind of system in place that we accidentally activate.” No sense telling them about the key. They might get the wrong idea and try to stay, or worse, try to take over the place themselves. “So, um, try not to Blink Step or use any kind of teleportation Abilities out of here or risk ending up like this guy.”

A groan is the only response until the aggressive guy who responded to me first points a steel mace at me. He’s a swarthy looking dwarf with wavy, black hair tied in a messy top knot. His belly length beard is festooned with silver and bone baubles. His weapon is odd, it looks more like a ribbed baseball bat and I don’t like the way it or he is looking. He scowls at us, staring directly at me without acknowledging anyone else.

”Are we gonna have a problem if we walk out those doors?” He asks without so much as a blink.

I can see his group tighten their grips on their weapons. Aside from Mister Fancy Bat, everyone else seems to be equipped with simple weapons and no armor. Maybe they didn’t have time to equip anything else or maybe they had their gear confiscated before being tossed in the hole. I certainly wasn’t going to hand them anything on their way out. I mean, maybe if they were a little nicer in the beginning? We did have a little stash reserved in the vardo just in case.

I shake my head, “Not from us, but there’s a tribe of Gnolls out there. High teens, nothing over twenty three.”

He grins, “Great. We got a lot of catching up to do.”

I change my mind, this guy is alright. If being outside clears the Quest and the prisoners clear out front lawn then it’s definitely two birds, one stone.

My group around the vardo makes its way over to the door and I position the Stalker Queen and myself to intercept the possible wave of Gnolls with the Dark Whisp above us. My Arcane Shield manifests and I motion for the prisoners to move closer. The Scouts take up the rear guard behind my group, mainly to watch my back and after disabling the security Spells, one of the doors slides open in a gentle glide.

The door doesn’t even creak and the silence is almost unbearable.

Nothing attacks us. Nothing rushes inside. The only thing assaulting us is the powerful stench of burning, decaying Gnolls. I poke my head out and the landscape is littered with purple corpses. I don’t know how she did it, but I’m sure I’m going to hear about it for several hours later on.

”Yeah, so they’re all dead…” I say with a shrug of my shoulders.

The prisoners rush past me and my Stalker in a kind of deranged stampede, weapons waving and eyes wide. One half dead Fighter type Gnoll is laying on the ground reaching up in a feeble attempt for mercy? Last ditch attack? Diplomacy?

I’ll never know. Mister Fancy Bat’s fancy bat comes down hard in a brutal coup de gras, the thump and squelch sounds upsetting some of the weaker constitutions in his group. A quick Scan tells me his name is Louis Cardinal, and I somehow feel like it’s oddly appropriate.

”Wow, crazy, right? What the hell coulda done this? You all should scamper before it comes back!” While I speak to them, I sign for the two to withdraw back into the tower and mentally ask my summons to do the same.

Bonnie’s shrill voice streaks over at me like an ugly hornet, “Where? Aren’t you supposed to rescue us or something?”

A few yards away from us, a player’s body comes back from the dead and I thank the gods for such a lucky (for me, anyway) break. The ghostly image of William becomes more solid with each passing second and at the same time his face becomes more bewildered at the same rate. His current location and circumstances of his rebirth causing him much distress. A high pitched squeal, even shriller than Maggie’s voice is the starting pistol to a quick chase as some of the prisoners follow him down the road.

My Blink Step takes me farther than I should be able to go at Tier one, the door slams shut behind me. Before I can get the doors locked up again, angry fists pound in vain and shouts call for my blood. I shake my head at this.

The moment Louis’ mace smashed the Gnoll skull like a ripe watermelon, I was notified about the success of the Quest and decided to let the good door hit ‘em where the good Lord split ‘em. I turn the key with a resounding click, activating the magic security.

”Hey, Milli,” I call over the WPL radio, “You find any terraces or large windows or look out points?”

She gives me an affirmative, saying that the last room they checked on the fifth floor has a ladder that goes up to the roof. Perfect. And hopefully I can get some better reception. I’ve got quite a few calls and messages to send out.