Smoke hung in the air as the party assessed the damage after the attack; dead bodies were strewn about the hallway, a massive hole smoldered in the outer wall while another lead in to the map study. The room itself seemed undisturbed, whatever the Eye had been looking for, it seemed to find without trouble. Dessa looked out toward the hole, scowling at the gathering crowd on the street.
“This needs to be dealt with” she said as she headed down the hallway. More guards began to arrive from every direction, she immediately began to direct them in getting control of the situation.
The party followed, inspecting the blast area for clues on how this had happened. The blast was magical, very powerful and completely unobstructed by the wards protecting the outer walls. Those with magical detection could feel and see that the wards had been cut cleanly away on both sides of the hole. Whether this was the result of the wards being removed from the inside or just some powerful effect from the outside, they couldn’t tell. As Dessa had the situation well in hand, the party returned to the map room to try to see what had happened while they were fighting.
Returning to the room, they reviewed the table and its contents. Two large maps were on top, one a detailed map of the world as they knew it, the other a large copy of the map as it appeared on the gate map in Arcspire. The party quickly concluded that the Eye must have been looking for gate locations with the hope of finding the anchor, knowing that at least two Elder Gods would have seen what they saw about it and what it might be capable of. There were four locations of known gates, although where they were exactly was something they didn’t have. Their possibilities were:
Just outside the port city of Rosewood in the forests of Cordova
In the middle of the Cindergrain desert
On an eastern island near the city of Fourside, south of the monster nation of Ashterra
Somewhere in the rocky steppes of Estax
The party debated the different options, both for knowledge of the areas and ease of getting to the locations. They had no way of knowing where the Eye may have gone, if this was what it was looking for. One draw was Rosewood was close to the Sun Sanctum, the temple of Sarenrae where Paz had studied. She mentioned it was the focal point of her Word of Recall . She could transport the whole party there in a matter of seconds. The gate might be hard to locate but the direct travel was too hard to pass up. The party gathered around Paz, she outstretched her arms and the party was surrounded with blinding white light.
When the light faded, they found themselves standing in the garden courtyard outside the Sun Sanctum. The lush green forest surrounded the temple, coming right up to the edge of the garden they now stood in. Paz immediately headed inside the temple, moving with determination but not saying a word. The party followed, taking in the beautiful architecture and sculptures both in the outer courtyard gardens and the sanctuary itself. They passed through the large inner ceremonial chamber in to smaller rooms filled with a dozen clerics writing at desks surrounded by walls lined with diamond-shaped shelves filled with scrolls. Paz went to the cleric at the largest desk, a tall pale elven woman, putting her hand on the clerics shoulder and leaning in to whisper in her ear. The woman nodded, rose and looked through the shelves along the closest wall. She returned with a scroll wrapped in a red ribbon and sealed with a sunburst stamp. Handing it to Paz the two spoke quietly for a moment, then the elf returned to her desk. Paz came toward the party, opening the scroll as she did. In it was all the temples information on Hattori, a file kept since he had turned up in the forest with no memory of who he was or how he’d come to be there. Unfortunately there was little that Paz did not already know.
On their way out, Paz asked a guard if there had been any sightings of Hattori.
Nothing.
With that they made their way to Rosewood, the nearby port city, to meet with a contact that Paz knew was operating in the area. As they traveled the road to Rosewood, Paz sighed and spoke to the group.
“We are meeting with someone who I have worked with numerous times thought the Bureau. She is a good agent but she…well, she can be trying at times.” She sighed heavily.
“You’ll see what I mean”
They reached the coast, the road sloping from the forest hills to the busy port of Rosewood. They worked their way through the busy streets to an inn called The Forests Song. Upon entering the double doors, they found themselves in an open dining hall, clean and inviting. It was late afternoon and only a few dock workers could be found at the tables, but it was the person at the bar that Paz saw and made her way too.
A tall, humanish looking woman, she was sitting with both hands on the bar just looking forward. She did not seem to hear them come up to her but she did not jump when Paz sat down next to her and spoke.
“Hello Auf.” Paz said, already seeming exhausted.
“Oh my, hello! Paz! It is so good to see you! I cannot believe you are here! It’s been ages it feels like. You’d swear you forgot your way back here!” Auf spoke loudly and excitedly. Her pale hands flitted about as she spoke, clapping together whenever she seemed overcome with excitement.
They immediately knew what Paz had meant.
Auf was a sylph, although what element she came from was anyone’s guess. She was dress in light cloth clothing with no visible armour but on her hip she wore a short sword unlike anything any of the party had seen before. It’s handle was black and gold with strange square shapes for its pommel and hilt. Paz looked down at it and then back at Auf.
“That’s new, Auf. Where did you find such an interesting weapon?”
Auf looked down at it, seeming somewhat surprised to see the sword there herself.
“Oh yes, this. I found it a few weeks ago. It’s a very interesting story!”
Auf then turned back to the bar and returned to her quiet stare at the back wall.
“Would you care to share that with us?” Paz asked, trying to lead her back around to the weapon.
“No. Not really.” Auf continued to stare.
Paz looked at the party with an expression that said ‘see what I mean’.
“Anyway, Auf we came to find…something. We aren’t quite sure what we are looking for but-” Paz took a small map of the area from her robes and put it down on the bar “we think what we are looking for might be somewhere in this area.” She moved her finger around where the gate was marked on the map back at the Bureau.
Looking down at the map, Auf seemed to consider the question then excitedly began talking again.
“Oh yes, this area is filled with ruins. Crazy stone buildings, I love to just wander through them. It’s pretty picked over, there isn’t much treasure to be found there but you are free to look around” Auf then returned to staring at the wall.
“Uh, do you want to join us?” Paz asked.
“Not right now, thanks.” Auf replied, seemingly disinterested with anything to do with the party at this point.
The group looked at one another then left without saying anything.
All but Reith, he hid himself in the shadows of the bar and watched.
They made their way to the ruins with a few hours travel back up the forest road, the ruins were at the end of a beaten path deep within the dark forest. Stone buildings stood among the trees with a few small clearings where stone paths or squares prevented more than grass from growing. The buildings were mostly collapsed, with one still standing in what looked like the middle of the ruins. Three stories tall, it was missing one whole side but remained upright between the trees. The party entered the first floor, looking around for anything obvious or familiar. The open room had stairs that ran up to the floors about, although large holes in the floors made that a mostly pointless exercise. Toward the back of the room, Tosin saw a stone table that looked like the control tables they had found in Arcspire. He inspected it, found it unpowered but did find a button recessed in the back that, after repeated pressings, started a stone panel in the floor sliding open. It slid about 10 cm before grinding to a halt. No further pressing of the button moved the panel.
The party had R4D start pulling the panel open, with loud grinding sounds as it was forced along slides that hadn’t seen use in millennia. As the party watched this, Edward wandered outside the building to look around. As he stood in the courtyard of the ruined building, he saw movement deep in the forest. They all felt a rumble in the ground as Edward watch a tall tree fall in the distance. Another fell, closer this time.
And then another.
Edward watched in horror as the trees on the edge of the ruins were knocked down by the rapidly moving energy wings of the Eye. Seeing the glowing shape enter the ruins, Edward ducked back inside. As he had been watching the trees fall, the rest of the party had opened the panel in the floor and descended the stairs they found inside. With the noises they heard outside, they decided to have R4D close the panel behind them.
Edward found he had no place to go.
Reith watched Auf sit at the bar, patiently waiting for her to do something. For a few long minutes she merely sat and stared, at what and why Reith did not know.
Then, without warning, she sat up straight and slapped her hands down on the bar. To the rest of the room she simply disappeared but Reith had special equipment to let him see the unseen. As she turned invisible and rose to leave, Reith prepared to follow. She bounded out the door, moving at a speed that left Reith running to keep up. They were off and up the road toward the ruins in no time at all.
Auf followed the road deep in to the forest, then made a seemingly random detour in to the woods. Reith kept pace, doing his best to remain unseen. They moved quickly thought the deep forest, up a hill to a small clearing overlooking the ruins. They reached the top just as the Eye entered the ruins on the other side. Auf looked at the Eye and began running down toward the ruins herself. Reith used his belt to send himself to one of the trees that stood along the path the Eye had made though the forest, putting him behind it out of sight. The Eye moved toward the large building that Edward was hiding in as Auf scrambled up one of the broken buildings behind it and started to jump from building to building.
Without knowing that he may have saved Edward’s life in doing so, Reith fired a pair of arrows at the Eye, striking it with both. It turned but could not see where the attacker was hiding. With a wave of one of its energy wings, an earthquake shook the tree line, bringing down the tree Reith was hiding in. He jumped from tree to tree as they began to topple all around him. Once out of the circle of danger, he held his position.
As this was happening, Auf continued across the broken rooftops until she reached the main building in the ruins. She clambered to the top, looked down and jumped, short sword in hand. She came down right behind the Eye, the tip of the sword passing though the glowing body around the box. When the sword touched the energy that made up the Eye, it immediately dissipated. The box fell to the ground with a clang.
Auf stood and looked down at it, nodding once to herself. Edward poked his head around the corner, shocked by what he saw. He took a step toward Auf and the box, wary of taking his eyes off it. Auf turned to greet him, loudly yelling his name. As she turned, a circle of blue energy appeared around the box, quickly filling in with arcane symbols and patterns. In a flash, the Eye reformed, the box instantly back in the air. Auf looked back over her shoulder.
“Hold on a moment.” she said to Edward.
With a lighting quick slash, she ran the short sword across what would be the Eye’s chest. The magic dissipated and the box crash to the ground again.
“I really need that sword” Reith exclaimed as he arrived next to the pair. Auf looked at him, considered him for a moment then laughed.
As she laughed, the Eye reformed for a third time. It immediately wrapped itself in its glowing wings and disappeared, faster than even Auf or Reith could react.
The trio then looked around, wondering what had become of the rest of the party.
As they sheltered from the Eye in the stairs, the remaining party members felt that they should probably help Edward, if for no other reason than he owed Paz money still. They had R4D try to pull the stone panel open again, only to find R4D had done too good a job of pushing it closed. It was jammed, moving small amounts with each pull R4D made. By the time it was open again, they found Reith, Auf, and Edward standing at the mount of the entrance, looking somewhat confused. Stories were traded about what had happened, Edward felt slightly abandoned, only to realized he probably deserved it.
Once they were ready, the party returned to the stairwell. Lighting the darkness with R4D and a Light spell, they descended deep under the ruins. The stairs looped back and forth and the party lost track of how many times they had gone around as they went deeper. After what seemed like hours they reached a large room at the bottom. It was smooth white stone, much like the stonework in Arcspire, and contained two doors. One was to the left of the party, large doors that appeared to slide apart with a small panel next to it, the other was of a similar size at the end of the room with a larger panel beside it. Reith went over to the sliding door and investigated the panel, he found a single button on it. After a bit of consideration, he pressed it.
Creaking and groaning could be heard behind the door, followed by a heavy thump. The doors slid apart slowly, grinding along their tracks to expose a decrepit elevator car. The party surmised that this must be where the gate was and this was how goods were brought to and from the ruins before the end of the world. They also felt that taking the elevator back up would be a bad idea.
Approaching the other door, Reith began inspecting the panel. It was a clear crystal screen that lit up when he touched it, words in the precursor language filling it as the party watched.
GATE ENTRANCE
SYSTEM FAILURE
LOCKDOWN
Reith tried touching the screen to see what would happen, it seemed to scramble for a moment then words appeared again.
LOCKDOWN
PASSWORD REQUIRED
Then below in smaller letters:
What do you desire?
The party guessed at passwords and answers to the question for quite a while with little success. Finally Tosin spoke to the panel in frustration.
“What do I desire? I desire getting in to the damn room!”
The screen scrambled again for a moment then was replaced with text.
Desire Processed
The doors opened in to the gate room.
Inside they found a gate control room identical to the one in Arcspire. The control panel lit up as the party approached it, displaying the same world map covered in dark gate locations. Looking at the darkened location for Arcspire, Paz reached out and touched it.
“We know this one works, at least.” She said quietly.
The map brightened for a moment, then disappeared. The whole panel went dark, the gates lost their glow, even the crystal lights dimmed. Seconds passed as the party looked at each other, not sure what to do now. The lights returned to their full brightness and the floating screen reappeared, filled with a circle made of light. Another circle slowly filled around it until it was complete then the map reappeared. It now looked like the world as they knew it, showing the missing landmass where the world destroying facility had been. At each gate location a small red bar was filling, with the one at Arcspire completed first. The center gate lit up and the party could see though to the gate room in the vast underground city. Several Bureau members were studying the room, surprised by the sudden opening of the gate.
Edward waved at the researchers.
Paz pressed the location again and the gate closed. With the exception of the Hylantic site, which was covered by a large red X, all the gate locations were now online, including the one for Magrathea. It no longer jumped from location to location, it seemed to have settled out in the ocean, off the southeast of the continent. As Paz reached to open the gate to Magrathea, Edward suggested they take precautions, in case it was more in the ocean than they wanted it to be. They used force chalk to seal the gate and opened it to anchor facility. They found another gate room waiting for them on the other side.
They cleared the wall of force and entered, finding a large set of doors with a sign across it leading in to the facility. Reith read it aloud to the party.
This place is not a place of honour…no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here… nothing valued is here.
What is here is dangerous. This message is a warning about danger.
The danger is in a particular location… it increases toward a center… the center of danger is here… of a particular size and shape, and below us.
The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.
The danger is to the body, and it can kill.
The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.
“I told you so.” Edward exclaimed.
Early Frost Warning 