The Third Spire Part 6

Log Info

• Title: The Third Spire

• GM: Whirlpool

• Characters: Eztli, Sabina
• Place: The Felwood

• Summary:It's time to go after the third spire of Linneia! But what mysteries lay within? The group made it to the tower and the distinctly not a mimic guardhouse, but they still must activate the spire, and deal with the curse which seems intent on stopping them.

Up the steps you go, then, the musical notes chiming away as you do. It's cacophanous, and its probably clear that this is not the intended way you're supposed to do this. More than likely, you're supposed to play something.

... not tht you seemingly need to at the moment. Or maybe it's just elven affectation? It's hard to say.

As you reach the top of the spire, you find a crystal at the heart of the reflecting mirrors of the spires, the light of the moon striking the mirrors and then crystals. TRhere's a complicated array of levers and knobs here, mounted into a central postion, clearly desiged to manipulate the crystal somehow.

Sabina finds herself wincing from time to time as they head up the stairs as some notes clash against others. The effect harsh on the ears. Once they're at the top she pauses and then slowly steps towards the device without touching anything yet.

"At this point we should have brought an artificer with us. Hindsight is clearer then looking ahead and all that."

She looks around for name plates or other ideas of what is what. Again without touching.

"Well, you don't need to be an artificer to pull levers, maybe to understand what those levers do, I guess. would be nice to have one, but I'm not gonna lose sleep over it, gotta make do with the time we've got to actually get this done." The small makari shrugs. "If it's like last time, we're trying to get something pointed at the central spire, so that's a start at least."

GAME: Eztli rolls perception: (10)+5: 15

GAME: Sabina rolls perception: (17)+5: 22

There's really only one way to gauge what does what, and that's to actually push a button or turn a knob. It definitely looks like they're tied to the crystals and mirrors. The 'roof' of this place definitely looks like it's intended to open, given the seams, so it's preumable one of them does that. There's enough light hitting the mirrors even now to give an idea of how this all functions. But you're going to need to go by the seat of your pants if you want to get it working.

"Well. I suppose we start somewhere and slowly do one button or knob at a time? Write down what each one does as we try it? I'd check for magic but I'm sure everything in here is magical in some way or another. The tower itself is almost blinding."

The priestess-mage starts at the left side of things and pushes the first button while watching for dangerous things to pop into exhistance.

"Alright, I guess we need to do that, then?" Eztli sighs, taking a step back and pulling out a notebook. "I've got a mage hand if that's safer, but, if you're already doing that, I'll just, stand way over here and take those notes, then. Maybe wait and let me do the next one from a safe distance, then?"

When Sabian starts pushing buttons, the crystal flashes once.

The ceilin above starts to open when she pulls a lever.

After a while, it becomes obvious what some of these buttons do. You're able, at least, to get the top open and the crystal up in place between the mirrors to collect the reflected light. That seems to be the purpose. So far so good...

Sabina says, "So collecting the light? That's what this does? For what though.." The Tarenite rubs at her chin for a moment and then moves towards the things they have not played with yet. "Leaving the crystal out and collecting. Lets see if these others will influence the ..charging? of the crystal or not."

"I wish I could tell you, that's what we're trying to find out, here. Least, the main spire seems more stable the more and more we get pointed at it." Eztli offers, tapping a pen against the side of their face. "I don't know if we should get the crystal up there until we're certain that the mirrors are put the right way. How about you pull that one that raised the crystal back down, and we see how the mirrors turn and if anything else activates?"

GAME: Sabina rolls perception: (16)+5: 21

...well, then.

With Eztli sitting safely to the side and Sabina playing with the controls like a madwoman, *eventually* you stumble across the right combination. Or at least it seems to be the right combination. It's hard to exactly say. The crystal at the heart of the contraption springs alight, burning with collected silvery energy from Eluna's grace.

Once it's elevated into the appropriate position, it fires a beam of energy directly towards the central spire in the distance. Though that doesn't seem to have an impact, ity is one step closer to finishing the five spires of Linneia, or at least that's what you're told.

...now, of course, there is a rumbling sound.

Sabina ducks down to hide behind the control pannel when the crystal comes to life. She peers over the station and watches warily. And when the rumbling starts she lets out a long sigh. "Well, poop."

From there it's a quick but fervent prayer to Tarien not to laugh too much at their trials from where he watches in the planes.

"Yes, just like that!" The small makari shouts over from a safe distance, as she looks over to make sure it was in the right direction. A pause, and a bit of a frantic waving, now. "Good job, but we should get out of here now! Out the door if we can, out a window if we have to, but we've got to get moving!"

Move? Movement she can do.

Reaching up and holding on to the bird on her shoulder, Sabina stands up fully and dashes off towards the exit, feet moving faster then they have any right to go for one not trained as monk.

"Moving! Moving!" She says as she hits the stairs and stars down the musical notes as fast as she can.

Eztli is not far behind Sabina as she makes for the stairs. At least with her already down, she didn't have to worry about holding anybody up herself. "Don't know if anything'll happen to this tower, but it wasn't too good last one!" The small makari shouts, bringing up the rear.

GAME: Sabina rolls ref: (3)+6: 9

GAME: Eztli rolls reflex: (15)+9: 24

GAME: Whirlpool rolls 3d6: (13): 13

The rumbling intensifies. The ground quakes once, jerking each of you enough that losing your balance on the stairs is, in fact, quite possible. Likely, even,.

Sabina is in a hurry. Too much of a hurry.

As her feet hit the first steps her slippered feet start to skid, especially with the vibrations of the tower itself. The foot slips and flys up as she lands on her butt and back and the rolls down the steps, managing to hit every one of them. The sound is like a child playing on a pipe organ, stopping when she sprawls at the base of them.

Unfortunately, Eztli is too far behind to actually do anything to stop the person in front of them from tumbling down the rest of the stairs. "Hang, ah crap, can't do anything about that right now." The small makari curses to herself as she keeps running further down until she caught up at the bottom. "Alright, on your feet, just gotta get out of here, I'll toss you a potion as soon as I can, just focus and keep moving, alright?" Eztli encourages as she helps the spellcaster to her feet.

Sabina is pulled to her feet with a bloody nose and the start of blood seeping somewhere on her scalp. She looks dazed and winces as she starts moving again.

"Don't worry. I'll ask the Laughing One to assit when we get out. I'm sure he'll help...once he can ease back on his laughter."

She scoops up Emp and once again moves along quickly, trying to keep pace with Eztli.

Eztli nods once, not wanting to waste any further time talking instead continuing running for the exit and through the guardhouse, keeping the doors open to not obstruct their retreat, and making sure the cleric didn't pass out on the way to the door.

A little delayed, your burst out of the spire back into the woods proper.

... it is pitch black here. There's no light. No light at all.

Like the sun and the moon are just /gone/.

The ground continues to rumble.

Sabina is forced to stop as they hit the darkness. Running down stairs you can see is one thing. Running through the woods where you can't see /anything/ is something else all together.

"Do we have to get away from the tower?!" She asks and then tries the cantrip for creating light, feet shuffling forward rather then a walk or faster.

"I wish I could tell you, but I really have no clue. Mechanisms seem a bit different in every tower." Eztli grumbles to herself as they reach the outside. The small makari squints a bit, and shakes her head. "I can still see alright, so just hold onto my tail or something and follow my lead. Unless this is going wrong, and I need to go back up and fix things, but I hope it doesn't come to that."

GAME: Sabina casts Light. Caster Level: 9 DC: 13

With the light from the spell Sabina can barely make out the form of Eztli next to her. She fumbles twice for the offered tail and then firmly grips hold, sniffling from her bloody nose.

"Sorry if that's too tight.. lead on please." She says to the Makari.

GAME: Sabina rolls survival: (18)+5: 23

GAME: Eztli rolls survivla: (14)+survivla: 14

"That's okay, hold as tight as you need to. Better a sore tail than losing someone in strange magical darkness." Eztli answers, continuing further out and hopefully on the right track out of there.

Whatever's going on, it doesn't appear to be the fault of the spire -- or at least, you don't think so. That light above you? You can still see it, when you look up. It helps offer you some orientation.

But that low, gutteral growling sound? Like something is very, very angry at you?

... that can't be good, and you have the distinct impression whatever it is is closing in on you -- fast.

GAME: Sabina casts Dispel Magic. Caster Level: 9 DC: 16

The priestess, tugs on the poor Makari's tail and then lets go. "Something's coming. Shit.."

And then in an attempt to clear her sight and see what's going on, her fingers start moving and magical language comes from her lips in the attempt to dispel the dark around them.

GAME: Sabina rolls 1d20+9: (9)+9: 18

Thanks to Sabina's skill, the magical darkness dissipates entirely with a sudden flare of her light. There's .... something above you. It doesn't seem to see you just yet, so there is that, at least.

... but what's above you?

A ghostly presence on black wings, that's to be sure, scouring the darkened forest. It appears to be some kind of ... ghost wyvern, with an equally ghostly rider. They both glow the distinctive tell of hell fire,a nimbus of green and black and red that excudes off them.

... hunting you. A manifestation of the Felwood's curse.

GAME: Sabina rolls knowledge/religion: (17)+13: 30

GAME: Sabina rolls knowledge/planes: (19)+knowledge/planes: 19

Eztli stops, and looks up at the sky with the darkness clearing. "Is that? Well, uh, I'm seeing that right, right?" They wonder, staring a bit upward. "...crap, think we can escape it? I don't want it running into other people, anyways."

Sabina looks up at the flying creature and rider and her brows slowly climb upwards. She makes shooing motiosn to Eztli and starts to creep towards the cover of the nearest large tree.

"Its..demonic in origin. It may be a ghost but.. it's a demon too. " ,she whispers to the Makari. "I can try to get us invisible.. but I'm not sure if it can see past my spells or not."

GAME: Sabina rolls stealth: (19)+6: 25

GAME: Eztli rolls stealth: (6)+4: 10

GAME: Sabina casts Invisibility. Caster Level: 9 DC: 15

At least you know to stay close. Invisiblity helps, particularly when cast by someone with as much magic available to them as Sabina!

You're, as a result, able to lose the thing, retrreating into the forest with held hands together. Or at least someone hanging on to Eztli's tail.

Invisiblity lets you take flight. You and everyone else. You slip into the darkness of the forest, but it's continuing to pursue you, and for the entire time you're working your way back, you can all but feel it breathing down your neck, patrolling. Hunting. Searching.

It lets out a wordless cry, the wyvern, and then disappears at one point, only to reappear somewhere else above you in the distance, a threatening and looming miserable shadow.

....but you do eventually make it back to the Mythwood border.