Tales from the Emerald Pentacle Issue Three

Greetings all peoples, to the third Tales from the Emerald Pentacle, detailing the adventures of the junior section of Halesowen Boardgamers in the fantastic world of Talislanta.

21st Ardan 620
All eyes are on the Sindaran city of Nankar, where the annual Trivarian tournament is under way. Excitement is running high as Horvanth, of the Neo-Neurian sect, is proving to be a more-than capable Nadir.

Meanwhile, in a side room in the Emerald Pentacle, thoughts were turned to more mundane matters. Stoopod (Daniel) and Grave (Jon), having returned from the Borderlands, met up with K’kree (Ben) and Throtal (Matthew) and were puzzling over the scroll that K’kree had been given by the beggar in the False Forest. K’kree had determined that it was some kind of puzzle and had gone a long way to solving it. The actual poem read: -
“ Fabian invites noble daring men. Yesterday the other warriors eagerly rode their hordes ever nearer the hideous enemy: exhausted yet exalted, men of undaunted trust, hall heroes against nameless darkness, swords wielded over rising doom”
Decoded it read: -
“Find my tower, then the eye, mouth, hand, sword

They decided to search Cymril for a tower (a city of elegant stone and crystal towers!), then after a time decided to ask around. They met up with a Pharesian peddler named Horvase, “Rumours are not for rent, although roomers often do rent”. He advised them that towers with eyes are usually to be found in Aaman; finally they mentioned Fabians name and he advised them that Fabian lived in the False Forest, that he died there and what killed him is probably still there. He is in the market for rumours; Stoopod and Grave tried making up a few but somehow Horvase didn’t believe them:
“Aaman is trying to take over these lands” Reply: “The priests of Aa have been trying to convert all non-believers for many years. If you care to take a trip across the square to the Temple of Aa the Omniscient, they will be more than willing to escort you to a House of Penance, where you will emerge a true believer. This is a fact, not a rumour”

Finally they set off for the False Forest, arriving on 24th Ardan. Entering the Forest, K’kree flew up and spied out the land, seeing what appeared to be the ruins of a tower to the south and also some Batranc circling in the air high up.

Deciding not to go towards the river at the lightning tree, they headed south; hearing the sound of chopping wood they met the woodcutter by his hut. He warned them about Muses in the forest and told them to go west, not south. In return, Stoopod warned him about some Muses about five miles away (blatant lie)! Knutt thanked them, saying he would deal with the problem. Heading west, without warning the ground opened up and all but K’kree fell down a deep pit. Knutt appeared, carrying his axe and a large bucket; he accused them all of being Muse-lovers and, despites K’kree’s efforts to stop him, hurled the bucket into the pit. It burst open and out poured a swarm of Chigs, 6” long multi-clawed insects. Stoopod and Throtal were attacked: Grave managed to use some iron spikes to climb up out of the pit; Stoopod followed him and Throtal clawed his way up with his bare hands. Meanwhile, K’kree was fighting Knutt the Mad Forester; sometime during the melee the subject of butterflies came up (possibly because of K’kree’s vestigial wings?) Anyway, this triggered ‘something’ in Knutt and he ran off screaming about the nightmare butterflies. K’kree flew into the pit to peck off the chigs from Throtal (nice idea Ben!); and everyone got out.

After a rest they followed a trail out, arriving back at the lightning-blasted tree. They went to the river, found the willowood with the skeleton of the catdrac; and then headed south to the grove of Withergall trees. K’kree and Throtal insisted that they had tried to go South-west past the trees last time (wrong! -it was South-east) they went south-west and found themselves climbing a grassy knoll. The trail ended in a cave, from which came a low droning sound coupled with a very high, almost inaudible sound like the chiming of a glass bell. From beyond the knoll came a raucous heckling sound [a cross between parrots and howler monkeys; as if any existed on Talislanta], some distance away; plus to the south, about three miles away, could be seen the ruins of a tower.
Stoopod and Grave decided to enter the cave; Grave lit a torch. Throtal stayed outside; K’kree decided to try and fly to the tower.

The cave: advancing cautiously they entered the main cave. At the far end was a low tunnel with daylight; but in the centre was a large nest crawling with Amber Wasps! Very aggressive, the sting from an Amber wasp is so painful as to produce the wildest and most unseemly gesticulations, thrashings, contortions and howling in its victims Stoopod is immune to fear but still retreated (Thrall still feel pain), but Grave remained, thinking. The wasps were ignoring him anyway.

K’kree flew steadily; the tower was only about three miles as the avir flies. He landed at the tower, rested; and then returned to the knoll.

The cave: Grave tried to think of many ways to use his magic to get rid of the wasps [GM: Using the new Tal4 rules; many of his ideas could have worked]. In the end, he cast Invisibility on himself and sneaked round to the far entrance. There, he found a curious trail of booted foot/animal claw: which he followed: the heckling sound getting louder from ahead. Following the trail he met the Hermit with the Odd Crutch (it’s got a huge animal foot on the end): who promised him all his riches if he would make them go away or stop. ‘Them’ are the dozen or so Heklers (bird-like creatures) in the branches. Grave tried to think of a way to get rid of the heklers

Meanwhile, at the other end of the cave, Throtal and Stoopod debated what to do. It had been about an hour and a half since Grave had gone into the cave. They eventually made a run for it across the cave, Throtal narrowly avoided being stung. They followed the strange trail …

The clearing: The hermit offered to take Grave to his treasure and set off into the forest; the heklers followed them. Grave used an Illusion spell to make he and the hermit blend into the background; the confused heklers stopped their noise and they managed to get away. The hermit led Grave back to the clearing, reached into the hollow tree and produced a handful of nuts, berries and stones: - his ‘treasure’! Hearing the heklers returning, a somewhat bemused Grave took the treasure and left the crazy old hermit. Striking out through the forest, he splashed through a swampy area and emerged into a clearing with the ruins of a stone tower jutting skywards like a broken tooth.

Stoopod and Throtal lost the strange trail and waded through a swampy area, finally emerging into the clearing with the tower. Grave was already there and shortly after K’kree flew in.

Deciding to press onwards, they entered the tower to see a cracked and weed-grown flagstone floor, a well, and on the far wall, a stone head gushing water into a stone basin. At this point an iron portcullis slid down over the entrance archway, blocking it. They figured that they had to put the fist-sized rock into the hollow eye socket; this stopped the water flow and K’kree was able to put his hand into the mouth and pull the lever inside, opening the secret drawer. Inside was a scroll case, with a scroll written in Archaen. a language which Grave could read. It was a powerful form of Dispel Magic. Now things went a bit wrong. Standing well back, they tossed a stone down the well; it clattered around then landed with a splash. Grave cast the Dispel Magic at the well but nothing appeared to happen. He then tried one of his own Dispel Magic at the stone head; still nothing happened.

The day was drawing to a close and Ardan was beginning to spread its purple glow over the forest. They settled down for the night.

So ended the first part of the third adventure…

{GM’s note: a large part of this adventure was run with a real-life thunderstorm going on in the background!}