Session Number: 143
Date: Sunday 19 August 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
Four arachtria march down the cleared path towards the party in the dead end room. tr stows the metal box in har's saddlebag. "As long as there are no arachtria in the oval room," thinks tr, "the door should be open." He casts Dimension Door and transports the group. They appear next to the sentient door, which is indeed open. arr stands on the other side. "Glad to see you!" he says.
"Ssssssh…" tr says, eyeballing the five arachtria standing on the cleared path in the far room. ro dismisses har, then calls for someone to Entangle the doorway opposite. She then steps forward, brandishing her obsidian-edged axe and standing guard.
The arachtria scrabble and turn around towards the noise. cal casts Entangle inside the overgrown room and then moves backwards through the door. lio follows, bow bent, holding his arrow for a clear shot. arr casts Recitation and then moves further away.
tr grabs ro's belt and attempts to drag her through the door with him, but ro stands steadfast like a dwarven defender. "Don't make me come after you!" tr says, then moves through the door, making sure ro's path is clear. ro follows. "Somebody give me something to throw!" she yells. She briefly considers throwing her axe, but the cost of losing the weapon far outweighs the dubious benefit of a minor hit. She casts Bull's Strength on herself and stands firm. The arachtria scuttle into the oval room… and the door snaps shut.
"i am very pleased to see you guys," arr says. ro briefly clasps his forearm while tr approaches the door. He bashes it with a clenched fist. "Is that all you got?" he yells.
ro places a hand on tr's shoulder, then listens at the door. She cannot hear anything.
"Ask the door what's going on on the other side," lio suggests. cal obliges, casting Speak with Plants. He repeats the question.
"What side?" the door replies.
"Why are you closed?"
"Because metal is close."
"Metal not here."
"Metal is close!"
"Where is metal?"
"Close! I close when metal close. Close fast!"
"Are you able to open when metal close?"
"I close when metal close."
"Can you open while metal close?"
"I don't know what i can do. but I close fast when metal close!"
cal briefly recounts the conversation to the others before asking for suggestions.
"Do you choose to close?" ro asks. "Is it under your control?" cal relays the question.
"What is choose? What is control?"
tr: Don't tell arr about this or he will want to set the door free.
"How do you know when metal is close?" cal asks.
"I know."
"How?"
"I just know."
"Has there been anybody going through this doorway with metal?" asks ro.
"Close when metal. Metal not go through. Not through me! NO! Close fast."
ro tries another approach. "When we came through before, we had metal in a backpack that you should not have been able to see. Did you see it? It was the only metal on our person."
"Metal? I see metal. I close when metal. I see metal."
"You see metal now?"
"Yes."
"Is it moving?"
"Yes."
"Is it trying to damage you?"
"Yes!"
"Are you going to survive that?"
"Yes," the door says in a disparaging tone.
"Has this happened a lot?"
"They do this sometimes."
"When no one here," cal says, "are you open or closed?"
"When no metal, I open. When metal, I close. Fast."
The party give up interrogating the door and instead turn their thoughts to the box, hopefully safe with har. ro wishes to remain on watch at the door.
"I don't think we need to worry about the door," tr says. "It's been safe for thousands of years."
"It wasn't even scratched, was it?" ro says. "Still, you know me. I won't feel comfortable leaving it unguarded."
The others head downstairs. tr has elo prepare a meal. arr takes up a portion for ro.
"So what do we do now?" arr says, handing ro a food-laden plate.
"There's not much to do," ro answers. "We are not due to rendezvous with the arcanites for another two days. The teachers from the monastery, Fort Rannick, Trennim and Avarriel have been organised. Nothing else springs to mind. What was that phrase from that dwarven battle novel? 'Smoke 'em if you got 'em'?"
The next day, ro summons har. It worked - the box is still in her saddlebags. ro hands it to tr, who gives it to elo.
"Open this, would you?"
"Certainly, sir," elo replies. One end of the box melts away at his touch. He reaches in and pulls out three books and a wooden object on the end of a necklace. He hands the items to tr.
The smaller of the three books is entitled "Journal" and has a date on its cover in a format that he doesn't understand. tr sets it aside. The other two books are untitled.
tr places the necklace over his neck and moves towards the stairs. "Anyone coming?" he says? The rest follow.
tr pauses at the threshold of the upper level's hallway. All the doors are closed. He takes a deep breath, then steps forward. The last door opens. The room beyond is unlit, but the ambient light from the hallway reveals it as living quarters with a bed and a closet.
"Would you like some time alone?" ro asks gently.
"Yep."
tr enters and looks around. He stands in his parents' bedroom, thousands of years old. He sees all the things he expects to see in a bedroom. There are no books. Everything is incredibly well-preserved. He sees a cleaning drawer in the wall opposite. tr steps out, unwilling to disturb the scene. Wordlessly, he and the others return downstairs.
tr examines the other two larger tomes. They appear to be spellbooks. One he cannot fathom at all - he can understand the elven words, but not what they all mean. The other has a number of more recognisable spells. He hands the journal to elo, then becomes absorbed in the spellbooks.
Later, elo advises tr that eth wishes to speak to him.
"I may have found out something about the ruelock," eth says. "Nothing tangible yet, just a lead that I am following up."
The next day, the party pick up the human and dwarven teachers from Kharag Monastery, and the elven teachers from tri. The teachers number seven in total: two dwarves, two elves, two humans from Trennim and one human Silver Arrow. all go to the floating mountains, go to building. inside is still the larger size. no sign that anyone else has been here - even of their previous visits. go through. dusk. make the way to the arcanite village. the teachers want the party to stay for at least the first day, after which they will make a judgement call whether they want them to stay on longer. tr has his two new spellbooks to pore over. arr asks whether they plan to do any religious instruction. they all do: cl, mor, pelor.
break treeline and head towards the hills. see a flying humanoid. it is kano. welcomes them. kan although my name is not kano any more. looks really proud. arr what is your name? kan kanosel. arr why the name change? kan because I got older. he appears very happy. ro you are not in full possession of your memory? kan no. ro how many times does this happen in an arcanite's lifetime?
kan our name gets longer as we get older. it depends on the person. ro who has the longest name that you know of? kan sha. sharionallon. ro is it recognition that you are now older? kan I guess so. ro sounds like a birthday. kan what is a birthday? ro explains.
travel to town. ro what has happened? kan everyone is excited about all the stuff we have learned, as well as the possibility of leaving. ro are you heading back into the village? is that where you came from? kan no a few of us were over there playing some games. would you like to join us? tr sure. ro useful detour? asks teachers. feel free to check it out if you want but we would like to go straight to the village. ro and tr split off and follow kan. cal asks if he can tag along. tr is not keen.
teachers and co pass hills and statue. see trenches in distance - about the same number. go to village. some arcanites fetch sha. arr introduces the teachers. they then take over. the party are occasionally asked to assist.
kan are we going to fly there or walk? tr how many trenches will it take to walk? kan not more than one. ro it's a lovely 'day'. she looks up. "Does it ever rain here? Do you know what rain is?" kan the teachers talked about it - water from the sky. ro does it happen here? kan no. ro where does the water from the stream come from? kan I don't know.
kan talks while he walks. he is quite excitable. after about an hour see three more arcanites sitting on the ground in a clearing next to a forest. they see kan and beckon everyone over. they have 2 dice that were left over from last time. they appear to be gambling. one bids teaching the others how to shoot a stream into the air and blast through a floating rock. others counterbid. others are from kan's group; one is his mentor. they both visited the village. whoever loses then has to show the others how to do the trick. ro and tr invited to join. tr no thanks we will just watch until we understand the rules properly. ro and tr watch. roll dice 10-20 mins they seem to be having a lot of fun. starts off with showing stuff; the teaching happens later. one wager was over turning earth into rock. lifts up a mound of earth, clenches his fist and the earth compacts and turns into rock. the game is fairly evenly matched; kan may be just pulling ahead. ro tr, does anyone appear to be cheating? they both have a look. hard to tell if anyone is cheating. tr considers modifying a roll magically to see if they notice… but would the spell go awry? chooses not to risk it. each game takes about a half hour. wait to see the teaching process. ask kan when the teaching happens. kan later. tr in trenches? kan lots of trenches. whenever we have time. tr can you show me how to do something? kan I kind of don't want to. it is what I have learned. perhaps we could do a trade? tr no that's fine. kan maybe after this when I have some time maybe I can show you something. tr is quite interested in whether their skills can be taught - especially when they leave there. kan this is going to go on for a couple of trenches. ro I wouldn't want to delay a whole day, but I can wait that long. they wait.
nothing else interesting happens back at the village. teaching continues. and lunch.
games finish. magic increases in strength with every iteration. creating fire, adding it to material such as trees, conjuring up material. It all appears to be about creating things, it is not destructive. tr sees that their magic is innate, like breathing and flexing muscles is to him. there are no components to speak of. They will something and it happens: it is more akin to psionics than arcane or divine magic.
everyone else leaves except for kan. kan what did you think? ro I couldn't do that. kan do you want to join in next time? tr no… kan did you want me to teach you how to do something? tr your magic is different to ours, I wanted to see how different it is. I don't really mind if you don't want to. kan I can show you some stuff. can you lift earth? ro not the way you do it. kan shakes himself loose then extends his hand. kan you know how in your mind you tend to think about stuff… think about the earth moving, lifting, and nothing else. think about just that. the hand gestures help with that, I need to do the gestures or it won't work. I don't know why. ro is that true of all of you? kan from what I know, yes. there may be some of us who have learned to do it without the gestures. tr any other tips you can give us to understand what it is that you do? kan we practice a lot. tr alright let's give it a shot.
both ro and tr have a go. int check tr 10 ro 13!!! nothing happens. kan if you practice this for a couple of trenches, you might be able to lift it a little. ro can you see whether we are doing anything wrong? kan thinking like that is personal; I can't check your thinking. try to think of nothing else.
tr and ro walk back. on the way tr considers what he might need to do to make this magic work. also converse with kan. tr believes the ability is specific to kan and his kind, rather than the area. make it back to the village. arr anything interesting happen? ro they've learned to gamble. so we have really positively influenced them so far! they don't seem to have any concept of money yet. arr what were they gambling for? ro to increase their own magical knowledge. to share their magical ideas. arr so they don't normally share these ideas? ro from what kan has been saying, no. arr what did Detect Magic reveal? tr i haven't cast any spells since getting here. ro have you or the teachers cast any spells? arr no I have just been helping. ro have you communicated that to the teachers - that magic goes awry? we probably should!
it is early afternoon. tr spends the rest of the day trying to dig a trench with the power of his mind. arr keeps his eyes peeled for any arcanite magic, ready to cast Detect Magic if he sees any.
