Book 3: Dreamers of the Nameless Spires
Chapter 1: A Most Unwelcome Truth
Or, Well, this has been fun, but I don’t really feel any connection to this Snowy Owl person.
Session Summary
Yoi-ko bids farewell to the party, citing discomfort with Snowy Owl’s godhood, and distributes his posessions, such as a bag of holding, auric noodles, a wayfinder, and a “cool lion dagger” (cold iron dagger) before leaving to rejoin Uliquq. The remaining party—Sammakko, Hector, and Snowy Owl—descend into Dr. Etward Ritalson’s basement.
Sammakko loots a chest with platinum pieces, a wand of bless, healing potions, and a greater staff of protection. In a library they uncover notes on many subjects of interest to Dr. Ritalson. They find Oil of Dynamism, scrolls of Vaporform and Divine Wrath, and talismans.
They find Shylock in a cell and Hector bends the bars open. Snowy Owl wakes the drugged Shylock using Cleanse Affliction as Sammakko chats with his raven familiar Matthew via telepathy. In the nearby sedation room they collect manacles and poisons, including slumber wine.
They proceed to a large central library where Hector spies and disables a sleeping gas trap in the great hall. Combat erupts against leukodaemon and ceustodaemon guardians; the party defeats them using heavy maul strikes, magic spells such as Holy Light, Thunderstrike, and Dragon Breath while withstanding fire and pestilence attacks, jaws, and claws. The defeated daemons melt into oblivion.
Timeline
- Yoi-ko leaves party, gives care package of items including bag of holding and auric noodles.
- Party enters damp basement, detects snoring and magic.
- Loot chest in coat room: 20 platinum (Castrovellian), wand of bless, potions, staff of protection.
- Read notes in first library: aiudaras, travel from Lichgate to Icegate, blackfrost zombies.
- Find Oil of Dynamism and Scroll of Vaporform. Discover notes on dream invasion and Dreamlands obsession.
- Free Shylock from cell after Matthew telepathically vouches for him.
- Shylock rejoins the party, explains his arrival at Lichgate and drugging by Ritalson.
- Second library notes: vanished yurt in Findeladlara’s temple near Icegate.
- Find Scroll of Divine Wrath and talisman against spells/haunts.
- Sedation room: collect manacles, lethargy poison, slumber wine.
- Hector spots and disables gas trap nozzles in great hall.
- Combat starts with leukodaemon and ceustodaemon emerging from behind curtains.
- Leukodaemon is unable to infect Hector with a plague due to his high fortitude.
- Ceustodaemon paralyzes Sammakko, Shylock dispels it.
- Party defeats daemons using melee, spells, and resistances.
Library Notes
Aiudara: These notes detail Etward’s investigations into aiudaras and their relationship to the Missing Moment. The notes indicate he’s been spending a lot of time at Lichgate, and include directions to this location from Lepidstadt. The notes also describe how one can use a moonstone to activate Lichgate to travel to Icegate in the Crown of the World.
Blackfrost: The notes describe the physical effects of blackfrost, boast about Etward’s immunity, mention its capacity to create blackfrost zombies, and ruminate upon the true nature of the curse, theorizing that “Osoyo’s dreams” may be the source of the ash-like substance. The fact that blackfrost seems to progress more quickly when an afflicted creature dreams has further intrigued Etward, although he’s not sure yet what to make of this observation.
Dreams: Here Etward details how, ever since the Missing Moment, he’s been able to invade the dreams of other Gatewalkers. The notes further reveal how obsessed he’s become with dreams and his quest to find a way to travel to the legendary Dreamlands, where he believes he will be reunited with his missing memories and become much more powerful.
Gatewalkers: These notes provide a full list of all of the Gatewalkers he’s watched through dreams, including the PCs, any gatewalkers they’ve encountered and, in particular, Queen Equendia of Skywatch. His descriptions of her leading the city’s population north on a dangerous journey to the Crown of the World are tinged with admiration and jealousy—it’s obvious Etward wishes he commanded this level of servitude over a large group of people. The notes conclude with him wondering if the queen reached the Nameless Spires, and ponder “what she might now be” after spending time amid the blackfrost and dreams of Osoyo.
The Guest: These notes describe how Etward found a partial, oversized mummified hand in his belongings when he woke from his Missing Moment, and how he’s been growing that hand back into a full body. He calls the resulting creature “the Guest” and describes the containment chamber he built to house it. These notes also reveal the uses for the three levers in that room.
Mind Harvesting: These notes detail how Etward has been harvesting the minds of Gatewalkers and infusing their memories and psychic powers into Lichgate. He hopes to use the aiudara to merge their psychic energies with his own so he can then stand before Osoyo at the Nameless Spires and use his enhanced power to free the entity from its prison. The notes include the names of previously harvested gatewalkers, and include the characters’ names with an extra note observing how “the potential in the dreams of these final pawns may be the greatest of them all.”
The Vanished Yurt: Etward notes in many places that more than memories went missing during his Missing Moment—there are gaps in his fortune as well, indicating that he spent a fair amount of money during the Missing Moment. His investigations have revealed that this money went toward financing an expedition to the Nameless Spires, but the apparent loss of one of his family’s greatest treasures, an explorer’s yurt, intrigued him the most. He secured a scroll of discern location and used it to make an astonishing discovery—his family’s explorer’s yurt is now located in a remote abandoned temple devoted to Findeladlara, the elven goddess of architecture, art, and twilight. This temple can be found at the very edge of the High Ice, about 5 days’ journey from Icegate in the Crown of the World.
Treasure
- Yoi-ko’s gifts
- Wayfinder with a smoothing aeon stone
- Spacious Pouch
- Cold Iron Dagger
- Goggles of Night
- Auric Noodles (eaten)
- Shylock’s possessions:
- Greater Staff of Protection
- Wand of Bless
- Explorer’s Clothing with a +1 armor potency rune
- A Sling with 20 Bullets
- 3 moderate healing potions
- Cookware
- 1 Sterling Artisan’s Toolkit
- 20 platinum pieces
- Ring of Sustenance
- Oil of Dynamism (1 use)
- Gallows Tooth talisman (used in combat)
- 3 sets of average manacles
- 1 set of good manacles
- Lethargy Poison (3 doses)
- Slumber Wine (1 dose)
- Scroll of Vapor Form (Arcane/Occult/Primal) Common 4
- Scroll of Talking Corpse (Divine/Occult) Uncommon 4
- Scroll of Divine Wrath (Divine) Common 4