Chadderlay quickly makes his way up the stairs and into the room.
"Hello there, are you the keeper of this tower? We are looking for information on a ritual. Can you help us?"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
"What are you looking at? What do you see that is so important?"
Chadderlay moves to one side to allow others coming up the stairs to file into the room.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
As if in response to the question, the slimy creature stares at the wall behind Angus. The images upon ut depict the observatory’s use. By training the magic telescope on distant stars, Ythryn’s astronomers could summon alien creatures from those stars to be questioned, studied, or dissected. The fall of Ythryn damaged the telescope beyond repair, rendering it useless.
<I love sharing lore, but there's not a lot if opportunity to organically reveal this stuff without betraying her stated temperament, so I'm just posting her tragic backstory in a spoiler.>
When Ythryn fell, a piece of the Tower of Divination crashed through the observatory roof. In the resulting chaos, the blue slaad encountered on the tower’s ground floor escaped from its cell and rampaged through the observatory. The Arch-Astronomer, who became infected by the slaad’s chaos phage, ordered her surviving apprentices to seal her inside the tower with the monster. In the years, decades, and centuries since, she has managed to keep the blue slaad from escaping through the hole in the roof.
The Arch-Astronomer, now a green slaad, is madly fiddling with the telescope, hoping to reverse its power so that it can project itself out of the tower to some faraway place where it can find happiness, but it has no hope of success.
The chunk of wall from the Tower of Divination bears the following inscription in Draconic: “Third, a burnt palm loosens the tongue. Shed a secret about yourself for all to hear.” This is a passage from the Rite of the Arcane Octad
Angus furrows his eyebrows and says, "Well... I always had a romantic attraction to Dove, even though she was married. I never told her, although she may have guessed.... Does that count?"
<that would totally count, but the ritual in its entirety is functional when performed at a clearly marked spot in front of the shielded tower. So, if say just hold on to it. FYI. You've accomplished the thing younheed to do here in the observatory. Assuming you want to move on, but kwt me know if otherwise. Im looki g at 1 or two more ritual steps to actually locate, and rhe rest get f8nished by zmorwena and Avarice. If that sounds alright, that's the plan as it stands.>
(ooc: sounds good, we leave the tower and begin heading toward the next location.)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
As you depart the observatory, you note another tower nearby, but it has partially collapsed.
The remains of the toppled tower lie scattered around you. Its fractured base, protruding from the ground like a broken tooth, is teeming with crawling gray hands.
Chadderlay shouts a warning to his companions and temporarily dismisses Mister Fancy into his pocket dimension for now.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
Two hundred crawling claws are tirelessly but ineffectively trying to excavate the tower’s ruins, brick by brick. After lingering a moment, you notice a gaunt spirit staring glumly down at the debris.
(ooc: sorry but I might be offline for a few months.)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
As you depart the observatory, you note another tower nearby, but it has partially collapsed.
The remains of the toppled tower lie scattered around you. Its fractured base, protruding from the ground like a broken tooth, is teeming with crawling gray hands.
Nature check on the hands 6
Sam pauses and thinks “why is this one destroyed” then turns too look at the main tower and tries to see if wind is allowed through the field perception 12
Angus observes the spirit and asks his companions. "Should we attract its attention? It might turn the hands against us, but it also may be able to reveal the secrets of this ruin..."
“Let go up stairs now” Sam say
Chadderlay quickly makes his way up the stairs and into the room.
"Hello there, are you the keeper of this tower? We are looking for information on a ritual. Can you help us?"
The slaad, clad in netherese attire, ceases fiddling madly with the controls of the telescope
<for thousands of years...? OK. I didn't write this it makes no sense. it's just in the adventure like this>
It bears its fangs and growls at the interruption. Swatting at the air with its claws in an effort to shoo you away from its work.
"What are you looking at? What do you see that is so important?"
Chadderlay moves to one side to allow others coming up the stairs to file into the room.
As if in response to the question, the slimy creature stares at the wall behind Angus. The images upon ut depict the observatory’s use. By training the magic telescope on distant stars, Ythryn’s astronomers could summon alien creatures from those stars to be questioned, studied, or dissected. The fall of Ythryn damaged the telescope beyond repair, rendering it useless.
<I love sharing lore, but there's not a lot if opportunity to organically reveal this stuff without betraying her stated temperament, so I'm just posting her tragic backstory in a spoiler.>
When Ythryn fell, a piece of the Tower of Divination crashed through the observatory roof. In the resulting chaos, the blue slaad encountered on the tower’s ground floor escaped from its cell and rampaged through the observatory. The Arch-Astronomer, who became infected by the slaad’s chaos phage, ordered her surviving apprentices to seal her inside the tower with the monster. In the years, decades, and centuries since, she has managed to keep the blue slaad from escaping through the hole in the roof.
The Arch-Astronomer, now a green slaad, is madly fiddling with the telescope, hoping to reverse its power so that it can project itself out of the tower to some faraway place where it can find happiness, but it has no hope of success.
Angus peers at the wall, and at the rest of the room, searching for clues that might further their mission.
The chunk of wall from the Tower of Divination bears the following inscription in Draconic: “Third, a burnt palm loosens the tongue. Shed a secret about yourself for all to hear.” This is a passage from the Rite of the Arcane Octad
Angus furrows his eyebrows and says, "Well... I always had a romantic attraction to Dove, even though she was married. I never told her, although she may have guessed.... Does that count?"
<that would totally count, but the ritual in its entirety is functional when performed at a clearly marked spot in front of the shielded tower. So, if say just hold on to it. FYI. You've accomplished the thing younheed to do here in the observatory. Assuming you want to move on, but kwt me know if otherwise. Im looki g at 1 or two more ritual steps to actually locate, and rhe rest get f8nished by zmorwena and Avarice. If that sounds alright, that's the plan as it stands.>
(ooc: sounds good, we leave the tower and begin heading toward the next location.)
As you depart the observatory, you note another tower nearby, but it has partially collapsed.
The remains of the toppled tower lie scattered around you. Its fractured base, protruding from the ground like a broken tooth, is teeming with crawling gray hands.
"Watch out for those hands!"
Chadderlay shouts a warning to his companions and temporarily dismisses Mister Fancy into his pocket dimension for now.
Two hundred crawling claws are tirelessly but ineffectively trying to excavate the tower’s ruins, brick by brick. After lingering a moment, you notice a gaunt spirit staring glumly down at the debris.
(ooc: sorry but I might be offline for a few months.)
Nature check on the hands 6
Sam pauses and thinks “why is this one destroyed” then turns too look at the main tower and tries to see if wind is allowed through the field perception 12
Angus observes the spirit and asks his companions. "Should we attract its attention? It might turn the hands against us, but it also may be able to reveal the secrets of this ruin..."
The claws are undead, dismembered limbs moving under their own power. Deeply unnatural and disturbing. A clear sign of necromancy.
<the hands and ghost want you to dig>
The hands struggle, to no avail, to unearth the remains of the High Necromancer.
(Well? Do we want to unearth a Necromancer? I'm assuming it must further the quest, 'cause otherwise it sounds like a terrible idea...)
(Might as well)
Sam looks at the hands trying to dig “help me here” and will start trying to move and dig up the rubble