| 56 |
The sentient anvil hungered to be fed. A glass cabinet with crystal-trapped figurines stood nearby. Feeding the anvil one did not sate it, but did release a trapped man, Xerophun. Not trusting the sallow man, Crank jabbed a spear into his foot, causing him to shapeshift rapidly: a doppelganger. His story was that he and another shapeshifting friend were caught posing as high magisters -- a crime or a path to freedom? In any case, the party sacrificed a staff to the anvil, revealed a second cryptic instruction. Xerophun elaborated that this was a stage of the Rite of the Octad, a graduation for mages who wish to enter the central Spire of Iriolarthas. |