Arbiter of the Tower's page

Sorry folks- rough week at work. I tried to post tonight but just don't have the time/energy. I'll get one up tomorrow.

I'm assuming from the lack of responses that everyone else just follows Gavin around the rest of the day and then we get ready to go tomorrow?

There were 5 of you there when you got the equipment, yes. Assuming (for the sake of moving along) that you tell her that...

Giovanna nods, makes a note in the ledger, then retrieves five beautiful gemstones (worth 1,000 gold each) and 40 silver pieces from a drawer beneath the desk, while the wet child stands by and watches. "Is there anything else I can help you with today," the woman asks.

Gavin- was there anything else you wanted with/from the other merchants? Is there anything else anyone wants to do today? If not, where/how are you all going to spend the rest of the day?

"Not at all," Giovanna answers with a smile. "How many ways are you splitting it?"

While she's speaking, a wet little girl--no more than 3 or four years old--comes running in from the bathhouse area exclaiming, "Mamma!"

The woman smile warmly at the child and answers, "Maria, amore mio, la mamma sta lavorando. Torna da papà e pulisciti."

Looks like the darkwood was the only special material.

Seth lead the way the short distance across the Redwatch Marketplace to the Mercantile Exchange. The Archbanker is not present in his usual place at the counter, but there instead is a Vitolian woman of similiar age, whom Gavin knows to be his wife, Giovanna Lombardi. When Seth mentions the matter of the consignment of giant-sized equipment, she retrieves a ledger, leafs through it, and answers, "yes, your pieces have sold and your share totals to five-thousand and four gold. Would you like to leave that in your account for future purchases, take it in trade today, or be paid in coins and gems?"

That's very helpful, Witness, thank you! Do you (or anyone else) remember if there was maybe a failed appraise check or more details given later? For some reason I thought there was at least one or two pieces that had special materials (wasn't that part of the conversation when your options were to sell it at regular-sized price, to sell it by weight as scrap, or to sell it on consignment)?

I'll look through the thread (and/or my notes) later if nobody else can point me to a post that provides further details.

"The guardian looked to be carved of the same stone as the floor and walls around it," Mykos answers the Witness after taking far too long to swallow a bit of streaky bacon, "inlaid with some silvery metal filigree."

"I'm not an expert," Tara offers, "but it looked to me like it might be mithril."

*later on, among the shops*
As in their previous visits, most of the shops have very little standing inventory- the majority of their goods being made to order. Perfect Powder has a number of differently sized containers of blackpowder and a variety of different 'cartridges' (which seem to be paper packets used to load firearms more efficiently), and Moonwind's Magical Sundries, as usual, has a fairly wide selection of (mostly low level) scroll, potions, and wands. None of the vendors seem particularly lacking in any materials, perhaps due to the Mercantile Exchange's standing offer to import any needed materials.

Speaking of the Mercantile Exchange, did you ever go back there to see if the giant armor you recovered from the minotaurs and left with the Archbanker to sell on consignment had found a buyer? If not (and I don't think you have), now might be a good opportunity (though, that means I'll have to find the list of what you had again).

”Energy, yes,” Tara answers, “elements, no. It was sort of a translucent energy… like magic missiles.”

“Like magic missiles,” Mykos agrees rather wryly, “only bigger… and longer lasting… and sometimes in wall form…”

“Oh, yes, like a wall of force,” the lightly armored woman adds. “As for time- we don’t know exactly how fast you are but, based on what we’ve heard, you should reach it in less than a minute, plus however long your transformations take.”

“This portal doesn’t let you leave the Tower for long,” the unarmored man reiterates, “usually one shapechanging spell will last just about the whole trip.”

Most spells that change your shape last 1 minute/level, so in their estimation you’re unlikely to get much more than 11-13 minutes total through the portal (maybe less). Anything else for these two? If not, what does everyone else want to do with the rest of the day?

Mykos and Tara look mildly disappointed at Gavin's desire to wait another day, but both nod their agreement. The Vitolian's grin returns at the Witness' interjection and he declares, "Excellent, having a wizard along is always helpful!"

Tara smiles softly at his enthusiasm and asks, "shall we meet for breakfast again tomorrow, then, and we can make our attempt directly afterward?"

[/sigh] Sorry, work's been crazy this week (there were some changes at the global level that're causing all kinds of problems locally). I'm hoping to have a post up tonight but, if not, I'll definitely have one up tomorrow during the day.

I know we usually follow the rule of two but, given the Witness' anticipated return, I'll leave time for him to chime in about (hopefully?) joining you before we move on.

After hearing a brief explanation of Fenrick's departure and how Maximus and Gaius came to join the others, Mykos explains his and Tara's version of a plan for the expedition: Gavin, Lyra, and Maximus pass through the portal with them, transform to mist form while they run ahead, speed past them to a designated location, transform back, and enter combat with the guardian, allowing them to slip by when they arrive and explore what they believe to be the last small area of the underground structure before they are all dragged back into the Tower.

"Assuming you're still inclined to help, I think the last detail is just whether you're ready to do this today or if you need time to prepare?"

Cool, welcome back. I’m waiting for an hvac to show up at my house but I’ll try to post something this afternoon too.

I'm just popping in to say/show that I'm still here. With Gaius awol, the Witness still afk (as far as I know), and Gavin and Maximus both dealing with family stuff, I don't want to force any posts.

It's been about a month since the Witness said he thought he might be able to rejoin us 'next month' so if I don't hear anything from him in a week or so I'll try reaching out again. In the meantime, Gavin and Maximus please let me know when you're feeling up to posting again and maybe we can get moving a little, when you're ready. Seth/Lyra- I don't want to get into too much action without everyone else, but if there's any NPCs you want to have a conversation with or anything, feel free to post and we can RP it while we're waiting.

Tara's eyes narrow as she looks appraisingly at Seth when he skirts their question and asks a rather pointed one in return. She seems about to say something when Gavin deftly steps in with a more pleasing answer.

Mykos places his left hand reassuringly on his companions right hand and answers, "we, sadly, had a difference of opinions with the other two who entered with us. After a few years of traveling Cardriss in different times, they developed a keen interest in seeing what lay beyond the bottom of the stairs..."

"We weren't ready to leave..." Tara adds wistfully.

"Indeed..." the Vitolian concurs, "how could you give up the chance to explore the world across time, just to see what it looks like at one particular time?"

"We discussed it on and off for months..." the woman continues, "though, the last week or two was sort of arguing more than discussing..."

Mykos gives her hand a little pat and he offers her a warm smile before concluding, "We did part on good terms though. We all made sure of that. And what of you- you only just arrived on the last Tran, right? Is this still the same group you entered with?"

"Excellent!" Mykos exclaims with a celebratory pound of his fist against the table.

"Indeed," Tara adds with a smile. "We can discuss the specifics of the plan--or any new ideas our new friends may have--in a moment, but I think first we better get to Gavin's other questions."

Mykos laughs heartily from deep in his belly. "Yes, yes, yes," he answers, "though I'd have thought a man of our age would have learned a bit more patience by now. <Ha!> I've never been much of a tea drinker. Wine's my drink of choice- especially mulberry wine, which you really can't find outside of Vinland. As for how long we've been in the Tower... that's a little trickier to answer. We spend more time in Cardriss than we do inside the Tower... I suppose the simple answer is that we entered the Tower a little over three Tran ago..."

"It was the same time that the Redguard entered, and those healers," Tara interjects. "And, I do enjoy a nice cup of tea when the opportunity presents itself."

Mykos nods, suddenly seeming a bit less cheery. "There were four of us back then. We had traveled the length and breadth of Cardriss together--even before the Bookkeeper set us to our attuning quest--and we entered seeking new places to set our feet."

"What about all of you," Tara asks, "what brought you into the Tower?"

"Ohhhhhh, no skirting here, my friend," Mykos protests, his mouth still half full of unfinished sausage. "We're not skirting any questions, just answering them in the order you asked. What sense does it make to move on to a new subject before finishing the first- we'd just end up talking over each other and confusing which things were responses to what."

He takes a big swig of breakfast wine Gavin's spell has provided to wash down his sausage and then continues more casually, "we, sadly, don't have any way to wind walk, and even if we could the guardian can summon a wall of force that would stop us from flying by him. As for teleportation, I'm sure you know by now that such magic destabilizes your connection to the Tower."

The two travelers exchange a look for a moment before Tara explains, "This particular portal that we've been exploring only allows us to stay in Cardriss for a matter of minutes... that's why it was so important for us to confirm how quickly you move through the Tower. Any destabilization will result in us being dragged back into Tower immediately."

"If you can think of a better option," Mykos continues, "we're all ears, but the plan we came up with--if you're all willing--is for you to wind walk very close to the guardian, return to your normal forms while we're catching up to you, then for you to fight it while we run past to see what's beyond it. You could destroy it if you want, and have time, or just fight it until we run out of time."

Tara, who clear doesn't feel that her partner has done a great job selling the idea, forces something like a smile and asks, "so... what do you think?"

Mykos looks up at the priest, his mouth still full of the big bite of sausage he just bit off, and he begins chewing faster.

Tara smirks at him and replies, "It's not really a creature... at least, not as I would think of a creature. I think its some kind of construct--maybe a golem--but neither of us are very knowledgeable about that sort of thing. It stands in one particular place, and never moves far from that spot. Its very durable, and never shows signs of previous damage when we return. And, it will actively work to prevent anyone from entering the passageway it's guarding, but if you can get a couple of bodies between it and one of the walls, we'll hopefully be able to slip by it."

Apparently satisfied with that response, Mykos simply nods and bites off another big hunk of his sausage.

"We'd be glad to trade stories while we wait for Gavin to finish his ritual," Mykos answers.

Feel free to flex time whatever story you want to share, and I'll give you one of theirs back the same way; but, to keep things moving...

Once the priest's spell is complete, the two newcomers sit and begin to eat. "When Mykos said we were travelers," Tara offers, "that's not a title we gave ourselves- it's sort of a nickname some folks here in Redwatch, and the Research Institute, call us. We spend a lot of our time on Cardriss, exploring around different portals."

"Most of our time, really," Mykos adds. "We don't maintain a residence here or anything because we're gone so often. But we don't just explore the area right around a portal: whenever we can, we travel as far as possible from it. That's why they call us travelers."

"But explorer probably is more accurate," he continues, "travelers would, I think, change plans if they encountered a significant obstacle, but we always look for ways to overcome them so we can explore further."

"That's actually where you come in, hopefully," the woman interjects.

"Yes..." the curly haired man confirms, "you see, we've been exploring a portal that opens into a subterranean structure, and we've encountered an obstacle that we can't overcome in the time we have: an animated guardian too tough for us to best quickly. We are in need of people who can reach the guardian very quickly and either destroy it before we arrive, or keep it occupied until we're past it. Does that sound like something you might be interested in assisting us with?"

Upon arriving in the Temple, Gavin and his escorts find two people they do not recall having seen before. One is an unarmed and unarmored man who looks to be in his early to mid forties with golden-brown eyes and the thick, curly, brown hair of a Vitolian. The other is a seemingly slightly older woman whose straight, brown hair, blue eyes, and slight freckling are harder to place (possibly a mix of Tengwar and Atlaean); she wears a darkleaf studded leather cuirass and carries a rapier.

The man seems ready to respond to Gavin when Maximus extends his introduction. He cocks an eyebrow and looks quizzically at the knight for a moment then turns back to the priest and answers, "I am Mykos Mykonnis, and this is my partner Tara Clearwater. We are... travelers. Well... explorers, I suppose." He looks to the woman who nods her approval and then he continues, "We have journeyed far and wide across Cardriss in many eras, but recently we encountered an obstacle that you might be able to help us with. Perhaps we could sit and eat and I'll tell you more of the specifics?"

back via your sending spell
++Thank you. We will await your arrival in the Temple.++

I'm not sure how (or if) any of your daily preparations change with the Witness seemingly committed to staying in the Tower for research, but please let me know what spells or abilities (if any) you're using on yourselves before breakfast. And, whoever's last going down to breakfast can stop and grab Mykos and his partner from the Temple.

Secure in the knowledge that the Redwatch will dissuade any would-be thieves or assassins, the adventurers nod of to sleep. The morning arrives as usual and with it the shelter, and the floor around it, begin to buzz with morning preparations.

Everyone gets their everything back for a new day. And Gavin is free to send a message, assuming that's still the plan.

After helping Joska finish her report on their investigation of the anomaly, Gavin, Lyra, and Maximus return to Redwatch. Heading down to the marketplace, the priest discovers that he does, indeed, have a correspondence waiting in his communication box at the Temple. Tucking it safely away for later, he joins his companions and a handful of other patrons in a few drinks and some casual gossip. He learns that Byron Bright's influence has continued to grow steadily- to the point that the Redguard are now, apparently, keeping an eye on him (to ensure he doesn't try to take over the settlement).

After their drinking and chatting has run its course, the three return to the residential floor, where Gaius has already summoned their shelter for the evening. The Witness returns shortly thereafter from his research and shares some of his more organized thoughts with the others, and then sets up his mirror and retires for the evening.

I believe we’ve missed the Witness’ posting window (he told me he was going to be out of town for a few weeks, and I think he left over the weekend). The researchers from the bottom of the stairs are Baldric Moore and Teldom Haynes- both of whom are members of the Research Institute. You’re welcome to go up and talk to them, but your position as ‘adjunct agents’ may limit how forthcoming they can/will be. There is a letter in Gavin’s mailbox too but work’s been busy. I’m hoping to have a real post up this afternoon/evening.

Thanks, Witness- I look forward to reading it.

Gavin had a death in the family that has kept him otherwise occupied the last week or so- we'll likely wait for his return before we move on at all.

Alright, sounds good.

@Gavin- go ahead and make a gameplay post doing those things and I'll post what you find (please remember to include what you're trying to gather information about along with your roll).

@Twins and Maximus- I'll assume you're following Gavin around unless you post otherwise. Feel free to roll an assist, or jump in with some RP while we wait for the Witness' post.

@Witness- Thanks for popping in, I'll look forward to your lecture (before you return to your spell research--off camera--until you're ready to begin regular posting again).

Still no word back from the Witness...

Is there anything anyone wants to do inside the Tower or should we jump ahead to the next outing? Or, go on hiatus until the Witness is back (or, at least, until Gavin has some more time again)?

I have a PM out to the Witness, hoping he might be ready to hop back in (or at least make an appearance) before I send you back out on another mission. Obviously nobody wants to RP with Joska but (as I said in my last post) please feel free to post returning to Redwatch and starting anything you might want to do tonight (or even the next morning) while we wait to here from him.

Joska stares at Gavin for a moment, seemingly lost in thought, and then repsonds, "I really wish you all would let go of whatever it is that's stopping you from joining the Institute and just become full-fledged members. I'm never sure what I'm allowed to tell you and what information you're still supposed to be working to earn..." She falls silent as the transformation into mist nears its completion and right at the last possible moment she mutters, "lateral position doesn't matter."

The four mist figures speed up the stairs together until the mage signals for them to stop. Once they're all physical again, she teleports them back into her office in the Institute. There, Maximus sits bored for several hours while Lyra and Gavin provide as much insight for the report as they can.

Feel free to RP in Joska's office if you want, or go ahead and post anything you want to do that evening or the next morning.

The conversation seemingly having run its course, Joska thinks for a moment then offers, "To be continued some other time, I suppose. If you'd all be so good as to join hands?"

Once the ring is formed, she casts dimension to teleport them all back to the stairs. As they begin transforming into mist form to speed their ascent, she asks, "Would you like to accompany me to the Institute and help write up the report, or will you be heading back to Redwatch?"

Where to? Is there anything any of you want to do, or are we moving on to the next adventure as quickly as possible?

Through running (an abridged version of) the attunement trials, Adam/Aleda has realized they don’t really have enough free time to add a game this high powered/complex. I’m hoping we’ll get the Witness back soon but if you’d like to have a 5th we’ll have to go back to the drawing board (or recruit an NPC to tag along and help you). I know you still haven’t fully committed to the research institute but, assuming you’re all okay with continuing to work with them, I’ll probably keep Joska with you on expeditions as the substitute party mage until the Witness returns.

Yes. Rosethorn Manor was the first place you, Gavin, and the Witness (and Fenrick) exited the Tower, through the unusual fireplace. You encountered the human-sized anitoms (semi-mechanical constructs) with the doll-like featureless porcelain faces there. One of them was carrying a strange cube that sounded like there might be some kind of clockwork inside, and there were a bunch of fine metal tubes visible on/in it. The expedition ended when some kind of azure liquid leaked out of the cube (which was damaged during your conflict with the anitoms) and caused a huge explosion. The explosion (which happened in the manor) damaged the interior of that floor of the Tower and rendered the fireplace there permanently impassable.

"Hmmm..." Joska answers, her brow now fully furrowed in thought. "An interesting idea. We needn't discard all fundamentals of causality; our research has consistently confirmed a traditional causal link from any point in time to all times afterwards--or, potentially, any specific timeline to those timelines which intersect the Tower at later points in their history."

"Your splattering idea is intriguing, though we haven't, thus far, observed any causal link backward through time..."

Did your report to her on Rosethorn Manor include the fact that you visited in a later time period than when you just were? If not, are you going to tell her or not?

Absolutely not a problem. Figuring that out now is 1000 times better than joining the party and then realizing you don't have the bandwidth. I don't feel like this was wasted time at all. And, I'm also looking forward to meeting the rest of the party in the other game.

"I've always been mindful of causality from past to present to future," Joska states so flatly it sounds almost like a protest. "I don't know that stepping on ants is necessary to avoid, but I always consider what impact my actions might have on the future before I do anything significant. But you're talking about weighing what impact actions could have on the past... how would one even approach that consideration when its contrary to everything we know about causality?"

I'm not sure if you're doing it on purpose or if one (or both) of us has missed something here, but out of character (or, both in and out, I suppose) it seems like you're suggesting that something about the Tower makes things you do have some kind of causal effect on events that happened before you did those things (which is one possible conclusion you could draw from seeing something that looked like it could have been from Rosethorn Manor in a time period before your trip to Rosethorn Manor); am I correct in understanding that's what you're saying? Or, are you two sort of talking past each other because you also mean there's causality from past to future but didn't follow her attempt to correct your implied direction of movement through time?

Huzzah! Glad to hear it, welcome back.

Joska's brow furrows. "Do you..." she starts before hesitating a moment. Then she continues, "I think you probably mean a timeline at the top changes something, creating a cascade of new timelines shooting down, into the time period at the new level, right? The higher up you go the farther back in time you'd be: the bottom is the latest, most-future, time period... all of our research so far seems to support a downward causal relationship--like what you do on floors above the Institute affecting Cardriss when visited from below the Institute. You're not suggesting that things done by people from inside the Tower will cause changes in the past, are you?"

She thinks for a moment longer and then adds, "or... I guess by that theory, it wouldn't really be the past, per se, but a completely new timeline that intersects the Tower at a previous point in possibly altered history... is that what you're proposing?"

Of course. Just let me know what you decide.

The focus of the game is the story, but playing at this power level does necessitate some bookkeeping. And, if I'm being honest, even the story that we're telling kind of calls for some bookkeeping, in a different sense. There's not like resources that need to be tracked or anything, but there are seeds that get planted in one part of the story that should provide clues for things down the road, or 'coincidences' that should start to form a pattern and things like that, but because of the pace of a PbP game you almost have to keep notes somewhere if you want to remember things well enough to get those payoffs.

I don't know, its up to you. Leveling is waaaay slower once you get to actual gameplay speed (and you're basically done with strange new powers once you complete the 4th and final trial), so if all this adding stuff is the hang up there's a good chance you'll be alright once you join the group. If your issue is that you have too many options and it feels like remembering all your spells is going to be a nightmare, well, that's probably not going to get better and maybe this might not be a good fit for you.

I won't be offended if you decide this game doesn't fit with your schedule/preferences/whatever.

Sorry to hear that, Joe. Get better soon! I jacked up my back (again), so that's slowing me down some (because I can't really sit at the computer for very long), but I think I should be able to keep us moving along at our current pace.

I'm hoping you meant that this way is less intimidating, but if you were expressing some misgivings please feel free to share them openly. I know this kind of game isn't always for everyone and if you're not going to enjoy it enough to want to stick with it I'd definitely rather figure that out before you're introduced to the party.

That’s fine. I know it’s a lot. Everyone else got it spread it over months. I know it probably would have been easier for you if I had just given you all the details of the final build and let you go, but I think this approach really leads to a more organic build, it’s supposed to give you the same limitations as everyone else (although, it didn’t really in this last trial), and it helps familiarize you at least a little bit with Cardriss.

Yeah, that’s fine. I actually like d20pfsrd better too except for all the pop ups and adds (and the liberties they sometimes have to take with certain things because they can’t use the lore they’re based on). My computer is kind of slow so the random video adds that sometimes play in the margins can be extra annoying, lol.

I’m going to wait until you’ve had time to pick your new spells known (and post responses to everything I’ve already posted) before I do the next big post.

I see what happened- you have nature soul in your level by level breakdown but didn’t add it to your feats spoiler so I missed it.

And, lol! I suspected when I looked at your profile previously and your level section ended early that you might have hit the character limit. I don’t know how much reworking you want to do on your sheet, but replacing a lot of the cut and paste text with links to appropriate page on the archive of Nethys site would save a ton of space? Or, when I do my profiles I write stripped down and abbreviated descriptions of a lot of my abilities, but that probably takes even longer than doing the links. Whatever works for you, as long as I can find things when I need to.

The diadem will only affect the attendant that you get from it, not any other fuzzy friends you attract by other means. There is a feat that adds the celestial template to an animal companion, so I’m sure we could figure one out for feytouched, if you’re interested in spending a 4th feat. Liminal sprite should be fine for the familiar though.

And, I suspected you might go with the Song.

Nature Soul is a prerequisite for Animal Ally, so I think you still need to do a little more feat rearranging if you want to have both a companion and a familiar. Also, I don't believe there is currently any mechanic that will let you add the fey creature or fey-touched simple template to an animal companion. You can certainly take the feytouched companion archetype if you want, although then you're right back to the issue of not being able to pick a wolf (or any other medium/large animal). We could potentially maybe look at creating a feat to add the template later on, but currently I don't think anything like that exists. And, I do want to reiterate that in a high powered game (like this) animal companions will be noticeably less effective in combat than in lower powered games, so please consider how much resources you want to devote to this.

In cheery news, here is the link for the third attunement for you to look over and choose from. It would have been nice to have actually played out that trial because your decisions do have some bearing on the options available to you, but I couldn't think of an easy way to do that without slowing us down considerably, so I just wrote the whole trial narratively and made sure you qualified to pick any of the 5 that you want. Please note that they do use different stats and interact with armor differently.

Let me know if you have any questions. Oh, and if you started working on a gameplay post right after your discussion post you might want to double check and make sure you didn't get ninja'd by my 3rd trial post, lol.

The incognito princess makes her way through the crowded streets, away from the docks and towards the western side of the city. The road leading to the city's main gate is swarmed with all manner of merchants, shoppers, and people transport goods in both directions, and the inns there are similarly busy. Veering slightly off course she finds a quieter establishment where a lovely half-elf who happens to be heading in also holds the door for her. Once Aislin has arranged her accommodations, she retires to her room to experiment with her new diadem until the time comes for dinner. She finds the common room nearly empty, save for one table of young men in similar looking robes- likely students at one of the local arcane colleges. After months of eating only seafood and gruel, she pleased to find roasted chicken a fresh bread among the dinner offerings.

After eating her fill, she return to her room and begins preparing for bed, but something feels off. Her haversack lays on the bed where she left it but the top is slightly open and one corner of her paint set is still visible. She catches the faint sound of a breath near the door and quickly--instinctively--calls on her natural magic. Sparkling motes of light cling to a humanoid figure momentarily before it lunges forward with the thrust of a shortsword. The lovely half-elf Aislin entered the inn with appears and a fight ensues. Both women battle with short blades and spells, but in the end only the princess is left alive. She quickly searches the latest would-be-assassin and claims a mithril shortsword (which counts as silver for penetrating DR), an eye of the mantis, and 600 gold in sundries, along with a parchment enchanted to conceal a message which--after identifying the command to reveal it--she finds to be in an unfamiliar language.

Gathering her belongings, she assumes a new identity and quickly relocates to a shoddy inn that happens to be located next to a citywatch barracks. The night there passes uneventfully and in the morning Aislin buys a new horse with the little bit of coin she'd been given on her departure from the Kelpie's Curse. She has a simple but filling breakfast of eggs, sausage, and more fresh bread and is riding out of the city before the streets have grown crowded. For three weeks she keeps to herself as she rides along the road westward, hiding herself in the brush, away from other travelers, to sleep at night. On the first day of what would have been the fourth week of riding, she arrives at Izar, another one of the major city-states of Eastwatch. Rather than risk another busy inn, she rides through the city, stopping breifly for a delicious smelling goat stew for lunch (and any other shopping/translating/whatever you might want), and continues on.

Once Izar is safely behind her, she consults her mark and discovers that the Eastern Anchor is now noticably to her west-southwest. Rather than following the road until the Anchor is due south, as might be faster, she welcomes the opportunity to leave the road and begins riding straight for her destination. Crossing the open plains does slow her mount some, and sleeping under the open sky becomes less pleasant with the arrival of a light but unending drizzle. She spends 3 weeks riding across open countries, and three times comes across pairs of hill giant scouts: once she spots them early enough to hide from them, and twice she's forced to kill them.

One day short of seven weeks after leaving the Kelpie and its crew behind, she arrives at small settlement in which she can see the third Anchor. Its walls show signs of wear where boulders have been hurled at them and the people of the small town seem wary of outsiders. Thankfully, the mayor--a half-dwarf by the name of Karvin Steelfist--grants you permission to enter the settlement and spend the night in their lone inn. She receives a rather meager dinner and then, under cover of night, she slips out to visit the Anchor.

The structure here is seemingly identical to the two Anchors the princess has already encountered and, as she has come to expect, an azure portal appears on the side when she approaches.

Aislin is surprised by the momentary step through the void, and to have her feet solidly back on Cardriss so soon. The third pentagon on her seal has begun glowing with the first two, and the portal on the Anchor has vanished.

Congratulations on completing the third attunement- I'll post a link for that in discussion and you can work on it while you're finishing up leveling and whatnot.

Joska shakes her head and nearly takes half a step backwards as if she was shaking off a failed daze spell. "I wasn't..." she answers turning towards the other woman, "but now you've got me curious."

"When you say timelines--in the plural--are you postulating that rather than different floors of the Tower granting access to different times along the same timeline, each floor intersects with a separate timeline and those points of intersection occur at a progression of times? And, if so, what sort of causal relationship do you theorize exists between these separate timelines?"

Lol- I should have mentioned that animal ally does have an abridged list of animals to choose from, although wolf is one of the options iirc. Also, if you’re serious about spending feats on either type of companion, I will allow you to switch some of the feats you’ve already chosen (since you technically haven’t really specifically used them yet).

For an animal companion it’s: nature soul, animal ally, boon companion.

For an improved familiar you can go: skill focus (any knowledge), eldritch heritage (arcane), improved familiar; or, you can do: familiar bond, improved familiar bond, improved familiar, but that route requires either iron will or the house of green mothers pupil trait to qualify for.

I don’t think there is an easy way… you could get either with feats (and the other from the diadem), but it would be at least a 3 feat investment. Or, you could take a couple summoning spells and have part-time animal friends?