Tag: Icewind Dale

The End is Just a New Beginning

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

The room at the top of the tower, with a floating, but not on fire, skull, four creepy one-eyed guys Sammy calls Not Thick, or something, and a moaning and floating rectangle of darkness. As usual, Eggy starts shooting, the four attack, and the skull screams. How does it do that, I wonder, without any breath?

The rectangle must be a doorway because Sammy goes into it. Doc and I jump down and fight the four guys because my daggers don’t hurt the skull. He throws a the guys into the pit for me to fight, but mostly they just squish. I fall asleep waiting for a live guy to show up, or something, I hurt real bad when I wake up. But I find the scroll for the Aunties, and by the time I get out of the pit, there’s even more dead bodies in it. I wonder where they came from?

But everyone is dead that was trying to make us dead, so we look around and take some treasure. The Mage lady reads a few books. But she doesn’t find anything special enough to power the make winter go away orbs. Sounds like we did all this for nothing. Oh well, we can go back to that Island and have a talk with the stupid goddess lady, I guess.

Doc and I have to go deliver the scroll, though. So, we head back to the bottom of the tower, but there’s fighting outside. Then the forcefield out there explodes as this weird big owl-ish lady flies in and heads for the top of the tower. Sammy say’s it’s the goddess lady and they need our help, so we lock the front door and back up we run.

When we get up there she’s not an owl thing anymore, and then she’s not a person anymore, because she’s a big shiny ice crystal. We smash that to dust, too. She’s a bad lady (I really need to explain this to Saalym, it’s not good and evil, it’s good and bad. Good people help each other, bad people don’t help.)

Doc and I go back downstairs and there are lots of dead outside, and the undead are running away. We sneak out and back to the Auntie’s tower. They are quite surprised to see we are alive. They thought for sure we’d have died. But we have to keep our promises, don’t we? They’re going to tell my Mom I was reliable and kept my word to them. I do miss her. I hope I can go home soon.

We get back to the Tower and the Mage lady says we didn’t really kill the goddess, just are avatar, whatever that is. But that it was probably enough to stop the winter outside. We should get back to the big head and give it back to it’s body. And we have to find Saalym’s master vampire. And the Dryad is thinking about getting planted at Good Mead. So much still to do!

Sammy wants to try out the fancy staff he got before we go, though. So, we go to the big thing in the center of the city and he makes big magic. And it is bright and sunny again, and we’re outside. Flying through the sky. On the city, which isn’t a ruin anymore, and all the people are back and alive. He said it was time magic, did he travel us through the time soup? Or did he travel the whole city?

Oh well, new adventure. Mom will have to wait.

Tall Dark Tower

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

There’s another blue person guarding the door and telling us to leave. Only they didn’t even Lock the door, and then exploded into nothing pretty quick after they tried to attack us. A very bad Door Warden.

There’s a ballroom full of people inside, dancing, drinking, and eating little treats. The treats are nice light things. I cut in on one of the dances, at least I learned how to do this right at court. She doesn’t seem to know the city fell out of the sky and is buried under the ice. She also says the Lord of the Tower has not arrived because he likes to make a fancy entrance. She says they have a new ball every week here.

Nothing to learn from them, so we move on to a room full of staffs. There’s really pretty purple crystal one that I take for my Mom. There’s also a demon rock one, but we leave that one alone. Though some want to take it to break it, but we’re busy now. The next room is full of weird equipment and a suit of armor with a brain in a jar on top of it. They won’t talk and don’t like being poked and both attack us, but we break them both open so they’ll stop. Eggy finds a paper that says it’s the Lord’s staff that can control time.

We wander around a bit and back through the ballroom to a sitting room with more folks eating and talking. I check their pockets, but it’s all weird coins, so I take a few. We find a whole box of wine that nobody is drinking, too. These people don’t know that the city is fallen either. They’re just gossiping.

We keep going and find a big split down the middle of the tower, but we have some more places to look on this side first. Back through the ballroom and more treats, to a room with folks smoking and eating fruit. There’s a fancy chest in the center of the room. The people say you ask it for anything you want, anything simple anyway. I ask for some food and it does it, then I ask for a diamond and it gives me one. Leshy really likes that, so I ask for a bunch more. But when we leave the room, they start disappearing.

We find some office rooms, but all the books and scrolls fall apart. So, we go back to the split and Doc and I get everyone across. We climb up some stairs, but then we’re trapped in a dome with some shadow blades outside it in front of a door. Sammy, Leshy, and the Mage lady examine it and after some talking, Sammy makes it go away and we all run for the door.

The dome snaps back in place and the swords attack. They hurt people really bad, but we break them and the green gem that’s making the dome. The next room has eight doors with those magic symbols above each one. Doc and I go in, and it feels funny in there. Doc starts turning to stone, but then he stops messing around and we go look at the first door. The Mage lady says we’re supposed to name our Master to get through. So, I name the Queen and open the door.

It’s really dark inside, really dark. I try my driftglobe, but it doesn’t help. Then the darkness stabs me. I stab it right back, then Doc drags a spiky devil out into the room. I kill him dead. We try different names at all the doors, but nothing works, and it’s dark behind them all. So, Doc and I go exploring, tied to a rope, to see if we can find anything.

We find a really pretty room full of stars and chairs with those magic symbols on them again. There are lots of doors in here, but everyone is really interested in the stars and the chairs. So we look for a while, and then try the doors. The first one has a big tall floating rock in it. It won’t move or turn or swing or anything. The Mage lady is really excited about it and wants to look at it more while we go explore more.

We find some locked doors then – but they just lead onto a balcony. It’s a really fun balcony, though, makes your voice really loud. Doc and I had a lot of fun with that. The next room we find has lots of books and scrolls and a key. Not The Scroll, though. It tells us how to use the star room, though, so we go back. People have to sit in chairs that have the symbols of their own magic on them. When we get people on the right chairs another door opens into a really big room full of books.

Deals and Deceptions

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

The Mage lady got a message in her head from Avarice wanting to meet. Sammy got a message, too, asking him to help kill the Mage lady, but I tell him not to because Avarice is bad and a coward. Doc and I will go with her, and the rest will hold back unless we need them.

But first, they want to go deal with the Hags. That means they want to kill them, which is still a dumb idea, so Doc, the Mage lady, and I go off to explore a big building. Turns out to be a prison. It’s pretty empty, till we find a medical room. It has an invisible person strapped to a table. We unstrap him, but he doesn’t move. Mage lady says it’s powerful staying magic. We find a book that says it’s a doppleganger who murdered somebody. We wrap him up and put him in my bag, maybe the Queen can sort him out. I also find a couple potions, and the Mage lady says they’ll change our skin color, so Doc and I drink them. But it doesn’t really work on me. Doc’s now yellow!

As we head out, Sammy whispers that Doc and I need to come talk to the hags about a scroll they want and not to tell Saalym what the scroll is. WHAT?? They Talked to Them? Without US?!?! UGH! We don’t have time, though, it’s time to go see the coward lady.

Avarice shows up with a couple gargoyles to chat with Mage lady. She’s really mean and wants us all to leave or she’ll kill us. Mage lady says no and threatens her right back. So Avarice leaves, like always. Doc and I follow her, to catch her, but we hit her a little too hard and she turns into a pile of snow. The gargoyles fly away after that. We catch up with everyone and try to figure out where she went.

Eggy sees movement over across the city, so we go there, But it’s just bad men, goats, and more gargoyles. We have to fight them though, cuz they won’t leave us alone. They don’t have much on them, but we get another floating light and bodies to burn for the key into the tower.

Doc and I go back to the hags to make a deal. They want a summoning scroll and we all promise no hostilities after it is delivered. They say to do the ritual by one of the bridges, like the one by the prison we were at earlier, or by the big crystal. And they give us the last part of the ritual, too. We have to light a fire in our hands.

We’re still missing the final word, so we head to the eyeball tower. Saalym asks the orb of eyes what the last word is and finds out it’s poison we have to consume. So, then we go to the greenhouse and Eggy makes up some mild poison for everyone. Then back to the prison gate to try it all out.

Leshy does all the things. Put the wand in front of her heart, lights her hand on fire, tells us a secret, gets Eggy to tell us a secret, and then puts his hand out. Makes a circle of the dead guys’ ashes, looks up to the ceiling, and then drinks the poison. But nothing happens.

Sammy says there’s something wrong with the “show your face to the sky” part. We talk about how to get the sky down here, or send a copy up to the sky with the floaty room place. Then we remember the laughter at the tower with the mist. It must have been a wrong clue. So, we go back there. It’s really hard, we can’t see anything to do! Sammy flies up to the ceiling and says the words feel different. Leshy finally makes the magic go away, so Mage lady can see what it says. We have to hide our face behind a mask not look at the sky.

Back we go to the tower and everybody does the ritual and gets through the forcefield, sharing lots of secrets. It’s really fun! Even if some of the secrets are really sad. We’ve gotta go get Sammy’s family out of Hell and bring all three of them to the Feywild. I think he’d like it there.

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.