The Tol Vehara Story Hour

[Pacio49]

An Unexpected Happening

After waking to find that Tanin had fled with the onyx cup, harming a party member in the process, Laeka revealed that she had been sent yet another dream. The urgency of her past nighttime visions had dwindled, and she watched as a tree in the shape of a woman slowly rotted, shook, and then exploded to release thousands of venemous insects. She felt a sense of loss and regret, and she knew empathically that the party had somehow failed in their rescue mission of the daughter of Lord Sapphire. Finally, after many days of pursuit, the girl had succumbed at last to the evil of the Taint from the Blasted Lands, and Laeka found herself secure in the confirmed knowledge that they had unleashed Tammishka Li on the Sapphire Family.

When she brought her observations to the party, Marcus thought for a while and used his knowledge of the Arcana to puzzle out that Tammishka sounded much like an Ogre Mage. If that were indeed the case, then Marcus and Arien both counselled that the party was not ready to pursue her, especially not if she had somehow ingratiated herself into one of the most powerful families in the city of Tol Vehara. And then, too, with her ability to assume shapes of others, Tammishka could very easily have removed and then taken the place of someone else in the city. No, at their current level of experience (5th by this time), the party was not yet ready to engage that foe.

Valar decided that he needed to return to Tol Vehara and make a report to his superiors about Tammishka and the Sapphire family, but that meant leaving the Dorecan Manor. Preferrably without ogres and trolls, goblins and orcs and kobolds swarming on their trail. The party gathered their gear, took their spoils from the inner chambers (minus the sword that Tanin had made off with and the onyx-like cup) and opened up the door leading back out into the Mirror's ruined chamber.

As they stepped out into the oppressive weight of the Tainted Lands once more, they all became aware of the sound of approaching drums and hunting horns and a ruckus coming from the ballroom they had all vacated the day before. Deciding to investigate, Valar scouted ahead and quickly returned to summon the rest of the party to watch, unobserved, from just outside the balcony's entrance as a strange scene unfolded below.

The room was still in disarray, with the bodies of the goblins and ogres having been removed with trails of bloodstains leading off into the enclosed gardens where they had been dumped and left to rot in the springtime sun. More ogres and their goblin and kobold servants were gathered, and the sound of the drums and horns continued to approach. They were joined at the top of the stairs by one of the black-tunicked kobolds, who spoke to them softly.

"The hunters return with their quarry. They have captured the ant-man like Tammishka had ordered."

"What's an ant-man?" Skalar asked.

The kobold shrugged. "He has eluded them recently. Tammishka saw his approach and ordered that he be captured, but he has many powers which made it difficult. For almost a month they have tracked him, and by the sounds they make they have succeeded. I must go. I am known to be a kobold clan leader. If I do not answer the summons to the great room then I will be missed and my clan suspect. I advise you to be cautious. Do not begin a skirmish unless you think you can win. My people will not be able to support you openly in such a battle."

Skalar nodded, and watched as the kobold scurried down to take his place among the ranks and representatives of several of the tribes and clans of goblins and kobolds. As the party watched, several gnolls and ogres came in carrying a stout tree they had felled. Tied to the tree and shackled by strange manacles of dark metal whose planes and angles defied the eye's ability to follow them clearly was a large sized humanoid ant man, unconscious. The manacles apparently pierced through the carapace of the ant man's limbs, or else they were somehow magically binding, since he lacked anything that might be considered a wrist or other impediment to keep him from simply slipping his limbs out of them.

As the party watched and Skalar gave rough translations in a hushed voice, the ant man was dumped on the ground still attached to the tree trunk, and the ogres consulted with each other as to what to do with it now.

"They're trying to decide what to do with him, since Tammishka hasn't been seen in a while. Since the raid on the ghost house," Skalar whispered. More commotion below was followed by his shushed commentary, "They're going to go and prepare a room below for him. For now, they'll leave him to be guarded here, while the hunting group goes to bathe. Apparently, Tammishka insists that they bathe before entering her presence." He shrugs at the odd looks. "That's what they said."

"Well," Yovaire whispered back, "if they're going to go bathe, maybe we can use this opportunity to rescue him."

"Rescue him? Why in blazes would we want to rescue him?" Laeka asked.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Valar answered. "Now shush before they hear us."

 

[Pacio49]

To the rescue!

The party watched for a moment longer to make sure that only a few of the baddies were left down below. When they were more or less certain that the main group was not going to be back, they began their assault. The bards tell of awesome battles and great feats of valor, and this battle was not one. The ogres were unprepared for an attack to come from above, and the fully-rested party was able to unleash several spells to buff and to open the volley upon the group below. Of note was Laeka's first real use of offensive spellcasting in battle, utilizing her knife spray to soften an ogre which she then slashed to pieces with her spiked chain. Yovaire managed to draw most of the melee attention away from the imprisoned ant man, and Arien used the distraction to deliver some cure energy into the ant man while Valar helped to extricate the ant man, still bound by the strange manacles, from around the treetrunk they had used to carry him in. The battle did not last very long, and it wasn't particularly noteworthy. The kobolds, true to their word, used their crossbow bolts on the party, but intentionally missed.

Once the fight was done, the ant man had awakened, and the party gathered around to decide what to do next. Yovaire and Arien led the questioning session with the ant man, which was just fine from the ant man's point of view. He revealed to the party that he was a Formian Myrmarch, and he was quite thankful that such orderly folks as Yovaire (LG) and Arien (now LN) had rescued him from the chaotic monsters. He had been careless, it seems, focusing so much on his own task that he had allowed the monsters to get the jump on him. If not for the strange manacles, he would have been able to use his spell-like abilities to teleport himself away. If the party would be so kind as to remove the manacles, he would now be on his way...

Arien and Yovaire debated with each other for a moment while the rest of the party grumbled, then they decided to ask the Myrmarch for his word. Not knowing much about him, but liking the fact that he seemed to respect order, Arien thought it would be for the best if they bound him only by his word. The Myrmarch agreed, and asked the party's names, as well as telling his own (a rather unintelligible sound, but said he could be referred to by the slave races as 'Mikkilik'). While Valar tried to puzzle out how to remove the manacles without damaqing the large formian, Marcus questioned Mikkilik about his people.

"I am from very far away," Mikkilik responded. "My Queen has requested that I investigate the disappearance of an ally she once had on this plane. A powerful mage known as Karral. She has not seen or heard from him in many ages, and wished to help him. I had klugkinock --, erm, the slave word for it on this plane would be 'mind-seeing-memory-from-time-ago' of his Colony here, but much has changed since my Queen's okrinntoknikok reported such memory-mind-seeing to her, and the okrinntoknikok has been in error on several details, or else time has been allowed to alter much. I had just discovered where Karral was, and was on my way back to report to my Queen when I was jumped. Ahhh... thank you, slave-human-Valar."

"Eh, no problem, Ant-thing Mikkilik."

"Why do you refer to him as a slave?" Skalar asked.

"The People have always utilized the Lesser Beings as slave labor. It is our Way. We have no other words for those not of the People. I am in your debt."

"You can pay us off later," Laeka said.

Mikkilik shook his head and clicked his mandibles. "It is not the Way. The People cannot remain in debt. I must repay you and remove the stain upon the honor of my Queen to have one of her Colony in debt to you. It is enough for my own honor that I do not take you back to the Colony with me to serve in my household, but my Queen's Colony's honor requires further repayment. Is this your Colony?"

"No, we're from Tol Vehara," Marcus said. "We can't live here."

Mikkilik thought for a moment, then said, "If you wish it, I will bring you to the abandoned Colony of Karral. It is in disrepair, but for orderly industrious worker-slave-types as yourselves, you may make a domicile fit for your own kind's Queen, and you might make a Colony-place of honor to allow you to be reborn in the next life as one of the People."

"How far away is this 'Colony' of Karral's?" Arien asked.

"Oh, it is not far. I can bring you there with my abilities before I go."

"But Mikkilik, as kind as your offer is, you don't seem to understand. We cannot stay for long in this place because of the Taint. There's something in the Blasted Lands which makes it so that we will sicken and die if we remain outside of a haven for too long," Arien said.

"Was this Karral a formian, too?" Marcus asked on top of his sister's question. Mikkilik regarded the mage for a moment and shook his head.

"Such disorder. I understand your problem, slave-being-Arien-female. I can ... smell ... the change upon the air with my antennae. But you misunderstand. Karral's Colony exists in many places and no places at once. It is joined to this place of being by a gate, but it is not truly here. As for you, impudent-slave-being-Marcus, Karral was not one of the People, though my Queen's Queen had declared him to have a Soul." The Myrmarch paused a moment and bowed his head. "It was a high honor. There have only been seven hundred of the slave races who have been found to have a Soul by my Queen's lineage to the First Egg. Karral was a champion of Order, and assisted our Colony, and many others. He was not human-slave-beings like you, but he was human-slave-being-shaped, for the most part. His powers were very strong, and he specialized in Conjuring beings from other planes of existence to fight on the side of Cosmic Order. He was a worthy ally and a formiddable opponent, but I believe he has been called back to the Egg once more, for I find no trace of him here, and this was his Colony of choice."

"Do we need to decide immediately?" Skalar asked. Mikkilik shook his head.

Marcus and the group began to discuss the prospect of leaving Dorecan Manor to investigate this 'colony' of Karral's. Marcus was strongly in favor of it, especially since followup questions of the Myrmarch Formian revealed that it was essentially a ruined Mage's Tower about a week away from Tol Vehara, down what has been called by the humanoids in the region the 'River of Stars', since the source of the river carries volcanic silt in it of black hue with quartz crystal flecks that sparkle like stars in the black-soil deposits along the banks. Since they had their folding boats and Karral's Tower was essentially on the river itself, they decided that it would be worth the risks of not finding intermediate havens to sail down the river (which flows northwards) until it joined with the Gold River, bringing them out of the Blasted Lands and into Tol Vehara should they need to make their way home quickly.

Marcus was especially in favor of the enterprise, for he had advanced and was close to not having enough spells to make a decent selection. He hoped that Karral's Tower still might have some manner of scrolls or grimoires to help him out in that pursuit of arcane knowledge. Eventually, the party decided that they would indeed take Mikkilik up on his offer.

"We'll do it," Valar said. The party felt a moment's disorientation and found themselves standing in a cool, vaulted stone chamber with a well of some kind in the center and rough-hewn passageways leading off from the glow of continual light torches in the walls. Arien and Laeka both felt the change immediately, announcing to the group that whereever they were it was either a haven or no longer in the Blasted Lands.

Mikkilik gave a bow and said, "So, we are repaid, yes?"

"No!" called out Laeka. "We have to retrieve our equipment from the, uh... campsite we were staying at. We need our basic resources."

"Ah. You know where this is? Mind share with me." Mikkilik did something, and Laeka felt suddenly very, very dizzy as she suddenly was looking at herself through faceted eyes with stereoscopic panoramic vision, all while she looked at the Myrmarch through her own eyes. It was an alien mind, and she narrowly avoided vomiting up her breakfast. (Lucky Fort save). The Myrmarch was not so upset by it, and plucked the description of the location from her mind, and... folded space around them again, and the party found themselves standing on the edge of the farmhouse haven.

More than that, they were looking at a very perplexed gnome adventurer who had come exploring into the haven. (Enter TYBOK, Tanin's new character.) The party had the requisite new-member-introduction scene and they decided that they wouldn't mind having Tybok around, Gnome Illusionists being a rather interesting mix, and besides, he offered to share spells with Marcus.

They got their mounts and equipment, told the Chef they might not be back for a while but to hold down the haven (which left a perplexed goblin chef looking for a place to get a good grip on the haven so he could literally hold it down) until they returned. The group prepared themselves, and Mikkilik teleported them once again, back to the room with the well in it.

"Now, we are settled, yes?" he asked.

Arien nodded as Yovaire said, "Yes, and thank you."

Mikkilik bowed. "If you are caught by the People, ask for Mikkilik and I will take you as my personal slaves. Some of you, anyway." And with a blink and a flash, he was gone.

"Well, that was a cheerful thought," Valar said as he looked around the room, eyes fixing on the well of water. "Anyone for a drink?"

 

[Pacio49]

Karral's Tower

Before the party could really react, Valar reached down into the well and brought up a palmfull of the cool water and took a small sip. After a moment's consideration of the taste, he reached down with gusto and began to splash the water over his face and gulp down as much as he could. Luckily for Valar, Laeka was able to stop him from his slaking of thirst by physically restraining him for a moment. Valar turned to the party to protest, and gave a blank look of unfamiliarity at all of their faces.

"Who are you?" he asked, confused. He was answered only by groans.

The well was enchanted somehow with a spell of forgetfulness. Valar had been stopped before he could drink his fill, which would most likely have removed all memories from him entirely. As it was, all our intrepid rogue lost were the memories of adventuring in Dorecan Manor, easily remedied. (After a few reminders the party's identities returned to his knowledge... perhaps something about the water splashed on his face and eyes that did it.) Laeka and Marcus's minor experiments to see about whether the water could be taken out of the area concluded with the pronunciation that it was something about the well itself, not the water taken from it, and that if the water weren't drunk immediately, then there were no effects from it. Even still, the party declined to fill up their canteens from the well.

Instead, they began to explore. Three passageways led out of the well room, and the first one checked led to a strange iris-closed metal doorway of some kind with knobs to control opening and closing. They opened it, and stepped out into a dusty cave of sorts that was formed by some kind of overhang where a river or stream at one time undercut a hillside. It also led them back into the Blasted Lands and a return to the Taint. They explored just enough to be able to see the ruined and tumbled blocks of limestone-dressed granite from what once was a square tower higher up on the hill. They saw that the tower overlooked a small valley nestled between the arms of two hills that ended in a pool, and a stream trickled down from the pool to the River of Stars about a mile away. They returned then to the basement of Karral's Tower.

With the iris doorway's hall to their backs, the party found themselves taking the hallway to the left from the well's room. They passed several faintly-glowing crystal outcroppings about the size of a small couch growing out of the floor, but at a detect magic from Marcus which revealed tendrils of eldritch energy tying the crystals to the tower itself somehow, they decided to leave well enough alone.

Through the door of the first room they found themselves confronted with the smell of salt water, a faint breeze, the sound of gentle waves, and a floor made entirely of sand. The darkness of the room was odd, but when light spells were cast the mystery deepened even further. The room looked like a beach. A small beach, to be certain, but there was a dressing cabana to the left of the doorway (about 20' square) and what looked like small islands out a ways from where the waves lapped the beachfront. Tybok and Laeka tested the extent of the beach, and came to a point where they stopped, confronted with the feeling of a wall, but with the appearance of continuing onward down the beach. Arien did some druidic poking around with her knowledge of nature and was surprised to find that the place was large enough to contain a working ecosystem of some kind. She theorized that perhaps the place opened onto some kind of extraplanar underground sea, but Marcus thought that perhaps there was a conjuration spell of some kind at work to populate the place with wildlife.

Among the things that were found by Arien and the rest of the explorers, however, was a bed of oysters in a tidal pool just beyond the edge of the beach near the cabana. Opening the oysters showed that about 1 in 5 had a 100gp pearl inside it. At first, Valar's eyes lit up until Marcus reminded him that 100gp pearls were considered a spell component and used for the spell identify. After playing in the darkened beach for a bit, and daring to bathe a bit in the waters among the seaweed and crabs, the party headed back to the well room to investigate the other remaining passageway.

This hallway turned a corner and split into two branches. The one to the right led to a small storage closet and led to an encounter with several animated suits of armor. Skalar's knowledge of all things dungeoneering led him to pronounce them 'Dreadguards', but with the might of the party they were rather easy to 'kill'. Marcus hesitated a guess after examining the hollow armor and weapon that perhaps the magical power of the crystals in the tower were animating them, and the fact that the place was shrouded in darkness made him think that the Tower was losing power slowly over time. Yovaire reminded the group that Mikkilik had mentioned not seeing Karral in 'ages', so Marcus agreed that perhaps when the tower was fully powered, the Dreadguards were much more imposing of a threat.

Just beyond the storage closet was a stairwell that led upward to the next level. The party stopped and decided to investigate the left branch of the last passageway first, and found themselves facing yet another encounter with the Dreadguards, again easily dispatched. With a daylight spell from Laeka the party found themselves in a room lush with plants and undergrowth, with a manicured pathway that led to a pool fed by a waterfall from the top of the vaulted ceilings. One set of falls cascaded down directly to the pool while a second flow made its way down several natural-looking rock formations, pool after pool of water that fed into the final pond in a leisurely manner. Behind the path the lush vegetation seemed to be penning in a set of wetlands, and birds and insects filled the all-too-humid air. Arien took one look at some of the exotic plant and animal life and declared herself 'home'. As the daylight spell waned, however, the room went back into dismal darkness once more, but the party could see where cleverly hidden pylons of crystal outcroppings dotted the room's freshwater paradise. Only Valar noticed that in one of the marshy areas behind the path and against the wall the reeds that grew in abundance suddenly fell as though cut off at the water line, bundled themselves into a stack, and then vanished into thin air. Marcus investigated the area for a while, but saw nothing unusual except the hacked down reed stems as evidence of anything odd.

The bottom floor more or less explored, the party turned their efforts up to the next floor, following the winding staircase up what Yovaire thought might be the outside wall of the tower's foundation, until they reached a dark hallway with more crystal outcroppings and a hall that went all the way around the perimeter of the tower, with doors interspersed at odd intervals. They dispatched several more sets of Dreadguards, again quite easily, and found themselves wandering through several rooms that seemed like something from a dream. Inside each of these odd rooms they found an illusion of some kind at work on the interior, a seal on the outer doors that looked like some kind of abjuration spell (not powered currently), writing in strange and unknown languages, summoning circles inscribed into the floors, and small bookshelves filled with books in the same kinds of languages which were represented on the summoning circles and the door.

[META: Karral was an Epic Conjurer. His tower was built in a pocket dimension which enhanced all Conjuration spell effects that he had either built or discovered. He used the Tower as a study place for himself and a workshop at one point, and the party was exploring the workshop floor. Each of those rooms were rooms that dealt with a different elemental plane or moral plane, and the languages corresponded. Thus, there was a room for Fire with books all in Ignan, a demonic one with books in Infernal, a celestial one with books in celestial, etc. Each keyed specifically to make the room as comfortable as possible for the summoned creature by mimicking via magic the look and feel of the plane they were coming from. The seals on the doors could be activated by spending a 3rd level or higher spell slot to effectively seal off the room (from the inside) so that should, say, a Devil of some kind get free, they couldn't leave the room except to return via the summoning portal. Unfortunately for Marcus, he wasn't a specialist wizard or a Conjurer, or he would have been quite orgasmic over the Tower.]​

Also on that floor the party found a couple of crafting workshops, one dedicated to the making of paper and binding of books and the other dedicated to the crafting of inks and vials. As they watched, they saw the reeds that had been 'harvested' while Valar watched below being magically prepared along the process of becoming papyrus. Thanks to the use of detect magic and spellcraft knowledge, Marcus was able to determine that the 'automated' processes were being manned by some form of permanently bound unseen servants of some kind.

As a testimony to the long absence of use, there were about ten spellbooks, perfectly bound and perfectly blank, and a whole cabinet full of glass vials of special inks. (Essentially, those in the Tower can forego the materials cost of scribing scrolls or spellbooks but not any significant spell components or XP cost for scrolls.) At this point in time, Marcus declared *himself* as being 'home'.

There was one area on the floor which the party were not able to gain access to... the forges. The door was magically sealed and warded, and those who attempted to open it received massive amounts of energy damage and got blown backwards across the room. Eventually, fearing TPK by Door(tm), the characters got confirmation from their deities that there was nothing they could do about the room for now, and they would just have to keep on going as they were.

And with that, the group found themselves moving up to the next level...

 

[Pacio49]

Karral's Tower, part 2

The staircase led upwards into the center of the tower this time, emerging out in a grand hallway, dimly lit, with an open and airy feel to the place. Fifteen foot tall ceilings were bedecked by spidery geometric carvings and pierced stonework screens. The floors were of polished white marble with inlaid green and black stone tilework in tricolored geometric patterns and borders of gold and silver inlay. Carpets of many hues and tapestries of varied scenes were all carefully preserved somehow, the crisscrossing energy currents of magical wardings and buidling enchantments almost visible to the naked eye. False pillars framed doorways of white alabaster and fine wood paneling. Mobile screens of intricately pierced wood artfully channeled the flow of traffic within the larger lounging areas, creating nooks and small enclosures about couches and divans with matching dark wood tables and now-extinguished lamps, silver candelabras and beaten gold, brass, and copper lanterns and candlelight reflectors. Small, tasselled pillows of rich silk brocade and velvet cushions were in abundance in the main entry area, and the white of the ceiling plaster looked freshly washed and undisturbed by dust or cobwebs.

Halls and doors abounded, some with wood paneling, others with marble veneers in varied tones and grains, each setting off the distinct areas and doors that led to common areas. One set of doors that the party explored led into a form of a guest suite, walls curiously blank considering the opulence of the exterior decoration. Small crystalline outcroppings were cupped in minor inset alcoves just above the door height at regular intervals along the walls. Rich, mahogany and cherry tables with inlaid wood patterns in birch and cypress marked one room as a small dining room, with halls leading out to smaller, private lounge areas. Marbled bathing rooms and private bedrooms were found through interior doors off of the common dining area of the suite, and the master bedroom and dressing room were marvellous to behold, with vanity tables and full length mirrors, solid oak and mahogany armoirs on clawed feet gilt with gold in tasteful accents. Inside the armoirs several sachets of different scents... lavender and rose in one, cedar and sandalwood and lignum aloes in another. Tiny vials of scented bathing oils and cooling ointments for forehead and feet were found in the bathing room, along a tiled marble tub with curious runes etched into the wall above it, one to fill the tub with water, another to drain it, one to heat it, another to cool it, all reactive to the pass of a hand... well... almost reactive.

The Tower was obviously a marvel of magical construction, with the conjuration of water merely a tiny part of it... and a tiny part of it which no longer functioned exactly as it seemed to be intended. In the many guest and living suites that the party explored all were found similarly furnished though accomodating different numbers of occupants and in different levels of privacy and shared space, some with bedchambers sharing a communal bath, others with private albeit smaller bathing facilities, others with bedchambers that had private anterooms and sitting areas, others with simply a hall, a lounge, a bath, and several bedrooms off of the hall. Yet in every instance, there was a feeling of the failing of magic somehow. The sense of incompleteness that haunted every room. As though there were something missing, something not quite working to the fullest extent. A hint of color appearing to dance over a wall in the wake of someone passing, the fleeting feeling of fresh air circulating through the room then fading into the staleness nearly approaching musty air. The small amount of tepid water summoned into the baths, the lagging delay between activation of the runes over the privvy and the actual removal of wastes to places unknown. All somehow... incomplete.

Marcus pronounced the whole of the place to be failing, although failing slowly enough that it seemed to still be holding up well enough for now. The magic that somehow powered the entire Tower was shutting down slowly as it faded. Laeka used her knowledge of the healing craft to wonder whether or not it was like a human exposed to the elements, losing feeling and heat in the extremities first in an attempt to safeguard the heart and head. Marcus concluded that it must be so, and wondered if there were some way to restore the old Tower to its former glory and full power.

Perhaps indeed.

The party found in each of the guest suites, and indeed in the main lounge area they had emerged into at first that the walls were made of that strange glass, smoky to the view at first from the outside (more on the 'outside' in a moment), and clear when viewed from the inside. Skalar remarked at how it seemed to be the same material and effect as they had found in Dorecan Manor, and Yovaire posited that perhaps Karral had built or enchanted the Manorhouse in the times gone by. Or perhaps they had a common contractor in things magical.

Off of several of the suites the party encountered doorways fashioned out of the same thick glass-like material that led out onto large, connected balconies, ringing the entire Tower. They each contained a small copse of trees, a miniature grove with a lawn and marble seats to sit upon and take in the view of the outside. A view which, at the moment, appeared drab and somewhat confusing. A dark horizon line not too far off yet appearing somehow also in the distance met a gently glowing blue-gray sky without much in the way of features. The balconies had a ceiling that extended upwards and above the treetops of the planted and maintained copses, and in that same, lingering sort of effect, a gentle mist released at one time to water the different trees. Arien declared once again that this was now her new home, and marveled at the magic that was necessary to keep those trees alive, without sunlight, without rain, and in apparently perfect health.

There were nine such balconies all told, and in each of the balconies a different copse of trees lived and thrived. Oak, Maple, Birch, Almond, Orange, Chestnut, Apple, Hazel, and a rare tree of elvish origin, the legendary Queensfruit trees. Elvish Queensfruit trees were a closely guarded horticultural secret of the elves. Giving off faint silvery and golden light by day or night, with leaves that fell gently in season but never stripped the tree bare, with smooth trunks of silvery bark and small clusters of reddish fruit that resembled pomegranates and which ripened in pod clusters that turned to deep burnished gold when fully ripe, with white and golden flowers that yielded the most heavenly of scents and whose perfumes and jellies were said to be aphrodisiac and restorative... Elvish Queensfruit were truly magical trees, and spoke more to Karral's power to keep and preserve them than anything else had done. It also raised the question as to whether or not Karral were some Elvish nobility, since the only way the trees would blossom and bear fruit was under the careful tending by a member of Elvish royalty. Folklore held that it was the Queen herself, but the Royal Bloodline of the Elves was sufficient to make the trees blossom, though in a way that was a closely guarded secret.

As the party investigated the trees, Laeka, Valar and Marcus were approached by a diminutive woman of surpassing beauty and highly pointed and notched ears with a decidedly green tinge to her skin and long, chestnut hair. "Are they yours?" the dryad asked Laeka, nodding to the men and absently twirling a lock of her hair about her forefinger.

"Are who mine?" Laeka responded.

"The men, silly. Are they yours, or are they up for the taking?"

"Hey now, none of us are up for the taking!" Marcus said.

"I dunno, Marcus," Valar responded. "She's kinda cute."

Marcus bapped Valar on the back of his head. "Of course she's cute. Beautiful even. But she's a dryad, and we're needed with the rest of the party, not to take some seven-plus year sabbatical to be her sex slaves."

Valar arched one eyebrow at the mage. "Are you sure about that?"

Matters were salvaged by the arrival of the druidess, who quickly pointed out to the Dryad that they were *her* men, and it wasn't nice to steal from druids. The Dryad pouted and sighed, and then remembered that the Queen wanted to meet the new arrivals as soon as they were ready. At the Queensfruit trees.

The party was assembled, and they met in the appointed place under the faint and pleasing light of the Queensfruit trees (nine trees total, planted in a perfect circle so that each tree's crown mingled perfectly with that of the tree on either side). There they were met by a whole host of dryads surrounding a single woman of short stature and green skin, old in demeanor yet youthful in appearance, she had a look about her that defied age, yet her eyes were as old as the stars. The party made their obeisance, and were properly introduced to Zathira, Lady of the Fae Courts from the Place Which Was No Longer, Duchess of the Sidhe Courts of her homeland and Queen in Exile of the Faerie who had accompanied her to abide with Karral, ages ago.

"You see," the wise Zathira said to Arien, "Karral's people tried to warn us of the impending doom that was eventually to take over our plane of existence, creatures so chaotic and horrible that I shudder to think what would have happened to us had we not fled with Karral. They had been fighting them across the planes, and they had come to us in the early stages of our plane being overrun. My Queen would not hear of it, loving freedom as she did, but I took pleasure from the company of one of the Envoys of Order, a young Conjurer named Karral. I took him as my lover, and he took me, and because of that I was able to flee the Sacred Groves when the Queen and the rest of the Court were destroyed by the Rampagers. I gathered as many of my kind as I could, including the seedlings you see here," she said, gesturing to the dryads among her. "Karral made us comfortable and gave us this place as a home." Her face was overcome with sadness. "We long for what we have lost, but we dream a little here, and it has been pleasant... but Karral is now long gone and, I fear, dead to us these many years, and I am the last of the Seneschals of the Tower. If you be good of heart, then you are welcome guests of the Tower for as long as you wish to stay."

Zathira paused a moment to turn and regard the dryads. "I said, daughters, that they were guests of the Tower. Honor them as guests. . . not as pets. I claim them for myself, and woe to any of my children who glamer them with the Seeming against my Will, and I do not Will it so. Hear, and obey."

There was a rustling among the assembled dryads and many sighs of disappointment, but as one they responded, "We hear and obey, Mother."

Zathira nodded and smiled. "Now, you must be tired. Take repast in the dining hall and my folk will serve you, to see that you are rested and refreshed. And, of course, there is still the matter of your exploration of the Tower to contend with. No place that you can contrive to enter here is closed to you. I trust your goodness of heart to guide what you do with what you find and how to dispose of yourselves in the meanwhile. Be welcome, and be blessed."

The party gave their thanks and were (straining to be) on their best behavior. After the pleasantries and the audience with Zathira were over, the group continued their exploration of the level and found. . .

. . . the library. Not a magical library, but a library nonetheless, with enough tomes and volumes to contain all of the knowledge that they would need to study up to 8 ranks in any of the regular Knowledge skills, as their class focus allowed. [META: Essentially, this provides the party with the plausible source for any of their knowledge skills that they wished to take up to 8 ranks, and beyond that the players would need to do their own investigations and RP them out as such to gain such mastery over what there is to know.]

Marcus and Tybok were immediately lost in the stacks, beginning to review what there was to know and at the very least catalogue what the library had to offer. Each of them immediately claimed one of the many 5-person study rooms as their own, and the party generally decided that the large conference-type room with the glass-like walls looking out onto the rest of the lounge was their new headquarters for meetings and discussions of plans/rendezvous points.

Arien did manage to force her brother, Marcus, to give up the library to at least find out where the dining hall was, and they were not disappointed in this, either. They found several large kitchens and were amazed to find that there were many fae creatures of different types busying themselves with the tasks of cooking and preparing food. The boggans greeted the party warmly but firmly and kindly made it known that they were not allowed inside the kitchens, and they could sit and place their order with the Major Domo inside the dining hall proper, would the party please leave now? Please. Thank you.

The Major Domo appeared, a pooka dressed in proper tuxedo and looking positively fox-like when he thought the party wasn't watching. He refused to give his name, pointing out that fae-folk do not lightly give over their own names, holding firmly to the contract and power inherent in names and giving them to strangers. Instead, he insisted on being called by his title, and mentioned that should they need of him they had only to call out for the Major Domo and one of the other servants nearby would fetch him shortly. The banquet table was laid out for them with serving utensils by fae who seemed to disappear when the party wasn't watching them. When questions of this, the Major Domo gave a sly smile and informed the group that of course the faeries had the ability not to be seen when they weren't wishing to, or needed. It wasn't intentional, although they certainly could hide, but rather a sort of automatic thing, like an ongoing suggestion to the viewers that they weren't worthy of attention. Almost as if they could Hide in Plain Sight, and it was something that was always active. [META: These are not your D&D description fae. I've always run with the homebrew fae I encountered from college gaming groups and the way that they handled them. Since the dimension is extraplanar, it makes sense that certain things are not what the party is used to... for example, the dryads hailed from *all* of the trees on the balconies, not just the oak trees. These are mostly homebrew, partly White Wolf/Changeling fodder, and partly D&D. Never be afraid to mix things up to make them your own, so long as you play things consistently. Players will forgive much if you are consistent within your variations... it allows them to anticipate and react as they grow in their knoweldge of your homebrew world.]

There were exclamations of surprise as the Major Domo told them they could have pretty much whatever they wished to eat, providing it was a food with which the boggan chefs were already familiar. Nothing exotic (well, not by fae standards), but other than that the boggans were fairly quivering with anticipation at being able to serve once more. The party members each ordered their favorite food, and Arien enamored the boggans to her by asking them to serve whatever they considered their best dish for an informal supper. All the food was excellent, and the party decided to rest for a while before exploring the rest of the upper portions of the Tower.

By this time, when the party saw that the fires had been lit in their chambers and the beds warmed and sheets turned down, ALL of the party members were beginning to think that this would be a fine place indeed to call home... even if it was in the middle of the Blasted Lands.

 

[Pacio49]

META: Map of the City of Tol Vehara

It's a bit fuzzy, but here's an overview of the original 20" x 30" map of Tol Vehara. More to come.

 

[Black Bard]

I really enjoyed how you portraited the fey in your campaign... It was great!

 

[Pacio49]

Karral's Tower, Part III

The next morning the party awoke, rested and refreshed. They met in the library's main conference room, and there they decided to strike out and investigate the upper floors. Marcus and Tybok grumblingly conceded that they should continue their investigation, and the party formed ranks and went upstairs from the level of the guest quarters.

They emerged on a rooftop which contained gardens, a stream, a pond, and what appeared to be meadows flecked with wildflowers and a scintillating horde of butterflies. In the center of the garden, three graceful, curving stone ramps and supports vaulted up to create three arches from which was suspended a dome. In the underside of the dome, the odd dimensional-sky was replaced with illusions of sunlight and clouds, and a gentle breeze was blowing. The illusion was fantastic, complete with warmth from the sun on their faces and the twittering of birdsong. Small crystal pylon outcroppings dotted the landscape, and because they had arrived in the morning the party was delighted to find that at a certain time the air became saturated with a fine mist, emanating from the crystals. It rose up off of the ground in lazy, wispy curls, and then slowly condensed into droplets and cascaded in a brief, yet soaking rain.

On the outer edge of the curving vault supports were staircases that each led up to the top of the outer edge of the dome, upon which rested what Zathira informed them the night before was the Upper Tower. In general, guests and visitors to Karral's tower would utilize the lower tower, with the gardens and the summoning rooms (Karral had several apprentices and often rented or lent his rooms to other wizards and sorcerers who had need of their special properties). The Upper Tower was much more restricted access.

The group spent a little while playing in the fields and peering curiously over the edge into the featureless dimension boundaries. Valar got in trouble with an Undine, a watery fae who had not been present with the dryads when Zathira forbade the taking of the party as pets. Laeka and Arien were able to hold the Undine off while Marcus fetched Zathira, who arrived and scolded the girl, who reluctantly relinquished her claim on the thief.

The upper deck included a gazebo amid the meadows, a few secluded benches and picnic spots near the streams, and a copse of trees which had been planted and grown to form the perfect druid's grove. Laeka and Valar, getting bored while the rest of the group were out checking out the grounds, decided to improvise a target on top of one of the small wooden shields that they had taken from Dorecan Manor. The two spent time playing games of dagger tossing, and Laeka decided to try some trick shots, tossing her dagger over her shoulder... bullseye.

Valar tried it... bullseye. Laeka tried it again... bullseye. Each shot taken over the shoulder... bullseye, without fail. Finally, after a few more tries, the two realized that they were literally surrounded by fae... tiny sidhe-folk no larger than a rose, or a butterfly. Indeed, several of the butterflies were actually fae, and a few of the twiglings, roots, sprouts, and petals were actually riding on butterflies. A number of them were holding the edges of the shield, and as the tall folk were chucking the daggers over their shoulder at them, they were treating it as a game and moving the shield to catch it in the center.

Laeka was immediately intrigued by the gaggle of small sidhe that had assembled, and she began to play with them quite merrily until the rest of the party appeared and the small sidhe disappeared.

Having exhausted the investigation of the current level, the group decided to ascend up to the Upper Tower, taking one of the curving vaults up to where they saw a white stone door. Inscribed on the door was a message in common, stating "Only the righteous may pass." After a few minutes of discussion and debate, Laeka was told to channel the positive energy of her God, Povra, into the door, which she did. The door shuddered and glowed and opened for the party, being replaced with an ordinary wooden door, sans writing.

The party led an exhaustive search of the upper tower. They discovered that there were no stairs or access points between levels aside from a teleport area, for one. On the lowest level of the tower they found the master living quarters for Karral, his personal lounge and study, and a room where he could entertain others privately. Using the teleport pad they attained the next level, which was Karral's personal laboratory and Conjuring library. Up one further level brought them to the place that made Tybok and Marcus feel as though they had died and gone to heaven... Karral's collection of spells and grimoires. The next level up was a bit of a puzzle to the group. They emerged inside a single chamber, with the same glasslike material forming the outer walls, and noticed a sort of an observation deck that circled around the tower, with one long tongue of stone that led out to nothingness. After hemming and hawing over it, Skalar pointed out that it looked rather like the small nubs on the side resembled moorings on the riverside docks. Tybok ventured forth a guess that perhaps it was used for some kind of flying ship of some sort, like they mentioned in the gnome bedtime stories.

The other odd sort of thing that the group encountered on that level was a black stone pylon with nine sides and nine doorways, one to each side, enclosing about a fifteen foot square room. Marcus used his detect magic and was nearly blinded from the strength of the magical energy that was contained within the pylon. He did note that it was a strange blend of magic, but that it seemed self-contained and *not* connected to the tower as a whole.

Looking at it from the outside, the group could see that there was a gray stone block in the center, looking like some kind of a table or altar, but there were no other features to be seen. Laeka took a step forward, entering the pylon, and Yovaire attempted to step in as well, but curiously enough as soon as Laeka entered there seemed to be some kind of a wall of force preventing anyone else from entering, no matter which doorway they tried. Nothing evil seemed to befall Laeka, but the light that was coming from the top of the pylon did change slightly to reveal some kind of carved inscription on the tabletop.

Marcus, ever curious, called in to Laeka, "What's it say?"

And Laeka, ever obliging, read aloud the inscription on the stone, saying "Umi sum." At which point the wall of force surrounding the pylon dropped and everyone else was allowed in. When the group was inside, the pylon sealed, and... something happened.
In the order in which the group crossed the threshold, a different set of words were read out, each ending in 'sum' (soom). Umi, mudo, nictu, etc. Marcus guessed (correctly) that whatever 'sum' meant, the other numbers were some kind of counting. Each party member felt a small stabbing pain in their left ring finger, and when they looked down a glowing tattoo of a spider had appeared. At that point, they all suffered severe disorientation, as they could for the moment see and sense through each others' eyes. There was a glow that surrounded Laeka, a buzzing that came from her pack. When she fished out the source of the buzzing, she found that an eldritch light was suffusing the Rod of Splendor they had picked up from Dorecan Manor, and before anyone could react the energy from that rod sank into her chest and merged with her aura, leaving a burnt-out rod in her hands, and permanently giving her a Charisma of 18.

There was a moment's hesitation, and then the light at the peak of the pylon began to shimmer and coalesce until it revealed a small image of an old man, human in seeming, but with an aura of some kind of otherworldliness about him. The image looked about for a moment, smiled kindly, and began to speak.

"Welcome, adventurers, to the Sanctum of Order. You have passed many gates and tests to stand where you do now, but the real test of your mettle has just begun. In older days, you would have entered the chamber knowing full well what you had stepped forward into, yet as I leave this Tower behind to pursue things of dire importance, I can sense that no one will enter here until much of the lore and ways I have instituted in all the places the Tower is will have faded. And so, I will explain.

"My name is Karral, and this Tower you stand in belongs to me. I do not know when, or if, I shall be able to return to it, as pleasant as the Tower has been. Yet such a center of power as this Tower has become should not be lost forever. It is our hope that someone will follow who can prove their worth and conviction, for the cause of Good, if not simply the cause of Order. To that end, I present you with the choice before you.

"You may accept the rings which now rest upon your fingers. If you take them, they will bond with your very soul for the duration of the time you wear them. They operate through a form of magic nearly unknown on your plane, and should not interfere with the trinkets you claim as 'magic rings', allowing you to wear one on each hand as you did before. They have great power, but only for those who take the time to use them. If nothing else, they will allow you to communicate mentally with your leader." At this, Karral's image stopped and nodded at Laeka. The party started to ask questions, but the image seemed not to be able to hear them, and continued on, so they stopped and listened.

"These rings will prepare you for the task ahead. You are obviously Good at heart, for none but the Righteous would have been able to gain access here. Therefore, I name you Guests of the Tower. If you accept the task ahead of you, you will keep the rings upon your fingers as you leave. You may stay here, but know that unless you are vouched as Good and worthy by those my Seneschals accept as such, you cannot gain true Residency here. Find a power of greater good and carry their vouch to my Seneschals, and you shall be offered Residency, and the tasks will be set before you to begin your work in becoming eventual Masters of the Tower yourselves.

"For now, decide whether you depart with the gift of this magical link or if you will set aside this path and depart the Tower."

The party debated, and took much time to be thorough in their deliberations. Finally they decided that there had been no indications to make them believe that Karral was anything other than good, and most likely lawful as well. Taking the leap of faith (and really really REALLY wanting to own the Tower) they all agreed and the rings became part of them.

[META: The rings are psionic artifacts, with level-based and charisma-based bonuses. The individual members of the team can number up to nine, and with the consent of the Leader, Umi Sum or 'I am the first,' lower team members in the hierarchy can leave the team. The Leader has the ability to generate an actual ring that can be placed on the hand of a new person who, if willing, joins the team to fill any open slot. The ring hearkens from Karral's home plane, and the pylon is tied to it. As the party adventures, more will hopefully become clear to them on what the point is for the rings. For now, they just get the fun of playing with an artifact-level-item which has a number of surprising features.]

The party left the chamber and finished off their exploration of the Upper Tower, ending with the aptly-named Observation Room, a domed top point that contained a crystal ball for use with scrying mounted in the center of the room, and a table which had the ability to create a 3D illusion of a map, and was currently set to demonstrate the region of the River of Stars. The crystal ball could be used to scry, and for those powerful enough the vision gleaned from the ball could be projected onto the walls and dome of the room. Truly gifted seers and diviners could make it actually feel like the group was present within the scene being scried.

Thus, with new toys and a new purpose, the group decided to take their evening meal with Zathira, to ask her how they should go about getting a vouch, and who the other Seneschals of the Tower might be.

 

[Pacio49]

To Secure a Vouch, part I

Zathira met them inside the Upper Tower in Karral's old study area, and the Faerie Queen told the party that she was the last of the Seneschals of the Tower left. This was exacty as Karral had planned it, though, since she had her people to look after and was for all intents and purposes an immortal. She liked the party, make no mistake about that, but Karral had been fairly specific when it came to the steps it took in order to earn Mastery over his Tower.

The first step being the securing of a vouch of the party's goodness. It had to come from a powerful force for good, which meant that the easiest way to do so was to find a powerful magical being of Good alignment or a powerful Good outsider and perform some service for them, which would thereafter secure the necessary vouch and make the party Residents of the Tower. When the group questioned her about the location of any such beings, Zathira thought for a moment and then decided that the best place for the party to begin their search was with the Lillends, three sisters of the Lillend kind named Cordellia, Ophellia, and Sarallia, who had taken up residence nearby at the Caldera Gardens, the source of the River of Stars, just over a full day's travel to the west.

After some debate, the party decided that Lillends would be as good a place as any to begin, and set out immediately to secure their vouch, not suspecting the bizarre adventure which lay in wait for them.

 

[Black Bard]

Can't wait to see the Lillends' Quest!

 

[Pacio49]

The Lillends' Quest

The River of Stars flows from the mountains to the far southwest of Tol Vehara through a fertile, forested valley and eventually joins the Gold River, the eastward flowing long river that nearly splits the continent of Brace's northern half. The source of the river emerges in the midst of an ancient caldera whose northeastern rim has long since fallen away by the settling of the earth in ages past. The caldera is low, more of a hilly crater now, and the mineral deposits from the underground springs and tributary streams is rich in mica and quartz, as well as black basalt and pumice from long-eroded magma flows from when the caldera was an active volcano. The result of this is that for the length of the river the stones, sand, and silt are black or dark gray in color, with minute flecks of mica and crystal that sparkle in the slow-moving stretches of the river, and give the river its name.

The Lillends, three sisters and apparently not subject to the effects of the Taint, have taken up residence in the Caldera at the source of the River of Stars. Their love of beauty and art has led them, over the years, to turn the slopes of the caldera into a series of terraced gardens, rock pools with musical waterfalls and dripping pools, reflecting areas, flower gardens, meditation courtyards, and a small stage and seating against the back of the caldera wall where they stage dramatic performances and invite musical performers and travelers to display their skills against the natural ampitheater. It is an oasis of beauty wed in near-perfect harmony with the natural surroundings, so the transition from wild to sculpted is gradual, and the sense of relief and wonder build the closer to their home you approach.

The party made their way to the River of Stars and followed it to the source, taking an entire day and into the night hours. They arrived at the Caldera Gardens and found their path lit by phosphorescent stones and luminary candles in exquisite pottery leading them to the center, the Well of Stars, and a Haven in which the Lillends kept their cottage, built in the gnomish style, with walls that are thick at the base and taper to normal thickness at the top, with troughs and terraces cut into and added onto the buildings in order to allow for gardens and vines, vegetables and grasses to be grown on the buildings themselves, with rooftop gardens accessed by ladders from the inside or the occasional stairway molded into the wall's outer edge itself.

The party was greeted by the eldest of the Lillends, Ophellia. Her sisters, Cordellia and Serallia also came to welcome them, and bid them rest after their long journey. Over a late supper, Arien and Valar informed the Lillends that they had come to the Caldera Gardens because they wished to earn their trust and their vouch as agents of Goodness in the world so that they could be accepted as Residents in Karral's Tower. Ophellia nodded and mentioned that goodness was proven in deeds better than words, and told the party that if they wished her vouch they would have to earn it by performing a task.

Someone downriver was using their magic irresponsibly and awakening all sorts of animals. Serallia left and returned with a group of animals, some wearing clothing, others not. A brown bear, several foxes, a few sparrows, an oppossum, a dozen or so mice, and a river otter, all told. The bear introduced himself as Barnaby, and asked for the party's help. Apparently, someone came through the woods and cast awaken on him, and then left. Newly awakened, Barnaby found himself suddenly aware and without a clue in the world as to how or why, and how he was supposed to behave. Bearish life no longer suited him, but there were few other options. It caused, in his words, an existential quandry of staggering proportions. The other animals confessed stories similar to Barnaby's, though without the intellectual snobbery.

Ophellia said that slowly they began to discover these animals and take them in, help them adapt, and allow them the choices for their new lifestyle. Arien asked if she had issue with the awaken spell, since someday she would be able to use it. Ophellia responded that so long as it was used responsibly, she didn't much mind since it was a matter of conscience and she would not interfere in the conscience of another unless it caused problems, and this was becoming a problem. More and more animals were finding their way to the Caldera gardens, and while most decided to stay, it was a burden that the animals had neither asked for nor been helped to deal with.

Ophellia thought that the most likely person to inquire after would be the Druidess Martha, currently living in a bend in the riverbanks 2 days downriver along the river's eastern bank. Martha, she said, maintained a colony of Shocker Lizards, and she was the only one that Ophellia knew who had the power to use awaken. If they checked with her, they needed to stop the indiscriminate use of the power, by the most peaceful means necessary since Martha professed a belief in goodness, or eliminate her as the most likely candidate and begin their search from there. Once the party solved the problem of the awakening animals, they would demonstrate their goodness of heart and the vouch would be theirs. The party rested, content to set out in the morning.