Session 14: Tower of Ebon Light

Rowing their way across Lake Medainne, night fell all around the party. At length they encroached on the island in the centre of the lake. The light from the full moon caused the tower to exert a pale green light, which revealed a spreading mist. As the boat slowly slid into the mist, silent whisperings and an unnatural darkness began to surround them. An eerie feeling of familiarity came upon Volodomyr, as this was the second time he attempted to break into this tower, but the shadows seemed more powerful this time. They soon realised that this darkness was starting to drain their strength, especially Ki’tor. After a short while and some deliberation, Ki’tor created a magical light that began to push the darkness away. 

Protected by Ki’tor’s magical light they made it ashore on the island, just a small distance away from the large glowing tower. After scouting the area a bit, using Zalia’s magical book, they carefully approached the building. At this point the whispers had grown louder and they could make out that they spoke necril. Jane, who had unlocked more memories from her time as Moorbrand, now understood the necrotic language of the shadows, and could make out that the voices were begging to be freed, and beckoned them to unlock the heart. Not knowing what this meant, they entered the tower. 

Inside they found a round room with stairs leading both up and down. On the other side of the room they saw a chest, and Zalia couldn’t help herself but to enter. Jumping pack just in time, she found that the floor was rotten, and unable to support her. Luckily, she managed to get around this issue with some clever shapeshifting. Inside she found a Shadow Dagger, as well as a fragment of parchment. It said: “Galvátorix bound the stone’s hunger... but it hungers still” in old draconic. The group headed up the stairs to the next room, which too had some old chests amongst a mess of old research equipment. On the floor were puddles of unnatural darkness. 

As Zalia once again rushed for the chests, before Volodomyr could warn her, living shadows sprung from the pools of darkness on the ground. But with Ki’tor’s magical light shining upon them, the shadows were beset by a forced physicality. This allowed them to be struck with normal weapons. Thus the dark spirits swiftly retreated in the darkness and up the tower. In the chests they found a trap, that Zalia managed to disarm and thus procured a large vial of living ooze. She also found a magical robe. 

When they ascended once again, they now found themselves in an endless library. The clear walls and confines of the tower seemed gone. At the same time, whispers could be heard once again. Volodomyr remembered that the only way past the illusory library was to answer the riddle that was whispered here. The riddle was: “I speak without mouth, steal light without hands, what am I?”. After a few guesses they managed to figure out that the answer was darkness and the illusion faded, allowing them to press onward to the final floor. 

On the fourth and final floor they were met by a giant circular door. This was as far as Volodomyr had come last time, before being forced to give up. They investigated for a bit, before Jane approached and a shadowy hand reached out of the door. The hand was incorporeal and couldn’t be touched. But Jane recognised it from the first time she entered the Hall of Galvatorix. She took out the elysian planestone. Ki’tor, not willing to trust the shadows, prepared his magical pouch to take the stone back if need be. But as Jane placed the stone within the shadow’s grasp, it retracted with blinding speed. Too fast for Ki’tor. Luckily it didn’t keep the stone. Instead the giant door swung open and on the other side lay the elysian planestone on the ground. 

But as they peered into the room, they saw an endless dark expanse. The only light was a dim stream of moonlight from a source far beyond visual range. It shone down on a pedestal 300 feet into the room. On the pedestal was a shadowy stone with no reflection. A small vortex at its centre seemed to absorb all light cast upon it. Jane was first to step into the room and pick up their planestone again. As Ki’tor stepped into the room his magical light was instantly snuffed out. He stepped back out. At once they noticed the living shadows begin to crawl out of the walls towards them. Ki’tor, growing angry at this point, began to gather energy for a powerful spell. But as the shadows attacked Zalia dragged him into the room with the rest of them. Inside the expansive room they realised that the shadows couldn’t get to them. As if a magical barrier separated this room from the rest of the tower. The living shadows soon darkened the entrance, like a black wall of claws and teeth. But their foul screams had vanished, along with all other sounds aside from their own breaths. 

The group turned around, just as Ki’tor unleashed his spell. A bright light revealed a shape surrounding the pedestal, but was quickly swallowed by the darkness. The shape awoke and rose up to a terrifying height. Then it spoke. In old draconic it asked them how they had found this place. It turned out that this shadowy being was named Veyra the Umbral. It had been a servant of Galvatorix, and had taken the shadowy planestone with them as the empire fell. The group carefully approached as they told it that they set out on the behest of Galvatorix himself. They asked the dragon what had happened here, and it told them that upon arriving here, it had attempted to awaken the planestone, something that Galvatorix had always been too careful to do. For good reason it seemed. 

The stone had not just opened a gateway to the Shadowfell, but it also let the beings of that dark realm onto the material plane. Veyra had managed to seal the stone once again, but an awakened stone could never fully be reformed. The best they could do was to seal the gateway in an umbral layer. This made it so that the stone had no physical form and only those versed in the arcane could hope to hold it. In sealing the stone again, Veyra had inadvertently destroyed themselves. Once the stone left the room they would be drawn back to the Shadowfell along with all the shadows that had been drawn to the tower by the stone. From there they could guard the gate and keep the stone sealed. Veyra would be the jailer of the gate that they had created. They would give the party the stone to bring back to Galvatorix, only with the promise that they would never try to open its gate again. For as Veyra themself said: “These are not doors, but chains. Unlock one, and the prisoner’s kin flood through.”

Upon swearing that they would heed Veyra’s words, the group got the stone and left the room. The shadows that wear clawing at the barrier vanished in an instant as soon as the stone left its confides. So did the dark expanse. All that was left was an empty, dusty room with a broken window to the north and south. As the group left the tower, they also noticed that the mist had vanished, leaving a beautiful clear night sky. They set off in the boat back towards the shore, now with a second planestone in their possession.