Stairs of Impracticality

In the previous session of Strange Aeons we found the main tower in the city of Neruzavin, and headed inside to see what was there. It turns out that the answer is more infected undead, these ones being servants of Count Lowles. This was quite a combat heavy session, complicated by movement up and down the stairs which seriously hampered my characters Costian and Catiana. Catiana, being a Phantom, is restricted in how far she can be from her Spiritualist, and since she can’t fly (unless she’s incorporeal), she had to follow the stairs. We sat most of the combat out.

We headed into the tower, where before us were three stairs. They twisted around each other, and didn’t follow any consistent geometry – they varied in steepness and direction randomly, and in some places were more like ladders.

They all vanished into hexagonal holes in the walls far above, and there were strange organic etchings and cavities around the walls.

Voices drifted down from above, and we heard the sound of movement and spell casting.

They can’t come in… They can… They have the name… It’s not one of us… But it’s not one of them… What shall we do?… Be careful my love…

The mutterings from above.

As we decide what to do, a humanoid drops down from above and lands on the nearest set of stairs, throwing an axe at Sheena. I haste everyone, and Catiana runs up the stairs towards the axe thrower, but he dodges. Ray throws a snowball at him, and Gregor kills him with arrows – whereupon his body bursts open in a cloud of spores, covering Catiana but she manages to hold her breath.

More of them can be heard moving around up top, and Catiana tries to run up the stairs but they become too steep, and suddenly drop off downwards tumbling her to the bottom – stretching thin the cord that binds us both together, forcing me to do everything I can to concentrate on keeping her on this plane.

There is fighting up and down the stairs, and fireballs and ice storms are thrown at us. By the time Catiana has made her way back to me, most of the fight is over. Erasmus struggles back, almost dead, and I manage to heal him.

After the fight, there are some muffled cries from above, so Ray flies up to investigate. The middle stairs goes into a corridor, and there is a man bound and gagged. Just beyond him is a circular, cylindrical room which goes up. To be safe, Ray rolls the man into the room before untying him, but he immediately ‘falls’ upwards towards the ceiling. There is the sound of muffled cursing.

Apparently the chamber had a reversed gravitational field, so when we all went up to it, we were careful to make sure that everyone was flying or levitating.

At the ‘top/bottom’ of the cylinder, we found ourselves looking out at another room which was now upside down according to us (so the right way up compared to the ground floor). As Ray edged into the room, a dark shadow on the far side started to stir.