A ”””Key””” Clue

Dust is formally introduced to their new crow-ish familiar, Préath! He appears similar to a crow, but with two claws on his wings. He speaks with a gurgly, rough voice. He chooses who can hear him at any given point, so sometimes the party hears him cawing and squawking. The party talks about the favor they owe to The Grand Tower. They think that somehow Doribari is the key he mentioned, but aren’t sure how. Dick’s theory is Cyrus needs to activate the sword while the black sun is out during a sandstorm, but Cyrus isn’t completely convinced. Cyrus also feels weird about activating the sword while his brother is still in slavery, but after doing some math, he’s probably hundreds of miles away now. He probably won’t be back for another a year now, so if there’s any time to go galivanting off on the other side of the planet, this is it.

Cyrus decides to go talk to Enox again and see if he knows anything more about the sword. Partially this is because Dust is going to talk to Umira, and if Enox has some abilities to see what she’s doing, Cyrus wants to mildly distract him. Dust is going to try getting more information out of her about The Grand Tower and his abilities, and also see what tomes and scrolls that the party could have access to from The Tower. However, rather than talking to Umira in person, they send a psychic message to meet the group at a nearby ruin in search of artifacts.

Cyrus ascends the horrible elevator to the meeting room with Enox. Umira comes with him, but there is only one seat available in the pillar of light. She waits by the door and motions him in. Alone. Cyrus sits, and eventually Enox materializes. Cyrus tells him their theory and ask if its correct. He offers the sword for him to examine. Enox clarifies:

“The sword is not the key, it goes to somewhere below with corrupted fae. Once the blade is baptized in the key, you will return to the material realm unharmed. And hopefully enlightened by the disciples of The Black Throne. Your materials are more than enough.”

While walking out, Cyrus stumbles over 5 glass bottles with a clear liquid tied together on a bandolier - health potions. He asks if this is a gift for the party, and receives no response. Though he takes it with him. He tells Umira that Enox isn’t so bad.

Evan: “He gave us bottles of his pre.”

While all this happens, Dick loses all his money gambling. 5 silver, 10 copper, and 10 bits right down the drain. Dust and Cyrus buy poison off of Dick.

Ruin Exploration Part 3: Electric Boogalee

Cyrus buys a new bedroll and tent to house Dick along the way - given he is now incredibly broke. After the group reups on their rations, they head out with Umira on her Desert Welk - a wolf elk hybrid thing with a long horrible smile.

Préath offers Dust some advice on talking with Umira, and Noid is IMMEDIATELY pissed off because he’s trying to take its job. Dust straight up asks if the Tower has an archive that the party could have access to with the goal of finding out more information to complete the favor. Umira says there is an archive, but it’s extremely locked down tight as it’s made up entirely of Enox’s grimoires. Umira is one of the few people with access to it, as Enox has given her permission. Umira offers Dust a spot in The Tower, so that by their laws, Enox will have to teach them some of what he knows. He has some kind of mysterious school of magic that is not quite like any other type that exists. Dust rejects her offer, preferring their life as a “freelance wizard”.

The group asks a lot of questions about Enox. This is what they learn:

  • The ENTIRE tower is his magical implement.
  • He doesn’t need to eat, but sometimes he asks for food. His favorite is aged, smoked beef.
  • He doesn’t do anything for fun. At least not outside of his room.
  • He can speak with his mouth and did it once during Umira’s initiation. She’s never seen him do it since then.
  • During their extended conversation during the meeting, he told Umira he was happy to have her back and collected more information about the things she’s learned.

After a week of traveling, the group finds the ruin. It’s largely buried, only about 10ft remains above the sand. Préath and Noid fly to the top - Préath slightly faster. The temple is a large 20ft hole that ends in a solid floor. Dick is able to throw his grapnel up to the top and climbs up, while Noid teleports the rest of the group inside. There are some stairs at the bottom that have been covered by centuries of dirt and bricks. Using a combination of Cyrus’s crowbar and sheer manpower, they are able to remove the large chunks of debris out of the way. Without any shovels, they’re unable to remove the sand and so slide down the stairs in a dusty sand n’ slide. Cyrus gets a lot of sand stuck in his armor that will bother him for weeks. They find a door with some real sandy hinges and with the help of Préath, are able to lube up the gears that operate it with some oil. Eventually, they’re able to open it.

Préath scouts ahead with his darksight abilities where he sees eight stone platforms. The group moves in and investigates these odd platforms with some mysterious runes on them. Dust uses their comprehend language spell to read the runes. Each platform is different, but they all have the names of people, various titles, and important events in their lives. These here are tombs. Dick foolishly decides to open a coffin, but is too weak to move the lid. Préath offers him help, but Dick refuses - these tombs are three feet tall anyway, he didn’t stand much of a chance. There are mosaics and murals along the sides of the walls, but no obvious doors. There are also eight wall sconces and Dick spends his time pulling these sconces, where on the last one, a door is revealed as a painting of two nude men recesses into the wall. Préath once again scouts ahead and reveals a long, thin hallway with small holes in the wall - perhaps traps? Dust goes forward by themselves to investigate with the lantern they’re borrowing from Cyrus. It seems to be some kind of spear trap, but it’s filled with sand and doesn’t seem to be operational anymore. As they pass the trap they hear sounds of rushing air.

Never Split The Party

The hallway leads to another large room. Préath scouts ahead and says there’s a lot of sand and.. a chest? At the mention of treasure, Dick sneaks ahead of the group to claim it for himself. He sprints halfway through the pitch black room, when he hears the sound of shifting sand and feels the very floor beneath him give way, as he gets slammed in the face by some unseen force. Préath communicates to the rest of the group that it’s some kind of humanoid sand creature - probably an earth genie? It’s an ever shifting 10ft tall bulk of a creature with sand seeming to originate from its “chest”. Dick feels the spray of sand fly past his face and the distinct feeling of whiplash as he’s flung back. He retreats, but the creature charges right after him in a tidal wave of sand, slamming him against the wall and knocking him out cold.

Dust rushes in, narrowly avoiding the sandy bulk, with Noid sitting on their shoulder. Dust casts hex on the genie, impairing it and dealing damage. Noid casts bewilder on the creature, impairing it further. Cyrus rushes and prepares his heavy attack, but the genie bends away in an almost water-like fashion just out of reach of his blade’s edge. Umira stays hiding in the hallway, but is able to heal Dick keeping him stable. The genie pulls the sand right from under the feet of Dust, Cyrus, and Umira as they fall prone and are being drowned by the shifting sand. The genie slams a hammer of sand onto Cyrus’s fallen body.

Dust casts rend onto the beast, compounding with the previous hex, they deal a swath of magical damage originating from their bleeding arms. The genie’s skin cracks and hardens, disintegrating into sand and dust.

Goodies

Dust and Noid approach the chest, with an ornate golden trim with two bulls on the top. Cyrus lies on the ground, still prone. He’s okay, just staring at the ceiling and blinking. Dick is healing himself up after his near death experience. Dust finds a sculpture, an ornate hammer, and a book. Noid snatches the book quickly. Dick walks over and picks up the hammer. Its in the shape of a bull’s head and looks like it could be used practically as a blacksmith’s hammer. Dust examines the sculpture, some kind of wolf-like creature with no fur and a long head with six eyes. It has two, seemingly vestigial arms on its back, and has two humanlike arms on the front. Its of a nice stone, in pure black and pure white. Noid thumbs through the book, seeing it written mostly in Emoran. It’s bound in copper plates.

The group investigates further their odd finds. Noid can’t get a full picture on what this book’s deal is, but its aura is menacing. Dick is able to ascertain that for one reason or another, this hammer is drawn to corruption. The wielder can choose to gain corruption to leech health from targets. The group isn’t sure about the odd wolf statue, but it feels lucky.

Dust uses their comprehension spell to skim through the book. They’re unable to parse the dense language. Préath offers to help, and Dust accepts, but it doesn’t make a difference trying to get through the leathery ancient pages. Dust is able to gain that it’s some kind of bestiary cataloguing different magical creatures, but it’s organized in an odd and esoteric way. There are at least nine entities etched in the thick pages. Umira takes a crack at it and determines that the book is about fae or devils - she’s not sure which. It’s filled with various sigils used to summon or ward off the different creatures. But some of the images are damaged from the sand. At the point of the book being written, the titles were probably the entities’ true names, but so much time has passed they’ve most certainly shifted. It has some magical effects, though she isn’t sure what they are exactly.

They Fly Now?

After an uneventful trip back to Monta, Dick sells his malice filled hammer and uses it to further modify himself. His bones are hollow and he sprouts wings, with a considerable decrease in his max health. They removed his ribs and attached them to his back, with webbed skin connecting them. It looks horrifying, but luckily he can tuck them into his sides and keep them under his shirt.

Noid and Cyrus go to talk to Enox about the artifacts they found in the ruins. He tells them the effects of the items.

Book

  • Same vampiric corrupted leeching ability as the hammer
  • Each time you take damage from a creature, you have boons to ARs and CRs within the round
  • Radiates menace, creatures within short range roll to not be frightened by the book

These effects were not intentionally added to the book, these were the accidental result of recording the entities.

Statue

  • Use an action or trigg. action to grant 1d3 boons up to 3 targets on the next AR/CR they make. If they accept, they get corruption. If they refuse, they make a WIL CR to gain insanity.
  • You can gain 1 corruption in exchange for 1d3-1 boons to an AR/CR, minimum 1 boon

Noid and Cyrus agree that Cyrus should have the book, and they should sell the statue. But this will have to be saved for next session.