# 74_20210606 Back to the Tower ## Session Summary We talked to the orcs, and learned that they had followed us from Blacklake District. We somehow convinced them (maybe inadvertently?) to go back to the Twisted Fane. I tried to hint to them that they should kill roots, but they didn't seem to understand what I meant. We return to the Tower of Zofaris with Keren and the other rescued prisoners, and we learn that Keren knows how to use the Linked Portal spell AND that Zofaris's library is hidden in the miniature building on the desk. We spend some time taking books from the library and reading through Zofaris's musings on various subjects. We found a map of plaguelands. ^summary ## Recap of last session ![[73_20210605 Getting out of the Twisted Fane#^summary]] --- ## Log The orcs seem quite confident in their abilities to fight, but they're not fighting us. When they see Eraithe, they take notice: "They have an elf with them." They show contempt for elves. Eraithe has a stern look on his face as if he understands what they're talking about. They're all speaking in Common. The children shy away from the orcs, because they've heard stories warning them to stay away - tales about orcs kidnapping them and dragging them elsewhere. [[Brom]] has a simplistic backpack behind him, but [[Brock]] is carrying a clay jar on his back. Who's [[Vansi]]? She's the chief of the orcs in this city. A khan is a leader of the orcs. Vansi is not a khan. Vansi is waiting for the word of the khan but she doesn't know what to do. All word sent to other tribes don't get a response. Vansi has other ideas. She is getting used to city life with all the beds and ale. But they (Brom and Brock) don't like cities - they like forests. They were watching a fire bat and saw us climb down. They were just curious. These orcs seem straightforward and don't seem to be deceiving us. They say they didn't really have any plans about what to do after meeting us. I get the sense that they're telling us the truth when they say that they hadn't really planned that far ahead. I try to explain to them that they should cut roots. Eraithe says orcs are the sworn enemies of elves and eladrin. They inhabited the same wilderness. Orcs pillage and destroy everything they touch, and elves created civilization and attempt to coexist with the beauty of nature. They have diametrically opposed views on the environment. ^19cb23 [[Ayenta]] and [[Baltis]] are the names of the kids (preteens). They are lifted up by Snowflake. Vondek goes without issue, but [[Thogrim Stonegift|Thogrim]] has to psych himself up. "Dwarves aren't meant to fly!" "Not all dwarves are miners you know!" (says Thogrim) Both kids are thin and slender. Rolled a 23 Arcana for Tenser's Floating Disk. 500 pounds. We notice that the lightning goes in two directions. It goes away from the Twisted Fane, but like a tide, it goes back. It's a pulse that happens in seconds. The cycle is slower. Vondek has a type of ale called "Orc's Breath" - it's one of the most popular ales in Dragon's Nest. He agrees to give Ka'ira a round on the house - he'll convince "old Dragon". We should get back the wine (worth 480 gp) from the first safehouse - Gloomtoes and Hill left it there. I rolled a 27 for Dungeoneering and get us all the way to the Tower, using a path that is faster and safer. Eraithe sees some eladrin architecture in the [[Tower of Zofaris]]. Just a little bit. We go to the water plane. I spend the next two hours doing a Travelers' Feast. Keren can use teleportation circles! He says that according to songs, [[Zofaris Kez]] was an avid scholar of the elemental planes. He kept tomes and books and had a fanatical obsession with planes other than this one, and he kept all of the information in his library. Nobody knows where the library is. This Sanctum Empirica is not the library because it's not big enough to see. The building is four shoeboxes wide. Keren touches it. The craftsmanship is incredible, he says. The building seems to have runes. Keren finds a latch in the building that he moves horizontally. It clicks. He's able to lift the roof of the building like a hinged box. Nothing happens (whew). "Gotcha" he says. [[Bibliotheca Empirica]]. Keren puts a hand inside the building and it disappears inside up to his elbow. He says there are a lot of books here. He brings out a book that couldn't possibly fit into the building. It's a big book bound by a leather strap, written in Common: _[[Musings on the sentience of elementals]]_. It is handwritten, not printed. Keren opens it. Ka'ira puts her face in it and sees a miniature library, with miniature aisles and books. Ka'ira puts her head into the building. She opens her eyes and sees darkness. Her shoulders are in the way. The kids, Vondek, Thogrim, and Keren take the first feast. The kids are eating what looks like roast duck. Vondek is eating soup. Thogrim is eating some sort of mushroom. He says he misses that from his hometown. The library has no hallways or doors. There's no way for a person to move from one section to another unless we had this view. I'm about three feet above a shelf. It's like I'm upside down, and the shelves are normal sized. They are clean, without any dust, and it's very quiet. It smells slightly pleasant, like some incense is burning (but there's nothing burning.) All the books are written in the same handwriting. About 80% of the books I can read are about elementals. A few books on dragons vs titans, the Dawn War - a time when the gods fought. Rolled an 11 for a Perception check inside the library. I find an interestingly titled thin scroll case: "[[Map of known plaguelands]]". It seems to be the most interesting of the sort. Plaguelands are areas in the realms that still linger with spellplague energy. I have to put my hand in there and think/say "Map of known plaguelands." It flies to my hand! It is expensive paper. It shows a pre-Hotenow explosion map of the area. On it are several Xs - none are in Neverwinter, but around it. There are scribbles next to the X like "lightning" or "fire". There are five Xs. - The closest one is in Neverwinter wood. "acidic" - One is about a mile south of Phandalin. - One on Mount Hotenow. - The other two are in no places that I recognize. Thinking/saying 'everburning torch' doesn't retrieve it, unfortunately. Moving to another side of the building and focusing on another shelf lets me see another shelf's worth of books. 21 to perceive. - "[[The god-level magics of the Netherese]]" The Netherese are a race long ago of wizards (from a peasant to the king) that were able to tap into the Weave and produce new magic. They are a race of spellcasters that are naturally inclined to arcane magic. They produce a vast, sprawling city that was brimming with magic. They were the dominant civilization before the spellplague. But then they suddenly disappeared. Some say that they dabbled in magics too powerful that gods smote them from the earth. Some say they tried to do something to elevate their position and it backfired. In the resulting cataclysm, their entire civilization was destroyed. Some say they were shunted into a different plane. At any rate, their magics are the holy grail of many a wizard because Netherese magic was not limited by Mistra (she now limits magic, maybe because of the Netherese). The Netherese are rumored to have cut a mountain, turned it into a city, and then got the mountain to fly. They even had magics to make them into gods. The Netherese did not have any natural enemies, so it's a puzzle as to how they disappeared. Zofaris seems to have also tried to figure out where the Netherese went. ^b8a24e 5pm We care not for the law nor chaos we stand against evil we are the song that sings against darkness we are strings plucked by fate and our song banishes the ... we bring the light and nobody knows our names ^0dd8b9