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Another Shot in the Dark

by Steel Claw

We were surrounded, with the boneclaw ready to pounce mercilessly from above its stone vantage.
But we were ready.

Steel whipped around, cloak trailing, to sight a shot on the boneclaw. The alchemist's flare (bolt) would have missed, had the tabaxi not given the Claw a flick of the wrist, twisting the bolt's arc ever so slightly. The shot dug into the boneclaw, emerald green fire erupting from the spot. A second shot, this one of arcane energy, followed the first.

In the same moment, Theo took a breath to ready himself. Then, with a focused gaze, the wizard channeled a large amount of arcane energy through his casting gauntlet. The arcanomechanical armor gave off a blinding light as Theo set the gears in motion. His arcane energy fire collected into an orb before him, then split: one mass racing towards the skies and another surging outward into the earth surrounding.

First, he called upon Selune's wrath, directing a flame strike to pierce the heavens and engulf the undead boneclaw. It let forth a gut-wrenching screech, consumed by light and fire for a few moments. And as quickly as it came, the light seemed to rise back up to the heavens, more graceful than it came.

Second, a large wall of stone and rocky earth rose from the ground around us, erecting a squared-off wall ten feet high to surround the entire group. Under Theo's focus, the wall blocked all sight of the undead from us (and vice versa).

Scrabbling claws and the clang of metal on stone rang out from the other side of Theo's wall. From above, the boneclaw let out another screech as it rid the fire from its body. Another moment, and the horrific creature faded from view.

With no enemies out of sight, the group considered their next moves. Murg laid a blessing of protection from good and evil on Francis, as Yrna echoed Theo's magic. Once more the earth beneath us rumbled, though this arcane force collected into the vague shape of a humanoid -- a conjured earth elemental. At a nod from the others, Izol clicked his heels and spurred into the sky. Calling to Eimbriyan, the flames inherent to Izol's form flared and grew, encompassing a vague sphere to surround the caster, twenty feet in diameter. As he directed mock fire to slam the undead he could see, each bolt of force collected the white flames with it,

At Steel's direction, the confused Argbarr stood ready at the wall's edge as the tabaxi leapt onto Theo's stone wall and began climbing. Sticking his head over the edge, the artillerist sighted an enemy, and with a barking order to the Claw, the crossbow rattled up the wall at his side to perch on his shoulder, charging with a low whine before discharging a charged bolt of energy. The zombie in question was blown to smithereens.

Theo held the driftglobe aloft, commanding the item to shed light... until it was absorbed by the nearby monolith. Icarus winged to the sky as well, coincidentally spotting the boneclaw shrouded partially in darkness. The owl familiar could only watch as the boneclaw scrambled up the monolith and slashed angrily at the owl, disappirating Theo's familiar instantly. Yrna's new familiar by comparison slid into the earth at her call, crushing any undead in its path.

Just as he did once before, in a sewer far from Bezia, Murg pulled forth his abacus, blessed by Abbadar, and invoked his god's favor to grant himself truesight. "To the north! On the wall!" Yrna lurched forward, pulling a cloud of poison from the ether to engulf the area of the wall she thought the boneclaw occupied. Only Murg saw the spell hit the creature, to no effect. Above, Izol swooped and absconded earthwards, flaming fists from his hands launching themselves at nearby zombies. An icy hand seemed to appear out of nowhere, the flaming caster twisting through the air to avoid the strike. He turned, charging the undead and getting a strike of his own in instead.

"It's there! Right there!" Theo pointed towards the boneclaw, it retracting its claws with a horrible hiss. Outside the walls we could hear the skeletons try in vain to take down the earth elemental.

"Izol! No!" Steel shouted, half to himself. With a heave -- and reassurance to the waiting barbarian below -- he rose over the edge to take a seat. The Claw hopped into his arms, and like old times Steel cocked the crossbow. Then, as he had seen the master wizard do many times before, Steel uttered the verbal components and one hand in tune with how Theo had taught him, the other swaying the crossbow in tune. A soft aura surrounded the tabaxi before disappearing: a casting of the haste spell, just as he had learned from his friend and compatriot. Steel wasted no time, firing a bolt of alchemical fire at the boneclaw and unleashing a bolt of force at the skeleton on the ground below him. Looking on, Theo cast three rays of scorching fire targeting the boneclaw, a single tear falling down his face at Steel's homage. Above, the sphere of ghostly flames surrounding Izol turned a shade of gold, absorbing the latent essence of fire from Steel's flaming bolt.

Once more, the boneclaw extinguished Steel's alchemical bolt, then turned to regard both the party on the ground and Izol in the sky. It spoke, a twisted voice slinking through its jaws: "I will find you and the shadow again." Like sharp ice dragging across a chalkboard, its voice caused each of us to wince in pain. It then leapt from the wall, swinging around the monument to once more hide in the shadows. Though this time, it seemed to run off farther away then we could tell.

A calm overtaking him, Murg closed his eyes and held the abacus tightly. Chanting words, holy numbers from his divine text, the cleric began to glow as light coalesced around him. None may escape the sight of Abbadar, and with a final prime number Murg hurled a holy guiding bolt up and over the monument to seek out the boneclaw with divine precision. Light surrounded the boneclaw, howling as its arcane cover was torn from its dark grasp. Winding up, Izol spend towards the boneclaw with fury and flame and purpose.

A wicked smile grew across the boneclaw's face. "I'll see you soon," it promised, as Izol first removed the fleshy chest from its gaunt form, then delivering an uppercut to the undead's head. It flew skyward before exploding into a gruesome display.

Sliding down the wall, Steel took the opportunity to get some target practice in as he, Izol, and the earth elemental finished up the remaining undead. Theo let the wall of stone fall, and as the last of the undead fell to the ground in defeat the corrupting darkness that followed the boneclaw dissipated as well.

Varunmund

With the darkness gone and the fog thinning we could make out the spire of Varunmund: a twisting mass of metal that arced up into the sky. The metal tower shone in what light the sun gave it, alien and strange to us. We regrouped, with Yrna dismissing her summoned elemental down into the ground, and presumably returning to its home on the elemental plane of earth.

While taking a respite inside Theo's tiny hut, Yrna posed a question to us all: what was that? Theo explained all that he knew. ~~It dawned on Izol that the boneclaw may have some connection to his old patron, but then again this may not be the case at all.~~

We continued on, the forest still dark but not impossibly so. The trees seemed to increase in number, and when we least expected it a low rumbling stopped us. Two trees twisted from the earth, wooden faces beholding us and uprooting from the ground. The treants spoke in the common tongue with Murg (who fully introduced himself), warning of the boneclaw -- though we had met it -- and our impending deaths. At the mention of three of the gods of law, the treants stiffened in their path Gawari, Lord of Knowledge and History; Abadarr, Lawgiver and Maker of Civilization; and Gerion, God of Nature and the Wild. Though doubtful of our survival, they allowed us passage. "The master of Varunmund is long gone. His love of the wild, of nature, has gone with him. You go into a realm of madness and metal." Murg left them with a mention of Cassania, the fae maelstrom queen, She of Wind and Darkness (and minor deity figure), that shook their branches and granted the bugbear some aura of respect (however unseelie).

The Blue Tower

We arrived, then, at the threshhold of Varunmund. Strange blue metal, long twisted and blacked by soot, stood before us. It rose into the sky impossibly high, in an empty plain hidden in the forest -- and littered with the boneclaw's kills. Leading to the front door slay two staircases of the same blue, strangely magical and mechanical and unnatural. As we took one step into the clearing, the ground shook. The tower vibrated, then began to shrink. Responding to our presence, Varunmund was now properly sized for creatures of our height, standing now at six or seven stories tall; the staircases now seemed manageable. We agreed that Francis should stay outside, in case we failed and word needed to reach Ibrithil and Arcadia.

Theo stepped inside first. The entrance hallway was narrow. Arcanomechanical pipes sprouted from the ground and ceiling, running along walls to pump a blue fluid throughout the tower. The walls were a strange blend of ice and metal, in some areas almost wrong by an artificer, in others a mishmash of frost and iron sheeting.
Steel was less cautious than Theo, staring on in awe and wonder. Izol tried to perceive any magic around us, but the evocation magic present in the tower's construction interfered with his arcane radar.

The first room off the hallway had a flow of the blue liquid crossing it, blocking the path to a door on the other side. In the middle of the room sat a white tile, which (upon inspection) Theo recognized as a pressure plate. Moving further along we passed a guardpost, with runes of scrying carved into a dais next to a desk and chair (with the deceased guardman slumped over it). Theo pulled from the deceased's hand a strange compass, with dials, one red and one yellow, and a small dish between. The dais held a sword of a strange blue metal, Steel perked up, and upon seeing the sword realized what it was. He was stunned: "A flawless weave of adamantine and mithril. Impossibly light, impossibly dense, and nigh indestructible."

"Shit."

We -- notably Murg -- discussed for a bit how to best bring some of the metal with us out of the tower, but no solution we conjured up would work (according to what Steel could understand). Theo fiddled with the new device, which changed colors according to how the dials were turned. On blue the liquid in the pipes (and adjacent room) first began to glow, then slow in flow, then crystallize. Experimentally, Theo moved back to the room with the white tile and stepped on the pressure plate. He was greeted by an image of a wizard, with grand robes and a beard as long as he was tall (though unkempt). The apparition looked human (programmed), and spoke to the room in general:

"Greetings. This is Varunmund. My name is Adaralmus, and this is my life's work. If you can see this, it means my work was successful. This is a successful spell -- static interruption -- as such, I appreciate your curiosity. Keep the alignment of your admittance device, and care to -- static interruption -- color is unforgiving, wouldn't you say? Now you have succeeded thus far; go and sate your curiosity."

Technicolor Programming

Theo would not look up from the device, like a boy at harvest. We were able to proceed forward, the blue fluid on the floor becoming arcane ice to touch, then returning to a liquid when undisturbed. Steel carefully led the half-blind Theo behind him. The next room sounded both haunting and beautiful, like a divine choir in our ears. This one had a pool in the middle that flowed north, and the sound became louder the closer (Theo with) the device came. The room featured another mural of the same wizard, Adaralmus, who reached up to a sky to pluck the moon from it. The liquid in the room flowed upwards, not downwards.

Testing, Steel poked the found blue sword into the blue liquid. As he withdrew it, it seemed that the fluid had dissolved the sword completely (as far as it was inserted). "Fuck!" But at least they had learned something about both materials. Dipping an iron dagger into the blue fluid seemed to corrode; a silver dagger could be pulled unharmed, but glowing blue (emanating magic).

A side room contained another deceased guard with a desk of drawers. Our wizard investigated. One drawer gave off a puff of red smoke as it was opened -- but Theo was ready, and attuning the dial to "red", the mist stopped dispersing through the room, only to compress into a tiny sphere, then into nothingness. In the white pool room, the angelic choir changed suddenly into a demonic cacophony. The party was overtaken, hands to their ears as the music wracked our minds. Thankfully, Theo reset the device to "blue", and the angelic choir returned. For the trouble, the drawer contained a small red coin. Our wizard tested the coin first with a small knife, then pocketed it safely. We entered the room with Theo, crowding around him as he opened the other drawer. Murg opened this one, retrieving two of the six keys (the other unsalvageable) -- one circular, one triangular. Returning to the white pool room, Theo inspected the mural to find the carved moon was raised, and slid it to the right to reveal a keyhole.

Murg's circular key fit in the slot. One pale blue, the key immediately transmuted into the blue fluid flowing around us. This liquid entered the keyhole, sealing it off and flowing into the rest of the mural. The two doors slid open, revealing a grand room with many pools of blue and a raised dais in the center. We looked on, and Adaralmus greeted us once more.

Though this time, the image flickered before any of the words could be spoken. When it returned, Adaralmus was old, wizened, in tattered robes and haggard-looking. He spoke plainly: "I see. You have already come this far. Then I'm afraid it may already be too late."

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Another Shot in the Dark

Varunmund

The Blue Tower

Technicolor Programming

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