You meet a very old, very famous man - Patrick the archmage, master of this tower. He is currently staring down the length of this long, marble table, lost in thought. When you approach, he turns and nods at you.
He says simply "I am Patrick."
"I am pondering our brothers below."
0
brot@belo
0
"The alien brothers you yourselves introduced us to - the Vahnatai. I think about our relations with them, and our experiments."
0
vahn@rela
0
"Life in these caves is such a fragile thing - nothing should be able to live down here, but we manage, because of magic. It is their magic that created the glowing fungus that gives us light, and thus life."
"But I have spoken with this Rentar-Ihrno, and I am worried."
0
rent@worr
0
"She is the greatest mage of the Vahnatai - I went there myself to meet her. She showed me the deadly magics she would gladly release to protect her people. What, I ask, will happen when we compete with them for limited space and resources?"
"Remember - she knows how to create quickfire!"
0
quic
0
"Yes." He thinks. "Come to think of it, the Vahnatai were eager for your help. You might ask her about it - she may be willing to sell you the secret of it's creation!"
"We're trying to discover the secret of quickfire ourselves, in our laboratory."
0
expe@labo
2
"Oh! It is well hidden. I should tell you how to reach it. Go to my office, and search my desk. There is a button in one of the shelves. Press it, and the way shall become clear to you." (You take note of this.)
54
9
1
stnd
0
You meet a young, blonde woman, lost in thought. Her fingers are stained with ink, as if she's just been doing a lot of writing. She has a bow slung over her shoulder.
She shakes your hands, getting ink on them "I'm Rita, of the Cskany clan." (Cskany pronounced Chah-kahn-yah.)
She smiles wearily. "I'm doing research. It's what I'm best at."
1
rese@best
0
"I study magic items. It's actually a big help in the war. We get lots of weird magic, and I figure out what it does and how we should use it, and then a write a paper and it ends up on our shelves."
She takes the bow off her shoulder and shows it to you. "Lately, I've been doing some archery."
1
arch
0
She shows you the bow. "This is called a Bow of Kag. At least, that's what the Empire had labeled the ones we captured from them. I'm been shooting it a lot, trying to figure out how accurate it is, but it hasn't been working."
"You see, while I'm shooting it, I keep losing my arrows! I'm so absent minded."
2
stnd
0
You meet a big, beefy man, mixing up some goop in a metal bowl. His cheeks are flushed - a ruddy glow penetrating the paleness that is the mark of all Exiles. Unusually, the food he's mixing smells delicious!
"Hello! I'm Marco. I'd shake, but well..." He shows you his hands. They're covered with bits of dough.
"I'm the chef here at Patrick's tower, and, let me tell you, it's darned difficult!"
2
chef@diff
0
"I want to cook good food! It's what I take pride in! But what do I have to cook with? Mushrooms and mold! And bits of stringy lizard meat." He grins. "At least, that's what it was like until recently."
"Ya' see, it all got better when the Empire came!"
2
rece@empi
0
"They brought food with them, and we captured it! They brought dirt too, and we got some! I got actual, genuine garlic cloves! And fruit. And we got some other sorts of animals."
"Want a taste?"
2
tast
0
Marco puts some of the dough he's mixing in your mouth. It's cookie dough, made of real flour. "Most of the captured food went to Dharmon, but some came here. If you want a real meal, at last, Dharmon is to the west. That's where to go!"
You barely hear what he says; it's just too wonderful tasting real cookie dough again.
3
stnd
0
You meet an aging woman. Despite her increasing years, her waist-length black hair doesn't show the slightest sign of gray. As she walks, she embroiders.
She curtsies. "I am Hathwisa, lady of this tower."
"I assist my husband, Patrick."
3
assi
0
She shows you what she is embroidering onto the cloth - it's a magical rune, of awe-inspiring complexity, unerringly formed with gold thread. She shows it to you without comment, but with a self-satisfied smile.
3
husb@patr
0
She sighs. "The poor dear works himself too hard. But not as hard as he did before my illness."
3
illn
0
She continues making stitches as she speaks. "A deadly fever afflicted me a few years ago. I would have died, but for a band of adventurers, who brought graymold salve and healed me."
3
gray@salv
0
"Remarkable stuff. I hear the recipe for it is on a shelf around here somewhere. It can heal practically any disease." She brushes her hair out of her face and looks at you solemnly. "I owe my life to it."
4
stnd
0
You meet a heavy-set Moor with an air of total self-assurance. His hands and garb are covered with the stains of actual dirt!
His voice is deep and sure. "My name is Cochran."
He picks a fleck of dirt from his clothes and show it to you. "I'm the gardener here."
4
dirt
0
"Yes, actual, honest-to-goodness dirt. The Empire brought some down with them to grow plants, and we captured a lot of it. A rare and wondrous find indeed!"
He removes a pouch from his pocket and scrapes dirt from his clothes into it, so that none of it goes to waste.
4
gard
0
"My job of the moment. I'm an alchemist, see, so they thought I was the natural for studying and working with plants."
4
plan@alch
0
"Before this, you see, I did much research of Crypt Shrooms. You see, there's a large patch of them between here and the Tower of Magi, north of the lava fields. I developed two simple recipes for unleashing their magic."
"If you would like to buy them, let me know."
4
purc
16
Cochran's Recipes
6
7
5
stnd
0
There is a small woman with red hair wandering aimlessly among the tables, alebemics, and barriers of the laboratory. She makes a soft humming noise as she floats around the chamber.
Irritated, she pauses her humming. "I am Jade."
"I was, before you interrupted me, performing my concentration exercises."
5
conc@exer
0
"I was trying to improve my mindduelling skills. And I would like to resume my exercises."
5
mind@skil
0
She sighs, exasperated at your persistence. "Yes. It takes great intelligence and purity of concentration to master the mindduel. It would be easier if I had a Ring of Will, but I don't."
5
ring@will
0
"A rare magical artifact that improves one's skill in a mindduel. Only Baktris has one, and he was slain by rakshasi."
5
raks@bakt
0
"Baktris was slain by a band of the foul, illusionist tiger-beasts. There is a colony of them to the west, and they took his Ring of Will. It is a shame, but we don't have the strength to slay them, so that is that."
She begins to resume her humming.
6
stnd
0
There is a woman in mage's robes sitting at the table. She has short black hair and a distracted manner, and has several books on the table in front of her.
"My name is Kelli. With an 'i'."
"I am a mage of the tower. At the moment, I'm doing a little research."
6
rese
0
"What else? I'm here to dig up dirt on several sorts of monsters. Forewarned is forearmed."
6
mons
0
"The Castle wants me to look into two sorts of monsters: mutant giants and doomguards."
6
muta@gian
0
"I don't know much about these, but I do know this: normally, the Empire has been killing all the giants they could find. However, some other giants have been fighting with them, larger, stronger, misshapen giants."
"We don't know where they're from, but they're deadly."
6
doom
0
"Her expression darkens. Legendary creatures, who we're starting to think exist. They're suits of armor, almost impervious to damage. And, when you actually do manage to damage them, they just split into two!"
"Of course, the rumors may just be that - rumors. I hope so."
7
stnd
0
There is a bitter looking soldier slouching behind the desk. He has a three-day growth of stubble on his face.
He looks at you blankly. "I'm Captain Rabin."
"I run the garrison here. Such as it is."
7
garr
0
He chuckles. "Yes. I take good care of my smattering of soldiers."
7
smat@sold
0
"We have a few troops. Not many, and mostly green. All the seasoned troops are at the front, where I should be."
7
seas@fron
0
"You may think I'm stupid, wanting to be at the front, where I could get chopped, instead of at my nice boring job here. But think on this! We break at the front, and we all die! The Empire will butcher us all!"
"If I'm going to die, I want to be up there, where I can help prevent it. It's that simple." He grimaces in frustration.
8
stnd
0
This room's desk is covered not with papers but with herbs and toadstools, bowls and powders. Sitting behind the desk is a large, affable man, staring at his reagents.
"I'm Lithgow. Welcome."
"I'm the person who coordinates what the mages here do with what the Castle wants them to do. But that's not what I'm worrying about now. I'm worrying about a potion."
8
poti
1
8
"Yes. I can't tell you what it is for, but I can tell you I'm short on ingredients. But I see you're adventurers. I can reward you well if you can obtain certain substances for me."
"Now that I have the ingredients, the potion still takes a long time to make. But thank you for your help!
8
ingr@subs
133
""
9
stnd
0
A cat has boldly walked up to you, and is staring at you curiously.
"Call me Felix." It talks! How cute!
"I'm Jade's familiar."
9
jade
0
"My mistress. A mighty wizard. But she'd have to be, to have me! She's in the laboratory now."
9
labo
0
"It's around here somewhere. Real secret, and stuff." It stretches, meows, and continues. She doesn't let me in there. Jealous of my intelligence, I guess."
9
fami
0
"Magical servant. Friend for life. Someone to feed eternally. That sorta' thing." It pauses to play with and then munch a small lizard.
10
stnd
0
A burly, infernal beast stand in the pentagram, staring at you.
It stares at you with hate in its eyes.
It doesn't move. It just watches you.
10
gnrc
0
You get absolutely no reaction. This creature seems to be reacting to its imprisonment by refusing to give you any ground.
0
ring@will
0
He thinks. "I believe I heard someone talk about having one of those. Ask around."
25
stnd
0
You meet a guard, as large as all the other guards you've met in Exile, but nowhere near as scarred and weathered.
He says "Hopkins."
"Hoping the war doesn't go so badly we have to fight here."
