Alturiak 1, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
As Rowan and I spread out in an attempt to track the nothics, and the rest of our companions waited in the courtyard near the bridge to Ythryn, three six-foot-tall glowing translucent blue hands emerged from around the buildings where Rowan, still in the form of a polar bear, had been sniffing around.
Rowan charged and swiped at the nearest hand, but it evaded their paws and flew toward Duke Ulder. JoJo engaged the hand, slashed into it with his sword. Having climbed onto a building, I loosed three arrows, but they all missed as another giant hand came crashing through the upper floors of the building, scattering debris all around me. As Taimen stabbed the nearest hand with her trident, she summoned a phantasmal trident carried on a frenetic green wave of flowing force. Tapping Duke Ulder, Talyth cast Invisibility on him, as her Shield Guardian slammed the nearest hand.
A hand tried to grab JoJo, who was now taller than a goliath, but he shrugged it off, and it disappeared as he cut it down. I loosed two more arrows, causing one of the hands to disappear and piercing a third. A fourth hand grabbed Talyth, and Taimen smote it as it rose forty-five feet into the air. The dragonborn pelted the grasping hand with a Firebolt. As a fifth hand emerged from behind a building across the courtyard, Rowan quickly sank their polar bear teeth into it. This hand flew just under the hand holding Talyth, appearing to cup the area in case Talyth should fall, but she disappeared, and Misty Stepped just above her Shield Guardian and flopped onto its head. Turning, she summoned a Sacred Flame that cascaded down the hand that had been holding her, and it disappeared.
Duke Ulder’s staff appeared, rattling to the ground. Rowan leaped from a building and pounced onto the last hand, ripping their polar bear claws into it. JoJo climbed onto the Shield Guardian and raised his sword as he leaped toward the last hand, only to fall short and tumble. Fortunately, I was able to hit the hand with a well-placed arrow, and it disappeared.
Duke Ulder announced his presence, reclaiming his staff. Talyth surmised that the hands were agents of Iriolarthas, trying to reclaim Netherese artifacts. Her Shield Guardian acknowledged recognizing the city and pointed toward an enormous glowing crystal sphere near the city’s central tower.
Still Invisible, Duke Ulder led the way to the center of the city. We passed a stadium to our right, followed by the tower of abjuration, which was covered in swirling arcane glyphs. A blue light shone from the top. Beyond was a palatial hexagonal building crowned with a glittering domed roof. A double door on one side stood slightly ajar.
Close to the center of the city stood the second-tallest tower, more than one hundred feet tall. Four pointed pillars clutched a rotating chamber above it, giving it the appearance of a colossal floating platform. Ruined skycoaches littered the street.
Soon, we reached the spire of Iriolarthas, a twelve-hundred-foot-tall Netherese stone structure dwarfing everything around it. At its base, a luminous fifty-foot-diameter crystal sphere of blinding light rested on an ornate stand.
Duke Ulder said that a magical shield protected the sphere. He called out to Iriolarthas in elven, demanding the mythallar. As if in response, the door of the hexagonal building opened, a purple light from within spilling out. A sign above the door labeled the structure as a museum.
A nothic shambled out and spoke with Duke Ulder in Loross, mistaking him for Drakareth the wraith and asking if he had come to raise the fallen city. Responding in Elvish, Duke Ulder played along, agreeing and suggesting he would need their assistance.
The nothic waved toward the museum, and five more nothics crept out, all focused on Duke Ulder. They asked what other wizards he had brought, and Duke Ulder indicated Talyth was a fellow Netherese wizard.
In Elvish, Talyth said she was here to help Drakareth revive the Ythrn and that the rest of us were her minions.
After briefly huddling amongst themselves, the nothics said they could aid us but would point the way, adding that they could not pierce the spire of Iriolarthas, who comes and goes at will. They said we would need to visit the eight towers to recover the necessary ritual steps to learn the rite of the arcane octad, adding that the towers were open except for the Tower of Necromancy, which lay in ruins. They warned us that the towers may be guarded and that we should guard ourselves from disease, lest we become like them. The nothic revealed that Iriolarthas had lost his phylactery, which was buried somewhere beneath the city, and that they have been searching for it for centuries. They also warned us that we would be slain if Iriolarthas should learn that we are not who we said we were.
For some reason, Duke Ulder offered them the spare spellbooks we had found. We bid them well, and they withdrew back into the museum.
After discussing what was discussed with the nothics, we decided to head to the nearby Tower of Abjuration, which reached upward like a talon, its stonework studded in chiseled runes. A blue light shone from its highest window.
The doors were shut, but appeared unguarded. There was a brief, stifled cackle from Duke Ulder as he touched the doors, overcoming a glyph of insanity as the doors opened.
Inside, the tower was lit by Continual Flames. The ground floor was littered with the ruined remains of desks, chairs, bookshelves, and other teaching paraphernalia. A large hole on the far side of the tower descended beyond our vision. A spiral staircase ascended to the tower’s tapering higher levels, each floor broken above the hole in the floor.
Duke Ulder became visible as Talyth cast a Detect Magic ritual, sensing abjuration magic from almost every surface.
A mural depicted a wizard standing by an anvil and carrying a hammer as young mages brought her artifacts, which were discarded from the tower. Inscribed below the mural was: High Abjurer Taruth
Examining the hole, it seemed to have been made by a massive humanoid that had clawed its way from the depths below, erupting from the floor. I guessed it was a tomb tapper, like the one we had seen on the bridge.
As Talyth led the way up the spiral staircase, I followed just behind her, walking upside down on the ceiling. We ascended 120 feet up the stairs until we reached the highest level.
Six armored figures, each bearing a greatsword, stood guard around a huge anvil chiseled with vivid blue runes at the center of the thirty-foot-diameter, thirty-foot-high circular chamber. Resting atop the anvil was a hammer covered with similar runes. A skeleton, with robes matching those of the high abjurer in the mural, lay next to the anvil.
Talyth recognized the unmoving guards as magen and was able to decipher one of the runes on the anvil: disjunction.
As Duke Ulder approached the anvil, we heard a disembodied voice speak in Laross, “Bring us your items of power, and together we will destroy them.”
Duke Ulder carefully placed his dice on the anvil without touching it. After asking if anyone else knew how to use an anvil, JoJo gave an exasperated sigh before performatively cracking his knuckles and stretching his enormous muscles for what appeared to be less than an arduous task of smashing the magical dice.
Lifting the hammer, which appeared tiny in his huge hands, he slammed the dice. A sphere of blue light pulsed from the anvil, radiating out of the tower like a wave of energy. But the dice were unharmed.
With a sudden look of realization, Talyth expressed her skepticism, suggesting that following these instructions would serve no purpose other than to alert the tomb tapper to the presence of an artifact. However, Duke Ulder argued that we needed to complete the ritual to learn the rite of the Arcane Octad.
Again, JoJo brought the hammer down, emitting the same pulse of blue radiance, which was followed by a rumbling from far below. The dice were still unharmed.
We looked at each other, my companion’s faces revealing their shock and horror at the pending arrival of the tomb tapper that had easily ripped through the tower from the solid ground below. Should we make our stand here, or flee and try to escape the tower before being trapped inside?
Noting that the Shield Guardian and Princess Skullcrusher were still down on the ground level, Talyth and Taimen fled down the stairs. Dropping the hammer, JoJo quickly followed with Rowan, and Duke Ulder right behind them after recovering his dice. Assuming that the source of the rumbling would emerge from the hole in the tower’s floor, I ran down the wall through the holes in each floor, ready to rain arrows down when the construct emerged.
Just as my companions reached the ground floor, a faceless tomb tapper erupted through the floor, ripping a new hole in the stone floor with its claws as if it were soft snow. I looked down as its torso towered over my companions, even the Shield Guardian who was holding the doors open.
Talyth fled from the tower. Duke Ulder threw his dice at the huge construct, which missed the massive maw on its belly and landed harmlessly on the ground, each with sixes up. He fled the tower as polar bear-Rowan leaped from the stairs and sank their claws into the tomb tapper. Enraged, the tomb tapper lifted itself fully out of the hole, its head now even with me, from where I hung from the ceiling. But its attention was drawn toward Rowan, who was slammed by its great maul and transformed back to their goliath form as they were dragged by the construct’s long claws to its massive maw and bitten. JoJo grabbed Rowan, but couldn’t pull them free of the tomb tapper’s grip. Summoning a phantasmal trident carried on a frenetic green wave of flowing force, Taimen shot a Firebolt at the tomb tapper, which it casually swallowed in its maw. She fled the tower. I let three arrows fly, but they all missed the mark as I ran across the ceiling, following my companions out of the tower.
Talyth flew back into the tower, surrounded by the frosty aurora of her Spirit Guardians. Engaging the tomb tapper, her Shield Guardian slammed it. Transforming into the dirt and stone of an Earth Elemental, Rowan slammed the tomb tapper as the jaws of its belly maw continued to bite at them. Seared from Talyth’s Spirit Guardians, the tomb tapper swung its massive maul down toward JoJo, who side-stepped the blow that smashed a hole in the tower floor. With Rowan still trapped in its maw, the tomb tapper began climbing up the tower through the holes in the floor. Talyth smashed it with a divine strike. As JoJo dashed up the stairs after the construct, Taimen charged ahead on Princess Skullcrusher, smiting it with her trident and dashing ahead. Rowan fell from its maw as it let out a roar in pain and fury. Returning to the tower and running up the wall, I peered over the hole in the ceiling and sank two arrows into it.
Duke Ulder returned to the tower, shouting some curses in Elvish at the tomb tapper. Rising to meet the construct, Talyth channeled Twilight Sanctuary. Rock-Rowan slammed with rock-fists. Still searing from Talyth’s Spirit Guardians, the tomb tapper released Rowan and threw its sledgehammer at Duke Ulder, who avoided the twirling weapon, only for it to return to the tomb tapper and be thrown again. Duke Ulder dodged again, taking only a glancing blow from the giant weapon’s handle. As the sledgehammer returned to the tomb tapper, it continued its climb up the tower, as Talyth smacked it with her mace and JoJo slashed it with his sword. JoJo and Taimen continued their dash up the stairs. Taking aim from far below, I shot the huge construct between its long legs, my arrow disappearing into the smooth blue-gray skin. With a road, it fell, smashing through the floors as it tumbled down. Rock-Rowan, also falling, merged safely with the tower walls. I jumped aside, avoiding the construct and the debris that fell with it, as it plunged into the original hole, disappearing into the darkness far below before landing with a distant crash.
Shaken from the deadly battle, we cautiously ascended the tower back to the anvil. The magen still stood motionless in their guarding positions.
Duke Ulder placed his retrieved dice back on the anvil, and JoJo lifted the hammer once more, slamming the dice repeatedly, emitting the same pulsing sphere of blue energy. On the third slam, the anvil flashed, illuminating inscriptions on the thirty-foot domed ceiling, written in Laross: “First, shield thy heart with a wand of the nether oak”
Duke Ulder confirmed that his dice were no longer magical, and JoJo placed the hammer on the anvil.
Talyth apologized for interrupting the ritual and suggested we make haste toward the park. As we left the tower, Professor Skant expounded on the origins and properties of Nether Oak, which was harvested by Netherese wizards from a lone, enchanted—albeit evil—tree inside every Netherese city’s arboretum to make their wands.
We felt we were being watched as we passed through the boulevards on the way to the park.
As we passed a tower bearing the arcane symbol of conjuration and engraved with interlocking circles of stone, we heard the sounds of sweeping drifting through its broken doors. Warm yellow light spilled from its topmost window.
The doors opened as Talyth led the way, still encircled in the frosty aurora of her Spirit Guardians. JoJo and the Shield Guardian waited outside as the rest of us followed. Dust seemed to blow onto their feet as if swept by an invisible broom.
Bobbing lights from within illuminated the tower’s spotless interior and ascending spiral staircase. As we approached the stairs, we passed a fireplace, and the flames inside sprang into existence as we drew near.
Cautiously leading the way from the ceiling up the stairs, we passed immaculate classrooms on the floors leading to the top. The golden light at the top mixed with a moving blue light coming from a creature at the tower’s apex.
I alerted my companions to the four giant, floating hands that appeared to be guarding the upper level.
Dropping her Spirit Guardians, Talyth cast a Detect Magic ritual.
After taking in her surroundings, Talyth cast Invisibility on Duke Ulder, who snuck up to the top level.
After a few minutes, Duke Ulder returned—still invisible—and explained that on the top was a dais with a pedestal holding a perfect three-foot replica of the Tower of Conjuration. He said he was going to investigate further.
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