Editing The Third Eye (section)

====The Arcane Tower====
With the tower returned, the group stood around for a minute and discussed what to do next, including reiterating their plan: find Master Eydan, former Archmage of the Arcane Tower and one of the party that went into the Feywild with the king fifteen years ago, and talk to him about destroying the cursed crown. Since Isabelle was a graduate of the tower, she went up the stairs first, only to hit a glyph of warding on the landing and get teleported into a maze-like demiplane. Sylas determined she should reappear in about ten minutes, or whenever she managed to find her way out, and while most of the group decided to wait, Ilara thought that waiting was boring and opened the door. On the other side was a hallway, blocked by rubble. Just before the blockage were two doors, and an apprentice. The apprentice asked who they were, then said it didn't matter, he had trapped one an incubi in the infirmary, warning that it was disguised as Head Librarian Galfor. Ilara took this in stride and began trying to break down the door he indicated, which was exceptionally sturdy as it had been magically locked. As she was throwing herself at it, Isabelle reappeared.

She asked the apprentice what was going on, and when he repeated it, she asked about the incubi. The apprentice explained that they had attacked from the Astral Sea, and was surprised to learn that they had returned to the Material Plane. About that time Ilara smashed through the infirmary door, where Galfor accused HER of being an incubus and threatened to blast her. At being threatened she charged him, hitting him with her sword before Isabelle cast Hold Person. Reasoning that if the librarian were really an incubus in disguise he would have been unaffected, they guessed that the real incubus was actually the apprentice, and Sylas blasted him with a flurry of magic missiles, killing him and reverting him to his incubus form. Isabelle asked Galfor what was going on, and after satisfying him that she was really herself by providing personal information about her time at the tower that an incubus wouldn't know, he explained that they had been attacked by incubus pirates. There were several upstairs, multiple apprentices had been killed, and he didn't know what they wanted.

Suddenly, midway through his explanation, everything slowed down... then stopped... there was a flash of light... And everyone found themselves back in the vault, as they were when they arrived. Suspecting that time had reversed somehow, Isabelle sent her familiar up the stairs, where it was caught by the warding glyph and sucked into the demiplane. Ilara charged upstairs once again to find the apprentice, who once more asked who they were before starting to explain about the incubus he trapped. Ilara didn't give him time to finish before slamming into him with her sword; Leaf quickly finished him off with an arrow. Ilara and Avra cleared away the rubble and the group continued up to the second floor, where Isabelle knew they would find the apprentices' quarters, as well as Master Eydan's room. When Leon asked if he would be there, she confirmed that he had not left his room in years, since he retired and appointed Master Zaophas as Archmage in his stead. Once on the second floor, the hallway stretched the entire length of the tower, and they could see all the way on the other side, behind the staircase leading up to the third floor, the wall was missing, and the Astral Sea was visible beyond. Deciding that was a problem for later, Isabelle led them to Master Eydan's room, passing several bloodstains on the floor and two dead apprentices. When they got to Master Eydan's room, they found it sealed by stone, upon which were embossed the words, "Dreaming of a better world, do not disturb." With no obvious way in, Ilara decided to consult with her ancestral spirits. Partway through her attempts to commune with them, though, they suddenly found themselves back in the vault, confirming that they were indeed caught in a time loop.

Once again they triggered the glyph with the familiar, killed the incubus, and headed upstairs. Recognizing that their business with Master Eydan would have to wait until they broke the loop, they simply ran down the hall to the stairs at the opposite end. From here they could see that an enormous chunk of the wall, spanning both that floor and the one above, had been ripped open, allowing them to see the Astral Sea beyond. Above, a large ship was kept aloft by massive demonic wings some forty feet from the tower. There was also acid dripping down the stairs. The hallway above was soaked with it, as it dripped constantly from the ceiling, ruining all of the books normally kept here. In addition, walls of stone had been conjured on either side of the corridor, preventing anyone from going further in. Avra and Ilara braved the acid and simply smashed through one of the walls, and everyone hurried through to a less hazardous section of the corridor. After a quick discussion with Isabelle about where to search, they decided that since Archmage Zaophas's rooms were nearby, they would start there. Isabelle and Leon went into his rooms, while the others went into the adjacent rooms, which belonged to Golem Master Laromarius. Zaophas's sitting room looked like a tornado had blown through. As Isabelle stepped in, a djinni appeared. She explained Leon that Zaophas had bound the genie to his service, and when it asked why she was there, she explained that they had brought the tower back to the Material Plane. The djinni told them that Master Zaophas was dealing with the incubi pirates, and guessed that he may be on the top floor.

Meanwhile, in Master Laromarius's rooms, Ilara found his bedroom door blocked by a homunculus that told them to go away, since his master was busy. She simply picked it up and set it to the side, getting bit in the process, and opened the door to find Laromarius entwined with three incubi on his bed. He beckoned her to join them, and despite Leon having protected her from being magically charmed, she willingly agreed and climbed onto the bed with them. Leaf told her this was not the time for this, but Ilara replied that time was going to reset anyway, so she was going to have some fun first. When the incubi asked Leaf to join them as well, she fell under their spell and climbed onto the bed too. The others wrote them off as a lost cause for this loop and continued into the great hall, where they would find a levitation field up to the top floor. There they found Master Alchemist Moradinji and half a dozen apprentices, all ready to blast them until Isabelle convinced them they weren't incubi. Moradinji explained that unfortunately, the iron golem guarding the hall had been commanded by Master Zaophas to attack anyone who tried to use the levitation field as a precaution in case the incubi overran them, and that his order could only be countermanded by either Master Zaophas himself or by Master Laromarius's control amulet. Knowing what they needed to do, the group let time reset once more. This time, Isabelle was able to confirm that the time loop was only three minutes long, giving them very little time to solve it.

Once again they hurried through the disguised incubus and the rubble, up the stairs, through the acid and the wall of stone, and to Master Laromarius's room. Ilara once again went in by herself and willingly joined them on the bed, intending to take Laromarius's amulet from his neck and leave. First she tried sliding it off gently while distracting him with a kiss, but when he caught her and told her no, she pulled it off his neck instead. She tried to throw it through the door, but it landed in the corner. Laromarius telekinetically threw her out of the bedroom and retrieved his amulet, while the incubi advanced on Ilara, who was restrained in midair, finding her companions nearby. A close-quarters brawl ensued as the incubi slashed at Ilara with their swords. Isabelle, not wanting to catch her friends or the obviously charmed Golem Master with a destructive spell, opted to conjure a web to hold the devils in place. Unfortunately, one of them charmed her and commanded her to dispel it. While Isabelle attacked her friends, the incubi kissed her to drain her vitality, and Laromarius threw magic missiles at Ilara, Avra simply laid into them with her fists until all three were dead. The charm broken, Laromarius let Ilara go and began muttering to himself in shame and embarrassment at his predicament, until Sylas managed to convince him of what needed to be done. Laromarius quickly accompanied them to the great hall, where after convincing Moradinji of their identities once more, Laromarius ordered the golem to stand down and the Third Eye stepped into the levitation field.

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