Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 192
For a hushed moment everyone in the Company just stares at the tower. It’s been over two years since the Eyes of Moirel first spoke the words “Het Branoi” through Eddings. Now it stands before them, open at last, beckoning.
“I cannot remember the password,” says Dranko.
The humming stops and the ruddy glow flips back to a serene white.
Softly, Aravis says, “If I ever find someone involved with the making of this tower, I’m going beat the HELL out them.”
Dranko vents his frustration by giving the dead beholder a swift kick.
“Thank the Gods you thought of that,” Dranko says to Aravis.
“Well,” says Aravis, “you know I am a wizard. I only had to get hit over the head with the answer three or four times before it came to me.”
“It was like a bolt of lightning shot through you, wasn’t it?” says Dranko.
“Let it go,” says Flicker, shaking his head. “Let it go.”
Morningstar takes a few steps back from the glowing doorway.
“We’re about to go in the tower that’s so evil that even the Black Circle kicked them out of the club” she says. “And like I said, we don’t know for certain that we even need to get in there. We’re just assuming.”
That leads into a few minutes of discussion about gathering info via a commune spell. Most of the party is pretty certain that the Eye of Moirel is within this hidden tower, but Morningstar and some others want to be absolutely sure.
“We can always go through the door, cast locate object, and if it’s in the building, we’ll know,” says Ernie. “If not, we come right back out.”
He scratches his head and takes a bite of bread. “Although it could be weird and multi-planar in there, I guess,” he adds.
And that kicks off more talk, this time about what the interior of Het Branoi – assuming that’s what this is – might be like. Their intelligence from Djaw indicates it’s larger on the inside than the outside, which seems eminently logical given its small exterior dimension. But is the interior a demi-plane? Or does the doorway simply teleport people to somewhere else entirely? There’s no way to know without taking the plunge.
Dranko points out idly that no one has entered or exited the tower for decades, as far as the giants know. Morningstar again notes that in the new time-line, the Eye of Moirel may never have even been taken inside. Aravis speculates that the Eyes may not have been affected by the time change, though he admits it’s just a theory.
Everyone agrees that they should wait until tomorrow before going inside.
“I don’t want to go in there with Morningstar only at half strength,” says Aravis, noting that most of her spells have been cast as thought captures.
“Yeah,” says Dranko with a snort. “If she gets charmed, she’ll barely be able to kill us all.”
Everyone laughs. The tension and frustration everyone had felt since the world changed had been building up to an almost intolerable pitch, but with the discovery of the password, much of that has drained away, leaving an air of giddy relief and vague hilarity in its stead. But Morningstar doesn’t’ lose her head, and there’s no point in taking chances. She prays for a few minutes for the prayer of commune and then she casts it.
It’s another few minutes before she feels the connection with the agents of her Goddess. The link is faint and tenuous. She asks her first question.
Do we need to enter the tower in order to complete our mission to restore the universe?
There is a long delay before each distant answer comes to her mind.
I believe so
Will we find an Eye of Moirel within the tower?
I don’t know
Realizing that the inherent wards on the tower might be hindering her divination, she changes her wording.
Is there en Eye of Moirel in the house of Seven Dark Words?
Again, I don’t know.
Is this the house of Seven Dark words?
Yes.
This answer brings great relief.
“Yay for prophecies being correct despite world-changing events!” says Ernie.
Does the Black Circle know we are entering the tower?
I don’t know.
The answers grow more faint, more hollow.
Have we completed all the steps that are needed to open the tower?
Yes
“Thank you for your wisdom, Dark Lady,” says Morningstar, bowing her head. The thin connection with the heavens is gone.
The rest of the day is spent in discussion of what spells they should collectively prepare for tomorrow’s planned excursion. Grey Wolf wants boom, boom, and more boom. Morningstar leans toward trap-removal and countermeasures.
“I’m going to prepare to make myself into a combat machine,” says Ernie. “I never successfully dispel anything, anyway.”
That leads the Company to start reminiscing about the Black Circle bestiary, where Morningstar successfully dispelled a powerful trap that they all thought was beyond any of their power to destroy.
“That was your first adventure with us, wasn’t it, Grey Wolf?” says Flicker.
Grey Wolf looks pained.
“I remember when you cast flaming sphere in the methane-filled cave with the big stink-wiggle,” Flicker continues.
“And wasn’t that where you hit yourself with your own lightning bolt?” says Kibi, grinning.
Grey Wolf harrumphs and becomes absorbed in his spell-books.
The only interruption comes when Eigomic returns around mid-day. He announces that he will not allow the beholder to be raised from the dead. The Company makes no attempt to hinder him as he and three other giants haul away the body.
* *
After a hurried breakfast the next morning, everyone is ready for action. Spells are prepared, buffs are applied, and they line up outside the door behind Flicker.
He puts in the key and turns it.
He says “I cannot remember the password.”
The door starts to hum, and it glows with a strong blue light.
Blue?
“Knowledge, power, eternity,” says Dranko. The illusion winks out, but the light is still blue.
“Oh, sh*t,” says Aravis.
They try every possible combination of orderings for putting in the key and uttering the two passwords.
Still blue.
“Crap!” says Dranko.
“Blue’s better than red, isn’t it?” says Grey Wolf hopefully.
“Blue is most definitely worse than red,” says Dranko bitterly.
“I was happier with red,” Aravis agrees.
“Why?” asks Grey Wolf.
“I mean, I was happier with whatever color it was yesterday,” says Aravis.
Dranko nods. The implication is clear: someone in the tower, realizing it was about to be breached by outsiders, has changed something about the doorway. That can’t be a good sign.
Ernie casts a quick augury.
Will walking forward into the blue light bring us weal or woe? he asks.
There is no answer.
“Yondalla didn’t say anything,” says Ernie sullenly.
The glow changes color. In an eyeblink it has gone from blue to a pale spring green.
“That could be prismatic" says Grey Wolf, pointing at the doorway. “This is not a good thing.”
“I don’t think it’s going in the right order,” says Aravis. All three wizards spend some time scrutinizing the glow coming from the doorway. None of them is powerful enough to cast from the set of prismatics, but it’s a common topic of study at most guilds. They conclude that whatever is going on with the door, it’s not a prismatic wall or anything like it. Kibi’s pretty sure it’s some kind of portal.
“Green means go,” says Dranko. “Let’s just go in.”
Flicker takes a deep breath and jumps into the green light. He vanishes. Dranko follows. Then Aravis. It’s still the same green color as Ernie, last in line, steps through the doorway.
As each member of the Company crosses the threshold, they feel pulled in, as something draws them to a dark, cold void. For a second there is a lurching feeling as if they are traveling a long way in a short time. Flicker stumbles out, into a forest.
A forest?
He’s not in a clearing, though the woods are sparse. Behind him, amid the trees and suspended in the air, hangs a shimmering curtain of blue light slightly larger than the tower’s doorway. It ripples like cloth in the breeze, sparkling as it moves, with speckles of white light playing along the brilliant blue surface.
Kibi steps out of the curtain, the bottom of which is only about six inches off the ground. He looks around in surprise. One by one the members of the Company emerge from the curtain into the woods, weapons drawn, expecting an ambush.
Birds sing in the trees overhead. Chipmunks scurry through the undergrowth. Around them the forest filters the sunlight into a pale green color like the one seen from the giants’ courtyard. The sky through the trees is a faint blue.
The sun is orange.
“I wonder,” says Kibi, “if we had gone through when the light was blue, if we would have landed in the ocean?”
The ground is solid beneath the dwarf’s feet. His connection with the earth is solid and strong. A strange feeling starts to come over him.
Ssssszzzzzzzzz. The blue curtain goes rigid. As the Company watches it glides off to the left, growing narrower as if it’s sliding into an invisible slot. In less than three seconds it is gone. Beyond it is more forest, stretching as far as the eye can see.
Ernie instinctively marks a nearby rock with a piece of chalk. Step looks around nervously.
“I am going to die here,” he says, his voice low.
“No you’re not, Step,” says Ernie. “We were supposed to betray Grey Wolf, and we didn’t, and he didn’t die.”
“And it’s not like we didn’t try,” adds Dranko.
“Why do you think you’re going to die here?” asks Morningstar.
“I read it in the prophecy. In the poem that led me to you. ‘Go with them to your certain doom,’ it said.
“I meant, why do you think you’re going to die here, says Morningstar.
“Oh. Well, I don’t expect to die in this forest,” says Step, smiling in spite of himself.
“I appreciate you’re willing to sacrifice so much for the cause,” says Ernie, “but we don’t want you to die, and we’re going to make sure you don’t. So don’t get all depressed and… and sacrifice-y.”
Step nods.
“But if I have to,” he adds, “I hope you do not try to stop me.”
“Well, as long as you don’t go trying to sacrifice yourself all the time…” says Ernie.
“I won’t look for trouble,” promises Step. “I expect it will find me.”
Flicker is staring at Kibi. The dwarf is standing very still, feet on the ground, one hand pressed to a tree. There is… power… running all through his body. It’s coursing through his being, from the ground, the trees, even from the air around him. To everyone’s surprise he tries sprinting into the forest, thinking it might be affecting him physically, but he moves no faster than usual. He comes jogging back, oblivious to the stares of the others.
“I like this place,” he says.
“Because it makes you run around through the trees?” asks Morningstar, eyebrows raised.
“Don’t you feel it?” asks Kibi. “This place is all… hummy, like it’s full of energy.”
No one else feels a thing.
“I’ve got gas,” says Dranko. “Does that count?”
“No,” says Kibi curtly.
Scree sinks into the ground.
“I feel… powerful!” he thinks to Kibi. When the earth elemental emerges, its body starts to rattle and vibrate. Its voice… no, the other voice… sounds clearly in Kibi’s head.
“This place is like the Greenhouse. You are no longer in need of our protection.”
In his normal voice Scree adds, “Oh my goodness, did you hear that?”
“Yes,” says Kibi, startled. “That wasn’t you, was it?”
“No,” says Scree.
“The Eyes just spoke,” Kibi tells the others. “They said this place is like the Greenhouse and we’re no longer in need of their protection.”
“Thank you for protecting us, Eyes,” says Kibi, addressing the body of his familiar.
Ernie keeps the belt on, just in case.
“Hey Eyes,” he says, “What color is your brother who’s here?”
“They just don’t understand,” thinks Scree to Kibi. “The Eyes don’t talk with people. And I’m not them.”
It’s a mild afternoon, the temperature in the 60’s, which feels like summer after the days camped in chilly Surgoil. A light breeze whispers through the wood. Squirrels chitter high in the branches. It’s maybe an hour before noon.
Dranko wonders aloud if Eigomic might follow them here. After all, no one stayed behind to lock up. But the blue curtain is gone. Does that mean Eigomic simply closed up the tower and took back the key?
“And maybe the color will have changed again if he tries,” says Kibi.
Kay and Oa Lyanna cast fly and head upward above the treetops, looking for signs of civilization. There are only more trees as far as she can see in all directions. The rest of the group hears a brief twittering of bird noises as Kay casts speak with animals and converses with a passing crow. A few minutes later she comes down and reports.
“The birds here have seen creatures that look like us. They live in that direction.”
She points westward (she thinks) into the woods.
“It was hard to get a sense of scale from the bird, but I guess we’re some hours away on foot. I think we should get moving.”
With Kay and Dranko leading the way, the Company tromps off into the forest. High above the trees, the orange sun sends its rays down through the leaves.
…to be continued…
For a hushed moment everyone in the Company just stares at the tower. It’s been over two years since the Eyes of Moirel first spoke the words “Het Branoi” through Eddings. Now it stands before them, open at last, beckoning.
“I cannot remember the password,” says Dranko.
The humming stops and the ruddy glow flips back to a serene white.
Softly, Aravis says, “If I ever find someone involved with the making of this tower, I’m going beat the HELL out them.”
Dranko vents his frustration by giving the dead beholder a swift kick.
“Thank the Gods you thought of that,” Dranko says to Aravis.
“Well,” says Aravis, “you know I am a wizard. I only had to get hit over the head with the answer three or four times before it came to me.”
“It was like a bolt of lightning shot through you, wasn’t it?” says Dranko.
“Let it go,” says Flicker, shaking his head. “Let it go.”
Morningstar takes a few steps back from the glowing doorway.
“We’re about to go in the tower that’s so evil that even the Black Circle kicked them out of the club” she says. “And like I said, we don’t know for certain that we even need to get in there. We’re just assuming.”
That leads into a few minutes of discussion about gathering info via a commune spell. Most of the party is pretty certain that the Eye of Moirel is within this hidden tower, but Morningstar and some others want to be absolutely sure.
“We can always go through the door, cast locate object, and if it’s in the building, we’ll know,” says Ernie. “If not, we come right back out.”
He scratches his head and takes a bite of bread. “Although it could be weird and multi-planar in there, I guess,” he adds.
And that kicks off more talk, this time about what the interior of Het Branoi – assuming that’s what this is – might be like. Their intelligence from Djaw indicates it’s larger on the inside than the outside, which seems eminently logical given its small exterior dimension. But is the interior a demi-plane? Or does the doorway simply teleport people to somewhere else entirely? There’s no way to know without taking the plunge.
Dranko points out idly that no one has entered or exited the tower for decades, as far as the giants know. Morningstar again notes that in the new time-line, the Eye of Moirel may never have even been taken inside. Aravis speculates that the Eyes may not have been affected by the time change, though he admits it’s just a theory.
Everyone agrees that they should wait until tomorrow before going inside.
“I don’t want to go in there with Morningstar only at half strength,” says Aravis, noting that most of her spells have been cast as thought captures.
“Yeah,” says Dranko with a snort. “If she gets charmed, she’ll barely be able to kill us all.”
Everyone laughs. The tension and frustration everyone had felt since the world changed had been building up to an almost intolerable pitch, but with the discovery of the password, much of that has drained away, leaving an air of giddy relief and vague hilarity in its stead. But Morningstar doesn’t’ lose her head, and there’s no point in taking chances. She prays for a few minutes for the prayer of commune and then she casts it.
It’s another few minutes before she feels the connection with the agents of her Goddess. The link is faint and tenuous. She asks her first question.
Do we need to enter the tower in order to complete our mission to restore the universe?
There is a long delay before each distant answer comes to her mind.
I believe so
Will we find an Eye of Moirel within the tower?
I don’t know
Realizing that the inherent wards on the tower might be hindering her divination, she changes her wording.
Is there en Eye of Moirel in the house of Seven Dark Words?
Again, I don’t know.
Is this the house of Seven Dark words?
Yes.
This answer brings great relief.
“Yay for prophecies being correct despite world-changing events!” says Ernie.
Does the Black Circle know we are entering the tower?
I don’t know.
The answers grow more faint, more hollow.
Have we completed all the steps that are needed to open the tower?
Yes
“Thank you for your wisdom, Dark Lady,” says Morningstar, bowing her head. The thin connection with the heavens is gone.
The rest of the day is spent in discussion of what spells they should collectively prepare for tomorrow’s planned excursion. Grey Wolf wants boom, boom, and more boom. Morningstar leans toward trap-removal and countermeasures.
“I’m going to prepare to make myself into a combat machine,” says Ernie. “I never successfully dispel anything, anyway.”
That leads the Company to start reminiscing about the Black Circle bestiary, where Morningstar successfully dispelled a powerful trap that they all thought was beyond any of their power to destroy.
“That was your first adventure with us, wasn’t it, Grey Wolf?” says Flicker.
Grey Wolf looks pained.
“I remember when you cast flaming sphere in the methane-filled cave with the big stink-wiggle,” Flicker continues.
“And wasn’t that where you hit yourself with your own lightning bolt?” says Kibi, grinning.
Grey Wolf harrumphs and becomes absorbed in his spell-books.
The only interruption comes when Eigomic returns around mid-day. He announces that he will not allow the beholder to be raised from the dead. The Company makes no attempt to hinder him as he and three other giants haul away the body.
* *
After a hurried breakfast the next morning, everyone is ready for action. Spells are prepared, buffs are applied, and they line up outside the door behind Flicker.
He puts in the key and turns it.
He says “I cannot remember the password.”
The door starts to hum, and it glows with a strong blue light.
Blue?
“Knowledge, power, eternity,” says Dranko. The illusion winks out, but the light is still blue.
“Oh, sh*t,” says Aravis.
They try every possible combination of orderings for putting in the key and uttering the two passwords.
Still blue.
“Crap!” says Dranko.
“Blue’s better than red, isn’t it?” says Grey Wolf hopefully.
“Blue is most definitely worse than red,” says Dranko bitterly.
“I was happier with red,” Aravis agrees.
“Why?” asks Grey Wolf.
“I mean, I was happier with whatever color it was yesterday,” says Aravis.
Dranko nods. The implication is clear: someone in the tower, realizing it was about to be breached by outsiders, has changed something about the doorway. That can’t be a good sign.
Ernie casts a quick augury.
Will walking forward into the blue light bring us weal or woe? he asks.
There is no answer.
“Yondalla didn’t say anything,” says Ernie sullenly.
The glow changes color. In an eyeblink it has gone from blue to a pale spring green.
“That could be prismatic" says Grey Wolf, pointing at the doorway. “This is not a good thing.”
“I don’t think it’s going in the right order,” says Aravis. All three wizards spend some time scrutinizing the glow coming from the doorway. None of them is powerful enough to cast from the set of prismatics, but it’s a common topic of study at most guilds. They conclude that whatever is going on with the door, it’s not a prismatic wall or anything like it. Kibi’s pretty sure it’s some kind of portal.
“Green means go,” says Dranko. “Let’s just go in.”
Flicker takes a deep breath and jumps into the green light. He vanishes. Dranko follows. Then Aravis. It’s still the same green color as Ernie, last in line, steps through the doorway.
As each member of the Company crosses the threshold, they feel pulled in, as something draws them to a dark, cold void. For a second there is a lurching feeling as if they are traveling a long way in a short time. Flicker stumbles out, into a forest.
A forest?
He’s not in a clearing, though the woods are sparse. Behind him, amid the trees and suspended in the air, hangs a shimmering curtain of blue light slightly larger than the tower’s doorway. It ripples like cloth in the breeze, sparkling as it moves, with speckles of white light playing along the brilliant blue surface.
Kibi steps out of the curtain, the bottom of which is only about six inches off the ground. He looks around in surprise. One by one the members of the Company emerge from the curtain into the woods, weapons drawn, expecting an ambush.
Birds sing in the trees overhead. Chipmunks scurry through the undergrowth. Around them the forest filters the sunlight into a pale green color like the one seen from the giants’ courtyard. The sky through the trees is a faint blue.
The sun is orange.
“I wonder,” says Kibi, “if we had gone through when the light was blue, if we would have landed in the ocean?”
The ground is solid beneath the dwarf’s feet. His connection with the earth is solid and strong. A strange feeling starts to come over him.
Ssssszzzzzzzzz. The blue curtain goes rigid. As the Company watches it glides off to the left, growing narrower as if it’s sliding into an invisible slot. In less than three seconds it is gone. Beyond it is more forest, stretching as far as the eye can see.
Ernie instinctively marks a nearby rock with a piece of chalk. Step looks around nervously.
“I am going to die here,” he says, his voice low.
“No you’re not, Step,” says Ernie. “We were supposed to betray Grey Wolf, and we didn’t, and he didn’t die.”
“And it’s not like we didn’t try,” adds Dranko.
“Why do you think you’re going to die here?” asks Morningstar.
“I read it in the prophecy. In the poem that led me to you. ‘Go with them to your certain doom,’ it said.
“I meant, why do you think you’re going to die here, says Morningstar.
“Oh. Well, I don’t expect to die in this forest,” says Step, smiling in spite of himself.
“I appreciate you’re willing to sacrifice so much for the cause,” says Ernie, “but we don’t want you to die, and we’re going to make sure you don’t. So don’t get all depressed and… and sacrifice-y.”
Step nods.
“But if I have to,” he adds, “I hope you do not try to stop me.”
“Well, as long as you don’t go trying to sacrifice yourself all the time…” says Ernie.
“I won’t look for trouble,” promises Step. “I expect it will find me.”
Flicker is staring at Kibi. The dwarf is standing very still, feet on the ground, one hand pressed to a tree. There is… power… running all through his body. It’s coursing through his being, from the ground, the trees, even from the air around him. To everyone’s surprise he tries sprinting into the forest, thinking it might be affecting him physically, but he moves no faster than usual. He comes jogging back, oblivious to the stares of the others.
“I like this place,” he says.
“Because it makes you run around through the trees?” asks Morningstar, eyebrows raised.
“Don’t you feel it?” asks Kibi. “This place is all… hummy, like it’s full of energy.”
No one else feels a thing.
“I’ve got gas,” says Dranko. “Does that count?”
“No,” says Kibi curtly.
Scree sinks into the ground.
“I feel… powerful!” he thinks to Kibi. When the earth elemental emerges, its body starts to rattle and vibrate. Its voice… no, the other voice… sounds clearly in Kibi’s head.
“This place is like the Greenhouse. You are no longer in need of our protection.”
In his normal voice Scree adds, “Oh my goodness, did you hear that?”
“Yes,” says Kibi, startled. “That wasn’t you, was it?”
“No,” says Scree.
“The Eyes just spoke,” Kibi tells the others. “They said this place is like the Greenhouse and we’re no longer in need of their protection.”
“Thank you for protecting us, Eyes,” says Kibi, addressing the body of his familiar.
Ernie keeps the belt on, just in case.
“Hey Eyes,” he says, “What color is your brother who’s here?”
“They just don’t understand,” thinks Scree to Kibi. “The Eyes don’t talk with people. And I’m not them.”
It’s a mild afternoon, the temperature in the 60’s, which feels like summer after the days camped in chilly Surgoil. A light breeze whispers through the wood. Squirrels chitter high in the branches. It’s maybe an hour before noon.
Dranko wonders aloud if Eigomic might follow them here. After all, no one stayed behind to lock up. But the blue curtain is gone. Does that mean Eigomic simply closed up the tower and took back the key?
“And maybe the color will have changed again if he tries,” says Kibi.
Kay and Oa Lyanna cast fly and head upward above the treetops, looking for signs of civilization. There are only more trees as far as she can see in all directions. The rest of the group hears a brief twittering of bird noises as Kay casts speak with animals and converses with a passing crow. A few minutes later she comes down and reports.
“The birds here have seen creatures that look like us. They live in that direction.”
She points westward (she thinks) into the woods.
“It was hard to get a sense of scale from the bird, but I guess we’re some hours away on foot. I think we should get moving.”
With Kay and Dranko leading the way, the Company tromps off into the forest. High above the trees, the orange sun sends its rays down through the leaves.
…to be continued…
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