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Dunmari Frontier - Session 16

Escape from Stormcaller Tower: in which the party uncovers history and flees dangerous storm

Featuring: Kenzo, Wellby, Delwath, Seeker, Riswynn
In Taelgar: Apr 15, 1748 DR to Apr 16, 1748 DR
On Earth: Friday Jan 08, 2021
Stormcaller Tower

The Dunmar Fellowship discovers the chained storm giant Hralgar’s tragic past and uncovers the history of Stormcaller Tower, before narrowly escaping the intensifying storm.

Session Info

Summary

  • The Dunmar Fellowship speaks with Hralgar, a blinded storm giant, chained inside Stormcaller Tower.
  • They split up to search the tower for clues about Hralgar’s eyes, believing Chardonian adventurers may be involved.
  • They discover the tower has been looted, although some remaining books and notes reveal the tower’s history, a plague, and a secret binding of Hralgar.
  • Delwath teleports into a locked room, finding magical items, while Kenzo meditates with Hralgar.
  • After fighting a water guardian, they flee the tower as Hralgar’s mind and the storm rage.

Timeline

  • Apr 15, 1748 DR, night: Continue exploring Stormcaller Tower. Fight a water guardian, dislodge a strange iron orrery, and find treasure and information. Flee as Hralgar’s mind slips back into madness and the storm intensifies. Stagger through the storm through the night.
  • Apr 16, 1748 DR, early morning: Stumble out of the permanent storm around Stormcaller Tower. Part ways with Vola and Riswynn, who depart for Chardon and Tharn Todor, respectively.

Narrative

Standing in a shattered room at the top of an ancient tower, we begin with our heroes confronting a massive storm giant, laying chained and manacled to the ground in front of them. Clothed in tattered robes, with long, shaggy hair and weathered features, the most notable fact about this storm giant, Hralgar, is that he is missing his eyes. 

During a brief conversation, the party learns the giant first came to consciousness about a month ago, and has been trapped here, drifting in and out of waking dreams ever since. When he awoke his eyes were gone and his conscious grip on his mind was weak, although since he has had moments of lucidity, such as now. He tells the party that he believes he could free himself if his eyes were returned to him, and that when he loses conscious control of his mind he cannot prevent the tower from drifting in his dangerous dreams, where the part of his consciousness lost in the storm outside controls the present and his thoughts return to a simpler time, when he lived on his mountaintop palace trading stories and omens with travelers. Noting that while they are talking with Hralgar, the constellation of the Fox and Hunter is back in the sky, the party realizes that its absence is a sign they have drifted back into the dreams of Hralgar. 

At this point, the party splits up. Kenzo remains with Hralgar, entering a state of meditation with him and reaching out to his soul, trying to hold his conscious mind in the present and comfort him as much as possible. The rest of the party heads down the stairs to search the tower, to try to see if they can uncover any clues about who took Hralgar’s eyes (although they already are developing a theory it was Chardonian adventurers).

As Riswynn, Seeker, Delwath, and Wellby start to explore Stormcaller Tower, it is obvious there are signs that it has been looted already, presumably by the people who made the camp and buried a companion. The statue of the bust of the giant, with empty eye sockets, has had something recently removed from around the crown on its head, and presumably the eye sockets as well. Wellby finds three pairs of footprints in the dust on the stairs up to this level. And when the party makes it down the next floor to the library, most of the obvious loose books have been taken (although some could have been taken long ago, of course). 

In the library, Delwath discovered three books that are still attached by chains to the shelf, and cannot be easily freed in the little time the party has, so he sits down to read what he can. The books are fascinating – one, in Giant, called “Tales Before the Fall”, stories of the giants from the Age of Creation, two more, in Hkarian, one “On the Ordering of Giants”, another “Journeys of Souls.” 

While Delwath reads, the rest of the party continues to explore, save Kenzo who remains in meditation with the giant. On the same floor as the library, the other side of the tower is an amazing room, a wind garden of sorts, protected from the elements on one side by intricate marble netting filling the space of several large windows. The floor is a rainbow swirl of different hues and colors, that seem to shift and change in response to the wind, and around the room stone benches of different minerals provide a place to sit and enjoy the artistry. 

Seeker and Wellby then continue to the second floor, while Riswynn searches the destroyed first floor. On the second floor, three small bedchambers have clearly been looted haphazardly; in the third, wedged in a small desk are a couple of old letters and a pile of papers. The papers are receipts and bills from the business of the tower; the letters read as follows:

“Tell Eudomes that we will arrive in two weeks time. We expect to speak to the captured being, whom you call Hralgar. The Occulta Ludum will be overjoyed to hear the binding seems to have worked, but tell Eudomes to be cautious above all else, keep this secret. Giants are dangerous in all their forms, even to us, and binding a storm giant at the peak of their power is the most dangerous business of all.”

“I hope this message finds you alive. You all must flee west as quickly as possible. There is no time to worry about Hralgar. Head west: Chardon may be safe. A plague of great magical power has struck, the Emperor is already dead, several Magistri teleported to safety but where they have gone is unknown. Drankor has fallen and the east is in chaos. I fear the danger is spreading quickly, and this may be the end of us all.”

On the floor is also a door that will not open.

The first floor, searched by Riswynn, is only moderately enlightening, clearly the ruins of what was a main hall, a pantry/storeroom, and a kitchen. 

After a brief discussion about the history of Stormcaller Tower, revealed in pieces by Hralgar and the notes found in the secretary’s chamber, Delwath decides to teleport into the locked room. Once inside, he finds a relatively intact bedchamber of a wizard, presumably Eudomes. After a brief search turns up a few notable items – a pair of goggles with purple gem lenses, a magic mirror, some coins and art – Seeker shrinks the door to give Delwath a chance to exit and Wellby an opportunity for a brief search.

At this point, feeling they have learned all they can and looted as much as is possible from the tower, the party reconvenes on the wind platform over the plains to possibly do something about the iron globe. Meanwhile, Kenzo continues to journey with Hralgar’s mind, attempting to build a mental anchor for Hralgar’s consciousness to hold onto. 

On the wind platform, some clever wrangling manages to dislodge the iron sphere, angering the water guardian who sends a number of steam and dust creatures to attack the party. Although the party is able to defeat them mostly unscathed, feeling the danger level increasingly they quickly depart, pulling the iron sphere onto the ground below, where is lies, inert. Feeling the giant’s mind slipping away, and warned by Kenzo that time is short, the party finally decides to flee Stormcaller Tower.

However, it seems they have left it a bit too long, and as they leave thunder cracks and the Fox and Hunter fades from the sky, and darkness falls, suppressing even the magical light of the driftglobes As the party hurries away from the tower, the darkness, mists and fog close in, making a straight path impossible. Hours later, they stumble out into the morning sun, exhausted, having wandered in the confusing mists of the storm all night. As dawn breaks, they stumble, exhausted, into the clear light of day. After some brief conversation and goodbyes to Vola, who is heading to Chardon, and Riswynn, who is heading home to Tharn Todor with the Brawnanvil clan artifacts she reclaimed, the party sits down to a brief rest and breakfast while considering their next move.