The Fall of the White Tower
The Octurne
68 Autumn
They find an elevator-shaft-like area and Sav figures out how to use it to get them up to the top floor. There they find a large study- or command-like room, filled with shelves of tetrahedral archives, a Teleportation Circle and glass panes with Celestial writing everywhere, including a map that shows other Circles in the world:
- one to the Cathedral
- one to a place in Jorung
- In Ithar
- In Moraeth
- Far to the east, beyond the Fading Wood
- And two other enormous continents
Sav yells at everyone to grab as many pyramids as possible; Danica unlocks a slightly different one Nurie’te indicates that has layers and layers of information inside of it.
Eventually, as time draws short and the place crumbles further, they make their way across the bridge to the center of the warm golden light that seems to be holding back the dark shape below. Foreign emotions of a dizzying array well up inside them and see golden wings unfurl, and hear in their minds:
Cite
“Long have our people searched the stars for the world we lost; now … our people are nearly at their end.
“Our work here is not yet ready. You can help us. You can help us. Have you come to join?A body turns toward them, lights of teal and pink, four wings spreading wide; a brilliant beautiful curl of tentacles curling from the face: the aasimar king, Aluvyn’dralor, illithid-corrupted. “Have I awaited you? You will join. You will help save our people.”
They make like trees and scramble the fuck out of there, managing to use the Teleportation Circle machine in time to send them streaking white across the sky back to the Cathedral, as the Octurne finally crumbles apart. The White Tower is revealed and spears the earth, cracking its crust far to the north.
Stingers
- Reis Auldaran grabs his stomach, guts spilling out after someone’s stabbed him, asking plaintively, “What the fuck is the Puppet Gang?”
- In a field of crops, the land has been scorched, lightning carving a circle into the soil while the farmer watches in horror A sphere of blackness spreads out from the center; in the middle kneeling is a man, gray-haired, body covered in old scars, garbed in cloth and leather, with a strange black carapace armor, a glass hammer, and one scarred blind eye toward the white tower. The farmer asks who he is; the man says, “My name is Rhun Enkerig. I’ve come to destroy the illithid.”
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