Confusing Signals

Confusing Signals

Together, the nascent adventurers and the sagely Rintaron, step by step, progressed through bitting wind, up the mountains. Kaelen could feel the burn in his knees as they walked well into the dark with the daystar behind the mountains, until even Tajan’s fireball wasn’t enough to see the path well.

“You see that crest up ahead?” Rintaron yelled back to them all through the wind. “That is Knob Hill. There is a trail hut there that we can spend the night in. It's rough for four, but we will be warm.”

The idea of spending the night next to this snow-covered older healer, “He looks at least thirty-five,” Kaelen thought, was not exciting, but the idea of not walking anymore and being warm was encouragement enough to hasten his steps to the hut.

Blena kicked in the door of the isolated hut as if there were a secreted sabermaw inside waiting to devour them and said, “Looks clear.”

“Well, it's not likely that it wouldn't be way up here,” Kaelen said, letting her know that he appreciated her zealous caution but found it just a little bit of overkill.

Kaelen surveyed the hut and saw a pit and funnel for a fire and turned to Tajan, raising an eyebrow.

“Already on it,” she said.

The room was suddenly lit with flickers and shadows and welcome warmth. Kaelen found enough room to lay out around the fire and encouraged the others to do so too. Alster handed out some dried and salted tree turnips, and the group turned their capes into blankets and closed their weary eyes.

The next morning Blena was up and moving about. Her opening the door to look outside was the reason they all woke. The mountain air was clear now that the blizzard had settled, and the snow-laced peaks glistened in the sunlight. They looked magnificent, though they felt really cold. Kaelen stood to stretch his legs and sore knees and took a few steps into the snow. The crunch underfoot made him recall how much he missed the beaches of Thaloria.

The path to Fool’s Gap lay ahead, and from there down the valley and up to Alfadin Tower. It seemed really far when they spoke about it, and the journey along the mountain pass stirred a doubt within Kaelen about being too quick to lead.

“There are other ways of proving myself,” he thought as he looked up the path, and he felt this was just the beginning of a very long, cold quest. He turned and went back inside.

After a delicious breakfast of yet another helping of dried salted tree turnip, Kaelen could see the menu becoming nauseating really quickly. They set off. Cold seeped into his bones by midmorning, prompting him to ask Tajan to summon a heat spell as he walked. A fiery gas enveloped his boots and gloves, warming them without burning. Tajan was indeed clever, and Kaelen was glad she was there, but he knew power crystals could lose their charge and he shouldn’t ask for their excessive use unless he must.

“I should have specialised in fire!” Kaelen said as he smiled at Tajan in gratitude.

“Don’t worry, I am sure there are things an earth mage will come in handy for,” she replied.

Fool’s Gap was a marker that let them know that even if they wanted to go back, it would be closer to the Alfadin Temple from that point on than going back, so they pushed on through the shadowed and even somehow colder pass that led to the temple on the other side.

The Alfadin Temple was considered a holy place, and many pilgrims visited in the summer, but there was no one on the path at this time of year. The temple doors were closed when they arrived, so they walked out onto the stone balcony that overlooked the valley and Monolith Peak.

It was a remarkable sight that Kaelen had heard about before, and he was so grateful to actually be there. He could see how the immense grey granite rock that towered into the sky was the source of inspiration to mages and healers alike as they journeyed to this place.

“That is one big hunk of granite,” Blena said, breaking his reflection.

“Yep, sure glad we are not headed up there though. See that tower up on the right below the observatory? That is where we are headed next.”

He knew that as soon as he had said that, Blena was making plans on how to get from where they were to there and was probably thinking about getting something for them to eat along the way so they wouldn't kill Alster for handing out more turnip.

Rintaron had obviously seen Monolith Peak before and, unimpressed, had walked over to a side building with a golden dome next to the temple and knocked on the old wooden and brass door. It creaked open to an old monk busily wrapping his shoulders in a fur. He recognised Rintaron and embraced him, pulling him by the forearm into the room that radiated heat in waves out the door. The rest of the travelers naturally didn’t wait at all for an invitation. The warmth was enough for that, and they went inside the temple complex by the side door.

Trishsern was one of eleven monks that lived at the temple. Each Crestrealm was allowed to nominate one monk to serve and study there until their death, when another would be chosen. The bodies of the previous monks were never buried; rather, they were cast off the balcony and onto the shadowed rocks below where time and the creatures of the mountains were allowed to reclaim them.

“Morbid story,” Blena spoke quietly to Alster as they heard about the practice from the monks around a meal of some sort of soup. Salty like the turnip, but it had some sort of meat, and that was so much better than the chewy fibres of the last few days.

“That tower is pulsing and shining and falling silent, and then it starts again. Is that why you bring these three strangers here in the winter, Rintaron?” the monk from Sylvan Watch asked their guide.

“The Heartwell Council sent a message through an Emberwild Dominion Griffon Rider that we should come to this tower at this time." Interupted Kaelen. "Rintaron was kind enough to guide us through the pass and get our group to the tower. Rintaron added "And Gertina was adamant that I go for help, "Find the strangers and follow their instructions to the letter" she said but I didn't know what she was talking about until I got to the inn. I can’t believe she is gone.”

Many of the aging monks dropped their heads in prayer at the mention of a Veylborn possibly returning to their own world, but Trishsern was poised and certain when he responded.

“Fear not, young man. Investigate the tower. Trust in Aethoria, she will take care of her children, and you will see Gertina again.”

“Great! That was easy. Everything is solved then,” said Alster. “We can go to the tower and everything will work itself out.”

“Sarcasm, Alster? How unlike you,” said Kaelen, who loved to poke fun at Alster even though he was a year older.

When they arrived at the tower, a full day later, they found Gertina at the locked door of the old structure in obvious distress.

Rintaron rushed up to the ghostly figure.

“Gertina, thank the Veylborn! You are alright. You disappeared and I thought that was it. I am so glad you are here.”

She was completely obsessed with trying to get in, but there wasn’t any mechanism that they could see to open the door from the outside.

The tower stood tall and imposing, made of white stone, similar to that granite that formed Monolith Peak, that seemed to shimmer and sparkle in the afternoon sunlight. Forty steps led up to the massive doorway, where the top of the tower was level with the mountain peak obscured by clouds. The great sides of the tower met above the inset doorway, and the gaps between the stones were impossibly small, creating an almost seamless surface.

“Oh, this is Gertina,” Rintaron said, worry still on his face as he turned to the group. “I don't know what's gotten into her. She's never acted like this before.”

You step beside Rintaron's Veylborn friend as she moans and flickers in and out of view.

“Too much power... interruption... they must stop!”

Gertina was not even aware that the Aethorians were by her side. They examined the doors, laden with ancient writing. Alster stepped up beside Kaelen, his tattooed hands running along the squiggly grooves in the stone.

“This is a pre-Sundering language. This symbol here means two, and I think that one means mountain? But I can’t read the one between them or these after it. I guess I should have spent more time on languages than herbs. Maybe it means a mountain divided in two or seeing two mountains. Something like that? But more pressing is... why does a Veylborn need a door to be open, can't she just go through it?”

“Veylborn aren't really here, explained Rintaron. "That door is symbolic to her not physical..and that can’t be an ancient language. Those markings were not on that tower last time I was here,” Rintaron said as he frowned. “Two mountains. If it is two mountains, it might be the Monolith and Pinalt Mountain. You can see them both from the steles. In fact, if you line them up, they sit between the spaces in the steles. They are on the other side of the valley near here, back across the river, to the east, up on that hill.”

“Back? Did you say back?” Alster said, almost in surprise. “We should have just stayed at the monastery.”

“What? And eat salty mystery meat soup and miss out on all this fun?” Kaelen quipped.

“Maybe there's a clue there that'll tell us how to open these doors,” Tajan said, trying to bring focus back to the tower. “I think we have to work out how to shut this tower down or stop whatever is causing these pulses. You feel that rumbling?” she said. “It is coming from under us, under the tower, and it is really messing with this Veylborn. I mean with Gertina. Sorry, Rintaron.”

"We have to at least try harder to get this thing open before going back no?" Said Blena. Kaelen, Blena, and Alster all tried with force, mechanism, and crystal powers to open the door. Nothing was having an impact on the bound panels of thick metal and wood, and hours were passing. They looked up at high windows and imagined ways to get to the top of the tower, but nothing was working. Gertina flashed into vision and disappeared, still in distress, repeating the same message.

“Too much power... it must stop...”

Kaelen eventually gave up.

“This door seems it’s made of wood, but it holds as if stone and part of the walls. I think we need to follow this idea of a message giving us a key. It's a half-day walk from here.”

“Then I'll go with you,” said Blena, already ready for the next stage of the day.

“If Gertina is determined to get in the tower, I will stay a while to see if I can do anything. We'll just have to get this door open, one way or another,” Rintaron replied. “I can meet you back at the monastery if the tower remains closed at sunset. I just can’t stand seeing her like this.”

As you prepare to set out for the Monastery, you can't shake the feeling that things were going to get a lot more difficult.

Thy Quests
The group discovers that an old system is failing, but no one fully understands the warning signs at first. Where do we see this in the real world, when people notice signals of a bigger problem before they understand what is really happening? Explain your connection and how the characters’ choices compare to what people should do in that real-world situation.