Narrative

Day 56 began at the Crusty Beard in Magstion. The party had Temporary Wisdom -2. At 11:00, they went to an abandoned house to teleport to the Grand Towers control room. During the teleport, Geldrin entered a dreamlike state and saw an elf face say, “I’m foolish. I should have known this was going to happen… Never mind.” The teleport destination was extravagant compared with other teleport rooms they had visited, with elaborate tapestries that felt out of place. The door had been trapped, but someone had disarmed it within the last five to ten minutes.

Dotharl saw Valentinhide reflected in Invar’s armour. The party left the room and found many doors and two possible guards. A tapestry showed five wizards and an invisible lady who was invisible in the painting too. She looked like Hannah Joy. Dotharl could not see her because he did not know who she was, or because he knew she existed. A creature said she was new. The party were expected. There were twenty-seven such beings, all part of Humility, and they had disarmed the traps. In a spherical room with four doors, an elf stood in the middle: the same elf Geldrin had seen while teleporting. The Humility fragments currently controlled the control room but were not using it; they had taken it for the party. They were all parts of Thomas, removed so he could become Ennui, and could not be fully recombined without the large weak part because many parts had died. They thanked the party for freeing him from the cart on the dwarf bridge and led them to the control room.

The control room was guarded by two automatons and held eight statues. Salana’s runes were intact. Garadule and Valentinhide’s runes were unlit, while the rest flickered. Monks meandered through the room. Dotharl looked at the Valentinhide statue, thought he saw only a statue, and was attacked by it. Geldrin investigated and took damage. Runes lit up around the statue saying, “leave here.” Mericok had a tiny dwarf face carved into his mouth. Geldrin fixed the prison runes and closed them all except Leedus on one of them, where his fixing mark carried over and worked. Two creatures brought a small box as a present. Inside was a black shard. They called it the elemental of Void and wanted the party to put him where he belonged. Eliana brought a gift: the Frost pole ball, with a desire to switch out the frost elementals. The party suspected Browning was running events there. Dotharl interfered with the symbols on Anorazorak’s prison.

Bynx told Dirk his brothers were coming and to close the door. His brothers are Trixus, Benu, and Garadule, all children of Attabre. When Eliana shut it, purple bears appeared. Four Juticars came through tears: Scumbleduck, the rubber-eye figure, a silver dragonborn, and another. A robot Juticar addressed “Justicar Geldrin,” saying Geldrin seemed to have forgotten his mission and that the party were not as compliant as they should be. Geldrin had been obeying orders until the worm was removed; everything up to that point had happened as foretold, and the Juticars believed he had been compromised. They spoke of chaotic tendencies visible in the prognostic machine.

The wizards altered the map, saying they were preparing for fuel incoming. The map appeared recently reconfigured for another purpose. They activated the table, and a giant bearded head, Browning, appeared above it chanting. The party countered the spell, but Browning finished with, “and the flight of the gold ends.” A dragonborn, elf, and dwarf teleported away, leaving a gnome behind. She refused to speak until Morgana dispelled magic and she recovered. She was a treasure hunter from Great Farmuth, remembered a voyage across the sea, did not know the year, and remembered place details both before and after the dome. A device nearby was a remote to activate a shield, with no apparent way to reverse it, and it should not be far from the party.

The replacements thought Eliana had stopped Valentinhide and Garadule from tricking the statues. The notes record, “I thought my daughters would like it? Mama Hartwall??” The table had been a trap. The prisons looked the same except Valentinhide’s showed the symbol of Atlabre and was deactivated; that symbol had not been present before. The party thought dome activation may have captured Bynx’s sphynx brothers: Trixus, Benu, and Garadule.

The party explored nearby rooms. One dusty room held a circle in the middle that looked dragged toward the door and taken to the teleport circle. Another held an old man sleeping. Dirk found a box under his pillow. A dormitory lay opposite, and another bedroom held books on alloys, travel, and botany. Dirk searched under another pillow and found a thorny brush or briar; Morgana kept it. The box put Geldrin and Morgana to sleep. The mage woke thinking it was 3740 AC and that Dirk looked like a Thrunglagen. He searched for his spellbook, which was found in his room. He was Humorous, an old Rivermeet headmaster. The party opened the teleport-room door and found a Barrier trapping Trixus, Benu, Garadule, and Bynx. Temporary Wisdom was removed.

Benu said they had news and had reunited in the dire hour. Plans had been thwarted, and things came to light after speaking with his father. Garadule’s mind was clearer, and he now intended to repay his misdeeds by helping the party. Garadule’s father trusted the party after they brought his children back together. The wizards who sought godhood all sought to live forever. Ennui sought too much power, and it corrupted him. The generator was not only protective; it also made them more powerful and was an experiment. Something ancient may have helped, giving the ability to remove emotions. Benu said the dome should be brought down, though the fate of bad elementals remained a problem. Garadule had asked months earlier to bring it down and now asked the same for different reasons: a part of him enjoyed the bad part and had grown lazy with it. Hartwall was part of his downfall, and Argentum died defending his people. Garadule’s father said the choice was the party’s. The wizards were being controlled, and the five wizards could not affect the power sources. The party decided Browning needed to die and considered whether the wizards should be brought back to help.

Dirk asked his ancestors whether the party could defeat Browning as they were. Instead of seeing the ancestors, he saw sickly, elongated, groaning elves. Browning’s ritual to become a god takes one thousand years and could have completed thirteen years earlier if Soul had not crashed into the tower. The dome drains the party like it drains the elementals, though it is noticeable only near the edges. Browning had a plan to increase his power by obtaining a great amount of crystal. Scumbledunk betrayed the party and teleported away after overhearing their discussion. The party considered next steps. Some went to Riversmeet with Bynx while others went to Emmerane to help Hartwall. In the Headmaster’s office, they used Rubyeye’s eye and Dotharl, through the death of Hracency, to locate Rubyeye and Cardinal. Cardinal appeared inside a Brass dome on a bench with air elementals around her, in one of the towers in Brass City. Rubyeye appeared floating through dwarven stone corridors in an endless loop, far airwise. A dragon war was underway back in Humorous, with Emeraldous causing trouble and Ember remembered. Humorous was about three hundred years old. The party tried to contact Fairlight Hartwall, but Windows could not find him.

The party decided to go to Brass City to free Cardinal via Infestus, using the piece of coal at 15:00. Anthracite came through a portal to them. They arrived at Dulpeake, on a plateau with dwarven construction, a purple sky, a ghost-town feeling, and a small dragonborn population in the centre. A large stone doorway in the market square was covered in runes; this was the Dulpeake doorway from earlier notes. The rules promised no harm if obeyed: no Blackscale was to come to harm except passive self-defence, transactions and deals had to be honest with truth as currency, and the party could not disclose the Blackscale’s location or the archway’s location. They went through the portal. Guards took them to Infestus. In a museum, they saw a curiosity from Keep Rememberence. A story said Infestus had not laughed so much in a long time, killed “the bitch,” returned his first-born son’s skull, and killed the son who slept with “the bitch.”

Infestus wanted to pay the party for their good deeds and what they had done for him. A guard took them to his favourite pub in Blackhold, the Great Infestus, where they ate. A red dragonborn named Ember entered without surprising the patrons. Ember offered to show them around town and asked whether they had been to a dragon city. He wanted a favour if they returned: if they saw any red dragons or dragonborn, they should tell them Ember was looking for them. He believed the Reds were almost extinct and offered 1,000 gp for the promise. He also said Eliana did not smell right and smelled of elf. The party listed options: Jeroll’s ode for Geldrin and a charged shield crystal, help with bad elementals to bring the dome down, something to bolster the dome, help releasing Hartwall or killing Wrath, a permanent nonattack deal, and getting to Brass City. They then returned to Infestus.

People, Factions, and Places Mentioned

People and name-like figures mentioned include Geldrin, Dotharl, Valentinhide, Invar, Hannah Joy, Humility, Thomas / Ennui, Salana, Garadule, Mericok, Leedus, Anorazorak, Bynx, Dirk, Scumbleduck / Scumbledunk, Browning, Morgana, the gnome treasure hunter, Mama Hartwall, Humorous, Trixus, Benu, Argentum, Soul, Rubyeye, Cardinal, Hracency, Emeraldous, Ember, Fairlight Hartwall, Windows, Infestus, Anthracite, Blackscale, Jeroll, Wrath, and Hartwall.

Groups and factions mentioned include the party, Grand Towers wizards, Humility fragments, monks, automatons, Juticars, Browning-controlled wizards, sphynx brothers, Rivermeet headmasters, bad elementals, controlled wizards, five wizards, dragons, red dragons / dragonborn, Blackscale / Black Scales, and Infestus’s people.

Places mentioned include Magstion, the Grand Towers control room, the elaborate teleport room, the spherical Humility room, the prison-control room, the teleport circle, Rivermeet, the Barrier, Riversmeet, Emmerane, the Headmaster’s office, Brass City, the Brass dome, Humorous, Dulpeake, the plateau with purple sky, the market-square archway / Dulpeake doorway, Blackhold / the Blackscale location, Infestus’s city, the museum, Keep Rememberence, and the Great Infestus pub in Blackhold.

Creatures and creature-like beings mentioned include the invisible lady like Hannah Joy, Humility fragments, the Valentinhide statue, the elemental of Void, frost elementals, purple bears, Juticars, a giant Browning head, sickly elongated elves, air elementals, and red dragonborn.

Items, Rewards, and Resources

Items and resources mentioned include the Grand Towers teleport route, elaborate tapestries, traps, eight statues, Salana’s runes, Garadule and Valentinhide’s runes, runes reading “leave here,” a small black shard / elemental of Void, Frost pole ball, prison symbols, prognostic machine, reconfigured map, control-room table, shield remote, thorny brush / briar, spellbook, Barrier, Rubyeye’s eye, Dotharl’s connection through Hracency’s death, piece of coal for travel to Infestus, Blackscale archway runes at Dulpeake, museum curiosity from Keep Rememberence, Jeroll’s ode, charged shield crystal, and 1,000 gp offered by Ember.

Strategic resources and plans include repairing or closing prison runes, possibly switching frost elementals, stopping Browning, deciding whether to bring down the dome, considering whether to restore wizards, locating Rubyeye and Cardinal, freeing Cardinal in Brass City through Infestus, bargaining under Blackscale rules at the Dulpeake doorway, and possible deals with Infestus or Ember.

Clues, Mysteries, and Open Threads

The twenty-seven Humility fragments are parts of Thomas removed so he could become Ennui. They cannot be fully recombined without a large weak part, and many parts have died.

The Grand Towers control room has active prison infrastructure: Salana’s runes intact, Garadule and Valentinhide unlit, others flickering, Mericok altered, and Valentinhide showing an Atlabre symbol when deactivated.

The black shard called the elemental of Void and the Frost pole ball may be intended replacements in the prison or elemental system, but using them remains unresolved.

The Juticars’ claim that Geldrin was previously obedient until the worm was removed reframes his history and suggests a prognostic plan involving party compliance.

Browning’s interrupted spell still ended with “the flight of the gold ends,” and his godhood ritual may be close to completion after nearly one thousand years.

Dome activation may have captured Bynx’s sphynx brothers, Trixus, Benu, and Garadule, making the dome’s creation or reactivation directly tied to sphynx imprisonment.

Humorous waking in 3740 AC, remembering before and after the dome, and having been an old Rivermeet headmaster adds another displaced witness to pre-dome history.

Benu, Garadule, and Garadule’s father now urge bringing down the dome, but the release of bad elementals and the fate of prisons remain unresolved.

Scumbledunk betrayed the party and escaped with knowledge of their discussion about Browning.

Cardinal is in the Brass City / Brass dome on a bench with air elementals, in one of the Brass City towers, while Rubyeye is trapped in an endless dwarven stone loop far airwise.

The Blackscale / Dulpeake doorway rules, truth-currency, protected Blackscale location, and archway secrecy clarify how Infestus’s people control access through Dulpeake.

Ember’s search for red dragons or dragonborn and Eliana smelling of elf remain active hooks tied to dragon politics and identity.