Saturday, August 17, cont. - Having found a number of keys, the party heads to the Dragon Door on the top floor of the tower, and inserts the appropriate gold, silver and copper colored keys into the three locks. The door clicks open.
The first chamber entered, a large octagonal one, has a clay golem guardian standing in their way. The clay golem had a large black key embedded in its chest.
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| Clay golem guardian |
The ensuing fight was complicated by a number of pressure plates around the perimeter of the room which allowed the golem to run to one and step on it, releasing an acid spray (damaging anyone standing nearby, but healing it).
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| Clay golem |
When the golem was defeated and near destruction, it knelt before the party, pulled the black key from its chest, and handed it to Duncan.
The next chamber was a magic dead chamber with a balcony on one side, a balcony with a door on the far side, and a bottomless void in between. In the void were a number of hovering stepping stones. The far balcony had a lever next to the door. Niam, using his ridiculously high acrobatics skill, was able to hop from platform to platform, pulling the lever, and aligning the stones into a stable bridge. The party crossed and unlocked the door with the large black key.
Descending a long curving natural passage, the party arrived at a small boat docked on the shores of a large underground lake. Getting into the boat, the party was magically pulled toward a small island in the middle of the lake. The island was bathed in a soothing white light, and in the center of the island was a marble dais on which sat a large marble chest.
Duncan stepped forward, opened the chest, expecting magical tomes or scrolls, but the chest was empty. To the rest of the party, it appeared like Duncan inhaled suddenly, tensed, and then relaxed and turned back toward the party. To Duncan, it seemed like a long time passed; days if not weeks. First there was a conversation with the spirit of Damien Rethorcar. Damien, on inspecting Duncan, hinted that he might be an ancestor of Duncan, who might be of the Rethorcar family line. After a discussion with the spirit, days passed for Duncan where scrambled bits of magical knowledge flooded his consciousness. Little of it made sense yet. Damien then told Duncan that the first sigil piece was now a part of him. He indicated that he was fated to remain in this place until 3 people found him and gained these pieces of knowledge. Duncan was the third. He would now need to move on, and no other seekers would find him in this place. He also noted that the second person, decades before, was an amiable mage named Alferith Langhorne (a name the party knew - said to be a notorious necromancer, with a stronghold they had been near on their very first adventure). Damien told Duncan he would go to Fellsar for others to find in the future. He also told Duncan that the next piece of the Evocation Sigil would be found in the Vault of Tharalin in Granath. Then he was gone.
The party left the Tower, and decided to head back to Linden. They began the journey home.
Later on the 4th day of travel southwest, a sharp eyed Niam noticed something odd off to his right - a bit of movement in the sky beyond a nearby tree line.
Moving stealthily, the party moved through the trees and emerged on the edge of a clearing by a stream. On the ground on the other side of the stream was a Florian sky ship, the crew of which was bustling about, rolling some barrels toward the stream.
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| The Golden Sunrise |
The party stepped forward into the clearing.
A Florian noble named Octavian Montelcino cheerfully introduced himself as his companions and crew looked on. Octavian invited the party forward to talk. Cautiously, with hands on weapon hilts, the party stepped forward.
Some views of the ship: Forecastle with air gun and secondary elemental power nodes.
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| Forecastle |
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| Octavian Montalcino on the rear deck |
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| Amidships |
Next - Octavian Montalcino and the Florian Sky Ship...
GM Commentary - This was a good session for moving the story forward. A little combat. A little bit of a lore-dump. Some new NPCs. A sky ship. Lots of possibilities for the future.
Interacting with the World (what the characters learned...or were reminded of) - They learned lore on the Evocation Sigil. They learned that Alferith Langborne, a familiar name, had been here before them. They learned that Duncan would not have a "thing" to take back to his new wizard mentor Zamra "Quickfire". They learned that sky ships are a real thing.
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