In reply to Tarron Ianfiel (msg # 12):

Krackor heard the plans for scouting by the Elven folk within the group and thought it wise to leave it to them, he makes a good distraction but that is not what is needed right now, so he sits, cooks and eats, pondering what will occur on the morrow.

Becoming more familiar with the range and duration of Tarron's spell, Kitheras proposes that Corym cloak both of them in invisibility and get as close to the city as possible before casting the Wizard Eye.

Corym agrees, casts the required spells, and follows Tarron's lead.

Invisible, Corym and Tarron leave the campsite and make their way closer to Eueurarlor. The wind, which has been an omni-present companion ever since you emerged from the forest, has at least died down a bit. Krackor's spell protects you from its bite, and the your movement is covered by the way the wind sets the grasses and marsh plants to swaying and rustling.

As you get closer to the city, the ground firms up. You're not certain, considering how long ago the elves settled here, whether the city was sited on the highest and driest piece of land west of the River Lis, or whether the magic of the People reshaped the place they decided to settle. But even a century of abandonment hasn't changed the basic lay of the land.

Mist hugs the ground for miles around, but it is thicker near the city. Between the mist and the rise's height you can't make out much of the city beyond the edge. But what you can see is... impressive. Unlike Myth Drannor, Eueurarlor was built along a coherent theme: tall towers of crystal and glass, whose rippling colors gleam in the sun. Only one of the tallest towers is still standing. Its walls are the wavering color of every red and orange you've ever seen and as you come closer you can see that while it soars more than a hundred feet into the air, there is a massive hole blasted into its flank. Four different levels are exposed to the frigid air, and you can see dirt, leaves, and snow all blown into what had once been rooms.

All of the other great towers have fallen. One of them runs along the southern edge of the rise, its jet black walls blocking much of your view of the rest of the city. You circle around to the south, keeping away from the river and the marshier land. Several smaller towers, each between thirty and fifty feet tall and much narrower, peek up above the fog and the fallen, half-sunken ebony tower.

You watch the fallen tower carefully, but though there are numerous windows studding its walls you don't see anything peering out. The city is quiet, though unlike Myth Drannor, it does have the usual chirping of insects and rustling of small ground animals. You're able to get right up to the edge of the tower, right at its crest which once reached for the cloud tops, before you pause. This is likely as good a place as any to send out the wizard eye.

((ooc: Pausing here. Where do you want to send your spell, and what are you looking for?))
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:10, Wed 10 Nov 2021.

Tarron wasn't really staggered by the scope of what he had seen. It was to be expected given how the elves had so much pride over appearance. The smashed open tower was where they were headed into, and so it made perfect sense to send the wizard eye right into the guts of it and get a general layout of as much of the tower as possible. If there were any hidden enemies, it would be a welcome bonus to be aware of them prior to entering.

I don't think so... this one is red and orange.  The one we're looking for is Turquoise.

((ooc: Here's a crude map of the city. Eueurarlor was originally laid out in the shape of an Espruar "H" rune, with the six major towers of the six noble families forming the rune. Each tower was between 100 and 120' tall, and would be 80 feet at the base, though they all tapered to a greater or lesser extent as they rose. The smaller towers of the rest of the city's populace, which ran from 30 to 60' in height, were scattered around at the feet of the major towers, or built outside the rune on the rest of the little rise.

So the map Neldor showed you, looking down from above, looked like this:



The rise of land is wider east/west than it is north/south, and runs about half a mile to the east before dipping down to the same level as the Lis. However, in the aftermath of the attack, and a century of neglect, five of the six major towers have fallen. So it now looks like this:


(arrows showing direction of tower collapses; the blue tower actually crashed into Neldor's green tower and there are pieces of the blue tower on top of the side of the green one)

The Imbran tower (Neldor's family tower) is the teal one in the middle of the bottom row.

Tarron and Corym are crouched at the very tip of the collapsed southwest tower, so basically at the tip of the arrow on the left side of the map. That tower is jet black, rather than the light green of the map.))

Tarron will direct himself and Corym closer to the tower of Neldons family tower before he sends out his wizard eye to explore the tower of interest.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:59, Fri 12 Nov 2021.

Since Kali was hanging out at the base camp, she decided to sketch the area that was laid before her.

She knew that there were a couple of her bard friends that were very interested to hear and see about her travels and she was desperate to listen to some new music, so she set about drawing the horribly damaged spires. She paid particular attention to the broken crystal tower since it was absolutely breathtaking and devastating at the same time.

Once, she was done, she flipped the paper over and started to list as many adjectives as she could that came to mind when she looked upon the ruins. She also did her best to come up with different words for the surrounding swamp. She thought that fenland might work, but she didn't know much when it came to song writing.

As soon as she was done with her list, she was trying to remember the name of this place. She was certain that the nice elf who would randomly stare at her would help her out.

"Kitheras, my dear, please remind me what this place was called? I can not, for the life of me, remember its name."

"Eueur-ar-lor" Kitheras enunciated softly as he set up camp. "So ancient as to be nearly forgotten by modern elves, its inhabitants possessed of an imponderable ethos."
This message was last updated by the player at 06:48, Fri 12 Nov 2021.

"Thank you, darling."

Kitheras sees Kali write the name of the place on the paper with her sketch and list of adjectives. She then placed it carefully in a leather portfolio and tucked it carefully back in her pack.

“These people are as foreign to me as mine are to you. It will be interesting to see what remains of them. So skilled in art, but averse to the creation of items of ‘frozen fire’ and war spells. Foreign indeed. Kali, which of your parents were elven? You seem to have great curiosity about us, did they teach you nothing?”
This message was last edited by the player at 16:30, Fri 12 Nov 2021.

Kali smirked at this.

"There was nothing to teach, my dear. Both of my parents are also half-elven with...interesting parentage.

Mother's side of the family has spun a wonderful tale of a forbidden and tragic romance between an elf and my grandmother. It is an adventure laced with mourning of what could have been, but no history is associated with this story. She died long before I was born.

My Father's mother was a bitter woman, whom I wished died long before I was born but sadly, those filled with bitterness and venom seem to stand the test of time. She would rail over and over how she was tricked by a smooth tongued bard; who disappeared before dawn leaving her with her poor bastard. This of course ruined her chance to have a good marriage because of my father and she let him know it.

To this day I have no idea why they kept in touch. Regardless, my education was stunted when it came to learning the oral history of the elves considering that none were around.

Therefore, I have lived for the bard's refrain describing the old times of my ancestors. To be fair though, She gestured to the ruins. "this truly lives up to the tragic romantic air that surrounds you immortals."

Tarron and Corym

The two of you creep down the length of the mighty black tower. Snow speckles the ground, but doesn't completely conceal the shattered glass all around you. The big tower seems to have come down mostly in one piece, but it shattered several smaller towers along the way, and the bits and pieces have been flung in all directions have only been partially buried over the past century.

You reach the base of the tower, a great broken stump of black crystal that ends in razor sharp edges ten feet above your heads. The tower where Neldor was born and lived lies before you maybe a hundred yards away. You peak around the base of the black tower, and don't see anything further north in the city.

Tarron casts his spell, and the wizard eye winks into being. It floats foward, slower than Tarron would like, and disappears before it fully reaches the tower. But between what he sees through it, and the scouting you can do from your position, the two of you can make some educated guesses.

It doesn't look like the Imbran tower was directly attacked. Not like whatever shattered the forty foot tall hole in the flame tower to the north, at least. Instead, it looks like it was actually the victim of its northern neighbor. Something broke the northern tower, which is a swirling mix of alpine lake blue fit to dowse the red tower's flames, and the blue tower crashed into the Imbran tower. The Imbran tower snapped about thirty feet above the ground, and its two two or three floors broke off when it hit the ground. They rolled some distance west, while most of the azure tower rolled off and settled next to and atop the Imbran tower to the east.

You can see two entrances to the Imbran tower, one on the south, one on the west. Both are doors that have been shattered inward, along with much of the surrounding frame. You can't see the inside, though just before the wizard eye blinked out Tarron thought he saw something moving.

Given Neldor's description of the location of the door, would it be inside the stump of the tower or hovering somewhere above?

Whispering, Corym notes to Tarron, "We should definitely investigate the fallen crown.  I should see if I can line up how it actually sat in order to better place us on our target."

In reply to Kali Xilrora (msg # 25):

"The kind of conservatism engaged in by the Elven Court since the Fall can't help but breed that sort of rebellious streak in the young. It's unfortunate and short sighted."

Kitheras smirks, "You must forgive me.  To look on shattered and deserted towers and call us immortal on that account fills me with irony. What few remain from Cormanthor squat amid the ashes of their land and dream of days gone by.  They are the lesser sons of greater sires. They do not dream, they only remember."

He turns aside from the shattered towers, "As long as we think of that as our legacy, instead of this," he places his hand on his breast, "and this," he brushes her cheek with the backs of his fingers, "there will be no more tomorrows for the elves."

Kali was deeply amused by Kitheras's wholesome sentiment. She had met countless elves of varying backgrounds and no one had his ideals. She wondered if that had ever led to arguments over the provenance of recovered treasures. For all he knows, we could be plundering his ancient uncle.

"You make a fair point, dear heart, the idea that we are the legacy of our people is an uplifting one.  However, my interests are not just in our people, it just so happens that elven ruins are apparently plentiful in the region and we happen to be traveling to one.

To be honest, I am exceedingly interested in dwarven or human ruins as well. The falls of civilizations are a fascinating topic for me. How any thriving community ends up deserted and left to Silvanus without attempting to rebuild is a conundrum that I would love to tease out."

((ooc: Based on what Neldor said, you would expect the door to be hovering above the broken stump. Who has the ward token?))

“In Myth Drannor’s case, the invaders were trapped within and abide there still. But for most, the idea of the community breaks. When you don’t have a shared idea any more, there’s nothing holding it together."

"As for what we’re doing, Corym likes to put a pretty face on it all, but the fact is, we’re fungi. When a tree or animal dies in these woods, fungi sprout up all over the hard remains and gradually break it down into soil.  That soil is rich and new and good for everything else trying to live and grow in the woods."

"These peoples died a long time ago. We’re decomposing what’s left so it can be of use to the rest of the forest. And maybe to us too. And if we learn their story, I’ll tell their story and they can live again in our songs and hearts. Better tribute than a chest of gems and ghouls as attendants."

But there's an outside chance that if we explore the right ruin, find the right item, develop the right skills, we might just be able to do some good in this world.”
This message was last edited by the player at 03:59, Sun 14 Nov 2021.

Kali chuckled at Kitheras's statements.

"A lovely sentiment. We aren't looting, we are salvaging."

"Indeed. So far as we are able. There was movement from within though, so we might be discovered if we make too much noise." whispers back the bladesinger.

"Okay, we know that it's occupied.  Normally I like to get a little more intel than that, but we can go ahead and head back and prepare to enter hostile territory."

Corym and Tarron retreat back the way they came, circling the city west and then north before heading into the soggy grasslands to their camp. They return to find things much as they expected; nothing has come out of the mists to attack their comrades, nor has the ground swallowed them up.

Quietly, the two of them let the rest know that they have returned from scouting.

In reply to DM (msg # 35):

Listening, he always listened first and then absorbed before asking questions or making suggestions.  This was no different.

(ooc: I can't remember if Kali and Kitheras remained behind or not, if they did!)
Thank the Bronze Mask, you have rescued me from all this flirting, it was fun watching colour changes in faces though

(If they did go, ignore that first bit)
Interesting!! So there was a huge hole half way up the building or was that the other building that landed on the one that is our target?  Did you see what spore if any was around?  Could indicate creatures or lack of, maybe even some waste from humanoids that had ventured by before us?

You say you saw something?  If so, numbers, type of creatures, can they be reasoned with?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Wed 17 Nov 2021.

"We saw something. But knowing what it is and whether it can be reasoned with was beyond the means we had. We thought it wiser to return, prepared for something to happen if we were to make our move within." explains Tarron.

OOC: The ward token was mentioned, perhaps it opens up the tower if it is approached by the bearer.