"Someone named Hshurha"
Zephyr stops short, turning to look at the pyrausta with suddenly piercing eyes. "The Duchess of All Winds? Of course! I should have recognized the name of Ranginori, her ancient rival."
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As you approach, you see that there are two areas, each adjacent to the main entrance that are open. The inhabitants of the palace once used these rooms for private contemplation, meditation, and worship. Their walls are decorated with complicated reliefs. In one room, the walls depict a city made of ice and djinn bustling around a massive spherical building surrounded by dozens of similar but smaller round buildings. In another relief, a group of mephits emerges from a cloud dragon’s breath. The most striking scene depicts an immense being with the body of a serpent spun from storm clouds, the head of a lion with a mane of lightning, and hundreds of clawed feet. His expression is approving and content as he gazes upon the other creatures.
Current Rulers (Evil)
Ayrzul, the Fossilized King (Plane of Earth)
Hshurha, Duchess of All Winds (Plane of Air)
Kelizandri, the Brackish Emperor (Plane of Water)
Ymeri, Queen of the Inferno (Plane of Fire)
Imprisoned/Lost/Dead Rulers (Good)
Sairazul, the Crystalline Queen
Ranginori, Duke of Thunder
Lysianassa, Empress of the Torrent
Atreia, The Lambent Prince
Jamila hovers a few inches off the ground as she contemplates the meaning of the wall reliefs. "Ranginori, you say Zephyr?" She motions to the images in the other room. "And now Ranginori appears again, this time wreathed in an aura of lightning with an expression of fury. Very interesting. Could it be this Rift we have encountered is related to the former Duke of Thunder?" She nods decisively. "We must investigate further."
Zephyr nods. "So here he fought against the Fossilized King, and as I understand it the Duchess of All Winds defeated Sairazul. I suspect, then, that the remaining Elemental Lords defeated their good opposites as well. Let's see what else there is here."
"Just imagine the fame if we were to discover where Ranginori has been imprisoned all this time!"
"That is one way to look at it, yes. Octaris, do you sense any magical auras here?"
He thinks about the question for a moment and then closes his eyes in fake concentration, "All of this maelstrom chaos must be interfering with my senses. Best to start searching these rooms then." He quickly changes subject and opens the first door clockwise.
Ember studies the reliefs closely as if she is committing the scenes to memory. "What stories that are told on these walls. Let's see what else there is to see."
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Rows of silver pipes emerge from the ground in this otherwise unadorned room. A few of the pipes are capped with silver lids. Similar lids rest on the floor near the open pipes.
This room is connected to hundreds of small chambers beneath the floor, each of which once contained carefully preserved aromatic substances. Most of the delicate lids fell off when the tower snapped free of the rest of the palace, but a few became jammed rather than displaced. It takes a bit of muscle to do, but if the you remove a lid, the trapped aroma suffuses the room. Scents stored below include a woody and fruity incense, the crisp smell of rain after a storm, the smell of a lightning strike, and a striking but not unpleasant smell that the none of you have never experienced.
You open the door to find what seems to be an armory. Although most of the palace’s arms were not stored within the Tower of Contemplation, a few of the more visually stunning pieces stayed here, along with a basic cache of practical weapons and armor for emergency.
Among the decorative pieces is a set of enchanted bracers;
A large block of black granite hovers in the air, surrounded by floating chairs. The inhabitants of this tower likely used this granite ovoid prism as a meeting table. They used all of the stone’s surfaces, reorienting themselves to hover in the most convenient direction. Even creatures without perfect command of flight used this method—a creature sitting in one of the chairs can move freely about the room without a skill check. The block exerts a gentle pull upon inanimate objects in the room, drawing them toward its nearest face.
The shelves of this library hover and hang from the walls at a variety of artistic angles. Each shelf contains a minor magical effect that directs gravity toward its back, both preventing the contents from tumbling out, as well as preventing the books from degrading over time. Most of the knowledge contained in the volumes here is esoteric and extraordinarily specific. Volumes with titles such as Breathing, Volume XI: Concerning the Respiration of Mephits and Fruit of the Forest of Oils: A Treatise on the Safe Harvesting of Unknown Alchemical Reagents Suspended in Water are common.
Zephyr casts a short orison, looking for magical auras, and concentrates on the bracers.
"Ah! A set of vambraces of the genie!"
Jamila takes careful notice of each of the rooms explored so far, and her face lights up on seeing the library. "Ahh, perhaps this room will yield some answers."
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Jamila is able to lead the others through the library's assortments with relative ease and expertise, first locating a ledger that indicates that the library belonged to a djinni named Pahwal ijil Ranginori, who was so devoted a servant and worshipper of a being called Ranginori that he was granted the immense honor of taking Ranginori’s name as a part of his own, but also finding many relevant volumes about Rnnginori himself. you do, with some time and research, find depictions of Ranginori’s form, (that of the lion-serpent you had seen on the walls a few rooms back), prayers, and hundreds of tales of Ranginori’s acts that portray him as a benevolent leader—albeit acts last performed millennia ago. The volumes also speak of an ever-shifting city at the center of his realm, where his worshipers could freely visit.
As you open the final door, you are welcomed by another spectacle of a lost age. Dragon statuettes made of multicolored crystal hover in this room. Its walls, floors, and ceiling are covered in a hovering layer of small crystal fragments. The miniature crystals in this room are magically attuned to the walls, never straying more than an inch from them. When an electric current passes through this room, they align into intricate mosaics. The dragon statues also react to electricity—they flap their wings, and rippling patterns on their surface provide the illusion of more subtle movements (such as contracting muscles and breathing).
After exploring the last of the rooms, please give me a single Perception Check.
crystals in each room, something odd that had not happened before hand while you where in them, and they seem to be somewhat I unison.
growing within the cyclone, certainly not a sign of something good.
EDIT:
"That is unusual...there are sparks coming from these crystals."
"What a beautiful room. Just look at those dragons."
Octaris acts intrigued with the library, going from shelf to shelf, reading a page here, a few sentences there, but really not understanding most of it. "Most of this is just common knowledge for a studier of the arcane such as myself."
He is fascinated by the crystal walls covering the next room, noticing the little sparks coming off them. He takes a moment to stare at the dragon, wondering how it must have looked when functioning properly.
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The crystals in each of the rooms on the first floor of the tower buzz and hum with electricity, sending arcs into the air as spectral djinn move about the central area and raise their hands as if invoking some supernatural power.
ROUND 1
Surprise Round
Jamila ()
Octaris ()
Krakos ()
Ember ()
"Target the dark cyclone in the middle!" Jamila cries out as she draws her bow. "This is merely a resonant effect of Ranginori’s power, and will not take damage from positive energy—instead, it takes damage from chaotic, earth, evil, fire, lawful, or water magic... or from the physical attacks of Ayrzul’s faithful!"
"Water did you say? How convenient!" Octaris quickly brings his hand up and a torrent of water shoots forth at the dark maelstrom.
Ember begins to tell a story. "Be brave my friends. Our elements will serve us well in this encounter, and we'll have a story to tell of a found tower from a missing castle."
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Octaris's amazing display of wizadry and arcane power blasts the cyclone with a summoned wave of oceanic water and cold. At first, the odd, nearly invisible barrier around it seems to divert the waters around, but the wizard's expertise pushes through, and, at least for the moment, seems to banish the barrier.
All of the ghostly figures in the room, building up some sort of static electrical power suddenly begin to waiver, and flashing in and out of existence, growing silent for a moment and then resuming their chanting as they seem to reappear, when suddenly all of the floating crystals fall harmlessly to the floor.
There is a magical shockwave of energy, not harmful, but it seems wash over you all and leaving you feeling different. The cyclone suddenly flairs up, pulling you, and only you towards it (living creatures). It's pull grows quickly, and while some of you might be able to resist for a time, it soon overcomes your efforts and draws you into to whatever Elemental, primal chaotic realm lies beyond. . .
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As you are suddenly deposited on the other side of whatever the mysterious portal holds, you see the landscape has changed. A great deal. But even more so, some of you feel very strange. Uncentered, as if the very nature of this new land where completely against your very being.
The color-streaked blackness expands to fill the entire sky. Above, a ring of electricity hovers in midair. Brightly colored formations shaped like cracks running through stone pepper the sky around it. Below, a forty-foot-wide stone platform bears a runic circle. Smaller pieces of stone are connected to this platform with sturdy iron chains. subjective gravity is still in effect here, in a sense allowing some to "fly" by falling in different directions.
Around you, you spot four odd elemental creatures. They seem to have been corrupted somehow, but our not certain if it is for good or ill. There seems to be one of each type for each of the four elements (Air, Earth, Fire, and Water), tiny elementals similar to a Lantern Archon in some respects, but comprised of an element. Finally, you see another, much larger outsider creature of some sort, a serpentine protean creature, who seems extremely annoyed and irritated at your sudden appearance, or perhaps whatever you just did to cause the rift to open and energies from another existence to seep in.
Knowledge (planes), Intimidate, or Use Magic Device in order to try to free a single Wysp from it's Chaotic affinity, by reminding it of it's true nature.)
As soon as you seem to float down to ground level and have a chance to glance around the small elemental "bubble" you are in, what seems like a sudden rip in the essence of reality open, for only a brief moment right in front of Zypher, and a burst of pure light and warmth seems to engulf Zypher.
...
ROUND 1
Wysps (A ), (E ), (F ), (W )
Zypher ()
Krakos ()
Jamila ()
Protean Creature ()
Octaris ()
Ember ()
Rhyol ()
In most parts of the Plane of Air, each individual chooses
the direction of gravity’s pull. When walking on solid
surfaces, choosing the direction of the surface to be
“down” is relatively intuitive and does not require a
skill check. In midair, creatures with natural flight can
fly normally. Those without the ability to fly, or those
who would prefer to move faster, can attempt to set the
direction of gravity.
Once per round as a free action, an individual can
attempt a DC 16 Wisdom check to pick a new direction
for gravity. If she succeeds, she begins falling in that
direction, moving 150 feet in a straight line on the first
round and 300 feet on each succeeding round. If she fails,
she can attempt the Wisdom check again the following
round. The DC decreases to 12 until she succeeds. Once
an individual starts falling in a direction, stopping
requires a successful DC 16 Wisdom check to set gravity
in the exact opposite direction. If she succeeds, she
continues falling 150 feet in her original direction for 1
round, then stops.
Because an individual in free fall cannot stop quickly,
performing actions during the fall is difficult. However,
the PCs may ready actions and perform them during the
free fall, such as readying an action to grab an object or
to attack a creature while soaring past it. Moving past an
opponent in this manner provokes at attack of opportunity.
A PC under the effects of a feather fall spell falls at only
60 feet per round and gains a +2 circumstance bonus on
the Wisdom checks to change direction.
"Fascinating! Those runes on the circle represent the seven runelords of Thassilon, and that the one in the center represents evocation magic which is associated with the Runelord Alaznist!"
As she studies the strange wysps further she gasps in realization. "These wysps have been corrupted by the powers of Chaos rather than their own natural elemental affinity, (and thus empowering those of primal Chaos). Perhaps they could be snapped out of whatever is influencing them, but barring that, the might need to be destroyed!"
She points out the protean creature as the larger threat, drawing her bow and readying to fire. "I shall attempt to influence the wysps here. Concentrate upon the protean!'
The sylph holds up his hands and casts a lengthy spell. Electric-blue runes flare into being around his fingertips and remain in a corona above him, pulsing.
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Zypher begins to call upon the more destructive powers of the wind, chanting a soft prayer to summon the powers to him for later, while Krakos offers a challenge and then utilizes the stored energies of a divine blessing.
Jamila attempts to get through to the tiny floating rock, but it's nearly impossible to tell how it reacted, though it doesn't seem to do anything in your favor.
The large Protean creature, furious at you for something beyond your understanding, screams
ROUND 1 <Prayer>
Wysps (A ), (E ), (F ), (W )
Zypher (full round spell)
Krakos ()
Jamila ()
Protean Creature ()
Octaris ()
Ember ()
Rhyol ()
Octaris flies off the platform and unleashes a blast of water at the protean.
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Zypher begins to call upon the more destructive powers of the wind, chanting a soft prayer to summon the powers to him for later, while Krakos offers a challenge and then utilizes the stored energies of a divine blessing.
Jamila attempts to get through to the tiny floating rock, but it's nearly impossible to tell how it reacted, though it doesn't seem to do anything in your favor.
The large Protean creature, furious at you for something beyond your understanding, screams something at you in Abyssal, before it flies in closer, landing on the larger island in the middle and unleashing magic of it's own. Suddenly all of you are engulfed in a multicolored explosion of leaping, ricocheting energy.
Targos drops to the ground softly, it's body convulsing as it struggles against the multicolored lights. Octaris summons a burst of water, but as it rushes at the being of pure chaos, the water seem to split into two paths, travelling to each side of the Protean harmlessly.
Ember continues to inspire her allies, then flies over towards the palm-sized ball of flame, trying to remind it of it's true purpose. For just a moment it shifts in place, almost as if turning to look upon her, and then there is a sudden flash of power. Suddenly all of those in the immediate area with close ties to the Elemental Plane of Fire feel a small quickening rush, while it seems that the Protean grows even more angry over something.
ROUND 2 <Prayer>
Octaris ()
Ember ()
Rhyol ()
Wysps (A ), (E ), (F ), (W )
Zypher (full round spell)
Krakos ()
Jamila ()
Protean Creature ()
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As his spell comes to a close Zephyr raises a hand, clenches his fist, and brings it down in an arc. In answer a lightning stroke materializes and crashes down on the protean. The sylph then leaps to the rock to his west, landing near Ember.
Jamila heart constricts as she sees her faithful companion fall to the ground lifeless. She calls out "I shall join you momentarily," as she takes out a potion and a green pill. Dropping the pill into the potion, it soon froths out into a cloud that enjulfs both her and Targos.