Session 12
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Spring 1223
Over casual discussions with Redcaps, the magi hear of two rumors that sound interesting enough to follow up on. One involves stories of a tower at an icy peak in Gwynedd of Wales. The other is a ruined/destroyed village surrounded by a sickly forest. The Redcaps thought the latter was curious because the stone buildings hadn't been looted to build other villages; it was considered cursed and avoided. The magi decide to investigate the tower in Wales.
Following somewhat vague stories of where this tower might be, some sharp-eyed grogs spot various clues in the terrain, which leads eventually to a rocky prominence in the hills. They leave behind horses and carts due to the climb, but they eventually reach a peak that appeared to be bare rock. The party spread out to look for a regio (as the stories were an icy peak) and a couple of grogs began to notice a building if they looked at the peak askance, but not if they looked straight-on. They then found that if they kept the peak askance, they could shuffle sideways into the regio.
Once in the regio, they found a 70 foot tall stone building with no doors or windows. Geoffrey used a spell to peer into the room and due to a discerning eye (i.e. a high roll) he determined that the ground floor was a 30' tall room with a plain-looking sarcophagus in it, but that there seemed to be evidence of a regio as flickers of a fancier sarcophagus occasionally superimposed itself in his sight.
At the top of the tower, two giant owls peered down. Geoffrey levitated some group members up to the roof, calmed the owls, and found a trap door leading in. From the roof was a 30 foot drop into what appeared to be an abandoned and wrecked lab with stairs leading down. Use of magic and rope allowed the party into the 2nd floor of the tower. The stairs down lead to what appeared to be a plain-looking sarcophagus, but remembering his sight, proceeded to try backing down the stairs while keeping the sarcophagus in his peripheral vision in order to traverse the regio. This seemed to work. In this regio, two things were noticeable: the lower floor had a much more decorated sarcophagus with a half-dozen gargoyles near the roof and bookshelves filled with tomes on Arts. Heading back up stairs in this regio revealed a full laboratory but, importantly, a fully-stocked library of non-Arts lores and history.
While investigating the books, the gargoyles attacked. The party dispatched 3, while forcing the other 3 to return back to its perches near the roof. An image of the maga whose tomb this was appeared over the lab congratulating them for defeating the guardians and warning them that the books were enchanted to only exist within the regio and could not be removed without destroying them. She named herself Varana. She was clearly a Hermetic maga, though not much else is known about her.
Varana's Tomb is now a resource for the covenant, assuming they want to make the journey and deal with the inconveniences of getting in.
Experience Points
Participating characters each earned +3 Adventure XP. Geoffrey, Veloxia, Obscurus Ignis, Magni, Aesa, Gwendolyn, Franklin, Samantha, Christopher, Jarrod, Madog, Mildegod.