Amber Ablaze – blogpost 13

We walk away from the Tower of Temptation. We HAD to go because it wasn’t safe. However, we need to take a rest in a couple of hours – I am quite tired, to be honest, but I won’t ever let anyone know. It is almost 7PM, and Celeste wants to hike to a tower she and Mivyre saw from the Tower of Temptation. She thinks it is around an eight-hour walk, and we will need to rest along the way. Solarion really wants to leave and persists in walking to the other tower as soon as possible. He acts really weird: he is not his calm and distant self. He is twitching and stressed, and I think he is really annoying.

We walk for a while and climb up a hillside. At the top, we are surprised by a group of people that surround us. One of them asks what we are doing here. He looks like the leader of this group. Mivyre responds: ‘We don’t want any problems; we are traveling to the tower.’ The leader is familiar with the tower and wants payment to let us pass. Lurlille is the only one who has gems in her bag but doesn’t want to give them as payment. She asks if she can pay with another set of skills… I get what she is saying and am disgusted by the idea – I would never do that: I’m a proud warrior and would rather fight and die than whoring myself out as a payment. Another member of the surrounding party says: ‘Too small.’ The discussion takes too long and the group closes in on us. Mivyre urges Lurlille to give the leader a gem, and she finally hands him a green gem. The leader accepts and lets us pass. His name is Tanven Forestbeam and is a priest of this company.

Lurlille and Solarion are fighting: Solarion is running from Lurlille and she chases him. Solarion seeks refuge with Mivyre and hides in his robes, but Mivyre gets really annoyed with him. Finally, he grabs Solarion and asks what is wrong with him: ‘nothing going on’. Mivyre puts him back on the ground, but he falls. I get him up and say: ‘I am tired and want to sleep. KNOCK IT OFF!’ Solarion is scared again and tries to climb up Mivyres’ back and into his bag of holding. Mivyre grabs him, ties him up, and swings him over his back. Not long after, we set up camp and take a long rest. I agree to take the second watch but sleep the whole night.

In the morning, Solarion still annoys me and Lurlille; we prepare to attack him, but he runs away in the correct direction. It is quite funny. Mivyre and I run after him. We’re almost at the tower, and along the way, I ask why Mivyre did not wake me when it was time for my shift. He tells me he fell asleep. That is unacceptable! You cannot be that irresponsible!

At the tower, we read it is called Feathergale Spire. Solarion is still running in front of us and stops at the gate. He rings the bell. A woman opens a window and welcomes us to the Spire: the bridge lowers to let us in. ‘Hi, I am Savra. Welcome! This evening, we have a feast for the Feathergale society. Do you want to meet our leader?’

We walk up the stairs all the way to the roof. There, we meet captain Thurl Merosska. The rooftop is very pretty and is covered with grass. Furthermore, giant vultures stand near the rounded ledges. Merosska invites us to the party as well, and we happily accept. We ask if we can help him with something, but he declines. We tell him about the encounter with Forestbeams’ gang. Merosska tells us it is a cult and that they are evil. We thought so.

We are free to explore the Spine, and we start with the rooftop. Most of the party approaches the vultures to pet them, but I stay behind to ask Merosska for Onis and my brother. Unfortunately, he does not know about anything. For the rest of the day, Tomen and I stay on top of the Spine while the rest of the party explores the Spine. I learn that the tower was abandoned in the past and that the Feathergale society bought it. Lurlille tells me that there are dragon-killers here. I can see she lost a bit of trust and respect for the Feathergale people. Nevertheless, the party was awesome: it had great food and many people were dancing. Not me. I cannot dance and prefer not to learn.