Letter 06: A Chickens and Eggs Situation

Dearest,
I've found the most fabulous inn which I must take you some time you can order any food you like and it gives a whole new meaning to 'All Day Breakfast'. But I'm jumping ahead of myself. We spent much of today wandering around a labyrinthine complex of rooms and corridors and something tells me that we didn't find all the secrets that were buried beneath the Cairnlands.

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We started from the place of refuge (8)and headed south and discovered another way into the the columned entrance hall (1) that still held the bat swarm that did so much damage to those poor ponies. Carrying on south we came to another door that opened onto a room that was about an inch deep in soot (10). It appeared to one of my more arcane minded companions that someone had opened a gate to the Elemental Plane of Fire in the centre of the room. This may have explained the melted stone work and the incinerated doors.
The next room (11) was even more strange, it was possibly the largest one we visited today but was not what made it strange. One door led back to the entrance hall while the one to the west had a fist holding several javelins painted onto it. That was still not the strange thing. Kissara discovered that the floor, which was covered in gritty debris was made of glass. Thick, greenish glass. She had swept away a bit of the debris and peered through the glass.

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She said that she saw a glow below the glass and then a strange creature, like a huge bulging eye with tentacles each of which held another eye floated up, looked at her for a few moments than drifted back down into the void again.
Ignoring the door with fist for the moment we headed south through a wooden door. I must admit I am getting a little sore from pressing my head against wood all day long. The corridor (12) appeared empty at first apart from a fire blackened skeleton and a sword in a sooty scabbard. There was a door in the opposite wall and another at the far east end of the corridor. We were about to step through into the corridor when a wall of fire appeared at the west end of the passage and moved swiftly towards us! Miria bravely leapt in and grabbed the blade while I dragged the skeleton back into the glass floored room. The blade was of masterwork quality at least and did not appear to have been damaged by the flames, though the blade was as black as a starless night. The skeleton was probably an elf or maybe a half-elf, it was so charred that it was hard to tell. It had a gold medallion, probably a holy symbol of some kind fused by the heat of the fire into its breastbone.
The next question was how to get past the wall of fire and through one or other of the doors. We spent some time observing the passage of the fire before diving across to the door opposite. It was locked so I had to make a second attempt. Unfortunately one trap followed upon another and I was splashed with a lot of green, acidic goo that burst from the chamber beyond the door. It filled the corridor to an inch or two's depth and fortunately stopped the wall of fire. The chamber revealed (13) was empty apart from a shining iron chest. The chest contained a nice pile of treasure; silver and gold coins, some chunks of jasper and a masterwork war-hammer. The chest had a false bottom1 which concealed a scroll of identify.
To allow us to traverse the acidic goo filled corridor we used the remains of the incinerated doors and the gritty waste in the room with the glass floor.
By this point I had to admit that I was filthy, covered from head to foot in soot, goo and grit. It was lucky then that the next room we found contained a large cistern of water. (14) The edge was rather slippery and so after Kissara had filled her water skin I just jumped in and sluiced myself down before climbing back out and exited through the door in the north wall. Everyone else did the same so I hope that the denizens of the dungeon don't want a nice refreshing drink in the next few years while the water cleans itself up.
For the next few hours we traversed a seemingly endless maze of passages. Lucciola's 'Spirit Sense' determined that several of the doors we found in this region had undead behind them so rather than bursting in and destroying them as perhaps we should have done, we moved on.
We then came to another rather strange chamber. This one (15)had archways that opened onto a bare 10' by 20' room. One arch depicted male, human faces, the other female, human faces. By a process of elimination, which involved such scientific methods as people repeatedly walking into an invisible forcefield, tossing coins through the arches and most bizarrely of all tying a rope to a summoned snake and slinging that into the forcefield we worked out that only male humans could pass through the archway with the male human faces on it, and only female humans could pass through the one with female human faces on it. Come on it wasn't alchemical science was it!! Our only two proud examples of the human race, Lady Helena2 and Lucciola3 entered the chamber.
They reported back saying that the chamber was sumptuously decorated with soft cushions and scented candles. A mosaic on the ceiling was a further point of interest. A jester’s hat in red and gold was surrounded by a shifting series of abstract patterns similar to that seen through a kaleidoscope.
Passing by more, or the same, rooms containing undead we got rather hung up in a long narrow room4 (19)which had many rusty, hooked, iron chains hanging from the ceiling and attached to winches by sturdy hemp ropes. As soon as we entered the chains animated and attacked us. Lucciola and I were caught by the chains and we were winched to the ceiling. Miria bravely strode in and with a mighty slash severed both the ropes sending us tumbling back to the ground while Kissara tried to control the ropes by using a mage handitalic text spell. She then used the spell to wind all the chains to the ceiling allowing us to pass unhindered through the room.

In the he next room e found a group of troglodytes in the process of smashing up some strange skeletal statues (18). Without giving the lizard like creatures a chance to explain their actions we slew them all. While we searched the room Kissara put some of the broken statues back together and using a combination of the parties knowledge of religion and the planes we worked out that these statues represented the mysterious creature known as Ayrzul, or the Fossilized King, who rules the realm known as the Blistering Labyrinth on the Elemental Plane of Earth. It has been said that he has never been seen outside his realm, giving rise to speculation that he is somehow bound to the region. He is often attributed with demigod-like powers.
It appears that the he Blistering Labyrinth is an isolated region of the Elemental Plane of Earth. Its boundaries are dotted with the fossilised bones of hapless visitors. His origin is unknown. Some believe he is a powerful earth elemental, but other rumours claim he is a shaitan wizard, an undead crystal dragon, or even a fragment of the dead god Ydersius. In truth, he is one of the four powerful beings collectively known as the Elemental lords. The stone of the Blistering Labyrinth gives off a strange radiation that kills most life-forms. True fire elementals and mephits are immune to this effect, so sometimes use this region as a refuge.

Or so Lucciola told us.

Passing through an area (16) which had chains and manacles attached to scratched and bloodstained pillars we came to a room where even the most cloth-eared of us could hear something strange. Beyond the wooden doors we could hear thunder and the sound of falling rain. Opening the door we saw a thick black cloud from which lightning struck a 5' cube of pitted black iron while torrential rain fell but did not wet the ground. we puzzled about this for a while before exiting though the west door into a pillared chamber (20)the walls of which were lined with numerous small cupboards.

So far we had seen no sign of anything that could have been linked to our original quests. No lyrics for Anders, no belt to take to the Vortex Lord (though we thought for a while that the storm might have been him) and no sign of the Tavern with no Doors. We checked all the cupboards and found very little of interest.

Stepping through a door in the south-west corner of this area we found another odd feature a huge stone gateway constructed of three massive, crudely hewn stones. (21) Devoid of any features we were puzzled with what we could do. Lucciola, our resident expert on these matters spent a while studying the stones while we looked out through the door in the opposite corner. This opened onto a wide pillared hallway (22), possibly used for weapon training and jousting if the furnishing were anything to go by. Returning back to the gateway Lucciola explained his thoughts. He suggested that his studies pointed towards this being a portal that could take us "somewhere we desired to go" but there were limitations as to where we could go but what those limitations were was no clear. By using his strange magicks and calling upon Sarenrae to guide us he asked to be taken to the location of the Harvest Belt. We joined hands and stepped through, not knowing where we would end up and partially thinking that we would just be on the other side of the room looking stupid.

It worked.

We ended up scattered haphazardly around a chamber (23) which we had not seen before, but we were not the only occupants.

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Several hideous creatures, undead by their general demeanour and stench shared the chamber with us, along with a lot of debris; broken urns, shattered chests and coffins and such like. The creatures were tough and their very touch seemed to cause a weakness of body and spirit. You'll be pleased to hear that I stood well away and peppered them with arrows from a distance. Lucciola took the brunt of the attacks, she materialised in the midst of several of them and she was badly drained by the end of the combat. It seemed that normal healing spells had no effect on the weakness the creatures caused so we had no option but to wait to see what we could do on our return to Absalom.

We searched the room and found the body of a many, partially eaten amongst the wreckage. He had two notes on his person both of which were pertinent to our expedition.
The first was a note, written in a tired and fading hand:

“Don’t touch the idol, the eyes have been returned”
“The fire corridor, the sword of Athar lies there”
“There is no way across the River of Fire”
“Beware the beast below the Glass Floor, it sees all”
“Who holds the key? The Jester or the Pattern Juggler?”
“Who will prevail, the King or the Queen, both are powerful beyond measure”
“I saw another one of them in the shrine beneath the knoll, they do not know what tracks them, or do they? Perhaps they are the greatest enemy”
“If anyone finds this please return it to the Tavern with No Doors, my master the Vortex Lord will pay you well. Carsten”

The second appeared to be the lyrics that Anders wanted!

The rusted chains of prison moons
Are shattered by the sun.
I walk a road, horizons change
The tournament's begun.
The purple piper plays his tune,
The choir softly sing;
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue,
For the court of the crimson king.

The keeper of the city keys
Put shutters on the dreams.
I wait outside the pilgrim's door
With insufficient schemes.
The black queen chants
The funeral march,
The cracked brass bells will ring;
To summon back the fire witch
To the court of the crimson king.

The gardener plants an evergreen
Whilst trampling on a flower.
I chase the wind of a prison ship
To taste the sweet and sour.
The pattern juggler lifts his hand;
The orchestra begins.
As slowly turns the grinding wheel
In the court of the crimson king.

On soft grey mornings widows cry
The wise men share a joke;
I run to grasp divining signs
To satisfy the hoax.
The yellow jester does not play
But gently pulls the strings
And smiles as the puppets dance
In the court of the crimson king.

Around Carsten's body was the Harvest Belt. We searched a door, hidden behind a large pile of debris, and found a room (24) containing more treasure including a flayed Minotaur skin that would look great on the floor in our new house. Packing all this up we headed back to the exit, travelling via the strange cushioned chamber that Lady Helena judged to have healing properties but even this could not heal Lucciola's woes. Keeping the belt out of sight we passed through the glass floored chamber but there was no sign of the floating eye this time. Using as much stealth as we could muster we crept through the columned hall and managed not to disturb the roosting bats.

Returning to the surface, Lucciola placed the belt in the reliquary in the altar and prayed briefly but this had no apparent effect so we made our weary way to the tavern on the road out of Absalom, The Turn of a Friendly Card.

As before there were just the three occupants and it seems some wager had been placed on our not returning. Lady Helena showed the card found in Carsten's pack to the innkeeper and the man's demeanour changed instantly. Instead of a bumbling yokel a serious faced factorum stood before us. He ushered us through a curtained door into a corridor, “The way is dark, but have no fear there is nothing to hinder you", he said as we passed through the curtain…

… and into a huge taproom at least a hundred feet wide and possibly three times as long. Despite its size it was warm and welcoming and very busy with all sorts of people, and monsters!5 We were approached by a man who named himself Arkle, innkeeper and owner of this place, The Tavern With No Doors and once we mentioned our mission we were ushered into what we thought was a curtained, private booth but what turned out to be a ledge overlooking a massive cavern. Perched on a rocky pinnacle some hundred feet away was an ancient blue dragon, with silver spines and golden eyes. We spoke for a while about this and that, gave him the belt for safe keeping, Carsten's note and showed him the lyrics. The belt it seems is part of a collection of items known as the Panoply of Might and it would be a Bad Thing for the whole collection to come into the hands of the likes of the Crimson King or the Black Queen. It seems that Sairyel has had dealings with them before and was not happy that they were raising their heads to trouble the world again. He seemed generally upset to hear of Carsten's death and for our efforts rewarded us with membership of the Order of Tarot, giving us our own card the Two of Swords which will give us access to the Tavern With No Doors when ever we need it. He also had a sense of humour, giving Ziyana a magical dart when she asked for a small magic item. He cured Lucciola of the strange weakness and a sack containing one thousand platinum pieces before dismissing us.

I'm quite tired now and I need to go out and stock up on ink and parchment as well as other items. I have enough coin now to return and live a comfortable life but I don't feel ready yet. This strange mismatched group I've found myself with is too much fun to leave yet, I feel we have many more adventures before us and I want to be part of them so I have many more tails to tell our children and grand children before the fire on a dank night.

Look after yourself,
GG xxx

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