Chapter 07:

Previous · Next

Session Number: 137
Date: Sunday 17 June 2012
Venue: Densial's
PCs & Players:

Arrian Rog1/Clr10 (Fergus) (kills: none)
Calico Drd11 (Yeran) (kills: none)
Lionel Rgr6/Wiz1/ArcA4 (Ash) (kills: none)
Rowaine Pal11 (Craig) (kills: none)
Troll Wiz11 (Densial) (kills: none)

XP Awarded: TBA

In Avarriel, ro and tr wait expectantly as arr's Divination spell is cast. This time, rather than receiving a direct response, arr recalls a phrase that one of his former sword tutors was fond of saying:

"Give a juvenile a sword and he will cleave that which he opposes. Teach him swordsmanship and he lives by a doctrine."

arr believes that this is indeed the answer to his spell. He speaks the phrase for the others to hear.

"Would the monastery be a good place for these arcanites?" ro asks. "There are a lot of them, though - probably more than the monastery could manage."

"While it may be a large ask, who better?" arr replies. "Who else would we trust?"

"tri?" tr says.

"I'm not sure I'd trust tri to raise children," arr says.

"She may not even understand them, if they are indeed constructs," ro adds. "Twenty is about as many as there has ever been in the monastery. We would be asking them to double their numbers overnight."

"And they can't discipline them," tr says. "It's too large a group. Chances are one of them is bad and wants to take over the world. Any training would have to occur over there, I think. To start with, at the very least."

Various ideas are thrown about, including having the arcanites form a town on the floating islands as a sort of half-way house. arr is uneasy at dooming the race to an imprisoned existence for all time - even if they have no concept of time. He advocates on their behalf, and is insistent upon being forthright right from the beginning. ro sees the risks of hastily allowing the introduction of the race, particularly one so gifted, but arr's stance of honest dialogue resonates with her. tr, mindful of his family's past mistakes, would keep these "children with swords" locked up and Fiery Burst the key, if he thought he could get away with it. He absolutely believes that the less told to the arcanites, the better. One thing that everyone agrees upon: it is as yet too risky to simply allow the arcanites to return to this world, in any number.

The best plan the party can agree upon is to approach Sir Veketh to see if he would be willing to send one or more of Kharag's teachers to the timeless home of the arcanites.

Before they leave, arr, tr and ro contact the Avarriel researcher that is already working on unearthing information concerning the ruelock. To date he has no further news; he has passed messages to his contacts and is seeking information from other cities. He is given another task: research the arcanites.

ro collects the hourglass she ordered, then the three prepare to leave.

"Are you happy taking cal to the monastery?" tr asks ro. "We don't know him all that well. Elondel, fine. tri, fine. They can take care of themselves. But Kharag is a bit different. It's your home."

"It used to be home to all of us," ro says, somewhat wistfully. "To be honest, I don't know where home is right now. As for cal, I think it will be alright. Even if he bore the monastery any ill will, he would not know how to find it on his own."

ro and arr are Teleported to tri by tr. They are joined by lio and cal, then the five use the tower network to visit Kharag Monastery, arriving in the temple basement. They climb the spiral stairs, startling a student who almost sounds the alarm before recognising the alumni paladin. They ask to speak with Sir Veketh.

"Welcome," the venerable dwarven paladin says to the five. "I see your group has changed somewhat." ro introduces lio, an elf of House Larellian, and Calico, a druid of Obad-Hai. Sir Veketh greets each in fluent elven.

"How fares the monastery?" ro asks.

"It has been good. No visitors of note like yourselves. But surely you have not just dropped in to see how we are..?"

"Typical dwarven practicality," ro thinks to herself. "I love it. You always know where you stand with dwarves."

"We have rather a large favour and imposition to ask," ro says. ro and arr talk about the discovery of the race of arcanites: their shape and form, their capabilities, their history. arr reveals Corellon Larethian's words suggesting that the race needs mentoring.

"We are not parents," ro says. "We are not teachers. We know of none better than yourselves in those roles and so we come to ask you for advice, and ask whether you might wish to take on this responsibility for these people, to at least engage with them and give us your best assessment of their personality, their intentions, their ability to integrate into the world."

"I am honoured that you came to us," sv begins. "I might just ask though - have you been to anyone else?"

"The elven queen knows of this race's existence," ro answers, "but you are the first we have approached with regards to integrating and learning about them. Of course, if you wish to involve others from other areas, maybe from Minehome or the elven lands, maybe even from the Silver Hand, I don't know… I leave that entirely to you."

"How many are there?"

"We know of something less than a score, but there are more. It is our gut feeling that that is too many to bring to this world when there are so many unknowns, and hence the idea of having somebody, or a group of people, to go to them. I would not wish to dump eighteen people upon your doorstep."

"Thank you. If they are anything like tr, I appreciate that." This with the faintest suggestion of a smirk.

"They are nothing like me," tr says. "They're elves."

"What is your intention towards these… arcanites?" sv asks.

"To give them a chance," arr replies. "At some point, make a decision on whether to allow them to return to the wider world."

"In tandem with that," ro says, "we will research their history."

"Do you think it is our place to decide whether or not they return?"

"You, as teachers, are possibly the most skilled people to make such an assessment," arr says. "But the decision should probably be made by tr, in conjunction with the authority figure of the land that they will live in."

"Speaking well into whatever future we are heading towards," ro says, "maybe part of the teaching could involve people from other areas and other races, so the arcanites have options for where they would like to go. If it were just teachers from the monastery, then they may feel that this is the place they want to be and I don't know that that is necessarily the best thing for you."

"Thank you for approaching me," sv says. "I am honoured. There is a lot of thinking to be done when considering bringing an entirely new species into the world."

"We have been feeling the same weight," ro says.

"We would need an assessment," sv says, tugging his beard. "Send someone there for a time."

"I would feel uncomfortable leaving them there alone with the arcanites," ro says.

Sir Veketh smiles. "As you wish, Lady Rowaine. In the long run, I can see us needing more than he staff we have at the monastery."

"I am sure we can be of help with resourcing," arr says. "Be that people or money."

"I will think upon this over the course of the day, and will give you my answer tomorrow," sv says.

ro stays at the monastery, to participate in the evening service and to be present should sv have any further questions. arr goes to elondel, tr lio cal to tri.

two other avenues to explore: the tree of the planes, and the rooms in Elondel that are to date inaccessible. tree seems rather inaccessible and quite costly in terms of time. perplexed why tri doesn't know anything about this other tree. perhaps tri was instructed to withhold information, in a similar manner to how she was put to sleep.

tri mothballing: both families roielle and roulae, knowing that they were splitting, decided that neither family should have the power of tri until the families were reunited.

agree to try to get into the rooms. part ways.

in the morning the party regroup at Kharag Monastery to hear sv's response. i think the best course of action is to send a couple of tutors there for a few days. there, they can start their assessment. ro tr are you happy with that? tr yep. arr you will have to measure days some other way; the sun does not travel through the sky as it does here it is perpetual dusk. ro something that we have not investigated is whether we can contact our deities from over there; I would be very interested in knowing that. ro reiterates her desire to stay there for the initial contact. sv i understand that tr is the only one that can get us there? tr yes. sv when would you like us to go? tr whenever you are ready. sv give us a couple of hours to prepare. arr why don't we do some research first? it seems reasonable to do background checks before we send people there. agree to defer. be ready, but party won't be back to collect the away team for at least a couple of days.

party go to elondel.

how may I be of service? elo says he cannot be of much service in opening the door. ro were tr's parents spellcasters? elo yes, his father was an arcane spellcaster and his mother was a divine spellcaster. ro did they head up in that direction together always, or did they sometimes go separately? elo sometimes separately. ro so it is not that they both have to be there and do something. maybe first time though. bring eth? ro husband and wife? possibly. get eth.

doorway into circular room with five other doors spaced around its circumference. Three are open, two are closed - the ones immediately beside the open door opposite the entrance. the doors are smooth, flush-fitting timber with no handles. The open rooms are completely bare, their doorways look like open archways.

have already tried the blood thing to gain access - unsuccessful. fiery burst didn't work either.

- tr by himself, push door. nothing. he goes into an open room. there is some plumbing in it. search. the most remarkable thing about the room is how microscopically clean it is. tr disbelieves possible illusion - nothing. does the same for the other rooms. second room he notices in a corner at the bottom of one of the walls there is the finest of hairline cracks forming a small door. he pushes on it. nothing. ro calls out how you getting on? she comes up. ro remember when we found this place, whatever we looked for we found? some experimentation shows that this is not what is happening. tr have a look at this area here, tell me what you find. tr continues on. in the third room in the same spot tr spies another hairline outline of a small panel at floor level. they are in the external walls. everyone comes up. tr directs them to search the area without telling them what he has found. arr finds the door panels and that the rooms are very clean. ro pushes at a panel, nothing happens. each open room has an ensuite with a toilet and basin. tr takes eth to the two closed doors. tr and eth push slide a door at same time. nothing. tr says "friend" in elven. cal notices that everything glows with alteration and a lesser amount of evocation. each open room has one of these hairline panels. they were found independently. tr looks out the windows. they do not open. the view is as he expects - oval depression with some grass covered at the outskirts by silvery powder. lio is the panel evident from the outside? windows, no curtains. tr goes outside. there are no windows visible from the outside. tr goes back inside, casts Overland Flight, stands beside a window and attempts to cast Dimension Jaunt to the other side. The spell doesn't work. It is a similar effect to Rope Trick. cal goes to one of the windows and slowly touches it. he feels a solid substance that he cannot see. it is not glass. it feels like the other walls in the tower. ro wants to pull the panel but there is nothing to grasp. tr uses Dimension Reach. The panel slides out revealing something like a drawer, some three inches wide, 5 inches deep and 3 inches high. Its left side is open. Inside is a very small metallic spider. looks very similar to an arachtria. not moving. none of its feet are bladey or pointy like the larger arachtria. some of its feet seem to be little cleaning implements. tr sees it starting to rust as he is looking at it. being affected by imithrium? ro we should remove all our imithrium-based equipment and set it aside. tr tries to scrape wooden door with an imithrium dagger. no obvious impression. all imithrium gear put downstairs. tr lets slip to Elondel that there are spiders upstairs. elo there are spiders upstairs? anything I need to know? tr tells about the arachtria that look like they are there to clean the rooms. elo ah that would explain why I was never asked to clean.

ro quickly returns to Kharag Monastery and borrows a plain steel dwarven waraxe and shield. she feels uncomfortable without them in her hands.

tr stands about 18 inches in front of one of the closed doors and tries to Dimension Door to the other side. The spell fails. he does not take damage, therefore the space he opted to transport to was not merely occupied.

ro tries shunting the door transversely in all directions. It doesn't move. tr tries Dimension Reach on the door to pull it; it doesn't move. ro looks for similar hairline cracks in the central area; there are two faintly visible. tr opens one with Dimension Reach and looks inside. the drawer slides out about half its length. this drawer has no back. the recess seems to have no back. there is another spider sitting in the hole. lio offers a Light spell. tr asks for him to cast it on a coin. he drops it into the drawer. tr goes downstairs and asks elo for a mirror. with the coin and the mirror tr sees about 5 spiders in a row, then the shaft turns to the left. tr doesn't think this is the way in, but that there must be a way in. He cannot fathom that his parents would lock it in perpetuity. ro gets tr to check the other drawer. same thing. the only obvious difference are the various cleaning attachments on each of the spiders.

tr tries various phrases at the doors including family names, commands… takes 20 on spellcraft. After thinking about it he believes that they will respond to a certain condition. It doesn't seem like a personal thing, not a phrase, not a spell, but if a certain criterion were met then the doors would be open. tr sends everyone but eth downstairs. nothing changes. everyone back up. ro a possession? a spell in effect? but it would have to be something that both you mother and father could do. it can't just be bloodline or it would have happened by now. it could be a gesture, a body position. have you tried knocking on the door? (nothing happens). tr maybe it is time-based. ro that sounds unwieldy. ro asks elo whether he was asked to go a certain place or do a certain thing when the masters went upstairs. no. tr tells everyone to go downstairs and tr waits outside for nightfall. he waits from midday into the evening. he trances. at one point in the night there were scratching noises from beyond the door.

the next day the door is still stubbornly shut. ro what was unique about your father and mother - a ring? ro asks tr to think upon his venerable self sent back through time - was there any jewellery? no. cal offers to warp the wood of the door. tr declines. door has alteration and divination on it. cal asks for tr to retry with just him in the tower. nothing. ro tells him to take off his shoes. nothing.

tr thinks the one thing that made progress was when they removed their imithrium equipment. ro so it is something to do with the divesting of stuff? try approaching it with no metal at all. everyone waits downstairs while tr heads upstairs with no metal upon his person. he immediately notices that one of the previously closed doors now stands open.

Previous · Next

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License