����������� Book Four, Chapter Five, �We finally get to the right place�

05/06/1999 - Complete with flags and bouncy castle, and a clean-shaven Martin who has found his long missing dice!!! Robin wants each of us to give him a list of our gear (magic and superior and odd), expensive cloths, herbs, money, plus note if we bought it, found it or whatever. Plus a wish list, but nothing promised. Plus addiction rules. Suggestions as to change Bardic Song List. In the next week.

It�s the 5th Halane and we are looking into the underwater and underground City State of the Invincible Overlord. Eric the Halibut has been renamed Pesky the fish. Sir Martyn has a cunning plan (or two).

We are in an ordinary 2 up, 2 down residential house. No stairs, the submarine can go through gaps we have to be able to go through together. Carved stone benches, where people sleep. On a corner of a Y junction. Silvery scaled humanoid people swimming about. We are in the submarine, and Daniel is the Submarine Captain. So Pesky the fish, quickly renamed Eric the Halibut, scouts. The doorway has seaweed trailing down, it porous (i.e. water goes through it) but has to be opened to pass through. Only one exit from the building. The fish can go through the bared windows, through bars. Light comes from glowing fungi. The people tend to swim at ground/street level. Kids looping the loop, various brightly coloured small fish swimming around. Eric swimming around is like a fox going down New Street. Vaguely unusual.

It�s laid out like City State. Occasional guards, they wear sashes and cheap jewellery, ordinary people don�t wear cloths. Odd one or two wear shell armour. Officials wear sashes of office. Fish shops, seaweed shops. Nearly everyone has a belt with pouches on. All walls do reach the ceiling. In the course of 20 minutes, we see a shark (not a big as the ones outside) with guards. Poorer areas are encrusted with slime, and down and outs sitting in doorways. One chases the fish, and swings and misses. We invent rules for attacking fish, small fish in C&T. It gets away, but they give chase but catch up and miss. But then it gets hit for 7 points, and it�s only got 8 points. Then it escapes and returns to the party. �Not my fault it went down Dead Broke Road�, said the DM. Cure the fish? �Only if I smoke� says Sir Martyn. The bard�s lost it.

How to deal with a fish familiar with one hit point armed with a bucket. OK take it with us in a bucket. Heap abuse on bard for not being very good. The plan falls apart �cos we can�t talk to the locals other than Danger, Enemy, Bathroom.

The Dream �He sees himself and companions within the orb in a very large temple made of black marble fighting a large marble statue 30 feet high wielding a large war hammer and has a gem as an eye.� So we have to find a big temple. We dither, a lot. The plan didn�t survive contact with reality, again. The submarine moves at 240 feet a minute, i.e. 40 feet a round.

The room has clumps of fungi, with covers to put over them for night. If covered then vision is 10 feet only. The new plan, wait by the door and smack whoever comes in with a quarterstaff. After an hour, key in the lock and a female and two children come in, kiddie two has a halibut shaped lollipop. And a little tiny baby, and shopping. Single mother, not so much a fishwife, more a fish widow. Sir Martyn downs the mother, we shut the door. Zytsi hits the child halibut shaped lollipop, dead. Sir Martyn grabs the baby and drags it into the submarine, where it starts to drown in the air. Follow the last kiddie and Aruth throws his staff as a javelin at it, and misses. Chase after it, and it goes for hole in the ceiling. Upstairs, it�s screaming, shouting, and dodging a lot. Daniel is piloting the submarine, and Sir Martyn kills it. Takes the bodies up stairs, make sure that they are dead (a few rounds in the submarine will do that).

�I�m not sure I like this adventure!� says Daniel.

�It hasn�t started yet!� says Sir Martyn.

Stash them upstairs, in the hole out of the water. Two bits of fish, some bladderack, and 10 silvery coins. Its about half past one, they�ve just done shopping for a few days. Two hours, three hours, four hours. Six o�clock, things quiet down. Look I don�t want to know, OK. Some things are best left unrecorded.

Dead of night. Quiet outside, but still light. ((Put the food on at 17:10 - by PC clock, two hours cooking time. So 19:10 is eating time.)) Out and go into an alley, ignore drunk slummed in a doorway, bears to the right, keep going. Dead ends, return. Guards on Silver Street, don�t go that way then. Off down Dead Broke Street, which is quite dark. People in cardboard box equivalent. We travel at roof level. Pass narrow alley. Up to top, see a patrol with a shark, let them go by. Main street, big. Go right and passed an alley, round a corner, along to a very bright square, big flight of stairs with 2 armed people dressed in shell like armour before we get to it. Back to alley we passed, and up it. Sir Martyn draws a map as we go a long. Maze of twisty alleys all different, round in circles and back tracking out off dead ends. We are getting nowhere. Back track lots. There is a catfish on a ledge.

Give up on alleys, a main street. Tempest Street, water flowing down it. Off down it. Hits iron sheet with fast moving swirling water. Turn right and immediately swept backwards. Street of Maelstroms, get out of it back the way we came. Avoiding the hole in the road with its whirlpool.

Avoid a patrol ducking into an alley, a maze of twisty alleys all different, back on to the main street (Tempest Street) avoiding the patrol. Back to the Dead Broke Street area. On to Hazy Street, obscured vision, into Dim Street, which is very dark. Projected Light headlights, puts hand in pocket to turn off. By Larani, we are mapping City State. See some more guards outside a building, one of the guards spots us and we go round in circles and see the guards going back to there positions. Argh we are getting nowhere.

Back to our house street. We want a single guard to charm. We don�t find one. Sir Martyn bravely leads us here, there and everywhere. Disturb two scaly thieves Aruth shoots one with a short bow - killing him. Sir Martyn tells him to stop, but he doesn�t. Next round Sir Martyn shoots him with his mace. Number two escapes. Plan A is engaged, or not as the case may be. Back to �our patch� and then to a big street with guards. The two nearest are asleep, probably. Sneak across the road to the other side. We find an underwater electric fence round some sort of plaza. Back again, to the main street and passed another sleeping guard and onwards. A missile flies past as we enter Scud Street.

The current plan is to put Xs on a map and head for them. It�s a good a plan as any, just as daft. It�s not Zytsi�s X then. On the way to Aruth�s X we find a gap with a big building with two phosphorus braziers burning outside it. Bog standard seaweed double doors. Onwards find a big square with a large number of guards and a wakey-wakey being blown on a conch horn. Run away, back to home street, passed the still sleeping guard. Oh bugger says the party. Double bugger says Daniel, knowing he has to stay in the submarine until tomorrow night.

((Dinner Break, lamb hotpot - leaks, onions, carrots, potatoes, chopped lamb in layers. Rather nice, perhaps a smidgen too much sage, perhaps not. Next date may be a while.))

The submarine wont work after 72 hours, or the controller dies. Kip for 6 hours, nothing happens. Sir Martyn dreams the best route to the Eye of Kor, the outside of the building that the Eye of Kor is in, the street that the building with the Eye of Kor is in.

Dreams of a square full of crowds of people, in the centre of this square is a fountain from which pours a glowing red light, even though it�s underwater. There is a bell ringing. The crowd is all facing a large balcony half way up, on which is a priest is ripping out the heart of Zytsi (who was still alive, not drowning). And people are moving, coming from all directions.

So how do we interpret it? What is the heart of Zytsi? Literal, or more likely metaphorical. Treasure or Hammer? It proposes a plan of action, but what. Its not that obscure says Robin, after Daniel comes up with a theory that involves the hammer. Zytsi�s face turns into Sir Martyn, Aruth, Daniel, some random persons face in the dream.

Next night at midnight, not 4 o�clock. Out we go when the street gets quiet. There is guard who is going to be unlucky. He is charmed, and Sir Martyn says �Temple, Kor, where,�

�God Square�

�Where?�

He points more or less behind him in. �About a thousand feet.�

So Daniel makes him forget he ever met us. Sir Martyn said �Good effort� and gave me the thumbs up. I did something he liked! By the way the guard was lucky, we didn�t have to kill him.

We have directions, we go. We zig, we zag, we follow the roads heading roughly in the right direction. One dead end. Back slightly and onwards. Zig, zag, zigzag, zigazag. We�ve gone roughly the right distance, and now we need the direction correcting slightly. We see the braziers again, ah ha. Approached via a slightly different, but parallel street. Off we go in the right direction (?) We get to see lots of City State, including� Street of Maelstroms and Bright Square again. Fountain, balcony, this is it. Bright Square is Square of the Gods, it�s traditional in City State. The first place we found is what we wanted, but as is traditional we went away. It took a hour and half to get here.

Four guards in the square, seashell armour and spears. Sudden Light wont work in the square, it�s quite bright here. The Pesky the fish, alias Eric the Halibut, now has 4 hit points by the way. Now we are about to fulfil one of our side quests. Not one we are really enthusiastic about doing, but we�re here so we will. It�s a big square, and it will take about 3 rounds to get to the doors.

Zytsi and Daniel get a +10 Aura each. Sir Martyn Inspires us for +25 to all dice rolls. It�s taken eight hours but we�ve got to the melee. Still we dither.

Plan A. Charge at 40 ft a round. We get spotted at the end of the second round, and they charge up. Aruth shoots one, and it backs off. They are evil, bad dudes, Our Lady of the Flowing Red aura is engaged, Larani give me ears. Sir Martyn hits one with his sword, and Zytsi hits one with the legendary hammer. Both are stunned and bashed but still there, but then they do it again as they are speeded. So Zytsi kills his, and Sir Martyn inflicts death of a thousand cuts, which kill his. One is away at 200 ft away, and one is by the temple doors. Aruth shoots the one 200 ft away, again. Sir Martyn sort of shoots him, but hits the street instead. �Must take a rank with this.� Two rounds away from the doors, they open their doors and its missile phase again. Aruth shoots again, hits for the third time, still not wonderful damage. Sir Martyn stuns his some more. Charge to the doors, shoot arrow, bolt and war hammer. But the door is shut when we arrive. We start pushing the door, and it opens. The hammer comes back.

We see a worried guard. Black marble walls, huge statue with gem, bars with lots of sharks behind them, two priests chanting. The statue is 200 ft away, that�ll be 5 rounds then. Shoot the priests with arrow goes Aruth, shoot guard goes Sir Martyn. Shoot the priests with arrow goes Aruth, shoot guard goes Sir Martyn, misses. Zytsi Lightning Bolts a priest, and Aruth shoots him again, Sir Martyn shoots a priest. Well the priests chanting doesn�t seem to be a spell. Aruth kills him and gets +20 for the next 6 rounds. The last one kills himself and there is a large cracking and rending sound. Oh gosh I wonder what that is. At the end of the round the statue moves its head and looks at us.

New round. The 30 ft tall statue with a large hammer will try to hit Aruth, 62 points of damage, 3 per round, 1SNP. He is still alive! Spell phase, Aruth cures himself. We arrive in melee with the statue. Then it hits Daniel doing more damage than he can take, but not dead yet. 134 points of damage, fights at -35% and 3 stuns, well it was an awesome critical , 145. Sir Martyn fumbles, his weapon. Zytsi hits, the melee ensures, Sir Martyn hits, Zytsi hits and drops his weapon. Lucky we are on the ground.

Aruth starts curing Daniel, it�ll take a while. But Aruth is knocked down and unconscious. Its superlarge, this will take a while. Sir Martyn goes on hitting it, and Zytsi gets his weapon back. Hit, hit, hitty, hit. Sir Martyn drops his weapon. Smash bang wallop. Death by inches, and crap criticals - but they add up. Spells run out and get renewed. Zytsi gets a double roll up and dishes out 30 hits. 771 hit given so far, cracks are appearing. Sir Martyn punches it with a mailed fist, it didn�t help, 2 points of damage. Zytsi hits it again and it finally goes down. Superlarge, 800 hits, 250 OB and triple damage. It explodes and there is the gem.

((And we�ll leave it there, at quarter past midnight. Daniel is on minus 25 hits, and when he comes round he�ll be fighting at -10% and -25%. ))

Zytsi: �How the hell are we going to get out of this by the way? Do you have a cunning plan my Lord?�

Then spake Sir Martyn Yanyez De Barbudo

The current plan:

We grab the gem, stuff Aruth & Danny full of herbs, and head straight for the injured guard, knock him unconscious and bring him on board. We put the shields up and head for the exit. We call upon our Lady of the Flowing Red to deter attackers immediately outside the temple and exit into the square. The Bard does a 10' radius fear song (just joking!). We head out of the square towards Home St. As we get level with the 1st alley on the right just as the shields go down, we pause and fight for a bit, and cut the throat of the unconscious guard. The blood flows, (probably on both sides) eventually producing a large cloud obscuring all vision. Aruth lobs a sudden light and stuns the immediate attackers. Martin lobs a "pious rapture" on one of the attacking sharks, causing it to frenzy (if they're not already). We depart down the alley, covered by the cloud of blood. Aruth pops in a couple more sudden lights and Martin fires a few bolts to keep the illusion of us still being there going. Danny bruises his arm. Any pursuers that get through the cloud are swiftly and efficiently dealt with by the Bards single target "song of fear", and slowed by a series of Air Walls laid down by Aruth. We waft down the alley and disappear round the corner.

At this point the enemy tries to move to cover all the other exits from the alley system, but concentrates their efforts on the direction we came from. We're going the other way. We approach the alley exit into main street, finding it blocked by a smallish force. Fire photons, shields up if necessary, and power on by. Down Deadbeat St pausing momentarily to kill the bloke who tried to eat my fish. Left in to Home St.

At this point, if there is still hot pursuit, we leave the city. If we've lost all pursuers, we also loose all reason, get greedy and go and knock over the Jewellers on Silver St. We escape, barely able to carry the huge quantities of gold and silver. Plan ends.

It could happen.....

Our next quest is for Danny's instrument. I've had an idea on that score - Also, I'm losing hope that any amount of upgrading is going to turn Danny into a lethal killing machine - it's too much of an uphill struggle retro-fitting fighting skills to a highish level bard. He should feel proud if he ever gets to the point where he can defend himself effectively. So, he's a mage, but the basic Bardic spells seem to be problematic. Enhancing them will just make that worse. However, there are some VERY useful open and closed mentalist lists. Access to some of them could make him very effective, especially in town situations, where we're currently weak.

Zytsi: �I like this plan, especially as it appears that I don't have to do anything other than gaze lovingly at this Gem what I picked up.�