Alturiak 2, 1489
Dre'zel my love,
When we reached the Tower of Evocation, with its top shaped like an axe blade, we found it was completely covered in scorch marks. Once Talyth completed a Detect Magic ritual, we found the doors were unlocked, and the interior walls were at least as scorched as the exterior.
JoJo—who had grown to over twenty feet tall—waited outside with the Shield Guardian. As we made our way up the spiral staircase toward the red light shining from the tower’s uppermost window, I walked upside down on the ceiling. Quentin, who was visibly shaking in his boots, said that many of his companions had died here, but that the stairway should now be clear of traps.
The top of the ninety-foot stairway opened into a forty-foot-radius octagonal chamber illuminated by red orbs of dancing lights that flickered like fireflies. The domed ceiling was covered with a thick layer of frost and icicles. A large brazier of glowing embers stood in the center of the chamber. On opposite sides of the chamber were two tiny windows, their glass blown out. There seemed to be an inscription on the ceiling, hidden by the frost.
Seven ten-foot-square alcoves circled the perimeter, each completely filled with a block of ice. In six of the ice blocks, various items were suspended: a skeleton, a Black Sword pendant, leather armor, a scorched goat, another skeleton, and a dagger. Quentin recognized one of the skeletons as a fellow cultist.
Talyth pointed out that the brazier and the floating red orbs emanated evocation magic, while the pendant had some demonic enchantment. She noted that the second skeleton appeared to be taller and better nourished than most inhabitants of the Ten Towns. Professor Skant pointed out that the skeleton’s injury had been repaired using an ancient Netherese procedure.
We all backed up into the stairwell as Taimen, having not detected any undead, cast Firebolt on the frozen inscription. The ice slowly dripped down to the brazier and hissed as it hit the glowing embers. Seeing that trying to melt the frost this way would take hours, Taimen cast Firebolt on the brazier, and it erupted in flames, increasing the tower’s red glow and emanating heat throughout the chamber. The icicles and frost began melting into puddles on the floor.
From the top of the stairwell, I spied a dagger slowly floating toward us. As I alerted my companions, I saw the two skeletons, the Black Sword pendant, the leather armor, and the scorched goat also slowly approaching.
At the top of the stairs, Gosse threw his dagger to intercept the floating dagger, and just a few feet from its mark, it also slowed as it sank into a gelatinous cube. As he maneuvered into the chamber, he called out, “Hey, JoJo, we got jellies up here. Come and eat ‘em.” The dagger cube was seared by Taimen’s Firebolt and slammed by Rock-Rowan as it engaged the earth elemental, forcing them back down the stairs. Hiding behind Rock-Rowan, I leaped up to the ceiling where I sank an arrow into the dagger cube—causing it to dissolve quickly into a harmless fluid—and another two into the skeleton cube. Surrounded by her Spiritual Aurora Weapon, Talyth rose from the stairwell and cast Sacred Flame, searing the skeleton cube with both.
Swiftly leaping away from the skeleton cube, Gosse blasted it with his eldritch wand, and it quickly dissolved. JoJo’s giant eye appeared in one of the tiny windows. After dodging and circling away from an empty cube on Princess Skullcrusher, Taimen stabbed the goat cube with her trident twice. Rock-Rowan slammed the empty cube and the armor cube. The pendant cube swiped a gelatinous pseudopod through the tiny window, hitting JoJo in his eye. The larger skeleton cube engulfed Rock-Rowan in its gelatin, preventing them from breathing. From the ceiling, I noticed that the frost around the inscription was still melting and sank two arrows into the skeleton cube engulfing Rock-Rowan twice, which was searing from Talyth’s Spiritual Aurora Weapon as she singed the empty cube—that had her backing down the stairs—with Sacred Flame.
Leaping over the armor cube that was trying to engulf him, Gosse blasted the skeleton cube with his eldritch wand. Squinting in pain, JoJo pulled out his Horn of Blasting and blew in through the tiny window, letting out a thunderous bellow that blew a hole in the tower wall and rippled through the pendant and armor cubes. Striding through the hole in the wall, the barbarian was burned by the pendant cube’s acid. Her tentacle burning from intercepting the goat cube’s swipe at Princess Skullcrusher, Taimen leapt her steed away and impaled the skeleton cube, causing it to dissolve. Then she turned and stabbed the armor cube. Free from the engulfing cube, Rock-Rowan glided through the stone floor and brutally slammed the empty cube on the stairs twice with both rock fists, and it quickly dissolved. Trying to engulf Gosse, the goat cube was burned by the brazier before I sank two arrows into it, and Talyth hit it with Sacred Flame, causing it to dissolve quickly.
Seeing that the frost had finally melted, I read the Loross inscription aloud: “Fifth, quench the flame in thy palm with ice.”
Swiped by and burning from the pendant cube, JoJo kicked his foot into it, burning more from its acid as he shoved it out of the hole in the tower. As it clung to the walls with its pseudopod, he ripped his foot free, and the cube slowly slid off the tower, falling to the ground below. With a satisfied grin, the barbarian turned and tossed a javelin into the armor cube. Burned from intercepting the armor cube’s swipe at Princess Skullcrusher, Taimen dodged away and stabbed it twice with her trident. Flanking the armor cube, Rock-Rowan slammed it brutally, causing the last gelatinous cube to dissolve.
As all the cubes’ contents lay harmless on the floor, the brazier’s flame shrank to a normal size. With a casual nod, JoJo climbed out of the hole in the tower wall and descended to the ground. Skant quickly scanned through Vellynne’s books with Talyth’s help and excitedly suggested that the large skeleton was the notoriously tall High Evoker Zadulus, his bones preserved by Netherese metallurgy.
Peering out of the hole in the tower wall, I saw four lights far out on the bridge, and many shadowy figures approaching from the north. Alerting my companions to the newfound danger, I ran down the side of the tower, passing JoJo as he neared the ground. Once my companions exited the Tower, we agreed to intercept whoever was crossing the bridge. Taimen took Gosse and me onto Princess Skullcrusher, and we rushed to the bridge. Though it was not the first time, I was honored that Taimen allowed me to ride on her holy steed.
Once we reached the courtyard, we hid behind some buildings and saw that the four newcomers were about ten minutes away. While we waited for them to get closer, our companions quietly joined us, JoJo crawling to avoid being seen over the shorter buildings. They said nothics had swarmed the Tower of Evocation.
Drawing my Red-Feather longbow, I waited until the newcomers were in range and whispered, “Cen-hae an ni,” letting the arrow fly alongside the bridge. Closing my eyes, I saw from the arrow’s tip three hulking, hooded goliaths walking with a swaggering red-robed wizard. It appeared to be D’zaan, once again.
I suggested attacking while they were on the bridge, but Gosse, claiming that he knew the wizard and maintaining a deep-seated hatred for him, insisted that he wanted to chat with D’zaan before murdering him. At my companions’ insistence, I relented to this egregious recklessness. It put us all at risk when I could probably eliminate all three targets before they even reached Ythryn.
Everyone was in position when they finally arrived. As I hid atop a building across the courtyard, Gosse rode up with Taimen on Princess Skullcrusher.
“Fedrik,” Gosse called out, dismounting and approaching the wizard, “Two things. One a question, and then something that’s more of a comment. One, how’s your wife? Second, I don’t have my memories anymore due to a hag encounter, but the wife thing, I was just guessing!”
“Gosse the Thin,” D’zaan sneered, spitting on the ground, “Two things. You have my wife’s honor, and you have my cloak. How convenient that the one I have been chasing across the world is right here for me and my highly trained assassins to take care of. Gosse the Thin, I delighted in torturing the people in the outlands of Athkatla. I lived for your family’s screams. I delighted in the wails of—”
As soon as Gosse leapt forward and stabbed him in the face, my arrow sank into D’zaan’s eye, and the wizard collapsed.
Gosse pounced on the wizard’s collapsed form and bashed his skull repeatedly with the pommel of his rapier. Wheeling Princess Skullcrusher around, Taimen pronounced, “Magnificent vengeance!” and charged one of the goliaths, stabbing them with her trident. Approaching from across the courtyard, JoJo called out to the goliaths in Giant. One of them looked up with a sneer, revealing many tattoos inscribed across his body. Rising into the air, Talyth summoned her Aurora of Spirit Guardians and flew between the goliaths. Still in the shadows of a building across the courtyard, I sank two arrows into the tattooed goliath as Rock-Rowan emerged from the stone ground in front of him. Scorched from the Spirit Guardian Aurora, the goliaths drew back their hoods, revealing identical faces on all three! Then the two flanking goliaths transformed into doppelgangers as one slammed the Shield Guardian twice, and the other was unable to reach Taimen. The remaining goliath pulled down his cloak, and the tattoo on his back erupted in flame, scorching Talyth, Taimen, and Gosse, bowling the rogue over.
Rising, Gosse tossed his cloak over D’zaan’s corpse. As he leapt to stab the tattooed goliath in the back, he was caught by a retaliatory backhand. The goliath bounded away and landed in front of Rock-Rowan. Taimen stabbed a doppelganger twice with her trident. Flanking the tattooed goliath, JoJo tried to grab him, but the barbarian was left empty-handed as the goliath dissolved into water and rematerialized nearby. “I feel like I’ve seen you before,” the goliath grunted. JoJo tried again to grab him, only to be evaded once more. The Shield Guardian slammed a doppelganger with both its fists. Talyth summoned Twilight Sanctuary and cast Healing Word on Gosse. I sank another arrow into the goliath’s chest as Rock-Rowan slammed him. Searing from the Spirit Guardian Aurora, the doppelgangers disengaged and fled across the bridge, hissing, “He didn’t pay me for this!”
“Cowards!” the battered, burned, and winded goliath called, cracking his neck. “We were sent to the city to find the staff, and find it I shall.” He swung at Rock-Rowan, but the earth elemental bobbed out of the way of his haymakers.
Gosse stabbed the goliath with his rapier and vaulted away as the goliath began to cough up blood. Taimen tossed a Firebolt, but it arced over the bridge and fell into the abyss below. I shot two arrows, knocking both of the doppelgangers off the bridge to their deaths.
As Rowan transformed into an elven-goliath, the goliath recognized them and fell to a knee, proclaiming, ”You bested me. You had what I never had…friends. Maybe we can be a fam—”
“Coward!” Rowan cut him off and smashed him in the face with the Staff of Frost. Flung back, his skull cracked, and his tattoos dimmed as he died. “No matter what happens to me, I will never be like you!” Rowan stated. I realized then that this goliath had been their abusive father.
Borrowing Taimen’s short sword, Rowan cut the goliath’s head off. Meanwhile, Gosse searched D’zaan’s mutilated remains, claiming a journal and discarding a spellbook, which Taimen took for Graven.
Climbing higher, I saw that all was quiet besides the Tower of Evocation being swamped by yipping nothics. I noticed my breath was frostier than normal and sensed it was getting colder.
Talyth flew over, wrapping me in her Twilight Sanctuary, and I warned her about the change in weather.
As if reading my mind, Rowan looked up at me with a satisfied expression and gave me a thumbs-up in confirmation. With a smile, I mouthed back, “Well done,” privately glad to have played a minor and appreciated part in my companion’s well-deserved revenge.
“Nice shot,” Gosse called to me.
After a short rest, we decided to head to the nearby Tower of Transmutation. It was straight as an arrow, with a faint light shining from the highest window, and hairline cracks creeping up its walls like ivy. The doors were ajar. JoJo and the Shield Guardian decided to wait outside.
Entering, we found the tower's interior walls were sculpted with impressions of humanoid forms pressing out from within the stone—clawing hands and howling faces, frozen in the stone. Casting a Detect Magic ritual, Talyth surmised that the wizards here had tried to save themselves from Ythryn’s demise by melding with the stone, but were stuck when the antimagic spindle activated.
We climbed the tower’s stairs to the top, where we found a statue of a powerful-looking female wizard lying against a wall. Talyth indicated that the statue radiated with transmutation magic. Where the statue had collided with the wall was a Loross inscription; the last part lay in shattered fragments. All that was legible was: “Eight, stand firm in thy circle of death and consume—”
As I examined the inscription, Talyth cast Mending, causing the fragments to unite and reveal the final word in the ritual step: poison.
Skant recognized the wizard as High Transmuter Metaltra, adding, “This seems to be the work of a True Polymorph spell. It seems she turned herself to stone in an attempt to survive the fall, but was unable to end the spell due to the antimagic properties of whatever lurks within that tower.”
Talyth detected more transmutation magic coming from within the High Transmuter’s desk. Opening it, she found a cloth bag containing 24 dried beans.
Talyth smashed the inscription stone with her mace, and we descended the stairs. At the bottom, we found the doors unyielding. After a minute, the door opened, and a pale, sweaty JoJo nervously explained that the floating skull of Iriolarthas had appeared with Vellynne. He said he appeased it by claiming to be a slave of Damorith, and they had headed east.
I gave Gosse the Hat of Disguise to pose as Damorith. Talyth gave him the Ring of the Ram, and he gave Taimen his Staff of Charming. Once they were done attuning to the items, we headed west to the nearby Tower of Illusion, an obsidian tower shrouded in gossamer mist. As we approached the entrance, eyes carved into the stonework appeared to fixate on us. The spire's highest window emitted a purple light.
Casting a Detect Magic ritual, Talyth indicated illusion magic emanating from the mist. Concerned that the tower itself may be an illusion, Gosse searched some nearby buildings, but found nothing except a driftglobe. Taimen cast Mage Hand and swatted at the mist, causing it to part, only to reform behind the hand.
Rowan cast Gust of Wind, clearing a ten-foot path through the mist that allowed us to walk through it untouched. JoJo, who seemed to have stopped growing at 23-feet tall, and the Shield Guardian waited outside as the rest of us quickly entered.
The tower’s interior was filled with the same mist, which parted before Rowan’s Gust of Wind. It was so strong it would have knocked me over if Taimen hadn’t reached out with her tentacle to stabilize me. Together, we rushed up the stairs.
The tower's uppermost chamber was a 30-foot square and 30 feet high, filled with mist. Through it, we could see a purple glowing inscription on the wall: "Sixth, show thy face to the sky."
Then Rowan’s spell ended, and the mist began to close around us! As Rowan quickly recast Gust of Wind and we were about to race down the stairs, Talyth detected illusion magic on the inscription, and we suspected it to be false. Rowan cast Dispel Magic, and the illusory script faded, revealing another scription carved in the stone: “Sixth, hide thy face behind a mask.” We all ran down the stairs and emerged from the tower unscathed.
Feeling triumphant, we continued northeast to the Tower of Enchantment. As we approached, we found that ice had engulfed the lower floors of this crumbling tower. Pink light poured from the highest window—a single point of illumination in a dark part of the city.
Talyth detected an aura of enchantment from the wide-open doors. Entering, we found the interior walls lit by pink continual flame spells and Loross written across them: "All work and no play makes Ivira a dull girl." The floor was strewn with pitch-covered buckets and mops frozen stiff by the cold. The tower was otherwise devoid of occupants. A spiral staircase led to the higher chambers.
As we ascended the staircase, we saw more writing scrawled in wine stains: "I am Ivira. Ivira is my name." Higher up, there was more: “The crown, the crown, the crown knows all.” In the archway above the door leading to the uppermost chamber were the words: “I am…” but they trailed off into nothing.
Taimen used Mage Hand to open the door. Inside, a mummified woman in an arch mage's robes sat rigid, shrouded in ice, on a black throne surrounded by floating pink lights. She wore a black chardalyn crown entwined with tentacles of black crystal. Her forehead was bruised where the band fit too tightly against her skull. Taimen determined the woman was not undead and still alive, and Talyth detected enchantment magic emanating from the crown.
Resigned to having to dismiss her Suggestion spell, Taimen called Quentin over, explaining, “Before I do what I do next, I want you to know you have been a noble servant of the Sea Queen, whether you intended to or not, and she and I will welcome your continued service.” With that, she dismissed her Suggestion spell.
“I will serve,” Quentin replied.
After her familiar awkward mind-reading stare, Taimen grimaced, and Gosse plunged his rapier through the cultist’s skull. As he withdrew his blade, Quentin’s body froze and shattered as it toppled down the stairs.
Taimen turned her stare to the mummified woman and said, “She wants us to take the crown off her head.”
Talyth asked if the woman knew the step to the arcane octad, and Taimen shared her thoughts: “I wish I could recall. Crown stole, memories lost.”
Gosse reached for the crown, but was halted by Taimen and Talyth.
Taimen used Mage Hand to remove the crown, and Ivira quickly began to decompose and rot before our eyes. Her dried tongue wagged in her cracked lips and uttered, “Destroy the Crown. Release my memories. Let me be at peace.” Then it too melted into decomposed slime.
In the chamber’s pink light, I could barely make out Draconic characters floating in the crown’s brow, and alerted my companions. Taimen read the words aloud: “Fourth, coax a secret from another.”
With all eight steps of the arcane octad, we turned to leave the tower when we heard a howl of winter wolves. From the tower’s window, we saw a massive army of Auril’s servants crossing the bridge: frost giant skeletons, winter wolves, and cold light walkers.
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