Gameplay Date 04-15-07
Players present: Mordek, Taneus
When morning finally arrived, Beor was there to see us off. As we exchanged our farewells, Fazu was getting really impatient to be on our way. So we mounted up again and set off heading straight for Teryll across the plains. The wind was against us the whole way as it was blowing out of the northwest. Five hours and a padded, yet still sore arse later, we figured we were about 10 miles away from Teryll. Looking ahead, we could see a large column of smoke rising up where Teryll should be on the horizon. Pushing our horses to go faster, the smoke cloud kept getting bigger, and now we could see multiple columns of smoke. As we near the city, the merchants & townspeople are evacuating any way they can. The outer hedge wall doesn't seem to be on fire though. We come up on a man leading his oxen away from the fires. He's got a head wound, but he manages to tell us that some madmen just showed up and started burning everything. He says they were led by three others, that the city guard had fled, and that no one was around to stop them anymore. Looking at the city, even through the smoke and fire, we can see that the Evertree remains unscathed. The man also tells us that the garrison had been completely surrounded by these madmen and Vorus had to lock himself inside, presumably to keep them from getting into the armory.
The south gate was closer, so we turned our horses that way and rode into the city. Fazu broke off from us and steered his horse straight for the Evertree. Corny though was much more concerned about Meg & Luvana and started heading toward her place. Taneus & I followed right behind him. Coming up on Meg's residence, we could see that the roof and the east wall were ablaze, and a prone form was lying in the garden. Corny jumped down from his horse and ran to the person, while I dismounted, grabbed the blanket I had been sitting on and tore off a wide, long strip. Running over to Meg's rain barrel, I dunked the scrap of cloth into it, getting it good and soaked, then tied it over my mouth & nose to help breath while in the dense smoke. As Taneus was going over to help Corny, I kicked in the door looking for anyone trapped inside. It's empty, but the place has been ransacked and there are definite signs of a struggle. The back door is also wide open. Heading back outside and over to Meg as she's being helped by Corny & Taneus, Meg keeps shouting "They took her! They took her!" . . . . . . Luvana's gone!! Cornelius suddenly got very concerned, but before we could do anything, a man brandishing a club comes running toward us, yelling like crazy. I met his charge head on and quickly put him on his back on the ground. Taneus put an arrow into him before he could get back up, and that was the last we had to worry about him. Then, grabbing as many buckets as we could find and using the water in her rain barrel, we quickly set about trying to quench the fire destroying Meg's house.
Right next door to Meg's though, Gilliam's house is also on fire and he's trying to keep it from spreading to the stable where the few horses in his paddock are getting panicky. After we finished dousing the blaze at Meg's, I had Corny bring one of the horses closer. Using some rope, I tied up Meg's rain barrel so I had two long trails of rope coming off of it. Draping those trails over the blanketed back of the horse, I got on the other side of the horse and pulled the ropes to lift the barrel off the ground, using myself as the counterweight. Then I told Corny to lead the horse over to Gilliam's. Between Gilliam's rain barrel and the remains of Meg's, we managed to get his blaze under control as well. Looking around and seeing the rest of the fires all over town, I spotted an empty cart nearby. I told Gilliam to hitch up one of the horses to it, while I started dragging the nearly empty rain barrels over close to it. Once the horse was hitched, we loaded the two barrels into the cart and grab as many buckets as we could. We then started leading the horse & cart to the well on this side of town, pausing just long enough to load up a third barrel from another residence. As we neared the well, Fazu showed up out of the smoke. He tells us that there are people with clubs running all over the town. We tell him that our friend Luvana has been taken, possibly as the sacrifice we had heard about. He mulls that over for a bit, then says that a "pure" blood sacrifice at the base of the Evertree may undo the spell that protects it. Just then, another group of crazies start coming our way. 4 men & 2 women, all with clubs waving menacingly and 2 carrying torches to boot. We managed to take them down without too much trouble, but they were slowing us down. We can see the well from here, and the other few townspeople still trying to combat the fires, running back & forth from the well to the fires. Tossing the clubs into the cart too in case they might be needed, we tell Gilliam to round up those other people by the well and have them help him fill the rain barrels and get more water to each burning building.
By now, the kid is chomping at the bit to go and rescue Luvana, so we left Gilliam in charge of dealing with the fires and headed toward the Evertree. It was surrounded by more of those crazies, but there was no sign of Luvana. Taneus suggested that maybe they were underground by the Evertree's roots. So we made our may around the center of town until we came to Corny's well. There was already a torch at the bottom providing some light down there, so we dropped down in as quickly and quietly as we could. Whoever is down here left a sentry next to the centipede hole... they should have left someone better, as we made quick work of him. Before we went any further though, Taneus passed around some leaves, saying that if we ate them, they'd help with any wounds we had suffered. Heading into the next room where the vine wall and orb puzzle are, we found that the vines were already drawn upward into the ceiling. But as we passed the spot where the vines should have been, the kid & I got hit by an intense blast of cold. Fazu & Taneus then spot what they called a Glyph of Warding... would'a been nice if they'd spotted it a tad bit sooner. Unfortunately, without a way to counter it, Taneus & Fazu suffer the cold blast themselves as they pass by it. I pop one of the leaves Taneus had given me into my mouth to help counteract the bitter chill that just hit me. Ahead we can hear 3 voices chanting, 2 male & 1 female. As we round the last corner into the room where we had found that piece of parchment full of holes and covered in strange writing, we find an odd pedestal in the middle of the room with another orb sitting atop it. And along the right wall, a new door stands wide open, a door we didn't come across the last time down here (bravo to the stone mason, he does good work). Beyond that door is a small little room, barely 15' wide and 10' deep, with an altar right in the middle. On that altar lies Luvana, her arms held down above her head by one of the men, her legs held down by the woman, while the other man, next to the first, stands poised over Luvana with a dagger about to be plunged down into her. All I could think was "oh crap" and quickly stuffed the rest of the leaves Taneus had given me into my mouth.
To be continued...
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