20210330 - Run 5
I asked Grandma why they had the names and mannerisms of elves but looked like goblins.
After the Weave was rent, on this world, there were a number of wars, with a large amount of magic. They look as they do, because one group of people on this world, fearing that they were losing, tore away the life force of this group of beings. They used to be elf-sized and elf-shaped, but they were indeed changed by this. They generally live shorter lives now, and are generally smaller, but are the same people. (Notably: this happened quite some time ago; everything is built for Small-sized beings)
Apparently if we slept outside, there are things that will drink our blood, there are things that will lay eggs in us and then the insects that burst out of them would probably not migrate into my thoracic cavity. Maybe we could import some fucking citronella to this place. Also there are worms and you shouldn’t sleep on the ground without a pad, because they will, you know, eat into you. Also, we should maybe avoid the Fungus Spires. That seems like a legit plan but apparently those are brain-eating fungal spores. (You can burn the Fungus Spires)
I hate the Arcane Tropics.
We stay the night in the elfgoblin village, the kids love it, we enjoy ourselves in their tiny huts protected from the ground worms and the ear worms and the fungal gnats and the ass hornets and every other predatory fuckin insect.
Next day, we head back to the moathouse/causeway (Falaariel escorts us there) and prepare to go across the causeway. Go back in, walk through the whole path of destruction we’d cut, get to the machinery to open the “back” portcullis, and then lift the portcullis.
The causeway continues for a long bowshot, and then we run into a shimmery field that blocks our passage. I hold up the rod of office we got from the moathouse, and then D.va critiques my rod posture until we get it to work.
As we approach, the “one tower” in the distance almost unfurls into a huge complex of 5 or more spires, all connected by midair bridges, surrounded by a huge ornate hedge and with a big gate at the entrance / end of the causeway. We have a choice of either going in the moat and swimming with weird crabs or something or going to the gate and trying to get through it.
Oh wait, the gateway is open.
We stop 30 feet from the gate and D.va casts detect magic. She sees conjuration and illusion, which gives us all a little bit of pause. Nyla looks through the gate and sees a feather through the gate, and as she says this D.va pounces after the feather through the gate. A voice in Old Kraskyan speaks from the top of the gateway, saying “Welcome, guests. Please, before you come and visit, make sure to see the topiaries. The statue. The endfruit tree. The contemplation bench. The roses. And, enjoy your stay.”
The hedges go up about 20’. There’s a path straight through, to a gate on the other side. But also, the hedges are a maze. In the middle of the hedge maze there is a 30x40’ space with a large statue in the center.
D.va sprints all the way through the maze and goes through the gate on the other side, and is teleported back to the beginning. This time, the list of ‘sights’ included ‘flower beds’, but I missed the order.
After D.va got done being super excited about her new feather, she pulled out her cartographer’s tools and started making a map. Caleb just scrambled up the side of one of the sturdier bushes making up the hedge maze, and gets a birds eye view of a very intricate maze. Indeed, everything is very immaculately kept, to the point where the feather on the path at the beginning seems like an oddity.
Mapping the maze, we find
We do all this, map the place, and try to go through the end gate, and get teleported to the beginning.
“Please enjoy the topiaries, flower beds, contemplation bench, roses, fountain.” So we figure we need to go to the landmarks in order. We do that. This has taken most of the day, but we get to the end of the maze having done all this, and we walk through. This time, we don’t get teleported back to the beginning.
Caleb wants to call the Maze Place “Bonetown”.
On the other side, there are 5 towers. From near us to far from us: a fan of 3 smaller ones, then a central tower, then one on the other side. They are connected by skybridges and they are surrounded by 20’ hedges - mostly ornamental, but still substantial. Even the ‘smaller’ towers are several stories high and 60’ in diameter. The towers don’t seem to narrow at all, and they don’t seem quite perfectly round. There are 2 5’ wide, 15’ tall doors, facing us, sheathed in metal, and closed. There is a knocker on each door, a ring in the mouth of an eagle. The rings are a good 12” in diameter total, 2” thick and 8” diameter on the inside.
The doors are clearly extremely heavy, and D.va detects abjuration on the doors, but they’re well enough balanced that her mage hand is able to pull the doors open by the knockers. So, we go in.
We go down a 10’ path that opens up into a 20’ by 30’ space, that is open ceiling and goes up 40 to 60 feet above our heads. 30’ in front of us lies a throne, and the room is ringed by stadium benches, looking in at the throne. The floor kind of ascends from us to the throne. There are stairs going up from the dias under the throne to a flat space behind it. There is a platform 15’ above the ground on our side; generally this is a throne room. There are alcoves to our left and right that have standing lamps in them, clay statues with grotesque faces with their heads being cups for oil. Two more of these lamps up on the level between us and the throne. There are a pair of walls behind the throne that are polished mirror smooth, probably to reflect on the throne or something, fuck if I know.
D.va detects magic on the lamps beside us, and on the lights around the pit. Probably continual flame.
As we fully enter the room, the same voice in Old Kraskyan says “Thank you. Please, await your audience.” There is, however, nobody here.
D.va scrambles up the room, deliberately trying to knock over at least one priceless grotesque magical lamp, and getting to the throne.
Once she gets there, a few things happen.