Tuesday Again

Last week, the party restarted their intrepid ascent of the tower once more. As they attempted to reach the third floor, they were stymied by several well-placed ballistas. Fortunately, they discovered the ballistas through stealthy scouting rather than skewered spines. As the party brainstormed how to bypass the ballista bolts, Zanz noticed a magic circle which summoned a magic elevator which would let the party ride straight up the tower. When she summoned the elevator, however, it carried with it a signature book for the Rite of Maturity - the signature book of Zedar, the mighty necromancer whose tower they were in. At that, Zedar told his story.

Long ago, Zedar was an artificer - a mage skilled in the art of creating golems. The Pelan Empire was afflicted by a terrile famine, and Zedar wanted to help. He somehow created golems that could create golems, and sent his legions of golems throughout the country to save each of the farms. He was a hero - but when the time came for him to turn in his signature book, now covered in hundreds of signatures, it was rejected. In the eyes of the king, Zedar had not personally done any of the work that earned him the signatures, and Zedar was banished from the kingdom. Zedar wandered the world in exile, and his idealistic zeal deteriorated into an obsession with revenge against the country that had wronged him, and the Rite of Maturity that had started it all. He returned to the country and started creating a new army of golems, bent on destroying the Rite of Maturity by killing people on that quest.

Zedar's scheme was fairly convoluted, and didn't make much sense to the party, though they sympathized with him. So they came up with something different: Zedar Claus. Instead of using his golems to engineer the mass killing of innocent adventurers, he could instead use his golems to make toys for the children! Zedar immediately agreed to the new plan. He commanded the party to fetch him more starmetal - a rare and potent substance created by falling stars - so he could create new golems with it. They agreed, and set south towards Ssect, where starmetal awaits.