Letter 04: He Whom The Piper Pays

My dear,
I'm sorry you found my tone in the last letter flippant. I know I should have averted my eyes and not continued to look upwards as Lady Helena and her wonderful thighs walked above me but I didn't so can we not let them come between us.

I'm writing this in a huge pillared hall beneath a grassy knoll in the Cairnlands, a blasted area west of the city of Absalom. This adventure started after a few months of kicking our heels in the city, nothing much happened so I've not had anything to write about. Anyway we were in the Golden Horseshoe, which is most definitely an inn of good repute, listening to our favourite bard Anders. His playing and singing has been declining of late and after a particularly poor performance he came over to us and spilled his heart. It seems he has been having dreams in which he hears a song, a song that he must have the words to. With this he would become famous and rich beyond our wildest dreams. I pointed out that I had had some very wild dreams involving gold, pearls and a number of the serving girls at the Golden Horseshoe but nobody wanted to hear these for some reason. Anyway it seems that he wanted us, "Brave Adventurers" he called us, to travel to a remote location and find the words to this song he was dreaming of. The usual negotiations ensued, he pleaded poverty, we threatened violence and eventually we compromised and he promised us a small pile of gold in return for the lyrics to this song. He also promised to sing our praises as he travelled around the Inner Sea singing this song.

We headed west passing a strange area of magically blasted heath that had turned to volcanic glass and camped in a old Druid's grove (phnarr!) before reaching an inn in the middle of nowhere. It seemed that the manor and the village had fallen into ruin when the old lord died and the family squabbled over the inheritance, only the lawyers coming out with any money at the end of the day. The inn, 'A Turn of a Friendly Card', served good food and ale and the innkeeper and his two customers seemed a friendly bunch, at least they were after they had recovered from the shock of seeing a Helena's pet open the door and go in first. It will be busy wash day in the brother's household if you catch my meaning! The innkeeper spoke of times past when the road was busier but since a group of gnolls took up residence on the knoll few travellers have passed. Until the last few days. Since then they have seen a group of strange pilgrims led by a jester, a party of adventurers and then us. None have returned.

We continued on our way, the knoll was easy to find they said, it is the only one with a ring of trees and a temple of Sarenrae on it. They were right and we were soon planning how to get past the gnolls. It eventually fell to the stealthiest of us, me, to go up first and scout. It seemed that the gnolls were a bit drowsy in the warm sun and we managed to catch the two that were on guard, off guard. We found a trapdoor in the ground in the middle of the temple, open to the sky like all of those dedicated to Sarenrae, and descended into the earth. Also standing amongst the trees was a statue, looked very like one of the party of adventures that the innkeeper spoke of, this shook us a bit and we are not sure what we are up against. We entered, via a flight of stairs a diamond shaped chamber were we fought and beat off several more of the dog like humanoids, think of your cousin Rex but with better personal hygiene, including a hulking great brute of a leader who as he died barked out his name, Arkal Ark'ululuak'araou. What a mouthful! We noticed that each of the gnolls had a tattoo of a jester's hat in red and yellow ink on their forearm. Lucciola made a copy of this on Helena's arm. They also bore shields with the strange device of a crowned crow on a red field. We don't know if these images are significant but Lucciola sketched them on a sheet of parchment just in case.

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We now had a chance to look around the chamber. Short passages led off to the north, east and west while the walls between were decorated with murals. To the north east a man walks towards snow covered mountains under a leaden sky, bowed down by a load of firewood strapped to his back. To the south east the same general landscape but here a similar man is ploughing a field behind a pair of long horned oxen. To the south west the field is full of wheat, and a man stands amongst them shooing off a flock of crows. To the north east, stoops of grain stand in an empty field; the man stands with his back to you a scythe over his shoulder. The floor was decorated with a mosaic of a sun surrounded with flames. There were two more of the lifelike statues, each resembling others of the missing adventurers. One was kneeling by a wall which had a flock of doves carved on it. Lucciola was inspired to press one of the doves realising that doves are a attribute of Sarenrae. This caused a door to open and reveal another chamber.

This chamber was dominated by four large plain pillars from which strange energies flashed forming a cage in which we could glimpse another figure. As we approached the figure spoke to us

“Gods! You have one of THEM with you! Do not trust them! You must tell my master of this place. Find the belt – they must be allowed to keep it! Go to the Tavern of No Doors. Tell Sairyel the Hurricane, Lord of the Vortex Drakes that I have found the gate but I do not have the key. Do not cross the beams.”

We asked many questions but got only cryptic answers before he vanished.

The Tavern with No Doors? “In my pack, there is a card. Show it to any tavern owner that displays the sign. They will show you the path”.
Who is he? “I am Carsten a Dragon Knight of the Order of the Vortex.”
What is he doing there? “We came seeking the Harvest Belt, but others got here before us.”
Can we help you? “Do as I ask, Sairyel will send help.”
Them? “Can’t you see it? It’s right there beside you!”
What happened to the others? “The Servants of the Crimson King or the Black Queen, go before they return!”
The Belt? “I had it, but they took it.”
Who took it?/Who are They? “Servants of the Crimson King or the Black Queen, they returned to the depths.”

We found the backpack - someone or something had ravaged it but hidden inside we found a card, the three of coins and took this with us, possibly the inn by the road, which showed a card on its sign may be the one that Carsten is referring to.

The north passage from the main chamber led to an round domed chamber with an altar. The atar was filthy but Miria cleaned it and we found that the lid would lift up and inside we found the place where the Harvest Belt may have been stored. The final exit led to a well chamber stuffed with refuse. Adyel explored the well using the bucket and a rather interesting crystal. Adyel is being rather mysterious about this so I will pay more attention to her in the future.

The crystal somehow communicates with Adyel because she was able to find two secret doors. One near the waterline the other near the top. She opened the one at the bottom, the blooming crystal has legs by the way, but this was trapped and a blade cut the rope sending the bucket and the crystal into the water! Fortunately the crystal was able to climb back up the shaft and activate the second of the secret doors that opened and connected with the top of the shaft via a nifty ramp. This meant that we didn't have to go through the tedious tie up the cat dangle it on a rope until it went through the door business this time.

The passage zigged and zagged until eventually ended at a door with a carved bulls head on it. I failed to spot the trap that was on the doors and we got pushed back by a magical force that left us bruised and wounded. We got the doors open and we were attacked by a group of skeletons armed with notched and rusty swords and wearing leather breastplates bearing the symbol of a black crown.
While we were fighting these skeletons a larger one wearing a helm crafted to resemble a bulls head emerged from another room.

If it hadn't been for Lucciola and Dio we would have been in trouble, our blades and bolts slipped between the bones while Dio's jaws and Lucciola's staff crunched and shattered them.

A large pair of double doors led from this chamber into a huge pillared hall where we were attacked by more undead! These were more fleshy and had a hunger about them and we were fortunate to defeat them before we became a supper. I spotted there was something strange about the door and found another jester's hat glyph this one carved into a doorpost with the word 'Jing' below it. Also there seemed to be a disconnection between this pillared hall and the chamber with the skeletons in. We thought about this for a while before retiring to a small chamber off of the skeleton room where we could secure the door and rest. This is where I am writing this before I also get some rest. Hopefully we will press on through the pillared hall.

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We have much to discover, who is the jester? Who are the those represented by the black crown and the crowned crow? Will we find the words to Ander's music? Will we find the Harvest Belt? Where is the inn with no doors and how would you get in?. Too many questions for a mind too tired to think.

Hugs.
GG

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