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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 4017311" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #18 – “The Broken Circle” (part 1 of 3) [sup]1[/sup] Down and down the corkscrewing tunnel Telémahkos slid, crawled and climbed.  The rest of the Signers of the Charter of Schiereiland waited in the cavern above, Timotheus holding the end of a rope that Telémahkos was no longer tied to.  One hundred feet was not enough, so Telie had untied himself and continued.“You alright down there?” Timotheus called down.Telémahkos called back that he was just fine.  The tunnel itself was through muddy earth that crumbled and slid, occasionally releasing brief torrents of silty water, illuminated by his lantern.  Eventually, the tunnel opened into a much larger cavern hundreds of feet below the one the rest of the Signers awaited.  The tunnel came in about five feet off the larger cavern floor.  Another larger tunnel went off to the left, while the cavern stretched into darkness in front of him.  He could hear the water crashing from the chamber high above into a black lake.Judging this a safe enough place from which to launch further exploration, he began the difficult climb back up.“How long do we wait until we begin to worry?” Timotheus asked Bleys, looking at the gash in the earth his cousin had disappeared down.“Are you worried now?” Bleys asked.“A little.”“It has not be long enough to worry,” the watch-mage replied flatly.Telémahkos emerged from the tunnel a mud-man, his blues eyes shining out from a thick layer of brown that was slicked up and down his body.  He described the place he had found, but Laarus and Victoria looked at the filthy Briarius dubiously.“What about up that way?” Victoria of Anhur pointed up the slick jagged shaft from which the halting waterfall came.  “It goes up.  It might be a way out.”“I can’t climb it,” Telémahkos replied.“You seem an adept climber,” Victoria said, her eyes narrowed.“I mean, I might be able to climb it, but it’d dangerous,” Telémahkos explained.  “Too dangerous for me… How do you expect to get up there if there happens to be a way out?”“We have a rope,” Victoria said.“I’m not doing it,” Telémahkos refused.The rest of the Signers took up the debate.  Markos thought checking out the shaft might be worth a try, while Timotheus sided with his cousin.“It seems too treacherous,” Laarus said, and Bleys nodded.“Then let’s just pick a route,” Markos said, shifting his weight to his other foot and slipping his bag off his shoulder onto the damp floor. “Ugh, my bag’s heavy…”“I’ll carry it for you,” Timotheus offered, stepping over to scoop it up with his muscled arms, but Markos pulled it away and slung back onto his back.“No!” Markos snapped and then caught himself and changed his demeanor. “I mean, thanks, but I got it …”“Have it your way,” Timotheus replied, and he turned to the others.  “If we’re going to go down then I’m going first.” With that he marched over to the tunnel and confidently strode in, raising his hands to brace himself against the crumbly muddy walls.  He was no more than five or six steps in when he lost his footing and began a long painful slide down the tunnel in the dark.  Timotheus was barely able to stop himself, sensing the colder air of the great cavern at the end. But he misjudged as he stretched his arms forward to get a sense of how much room he had, and tumbled onto the muddy bank of the lake beyond.Timotheus had long moments in the dark and his ears grew accustomed to the drips and drops of the nearby water. Suddenly, he thought he heard voices, and then he was certain.Bleys the Aubergine came next followed by his radiant spark, he flew into the mud with no elegance.“Here, let me help you up…” Timotheus offered a hand, grinning even wider than usual. “But keep it down, I thought I heard voices…”Bleys’ light revealed that they were on the bank of a dark lake of swirling water.  It stretched way back into the darkness, and water ran down the black walls.  There was another passage running off to the left through a limestone wall in a gradual curve, disappearing into darkness beyond.“Where?” Bleys asked in a whisper that still felt overloud in the cavernous open.“Out there…” Timotheus gestured to the left side of the lake, where ceiling curved down low, making the overhead clearance just under nine feet.  To the right the ceiling ranged up forty feet or more.Markos and Crusta came down next, sliding down with him locked between her legs and her flabby hair-covered arms wrapped about his shoulders and head.  As Bleys’ spell ended, he was forced to light his lantern and hold it up.Victoria of Anhur ended a particularly bumpy ride with a bone-shaking landing on her backside.  Dunlevey climbed out with no troubles, but Tymon, who was after him, went shooting out to the lake edge, sliding painfully across the rock-littered muck.  Laarus of Ra suffered a similar indignant journey, though Bleys and Victoria were able to keep him from flying too far out of the muddy hole.  Falco was second to last, and finally Telémahkos made the trip down again.Telémahkos and Dunlevey heard the echoed murmur of voices as well.  The voices floated over the subterranean lake.  Rather than deal with the lake, the Signers of the Charter of Schiereiland marched down the side passage, but found that soon after it curved it grew very steep and led to a caved in area.  There would be no going out that way.  They made their way back to the lake and Bleys the Aubergine suggested they make camp here.“We should check out those voices,” Timotheus said. “Well, how deep is the water?” Victoria. “Perhaps we can look into where the voices are coming from.”  She walked over to the edge of the water and then stepped in to about knee height.  She used her longspear to check the depth.  It was not much deeper within reach of her weapon.  Now she heard the voices again.  It was two voices talking to each other intermittently.  The language was unintelligible, but clearly the sound came from a muddy nook on an inside wall where the shape of the cave bent and turned in many directions, water and silt lapping in its many niches.“I’ll lead the way,” Timotheus said, wading past her. Thirty yards from the bank, Tim came to a ragged niche where the mud embankment met the earth and stone roots of the hill above them. By the light now shining from Victoria’s spear, the bold Briareus noted a hole in the mud about three feet in diameter.  The voices came once again, but still seemed muffled. They were further away than whatever lay beyond this hole.  Timotheus began to climb up into it, and slipping disappeared down in the hole, bringing a sluice of water and mud with him.  He slammed on a flat stone floor, with a bit of light from Victoria’s spear reaching him down the narrow tunnel he had just fallen through. It was about seven or eight feet long and high up on the wall of this chamber, whatever it was.He scrambled up to his feet, feeling a coin (or something similar) slip out from under his boot. He heard the voices again.  They were loud and foreign.  The language was mellifluous for the most part, but broken by had guttural suffixes and interjections.  It was vaguely familiar.“Tim!” Telémahkos hissed his cousin’s name from the mouth of the hole.  Seeing Tim disappear, he had hurried ahead and leapt up to the hole, but his balance was much better.  Timotheus climbed back into the hole, and Telémahkos reached a hand to help him up.  The larger warrior could feel the hole getting larger as he kicked big chunks of mud into the room behind.  They decided to stop in the tunnel, and Victoria handed up the lantern passed up by Bleys.  Tim’s jaw dropped when he raised the lantern to look into the room he had fallen into.There were piles of treasure!  Hundreds, if not thousands of copper and silver coins, jewelry amid musty sacks, a large statue of an angel made from Sardonyx, and some common brass mugs and cutlery.“It’s a dragon’s hoard!” Timotheus said, his grin stretching across his face even wider than normal. He whispered through the hole what he saw, and then he heard the voices again.  Raising the lantern, Tim saw that the left wall of the chamber was actually the back of some kind of false wall.  The voices came from the other side. They did speak in a foreign language.  He could not identify it.One after one they climbed into the secret chamber, the rent in the wall getting bigger with each person through, until there was a constant stream of muck spilling in as well.  Telémahkos crept over near the false wall and listened.  “It’s Rubar,” he hissed, and gestured to Tymon join him.  The portly man stumbled over as Victoria fell ungracefully from the hole, and the voices were suddenly quiet.  Timotheus stepped over and grabbed the militant before she splashed into the growing pool of muck.“Did the earth just move or was it just me?” He smiled as he looked in her face, brought close to his by the awkwardness of the fall and his rush to catch her.“It was just you,” she frowned and firmly pushed his arms away.  His smile never dying, Tim started looking through the loot, as Telémahkos found a spy hole in the false wall and was able to see out some. There was a chamber beyond that was reached from two sides, though a thick curtain covered one passage.  There was a figure in silhouette, dressed in armor of some kind and armed with a scimitar.  The figure wore a scarf or turban about his head.  A second, similarly dressed figure entered the room and they began to talk, both looking to the wall nervously.Tymon did his best to translate what could be heard.“Is he coming?” the first one asked.“Yes.”“Was he with the old woman again? Or Eton?” the first one asked.  “I do not think they are to be trusted.”“The Marked One trusts them,” the second one replied, sternly. “That is enough…”“Did you overhear if they plan to bring the slaves here?” the first one was asking, when a third figure arrived, taller than the others.“Oh no!” Tymon turned to the chamber and stepped away from the false wall when he heard the third man speak. “They are checking the wall!  They are coming!” Telémahkos hissed, drawing the Steel Whip.“They didn’t know this room was here,” Tymon added, even as the door opened.  It was actually not quite much of a door, rather one of the men on the other side grabbed a section of wall and moved it over by brute strength, Telémahkos did not hesitate.  As the other turban-wearing warrior stepped through, the dexterous young noble flicked his rapier out and found a space between scales in the man’s armor.  The man grunted as the blade slid in and the armor protested, giving way to a bloom of blood from his abdomen. [sup]2[/sup]“Ready! Ready! Ready!” The voices of the Signers of Charter of  Schiereiland rang out one after another, having become used to the tactic of Markos’ pyrotechnics spell, and shutting their eyes.“Tymon! Tell them to surrender!” Bleys added, and the manservant cried out in the alternately mellifluous and guttural language of the <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Rubes" target="_blank">Rubes</a>.“Pyroclastus lux!” Markos cast and his torch gave off a flash of light.  The dervish behind the false wall/door was protected, as was the larger man, clearly the leader (and drawing a mean-looking great sword from his back).  The man Telémahkos stabbed was not as lucky.  Blinded, Telémahkos struck him again, and then withdrew.And they were clearly dervishes.  The two men kept their armor tied tight to their bodies with sashes of red and gold, and wore bright red scarves expertly tied upon their heads. The relentless sun of the Disputed Territories browned their skin.  The tall man wore no turban, letting his long black hair hang near his broad shoulders, despite having the front part of his head shaved to the scalp. He was disfigured by a burn scar on the right side of his face that appeared to be made by some hot metal rod having been pressed there. It reached from under his eye to his chin, nearly obscuring the countless other smaller scars and scratches all over his face and body, including a scar on his neck that looked as if it was less than an inch from killing him. He was also missing his left ear. He wore a bronze breastplate. “Tymon! Tell them!” Bleys commanded again, letting an arrow loose through the doorway.  The scarred man winced as the missile bounced painfully off the bracers on his forearms.“I tried!” Tymon whined in reply.“Ethan! Ethan! Intruders!” The scarred man called in a booming voice.  He spoke common with only a slight accent, but then fell back to the Rubar tongue when speaking to the dervishes before him. “Basit! Baqir! Atravese!”As Victoria of Anhur hurried forward to hold the doorway, the dervish holding the section of wall, rushed through.  He propped the door in front of Timotheus as he went by, momentarily blocking off the sabre-wielding bastard of noble blood.  He ignored the wound Victoria scored on his hip as he twisted around to try to avoid the worse of it as he let go of the false wall.  Tymon hacked fearfully with this long sword and the dervish’s legs buckled, but he continued, a spear suddenly in his hand and thrusting into Laarus side, drawing dark blood from the priest of Ra.Timotheus pushed down the door, swinging his flail with anger, as Laarus used a quick hit to buy him a moment to step away from the dervish.“I do not know where you came from,” the marked one out in the chamber said as he stepped in, causing Timotheus to spin around hurriedly. “But you made a big mistake!”  There was a wrenching sound as Tim’s breastplate crunched under the weight of the man’s great sword.  His arm sagged from the pain and his return swing was half-hearted. He could feel blood seeping down under his armor.  “Some help over here!”“We should focus on the man Tim is fighting,” Markos said, raising his hands to cast. “He seems the most dangerous! Sagitta aquom!” Two missiles of watery blue light slammed into the man he pointed out.  Telémahkos danced over to aid Tymon, keeping the spear-wielding dervish from turning to easily flank Timotheus.  Dunlevey moved in to aid.“No one needs die here today!” Bleys the Aubergine called to their foes. “Surrender!”But surrounded as he was, the spear-wielding dervish was unwilling to surrender.  Instead, he let loose bellow that rose into a lilting screech as he huffed and puffed, his stature seeming to increase as he worked himself into a rage that made the scales of his armor sing with his shaking.“It is you who have intruded on our lair,” the marked one said, not pausing from his punishing blows that Tim was barely knocking aside with his own weapon. “It is you who should stand down…”“That’s not up to me, but you’re outnumbered,” Timotheus replied, getting a hit in that led the man to grunt and fight to keep his footing. “I suggest you stand down…”“Yes! We are not bad guys!” Tymon tried, and then switched to Rubar. “Just  give up!”  He withdrew from the melee, dropping his sword to draw his crossbow and begin loading it.Laarus Raymer of Ra croaked as the dervish spear thrust deeply into his groin, the spear point wedging apart his cod-piece from his grieves. The priest tumbled to the floor bleeding out.“Laarus!” Victoria snarled as she called for Anhur to fill her with his <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Militant+of+Anhur+Characters#righteousfury" target="_blank">righteous fury</a> until she too shook with an all encompassing rage.  Unfortunately, for her however, in her fury she stepped too quickly, stumbling and fell flat out. [sup]3[/sup]Telémahkos leapt back from the melee, leaving it to Dunlevey to cover alone as Victoria seethed and crawled to her feet.“Eton! Eton!” called the blind dervish still out in the other room.“Call off the dervish and let me tend to our man and I will drop my weapon,” Bleys offered, even as he dropped his bow to draw his sabre. He looked right at the marked man as he spoke, trying to get his eye.  Beyond that fight, he could see the curtain draped across the left side egress open.“Alright, what’s all this then?” said the man dressed in off-white burnoose with a yellow sash and sandals. A gray scarf that stretched out as part of his dull yellow turban covered his face, and he wore a short sword at his side. Bleys was puzzled by the hint of an accent in the voice. It was not Rubar. It was not Thrician, and not quite Herman-lander, either…  The man deftly drew a fat piece of pork rind from a leather satchel at his side, chanting arcane words as he tossed it at Tim’s feet.  Less then a moment later, the big man found himself landing painfully on his tailbone, the floor around him covered in a thick layer of greasy animal fat. The man looked up and his eyes met those of Bleys.  They were blue.. . .to be continued. . .--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Notes:(1) Session #18 was played on Sunday, October 14th, 2007.(2) Telémahkos scored a critical hit doing double die damage.(3) Victoria fumbled her attack roll and failed a Reflex save to keep her feet.</blockquote>

Verification