The Story So far Part two

Introduction

Enter three more travelling companions going to the Caravanserai at A'rakum Manor to seek work as caravan escorts going across the spine of the world from greater Brandovia to greater Kalamar

Episode III – The Hole & what was down it Part I

Dramatis Personae

Telec Kalamarian Human Priest of the Wanderer

Aetlred Half Elf Ranger

D’rek Brandobian Human Fighter.

Melias B’Paran Human Mage-Thief

Lalia Halfling Thief

Nameless Elven Mage

Location

Melacs farm – on the eastern border of kingdom of Cosdol

Events

In the morning Aelthred Telec & D’rek breakfasted at the hospitality of the Meliac’s family once again and when farmer Meliac & his three sons went out to work to repair the damage to the root store, it was decided that the hole in the barn needed further investigating if only to finally make it safe for Farmer Meliac & his sons to repair it & to start using it as a barn again  in this they where assisted willingly or not by Elvie Meliac who is adventure struck as some others her age might be stage struck or mad on ponies, it not helping that her grandfather Elvas was for a time an adventures & has been telling her stories for as long as she can remember.

Meanwhile on the road some where to the west trudged Melias a young fellow of B’paran descent who had gone to Cosolen the capital to further his interests in the magical arts a Lalia young Halfling & the Elven mage for such was obvious form his garb who had not yet vouched safe his name to his newly met travelling companions. They where they hoped within easy march of the Caravanserai at A’rakum manor or so their informant at the road house they had stayed at last night had indicated but the road was proving longer than hoped and despite expecting the appearance of the large stone Caravanserai over the next hill it failed to appear. Indeed it very much looked like there informant had advised them wrongly & not particularly wanting to spend a night in the open if it could be avoided they decided amongst themselves that they should try to get a nights shelter at the next farm they passed.

Mean while at the in the Barn, leaving Drek up top for the moment mostly to intercept Elvie who had realised that there was a dungeon in her own dads barn was very eager to see it by giving her jobs to do to help in the adventure so as to keep her out of danger.

Further explorations reveal that the stables are long abandoned & that the only remaining fixtures and fittings in them are stone & built into the structure. The same is true of the area around the mine shaft where only the massive stone double A frame remains in place and what where obviously solos for mined material are empty with no trace of what might have been in them save for the odd discoloration on the ground and the odd lose bit of material which neither Telec & Aelthred can identify. The whole place has a look of long abandonment.

Telec & Aelthred then turn their attention to the single stone doors on the left of the yard area as they entered form the hole. Being systematic they decided to start with the one nearest the front door to the yard area and work along the wall. The first door opened easily despite its weight a slab of stone seven feet by three feet and at least six inches thick is not going to be light. Inside they found an empty room large vaulted like the yard and devoid of any fixtures and fitting save for a collapsed wooden round table so rotten it had all but disintegrated. Here again fixtures seemed to have been deliberately striped out with the only sign of what might have been several wall sconces being the holes the spikes that held them in place had left and some very ancient blackening of the wall above. And the shadow of what might have been a rack for weapons perhaps shown only by a faint shadow on the walls and some empty holes.

The next room was the same size as the first and seemed as barren save it had a few more fixtures some stone bed frames remained as did a pile of detritus & large bones just to the left of the door and with in spears reach. Telec & Aelthred moved into the room for a better look as before they disturbed the pile of Detritus & the bones began to move on there own & to coalesce into a whole, the skeletal form of a man. Shocked Telec & Aelthred readied their weapons hastily.

As the skeletal form turned towards than its bony fingers striking like claws, a brief fight ensued as the monstrosity clawed first at Aelthred who lunged at it repeatedly only to have his heavy spear head slip between its ribs or strike empty air where on a fully fleshed man there would have been flesh a plenty and then at Telic whose staff proved more adept at shattering ancient bone until finally the thing had taken enough of a beating that the foul magic which powered it could hold it together no more and it collapsed into the pile of detritus from whence it had risen. Shaken still by the encounter Aelthred & Telec decided to leave and to at least fetch D’rek before returning and continuing their exploration.

On the road our other three travellers spied a suitable farm coming into view and decided after a brief conversation that as it was the first they had seen since they decided to try to put up at one for the night they should approach this farmer for hospitality.  Making their way to the farm along the lane between the two south fields they reached a substantial farm house and went around into the yard to speak to the farmer.

When the door was finally opened they encountered Kalan Melias, the farmer who said he was unable to offer the hospitality of his house as it was spoken for already but he was happy to offer them a meal and allow them to bed down in the barn for nothing. Mellias became suspicious at this point and wanted to know what was wrong with the barn that the farmer would not charge for it. At which point Elvie arrived on one of her many little missions to help out the adventurers and became a fascinated with the Halfling who she first mistook as a child of her own age. 

Whilst all of this was happening D’rek had been persuaded to join Telec & Aelthred. The showed him the remains of the animated skeleton and together they raked thought the pile of detritus on which it lay and confirmed that the bones where try thought of a man rather than a dwarf which Telec & Aelthred had decided without any real knowledge or evidence had built this place. They found nothing save for some corroded bits of twisted metal which might once have been fittings for clothes.  Though no one present could work out what they might once have been. D’rek was unimpressed and pointed out that it was late and he was hungry so every one decided to go back to the farm, for some food & some time to think and plan.

This resulted in them running into the other three who where still discussing accommodation with farmer Meliac. Melias in particular was being stroppy and making increasingly unreasonable demands about having a fire lit in the barn & farmer Meliac was equally obstinately refusing them as he did not want having just recovered his barn from bloody huge rats to have it burnt down. Besides it was spring and not cold and the barn would more than keep the rain off should there be any. The discussion grew to encompass the first group and they all set off to view the barn and to try to explain to Melias the situation with the barn. He was not happy but when all said and done it was free shelter for a night not a tavern  

Episode IV – The Hole & what was down it Part II
Dramatis Personae
Telec Kalamarian Human Priest of the Wanderer
Aetlred Half Elf Ranger
D’rek  Brandobian Human Fighter.
Melias B’Paran Human Mage-Thief
Lalia Halfling Thief
Nameless  Elven Mage

Location
Melacs farm – on the eastern border of kingdom of Cosdol

Events
The next morning every one awoke ready for the new day & breakfast over which there was something of an argument between Farmer Melacs & Melias who was rather unimpressed wit the Meliac's style of hospitality. Farmer Melac was equally unimpressed with Melias's attitude and finally pointed out that it was free & he was running a farm not an inn. The argument ended when Farmer Meliac & sons who had been chipping in, in support of their father & looked more than ready to batter Melias decided they had work to do & Farmer Meliac angrily pointed out that there was an inn half a day to the east. Melias & Nameless left though Nameless had not been involved in the argument and indeed had said little to any one except Aetlred & only spoke to him as Aetlred kept talking to him in high Elven.

The remaining members of the company many of whom where still smarting form the previous days activities fell to a day of domestic labour. Aetlred sorted out the materials to make several arrows. D’rek  Telec & Lalia  to fixing the hole in the barn floor & generally staying away from D’rek who had striped to the waist to use the Meliac’s small improvised blacksmithy and so revealed rolls of flesh best left unseen despite wearing the farms leather apron. Aetlred  after failing to find any flints suitable to make points out of resorted to having D'rek make some out of the bar stock he was busy turning into nails & hinges and the like for Lalia and Telec  to use improving the entry to the hole and allowing it to be secured against prying children if nothing else. By the end of the day this had been done and Aetlred had the makings of a half dozen arrows though sadly no glue for the fletchings. He did whilst out foraging take a look at the rouble and stones in the banks at the bases of the field hedges and found a lot of worked stone some of which had carved decoration on though most of it was too broken to identify what it once might have been. Chatting to the farmer and his sons as they worked he also found out that the majority of the worked stones where to be found in the north east field and that in grandfathers great grandfathers time enough cut stone was recovered clearing the site of the farm to allow the house to be built with a hardcore floor & its walls to have at three courses of cut stone at their base.

The following morning with every one much rested despite their labours, Aetlred sent Evie out to do a survey of where the work stones where to be found around the farm to help with the adventure and to keep her out of the way whilst the company went down the hole again.

Descending the new ladder in the new wood lined shaft the company moved to explore beyond the two doors on the west wall through which they had not yet passed. They did so warily after the encounter with the animated skeleton the last time. Through the first they found an empty room long ago striped of all features but a line of alcoves on the north wall all of which proved to be empty of all but dust. Above them they found a line of holes suggesting something perhaps a shelf had been there once and some scrapes on the paved floor hinting at the presence of heavy furniture long ago. The room’s unique feature for in size it was like the other two already was a further stone door in the west wall.  This the company approached with caution Lalia listened at it and heard nothing at all so they entered and where there confronted with a bizarre sight.

The room was furnished and appeared to be occupied. To the left and right of the door where stacks of what looked like human bones and ahead slumped over a lectern with a great tome on it was a figure in heavy brocaded robes, the sort that shout wizard to even the greenest and most naive peasant around him partly hidden in a layer of dust was a circle scratched ion the floor with a star inside & the stubs of black wax at each of the cardinal points of the star inside.

Shouting a curse Aetlred said smash the bones before any magic can raise them & with a will both he and D’rek fell to smashing the ancient bones which did not stir as each hammered them to fragments with their weapons. The figure did not stir and the company took in the rest of the rooms fixtures. There was a small bronze bound coffer and a half collapsed wooden truckle bead to north, over which was inscribed a passage in an unknown angular script, and a set of benches to the south.  On the bench where animal bones laid out as if in the middle of a dissection some very corroded bronze surgical tools and scrolls which crumbled on being touched under the bench where decayed sacks full of what once may have been clothing but which where so rotten that colour or form where beyond guessing.

Still the figure which was revealed to be sitting on a high perch stool did not move or react. Eventually after exploring the room Aetlred prodded the figure with the but of his trusty spear it stood up the piercing stool collapsing into ruin as it did so, & the gods of chance and battle rolled their cosmic dice.

The company stood stunned whilst the skeletal mage raised its hands and started to incant some terrible magic except no incantation came form its decayed mouth and it swung its arms in useless gesture. Lalia snapped out of it first and shouting a warning readied her sling sending spinning in ever faster arcs about her head. Followed by Aetlred who drawing back his heavy spear struck the vile thing such a blow it that is rotted arm fell off & the creature was hurled into the back wall where it slumped to the floor and remained motionless. A tense moment passed until it became apparent that the malice had given the long dead thing the semblance of life had fled.

Searching the body revealed it was long dead and half decayed with bone showing where the desiccated flesh had long ago turned to dust. It was clad in fine brocaded robes which crumbled even as they where searched and wore a belt of pouches each filled with some trace of what once might have been at Aeltred's guess a spell component all long gone to dust and decay.

Mean while on the surface Elvie had fallen to her mission with a will and was crawling about in the bases of the farms hedges looking for worked stone so she could tell the adventurers what she had found when they came to ask her. Her mother did try to give her something else fro her to do but her grandfather put his hand on his daughter in laws arm and said you kept my son and his sons form the sell sword life but I fear you have lost that battle with the lass just as much as my father gods rest him lost it with me. It’s a madness which burns itself out after a while and such things burn out quicker in the young if you let them.

Elvie’s mother was not happy at this and chided her father in law for his foolishness & his telling tales to her easily lead daughter, but she let Elvie alone to get on with her task all the same. 

Down the hole the company thoroughly searched the wizard’s room but found many more questions than answers especially as almost every thing they touched was so aged that on even the gentlest investigation it crumbled to nothing.  The only thing of interest which survived was the tome form the lectern a heavy book with fine velum pages covered in diagrams of an apparently arcane nature but unfathomable to the company there present accompanied by notes in a foreign script no one could read except it was certainly in the hands of several scribes.

Other than the tome, the prime exception to this was the coffer at the foot of the bed which thought covered by a fine layer of the dust of ages was whole and intact. A sturdy wooden box made form one of the dark woods form the far south bound in thick bronze straps and secured by a small lock for which the company could find no key. However the small lock proved to be only a small challenge to Lalia once she had ascertained that there where no traps to catch the unwary, inside the contents of the coffer where remarkably well preserved.  A small book Aetlred guessed almost certainly a personal spell book written in an unknown script similar to that of the tome but all the same hand as far as could be seen. Some coins of an unfamiliar type a couple of good leather multi pocket pouches full of spoilt bits which might have been spell components. A dozen sheets of the finest velum and an exquisite bronze leaf bladed dagger, which looked to be Drejii work from one of the plains clans east of the mountains according to Telec who has travelled a lot.

Puzzled and the company decided to press on and to explore the last room. Entering all the more cautiously the company found the thing was some sort of a prison & perhaps torture chamber though fortunately nothing of that remained. Fully half the room had been made into four small cells by the installation of a cage work of sturdy bronze bars.  In each cell was a manacled skeleton lying in a position which suggested that they had been probably alive and fleshed when cast into the cell. Each cell was secured by a sturdy if simple lock which Lalia reckoned she could open easily but the company decided not to given their recent encounters and settled to examining the skeletons as best they could with out entering the cells or unlocking the doors. After a short examination the company pressed further on.

To the double doors on the north wall, a quick examination by Lalia seemed to indicate that these doors which stood easily eight feet high and wide enough for a cart to enter where not locked or at least not locked by any mechanism which there was access to from the outside, D’rek being the strongest bay far pressed on the  doors but they did not budge but an uncanny thing happened the face of what appeared to be a dwarf by the elaborately platted beard and hair appeared in mid air just behind D’rek and spoke in at least three tongues possibly four of which only one was known to the company, Dwarvish.  This Telec for it was he who had the rudiments of the language said apologised in the name of the king that there was no entry for strangers such as they and directed them around to the front gate, where they should seek entry.

A discussion followed and it was decided that the other messages must say something like that which had been said in Dwarvish and that the gates where almost certainly secured by something like magic. An idea confirmed when detailed scrutiny of the whole area around the gates failed to find   any hidden mechanism which might open them form this side.

Then it occurs to Aetlred to try the cloak broach they found in the spoil around the hole on the first day the one with a missing pin and yellow glass eyes & with it presented strongly the gates swing open revealing a dark road way leading slightly down and the nauseating smell of stale air which is very familiar to Lalia. A quick look round the inside of the gate reveals nothing of interest save an inscription on the wall in angular characters similar to that on the wall above the wizards long rotted bed, which is assumed to be Dwarvish. Even thought non present could read the tongue or actually knew what Dwarvish script look like.

Confronted by a puzzle wrapped in an enigma the company discussed what to do next and decided that they needed more information and the advice of a wizard. So the shut the gate & returned to the surface intending to spend the night once more at the Meliac’s farm and press on in the morning.

Over supper the company talked with grandfather Meliac’s abut his adventuring life & questioned him as to weather he had encountered any thing like what they had found and he spoke of a raid on a goblin foot hold in the mountains to the east a strong hold which had once long ago been some sort of large town. He spoke of the guide an elf ranger called Vagarion who had lead them there and of the hard fights they had had with the goblins before being forces to withdraw and the companions who had not made it back. Trading tales of his own extensive travels Telec recalled that there was a sage who lived in an old Kalamarian watch tower to the east and Grandfather Meliac also remembered that possibly the same tower had been used by a middling powerful wizard in his time. Perhaps the Sage was the heir to or the apprentice to the long ago wizard.

To all this little Evie Meliac listened with wrapped attention, she had heard her grandfather’s tales before but not this one, nor any in such detail.  She wanted to add what she had found in the fields around the farm but the wanting to hear what passed between adventurers stilled her tongue & even drew in her brothers and her parents who had not heard such an exchange before either.

In the morning the company awoke rested & they all breakfasted with the Melacs family before being taken around by Elvie and shown what she had found yesterday.  She had noted every worked stone in every hedge bottom looked for fragments in the plough soil and walked the ground with an almost professional eye.

From what she had found it became apparent that there had been a large and well appointed building in the north west field possibly more than one perhaps a manor house and its out buildings and that there might have been other smaller lesser buildings scattered over much of the rest of the farm.

An interlude for two characters - which takes place whilst episode IV above is occurring

Nameless Elven Mage

Melias B’Paran Human Mage-Thief

Location
Melacs farm – on the eastern border of kingdom of Cosdol, The king’s road east into the kingdom of P’Bapara and A’Rakham Manor over the course of a day.

Events

Melias argued with the stupid farmer about his appalling lack of basic hospitality and so had decided to press on to find a proper inn in the following morning as having to sleep in a rat infested barn was really too much and he was defiantly not doing it twice. The Elf remained taciturn but left with him as he had no reason to stay. They marched till mid morning the Elven mage lost in arcane thoughts and Melias continued to mumble about the in hospitality of farmers here about.

They arrived at the Inn at A’Rakham manor just after lunch here Melias complained about the price of the food the price of the rooms three silvers really that was utterly exorbitant and the mage was mildly affronted by being told he had to sleep in the foreigners’ house with a stinking half ork drunk, he was an elf of good lineage and not to be bundled together with a misbegotten half ork.

Nameless did not argue what was the point of doing it with ephemeral folk and Melias was able to argue more than adequately.  They ate a plate of stew which Melias complained lacked meat and drank a cup of small beer before taking to the road again. Having been told by a surly dwarf that there was free lodging to be had at the Wayfarer’s temple at the stone bridge yonder.

They marched till night fall when they camped in as Melias put it a ditch as the surly dwarf had lied to them about how far the Wayfarers’ temple was form the inn. Only arriving at the temple around mid day the following day. Nameless found the whole affair a mild amusement even if it did distract him from his higher purpose some what.