Session 21: Emberil

All Along the Clocktower
"“Do you have the patience to wait // Till your mud settles and the water is clear? // Can you remain unmoving // Till the right action arises by itself?”" '''Fuck. DUCK!'''

A shadow falls over us in the split of a second, so quick only the air from the monster's wings reaching my face is evidence I saw anything at all. A shriek cuts through the commotion--some manta-ray looking demon that sprang from the gears and cogs above falls over Ian. As quickly as it came down, up again with Ian in its clutches--higher, above, suddenly out of sight. The group is stunned out of action. Who trained these recruits?

'''REMEMBER YOUR TRAINING! ASSUME FORMATION. FIND IAN. DELIVER THE EAGLE EGGS.'''

My noble leadership training workshops finally came into use. Although the group couldn't see me, cloaked by my Celestial gift of invisibility, the words spurred the bumbling idiots into action. My graceful levitation, yet another gift from Sigrun, was unmatched by the gaggle of geese that are these recruits who made it up onto the rafters with me. The only place to go is up.

The weight of the group on the ladders around the corners of this section of the clocktower has triggered the gears to start turning. As I wait for the others to make their way up after Ian, up to eagle nests to deliver the eagle eggs, (I wish I could be around the table when Lucretia or one of her minions concocted this half-baked mission to prove oneself worthy of such power) I look up and see a hazy darkness.

Strange.

My devil's sight, ANOTHER Celestial gift, usually cuts through all darkness--magical or not--within this distance. Still, something hazy and unnatural about this darkness. When we pass through this veil of darkness, all the colours appear desaturated. As if we're in black and white. The cogs and wheels continue to turn, now we're on a platform and array of connected gears, cogs and wheels turning. The distorted and difficult terrain proves challenging for this group of hopeless, inexperienced dopes. I levitate behind them. Although at this point, I have to drop my invisibility to focus on levitating. The group sees me, but aren't so concerned when the demon with wings make another appearance.

The attack renders casualties, including Ian but the beast is eventually slain by us. The group completes their mission.

But my keen, honed senses feel great power further above. The others miss it--probably overwhelmed by their own stench of fear.

I levitate another 50 feet up and see a mural. Not just any mural. This magical mural represents all of the planes. It shows the layers of realities and planes as they exist--in a simple way so that even the least intelligent minds can comprehend it. The Druid was mentioning something about the royal tinkerer having a space here to work. And sure enough, I see the sigils. Unfortunately, unlike in the lower houses, there is no recess to place my key--except for the tinkerer's sigil. Damn.

It's incredible the energy I am feeling from this mural, particularly shadowfell. Why? Could explain the desaturated area just below.

The door with the sigil is very thick, I hear little clings, clangs and tiny feet scurrying about behind it. A door flips open and a robotic arm unfurls like a metal fiddlehead. After some coercing, I'm doused in oil most unceremoniously. Then the damn thing tries to light me on fire, not before letting me know "master isn't home." Master being Fonkin Jones. A name from a book that my dear halfling friend recognizes most excitedly. Perhaps clues exist in the book. Could there be anything helpful in the tinkerer's domain of the clocktower?

While we make it back with the recruit to camp, ignoring Viter and Ivasar's petty little quarrel, we stand and watch the next part of the ceremony for the recruits. Next they must go and visit the monastery of the infamous monks who are obsessed with death.

The trek to the monastery is uneventful, but I immediately understand the shared public disdain for these monks. The smell is ... a lot.

We are taken down after passing many phases and stages of human death and preparation, into the catacombs below.

FUCKING HELL. It's a trap. Of course it's a trap. But why? The recruits begin to "let the light enter" into their minds from the delirium shards and crystals in this chamber below ground. They start to hear things, which is what Lucretia aforementioned in her ceremony. Accept the light she said. Go to the shards.

I'm going to take one of these shards and turn her into a fucking unicorn when we return.

That is, once I do the same to one of the hags who just walked into the chamber with a tidy little army of monsters I've never seen before right behind her.

Lucretia. Zloya. Taste my sacred flame, BITCH!