A Reclusive Wizard

Orrid has been following rumors of a hiden wizard’s tower deep in the woods. Those that have stumbled upon it report the tower to be guarded by magics but the wizard is known to accept petitioners who can make it to the inside of his tower. Though the world is full of magic you know that the common fold often fear it, especially if they have no gift or local healer or alchemist to help them see and understand it as part of their everyday lives.

After hours of searching through dense forests and winding trails, the trees part to reveal a hidden valley shrouded in mist. At its center stands the tower, a slender spire of weathered stone rising defiantly against the sky. Vines and moss cling to its walls, but faint magical glyph etched into the stone occasionally flicker with an otherworldly glow, hinting at the power that once pulsed within.



As you enter the small valley and approach the tower base you see from a distance that the entrance is a heavy wooden door reinforced with bands of iron. The wood looks ancient but sturdy, and a faint glow of magic surrounds it. A carved sigil of a crescent moon, the wizard’s personal mark, is faintly visible above the door. The meadow around the tower is eerily silent and around its perimeter are small stone blocks with the same mark you see above the door etched into each, clearly marking the boundary to the wizards lands.

I want to use perception to check out the door before entering. If there's nothing more to see I'll just enter

Moving into the clearing to inspect the tower closer you wade through the tall soft grass. A single path from the towers door lead to the woods to the east. Looking the tower up and down you see it is built of stone and at least 3 stories tall, based on windows you see. However you note that either the first floor is taller or it and the second both do not have any windows as the only opening you see near the base of the tower is the single large door. Roll a test with advantage (3d6) to spot additional information.

As Orrid draws near the tower a sound is hear, a soft susuration, a whisper of sliding or rubbing. Trying to focus Orrid is distracted by the appearance and approach of the large ursine figure. As the two figures face off the tall grass around swirls without a breeze and a sense of some presence drawing near begins to press on both of you increasing the tension. A faint trembling of the ground under your feet gives but a moments notice before you feel yourselves falling into a hole the opens under each of your feet.I need a save test from each of you.

Orrid braces himself for the fall while trying to cling to anything he can get his hands on

As Orrid starts to fall the the world title and swirls before stabilizing. You realize there is no hole, but a mere illusion. Looking around you each set the other recovering, little from a similar experience.

Orrid frantically check himself for any wounds as he comes to his senses. He looks at Ursa and speaks

Orrid takes another good look at his surroundings while speaking to Ursa

The tower is as solid as ever but the surrounding are gives an odd feeling. Tjhe medow around the tower is clear of any variation save the ocasional rock or flowering plant. No trees or bushes are in the clearing and save the tower itself it contain only grass, and stillness. Orrid sees nothing else at the moment but does notice a distinct lack of . . . something. Something is missing from this area. Orrid can not quite pin down what is missing but know is it not a critical thing and likely the distraction f the current situation is just preventing the full realization from settling in.

"Well, Orrid, it seems my village is in a similar situation. Our young rarely survive until they reach adulthood. So I set out to learn more about healing in hope to find a way to stop this."
She looks concerned, as this information may mean that there is something larger at work, something that may effect more than just these two villages.
"Let's try to reach that tower. There is something...unnatural...and I suspect the source is in that tower."

The strange glade around the tower is barren of features or itemsthat would hemp sustain life long term, unless you liked to gaze. Then you notice the return of tht earlier sounds. The whisper of coding moving thrift the grass, or perhaps the wind blowing the grass. Only there is no wind. As you look for the source of the sound you see a patch of grass moving. Or something that looks like grass, but it is just a bit tablet than the rest, moving through the grass. As you watch it seems to be circling tht pair of you, and getting bigger...

As you turn to face the . . . Hidden foe? It continues gaining size m both height and width. Soon a hill sends to be somehow moving around you, and drawing nearer

Agreed! Orrid says as he pulls out his wooden club and grips it tightly

The mound continues to grow in size as it draws near. Now well over 10 feet tall and 30 wide, it's edges move up to where you stand. Still the only sound is the rushing of grass. Then with a surge it rushes you and you find yourselves being lifted as the hill swells under your feet as it narrows and the incline facing you become very steep, causing you to stumble and step back to keep you footing. This continues and you realize you are being herded away from the tower.

Orrid stretches out their senses to call a spirit, only to immediately come into direct contact with an Earth Child soul. These spirits are young and weak, by spirit standards. Though this one is moving more earth than usual Orrid can tell it is simple and currently doing something it feels compelled to do but find extremely tedious and boring. It seems incredibly interested only on seeing just how much earth it can control and how sharp an incline it can form without harming the grass.

Aurora opened her mage sense only to be flooded with a tangle of spells around and over the tower. Focusing her arcane sense she is able to find a small tether anchor to the tower and something under the grassy hill you are now continuously sliding down and it pushes you towards the edge of the clearing.

The stones are each about the size of a persons head. As such they are heavy but not immovable. The stones are connected to each other and the tower by some sort of enchantment but Aurora would need to study it (roll spell touched) to try and discern what the effect of the spell and/or moving the stone might be.

As far as Uarora can tell the spells tied to the stones are are based on detection, tied to the tower when triggered, and a basic protection spell. The elemental likely could not move beyond them due to the stones alerting the tower and the spell from the tower pulling it back. Moving the stone will not have any immediate effect from the spells on the stone but will likely trigger an alarm in the Tower. You may be able silence (With a successful spell touched test) one or possibly two stones at the most.

As you ponder the situation you realize that so far all the magic has not been lethal, or even harmful. But again all you have done is some trespassing, so far.

Orrid calls to the spirits but is soon finds that none are helpful at all, to the point they do not even present themselves directly. Concerned there is something preventing the spirits from answering the call Orrid soon realizes it is that none of the spirits can meet her need and give advice on what to do. All that is learned is that spirits avoid this place as the wizard does not like visitors or trespassers. They do not fear him but do know not to enter his glade of they will suffer. However, Orrid is confident the spirits are there to help should a different need be presented but do not want to linger near the tower unless they feel they can be of help.Aurora examine the stones and discovers that silencing the alarm or changing one to trigger early and prevent the elemental from getting to near, but not both, should be possible.

Orrid expands the scope of their examination and notices that the stones follow a pattern with some of them being a bit larger or smaller. The two stones by the path are the largest and have additional marking on them while spread around the glade the smallest, which would still require 2 hands to lift and carry, are small and spread out with larger stones between them.

The elemental by this point has settled back down to where you can barely notice it and though it still loiters near you it no longer tries to talk with Orrid since the druid shifted their focus to the area and stopped talking with it. The glade is quite large and you wonder if it would be possible to just bypass the elemental by drawing it to the far side of the glace form you then racing to the tower. It did not move with extreme speeds while it was pushing you, so perhaps that might work?

Aruroa manages to barely manipulate the spell on one of the stones.

You get about half way to the tower again before you notice the elemental react to your approach. It moves closer but stops just as the small hill gets under Aurora's feet. Pressing on by simply walking "up hill" the rest of the way you soon make it to the tower. Once you reach to tower the elemental seems to loose interest in you and slowly begins to wander off and subside into the soil once more.

Looking the tower up and down you see it is built of stone and at least 3 stories tall, based on windows you see. However you note that either the first floor is taller or it and the second both do not have any windows as the only opening you see near the base of the tower is the single large door. The heavy wooden door, reinforced with bands of iron, is closed but has a simple looking handle. The wood looks ancient but sturdy, and a faint glow of magic is emitted by the door frame. A carved sigil of a crescent moon, the wizard’s personal mark, is faintly visible above the door.

Orrid finds nothing else that stands out save the fact that her senses stop completely at the surface of the tower. Normally she can sense even the spirits of stone cut off from the earth to form buildings. But here the building appears as stone, nothing special, but she senses nothing at all from it. The runes around the door continue to glow and Orrid's spiritual senses stop even further from the door.Though unable to sense the tower or inside it at all the sense around the tower is as serene as it appears to the eyes. A calm, peaceful glade. Left only with mundane senses she looks it over but sees only a stout door with a heavy and simple brass latch.

Aurora is unable to clearly discern the magical weave but does recognize several of the glyphs and is shocked to realize they read as a introduction.

The door opens easily, followed by a flash from the glowing runes and a loud thunderclap. You are both slightly startled but at no harm is done you quickly settle your nerves. Pushing the door open more you look inside to see a dimly lit by a floating orb that glows a dull orange. A heavily bound book rests on a ornately carved wooden table to one side of the room while stone stairs leading up are on the other side of the room. Nothing moves within and you step inside.

As you do, both of your senses shift and now you can sense nothing outside the tower even though the door remains open. A quick test reveals the door has not lock and you can come as go as you please. Reassured you move over to the table to examine the book. You find the top of the table covered with a plaque with lines of glyphs on it. As you see them their meaning instantly jumps to the front of your mind and your presume some magic allows all to know what it says regardless of their level of learning.

As the words are spoken tubes appear on the blank pages and you hear a clock from the top of the stairs.

Moving up the narrow stone stairs that follow the curve of the tower you soon reach a small antechamber that opens into a much larger room beyond. A small brass plaque on the stairwell wall:
Looking out into the vast room that is clearly larger than it should be based on the towers size from the outside, you see a vast circular hall with a domed ceiling of shimmering runes. Two massive constructs, about 9 feet tall, stand on opposite sides of the room, each partially damaged and glaring with magically lit eyes.

To the left is a Colossus of Clay. It is covered is cracks and lumbers awkwardly as it advances on the other and bellows in a rage filled voice
Thief! Return my heartstone!

To your right is a Bronze figure of polished plates, etched glyphs, that move into a guard position with precise movements. It replies in a flat, emotionless voice I took nothing. You are faulty and must be restrained until repairs are maid to prevent damage to yourself or the tower.

As you look over the tableau a soft chime resounds and and melodious voice speaks is heard

A mind too rigid breaks. A heart too wild burns. Wisdom walks between. Spells and weapons may be used to attack and defend from the two golems.

At the sound of the chime, both golems turn to yow and call out for your aid.

The Clay one roars Help me destroy the Bronze Traitor! It stole my Heartstone! It dulls my fire to weaken me!

The Bronze one speaks in cold tones Aid me in subduing the Clay One. It is malfunctioning. The Heartstone shattered by its own instability.

The Clay golem rumbles I was performing my duties when this one and waves at the Bronze golem interfered and deliberately caused the Heartstone to explode and waves to the middle of the room where you see a small glowing pedestal with shattered crystal fragments scattered around it.

The Bronze golem replies while keeping an eye on the Clay one.

I detected the Clay Animatron accessing the power supply when no tasked activity was at hand
I moved to suppress the unauthorized activity.
The illogical activities escalated and it drew so much power that the supply overloaded resulting in an explosion.
The Clay Animatron is obviously not following the prescribed behavior and sjould be disabled for repairs. .


As it talks it also motions towards the remnants of the pedestal. Pieces of metal, ceramic, and crystal are scattered around ND a few large pieces remain near the remnants of the pedestal..

Orrid feels a spirit respond to her callAs this is going on the two massive constructs decide they are done waiting for your and move to engage each other both slow heavy blows, filling the round with the sounds of impact that do not seem to be doing much actual damage at this time as their gravy summit absorbs much of the damage.

Orrid notes several thins as he gets closer
Faint crystal dust lays over the entire region with larger fragments on the ground the two golems have turned into their arena
The bottom portion of what looks to be a sphere-shaped indentation with a large chunk of crystal in what remains of the pedestal

The Golems seem to care little for your words, fully intent on each other, at this point in time.

Ursa is indeed able to sense magic coming from several of the larger crystal shards. Though all the smaller fragments, and indeed even the dust, show traces of former enchantment they have lost too much to be of use. Aurora quickly spots 6 larger fragments that still blaze with magic power. The large piece on the pedestal, one embedded on each of the golems, and three more scattered around the room.

The two large lumbering figures move with power and though their strikes are fast and sharp you feel you should be able to avoid their overall movements with timing and a bit of patience. The biggest stumbling block would be securing the two embedded in to active combatants.

Aurora grabs two, skirting the large constructs melee but when Orrid moves she grabs the fist but when moving to grab the one on the pedestal she realizes that it is bound somehow to the pedestal itself causing a misstep and stumble cause that her to get embroiled in the fight. The Golems do not seem to target her directly but seem agitated as she got near the pedestal. The golems shift their focus to the crystal fragment in her hand and reach for it with their large and fast grasping hands.

COMBAT!The clay golem manages to land a hand on Orrid and the crystal 1 damage and fends off the Bronze one. With Orrid now in its grasp the Clayis forced to fend off the Bronze with only a single arm while the Bronze seems to spit it's attention between reaching for Orrid and smashing the Clay one.
You can use athletics to break the grip or acrobatics to slip free of the golem's hand, or just attack it.

Orrid gets free and had a moment to act before the golems react

While the combat pauses and the golems watch Aurora struggles with the crystals you have secured. Unfortunately only 2 pieces join up while the others do not seem to line up no matter how you arrange thing. However Aurora does notice that when the 2 pieces are placed together their mystic energies move to bind them back to each other but the result is not quite strong enough to keep them together or restore the original enchantment it does show that with all the pieces, or something to fill the missing gaps, the process would likely work.

Aurora manages to align the crystals and with a pulse of energy to jolts her away the click into place and begin to glow. as they do the two combatants roar. The sound reverberates through the chamber, causing you both to clutch your hands to your ears as you try and dampen the deafening rumble that ascends to a headache inducing keening. The sound stops abruptly and you blink as the room spins and you stagger to your feet. Glancing around you now see the restored pedestal and crystal humming quietly and a long figure where there had been two. Claw covers Bronze accents and the figure rises smoothly to its now 12' height.

The new golem turns to you and gives a half bow Thank you for your assistance. You may proceed towards the master. and with a wave of it's hand the door on the far side of the chamber from where you entered opens to more stairs.

You leave to chamber and begin ascending the stairs to the next level. Again the magic of the tower is brought to mind and you ascent many sets of straight stairs with landings between them. At each landing is a simple lantern and the stairs turn to the left. After passing the 2nd landing you hear a noise of movement ahead of you. Moving cautiously you move to the 3rd and see a small animal hopping in an attempt to get up the next stair. Raising you light you see it is a bird. The rounded head and large eyes identify it as an owl but the color of it's feathers is more like a song bird, with red, blue, and green being the brightest and most dominant feather colors. As your light fills the space and lights up the bird it flinches and turns to face you as it hops back from you and its wings flutter nervously.

The bird flicks it's gaze across both of you. Other than this it continues to attempt to climb the stairs by hopping and scrabbling with its claws, with an occasional flutter of its wings which seems to cause it to flinch.

As the two of you move to encircle and grab the bird it's struggles become more frantic. Finally as you are about to snatch it the bird spreads it's wings and flaps its wings only for a screech of pain as the favored wing suddenly emits a small snapping noise and bends in a way you can only assume is not good. The bird faints and you quickly move to secure it.

Aurora gently probes the bird as healing energy flows into it. The clearly broken wing shifts and she guides it back into place where it begins knitting the bones and muscles back into their proper forms. Unfortunately the bird is still unconscious, which might have been a good thing as healing broken bones can be even more painful than breaking them in the first place. By time the healing finishes its breathing has slowed and it seems to have settled into a deep sleep.

Orrid looks over the bird and spots several interesting traits. Unlike any other bird you are familiar with this ones face has a mask pattern around its eyes and what is clearly a rune can be seen on the breast feathers, formed by the shift in the feather coloration. Though either might be natural they seem more deliberate than evolved.

Leaving the now healed bird you continue on up the stairs and read a small yet comfortably furnished room. A thick carpet covers the cold stone floor and several chairs of various sized are set around with lamps, small tables, and a couple of book shelves. At the far end of the room is a stout wooden door.

It is a solid wood door that does seem enchanted to stay closed.

You find the room to be very comfortable and there a seat to fit each of your unique frames very nicely. There are some books for light reading with topics such as "Countryside Herbs and their uses" and "Interesting but harmless, mostly anyhow, Fae" with large colorful illustrations. One one small table you find a small silver bell and another has a drawer with a writing kit.

Orid finds some of the books easy to understand as they limit the words used and tend to use the simplified common script as much as the more advanced high script used by magi and clergy

You return to find the bird still sleeping but it alerts and flutters at the sound of your approach. It's movements are stilted and hesitant at first as it still favors the previously wounded wing only to quickly adapt to full mobility. The birds is clearly exhausted still, despite your healing, and it does not move far but does move away as you near it. With a bit of coaxing you manage to get close enough but any attempt to grab it results in the bird fleeing, but again not far. It is clearly not afraid of you but equally clear is its dislike of being grabbed.