The Sky Tower (Date 1/11/30)

The tower loomed large in the distance and continued to do so for many, many miles. It took over a day to reach it, and when the party finally did, they found an extended family of hill giants living in its immense shadow. A seamless shard of obsidian reaching into the clouds, the monolith seemed to hum with an unknown energy. Ilyana – followed once again by Brog – flew above the blanket of clouds which clung to the tower and found the zenith to be a separate, smaller pyramid of crackling energy. She left quickly.

The party decided to bypass the giants using magic and camped several hours away on the far side to prepare the proper spells. Euwyn cloaked them in invisibility, allowing them to slip up to the door which was warded by a strange lock that refused to yield to his knock spell. A 7 x 7 grid pulsed with rainbow colors. After a few failed attempts, Hedge remembered the odd code the dying old man had whispered to him just days ago. The code held the key, and the door yielded.

Inside a grand hall greeted the explorers. It, and the adjoining rooms, were covered in the dust of years and largely empty. They poked around slowly, finding a glowing table and a three-legged metal man dressed in rags. Two other metal men stood guard in the hall. Euwyn recognized their make as similar to the construct in Narlock’s laboratory. Feeling relatively safe, the group decided to split up to cover more ground. They found a library, several store rooms and a laboratory. Crystalline creatures and an animate pile of magical residue attacked them. The horrors resisted weapon strikes but fell quickly to magic.

Once the monsters were dispatched, the party found Narlock’s notes, a ghost like the one that haunted the tower, a locked room, and a menagerie featuring the skeletons of several prominent races of Malwan. As they were discussing how to bypass the energy field which cloaked the stairs-up, a pale, young half-elf with red eyes popped around the corner. He spoke in a language only Hedge could understand. “Visitors!” he exclaimed. “It’s been ages!”