Session 3
Previous: Session 2
--- RECAP: The heroes dropped the letter off to the Church, to translate, and searched for work at the local Guild of Warriors. They accepted a contract to locate a kidnapped child. Following the kidnapper (having taken a second child), they came across his lair, in the basement of a ruined church. The wizard/kidnapper, Luquor Paulem, sort-of cared about the fate of Hoden, in an odd way. He was planning to use the children in a sacrifice, to gain power to stop “an ancient evil” from rising.
Unfortunately, Clare had a project for University to do this evening, so for this adventure, Dorian would be NPC'd.
In this account, doors left unopened will be marked red.---
12th, Sun's Dawn, 1130AS
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Our heroes decide to check in on the church, to see how their translation is going. They discover that Brother Columbanus, whom they gave the letter to, is now in Penitence. They find him lying face-down in a stone-walled cell, arms spread in the sign of the Cross. He tells them that the Abbot saw the letter he was copying, and proclaimed it Heresy – it is, after all, written in the Old Tongue of the Church – confiscated it, and sent him to penitence.
As the heroes try to find the Abbot, a Shingizuite man approaches them. He tells them that his Lord, Shogun Taskage, bade him bring their horses, which they had left back in Honnoji. Furthermore, his grace, the Lord Hoden, wishes to see them.
Our heroes decide to talk with the Abbot another time, and see Lord Hoden now.
His grace does not look best pleased. He asks that the guards and edicts leave the room for a moment. When the last man leaves, he lets his anger show. He is not pleased at the turn of events of late: the Abbot was here a few hours ago, demanding that the Heroes be arrested on suspicion of Heresy and Paganism. There are rumours flying around the town of Espionage, of consorting with Pagan, Bribery of major establishments, and the like. Add to that, the previous day, while he held Court to discuss such matters, Kenshin Taskage moved to attack his aide, a loyal member of his household for the past 15 years.
---Never let it be said that my world is without it's consequences.---
Kenshin tries to argue the case that it was for the good of the Province. Hoden finds this an unbelievable excuse for attacking one of his household. Kenshin goes quiet, and then humbly apologises, which goes a long way to placate him.
Hoden brings out the letter, saying that the Abbot gave it to him
“Did you steal this?” he asks.
There is a pause among the group. “No.” says Cerridwen.
Hoden smiles “Then I will return your property to you. I should advise you, though, to keep it to yourself. If you keep telling others in town about this, the original sender may find out that you've intercepted it, if he hasn't already.”
He dismisses them, but not before reminding them that, if they continue to cause problems for him, they may find the well of his gratitude may dry up rather quickly.
Once outside, they move to the Market. It's a busy day today, with plenty of people around the marketplace. Someone roughly bumps into Cerridwen, apologising before disappearing into the crowd. Shrewd as she is, Cerridwen checks her purse. Thankfully, no money is taken, but there is a note, which reads:
“Meet me at the Red Dragon Tavern. I have a job that may pique your interest.
HG”
Curious, they proceed therefore. The Red Dragon is somewhat quiet at this time of day. However, having got themselves seated, the heroes are approached by a rough-looking man, scarred and eyepatched. He invites them upstairs. Taking them into a room, he announces “Ma'am, you have visitors.”
There is a woman sitting in this room, who introduces herself as Heather Green. She's heard an awful lot about the Heroes, and has a venture that requires their skills. Dorian knows her: She's a high-up in the Thieves Guild, primarily in the trade of narcotics – opium, hashish, that sort of thing.
Ms Green tells them that a noble, Onan Woodsfield, has recently moved into town. He's a corrupt piece of work, with fingers in many criminal pies elsewhere. He has an item, known as the Heartstone of Amaris (the Breton Goddess of Mercy and Love), an artifact that is said to give those who wear it remarkable powers of recovery. In return for its “retrieval”, Green knows some people who are able to translate the cave-paintings the Heroes found.
The party discuss this, eventually accepting
---This wasn't very good planning, on my part. They went with it “because that's the adventure”. If Clare had been there to play Dorian, I think things would have gone better, as this plot-hook was right up his (Dorian's) alley. As an NPC, I couldn't have Dorian try to persuade the group to accept, without making it look like the DM's will-enforcement.---
Woodsfield has plans to travel for the next few nights, and rumour has it that the Guard-Captain went with him, as a Bodyguard. As such, the Manor should have only a few servants , and a few patrolling guards. Green warns the Heroes that Woodsfield uses some rather “eccentric” security measures. A few agents that she sent were unable to make much progress, which is why she contacted the heroes.
The heroes, decide that it would be best to attempt infiltration at night, when most of the household are asleep. During the day, they decide to let Dorian try to translate the letter. It takes a few hours, but Dorian manages to get the first paragraph rendered in modern Isenian.
Brother Elric
My brother, I write with distressing news: the Pagans grow in
power, and seek to move soon.
We have no agents in thier ranks, so information is sparce. We do,
however, have a captive, although Interrogation has achieved little.
---From this point on, Dorian was played by Mark, rather than myself---
Come nightfall, the Heroes infiltrate the manor. The outer gate is barred, but Dorian climbs over the wall and unlocks it from the inside. From the outside, there appear to be three clear ways into the house: The main gate, and a pair of balconies on the western wall, one floor up. Stealth being of the essence here, they decide to have Dorian scale the walls to the balconies, to scout out the rooms.
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Both of the rooms seem to be bedrooms of a sort (Areas 1 and 2). While the furniture (a bed, desk, and table) is fairly lavish, there are no decorations such as tapestries or paintings. They assume that these are guest bedrooms. Dorian fixes a rope to the balcony, and the others climb up.
Checking the corridor outside the room, they see two doors: one leading to the other bedroom, and another leading elsewhere in the manor. Dorian listens at the door. Straining, he hears the sound of boots on tile, walking close by, then growing distant, then returning, then growing distant again.
Trying to remain unseen, Dorian opens the door (Area 3). It leads to a walkway, with a grand staircase leading to what looks like an entrance hall. The guard he heard earlier is walking away from him, and as yet hasn't noticed. Dorian moves in, walking across the tiles as quietly as a cat, and bludgeons the man with his crowbar. He's out cold. There are two other doors on the walkway: One central, and another to the East, mirroring the side they're on. They decide to go through the central door.
This room is a large library (Area 4).The walls are lined with high bookshelves, filled with works of literature, textbooks, and the like. At the far end of the room is a table, with three silver candlesticks, and three silver snuffers. They are grouped into three pairs (one candle with one snuffer). Both items of each group have matching symbols engraved on them. (Three symbols, on for each group)
There is also a scrap of parchment, with writing on it:
Perception can shape the mind, and rules over
Time. Time, however, erodes mortal Perception,
and therefore detriments the Mind.
Chaos, like the Mind, can be understood only
through the Scientific Process. Order, however, is
only as good as one's mortal Perception thereof.
Time is the key that links Chaos and Order,
controlled as they are by its ebb and flow.
The heroes intuit that this is a puzzle of some sort, probably one of the “eccentric security measures” Green spoke of. There is much debate as to what the symbols mean, before they decide that the first is Perception, the second is Mind, and the third is Time. The second paragraph doesn't make any sense whatsoever in this context, so they decide to focus on the first. They realise that, as these forces interact with eachother, so too may the candles be used to light one-another. They light the “eye” candle, and use it to light the “crescent” and “hourglass” candles. They then take the “hourglass” snuffer, and snuff out the “eye” and “crescent”.
Lo and behold, having done that, they hear the sound of stone scraping against stone elsewhere in the building. They hurriedly leave the library to find out where.
They check the next door on the walkway. It leads to a corridor, where a section of wall has swung forward to reveal a door at the far end. They enter.
This room (Area 5) is of a similar décor to the others, with a notable exception: the furniture is on the ceiling, and the floor is sloped downward like a roof. This perturbs the heroes. Carefully, they make their way to the door to the North. It leads to a corridor. It looks as though it's twisting as it stretches before them. Fearing some evil magicks, Kenshin elects to press on.
---After all, if something's going to harm him, he's the one with the most HP---
He finds that he is staying on the “floor”, as gravity would have it, rather than walking up the wall as he expected. The corridor leads to a door, and a high, steep staircase. They elect to check the room first.
The room (Area 6) is akin to the upside-down room, except everything is on its side. There is a chest in the corner of the room. Dorian disarms the dart trap contained therein, and finds a bag of 50 gold crowns.
The heroes suspect this to be some trick: If Woodsfield is as strange as this with his security, why would he just have a bag of gold sitting here? They take it anyway, resolving to donate it to Hoden's orphanage.
Up the stairs, they come to another door. This leads to what looks like the upper floor of the library (Area 7). There is a square of railings around an opening in the floor, looking into the lower library. It's strange, because nobody noticed there was such an opening visible from the floor below.
There's another table here, with three more candles, but no snuffers, bearing the following symbols.
This, our heroes decide, is where paragraph two of the parchment comes in. After much debate, they elect to light the Time candle, and use it to light Chaos (the circle of arrows) and Order (the single arrow), as Chaos and order are “controlled...by its ebb and flow”. Having done that, a bookshelf swings across, revealing a door.
The corridor beyond is strange (er). It is almost pitch black, lit by the occasional strange, glowing mushroom. The walls, while stone, are more like that of a cave than of masonry. The flooring is a thick carpet of grass, rather than the wood encountered beforehand.
Beyond (Area 8), the heroes come to a door. As they reach it, shapes leap out of the darkness to attack: Rats, the size of large dogs, pounce on our heroes. However, with skill and grace, they are easily defeated.
They proceed through the door into a similar room (Area 9). As they proceed, Aurora hears something soft and wet land behind her. She sees that it is a slimy glob of what looks like glue, mixed with silky threads. The heroes are ready when five giant spiders step out of the shadows. The battle is a short one, but the heroes are victorious.
The door to the North here leads to a tall tower (Area 10). After scaling the spiral stairs, they see a stone pedestal, surrounded by torches, and the Heartstone floating in the air some 20' above. On the pedestal, is another riddle:
“Cantst be seen, cantst be felts
Cantst be heard, cantst be smelts
Stays past stars, resters 'neath hills,
and empty Man-Fool graves it fills.
Commers first, follows after
Enders life and killers laughter.
Bringsie us, and leaders we to your goal.”
After much deliberation, they decide to extinguish the torches around the pedestal. Sure enough, as the last one goes out, there is a clink of metal on stone.
The Heartstone is a large sapphire-like stone, cut to form a heart-shape, and set in gold. The gold bears the symbol of the Scales, just like the symbol on the Mercy dagger they picked up previously. The heroes decide to leave before anyone discovers them.
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The next day, they go back to the Red Dragon, to meet with Ms Green. She seems pleased, and tells them to come with her, to meet her employer. She takes them to a small house near the Southgate. Inside, sitting by the fire, brandy in hand, is an elderly man, clad in the silks and velvets of the nobility.
He smiles. “You have the Heartstone? Good, good. I've heard a lot about you all. Oh, but forgive my manners, allow me to introduce myself.”
The heroes' are shocked when he says his name:
“Woodsfield. Onan Woodsfield.”
Cliffhanger ending! Continued in Session 4
