Journal Entry 13.00 The Citadel of the Light Thief

The party enters the Light Citadel, meets the Light Thief, defeats his minions, and earns passage through the Light Barrier

General Summary

As the party finishes making camp for the night with intentions of further investigating on the morrow both the light barrier and the crystal fortress, a commotion starts up in the neighboring camp of explorers they had just met.
While the other camp doesn’t sound like it is under attack or anything, there is definitely something wrong.
Picking up their combat gear and foregoing breaking camp, they quickly head over to the other camp to discern the cause.
Once there, they are informed that several members of the expeditionary force have started acting weird. And then, without warning, several of those acting weird vanished.
The acting weird consisted of forgetting details, garbling words, spastic motions. It didn’t take long to figure out it was those who had gone up to what they were calling the Light Citadel which were the ones acting erratically.
To make matters worse, the leader of the expedition force, a powerful druidic priest of Torya by the name of Ezra Mae is also acting weird. And she was one of the first to visit the Light Citadel.
Morvion subtly casts detect magic to attempt to discern the problem while Urik begins to ask Ezra a few questions. And then, before everyone’s eyes, she simply vanishes.
Deeply concerned, those remaining of the expeditionary force determine that their best course of action is to head back to the base camp as about half their number have just disappeared in the last few hours or will soon do so if the recent examples are to be believed. They declare that on the morning they will head out. They then warn the party not to go near the Light Citadel.
Obviously, the next morning, the party does the exact thing they were warned against.
Going up to the citadel, they find the ramp made of natural terrain. Cautiously approaching, they can make out the barest outline of a door in the crystalline wall.
The citadel itself appears to be made entirely of either clear quartz or glass. It is completely transparent with its structure consisting of several vertical columns or tubes of crystal reaching hundreds, possibly thousands of feet in height.
Despite its transparency, nothing inside can be seen except maybe the inner edges of the hollow columns. The columns are a mix of square, circular, hexagonal and even a few octagonal tubes.
There are no signs of windows either, the vague outline of an entrance being the only difference in the appearance of otherwise smooth surfaces.
After a brief study, both Graykar and Urik approach for a closer inspection. Urik approaches and swings his ax, barely marring the side of the structure, then turns around and steps back. Meanwhile, Graykar steps forward and suddenly jerks back, catching himself on the edge, his lower half disappearing the ground.
Pulling himself out, he declares the obvious that there is a pit hidden by an illusion. Urik however, seems unaffected by the pit. He even walks back over and doesn’t fall through.
As the other party members probe, they find there is definitely a pit. They then turn to Urik and question him.
With the recent events of the other camp, they consider it likely that the actual Urik fell into the pit and what was before them was some type of advanced clone or illusion. Testing for magic, Morvion is able to discern that the Urik in front of them is indeed a construct made up divination, illusion, enchantment and transmutation magic.
Certain that Urik did actually fall in the pit, they quickly explore it and find it goes deeper than their ability to examine. Graykar lowers himself into the pit using a rope only to have it cut. He falls down the chute and lands in a large room near Urik.
The rest of the party follows, with Aja going last, flying in. As she flies in, she sees a jagged edge if crystal with a tiny fragment of rope on it. Looking at out the crystal is perpendicular to the rest of the tube, she can see that it could cut a rope, however it would have to slide out to effective have sliced the rope. She quickly flies past it just in case.
The chute jags and turns as it goes down, slowing the fall slightly for the party and overall descends nearly seventy feet. The chute makes a quick upturn at the end, any of the party which was falling picked a fair amount of speed and exited flying up to hit the ceiling before falling to the ground.
In this room, they are confronted by six golems made of clear crystal. That battle is fast and deadly, and the party finds they have to be careful not to damage a golem too much else it explodes in a shower of glass shards.
The room’s walls, floor, and ceiling are all made up some dark blue crystalline substance and is shaped like a large hexagon. Exploring the room further, they discover that the only exit appears to be the revolving door at the far end of the room.
The door spins around over another chute. Going down this chute carefully the party descends another forty feet to a new room. As they descend into the room, they feel a strong gust of air pushing on them immediately past exiting the chute. Aja will later theorize (once she detects the presence of feather fall magic) that anyone who comes down the chute unconscious is affected by the feather fall and the wind pushes them out and away from the jagged spikes immediately below the chute. The jagged spikes await anyone else falling down the chute.
This room is a central room connected to six outer chambers. Inside the room, they encounter several creatures which appear to be a cross between a humanoid and the crystal golems they had fought earlier. Where these golems weren’t crystal, they were covered in some clay-like substance. The Light Thief will later refer to them as his Stage 3 creations.
Fighting them proves only slightly challenging, the main challenge being that any weapon which struck the clay-like substance with force stuck fast to the golem. The party quickly finds that losing their weapons in this way forces them to be creative and rely on back up weapons.
Once done, the party searches the outer rooms. Each room has a raised solid table in it, shaped similarly to a sarcophagus. It is made of pale blue stone and otherwise translucent. Testing the counters out, they lay a body on it and observe as the body slowly sinks into the crystal of the table. Once it completely sinks into the crystalline slab, the body disappears.
They also find several items, weapons, and clothing in the corners of the room. Their best guess is these items come from the other party, indicating that they had also fallen down the chute but didn’t survive this room.
Looking for another way out, they find a chute several feet above each table. Managing to get up the chutes, the party discovers that a strong gust of wins is pushing them upwards. Utilizing the wind, they ascend up the chute.
About two thirds up the chute it comes together with another chute coming from a different direction. A stronger wind is up blowing from the side chute and the only way down seems to be to outweigh the wind resistance. The party faces a choice, either try and go down the joining chute or continue up as the main chute continues to rise.
Choosing to go up, they enter into another chamber, this chamber is made of dark gray and black granite. On the floor of this room are several etched runes, connected with swirls and lines. Standing on the floor of this room the party sees several pieces of large black obsidian statuary similarly shaped to three-foot tall game pieces. Around the neck of each of these pieces are several large round gemstones.
Additionally, eight tall black stone golems move around the room tending it. Each of the golems is covered in differing patterns of colored light. One is covered in all red runes, one in blue, one in orange and so on.
The lights flicker, various runes dimming and brightening at odd patterns. As this happens, the golems move around moving the pieces. Sometimes they only reposition the facing of a piece. After several minutes the gems in one of the pieces lights up and flashes a bright beam of light into the ceiling. Looking up at the domed ceiling, the party sees a mosaic of varied colored gems like a giant kaleidoscope which flashes brightly every time it is struck by one of the light beams.
The party times it and the beams seem to be firing about one every five minutes. Aja and Morvion deduce that whatever is going on, it is some type of complex spell being cast, possibly some form of ritual magic.
Looking for another form of egress to the room besides the tubes which they party came up into the room from, they only find the obvious three crystalline doors in the middle of every other wall in this once again hexagonally shaped room. Each of the doors is made in the form of an iris with the crystalline slabs sliding together in the middle. Once again Urik tries his ax against the crystalline walls of the door and only manages to leave the slightest of marks.
Not knowing how else to proceed, the party begins to manipulate the pieces of statuary in the room. They find that whenever they move a piece, the golems in the room quickly move to readjust. Sometimes they slowly move over to put the piece back, sometimes they just move other pieces in apparent compensation.
They even knock a piece over only to see a golem come over and pick it up.
As the party continues this, they notice that the golems are becoming more hurried in their response. Where one came to correct, soon two and three came to correct. Tars begins pushing a piece and as the white runed golem started to push it back, Tars continued to push it the other direction. Other golems then started approaching and Tars let go.
Forming an idea, they push one of the pieces out of position. When the white runed obsidian golem tries to readjust, the party then pushes the piece and the golem backwards toward one of the open chutes. The golem falls in and the party immediately pushes the piece over on top of it, causing both to disappear down the hole.
At this time, the golem's attack.
Each golem attacks with a different set of powers. Once has a fear aura, one flies and breathes fire. One even turns itself into smoke and attacks its victim by trying to be inhaled and then attempting to resolidify in the victim’s lungs.
A few minutes after the battle begins, all three iris open revealing stairs ascending along the outer wall of the room.
With the battle raging on, Graykar heads up one of the stairwells, the party determining that they may need to retreat to a better defensive position.
On the next level, a room similar in shape to the room below, Graykar witnesses over a hundred crystal golems standing still, heads back looking at the ceiling.
The battle rages on with Tars fighting his way up the stairs. Now on the second level, he sees the golem with the violet runes coming across the room. Tars begins to engage but just before he charges he has another of his strange déjà vu’s where he sees the hundred crystal golems coming to life and killing the entire party. He thinks better and descends back down the stairs to allow the golem with violet runes to follow.
Tars wasn’t alone, each of the party has a strange deja-vu where the crystalline golems had actually come to life and the party was slain by that development.
Continuing the fight back down the stairs, the party finally proves victorious. The closest battle was one of the golems which possessed the power to become gaseous. It attacked Tars briefly, then seemed to focus on Aja. When Aja finally was unable to hold her breath long enough to keep the gaseous golem out, it began to attack her from the inside.
After the battle, the party quickly reviews their progress and starts suspicioning that the golems are fighting with greater awareness than what they would have if they were fighting individually. Something is possibly controlling them and allowing them to attack with a unison and knowledge of the battlefield which otherwise should be unavailable to the golems.
With the golems now dead, the party moves some of the statues around and even pushes a few down some of the shafts, trying to further disrupt the spell. What happens is the flash rate of the lights from the gems in the remaining statuary starts to increase and the timing now seems to be erratic.
Not seeing any way to progress out of this room outside of going up the stairs, the party heads up. On the next level, they carefully maneuver around the motionless crystal golems so as to not accidentally awaken them.
Exploring this room, they see that this room is similarly shaped to the room below, however this time the room appears made of rose quartz. The ceiling is also considerably taller rising into a domed ceiling. In the middle of the ceiling is a large gem cut ruby several feet across.
Every few minutes, one of the crystal golems lights up and a beam of white light shoots out of their upturned mouths into the large ruby. Timing the rays, the party concludes that when the statues from below activate and shoot a ray into the ceiling, it is traveling through one of these golems and on into the ceiling.
Looking up, they see that there are four holes in the ceilings, more tubes leading further up into the tower.
Using a combination of levitation spells and fly spells, the party makes it way up the tubes into what appears to be the inside of a giant diamond shard. The tubes come up into the room near the apex of where the crystal shard ends on the bottom.
The shard itself is hexagonal, nearly 70 feet to a side. The entire length of the rising shard is nearly 2000 feet. From the apex where the party enters the room, they can see the ruby crystal taking up the center. Every few minutes, a bright beam of magical light spears forth from the ruby up through the length of the shard to the opposite end.
The incline of where crystal tapers from the wall to the end is shallow and almost immediately reaches the sides. As the party moves up the incline and reach the edge of the walls, they feel the gravity changing at the juncture, with gravity now pulling down toward each of the walls.
About 150’ further up the shaft, they see twelve men in green armor and bows standing around the shaft, two on each wall. It appears the gravity change is constant at least that far up the crystal.
Behind them about another 150 feet back is a man dressed in yellow robes.
They can see him talking, his voice carrying through the length of the chamber, “I am impressed, you have made a good distance and a small mess of my work. That needs to stop now. Here is where you die.”
The party wastes no time and begins to approach. The few of the archers get a single volley off before Aja creates a cloud in the middle of the shard to hide the parties progress. Morvion and Graykar then employ magics to turn invisible.
Approaching, quickly, yet cautiously, Tars almost falls into a veiled pit running around the perimeter of the crystal, barely hanging on to the edge before crawling out. Graykar makes a run and attempts to jump the pit, however, there is a wall of force on the opposite side of the pit. Graykar slams into the wall and through a feat of amazing agility manages to push off the wall with enough force to make it back to the same side of the pit he sprang from. Unfortunately, no one was able to see this as he was invisible.
Making it over the wall, the party quickly begins to dispatch the archers by closing with them. Graykar is the first to notice that all the archers, despite some being elven, have the same permeant face, a goofy wide-eyed grin and off-center smile, the eyes never blink and the smile never shifts.
Morvion is the only one who avoids the fray, flying after the wizard directly.
As Aja drops a few more area spells, Urik, Tars, and Graykar start working their way through the archers. The archers, when able, stay back and simply shoot at the party.
The chamber begins to strobe and as it does, both the party and the archers move around several feet, each strobe they find themselves in a slightly new location. Adapting quickly, the party continues to take out the archers.
Morvion makes his final assault on the wizard and when he does, the wizard gasps out in pain and then disappears. Morvion then immediately heads back to help with clean up.
Just inside one of the clouds where Aja is temporarily holding back, the wizard, whom the party believes to be the magician, suddenly appears by her side. He says, “How do you think you guys are doing? I think you are doing quite well.”
He then looks at Aja, sadness in his eyes, as he says, “I regret this, however, I owe a big favor and it has come due.” With that, he quickly waves his finger and a searing light of yellow flies from his open upturned palm into Aja without leaving a mark.
Aja falls out of the cloud and momentarily looks dead. The party, still in combat hesitates briefly, calling out commands of who should look after Aja while the rest of them continue the fight.
Then Aja rises back up, and while she looked close to death, she might have just been stunned for she looks completely healthy now.
Morvion casts mirror image. The voice of the wizard can be heard in the room, “My my, are those illusions?” Then the mirror images turn on Morvion and begin to attack him – the Light Thief has stolen control of the spell.
The last of the archers are slain and as they stop moving, it can be seen that they weren’t human or elven, but elaborate wooden mannequins with smooth polished wood where a face should have been.
Looking around for the next threat after the final ranger mannequin falls, a somewhat amused and jovial voice fills the room. “I’ve seen enough, I believe it is safe to say that you are worthy of entering the city. The challenges I placed before you were not easy.”
As the voice talks, the lights in the room stop flickering, and the random displacement affect also ends.
“In fact, I wasn’t expecting you to get past the reception room and my Stage IV warriors, but then you moved right on through to the Preparation Chamber and handled my Stage II metamorphs easily enough. Truth be told, they weren’t really intended as challenges, they were functionary so I could slowly lead a few of those wild savages outside and convert to my eventual army.”
Some of the party tries to interject and ask questions, the voice just keeps on talking.
“I would have liked to see how you handled the glurks, vile little things, in the Initiation Chamber, but I think that would have just annoyed you more than anything. And of course, if you killed most of them, I would have to spend the time to breed more.
I wish you hadn’t destroyed my Focus Golems, however I believe that combat was useful. I was wondering for a second if you were nothing but brute force and this showed me that you possess a little in the way tactics and resourcefulness.”
“And I liked the way you – the elf – stayed focused on the main threat. It shows promise. I have a gift for you later as you depart, one I think you might find amusing.”
The voice then pauses, “I guess I should actually introduce myself. Many call me the Light Thief, a name I don’t discourage. However, I go by Allistaire and it is my pleasure to meet you all. And truly, I am happy none of you perished for once I started paying attention I became somewhat fond of you. I was actually cheering for you while I controlled my minions in their efforts to kill you.” The ease and simplicity in how he says that last sentence makes it clear he really wouldn't be all that bothered were the party to die.
The party then begins asking a few simple questions which he answers in turn.
“Yes, I do control the light barrier.”
“No, I won’t bring it down.”
“Yes, I can let you past it.” And so on.
He explains then the purpose of the barrier. “Something in the city is forcing a breach between this world and the next. If left unchecked, I believe it could cause irreparable harm to the planet. This is another residue effect of coalescence, of that I am certain. When Pyrideon and Nakir were merged, countless smaller worlds and dimensions were also sucked up. Like pimples, sometimes those minor dimensions pop back into reality. This is different, this is something trying to break free I believe, and if it does, it will take a good part of the world with it.”
“I see I am confusing some of you, never the less, what you need to know is this.”
“Like all such breaches, it either emanates a lot of power or is a vacuum. This is one of those that I believe will alternate as it continues to grow. Currently, it is in an expansion mode and sending out lots of power. My light barrier is little more than a siphon, channeling off the energy and shooting it off into vast emptiness of the sky. And it is taxing my abilities to the utmost. If I were to drop the shield, this whole mountain would exist in a different warped reality and the events I am describing would reach their culmination within the year.”
And so sorry for knocking you down like that, noble sylph. It was necessary, I owed a debt, one I couldn’t pass on paying when the cost was such a mundane task. However, I am cheered you survived, as you can now cast the spell I have prepared for you while you fought which will enable you to pass the barrier.”
Aja then asks about whom Allistaire is working with. His reply is only slightly cryptic. “Many players are involved in this particular game as it affects both this world, this realm, but also largely affects the fey world. For instance, the Winter Queen stands directly in representing fey interests. As you hail from the city of Chrailis, you have probably already guessed that your matriarch has expressed concern. Three different gods have sent missives on this matter. Josca, Letheria, and Kristor are all taking an active interest and are employing agents to deal with the threat. I believe some of you actually represent their interests. “
“This also brings up an interesting bit, there are some other players against this. Most I don’t know, however, I have seen their influence. Only Slinjetto has actively surfaced as being against my efforts. And with regard to the fey courts, the Winter Queen seems to stand alone in her opinion of how this breach should be handled. How the others stand, I am not certain those I suspect at least one of the major courts of her realm is directly opposed to stopping this breach.”
He then seems to be wrapping up the conversation. The hall starts to flicker again. “I am sending you out to your camp. Don’t come back, my work here is too important to tolerate more interruptions. Next time I will just let you enter a crystal and then seal it. Bugs in amber you will be.“
The party then wakes up in the camp they had set the night before. They don’t wake up as if they were dreaming and already slumbering for the night, they just wake up in various spots of the camp as if they had fallen asleep in the middle of making the camp.
Standing in their midst is a single red robed individual. The robe is full length and tied at the middle, with white hems and a silver lapel. All along the lapel is yellow stitching in tight scrollwork patterns. He is a tall man of regular build, brown wavy hair, and fair complexion. He looks very similar to the Light Thief they saw in the citadel.
As the party groups up around him, they see that he is not moving. Testing, they see he is an illusion. After a few moments, once the party is fully focused on him, he becomes animated.
“Greetings – I am a light construct from my master. Sent to give you gifts and also sent to answer basic questions as I am able.”
He then points to a small chest at his feet (it wasn’t there a few moments ago) and directs the party to open it. In it is a single dark orb with blue and pink mists swirling about, 2 scrolls, a pair of boots, and a small cloak clasp made of dark brass.
“The scrolls are two, one for the witch, one for the magus. The magus scroll contains a personal favorite spell of mine, an improved mirror image. The witch scroll, a brief transportation spell. Please be careful, this area is fraught with dangers, only use this spell for any type of translocation magic, as the result might be disastrous with convergence going on. The boots are for the orc and will aid in charging. The orb for the healer. And finally, the clasp is for the human.”
They ask the construct questions and for the most part, he says, “My knowledge is limited, I know little of that.” They ask about talking to the Light Thief again and he responds, “Not at this time. If need be, I will let you know when.”
About the only other useful information they get is about their illusionary doubles. Morvion, in particular, wants to know what happened to them as they were supposed to fulfill certain tasks. “They were doubles, yes, but were largely affected by the wills and intents of those around them. What they knew and how they acted depended on the expectations of those around them. When you all left to go inside, your doubles then had no minds giving them direction through the form of expectation. They are just standing around. Actually, they may still be standing at the entrance.”
Morvion nods at this. “That explains the divination magic, I suppose, they were probably reading our minds and then acting as we believed they should act, possibly how we wanted them to act. Though I don’t see how we collectively would believe Urik so agreeable as to being a clone.”
As the party prepares their camp for resting, they notice the light construct stops moving and remains motionless. Aja and Morvion collect open the scrolls so that they might take the necessary steps to learn their spells. The next morning the light construct is gone, vanishing as some time during the night.

I'm in the bright lights

but I still feel darkness

- Frank Walker

Report Date

11 Sep 2018