Arc 4: Silence is Golden

Aman-Tal, the once prosperous city dedicated to the First God and the Storyteller, has lain in ruin for millennia. Only the brave or foolhardy endure its lethal dangers for a taste of the treasures that remain. Despite the danger, tantalizing new research has brought the ancient city back into prominence. Evidence suggests that the ruins of the Storyteller’s Greatest Library lie waiting in Aman-Tal. Hidden, and yet to be rediscovered. Within it lie the secrets of The Spire. The secrets to Ascension.

 

Will you brave the monsters for godhood and glory?

Synopsis

Echoes of an Aureate Past

Following the restoration of the arcane wards around the Epicenter, relative peace has reigned in Phoebek. Relative peace.

Little Spire, a temple to The Storyteller, Veleda in Magnolia City, was destroyed and rebuilt. Adventurers confronted a mirror of past and possibility to reclaim a lost friend. Heroes stopped a fungal apocalypse from spreading. Curious merceneries learned that the creature in Dragonhead Lake was not a dragon after all, but rather, a bukovac.

Yes, life in Phoebek had returned to manic serenity, largely without threats of global annihilation. Amid all the usual anonomolies, perhaps no one would notice the return of Natz Jolt. A team of adventurers investigating unrelated claims discovered her near the Lightning Rod. An assassin ended her life -3100 years ago; until her death, she was a researcher in the service of The Storyteller, Veleda, studying apotheosis in Aman-Tal.

Elsewhere, another party convenes with Tanni Summerinds at Little Spire Library, who explains that they discovered a very overdue book during a routine inventory. The tome in question is tome called They Spy with Their Third Eye: A List of Powerful Psionic Creatures by B’nelu the Star Wanderer (with additional research and translation to Common done by Cassian Cadentia). Ivelisse Ailier checked the book out 20 years ago, and the Library wanted the rare volume recovered, if possible. The group's investigation leads them to Aman-Tal, where Ivelisse had intended to travel with a group of her own.

The group of bookhunters followed the trail to Aman-Tal. In the outskirts of the city, they happened upon a lone statue matching Ivelisse’s description - the overdue volume in her hands, similarly petrified. Without a way to reverse the petrification and no evidence for what caused it in the first place, the party delivered both book and borrower to Little Spire.

Later on, a team of heroes responds to a call for help from the neighborhood of Stonesreach in Magnolia City. The residents suspect cult activity - robed figures have been roaming the streets, trespassing on private property, and performing worrying rituals in the local parks and graveyard. They always seemed be carrying around a strange, small golden orb.

The alleged cultist turned out to be local teenagers, and have been investigating the disappearance of the uncle of one of their members. The party agrees to look into the disappearance on the kids' behalf, which takes them to a magically locked study. When they make their way inside, the team finds old notes, books on various historical sites, and a shelf of treasures that also appear to have origins in many different places. One of the standout details is the number of books and artifacts related to Aman-Tal, the ancient city of the First God.

The house's previous owner attempted to access Aman-Tal’s lower levels, but retreated after a failed expedition and never returned. He managed to recover a peculiar golden orb carved with strange runes that seemed to react to certain words - the same orb the teens carried with them.

The teens reluctantly surrendered the orb to the adventurers (Sylvia "Ember") for safekeeping, until someone can have a look at it. Perhaps Little Spire would have some insight as to what it is…

Though all independent events, these hints of an age long past - a time when Aman-Tal was as the height of its power - suggested that this could be a watershed moment for discovery.

Gold and Glory

After a group of jocks unlocked an ancient, Aman-Tallite orb, it behaved like a compass, shining a light toward the ruins of Aman-Tal. Energized by the prospect of discovery, Little Spire’s new White Robe quickly assembled an expedition. It would be generously sponsored by an interested party and led by Broudit Runeletter, whose primary research is the Storyteller’s Great Library in Aman-Tal.

When the expedition began, the orb led the team not over the bridge onto the island of ruins, but around the old wall. A kelpie corpse on the lakeshore suggested that weapons killed it, not beasts. This, coupled with a reference made by the locals to a “piscine army,” suggested dangers lurked beneath the water. But, beneath the water, they had to go. The explorers took a layover and time to prepare in Magnolia City before diving into the lake. Five hundred feet down, they stumbled upon portions of the old city inhabited by Kuo-Toas. These godforsaken creatures revere a deity called The Great Three-Eyed One - a god that none of the adventurers or their researcher companions, Broudrit Runeletter and Joshua Connerton, know.

The party managed to bluff themselves into a corner, where the archpriest of the Kuo-Toa brought them before an idol of their god. This idol was a strange mix of owl features, tendrils, and possessed 3 eyes. Beneath it, another door - deeper into Aman-Tal’s ruins. The kuo-toa archpriest refused to let anyone pass through the door, for their god forbade it. Instead, he tried to cleanse them of madness. Dialogue devolved into battle, and the adventurers fought the Kuo-Toa to proceed deeper into the ruins. Thanos, the archpriest, was knocked unconscious and his guards were either killed or knocked out as well. With reinforcements surging toward them, the explorers decided it was safer to press into the ruins than try to out-swim the kuo-toa. The adventurers took Thanos hostage, dashed through the doors, and quickly closed the way behind them.

The party had a moment to breathe in a magical, dry air pocket within the submerged ruins of Aman-Tal. They spared no breath in trying to persuade Thanos to speak, but he gave them nothing. Unwilling to leave him to die but unable to release him, the adventurers bound him and brought him along as a captive on the expedition. Their road to discovering a unique tome - The Last Word -lead them back underwater.

The party proceeds through Three Heroes’ Court, an avenue that pays tribute to three heroes of Aman-Tal: Natz Jolt, Ka-Daerin Kasselon, and the Knifesong. The court was built during a movement to restore Aman-Tal to its former glory, some time after the Great Library was lost. The effort failed because of monsters, marauders, etc. Thus, the court became lost to time as well. In their journey to the library, they learn something about those three heroes. A dreadful amphibious serpent - a basilisk - harries them during their exploration, and is vanquished with fire and sound in the final segment of the Court.

Their circuitous route brought them back into a magical air bubble. And what's more: to a door labelled "Theology Wing".

Scholastic Endeavors

The expedition enters the Theology Wing into an hall of statues of the gods - all 26 that are or have ever been. Three of the of gods who perished during the Age of Conflict lack dedication plaques. The explorers identify them, and with apprehension, speak their names aloud.

Speaking their names triggers visions of the past: Oros's death at Lagharasha's hands, Lusticia's counsel to Adar; Garstos's final request to Nalani - that she should give his heart to mortals - and his earlier theft of his thread of fate from her.

The visions fade, but the memories do not.

They way in requires intelligence - overcoming mental obstacles allows the party to finally reach the stacks. Remarkably, the Library is in excellent shape. Moreover, it has a hierophant medusa as its guardian. Amnita, who has great manners, great snakes and greater tits.

The party explains that they are here for the Last Word, but Amnita refuses to hand it over: the book is too dangerous to leave. Min-Jun later is affected by the same unknown pull as Maurice and follows it, discovering the Last Word. She takes it but is persuaded by the party to put it back, after which Amnita hides it for better safekeeping. The party is offered a place to rest and to take back something else to Little Spire so future expeditions won’t come looking for the book again.

Amnita offers the group time to recover before leading them to a passage explaining what item they are allowed to take. A professor orb that has the knowledge of Luminary Natz Jolt about Apotheosis. It is protected by an intuitive sentient section of the library that will test if they are worthy. The party is blindfolded and led through a path until they reach the first trial room. Different statues of heroes are present, but the party only needs to activate one to solve the puzzle. In the second room, fire-scorched pillars and heroic murals surround a brazier. Lighting it summons a fire elemental they beat in a fight. The third trial challenges the party with mirrors, asking them questions on their faith and worth. Only Prudence and Angel accept the challenge and face visions and painful questions about their self-belief and divine connection. In the last room a pillar inscribed with glyphs described mortals ascending to godhood. Three sigils—'Divin'e,' 'Spark,' and 'Belief' are required for this. They get written on the pillar, which causes a staircase to appear that allows them to reach the Professor Orb, encased in glass.

The party touches the orb and is instantly transported by a blinding light. A booming voice challenges their worth and presents them with trials. They are met with a giant chasm with no visible bridge, though guided by faith and belief, they are able to walk across it. The next room has the party pass through the falling sand of an hourglass, which causes the party to all find themselves in private challenges. The party is faced with different choices to make for each person, all of which tie to sacrifice. Would you choose the knowledge you seek over your friends? Are you willing to pay with the blood of the innocent for the change you wish to make? Do you care more for your oath to a partner or to your ward on your journey to godhood? Would you rather choose your strength and body or your ideals? Do you accept that your dad is free to challenge the spire even if you disagree? Would you dare open your heart to love and trust, knowing it might be lost again? The party reunites under the watchful gaze of a stone sphinx that tests them with moral dilemmas involving sharing knowledge and deciding when to act. Different answers reveal the consequence of the decisions they take, showing the party how difficult it can be to balance ideals and pragmatism. The sphinx imparts them with a bit more wisdom before they are sent off: sometimes silence is more powerful than words. The party is sent back out of the trial.

At the same time as the trials of the orb, the city itself also enacts a safety protocol. A (mostly) different party of people finds themselves falling before entering a void with a sea of blood slowly rising in level. The voice of a giant goose speaks to them and questions their worth, to which the party proposes they are challenged. The goose accepts and sends them through 4 challenges: Each challenge is linked to a field of knowledge the professor orb has mastered. Through this, the party is met with the task of defeating a giant abyssal chicken (rather than 100 small ones) and having to escape a simulation of the city of Aman-Tal attacking them with defensive city design, and personal challenges that question their strength and wish for change as well as their aspirations towards godhood. Their final challenge, set in the research hall of Natz Jolt, faces the party off against a divine monster (?) that mutates and grows something divine within all of the party that they later are Divine Seeds. The party, through a combination of great teamwork and battle analysis, defeats the threat, who parts with the final words of “I intended for no more than you.” The giant goose congratulates the party on proving their worth before sending them back.

Age-old Wisdom

With all these trials completed, the party finally gets what they were looking for: the professor orb that introduces itself as Na-Li’lj. It holds information on four different topics: ‘Abyssal chicken care and husbandry,’ ‘Current trends in urban planning within Aman-Tal,’ ‘Cognitive behavioral therapy,’ and ‘The combined studies on apotheosis and the Seeds of Divinity by Natz Jolt.’ All of the expedition members are able to ask questions related to these topics, which the professor answers to the best of their ability. A couple of interesting things are told that seem to pertain to the majority of, if not all of, the adventurers on the expeditions. All of the people possess a Seed of Divinity, a little spark of a greater entity (though not necessarily gods) that has changed them and is inherently tied to them. Apparently, it is something that would allow all of them to attempt the apotheosis with a higher rate of success. The party also learns of Theocytes, little particles present within everyone that can be linked together with other people’s through common belief in something or in a person. If enough belief is brought towards such an idol, they might start displaying godlike powers. All of this is incredibly dangerous information, especially were it to fall into the hands of the country that funded the expedition: Sihnolae. The decision is made to leave the orb within Aman-Tal for the safety of the world, though the party has to foil Broudrit’s plot to steal it to make this possible. To make sure Sihnolae does not learn of this through any of the people of Little Spire, Joshua, Broudrit, and Maurice have their memories of the journey to Aman-Tal altered and/or removed for the next two years. With that, the expedition party thanks Amnita for all he has done for them and returns home towards Magnolia City.