I think I fucked it up somehow.
In the Tower there is a room called the Workshop (level 6) where as long there is crafting going on there, the people in the room will get a +3 on their roll. Pretty much they had to describe what they were making and if it was well explained and used what tools were there (simplistic) it was a DC:10, otherwise I would run it at DC:15.
The party did such a good job and had such great rolls as well as working together that there were no failures in my 5 checks. Lowest roll ended up as a 12 (after modifiers).
So there you go, destined to get a Mage's Tower in the game. Not bad after almost 25 years of waiting for it to happen.
Write up follows:
We went back through the ritual of the Tower Master one last time and left Marcus to his studying the Tower Master’s spellbook for the required enchantments. There was no way he could do this in 1 sitting, so we would do most of the Homunculus crafting tonight, followed by a rest and the remainder tomorrow.
While this was going on, the party moved the golem/armor suit back to where we had found it and then spent a little time giving the bedrooms a final look over and cleanup. More required supplies were gotten, then a meal, and finally we all convened in the Workshop to meet with Marcus after he finished studying. The party had cobbled together a rough doll using no threads, limiting themselves to just the raw unprocessed goods that we were finding. It was fragile, but should hold up long enough for Marcus to stitch in place.
Sure enough, it worked. Prior to getting it sewn up, Marcus added his hair, nails, spit, and whatnot into the body of the golem he was making, sewing it in place before moving on to the stuffing and spell work. Four stitch spells adhered the arms and legs to the torso, leaving the head unfinished for now. We talked about the next day and the group went to sleep.
On Earthmonth the 24th the group woke up pretty stoked and Marcus studied more spells, while Flimflam stretched out our food stores with more goodberries. The party was cobbling together some of the dismantled items found in the basement – one was a crow’s cage (torture cage to hang a person in), the other was a rack. A look at the log books showed that Cornelius was also making money as an inquisitor for the Sheriff (and Baron at that time) – supplementing his income. Shudder.
We stitched the head in place and then colored the doll as needed. We know we had to be in the Observatory at 12 when the Searing Crystal would shine down, but there was no clock in the tower and we’ve been guessing on the time. Steiner offered to go up to the roof and let us know, but when the top was open, we saw rain and clouds – no way of knowing when noon was. Our priest of Apollo was going to meditate on the roof and would hope his god would give him a warning when noon was approaching. Meanwhile, Viridia and Geld walked with Marcus a few times making sure he could navigate the area and steps between the Workshop and the Observatory – since he would have to do so as he was concentrating on maintaining the simple illusion spell.
The clock ticked along and then Steiner called out that it was almost time. Marcus cast the simple illusion spell on the homunculus and allowed himself to be guided upstairs where we stood under the crystal, forcing the doll to appear like himself. And then the light blasted down and the illusion was seared into the doll. From there we all went to the Master Bedroom where the 1st words of the ritual were spoken and the doll placed into the proper place. The tower groaned slightly and there was a thrumming.
From there we propelled our way through the rest of the ritual. The charging of the Olympian Crystal took 12 hours and required Geld watching over her friend/employed and then Marcus cutting himself and placing the crystal into his own flesh. When the crystal was glowing he returned to the Master Bedroom, placed it on the shelf and intoned the 2nd words of the ritual – again the tower shook and groaned. Then we all fell asleep.
Awakening on Earthmonth the 25th and some more studying and prep work had Marcus run through the rest of the ritual, eventually anointing his hand with the blood of Cornelius taken days ago from the body in the kitchen. The spirit had been guided/coaxed here by Steiner and the party watched with baited breath as Marcus intoned the final words of the ritual.
“From Master to Student, Adult to Child, Teacher to Pupil, I take control of this Tower from this moment forth. No force in the world or from another can force me to relinquish this charge without my unfettered and uncharmed will. So I do swear from this day until I choose to end my duty. With this seal, let the tower and all who enter know that I am the Tower Master.”
The tower groaned and stuttered, and we felt a crystalizing in the air. Then a voice called for the Tower Master to come to the Observatory. It was here that we learned the tower had some simple sentience and was able to answer some questions that Marcus had. We decided NOT to announce to the other 4 wizard’s towers that this one was occupied (better safe than sorry) and Marcus gave permission for Geld to come in and out when and how often she wants. He also opted to keep the ward on the front door to make people sick and scared if they come too close (opting to remove that feeling for the rest of the party).
There were also some messages that had been sent here that Corenlius never got – all from someone called Wizard-Lord Erazmis of Castle Sterling, from someplace referred to as the Helmian Lands. Seems that Cornelius had ordered some enchanted material/armament from this Erazmis before he died and it has been waiting for him to get for the last 15 years. We were able to deduce that this Helmian Lands are 4 days upriver from Brewers Bridge and would take us almost 2 weeks to get to.
Cleaning ourselves up we all went down to the front door and walked out together to the thronging crowd. The tower no longer looked worn, instead new and clean. The metal trees up top were crackling with energy and the entire place was thrumming. We heard about the escaped goblin/demonic and feigned ignorance, stating that we had killed 3 of them already and this once must have run and escaped.
The party went to the Hall of Heroes, knowing that we had much to catch up on, the case against Kalt, Horace, Viridia, and Fermius and their involvement and maybe recruitment, Marcus taking stock of his tower and what’s responsible on his end of it, and about 2 dozen other smaller issues.
Erdan did have a talk with the owner of the 4 Rings Brothel who was concerned that his “dancing studio” was actually a front for another brothel – and she’s like to talk about putting him out of business. Erd agreed it was not necessary and was not going to open up as either a brothel OR a dancing studio for now.
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