The Rope Trick spell was a clever little bit of legerdemain: it created an interdimensional space with a rope hanging down from it, so that the rope appeared to be hanging from thin air. You would climb up the rope, into the interdimensional space, and be unreachable by anyone on the outside. It was the perfect spell for camping in a dangerous place where you were being hunted by (for example) the spirit of a long-dead king of Thassilon.
So naturally, the party took shelter within their Rope Trick while resting and recovering their spells. When they emerged, they were ready to take on whatever the palace might throw at them. What they found, however, was a woman, soaking wet, lying just outside the door of the room where they had set up their camp.
“My name is Aulthunn,” the woman said after being revived, “The king imprisoned me in one of his clockwork soldiers, where I slept for many years. Then suddenly, I was free. I swam to the surface, and my divinations told me to seek out this door. Tell me, is it true what else they said? Is the empire of Thassilon truly fallen?”
“Yes,” Theodora answered, “and we’re going to keep it that way by defeating the king.”
Aulthunn turned to face Theodora and her eyes grew wide. She hurried to prostrate herself and exclaimed, “Forgive me, Lady Sorshen. The divinations said you and all the other runelords were dead.”
“Well I’m not. And I’m taking charge.”
“I don’t trust her,” Milacent muttered under her breath.
Trusted or not, the Aulthunn agreed to come with them. They filled her in on the return of King Xin, and she told them she had been a visitor to the court of said king, countless years ago. Asked about her abilities, she professed to be a diviner, though she radiated an aura of conjuration magic which she freely admitted was her Mage Armor. She also reported that the clockwork soldier she had been imprisoned in hadn’t been in the throne room, but in the water-filled chamber below it. As the party hadn’t been there yet, they resolved to head there next.
Commanding the magical staircase to extend itself downward, they found themselves descending into a vast chamber, a hundred feet from ceiling to floor, almost totally filled with water. It also contained row upon row of clockwork soldiers, first lined up on the floor, and then above those were more arrayed on floating disks of rippling force. It was difficult to determine exactly how many there were, but it looked like hundreds, perhaps thousands.
“Is this the king’s army?” Zelcor gasped, “Is he going to attack Magnimar with it?”
“Upstairs he couldn’t control them all, remember?” Scratchy reminded everyone, “He started shouting about how most of them were traitors.”
Aulthunn nodded solemnly. “His power isn’t complete. But it is growing.”
“All the more reason to defeat him soon,” Theodora admonished.
The chamber had two doors that they could see, but there was an odd gap in the rows of soldiers, occupied by only a blank wall. Scratchy, suspicious, used the Sihedron to make himself invisible and swam down to investigate.
With Scratchy away, the rest of the party settled down on the stairs, just above the waterline. It was then that they noticed ripples in the water moving towards them at alarmingly high speed. Zelcor prepared a magical attack, but Theodora had a better idea. She cast a Charm Monster at the underwater shapes, and one stopped short while the other continued to advance. It popped out of the water directly in front of them, a strange eel-like creature with a humanoid torso that lashed out at Helanda. She and Milacent struck back, hurting it badly. Its charmed compatriot also popped out of the water, shouting at it in Aquan not to attack their ‘friends’. Theodora likewise shouted at it to surrender, and its massive wounds quickly convinced it to go along with what it was told.
“Who are you? Where do you come from?” Theodora demanded. It turned out they were Siyokoys, denizens of the deep sea who had entered through a crack in the wall when the island had risen. Now the crack had been sealed by some strange magic, and they were trapped inside this bizarre structure.
Milacent looked on with no small contempt. These creatures were weak, and would be of little use against the King. She was contemplating whether or not to ditch them when Scratchy returned. Amazingly, he had an Iron Golem with him.
“Guys!” Scratchy began, “It’s just like I thought! Those blank walls are illusions, and there’s all kinds of foundry-type stuff behind them! And look! I found the golem that this amulet is keyed to!” And he held aloft the amulet that they had found before in the workshop.
After a brief discussion, it was decided that Zelcor would be the one to wear the amulet and command the golem. Then it was time to investigate the doors below. The necessary spells were cast to allow everyone to breath underwater, and down they plunged.
The first door opened to reveal a room filled with magical contraptions illuminated by the pulsating blue glow of glypyh-inscribed walls. The incomplete brass bones of dozens of clockwork soldiers littered the floor, and eerie shadows danced on the wall as crabs clambered over the incomplete machines. Above it all, suspended from the ceiling by arcs of magical force, was the massive chassis of an eel-like clockwork monster. There was little time to contemplate the scene, however, as shortly after the doors opened the eyes of the giant eel creatures flashed blue and it twitched to life.
Helanda rushed forward to attack, and Zelcor sent in the iron golem beside her. Milacent was about to join them when she caught something odd out of the corner of her eye. The two siyokoys looked over at Aulthunn expectantly, and the diviner shook her head slightly and waved them away. They backed away to a safe place, evidently intent on just watching the fight.
Zelcor saw it too, and with the help of their Message spell he and Milacent resolved to keep an eye on Aulthunn. Aulthunn, for her part, prepared magic missiles and began firing them at the clockwork monster, although Zelcor did notice that she shot a glance at him before she cast each spell.
As for the fight itself, the difficulties of fighting underwater were taking their toll on the party. The creature opened its gigantic maw and swallowed Helanda whole, then turned its attention to Theodora, who was standing nearby. The iron golem pounded away on it, but having Milacent away from the fight, watching Aulthunn, was clearly not helping. She turned her back on the strange woman, trusting Zelcor to keep her from doing anything untoward, and charged in to contribute to the battle. Aulthunn continued to fire magic missiles and squeal with childish glee when she damaged the beast, but her act did little to reduce Milacent and Zelcor’s distrust of her. Finally, the creature died and a badly injured but still living Helanda was cut out of its belly.
While everyone was being healed Milacent expressed her suspicion to the rest of the party, again via Message spell. Theodora decided she needed to know more, and cast Detect Thoughts on Aulthunn’s Siyokoy friends, reasoning that their minds would be easier to read than a mage’s. What she heard was them thinking, “What is she going to do? When is she going to act?” as they shot nervous glances at Aulthunn. Theodora cast the spell as discreetly as possible, but even with the rest of the party trying to distract Aulthunn, the woman made a strange grimacing expression. Helanda regarded what was increasingly becoming a stare-off between the party and Aulthunn, and clutched at her sword. Whatever was going to happen, she doubted it would end peacefully.
Unshattering the Star 
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