Expedition 139: The Tower of Terror

The Compact enters the tower of Nexus to retrieve the Engine of State from Vizek, with his blessing or not. After a brief delay for some Nothics, and a great deal of traps, the group corners Vizek in his chambers. However, after the ghosts are summoned, it becomes unclear who has cornered who. It was the Compact, the Compact cornered Vizek. And then killed him and went home.

## Details

The group has a safe trek to the Mageline and enters Nexus, and are immediately assaulted with a wave of heat that renders everyone except Ranag uncomfortable. The group begins their search for Vizek by using the Nexus Key to force the group's way closer to where they think Vizek is. Valorie manages to use the key to take the group to the Enchantment section of the Housing level. The group enters a vast room, similar to a mall courtyard, filled with massive fountains and damp air as well as a couple old commercial stalls. The Bloodseeker, a compass tuned to Vizek, immediately points the group down one of the connecting tunnels. However, as the group exits the chamber, they are immediately trapped by a pair of Nothics in the tunnel, with one casting Wall of Force and the other casting Sickening Radiance, trapping the group. Gonerton and Valorie use spells to hit back, while Bea uses the Nexus Key to Dimension Door right to the Nothics and kill one of them. The remaining Nothic immediately teleports away, leaving the group alone. Valorie and Bea find this unacceptable, and Valorie sends her Celestial Avenger to find and kill it while the group moves on.

The group moves through hallways big and small, with random furniture sized to the hallway, even to strange degrees. Eventually, the group finds a spot where the Bloodseeker starts spinning madly. Valorie thinks secret doors are likely and asks Bea to use her Blindsense to look for hidden structures. She manages to detect a hollow chamber in the wall, and further investigation finds a switch to reveal the doorway. Gonerton uses Detect Magic to check for traps as the group investigates the side hall, ending in a large stone door. The door promptly opens, revealing a young Blue Dragon who speaks angrily at the group, though none actually speak Draconic. Valorie uses Tongues to hear it demand the group leave or die. The group promptly leaves and avoid the dragon's breath. Gonerton is able to determine that the lightning was not of Draconic origin, instead thinking it could be a Glyph of Warding tied to an Illusion. Gonerton gives Confidence Dispel Magic, and he goes down the hall, dodging the dragon's breath. Confidence discovers that the chamber at the end is also an illusion, and ends with a device to discharge lightning down the hallway. After activating the trap, the group joins Confidence down the side hall and find another secret door.

Bea uses Locate Creature to find Vizek, but isn't able to find him. However, Locate Object is able to detect the Codex. The group thinks a Private Sanctum is in place in the area. Bea heads down the hallway and finds a small room. Gonerton joins her and detects Divination effects on every tile on the room. After discussion, Gonerton decides to throw Rockefeller on the first tile. When nothing happens, Gonerton joins him. When nothing happens, Gonerton moves forward, and is trapped by a Prismatic Sphere as the tiles begin falling down. The wall blinds Bea and Confidence, who try ineffectually to help. Gonerton just casts Fly on himself and waits for the spell to end, presumably thinking of how he would improve the trap design. The party moves forward down a long hallway with six doors.

As Bea investigates each of the doors, the first door seems to contain a nice kitchen, the 2nd door attempts to enchant Bea, but she is currently immune to Charms and is unaffected. The 3rd door is hot and contains two spiny creatures, the 4th door is hot like the third, the 5th door hums, and Bea senses an empty void behind the 6th door. Unfortunately, the Bloodseeker doesn't identify any of the doors as the path forward. The group decides to move through the second door, reasoning it's probably full of Paradise Locus.

The group is correct, and the door reveals a sublime garden of Locus with a door on the far end. With the entire group immune to charms through one method or the other, the group passes through without issue, revealing yet another richly carpeted hallway with one more door at the far end, this one with a keyhole in it. The door doesn't appear to be magical, and Gonerton is unable to open it with Mage Hand. Bea is able to sense the hallway continues through the door, and gets a brassy smell from the area. Confidence picks the lock, and the group opens it from a distance, revealing a hallway with a floor of brass and stone, which widens into a slightly larger hallway, that Gonerton notes has Transmutation magic embedded in the walls. Bea moves into the room to investigate, and dodges a sudden buzz saw from the ceiling. Thinking the room is full of more traps like this, the group decides to use Passwall from a prior hallway to the end of the trapped hallway.

Continuing on, the group finds a narrow, twisting hallway full of doors. Bea checks behind the doors with Blindsense, and finds most of them empty. However, while moving forward a Darkness descends on the group. Bea deduces where the Darkness came from, behind a locked door. She uses the Nexus Key to Knock it open, and senses a number of creatures in the darkness. Some manner of attack spears Bea and Confidence in place, and Valorie responds by Shattering the room as Gonerton animates some money to attack the unknown assailants. The hits impact, and Darkness falls to reveal an Aboleth, and five half-dragon figures, each of a differing color. Ranag charges into the room and faces off against the Aboleth as the half-dragons use their breath weapons on the party, and one of them slams the door in Bea's face, locking Ranag in the room alone as another sneaks up behind Valorie. Bea dispatched the one attacking Valorie and Confidence picks the door open as the aboleth continues the assault on Ranag. Gradually, Confidence and Valorie dispatch the half-dragons as Gonerton and Ranag focus the aboleth, with Ranag delivering the killing blow. However, during the fight he contracts some manner of magical disease from the aboleth, necessitating staying moist to avoid damage, which is a death sentence for Ranag.

The half-dragons snap out of it, and the party stabilizes their dying. After casting Tongues, they introduce themselves as soldiers from Gufer, some manner of settlement inside Nexus. They were enthralled by the aboleth, which was in turn enchained by Vizek. After giving us information about Vizek, they leave to make their way home, promising the group would be welcome in Gufer. The party moves on into Vizek's private chambers, preparing by casting Antimagic Field on Bea.

The group finds the Codex, a massive book that weighs even more than it looks. The group collects it, and tries to find the Archmage himself. When Bea investigates a room full of coffins, her antimagic field reveals a wizened dwarf wielding a staff, the Archmage Vizek. The group gathers and speaks with him, letting him know what happened to Highhall and the Sparksouled, as well as announcing the Compact's intentions to edit the Codex. Even after learning what has occurred with the Sparksouled, Vizek admits his desire to turn back the Age to prevent Nerulla's rise, and is undeterred from his desires.

Valorie and Vizek proceed to get into a philosophical discussion about the nature of evil, and what would be the better use of the ability to turn back time, and the morality of erasing an entire future of people to bring his own back. The talks go nowhere, and the group attempts to apprehend Vizek. Gonerton summons a Slaad to prevent Vizek from leaving Bea's antimagic field. Things rapidly deteriorate, with Vizek leaving the field and hitting everyone but Bea with Chain Lightning, resulting in Valorie losing Countercharm. Valorie retreats, and hears incoming footsteps, which end up to being another Vizek, which Gonerton identifies as a Simulacrum, and he unsuccessfully dispels him as Spectres and Banshees rise from the coffins surrounding the group. Ranag is felled by Vizek and finished off by a pair of spectres as Valorie and Confidence face off against the Simulacrum. After a hard fight, Confidence kills Vizek's Simulacrum with Valorie's help as Bea manages to finish off the original, causing the ghosts to fade. The group immediately clears the rest of his chambers, finding any valuables in the process.

In addition, the group finds the chamber that Vizek used to summon Celestials, with a floor of Orichalcum, and latent creatures that the group assume are a trap. The group decides to begin editting the Codex in place, and Gonerton is able to add the Sparksouled's requested edits, as well as identify the Engine of State that Highhall added to the Codex.

The group then uses the Nexus Key to leave the Tower, and is directed to a balcony containing a mechanical horse. Valorie investigates, and discovers it's a mechanical horse that will buck people off the horse and into the pit below. The Key directs the group to go down further, and Valorie uses Feather Fall to get the group down to the exit, and the group is able to leave safely.

Clarity is able to revive Ranag, in exchange for a favor.