So it’s nearly midnight and the Ashen Company are exhausted. We decide it’s worth the risk to try to rest here tonight, as we need to be at our best to coordinate getting 64,300 GP out of the tower. Berrik goes to bed first - if he gets yeeted to the Astral Sea, at least he’s able to get back via Plane Shift. Berrik PTFO’s almost immediately. Null is still a little restless and wants to snoop a bit before bed. She doesn’t know Ezra and wants to try to figure out what kind of person he is outside of the crafted experience of the tower. Grug pulls the ice machine closer and promises to keep an eye on Berrik for a while before passing out. Null makes her way down the hall to the southern office and Lotty follows, seeing a chance to privately tell Null what she learned from the scrying orb. Flynn tags along, and so Lotty veers off to prep tomorrow’s breakfast instead.
Flynn and Null enter the office and see the door shut behind them, handle disappearing. More puzzles then. In the office is a fireplace, 2 locked display cases, 4 busts and a large desk. Neither Null nor Flynn recognize the busts. They turn to the desk and an illusory Ezra appears, somewhat irritated, asking “Really?”. Yes really, Null thinks. Why wouldn’t we snoop in a situation like this? On the desk they find:
Two small chests that allow transport of small items between them. They are very cool but in the end are too bulky to justify carrying out with all their loot.
Two leather-bound books: One by Maximus Manimarco discusses the planes of existence and travel between them, the other is a cookbook of hearty casserole recipes. Null takes the first for Berrik and the second for the villa.
A very old Aeonian coin. Null does not recognize the face, but believes it to be one of the first emperors of the Dominion. She pockets it to keep for herself.
Next, the pair turn to the locked display cases. The eastern one contains a tea set, while the one to the west holds an elegant shield and suit of armour. The armour looks most useful, so they start looking for ways to open the case. The lock is arcane as it turns out, so Flynn proceeds to dispel it. He does and they open the lid. Flynn goes to grab the helmet and it flies into his hands.
“Oh, you wish to serve me? Are you worthy?” Flynn hears in his head as his hands unwillingly move to put on the helmet. The helmet also says some racist stuff about goblins throughout this whole situation.
“Curious creature. What is your name, servant?” says a deep booming voice inside Flynn’s head. Our guy responds: “I’m not a servant. My name is Flynn and I don’t agree to this”. The voice insists that Flynn’s agreement is not needed - everyone bends to its will. Even so, the helmet proceeds to try to convince Flynn to give in.
Meanwhile, Null sees her friend put on the helmet and start to float 5 feet above the ground. His arms are straight out and he’s not responding. This ain’t right! She yells for help and tries to pull Flynn back to earth, but dislocates her shoulder in the process. She tries to pop it back in, but fails and makes it worse. The yelling turns to screaming.
Back in Flynn's head, the power of the helmet grows back his missing hand. He sees himself having untold fame and fortune. He is the hero of every story, being paraded around on a float in front of his countless adoring fans. Folks are baring their bits and tits to him and throwing the finest cigars in his direction. This feels really great, but Flynn looks around and doesn't see Mordecai or his friends. Why would he be here without his friends? He isn't sold. The helmet grows angry, and rips off his new hand - flesh, sinew and bone tear before his eyes and he feels every inch of pain. Next Flynn sees himself dead in combat, his friends laughing over his demise. The helmet suggests that Flynn doesn’t need friends - they don’t care about him. Still not persuaded, Flynn says that if his friends can laugh after he's gone then he's happy to have done that service for them. In the weeks that he's known them they have been nothing but miserable and constantly mourning someone so if, even in death, he brings them happiness he'd still rather be part of the team than be without them. The helmet tries once more, this time opting to show Flynn the demise of his friends instead. He continues to refuse the helmet’s offerings and the helmet lashes out.
Null is met with a barrage of Eldritch Blasts from her stricken friend. She realizes that she’ll have to take him down in order to get the cursed thing off. After some back and forth, Null knocks Flynn out. As he loses consciousness, he hears the voice say “Maybe she will be more useful”. Null goes to remove the helmet from Flynn’s head and it flies towards hers, latching on.
As Flynn lies unconscious on the floor, the helmet starts with flattery to try to bring Null onside. It doesn’t work, cause this bitch has 0 self-esteem. Next come a series of promises. “Kneel and I’ll give you all you’ve ever wanted - never lose a loved one again” she hears in her head as visions of her friends appear in quick succession. Latharial’s face lingers a little longer. “I can help you keep your secret from your friends”. “No”, she stammers. Null next sees herself standing before a mirror, but the person in the reflection is a different young woman. Not Dara’s face - this is someone else entirely. “I can fix what was done to you”, says the voice. She feels a pang in her chest - this isn’t real. It can’t be. The voice continues “... The puppeteer that plagues you - I know Alistair intimately. I can tell you his weaknesses”. This angle strikes a nerve and the rage rises up again. The prospect of a real way to defeat the Marionettist and finally break his hold over her life is difficult to ignore. The temptation to give in nearly overcomes her, but a moment of clarity gets through. Azher already has control, why would she invite another powerful being to take over? This is a grift.
She remembers that Flynn is still down. He needs her help. Wait, Alistair already has control… Null attempts to move her arms to her neck, but finds them too heavy. She hears a gasp of air and her hands are suddenly wet. Weird! Null has no idea she just stabbed Flynn through the chest, so she tries again to remove the amulet that keeps the Marionettist at bay. This time she succeeds, ripping it off her neck. There is a flash and the helmet is nowhere to be seen. She does see Flynn, however, with Latharial’s Grace sticking out of his sternum. She rips the sword away and pours her last healing potion into his mouth, reviving him from the brink of death. Both Null and Flynn are rattled by what just transpired and immediately exit the room, whose door has suddenly opened. In the hallway, Flynn uses Prestidigitation to clean the blood off himself and Null. They speak briefly about what the helmet said to them, but it’s soon apparent that neither wants to elaborate. They agree to not tell anyone about what they did, especially Lotty. After they shake on their secret, Null realizes she needs to put her amulet back on. She can’t find it on her person and retreats a couple of steps to peer back into the office. She spots back in the display case, tangled in the helmet. There’s no way she’s going back in there, so she admits to Flynn that she has to go to Lotty.
They sheepishly return to the group. Flynn tries to avoid Lotty as Null owns up to losing the necklace. Lotty is unusually speechless for a moment before finding cutting words for Null "I wanted to apologise to you Null. You said earlier that you didn't want to disappoint me and I felt like I owed you an apology for ever making you feel like you could and now this... I just don't have the words". Null feels awful. Lotty is angry that she has to rest in order to create a new amulet - she wanted to risk the exhaustion to stay up and watch over Berrik, worried about how unrested he's been. Lotty reminds Null that she still loves her but asks her to go and sleep in a different room, away from the group, until she can make a new amulet. Lotty confronts poor Flynn, assuming it's all his fault and that he's led her innocent Null astray. He doesn't like being scapegoated and indignantly maintains his innocence in whatever has just happened. Lotty sleeps with her back against the door just in case Null is taken over in the night.
The evening goes by without incident. Null returns from her exile in the morning and Lotty hands over the new amulet. Null is banished to the loot room until she can attune to it, with Nessie keeping an eye on her the whole time. Afterwards, everyone sits down to breakfast except Berrik, who is still sleeping. Null asks Grug to reset her shoulder, but somehow Grug manages to dislocate her wrist instead. Lotty sees Null and Grug struggling. She wanders over and gives Null a hug, using all the charges of her necklace to heal her.
Berrik is still sleeping! Here’s how his night went:
As soon as he falls asleep, Berrik finds himself in his familiar nightmare. He floats above an arctic landscape, a swath of shipwrecks and bodies in the icy water below. He sees his friends dead. Grug is there this time. He looks up to the stars and realizes that they are made up of the thousands of dragons he saw through the telescope earlier. He tries to fly up to get a closer look and sees that he has strings attached to his limbs that feel like they go through to his bone. He cannot move.
“If I had to guess, someone doesn’t want you to sleep.”
A vision of Ezra appears next to him. It seems more animated than the recordings they've encountered throughout the tower. This is Ezra - an incorporeal piece of him lives in through his tower. The wizard thinks some variation of the dream spell is being used on Berrik - It's a good tactic to use on powerful spell casters to limit their abilities. Berrik hadn’t thought of that. Who could be doing this? Ezra moves his gaze to the devastation below.
Ezra: "What does this dream mean to you?"
Berrik:"I've not always been able to save everyone that I've tried to and maybe this dream is feeding off that feeling."
Ezra: "Is it your responsibility to save everyone?"
Berrik: "Yes, I take responsibility along with the rest of my friends to save as many people as I can".
Ezra: "What do they mean to you?"
Berrik: "We've been through a lot together. I care about them and they're important to me".
Ezra, gesturing to the scene below: "You're intelligent enough to know that if we're not victorious this will be inevitable, millions of people will end up dead".
Berrik:"Yes some of it may be inevitable but we'll find ways to rebuild, to bring back what was lost".
Ezra, starkly: "Sacrifices will need to be made. If you had to choose between the survival of millions or the survival of your friends could you make that choice?"
Berrik: "I'm not pretending to be a saint… I'd burn down the world for the people closest to me. But they want to save people and I'll help them do it".
Ezra: "Maybe that's what haunts you - the sacrifice of the few for the many isn't something you can do. Intellect is a gift but sometimes knowing what will work is a burden because it feels wrong. I hope you are able to figure it out.”
Ezra seems unhappy with Berrik’s position on the ruthless calculus of cosmic war. As he floats away from Berrik's vision he leaves him with a thought:
"Is it better to live in chains or die free?... I can grant you rest tonight in the protection of my tower but you'll be under the effects of the dreams again until you stop whoever is doing this. I hope you find me”.
As Berrik wakes, he feels rejuvenated. This is the first long rest he’s had in days. As his worried friends gather around him, he explains that he believes someone has been targeting him with the Dream spell. This is worrisome to all, but the Ashen Company are truly relieved to see their friend healthy and rested. Berrik does not tell his friends what he saw or what he and Ezra spoke about. Null brings him over some breakfast and hugs him. We should get going soon.
After breakfast, the Ashen Company, Nessie and Berrik’s Arcane Hand load up on 64,300 gp, all the exalted spell scrolls, all the exaltium, the potion vial, the giant popsicle stick, and whatever negligible objects they grabbed. Lotty casts Enhance Ability on some people and off we go through the door to the roof. Flynn lingers behind a step so he is the last to leave. He casts Wall of Stone to block off access to the office where he and Null nearly lost it all. Once we’re all on the roof, we teleport back to the villa in Sierrona. Grug is devastated to find the self-filling tankard no longer works :(
But we hit Level 15, baby!