Session 13: Sightseeing

The party continues traversing the desert into the night, finding giant bones and having strange dreams, before entering into a strange spire and encountering a strange blue wyrm.

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Visions

Continuing their travel after being ambushed by the swarm of insects, the party continues following the compass through the desert. After a time, Bulgey trips over a bone, submerged in the sands. Tilly identifies it as humanoid, but they all agree it is entirely too large; likely giant. Continuing forward they find themselves surrounded by such bones for a while, before making their way back into the desert.   As they continue on, the rising sun and the party's general exhaustion forces them to make camp. Without any shelter to be found, Tilly has the bright idea of using The Summer Queen's Blessing to summon an apple tree, offering the party both a good lookout point, as well as badly needed shade to rest in.   And rest they found; more-so than they intended, as Brian fell asleep during first watch, giving the party as a whole an uninterrupted rest, as they luckily made it through without anything coming across their strange tree in the desert. However, their rests were only so fulfilling, as their dreams were seemingly full of various visions and imagery. The apples, Tilly suspects, were the cause, although the others were less certain.   The nature of the dreams appeared to vary. Bulgey awoke so visibly distraught he refused to speak about it beyond acknowledging he had one, pacing anxiously and toking up. Pressured further, he described seeing himself in the mirror, getting ready for a show. Tilly described her dream as being full of blood and skulls, with a raven. Brian expressed that the raven's presence sounds like something regarding the Raven Queen, a goddess whose domain exists within the Shadowfel, and collects the memories of the dead. This description does not make Tilly feel much better, now somewhat convinced that she's going to die.   Brian, Vita, and Fork expressed their dreams to be far less foreboding; Brian described seeing some people he knew, his squad-mates, although he seemed uncertain. He described that things looked off. Fork expressed that he saw his parents, some of his various forms, and the symbol of The Traveler appearing on his hand. Vita described being home, and her past.   There seemed to be some similarities however; they acknowledged that they saw lots of color, poppies, and a hummingbird. Shaken and/or confused, the party moves on to other topics.  

Shapes in the Sand

Given the discomfort of the night of sleep, Tilly pushes the tattoo angle again. Fork acknowledged to her that the tattoo likely wouldn't stick for him, and so the topic of a pass-code came up. She settled on "Fork's a Dragon", which after a bizarrely lengthy discussion, was agreed upon to be remembered, and never written down, before reverting back, yet again, to the tattoo discussion. Brian gets antsy, and insists that they get moving. Bulgey, rejoining the conversation, further insists that they should continue onward, threatening to fight Tilly.   The party walks for about an hour, before coming across a strange dark boulder in the sand covered in symbols. The symbols appear to be largely giant, although Fork does identify another symbol of The Traveler. Tilly takes another rubbing of the symbols.   Fork touches the symbol of the traveler, and it feels warm for moment, although he cannot tell if it's not simply because it's out in the sun. Fork attempts shifting through the various shapes of people he saw in his dream, before uttering the phrase "Chaos et mutatio," which he described as being from his dream, before returning to his "Wary" human form. There was no discernible change, and so the party continued onward. Tilly describes to the party the game of soccer, which she explains is a game fairies play.   Not far beyond, they encounter another boulder, although the compass does not point them towards it. Fork offers to scout ahead to it, but the party, particularly Brian is concerned about the party getting separated or even further lost. They opt to ignore it and continue following the compass, spotting a strange, tall, tower in the distance.  

Spires and Wells

Standing 120 feet tall, with a spiraling path up it to a door, the party approaches it tentatively, Tilly calling out for "Karen" (with Fork more softly calling out the correct name under his breath) as she goes. They find the white marble spire accompanied by some sort of well, a ritual circle, and up alongside chasms that seem to largely circle it. And the compass pointing straight at it.   The circle is surrounded by symbols, and appears to be some sort of magic circle, as identified by Bulgey. Fork and Vita suspect it's for teleportation, or at least some sort of gateway. Some columns, tipped with with large blue crystals, accent the tower in two rows. They're not in great shape, with one column having collapsed, it's massive crystal glowing in the sand. The chasms are shielded from the area by large, 40 foot walls, glowing red with runes. Tilly takes rubbings of the symbols on the columns, which do not look like what they've seen before.   Tilly goes and looks down the well, dropping a ball bearing into the water, causing a ripple. Tilly feels compelled to drink it, while Bulgey tries to warn her off of it, offering his water jug.   Drinking the water, Tilly finds herself entering a meditative trance, her mind focusing on an old compatriot that used to make her mad. Murmuring some choice words in this vision, Tilly finds herself returning to herself; filling her waterskin with the water from the well.   Fork makes his way up the tower's path checking for traps, while Brian flies up to the door to take a look. He finds the mark of The Traveler, glowing blue, along with other markings. He informs the others, and they all make their way up to the door.  

A Peek Inside

The tower seems to have a hum or buzz to it, that the party can hear as they ascend. Fork eagerly leads the way, and they inspect the door, unable to make out the language, beyond The Traveler's mark. Vita can tell that the writing seems obscured with magic, but they're unable to make anything out of it. Bulgey takes a good look at it, and insists there's nothing there, but the party can tell he's being evasive. Tilly offers him a drink she calls "Dragon Spit", and Bulgey takes a drink.   He finds himself in a trance, thinking about his past, particularly his father. "Damnit dad, why the hell were you there, instead of with me," he says to himself in this state, before returning to clarity. He angrily confronts Tilly, threatening to blow them all off the tower with a thunderwave, before begrudgingly explaining the door says "To enter, speak the traveler's blessing."   Fork follows that up with the phrase from his dream, which causes the humming to stop for a moment, before the door unlocks and opens. Bulgey, annoyed at near everything, begrudgingly leads the way inside, while Fork and Tilly prodding his morose attitude.   Entering inside, they can see a stairwell leading down along the walls. A faint blue glow at the bottom, along with blue veins within the walls themselves, faintly lights the way. As they reach the bottom, they find themselves in a massive circular room, with blue veins of energy coalescing in the middle, at a large forge. Magical runes circle it, while objects line the far walls. The runes around the forge look similar to those around the teleportation circle outside. Tilly calls out for both Karen, and mixes it up with "Karate" when Fork yet again tries the true name of Kerani.   They explore the various things in the room, with Bulgey keeping near the wall. Various scientific equipment rings the walls, like vials and tubes, containing blue energy. Fork and Vita check out the central forge, while Brian checks the northern wall, where he finds what looks like incomplete suits of armor, while Tilly checks the south and finds a glass case of sorts, with a shining orange stone within it. The forge in the middle, appears to have a component suspended above it, with this blue energy, and a sealed gate of sorts.   Tilly, never one to turn down something shiny, smashes the case to get the stone. As she picks it up, the light of the forge seems to flare, and the symbols around it glow. From above, high up, a loud slam echoes through the chamber, there's a flash of blue light, the shape of a strange blue eyed wyrm  creature, and a voice within everyone's heads hisses, "prepare your souls to be ours."