Chapter 10
The Reflection of Tailus Grund
The foggy air, thick and damp stood silent against the still of the pond-soaked water. Rushing to the edge, the group in vain peered into the dark pond where their friend had just been pulled in.
"He was just here." Maggie said, breathlessly. She grasped her sigil, letting out a small chant, and the sigil flickered; glowing with golden light that cast out over the pond. A drip of sweat cascaded from Maggie's red hair down her pale freckled skin as she moved the light, like a torch, over the seemingly opaque greenish water. The light flickered then dissipated with a slight cry from Maggie, who panted.
"I didn't see anything…" Roddick spoke, mindlessly, crouching cautiously near the water. No sound, nothing bubbled to the surface. No sign of their friend.
Maggie let out a cry of frustration: "This place was glowing when we approached. Why is it so dark?" Da'La and Roddick did not respond, standing at the edge of the floating dock. Maggie grasped her sigil again; then with a small chant, her sigil flickered but darkened again, laying inert.
"Something wrong with your miracles?" Roddick asked, not turning from the water.
"NO!" Maggie barked, concentrating on her sigil. It let out another glow, then went dark.
Roddick turned and headed to the burlap sack, crouching, inspecting the moss-covered rocks.
"One spoon of melit; Another spoon of Cream."
Roddick spoke, in thought. "What does it mean?" He said to himself.
"What does it matter what that poem in the tower meant?" Anger dripped from Maggie's voice. "If you hadn't noticed we're outside and oh yeah! Star has been dragged in this dumb pond!"
"I don't think we left the Tower…" Roddick said quietly, looking over the rocks. "Two dashes of bitters…" he mouthed, as he adjusted the rocks in the bag, looking through.
SPLASH.
Roddick bolted up, looking at his companions, or rather, companion. Maggie stood shocked, looking into the water.
"What happened?" Roddick demanded.
"Da'La just… jumped in…" Maggie said, weakly.
"… Why…?" Roddick approached from behind Maggie.
"I don't know!” Maggie came back, a slight panic rising from her voice. “I didn't order her to!" This time she sounded slightly defensive.
Roddick turned his back, and walked toward the center of the dock, taking a breath, "Ok… Ooohh Kay…" He said, calming himself, "We just have to think through this."
"Star and Da'La are gone…" Panic set in, "My miracles aren't working, and I'm stuck with a wizard who is trying to decode a nursery rhyme!" Maggie ranted.
"Maggie," Roddick spoke, "This is no time to panic."
"This is the perfect time to panic!" Maggie paced up and down the dock, praying under her breath.
Roddick ignored her, crouching over the bag again. "To make the wizard dream…" he whispered. Ignoring the frantic praying of his only companion. A realization dawned on his face, he turned to Maggie, who was lost in her own world, praying.
Frustration then set in on Roddick, he grabbed the rope around the bag, and tied the bag tight. Then wrapped the rope around his arm. He hefted it; it was heavy like… a bag of stones… Then with a jolt, grabbing the mildewy bag under his arm: he rushed the side of the dock, throwing the bag into the black-green water, and then grabbed Maggie.
Maggie let out a yelp as she felt her body jerk into the water.
PBOOF!
The muffled sound of crashing water filled Maggie's ears as she felt the cool rush of liquid engulf her. She mindlessly gripped tightly at the surprisingly firm body of the madman wizard who had likely just killed them. She felt rushing water as they fell downward through the pond, but with her eyes open, stinging slightly, she could see nothing. With her other hand she negotiated to her sigil and closed her eyes. Listlessly, and with panic, she summoned the energy and with a quick prayer in her mind; between her breast and Roddick's chest came a golden glow. The water parted between them, forming a lose undulating bubble around Roddick and Maggie. Maggie gasped, the golden light showing their wet faces. They were falling face first toward the bottom, Roddick's arm gripped a rope above… below… in front of them.
"Oh, so you do have some miracles left." Roddick took a deep breath.
"What in the twelve hells are you doing?" Maggie demanded, taking in deep breaths.
"Something brave…" Roddick said, a smile cracking his lips as he looked around. The dim light cascading around them onto… walls. Like the walls of a deep cave: with grooves and peaks from years of erosion that funneled downward as the rope, attached to the bag of rocks, dragged them into the depths.
"You, know I was wrong about you…" Maggie said, Roddick turned to her, "You're not a coward…"
"Why," Roddick said, taken aback, "Thank--"
"You're a complete imbecil!" Maggie yelled directly into his ear, gritting her teeth in fury.
"Oh, and did you have any--" the water shifted around them in a woosh. Roddick turned his head, "What was that?"
"Let's just jump into the water!" Maggie mocked, "It's not like anything bad can happen!"
"Shut up!" Roddick caught a glimpse of a dark figure rushing across the corner of his eye. He held tight on the rope, as Maggie's emerald eyes bore holes into the side of his head.
"'It's just dark water that swallowed our friends, might as well take a dip!'" Maggie yelled.
"Shut up!" Roddick's glowing blue eyes darted around. Black figures began to swim around them, circling them like sharks. They moved fast enough so that Roddick could not make out but the barest details. They were human in shape. And they were fast.
"And I guess this is part of the plan!" Maggie barked, looking around.
"This is not the time!" Roddick yelled, looking at the rope pulled taut and the bag dragging them further down above him, as the cavern narrowed into a conic shape into the distance. He felt something grab him.
Maggie yelped, but her scream was muffled by the water as the air bubble was pulled away from Roddick. Roddick and Maggie tightly gripped each other. Roddick felt an arm, or something like an arm, tighten around his chest. He was pulled, straining his grip on Maggie. He opened his eyes to see a bloated, black and grey arm tighten around Maggie's chest. Roddick pulled on his grip on Maggie, reentering her bubble. He took a deep breath, and he heard the mutterings of a chant before he was pulled back into the water, his grip breaking, and Maggie being pulled from his grasp. The light of Maggie drifting away from him as something jerked him back, the bag still pulling downward. Then Maggie's light faded.
Pitch black.
The gripping thing wrapping around his neck, the taut rope pulling him headlong downward; the pressure from the water asserting itself on his head, ears, and lungs. Roddick floated helplessly. The heart of his host raced, and he looked down with his glowing blue eyes to the inky depths.
His mind raced, no ability to verbalize, only one hand (and not even his catalyst hand) free. This was it.
He released the air from his lungs as the thing tightened around his chest, and he felt something grab his leg. Were it not for the pitch dark he could feel his vision blurring. He failed. He had killed himself and Maggie.
A flicker.
A golden flicker followed by a burst of golden light cascaded from below him, illuminating the narrowing cavern around him; casting the figure off of his back and the shadowy figures to dissipate off of the walls. He looked down, grasping to his ankle was a furious red head, her eyes glowing golden from inside the bubble, staring directly at Roddick. She gripped his leg, and pulled herself upward, grabbing his belt next, then his vest, and finally his shoulder. The bubble of air enclosed around Roddick's face, and he took a breath, coughing, as sweet air and the smell of light perfume entered his lungs.
"You're… alive!" Roddick gasped between coughs.
Maggie punched him in the nose.
Blood trickled down his nose. Deliriously Roddick let out a laugh. He looked up, the walls of the cave had begun to flatten and take on the texture of stone bricks. They traveled downward, or upward, through a stone brick cone, a dim yellow light coming from the end. The diffusing of the light creating small blots and points on the stone brick texture around them. As they approached Roddick saw a surface to the water, like a gateway to another world rippling above him.
"So, uh… They say there is a light at the end of the tunnel…" Roddick spoke.
Maggie stayed silent, watching as the rippled surface grew nearer as they fell headlong down into it.
The effect was disorienting when they breached the surface of the water, as gravity felt it was flipping beneath their feet. Roddick and Maggie, gripping tight to each other, breached what appeared to be the surface of a small… pool. Surrounded by air, and the ridge of a circular brick structure encircling the pool. Above them was a vaulted ceiling with filigree shining yellow connecting lanterns that lit the room.
From outside the side of the pool, Da'La rushed toward them and let out a hand. The couple swam toward the edge, grabbed the hands of their friends, and in a disbelieving daze, breached out of the water and on to the wooden floor next to the raised lip of the circular stone brick pool.
To Maggie's surprise they didn't drip water onto the floor. In fact, they were perfectly dry.
Da'La knelt beside Maggie as the firebrand Yfphar stood on her hands and knees staring at the wood panel floor.
"Ma Soeur." Came Da'La, apologetically, "I acted brashly and abandoned my post. For zhat I extend my deepest--" Maggie jolted up and hugged her Dek'Har tightly.
"I'm just glad you're ok," she whispered.
Roddick came to his feet. Wiped his nose, blood still trickling down it. He looked around. The room was circular, mostly; lined with bookshelves, of which some jutted off perpendicularly at various lengths sectioning off several small nooks. They ran along the perimeter of the circular room; shelves lined with books, cubbyholes with stacking scrolls, tables with scattered notes, and trinkets, objects, and oddities dotted along all of them. The yellow light coming from the lanterns and filigree reflected off the large circular looking pool at the center, to which Roddick noted now had a stone brick bottom as if they hadn't come from it moments before.
"What is this place?" Star asked, standing behind Roddick, looking out.
Roddick began to walk around the looking pool, "A Wizard's Tower." He answered, unhelpfully.
Star walked behind him, "I know that… but what is it?" Star reemphasized, "Every room has been stranger than the last, and last time it seemed we were kicked out… now we're back in?"
"Yeah, it's angry." Roddick answered, looking at the books as he walked by.
"What do you mean, 'it's angry'? it's a building." Star was becoming frustrated. Roddick halted and took a breath.
"Wizards towers are magical buildings, every ounce of this place oozes magic; every brick, every grain." Roddick explained, as he made his way toward a podium on the other side from Maggie and Da'La. "They don't conform to the same rules as other buildings, they reshape, mess around with spatial reality, they have a…." he let out a frustrated sigh as he searched for a word, "…personality."
"You talk like the tower is alive…" Star moved to the side of Roddick, who was gleaming at a book on the podium.
Roddick looked up, "It isn't… not alive." Roddick searched for words, "When magic coalesces in an area it sort of emerges… something… like-like a personality. It's not life like you would understand it… it's--"
"Like you." Star said.
"Yeah." Roddick pulled his attention back to the book. Star leaned over his shoulder. The book was written in some language Star didn't recognize. It was formatted kind of like a recipe, with lists, then paragraphs of details. The pictures looked like drawings of hand gestures and magic glyphs.
"What are you reading?" Star asked.
"I'll tell you when I figure it out… It's written by another wizard…" Roddick came back. Star noted the irritation in his voice and thought it best to move over to the looking pool. He stared in for a moment.
"So, any bead of what this pool is?" It was Maggie, leaning over the edge of the stone brick rim, looking over at the others from the other side.
"Are all of you just going to pop quiz me, or are you going to allow me to get my bearings?" Roddick was visibly annoyed. A fact that brought satisfaction to Maggie's face. She stood, her hand dragging along the rim, walking halfway across the circumference of the pool.
"Oh, come on, Roddick." She said, "You like to be the know-it-all." Maggie teased.
"Am I the only-- fine." Roddick gritted his teeth, and without looking up explained "If Hartliff's letters are to be believed, that's the Reflection Pool. It's probably why this tower was built in the first place. Knock down the tower and the pool will probably still be there… It reflects back what you wish… or what's on your mind."
Star looked in the pool, and then quickly looked away.
"What I wish, you say?" Maggie smiled and looked over the pool. She stared deeply at the water that shimmered from the light, refractions dancing off the stone brick bottom. She leaned in as images began to swirl before her eyes. Her, standing in the center of a packed Amphitheatre, preaching to a breathless congregation. Da'La in the seats behind her. Even Star and Lodak watching her as she spoke the words of Merne. Best of all, Roddick was nowhere to be seen. She smiled and watched the image.
She leaned closer into the water and noticed something… strange. The image of her, zealous and powerful, from the mouth a black ooze began to drip.
"Guys?" Maggie said as the image of her, and of Star, and Da'La, all began to look directly at her, black pus dripping from their eyes. They took a step toward her. Maggie found it difficult to pull herself away as the skin of her friends bloated, turning grey and black and cracking, spewing of that black pus. "Guys!" She yelled, and the hand of her doppelgänger reached out of the pool and grabbed her by her dress, Maggie braced herself against the rim.
From the pool the bloated, cracking, ooze dripping face of Maggie immerged to meet her. It's face; pale, bloated, and greenish, stared at her with black desiccated eyes and came nose to nose with Maggie. Maggie screamed.
Da'La leapt on the rim, moving quickly toward her charge, unsheathing her sword, but as she came close, swiping her sword at the bloated other-Maggie, a figure with a decaying heavy coat leapt from the pool and knocked her into a set of bookshelves; breaking a shelf, sending books and trinkets crashing to the ground. Da'La turned and was met with her own face, only… wrong. It was decaying, the scale sloughing off in a gray pus, black dripping from the holes where her eyes should be. In a panic she stabbed at its chest, and it moved into it.
BANG
The reverberation of the messenger came from halfway around the pool, Star leaned the silver long barrel against the rim of the pool, hitting the back of the decaying clothes of the thing that held Maggie. He could hear Maggie chanting, which was good because the bullet did nothing. He watched as it climbed out, pulling Maggie toward it. A black hand grabbed his barrel.
Coming from the pool, half of its tentacles rotting off; came the eyeless, bloated, cracking face of Star. "A little help, Roddick?" Star called out.
Roddick was reading through the page quickly, "I'm trying something!" He called, "I need a little time."
"Oh good! Just take however long you need! No hurry!" Star returned, as the desiccated mass of pus and bloated skin of Star's doppelgänger grabbed his coat arm.
Maggie held tight, attempting a chant. She was exhausted. The Strytzga, then the Golems, the weird pond and its shadow things. She couldn't muster the energy. She felt her hand slipping as the black-eyed monster that stole her face bit down on her shoulder. Maggie let out a yell, looked down and realized her hands weren't slipping: the rim was crumbling, she caught herself with her hand as she was half hanging over the pool.
Da'La's doppelgänger slammed Da'La against the bookshelf, grabbing on to her Wakizashi and piercing into the Dek’Har's side with lightning speed. Da'La let out a cry. The thing then took its grey dripping, craggy hand and grabbed her head, slamming it against the wall. Again, then again. She felt something cracking and her head went through the wall. Her slight relief that the cracking wasn't her skull was undercut by the black void she saw as her head made its way through.
Star let go of the Messenger and backed up, pulling is doppelgänger with him. "Roddick!" The doppelgänger crested the rim of the pool hit the floor, and the floor rippled like water and Star fell through. His body half sticking out of the wooden floor, in which the water like properties had slowed to that of quicksand. The bloated, cracking foot shuffled toward him. He looked at the half-decayed face of his own visage, with grey goop falling from under what was left of its tentacled face. It walked toward him on the floor, the floor not giving way to its steps. Star tried in vain to reach his Pepperbox.
Maggie held on, her terrifying, bloated doppelgänger smiling a blackened smile as it pulled her toward the pool. Maggie gazed, the bottom had gone out and she stared into the open aquatic cavern she had just escaped. Maggie heard the slams behind her, the sound of books crashing. She tore herself away from the perverted visage of herself to see Star, half stuck out of the floor, and Roddick on his hands and knees, scratching at something on the floor behind Star. She closed her eyes and began to chant, but the power, the power wouldn't come. Her sigil remained inert, dark. The rim crumbling beneath her hands.
Da'La slammed against the wall again, and it gave way, she grabbed on to the bookshelf and found herself dangling over a black abyss. No end in sight, and the only escape on the other side of this decaying thing. Its grinning, oozing mouth coming closer, dripping the black, tar like substance on her, Da'La head butted it. It was like headbutting a wall, but it gave, pulling back for a minute for Da'La to notice something else climbing from the pool.
It was large, two of its four arms had skin sloughed off leaving exposed bone in places. Its ragged and decayed monkey grinder vest dripping with black ooze. It was some decayed and drowned form of Lodak, and behind him he was carrying the broken body of Kunjao. The other Da'La pushed forward, pushing Da'La into the abyss, Da'La clawing against the side of the bookshelf.
Roddick began to speak an almost chant in some old forgotten tongue, Roddick waved his arms bringing them together palm against palm, fingers against wrists. With intricate finger movements he released some form of powder from his hand, then slammed his palm against the chalk glyph at his feet.
The doppelgängers exploded into mist. Star rose from his trapped position, the ground reasserting itself, the floor and rim of the Reflection Pool reformed with Maggie falling backward from the sudden disappearance of the thing that had her, landing on the ground. Da'La felt herself jerked back into the room, the wall pulling the material in; repairing itself and the bookshelf. Everyone, apart from Roddick sloughed onto the floor and passed out.
"Hey, Mags, Wake up…" It was Star's voice; Maggie fluttered her eyes as two blurry frames came in to focus. Da'La and Star stood over her.
"Five more minutes…" She whined, rolling to her side.
"Apologies, Mon Divinica, but I am afraid zhat is out of zhe question." Came Da'La, gently.
"How long have I been out?" Maggie asked, her head throbbed. She sat up slowly.
"Half an hour." Came Roddick, who was adjusting his cuff links near a door that was nestled in between bookshelves, opposite of the lecturn. "The others woke up some time ago, but they wanted to let you sleep."
"Good," Maggie laid back down, "You should do that." She spat.
"No time now," came Star, "We’re readying to storm the final floor."
"One small problem." Maggie said, the annoyance in her voice becoming palpable. "I can't cast."
"What?" Star asked, shocked.
"My power isn't limitless, Star. It requires will power, and I'm pooped, it's been a long day. The Wizard can wait." Maggie closed her eyes.
"Yeah," Roddick's voice came, likewise annoyed, "Thing is, even if the reality anchor I cast to keep this tower from swallowing us whole would last forever, it won't. There's still the matter of the master of the tower who is preparing for us, and likely sending for backup; in case you forgot about him."
The room went silent as Maggie sat up and her emerald eyes met the glowing blue of Roddick's. The air of tension between them became palpable.
"He's right, Maggie." Star's voice came, far gentler. "If we don't end this now, we're screwed."
"What am I supposed to do, then?" Maggie turned to Star, her face portraying concern.
Da'La unsheathed her Wakizashi, then flipped the handle. "My blades are yours, Ma Soeur. Literally and metaphorically." Da'La said gently.
Maggie grabbed with one hand the Wakizashi, and with the other Da'La's shoulder and reluctantly (with the help of the others) lifted to her feet. "Ok" She whispered, staring down at the mirror blade of the curved sword in her hand. Its weight pointing it to the ground.
"So, we're in agreement?" Roddick straightened his jacket, "Let's go."
Maggie firmed her lips as she looked up, fuming at Roddick. The desire to run him through with the blade arose in her chest. Roddick, ignoring her, opened the door.
A set of white marble stairs led upward, curving around the circular wall of the tower. Roddick stepped through and climbing the stairs. Above him he saw an open-air room made of white marble and somewhat resembling the inside of a observatory with a concave Yellow Crystal which seemed to have grown and encompassed the ceiling. Along the wall magical filigree, glyphs, and runes were drawn meticulously on every part of the walls that glowed a faint blue. Roddick climbed the steps, fingering the filigree as he summited.
The top was a white marble room, dome-like in appearance, like the inside of an observatory. The top, a large yellow crystal, that bulged toward the middle that looked like an inversed geode. In the center, a raised circular platform with wrapping steps and half surrounded by white bannisters; behind which stood a tall, lanky man.
He was… but a boy, Roddick thought. Early 20s at best, He was wiry, black hair and dull brown eyes. His face was pale and covered in freckles. He wore a long dark blue coat, with green underlining, that seemed simultaneously too small and too big for him. From his neck, hanging over his misfit black waistcoat, was oddly, a brick. A brick covered in filigree and suspended by a large chain.
"You made it." The boy smiled, his voice, though firm at the moment, cracked with youth at its edges. "I didn't think you had the--"
BANG!
Star's pepper box smoked as he took position on the top of the stairs. The boy lifted his hand and glyphs appeared in the air, catching the bullet. "Patience" The boy said through gritted teeth and flipped his hand. The bullet careened back and made purchase on Star's shoulder. Star stumbled and caught himself over the stairs.
"Tailus Grund--" Roddick started, stepping forward with the body language of a parent moving to correct a child.
"Beastshaper!" Tailus yelled. Roddick stopped as they locked eyes. The boy collected himself. "Beastshaper Grund." His said calmly. Maggie summited the stairs, her feet moving quickly, and sword inexpertly pointed forward, she charged the middle of the room right toward the wiry wizard, screaming her best approximation of a battle cry.
Tailus rolled his eyes, and with a wave of his hand, a giant catspaw made of mist emerged from between them, and batted Maggie to the side the sword moving in an opposite direction clinking a few times against the ground.
"I see introductions are over." Tailus lifted his hands in a grand gesture, a green crystal inset in his right palm glowing, as the platform he stood on lifted and tore as a single disc. Tailus levitated toward the ceiling.
Roddick performed a small cat's cradle and released an arc of lightning from the magenta crystal on the back of his hand, which crashed against a blue orb that flickered into existence around Tailus. Da'La leapt into action with a tepé leap and landed on the banister still left behind from the floating disc; with a crouch, she jumped up toward the floating disc that Tailus stood on. With visible annoyance, Tailus maneuvered a quick dance of his fingers, and extended his palm toward the quickly approaching Cy'Shyk.
WHHHHH-BOOOM
The sound of air rapidly sucking in, then exploding with force. It slammed against Da'La, sending her plummeting with speed toward the marble ground, she struck and bounced. The taste of copper filled her mouth, and tin rung her ear.
BANG
Another shot from the pepperbox struck against a glyph on the side of Tailus. Tailus, now fuming with anger, began to move his hands like a concert concerto. Green mist began pooling from the discarded platform below Tailus and spread from the center across the room.
"I think it's time that you all find out why they call me Beastshaper!" Tailus spat, as the mist began to coalesce in on itself.
Maggie and Da'La both reached their feet to witness forms being shaped from the mist. The padded paw of a green mist puma with glowing green eyes like stars dancing in a nebula stepped forward. Next to it a misty bear.
Not waiting, Da'La sprang into action, running toward the Puma with her katana drawn, leaping and with a sideways gainer, cleaving her sword through the side of the large cat. Disrupting the mist. The mist instantly coalesced back together as the puma leapt out, tackling Da'La to the floor.
The Bear turned toward Maggie, and began to gallop toward her, a bestial roar piercing the air as it approached the firebrand priestess, who ran toward the discarded Wakizashi. She dove toward the sword in a panic and was batted out of the way by the giant claw of the misty bear landing onto a limp roll.
Star aimed his Pepperbox and pulled the trigger. Cling. The barrel of the pepperbox jettisoned off the handle, crashing to the floor. Star's heart sunk.
A bolt of lightning crashed against the Bear, dissolving it into the air as it barreled toward Maggie. Maggie took an intake of breath. She then scrambled for the sword.
Roddick watched on. His glowing blue eyes moving from Star, who was pulling his long-barreled messenger, to Da'La, who was to her feet slashing into the mist of the starry puma, scattering it only temporarily, and Maggie, grabbing the Wakizashi in hand and pointing it toward the Puma that had her friend.
His eyes caught the Filigree. It looked familiar. A ward yes, but more… more like the anchoring spell…
"To make the Wizard dream…" Roddick said quietly lost in thought, as Maggie charged across the room. "You. Son. Of. A. Bitch!" Roddick yelled, looking at Tailus. "The Tower isn't mad! It's wounded!"
"Is now the time for this?" Star readied his Messenger, as Da'La ducked under the leaping Puma with a graceful spin, and Maggie closed in.
"What was it, Tailus?" Roddick spit.
"Beastshaper!" Tailus yelled back in a weak anger.
"Tailus." Roddick corrected his voice cracking with anger as Maggie with her blade ran through--and then ran through the misty Puma, coming crashing to the ground on the other side. "What was it? Hartliff wouldn't advance you quick enough? Wouldn't teach you the cool spells?"
"He was weak!" Tailus' voice cracked, "Foolish."
"But not as weak as you, was he?" Roddick accused.
CRACK
The messenger fired, creating a poof of smoke in the Puma, which quickly reformed.
"A little poison in his night tea, was it?" Roddick asked, his voice raging through the hall. The Puma let out a roar and batted Maggie to the side again as she tried to charge.
A pregnant pause.
"It was just a sleeping potion." Tailus said quietly, "It was supposed to knock him out and Xinor would ship him off." Tears began to well in his eyes.
"But you got it wrong, didn't you?" Roddick yelled, Da'La did a triple gainer off the back of the puma, screaming her katana across its back, scattering it again. "So, you got scared, wrapped him up, and discarded my student--my friend into the pond out back--"
"How do you know this?" Tailus panicked.
The mist began to reform the large cat, but Roddick lifted his arm, casting another bolt of lightning hit the Puma, scattering it into smoke. His eyes remaining locked on the Wizard above.
"You thought no one knew… but the Tower knew." Roddick stepped solemnly toward the wall, "The tower knew, and it was angry. It would never accept you."
"The tower is mine!" Tailus squeaked, "I'm it's master!" He yelled at the fuming Manifest, who turned his back to him.
"Oh yeah?" Roddick's voice, despite being a half whisper, filled the room. "What if I did this?" He slammed his hand against the filigree on the wall, and it glowed purple. The filigree began to dissolve. The platform in which Tailus stood tilted and faltered, bringing them both crashing to the ground next to Maggie and Da'La. Roddick turned his head slightly "The Brick around his neck." He barked, anger still spilling from his voice.
Da'La moved quickly toward the crumpled and groaning form of Tailus, she grabbed the chain from his neck and pulled the chain over his head. Tailus shot his hand out and grabbed the brick in a panic.
"No! No!" He yelled, looking up toward Da'La the look of abject fear setting in his eyes.
Roddick began to walk toward him. "You couldn't control the Tower, so you held a gun to its head, then anchored reality around it." He said in a calm fury. "None of the New Clade knows you couldn't control the Tower. That's why none of them are coming, are they?" Roddick spoke in tune with his steps. "Are they!" he screamed.
"No! No one, I'm alone, I promise!" Tailus cried, his voice in a sharp panic as he held on to the brick.
"Star!" Roddick barked through his teeth. Almost automatically Star lifted the Messenger.
CRACK
The reverberating shot filled the room, and Tailus' arm broke. The sickening crack followed by the pooling blood from his now useless hand. Tailus fell to the floor. He gripped his arm looking in horror to his blood-soaked hand, which no longer held the chain.
"You should have just left. The tower would have let you. But no…" Roddick said, the tempest in his voice calming slightly.
The ground cracked beneath Tailus.
"But now, it won't be satisfied until it gets what it wants." Tailus made a break, scrambling to his feet and trying to run for the stairs, but a hand reached out of the crack in the floor. It was a bloated, cracking hand. Oozing. It was a small hand, but it gripped tightly against Tailus' ankle. Tailus looked back, staring into a small, grey bearded face, with oozing eyes and pale cracked skin.
"I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!" He screamed as it dragged him, and the floor giving way under them, taking Tailus, the dessicated form of Hartliff, and the raised platform in the center of the room down through the ground.
Da'La, Maggie, Star, and Roddick stood on the edge of the collapsed floor, as Tailus fell, dragged down into the Reflection Pool below, disappearing into its depths.
The pieces of debris and cracked stone pulled back into place. The floor and platform reformed and healed, mending to the point where nobody could tell damage had been done. After a moment, Roddick held out his hand to Da'La. Who looked and handed him the brick on the chain.
Roddick approached the platform, the rest wincing as he did. He placed the brick in the center, where it rippled like a stone dropped in water and waves cascading along the platform. The brick disappeared into the marble ground.
"The tower is safe. It's calmed now." Roddick said quietly, looking at his companions. "Get some rest."
DMs Notes: So… it has been a while. Apologies. COVID affected me more than I assumed it would. I was stuck in a deep uncreative mood for several months. Hopefully this lasts.
One thing as a GM that is important is giving your players chances to shine. Iqrotarus Tower was made specifically for Roddick's player. Constructing encounters specifically for each of your players is key to making them feel invested. A suggestion is looking at the specific skillset and background of each player and tailoring it to them.
Another thing to keep in mind is pressure. While it is noted that I change some events, for instance the Reflection Pool scene was far more stressful and vivid in the retelling (it was just a creepy doppelgänger scene in the game), much I keep intact. For instance, Maggie running out of spells was an actual thing that happened in the story. Thing is, the story had to move on. The fact is resting in a Wizard's Tower with the owner still aware of you is not always a good thing. Sometimes the GM has to be cold, and the players have to realize when to move on despite hobbled. This is the nature of good Game Management.
Something I didn't really get into is how spells are notated. In Schancier Spells want to cast themselves. Writing spells to paper tends to dissolve quickly (in the best of circumstances), this is why old spell books are made of human flesh. More contemporary solutions require special paper, coated with a special treatment, and using highly corrosive ink, all of which is magically sealed by a bath in a pricy liquid. This is my way of balancing the Wizards.
Also, Wizards tend to notate spells uniquely. This is why it's not always possible to glance at a Wizards Spellbook and cast from it. There is some need to decode it. This isn't always, though often it is, because of secrecy. Rather every Wizard's understanding is unique, and aside from Magical Engineer there is no standardization among magic users. This often means that the Wizard either has to be familiar with the Mage who wrote the spell book, or ideally, have access to their notebook.
Hopefully I will continue writing more and more in the coming months. Thanks for reading.
Written by: Jack Shawhan
Proofread and Edited by: Alhana Escher
Original Characters played by:
Maggie - Donovan Hill
Star - Stephen Kirk
Roddick-Tem - Joshua Horton
Schancier, Whispers of Ja Reyil, and all associated copyright Jack Shawhan, 2021
