Session XIII

General Summary

Bloody combat breaks out between the party and sergeant Geldrecht's group, refusing to give up, enraged as they are - all the more at the revelation of the Elf's magic - but in the end, it's the party that triumphs, and the bodies are cast aside and off of the mountain path, left to rot down on the rocks down below. 
Camping outside of Elssen, which lacks a tavern, inn, boarding house, or any facilities whatsoever - even a Sigmarite temple is absent! -  it briefly seems that the local inhabitants are forming a mob to face off against them, but once they realize that the strangers by the edge of town are humans and not, in fact, Orcs or Goblins, they are left alone and to their own devices. Consuming Cordelia's healing tonic, Morathric is briefly sent into a panic as an unintended side-effect from the rather strong potion, but things remain uneventful otherwise.
The next day, just outside of town, they meet Hedwig Schöner, a young local riverwoman living and working by the river that passes by just outside of Elssen, who in exchange for rope ferries the group across, from where they can travel to the Tower of Vane up in the mountains on foot. 
Thus, they enter the cold valley the Tower is located in - the Tower itself is a great, lead needle piercing into the sky, well over a thousand feet tall, with a single door at its base, the crushed bodies of dead orcs scattered around it, while others appear to have been burnt to a crisp. Nothing stirs in the valley, not even the wind seems to want to disturb the silence much. To get to the tower, the group crosses across the glacier that lies between the path that lead them there, and the Tower itself. 
Within, the group finds the tower mostly empty, mysterious runes that they struggle to identify lining the walls, and they slowly begin ascending over seven floors, each of them attuned to a specific wind of magic, although the magical ties appear to be fading, until they finally arrive at the rooftop, where a crystal dome crowns the spire. The roof, it appears, is the only floor in actual use, with instruments of human wizards scattered about - sextants, great telescopes, and other arcane devices, desks set up behind great screens that protect them from the driving winds, with weighted writing boards that contain charts of clouds, stars, and phases of the twin moons, as well as calculations all over, a windlass in one corner and chests scattered across the rooftop. 
One device stood out in particular, however - a Luminark of Hysh which, strangely, had been inscribed with markings of all winds of magic, aimed in the direction of Ubersreik - but actually just next to it, rather than at the city itself - and some object at the butt of it seemingly missing, schematics and equations on a desk next to it, together with the question someone asked themselves: WHY DID IT MISFIRE. 
In addition, on one desk a letter was found, discussing the thoughts of one particular Light Mage and what he taught on how humans should be using all magic, not just one wind for every wizard, as the elves prescribed them... before they can investigate much, however, they hear someone calling for help from within a box and, as the group opens it, they are met with Wizard Lord Sibylle Hagerdorn, who thanks them for letting her out.
She explains them some things - of how she was betrayed and locked into a chest by the renegade mage Carolus Entschlafen, who at first pretended to wish to help her with her research here, and of the Luminark. They piece together the pieces of the puzzle: the Luminark seeks out and destroys evil, and thus the misfire did not just accidentally hit someone, but instead sought out a victim with a heart most foul! The Wizard Lord seems intrigued by it, but before much goes on further, Carolus Entschlafen appears right next to the device and shoots a blast of fire at it! Taking a lens, he leaps off of the roof of the Tower and floats downward.
Hurriedly, Hagerdorn rushes for the Luminark, telling the group they need to chase after him, that the Luminark is overloading and that if they stay on the roof they will not survive the mutagenic energy that will flood all over the platform even if she can stop it from overloading and protect herself. Thus, they rush down the stairs of the tower, speeding downward for several minutes straight until they reach the ground floor.
There, in the snow, they confront the mage, who has drawn a circle of blood in the snow and who is shimmering with magical armor. Skeldon's handgun misfires, detonating in his hands and Raaf rushes to his side to aid the Dwarf with his injuries as quickly as possible, while Morathric prevents the rogue wizard from casting his spells - despite his Light Mage origins, he appeared to be calling on the Wind of Beasts - before he is, ultimately, dealt with. The ritual circle, it appeared, was of no particular function, and didn't even appear to be magical in nature, curiously.
Climbing back up the tower, the party finds it abandoned, and Sibylle Hagerdorn gone. Faint traces of magic reveal that she created a magical bridge over towards the mountaintops far across - the bridge gone again. The research notes have all vanished, and it seems impossible to chase after the wizard that apparently betrayed them...

Report Date

08 Oct 2021