In'Spire'd Pursuits

We spent a restful night at the hot spring, having realised we’d no need to return to Moonspire for the night.  We’d camped out often enough and these days we were more resilient than most – and had the warming waters to take the chill from the air.  Morning found us up and active.  Caelan and Olvir both had training routines to run through with Ariorn and Teela respectively so Song went off hunting, bringing back a brace of rabbits to be cooked for breakfast.

It was a practical start to what would become a remarkably productive day.  We headed back into Moonspire while it was still early and returned to the Ice Wolf where we reclaimed our rooms and Song settled down to pen a letter to the Censor.  Using her best calligraphy and brush strokes she called on her awareness of protocol to persuade the Eastern Censor towards a peaceable solution and ask her to meet us again the following day.  It had been a week since our last inauspicious meeting and since our return from Jadespike we’d had the chance to plan what we were going to do.  Since we couldn’t (and neither wanted) to buy yasal crystals as a peace offering and didn’t have the quantities of loose jade we thought she’d appreciate that left us with the wavecleaver daiklave, a rarity in the East and worth more than all the jade we had.  We could sell it, but equally it would be a prize she could either keep herself or trade in – we didn’t mind which – and if she’d accept it then it might, at least, open negotiations on a better note than last time.  With the ink dried she rolled up the scroll, tied it with a ribbon and seal and set off to deliver it.  

Left on their own Caelan suggested a spot of fighting practice as Olvir had a new moonsilver axe to try out.  Olvir wasn’t really in the mood but Caelan was insistent and after repeated prodding Olvir finally gave in and they went to find their usual training spot – a secluded courtyard at the back of the Ice Wolf where Olvir proved he was more than capable of using his new weapon by slamming Caelan through a brick wall and out of the courtyard with one massive blow.  Thankfully Olvir had used a Charm to stop any real damage coming him but it knocked him out cold and Olvir carried him back to the Ice Wolf where, after checking him over, left him to rest and wake up naturally.  He was fretting downstairs when Song came back and wheedled out of Olvir what had gone on and went to check on him herself.  He was still unconscious though in no danger, so she applied numbwort to his bruises and waited with Olvir for him to wake up.

It only took another hour or so.  Bruised but otherwise unharmed and less achy thanks to Song’s ministrations, he joined them for dinner and we spent the evening relaxing and trying not to concern ourselves overly with what might happen in the morning.  We didn’t expect a fight so we’d not warned away the guards this time but we were still wary – and so were they when we arrived.  We found somewhere to wait that wasn’t under their feet and didn’t have to wait long before the arrival of Adiubande.

Song sought to maintain the air of diplomatic respect she’d hoped her carefully written letter had inspired and thanked her for her presence and expressed our desire to reach a mutually acceptable arrangement.  She explained how we wished to access the treasures hidden inside the spire – but that her sanctum would of course be inviolate.  Then, not knowing how she’d take our gift, she asked her to accept what we hoped was a fine demonstration of our intent and worthy of one of her power.  Caelan reached out and dramatically drew the wavecleaver from Elsewhere, holding it up to catch the sunlight on the deep blue jade before presenting it to the Censor with a flourish.

She took it and lifted it with one hand to examine it – demonstrating her strength remarkably effectively since she’d not yet attuned to it and it would have been incredibly heavy – but she gave an acknowledging nod and accepted the gift.  Relieved to see her mood so changed since our last meeting we waited for her response and it was thankfully a positive one.  The offering was a rich one and she would not stand in the way of our entering the Spire to explore what we wanted to; provided we kept away from one wing of the facility which she claimed as her own and which was barred by a door obvious as to what it protected.  It had originally been used to house perishables and food, she told us, thus was relatively empty when she’d taken it over.

Perhaps a little surprised that she had consented without a hard round of negotiation we held back our relief but allowed ourselves to express how glad we were to have reached a mutual agreement.  Reassuring her once more that we’d keep from interfering with her sanctum we parted ways and after some quiet words between the three of us we split up - Song further into the forest and Olvir and Caelan towards the city.  Song had only moved out of sight of the guards to assume the shape of a bird and took off for Prince Telenka’s residence.  She knew the rough layout of the palace by now and it didn’t take too long to track down the Prince who sat in discussion with his seneschal.  She found an open window nearby and slipped inside, returning to her human form to knock politely on the door and enter when bidden - much to the surprise of the seneschal who had Telenka’s timetable all worked out and wasn’t expecting a visitor.  

As the Prince waved aside his seneschal’s concern Song explained she’d be brief: she had good news.  With careful words she confirmed we’d made an agreement with the Daughter of the Amber Moon and would be able to proceed as we’d planned... if, of course, the Prince was also willing to allow us access as we’d spoken about previously.  Prince Telenka was perhaps as surprised as we were but relieved and sent his seneschal to fetch something.  He confirmed where we were staying and said he’d send an invitation for us for a dinner later where we could share what we’d found.  

The seneschal returned shortly with a box containing six amulets which the Prince explained to Song would grant passage past the guards and also the wards.  Would six be enough?  She thanked him – yes, it would be enough for our needs – and took the box before departing the way she’d come, being careful not to allow anyone to see her form shifts.  

She found Caelan and Olvir admiring their handiwork of the day before and wondering if they ought to make reparations to fix the holes in the brickwork.  Song explained about the box she carried and gave each an amulet before we headed to the spire, not seeing any reason to delay given the time we’d already spent seeking access.  Olvir had the tricky job of trying to persuade Teela to wear an amulet while Van-Oris was only too pleased to wear one underneath his feathers if he thought it would make us move quicker.  That left us one spare – well, if Ariorn ever needed to get in, she’d be fine too.

The guard who greeted us was ready and prepared to tell us we couldn’t step any closer when we presented him with the Prince’s sigils.  Perplexed, he summoned his superior – who summoned his superior – who after close examination and a surprised shrug of his shoulders let us proceed without issue – though we suspected it would be the talk of the tavern wherever the guards drank that night.

So it was to the tower itself that we turned our attention.  The door presented us no problem and led us onto the ground floor which was, as Song had seen before, completely empty.  But since the wards had stopped her entering she’d not seen the trapdoor which led to the floor below.  Olvir gave it a heave and with no sign of steps or a ladder we dropped down into the room below.  It was no larger than the room we’d left and was just as empty, save for an octagonal trapdoor of marble.  Olvir lifted this one as well and from there we discovered an octagonal room where each wall seemed to promise equal opportunities – none of them immediately obvious.

It was pitch black in the room but golden light spilled from Caelan’s caste mark to pierce anything the dark might hide. To Song’s essence sight there was one wall more promising than the others – it had no flows of essence, unlike the other seven.  Olvir’s mundane sight had also led him to it as a contender as the only other things in the room apart from us were splinters of wood lying on the floor near it, as if a wooden support had been crushed.  We quickly hypothesised that this wall – or door - had been propped open in the past and closed, shattering the support.  But how could we get it open?  After tentative explorations by Olvir which determined it was an arms-width thick and not easily opened by pivot or pushing, Song shifted into rat form and scurried underneath it.  Each of the eight walls had a sizeable gap underneath – wide enough for one of Olvir’s arms or a rat – but Song was cautious as she saw movement on the other side.  

Approaching carefully and using the door as cover she saw the other side led to a platform atop stairs which fell away in a lazy spiral.  Surrounding and at points intersecting with the staircase were a number of large mechanical cogs – a little akin to those Van-Oris occasionally preened out, but on a larger and altogether more intimidating scale.  She looked up to see a recess at the top of the door that looked like it would hold the marble slab if pushed directly up and scampered back to tell the others what she’d found.  Olvir considered the door for a moment before trying to lift it but despite his strength it refused to budge.  He’d barely got started though, and infusing his muscles with the power of Luna pulled the door slowly upwards, lifting it directly up and into the recess where a barely audible click suggested it had ratcheted into place.  

As it didn’t drop immediately on our heads we all made our way through onto the platform – though we expected it to drop at some point, the wood splinters had been a giveaway.  For now, though, the strange sense of the place we’d made our way into held sway.  Song recognised we’d stepped into a place outside of Creation but just what that was she had no idea of.  It wasn’t the Underworld, it wasn’t Malfeas, Van Oris knew it wasn’t Yu Shan – so exploring the more immediate mystery we turned our attention to the strange mechanism of the staircase.  It seemed to hang in nothingness – our light simply shone into a deep black space, essence sight revealed nothing and when Song tried adapting herself to use the sonar of her bat form, the cogs seemed to be there but whatever they were attached to wasn’t.

The machinery was in good working form however, moving smoothly without noise – so either it was well maintained or something else kept it in order.  As we made our way cautiously to the first few steps we became aware there was something moving further down the spiral – but it was distant enough we couldn’t see what, yet.  There were large cogs intersecting with the stairs between us and whatever it was and they posed a considerable obstacle as we got close.  The first one we came to we had to jump over – a good six feet up and then a little more to be sure the cog’s vicious teeth didn’t bite as it turned.  It posed little issue for Van-Oris, who flew over, and Song, who adopted wings, though Olvir and Caelan both had to jump and were thankful for their athleticism.

The second cog filled almost all the available space so it couldn’t be jumped – though it had cut out sections which could, if timed right, be jumped through.  Once again Caelan and Olvir’s natural skill held them in good stead, but Van-Oris and Song both mis-timed their jumps and the metal scored their flesh.  After a few moments for them to inspect and bandage their wounds - painful but not serious – we moved on.  

There were definitely things further down the staircase moving towards us and we couldn’t see if they were a friendly welcoming committee or avowed warriors facing all comers.  There were a couple more cogs between us and them though and we pressed on, discovering that the next cog – looking similar to the last – had several of the ‘cut out’ sections filled with an invisible and tough material.  After Caelan had bounced his head off it with his first jump we rapped at each new ‘hole’ in turn to see which one would actually permit entrance.  One did, and we all made it through, Song and Van-Oris both extra cautious this time.

By now the welcoming committee didn’t look very welcoming and so we waited before the final cog – laid out much like the last - for them to draw near and adopted a wary stance.  The first approached and with a bony knuckle did much as we’d done to ascertain which gap could be jumped through.  Finding the hole which wasn’t solid it leapt through and made as if to attack Caelan – but he cut it down with his daiklaive before it had a chance to put to efficient use the bony protrusions like enamelled blades on its forearms.  Two others were quick to follow it and an exercise on fighting on stairs unfolded.  As Song rained lightening torment hatchets from above, Olvir and Caelan made short work of the two creatures and those which followed.  We’d picked our defensive spot well.  

Song tried to make use of one of the bodies, unsure even as she landed by it if her Charm would work.  She’d not had much chance to practice and these creatures were unlike anything she’d known – so a Charm to reanimate them as zombies fuelled by their own necrotic essence wasn’t a certainty.  She wasn’t surprised when it didn’t work therefore, but had to wait until the battle was over to study one in more detail and determine why.  Something Van Oris had squawked about earlier now made sense.  He’d said he couldn’t dematerialise.  None of us knew why – but examining her slain foe Song realised it was a hungry ghost - the Po soul of a being - in material form.  If usually ephemeral things were forced into material shape it explained Van-Oris’s predicament as well as the reason it couldn’t be reanimated – the ghost was already moving under its own power.  Or at least, it had been.  One couldn’t reanimate the corpse of a ghost either, it seemed.

Further on as the staircase wound deeper we could see two more groups of ghosts.  One was already making its way towards us while the other seemed content guarding the base of the stairwell.  Interestingly we could also make out three distinct piles of bodies fallen on the stairs.  Perhaps they were adventurers who’d come before, and who’d spawned the ghosts we fought?  Time to find out.