Chapter 4: The Tower
IV
A gnomish Wizard with a rather poor streak of luck and a snappy sense of dress. That was Divish… or Danvish… or maybe Dede. Honestly it was a wonder that we were able to understand a word he said for he was so quick of speech and thick of accent that it bordered on the unintelligible.
Beary and I discussed what we heard him say and came to the conclusion that the little man, trapped in the adjacent room (a study by all appearances with a bed and kitchenette for prolonged sessions), was the current owner of this magical tower.
It apparently once belonged to a pioneer in the magical arts, Lord Stafford of Somesuch. The name clearly had some weight in the magical community because Dibledoble expected us to recognise it; neither of us did. That said, given the complexity of the magical network here; I had to admit that whoever they were, they were incredibly skilled.
Anyhow, Doby bought the property from Stafford’s family after his death. Being a studious Wizard he was excited to see what he might learn from the great Stafford Somethingorother’s tower (Honestly his accent was atrocious, some of the words may have been in another language all together).
Unfortunately for the little guy the access phrase the family had given him was a dud. They didn’t know the original phrase and so they had to break their way to the main core and superimpose a new one on the network. It worked…at first, allowing him to enter the tower, however once the network fully repaired itself it noticed the intruder and put the tower into lockdown mode. And for good measure it teleported itself to a predetermined safe location.
According to the Wizard, in order to deactivate the lockdown we would have to enter the library (the door to the left) find the mana network’s manual and then go to the core room (the door to the right) and create a new passphrase, properly this time.
I considered breaking the ward which trapped the man, although it was simple it was also too powerful for my current mana level. There was also the argument that I might be able to adjust the network without the manual but I knew I wasn’t infallible. That and I was excited to see what secrets the library of such a great Wizard might hold.
It was for that reason that I agreed to the gnomes plan, with one condition. He would tell me where the bodies of the villagers had gone, it was in the quest description after all.
After Domblydoo repeated his answer thrice I was left with the impression that the tower had moved them to ‘waste disposal’ and I could find a hatch in the core room. He did warn that depending how long they were gone I might not find anything because the tower would have used them as an alternative energy supply.
Beary also decided to go with me, claiming “I need to make sure this infernal weather is put to an end,” although I suspected that he was concerned for the safety of what he thought to be a young adventurer.
Bear insisted on taking the lead, he laid his good hand upon the knob and opened the door to the library. A box shaped room, 6 by 6 feet greeted us - not even a bookshelf.
“What’s this?” Beary asked with no small amount of confusion. I shrugged and turned the question to the well dressed prisoner. With some arm motions and several repeated shouts we were finally able to understand what was going on. The library was on a different floor of the tower and apparently this tiny room was the only way to get there.
Following an approximation of Dollar’s instructions we stepped into the chamber and closed the door behind us. It was rather claustrophobic, stuck in there with an 8 foot bearman. A panel was placed on the wall with the door, we were supposed to pass mana through one of the two mana crystals it contained in order to activate the mechanism. I tried putting mana through the lower one:
“Nothing happened.” I murmured. I tried doing the same to the upper mana crystal.
“Is it broken?” Beary asked, having not sensed any change. I bearly heard him as all my attention was focused on the spellshape the mana network was forming around the entire room. I had expected that perhaps this room would be moved on cables or by rails, instead I could see this world's spellshape for, what I believed to be teleportation, form around us.
When the spell activated there was no more than a bearly audible pop. Beary, not having noticed anything, was growing - unbearably anxious. He flinched when a chime sounded out to say we had arrived. I nodded at Beary to confirm that we had indeed moved.
Ready for anything, Beary once more took the lead and started to open the same door we had just entered through. Whoosh.
As it turned out he hadn’t been ready for anything. He didn’t expect a torrent of water to force its way into the chamber. It came with such sudden force that Beary was knocked unconscious instantly. I, being behind the flesh shield, was given a second to take in a breath before I was completely submerged (although I had no need for air).
As my unconscious companion floated out into the room I was able to see what we had gotten ourselves into. The room was about the size of the arena below but each wall was covered in books. Or rather, had been covered in books. They now bobbed about like over stuffed birds flapping in the current our opening had created. There was one exception, a sealed glass case in the centre of the room containing a hefty tome bound in white leather and embossed with the word “Manual”.
My first thought upon taking in the scene was, of course, of my companion. It wasn’t of the years of magical knowledge that was floating, destroyed… truly… okay maybe it was but the bear was a close second.
I inspected him and found that he wasn’t in immediate danger, he was actually lucky to have been knocked out.
I knew that mammals had a reflex that forced their throat closed when submerged. I also knew that there was a reflex to inhale when low on air. These two impulses warred in a conscious victim… I mean test subject, if they panicked they would take on water but if they remained calm they would be able to keep their throat shut and could possibly survive days. When passed out the decision was made for him. I especially knew this to be true for beastkin, suffice to say at one point they were seen as evil by the kingdom I was a part of and that had been reason enough for me to use them as experimental subjects. It wasn’t my proudest moment.
Anyhow, I digress. I needed to get rid of the water because, although he may survive for days, he could also die in minutes. I searched frantically for a solution, until it hit me, literally in this case. A weighted die had floated free from my pocket and bounced off my foot. Hoping it was indeed weighted with lead I set about my plan.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Swimming over to the far side of the room I placed the leaded die on a bookshelf and swam back to the teleporting room. I took out the golem’s earth mana stone and began the spell. The lead in the die, a concentrated form of earth, and the earth mana stone would serve as the conduits. The earth mana stone would serve double time as a mana source, this drastically reduced the efficacy of any spell I would use it for but given my current mana constraints I had no choice.
Because chanting was difficult under water I decided to cast this two layer spell using both of my hands.
A connection formed between the two conduits. Lightning mana was thought to be a subset of wind mana when I first learned magic but I later learned that it was actually closer connected to earth. The two conditions simultaneously tried to push and pull at one another. Not much happened at first, save a slighted rippling of the water, but this reaction built and built until a spark formed between the two items. I signed a gurgled sight of relief, there really was lead in that die.
Once the lightning started it grew, permeating the entire reservoir. As if by magic bubbles started to form out of nowhere and floated to the surface, beginning to form a pocket of air. The pocket only grew as the bubbling intensified and within a matter of moments the room was bone dry, just the way I liked it.
I grimaced as the mana stone boiled away into motes but I put my feelings aside as I rushed to the side of the bearly alive Beary.
I punched him hard in the stomach as it was the best solution I had found to this problem. A mouthful of water sprayed out from his mouth as he spluttered awake. Thankful it was only the mouthful and now he was gasping desperately for air. I gave him his space until he was properly breathing again.
“You weren’t joking.” He finally said between heaving breaths.
“About what?” I asked concerned, perhaps he had been out too long and his goose had been gandered.
“Before, when you said you could have flooded the room if you got rid of the wrong rune.” Beary clarified.
“Oh,” I chuckled in relief. “No, I wasn’t joking.”
It took a while for beary to return to health, while I waited I went about the room picking up books. All ruined, they had all been ruined. This room had been flooded for some time and the parchment had dissolved, there wasn't anything that could be saved.
“I still feel quite heady.” Beary finally announced after several minutes.
“That would be the enriched air.” I explained, “It happened when I got rid of the water.”
“Enriched air?” He asked.
“Lets hope you don’t find out.” I replied vaguely as I made my way to the centre of the room where the pedestal sat. The mechanism to release the manual was simple and I had the case open in seconds.
“That’s it, let's go.” I said briskly, helping Beary to his feet. I was quite upset by the loss of knowledge.
I reentered the teleporting room first and, knowing it took a few seconds to activate, I passed mana through the lower crystal. Beary followed me in, closing the door.
Click.
“Wait, was that…?” Kaboooooom…shh. We caught the start of the explosion just before the teleport activated. Luckily neither of us was injured.
“Enriched air?” Beary asked, to which I nodded. We stumbled back into the main chamber, smoking slightly. Discus had just enough time to see us and begin to jump for joy at the sight of the manual under my arm when the whole room shook, the explosion finally having reached us. Dust fell like snow from the ceiling and the mana network activated.
I saw it try to pass mana into the gargoyle, only to return having not found it. Then it tried to flood the room, except all the water had already been used. Before it could begin to cook us alive I dragged Beary into the door on the right where we found another tiny room and I passed mana through the crystal. Within seconds we had teleported again.
“What was that?” Beary asked in a gruff tone.
“That tower was about to set that room on fire.” I explained, gasping for unneeded breath.
“What about Dingdong?” Beary asked with unhidden concern.
“That ward will protect him,” I reassured. My confidence seemed to convince him. We proceeded to take a moment to recompose ourselves before opening the door, despite my protests Beary was once more first through the door.
It opened normally this time and we were greeted with an interesting view, the core room.
It was a hexagonal room, again the same size as the arena and library. The walls were embedded with hundreds of mana stones of all colours and connected by engraved silver plates that were stuck firm to the walls. It was a fortune’s worth of magical supplies and it came together to create a remarkable magical invention.
“What’s that?” Beary asked, pointing to the item at the centre of the room.
“That’s the core.” I explained, unable to hold back my excitement. I ran about the room noting everything I could down in my notebook, being in an inner pocket it was only made damp by our underwater experience.
“That?” Beary asked, incredulous. The core was a 5 foot statue made of solid mana crystal. The figure it depicted was enormously fat, enough that the core was almost spherical. Upon his brow he wore a laurel wreath and about his body a toga creating the image of some long dead emperor.
“Are you sure?” Beary asked again.
“Of course, I can see the mana in it.” I said offhandedly, my attention remaining on my notes.
“Can I see that manual?” Beary asked, still not convinced.
“Sure,” I agreed - handing it over. “Making a new passphrase is on page 69" I added. Beary thanked me and began flicking through. I took the time to examine the hatch the gnome had mentioned, indeed all the meat had gone leaving only a golden earring and a fish-hook, Beary confirmed they belonged to the villagers and I took them as evidence before returning to my records. When I’d come to the end of my note taking the beastman spoke up.
“This can’t be right!” He finally burst out. For the last few minutes he had been growing more and more agitated.
“Why?” I asked, confused.
“Here, the first line. Slap my ass.” He pointed out.
“Ahh,” I chuckled. “It’s not ass it’s A.S.S. or Automatic Sensor System.” I replied, moving to that section of the mana network and slapping the control mana stone.
“Fine, well what about the next line: Call me dirty.” Beary protesty.
“Again, not quite right. We need to get the main core to call for the DRTY (Defence, Rain, Teleport and Yeet), it’s a defence protocol the designer made.” I explained as I passed wind mana through the correct channel to call it.
“Oh,” Bear said, deflated. “Then what does this mean?” He asked, pointing to the third and final line. I looked at the words, looked back up to him and grinned before tweaking the nipples of the statue.
“Pass phrase?” A voice spoke in my mind, drowning out Beary’s annoyed grunts. Having decided this before, we chose “Gnome” in the hopes the gnome would at least be able to say it. When I spoke the word the room glowed brighter for a moment before returning to normal.
I patted the exasperated bear on the shoulder before we headed back out to the main chamber. When we arrived I would see scorches spotted on the stone and the air was still warm but the danger had passed. Dildo looked relieved to see that we were safe and ecstatic when we told him that we had changed the password. He promised if we ever came to his land that we would be showered with riches. Unfortunately neither of us could determine where exactly he came from. Either the name was unfamiliar or we kept mishearing it.
When he finally calmed down I gave the phrase to him. To both our surprise he spoke it with such clarity that I wondered if he had been messing with us the whole time. We didn’t have long to think about it however because as soon as he said the word allowed the lights above dimmed, mana surged through the building and the next second it was gone. We fell a foot or so to the ground, finding ourselves in the only dry spot in a soaked forest. The sun was near setting and for the first time in days we could see it through the canopy. The clouds had gone with the tower.
We took a moment to marvel before Bearys' concerns weighed upon him. I followed him home to see him comfort his sick dog who already seemed to have improved. I bid farewell to my companion before returning to the village. The people were dancing for joy out in the street and making an effort to run the village dry of booze.
I took the village head aside to give him the mementos I had found of the lost villagers and confirmed that they were dead. His mood dampened but he promised he would tell the families before handing me a gold mark’s worth of silver, only a dozen pieces. I accepted and thanked him. I was invited to join the revelry but chose to slink away as night fell; in search of my next adventure.