Pizazz's Myth Drannor

Toc's large automaton stands nearby to Xemnez and Toc, as Thyrius and Simaal emerge from hiding. Perhaps just two enemies and their hulking robot was enough to scare the single witch away. Regardless, there's a few confusing moments as Thyrius suggests a tower, covered in haze, across the city, while Mirica waves from the Ethereal for only Xemnez and Toc to see, pointing at the big building that's close by...just within the 60 feet and within Mirica's ethereal gaze.  Then Thyrius suggests the eye, and Simaal seems to reluctantly agree. Toc does a short pantomime to the ethereal folk, and Mirica agrees emphatically. With the decision made, the one group, stretching across two planes, make their way back to the eyeball tower. 

Toc walks up to the stand that has the palm imprint on it.  "Alright, I'm asking about the words.  I'll start with....'show me the words that were written on the ceiling of this room that is now missing.'..alright? Ok.  Here goes nothing."  He places his hand on it, "Show me the words that were written on the ceiling of this room that is now missing!" 

Con save: 4

16 

Toc abruptly arcs backwards and his hand flies to his left eye as blood sprays from his face.  He stumbles back and lands on his back, his staff toppling to the floor with a wooden clatter.  As he sits there, clutching his face, blood seeping between his fingers, he says, "I see......I see something.....A large telescope is inside a thirty-foot-diameter chamber. Adamantine shields cover the windows. A large chunk of stone has fallen here and embedded itself in the floor like a jagged stone knife. The fragment is from this tower. It has the writing on it.  It says...'Third, a burnt palm loosens the tongue. Shed a secret about yourself for all to hear.'  I...the tower is that way, about 350 feet." 

He points vaguely along the edge of the city from here. Towards the tower just to the left of the big crystal dome. 

You guys look up and see some swirling in the big glass jar of eyeballs...****y to see a fresh...bloody looking eyeball has been added...it floats about, blood seeping into the liquid around it, as it glances to and fro...

Toc sits there clutching his face, in considerable pain.

Simaal moves forward and puts his hand out to Toc's shoulder 5 healing. "I think it's that eyeball, maybe you can stick it back in?"

A pettier soul might've mocked Toc, but Xemnez was no such thing. Once it became clear what happened, the Leonin went over to pick up the staff, and then kept on going to kneel beside Toc. "It is no memory, but truly you are the better bargainer." He states before placing the staff into Toc's free hand, and close it over it. Immediately after doing so, he closed his own eyes and seeming trying to focus on something. Which if all went well, the a dim green glow and the amplified smell of the berry would fill the ear as the dryad's boon is delivered unto the wizard.

-> Casting (3rd level)Cure Wounds using Dryad Charm on Toc, restoring 14 Hp.

He then glances back to the jar, before regarding Simmal with a serious look. "Something tells me that the effort may be far less simple then it looks." He then looks about until he sees Mirica and gives her a thumbs up. Then to the others he adds, "That makes three towers, yes? Which do we fancy next?"

Nuzej was still getting over his frustration that Mirica's offering to the hags yielded nothing, and barely notices Toc's relay with the eyes. When he is maimed, he turns to Mirica, saying, "should we leave this plane? The comparative benefit it might yield diminishes next to what we are missing back 'home'..."

Thyrius approaches Toc: "The legendary Ajani fights with one eye. You are in good company, wise one." He then points to his own scarred eye: "Those undeserving of such praise get to keep both of their eyes when similarly struck."

Turning to his brother: "Each of the three hints we found was detected at the top of a thin tower. I believe we should trust the pattern. I had mentioned a hazy tower on the other side of the disk. It might be far, but we may walk past other similar towers on the way."

"As good as the company may be, I suspect Toc would prefer to have two eyes." The events stopped being entertaining and became too cruel to just passively observe. Mirica stepped out of the Etherial mist - a pity, a waste but what can you do? and walked to Toc. "Let me see the wound." She carefully rinsed the bleeding eyesocket with holy water, then placed her hand on Toc's forehead and whispered - quietly but passionately - the prayer to Lathander. Regenerate

"It would be better to use his own eye but I do not think those eyes can be released. Just sit still for two minutes. Lathander wishes, you will be well again by this time."

Mirica was looking at the jar with a  mix of disbelief and amazement. "What a barbaric joke! Truly, netheresians deserved every bit of their fate. But I guess we are done asking questions here. It towers what we are searching for, let's go to the towers."

Simaal appears apologetic "Sorry Toc, we should have foreseen it considering the number of eyes on the walls, my premise was wrong. I have nothing that can help regrow the eye, but we will have it resolved once we return to someone who can provide that kind of healing. Since they're towers and they seem to follow the skirts of the city, I would say simply following the outside will both get us to the other side and simply check the other towers on the way, otherwise we may be crisscrossing the center of the city for next few days."

Xemnez chuffed and shook his head. "Though I do not disagree that they deserved their fate, Mirica, I doubt it was joke." He said, looking to the jar of eyes. "If you have not the wit, the strength, or the fortune to create your own means of seeking knowledge, then some price must be paid. Especially for something more powerful then we give it credit." He frowned. "And what more fitting price for folly in seeing what you should not then those very eyes."

Xemnez ears then flickered for a moment, before he turned to Simaal with a raised brow ridge. "Did... Did you just just make a joke at your friend's expense?" He asked plainly. But whether or not answer is forthcoming, Xem gruffly sighs and shakes his head again. "Either way, you made good point in following the skirt of city. We don't have... wh-..." Xemnez trails off there, rubbing his forehead and squinting his eyes for a few moments. Though at the first sign of concern from the others, he promptly straightened back up with a grumble and says curtly, "We don't have days. So let's keep moving."

To Mirica's "offer" on the ethereal, the two sisters made no response except grunting and shifting. Their eyes looking to their sister on the prime material at the time.  When they came together on the ethereal and departed though, the three were obviously 'huddling' up and sharing with each other. Nuzej watches them leave with annoyance. 

Then the group travelled to the eye tower and Toc's eye was magically torn from his head.

Simaal's healing seems to staunch the flow of blood, and then Xemnez's further healing that flows into Toc stops the bleeding and much of the pain. Still, Toc is obviously in distress still at the abrupt loss of one of his eyes, even without the pain and blood.  Then Mirica steps out of the Ethereal plane. She has to physically peel his hand away from the eye socket, the cord at the back laying limply within the vacant, blood space. Squirts of tear duct fluid were splashing into the hole and a small reddish puddle was forming inside.  Mirica pulled out her water skin and went to work for a few minutes cleaning the wound.

The others stood about...the creepy eyeballs within the sphere, including Toc's....darting back and forth at any movement within the room. 

As Thyrius is standing there waiting, he glances up through the hole in the roof and notices something far above. It is dimly lit with orange flames, and after squinting a bit, he realizes it must be a skull, a couple hundred feet up, floating in the sky. It drifts lazily across the space and slips through the central shield heading towards the tower without stopping. It's quickly out of his view. 

By now Mirica has performed a powerful prayer to her god. The morning lords immense power flows through her and into Toc...and within the vacant socket, tissue begins to crawl and grow outwards and starts to fill the space, as a new eye seems to be rapidly forming in place. Toc lays back on the ground, his staff still in his hand where Xemnez had pressed it, and takes a heavy sigh....muttering in elven, "I'm just going to rest here for a minute."

They're waiting for Toc to recover, when Simaal feels a strange mental power ripple through him. A voice...female...whispering in his mind..."Siimmaaaal......wherrrre areee youuuu.....Siiiimmmmaaaal....."  He would recognize Greaca's voice anywhere....but...the voice is inside his head...and he's unsure how.  Simaal is caught glancing around the room, his eyes suddenly alert for danger....setting off the others sense of danger.  A few moments later though, nothing comes of it.

Russel remains on the ethereal. He stands...a little to close to Nuzej...and just looks blankly at the wizard in silence as they observe from the proceedings in ethereal silence. 

Meanwhile, the group returns to discussing their options. The large building nearby is discarded as a destination, as it doesn't match the pattern of one of these wizard towers. The ones around the outside of the city likewise, though related to wizardry, haven't had any of these messages on them. Simaal's idea to move around the city as opposed to cutting off is supported by Xemnez...though....he likewise seems to suffer from a momentary glitch. Perhaps still suffering from after affects of having his memories withdrawn.

Eventually Toc sits up, and opens his eye. Though his eyes were always a greenish hazel color, his new eye is bright blue. He looks about at the group, squinting, and rubbing the new eye gently a few times, while blinking.  "Thank you all for your care. And Thyrius, for your kind words. As much as I appreciate the comparison to your hero, I think, in the end, I am pleased to have my full sight back. Thank you Mirica, and Lathander, for this boon.  I think we were going to use this thing to track down the other phrases....but....given the results, I'm suddenly partial to walking around and looking instead. Let's get out of this place."  He glances back at the bowl of eyes, staring particularly at the hazel green eye surrounded in a ruddy cloud of liquid, and sighs before heading down the stairs. 

The group, with now only two members floating along in Ethereal, heads down the tower and begins walking along the outskirts. The shield guardian clunks along next to Toc as they travel.

You head past the tower you found the Shield Guardian in, and past the large deep well that plunges through the city floor into darkness and the five crystal benches encircle it.  You continue along past another ruined district of the city. This end of the district is dominated by a large market hall that sits at one end of a plaza, its four broken towers leaning inward. Faded pennants hang above the entrance, frozen stiff. A loud clatter resounds from within the hall as you are walking past.

(Though I've moved us on, past a couple of "oddities" while in the tower, please feel free to respond to address those items, we can adjust as needed.) 

(Loud clatter from Y13, while walking past.  Toc indicates that the observatory where the missing roof bit he saw was in Y15.) 

10.  100.  

Mentally.. "I make jokes at people's expense when we have time and the target is laughing, this is not that time. Most of the time I make jokes at my own expense however. I surmised that these eyes connected to the eyes of creatures all over the place rather than they're extracted eyes of people. I a was obviously wrong and I'm unhappy about that. And I'm actually pretty angry in that we knew where the answers were and instead we chose this path instead not understanding the magic of the age. Rushing things is not always the answer. Save magic for when it's important like let's say we find seven of eight answers and the eight answer is a few hundred km from here like the tower we found in middle of nowhere or the other tower in the glacier itself. We could have used it for something more meaningful. But what's done is done, and we all have a job to do even though you look worse for wear." Simaal voice turns from unhappy to visibly frustrated. He seems to withdraw within himself after he speaks.
He pauses again as he hears the clatter and looks to the group if they're going to investigate or not.

"Praise Lathander!" Mirica watched the regeneration with huge relief, even had to sit by Toc for a moment. She never doubted Lathander's powers, of course, but right now they were in close proximity to another god and in the place where magic was once twisted and warped. But Lathander listened and answered! Praise be his light!

She did not comment on the change of colour, pushing away another suspicion. Mirica liked blue just fine, but, again, not when something turned blue so close to the goddess of the ice. Coincidence, no doubt.

"True, people often say "I would give my right hand for that" but making a literal price... Even hags here are kinder." She looked at the bowl with pity. "Cruel fate." And then walked away.

The five crystal benchesMirica ignored - truly, touching anything around here by now did not look like a good idea. But the noise from the building they were passing by made her stop and listen. "Do you think we need to at least check?" Should she still be in Etherial, she would not hesitate (though, if she was in etherial she would not hear the noise) but since they all were walking together now, it was up to the group. Running toward the obvious danger could be, well, dangerous, but leaving behind something suspicious here was a bad idea too.

Mentally "Take care, I think something is coming, unknown if friendly or not, prepare for worst." Simaal continues to hide if the party stops. I believe it's coming from behind/front/right/left side of me." (he gives direction but does not point towards it. hide 17.  "Or not... who knows... guess not...." he says after looking around intently. Then he realizes this whole city is like a giant walkway with few buildings around and only giant spaces so he stops trying to flatten himself into the ground or hide behind a 1 foot tall ice thingy fallen from the ceiling.

"One moment a boon" Thyrius points to the construct they have recruited, "and the other a cruel price. This place surely has a mind as fickle as a youngling." Thyrius was reluctant to freely touch other interesting objects in this city. Surely, the moment would come where he would still have to take risks, but he was not at that point just yet. Hence, like Mirica, the black cat chose to ignore the crystal benches and other objects they saw on their way here.

Building on what Mirica suggested, Thyrius adds: "Perhaps Nuzej and the bird can pop into the building and check. They are still as ephemeral as ghosts, are they not?"

(In case I forgot to state it, Thyrius disabled his foot-wrappings of speed once he hid from the hags.)

"Well let's go and have a look and see what else beyond hags we'll leave at our backs" Simaal will move towards the area where the noise is coming from, sneaking as soon as there's some kind of obstruction to move more sneakily along.

Nuzej nearly follows Mirica into the prime material plane, but calls out before she shifts, "wave your arms in the air if you think I should join you!"

He glances at Russel's unnerving stare, and stays with the group as they move through the city. He's trying to keep an eye out for anything odd he notices in the ethereal. He's very close to shifting back, less and less sure of the utility of being on another plane.

Russel hovers next to Nuzej silently, as he always is....his blank black eyes make contact with Nuzej whenever he looks at him, but he makes no noise. Awkward.

The group follows Simaal's lead as he breaks ranks and heads to the left towards the massive market building where you heard the noise. You descend the ramp into the city district and to the large buildings outer wall. Staying quiet, Simaal slips forward. Toc tells his automaton to hang back as the group goes to a gaping wide doorway and look in.  A warren of mangled shop fronts crushed by chunks of ice and stone, mixed with large open areas where must have stood more temporary shops, but now only detritus, extends before you. A central area is open to all three stories of stores. You figure you may find all manner of interesting treasure with an exhaustive search of this magical market, but before you can get too excited, a crashing sound echoes from somewhere within.  You sneak forward until you have a good view of the central area.  There you see a tall iron automaton, but this one more an iron golem instead...and without its head. It stomps at random. It's clear it has been stomping about for....a long time, since everything within this part of the market is pulverized, except for some large black chunks of rock that must have crashed here. As you watch, the giant stubs its toe on one, abruptly reaching down, picking it up, and tossing it. It smashes off of a pillar and crashes to the ground. Then the creature resumes it's aimless wandering that it must have been doing for....hundreds of years.

Does the head look cut as if with a giant blade, or more broken as if it crashed/cracked. Do we notice a head around? Mentally "Well, we're here, might as well quickly scope for magical items before moving on, and look for any writing, and avoid the big giant thing. Split into two, take each side of the market as it were, staying relative close but on sides of the streetway. Toc one side, Mirica on the other side, both detecting magic hopefully, and the rest of us split amongst the two."

Earlier..

Xemnez snorted at Mirica's claim of 'kinder' hags. But seeing as he hadn't gone into further detail of what happened on the other side yet, and perhaps may not ever, he let the matter drop with a muttered, "Kind Hags indeed." As for Simmal's response to his earlier inquiry, Xemnez furrowed brow in thought for a moment, before in the end reply only directly to Simmal. 'I see. For a moment when you used the word Foreseen I had thought... well, I am grateful it wasn't some peculiar custom of your people, as I do not think it would be one I could commit to.'

At Present...

'I suppose' Xemnez communes in reply, and yet stayed rooted for a lengthy moment more in studying the machine. 'You do not suppose that the headless one could be... what would be the word for it? Re... used in some way?'

Thyrius points at the boulder-throwing golem and comments "Now we know how the top of that tower was sliced off."

Listening to Simaal, Thyrius repeats his earlier suggestion: "Why not ask Nuzej to scout one side and your bird friend the other instead of two teams. It sounds much safer if they maintain their etherealness and go looking while we keep an eye on the golem from a safe distance. Then, they can show us exactly where to dash to and from in order to retrieve items of interest."

Toc mutters into everyone's mind, "Searching for things of interest will require touching, feeling, digging, moving, and perhaps a bit of detect magic, none of which the ethereal two can do from where they are.  But...they can do a sweep for any other enemies."  

He motions to Nuzej and Russel, making signs for them to look all around the building.  Nuzej nods and Russel stares back without any sort of response. But when Nuzej departs, so does Russel. It only takes them a few minutes to zip back and forth through the entire building.  Eventually they return to the group, crouched near the stomping golem. Nuzej gives the "all clear". He and Russel found no one else of interest in this building. It seems it would be safe to search, as long as the group steers clear of the main foyer on the first floor. 

(If you which to search the ruins, please roll an 2 x investigation checks and 2 x percentile dice each.)