8th of Desnus: Strength, Will, and Hope
The Strength to Cross a Room and the Will to Withstand Deception
When the group wakes fully rested, they are happy that their watches were not disturbed, and with some trepidation, they ascend the steps, once again feeling the punishing weight of the floor pressing upon them. For some, they can barely stand as they adjust to the floor's pressure. When they can finally focus on the hall laid before them, they see walls of superior masonry, and the floors are a beautiful, natural-looking carved stone. They notice that it feels warmer on this floor than on those below, and the room is lit by glowing crystals placed every 20 feet, throwing strange shadows on the dim hallway. After about 50 feet, the hallway turns 90 degrees, continuing to the left and ending in a large room about 25 feet wide by 40 feet long. The room seems to be an extension of the hallway with similar floor and wall patterns and masonry, and is completely empty other than some glowing crystals on the walls to give off faint light. Roth, Tarian, Myne, and Ellete all notice a door with a lever next to it on the opposite end of the room, and know that there is probably something in the room to deactivate. The group looks from one to the other, and Tarian gives a shrug as he decides to be the test subject to step over the threshold. His knees immediately buckle, and he is shoved to the floor by the sheer pressure and weight in the room. He can do little more than give a desperate look to the others, telling them that he lacks the strength to even stand. Alex decides to test his strength, knowing that the rogue had little to no strength to endure the room. He manages to stay on his feet, but the pressure gets the better of him, and he finds himself unable to move forward.
Myne tugs on Rauros's ear, and with encouragement and pleading in her voice says, "Rauros, we need your strength to do this. Can you cross the room and pull the lever?"
The bear gives her a grunt, then lumbers forward. The group watches the bear brace himself as he steps over the threshold, then slowly pushes forward. The group cheer him on as he presses on across the room, laboring under the weight, and with his last bit of strength pulls the lever down with his huge paws to release the weight spell upon the room. With relief, Tarian gently gets to his feet, and they all cross the room to the door.
When Tarian reaches the wooden door, he finds some kind of mechanical lock on the door. He carefully attempts to disable the lock, but feels unconfident in his attempt, asking for another try to get the door to give. He succeeds, and the group smiles as they hear a *click* noise. When the door swings open, they see another hallway beyond that loops around in a long 180-degree path. At the end of the hallway, they see a smaller room than the last. As Tarian carefully enters, he senses a proximity trap on the floor, and smells a metallic odor in the room. He carefully steps forward to disable a trap that would likely set off some kind of electric discharge, letting out a sigh of relief as he feels the trap give to his efforts.
On one side of the wall, they see Azlanti writing scrawled on the wall, and Tarian reads it confidently, The Black Throne shall rise again. The Mother shall be chained.
They shudder at the dark words, and see a door across the room to hastily continue forward. The wooden door is also locked, and Tarian expertly picks the lock on the first try, swinging the door open to reveal another hallway. The light is still dim, and they press forward about 30 feet before the hallway loops around to the left, and after another 20 feet they come out to a small, square room. There is a sour odor in the room, and as they look around they see a tile mosaic of a mask with slits for eyes on the floor. The remains of a wooden shield lie broken on the floor, and they see other pieces of rotting wood throughout the room. They also see another door set into the same side of the wall, this one quite ornate. It is closed, and as Tarian tests it, he finds it locked, but does not sense any traps. The room's contents were eerie, and the group tries to stay on their guard as Tarian picks the lock, and carefully releases the latch on the door.
Tarian gasps and rushes into the room as he sees Myne face down on the floor, blood pooling out from beneath her, gasping as she tries to get up, and calling out for him.
He screams, "Poppet! Heal Myne! Please!"
He reaches her side, removes his cloak and wraps it around his daughter with his eyes welling up with tears.
At the same time, Roth grits his teeth as he sees his father in the center of the room with his leg badly injured, blood dripping onto the floor from the wound. He looks around the room to find the cause of his injuries, draws his bow and nocks an arrow when he sees Isidorian troops attempting to leave the room a short distance away. He begins firing on the troops, hoping to bring down those that injured his father.
Alex's face goes white, and he drops his sword and shield when he sees Sara in the middle of the room, on her knees and sobbing. Her red robes were tattered, and her hair was in disarray, yet he did not detect the overwhelming sense of an evil presence as he had in the past. She was whole, unlike her possessed state; his lover returned to him but in some kind of pain or distress. He rushes into the room, desperate to comfort her, kneeling beside her to check her status as she continues to sob.
Rauros goes alert, as if he sees a small creature to kill, and barrels into the room to try to bring down the prey.
The rest of the group look at Alex, Roth, Tarian, and Rauros with a mixture of confusion and desperation as they watch Alex, Tarian, and Rauros rush into the room towards a giant plant-like creature that begins to slowly envelop them in outstretched pods, while near them Roth fires arrows into the corner of the room. The act of their desperation and mindlessness tells the rest of the group that they are seeing things that are not there, and hearing Tarian's desperate scream to aid Myne, and the paleness of Alex's face as he tries to comfort a lover tells them that what they are seeing is very real for them. As they look around the room they see that there are floating specks of spores in the air that must have caused their hallucinations.
Mastodon rushes forward to attack one of the pods that was enveloping Tarian, who was unaware of what was actually happening to him. Mastodon watches as Tarian cries, trying to put his cloak over the pod, and Mastodon takes a swing at the pod, hitting with his first swing but missing his second. Tarian sees Sara appear, attempting to attack Myne with a powerful flame spell; Alex sees Kyus appear to pull Sara back with him, away from Alex; and Roth sees the Isidorian troops renew their attacks on his father. Lo pulls out his lute to play Inspire Courage, seeing the desperation of their group to free the others from the hallucination. Poppet casts Black Tentacles, allowing them to burst out of the floor to hold Tarian, Alex, and Rauros in place (hoping to protect them from themselves) but also injuring them slightly from the crushing grip.
Those hallucinating see their loved ones being pulled away by their assailants, and they desperately reach out to save them. Alex crawls towards Mastodon, seeing Kyus, and tries to grab hold of his legs. Mastodon manages to hold his ground despite the desperate paladin's best efforts. Tarian sees Myne being dragged away by Sara, and with every ounce of strength he has he tries to break free from something that was holding him back from being able to save his daughter. He screams at his inability to break free, watching helplessly as Sara drags Myne away by the collar of her shirt, smearing blood on the floor in a trail. Roth sees the Isidorian troops pulling his father away, the soldiers bringing his father to his knees before binding his hands and feet.
Roth shouts out in desperation, "Save my father!" as he nocks another arrow.
Rauros tries to break free from the tentacles, clearly thinking that his squirrel was about to be taken away by a rival bear, but he cannot pull away from the tentacles holding him in place.
Myne uses her magic to reach out to the plant's mind, understanding its language and then lying to it, "I know you must be hungry, but these creatures will not sate your hunger. They are poisonous and pointy, they will hurt and sicken you!"
The plant regards her curiously, and in a soft whisper says, "But I have not eaten in over a thousand years. I am hungry for meat."
Myne nods and says, "I understand your need, but you would do better to not eat these ones, especially after a thousand years! They will only disappoint you!"
The plant begins to slowly open its pods, releasing Myne's allies from its grasp as it says, "Very well. But I am so hungry."
Myne nods graciously at the plant and says, "I think I have some meat in my pack! We can give you good food in trade."
As Mastodon watches the girl speak to the plant, he sees her pulling meat out of her pack, and also pulls out meat from his rations to help placate the hungry plant. They toss the rations at the base of the plant, bowing in thanks for their friends' release.
The spores in the room dissipate, and Poppet dispels her Black Tentacles to release their comrades. Those that were hallucinating shake their heads as their visions recede, and they are left standing in front of a giant plant, breathing deeply from their visions and looking back to their comrades for answers with their eyes wide.
Poppet holds onto Myne's shoulder to express a job well done, and then looks to Roth, Alex and Tarian to explain with a soft and comforting voice, "You were seeing things that were not there...it must have been a hallucination induced by the plant. Some of us were able to withstand the deception...It will not harm us now."
Myne shudders as she looks at Tarian, his desperate screams for her still echoing in her head, and watches him turn towards her, pale but with a look of relief.
She flushes, and tries to calm him by saying, "It is okay...we are all unharmed."
Alex runs his hands through his hair, feeling taken aback at seeing his lover. As he looks around, disoriented and pale, Poppet backtracks to the door to retrieve the paladin's sword and shield. She makes her way slowly to Alex, holding the weapons out before him. Slowly, Alex registers Poppet in front of him, and reaches out to grab his sword and shield with white-knuckled intensity. Roth lowers his bow with a look of quiet embarrassment at being deceived by the plant. He lets out a sigh, and lowers his gaze to let the vision of his father dissipate. Rauros shakes his head, looking around in confusion for his quarry, and then lumbers back to Myne with a look of disappointment.
Mastodon nods as he watches those that had hallucinated gain control of their senses and says, "We should press on. Do not linger on your visions, they will do naught but harm."
The group begins to traverse the huge room, giving the plant in the center a wide berth, despite Myne's confidence that it would not attack them. They see another door on the other side of the room, and begin to make their way towards it.
Myne lingers near Tarian, seeing that he was taking longer than the others to pull himself together as the rest of the group begins to move towards the other end of the room. His actions under the hallucination had unnerved her, especially since Alex and Roth had seen intense visions of loved ones in danger. Before their coming-of-age celebration in Kassen, Tarian was a stranger to her, and even through their travels she was not particularly close to the rogue; she greatly disapproved of his disregard for laws and his own safety to acquire wealth. Tarian sees the druid looking at him with compassion and curiosity, and he clenches his teeth and fists as he is finally able to get to his feet; he could tell she wanted answers.
He allows her to guide him to a far wall in the room, away from the rest of the group, and she eyes him with wild intensity before quietly saying, "Why me? Why me in pain for you? I am nothing to you."
Tarian takes a deep breath, and swallows hard as he says with a slow but evasive voice, "There are things that have not been revealed to you yet, Myne..."
Myne crosses her arms, trying to maintain her composure as Poppet's harrow reading comes to the forefront of her mind, with 'The Foreign Trader' marked as Tarian by Poppet, there in her reading.
She hears Poppet's words as an echo, Perhaps it has more to do with a secret being kept from you, rather than Tarian himself. Or perhaps it's both…
Myne takes a slow breath, and gives Tarian an expectant look, allowing the intensity of her eyes to do the talking, as if to say, What things?
Tarian looks away from her intense glare, swallowing again. He resigns himself that now was the time to let it come out; the druid would haunt him over it if he didn't.
He sighs and swallows again, near tears, and tries to look her in the eyes as he says in a quiet voice filled with emotion, "You are my daughter."
Myne's eyes instantly widen, and unable to control herself she shouts out, "WHAT!?"
Myne looks away from Tarian with tears in her eyes, shaking uncontrollably and balling her fists in rage and emotion.
She finally turns back to him with a lower voice, her words tumbling out, "Why? Why didn't you tell me? We have traveled together for months, and all this time…"
Tarian closes his eyes and turns his face away from hers, and tries to soothe her with a soft and ashamed voice, "I... I thought you would be expecting more…"
Myne shakes her head at him, her words still spilling out as tears fall down her cheeks, "If my mother loved you, then that is enough!"
Tarian turns back to her, puts a hand on her shoulder to comfort her and says, "There is trouble that follows me...neither your mother nor I wanted to risk your safety by revealing my name."
Myne puts her hands over her face, openly crying in front of Tarian, and in a rage of emotion tries to push Tarian away from her, but with her strength drained and her mind reeling, she can only manage to pound gently on his chest before giving up.
She turns away from him in turmoil and rage with her hands balled into fists at her side, and through her tears she says, "I need some time."
As she turns away from him, Tarian lets out a sigh of emotion and leans against the wall, holding back tears of his own as he watches his daughter stumble away, her tears splattering on the tiled floor.
The rest of the group hears Myne's scream, and turn to see Myne and Tarian in an animated discussion on the far side of the room. They wonder among themselves what the rogue and druid would have to talk about, but know that it probably had something to do with Tarian's hallucination. They stay back, allowing them to have their private conversation, and after a while they see Myne coming towards them with red-rimmed eyes and the tracks of tears on her cheeks. Tarian follows after her, allowing the druid her space, and the group also sees that he has a cloudy expression as he approaches the door to try to unlock it.
Lo clears his throat and whispers to Tarian, "There is Azlanti writing here. We need you to translate when you're ready...What the hell happened over there, Tarian?"
Tarian runs his hands through his hair again, trying to clear his head and focus on the task at hand. He gives Lo a look that told the bard he would not be discussing his talk with Myne at that moment, and Lo gives him an understanding nod, allowing the rogue to focus on the inscription.
Tarian swallows down more emotion that wells up, and coughs to clear his throat as he focuses on the writing, saying, "It's a riddle:
There are four brothers in the world all born together.
The first runs and never wearies;
The second eats and is never full;
The third drinks and is always thirsty;
The fourth sings a song that is never good."
As Tarian reads out the riddle, Myne covers her face with her hands again, trying to control her emotion. While Poppet was unsure of what the rogue had said to Myne, she knew it must have been something of immense importance to the druid, and she sees that Roth too was concerned for his companion. Poppet carefully approaches Myne, indicating to Roth that she would comfort the girl so he could try to focus on the riddle, and allows Myne to curl up in her arms to quietly cry.
As the group talks among themselves about the riddle, Poppet gives Myne a squeeze before looking up to say to them, "It sounds like the elements, but I am unsure of the fit for each line...the wind sings..."
Lo nods and says, "Fire consumes…"
Myne looks up, controlling her emotion to say with a wavering voice, "A river runs, and the earth drinks."
Poppet nods and says out loud, "Water, Fire, Earth, and Wind."
The inscription glows bright blue, and the door slides up to reveal a set of ascending stairs. Tarian takes the lead, checking for traps as they make their way to the top of the steps that open into a very large room with platforms; in between which is nothing but a dark abyss.
Hope's Trial
The group takes in the sight of the huge room, and the dangerous drop-offs in between nine equally-spaced platforms i grid, with them standing on the middle platform of the first row. Floating above the center platform they see the familiar features of one of the guardians, his skin tracing the same blue lines across his skin. He is a human figure wearing dark robes and carrying a wooden staff with a smooth red orb set into the top.
He smiles at them and says, "Welcome, I am Hope. It is ironic that many of my comrades had little hope that you would reach this place, but you have defied that. There is only me that stands between you and the end of the nightmare."
Prepping for battle, Tarian uses his grappling hook to latch onto the platform diagonally, one platform up and to the left. When he attempts to swing across, he feels his grip loosen and immediately uses his boon from Kassen to make it across the gap. Roth nocks a blunt arrow, and aims a Called Shot at the orb on top of the staff. The arrow smacks into the orb, doing a small amount of damage to the orb, but not knocking it out of the staff. His second shot at Hope misses its target. Hope brings his staff in front of him to cast a spell, and is immediately engulfed in a black aura. The orb glows, and then the whole staff and the black aura disappear to be replaced with a medium-sized black dragon. Alex casts Knight's Calling on himself, but Hope is not compelled to fight him. Poppet casts Enlarge Person on Mastodon, who then runs and jumps to the center platform to confront Hope, using his momentum from the jump to deliver a heavy blow to the dragon. Myne shapeshifts into a Giant Falcon, grabs Rauros in her talons and flies up, delivering the bear onto the center platform to claw and slash at the dragon, but Rauros misses his strikes. Lo casts an orange Tiny Hut on their platform to hide the group from view.
Tarian uses the magical power in his Frostwake dagger, doing damage to the dragon and draining its energy as the magic leaves a frosty trail behind it. Roth fires three arrows, but they all glance harmlessly off its hide. Hope breathes in, and then spews a cone of green acid in front of it, hitting all that did not move out of the range of its head. Alex, Lo, Rauros, and Poppet take massive damage from the acid, while Roth, Mastodon, and Ellete manage to dodge and avoid some of the damage. Lo and Rauros fall unconscious, bleeding out on the stones while Ellete drops out of the air, also unconscious but not bleeding out. With rage, Alex runs and jumps to make it to the center platform, but nearly misses the jump, grabbing the platform with one arm, and barely holding on. Poppet heals Ellete, and then jumps to the platform to her right, with Ellete following her and casting a Cure Light Wounds to bring Poppet back from near unconsciousness. Mastodon turns and pulls Alex up from his dangling position, grimacing as the dragon takes a swipe at his back as he does so. Myne flies down, desperate to heal her companion and casts Cure Moderate Wounds on Rauros, bringing him back to his feet to slash at the dragon. Lo lays helpless on the ground, unable to bring himself back from unconsciousness. The dragon's breath had brought the group to its knees, and they all hastily tried to revive their fallen comrades and restore their strength before the dragon could take those that had not fallen.
Tarian attempts a Called Shot on one of the dragon's front claws, but it misses, and his second shot off the hip misses as well. Roth bends down to Lo's prone body and drains a Cure Moderate Wounds potion into his lips. He wakes, and with the help of Roth reaching out an arm to help, is pulled to his feet to continue fighting. Hope growls and unleashes a snapping bite at Mastodon, then tries to claw at him, connecting with one and then almost slashing itself with the other. He spreads his wings to hit Rauros and Alex on either side of him, hitting Rauros while Alex manages to dodge the hit. Alex takes two swings but misses his target, shouting out in frustration that his dodge of the dragon's wing made him off-balance for his own strikes. Poppet feels the magic in the air, sensing its location, and then casts Dispel Magic, removing the magic that Hope used to transform. The dragon pops out of existence, and the robed figure of Hope reappears. Mastodon's first swing at his new target misses, but the backswing catches the thin wizard off guard, doing massive damage to him. Myne flies down, eyeing the powerful wooden staff in Hope's hand, and casts Warp Wood on it. The wood twists and bends in Hope's hand, warping and writhing until the orb set in the top falls out of its setting. It hits the platform, and splits in half, and Hope drops the remains of this twisted staff with a look of frustration at losing his powerful weapon. Rauros attempts to slash at the wizard, but his claws do not find a purchase. Not wanting to be caught bunched together, Lo decides to jump to the platform to his left to break up the group and the number of splash damage targets. He misjudges the distance, and desperately reaches out to grab the nearby platform, just barely catching the edge with one hand to save himself from falling into the abyss.
Roth shouts out words of encouragement as he watches his comrade attempt to pull himself up, shouting, "You can do it!"
With Hope in his smaller form, Tarian attempts to snag and bind the wizard with his grappling hook. He takes aim, throws the hook, but misses his target, and the hook lands harmlessly on the platform at Hope's feet. Roth takes aim with two arrows, the first missing while the other one hits. Hope points skyward, and then brings his hand down in one sweep, releasing a bolt of lightning that strikes Alex for massive damage. Still reeling from the pain, Alex misses both of his swings at Hope while Poppet casts a Healing Hex on Alex to restore him from the strike. Mastodon lunges forward, missing with both his swings while Myne casts Flame Strike, using her boon to do massive damage with the spell while Rauros rips into Hope with all his claws. Lo manages to pull himself up from where he was dangling, and then summons his lute to play Inspire Courage.
Tarian pulls back his grappling hook and throws it at Hope again, this time wrapping the hook and rope around the figure of Hope, and with the successful lasso Tarian shouts out, "Grab him!"
Roth takes aim with two arrows that both find their marks while Hope releases a gust of wind at Myne in flight, blowing her back to slam against a back wall. Alex swings and misses with both of his shots again while Mastodon delivers a massive overhead blow that causes Hope to curl into a ball above the platform.
The group is relieved to see the areas of deep abyss replaced with solid stone flooring, making the large room safe to traverse.
Hope floats down, landing on the platform he had been hovering above and says, "It is done. Proceed. Never lose sight of the hope you hold, even when in the darkest of places."
The figure begins to turn to stone, and behind them they see a door open for them, revealing a set of ascending stairs. Roth feels a warmth from his pack, and opens it to find his Thundering Longbow glowing. He pulls it out to watch it as it glows and morphs slightly in his hands. When the glow fades, he sees that the bow looks longer, and there are intricate elven patterns carved into the bow. Poppet assesses its new properties, and tells Roth that he now has a +2 Shocking Longbow of Thundering. He gasps at the power that had been added to an already powerful weapon. He admires it lovingly, understanding that the consistency of the bow gifted by Myne would have to be weighed heavily against a bow that could produce such powerful results on his perfect shots.
A Father's Love
With the room safe to traverse, the group feels their weariness setting in, and decide to rest after their ordeal. They set up their bedrolls in a close circle in Hope's massive room, and sit together to eat a meal of dwindling rations. Poppet circulates through them, expending her magic to heal the group as best as she can. Myne is pensive and quiet as she leans against Roth's chest with her legs pulled up to her chin. She gives glances to Tarian, who was sitting across from them, tipping back a wine bottle and equally lost in quiet contemplation. Myne finally makes up her mind, and stands resolutely, never taking her eyes off Tarian. She crosses over to him, kneeling in front of him and looking at him carefully.
Tarian puts down his bottle, and quietly says, "Yes, Myne?"
The rest of the group goes quiet, hoping to understand what had transpired between the two, and Myne gives a cursory look to her comrades before taking a deep breath, focusing on Tarian and saying, "I know she loved you...just from the way she looked and spoke whenever I asked her about my father. Tell me...did you love her?"
Tarian also gives a look around the room, seeing the eyes of their companions widen at Myne's statement, They know.
Tarian gives a nod of acknowledgement to the group; an admittance and confirmation of Myne's words, and answers, "For that spring and summer, yes, I did...but I did not know that I had...I did not know about you until I arrived in Kassen before the ceremony. That spring and summer, I was on the hunt for a group that had made camp near Kassen, and I met her rather fortuitously..."
Tarian unties his shirt strings and pulls back the fabric from around his left shoulder, revealing a raised, star-shaped scar on his chest as he continues, "She saved my life, Myne. You are named for the flower that saved my life, and that piece I only learned from Brynn the night before the ceremony. So, for me...I have only been a father for a few months, watching you carefully, and trying to care for you without your knowledge. I just was not ready to tell you..."
He watches as Myne's eyes well up with tears at his earnest words, and then is taken by surprise when she lunges forward to hold him, grasping him tightly and crying into his shoulder.
She cries out, "Father!" before returning to sobs.
He reaches out and holds her tightly, kissing the top of her head in much the same way he had done for Brynn, finally relieved that he could comfort her as a father, knowing that she had accepted him.
The group sleeps soundly and with little care or concern for danger. They were all exhausted from the draining magic of the tower, some had their will tested, and some had come close to death. Whatever could lie at the top of the next flight of steps held no fear for them any longer.
