The Mystery of the Hollow Night

5 years ago, everyone within a set distance of Cognitus University. Who or what caused it remains a mystery, and now it's happening again.

## Clues

* The student who the party first notices disappear (Sochi Amerin) had just done her first Transmutation exam, where she transmuted a 10 feet cube of granite into sand. No other student accomplished this level of magical expenditure that day.
* Soria disappears after large display of magical expenditure, as does malachy who just got done with his magical performance.
* There is notation in school records hall that the Hollow Night shared a date with the annual Scrimgour Feast
* The Scrimgour Feast is an event held yearly where the school opens to the surrounding town. A large magically conjured endless buffet is laid out and great works of magical spectacle are shown off to the townfolk. Many of the young wizards used it as a sort of competition amongst their peers, like an art show.
* If the party recovers a pseudo-displacer beast corpse, they can use Grigor's expertise to track it to it's source.
* Grigor will attempt to plant a tracking spell on the first Care Taker in the Evocation demonstration, allowing him to trace it to the Plane of Zauber.

## Backstory

After the Planar Calamity and its subsequent mending, various planes found themselves linked in new and, by the standards of the Creator gods, unexpected ways. One of these pairings is that the Material Plane's source of magic is that of the Plane of Zauber, home of the Spellweavers (Cmon'tha in their local dialect).

The Spellweavers are a lithe alien looking race, with pale grey/blue skin pulled taught of thin limbs and reverse joint legs, like a goat. Most notable is their arms, of which they have 3 pairs, 6 total. Their faces are vaguely insectile without the chitinous appearance, like a mantis, with large black eyes. The Spellweavers were a thriving society prior to the Planar Calamity, and even afterwards they continued their peaceful lives, as their plane contained very few predators for which they must fear.

Not long after the Calamity, they began to notice signs of Entropy, crops wouldn't grow as lush, water tastes stale and malnourishment began to run rampant. The great Prime Sages of the Spellweavers met in an unprecedented conclave known as the "Hrif'ta'thal" or the Meeting of Singular Focus, in which they locked themselves inside a chamber for 8 days, before emerging, knowledge of the source of their problems in hand.

They deduced, rightfully, that another plane, the Prime Material, was siphoning the very energy from the Plane of Zauber, via the residents of the Prime Material's magic users. Each spell they cast, each arcane work they wrought, drew more and more energy from the Plane of Zauber. At the rate the exchange was progressing, the Spellweavers had only a few years, maybe a decade, before their plane would be little but sand and ruins.

They devised a plan, they would retrieve some of the energy stolen from them. They could not yet retrieve all of it, as that would take more time to accomplish than they had, but they pinpointed a particularly intense spot of magical usage, a place with many magic users localized to it, and plucked all living beings in that area in one fell swoop into their own plane. That place was of course Cognitus University and that even was known as the Hollow Night.

Keeping the captured residents asleep, they divided them. Any without magical capabilities or energy within them were discarded. The rest were brought into the facility the Spellweaver Prime Sages had created to be drained, a process that would slow down the loss of their plane, but not enough to sustain life. As way to continue this work they took a portion of this energy and constructed 8 "Carr'a'tal" or Care Takers. These Care Takers possessed the lions share of the energy left to the plane, and would continue to siphon the energy from the remaining captives while the few surviving Spellweavers would lock themselves in stasis underneath their capital building.

The Care Takers possessed a variety of capabilities, the ability to summon arcane beasts as necessary along with all the intelligence that the Prime Sages could impart into them to achieve their goal, but at the cost of a singular focus on their goal.

For the past five years they have toiled, preparing a way to retrieve the remainder of the Plane of Zauber's magical energy and restore the Spellweaver race to its former glory.

## The Current Threat

The plan left to the Caretakers comes in 2 parts:

1. Retrieve enough magical energy to power the Aetheric Dam, a device the Spellweavers left designs for the Caretakers to follow. For their part, the Caretakers are almost complete building this, and when they are they will begin retrieving strong magic users from the Material Plane en masse to fuel the next building project and reclaim enough magical energy to reinvigorate the Plane of Zauber. To this point, they have only been retrieving enough to fuel the building efforts.
2. Build and activate the Planar Auger, a device which will carve a new channel of magical energy from the Plane of Magic to the Plane of Zauber, ensuring an unending flow of magic. In order to activate the Planar Auger, the Prime Sages will need to be awakened.

Caretakers are not sentient creatures. They cannot be reasoned with and pursue their mission with dogged intent. They will do anything necessary to complete their goal and destroy any threat to the projects that may arise. They will also protect the Spellweaver population in stasis beneath the Prime Sages Sanctum.

If these planes are not stopped, the Prime Material plane will have no incomming magical source, and eventually all magical energy will be expended and return to the Plane of Magic.

## Carr'a'tal (Care Taker) Stats

Large construct, unaligned

* Armor Class 20 (Natural Armor)
* Hit Points 210 (20d10+100)
* Speed 30 ft.

STR 24 (+7)

DEX 9 (-1)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 3 (-4)

WIS 11 (+0)

CHA 1 (-5)

* Proficiencies: Athletics +11
* Damage Immunities Poison, Psychic; Bludgeoning, Piercing, And Slashing From Nonmagical Weapons That Aren't Adamantine
* Damage Resistance: Fire, Lightning, Ice, Necrotic, and Radiant from Magical Sources; Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing
* Condition Immunities Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned
* Senses Darkvision 120 Ft., passive Perception 10
* Languages Understands The Languages Of Its Creator But Can't Speak
* Challenge 16 (15,000 XP)
* Immutable Form. The Carr'a'tal is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.
* Magic Resistance. The Carr'a'tal has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
* Magic Weapons. The Carr'a'tal's weapon attacks are magical.

## Actions

* Multiattack. The Carr'a'tal makes two attacks, one Grapple action may be substituted for an attack.
* Slam. *Melee Weapon Attack:* +13 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. *Hit:*(3d8 + 7) bludgeoning damage.
* Fling. *Melee* One grappled target creature is thrown up to 60 feet and knocked prone. If the target strikes a solid surface, it takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it was thrown. If the target is thrown at another creature it must succeed a DC18 Dexterity check or take the same damage and be knocked prone.
* Force Breath (Recharge 5-6). The Carr'a'tal exhales poisonous gas in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 19 Constitution saving throw, taking 45 (l0d8) force damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

## Part 1 - A Spectacle

Soria Eladin sends a student to invite the Circle Guard to a demonstration at the Evocation school. Normally such demonstrations happened yearly, and they have decided to revive the tradition.

At the demonstration two professors, one a wiry old gnome (Derwist Binsbig) who specializes in Lightning the other a shaggy human (Malachy O'Rian) who specializes in Ice, showcase their skills before Soria takes the center ring, displaying all her prowess, culminating a huge swirling sphere of fire with bands of lightning and ice orbiting around her, hiding her from view. A perception check (DC10) by anyone paying close attention to the ampitheater will reveal that the human professor has vanished. Suddenly, the ice chards go flying, the lighting whizzes around the room and as the fireball evaporates what's in the center of the arena is no longer Soria, but instead a 30 foot tall glimmering purple humanoid figure with very very little muscle tone stands in the center. The creature possesses no face, but rather has 6 floating pale lavender stones which orbit its head lazily. Standing around it, flanking it on all sides, stand 3 cat-like creatures (Displacer Beast) with two tendrils floating from their backs, which also seem to be made of the odd purplish energy the giant humanoid is. The giant is holding Soria in the air, and in the net second she quickly vanishes. Inside the giant are two dark silhouetted forms, one female and one male, Soria and Malachy.

Over the next few seconds (30 seconds) the humanoid will attempt to capture as many of the Deans that have attended the presentation as possible (Range: 10ft, Wisdom Saving Throw DC 23), it does so by reaching out its hand, from which thin tendrils of purple energy reach out and make contact with the creature. During this time the Displacer Beasts will attempt to clear a path to the targets, or protect the humanoid as much as possible. At the end of this time the humanoid and displacer beasts evaporate, excluding any that have been slain.

In attendance at the event are also Abigail Umbridge, Grigor Von Setten, and Tidbort. Over the course of the fight the giant will attempt to capture each inside of itself, Grigor will attempt to land a tracking spell on it, and Abigail will summon undead creatures to aid in the fight.

## Part 2 - Preparations

In a bid to save time, Ironsides has contracted eight members of the city guard to help watch over the school while the party is gone. He has also procured a variety of items to outfit the party for the expedition:

* 2 Stones of Farspeaking
* 1 potion of Water Breathing
* 1 Scroll of Spider Climbing
* Muta-Aetheric Bow
* Boots of Readiness
* Necklace of Fireballs
* Periapt of Proof Against Poison
* Ioun Stone of Reserve
* Ring of Protection
* Vicious Battleaxe
* 5 Potions of Healing
* 3 Greater Healing Potions
* 1 Vials of Antidote

## Part 3 - The Shift

Retrieving a pendant from inside his robes, a simple silver band around a matte black stone, Grigor sets about activating his Amulet of the Planes. Roll a d100, on 61-100 the party gets shunted into the Astral Sea, on a 0-60 they get shunted to a high bluff outside the High Seat of C'ral on the Plane of Zauber.

**Astral Sea**

A swirling silver mist springs forth from the amulet, spreading out to encompass everyone in the area immediately around Grigor. You feel your mind leave your body, which is at first very disturbing, but then you quickly feel your body following behind, like an animal on a tether. Setting aside the meta-physical implications of this, you see the world dissolve in the silver-grey mist, and a moment later you feel your mind and body reconnect. Not long after the mist clears, and you find yourself floating in a sea of... well, nearly nothing. The air seems to be laced with that same mist you saw, thin veins of it curving lazily through the air, and small specks of light flicker into and our of existence around you. Looking around you see several bright circles of various colours, like spinning coins of light, floating at varied distances from you. You also notice a thin silver thread of energy connecting from the backs of you and your party members twisting lazily back into a circle behind you, maybe 100 feet off.

Alarmingly that distance seems to be growing, and yo notice you are falling through this space, though there appears nothing below to hit, and your clothes are not flapping wildly as there appears to be no wind.

Grigor whispers, just barely loud enough that you can hear: "Everyone, quickly, imagine yourselves not falling, focus on keeping in place." A DC 13 wisdom check to stop falling, characters fall at 150 feet per round.

Once stopped, Grigor, again whispering, says "it seems as though we have missed our mark, though not by much. We find ourselves now in the Astral Sea. I caution you friends, no loud noises lest we be noticed by things we rather not get the attention of. Everyone look around and try to find the portal to the plane we were attempting to reach. You should know it, much like you would know a person you fancy, or when you were a child a toy you desired." DC15 Insight to find the correct circle to the Plane of Zauber.

The correct circle is 300 feet from Grigor's stopping point. DC 13 Wisdom check to start falling in the right direction. If a character makes a loud noise, or 5 minutes goes by they will attract the attention of an Astral Dreadnought.

**Plane of Zauber**

You feel yourself grow drowsy, and just as you're about to fall over from exhaustion you realize that your body hasn't moved, it's all in your head. Your eyes close, and you gasp opening your eyes quickly, much like you just awoke with a start from nodding off, and realize the scenery around you has drastically changed. Gone is the school, and in it's place you find yourselves standing on a bluff of pale grey dirt.

The first thing you notice is the air, it's cold, not bitingly so, but like that of a day just on the cusp of being full blown winter. Second is the air, it's... stale, it tastes much like a glass of water that's been left out overnight. The sky is a pale blue-grey, though no clouds dot it. Surveying the landscape you see a valley of sorts below where you stand, the landscape dusty and pocked with scrubs and bleached trees. Any vegetation appears dry and brittle, though there is not much of it. The valley itself is little more than a dusty/sandy basin with patches of dry grass and places where it looks like rivers and pools of water used to stand, for now they are nothing but empty.

The most predominant feature in the valley below is what looks to be a circular town of sorts. There are thick city walls and four large double gates you can see from here. The building are of an alien make, they do not match the square lumber or stone build that you're used to seeing, instead each is rounded, some more square than others, but there appears to be very few sharp corners on any of the buildings. From here it looks like the buildings might be built of some sort of stone or stucco, but it's hard to tell. One odd feature is a fairly large domed building, surrounded by a circular pool of water, this is easily the most predominant building you can see. The second most is a tower of sorts, and this stands out for two reasons. First is it's height, it is easily the tallest building in the town, maybe 100 feet tall. the second reason is that unlike everything else this building IS angular. Shaped as a slowly twisting spiral, as though someone took a square and extruded it upward while turning it, it's capped off as the walls slope inward forming a sort of oddly twisting obelisk.

As you finish surveying these sights you hear Grigor say "Gods, we should not have come here. This is not... right". Savalaria turns to Grigor and nods his head in agreement. Everyone who can cast magic, you feel... weak, though not physically. Normally you can feel the connection to the aether and magical energies all about you, but here, it's like there's almost nothing to draw from, like trying to pull those last dregs of your drink through a straw.

Grigor says "we must find out what's happening here post haste, this plane has something fundamentally wrong with it, and I worry for our safety."

## Part 4 - Establishing a Beach-head

Savalaria establishes a magical mansion in which the party can return and be safe.

## Part 5 - The Child in the Web

In town, the party hears a cry for help, and investigating they find a small Water Genasi child (Travertine Surf) entangled in web, and being approached by 2 Phase Spiders 2 more Phase Spider and 2 Neogi Masters wait in the wings.

## The Dilapidated Tavern

Off in a forgotten corner of town sits The Sixth Stomach tavern. Modest on the inside, little more than a few tables and a counter, floating behind the counter in a stasis bubble is the proprietor, asleep just like the rest of the Spellweavers.

While many of the various brews have long since got sour or spoiled, there sits on tankard half filled with Scintillating Enchantment (10 Uses)

A scintillating drink that pulses with myriad colors. When consumed, roll 1d8 and gain one of the following effects:
1 Advantage on Strength, Disadvantage on Wisdom
2 Advantage on Dexterity, Disadvantage on Strength
3 Advantage on Constitution, Disadvantage on Charisma
4 Advantage on Intelligence, Disdavantage on Constitution
5 Advantage on Wisdom, Disadvantage on Dexterity
6 Advantage on Charisma, Disadvantage on Intelligence
7 Recover a Hitdice, Disadvantage on Initiative
8 Roll twice again and add 1 hour to the duration of all effects.

Roll a Constitution saving throw DC12. On a success this effect lasts 5 minutes, on a failure one hour.

## Sanctum of the Prime Sages

A large dome building on the eastern-center side of the city, this is where the Prime Sages convened. Once a glorious structure akin to the present day Unit Nations building, it has fallen into disrepair. Now, it lays empty save for the Spellweaver population (including the Prime Sages themselves) held in stasis in its bottom most floors.

It is surrounded by a 1000 foot wide "lake", which the Spellweavers made for aesthetic purposes. Now a moat, the water is brackish from dirt and has large patches of nearly dead seaweed and lily vines on its surface. The moat itself is 200 feet deep, and there is a 200 foot wide central column in its center. At the bottom, nearly where the column that hold up the top part of the building meets the bottom of the moat, there is a 15 foot hole in the building, which looks like something broke its way out. The moat is now inhabited by an Abolith and it's Hydra lackey. The hole leads into the now flooded chamber where the Prime Sages had kept the Aboleth and the Ixitxachitl Cleric, ostensibly for study.

Once there was a bridge over this moat, it was low hanging staying right on top of the water like a causeway, now with the disrepair, large sections of it has fallen into the water. Where this bridge ends, attaching to the pseudo island the main building sits upon, is a large set of double doors with an ornate carving of 6 Spellweaver silohuettes around a large circle carved with a variety of sigils. The sigils are glowing softly, the door locked and trapped, having been enchanted with a Glyph of Warding DC17 vs Investigation (Exploding, Thunder damage) which recharges daily.

**Descent Shaft**

After activating the elevator, it will begin to descend the 100 foot shaft to the first basement level. However, halfway down the shaft one of the four power crystals will flicker and dim, while another cuts out completely, causing one of the elevator disc's sides to dip quickly. The crystals will turn red, locking down the elevator in emergency mode. Any creatures on the elevator must make a DC 13 Strength saving throw or fail to grab onto something on the elevator and go tumbling over into the 50ft deep abyss. The Elevator itself is 10 feet from the edges of the shaft.

**Basement Reception**

The room at the bottom of the elevator shaft is wider, and a concave depression sits in the floow which would have received the elevator had it not malfunctioned. The room is adorned with 6 faded and worn tapestries of 6 different Spellweavers in ornate robes (the Prime Sages). At one end is a set of double doors which leads to a downward staircase ten feet wide which twists to the left as it descends. After a few feet, it becomes apparent the stairwell is flooded midway down. At the bottom of the stairs is another double door, which leads into the Creature Storage room (Aboleth Encounter).

**Aboleth Encounter**

Guarding the entrance, either via the open hole in the water, or once the party descends from the entry floor, is an encounter with the Aboleth which has taken up residence in the moat. If encountered in the moat itself, the Aboleth will use seaweed clusters and debris to hide itself, and eventually attempt to escape if at low health.

If encountered in the former holding area, the Aboleth will utilize the broken holding tanks or any other furniture it can find to hide and take opportunity attacks, while the charmed Ixitxachitl Cleric will act in a support role. A Chuul is sitting at the bottom of one of the tanks, waiting to join the fray (also charmed by the Aboleth).

Another set of double doors on the far wall leads to another stairwell that terminates at the Inner Sanctum Access room.

**Inner Sanctum Access**

As the door opens, it's immediately apparent something odd is at play here. The doorway seems to prevent the water from entering, and indeed once feeling the air in the room, it feel dry and temperature controlled. Has several bookshelves on the left, arranged such that it occupies the entire wall, floor to ceiling. Upon attempting to remove a book, one will find that they are affixed firm to the bookshelves, though not invincible. A Spellweaver orb sits in a delicate cradle on a marble pedestal in front of the book wall, and upon interacting with it two things occur:

1. The creature interacting with the orb must make a DC15 Intelligence saving throw or take 2d6 psychic damage.
2. They feel connected to the books in front of them, as though they must merely ask a question and the relevant tome will be retrieved for them.

To the right sits a heavy duty door, made of thick steel and inlaid with gold sigils, the door is shimmering faintly pink (a Wall of Force is overlaid upon the door. To the right side of the door stands another marble pedestal, this one bare except for a square indent in its top. Around it base lays the shattered remains of the locking cube (physical cube puzzle). Only rebuilding the cube and setting it in the pedestal will remove the Wall of Force and open the door. The cube may not be rebuilt with a Mending spell as it is not broken, the pieces have simply been taken apart.

Across from the entrance stands another set of double doors, this one also warded with a Glyph of Warding (Contagion, DC18, Destructive Wave, Necrotic). inside this set of double doors is the Stasis Chamber for the prime Sages.

The Sage's Perspective, History Explained (Blurb)

The Plane of Zauber is dying, this is undeniable. What is also certain is that we will save it.

The problem as we understand it is that something is amiss in this way the planes are connected. Our research has revealed that there is a Plane of Magic, incredible though that may be, and it seems most, if not all, of the others planes draw their arcane energy from this Plane. Ideally it seems that magical energy flows from this plane, and then dissipates back to it upon use, and indeed it seems that it once worked that way here, but no more. Instead, any magical energy we use here returns to the environment, we neither draw nor send energy to the Plane of Magic.

That alone would not doom us, no, to make things infinitely worse it seems that another Plane is drawings its magical energy from us. This means that while we may have a closed system from our perspective, this other plane is leeching what we do have. Unstopped, this vampiric relationship will first drain us of the easily available magicks, and eventually suck every life form dry of its energy, until we are nothing but a dry crumbling husk.

We pondered long and hard, what to do about this, for we will not go silently to this entropic death alotted us. We Prime Sages convened, and at last we have a plan. Let it be written here such that any who follow us may know how we saved our civilization.

The plan possesses 4 parts. First, we must acquire some of our stolen magick. We've identified an area of the other plane which is close to us, as these sorts of connections go. By happen-stance it seems to be a place where much magical energy is used. We have devised a ritual which we will utilize to bring all living creatures within that area to us, then we will drain them of their power. We weep not for these creatures, for they have stolen our magick to begin with, and doomed us, and we must do what we must to survive.

Once we have this energy, each Prime Sage will craft a golem, we have dubbed these the Caretakers, for they will be our salvation. These Caretakers will work while the rest of us sleep, locked in stasis shells safe from the slow death of our world. Imbued with the magic we have reclaimed from the other plane, the Caretakers will construct two devices, the two most important things we have ever created.

This first of this is the Aetheric Dam, a tower of the same make as the Caretakers, which when activated will lock of the Plane of Zauber from the rest of universe. Nothing, not even magical energy, will be able to enter, or more importantly LEAVE this plane. With this shield in place, no longer will we be suffering the slow drain of our home. This is important, for it will take time, decades even, to construct the second device. Without this, there would not be enough magic to save us.

The last part of the plan is the true hope, everything done to this point will be to buy enough time to construct the Planar Bore. This device will take enormous power, indeed the Caretakers themselves will need to become this device, all 6 of them sacrificing themselves to the cause, for only they have the energy required for this endeavour. Once built, one of the Prime Sages will awaken to activate it, and a new connection will be formed between here and the Plane of Magic. This new pathway established, we can restore our society to its former glory, this great catastrophe avoided.

We enact the ritual of 5 days time, it seems there will be a great outpouring of magic from the transit point on the other side, and we can utilize this to hasten it.

-Prime Sage Non'marrow

**Research Laboratory**

Through the heavy gold-sigiled door is a research lab the Prime Sages have been utilizing. Inside in the center is a large astrolabe, with a series of gemstones set in the large brass mechanics, representing planes of existence and their relation to each other. There stands a Spellweaver control orb on a pedestal in front of the Planar Astrolabe, much like the one found outside for records keeping. If utilized, the mechanism can be rewound or fast forwarded. Fast forwarding reveals nothing of interest save a few outreaches from the Abyss to a variety of planes, while rewinding backwards reveals the Planar collapse. It's hard to tell when exactly the collapse occurred, the mechanism contains no time notation, but when approaching the Planar collapse point the mechanism starts behaving particularly erratically as time itself was effected. The brass is mostly worthless other than as scrap, but the gemstones total:

* 2 diamonds worth 100 GP
* 3 Rubies worth 150 GP
* 1 Sapphire worth 300 GP
* 1 Emerald worth 300 GP
* 1 Opal worth 80 GP
* 4 Topazes worth 100 GP

In addition to the Planar Astrolabe stands a work desk with a variety of alien instruments and two tomes inscribed with the Spellweaver language, which a DC15 Arcana check reveals the tomes to be working and formulae dealing with manipulating fate and future events. On the desk sits 1 vial of acid, the All-or-Nothing Coin, and a Spell Scroll of Time Stop.

Last bit not least is a desk which contains a brass apparatus built to hold a single small worm-like device. The device has a series of small legs along its length, this is of course a Brain Tickler.

**Stasis Chamber**

A large circular room with 6 large panes of angular crystal hanging like tapestries around its circular walls. Each crystal "tapestry" features a symbol, that of the Sage it stands behind. At the center stands an overly large Spellweaver control orb, and inset into a mechanical apparatus in the ceiling sit 5 orbs containing 5 of the Prime Sages of the Spellweavers. The Sages' stasis orbs are being held in aloft by 5 stone golems that look extremely similar in design to the Caretakers, though they lack the halo of Ioun Stones. These are Shield Guardians connected to the respective sage in the stasis bubble they are holding. One of the sages is missing, having been released when the part destroyed one of the Caretakers the previous day. Attacking one of the stasis bubbles or the golem holding it will release the stasis bubble and start a fight as the golem and Sage inside begin to immediately defend themselves against the intruders.

The central control orb is accessible via touch, just like all others, though requires a DC18 Intelligence saving throw to avoid taking 6d8 psychic damage. Once accessed, the user feels connected to all of the Spellweavers locked inside their stasis spheres, in particular to the 5 Spellweavers in this very chamber. With but a thought they can release these entities, or kill them. Also stored inside is the knowledge of how to build the Aetheric Dam and the Planar Bore.

Central Control Options

* Kill Spellweavers in Stasis (some or all)
* Release Spellweavers in Stasis (some or all)
* Shutdown Caretakers (some or all)
* Learn the design for the Aetheric Dam
* Learn the design for the Planar Bore

## The Planar Dam

On the west side of town stands the large crystalline tower the Caretakers have been constructing. The tower is almost complete, and ready to be activated in 3 days time. All crystalline structures for the tower are filled with the same swirling blue/purple energy mist that reside insides the Caretakers, and thus are not able to be seen through.

The inside of the tower is murky, as though effected by the Fog spell, at the lowest level, but clears the higher you get. The inside of the exterior walls are lined with a large set of stairs, sized for the Caretakers, which are essentially large crystalline platforms which jut out from the wall. In the center, about 50 feet from the stairs, hangs a large chandelier of sorts with various sized crystals hanging on thin strings of purple/blue energy. The energy beams connect the crystals to each other and upward toward the ceiling where a large circular crystalline disc floats.

The crystals hanging from the chandelier can be inspected (DC12 Perception) to see a variety of silohuettes floating inside. Most of these silohuettes are that of people left over from the Hollow Night, but two at the top on a DC17 or higher are revealed to be Soria and Malachai. The creatures inside the crystals are slowly being drained of all energy, starting with magical and ending with life force as even that runs out, and being fed into the Planar Dam. To fully "digest a creature" takes years, depending on total usage of energy and amount of creatures in the dam, but when activated all currently stored creatures will be completely drained in the ignition process.

The crystals have the following stats: AC24 HP120.

In order to gain entry to the inside of the Planar Dam, the creature needs to either be a Caretaker, or be primarily covered by Caretaker crystal. A creature who holds a piece of Caretaker crystal can pass a small portion of their body in, but not entirely pass through. Alternatively, any Prime Sage's Spell Orb will open a whole in the wall of the Planar Dam, granting full access.

## Part 6 - Attack on the School

The party having killed 5 of the 6 Prime Sages, Se'phis, the last standing Prime Sage, is enraged. First, he flies to the main Control Orb, and locks it off to further use by anyone other than him. Second, he activates the Decimorin, a 30 ft tall Adamantine Golem, that the Prime Sages created long ago as a weapon should they need to fight other Spellweavers.

Using a Gate spell, Se'phis sends the Decimorin to the outskirts of Sevan's Folly, and it begins making its way to Cognitus University, carving a swath of destruction as it walks through buildings. Eventually, it begins its attack with a Beam attack on the School of Abjuration, before working clockwise around the school.

Meanwhile, Se'phis is searching the Electrum Mine for the first piece he needs to build a backup Planar Bore: The Elemental Puzzleknot of Earth. Upon finding it, he summons the Decimorin to help him retrieve it, Beaming and Slamming its way straight to the Puzzleknot.