(S34) Fireworks

The group started combat in what they had found out was but one of 24 towers that encircled Merdelain.  Their captured sorrowsworn did quite a bit of damage, but the elves protecting the tower they had broken back into weren't helpless.  Not only were there quite advanced warriors amongst their ranks, but they were able to summon a spirit of their own; one of hunger.  It eventually slaid the spirit of fury that the group had dominated.

However something unforeseen happened, as the collar mistress there trapped the group in the tower by changing the security forcefield.  This led to enough weakness, that one of the prisoners of the tower was able to break out: [Cayleth],an elven wizard.  He seemed to appear out of nowhere, analysed the situation, and then started laying havoc amongst the Merdelainian guards.  None of his attacks hit any of the party, showing that even after such a dire circumstance his mental faculties were profound.

The group was finally able to dispatch the collar mistress, and at the point of her death, Tiaumil managed to capture her soul in a small silver cage.  Rushing forward, the group moved to the control panel to try and contain whatever the tower was doing before it would raise an alarm to summon reinforcements.  Working together, they were able to interface with the console and were able to not only turn off the forcefield keeping them in the tower, but also turning off the tower entirely, and hiding the traces of them doing so.  Or hiding it at least from remote notice, since they ripped out the console afterwards and tossed it into the vast pit in the centre of the tower.  Eventually the Merdelainian empire would find out that it would be shut down, but not immediately, and with the tower powered down, it created a break in the net stopping people from plane shifting out of the area.

With that done, the group introduced themselves to the wizard that had been freed, and found out that om of their aims coincided.  It turned out that he had been investigating in the Mere of Dead Men, before being captured, trying to find out about the widespread issues that the group themselves had been tackling.

The tower currently defunct, the group were left with uncertainty as to what they should do.  They had come to the shadow plane in order to find and save Idris, but that option had been taken from them.  There was the option to merely return back home once Arya's abilities recovered, but then there was also the threat of Merdelain itself, for Jergal had mentioned to Tiaumil that something had happened to make them once more a direct threat to the working and survival of the world at large.  The ruinstone too had not been found, 

Seeking new information that might help their decision, Tiaumil questioned the soul of the Merdelainian summoner he'd captured.  He found that collaring sorrowsworn is tricky, as it does drive the summoners who control them mad over time, as there is some leakage of emotions between the collared and the summoner.  The more spirits they collar, the worse it gets.

They also found that the towers that encircled Merdelain weren't just there to protect from and prevent planar travel, but they had also been customised to gather anything they could manage, even souls from anyone that perished within their area of influence, and then send them to Merdelain proper.  These souls seemed to be powering something called the Nexus vault.  The spirit speaking to Tiaumil seemed to think that the souls were being used as fuel to bring the kingdom home.

With this information at hand, it was decided to try to find out more, since they could not return to the material plane for a few days anyway.

The group decided to utilise Arya's ability to turn them into clouds, to bypass the secure keep between them and Merelain, and head towards Tiaumil's childhood village.  Not knowing how safe it would be, they went instead to an ancient shrine that Tiaumil had once made his deal with Jergal at.  There they found evidence of it being used, fresh blood atop it.  When he'd left all those centuries ago, the shrine had been abandoned and unused. 

Something had changed.