Cubes, Crowns, and Crawling Hands

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We head across town to the next tower. There’s some of those weird guys watching us, but they don’t want to talk. Saalym doesn’t want to attack them, so we leave everyone be. The tower, when we get there, isn’t really a tower. It’s a big rock covered in weird writing. Sammy and the Mage Lady say it’s time mage and requires a powerful stick to make it work.

The next tower has red lights up top. Turns out to be floating red orbs. There’s also big blocks of ice in holes in the walls, one even has a skeleton inside, and a big fire thing. So we light the fire, and the ice blocks melt and try to eat us. It’s very messy after we stop them. We find the next clue in the ceiling about quenching fire with ice.

The next tower has mist all around it and purple light. Inside there’s lots of crying and sobbing, and my mom yelling at me about how terrible I am. But Doc says it’s not real. Eggy sure thinks it’s real, and Saalym has to go rescue him. The top of this tower says to show our face to the sky. But we didn’t have to do anything, so people think there must be something else, but no one can figure it out. Somebody laughs at us as we leave.

The next tower is kinda fun. There’s writing all over the walls that even I can read. Ivira must have gotten trapped in here, she’s very silly. The door at the top says The Crown Knows All. Cool! Maybe it can help us. We go inside and there’s an old woman with a black crown of tentacles on. She doesn’t look happy. I try to whisper in her head, but there’s nothing there. Somebody finds some writing about getting a secret out of somebody else. I take the crown off the lady and she turns to dust. I hear a whisper to destroy the crown and restore her memories, so I put it on. I start forgetting stuff from when I was a kid, which I don’t mind all that much, but is probably bad. Saalym takes it away from me and puts it in a bag so Doc can break it on the anvil.

On our way back to the anvil. we see a shiny dome with big columns. We go take a look and get levitated up the column. There’s a bunch of people frozen, floating with their legs crossed. They look real peaceful. Nothing in their pockets, though, except a shiny pearl. Eggy acts like them and then there’s two Eggys and they’re both really annoying, but at least they’re only talking to each other.

We also stop at another tower on our way. This one has people carved into the walls. Up top is a statue of a wizard. There’s words, but they’re a bit messed up. Doc and I put the wizard back into the center of the room where it belongs. Eggy finds a bag full of beans. I’m hungry. The Mage lady says the words say to stand firm in a circle of death and eat something. No idea what. I try to talk to the metal wizard, but her head makes my brain itchy. Sammy and the Mage lady say it’s a spell, but we’re not sure how to fix her.

There’s another big building nearby. It’s got posters for a show on it. The Dark Between the Stars. There’s lots of dead bodies here, even up on stage, and all the instruments are broken, too. Saalym says there’s undead feelings here, but nothing is moving. She goes up an starts conducting and the dead wake up and start playing. She doesn’t really play music, though, so I have to help her. Together we get them to play their whole song. It’s really cool and makes my tummy feel funny. The dead audience applauds and throws ghostly roses. Then every ghost disappears.

We keep going, we’re a lot way from the anvil. There’s a tower with a crown floating on top. There’s a glass chamber floating up above the broken tower. I use my dagger to go up there and then pull Doc up after me. We can see the whole city up here. There’s a bunch of broken things, but we find a ship in a bottle that didn’t break. There’s also a demon stone wand that we put in a bag real careful.

Then we finally get to the anvil. We break the crown and I get my memories back. Hope that lady is resting now, too. Then we smash the wand, too. When we leave, some of those spikey guys attack us, so we have to kill them.

Then we go to the fallen tower we skipped before, but it’s not just fallen, it’s mostly buried. There’s a bunch of crawling hands all around it, trying to dig the tower out of the ground. They’re not doing very well, and they don’t like to be touched. We spend HOURS digging to get access to the tower. We meet a ghost who wants us to help get his body out of the tower. Which is weird, but sure. We find the next clue, to trace a circle of the ashes of the dead. That’s a lot, so we take a break.

Eyeballs and Feelings

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The next tower had eyesh and handses on the oushide. I’m not shure why though, we only founda big glashball full of eysh up top. No hansh at all. Shomebuddy saysh ash and shee, so I ashed it where da key ish. It showed mea big telecope. Sho I go ta leaf, but Shammy shays wait. He ashes if hish parens rin heaven. The eyeballs shay dey in Hell. Shammy makesh me fly ta look for da shcope, but I cannat findit. I wait on a big glash buildin. Foun the big heads body tho. Gotta givit back. I’m sheepy, sho I taka nap.

I wake up on his shoulder, feelin a bit better. We’re fightin more blue guys an we make em poof. Then Doc punches the door open, and a frog jumps out. I think Sammy shays itsa salad, or summin. We smoosh it. Up on the top floor is another big funny frog. Dis one’s lookin at the telesope. We cant talk to em and he only hisses at us. There’s no key in his pockets, so I slip in and lookit the scope – nuffin there.

He gets made though an hits me. Is fair, so I go look at some glowy letters, but everyone’s mad now, and hurt him. He throws a little fire at me, but it’s fine. Saalym doesn’t want to kill the frog, but the mage lady won’t read the words while people are fighting. And Sammy says it’s not really killing, just sends him home. But then he fireballs the whole room, and Saalym still says leave him alone, but the others don’t, and he goes poof, too. Saalym runs away mad again. Sammy and Eggy follow her.

The mage lady says the words talk about burning palms and sharing secrets – I wonder if it means the hags. If it does we’re never gonna get this magic key. Leshy and the mage lady think we need to go find more towers to see what the clue means. We look around some more, and then head down to keep looking.

But then Eggy, Sammy, and Saalym gets back, and Leshy makes my buzz go away. Sammy says Saalym’s god saved her life so she has to do what he says. He wants her to get revenge on evil things, even when those things help us. Which is silly. But she thinks I didn’t want her to listen to her god, I just didn’t want her to make Us listen to her god. I tell them I’m not allowed to hurt fey and I don’t agree with her god that people doing good things should just be killed because he says so. Eggy says we have to care about how what we do affects people, but I have been. I don’t touch magic things that could hurt people without asking first. Eggy says emotional hurt, not physical. So, now we’re supposed to talk about every decision first to make sure it won’t hurt people, but I don’t think this is going to work if we have to go back to the hags, because hurting them hurts me emotionally, but Saalym’s god thinks they’re evil and should die. But Saalym promised to talk and listen, so we will see what happens. I really do think maybe I’ll ask the dryad to send me and Doc home.

Everyone wants to rest after we have that big talk. I’m bored of them and sober, so Doc and I go check out the glass dome I slept on earlier. Everything inside is tiny and covered in ice, but it’s pretty. There’s a spinny ride in the middle of it. If you pull the lever then it all spins around. It’s really fun, but it tastes bloody. I think this is how they made weird creatures. Put blood in it and spin it all around together.

The other building nearby is a theatre. It’s really boring though. Not a single costume is left. There’s a chained up desk, so Doc fixes that. There’s a play about Blasting Kings or something. Bunch of copies with different characters on the front. I put them in my bag, maybe the Queen would like it if someone performed it for her. Then we go back to the group to rest. This place is weird.

Rude Jerks

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The City looked pretty cool. It has all its own lights glittering in the dark and reflecting off the ice. So, we head right on in. We have to climb over a statue of a giant with a mouth in its belly to get in, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

There’s a field with a shiny black thing in the center, so I go immediately to look. It’s a playing field, but it hurts Doc when he tries to follow. Then a lady in the sky says I can choose my team for chained lightening, at least, that’s what the mage lady said she said. I pick the whole group, but Eggy doesn’t want to play. It’s a really fun game. I grabbed up the metal ball first and threw it at the sparky trident at the end of the field, then it started sparking, so I grabbed it up again and threw it at the other team. I don’t think they were really real, cuz the one that got hit, and the one next to him exploded. Then I did it again, and then Leshy got the ball, but he let me throw it, and I exploded the last two guys, as well. Then the lady in the sky gave me a black shiny trophy goblet thing. I am the Best at Chained Lightening!

Then we got to the big tower. There’s a massive golden ball out front, but the ball and the tower are behind a big invisible wall, and Sammy can’t get us through it. The mage lady says we need to make a key to get in. I try all the keys I’ve collected, but none of them work. So, we head back to one of the towers to start looking for keys.

The first tower we look at is covered in runes and it gets really confusing when Doc and I go in, but only for a minute. Up in the top of the tower is an anvil and hammer with blue runes on them. And six big bald guys like the ones that exploded in the game, except they have armor instead of matching clothes. The mage lady says there’s dragon writing on the ceiling, but when I try to go look at the hammer, the bald guys attack us. Sammy says they’re constructs, so we turn them off by hitting them a lot. After, Doc breaks a bunch of demon rock items we still had in bags, and the weird saddle that enslaves the rider. The mage lady says the ceiling says we have to shield our hear with a wand of a nether oak. Wands aren’t good shields, but we decide to go check out the forest in the city.

We wander through the city to the forest of yellow leaves. Eggy talks to one of the trees, and it says there’s a big oak in the center. We go find Grandfather Oak in the center of the glade. I chat with him and offer to trade him for a wand, he doesn’t want things we have. So, I tell him we’re going to kill a goddess if he helps, and he likes that more, and starts to hand over the wand. Then Sammy! Sammy drains all the water out of Grandfather Oak! Sandro and Doc help me get the wand before it gets broken, and everyone else kills him! I tackle Sammy after the fight. That was rude, we were in his home! He was giving us what we needed! He says Saalym told him to because the Oak was evil. So, I have another argument with Saalym about good and evil and her stupid judgy god.

I get mead from Leshy and we head back to the nearest tower to see if there are more hints. Is good mead. Love mead, tastsh like home. Some flying statues attack us on the way out. Stupid statues. They’re all shmashed now. The wand doesn’t open the wall around the big tower.

The next little tower has circles around it. And brooms sweeping inside. Sammy goes for a ride on a broom. The top room has glowing orbs in the walls, and a mini tower in the center, and a bunch of big floating hands. The hands all point at us and then try to grab and smack us. Doc and I kill one while everyone else deals with the rest. Then I go look at the tower.

A magic door opens in the air when I touch it, so I head inside. Everyone follows. There’s three Aunties inside. Aunties Pinch, Pillage, and Plunder in their den. They say they have information that can help us make the key we need, so Doc and I start negotiating with them and all the random items we have. They say they have enough things, but want something unique. They ask for a memory from each of us. Saalym immediately refuses, so Doc and I work out what magic items will make up for her memory. Then Eggy says he won’t do it either. Sammy is willing, and me, and Doc, and the Mage lady. We start trying to negotiate to replace Eggy’s memory, too, but then Sandro and Leshy both say No, too. They are so rude! It’s a fair trade, you don’t need your memories, but we Need to know how to make the Key! They start saying terrible things about the Hags, so I grab Doc and we say sorry and head out. Jerkfaces don’t really want to defeat the stupid goddess lady, won’t even give a memory. Thish meads relgood. I’mma jusht dink til wedon. Shtupid humans. Shammy’sok tho.

Nesht builing is tusky, and dumb. Scooolr sumin. Big room wifancy cup. Is got hot water dun go way. Shtupid humansget majik from it. Shtopid humans. Shtopicup can en tak wif.

Then theresa big book plash. Anna demon. And Saaaaaaalhm dun attack Im! No, helpim! Find shtoopid book? No find. Find buncha boring hishtry. Den attack him for hish pengin. He poofs away. Pengin’s nish.

Down, Down, Down We Go

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I was going to take everyone back to the big blinking head and the ghosts, but then we got distracted by an icy slide tunnel. It just looked like so much fun. So we slide on down to a big cavern. It had some many-legged dragons in it. One of them was really big and curled up around some eggs, the other two were smaller. Awww, dragon family.

They are not happy to see us, though. Eggy is really happy to have big monsters to hunt, and as they attack without talking, there’s not much I can do to stop him. Doc grabs me up and we go swimming into the big warm pool to fight the Mommy dragon-thing. After they all stop attacking us, I gather up the eggs for a nice lunch later on.

There’s another icy slide down out of this cave, too. Down we go! This room is full of icicles. Over on one side is a black dome building with sparkly star designs on it. We go over to investigate and meet some weird elf people. I can’t really understand them, but Saalym and Leshy can. They say the dome belongs to them or their Mom or something. They say we can look inside though, but Saalym and Leshy get weird about it. I look inside anyway. No big magic item to get rid the stupid goddess lady, though.

So, we head down the next tunnel. There’s another dome in here. This one has a wizard statue out front. Some of the icicles in here fall on us. Leshy gets mad at the poor little thing and kills it, but Doc and I put ours back up on the ceiling. Silly little icicles.

The next cavern has trees in it! Real, living trees with purple pears. Underground. I Don’t Like It. There’s paths back home in places like this. Doc wants to go look, though. Then a weird gnoll comes out, and four more people. They have big fangs and pale skin and don’t want to talk. We fight them, and Saalym says the four look like the one who bit her, but they all look different to us. The gnoll vampire turns into mist before we kill him, and floats away, but the rest of them die.

Then a Dryad lady walks out of the forest and asks if we got rid of them all. We tell her about the gnoll mist. She’s been down here a very long time, taking care of her trees. I give her some mead from Leshy’s jug. She really likes it and we offer to help her replant her trees up near Good Mead so she can have more. Eggy thinks maybe if she went into an acorn or a branch or something, we could replant her up above where the sunshine will be after we win. She’ll think about it, but she got really drunk on the mead and needs to take a nap. We’ll come back after.

Doc and I scout ahead, but find a dead end with some spikey guys hiding up on a shelf. We shush them and back up so Eggy doesn’t come kill them for not hurting anybody. We go back to the forest room and take the next tunnel. It’s another slide, but less slidey. And it’s really, really, really long. We’re about to turn around and go back up, but then we find the City Under the Ice. It’s really pretty!

Elks, and Tigers, and Ghosts, Oh My!

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Off to the big ice again. Without Twitch, but with Sammy back! It’s so boring out here. Eggy calls it tundra, but I think it’s just humdrum. Once we get close to the really tall ice, though, it gets more interesting.

First there are a bunch of men in elk hides – Tribe of the Elk, they say. They were looking for us, because their leader with a funny name I can’t spell had a vision. He says Tigers are coming to spill our blood to keep us from what the stupid goddess lady has hidden under the ice. Eggy says there’s tigers with sabers for teeth out here, or maybe it was teeth you could make into sabers. He said I could have one anyway. A tooth, not a tiger. He doesn’t think Yogi will get along with a tiger. The elk leader says it’s probably the Tiger Tribe, not actual tigers. We offer to share our food and the elk people escort us to the path into the ice.

Then we ran into twice as many Tiger people as the Elk people with us. One of them even had a big-toothed tiger! I shout out to warn them not to attack us because we’re just going to kill them. After we kill a bunch of them, I finally convince another bunch of them to surrender. Their leader lady with the tiger doesn’t surrender, though, so most of them die. Eggy does get me a tooth from the tiger, though. Maybe Leshy can make it into a sword for me. I take the lady’s snowflake symbol and Saalym and I carve a silly face into it, so I can wear it.

Then we leave the ones that surrendered with the Elk people and head into the ice. The mage lady reads the end of the goddess lady book and the whole wall of ice opens up. The tunnels are really narrow, Yogi doesn’t like it. We find an old shipwreck in the first room, it’s got a handful of headless skeletons and an iron safe in it. I work on the safe, while some flaming skulls come in and start trying to set everyone else aflame, too. I keep working on the safe while everyone else smashes the skulls. I find a cool bag inside. It doesn’t have money or feathers in it, but I’ll figure it out later.

Doc and I go looking around. There’s lots of dead ends. But there was also a kobold with glowing red eyes, but he doesn’t want to talk to us and runs off. One of the room has those friendly ice flying guys like on the island, but these don’t want to talk to us. It also has part of a tower frozen into a wall or something, with a skeleton inside, but there’s no way in. Saalym and Eggy start breaking down the wall while Doc and I keep exploring.

We find another broken tower. This one has a chest with some potions in it. Then we found the opposite side of the tower room the party was in, but the wrong side of the wall. Then there was a room with a giant metal head in it. It’s eye were glowing and it could answer yes or no questions by blinking. It wants its body back, but the goddess lady didn’t hide him. Then we found a room full of ghosty things, and Doc was too loud to sneak past them. They hurt a lot, but we put them all to their rest. Then went back to the party to rest. Eggy gave me another one of the feel better water vials. I did feel a little better, but still really weak. After we rested for an hour, though, Doc and I felt a whole lot better.