Book Six, Chapter One �The start of the quest for the Lute�
����������� 05/04/2003
My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the famous and noble Erana, the one, the only, Sir Martyn Yanyez De Barbudo. With Zytsi the glorious Khuzdul mason, Daniel the much-maligned Bard, Aruth the Brave of the War Wagon and Bowlhead, who, as Sir Martyn said, was brought �as someone for the Bard to look down on�. And we are off to Midgaad as soon as Bowlhead comes out of his healing coma. �That wouldn�t have happened if I been allowed to use my version of Yulpris� says Daniel, but who listens to him.
OK there was a long discussion about the wagon. So the wagon is at the Larani Temple not in the ethereal tower.
We leave on 10th Larane. We go through the portal, leaving the wagon at the Temple, and we are poised on the edge of the Bifrost Bridge on a small stone platform. There is a beautiful rainbow bridge with void above and below. In the dim distance at the apex is a single figure. The bridge is about 10 feet wide and Daniel tests the rainbow and it solid. So we start walking, after a while we go a mile and the figure is still a long way off, but we are moving. Eventually we are 100 yards away. He is very tall, taller than a normal human more than 10 but less than 20 feet tall. Winged helmet and holding a sword.
�Greetings noble sir I have the honour to present the noble Erana Sir Martyn Yanyez De Barbudo, with his companions Zytsi the glorious Khuzdul mason, Aruth the brave of the War Wagon and Bowlhead the great healer. And I am the Daniel the excellent Bard.�
�What do you seek?�
�We seek the man with the All Seeing Eye to aid us on our quest for Galoroth�s lute. We seek it to aid us in our over all quest to deal with Panaga the evil necromancer.�
�I have never heard of him.�
Sir Martyn �I have this theory that he is also called Lothrim the Foulspawner�
�You must prove you courage,� he says drawing his sword. �Prepare yourself mortals.�
Daniel sings an Inspiring Song about defeating Panaga and his evil minions. Various people started glowing and Sir Martyn Inspires everyone as well. Then Heimdall turned on his Holy Aura and everyone fails the fear rolls, but we don�t run away. However, he has us worried.
Combat ensures and Sir Martyn and Zytsi hit him but don�t score criticals. Heimdall has three attack routines and hits them twice each time. End of round Aruth, Sir Martyn and Zytsi are all on the ground. Aruth is down on hits. Bowlhead takes Zytsi damage. So Sir Martyn, who casts a spell, gets up and so does Zytsi. Daniel becomes the second rank. Daniel and Bowlhead are no longer feared, ah so its rounds percent failure.
The next round was just as effective this round, except that Sir Martyn is on a three round count down to death. Everyone is down by the end of round.
Then we wake up in a huge hall with loads of Ivinians in traditional style. Lots of warriors drinking, throwing axes, drinking with busty maidens, some of them with horned helmets. Bowlhead feels worried. We start quaffing. �I don�t drink with uncouthed Ivinians.� Says Bowlhead and an axe is thrown at him, Sir Martyn tries to catch it, doesn�t but that doesn�t stop it. �The only good Ivinians is a dead one� says Bowlhead. The party smacks him, plus the hail of axes as well.
Daniel wanders around singing and playing the lute. 260 and 279 respectively. They like it! Hard crowd here. One throws a bread roll at the bard for a point of damage but then the thrower goes down under a hail of axes. One asks Daniel how he died so he improvises a story about how we died in the Coracle and Goat episode. 140 Poetic Improvisations. Lost them a bit there, its hard crowd.
Zytsi finds the door to the outside. One pats him on the head, so he kills him to a loud cheer. He asks where Odin is, in his own hall. Where�s Thor, in his own hall he might he in later.
People get better quite easily here. The Sir Martyn appoints the Bard as the leader, so we go to find Odin�s Hall. Various buildings out side, its morning by the way, with a little drizzle. Its looks like a normal village outside, so Zytsi asks the way to Odin�s Hall.
So we bicker as normal and discover a new quest. Bowlhead wants to know where the bowl of Siem. Where�s Balatar? He comes round the corner and tells us how to get the hall, just as Zytsi is being politely told the directions.
We are going to go in and tell Odin that we are on a quest to rid Harn of a foul, evil Necromancer called Panaga. To aid us in this quest we seek the legendary lute of Galaroth. We have been told that he can tell where it is.
(Zytsi wishes to known where the body of Hazmaralof. Sir Martyn wants to know where he can find the pendant known as The High Lord�s Wroth. What about the Bowl of Siem says Bowlhead. Leave these quests to general chitchat says Sir Martyn, after we�ve found out the price.)
Daniel knocks on the doors and they open, it�s a big hall with a big throne at the end. Big bloke with two ravens and a patch over one eye. We go in and approach the throne. Zytsi bows at he door and then half way along the hall. Then the party bows, except Aruth falls over, drunk.
�We are on a quest to rid Harn of a foul, evil Necromancer called Panaga. To aid us in this quest we seek the legendary lute of Galaroth. We have been told that you can tell where it is.�
The fee is a quest per question.
�Where is the lute of Galaroth?�
Return to Harn and go to Geldehiem in Ivinia governed by King Aligar II. Some years Odin sent a messenger call Narin, who was slain on the gates of the palace. He wants his revenge, so we have to kill King Aligar II. And then come back here.
We hang around the halls. Zytsi asks about Hazmaralof and he needs to talk the All Seeing One. Sir Martyn asks around about The High Lord�s Wroth using diplomacy. In the evening Thor turns up. Someone has heard about the High Lord�s Wroth, it makes the wearing somewhat lightning resistance and does some kind of lightning damage and can deal out stupendous damage. It belongs to some king, or clan leader, presumably Ivinian.
Aligar II is the top king of Orbaal, which Ivinia in the north of Harn. At least he�s not well liked, even by the Ivinians. He�s somewhat paranoid about enemies. We need to go there to find out more, but we suspect there may be three factions. So it�s Operation Free Orbaal then! Orbaal for the Jarin, says Bowlhead.
And we put our military leader in charge for the next bit that will be Sir Martyn then. Who has, so course just recently realised what he has to do to activate his hand. Call upon � hmm bit of a problem.
So while we are here Bowlhead insults the Ivinians and they kick the shit out of him, a lot. Daniel writes a song about a suicidal Jarin. After two days of drinking and singing we go. We walk about half day to the bridge. Then we cross the bridge and end up in Bejist and about 4 days have passed. So its 14th Larane.
So where do we go from here. We briefly consider going to Geldehiem via Lorkin, then we remembered what happened the last time we went to Lorkin. So it�s through the Godstone to Melderyn and then we can�t go via Thay as Sir Martyn would have to visit his Temple. Well that would be interesting! We have to persuade Zytsi to come with us as it will involve boats.
So we go through the Godstone with wagon and Balatar and get to Melderyn, Cherafir to be exact. Been here before. In a locked room and there are four men in robes here. Daniel goes through first. Who are you creature? I�m Daniel Fichelscher bard of the Cherafir Hall of Harpers. It�s in the cellar of the School of Arcane Lore. They aren�t completely pleased to see us, but we get let out on to the street.
Daniel will have to check in with the College of Harpers. Sir Martyn will have to keep his glove on, to hide the Agrikan hand. We stay at the Martlet and Sickle. This is a silly place so we go to the Tolbern�s Inn. So we stay here. Aruth gets his staff re-charge, at the School of Arcane Lore. He has 100 charges put in and it takes 10 days. Sir Martyn gets his foot re-charged for a year. And shopping.
Daniel omits bits about hands, a certain woman and the odd city or two in the information given to his College but otherwise brings them up to date with the saga.
Shopping: DB rings 500d a point up to 25. RR bonuses ring 500d per realm per point. 2000d of all three. 10,000d for a charge to the re-roll item. Critical reductions at 50,000 a level.
Daniel gets his re-roll item re-charged with a charge.
Apparently some people know roughly where Frost�s body is.
The plan is to boat to Ulfshafen and go to Trobridge, but hang on why are Sir Martyn and Aruth telling Zytsi we are just going across the straight. But Sir Martyn can�t do it and admits it. But Zytsi gets talked into it anyway. No we are going to Ulfshafen, oh no we�re not.
Party fund A � general usage and living expenses, 3000d and a bit
Party fund B � Trobridge - empty
Party fund C � secret fund � so secret that no one knows what it is and may be closed
Party fund D � Aruth, the trading fund � empty as on loan to Aruth, possibly.
Hire a boat at 10d a hex, but you have to pay the return journey (i.e. double) if there is no chance of a return fare from the destination.
So we will leave on 25th Larane. We walk to Nurisel, and it takes two days by wagon. We hire a boat to cross the sea to the Hoderi lands for half a day. Then we head north in the general direction of Burzyn on the afternoon of 28th Larane.
That evening Daniel wanders off and gets lost. Meets two wild boars who he sings at and they go to sleep and so he backs off leaving the general area. Meanwhile the party finds the sleeping boars. Zytsi sneaks up on them and they wake up just before he reaches them. Squeal, squeal charge. So Aruth shoots one with his short bow and Sir Martyn fumbles his arbalest and shoots Zytsi in the back doing 3 points of damage and is out for two rounds, in shame probably.
Zytsi gets hit for some trivial damage and a stun, so he hits it back and smashes it somewhat. The other is stunned by Aruth�s arrow. We draw a veil over the rest, they die. Daniel hears the authentic sound of Sir Martyn firing his arbalest. There are five piglets, which get killed. Bowlhead tried to object and we wondered why. We are going to assassinate a King and he�s objecting to killing piglets.
The next day Sir Martyn and Bowlhead get a bad case of the trots. Sir Martyn cures himself, as does Bowlhead. We go along and we hear the sound of what sound like several annoyed wild boars. We stop and get ready, nothing happens. We stop and Sir Martyn starts to dismount and 15 to 20 wild boar charge towards us. Bowlhead glows, Daniel inspiringly sings, Aruth says shut your eyes and stuns 7 of them. Sir Martyn gets 5, Zytsi gets 5, Aruth gets 3, Daniel gets 2, as does Bowlhead. Zytsi and Bowlhead put one down each. They attack to no great effect, except the ones on the bard take 5 points of damage each �cos of the spiky armour. Zytsi puts one down then they do it again and Aruth looses an eye and is at -50% as well. Daniel�s boars take some more damage. Then we get 4 arrows each, poison arrows and it�s Aruth that gets hit.
Then 5 guys jump down into the wagon. Oh shit. They are Solari tribesmen.
Sir Martyn inspires everyone. Aruth lightning bolts three of them, one dies, one out of the wagon and one is stunned. Daniel hits one so it won�t be having an attack. Zytsi deals with another boar as does Sir Martyn. Daniel kills his boars as they go on attacking him. Zytsi kills his last boar and one on Aruth with a shield bash. Sir Martyn kills his boars. Zytsi, being speeded, hits another one Aruth. Daniel kills the one standing in the wagon, whoops there was another one in the wagon who swung at Bowlhead and missed.
Aruth drives the wagon off and Zytsi leaps on the back of Sir Martyn, mostly by Sir Martyn picking him up. Daniel hits the last one on the wagon and he falls off. We escape.
Aruth is not happy, he�s lost an eye.
Sir Martyn says the bard did well. He killed two boars, well they killed themselves by attacking him. And he did kill the two on the wagon. So Sir Martyn gave him the ring that gives +25 to DB, but he will take it back if he stops fighting.
4,000 eps