Expedition 80: Field Trip to Otiluke's

*From the notes of Ark'fayed, transcribed from their personal cipher and translated (mostly) to Common.*

## Expedition 80: Field Trip to Otiluke's

### Success

Yes

7th of Monpel

Met early morning with Tolyr, Clarity, Uzmir. Waited for Valorie to arrive from ferry, then headed towards badlands. Large building under construction there, impressive fortified structure, 3 floors, large windows. Undecorated.  Seems constructed atop ruins which connect with mageline. Door on stairs with symbol of abjuration. Tolyr casts Protection from Evil and Good to unlock. Move quickly through ransacked mage sanctum to enter mageline.

Sign in stonetongue explains smell from west, manufacturing pits. Everglowing lanterns on walls. Must have cost a fortune. Turn right. Tolyr steps on nearly-invisible pressure plate. Voice in Stonetongue: “Beware Frostling, for you stand upon a Glyph of Pain. A warden will come to collect you shortly, do not struggle.” Uzmir detects illusion and evocation on it. Dispel magic simple enough in party of mages. Send anurognathus ahead to scout. Suggestion made that 5 syllable name is too much. Suggest Ammoni instead. Uzmir explains that the plate likely triggered because Tolyr is an elf. Apparently elves were personae non gratae in this empire.  Must exercise caution.

Reach Binder’s Alley. Pile of corpses unsettling, focus is however on book return seeming to float in midair. Illusion seems to hide wall. Send ~~anurognathus~~ Ammoni in to scout. Ground littered with books near flap. Skeletal corpse, on closer inspection male dwarf in early second century, died precisely at the turning of the age. Cause of death unknown. Communication with familiar uninterrupted, thus books not in demiplane as posited. With blindsight Ammoni finds outline of door, key in door. Spatially, door should lead to main room. Cannot open from this side. Together (anurognathus) Ammoni, Tolyr’s (Μικροράπτορα) Gui and Clarity’s (tyto) Alba lift Valorie’s (felis) Liminalis so that it can turn the handle.

Uzmir and Tolyr have bags of holding. Room contains 3000lbs of books. Require 3 trips but mageline long and straight, phantom steed again indispensable. Just over 4 hours to move books to safe building in badlands.

Books dealt with, Uzmir suggests further exploration, specifically Otiluke’s southern hall according to convenient map of mageline. Explains Otiluke built up mageline in his retirement. Very powerful halfling, extraordinarily long-lived. Suggests avoiding other nearby magehall, Fajir’s. Could change own creature type at will, built traps relying on same. Planning, research needed to assail.

Traveling to Otilukes hear cacophonous sounds cutting in and out, approaching slowly. Some 30 creatures packed together impossibly closely into 20ft cube, shifting, shambling, blinking in and out of existence, time-weft zombies. Tolyr casts armor of agathys—from second spellbook likely.

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Plan to copy?

Valorie casts faerie fire, first group blinks out to avoid, second group caught, highlighted. Calls out to me,  encouraging. Why to me? Tolyr casts fireball on zombies, first group blinks out but second does not, of 15 most dead but 7 wounded not killed. With eldritch blasts Uzmir downs one but other stays standing. Clarity fireballs but both groups blink out. Seems more easily avoid powerful spells. Zombies still too far away to reach with blade. Use firebolt to kill one. Zombies scramble towards group. Tolyr resists noxious smell.

Valorie casts Haste on me—fascinating effect, increased speed relative to others allows observation of blinking zombies, could catch in spell without blinking effect. Tolyr casts burning hands with a higher locus. Both groups blink out. Seems level of locus more important than nominal level of spell. Uzmir steps up next to Tolyr, uses breath weapon. Dwarf with breath weapon? Perhaps effect from red dragonscale armor. First group takes some fire damage, second group blinks out. Clarity downs one with firebolt. Hasted, vault over Uzmir to get past Uzmir and Tolyr, kill 3 from second group. Zombies attack, deflect with shield. Zombies attack Uzmir, attack Tolyr, armor of agathys goes off, kills it. Stench reaches front line. Uzmir stops breathing? Tolyr resilient again, stench almost overwhelms me. But think of how Valorie believes in me, hold fast.

Valorie uses vicious mockery, zombie does not go down. Tolyr uses burning hands, zombies blink out. Uzmir uses mind sliver against 2 zombies. Both stay up. Uzmir activates shielding aurora. Clarity hits one. Moonblade kills two, wounds another. Zombies attack, three hits, Tolyr, Uzmir, self. Tolyr moves ward to me. He protects... thinks me weak? Or... cares about me? Or merely tactics? Zombies obliterated by Uzmir’s aurora. Clarity heals Uzmir. Tolyr heals me.

Onward, find Otiluke’s. Doorway on left side of tunnel. Massive archway, wooden doors, pale wood, grand golden doorknobs, large metallic blocks scattered on ground resting on floor. Uzmir reports blocks and two points near top of door have transmutation effects. Valorie tries to talk to blocks. Translate to Stonetongue for her. Blocks do not respond. Looking more closely, blocks large letters, “LAUIEOHKSLTL”, above door has 2 hooks, letters have loops. Tolyr picks up letter, extremely light, falls slowly. Rearranges to spell “Otiluke’s Hall,” reaching up with mage hand. Doorway unlocks, lights come on.

Clarity investigates doorway, no sign of traps. Slight orchestral music from beyond doorway. Everyone backs up. Tolyr knocks on door, tries to pull handle. Doors swing open, music rises with fanfare. Short entryway, then big hexagonal chamber, central walkway goes around geographical art object, 6 doorways, dirt and plants growing between walkways.

White light at top, wisps of light around central room. Other doorways to other chambers with words in Stonetongue (clockwise from entrance):

1. Teleporter
2. Geometorium
3. Planar Exhibition
4. Arcantrix Testing
5. Dragonlounge
6. Meditation

Valorie: “Otiluke clearly had class. That is apparent.”

Clarity looks at plants, from slightly different biomes but all from the northern continent. Some believed extinct, wealth to herbalist here. Examine art object more closely, some things strange. Emperiora is missing, North is very different with two landmasses connected by something. No subcontinent in the East. Separated landmass further southwest than that, halfway between Vidhar and current location of subcontinent. Water on surface is actual water, shows land beneath.

Head to teleporter, 10ft across circular chamber, freestanding archway of stones. Light blue curtain hanging from center. Unadorned but subtle runework on walls. Music lessened here. No teleportation circle in sight. Tolyr, Uzmir note similarity to some brass tower? May be interplanar teleporter. Valorie wheedles a small rock from Tolyr, bemoaning how she always accumulates debts. Throws rock through archway, hits other side. Automatic voice (likely casting of high-level spell, Amazon’s Linguistic EXpert Assistant) says “I’m sorry, your Teleporter is not currently charged. Your teleporter will be charged next at <next charging time not scheduled>. Apologies!” Valorie dramatically repays rock to Tolyr. Perhaps should not be so embarrassed to have been in debt to her.

In Geometrorium, 12 desks each with books. Blackboard at back with lectern. Glass windows on probably illusory agricultural vista. Books similar, open to different pages. When hand comes close to text, ink glows brighter. Check out table of contents, sometimes particular words brighten and give definitions. Figure 3 on a page, touching it illusory diagram appears. Book on geometry and spellcasting. Seems already have these books from the scriptorium. Can be used as source to learn Arcana. These books more effective, tooltip effect grants advantage. Can also learn spell placing proficiency for more effective AOEs.

Door to Planar Exhibition is very hot. Clarity touches hot metal and opens door. Incredibly bright in chamber. Orbs of light blasting in all directions. Uzmir and Clarity enter because fire resistance. Report large circular room scattered with points of light, glowing orbs in slightly different colors but mostly blinding white. Center of room small green circle with stripes of blue. Uzmir detects conjuration magic everywhere. Center design is material plane, Clarity identifies different orbs as different planes. Feywild, elemental planes, 16 wheel of positive/negative planes, stars beyond.  Uzmir stands on material plane circle on the floor. When nothing happens, both leave. Uzmir posits actual connection with planes.

In main room, Valorie skewers a wisp with rapier. Wisp flickers, electric discharge. Wisps blasts energy at Valorie, missing.

Valorie: “That is not up to any kind of codes or regulations.”

Tolyr: “Most people wouldn’t stab the light source.”

Uzmir, exiting planar exhibition: “She basically just stuck a fork in a power socket.”

In Arcantrix Testing, large central object like throne, covered in tubes and vials and equipment, metal plates strewn around as if torn off, chair seems comfortable with padding but also arm restraints. Small plaque reads “Arcantrix Potentiator” in Stonetongue.

Valorie: “He has a terrible record on public safety but doesn’t seem to be actively evil…”

Uzmir detects illusions, divinations, in room. Chair has divination, transmutation, evocation, other small auras. No conjuration or necromancy. Seems investigation requires sitting in chair. Offer self as experimental subject since most expendable member of party. Tolyr casts resistance for me. Protecting me again. Valorie chants “Science! Science!” In the moment, felt important.

Sit in chair. Comfortable, adjusts to weight. Hear tubes turn on, glow. Illusory form of halfling man unfortunately positioned sticking out of Uzmir’s chest. Long jaunty hat with metal on the end. Speaks: “Welcome to the Arcantrix Potentiator. This test will be simple according to your needs. Have you eaten in the past 6 hours or cast a spell in the last 10 minutes? Please select which test you wish to take. Would you like to

A: test your arcane potential

B: prove your arcane potential

C: induce arcane potential (note: this feature under development)”

Answer: A

Response: “Please place your hands in the restraints. This will take one hour. Please enjoy this calming music.”

Chair perfectly comfortable, something electrical going on. Stuck in chair though, cannot explore. Likely for the best however. Better me than anyone else. Valorie stays to record the delightful music of a distant age. A consolation, not completely abandoned.

Uzmir, Tolyr, Clarity move on to Dragonlounge. Hear Tolyr call out “I’m pretty rusty at dragonchess… but impressive scale!” Uzmir report fireplace evocations, some chess pieces conjurational. Group moves further away from potentiator to meditation. Harder to hear. From chair: “Congratulations! You are 100% done with the first step!” Dumbwaiter opens, two cookies, what was once coffee. “We know that you avoided eating before undergoing this procedure. Thank you! That is no longer necessary, please enjoy the refreshments.” Bad design, still restrained, cannot reach biscuits. Valorie touches biscuits, fails to break one, hard as stone, pockets them. Hear Clarity call out “Hey guys, I’m not dead, it’s a forest!”

Chair: “The process is going smoothly as it almost always does! We haven’t had an error in over 251.5 years!” Group returns to examine teleporter. Around chair, seek clues to function. Note runework, drive mechanism that makes decisions, small wad of crumpled papers among scattered casings. Still restrained. Point out to Valorie. Reports written in elven, low quality paper. First few lines read “Interesting device, will investigate for valuable components, doubt it will direct me to curing petrification.” Valorie posits relationship with one Tay’locer. Have not met her.

Chair speaks again: “Thank you for taking your time. I can already tell you that the test was a success! You do indeed have a spark! You can look forward to a successful career as a mage of the type of your choosing! If you are interested in receiving instruction from me, that may be difficult, but I’m sure you can find a school among the magical halls of this empire. Please wait, our tabulation stream seems to have been removed so we cannot dispense your results. Instead you will receive a conjured assistant.” Valorie reads through paper, person seems to have been able to test themself for spark. Plans to show to Tay. Valorie realizes dumbwaiter came *up* from somewhere. Must be something below. How did I miss that? Useless.

Dumbwaiter pops open. “Please return your tray!” Send Ammoni, Gui, Alba down on tray. Dumbwaiter descends awhile, at least 60ft. Door pops open and simple metallic arm attached to ceiling pulls out tray. Arm picks up another tray pre-loaded with biscuits and ashy mug, slides back into dumbwaiter. Small kitchen, quite dark, mostly only Ammoni can see. Oven, range, cooled box, doorway. Unclear how to exit.

Uzmir figures out that north continent in central geographical art object is twistable button, reveals staircase. Ammoni goes 30ft down, stone chamber, doorway with massive hulking humanoid metallic figure, 9ft tall, unmoving. Pitch black. Liminalis smells draconic aura in dragonlounge, construct below. Valorie returns to dragonlounge, led by Liminalis. Dragonchess set is source of draconic smell, specifically queens on each side. red and gold. Taxidermied wyrmlings? Valorie moves piece in one of small sets around room. Nothing happens. Valorie elaborately arranges all small chess sets into same position, then gestures for Clarity, Tolyr, me to go to same place, move pawn forward two spaces simultaneously. Nothing happens. Tolyr investigates and realizes red queen is indeed taxidermied red dragon. Gold one as well.

Tolyr, in Stonetongue: “G1 to G2." Knight to the right moves.

Valorie: “That’s awesome! I need to learn Stonetongue!”

Descend staircase. Nothing happens. Tolyr notes floor is made up of nine square plates. Golem stands between plates in a cutout. Assume all plates are pressure plates of some kind. Golem deep gray, black slits for eyes, carvings in shape of mouth and nose, hands long and articulated. Black contrasting metal on both arms, eyes, navel.

Tolyr: “How do we enter?” No response.

Valorie: “I assume when you hit the pressure plates either something blows up or the golem activates *or* something blows up *and* the golem activates *and* the golem is immune to the explosion.”

Clarity looks extremely closely at the plates, notes northwest plate is not scuffed. All others are similarly scuffed except that center is more scuffed, golem’s platform is between center plate (5) and center north plate (2) and its platform is also scuffed. Tolyr steps onto center south plate (8) hears a click, black band of metal on golem’s arm glows red. A voice speaks: “Yeah you better run!” Red band remains on golem. Tolyr tries southeast plate (9). Other arm glows red. Tolyr tries southwest plate (7), success. Tries center west plate (4), success. Tries center plate (5), golem eye glows red. Starts over, southwest (7), center west (4), center south (8), success. Then southeast (9). Golem eye glows red. Valorie convinces not to fight golem since would leave sanctum open to other adventurers. Feel as if accomplished nothing. Correction: confirmed I have a spark... so useful. Must return.

Stepping out of Otiluke’s Hall, find patches of mud like ashy earth with water on it. Regular misshapen footsteps going in direction of Ova’s Sanctum. At rotting pile of corpses, see strange creature: left half and both legs misshapen pile of rock, one long arm with 3 digits rooting in the bodies, right half and head is swirling water with frozen ice arm, pane of glass for face, human face in it looking out incredulously. Threatens as sentry, accuses of damaging emperor’s property, i.e. zombies. Speaks in Stonetongue, only with Uzmir. Of course elves and perhaps tieflings personae non gratae in empire remnant. Uzmir defends actions but sentry wishes to bring to trial. Valorie attempts to speak in Common but is denounced, speaking “vulgar” also a crime. Uzmir convinces sentry to allow Valorie to play a “dirge for her people.” Valorie plays a song on her flute, casts Hypnotic Pattern. Form of water and earth continues to rise and fall but human figure in the glass hypnotized for 60 seconds, head droops forward. Uzmir casts fly on Clarity and Valorie. Tolyr casts polymorph, transform into riding horses.

Return to Kendon’s sanctum. While organizing books Clarity finds 100gp worth of silver hidden in book covers. Smuggling? Surprisingly, Tolyr also offers pay. Books benefit his project yes, but also all of us. Research now more accessible. Did good work but failed to prove worth—unless mighty tales to be told of sitting in chair for one hour. Hard as mage to distinguish self among mages. Seem brute to carry blade among these arcane experts.

Preparing to set up dome, Clarity solicits conversation. Thanks for contributions and compliments. Suspicious. Confirms hypothesis from previous entry

‡

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 title of Archmage and ownership of tower far less competitive in the East

‡

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 explains title more closely associated with monetary success than with arcane aptitude. Engages me on subject of food shortage, then lectures me about local history. Apparently—and unsurprisingly—food shortages are created artificially by farmers to apply political pressure, council has failed to create consequences for this behavior, Clarity thinks it will continue. Unclear why Clarity wishes to speak to me about this. Should be abundantly clear I am incapable of politics. Attempt to explain, do not lack willingness to serve but ability. Then engages on subject of spellcraft briefly. More interesting revelation: Clarity courting stultifying human warrior who wished so ardently to establish me in an inn. Bizarre mismatch. Valiant attempt to communicate this without giving offence. Success?

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 Courtship should be based on more personal, unique qualities than simple positives like intelligence or bravery or good deeds. Can readily say that Clarty is smart, brave, does good, is nice… but I am not enchanted with her immo vates est quae me inspirat, cuius carmina mundum meo denuo fingent.