Session 6: Up high & Down below

15th & 16th of Snowmelt

General Summary

After a long day with a lengthy battle the LUKI Four decide that while they want to investigate the caverns below the tower, a good night rest would also be much appreciated. However, as soon they enter the tower, they are halted by Alistar who seems to have completely lost its memory of its previous encounter with our heroes. He accuses them of being thieves, pointing at the book that Uthal is carrying with him that had previously been kept at the tower. This results in a lot of confusion amongst everyone, but eventually the party manages to find out that Alistar was most likely cursed by Tiana in some way. They make a deal: in exchange for searching for the (remains of) Knuc, Alistar will gladly have them as guests at the tower. However, he will still nog allow them to enter Knuc's personal quarters. In order to help them in their search for Knuc, Alistar tells them 'silver blue', which the party quickly picks up on as one of the doors at the top of the tower. Having dealt with this misunderstanding, the party updates Belkoris on the situation and finally gets to go to bed. The following morning they learn that Belkoris has given them the remaining bloodstones as a reward, and is also sending horses to the Floats for the journey to Brothers' Crossing.
The party decides that they should check out the door that Alistar had pointed out next, and thus enter the silver blue room. This leads them to the top of the tower, which holds a room with invisible walls and a telescope at the center. They quickly notice that if they try to focus on something, the tower seems to zoom in on that automatically. Combined with the telescope, this allows them to see a great many amount of things. Giving in to their curiosities, the party checks out several places such as the Lighthouse, Brothers' Crossing and the road towards it. Leaf attempts to search for the red crow the party had come across, but is only able to find three groups of crows, not knowing if the red crow is among one of those groups. They also notice that the original position of the telescope was somewhere to the northwest in the direction of Dulwich, Mor Mardagh and Am Galar. However, they are unable to pinpoint the exact location the telescope was pointing towards.
After having a good amount of fun with the telescope, the party heads from the highest point of the tower to the lowest to inspect the tunnels below. Despite the steep descent, none of the four adventurers seem to have trouble navigating the terrain, least of all wildshaped frog Leaf. Leaf decides to scout ahead of the party, heading past a large open area, though a small underground pond to an area seemingly just below the Pit of Screams. Here, she finds three creatures that resemble alive versions of the mural creatures the party had fought when they first came together in Gildenwharf. For the most part, they seem to hardly pay attention to the wildshaped form of Leaf. In front of them, below yet another sign of the Feaster, the party finds a massive creature known as the King's Eye. This creature is made mostly form stone, with a centipede body, bat like wings with mouths in them, praying mantis type claws and a giant gaping hole in the center sphere connecting these body parts.
After reporting back to the rest of the LUKI four, the party decides to go into the room with the creatures. Despite their best efforts, their attempts to get the drop on the creatures fails and thus the group decides that attempting to communicate is possibly their best course of action. To their surprise, the creatures speak perfect common. They are known as the "King's False Children", claiming to have a deep connection to the Feaster From Afar. They are certain he created them in one way or another, but are unable to communicate with their creator and are seeking for their purpose. While the creatures know nothing of what happened in Gildenwharf, they are able to tell our heroes that the sign they have been seeing is the King's royal crest. Eventually both sides realize that they just want to know more about the Feaster From Afar which results in the two groups deciding to work together, despite not trusting one another.
The Children invite the party to investigate the remains of the eye, which contains a green type of dust in the hole in its center. A curious Indra decides to take them up on this offer, but as soon as she touches the dust, her eyes flash green and she falls unconscious. Indra feels like she is taken out of her body, to a place in between everything and nothing at the same time. She feels as if she is part of a larger consciousness, as she can both see, hear and smell different places at the same time.
After a few overwhelming minutes of this, some unknown entity tries to focus her towards one specific location. Indra attempts to fight this entity off, but is unable to do so. She finds herself in a dark room, placed across from a strange looking half-orc, wearing full plate in addition to a recognizable garment of the Tower Scholars. On his plate is the symbol of the tower scholars of mysteries: an open hand with closed fingers, with an eye inside the palm. Noticing the green reflection in some glass like structure, she quickly discerns that she might currently be inhabiting one of the King's eyes. After a few seconds, a second creature, a thiefling wearing the same garment but with fancy clothing underneath, approaches the room. Indra overhears them discussing their progress in researching the Eye, in which the name Malikith is mentioned for the half-orc. The Thiefling also mentions someone named Geldz, who along with the other Arch Scholars is losing patience. Despite Indra not being physically present, the thiefling quickly seems to notice an additional presence. He raises his hand forward, revealing an eye embedded into his palm. He casts a spell which blasts Indra out of this vision. The only thing she hears as she is returned to her body are the words "Find it. Free it. Reward", as if they were spoken by ten voices at the same time. She wakes up with the royal crest on the hand she had used to touch the dust, though she seems to be the only one able to see it.
While Indra was having this vision, the ghouls cramp up and their eyes glow green. Eventually, with three flashes of green, the ghouls disappear one by one, leaving only smoldering ash behind where they were standing. The party attempts to pull Indra out of her unconscious state, but eventually decide to just wait it out. They discuss Indra's vision at length, recognizing the name Geldz as the Arch Scholar of Arcane at Brothers' Crossing. They also recognize the symbol that was present on the armor of Malekith as that of the Tower of Mysteries, one of the other departments of the Tower Scholars. Having had enough surprises for a while, the party decides to call it a day. Tomorrow their journey to the second largest city of the Order begins!
Next session: Session 7: To Brothers' Crossing

(Noteworthy) Characters Interacted With:
The Floats:

• Alistar, Butler of Master Knuc
• Lohik Bakkaroto, Scout for the Order

Report Date

09 Apr 2022

Primary Location

The Floats

Malekith of the Tower Scholars of Mysteries