After some discussion, you pack up the loot you've found in the cave onto the cart. It makes a hefty, ungainly load, but you're able to take all but the furnishings. Heading south toward where you spotted the spire the day before, Mohander casts around for a useful hiding place. He spots a slight depression against the face of a low hill. There's no brush or plant life to cover it with, but you tie a dusty tarp over the top to cut any reflection and it blends in well enough. It won't stand up to anyone actually coming near it, but it shouldn't catch anyone's attention from afar.
This done, you trek closer to the spire. As you walk, each of you thinks back on your trip to Hardholm, among the caravan. Some of you can recall having heard a bit about this place before.
Spoiler: Mohander
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You recall one of the guards laughing and spitting after having a conversation with one of your halfling escorts. "Half man says there's a metal tower in a desert 'round here that's haunted by a ghost made a black steel." he scoffs.
Spoiler: Atas
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On one occasion you took a tour as a scout, alongside one of the native halflings. Your curiosity about his homeland didn't reveal much, but one response to your questions about anything dangerous you might find in the region was regarding a pillar that is the home of a tribe of iron men.
Spoiler: Shaena
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Interviewing anyone that would sit still for it, that seemed to have any inkling of knowledge of the region, you cornered a caravan guard one day. He told you he had heard of a large metal pillar. "Wyverns roost in the pillar and hunt along the stair. They're afraid of smoke and a large fire can drive them off," he said.
Around noon, you get close enough to lay eyes on the spire again, without incident. Halting a couple miles out, you see, looming from the cracked reddish earth, a twisted and rusting black metal tower rising lonely on the horizon. Even from this distance, you can hear the wind whining through the metal girders at the top of the pillar. Near its top, it widens into a boxy shape, with a white disk in the center of it, divided into twelve equal sections. Two metal fingers, one long and one short, point to separate sections of the design. A jagged crack mars the disk in its top left quadrant.
In the near distance, but too far to make out any detail, black specks dot the dry landscape.
Re: [IC] The Crucible
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