Chapter 10: The Tower of the Peryton

Gent 19th (into dusk)

Synopsis
Accompanied by Raziel and Nathan Kirk, as well as Agent Velekova and Aiden's faithful hound Kurn, the recollected party scaled Magemound and came to the Tower of the Peryton. Doorless and windowless, they entered by way of secret hand-paintings Roza learned about after absorbing an orc's knowledge through her blood magic. However, the party's meddling and the city's fire inspired the mages to erect protective enchantments which cast the party (unbeknownst to them) across the extradimensional tower, anchor planes, and an experimental, magic-amplifying, and knowledge-gleaning dimension created by the earliest wizards called The Strange.

Ilshana, stranded in a black desert with a milky, white ocean for a sky, navigated dark dunes to an unusual, swirling boulder of weathered stone hovering several feet off the ground. She came to realize the intricate carvings, maze-like across its face, were a map to the befuddling layout of the tower itself. By concentration alone, she was able to will herself back into the tower proper and into a very unusual study contained within The Strange. Fiery motes of knowledge burned in a hearth, flanked by towering bookcases brimming with old texts fitted with blubbering lips. As the bard accessed the knowledge contained in the orbs, the books spoke in voices ranging susurrations to screams. She learned Arsei Fyodor had been overthrown, and that Kiro-Sulos was now the Lord of the Tower and master of all the powers contained therein. Absconding with a mote, she exited the room, intent on finding the others. Unfortunately, crossing the checkered halls, onyx and ivory, stretching vast distances and marked with free-floating stairwells, she found herself lost and threatened by elementally-charged tile traps. Her trap avoidance became a deadly game of hopscotch down the corridors, until she skipped by an "old" friend...

Roza and Raziel stood on one of countless glassy stairwells, wrapped in ribbons of arcane energy, and leading to thousands of shimmering archways in an endless, starry void. They might have spent lifetimes trying the various paths, only to find themselves back where they started, but Roza called on the aid of the Guiding Star, Caiphon, visible in the black. He must have owed her master a favor, for the star flickered above the way out. Once exited, the two became separated, and the sorceress began exploring a long, barren hall whose floor was made of solid fire. Whenever an elemental tile trap triggered beneath her, Roza was able to counter it with her own elemental power in such a way she walked the halls of the tower unscathed and untroubled. Along the way, she came to realize she was walking a parallel dimension, what wizards called The Strange, and that the motes of light and energy passing by her were people, mages, walking the halls in the prime material plane. If they were going to complete their mission, they would have to reenter the physical world somehow.

Nel and Nathan stood on an ancient bridge of petrified wood, spanning a ravine that split a forested, dream-like realm into dawn and dusk. With no path back to the others, completely lost, and no doubt something dangerous and hungry lurking in the seemingly-idyllic landscape, Nel turned to her mother's constellation for guidance. It steered her in the right direction, Nathan pessimistic of their odds following a few stars in the sky in hopes of finding the way back. He wasn't so quick to judge when they arrived safely back in the tower. Relatively safely, at least, as it was only a few steps inside before they realized the tower was trapped. Balance, Nel believed, would counteract the roiling energies contained within the halls. Nathan suggested walking in tandem, but Nel agreed only on the preface the balance between man and woman would garner them trap immunity. As it turned out, she was right. They walked carefully down the hall in measured steps like a strange bridge and groom until Ilshana happened by. Sharing the mote with Nel, the death priestess uncovered some very dark and pressing truths: Not only was Arsei overthrown, but another Anubian shard had been stolen. Kiro-Sulos and his cadre had built a second device, a "time-gate" to pull something through into the present. It's arrival was imminent.

Cassandra, Aiden, Velekova, and Kurn landed in a room split down the middle, black and white, presumably the room any peryton mage would normally intend to go. One onyx and one ivory archway shimmered before them. Having seen one too many trapped archway in her day, Cassie tied a rope to an old boot and tossed it through one of the doorways. Moments later, it flew back out and kicked Aiden in the head. Not amused, he launched a marble bust through the opposite archway. To his disappointment, it did not come back and clock Cassie, rather stayed where it was. Pulling on the ropes, the two retrieves both items, suggesting either archway 'survivable'. Velekova took a chance on the bust-tossed arch and passed through. After waiting a few minutes, the siblings followed into one of the tower's elementally-trapped halls. Velekova had fallen victim, it seemed, to an ice trap, frozen solid. Before either could totally react, they noticed flickering colors on the tiles around them, threatening to burn them, freeze them, melt them, crush them, or electrocute them. The soles of Cassie's boots were melted away, and Aiden managed to undo the agent's condition by shoving her onto a red tile just beginning to flicker, before the trio booked it down the hall. With each trapped tile they hit, the three pulled a growing train of flickering, arcane tiles brimming with offensive magic. And after so many twists and turns, they passed right by the unsuspecting Roza begging her to 'magic it' away.

Roza chased after the others, now in the onslaught's direct path. Reaching one of the glassy stairwells, the sorceress turned and made her stand. She'd balanced the elements for singular tiles, but this was no less than fifty fatal charges crashing on her head like a typhoon. At last, a challenge, and against one she proved capable. Meeting power with power, redirecting it, circulating it, before finally discharging, the force rocked the foundation of the dimension and ripped a whole between The Strange and the tower. The sound drew the others, uniting the group before the rift. Bending their will, magic, and faith toward rescuing the speaker and stopping the time-gate, they harnessed the power of The Strange to get them -exactly- where they wanted.

Raziel was already there, cradling his wife beside her radiant clone Gemini. After some bubbly chitchat,




Notable NPCs
The God-King, Nor- Liberator of mankind, slayer of the elvish overlords, and founder the empire, Nor was the greatest psion of all time (eclipsing even Endymion Norson). A force for good in a time when humans were slaves, he and his saintly compatriots toppled the Gloriandelines and the Highking with them. Sadly, no one could carry the mantle with such dignity, wisdom, and authority as Nor, leading to the degeneration of the empire throughout the ages until it became the twisted Holy Nors Empire. While the Emperor seeks to make amends for oh so many imperial wrongs, perhaps the return of the God-King will hasten the healing...

"The Demonic Presence"- The entity the tower was attempting to pull through time and space and into the present, it could also be the intended target of the failed time-bomb. If so, its identity might serve as a clue to finding the master conspirator.

Kiro-Sulos- The true "Lord of the Tower" and leader of the perytons, who overthrew Arsei Fyodor even after his meeting with the speaker (as told by the ledger) looking for aid in retaking it. Aligned with the conspirators, Kiro constructed both the time-bomb and the time-gate using stolen shards of Anubian tech. In both cases, attempts were made to pull a demonic entity through space/time and into Haven. Both times, now, he's been foiled. While the possibility stands Kiro is the mastermind behind the conspiracy, there's serious doubt he could rally the Brotherhood, nor does he stand to gain in the destruction of Haven without some greater benefactor. He might be the force behind summoning/dealing with fey, however, particularly given his close nature to winter (air and cold magics).

Kari-Ula- Kiro's wife, a powerful wind wizard and part of the surviving genasi looking to kill the party on Magemound.

Gemini- Tabetha's lighter half, the exuberant expression of light, hope, and joy in her own magic.

Speaker Tabetha Melane-Kirk
Artificer-General Raziel Kirk
Nathan Kirk
Agent Velekova
Kurn

Notable Locations
Magemound
The Tower of the Peryton
Trapped Halls (Tower)
Chamber of the Arches (Tower)
The Spheroid / Time-Gate (Tower)
The Arcane Sanctuary (The Strange)
The Bridge of Doom and Promise (Dreamlands)
The Black Sands of Monument (Ethereal)

Monster List
Legendary Peryton
Air Genasi

Treasure
To be determined after combat with the air genasi and peryton...