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Research Tower

Eldoran University Research Campus • Harmonic Science • Brought Down in Session 63

Overview​

The Research Tower is the central of three research towers on the university campus of the capital, Eldoran. Its floors hold departments of radiology, acoustics and weaponry, with an experimentation floor at the top. George named the university's research facility as one of the Twilight Company's three sabotage targets, telling the party that Captain Steel — the man who murdered Leliana's brother — was stationed there (Session 58).

In Session 63 the party planted a bomb in its elevator shaft, found six figures in Elspeth's likeness being trained in flight simulators on the top floor, pulled them out and evacuated the building with a fire alarm, then detonated it. The tower tilted over and collapsed onto the city wall, spanning several blocks. Steel was not there; he was at the Spaceport Factory.

The Tower​

  • Access — Employee key cards control the elevators, and a card opens only the floors of its own department (Session 61).
  • The atrium — A ground-floor atrium with two elevators, a night-shift guard and a directory of departments (Session 61).
  • The acoustics floor — Research into harmonic resonance: the Empire uses sound and music as a working model of how the physical, astral and divine planes intertwine, with violescence letting power be drawn from belief directly into the material world. The notes describe a feedback loop in which belief feeds a god and the god empowers the believer — the mechanism behind the winged soldiers of the barracks — and they flag dragon orbs as a possible way to disrupt such a runaway loop. The notes also refer to studies of Y'chek, "a god of passion and music" and Helisanna's patron, as the original template (Session 61).
  • The experimentation floor — The top floor, where research on living subjects was underway, largely influence research — effectively brainwashing (Session 61). In Session 63 the party found six harnessed figures in Elspeth's likeness there, running in flight simulators, alongside computer bays for scientists and a conference area.

Against the Tower​

On their first visit the party posed as bored students, then as researchers; Silas lifted two acoustics-department key cards, and he and Leliana walked in as "Bradley and Leah." Bru judged the elevator shafts the building's weak point (Session 61). A scientist with access to the top floor attended Cassandra's lakeside birthday party as a guest's plus-one, and Silas stole his lab coat with its passcode clipped to it (Session 62).

In Session 63 the party entered disguised as university faculty, and Silas spider-climbed the elevator shaft to set the bomb on top of the elevator. On the top floor, Silas recalled that the Elspeth-shaped figures at Denlin's orphanage had been brainwashed, not beyond saving. Olivia pulled the fire alarm and Bru pulled the figures out of their simulators, and the building emptied onto the lawn. During the evacuation the party saw a starship plummeting toward the earth in the distance; where it came from is unknown. The party then set off the bombs at all three sites together, and the tower came down leaning on the city wall. As the session ended, Silas proposed driving the Bugatti off the fallen tower and over the wall to escape.

Session History​

  • Session 58 — George names the university research facility, where Captain Steel is stationed, as one of the three targets the Twilight Company needs struck.
  • Session 61 — Posing as researchers with stolen key cards, the party reaches the acoustics floor and learns the harmonic science behind the Empire's divine power.
  • Session 62 — Silas steals a top-floor scientist's lab coat and passcode at Cassandra's lakeside birthday party.
  • Session 63 — The party bombs the elevator shaft, pulls six figures in Elspeth's likeness out of flight simulators, evacuates the tower, and brings it down onto the city wall.
  • Session 64 — The Research Tower was collapsed and its base was broken off by Elspeth with a Shatter spell to form a ramp for the Bugatti's launch.