Kalitharsis:The Lone Raider

[M@XWeru]

Rhylus swore. Whatever the magic of this place was, he was already within its grasp. Just to be safe, he chucked another piece of stone into the antechamber.

[Jair Barik]

It has much the same effect as the last stone, minus that is the hallucinations.

[M@XWeru]

Muttering to himself, Rhylus eventually entered the small antechamber.

[Jair Barik]

The antechamber is quite small, only 15ft wide by 15 ft across. In each corner there sits a statue of a robed man hunched down on his feet with his face in his hands obscuring all facial detail. All four are hooded and heavily coated in dust. Above the next door is a stone tablet carved with writing in ancient Draconic. It reads

For the world we die, that in our deaths the rest may live on. Forgive us those above for that we here must do.

The room is otherwise empty showing as little life as the rest of the building. The door is unopened.

[M@XWeru]

Rhylus first turned around to see if the draconic tablet had a twin above the door he'd entered through, then proceeded to attempt to examine the first - would it be possible to remove it? Whether or not it would, the halfling would open the second door and have a look at the next room.

[Jair Barik]

There is no tablet above the other door and the writing seems to be a part of the masonry itself, built into the wall.The door opens with some effort to reveal... something odd.

The innerchamber of the tower is large and illuminated. It doesn't appear to have any windows. Judging by its size this chamber is the tower, all of the tower in fact, and it stretches high up above you with a width you judge to be the same as the towers from what you saw outside. A thin crystal beam rises from a podium in the centre of the room up towards the top of the tower, from here you cannot see if it reaches the roof or not. It glows with a strong blue light and periodicly arcs of lightning branch off of it striking into the tower walls. There seems to be no obvious sequence to when or where this happens and multiple arcs are constantly appearing and disappearing above you. The stone itself is weathered by runes line the walls and floor. The podium at the centre of the room is about 60ft wide and 10ft high with a spiral stairway along its edge leading up to the top.

[M@XWeru]

Rhylus' eyes widened at the sight of this magical marvel. He couldn't yet say anything for certain of its power or uses, but the fact alone that whoever had constructed it had managed to make it as resilient as it was - its defences still function and its power source (whatever that may be) still intact. If it were still operational, this device could be the single most valuable discovery he'd ever made, or would ever come to make. Of course, that would all depend on whether he could actually get some use of it. It was lucky he didn't manage to blow his way into the tower, after all.

Given the text in the last room, there was a possibility that this tower was somehow related to the cataclysm - the more he thought about it, the more it seemed as though the young warlock had hit the jackpot this day. Eager, but not wanting to rush anything, he studied the runes on the floor for a while before proceeding. Eventually, rather than use the staircase (which might well be trapped or withered), Rhylus hovered gently up toward the top of the podium, peeking carefully over the edge to see what, other than the crystal, might be found on top of it.

Spoiler

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Knowledge (Arcana): (1d20+13)[21]
Spellcraft: (1d20+15)[16]
Anything useful or interesting about the runes? Are they magical or informational in nature? Does the crystal beam seem to connect to anything below, or is it magical in its own right? Etc.

[Jair Barik]

The runes seem purely decorative. A fancy display for the uneducated too look on in awe. Rising up into the air you can see that the crystal descend through a hole in the stone podium, a little wider than the beam but not much. In addition to this there is a diamond tube around the beam for about the first ten feet of its length. You can see lightning crackel inside it and the occasional bolt fly over the top of the tube but otherwise the top of the podium appears to be relatively safe. There doesn't appear to be anything else atop the podium though.

[M@XWeru]

"Ah-hah. I knew this couldn't all there was to it", said Rhylus to himself, though in truth he did not so much 'know' as 'hope desperately'. That aside, however, he used his powers of flight to slide across the low platform on his belly, up to the diamond tube. Once he'd reached his destination, he attempted to peek down through the hole where the crystal was set. If possible, he'd try to discern the thickness of the platform, as well as have a look at whatever lay below.

[Jair Barik]

The 'hole' is impossible to squeeze through, only just large enough to fit your hand through really and even then the diamond tube is mostly in the way. Looking down it is near impossible at this angle but it appears there is more arced lightning below.

[M@XWeru]

((And how thick is the floor of the platform?))

[Jair Barik]

You can't tell how thick the floor is. Tapping it gives off no hollow thud and you cannot see down the hole well enough to tell.

[M@XWeru]

"Hmm". Rhylus left the platform in high spirits - coming here had not been a waste of time after all. Now he just had to find a way down there. Blasting through the platform would have been foolish even if it weren't a sure-fire way to get himself fried. After spending a small while trying to figure out the actual function of the construction...

Spoiler

Show

(1d20+13)[23] Knowledge (arcana)
(1d20+15)[28] Spellcraft

...he turned to see whether there were any other exits than the one he'd come through then, switching on his Detect Magic, left the room - either through a new exit or backtracking.

[Jair Barik]

There are three other exits each at 90 degree points about the wall of the room, each identical to the one you entered through.

Examining the structure it becomes abundantly clear that this is a complex design not simply here for show. Oddly though it appears that all the device seems to be doing is channeling raw magical energy into the walls, it seems as though it serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever other than making the walls deadly to break through and so you are left with a paradox. Someone has clearly put a lot of thought into designing this (so much so that a being of lesser intelligence could not appreciate it as you do) and yet it seems to serve no function other than being a big flashy light. It is a real puzzle.

[Jair Barik]

bump
(you still here?)

[M@XWeru]

(It's only been one day, and I have plenty of things I need to write for. I'll get to it soon).

[M@XWeru]

Rhylus exited the room through the doorway opposite to the one he'd entered from.

[Jair Barik]

You exit into a chamber near identical to the one opposite. The only difference is here one of the two stone doors appears to have fallen from its hinges. Behind you, you hear a sharp grating sound of stone against stone.

[M@XWeru]

Rhylus spun around on his heels, hoping to witness one of the great device's functions.

[Jair Barik]

Behind you you can see a portion of floor in front of the pedestal sliding away to reveal a staircase down into the ground. Flickering green lights illuniate the steps that curve downwards into the very earth itself.

[M@XWeru]

"Hmm", hummed Rhylus to himself, "an automated door? Or perhaps something more sinister than that...". The young warlock scratched his chin and decided that, to be safe, he'd observe this thing for a while before he made a move. There was no guarantee this thing wouldn't close behind him right away, perhaps stuck on an automated cycle of opening and closing - there was no guarantee there weren't hundreds of years between openings. It would be hard to miss that grating sound, he figured, even if it were to close some distance away.

With that thought, he turned and headed back out the doorway.

[Jair Barik]

OOC: Which doorway is this? The one into the central room or the broken doorway into the outer chambers?

[M@XWeru]

(The one to the outer chambers)

[Jair Barik]

The outer chamber is very remiscent of the one you visited first. There is a fountain, ancient vegitation, a door opposite you and paths leading off to the left and right. Here most of the masonry seems in tact but a number of the plants have been smashed into little more than rubble and dust.

[M@XWeru]

"Hm, more destruction. I do wonder what happened...", said Rhylus to himself. "Ah, well - I'll probably find out eventually". Arms folded, he hovered a few inches over the floor, floating through the doorway. Ignoring the door in front, he instead veered to the left, intending to go all the way around the middle chamber, to see if there were anything interesting in those to the side.

[Jair Barik]

As you enter the final chamber shadows scatter off in front of your eyes. You count three, each moving out of your field of vision before you can focus on them, even with your magical sense all you can make out is a roughly human shape of roughly human size. The three shapes disappear, one into the undergrowth, one down the opposite tunnel and one towards the left, back towards the central chamber. Otherwise this room is nigh identical to the previous ones, though of the four it appears to be in the best shape.