����������� Book Eight, Chapter One �At last we are going to get the Harp of Galeroth�

 

����������� Double Harn 26 & 27/09/2008

 

We are Daniel the renowned Bard, Zytsi the famous mason of Tashal, Aruth driver of the War Wagon (beautiful paint job), and Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the one, the only Sir Martyn Yanyez De Barbudo, beloved Champion of Larani. We will be� Oh yeah sorry I forgot and him, what�s his name, Pothead sorry Bowlhead of the chipped bowl.

 

We will be spending some down time whilst Daniel researches Tesien. This is an Earthmaster site in the far west in a marsh, occupied by persons of dubious livings for nearly a thousand years. I need to go the Melderyn to speak to Mereina, the Kings Harper, who can tell me the story of Elos of Mestil. And will no doubt come across Noron, who is an advisory member of the Council of Eleven and was last seen in Lorkin, who is not happy with us. Mereina passes me on to Suneril, who may well be a magic user and definitely an Earl who wants the magic stone at Tesien reactivated. He vaguely knows how to use them. The one at Tesien has been turned off recently, in the last five years in fact. You have to go there and attune to them to use them. There are no more than 2 dozen people in all of Harn who know how to use these stones. There is one of these god stones at Azadmere (which is normally switched off and opened by appointment only), Cherafir, Elshavel, Kiras, Bejist, Tesien, Gadon, Ridow, Elkalanus, Anisha, and a few other places. We need some one to learn how to use them. Sir Martyn is running his fiefdom, Zytsi is going to Azadmere and Tashal, Edward Bowlhead goes rabble rousing in Tashal and the surrounding area (not very successfully). Sorry Aruth that will be you then, better stop boozing and whoring for a bit and gain 10 ranks in attuning to god stones and some relevant stat boosts.

 

We agree to meet up in Tashal on 1st of Kelen. Zytsi needs a story about the recovery of the hammer, so Daniel gives him the public version of book four of the saga. Zytsi may well be getting married, after this adventure as he wants us all to be there. So that will be in spring 729. Zytsi gets a big parade that goes on for nearly week. Well the Harbal�s Hammer is a famous artefact and he�s recovered it and wielding it. Zytsi is declared officially Hero of the Kingdom and given his own hill, so he�s the Bob Geldof of Dwarfland.

 

Sir Martyn wants to find Frost�s grave and spends sometime in Trobridge and Elfland.

 

1st of Kelen 728 we meet up again in Tashal. There has been a kerfuffle on the northern borders of Rethem, the Akrigans lost versus of the Karborans.�

 

Tesien, or the Place of Bones, has a very evil reputation. Their was building here a couple of hundred of years ago by Workol and the Adepts of the Sable Eye with a bit of swamp draining, but it was raided by the Imperium in 555 and abandoned. They were into Earthmaster stuff in a big way, and the Earthmaster artefacts weren�t found when they were raided. One of the rumours about this place, which comes from the famous legend of Western Harn about Elos of Mestil, is that the Sceptre of the Ancients is here. There is speculation that this presumed Earthmaster artifact is a euphemism for the �Penultimate Tome�. Brigands now operate out of here and the old stories of the Fenland Stalker have been revived. The building with access to the Earthmaster site is in the middle of a lake, this has the Earthmaster chamber below it. There are underground tunnels leading from Earthmaster chamber and I suspect we need to find the end of the longest one. Last known inhabitants were a bandit called Rabyn and his gang, who had headquarters there. Twenty years ago Rabyn and 3 of his men disappeared and large damp footprints were found throughout the building. Enchanted riches, Earthmaster artefacts and the Harp of Galeroth, what more could we want.

 

It will take approximately 6 weeks to get there. This we then do. We get there on the 15th of Nolus. We get there and the first thing we see is a shepherd�s cottage. About 30 Sheep, 2 pigs, chicken. The farm is run by Soldrin. We give him news of the outside world and he tells us about the swamp and ghosties and ghoulies. Three sons who also don�t go into the swamp as no one who does comes back. Wife died a few years back. These peasants are reasonably well armed, which is unusual but we aren�t so much in Kanday as who gives shit. What�s in the swamp doesn�t come out. Bandits not seen for two years. Nothing unusual happened about 5 years ago.

 

It�s about 6 in the evening so we need to camp for the evening. We have left our retinue and wagon at Menekod, which is 15 to 20 miles away.

 

That night looking at the swamp Aruth sees one source of light that appears to flicker in the middle (?) of the swamp.

Watches 3 or 4 hours long.

Sir Martyn and Bowlhead

Zytsi and Aruth

Zytsi and Daniel

 

We have breakfast and off we go. There is a particularly dangerous bit of quicksand where the bones on its victims bubble up every now and then, which is known as the Place of Bones. This may be the origin of the sobriquet of Tesien. Aruth finds a path, from the middle of the swamp to the farmhouse. Interesting. One of the sons has used the path in the last 15 hours, so that will be the middle of the night then.

 

We go back to the farm to have a little chat with Soldrin. You�ve not been telling the truth, which is not a good idea. Song V of the Charm Song variety to get the farmer and 3 sons (there is no Song IV). They are part of a group of brigands who operate out of here. They aren�t keen on killing. Sir Martyn suggests that we pay them, which they are happy to do. So Daniel drops the spell and we re-negotiate. 5,000d to avoid a fight, well we aren�t keen but we could start negotiating with someone.

 

They go in to the swamp. If no one comes back after 4 hours then that will be a no then and they think we�ll be coming in any way. Otherwise someone will come back with a counter offer. The �father� figure comes back and says that they have discussed it. Wouldn�t go for 1,000d but would 3,000d, and 2 days wait.

 

Sir Martyn is getting tired of killing ordinary honest brigands so we go for it.

 

2 days later

They have access to 3 buildings the Observatory (Workol�s place), their lodge (which they don�t want us to see what they are doing), and Rabyn�s lair (which they don�t go anywhere near). We can go and discus the area with someone in the Observatory. Their lodge is in the middle of the lake and is mostly underwater and you have to go there by boat and go down into it. The Observatory had on the 3rd floor a glass domed roof, which is now ruined. There was a sort of planetarium affair here, impressive engineering but controls aren�t obvious. Erewol meets us here, well spoken man (42) with scars from a bad burn on his left hand.

 

Sir Martyn hands over the money to the man. He�s been here nearly 20 years, took over from Rabyn. Doesn�t know of anything or anyone who appeared about 5 years ago. He is a bit distracted as he was expecting to be fighting by now. He says that there is a secret door in their basement that they haven�t opened as they think is dangerous. They have to use 2 Archimedes screws to pump out the basement, needs doing for an hour each day. Purni installed them who was a Lythian who Erewol met in Aleath. He went missing when fishing 8 or 9 years ago after being with them for 5 or 6 years. He did wander the area quite a lot, and they warned him about that.

 

He seems well educated, not fazed by Zytsi�s Khuzdul Official Hero scroll.

�Who are you?�

�Oh just wandering questers.�

�You are probably worse than me, you�ve probably butchered villages. �

�Who us? Well there was that one in the north but they attacked us first. And they killed our men.�

�You�re not that bunch that went to Kiras; thank God I took the money.�

 

<<We have dinner, and very good it was too. Trev�s a good cook on the quiet>>

 

Search the observatory. There is a room with books in! Unlooted, well guardsmen probably can�t read. These are the lesser records of the observations of the stars, mostly well preserved except those damaged by mildew. Oh well, downstairs and it�s substantially more collapsed but we proceed onwards. Picked randomly one of the two stairs down and Sir Martyn lead us through the dungeon avoiding the collapsible bits. We need to cross a dodgy bit of floor so Aruth turns his druid staff into a bridge and Sir Martyn crosses to see stairs down, but the room has a very dodgy floor

 

Aruth picks up the bridge and makes it�s a staff again. He sets off to put it cross to the stairs but falls through the floor and hangs dangling in mid air. Let there be light. He�s 10 feet above the floor of a room with no visible entrances and exits. There are 4 chests in here. Aruth is lowered to the floor and finds a secret door in the north wall. Zytsi hammers a pulley into a wall so that Sir Martyn and Zytsi can lower themselves.

 

First chest, there is a trap and both Sir Martyn and Zytsi find it. Daniel sings an Inspiring song so everyone (except himself) is inspired for the next 2 hours and 40 minutes. Zytsi disarms the trap, unlocks the chest which turns out to be full of silver coins. The next chest there was no trap, yeah right. Chest number three has a trap on it but Zytsi didn�t disarm it and the ceiling starts collapsing and the wall starts coming in. Sir Martyn starts leaving followed by Aruth and Zytsi unlocks the chest. There is a surface layer of gems. Zytsi starts grabbing gems. It�s a tray of not very valuable gems, lift it out and there is a tray of more valuable gems, and another underneath that. And a locked compartment. Zytsi uses his power from Larani to see if he dies. He doesn�t dies so he picks the lock and succeeds. It�s a big diamond he grabs it and leaves. All the dodgy floor areas collapse and the bottom level is buried under tons of stone.

 

We have about 10,000d in silver, two pockets of cheap gems and one very large uncut gem. We walk out of the building brushing dust off of ourselves, especially Zytsi. I hope you aren�t going to do that to my base says Erewol. No, no not at all. Not on our agenda. The bandits have all left, apart from Erewol.

 

Rowing boat across to the sunken building. Lower down into the room and check it out. Emptied out bandit lair. Bedrooms, kitchen area, roof space used a look out. Basement used as storage and a couple of cells. Water drains to one area and then the screws pump it out. The secret door is by the screws, masked by the screws even. Zytsi does the manipulating and opens the secret door. Stairs down into a diamond shaped room. Stairs down in all four corners coming down into the room. Pillars in the middle of the room and the god stone is in the middle of the pillars.

 

Aruth powers it up, which is a quiet process but he makes some silly noises and it goes from grey to black. Now he has to attune which takes longer, a couple of hours.

 

<<Next day>>

 

Aruth attunes to the god stone then we take the eastern exit. We came in the northern one. So up some stairs to the eastern door and Sir Martyn does an Intuitions spell that tells him he�ll get crushed to death and drowned. The southern door is not immediately dangerous. It goes directly south for 60 feet and opens out into a chamber with a hole in the ground with rungs on the side, and the corridor continues south. The hole goes down 20 feet into an east west going tunnel. There is another tunnel that comes from the south-east of a different construction here. It probably came in here, heads towards the Observatory. We go east 350 feet or so and there is another down junction and we can still go east. It goes 15 to 20 into a north south going corridor; the air has been disturbed here with dust motes in the air. Not a breeze here. North 30 feet to cave in. Back to 2 nd level and east for 125 to 150 feet and peters out. Then we go back and down (Cave in to north) and 60 south is pile of rubble, recent collapsed with a counter mined tunnel above. 150 and goes �

We wander around the tunnels lead by the Bard. There is a square shape and on several levels. Up and down with cave ins. eventually we get to the other side of the cave in and start finding chambers. Second of which has a drop about 18 to 20, which has an illusionary floor with no floor really as Sir Martyn dropped a coin in, and didn�t the Khuzdul whimper at that. There is a sort of metallic pitter patter sound. Aruth puts up his staff bridge and we cross the room and goes 30 to 40 and there is a hole in the roof, no ladder opens into a room or something. East to a rock fall where we have to crawl through. Since Daniel was put in charge by Sir Martyn he sent Zytsi followed by Sir Martyn. 25 foot square room and there are 2 pairs of large metallic feet. We consider options.

 

Back to the hole in the ceiling and Aruth and Bowlhead give Sir Martyn a bunk up. He does an Intuitions and it�s an iris that comes out and grips him. So back to the constructs then. Zytsi borrows Daniel�s shield ring and gets a True Aura from Bowlhead and goes in 69 points of damage (sounds like times 3 damage) stunned next and 63 points and a must parry from the other and he�s through. Followed by Sir Martyn ready to do a Bladeturn with casting penalties. The constructs have hammers instead of hands. Their first attacks go on Zytsi and the second ones on Sir Martyn. Next round Bowlhead followed by Aruth. Bowlhead takes Sir Martyn�s damage. Zytsi moves into the room so he can only be targeted by one and Sir Martyn stands up and parries a lot.

They try to move them away from the hole but they don�t as Bowlhead starts coming through. The constructs miss Sir Martyn and Zytsi their first attacks of the combat go in, then the constructs hits Bowlhead knocking him out on damage. Then the rest of Sir Martyn�s attacks go in and it�s blinded and battered. Sir Martyn puts his one down next round, and Bowlhead is dragged back. And the other one goes down next round. Bowlhead wasn�t killed on damage by 3 points, lucky Aruth did a heal on him in the tunnel.

<<Food break>>

Four rounds later Bowlhead gets up. There was then 31 minutes of healing.

Official announcement: we are playing 10 second rounds, not 6 second rounds.

Official announcement: 80% action when winding up a spell and 20% action when casting.

�

The room is 25 foot square with a hole in the ceiling, no corridor here. Intuitions what happens when Sir Martyn goes up the hole and he thinks it might be a trap and something attacks him at the top. Aruth does a Earthwall and Sir Martyn climbs up and looks for traps in the hole from the outside. It�s an iris trap again and there is no way of stopping it from this side. Paf around. Plan set of trap off and Zytsi goes to hit it, well that�s the plan. Adrenal fires up and staff goes up, and next round (not adrenal then) the iris slammed shut. Batter the iris open with a war hammer. So as his shield is deployed to stop debris falling on him it counts against the fire breathing on him. Four mechanical snakes about 2 foot long breath fire on Zytsi. Fairly trivial damage and the next round they do it again and Zytsi climbs up and out. Sir Martyn was going to cast a spell that required a warm up on Zytsi, but he isn�t there anymore so he stops. Aruth throws his staff which attacks on the war mattock table and destroyed one. Sir Martyn throws a spear that looks like a spear and attacks on the spear table that does and E and D and C and B and A. Oh its that spear, out of the barrow wasn�t it. Doesn�t quite kill one. Zytsi hits and kills one. Next round Sir Martyn throws two daggers at the one didn�t kill and it�s hanging on and Daniel uses his flute and finally kills it. One left and Zytsi hits his but doesn�t kill it. Next round Daniel fires his blowpipe, sorry flute, and kills it. Sir Martyn puts them in a sack for Sedisi, one not broken by much and the others for spare.

 

Up here there is a corridor going east, but not west, and it goes east for a long way. About a half a mile, so this must the right corridor. After 400 yards we see circular yellowish light, like a hoop of light. As we approach it the corridor becomes more circular and after 600 yards from the hole there is a hoop of light which blocks the corridor. Beyond the hoop the corridor continues and then opens out into a room.

 

Playing the harp and tossing a coin through and nothing happens. And Daniel steps through and there is a pulse of electricity and he takes 20 points of damage and a critical that does 7 more and makes him look comical, sarcastic critical. The corridor goes 30 feet and opens out. Bowlhead comes through and the damage is escalating. Wait 5 minutes and then Daniel leads the way to a 50 feet across circular room. To left and right there two sarcophagus and there are also 4 golems. We run back down the corridor, shouting come through we need you. Zytsi took 60 damage and an A which convulsed him and 12 stoned him. Sir Martyn steps through takes 80 points of damage, all his coins heat up and he steps back taking 20 points more.

 

Bowlhead grabs Zytsi and heads towards the hoop, so Daniel grabs other arm and goes through. Bowlhead takes 40, and Daniel takes 60 and Zytsi takes 80. And the golems go back into the room. That didn�t work.

 

Healing and discussion. We can�t go through again until it resets. We go back through the construct room and to the first hole in the ceiling. Bowlhead gives 68 power points to Sir Martyn. Earthwall so Zytsi can get up there and the pole goes up and the iris closes. Zytsi smashes it open and then 5 clouds breathe down the hole. Noxious gases that does acid attack on every one in the party. It is unpleasant and Zytsi�s backpack disintegrates showering stuff everywhere. There are 5 bear constructs at the top, not snakes. We run away.

 

Put an Waterwall on top of the Woodwall and Zytsi goes to try to recover his gear. Does this work? Robin is unhappy but it works without setting a precedent. The hoop isn�t reset. We have a strong suspicion that its 24 hours. We camp out here.

 

Watches

20-24 Sir Martyn and Bowlhead

24-4 Zytsi and Aruth

4-8 Zytsi and Daniel

Then we twiddle our thumbs.

 

Second watch and Zytsi makes a perception roll and makes a save vs. Mentalism and he sees 80 feet away 7 � foot tall greyish-green humanoid. Zytsi yells alarm, alarm and it runs off. Nobody else saw it. He goes down there and Aruth looks for tracks. There are damp footprints here. Sir Martyn calls out �Hello, anyone there? We aren�t that hostile.� Nothing happens.

 

Put a lantern down the corridor and go back to sleep.

 

Then a hour and half later the light goes out. Zytsi has to save then Aruth does and Zytsi yells �Alarm, Alarm�. Lightning bolt and Sudden Light go down the corridor. Its back. Bowlhead is meditating. But it runs off.

 

Waiting Light and Waiting Sound down the corridor. And that is.

 

OK its 9 o�clock at night and there are 4 golems to kill and Rolemaster fights take a long time. So we leave it there with it everyone on full power points and hit points.