Hammer 14, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
D’zaan tumbled into the depression ahead, having been swatted hard by Taimen’s tentacle. A twenty-foot-high, unusually smooth rock jutted out of the center of the depression.
We had approached from the south and Vellynne was waiting on western side, where she was measuring the position of the stars.
Clearly startled by the sudden aggression, Vellyne raised her arms and shouted an objection. Jojo was held tight in her magical grasp. Meanwhile, Taimen had overcome her spell and cut down D’zaan’s undead bodyguard. The dragonborn then explained to the necromancer that this D’zaan was an impostor who was bound to betray us, as she proceeded to strike down D’zaan with a well-thrown javelin.
Vellyne conveniently seemed to accept the paladin’s explanation and turned her attention to ensuring we would help her navigate the fallen tower, which we agreed to do.
Velleyne revealed an entrance to the tower buried in a snow drift. The slippery tunnel was just big enough for us to easily climb down through.
I cast Dancing Lights in the tunnel, and Jojo descended inside using Steve’s magical rope. As I followed Jojo, I could tell that the tunnel was created by a humanoid creature digging itself out. I later determined that the tunnel was made by a Shield Guardian.
The tunnel led to the smooth black stone tower’s shattered exterior door that opened into a well-lit upside-down foyer, which was coated in frost. Upside-down sconces shed light from magical upside-down flames. Across from the tunnel was a door that was flush with the ceiling, which used to be the floor. The door was ajar, and flanked by two stone statues of twin mages hanging down from the floor.
Once she entered, Vellynne excitedly proclaimed, “You stand on the shores of an ancient empire. This is a Netherese ruin full of secrets and spells you cannot begin to comprehend!”
Saritu, using her slippers to walk on the actual floor overhead, looked around and verified the necromancer’s words.
The door led to a short hallway that ended in rubble where an upside-down stairway had collapsed. There was a door to the left and another just beyond it to the right.
Climbing over the upside-down doorway, Jojo led the way to the first door on the left. Opening the door revealed a small workshop containing shattered and jumbled equipment and a door to the right.
Opening the door to the right revealed tall bookshelves, the contents of which had mostly long fallen to the ceiling and had rotted over time. A five-foot-wide tunnel in the ceiling had been dug out from the level below.
As Jojo entered the library, I was still in the foyer when the two stone statues fell menacingly to the ceiling. Retreating to the tunnel’s darkness, I hit them with arrows, but they were resistant to their metal, as they were to Taimen’s sword. Fortunately, Ambrose was there and had soon smashed them both to pieces.
Meanwhile, Jojo had been attacked by a rug and four torches while Vellynne mostly looked through the library’s remains.
By the time I arrived, the animated rug and torches had been destroyed, and Vellynne was showing us the intact books she had recovered:
• Magical Wonders of Netheril.
• Mysteries of the Phaerimm.
• Wizards in the Hollow.
I stood guard in the hallway as they investigated the room, as Saritu and Talyth were far more interested in these tombs than I was.
Returning to the workshop across the hallway, Talyth opened the door, revealing an alchemy lab.
The floor of this room is covered with shards of glass, frozen pools of spilled fluids, and the wreckage of two cabinets. In the far corner, a metal chest hung from the floor. Its lid appeared to be locked, so I climbed onto Jojo’s shoulders and picked the lock with my new thieves’ tools.
Unfortunately, the lid fell open, and the contents of the chest, four potions, fell to the ceiling. Someone managed to catch one of the potions before it smashed on the ceiling, but one of the others contained alchemist’s fire, and I had to quickly leap from Jojo’s shoulders to avoid the flash of flames that ensued.
Returning to the library, we secured a rope and Saritu led the way down the hole in the ceiling to the level below.
The room below seemed to be a torture chamber, with three metal cages, one of which contained the long-dead corpse of a bipedal insect, which Saritu identified as a thri-kreen. There were doors on two of the inner walls and another hole in the ceiling leading down to the third level. Narrow openings on the walls revealed the packed ice and rock containing the fallen tower.
Looking down the hole, we saw only some broken tables.
One of the doors led to a collapsed spiral staircase and the other to a bedroom dominated by a stone bed attached to the floor overhead. Nearby were an upside-down table and fallen books. To the right and left were more doors.
Two books were recovered:
• The Unfettered Mind
• Detritus of Magic
The door to the left led to a study, which contained nothing but ruins except for an intact chair that Saritu said radiated magic. The chair seemed to keep the room in a magical silence, and we placed it into Steve’s magical bag.
The door to the right led to a collapsed stairway, where we found a partially buried skeleton missing a finger. Saritu took its head.
Returning to the torture chamber, we used another rope to descend to the third level.
The chamber below appeared to have been a laboratory, with upside-down storage cabinets, empty shelves, shattered alchemical equipment strewn across the floor, and arcane symbols painted on the floor. Another five-foot-wide hole in the ceiling led down to the fourth level. Beyond the hole, a partially collapsed wall led to another room, and there were doors in two other inner walls, and Saritu detected magic from one of them.
Beyond the hole and the collapsed wall was a semicircular shrine where Talyth saw an invisible altar of black stone with an eight-pointed star carved on its side.
Oddly unable to detect magic from the invisible altar, Saritu identified the symbol as belonging to Mystryl, an early incarnation of Mystra, the goddess of magic.
As Saritu and Talyth touched the altar, it became visible, and a potion appeared and immediately began to fall until Jojo deftly caught it.
Meanwhile, back in the laboratory, Ambrose found a scroll of invisibility and an invisible key.
One of the doors led to the familiar collapsed stairwell.
We were unable to open the magical door until Vellynne cast Dispel Magic on it. Beyond was a room that appeared to have been recently occupied, with furniture placed right-side up on the ceiling. There were books on the shelves, a dusty bed, and a table with a whirring amulet.
Saritu found the dust on the bed to be red ruby dust, which Talyth recognized as a component required for making a simulacrum. As much as could be was salvaged.
The following books were recovered:
• Lost Scrolls of Sabreyl.
• From Shadow, Substance, which was heavily annotated by D’zaan.
• Ventatost, about a lost Netherese city, which was annotated by someone else.
The enchanted silver-framed amulet had a symbolized wooden center. Vellynne identified it as a shield guardian amulet, which Talyth claimed.
Back in the laboratory, we secured another rope, and Saritu led the way down to the fourth level, into what appeared to be a ruined cafeteria.
Saritu cried out a warning from below, and as I looked down, I met the gaze of two basilisks, and my muscles began to harden.
Fortunately, Talyth soon cast Dispel Magic on me, and I was able to move again. As the others dropped down with their eyes averted to assist Saritu, I closed my eyes and used my hearing to shoot at the basilisks. Velleyne killed one with magic, withering it with blight. Talyth cast Darkness in the cafeteria, negating the basilisks’ ability to use their petrifying gaze. Then she killed the last basilisk with her Sacred Flame.
When Talyth dismissed the Darkness, we found that Saritu had been turned to stone.
With Ambrose’s help, Talyth drained the blood from the most recently killed basilisk’s heart. They hurriedly brought the blood up to the alchemy lab, where Talyth helped Vellynne mix it with the red ruby dust and brew basilisk oil. Talyth poured the basilisk oil over Saritu, returning her to the flesh!
There was a door in the cafeteria that led to a narrow corridor with three more doors. I remained in the cafeteria as the others descended.
The nearest door led to another familiar collapsed stairwell.
Beyond another door was a room centered by a large golden disk on the floor above. A hooded spectral figure of a robed wizard appeared in the corner. I heard someone say: "Behold my masterpiece! Here can illusions be made real, shadows become substance! Create your illusion, let it stand atop the crystal disk, and watch my rune chamber do its work!"
Beyond the last door was a bedroom with an upside-down bed lying on the ceiling and a what appeared to be a dead wizard lying nearby. A floating orb of light disappeared as the door was opened. It briefly appeared again as it floated up through the floors to the levels above.
Within the room, a chest cloaked in illusion was discovered. Talyth used the invisible key to open the invisible chest. Inside the chest was an ancient Netherese spellbook that immediately began to crumble to dust. The chest was placed in Steve’s magical bag along with the wizard’s head.
Back in the disk room, Saritu cast a Minor Illusion of diamonds on the golden disk. After briefly becoming real, the diamonds were infected by a black ooze that fell to the ceiling and writhed threateningly.
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