14. The House of Silence

Our first priority while we are here is to bury this chamber so that no one can come in, and most importantly, no one can touch this cursed chaos crystal. Of course it is also important that no crazy draconic army people, or otherwise people with ill-intentions use this power to do bad things, like turn people into draconics, or try to and create some awful monsters that go about and hurt others. And then explode on us when we finally defeat them.
 
Note to self: work on my bow skills. I don't want to continue to get exploded on by those gross things.
 
Happily, the priestess that we rescued says she will be fine. All she needs is to find her way to water, and she will find her people. As for Rowan, he still wants us to escort him home. That means one more place to stop by, in addition to the other places we need to investigate before meeting up with Dalamar so we can find the City of Lost Name. We talk to him, and he was ok with being escorted home before we meet up wth Dalamar.
 
The original goal for us, assigned by Dalamar, was for us to investigate the kind of magic in each of the three places, so he could better triangulate the City of Lost Names. The spires had the chaos magic. The water temple had divine magic. We'll see what the last place brings, but hopefully it is less destructive than here.
 
Oh, and at some point we probably also want to go to the lake that the water elf pointed us to, since we still need to help rescue the rest of the captives from the Dragon Army.
 
With all our plans agreed upon, travel a bit further off, and then we make camp for the night away from all the chaos. As we travel, we try to use the fargab. The goal is to let the army know where we are, and that they should head to Storm Step instead of the spires. As our path takes us southwest, we move south to try and make sure we are within communications distance. So far, no luck. There is one lucky thing, though. Rowan is not slower than we are as we travel across this dusty landscape.
 
We rest well for the night. In the morning, we travel towards Storm Step, and expect to take about 2-3 days, since we don't want to be too loud or visible. That night, we are still unable to contact Darret or the army. On day 1 of travels, we come across a ravine, with a large stone archway crossing the canyon. The arch itself is lined with sigils. Arinona takes a look, and magical energy starts to swirl inside the arch. The rocks move, as if of their accord, and start to gather in mid-air. They are assembling in a humanoid shape, and end up forming a 10ft tall unfinished clay being. It doesn't seem happy to see us, so we fight it. It's eyes are glowing orange, and it is just hitting anything it sees. Poor Mal gets smashed to the ground, then gets crushed. But he still doesn't want to leave, which is what I think he should do. I can't really help with this fight, since my own dagger doesn't DO ANYTHING! Finally, between Arinona, Waah, and Mal, they defeat it. Even poor Thalassa had trouble with this one.
 
As it turns out, the arch is a portal, and the golem is a guard, but it was mal-functioning. It seems to turn on whenever someone with any magical ability gets close by. The discussion then turns to weather we should go through the portal or not. After all, would we be able to return? Arinona says that this portal is likely connected to a stone portal on the other end, that would look exactly like this one, but it probably does not have a guardian waiting on us there. I ask if someone would volunteer to explore the other side of the portal, and Thalassa raises her hand! The plan is for her to go, but if there is a golem, for her to come back immediately for help! It turns out there was no other golem, and that she ended up by the encampment we found of the Dragon Army by Vogler! That is how they snuck up on us! Were they the ones that created these portals in the first place?
 
We try again to contact our division, and we are finally successful! We tel them that the spires have been investigated, and that they should head towards Storm Step. We camp for the night, and the next day we walk towards the tower. Much taller than I expected, it stands about 80 ft high, with carvings of a thousand elven warriors all around. The upper levels look like they are falling apart, but something is definitely keeping it from falling into further disrepair. I mean, you can clearly see a rock that should be falling down from the top, frozen in mid-air! The door to the tower hangs open. We are ready to explore, but I want to walk the perimeter first. It is not a wide tower, and there are no issues out side that we can see. The imagery is of the high elves, Sylvanesti people, like Arinona. The tower is obviously old, but probably older than it looks since it seems frozen in time. We enter. The chamber is black, and the lights are a weird shade of bright white. There is a statue of a warrior in the middle, occupying a large space, all in obsidian. Arinona checks if the statue is magical. She says that this was a burial site, and that the scattered ancient coins on the floor all represent a soul. I don't think I'll be touching them now. There are stairs at the north end of the tower.
 
Up to the next level we see 2 crypts, and the walls are sculpted with an empty burial chamber. A door stands to the SE, and smoke comes out of the crypts and assembles into humanoid forms. I hope we don't have to deal with a smoke guardian or something that can't be hurt by my dagger. They do, but we are able to defeat them quite easily. We look up, and there is a hole in the ceiling. Each of the crypts depicts a deceased elf. Arinona looks at each one carefully, and we all feel the presence of a soul dissipate. As she looks at the second crypt carefully, we see a woman with light grey hair and pale eyes float up to the ceiling in her spectral condition. Maybe she was able to leave the crypt now that we defeated the wraiths? Both crypts have names, but none that Arinona recognizes. She writes down the names, and then moves the crypt covers. We find a body wearing white robes of a mage. The other one has some leather armor that has disintegrated, and a cloak that looks old. She takes the cloak.
 
We go to the door, and find that it opens to a crumbled staircase that we cannot clear. We could probably climb up through the hole in the ceiling. Arinona casts fly on me, so I can fly up and secure my grappling hook. While I'm up there, I check the area, but there is nothing that I can see that I should be worried about. This room is crumbling - shattered walls, pieces in mid-air, and it looks like it will fall apart at any time. There is a staircase going up one more floor. We see yellowed bones scattered everywhere, having come from burial niches that have crumbled. There is also the woman's spirit that we watched ascend, crouched by the floor, struggling to grab onto a rapier.
 
I call down and get the rest of the party up here, since I secure my grappling hook to the stones frozen in time. While I wait, I ask if I should help the dead lady. They give me the go-ahead, and I ask her if I can help. She looks up, blinks, and says she cannot touch it. She also tries to touch me. I ask her what year she thinks this is, and I don't know what year she says it is. It is definitely not a number I recognize. I tell her that her date is from a long time ago, and that a lot of things have happened. Arinona joins me by then, and tells her that the gods sent down punishment. Her date was from before the cataclysm. She tells us that she was a guard for the Sylvanesti delegation, and she has trouble speaking what we speak. She continues to tell us her story. They were going to be sent to the Istarian city of Oniyari. I ask if that is the flying city, but she looks blank. I ask her about whan her role was, and she said she was going to guard her sister, Tenadria, a diplomat. Her mission was to speak on behalf of the Sylvanesti and safeguard their interests.
 
Arinona asks if she knows about the anger of the gods against the king priest. She tells her that we are currently in a tower dedicated to the dead of Sylvanesti, and that today is about 350 years since the date she gave us. She asks where Anyari is located, and shows her a map and says that things have changed since her time, like Istar no longer existing. The spirit says that she no longer remembers, it has been too long. Arinona asks if there was a mage with white robes with her, and the spirit says there was, but that she does not remember his name. She realizes that it is time to move on. Arinona says a blessing as she moves on. I then pick up the blade, and see it is a light weight rapier. I think I have found a weapon with which to fight golems.
 
The stones are still frozen, so there is still something around here. I suggest we climb up to the fallen part of the tower, after we search this room. Mal finds 6 onyx gemstones, an odd vial made of crystal, and it looks like it has ashes inside it. We also find a fine silver/mithral chain that can be worn. These are intended for powerful sorcerers.
 
We head to the last floor of the tower. There is a door at the top of the stairs, and we see a room that hovers in a starless night sky. The floor is stable, and shattered wall fragments float in the air. There is an arch caved with the head of 5 dragons, and inside it a swirling grey mist. All the dragon heads are different, so it is no Tiamat. These may have been the dragons that demanded the flying city be taken down? Mal knows that these sculpted dragon heads, each in the style of green dragans, and that the runes are of the natural magic of the fey wild. Also, the runes can rotate. What for? I reach out and try and turn a rune. It clicks, and I see that each one has 8 possible positions. A little after a move it, I hear a click and nothing changes, but now I am exhausted and take necrotic damage. The portal closes and re-opens, and the runes re-set. I guess I won't spend an afternoon here trying to decode these.
 
While I sit there to think about it, Waah simply walks through the grey portal! She finds herself on top of a tower of jet black stone in an unfamiliar setting. There is only a feint light of the archway, which stays open. On the other side, there is an elf who raises his hand in salute. Waah doesn't speak elven, and she tells him she doesn't understand. He says she is the first living soul he has seen in a long time. He looks pale, and he says he hears her friends beckoning her. She tells him that they are on the other side, so he explains. This is the tower of Wakenwrath, in the Shadowfell plane. She excuses herself, and yells through the portal. We decide to join her.
 
The elf explains that the Shadowfell is the plane of the restless souls, and it counterbalances the Feywild. It is called the House of Silence in Elvish, Wakenwrath. It is a funerary obelisk, in the Istarian city of Anyari, before the city took flight. The tower was an emblem of peace between the Istari and the Sylvanesti. As with all of the Anyari, Wakenwrath met with an unfortunate end. When Anyari began it's slow fall across the skies, this monolith broke from it's foundations, but as it fell, he invoked the tower's magic so that he could transport it to the Feywild to avoid its destruction. With the time he had, and the chaos, the magic went awry and it was partially transported to the Shadowfell. This has helped the tower survive, but the portal has corrupted the dead, and taints the tower.
 
We ask if we can turn off the portal, and he says yes. He cannot return, but he can tell us how to solve the portal to close it. I ask his name, and he tells us he is Variel. How do we fix the portal? As he starts trying to explain, we hear a roar, and see something coming for us. It is ugly, with lots of bones and spikes, and it is huge. I step behind Thalassa for cover, and use my bow.
 
This abomination is an Ancalox, and it kicks poor Waah over and behind us. It is an undead creature created from the bones of bears and beasts. They are territorial, and hunt and devour living prey. We kill it, and Variel just continues on with his explanation of how to fix the portal as if we were not just attacked by a great deadly beast. But I suppose he would not have been on the menu, and with his time here alone, he may have forgotten the drives of the living. He explains what we have to do, so we say our farewells and go back to deactivate the portal. Before we leave, I remember to ask if the tower will crumble if we deactivate the portal. He says that it will no longer be attuned to the Shadowfell, and that means the tower will be restored! That is even better, but we still need to be careful as the portal may resist breaking the connection. The portal does not lead to any other places.
 
One more question - does he know where Anyari is now? He does not. We cross back, rest, and fix the portal. We take about 5 minutes to adjust the portal dials, and it still hurts. Before we know it, the room is no longer surrounded by darkness, and the walls heal. The torch sconces now shed a healthy light. At the same time, we all feel a rush, as if life itself celebrates the absence of the Shadowfell. The entire tower is fixed!
 
Party loot (let me know if you are claiming any of these):
6 onyx gemstones (200gp each).
an odd vial made of crystal, and looks like it has ashes inside it and fine silver/mithral chain that it is attached to so someone can wear it.
A rapier (+1) - Cinna
18 additional rations (spider meat and dried meat)
6 blue pearls worth 150 gp each
2 sets of manacles - Waah
orange (chaos) gems, worth about 900gp without any magic that would harm us
Unidentified wand.