Vítday, 1 Brightday 204 [continued]
Minsc, although rapidly distancing himself from the activities
of the rest of the party, sees his way clear to inform the group
of a few things he knows about the Watchers on the Cusp of Oblivion.
Firstly, they hate the Church of Fire with a passion because of
Calafax’s opinion on second chances, rebirth and resurrection.
Minsc also says that any violent move against the church would be
a very bad, and could start a small uprising in the village of the
Eighteen Churches. He offers no more advice and retires to the Citadel
of Justice to spar with some fellow paladins and try to forget the
unfortunate path his life is suddenly taking.
It is decided that Ravenna should go to the temple on her own.
Since she is looking for her parents anyway, she won’t have
to lie to the Watchers too much, and as Mortis is also a god of
knowledge this is considered a good thing. Ravenna is very nervous
at this prospect, but agrees to get the finger of Heena and gain
Gunlarr’s services. Arvan and Raza accompany her to the edge
of the Watcher’s compound, while Nicos and Elias head to The
Holy Mountain for drinks. They say that they’ll only be ten
minutes. However, once the pair reach the hobbit-run tavern they
discover a crowd milling around the entrance to it, and a notice
on the door that reads "Closed for Family Funeral." They
postulate whether they should warn Ravenna, but in the end they
decide that it’s probably too late to reach her anyway, and
begin to elbow themselves into The Dragon which is so full to bursting
that there is barely enough room to stand upright.
The temple of the Watchers is an almost entirely square building,
a hundred feet to a side and rising up to an apex sixty feet above
the ground. Each side sports a series of window-slits six feet high
and six inches wide, and a large, arched doorway with particularly
heavy metal knocker upon it. The doors are engraved with skulls,
scythes and hourglasses. Muttering a mantra, Ravenna approaches
the doors and knocks heavily. After a few moments she hears a key
grind in the lock, and quickly casts a change self spell to disguise
herself as another human teenager. As the door opens Ravenna can
hear some high-pitched, rhythmic singing in a language she doesn’t
understand. Before her stands an abnormally tall and thin man dressed
in long black robes. As Ravenna goes to speak the cleric moves his
fingers to his lips to silence her. Ravenna whispers what is going
on, to which the cleric replies "It is the Keening."
Ravenna quickly tells the cleric (a man called Gaspar) that she
has come seeking her parents, whom she fears may be dead. She says
that she has already looked in the records of the church and that
they are not named amongst the entombed, but she knows that the
Watchers house the bodies of the unknown dead. She says that she
wishes to check the chamber. Gaspar nods and bids her enter. He
locks the door behind her and Ravenna takes in the vista of the
temple. With the exception of a small room in each corner the interior
of the building is a vast open space. At the centre an enormous
black flame crackles upward from a from a hole in the floor; it
sheds no light or heat. In circular rows surrounding the flame are
dozens of pews, currently filled with a large number of hobbits.
A priest, who could well be the high priest Ulish Van Caspan, stands
in the middle of the chamber intoning a peculiar eulogy in an unknown
tongue, while around him twelve acolytes are singing the dreadful
dirge that Gaspar described as the keening. As Ravenna and her guide
walk quietly across the back of the temple, Gaspar softly explains
that it is the funeral for Wellby Bobbin, the young son of Miro
Bobbin proprietor of The Holy Mountain. Looking more closely, Ravenna
can see a small form draped in a black silk cloth lying on the raised
floor before the flame.
Entering one of the smaller rooms, Gaspar asks Ravenna when she
came to view the records of this particular church. Momentarily
caught out, Ravenna bluffs as best she can and says that it’s
been a couple of months. Gaspar makes her go through an enormous
book and check the last twenty names that have been recently added.
Ravenna scans them, and says that her parent’s names are not
amongst them. Gaspar agrees to take her down to the first level
of the necropolis below the temple, explaining that the interment
of Wellby Bobbin is to take place on the third level within the
hour. He bids Ravenna to divest herself of all weapons and her bag
(fortunately the wolf-cub is sleeping) and to remove her boots.
He then takes a black silk cloth from a draw, kisses it and drapes
it over Ravenna’s head. With that he turns to the unlock the
door to the stairs leading downward.
Ravenna uses the noise of the door opening to recast her change
self spell that only lasts for a maximum of ten minutes. Gaspar
then leads her down into darkness, past a landing with doors to
two rooms, and down to an enormous iron door barring the way to
the first level of the necropolis. Ravenna guesses that she is at
least 100 feet below the ground. Gaspar opens the door with a key
revealing darkness beyond. With flair, the priest takes a torch
from its place and touches the left wall. The flame leaps, and runs
around the walls of the necropolis illuminating a vast chamber,
twice as large as the temple above. It is packed full of sarcophagi,
arranged randomly around the room - hundreds are crammed into the
space. At the centre of the chamber is the black flame. It descends
from hole in the ceiling (presumably directly under the centre of
the temple) and continues through the floor into the lower areas
of the necropolis. Gaspar leads Ravenna through a maze of tombs
to a large, plain structure on the far side. He touches the stone
and the doorway swings open. This, Gaspar explains, is where the
unknown have their rest; Ravenna may look but not touch. Gaspar
will wait by the door as a sign of respect. Ravenna enters, but
as soon as Gaspar has gone she begins a rapid search of the necropolis
for the symbol of Gunlarr’s family, the would-be guide explained
to the party earlier.
Meanwhile, Elias and Nicos have not been having much success with
getting a drink. Nicos has already wound up on his back once trying
to balance four pints through a milling crowd and now he and Elias
are sitting in the dark of the night, enjoying a light drizzle and
drinking as heavily as they can. They have completely forgotten
about their promise to return to the others within ten minutes.
Arvan and Raza are getting worried about Ravenna but decide to wait
until she either comes out, or is thrown out.
It takes Ravenna thirty minutes to locate the tomb of Gunlarr’s
family, and another ten to prise the lid off even a crack. Creating
light inside the casket she manages to catch a glimpse of Heena’s
wedding ring. Taking the finger with the ring on she grazes her
arm on the rough stone as she withdraws it. Ravenna can now hear
the pad of footsteps walking back through the necropolis and hurries
to intercept a returning Gaspar, leaving the casket open. She recasts
her disguise again, finds the priest and explains that she got lost
on the way out. He seems to believe her. They then leave together,
but very slowly as a mark of respect for Mortis (and regardless
of Ravenna telling him how cold her feet are). By the time Gaspar
is locking the door to the necropolis she has to cast her spell
again, but Gaspar seems oblivious to it.
However, halfway to freedom, Gaspar ushers Ravenna into one of
the rooms leading off the stairs. It contains a green carpet, desk,
many books and three other priests. Gaspar bids her to sit down,
takes a book and begins to write down details of her missing parents
Alhanna and Thorik; he also learns Ravenna’s name. The details,
he says, will be sent by despatch to the major temples of the faith
throughout the region. Ravenna would be grateful were it not for
the length of time passing, and short duration of her disguise.
Eventually, she has to bang her head, cough loudly and cast the
spell. She is noticed by everyone in the room, and has some quick
explaining to do.
Ravenna says that the spell is to disguise herself, that she is
physically deformed and doesn’t like to show her true face.
This is a blatant lie to the priesthood, Gaspar defers to a senior
priest in the room he calls Randor. The cleric narrows his eyes
at Ravenna and the girl finds the priest rifling through her thoughts.
By an amazing effort, she manages to resist the divination, leaving
the priests no alternative but to believe her story. Gaspar says
that she should return to the temple in a few months. If they have
any information she may then purchase it from them at ten crowns
per body. Ravenna thanks Gaspar and is led back toward the main
door. The funeral is coming to an end, Ravenna can see the shrouded
body of the young hobbit rise vertically into the air and enter
the ominous black flame. After a tense few moments, Gaspar finally
shows her out of the temple. As the door closes behind her, Ravenna
drops the disguise and runs into the rain.
Reunited, Ravenna, Raza and Arvan head to Gunlarr’s home.
He is overjoyed and gives Ravenna a big hug. He says that they must
get the finger to the Church of Fire as soon as possible. They can’t
cast the spell during the dark of their moon, but it would be much
safer with them than in Gunlarr’s home. Ravenna is frightened
that the Watchers are going to notice the open crypt in come after
her. She wants to leave town immediately. Gunlarr says that there
is a Sharrashan waystation about an hour of town to the west. He’ll
be passing it with the rest of the group in the morning, she could
go there for night. Arvan volunteers to go with her, and Ravenna
tells him everything that happened. On the way out of town they
collect Minsc from the Citadel of Justice and the three of them
turn their backs on the town.
Gunlarr and Raza de Luna go to the Tower of Fire to deliver Heena’s
finger to Belaerus Rothsman. Gunlarr says that they are friends,
and to be sure they are let into the tower where Rothsman is deliriously
happy to see them. He seems happier that he has got one over on
the Watchers than the fact that he is bringing Heena back from the
dead, and still takes the two thousand crown fee regardless of any
friendship. However, he does throw a massive party for him, Gunlarr
and Raza. There are copious amounts of spicy food, sweet meats and
the wine runs very freely. Raza wrestles with his conscience for
about five seconds before throwing his monastic training out of
the window and indulging himself wholeheartedly. He drinks a significant
amount of wine (for him) and gets totally off his face. A few hours
later, Gunlarr has slipped under the table in a quiet coma leaving
just Rothsman and Raza talking. Rothsman proposes getting some women
from the village and asks Raza how many he wants. Rothsman advises
two. Raza is at a complete loss, having lived a celibate existence
at the monastery. In a drunken stupor he tells Rothsman that he
has never been with a woman and is very inexperienced. Rothsman
tells him not to worry, the women he knows are more than experienced
enough to make up for any lack on Raza’s part. It’s all
against Raza’s beliefs, but he is very curious. Rothsman advises
that he gets stuck in, and "it’ll all come to him."
Raza is unconvinced, and asks whether he can watch Rothsman and
the women so he can see how it’s done. Rothsman is a agog and
brands Raza a pervert. He is fortunately too paralytic to do much
about it. Raza takes the opportunity to excuse himself from the
table and flee the tower (well, stagger from the tower, anyway).
Elias and Nicos, much the merrier for the drink, are approaching
the tower when they see Raza wobble from it and collapse face down
in the mud. The monk looks at them points and laughs maniacally
for no apparent reason. The two pick him up and Raza takes the opportunity
to tell them, in a loud and booming voice, that he’s never
had any experience of women. In case they didn’t hear him the
first time, he repeats himself at a greater volume and continues
doing so for some considerable time. Elias and Nicos try to drag
the monk back into the tower, but he won’t go and looking at
the state of them all the guard at the gate won’t let any of
them back in. Swiftly tired of Raza’s growing honesty, the
pair decide to dump him back in the mud where they left him and
find a bit of space in The Dragon to spend the night. They sleep
vertically, pressed up against one wall by an outrageously fat barbarian
of no fixed abode.
In the meantime Ravenna, Minsc and Arvan have reached the waystation.
There is quite a lot of traffic on the road as adventurers looking
for wyvern eggs try to get an early start. On the road, the group
spots the bard Alessandre and her group. The stunner is attempting
to convince a large, heavily armoured man to wait until morning,
but is having little success in slowing him down. She goes as far
as promising Alexi sexual favours, but the man is unmoved. She sighs
and turns to the dashing rogue, Jakil. Jakil shrugs and says that
although he’d do anything for (and to) Alessandre, he reckons
they should press on. The bard sighs and the continues to pester
the others as the group moves on down the track and out of sight.
The waystation is empty when the party reaches it and Ravenna quickly
collapses into a cot. Arvan doesn’t want to sleep in the tower
and instead creates a shelter from leaves and fungus, but when he
returns to see which of his companions wish to join him, both the
sorceress and the paladin are fast asleep.
Terday, 2 Brightday 204
Arvan, Minsc and Ravenna are awoken in the early hours of the morning
by a stampede of horses, as a group of five paladins and one cleric
arrive at the waystation. The loud and brash knights (and the much
suffering cleric) enter the waystation for some rest until dawn.
The leader of the group introduces himself as Sir Cardon, a paladin
of the Order of the Roaring Lion from the Village of the Eighteen
Churches. The other paladins are the knights Garnir, Lowron and
Zender of the Order of the Hawk from Uris and the Lady Patricia,
an inexperienced paladin of the Righteous Order of the Eternal Light.
The final member of the group is Inictious, a cleric of the Arcanum
Incognita, who doesn’t seem too chuffed with the companions
he has had foisted upon him. Quickly deciding that five paladins
is more than she can take, Ravenna rolls up her blanket and hurries
over to finish her sleeping in Arvan’s house of mould.
Back in the Village of the Eighteen Churches, Raza wakes at dawn
in the mud outside the tower of fire. His progressively horrified
expressions are a testament to his memory of the previous evening
slowly returning. Then the door to the tower of fire opens and four
punch drunk women stagger out, they aren’t wearing very much
and they look exhausted. Raza’s mind begins to work overtime
and he retires to a quiet tree to meditate. He gets a good two minutes
of meditation in before Elias and Nicos arrive and begin to mock
him mercilessly about the previous evening. After a few minutes
of painful banter the three decide to go to Gunlarr’s house.
They arrive as Gunlarr does, and very soon the group is on the
road. They meet the others at the waystation and Ravenna is keen
to tell them all about her adventures in the temple (out of the
earshot of Minsc, of course). The paladins left a few hours previously,
and the road is very busy with all manner of travellers and adventurers.
Gunlarr says that he knows a spot about two day’s journey away
from the Village, where he thinks they are likely to find nesting
wyverns. Gunlarr believes that with so many people looking for wyverns
it’s unlikely that they’ll be completely alone, but at
least he can limit the competition. Gunlarr is in a very good mood.
Now he believes himself assured of Heena’s return he is laughing,
singing and whistling for much of the day.
After lunch the party moves off the road into the woodland. There
are still a great many other travellers among them, but these die
away during the afternoon and by early evening Arvan is glad to
hear the natural sounds of the woodland returning. Just as they
are about to make camp for the evening the group hears a flapping
in the sky. Elias climbs a tree to see what it is, and discovers
a 200’ red dragon bearing down upon them. They all hit the
ground and fortunately it doesn’t notice them, although they
are shaken by the experience. Gunlarr says dragons and wyverns don’t
normally hunt in the same territory, and is a little perplexed by
the creature’s appearance.
The group divides up into watches (three groups of two with Ravenna
sleeping). During the first watch, when Nicos and Minsc are on guard
two ghouls enter the camp and try to paralyse and carry away some
members of the group. The sleeping Elias and Raza resist their touch
and awaken. The ghouls move away but are spotted; Elias and Minsc
immediately give chase but are surprised by their adversaries and
paralysed by hideous ghoulish nibbles. Ravenna arms her fellows
with a resistance spell and soon the entire group enters the fray.
Elias makes good use of his crossbow, while Raza engages the a ghoul
in hand-to-hand combat. He is badly scratched but resists the effects
once more. Arvan, his staff enchanted with a spell takes a swing
at a ghoul and misses. Ravenna pitches in with a ray of frost. The
battle is soon ended by Raza punching the head from the shoulders
of one ghoul and Arvan returning to club the other one into a more
comprehensive form of death.
Gunlarr is again puzzled. These creatures have probably come from
the Haunted Wood to the north, but something particularly nasty
must have happened up there to drive ghouls this far south. Cuddling
closer together the group retires for the evening again. The rest
of the night is uneventful.
Zephday, 3 Brightday 204
In the morning Gunlarr finds ghoul tracks. There were definitely
more than two of the creatures, but he advises the party to press
on regardless. Over breakfast Nicso shaves off his long blonde hair,
hoping that it will make him look more fearsome. He leaves the moustache
and goatee. The day is spent travelling up into the foothills of
the Cullbarrens. It is a bright and sunny day, the birds are singing,
the brooks are babbling and Arvan is very much at peace. The rest
of the party complain about the nettles, the thistles, the mud and
the sharp-toothed forest creatures. Around lunch time the group
discovers an enormous pile of fresh dragon dung that Ravenna and
Elias proceed to sift through with their mage hand cantrips. They
discover nothing other than the smell, and quite what they were
looking for in the first place is rather lost on the rest of the
party. In the afternoon they all catch a glimpse of a flying carpet
some distance away, presumably the one belonging to Ariadne, but
they have no encounter with the warrioress from Calclafique.
Caladay, 4 Brightday 204
After an uneventful night the party presses on into the foothills.
They discover the tracks of six horses, which Ravenna hopes are
not those of the paladins. Their first major obstacle is reached
in the late morning. A forty foot high cliff face that they must
traverse. Gunlarr scurries up and lets ropes down. It takes the
inexperienced climbers (Ravenna, Nicos and Raza) an age to climb
up, but when they get to the top they have quite a sight to see.
Over to the west is the impenetrable darkness of the Haunted Wood
- now only about fifteen miles away. In front of them the cliff
falls away into a lush valley before rising steeply on the far side
hundreds of feet. In the valley are large almost-cylindrical columns
of rock. Atop those, Gunlarr says, would be an excellent place for
a wyvern nest. The party are dismayed. To climb them would be much
more difficult than their previous effort, and they don’t fancy
meeting a wyvern at the top.
As if on cue, a large flying creature swoops into the valley. It
is thirty-five feet, with a long lizardine neck, a small head and
an enormous stinger. It is obviously a wyvern. It doesn’t seem
to see the party and lands ungracefully on top of the tallest column.
There the head of a second wyvern raises up to meet it. Gunlarr
says that the party are very lucky, they have found a mating pair!
The party does not share Gunlarr’s enthusiasm, particularly
as they realise they are not alone in the area. A flying carpet
accelerates across the valley, taking in the scene.
Prodigal
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