After the Fall

2: “Witness”

2.1: “Strays”

Howard introduces Maximus Strongarrow to the others. He says Maximus has no family, and has been here for a couple of weeks.

"This is Maximus; he’s an old friend — I’ve known him at least a month. He’s a trustworthy fellow! I think he’s… strong, and stuff?” — Howard, on Maximus Strongarrow.

Maximus performs a song:

I am Maximus Strongarrow
Just your average country lad
I worked on a farm with my wheelbarrow
My family died and I was sad

Then I went across the land
Through the hills and forests green
Off to join an adventuring band
So I came to Howard Keen
He agreed to take me on

I’m honoured to be one o’ you
I may not be very strong
But I’m smart, and my heart is true—
Maximus Strongarrow; nice to meet you!

Howard and Mati argue about his habit of collecting strays. Howard answers a knock at the door and comes back with a letter from the Tower Lord requesting the guild’s help with a private matter.

Aither bows to Salazar the guild cat, then, after talking to Mati about cooking for a moment, comes back and kicks him because she is mentally unstable.

“Really? Where is your mother? Your father?” asks Mati.

“M’parent’s are dead. I… don’t want to talk about them,” said Maximus.

Aither cuts in: “Did you not listen to his song?”

Howard urges the party to hurry up, desperate to keep his relationship with the authorities despite harbouring at least two known criminals. They finish eating and ride into town on their horses, coming to the administrative ring at the foot of the Tower. Shaun is waiting for them and leads them into the courtyard, and up to the Tower.

Artist’s impression of the base of the Fourth Tower, and surrounding empty courtyard.

The Tower is a void-black triangular prism, 3ft wide, and extends up taller than any mind can comprehend. Inset on its front face are the Ancient letters IV and an inverted triangle. They glow an unearthly white. A couple of steps lead up to the front face. Shaun touches the Tower and folds out of reality, and the others follow.

The party finds themselves in a circular room 150ft across. The walls are made of a faintly glowing marble with tiny lines of black running vertically along it. In the centre of the room is a teleportation circle etched into the floor. Shaun leads them up a flight of stairs, then a spiral staircase onto a corridor. At the end is a large wooden door into Hana’s office. Shaun offers them tea, which Maximus and Aither drink.

The room is decorated with a large oak desk with a chair behind it. On the desk are papers and a small potted plant. Stacked up in one corner are boxes of papers and a couple of chairs. On one wall is a large painting of a window with rolling green hills behind it.

Shaun leaves to get Hana, asking the party to wait.

Mati searches through the desk drawers and finds one has a false bottom. In it she finds a series of hand-written letters addressed to Hana, sealed with a lily-shaped seal, and signed “R”. Mati shows the letters to Maximus who can read Elvish. He finds they’re graphic letters from a lover.

My dearest flower,

…

I cannot wait to see you again.

Love,
R

At the back of a bottom drawer Mati finds an ornate matchbox-sized wooden box with a single needle inside. Aither pulls the painting off the wall and finds a sealed envelope attached to the back. The envelope feels old, is addressed “Hana Kohl”, and is sealed with a calligraphic “D.S.”. Aither copies the letter out, reseals the envelope, and replaces it behind the painting.

Lord Kohl,

Time is not on your side. The King cannot be trusted. Go to Silas, he can explain.

Good luck,
Darius

2.2: “Guard Duty”

Shaun returns to the office with Hana who greets the party.

“I haven’t had any luck keeping pets here. They tend to go missing. It is a large place.”

— Hana Kohl, on pets.

Hana explains that someone is trying to kill her, and she wants the party to come to her house to stop the assassin. Hana tells them she thinks the assassin was sent by the Tower Lord Silas.

“Mantovani is a man of honour. Mercy Kamau is a man of, well… certainly not cunning. Ruth… I don’t think she’s got it in her to do an assassination, to be honest. Rogue too, they both are… I think they like the peace. Outside of the Tower Lords, I don’t think anyone else has motivation to want me killed. On the whole, I think the people of this realm like me?”

— Hana Kohl, on enemies, and friends.

She tells the party that she’s spotted figures following her around town and received a threatening letter, but destroyed it. She doesn’t trust her guards completely and wants to keep the matter a secret.

Talon interrogates Hana on her political policies and plans for the realm, looking for proof that she’s a good ruler. She says since coming to power she’s fired the previous Lord’s noble advisers and now takes counsel from average people, and has changed the taxation system to tax rich people more. He asks about religion and she says she dislikes organised religion, which Talon agrees with.

“If you died, how long would it take for people to find you?”

— Mati, on Hana’s social life.

Hana takes them out of the Tower and puts on her incognito sunglasses, then leads them to her house in the noble district. The party enters and searches the house, finding it immaculately kept despite her claim of keeping no staff and spending very little time there. Mati searches the kitchen and finds it unused, with some random groceries in the cupboards.

Schematic map of Hana’s house

The party stuffs pillows under the covers of the bed in the master bedroom, and Mati lies in the bed in the guest room after setting magical snare traps under all the windows. Talon sits on a stool outside the master bedroom, while Maximus patrols downstairs. Hana asks what the plan is and Talon tells her she can’t know for security reasons. They put her in the cupboard of the guest room.

“The package is in the box.”

— Talon, closing the cupboard door.

The party establishes callsigns for one another: Mati is ‘The Mother (TM)’, Talon is ‘Shining Light (SL)’, Aither is ‘Kitty Whisperer (KW)’, and Maximus is ‘Orphan Hero (OH)’.

After night falls, previously ingested poison causes Maximus to fall asleep, and a spell causes Mati to fall asleep in the bed. Expecting them all to be asleep, a hooded figure runs up the stairs and past Talon. Talon calls for them to stop and tries to alert the others but they run into the guest bedroom and open the cupboard door. Hana screams, and Talon sees the assassin make an obviously fake stabbing motion into the cupboard.

“HALT, VAGABOND! DECEASE YOUR VILLAINOUS ACTIVITIES. YOU WON’T BE MURDERING ANY INNOCENTS TODAY!”

— Talon, on crime.

Talon grabs a hold of the assassin and holds him still while the others wake up. Mati wild-shapes into a lion and jumps for the assassin but misses and lands on the bed. The assassin breaks free and runs for the window, narrowly dodging the magical snare, but fails to break it, bouncing off and falling to the floor. They surrender and Talon convinces Mati to accept it.

Talon removes the assassin’s mask and finds it is Shaun. He explains that he resents Hana’s leadership and would make a better Tower Lord than her. Talon checks the cupboard and finds Hana covered in blood, and apparently dead. He attempts to heal her but nothing happens. Maximus comes into the room and talks with Talon about Shaun’s motivation.

Mati comes back into the room and, discovering the assassin’s true identity, attempts to kill him. Talon and Maximus stop her and tell her that Hana is dead. Mati casts detect magic and deduces that Hana is pretending to be dead with magic. She knocks Shaun unconscious and sits next to Hana with a dagger, waiting for her to wake up.

Hana wakes up, and explains the plan: to fake her murder to buy six more months of King’s protection for the domain. Mati threatens her, angry at Hana for deceiving her and putting her family in danger.

“I could’ve died for real, but honestly it didn’t appeal.” said Hana.

“You could still die for real,” Mati replied.

The two argue about Hana’s plan for a little while, culminating in Hana offering to employ the entire Rusty Duckling guild to help her save Maelor from Mercy Kamau.

“Another conspiracy, layered on another conspiracy…” said Mati.

“This is politics!” laughed Hana.

The party returns to the Rusty Duckling to rest, agreeing to return to the Tower the next day for payment and to discuss further work.

Mati dreams.

You slowly realise you are surrounded in all directions by countless distant stars.

Did they appear out of nowhere? Or had your eyes been closed?

You look down and find you have a body; supported by a chair. One of your hands moves up in front of your eyes, and you inspect it. Six fingers: long and white, each ending in a nail carefully filed to a point and painted as black as the void that surrounds you.

"You're awake."

Are you awake?

You look up and see me — or realise I've been with you the whole time. I'm sitting opposite you in another chair. We are superficially similar: tall and thin with elongated limbs and fingers. Our eyes are black, and two small bumps of white horn part our hair: mine a matching white, in opposition to the muted brown of your own.

"Vesper," you say, unsure of where the word came from.

"Mati," I say in response.

Your eyes meet mine, full of confused recognition. How do you know me? Do you know me? You know you do.

I stand.

"We don't have long here. You must listen."

I take three steps towards you, closing the distance that had seemed infinite to you. I put a hand on your arm and lean down to whisper in your ear. As I do, you realise you can smell me — a scent that pulls memories of feelings up from deep within you, but nothing more. Pomegranate, leather, blood. You try to speak, but you can't find any words to say.

"Beware Polaris."

You wake up.