Session 29 - The Lever Room

General Summary

(aka Tripp’s Fantasy Comes True) Somehow Lilrie’s skill in seduction has increased during the journey. She is also smiling more than usual…
Baka asks Elogh what the Elves are planning to do about all these Orc attacks. He says that they are worried that they seem to be targeting the Forest of Nylar where the special weapon is kept. The Forest of Nylar is revered and the Elves do not normally go there, so it is problematic for them that they might have to go and defend it. We do not know where the stone cabin on the island in the lake is which is another problem to solve.
The Elves are mobilizing as are the Humans as well. There is a group called the Quemar in the Elves travelling with us, an elite group of Elven warriors feared with sword and bow, and accomplished horsemen. There are 6000 of them and the fact that they have all been mobilized shows just how serious the situation is. Two of them are magical users specialising in elemental shields for battlefield protection. Unusually for Elves, they also know Fire Law.
The elven court knew that we are coming, and in fact have been expecting us. It has something to do with Sirenna Caryn and she seems to have been here several times over the last thousand years. Baka suddenly realizes that the log book in the cottage that we found near The Watcher might have belonged to Sirenna since the last entry was before we saw her die outside the cave.
Thinking of the importance of Sirenna and her relationship with the Elves Baka takes out the Mirror of Keldyrion and asks it to show us Sirenna. Unfortunately, it remains blank. So, we think she is probably dead. Lilrie then suggests that we use the Mirror to see the stars from the cabin in the Forest of Nylar so that we can map its position. She is on a roll!
As we are discussing this, we hear the sound of horses hooves coming up behind us. Elteryl and Faerla speed past us, looks of pure terror on their faces, shouting at us all to run! The next moment, an enormous giant comes after them smashing trees out of the way with its huge club. Around it Elves are being killed by logs and huge splinters from the broken trees.
Digby casts Shield and Attack and Baka casts shield. Sai Kyo is up first failing to throw the Giant, but hitting it with the quarterstaff for 10 damage. Brovar attacks with his long sword hitting it for 13 damage and a critical which does 8 more damage. His mace does 23 damage and a critical for 6 more damage. The giant hits one of the elves beside us who simply explodes, his broken body flying off into the trees. Our horses rear and Tripp and Digby fall to the ground, while the others manage to cling on. Digby and Tripp recover themselves while Baka backs off to prepare Jolts 3. Lilrie prepares Heat Metal with the intention of targeting the Giant’s armour.
Next round, Sai Kyo martial arts throw 7 and critical which does 7 more and the quarterstaff does 13 damage. Brovar attacks with his long sword doing 16 damage and a critical for 8 more hits. His mace also hits for 19 damage and a critical which stuns the giant for a round doing 25 more damage, making it fight at -25. Tripp fires two arrows, the first doing 24 damage and a critical for 9 more damage. His second arrow doing 11 damage and a critical, for 7 more hits. Baka and Lilire continue to concentrate on their spells as Digby lands a tremendous blow with his battleaxe for 49 damage and a critical for 8 more hits.
Brovar attacks again with his long sword doing 19 damage and a critical for 7 more. His mace also hits for 16 damage and a critical for 7 more hits. Sai Kyo fails to throw the giant, but hits with the quarterstaff for 14 damage. Tripp is up next, using his special elven arrows again, but fumbles with his first arrow. The second arrow does 6 damage, but the fumble breaks the string on his bow, so he is out for 2 rounds as he restrings it. The giant attacks Brovar hitting him for 60 damage, knocking him off his horse and forcing him to parry next round.
Petra and Elogh have just arrived with the two Camar magic users, who start inscribing some symbol on the ground.
Baka lets rip with Jolts 3 but the giant shrugs it off. Digby attacks again doing 33 damage and a critical for 3 more. Lilrie completes Heat Metal on the giant’s breast plate and she can see the giant starting to feel the damage, taking 9 hits this round.
Sai Kyo uses his martial arts throw on the giant 7 damage and a critical which does 7 more hits. The quarterstaff does 10 hits. Brovar parries.
Further back in the trees we can hear more trees splintering and the screams of elves. That does not bode well.
Digby attacks again with his battle-axe for 35 damage and a critical for 7 more, while the giant takes 2 more damage from the heat of his breast plate.
Petra calls out to us “thru here, it is our only hope!”, and we turn around to see a portal big enough for a horse and rider and without hesitation we turn and run into it. Our last sight of the battle is of 2 more giants bursting thru the trees, one peppered with arrows. We got of there just in time, but what will happen to the Elves?
We find ourselves alone on a shingly shore overlooking a vast expanse of ocean, a huge forest behind us. Where we are we do not know. Is this the Forest of Nylar? Riele is with us and Baka sends her up to have a look to see where we are. Riele flies up high and on looking down she can see that we are on the island with the Forest of Nylar, on the western coast. We decide to wait until the evening and then ask the Mirror to show us the sky in the location of the stone cabin in the center of the lake. Baka looks up at the night sky to understand our current location. The Mirror shows us the night sky and by comparing the two skies, Baka works out that we need to move north-east.
Lilrie offers Brovar the flask and he drinks from it getting 50 hits back. We sleep and start trekking thru the forest in the morning. After a few hours we come upon a lake of azure blue water, mirror flat, which reflects the surrounding forest and sky perfectly. There is an island with a stone cabin on it, all protected by a sphere, much like the other one we saw near The Watcher. There are two elven boats on the shore, just the other side of the barrier. We approach the barrier, feeling the hairs standing on the back of his neck. Sai Kyo pushes his hand thru it and doesn’t seem to be harmed. Although no-one has supposedly been here for centuries, the boats look pristine, with no signs of age. Each can take three of us, but there are no oars. The others step thru the barrier and we get into the boats. As three of us sit down in a boat, it starts moving without us having to do anything. Strangely, the water behind us returns to a mirror-like surface soon after as we pass it, with none of the ripples you would normally expect. The boats arrive on the beach in front of a simple, single-story, stone building, with no markings or windows, and a tiled roof. There is a single, wooden door.
We circle the building but there are no other features. Tripp and Digby, throwing caution to the wind, walk up to the door, open it, and go in. The interior is as simple as the exterior, the floor covered in a fine layer of white sand. Beneath the sand there appears to be some kind of circular design. In the centre of the room, by the light of torches on the wall, we can see that there is a lever. Oh no. We will not be able to stop Tripp pulling this.
Digby moves some of the sand aside with a 10-foot pole, but although he sees the stone momentarily, the sand seems to fall back into an even surface in an unnatural way, which can only be magical. We start to clear the sand away from the circular design, and luckily it does not move so quickly that we cannot see the design. The floor has a dwarven feel to the construction, and we can see that there are 10 outer segments in the circle, each one with a recess into which stone blocks can be put. Two are already in place, with Tasyo words on them, one meaning “Chosen”, the other ominously, “Death”.
We spend a couple of hours going thru the sand and find 12 similar stone blocks with Tasyo words on them, some of which we do not know. Tripp finds that he cannot remove the stone block with the word “Death” on it, which is not a good sign. The block with the word “Chosen” seems to have a locked space, which none of us, even Brovar’s mace, can open. After searching a little more we find an arrow on the stone floor and we surmise that this “Chosen” block needs to be aligned to the arrow to open it.
Brovar jokes about going back to the boats and it is then that we notice the door is gone. He searches the door where the wall was, but there is no indication that there ever was a door. This is some wild magic and we know that anything can happen so Digby and Baka cast Shield as Brovar wraps a rope over one the roof beams in case the floor falls away.
Tripp, naturally, volunteers to pull the lever, but chooses to do so remotely using his grappling hook. He pulls and has to put a lot of effort into it. Suddenly there is a big thunk and the lever flies back to its original position. The outer segments accelerate quickly and spin so fast that we cannot make out the words. It doesn’t seem to slow until there is another sound and the wheel stops as fast as it started, the arrow pointing to the word “Uki”. As if possessed Digby starts moving pulling the 4th Oharith tablet out of his pack. As he gazes at it he looks up mystified, “I know what it says”. Amazed the rest of us shout “Tell us” he says, “on the stony shore, where dragons fell and heroes fought, I sleep within the deep”. We ask him if he can read the others, but he cannot.
Digby is suddenly inspired again and says that this must be referring to Stonehaven, where we grew up. It must be talking about the dragon slain by the hero using the spear Bloodletter. Some say the hero was a giant, some say he was a huge dwarf who rode a bear. Does it mean the weapon is in the water there somewhere? We also remember that there was an inscription which talk about Blood Leach. That could also be translated as Bloodletter. So maybe there is more to that myth than we first thought.
Tripp pulls the lever again with the same result, the wheel spinning quickly, and then stopping on the word “yish”. Nothing happens for a moment and then there is a shimmering in the centre of the room from which an enormous fire elemental appears. We are all suddenly engulfed in a fireball and the fun begins.

Kitty

• Session start – minus 80 gold!
• Income – none
• Expenses – none
• Session end – minus 80 gold!

Report Date

12 Mar 2022