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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SelcSilverhand" data-source="post: 5853552" data-attributes="member: 30016">There is a brief moment of darkness as you enter the wall, but another step takes you clear of it and you stand in a grand hallway. All around you are statues. Some are normal sized, others stand several stories tall. They depict men and women of all the common races (and some not so common ones such as lizardmen and goblinoids) looking noble and stunning. Your guide pauses for a moment to allow you a chance to take it all in. She says, "This is the Hall of Commemeration. Here, the greatest minds have had their likenesses enshrined to inspire future generations of arcanists." She turns and continues on her way. As you pass, several of the statues shift almost soundlessly into new poses, or their heads turn to follow your progress. On the far side of the hall is a mosaic tiled floor with no obvious exit. Once the entire party has entered the dead end, your guide pounds her staff on the floor three times and the whole hallway rotates underneath you! The Hall of Commemeration disappears as the opening rotates to a new position revealing another hall. This one seems to be plainer, perhaps more for the staff use rather than to impress visitors. She walks forward again down a long passage. The hall contains numerous side passages and your guide charts a dizzying path through the maze of hallways. There are many doors and side passages marked with enigmatic symbols. From behind the closed doors you occasionally hear howls, chanting, loud winds, sounds of combative magics, voices arguing in celestial and infernal, and other enticing noises. Several times your guide stops at an intersection to utter command words or cast a cantrip that seems to be a trigger for some other event. After a time you realize she is disabling wards and magical traps to allow you a safe passage. Your realization comes as you start to notice the faint sooty outlines of bodies on the floor and walls or ominous stains that weren't completely clean. Nocturnas tower is not where students come to hear lectures and study from the libraries. Here is where War Magic is perfected. Powerful beings are summoned, spells of mass destruction are created, and deadly artifacts are forged. Between the dangers of losing control of spells or summonings and those who would attempt espionage against the brightest arcanists in the world, it is no surprise that this tower would have mighty defenses. Finally, your guide brings you through the maze of passageways to a large platform inside the base of a tower. Looking upwards you have a hard time spotting the top far above. Your guides lead you onto the platform where the man and woman both manipulate controls on either side of the platform. They nod to each other and tap something at the same time which causes the platform to rise. It accelerates slowly, but soon is rushing upwards at a frightening speed! Activity on the walls around you flash by faster than you can process what they mean. A passage way leading to a room of lava. A double door carved in the face of a great demon. A circular ledge fitted with a hundred crossbows. Skeletal snakes, buried halfway in the wall that snap as you pass. As you begin to wonder just how tall this tower is, the ceiling comes into view. Your platform continues rushing upward with no sign of slowing down. You can't help but try to duck as the platform slams into the ceiling above.When you open your eyes, you find the platform has stopped and now hovers a foot off the floor, the ceiling it just passed through. Standing around you are four massive suits of armor that look like they could be worn by giants. With a creaking groan the suits come to life. A blast of heat covers you as their mouths open to reveal the red hot light of an internal furnace. Massive hands grip weapons that could split a cow in half, end to end. Your guides hurriedly speak a phrase of draconic in unison to the iron monsters. There is a tense moments hesitation and then the creatures return to a ready position. Your guides visibly relax and turn to you. "You are now in First Warlord and Royal Minister of Magic Adal ir'Wynarns's personal chambers. Here he receives only the most distinguished guests from all over Khorvaire and beyond. Know that he suffers no disrespect to his person and doesn't hesitate to eject guests who make themselves unwelcome. Sometimes he even remembers to provide them a way to stop falling on the way down." Her warning given, she walks between two of the iron giants and through a curtained opening. Adal's chambers are simply stunning. The study you are led into is built primarily of rare woods. The floor is richly stained darkwood, while the shelves are built from the magically light soarwood that airships are constructed from. His desk sports real living branches with leaves and nuts growing from them. Your guides indicate that you should sit in some of the luxurious leather couches that have been provided while that disappear down an adjacent cooridor. You are not left waiting long before Adal arrives. The minister of magic is a tall, regal looking man with long brown hair and piercing blue eyes. For a moment he pauses in the doorway while he surveys your group. His eyes flash entirely blue for a moment while he looks you over. They return to normal as he continues forward. His long, richly decorated robes do little to hide the myriad of wands and charms hanging from his belt and bracelets. He seats himself behind his desk and steeples his fingers as he leans forward."Welcome, I am glad that you accepted my invitation. As you should know by now, I am Adal ir'Wynarn, First Warlord of her majesties armies. Minister of Magic in the Congress of Arcanix. Lord of the Four towers. There are many other titles of course, some are even untranslatable as they were bestowed by beings not of our world. For brevity you may refer to me as Your Highness, Minister, or Warlord as you choose. I know a great deal about each of you. Aundairians are second to none in their ability to gather information from even the farthest corners of the world. They were even able to procure a sample from your most recent expedition along with some notes on your adventure. While binding elementals and demons are well known, the particular method and age of the crystals are of interest to our research. And while your past herorics do you credit, it is not the purpose of my summons. This peace of the last few years in fragile. Even though we now have a chance to see a generation raised without the horror of war filling every niche of their lives, there are many who would see us return to the ways of the past. Aundair must continues to protect itself and its rightful claim to the crown of Galifer. To do this we must ensure that the enemies of our nation, and I do mean enemies despite the false peace, that they never get their hands on weapons more powerful than ours. Unfortunately, they have found such a weapon.Breland, the nation to the south of us, was highly industrialized during the Last War. Their House Cannith forges created huge war machines capable of wrecking havoc over vast areas. Their mechanized monsters caused great harm to our citizens. One of their greatest achievements in slaughter was the floating fortresses. They created several of them during the Last War. They were all destroyed or decomissioned save for the Argonth which even now patrols between our border and theirs. They are literally moving cities. They can garrison a thousand troops, their mounts, and support personal. All of the destroyed fortresses that were destroyed were accounted for over the last 100 years save for one. The Archon. It was deep into Cyre when the Day of Mourning struck and it was presumed forever lost. Now however, I have learned differently. The wreck has been located and even as we speak expeditions from several nations are moving to plunder the powerful and dangerous weapons contained within. These weapons will make their way into the armories of our nations enemies and the radical groups that threaten to destabilize our borders. If we do not reach the wreck and capture its resources, a great power shift will occur and leave us at a disadvantage. While there are regular salvage crews operating in the Mournlands they have too many ties to Black Markets to be considered safe to use. Many of my other reliable teams are operating in other regions and cannot be called in quickly enough to take on this task. I recently attended a state function where your former patron spoke highly of you. Two of you were educated our finest schools, while Doral has served the crown proudly in the past, and Kraken has a chance to gain great wealth in service to us and to restablish his life after a long exile. I can offer great rewards, not only in monetary gain but in patronage and reputation. A service to the crown benefits all of Aundair and I can see to it that you have many opportunities for advancement. I hope that you consider my offer in this light. We have little time to waste, so please consider swiftly."</blockquote>

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