Session 30: A Daring Escape… or Not

General Summary

Eva was separated from the Dragoons by the wizards who entrapped the group, Lemarra, the Premier of the Arcanum Magic Academy, had said for the girl and called her a ‘songstress’. The Dragoons were stripped of all items and thrown into cells. In this dungeon, there seemed to be walls of force on every cell and no obvious way to break free.
Separated, the group got their bearings as Rath and Gregg heard a voice from a cell between them, one not containing the Dragoons. The voice was raspy, sounding of a parched throat. Bud Towers, Hero of Our Time, looked across into the dank, dark cell where the noise came from. The dirty blond, long haired individual inside was in tattered red robes, and by the unwashed smell permeating the air they may have been in here some time. The stranger babbled on in incoherent statements. A few words that could be heard were “ascendant”, “dark one”, “Lemarra, “Who... why?”,and “I can’t”.
There was also another individual the size of a child in another cell, apparently asleep. The Dragoons checked in with each other to ensure they were safe. Shortly after, a rock… no, THE ROCK: Pebbles, The Savior of The Dragoons and Percival the Greatest Of All Time made a dramatic entrance, knocking out the guard. The magic goat grabbed the key and with the pet rock they headed over to the cell containing one Bud Towers, Hero of Our Time.
Soon after, Vendra, the young mage (and sister of their former companion, Blu) appeared, apologizing for their predicament. She whispered the word “swordfish”, because the password is always “swordfish”, and the wards went down. The key opened the lock and there was a touching scene where Bud Towers, The Hero of Our Time, was reunited with Pebbles, The Savior of The Dragoons and Percival the Greatest Of All Time. From his time in the library, Rath recognized the strange mask on the muttering woman; it had been outlawed, and is a powerful and wondrous item that prevents people from casting magic and scrambles their memories. They were unable to remove the incredibly powerful mask, which could not be removed with physical or magical means (at least the ones at their disposal). The woman continued babbling about that masked rogue mage known as “The Ascendant” and other strange things as the Dragoons attempted to communicate, saying “golden tower”, “within”, “girl”, “chamber of the heavens” and “beware”.
Vendra told the Dragoons that there were two towers in Arcanum, Silver and Gold. She was not able to get in, as it was highly restricted and she did not know the password(s). The Dragoons also decided to free this mysterious small person who apparently had a Dragon Stone, too, despite the stories only ever mentioning 4. The group realized that he clearly must be a Player Character and needed to join them despite his player not being available.
Now freed, the team headed out of the dungeon, which led to a corridor patrolled by guards. Vendra went ahead to distract the guards while the 4 Dragoons, the mysterious new Dragoon(?), and the crazy, mask-wearing lady snuck past. The team, surprisingly, stealthed down the hallways and corridors to get into the vault undetected. Vendra pulled out a scroll and cast “knock” to open the vault. There were lockers upon lockers of stuff. Their small new friend apparently was great at picking locks and assisted in getting the Dragoons all of their equipment back. Afterwards, they decided it was best to leave quickly.
The Dragoons made their way to this Golden Tower through a secret passage east of the Magic Academy. When they arrived, however, Vendra voiced her concern about going in, but she was allowed to bow out of joining the team into the tower so as to not raise suspicions. Vendra did however attempt to dispel the magic on the door, but failed. As soon as the spell failed, Blasnir’s Fury filled Rath full of power, unlocking a power that had laid dormant within him to destroy magic itself. A pulse came forth from Blasnir’s Fury, melting the ward on the door to the Golden Tower. The Dragoons walked into the Golden Tower, ready to uproot the foul plot that likely lay before them.
The rooms felt ancient and strange. The hexagonal-tiled floor seemed to be made of gems or stones that were colored like gold. There were free floating stairs and raised pillar-like platforms throughout, all golden. On the walls were strange lines, reminiscent of a circuit board that occasionally pulsed with energy that flowed in a path down the corridor.
Ascending the stairs, the group was on alert and came across an archway. Here they stopped, some of them having noticed a tripwire, a beam of light that spanned the bottom of the archway. It, and the hallway, were lined with glittering crystal and gems, a single, small arcane rune could be above on the archway’s keystone. Rath deciphered it and deduced that the beam and rune and crystals made up a trap and disturbing the beam of light would trigger a disabling flash of light. They decided to send Pebbles instead to trigger it intentionally, as the pet rock had no eyes to be blinded. Pebbles did so, but the light was so bright that the edge of the flash still burned the Dragoons’ eyes, causing some radiant damage, but luckily only temporarily disorienting them.
Then, the noise from the trap caught the attention of the golden guardian: a large, winged, horned, golden goat-like machine-creature that defended the entrance of the tower. Bud Towers, Hero of Our Time, and the creature locked eyes, lowered their heads and charged. Bud Towers, Hero of Our Time, smashed his new bulette shield into the creature and caused it to reel back. Rath slammed Blasnir’s Fury into the side of the construct, but the flames had no effect! Gregg called forth the mighty storm within the Eye, reminiscent of Blu, and a Tidal Wave roared forward at the construct. Then, Rath turned the flames off on Blasnir’s Fury and drove it deep into his foe’s gut, tearing loose pieces of golden plating and various machine bits. The construct then twitched and fell to the ground. Bud Towers, Hero of Our Time, ripped the head off of the guardian and placed it upon his back like a sick Vietnam soldier collecting ears. Percival, the Greatest Of All Time, gave Bud Towers, Hero of Our Time, a dirty look.
They continued up the stairs only to find a dead end. With some quick thinking, Gregg pulled the Eye out, raised it high, and soon his vision became empowered by magic, revealing the shape of a door. There were runes and musical notes around the door, which, according to Trent, turned out to be the same song they sang as children in the Goddess Festival in their home town just a few weeks earlier, which seems like years ago.
The Dragoons knew what to do and began to sing. As the song concluded, the door opened and then went through. In the corridor in front of them, they saw that there was a crystalline creature doing something mysterious near the wall. Rath, out of sheer curiosity, walked up to the creature. It seemed to be working on or repairing something in the walls, possibly its inner workings or arcane runework in whatever it is those glowing vein-like lines on the walls are. Rath attempted to interact with it, but to no avail. It was not dangerous, so they moved on.
They came upon a relaxing room, with ornate chairs, precious chalices, silk flowers, luxurious towels and robes, and other materials common to a sitting room. As per their small new friend’s suggestion, they collected whatever seemed to be of value and moved on.
And so Lumina’s Dragoons pressed on. They continued into the next room where they could hear the loud rumbling of water, which caused slight discomfort in their ears. The floor opened up to a long golden bridge over a vortex of this strange golden liquid. On the other side were two golden braziers. As they approached, Gregg noticed there were strange runes on each brazier. Rath looked at them, but could not determine what the runes were, other than that they were conjuration runes.
Not believing there was any danger, Rath stepped forward, ahead of the rest of the team, and two large flame hands and two large crystal axes appeared. Then, a large CLINK-CLINK-CLUNK sounded behind them. They turned to see that a large dragon-headed ballista had risen up from a section halfway down the bridge. It fired a massive bolt that exploded, flames washing over the Dragoons. Rath took the brunt of the attack, soon after also taking two hits from the crystal axes, and a gout of flame shooting out from the fiery hands.
Rath used his Explosion Stepped to move away, which easily destroyed the two axes. Gregg then summoned forth a watery ball of doom, restraining the ballista. Rath immediately seized the advantage and charged the ballista, turning off his flames and imbuing his blade with magical energy. Two mighty blows rendered the ballista inoperable as it fell to pieces.
Gregg next faced off against the flaming hands. The tattoo on his face lit up as he reached out a hand to extend a watery tendril that grappled the last flaming hand. Bud Towers, Hero of Our Time, smashed Earthheart into the apparition, destroying its physical being and obliterating it. Recovering from the fight and pressing on to the now-open door, Gregg noticed a golden crystal set into the way. It appeared to be a crystal loot box. They opened it up and a blue orb of light was inside, a Driftglobe. Their small new friend also estimated that the crystal chest itself was worth 500 gp so that was taken, too.
The group opted for a short rest and then continued on their way. They came upon a multi-level courtyard with a spiral staircase in the middle. There was a fountain with a sun motif. There were numerous live plants, living off of the light coming in through the sides. There was a crystal statue of a winged woman leaning on a greatsword, with citrines gems set in its head for eyes.
The team decided not to loot the area, but instead to leave it in its pristine condition. They ascended to the fifth floor, which had a pool of strange golden liquid. Two small hexagonal stone pedestals on either side of the pool. There was a statute of Lumina where the Dragoons took a moment to pray and receive blessings. The statue also held out a crystal that only the new mini-Dragoon could see. His Dragon Stone prompted him to accept the gift, so he did and they carried on.
The stairs went up to a tiered platform, then the Dragoons turned left and went on into a small antechamber with strange green and gold wall panels all along the walls. They continue down another corridor that ended in a strange room with a console and mirror and tablet. Bud investigated the tablet, which activated as he moved his hand over it holding the crystal they were just gifted. On the tablet there were runes that were similar to Celestial writing, so Rath translated. Bud found that placing his hand upon the tablet allowed them to move the words and pictures. It turned out that the tablet showed them a puzzle that needed to be completed in order to move on to the next section. They did so and their journey continued.

Rewards Granted

• Drift Globe and Crystal Chest (500 gp value)
• Mind Crystal
• 1,300 gp of art items:
•    3 Golden ewers/pitchers (25 gp)
•    6 golden chalices with copper filigree set with amber jewels (25 gp each)
•    3 small golden mirrors (25 gp each)
•    An ornate music box (300 gp)
•    6 embroidered silk pillows (25 gp each)
•    2 cloth-of-gold vestments, robes (50 gp each)
•    3 finely-crafted and ornate dragon chess sets (100 gp each)
•    3 elegant crystal vases (25 gp each)
•    3 bundles of gold-spun silk flowers (25 gp each)

Report Date

06 Sep 2020