Session 18 - Endurance tests for the Enduring
General Summary
(alternatively known as Three Wizards, Two Shattered Knees and One Dead Golem)
Healing is our priority now. Lilrie heals herself (10 back), Brovar (19 back), Sai Kyo (to 28), Digby (4 back). Baka is on 48 hits.
Looking on the back of the scroll with the poem, we can see that it has a map with an X close to Yelna. Strangely the hand that wrote the poem is different to that which drew the map. Joten tells us that Yelna is the nearest town on the coast to Gulumi. He says that it is no longer such a thriving town, but also not attacked by pirates. There is a small community of miners who opened up the old silver mine and a regular supply ship from Sunom, which we may be able to take. We ask Joten if there are statues in Yelna that look out across the sea, but he says he didn’t see anything.
We also look at the hexagonal container and see that the words wrap around each face, but the starting point of each word is random. No-one really wants to try solving the puzzle after seeing what happened to the guy who did. Maybe we can offer a reward to the person that opens it? But that would probably only work once…
We interrogate the remaining prisoner who does not seem to be with the Serpents of Amnos, or doesn’t really if he was or not. He says that if we follow this path, it should lead us out and Baka does not think he is lying. Worrying that there may still be other dangers about, we press on to try to find the way out. After some time, we find a path up to the surface and Joten recognizes where we are. He then leads us back to the canyon and the building where others of his community have opened the door so that we can recover our horses and equipment.
Checking the mirror, it is no longer showing signs of Sirenna, and we tell Joten that we will keep looking, as he is keen to find her. “I and my people will come to your aid if you call. Just send the bird and she will find us.” We assure him that we will let him know of any news about Sirenna. Joten gives us food and water for the trip to Yelna. We ask Joten how he knows about Riele and he tells us that he is familiar with the legends. Baka thinks about asking Riele to find Sirenna, but Joten cautions us that Sirenna could be very far away and Riele could find her but we might not be able to get to her.
We head due East to Yelna which is about 250 miles away, about a week’s travel time. We take it easy so that we can heal up and are helped by the fact that the journey is uneventful. As we approach, we can see that it was once walled, although wooden stockades now fill the gaps in the walls opened by time. Most people are armed and we can see tracks up to the mines, as well as miners coming back from a day’s work. The Pick and Shovel and Panhandlers are the two inns. We are reminded that Joten said it is a mining cooperative with no formal peace-keeping unit.
By the dock there is a general outfitters where we can buy arrows and armour. Digby, Tripp and Brovar load up on arrows, buying the whole 35 available, and Sai Kyo buys AT 6 soft leather. “that is a lot of arrows, who are you planning to shoot?” the store owner asks, “anyone who pisses me off” replies Brovar, and the man looks at him warily. As we engage him in conversation, he tells us that they do not get many strangers coming thru, and that he heard we came out of The Waste. We ask him about statues and mention three wizard’s poem. He says this is a poem which parents tell kids and that the only thing north of here is a ruined tower, and he hasn’t heard of any connection to the poem.
Leaving our horses in the stables, we enter the Pick and Shovel and have a look around. It is rowdy and crowded and we are given one or two odd looks, but no-one seems aggressive or unfriendly. As we get to the bar and are about to order we notice the design on the top of the bar. Baka pushes the mugs to the side so she can get a better look at the mosaic, which is not as fine as those we have seen, but similar in style. It shows miners at work, a mixture of dwarves and humans. Did someone imitate the style? If so, where did they see it? We ask the landlord about it and he tells us that one of the dwarves, Basar, did it a few years ago. He used some stones that he found in the mine. Basar still lives in the town, but is down in the mine and won’t be back up until the weekend. As we wander around the bar, we see that the tabletops also have mosaics, but in geometric patterns. We don’t get the impression that these stones are the same as the ones we saw, but it does suggest that Basar has seen some mosaics similar to those that we have seen. We spend a good, long night exchanging stories with the miners who were fascinated by Riele. Unfortunately, we didn’t get into any brawls.
After a night’s sleep, we head off towards the tower in the early morning. The location of the tower seems to match the location of the X on the map on the back of the poem. The track to the tower is largely unused and we can see that it is in a good position, overlooking the sea. We can see scattered blocks of stone and that the tower was at one time quite impressive, standing on a promontory 80 to 100 ft above the sea. As we get within 100 yards, Brovar and Digby suddenly pull their horses to a stop. We all felt something, but Digby and Brovar are seriously scared with Digby shaking and saying that he cannot go up there.
Leaving the two of them behind with the horses, the four of us move closer and see that the stones are heavily weathered, possibly over thousands of years, and that some seem to be intricately carved. As we get closer, we can see a doorway, with the door still standing in a stone frame, just 3 foot high. The lint above the door has a carving of a closed eye, detailed down to the eye lashes. As Baka recites the last line of the poem, we are blinded by a flash of light. As our sight returns all six of us are standing in front of the tower, which now stands tall in front of us, with three short humanoids in front of the door.
“Who are you? How did we get here?” One points to the eye above the door and repeats the last two lines of the poem again, but adding “thrice” before “rewarded”, and on saying that the three humanoids disappear. Brovar and Digby are still feeling uneasy, but are standing with us. Tripp detects traps on the door, but finds nothing, so we open it and crouch down to enter. Inside there is a spiral, stone staircase which we can just use if we climb in single file. At the top is a terrace, just big enough for all 6 of us to stand. There is a shaft leading down the center of the stairs with the following written “Down below where no one sees, find the cup before you freeze.”
Tripp lights his lantern and attaches a rope to it before lowering it into the shaft. It eventually hits the bottom and looking from the top the ladder seems to go down that far. Sai Kyo starts climbing down with one of the gems in his bag, followed by Tripp. After a couple of minutes Sai Kyo gets to a point where the ladder runs out, but even hanging from the lowest rung he cannot feel the floor. He takes out a shuriken and drops it, hearing it hit the ground almost immediately, so he lets go hitting the floor after just a few inches. As he lands, the others are suddenly transported outside of the tower in front of the door.
Sai Kyo finds himself in a room with a single archway leading from it, but curiously no light penetrates it, even with the gem. The archway is wide enough that he can just touch both walls with his hands, so with his arms spread, he walks thru into the darkness. After a few moments, he comes to a junction, then another and another. Unable to see anything at all, his first plan is to remember the turns, but he soon realizes that is not possible so instead he just keeps turning left. It soon becomes cold and he starts losing hit points, 5 at a time, as he continues into the maze, turning left every time. After what seems like an age, and countless left turns, he finally enters a room with a table and a cup planed upon it. As soon as he picks up the cup he is transported outside with the others in front of the old tower.
Remembering that one of the wizards said “thrice” we enter the tower again and climb the stairs to the top. Everything is the same except what is written at the top of the shaft. This time it says “beneath the waters lies my bed, find somewhere soft to lay my head, hold your breath, there is no air, reach the bottom if you dare.” Since Sai Kyo can hold his breath for 5 minutes he is volunteered to go down again. Just in case, Lilrie heals him and he gains 29 hits, putting him one off maximum.
With the others wishing him luck, he climbs down the ladder again and lets go at the bottom. This time he finds himself on a small disc of rock 6-ft across in brilliant sunshine. He appears to be in the middle of a blue ocean which extends as far as he can see in all directions. There is a small leather bag with a loop of rope and near the bag are two large lead weights with holding straps. Checking inside the bag, he sees a severed head, remarkably like one of the humanoids that we saw. The disc of rock appears to be floating on the water and the bottom is not visible even though the water is very clear.
Sai Kyo puts the sack across his back and takes hold of the weights and takes some deep breaths before plunging into the water. He sinks like a stone for quite a long way and eventually drops into a small stone canyon with a crossroads. He takes the right road and walks for a minute to a dead end with a pile of rocks. Going back to the crossroads he turns right and after a minute he sees another pile of rocks. He goes back to the crossroads again aware that he is running out of oxygen, and turns right, hopefully for the last time. Finally, after a minute, he sees sea sponges and quickly removes the head from the bag and lays it on the sponges. The head winks at him, and he is immediately transported to stand in front of the tower again with the others.
Knowing we need to do this one more time, we enter the tower and climb the stairs. This time the writing at the top of the shaft says “in mortal combat all alone, defeat the guardian made of stone”. Deducing that someone will need to fight a stone golem we decide that Brovar is the best person to go this time, and Sai Kyo heaves a sigh of relief. Lilrie gives Brovar herbs to make him stronger and stop any bleeding. Brovar decides to use mace and a shield instead of two weapons to increase his chance of hitting and improve his DB.
Going down the ladder, he drops from the last rung and finds himself in an arena. In front of him there is a stone golem, unmoving as a rock, standing there waiting for him. Taking the herbs, he knows that for three rounds he will get 2 attacks and for four rounds he will get double damage and +10 to his OB. The fight starts and Brovar wins the initiative hitting the golem for a 24 large crush critical and 40 more hits with his first attack. His second is equally good, a 36 large crush critical, for 30 more hits. What a start! But the golem hits back, and hits back hard, doing 23 damage to Brovar and stunning him for 2 rounds. Brovar can only attack once each round now, but even worse is the fact that the stone golem now has a hold of him. They attack simultaneously next round, Brovar doing a 26 large crush critical for another 40 hits. At exactly the same time the golem gets a crush attack doing 44 damage and E and C crush criticals, which shatter both of Brovar’s knees and doing 10 more hits. Brovar collapses to the floor, but as he does so, he can see the stone golem also falling, dead. He’s done it, and is immediately transported back in front of the tower, but he is lying on the grass in front of it in agony. Through it he notices that the eye on the door is now open. A voice sounds in Brovar’s mind “war-troll killer”, “stone golem killer”. The agony is almost worth it.
Lilrie has used all her spell points so cannot heal him now, so she moves towards him to carry out some first aid. Unfortunately, she trips on a bump in the grass, and falls landing on his knees. The pain is instant and unbearable, and Brovar shrieks in pain, his face a mask of agony. Baka moves up beside him and splints his knees gently. Lilrie offers him drugs, but he doesn’t want anything to do with her now!
We enter the tower again and start climbing the stairs. As we approach the top, we hear voices talking, and it feels warmer. As we step on to the roof, we see a large room, larger than seems possible, and we wonder whether the tower is even taller now. Entering the room, we see the three short wizards sitting in comfy chairs, drinking from goblets of wine. They smile at us as we approach. “Welcome back, and well done, you are the first and the last”, they say to us.
One of them continues, “in front of me are two boxes, not large, and each box contains an item of value. You may choose one box only, but cannot look inside”. Examining the boxes, we pick them up but they both appear to weigh the same. Knowing that a choice must be made Sai Kyo walks up and takes the one on the right. As he opens it the other one disappears, and one of the wizards says “you have chosen well, this box contains the Forever Flask”, and then he disappears.
We are given another choice and another of the wizards tell us “a wise choice, this is a Timestone” before he disappears leaving only one behind. Sai Kyo picks up the Timestone, which is really light, smoothly polished and volcanic in nature.
The last wizard then says “Now perhaps our greatest gift. Be careful when you use it. You get one gift, and one gift only. We will answer one question, about the past, present or future. You need to ask it before we leave the tower”.
We spend some time considering what we should ask. We could ask where Sirenna is, but she could be moved before we get there. We could ask something practical, like how the Timestone works, or how to open the hexagonal container, but we will probably be able to work those out.
So, we decide to ask about something in one of the poems connected to the prophecy. “Who are the Twins?” Baka asks the wizard, who tells us that they are things and not people. He goes on to say that they are important weapons created in the Forge of Vaggumir (somewhere in dwarven lands?), one a mace and one a sword, and that we have one already. With that the last wizard disappears and we are again transported to stand on the promontory in front of the ruined tower, the door crumbled away, the eye no more. The cup has disappeared, but we have the Timestone and Forever Flask. With relief we can see smoke from the town of Yelna, so we know we are back in our time and place again.
We head back into town wondering what to put in the Forever Flask. Some want to put wine into it, others a healing potion. Eventually we agree that Lilrie should brew up the moss to make a healing potion and then put that in it.
Experience before today
- Brovar 44,687
- Lilrie 44,766
- Digby 44,186
- Tripp 45,679
- Sai Kyo 43,353 - 44,353 with some experience from today
- Baka 43,003
Kitty
- Session start – 1135 gold, 187 silver
- Income – none
- Expenses – 3 gold
- Session end – 1132 gold, 187 silver
Report Date
07 May 2021
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