30 Minutes

The information given in this posting plays out the party's actions for the half hour following the end of the fight with the two skull spirits.

After the skull spirits had been disposed of, Vyn, Y’lora, and Arimas entered the dark room with the corpse (the temperature in the room was below freezing). Arimas noticed that when he walked into the room, it did not feel cold to him. In fact, his feet could feel the cold, as could his head, but the mid-section of his body felt warm. In particular, the center of the warmer temperature seemed to be located at his belt pouch. After a quick deduction, Arimas recalled the mana-canceling stone shards from Moorlun’s Tower that he had been carrying. After he placed the shards around the corpse, the temperature of the entire room began to warm back up to normal, and the corpse began to decay at a rapid rate.

Arimas then entered the alchemy lab and read through a tome that was sitting open on one of the benches. The tome contains a formulary (or at least a possible formulary) for a Lich elixir. Arimas’ concentration while reading the tome was almost broken as Bruno hollered from the adjacent room, “HEY, ARIMAS! CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT MY NEW RING DOES?” But, the even-keeled Arimas was able to keep his composure and continue studying the tome.

Meanwhile, Johan sauntered into the lab, being as careful as a bull in a china closet, and began rummaging through the glassware while looking for a healing potion. Having no initial luck with that, he asked Arimas to take a quick look at the books stored on the bookshelf within the lab. A quick scanning by Arimas of the tomes on the bookshelf (all of which are written in Sidhe) indicate that they are various compilations regarding elixirs to extend one's lifespan.

“Hmmm… No Red Bull” thinks Johan as he leaves the lab and heads down to the second floor. He enters the servants’ quarters (Verinda and Frederick) just as Alexis sends Thain to go collect the ashes of the corpse. Johan hears Alexis offering Verinda and Frederick employment within Alexis’ service as her retainers. She then tells them that if they are not interested in the proposition that they are free to go, and she will give them some walking-around money to help them on their way. Verinda and Frederick appear to be interested in this proposition. But before they accept her proposal, they request to come along with the party in order to get back to the mainland. They promise to give Alexis an answer one way or the other once they reach the shores of Arnur Soghal.

As Alexis is winding up her discussion with the two servants, Johan addresses them, asking for a few more details concerning The Master: when was the last time, specifically, that they saw him. They recount the events of the morning: they arose in the morning to fix his breakfast, which they did a bit earlier than usual, as the day prior he had told them that he was going to make his weekly trip to the western part of the island which means that he would be up early in order to get a good start on the trip. He came down to the dining room, dressed in the robes that he always wears on his trip, ate breakfast, and headed out of the complex in his horse-and-cart with a slave riding, shackled, in the cart with him... just like he does every week.

At this time, Thain arrives back up on the third floor and prepares to make a doggy bag out of the corpse’s ashes. Since the corpse is still intact (the face is still recognizable yet), Thain waits for it to decay (as mentioned earlier, the decay rate of the corpse is higher than normal, but it has not yet fully decomposed).

Vyn, seeing that Thain has arrived at the room with the corpse, figures that there’s no need in having two people watch to make sure that it stays dead, heads into the alchemy lab and then to the library, checking for any activity on the ground outside the tower. Noticing that that there are no balconies outside the windows on this floor and determining that there is little chance that anybody would be foolish enough to attempt to scale a cut-stone wall during a tropical storm, he determines that the third floor of the tower is secure, and heads down to the second floor. He continues his routine of inspecting all windows, as well as checking the flues of the fireplaces, and continues down to the first floor. The contents of the rooms in the tower appear to be fairly sparse. “Hrmph,” snorts Vyn. “No pointy bits.” The exterior doors (three sets of double doors in the main entry hall and one door in the dining room) are all still barred from the inside. “Good”, he thinks. Then, he notices that the windows in the back three rooms (clerk’s office, planning room, and dining room) have not had their interior iron shutters closed and locked. So, he begins making his rounds to secure the windows from outside entry.

Meanwhile, Bruno finds an iron key attached to the corpse’s belt loop. After querying Arimas again to see if he has the time to analyze his ring, he takes a moment to ponder the purpose of this key. As he is about to put it into his backpack, he stops to take notice of the ornate design that is embossed onto the hilt of the key. The pattern is the same as the iron sigil that is attached to the hallway-side of the door that led you folks to the stairs leading up to the third floor. Earlier, Arimas and Siglan had determined that the symbol on that door meant “freedom” in the Sidhe language.

After having pocketed the iron key found on the corpse, Bruno makes his way into the library and begins to study the tomes upon the shelves in earnest. Given the volume of books on the shelves, Bruno asks for Arimas' help in scanning the spines of the books in order to get a quick snapshot of their content. The information that follows is the culmination of Bruno's and Arimas' combined effort in this investigation.

The books on the shelves along the central portion of the north wall contain The Master’s grimoire (some of the book titles are written in Sidhe; others are written in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno).

The books on the shelves in the northwest corner of the room are written in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno.

The books on the shelves in the southeastern corner of the room are all written in Common and contain descriptions of various facets of the necromantic art. Dominant subjects are reanimating of corpses and prolonging life.

Concerning the books on the shelves along the southern wall of this room, some are written in Common; others in a language unknown to Arimas and Bruno. Of the tomes written in Common, what can be determined is that they contain a dissertation on the Sidhe, as encountered by The Master. In general, they contain his perspective on the Sidhe based on his dealings with them years ago. Three of the books, however (written in Common), describe particular items/entities created by the Sidhe:

Book 1: The Nine Items of Power

Book 2: The Twelve Towers

Book 3: The Lost Sidhe Nation of Beower

Bruno's attention gravitates to the tome entitled "The Nine Items of Power". Sitting for a few minutes, he leafs through the book. A summary of the contents can be found here.


Johan walks Verinda and Frederick back up to the third floor. As they reach the top of the steps in the library, they look around in subdued amazement. This room (as all of you had already noticed) is more nicely decorated than the rest of the rooms in the tower and the two servants pause for a moment, studying the surroundings of the library.

Johan leads them into the windowless room where the corpse (now cut in half, along with a Vyn-sized crack in the rough table/bed on which it is lying) is located. Verinda and Frederick stop a few feet short of the bed, their mouths agape as they stare at the corpse's face. The look on their faces is that of shock and disbelief, but there is not a hint of remorse in their eyes.

Verinda turns to face Johan. Staring at him wide-eyed, in a halting voice she says, "That's definitely him, but he looks... old."

They are certain that the corpse before them is that of The Master.

They are also certain that they saw him leave that morning... dressed in robes, not the tunic and breeches that adorn the corpse lying before you now.

Johan looks back at the corpse (and since he made his Physician roll last game session) notices that now that a few more minutes have passed that the rapid decomposition of the corpse isn't so much rapid decomposition as it is accelerated aging. The face of the dead man appears to have gone from that of someone in their late 40's to someone in their late 60's.

Y’lora spends the better part of her time perusing through the various rooms within the Tower. Her findings mimic those of Vyn: the Tower (other than the library) is very utilitarian. One thing is for sure: the armory is not within the Tower. Y’lora then arrives back up on the third floor in the room with the corpse just as Johan has finished questioning Verinda and Frederick as to the identity of the corpse. Y’lora then spends a few minutes asking the servants questions concerning the details of the garrison located here within the complex… the order of command, the loyalty level of The Master’s minion, etc. Frederick responds, stating that the loyalty of the men stationed here runs anywhere from being held in service by fear to being almost blindly loyal, the latter being held mostly by the higher ranking individuals.

With that said, Frederick could not say for sure how each of the men would react, seeing their tattoos of “ownership” fade from their arms (at this point in time, everyone has pretty much guessed or assumed that the magical tattoos have all faded). Frederick corroborates the information that was gleaned by the party from the captured minions back on the ship with regards to the estimate of how many men are stationed here… his guess is around 50 men and dwarves, total.

In the end, Y'lora asks Verinda and Frederick if there is a lower level, below ground, to the Tower. Neither of them are aware of any rooms below ground. Deciding to check for herself, Y'lora heads back down to the first floor and begins to search the floors of the rooms, looking for any concealed doors that may lead to a basement/dungeon.

After staunching his wounds, Johan decides to delve into one of the tomes found by Arimas and Bruno: The 12 Towers. This book describes twelve stone towers that were constructed by the Sidhe 2000 years ago. The text focuses on the locations, overall construction, and the present condition of the towers. Information regarding their purpose (if any) is not given. One of the last pages of this tome contains a diagram. A summary of the contents of this tome can be found here (MS Word) or here (pdf).

Earlier, when Arimas was pouring over the book that was left open on one of the benches in the alchemy lab. "I wonder if there's any information in here regarding the cloning bodies or turning a different body into a Lich and then transferring one's essence into it?" thinks Arimas. After reading a bit, he finds that, no, there is no discussion as to the in's and out's of becoming a lich. Rather, the tome is a “how-to” book on brewing a Lich elixir (yummy). i.e., it is a formulary. That is the basic gist of what Arimas gets from the tome, anyhow. Actually trying to follow the "recipe" is difficult at best for him. It's not quite as bad as trying to get your cat to understand Schroedinger's Wave Equation, but you get the idea. In the end, it does not discuss the in’s and out’s of becoming a Lich.

Moving into the library to help Bruno look through the stacks of books found there, Arimas gravitates to the shelves in the southeastern corner of the library that deal with necromancy, looking for any information that might shed some light on becoming a Lich. The dominant subjects of the books revolve about reanimating of corpses and prolonging life. This set of books would be the best bet for finding something regarding transference of one’s essence (i.e., a Soul Jar). However, Arimas soon discovers that it will take some time (hours, not minutes) to go through the books in order to find what he might on that one subject.

Turning his attention to the books concerning the history of the Sidhe contained on the southern set of shelves, Arimas begins reading a book entitled "The Lost Nation of Beower". Within it, he finds the following information:

1) The seat of power of the Sidhe nation was a city-state called Beower

2) The exact location of the city is not known for sure, but the best guess is that it is on an island that has sunk into the sea.

3) Various historians have agreed that the most likely location is somewhere between the Island of Hronn, Ascoma Isle, and Arnur Soghal (the mainland). (for reference, click here)

4) In a couple places within the text of this book, reference is made to a place called “Dragon’s Point”.

In the end, Arimas takes one of the books that appears to be a grimoire downstairs to Siglan to see if he can identify in which language it is written. After studying the book for a few minutes, Siglan says that the language is similar to Frasspe (which he can read, and so can Alexis and Johan). As such, he identifies the language as being that of Ergant.

After 20 minutes have gone by, Siglan calls up for Y’lora to come to him. After another 10 minutes, Y’lora is practically bouncing back up the stairs. When asked for why she was so happy, she relayed what Siglan had found in the slave trade ledger: The ledger spans the timeframe from 30 years ago to present day. The entries in the ledger are concerning sales of slaves. The entries usually give the name of the unfortunate soul being sold, but not always. After searching for nearly half an hour, Siglan found two names that pique his interest: Ernwith and Calembel Eladiel. The reason that these names grab Siglan's attention is because that is Y'lora's surname as well. These two individuals were apparently appropriated in or near the town of Ramluine, an elven coastal town northwest of Fehutros, near the northern reaches of the Derzaunen Mountains. The shipment of slaves of which Ernwith and Calembel were a part appears to have been sold to a clothing merchant named Thalantius who resides in (or, at least, the point of sale was made in) Cloie. (Cloie is a town about 100 miles east-southeast of Espydur. See the attached bitmap. ) The ledger lists them as being 32 years of age and bringing a price of 300 copper, each. The date of this entry is 344 F.S. (26 years prior).