We arrived in HighTower, on a magical bridge (gold brick road?). We appear 20 miles inside the border. No one ever comes from that direction. They offered to help us get closer to the capital city by letting us spend the night in their guard tower, which teleports between cities. Early in the morning, they wake us. We ditch SirKeldanHighheart. We are on a mountain, a few hours travel from the capital. It is as close as their tower comes. We can see a large city across a valley, but the slopes where we are is infested with rock trolls. LadyEvandra appears and casts mass fly, and we follow her to safety. They feed us and recognized our badges. Give us a tour. We visited a fantastical magic marketplace. We found a strange street-side carnival selling entry to see a lovely aquatic maid. We freed her. We met up at the formal dinner.
Several of us arrive by magical flight and ask where to meet LadyEvandra. Her reception desk is that way. There are even signs. And we hear a famous song of GeldarTheBard. He sounds awesome (33 perform!). We head that way, and find the concert.
PhineasTristillian gathers the party to head to dinner. GeldarTheBard is a little late (really lost in his music).
RyujiHakima's priorities:
LadyEvandra asks us how we got here, what are our powers (politically, that is). She tells us the we have not seen the last of SirKeldanHighheart. She refers to him as a HighHeart. She talks magic with GeldarTheBard. Seems dismissive of the holy casters (seems to be a cultural thing).
Discuss the Council, Elden Eldritch, and TheOverlord
LadyEvandra: You said you were going to the capital, to see our council.
She reminds us she told us they were out of session. She casts a silence spell to give us privacy. The council has become shadows of themselves. She is part of a faction that is trying to restore them. She mentions how magic has changed. She talks of how the world is a dragon egg: TheEggOfTheWorld
EldenEldritch designed the RingWell. He was awakened when magic returned to the world. She can take us to the great mage (or at least something that is like him–a facsimile). JeranSteele says he would like to see him. He made 8 versions of himself (robots), put his best in one, and his flaws in the other 7. This is the CouncilOfEight. Each of the flawed council members is now insane and associated with a SinTower.
They went to the master, but could not get in. They broke in and found EldenEldritch disabled! The front of his skull (where a third eye would be) was a cylinder. It is now missing (TheAjax). JeranSteele: But TheAjax is a person. LadyEvandra: It is a the maker of the GenesisForge. Whoever stole it is a master thief.
GeldarTheBard: Who is in charge, if the council is not? LadyEvandra: We MatronsOfHighTower.
So you are the leaders of HighTower we seek? LE: Yes, as long as the CouncilOfHighTower seeks the RingWell, we are in charge.
LE: Let me save you breath, we will not enter the war with the EldenEmpire.
JeranSteele fills her in on the TheOverlord is behind the EldenEmpire.
She does not really believe. We try to persuade.
LE: Our nations are already unsafe. Dragons are flying. They prepare the way.
PhineasTristillian mentions the invitation he got from a book seller.
LE: yes, TheEntropy. A secret society. They investigate the DominionTowers (which are malfunctioning and filled with undead).
The Dominion Towers & a History Lesson
She offers to take us to see the DominionTowers. We agree and we step through the portal she casually creates with a twist of her wrist.
He referred to the other council members as “fractals”. He put his sins into each one. He went about creating the most balanced and safe empire. We do not conquer others, we conquer questions.
The other seven fractals were not meant to be animated. They woke when TheAjax was taken, they awoke. Their purpose is to prevent TheEggOfTheWorld from hatching. She shows us images of the seven sins/fractals. Also TheMerged (the main fractal).
JeranSteele recognizes Wrath as a certain type of WarForged.
LE: But there is only one. The only way there could be copies is if the thief of TheAjax stole the plans as well. Perhaps the thief works for TheOverlord!
JeranSteele: Or is TheOverlord himself.
She takes us to the body of TheMerged. JeranSteele recognizes the empty socket as taking a data device from his culture. He interfaces RobTheBot with it. LE: It's inoperable. JeranSteele passes Rob's consciousness into the body. He inspects it, opening service hatches, etc. He does not find a power source. Where it should be, there is arcane energy, but no actual power device as he expects.
LE: It was forged in the GenesisForge. It was broken down to build the DominionTowers.
She turns and scribes the Reincarnate spell upon the air. She mentions that it is related to the creation of ChurchArcanum.
They created new life using a modified Reincarnate spell and the GenesisForge.
This is all we ever found after TheAjax was stolen: She casts a cantrip showing a single black feather (ShiftyWick).
There were black feathers in TheWhiteCity at the teleport circles.
RavenSong (a wild mage of some renown).
Each of RingWell contains a “mundane item”, a quintessential example of its magic school. Each is both here and not here (extra-dimensional).
Large magic effects could slow the growth of the child in TheEggOfTheWorld by denying it magical energy. TheEntropy have made contracts with devils in their quest to top the hatching.
TheTowerOfWrath has been unsealed by MorcanthNation. The GreyLady accidentally created the hole in TheWhiteCity.
When a tower is activated, that fractal becomes inert. JeranSteele asks to see the fractal of wrath to confirm it is inert.
She must consult with the MatronsOfHighTower.
GeldarTheBard: You opened the tower, so you have the item. LE: Yes. GTB: Can we see it? LE: Describes it like a palantyr (crystal ball/magic eight ball)–OrbOfEnvy. Its power is only limited by the user's intelligence.
GeldarTheBard: Why not use it to find RavenSong? LE: He is never where it says, and can vaporate anywhere a raven is.
She urges JeranSteele to investigate the remnants of Wrath (apparently she was talking to the other matrons on another channel?).
He checks it out and recognizes it as a handmade version of one of the models (ForgeLock) he is familiar with. He casts a spell on himself. He pulls out some raw EmberStone and tries to interface it with the ForgeLock body. The ForgeLock's eyes open, and smoke starts coming out of its eyes. He tries to stop the smoke. He unhooks his apparatus, and the smoke stops.
LadyEvandra turns and opens a portal under our feet and we land in our seats. She scolds JeranSteele for damaging the fractal. He apologizes and she reluctantly accepts.
JeranSteele produces a feather identical to the one LadyEvandra showed us (he plucks one of the feathers on his legs–long story).
LadyEvandra: We have found our question for the OrbOfEnvy (object from the Pride Tower).
She tells us about one of the DominionTowers nearby. Beware the zombies. Beware TheEntropy.
She leaves.
We decide to investigate the DominionTowers.
BillBlue is a spirit sent to help BonifaciusHolyfeather because he has liberated so many cursed souls (undead). We can see him because he can show us his straw hat (but only use?).
We head over to the nearest of the DominionTowers. I go ahead sneakily and check out the tower. I see what might be old abandoned buildings all around the tower. Very clear walls outside the tower town. Many tombs. A garden of statues. I see slow moving, humanoids shapes, moving through the roads and thin alleyways of the town. I investigate looking for a door into the tower. There are 8 gateways into the tower town which are all open, but the undead seem to be contained somehow. I fly back and report.
PhineasTristillian investigates the zombies. He thinks they are circling the tower, as if attracted. The closer to the tower, the denser the crowd. No way past them on foot. Maybe a way in through the top of the tower? He can hear clicking and whirring from the tower; some sort of active machinery.
GeldarTheBard also investigates the tower (he can fly faster, he would have you know). Halfway up he finds possible aerial entrances. He shoots some magical fireworks to attract us. The zombies converge below him and his magic use.
BonifaciusHolyfeather flies down and turns a 30 food swath of them. Destroys half of them, drives the rest away, and the tide of zombies move in to replace them.
As we fly towards the tower, the zombies move like iron filings, following our magic and life.
We arrive. The holes are draining thick oily liquid. We are actually entering through a horizontal slit 25 feet tall and at least 100 feet deep running all the way around the tower, below the holes. JeranSteele lands and the ground begins glowing under his feet. He pops back into the air. The glow quickly fades. He investigates the glow. Perfect imprint of hand (including fingerprints). Highly polished stone. He realizes that it is not a normal reflection, but reversed (left moves with right, not left). Ceiling the same.
PhineasTristillian draws his weapon.
BonifaciusHolyfeather casts light.
JeranSteele walks to the interior–250 feet he sees stars (still no wall). It seems like this is a cut all the way through the tower! BonifaciusHolyfeather asks BillBlue to check it out. It is a quarter mile square tower (1 mile tall), with a 25 foot gap. In the center is there is a set of stairs that go down. There does not seem to be access up at that place. The machinery sounds come from below. I ask GeldarTheBard to check if there is another way in through the top. He goes.
He finds broken force fields. It seems dangerous. There are pieces of stones swirling in the force. There may be openings, but they would be transient, constantly changing. He looks for a actual doorway, but finds nothing (4). Neither does ShadowfaxThePegasus. He dimension doors inside the tower. He finds himself below a massive crystal shard glowing and pulsing blue. He sees two humanoid figures forming in layers inside the crystal. They are being armed. He dimension doors back out. Makes it look easy.
While he is gone, JeranSteele pops off a quarter inch flake of the floor material–a fat spark hits his hand, and a drop of blood hits the stone and is absorbed. He examines it closely with his mechanical eye. He can see his reflection (duplicate?) in the flake.
GeldarTheBard returns and describes the figures. In fact, they are copies of JeranSteele. So there's that.
I ask the bag for something to help me see in the dark. It gives me a flametongue spear. I thank it and put the spear back.
++++ The bottom of the Tower |
At the bottom of the stairs we find a small round chamber, well furnished (rug, giant green stone, etc).
There is writing in multiple languages, including common and arcane text:
| The tower protects itself |
| This is the last safe space |
GeldarTheBard investigates the stone (9 feet tall x 4 feet wide). JeranSteele confirms it is refined emberstone (that one alone could power a town for 100 years).
BonifaciusHolyfeather looks at the doors.
He spins the wheel, and it mechanically sinks in and to the side. In the room beyond there is a massive whirling gear/blade of brass (fills the whole room). There are 3 exits