Tales from the Emerald Pentacle Issue Four

Welcome, once again dear readers, to the fourth issue of Tales from the Emerald Pentacle, chronicling the adventures of the junior section of Halesowen Boardgamers in the world of Talislanta.

When we left our intrepid explorers they were settling down for the night, trapped inside the ruins of Fabian’s tower, however, before we continue with their story, our thoughts must fly far to the north-west, to the land of Silvanus, home of the Sarista.

Jenny and Mr. Quiz had taken a journey back to Silvanus; on the way they met up with a dour Arimite knife-fighter calling himself Thermite (Matthew #1). Deciding they had ‘something’ in common (what, one asks?), they were walking through the woods when without warning, a strange whirling tornado, shot through with pink and amber, scooped them up. They where whirled this way and that, finally landing on a featureless “area”. There were no doors, no walls, no ceiling and no floor. From behind, a voice spoke; “Do not turn round. I am Pandelume. Your friends are in danger and need your help. If you do not go, they will die.” They agreed to go; the voice said “hold out your hand, I must place something in it. Do not turn round; no one may gaze upon Pandelume; it is the Law. When you return to the woods, crush the object.” They were whisked back to the woods where they had left; each was holding a small golden/rose acorn like object. On the count of three they crushed them, a shimmering golden haze arose round them and they where whirled this way and that…

At the tower, dawn had broken and they began to look around the tower. Stoopod found a heavy iron ring set in the stone floor and exerted all his strength to pull it open, revealing moss-covered steps leading down. At this juncture, K’kree called that the wind was rising, whipping up into a gale. In the distance could be seen a strange whirling tornado, shot through with pink and amber. Before they could react it was upon them, dissipating to nothing to reveal Jenny, Mr Quiz and Thermite.

Following introductions, Stoopod went back to investigating the trapdoor. Looking into the well (finally!), Thermite and Mr Quiz saw, about 15’ below, a huge statue holding an upraised sword. Stoopod, Jenny, Throtal, Mr Quiz and Grave fell over themselves trying to get down the steps, whilst K’kree and Thermite stayed in the tower courtyard. At the foot of the steps they splashed into 5’ of water, somewhat unlucky for Jenny who is only 5’ 5”! Stoopod picked her up. The statue was 12’ tall, standing on a 7’ pedestal; a horned humanoid of hideous visage, made of silvery-flecked stone (it looked like an Enim, but no-one realised this). Attempts to get the sword failed, it was part of the statue. Swords just bounced off the stone and Throtal’s arrow shot ricocheted round the chamber.
Finally it dawned on them exactly what the ‘powerful spell of Dispel Magic’ that used to be on the scroll had been intended for. A plan was devised that both Grave and Mr Quiz would simultaneously cast Dispel Magic on the statue. The spells went off, the silver flecks faded and, yes; of course the statue came to life.

Jenny and Stoopod ran back up the stairs, Stoopod having first tried to fight the thing and deciding it was unkillable. Throtal bravely stood his ground and fought like a true Thrall, but took a terrible pounding and eventually slipped to the ground unconscious (in 5’ of water remember). Thermite drew two knives from his belt and, giving a harsh battle cry, leapt down the well onto the things back, stabbing deep with his knives. He continued to hang on and stab it, but was eventually swatted off and flung across the chamber. Mr Quiz blasted the thing with an Arcane Bolt that barely touched it; he too then made his escape. Thermite threw a knife at the things back, then ran and adroitly slid between its legs, getting to the stairs. During the melee the thing had dropped the sword that it was holding (GM: I think it was something Throtal did, but I can’t remember what), Stoopod ran back down to try and get it but the thing pursued him. He did manage to pick up the sword out of the water and also dragged Throtal out. Back on the surface, with a terrible rending of earth the thing burst up through the ground. Mr Quiz tried an Arcane Bolt on the gate blocking the entrance, it glowed red-hot but wasn’t destroyed. Stoopod hit the thing with the new sword, there was a flash like summer lightning and it staggered. K’kree fired his tri-bow at it and it exploded into dust, with a faint clattering as Thermite’s knives fell to the floor.

Throtal was dying, nearly dead. Jenny tried a healing spell but the effort was too much and she took a backlash that hurt her. Bravely, she tried again and succeeded. Throtal was unconscious but no longer dying. K’kree flew to the outside to see if there was any way to open the gate, finally they found a lever on the plinth down in the well and were free.

Pulling Throtal on a travois they headed off, finally reaching a rickety wooden bridge over a marshy stream. They crossed this without incident, although they did hear the distant sound of heklers off to the southwest. They reached the grove of Withergall trees and then the willowood by the stream. Stoopod pushed K’kree under the branches to see if the curse was still working, K’kree stumbled and hurt his head. Passing the lightning tree they took a wrong turn and found the pit with the chig. Pressing on to the hut of Knutt; they found him there chopping wood. He offered to sell them some wood but Stoopod just said he was going to die. When Knutt asked why, he replied, “Because you tried to kill me.” Knutt enquired as to why he would want to do that, a loud chorus of voices yelled; “because you hate butterflies!” That was enough to set Knutt off and he raised his axe. Unfortunately the axe-head fell off, undeterred he hit Stoopod with the axe handle, only to receive a return stroke from Stoopod’s Greatsword followed by a clip from K’kree’s tri-bow in the chest that took him out (Care in the Community, Talislantan-style!) Looting the hut, Stoopod found 60 gold lumens that he took, promising to share them later. An excursion down a new path (more misremembered directions!) brought them to a ruin of a stone building surrounded by mist; night was falling so they camped down in the late Knutt’s hut (all except K’kree, who spent the night in a tree.)

The following day (26th Ardan), Throtal had recovered enough to be able to walk. After some more wandering about they finally found the way out and returned to Cymril, reaching the city on 28th Ardan.

Aftermath
Various members of the party set about seeking training in various skills
The news from Sindar was that Nadir Horvanth did not win the Trivarian tournament, being narrowly beaten in the fourth septrad by Nadir Punten


(GM’s notes: Just to show how ‘X-filey’ things can get, right at the beginning I got Jenny et al into the game by saying ‘your friends are in danger’. It wasn’t set up (honest!) but if Jenny hadn’t been there then Throtal would have died.
This is the last of the Talislantan games at the club for a time as the school holidays have come to an end. I’d like to thank all the kids who took part for making Talislanta ‘come alive’; I hope they all enjoyed the experience and we’ll continue in the next holidays).