as written by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia, himself.

Sunday, 11 Neth

Our trip to Unaimo was uneventful, but productive. I was able to get a stronger bow. Additionally, I was able to get the raw materials so that Kali, with all the “spare time” that our travelling has entailed, was able to construct me a handy haversack, as well as improve my cloak of protection to +2. I’ve a sense that we’re going to need every edge when we get to the Storm Tower.

Wealday, 14 Neth

I’m finding that I get tired a lot faster. Not tired as in “I want to sleep” but tired as in “let me catch my breath.” Kali says we’re at an elevation on the ice, now, where the air is not as effective. Apparently as we get higher, the air gets less effective. She tried to explain it to me but the key thing is, we just need to go slower. It’s not just me; others (and the animals) are having the same problem.

Consequently, today we only went about half as far as yesterday. We had a quick meeting tonight and decided we should not travel every day for a while, so our bodies/lungs can rest. In fact, we’re talking about moving only a couple of days a week. Kali says after a few weeks, our bodies will adapt and the air will be just as effective as before. I don’t think this is a spell she’s doing, it just is.

I’ve never encountered it before. I don’t know if this only happens in the cold or if the same thing would happen in a warm, but tall mountain. I’ll have to remember to ask Kali. My head hurts.

The wind is a constant now. Even though there’s no trees or even rocks for it to whistle through, if you listen closely you can hear something on the wind, like an animal calling or something. It must be up ahead, given the wind direction, but it’s impossible to say how far.

Starday, 17 Neth

Rest day again today, but I think we’re getting closer to the animal. I’ve mentioned to the others, but their hearing must not be as keen as mine because they don’t hear it. It is rather high pitched so maybe only an elf or half-elf can hear it. I’m tempted to take an hour or two and go check out the ice ahead, but we’ve agreed to rest and whatever it is hasn’t attacked yet. But I can hear the desperation in its voice; it may not be long before it attacks.

It’s basically dark all day now, and sound is the only way to track it. Thank goodness for my elfin hearing. I haven’t mentioned it again to the others, since there’s no point in worrying them until I can sense an attack is imminent. Their safety is paramount, and if they’re on edge all the time, they’ll be tired, not battle-ready. It’s second nature to me, but not to them.

Starday, 24 Neth

It seems the creature I’d heard has backed off, or abandoned us. Even with my keen hearing, I don’t hear it anymore, and haven’t for several days now. The wind still howls, but it’s just wind. I’m glad I didn’t alarm the others; it would have been wasted effort.

I’ll keep an ear out, of course, but I’m sleeping much better now without that as a constant background.

Starday, 1 Kuthona

Kali and Qatana were on watch when they noticed one of those strange blue-green lights Skygni had told us about. They roused us and we noticed one actually head towards us. Kali hasted us all with a want just as the world exploded around us in shards of sound.

Or at least that’s what it seemed like. The thing shrieked, or yelled, or did something that was VERY easy to hear, and the impact of that sound turned the ice at our feet into flying shards. Several of us took damage, from the shards as much as the sound. I quickly shot it with an arrow, but fighting in darkness, even with some degree of dark vision meant my ability to aim arrows accurately was limited. This creature was flying and for all we know, couldn’t land in a controlled fashion. We were going to have to take the battle to it. Suishen bestowed airwalk upon me.

In general, this was a smart strategy. But the creature had unexpected grace and speed, and it descended to me and hit me with a ferocious sonic blast before I could react. I almost passed out, and realized I needed healing. I quickly pulled a CLW from my belt and drank it, but it only made me feel marginally better, so I called out for healing and walked toward the ground, hoping I would not get hit again before Qatana or Ivan could reach me.

Qatana was able to heal me, and all of us were able to take a nick out of it. A spot of acid finally did it in and it plummeted to the ground, but it truly was a team effort. Ivan and Qatana gave me additional healing to bring me back to full strength, in case others came by … but none did. We noticed it had really small eyes so that and the complete darkness present here made us think that the thing may have used sound, like a bat, to locate its prey.

I came away healed, but with a fresh respect for this foe.

Sunday, 9 Kuthona

Kali said we should find ourselves acclimated to the altitude sometime this week. I must admit, I don’t find myself tiring as easy as before so I think she may be right.

Sunday, 16 Kuthona

We’re resuming full speed. Everybody seems to be acclimated.

The Storm Tower is visible in the distance; the lights and flashes it seems to generate make it easy to follow in the darkness.

Fireday, 21 Kuthona

We have made it as close as Sandru will allow the caravan to go. The wind here is unbelievable, and that’s part of why Sandru wants to stop here. There are intermittent flashes of light from around the tower. We will rest tonight, recover spells, and investigate – likely, “assault” – the tower tomorrow.

Starday, 22 Kuthona

And so it begins.

The tower is several hundred feet high. The wind only got stronger as we got closer. There is a black slush here and there that Ulf has told us is not uncommon in this area … but it’s also toxic, poisonous, and likely lethal, so … no samples, no dipping, and no ugh tasting!

The tower had an opening to it. I flamed Suishen and we entered.

Inside, we encountered three creatures which seemed to be wights. They were easily dispatched – surprisingly easy. But they were just a prelude to an adjacent room, which held a plant of some sort. The ceiling here must have been a hundred feet above us, but the plant was “only” man sized with a tangle of roots that spread around the room.

Make that a carnivorous plant of some sort, because after emitting a bright blinding light, it quickly ingested Qatana and spit her back out contained in a constricting and apparently acid producing casing that was slowly killing her. While we attacked the plant, Qatana attacked the casing. The plant soon died, and others assisted Qatana in exiting the pod.

I looked at the corpse and thought – how does this even survive here? Thinking it over, it probably is only here as a sentry.

Examining walls around the center section revealed some embedded crystals that made us believe it might act as a lift. Radella played with them a bit and believed she could operate them. We arrayed ourselves, stood on the center platform, and had her work her magic.

The center section quickly rose to a room that contained two large worm-like creatures. Moving without being attacked was difficult, yet we knew the floor would sink soon. Several of us took injuries only because we needed to hastily move without regard for the creatures before us. And wisely so – several seconds after arriving, the floor did indeed descend back to the first floor.

But by that time we were battling these hungry creatures. Hungry? Well, yes, these too seemed to want to eat us. We did kill them both, but not without some peril. And an ominous sign was that the symbol of Sithud had been carved into a scale on each body.

Surprisingly, given the cold clime, these beasts did not seem to shun the flame of Suishen. In fact, he thought they might be immune to it.

There were doors indicating other rooms on this floor, but they seemed sealed (yes, sealed, not locked). Qatana used stoneshape to create an opening next to one of the doors … and it revealed a most peculiar scene.

Inside were many crystalline scorpionlike creatures – perhaps a dozen or more. The walls seemed embedded with crystals that were connected by metallic strips or wires, and the whole room appeared to generate random blue light. The scorpions appeared to be monitoring or maintaining the crystals … until the opening appeared, that is. Then they approached us.

Oh. And they could teleport. Hmm. And apparently they could cast spells, like touch or idiocy.

On the plus side they didn’t seem too hard to kill, although blunt weapons seemed more damaging then edged weapons (sorry Suishen). Despite the large numbers of them, we managed to dispatch them.

I wondered if the now damaged and unmonitored crystal room would explode or something now. But it didn’t seem to; in fact, we ended up taking out all the crystals and caching them. Using detect magic, we determined that 4 of the crystals actually seemed to radiate magic. We spent some time identifying them and found we had

[422] 2 cubic crystals, radiating abjuration. Able to create a 10′ cube within which the temp would remain 65 degrees and absorb cold-based attacks – no more than 50 in one round or 100 in ten.

[423] 2 prism shaped crystals, radiating evocation. They each had 50 charges, and they could
* act as a hooded lantern (1 charge)
* a 1′ diameter ray of light 50′ long that could blind a
creature 1d4 rds (1 charge)
* blinding flash for 30′ cone, blinded 1d4 rds (5 charges)

And we noticed that as we pulled out crystals, the humming decreased bit by bit. Each crystal pulled lowered the sound in the room, until the room was silent.

Up, again, I suspect. But do we need to recharge our spells? Would we lose the element of surprise if we recharged?

It very much seemed that pulling the crystals disabled some aspect of the tower.