Shadow War campaign In-Game: Chapter 62- The Alabaster Tower

[Navarre]

The Shadow War

Chapter 62
The Alabaster Tower

Faster than thought you are transported from beyond the western coast of the continent to the far east. The first thing you notice is the sudden drop in temperature and the reduction in sunlight. But that is to be expected as you step from a warm tropical beach into the cold and forbidding mountains of Dyre.

The peaks of the Dyre mountains rise high on all sides. Grey and seemingly lifeless, you know their crags hide all sorts of horrors for the unsuspecting. Treacherous ravines await the unskilled while the foolhardy might find anything from a cryohydra to a purple worm among the crevasses.

T'Ning, you make an attempt to locate yourself relative to the Temple of the Lone Pine. You, and everyone, immediately notice Testament, the world's tallest mountain. It vaults into the atmosphere like a god unto itself. This single mountain prevents most from ever coming this far from the Gallian Empire, for Testament is storied with ancient magics and creatures beyond mortal ken.

Testament serves as an immediate land marker, allowing you to get your bearings. If you are correct, you should be directly on the other side of the great mountain from your Temple. You never expected your dull monastery to be so close to something so far from mundane.

The peaks cut off most of the light from The Eye, casting this narrow ravine in gray shadow. You cannot see Panrori or Bronwyn's moon at all, both sitting too low on their respective horizons.

The rocks are stained red, the aftermath of the bloodfall evident even here. It appears to be dusk, only because of the high walls rising about you, but you know it is only noon. As this is the high point of the day, this entire canyon must be set into perpetual nightfall, never seeing more light than it does right now.

The ravine winds a tenth-mile north to south on either side of you and nearly as wide. You see nothing unusual; certainly no tower.

[sab39]

{Based on the illusion that Rachel and I built with Uma, where should the tower be?}

[Navarre]

The view you saw was of distant peaks but you see those same mountain tops to the east. The tower should be right here, give or take fifty yards.

[sab39]

"Any ideas? Form a search grid? Throw gravel about until some of it disappears?"

{on the offchance, will save to disbelieve... I figure with a +18 modifier I have at least something of a chance to see through even a pretty good illusion}

{wait, make that +20 vs illusions}

[Gaumer]

"Ye be missin' yer mark, Faer? Could be below ground, eh? Or maybe in the ghost realm..."

Bed checks that there ghost realm.

"If'n we be to search, maybe a look from the air be needed..." Bed looks at Liv

[Web.Metz]

{+18 against illusions...}

[Navarre]

You attempt to disbelieve any illusion that might be in effect. But nothing changes.

Bedlor, you look into the Grey Realm. You see only the mists that comprise the realm, as well as Ice and Chaser. The she-wolf wags her tail and nuzzles your hand.

No...wait. There is something.

It is a slight shimmering to the air about twenty yards north of you. There is something straight ahead of you.

But it couldn't be any sort of building. Whatever it is, the effect is no more than nine inches wide although it appears to be some one-hundred feet tall.

[Web.Metz]

Faerun, with his True Seeing active, looks around both in the Grey Realm and the Material.

[Gaumer]

"Oi, that be a good wolf. Yes ye are; ye are a good wolf.

Be lookin' there, mates. It be somethin' or other, eh?"

Bed investigates a bit more closely.

"Ye takin' care o' Chaser there, Ice? Oh, I know ye be. Ye a good bear. Yes ye are."

[Gaumer]

{Ah, forgot}

Bedlor studies the ground, looking for a suitable area for a tower to be, hoping the illusion wasn't as elaborate enough to change the land the hidden tower is built on.

[sab39]

I look in the Grey Realm where Bedlor is indicating {presuming Bedlor somehow indicated that it was the grey realm he was looking at}

[Gaumer]

I look in the Grey Realm where Bedlor is indicating {presuming Bedlor somehow indicated that it was the grey realm he was looking at}

{I hoped him speaking and petting Ice and Chaser alluded to it.}

[Navarre]

Ice groans contentedly, pleased to be on an adventure with you. He looks to Chaser and taps the wolf's neck with her nose. Chaser walks back to your flank; one animal companion now on each side of you, obediently waiting to help their master.

Bedlor, you examine the ground around the area where you suspect the tower to be. Though this building may have been hidden by the work of the world's most powerful mages, clearly they did not reckon on the cunning and skills of a dwarf.

You quickly perceive a circular area sixty feet in diameter. The ground is packed densely from the weight of something massive sitting upon it. Though a faint wind blows through this canyon, no dust moves within this area; as if something is holding it down or blocking the wind altogether.

Faerun, you utilize the ring of True Seeing to examine for the true nature of the effect before you. It is an illusion, yes, but it is not solely the illusion that hide the tower. Yet you do see it now.

The Alabaster Tower is an astonishing sight, no matter how many stories of the legend you may have heard.  From a distance, it appears to be extremely tall and skinny, but unlike other similar structures, it does not seem to grow wider as it is approached.  It continues to seem extremely tall, but its girth is difficult to perceive.  

This may be due in part to the material from which it is formed.  It is not actually alabaster, but a material that seems to be made up of several ingredients.  One of these is nearly luminescent, and sparkles brilliantly (sunlight or not).  The tower appears to change, almost like a child’s card with two “interchanging” images when the card is turned back and forth.  At one point, it appears to be constructed from millions of tiny bricks, painstakingly layered (offset, as with any bricks) and perfectly, symmetrically built; then, as you take a few steps in any direction, the form of the tower seems more like a long twisting pole, as on a calliope, perhaps, and it appears almost to spin as the sparkling structure mesmerizes you.

Clearly there is also a magical element to the tower.  Upon approach, it seems that no one save a snake could fit inside of it. You see no door.

[Web.Metz]

Faerun describes what he sees.

[Gaumer]

Bedlor points out his findings as well.

"What o' an entrance, mate? I be 'avin' small ones that may be gettin' inside. Not sure'n what they be doin' once in, but I can be askin' fer 'elp if'n ye be seein' thin's different than we be wit' yer magics."