Session 47 - Going Deeper into the Broken Tower

When we last left off, they were in the room with the portal.

Esme reckons it must by late afternoon early evening by this point and says they need to decide if they should camp out here or head back. Kiva is a little curious about what shape the nightmares would take, our dreams say a lot about the person inside after all. Esme too is curious. Soren pulls out Garnuss' skull and asks him if he can suss out the place with his spirit senses. Also how cool is this place! Kiva says its a transportation system. Garnuss looks around and says "You bring me to all sorts of interesting places. Where are we?" Soren nods and says "We are in the basement of the Broken Tower actually." Garnuss stops looking around and faces Soren "Why would you come to this crazy place?" Soren nods and says "Yeah that is what your contryfolk said. Some of the Badger Paw tribe is camped at the perimeter and they said they got really bad dreams when they slept anywhere close to the tower." Esme also chimes in and says "If we didn't go into crazy places we wouldn't have rescued you!" Garnuss nods and says "Well I can't refute that point." He looks around for a moment "The spirit realms here is...deeply disturbed. Many thousands died here, long ago. Their screams still echo in the dark. You should get out of here, now. Staying here after dark would be a very bad idea."

Soren looks around and gets agreeing nods from everyone. Kiva is still staring at the runes, and Soren checks in with her. She agrees to leave, she still wants to know what the dreams are like but is for sure not sleeping here alone so she goes to join the rest of them as they head out. Stepping outside it is twilight, the sun already mostly set. Without Stella's light they surely would have had a much harder time navigating the ruins back to the Badger Paw camp. On the way back Soren talks to Garnuss, asking how aware he is when Soren is carrying him around in his pack. Garnuss says it takes focus to perceive beyond the bag so most of the time its just the inside of the sack. Soren nods and updates him with the situation of the Badger Paw tribe and asks if he would want to meet them. Garnuss sympathizes with their plight, but says that it would be best if he doesn't meet them, they would insist he was buried so his spirit can pass on and he still has unfinished business to take care of. Soren nods, says he will put Garnuss back in the drab interior of the sack then and Rua stops him, asking Garnuss what happens when we die. Garnuss replies "The lady of crows calls your soul and ushers you beyond the Final Door. I can hear her call now, but like I said I am not ready." Rua hums to himself thoughtfully and says "I don't want to die, it sound so complicated."

As they get back to the camp Ilya is by the central file and stands up and waves to them. "I am pleased you have returned in one piece, when the sun went down we were worried you would not return." Soren nods and says they lost track of time, they found some very intriguing things today. Esme and Rua give him a cold look, indicating not to say too much. Ilya asks if anything they found would come back to harm her people and they shake their heads. They have a sensitive magical artifact, but as long as it is handled properly it is safe.

On the way back next morning Soren pulls out the shard of Aetherium he pried from inside the tower and shows it to a nearby flitting magpie. "Shinies. Give shinies!" They cry. "Hey, have you seen this kind of shiny before?" Soren asks and one of them jumps forward a little bit. "The shiniest of shinies!" Esme then steps up and says "We will give you many shinies for the shiniest of shinies." Soon there are a dozen birds around and they get excited "Give shinies!!" Soren says "We really like shinies too, can we see the shiniest of shinies? we want to know you have them before we give you more" The first bird looks offended, as far as it is possible for birds to convey emotion "shinies in...nest." Esme shoos Soren away "Don't listen to him, Dumb Soren, Greedy Soren!" She winks at him so he knows its part of the act. Soren steps back, now he has the offended look on his face. Esme creates a small pile of dirt, placing the Aetherium on it then another, larger pile of dirt and says "We will give you many shinies for these shinies" indicating the Aetherium.

The birds flap a little distance away and seem to be conferring amongst themselves then come back "We bring shinies, you give MANY shinies!" Then they flap away. A few minutes later they come back with several fragments of Aetherium, placing them down then standing around them in a protective circle. Soren puts his hands in his pocket, pulling out a handful of coppers to trade. Kiva and Esme do so as well, and theirs are very well polished as they want their money to look in good condition on the rare occasion they need it. This starts a feeding frenzy as magpies swarm them to grab all the shiny coppers, and a few more bring additional pieces of Aetherium. By the time the birds disperse there is enough Aetherium to make up about a pound or so, and they gather it all up. The Aetherium from the magpies looks like it came from something that exploded, it is warped and the edges are torn. After they gather it Esme has made a friend, an albino magpie she has named Elsbet.

Going back into the basement Elsbet is a little nervous, sitting on Esme's shoulder. As they get into the hex room Esme sends the bird up to look for loose pieces, but it isn't able to find any. After a quick discussion they decide to head to the 2nd level of the basement, it is more likely to find Aetherium farther from the entrance. They head back down the rope in the Onyx room, the thrumming feeling in the floor has returned. Esme turns to Kiva and asks where she wants to go, and she points south. They head down the long hallway, occasionally passing cracks in the wall until the glint of metal at the edge of the lamplight. There appears to be some sort of body made of metal, missing a head. They get closer and the metal seems in good condition, shining in the light and its a mix of several types. it has clearly been damaged, jagged rents in the torso. There seems to be some Aetherium inside the cuts. Kiva gives it a poke and it doesn't move. They flip it over and find catches that allow the front of the torso to be hinged out. Inside is a glittering ball of Aetherium with incredibly fine filigree on it and sockets that connect to wires that run through the body.

Rua looks to Kiva and asks if she would be able to fix it. She crouches down next to it and takes a closer look, poking gently at the construct. This is clearly Maker work and comparing the parts labelled with runes against the script she has previously studied and recognizes them as Thunder Lord runes. They are labels for the parts, things like "Arm join 2B, Leg conduit A". It is as if somebody wanted to communicate how to maintain these things to anyone who could read the runes. The work is meticulous and she has never seen its like before. She can see where something punched through and severed some parts, theoretically it would be possible to fix it if they could create the parts. They would need Aetherium, copper, iron and a skilled smith they could likely patch it up. The core is connected by brackets and sockets, it looks like it was designed to be removed without damage. They do so, adding another two pounds to their collection.

Now that they have been here for a little while they get the impression this end of the hallway is colder than the entrance. Soren calls upon Garnuss again, asking him if they are closer to the nexus of darkness he was feeling before. He holds up a hand and tilts his head from side to side. "There is something foul nearby, but I can't say if it is causing the cold. I can't exactly feel it cold." Esme nods, that makes sense and asks if Stella can bring the warmth of Helior to the this cold place. She consecrates the flame of her lantern and the comforting light radiates out. Suddenly the hallway loses all its creepiness and coldness, becoming just another hallway.

As they continue they see something flickering back at them at the end of the hall. Is it a sheet of glass? No, it looks more like the Dark Ice they bought from the trader. Without the warmth of the sun it would be like standing in a blizzard right now. It extends 12-15 feet into the air, and through the cloudy material they can see forms in the flickering lamplight. Esme lights her lamp to bring more light and Rua can see a frozen tableau inside. There are several creatures, insectlike with many legs standing around a humanoid figure. It almost looks like an Ustrina? The light reflects off a bronze mask and is otherwise fully cloaked. It seems like this ice was created around these creatures to stop or imprison them, possibly by the Ustrina. At first everything looks perfectly still, frozen in time, but then Rua feels a flicker in his mind. Like he was at home and someone knocked on the door. Maybe something in there is alive?

The longer they stand there, staring at the insectile creatures the more disturbed they get. Maybe its the face they have no mouths or eyes, just chunks of crystals jutting out of their heads. Maybe its the three foot long scythe-like claws on their forelimbs, just looking at them feels wrong. Just standing there he thinks "So cold...", except the thought it is not his. Rua thinks back "Hello?" He doesn't get a response, just a feeling of frustration that is so alien as to be unrecognizable. He jerks back and relays this to the group. Esme wants to mine a small amount but Soren and Stella push back, Soren doesn't want to weaken the apparent prison for the insects, and Stella doesn't want more of that unholy dark ice in Stonetop.

They move on to the next hallway where they find statues of shining glass, a swarm of insect creatures frozen in action poses. Rearing up, charging down the hallway, one of them appears to be disembowelling a glass human form. It might be possible to squeeze by them, but they would have to be wary of the shard blades on their arms. Soren lifts the mattock he brought and says it would probably be easier to break them down. He hands it off to Rua, who with Kiva's guidance, is able to carve a path through the hallway they could navigate through single-file. Esme uses her Makerglass shield to push the shattered debris around and make a path. It is difficult, noisy work. The sound of shattering glass and it tinkling to the ground constantly goes out while they work.

While they work Soren keeps watch at the previous intersection. He thinks back on all the stories he has heard and told himself, trying to recall if any stories mentioned great insectoid beasts like these. There are a variety of myths and legends about the Ruined Tower and about how it fell. However they are contradictory and doubtful that they are from anyone who has been inside it. What isn't in doubt is that it was violently, given remnants of it are scattered around the flats. One person from Stonetop in their youth did actually explore a bit and came back alive. Every winter Filmor tells this story, but nobody really believes him but its cold and there is nothing else to do so they listen anyways. He would talk about bodies made of perfect glass, and crazy carven walls, which are clearly impossible. Nobody is skilled enough to make glass look like a person. However, now that he is here some of what he was saying makes a lot more sense. Specifically he said that not all of the bodies down here are glass, and not all of them are still. Some of them walk, in fact he saw a headless corpse walk down a hallway, seemingly unaware of him. Feet scuffing in the darkness, not noticing him as he is frozen in fear. Soren puts two and two together, that the only headless thing they saw was the automaton, and if it was walking when Filmor was here and its torn open now....there is certainly something dangerous down here! His danger sense tingling he follows where it is telling him is trouble, but it doesn't point towards the darkness. It points behind him towards where they are excavating the glass. He instantly turns and goes to warn them, seeing they have uncovered a door.

It is slightly ajar, with a light coming from inside. He warns them there is something dangerous beyond the door, it feels like they will be attacked the moment they cross the threshold. Esme and him setup at the door in a defensive stance and he grins at the others saying "Its a good thing I brought my brown pants!" This elicits a nervous chuckle from the group before they push through the doors. On the other side of the door is a large open room that looks like an auditorium of sort. A big semi-circular room with tiers down to a stage at the bottom. There are a variety of glass statues here, some are humans in various poses. Some are lying on the ground, some are running, some are being torn messily apart by more of the insectoid creatures frozen in glass. They stand for a moment looking around, not seeing anything until one of the insects drops from the ceiling right onto Esme!

End of Session!

ooks like an auditorium of sort. A big semi-circular room with tiers down to a stage at the bottom. There are a variety of glass statues here, some are humans in various poses. Some are lying on the ground, some are running, some are being torn messily apart by more of the insectoid creatures frozen in glass. They stand for a moment looking around, not seeing anything