Lut-hoff/Tower research:

  • Kulla goddess of leadership == Luta as well (of Lut-hoff), we recorded her 
  • Stories of rulers who went into the tower — entered due to crises, if you need help with one of the pillars of Luta, also doubled as a shrine to the immortal itself.  
  • Owner of the orb went into the tower and never returned.  Younger brother of a ruler of a queen.  
  • Standard path to immortality is through rulership.  They are often still managing state affairs — boundaries between immortals and mortals is a bit fuzzier.  Kind of like it was historical prime plane — pre council of intrusion.  
  • Luta has 3 pillars of leadership: 1. rewards and punishments, 2. ubiquitous eyes and ears, 3. great external threat
  • Two characters associated with the shrine: “The Gatekeeper” — Gerrefenna the Daunting (colossi) — the current chief of the living colossi, by far the most powerful of the lot.  “The Porter” — burnt orange marble skin and a globe like head (golem/servitor?) — maintain the shrine, but no one has seen it for centuries.  
  • Try talking to Vaun the Arresting — he recommends we talk to Getherin the Sober (277 HD), a dark brown sandstoney texture, leather-like robes, he appears in the middle of the night.  He asks us why we want to see Gerrefenna
  • Gerrefenna the Dauntin arrives after making us wait for 6 days (1288 HD), Blue green, plate mail, intimidating!  She tells us to subdue whatever we fight, not kill anything.  Bring a lot of brute strength to open the front door.  Contact Skemeku the Ageless for her.  Colossi don’t go to metallic realms because they only go where there are disks.  Auburn sisters summoned a three-headed goat to smash the disks.  
  • When we ask about going to the gold realm — she says that she saw a similar statue once.  
  • Gerrefenna loans us a horn in exchange! We’re supposed to return it to the doorstep of Luthoff within 100 years.
  • Tower Scholar — the trench tower visited by brass-skinned giants — this exists on both silver and material realm.  In the silver realm in the tower complex it is similar but more sparsely populated.  Considered dangerous, super-powerful creatures wander in and out of the towers.  
  • Scribal Estate — disagrees that the historian was killed by a party — thinks that there was actually four historians — each had a specialization.  The fourth historian — the giant folk historian, was killed.  Others were destroyed even earlier.  Gutanan historian (in halcyon days of colossi gods and goddesses — Goddess Gutana, mineralization and preservation, super secret part of the history of the planes — when the transition to mineral form happened, this history was wiped out, and this historian was disintegrated), Metternalite historian (Metternal Inkstone — influential thinker and god), Historian of the Metallic Planes.  All recorded by Metternal Inkstone, rationalized governance sometime after Luta’s dynasty collapsed.  Very strong belief system — reincarnation, didn’t believe in fate, moral and political principles.   His followers were really into documenting them.  Historians created by mortals.  
  • Greater Wishes to get Al knowledge to make the potion of greater construct repair 
  • Two towers: one intellectual history and one material history, Mostly empty and looted, but there are inscriptions.  We find the path to fragments of sandstone encrusted ruby.  Over the course of 24 hours, it grows into 16’ historian.  Metternal Inkstone’s followers (who were fleshy colossi) didn’t believe in luxury, they stripped down music to simple instruments. We find out that there was the life force of a ram folk that was preserved in bronze ocean water.  Intellectual history — they foregrounded the importance of beliefs and schools of thought were bad.  Metternal’s two big things were anti-extravagance and meritocracy.  Previously positions of leaderships were inherited (except for the monarch).  Very controversial.  Opposed to opulence — all things should be based on or order, population, and material needs.  Later on he was killed — his followers survived and thrived, splintered and spread across several planes.  Many followers became convinced that aggressive warfare was never justified. One splinter group is responsible for being the first to go to the silver realm.  
  • Lakshmi uses the sandbowl — an image appears above the sandbowl — rapid movie of the memories of the construct.  These enter Lakshmi’s memory.  Only download salient memories.  This requires a week of intense thought to process.  
  • General knowledge of history — 7000-5000 BC was the era of the giants/fleshy colossi — beginning with Luta’s over 9658 BC, ends with Gutanan era beginning 5700 BC, lasting about three hundred year.  Obsession with fertility in the area.  Great Bronze Forger boasted of fathering 100s of thousands of children.  The Milhatha (7’ tall, beak noses, created by Faher in an 80 year period), were so successful and the species was altered so that after 9 species, all other children came out androgynous — took over the silver realm.  General idea that outcompeting required becoming more fertile.  In colossi history, the Gutanan era was prompted by realizing that this didn’t have to be, no interest of species in propagating.  They investigated how to live forever.  
  • Bronze skinned giants/the trench — this is more the wheelhouse of historians of metallic planes.  Come from the metallic planes.  Remembers that all other historians have been killed and disintegrated.  Years are based on a cycle of 58 years by a succession of fruits.  Gutanan Historian destroyed by mineralized colossi more than 3000 years ago.  Metternalite historian was destroyed, historian of metallic planes was destroyed by an ordinary looking guy with a weak jaw (THANATOS! == Abbathir) in 716 BC
  • Humans came to the region as servants and slaves — Luta freed them from slavery.  Talna was a human god (~300 years before Ebben Salma)
  • He knows that the silver was always here, brass may have been here, but then thee bronze may have been built/expanded by the great bronze forger.  
  • Auburn sisters only interested in the metallic planes — destroyed disks in the silver realm here.  He thinks of this as being part of the goat like god — Hirrotha.  Thinks Hirrotha and Auburn Sisters were coming from some more outer planes also with metallic planes.  
  • We get memories of when Thanatos visited: he was in another building when he killed the historian.  Had visited multiple times over the past century.  Called himself Abbathir — kind of scholar, super powerful.  Qs Abbathir asked this historian: Why was the splinter faction of Metternalites so interested in the silver realm?  Did it have something to do with their interest in reincarnation?
 What innovations (e.g., improvements in magic) did they achieve in the silver realm?  
Lots of questions about colossi gods and fear of death.  He often came with servants.  
  • This historian was created in 6000 BC, was given some history, and then experienced and recorded the rest himself.  
  • Six historians who specialized in metallic history — only one still has remains.  Historian of the metallic realms (colossi in the flesh): Mirem-ket-ni (d. 4771 BC).
  We go to find her remains, which are in a field.  We speak with dead — giantess — looks old, we question him in the silver.  She doesn’t think she’d last long given what she knows about the gemstone elites.  She recommends that we create a portal with harmonious song of 7 Auburn Horns to get to the gold realm.  She wasn’t part of the elite, and so didn’t have an option of mineralizing.  Who created the gold realm — there are two theories: the Auburn Sisters and Hirrotha came and added the gold realm to places there was already bronze — the other theory (which she prefers) is that the gold realm already existed and they discovered, and that they came through the gold realm (and that in those planes are all connected).  She thinks there a sense in which mortals never come back from the gold realm the same, but there are stories of them going there and coming back.  ⅓ books survives!  We ask Thanatos’ question — splinter faction wanted to prove that everyone lived past lives, but she doesn’t think they were successful.  But they brought colossi civilization to the silver realm.  Improvements in magic — they figured out that it is easier to speak with dead, raise dead, and stuff having to do with the afterlife.  Codex of their discoveries exists, and she gives us the name of a book.  No result on this. 
    We find out that disk mage colossi could make new disks?
  • We track down the final book on the material plane.  Its on an estate in summerpoint — estate of the Hendin family, they were wealthy merchants, now dilettantes, matriarch of the family is a collector.  We negotiate to get access to the forbidden book collection — three interesting books including the metallic planes history, “The meditations of Luta III (great granddaughter of Luta I)”, “History of Sire and his followers.”
  • We also resurrect the Metternalite historian as well — lots of conversations w/ Abbathir, which Justin will summarize in the future.  
  • Luta III describes visiting the tower — Luta I conquered all the races, but found it hard to rule — made lizardmen the external threat.  Luta III goes to the tower, and took the external path threat.  
  • We talk to Brevdis about Abbathir, and he makes it clear that they are scared of Thanatos, although he admires us, he says that they haven’t lived this long without being cautious.
  • We find out Abbathir had friends — we don’t pursue this.
  • We check out the trench tower.  Safe to touch the walls, but not to go inside.  We start by exploring on the material — towers are spread out in this area.  We approach from the trench, and there is far seeing human graffiti on the trenches.  The entrance is a slow motion waterfall with amber water dripping down.  Walls and amber liquid detect immortal magic.  Lots of 25th-36th level folks Paladin of Yoichig that is trapped, we get the impression that they are recent.  4th floor, amber clouds, raining down amber fluid.  
  • Using X-ray vision, I find that walls are very thick.  1st floor — There is a lineup of mostly frozen humans that are lined up around the side.  They are spaced out, arranged, all are walking.  2nd floor — stands with swords — all are empty, the floor seems looted.  3rd floor — metallic chains hanging down from a ceiling on bars — 34 of them around the room.  In the middle of the room, there is an altar.  There is a giant sized dagger made of blue steel, sitting on the altar, detects immortal level magic.  Looks pristine.  
  • Efrim tosses a plant in, and then says fuck it asnd goes after the paladin of Yoichig (33rd level) and his lady elf companion, (mid-level attack rank elven warrior of the sword).   They arrived here 80 years ago.  Also a mage (28th level).  We free all of them, and they hang out for a while.  We find out that they were on a mission from Yoichig to go to an even outer more set of planes that have multi-levels (silver/brass/bronze) — this connects with the historians theory that the Auburn Sisters & Hirrotha came from these outer planes, and that there is a supposedly a gate through the bubble (see below).  Note that in both silver/material the amber liquid at the door and from the ceiling cause multiple paralysis saves (one at -6, the other at -2).
  • On the silver realm, we find that there are three folks on the 1st floor.  2nd floor has sword stands, but on two of the sword stands are two auburn sister horns (!!!) — 211 HD goat statue.  The 3rd floor has the same stuff, but now there are tapestries of Auburn sisters that compel people to come – Lakshmi fails a save and is compelled to go in, but Al dispels the effect.  Fourth floor has the bubble that is the gate to the distant realm that the Yoichig paladin was meant to find.  We then brainstorm how to get in to retrieve the horns and find out the following: (1) Carrock can cast a wish that will make him immune for a turn, (2) he goes in and is able to pass from material into silver and back, (3) Al’s immortal invisibility is not useful here.  Tentative plan; tie a long rope onto Carrock’s ankle and have him go immortally hasted into the tower on the material and reach through to the Silver to gank the two horns and then get out of dodge.  If something goes wrong, we’ll either (A) pull him out or (B) send in a rescue party.

 

Dicking around with artifacts:

  • Dispel Magic on Staff vs. Sandbowl — works every time
  • Dispel Magic on Claw Sceptre vs. Sandbowl — works every time
  • Ray uses a bunch of artifacts

 

Day 2 at the trench tower

  • Trench Tower immortal impass, immortal scry protection, immortal amber suffusion
  • Mineralization make themselves into spell granting artifacts.  
  • We greater wish — one of the dudes get mineralized.  
  • We do a dual attack on the Trench tower, Yoichig party goes in the 4th floor while we grab the horns — the hirrotha construct animates, as soon as the silver realm is breached, and rumbling began in the tour shooting lightning bolts — 200hp on the top level, 

Entering the Lut-Hoff

  • We enter from the 2nd floor, blue green moss growing over the door and the tower.  “She who is chosen shall be the ruler of all species but one.”  We push open the door
  • Thirty foot high chamber, 60ft across, three pillar in front of three open doorways.  On pillar.  One is holding a brand and palm leaf (punishments & rewards), the brand was a common form of punishment, rewards often came wrapped in palm leafs, statue of woman with no eyes, smooth eyes/no ears — little strands of disk magic (ubiquitous eyes and ears), third pillar is giant dragon headed lizard man (great external threat).  Each doorway is bathed in a different color light, burnt orange, white light and dark green light respectively.  The tile floor itself is a giant tile in the holy symbol of Luta, palm, scepter & hammer.  Used to be that there was a porter.  
  • We start through the “great external threat” doorway through a pool of dark green light — we go down a hallway.  The hallway is decorated with luta’s achievements.  She has braids that hang down her head and 10’ behind with two burly giants carrying the braids.  Hallway is a vaulted arch, rounded at the top.  We go up a stairway to a huge landing, on the landing there are pedestals with just feet and ankles, and an alcove which would have a statue, where this is a secret door.  On the inside, there is dust on the ground, there are silver balls — 2 of 3 spheres are on top of tubes that probably create.  The three spheres are mortal level magic — supposed to represent eyes, if you carry them through the eyes and ears section, they reveal certain things to us.  Eye of the Friend, Eye of the Enemy, Eye of the Child. 
  • We get up to third story of the tower.  Oval room, empty alcove.  Stone treasure chest in the middle of the floor.  Glowing and pulsing a blue magical light from underneath the lid.  4 giants made of clay, each standing in a corner of the room (28 HD each).  The chest and golems both detect immortal magic.  Lakshmi steals memories from one golem — made more than 6000 years ago — made by an immortal, man with a toga like thing with egyptian complexion.  Remember the porter, burnt orange color with round head (similar to historians) — speaks to guests, most decide to pass through the room.  Big fireball x2, golems are unaffected but go in for the attack.  Usually just two people “the best way to earn an enemy is through greed, how greedy are you”, if they get to half HP they retreat and the porter.  Human with an orb comes through, he continues on (despite the lack of a porter).  Ever shifting semi transparent orb of yellow and orange.  We get into a 80’ wide hallway, up a couple of steps into a green tiled atrium.  16 giant sized tiles each depicting 13 different constellations, the sun and two moons.  Just outside the room is an alcove — many traps are already set off, but the sun tile has a trap with flame, the big moon has a pillar of cold, the tattoo is supposed to convey respect.  Go down a gradually widening hallway, three different directions.  One direction has murals depicting a plague on giants and milhatha, one direction is dragons destroying communities, one has giant lizardmen.  Secret door in the alcove — detect a trap — flattening and remove it.  Again its a closet.  Completely pillaged, hooks and empty stone boxes.  We go down the lizardmen corridor, we get to another atrium with faded red tiles.  There are implements of torture — racks of various sizes from giant to human.  Al and Efrim get tortured by Lakshmi.  Next room has a desk and a chair with a child like dragon drawing.  Secret door behind one of the bookshelves.  More bookshelves, all missing.  There are crushed rubies just underneath the whole floor and closet this is a magical conduit.  The next atrium has boxes and broken up golems.  In the next atrium (grey) 9 golems in style of giant lizardmen.  28HD each.  We find a secret door and find the goop that heals the golems.  We get to the throne room — big relief sculpture of luta with the giants carrying the hair.  Three kneeling chairs of different sizes.  Mural and kneeling stones detect immortal magic. Efrim kneels on the human sized one.  After ½ hour, an immortal responds as the “master of the palace”, offers to open the gate (Luta would receive them) — Gatherin the Disciplined  

 

8/10/20

 

In Lut-Ayen:

 We arrive by a farmhouse that is in good repair and agriculturally rich farmlands.  There are big canals.  We see several disks.  We find a plow of Bressma/Sprmighth.  In the distance we see a giant wearing a serpent shawl and grassy skirt.   There is a palace.  The plane has been totally taken over by Bressma (humans)/Sprmighth (lizardmen) — goddess of justice.  

We head to the little market town to the northeast — we make an entrance.  We talk to a normal human mansplainer, who is happy to use us to enhance his cred.  We wander around and buy shit.  Crystalline arrowheads made from ockonomam, found in dried up lake beds, harder than metal, sharper, equivalent to +2 damage.  Against the law to create an ockonomam blade in some places.  We buy some ockonomam arrows.  Al buys some arrows.  Our host is a story teller:

  • We find out a little about thee — Red Vests — conquered an ockonomam and set up an alternative government about 20-25 years ago.  Red vests fled from Great Silver Well — 
  • There is a story about the orb — “the sheriff of Ockport” — a grass giant; a storm giantess came to her saying her orb had been taken by the red vests — becomes mayor of Ockport and a sleezy asshole.  Recruit a nearby Ruby dragon — Thyralax
 — to remove the Sheriff of Ockport who uses a life trapping power on Thyralax and the orb becomes worthless, and gives it to Thyralax’s as an archrival and sells it to ancient green dragon Eversim-Tok
, and the Sherriff gets his.  

Lakshmi uses a sandbowl and a lanky androgynous Milhatha.  They are on 269:22 The Great Old Clod
.  There are three other bowl users, loyal to a god known as the divine sower.  We get a recommended safe passage to the great old clod.  Find out great silver well are in a silver war, there are three states in what used to be Soam — recommends we go to Gerrehotham, the safest place and those with the most knowledge of the metallic realms, and ignore the story about the king. We think he was originally a far seeing human.  Turns out that he is not in to Thanatos — clerics arrived there several centuries ago.  Tells me that Phaher created these to be an elite team.  We find out that it might be possible to find a bowl on the same plane even if there is no owner.  

 

We go find the green dragon Eversim-Tok — we send the Phoenix egg phoenix in to lead the way.  We have some encounters and kill the green dragons at the center in 1 round.  We find the orb.

 

Diamond City seems to be the most interesting place — its the ruins of a colossi city.  

 

After Lutayen (Anil’s notes):

Iustal and friends return from.  Emmes-home
 — Auburn Planes — 

Notes from Justin:

Auburn Planes (also called Emmes-home)

  • 
Location – way west of the Astral Plane
  • 
Properties:
    • Natural flight – a bit like being under water
    • No sun – fluctuating light from above
  • 
Lots of floating structures with docking on the underside – need three-dimensional maps just to adequately represent the space.
  • 
Shadows obey strange laws – depend in part on the nature of the entity in question.
  • 
Emmesthen – main race, about twice the size of humans, very strong forearms and biceps, weaker legs — these are the ones that come to the temple
  • 
Genna – female-only race of giants, ram horns, heard giant goats — auburn sisters were this race
  • 
Erggents – beholder-like, but more cunning and social. Pale white bulbous skin with blue and green eyes in the creases. Lay eggs.
  • 
Yoichig party was followed most everywhere by a floating, two-sided eyestalk with yellow eyes and no shadow.
  • Goes down to the gold and up to the ethereal and blue-green mists
  • 
Access to the metallic planes strictly controlled – prestigious for conscious creatures to be permitted to enter the deeper planes, especially the Gold (the elite who can enter Gold are dyed Auburn).
  • 
It’s thought to take a great deal of wisdom to live on the metallic planes and maintain sanity.
  • 
Weird experiments with souls: sometimes a single entity will carry souls from up to nine others (but most can’t cram more than three).
  • 
Major deities are all combined heroes. Biggest names:
    • 
Febbenok (of creation, of large humanoids including the emmesthen; holy symbol is fire and dual-sided trident-like thing)
    • 
Idemma (of death and rebirth; holy symbol is three-footed cauldron-like thing)
    • 
Seffessvon (of many-eyed species like beholders, revere dryden, holy symbol is egg with many eyes)

    • Lesser god: Mo-aokkom == penumbra, god of undeath

 

The giants that come to trench towers are Emmesthen, similar to the Brass Avengers.  Beholders are clearly native there.  When they combine multiple souls — end up with multiple faces on the same head.  

Widely held (by the historian) that the gold encompasses multiple planes and thats how the auburn sisters came here. 

 

To free the Ruby dragon Thyralax:

  1. Bubbling pool of molten lava — volcanic cone in empirical.  Dip the orb for 6 rounds — we use Vssgon worker threads to suspend it.  
  2. Valley with three magical pools — the pool with regenerative powers is the one that we dip it in.
  3. Dip in a river with a heated worm
  4. Dark opening in the side of a mountain — cave complex ex-construction project, former forge — large pool with grey liquid — 25 HD grey ooze.
  5. Last image is a meadow where gorgons used to roam, Efrim shapechanges into a gorgon and breathes on it three times.  

Treasure from dragon:

  • 1900cp
  • xxx 193,800sp — given to sprmigth temple 
  • 30,000ep (that’s “electrum pieces” — link to a picture of electrum)
  • 28,500gp
  • 9500pp
  • 188 coins of summer silver (72 of them are of the same coinage and come together in a single leather pouch with a series of 2D icicles neatly painted on it)
  • yyy 196 gems worth a total of 105,500 gp (biggest collection you’ve ever seen in a dragon horde, a plurality of the gems are rubies) — most given back to Thyralax
  • 54,000gp in jewelry
  • 1 potion of agility
  • 1 potion of levitation
  • 1 potion of invisibility
  • 1 flying carpet
  • 1 pouch of security (“Behold! A thief!”)
  • 1 rope of climbing
  • 1 staff of elemental water
  • 1 staff of the druids
  • xxx 1 giant-sized short-sword +2 — given to sprmigth temple
  • 1 magical polearm +2/+5 vs. spellcasters
  • 1 giant-sized blowgun +1
  • 1 amber orb of the claw scepter

 

Initial notes on Great Silver Well — once dominated by Soam (short for Soam-nulya
).  Currently caught in civil war, the empire is in three parts now.  The reason it broke up is due to red vests, emperor at the time allied with warlord to suppress the red vests — the emperor then recruited three generals to overthrow the warlord and then became three separate kings.  Remnants of red vests are bandits and still infest the region — Moos has friends and connection — northern most state.  

We have four horns currently — bought one,