We’ve been playing a Primeval Thule D&D 5E campaign recently. We escaped from slavers, and have been exploring the wilderness whilst attempting to find a home for us and the other escapees that accompany us. In the Stone Barrens, we discovered a number of towers. We are currently exploring one of the largest of them…

In one of the Towers of the Stone Barrens, we found a red, tricorn hat, that looked like it was made of some sort of lizard skin, perhaps that of a red alligator; a name tag proclaimed it the property of Urvail Tradoll. Or possibly the hat was named Urvail Tradoll. We also found a fallen painting of a white city with an impossibly narrow wall surrounding it, with many towers and a great lightning-globe shooting electricity to the top of each tower; sky ships filled the sky. Halla took the cloak, and Leon took the hat.

While Leon and Urall were squabbling over the hat, Bree started exploring more of the tower, and discovered a kitchen with all the latest Atlantean amenities – or at least, they would have been when the tower was abandoned, and they were far more advanced than anything we had these days.

The bedroom contained an evil black tree with green leaves. A large knot-hole shaped like a screaming face produced from its bark; we quickly closed the door and left the cursed chamber.

Upstairs, the top floor contained only one huge room; the ceiling was particularly odd, seeming to be made of earth, while the stone floor had black markings (“spell things” was Urall’s expert opinion). Various arcs and circles and notations in High Atlantean, covered by a thick layer of dust, were inscribed into the floor. The entire room showed signs of an ancient battle: blood, soot, and the like. Scroll racks filled a great arc of the wall, and Urall immediately approached them, looking for any that might have survived the conflict.

A small door on the far side of the chamber behind an overturned table drew the attention of the others as I checked behind us for anyone who might be following. A strange shifting in the dust near Urall resolved into a ghostly form that struck him down. This drew the attention of Halla, who shouted out about glowing eyes, and we charged to defend our comrade.

The creature remained invisible for the fight, and our blows had little effect. Urall was dropped down, more than once, with only Bree’s healing keeping him going. We may have slain it, but we weren’t sure of this; it may have fled.

Urall then found a few scrolls in the racks, and a four-foot-high statue of a female with cupped hands held out. Near and under the table were a scattering of pages.

Bree climbed up a set of small stairs to the exterior of the domed tower, where he found a peryton near a cistern. He quickly retreated.

One of the papers proved to be a map of our immediate area, showing the Kurmaur Wilds. We studied it in some detail before resting.

My rest was disturbed by nightmares of walking trees of demonic aspect. Both Leon and I proved to have had such dreams, and we were much disturbed upon waking.

The next morning, I expressed my desire to leave this cursed place. The others decided they wanted to destroy the tree. It attacked them psychically as they attempted to burn and hack it. Blood spurted from its wounds rather than sap, and suddenly a Unicorn ran down the stairs and trampled me where I waited near the door out.

Eventually it was slain, and the group found an orb embedded in its bark that was used with the statue above to open a secret cache, where they found a note that read as follows:

“I am Urvail Travoll, last of the Sages of Atlantis. I incurred the wrath of a cult of black elves who served an elder god that appeared as a faceless sphinx with black skin. I was pursued by the cult from the Tomb of the Elven General of Agarathon and I fear what they might do.”

The note was accompanied by a holy symbol like a black sphinx, which Bree destroyed, causing a wave of negative energy to badly hurt my companions. I was safely downstairs. Safe unless you count the unicorn, which had disappeared as mysteriously as it had appeared, but I was worried about its reappearance.

We were not attacked as we made our way from the tower, and successfully made our way through the Stone Barrens and then into an unnamed forest.

There we found a very unhappy ogress, Nulla, who was sad that her suitor Thun had spurned her. For some reason, we agreed to track down Thun, and we discovered him in the company of an ettin, Ed. Ed was not impressed with our mission and attacked us. After we slew him and rendered Thun unconscious, we looted Ed’s lair (see below).

Nulla gave us her gratitude for helping Thun see the light, and gave us a golden amulet. We said our goodbyes, and hastily made our exit. Heroically.

And then we finally found the road!

This proved to be too much temptation for one of our companions, who slipped away and attempted to find passage to the slavers to betray our location. We discovered him being hidden in a wagon being driven a stone trader and his guard. They refused to give him up, so we attacked them, slaying the guard and the trader and knocking him unconscious. We then returned to our band, victorious.

The merchant, Guril, had an official order from Lord Farlin Schuntz, the titular head of Kargost, to deliver stone.

The Characters and their Players

• Halla the Barbarian (human, level 2) played by Peggy
• Urall the Sorcerer (elf, level 2) played by Paul
• Goran the Slayer (human fighter, level 2) played by Merric
• Bree the Cleric (halfling, level 2) played by Greg
• Leon the Rogue (human, level 2) played by Josh

The Treasure

• Dust of Disappearance
• Driftglobe
• Scrolls of alarm, comprehend language, illusory script, unseen servant, arcane lock, enlarge/reduce.
• Golden amulet worth 50 gold pieces.
• 3 gold pieces
• 4 horses

In Ed’s Lair:

• 20 copper pieces
• Several carvings of females with exaggerated anatomies worth a prison sentence of 10 years in any civilised centre.
• A small pyramid of human skulls, without the identifying marks we need for their bounties.