The spellbook hangs above the cracked altar, its sealed cover pulsing with violet power. As Eudora reaches for it, the surrounding air tightens around her claws.
Her grasp closes around the book. At once, the tower gives a tremendous groan, and violet radiance floods through the fractures splitting the chamber walls.
Stone tears free overhead. Masonry cascades down the stairwell, burying the route below while the altar lurches beneath Eudora's feet and the chamber tilts toward ruin.
Far beneath her, the barbarian chieftain remains unconscious beside his planted axe, outside the chamber and unable to flee without aid. The collapse offers him no warning.
A violent shudder rolls through the snowbound slopes beyond the watchtower. High above, a white shelf breaks loose, gathering speed as an avalanche surges toward the grounds.
The Lady Eudora
The tower is coming down.
The spellbook pulses against Eudora's grasp as another wall splits open, exposing the storm-dark sky. Snow and stone race together below, while the nearest surviving passage buckles.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the collapsing watchtower with the spellbook
+ New Item Acquired
Spellbook
“I quickly channel my dark magic into my palms, gripping the spellbook tightly, and absorbing its magical power. The newfound surge of energy replenishes me and a surplus of my original strength before my resurrection returns. I take immediate action by casting Witch's Crown upon the falling debris of the tower using my wand while holding the spellbook in the opposite hand. My effort is to pack the debris together to use a platform when the avalanche inevitably impacts the tower.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +0)
The Lady Eudora clamps the spellbook between her palms. Violet power pours through her claws and into her corrupted bones, replenishing her reserves and restoring a surplus of former strength.
The Lady Eudora
The book's magic is potent, but it yields.
She shifts the spellbook into one hand and raises her wand with the other. Dark radiance crowns its tip as Witch's Crown answers her command.
The falling masonry halts in a spiraling storm. Stones grind together, beams lock across the gaps, and shattered blocks compress into a broad, dense platform beneath her.
The tower continues collapsing around the newly forged mass, but the platform holds its shape above the buried stairwell. Violet seams pulse through it like veins.
Outside, the avalanche reaches the watchtower with a thunderous white wall. Snow and broken stone engulf the grounds, striking the compacted platform and driving it downward without breaking it.
Eudora remains standing upon the debris platform, spellbook secured in one hand and wand extended in the other, while the ruined tower disappears beneath the avalanche.
Quest Complete
Obtain the spellbook
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great
“As I descend, the masonry from the collapsing avalanche behind me nearly crash directly into my path. I swivel around, now forced to combat nature itself. Around me, where debris land, snow blasts violently around the slope, causing me to swerve with poor control. Waving my wand, still clutching the spellbook in my other hand - impairing me from addressing the threat with as much power as the problem demands - I cast a dozen offensive glyphs to shatter the stone chunks into pieces before they can rear me off course while having to simultaneously keep an eye on how close I'm getting to a forest the avalanche will come into contact with below.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled -1)
The debris platform plunges down the avalanche’s face. Behind Eudora, masonry tumbles through the white roar, striking snow and throwing up violent bursts that twist her descent sideways.
She keeps the spellbook clenched in one hand and snaps her wand through the storm with the other. A dozen black glyphs flare around the falling stones.
The glyphs discharge in rapid succession. Each impact fractures a descending block into smaller pieces, and the avalanche swallows the fragments harmlessly beneath its churning surface.
The platform bucks hard as the snow shifts beneath it. Eudora swerves with poor control, cloak lashing around her, but her wand remains raised and the spellbook stays secured.
The Lady Eudora
The forest is directly below.
Dark trunks rise through the blowing snow at the slope’s base. The avalanche bears down upon them, carrying the compacted platform toward the first line of trees.
Behind Eudora, no intact masonry remains large enough to strike her path. The shattered tower descends as harmless rubble while violet seams pulse beneath her boots.
“I recognize quickly based on the speed of my descent, that my landing doesn't bear the greatest survival odds. The forest's trees possess too many obstacles for me to sustainably steer my platform through - it's too large and bulky. So as I approach closer, I cock back my casting arm, then jab my wand toward the ground, casting Frozen Lightning. I intend to burn through enough of the snow to expose dirt underneath. Then, as the lightning freezes, tilt it high so that it forms an upward slope I can use to launch myself high into the sky. By doing so, I will lose my platform, but while falling, I possess enough time to cast a defensive glyph big enough to shield my body, and protect myself when I make landfall.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +0)
The first trees rush upward through the snowstorm, their black trunks and reaching branches turning the bulky platform into a descending battering ram.
Eudora cocks back her wand arm, then drives the instrument toward the ground. Frozen Lightning erupts downward in branching blue-white force.
The spell burns through the avalanche’s crust and exposes dark earth beneath. At once, the lightning freezes the torn snow into a steep, gleaming ramp.
The platform strikes the ramp and surges upward along its length. Stones shear away behind her as the improvised slope launches Eudora high above the treetops.
She abandons the collapsing platform without hesitation. It breaks apart below, while Eudora hangs briefly against the storm-dark sky, spellbook secured in one hand.
Her wand carves a broad defensive glyph through the air. The sigil expands around her into a dark, translucent shield as she begins falling toward the forest.
The Lady Eudora
The shield will absorb the landing.
“Impact comes hard when I crash through the trees. I remain confident that the protective glyph will hold, and its dark magic will burn through branches and leaves alike. Directly below, I'll hit the frosty forest floor, and be forced to grind myself into a halt by staking my wand into the ground. I'm winded and aching from the arcane exertion on my corrupted body.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled -2)
The dark glyph catches the first branches. Its shield flares as Eudora crashes through the canopy, burning limbs and leaves into smoking black fragments around her.
The impact drives her downward through successive boughs. Each collision shudders through her corrupted frame, and the protective sigil dims beneath the punishment.
The Lady Eudora
The glyph holds. The forest floor is directly below.
She breaks through the final branches and strikes the frosty ground hard. Snow bursts outward, and the shield collapses in a rain of dark sparks.
Eudora thrusts her wand into the earth before momentum can throw her onward. The instrument bites deep, carving a furrow through frozen soil as she grinds to a halt.
She ends on one knee amid scorched leaves and fractured frost, spellbook still clenched in her other hand. Her breath comes harshly, and pain pulses through bones already weakened by the exertion.
The forest settles around her with a hiss of falling snow. The wand remains planted, its dark tip smoking, while the new silence reveals how loudly her arrival has announced itself.
Quest Complete
Escape the collapsing watchtower with the spellbook
Skill Upgrade: Lore Good→Great