Session Seventy - December 12, 2009

[Matt]

Savor 30, 731

On the evening of Savor 30, Sirs Ewen and Baris dined with Sir Herrill Lavalgan, it having been decided that to bring the rest of the party would only needlessly aggravate a clearly aggravated man. In any event, the ladyfolk were not in the mood to put up with the man’s surliness. The knights ate dinner in the great hall, of which the kitchen was a part.

The dinner was the unjoyous event it was meant to be. The food was merely acceptable; there was no game on the table at all. Apparently, Sir Herrill had expected Ewen and Baris to be more effective hunters. There was no wine, only ale was served, which was just fine for the uncultured palate of Sir Baris. The conversation was stilted and awkward, and focused on feudal dues. Sir Baris’s eyes glazed over, and he thought fondly of the times back in Golotha when we would hunt with Sir Blors. Meanwhile, Sir Ewen learned that Sir Herrill paid scutage in lieu of military service. Ewen asked about the fees the innkeeper paid, and learned that he paid one hundred and twenty pence in rent to the manor for the acres it held, and the feudal fee to the manor was two hundred and thirty two pence. The falconer, Rowten and the other servants sat at the low end of the table and spoke in hushed tones. The one bright moment of the evening occurred when the nursemaid gave young Pasric the nipple right at the table, much to the pleasure of Sir Baris. As he was sitting directly across from her, he had quite a view. Herrill mentioned that Pasric was named after his wife’s father. He growled that the manor would pick up the party’s bill at the inn, and his tone prayed that the party would not make a habit of visiting. At last, the meal came to an end. Sir Ewen thanked Sir Herrill for his hospitality. “You do me honor, milord.”

After dinner, Sirs Ewen and Baris returned to the Red Buck Inn. The peasants were much more subdued in the presence of the two knights than they had been the previous night. Apparently they unsure of how to behave around gentry who were not the cantankerous Sir Herrill, but decided that discretion is the better part of valor.

Sir Ewen decided he would mind-read Bran’s mother, Thanys, to determine which side of the family the son gained his Deryni abilities, and to determine who the father might have been. When the old woman wandered over, the knight took her hand. He was able to determine that she did not have shields, or at least that they were not up, but could discern nothing more.

“If it is not too much of an imposition,” Wasub asked later that evening, “my father has asked if your companions would like to come swimming again.”

Ewen replied that he would, but that one of the ladyfolk might not, given her prior experience.

“Maybe so, but my father always said that the best way to learn how to swim is to be thrown into the water,” Wasub replied.

“Is that how you learned how to swim?” Ewen asked, and Wasub nodded, grinning.

Ilvin 1, 731

The morning found Sir Baris blissfully asleep, dreaming of nursemaids, while the rest of the party joined Hubas and his granddaughters on the path to the lake, leaving just before dawn.

When the group arrived, Hubas and his granddaughters went straight up the cliff to dive, while Sir Ewen, Cekiya, Imarë and Kaelyn remained below to practice swimming, wisely choosing to not repeat Cekiya’s performance of the previous day. Sir Ewen stripped down, grinning only slightly, and waded into the water. With the encouragement of the women, the knight treaded water for a bit, and seemed to be learning quite well, when suddenly he dropped below the surface like a stone! Shrieking, Kaelyn dove in after him. She was below the water for several seconds as Imarë and Cekiya looked anxiously on. Finally, Kaelyn dragged the knight to the surface and pulled him to shore. Coughing up a bit of water as Kaelyn pounded his back, Sir Ewen grinned idiotically and stated that he was ready to dive. The others smiled nervous encouragement.

At that moment, the nude forms of an elderly man and two nubile young lasses fell from high above and splashed into the water. “Quite invigorating, isn’t it Sir Ewen?” Hubas said when he surfaced. “Yes, of course!” the knight replied, hacking up some more water.

The group slowly made its way up the path along the cliff face, leaving a wet trail in their wake. The only sounds that could be heard were footsteps, the chattering of teeth as it was quite cold, the returning chatter of forest animals, and the occasional cough of Sir Ewen.

Imarë walked along the path, enjoying being surrounded by the forest. Suddenly, something on the rock face caught her eye. She stopped suddenly. The rest of the group continued on up. The elf peered at the cliff face carefully, trying to ascertain what had drawn her attention. Finally, she noticed that part of the rock face did not match the color of the rock on either side. The odd section almost made a square, about eight feet wide by nine feet tall. There was no discernible edge, but Imarë got the impression that the section was plugging up the rock. The work was clearly too subtle to be human work, the elf thought to herself. It could have been Khuzan.

Imarë hurried after the group and told Sir Ewen what she had discovered. The knight could not see what she was referring to. He drew upon his Deryni abilities and used his mind to examine the portion of the cliff that the elf indicated, but could detect nothing his naked eyes had not already seen. The plug, if such it was, was apparently not magical, or if it was it was beyond the ability of the knight to discover.

The knight and the elf made their way to the top of the cliff. Hubas and his granddaughters looked to be a bit confused about what they had been up to. Sir Ewen asked Hubas if there was anything strange about the cliff face. “Not that I am aware of, milord,” the old man replied, shrugging. Ewen drew upon his Deryni abilities once again, and did not think that Hubas was lying. The knight did not discuss the matter further.

A short time later, Kaelyn ran towards the edge of the cliff and was about to execute a perfect dive, but at the last moment she slipped on a loose stone and fell towards the water, screaming, and landed right on her belly. The splash was quite large and loud, but it did not drown out the shrieks of the poor lass. For her part, Cekiya did not perform much better, but she howled much less. Hubas’s granddaughters, much more experienced, fared better. One of the girls executed a perfect dive, and Imarë did almost as well, diving and swimming with appropriate elven grace. The elf was followed by Sir Ewen, who dove in and managed to not drown. This was an acceptable outcome.

Bran greeted Sir Ewen later that morning after the group had returned to the inn. “How was your swim?”

“Quite well, in fact,” the knight replied.

At that point the conversation was interrupted by old Thanys, who had come up and was trying vainly to carry four mugs at once. “Mother no!” Bran yelled, startled. The innkeeper grasped for the mugs while Ewen put has arm around the woman to steady her. He took this opportunity to try to mind-read her again. The knight cast about in the matron’s swampy brain, picking up facts here and there. Bran’s father was one Hodril, and he might have been a knight. Ewen caught the image of a handsome young dark haired man. He felt that Thanys has found him quite charming.

Somewhere in the back of his mind the knight noted that the face of Hodril in Thanys’s memory did not resemble Arren of Melderyn. The woman had seen those she thought to be Hodril many times as the years went by, but the faces were all of strangers. Sadly, the man had not returned, despite her deep pining for him. Ewen also noted that despite her outward appearance as a woman of advanced age, Thanys was only in her fifties. Interestingly, at times in her mind she thought of herself as Thanys of Eeko, but at other times she also thought of herself as Danor. The knight felt that this was a maiden name, but he detected no memory of a wedding. ‘Perhaps her memory has been altered?’ he thought to himself, but he could detect no sign that her mind had been tampered with.

As the smells of breakfast wafted up to his room, Sir Baris stumbled out of bed and downstairs to join the party. “Mm, I was having the most wonderful dream ...” he murmured. Over a breakfast of eggs with a full rasher of bacon, bread and cheese, and of course small beer, Sir Ewen and Imarë told the sleepy knight on what they had discovered on the cliff face.

After a brief discussion, the party decided to return to investigate further. Kaelyn mentioned that she could attempt to freeze the strange rock formation, in the hopes that it would shrink slightly, allowing the party to remove the plug. “Now that I think of it, though, the spell will take all day to cast, and who knows if I’ll be able to maintain my concentration,” she said, looking pointedly at Sir Baris. The party decided to use the spell only as a last resort. “I better bring my axe,” Sir Baris said in between chomps of bacon, an excited glint in his eye.

After breakfast, Sir Baris went upstairs to gather his hauberk, axe and sword. He pulled a shirt over his hauberk. It would not do to look as if he were going to war. Sir Ewen asked the innkeeper to find some rope and a pry bar. “You’re not going to hang anyone, are you?” he asked half-jokingly upon his return.

Later that morning, the party was gathered at a nondescript portion of the cliff face. Nondescript, that is, to everyone but the elf. Sir Ewen called for silence, and prepared to use his mental abilities, going into an extended trance. Afterwards, he extended his senses and was able to see about five feet straight into the rockface, but all he could see was more rock. “I want to try something else,” the knight said and called for silence once again. Once more, Sir Ewen went into a trance, while the rest of the party stared at the stone. Sir Baris decided that this was not quite as exciting as he thought it was going to be, and wandered up to the top of the cliff to get a better view of the surroundings.

Drawing upon his mental strength, Sir Ewen mind-blasted the rockface. Suddenly, several pebbles and small pieces of rock flew in all directions, as if an invisible hammer had struck the cliff. A one inch deep hole a bit smaller than a fist deep was left when the dust settled. Heartened, the knight tried again, with similar results.

“We should get some mining equipment,” Sir Baris suggested, having returned, as the top of the cliff was also quite boring. “Perhaps,” Sir Ewen replied. “We will return another time.” The party set off on the path back to the village. All in all, Sir Baris thought, it was turning out to be a boring trip. It must have been much more exciting when there were naked lasses running about.

Sir Baris sure seemed to have a glint in his eye and a leering smile. What was he thinking about, Cekiya wondered. Suddenly movement way down the path caught her attention. Someone had just ducked off the path, and ran into the woods! Cekiya alerted the others, and the party hustled down the path to where the person had run into the trees.

Imarë called for silence and studied the ground for hints of a trail. There was a recent footprint! And there, someone had pushed past a branch, brushing off a few hardy leaves that lay on the ground, apparent because they were not covered with mud. The party followed behind the elf, weapons drawn, ready for action. Sir Baris was excited. Perhaps this trip wouldn’t be so boring after all! The only way to improve things would be if there were some lasses to rescue. Naked lasses ...

Unfortunately, the trail made its way back to the main road, where it became impossible to follow. Imarë could track a flea across a dog’s back, but this trail was beyond even her ken. There was simply too much traffic along the road to pick out one trail among all the others.

After some discussion back at the inn, the party decided that given their woeful inability to find people they would not attempt to find out who this man was. Instead they made preparations to return to Inbernel, and left soon after.

Around four o’clock, just before dark, they arrived at Inbernel. After stabling their horses, they made their way up to the manor.

“How was the hunting?” Sir Grogan asked.

“The weather was gorgeous,” Sir Ewen replied evasively as their hunt had not been successful, “but Sir Herrill is a boor.”

Grogan barked laugh. “Ah, yes, I did warn you about that. He was never the most pleasant man to be around, and he has only gotten worse since his wife died.” He smiled sadly. “But he is never late in paying his scutage,” Grogan said, brightening up. “And I am never called upon to judge crimes from those lands. They have a quite experienced Beadle, as I recall.”

“Yes, he called upon me to do some cliff diving,” Sir Ewen said, chuckling.

Sir Grogan looked quite surprised. “Cliff diving?”

Ilvin 2, 731

Morning found virgin snow covering the eaves of the village, and through the falling snowflakes smoke could be made out wafting skyward from the many chimneys. A light coating of snow had already gathered on the ground. Here and there villagers made their way on the street, shivering under their cloaks. Their tracks were quickly covered by the rapidly falling powder. The party had returned to the village just in time Baris thought, looking away from his window and heading downstairs for breakfast.

After breakfast, Kaelyn went to speak with Jenyl, the blonde Matakea, or priestess, of Larani, about the history of the village. She learned that the village was six or seven hundred years old, and had changed hands during a civil war, but the woman was not sure which one. That was when the battlements had been built. They were illegal at the time, the woman said, as if she were revealing illicit gossip. The new king, perhaps it had been Haldan I, had looked the other way and did not press the matter. It was at that time, about three hundred years ago, that the village came under control of the earls of Osel. Kaelyn asked how long the local scholars had been around, and the woman said that as far as she knew the scholars had been around at least as long as the village had existed.

Kaelyn pressed the Matakea about the scholars. There were three, at most four, of them. They occasionally took students, but never anyone from the village. There may have been a falling out, because one of them left, perhaps to Tashal, the priestess thought. There was talk in the village, through the scholars’s men at arms, that there had been some sort of fight. Kaelyn asked Jenyl if she knew the name of the man who left, but the priestess did not know any of the scholars’s names. However, she did know that the lead scholar was much older than the others.

All this talk of learning had put Kaelyn in the mood to study magic, but she would never get any studying done cooped up with Sir Baris, the lout! Kaelyn asked Jenyl is she knew a quiet place where she could study for ten days. The priestess suggested she try the hayloft. Kaelyn did not like this idea, considering the fragility of her materials. She later spoke to Imarë, who suggested that she rent a room at the inn. Kaelyn asked Ewen if he would foot the expense, but the knight, in a burst of frugality, suggested she use his room at the manor. Kaelyn accepted, and just hoped that Sir Baris would be quiet.

Ilvin 3-14, 731

As the days passed the snow on the windowsill outside Baris’s room piled up. The snow eventually gave way to rain and washed away the snow, leaving behind a muddy mess, but on the eighth day the rain gave way to snow again.

Over the next several days, Kaelyn was deep in study. Sir Baris came close to interrupting her only once, when he shoved his way past several servants in a mad dash to the garde robe. He had had far too much to drink the night before. And that morning. And that afternoon. Fortunately, Kaelyn was so deep in concentration that she did not notice.

On the eighth of Ilvin a frustrated Kaelyn stomped out of her room. Unfortunately, and due to absolutely no fault of Sir Baris, she was unsuccessful in learning the Breath of Dhivu spell.

Meanwhile, Sir Ewen attempted to use his Deryni abilities to see if all was well in Tashal. He used clairvoyance to check in on various personages, including Rahel, Thilisa, Arnys, and the majordomo of Raven Hall. All appeared to be well, except that he could not contact Thilisa or Rahel. Hopefully this was due to his lack of skill in this area rather than something being amiss.

After Kaelyn’s failure, Imarë decided to take Sir Baris to The Ale House every day, so that he would not disturb the poor scholar. The knight did not seem to notice that he was being manipulated, or if he did, he did not seem to mind. The inn was oddly laid out, the entire room was a common room, with a kitchen area in one corner. The fire was in the center. Odd architecture or not, ale was ale.

The presence of the elf and the knight had a tendency to dampen the conversation somewhat, and clearly they were making the locals uncomfortable. The peasants spoke in hushed tones, occasionally making furtive glances towards the pair. Sir Baris hardly noticed, as he was enjoying the libations.

On the eleventh of Ilvin, on the second or perhaps third ale, two men that neither Baris nor Imarë had seen before came into the inn. Sir Baris instantly recognized that they were armed, both with short swords and one with a dagger. They did not appear to be wearing armor, however.

Waarn of Smallbure, the innkeeper, greeted the newcomers. “Well met Cees and Jeelof,” he said, bringing two tankards of ale over. “Here ya go!” he said, slamming the tankards down on the table, and they thanked him. The innkeeper winked. “Your sergeant be off to Mistress Klaken?” They smiled, and Cees giggled. “She gets mighty lonely,” Jeelof said, “Leastwise, that’s what he tells us. Charity work he’s doing, charity work.” Waarn laughed, smacking Jeelof on the back. “Aye, he’s a charitable man!” Cees and Jeelof sat by themselves, and the innkeeper returned to his friends.

Later that same day, Kaelyn came down to the Ale House in a foul mood. Apparently she was once again unsuccessful in learning her spell.

Sir Ewen again tried to reach out into the ether to learn about Tashal, but he was totally unsuccessful. Perhaps the snow was interfering.

On the fourteenth, a girlish scream of frustration was heard from the manor. Sir Baris was glad he was far away, and was not the cause, although he figured Kaelyn would find a way to blame him anyhow. The young woman had once again failed to learn the Breath of Dhivu. As she complained to Imarë she realized that she would never learn the spell from the source she was using, a scribed translation of a scroll she had found on the man with the frost sword whom the party had fought a while back.

Later that day, Kaelyn made her way down The Ale House. Waarn gave her an ale and asked her if she knew about the knight who had been drinking at the inn. “It’s been terrible! For a week, this knight has been coming into the ale house! We didn’t know if he was going to kill us, or what? Can you please speak to the new lord about it?”

“That was partly my fault,” Kaelyn replied with a sigh. “I was studying and needed some peace and quiet. He is a bit of an oaf.”

“Gable of Oak said that he seemed to be a bit of an ox,” Waarn supplied.

Ilvin 15, 731

With Imarë’s assistance, Kaelyn wrote a letter to the seneschal of the scholars, requesting a letter of introduction to the Order, explaining that she was interested in the history of the area, as she was a scholar herself. The letter was sent out later in the day.

Ilvin 16-19, 731

Sitting around drinking ale all day will only get one so far, and Sir Baris was itching for some action. He and Sir Ewen began drilling with the cavalry squadron on the manorial common.

On the sixteenth of Ilvin the men at arms and the yeomanry were sent out as the enemy force. They gathered outside the gate, dressed in full armor. They shivered as a cold rain fell, their hands numb as they gripped their practice weapons. Their leather armor became soaked and weighed them down. Across the common the cavalry lined up. They were decked out in full regalia, and would be shining were the sun out. Instead, their damp banners flapped noisily in the wind, making wet smacking sounds against their lances. The horses whinnied and stomped their hooves. Sir Baris was not the only one whose blood was running hot.

“ADVANCE!” the yeoman captain bellowed, and the shivering men dutifully marched forward. Sir Ewen raised his sword high, and pointed it at the miserable lot before him. “CHARGE!” he screamed. Sir Baris grinned. This was going to be fun! As one the squadron spurred their horses, and they thundered across the common towards the waiting yeomanry. Wooden swords swung, men fell. The poor men did their best to put up a fight, but they were completely routed by the cavalry.

The next day the air was warm, almost steaming, and fog hung about Inbernel like a cloak. “Ah, another good day for drilling, you never know when there will be a fog, obscuring the battlefield like the fog of war!” Sir Grogan said. The men lined up once more, except on this day the yeomanry were inside the common. There were less men this time, as some had been injured the previous day and were recovering at The Ale House.

The yeoman captain tried to encourage his men. “Today we will do better! Let’s show our Lord how we can fight!” The men grunted an affirmation. The captain grunted his approval and turned toward the gathering cavalry.

The men of the squadron swaggered over to their horses, and joked with their grooms. Those poor bloody infantry, they were going to get beaten again today. They vaulted onto their horses and got in formation. “Charge!” Sir Ewen yelled, and once again the thundering of hooves echoed across the common.

Suddenly, the fog by the gates was greatly thickened! Neither man nor horse could tell where he was going! Some of the horsemen veered off. The yeomanry took advantage of their good fortune and charged, ganging up on the few men of the squadron who burst out of the fog. Sir Baris made a good showing of himself, as did Sir Ewen (none of the men tried to attack him all that vigorously; he was their Lord after all), but the yeoman won the day.

From her vantage point at a window overlooking the common, Kaelyn grinned mischievously.

Sadly there was to be no rematch, as the weather on the 18th and the 19th was not suitable for training.

Ilvin 20, 731

The scholars had still not responded to Kaelyn’s letter.

After closely examining maps of the area that Sir Ewen found as he and Sir Grogan had gone over the manorial budgets, the party decided to make a trip to Selepan to further investigate the cliff face. They suspected that there might be another entrance into the caves, if any existed.

While it was quite foggy, Imarë successfully guided the party to Selepan, and they arrived around noon. They passed the orchard, and the manor house. They noticed the Reeve speaking to Dorf, the flatulent peasant. The party could not see Dorf very well through the fog, but they could hear his farts quite well. They seemed to echo strangely. Wasub noticed the knights and bowed, tugging his forelock. “A pleasure to see you, milord.” Dorf bowed as well, letting one rip as he tugged his forelock.

“Greetings,” Sir Ewen said, and moved on, offering no explanation for his presence. The ladyfolk crinkled their noses in distaste. Sir Baris stifled a laugh.

The party stabled their horses at the Red Buck. Bran was quite happy to see them, seeing as they were his only paying customers. Sir Herrill did not come down to greet Sir Ewen.

That evening Hubas came into the common room. His face brightened when he saw the party sitting at a table by the roaring fire. “I’ll be diving tomorrow! I think it’ll be snowing!” he said excitedly.

“Sounds exciting!” Kaelyn replied in a strained voice.

“It’s like flying through crystals! - Begging your pardon, milord,” Hubas said to Sir Ewen, who he had suddenly noticed was also present. The knight nodded.

“Your granddaughters will be joining us?” Kaelyn asked.

The old man’s face suddenly wilted, and his whole body seemed to deflate as if he had lost all his energy. “Perhaps it would be best if we did not,” he said, and walked quickly away, his head down and his shoulders low.

“Another ale?” Bran asked as he came over to the party’s table, watching the old man depart.

“Yes. And did something happen to Hubas’s granddaughters?” Kaelyn asked.

“We don’t know,” Bran replied. “They have been missing for two weeks.”

“Did they not return from the lake, were they missing from their beds?” Kaelyn asked.

“They were not there in the morning,” Bran answered, pouring ale into each of the party’s mugs. He made sure to top off both of Baris’s. “Wasub is trying to put a good face on it.” He sighed. “Poor Hubas, it has been hard on him, and their grandmother, Abara, has not been seen outside the house since ...” he paused, and looked straight at Sir Ewen. “We fear the worst.”

“We will try to be of assistance,” the knight stated. Bran nodded his thanks, and went back to work.

A short while later, Sir Ewen sat alone in his room and sent his mind out into the ether, attempting to use clairvoyance to find the girls, but was unsuccessful. He informed Kaelyn of his failure and she sighed heavily, resigned to a long night scrying. A large bowl was acquired and provided to her. Around nine o’clock she began staring into the bowl, but despite her best efforts she could not see the girls in still water. All she could see was the reflection of the flickering candles and her own tired face.

Ilvin 21, 731

The next morning, Sir Ewen again attempted to locate one of the girls with his mind. After preparing his mind, he reached out into the world, looking for the girl that did not look like her father. He saw a dark place. In the inky blackness the knight was barely able to make out the form of what he thought was a barrel. The only reason he could see it was because the girl whose eyes he was looking through was right next to it. From the perspective, she was probably laying down.

Thinking that perhaps the dark place was a wine cellar or distillery, Sir Baris asked Bran about the location of his distillery, but was completely unsuccessful. Questioning people was just not the knight’s thing. Bashing and slashing them, on the other hand ...

Ewen suggested to Sir Baris that given the fact that the girls disappeared a few days after the party had left the village, that they made a regular habit of traveling to the lake, and that the party was spied upon there and investigated the cliff face, these events might be related. He decided that they would investigate the cliff face while Kaelyn was resting after her unsuccessful scrying.

In the late morning Sirs Ewen and Baris, Imarë, and Cekiya set off towards the lake. Sir Baris was again wearing his armor, and carried his sword and axe. Cekiya hung far back as a rear guard.

***

Imarë stared at the cliff, Sir Ewen by her side. Sir Baris still could see nothing odd about the rock. Instead he stared down at the lake and wondered where those poor girls were, and how grateful they would be when he rescued them. Cekiya kept a wary eye about, looking for any sign of danger. The elf could detect no change in the plug in the cliff face.

The group scouted around the area, traveling up the cliff and around the hill. It took the rest of the day, but they eventually discovered another escarpment about four hundred feet to the northwest of the strange rock Imarë had discovered. Along the face of the escarpment was a small cave, which seemed to have been filled with light rubble, some of which had been very recently pulled out and strewn about. The roof of the cave was about only four feet tall; it was so small that the elf would not have noticed it but for the rubble strewn about the entrance. Looking inside, Imarë saw that very shortly the ceiling height doubled to eight feet, and just beyond that, barely visible in the fading twilight, was a doorway.

Shortly thereafter Imarë, Cekiya and the knights were gathered outside the cave entrance. Looking closer into the cave, by the fading sunlight Imarë was able to make out footprints in the dust. Sir Ewen called upon his Deryni abilities to cause a flame to appear in his hand, providing some more illumination. The elf noticed more tracks. Apparently there were multiple interlopers.

The door appeared to twinkle in the light of Sir Ewen’s hand. “By Sarajin, that door is made out bronze!” Sir Baris exclaimed. The bronze was oxidized and had a greenish hue, and was open just enough to squeeze by. In the dancing light of the flame, the party saw various reliefs carved into the door. There were short figures, most with beards, performing various daily tasks. Most of the reliefs depicted mining and smelting. Sir Baris’s heart pounded with excitement. Imarë frowned distastefully.

Sir Baris drew his axe. “Sir Ewen, shall we investigate?” Sir Ewen nodded, and drew his sword. Imarë suggested that perhaps they should wait for Kaelyn. Ewen replied that this was the best course, and Sir Baris’s shoulders slumped. Cekiya was dispatched to retrieve the scholar.

The knights managed to restrain themselves from bursting through the door until the women returned. That did not mean, however, that they did not look through the door, in Ewen’s case, or around the edge of the door, in the case of Baris. They saw a room about fifteen feet by fifteen feet, and opposite the door was a corridor that sloped up, heading into the darkness. The room was otherwise empty. Sir Baris thought that the corridor seemed to run towards the other escarpment where Imarë had first seen the strange rock.

When the women returned, Sir Ewen ordered Cekiya to scout ahead. Cekiya chanted below her breath, casting a spell upon her eyes that allowed her to see heat. She slipped past the bronze door, crossed the small room, and headed up the corridor. She realized that the slope was quite significant, about twenty degrees up. There were wall sconces with torches, but none were lit.

After about forty or fifty feet, Cekiya noticed a wooden door on her left, and up ahead the corridor opened up into an oval shaped chamber, the longest part running north-south. The ceiling of the chamber was held up by two large columns and was about ten feet tall with vaulted arches. The room was fifteen feet wide and forty feet long. The columns were about fifteen feet apart. Immediately to Cekiya’s right was an opening to a spiral staircase heading down. Further right were three closed wooden doors. Beyond these was an open corridor, leading south. To the right of the open corridor was a closed wooden door, followed by a well, followed by another closed door. That completed the circuit of the room. There was no one there that Cekiya could see.

Cekiya headed down the spiral staircase one level. Opposite the landing was a door, and to her rear was a furnished room, which was directly below the oval room above and was about the same size, except the ceiling was slightly higher. In the room was a long wooden table with over twenty chairs all around it. There were weathered tapestries along either side of the walls. There were four more doors, another corridor on the opposite side of the room, and two corridors to the right of it, one twice the size of the others. The stairs continued down, deeper into the earth.

When Cekiya returned she reported what she had found. Ewen gave the order for the rest of the party to continue in. Sir Baris gripped his axe tightly. ‘These are tight corridors,’ he thought to himself. ‘It will be hard to swing my axe, I’d better go with the sword, at least I can stab with that.’ The distinctive sound of a sword being drawn echoed up the corridor, and Cekiya scowled back at him. Soon, the party made their way to the oval shaped chamber past the corridor.

Imarë looked for tracks in the dust, but it had been kicked up pretty good, and the tracks did not lead anywhere specific. She did notice that further in there was less dust, and what dust there was appeared to have been disturbed by air from the outside, beyond the bronze door. There was no sign that the dust on the spiral staircase was disturbed, besides where Cekiya had walked.

The party stood in the upper chamber and looked at each other in the flickering light of Ewen’s handfire. Sir Baris asked, “Which way do we go?”