The azer turns away and dips an index finger into the coals. He takes one out and places it on his red tongue; he nods to himself and swallows it.
He stirs the embers. Do not enter enter my workspace unless you assist me with my duty. Give me fire to put in fire, or stand in that alcove forever.
The other Azer's mane of flames burns brighter as it catches wind of the conversation. Me as well. Assist me. Give a burning to put in the burning.
Samen turns to his friends and shrugs.
Gate meets Samen's eyes and returns the shrug. He then turns to the azer.
"Give you a burning to put in the burning? How about we just walk out that door to the west and call it a good evening? We've got an awful lot of our own work to get done. Perhaps you've seen a kidnapped princess come though here?"
The Azer frowns at Gate's rude words. He drops an ember onto the floor and uses his warhammer to chip it at Gate's face.
The smoldering ember whizzes off course harmlessly — almost — it singes a single chest hair!
Whole party is up!
*Sigh* "Fine. This was your choice, though."
Samen catches everyone's eye, quickly, and nods, conveying a sense of his plan. Hey then takes a quick step toward one of the creatures, trying to make it flinch.
Gate looks down at his chest and snarls.
”Right, you’ll pay for that, with your life!”
He moves up to azer #2 and tries to stab him with a punching dagger. He harries the azer with his menacing stance.
The boy snaps out of his morbid thinking about his missing friend and tries to halt the slaughter.
"You have no need of fire from us this day. Nor use for cutting steel. We're here on business of the crown. If ember is your ask, they'll more than pay the price upon our mission's end. Now let us pass."
The Azer loosens his grip on the Warhammer and considers A Boy's words.
Our ask is more than ember. The fire must be hot indeed.
Klaytal delays, waiting to see what effect A Boy's spells will have.
The first Azer weaves unsteadily and his mane of fire sputters; his voice is like gravel: The work must continue. He then steps through solid wall, vanishing from sight.
Azer 2 makes a strange gesture at A Boy. I will be here with the work when you return with my fire, friend. He turns to continue sifting the coals, ignoring the party.
Out of combat!
A few moments later the Azer dips his hand into the trough, and pulls forth a fading coal. He frowns before walking through the Southern wall.
However, if you try to teleport through a wall, you find you cannot do so. You can still teleport about within individual rooms, as usual.
You are now alone in the room.
Which way? There is a door to the West, and one to the East.
The strange little man goes to the western door to give a look and listen.
"We can't step through the walls here. The azers can, though. Let's be careful!"
A Boy hears nothing beyond so he opens the door, revealing a short hallway and another door. There is writing above the lintel; it glows softly:
Consider this when you start onwards:
What we normally wish, when snow softly engulfs
settlements everywhere, seems woefully wasteful; surely
snow shall eventually stop enveloping everything naturally,
when Northern nights e’er ebb?
I hope you can follow what’s been said?
You open the door. Beyond is a 20' by 45' space, covered in a grid of red, 5-foot square tiles demarcated by bright white grouting. Two muscular creatures stand on either side of the door. A Boy knows they are Magmin.
You see a single door to the South, along the Eastern Wall.
When Gate enters the room, the magmin turn to watch him, but do nothing else. The party follows…
When Gate steps on the third tile to the West, a wall of fire blasts down from the ceiling, singeing another few chest hairs! Luckily, Gate leaps back in time to avoid further damage.
Samen steps off to the side, and suddenly the Magmin emit a fierce heat, making the room as hot as an oven — it seems as if he has triggered a second trap. No matter what you do, the Magmin cannot be touched — they seem to be protected by a strange magic.
A Boy backs up the other way and drops a second wall of fire down onto himself.
Everyone retreats from the heat and flames of this horrible area.
Klaytal reads the nonsense verse again, and remembers that Gate triggered the trap after moving more than 3 tiles to the West in the room. He notices that the first letter of the first two words of the poem are both "W." He steps back into the room, this time going two steps West on the grid, and then turning North. He seems safe. He retreats to takes a complete rubbing of the poem before leading the party through, using his compass and the first letter of each word to direct his next step on the grid:
You step into the 5-foot hallway between rooms; Gate curses when he gets sprayed with cold blue gel — and again when A Boy quips something at him. It seems as if this room is a cooling chamber of sorts.
Everyone gets sprayed thoroughly with goop, and shiver when they enter the next room.
This new space 15 feet by 30 feet, and contains two large piles of coal — one in the northeastern corner, the other filling the south wall.
A thin path winds between the two heaps; it's full of sooty footprints. A set of these glows, as if still hot. It seems as if a fire-based creature has passed this way recently and rekindled the soot — likely the Azer you saw go this way.
There is movement atop the piles of coal in several places… you see four swarms made of glowing red embers happily frolicking in the cinders. in fact, they are eating some of the hottest coals. They notice you and start to come your way!
When near you, they hesitate, as if waiting for you to do something.
”What? What do you want? Are we meant to do a trick or something?”
The constructs rumble around Gate's feet in a circle, then to the coals, and then back to Gate, clearly excited about something. However, in all Gate's adventuring he's never heard of a swarm whose entertained by tricks.
The boy scat he’s his unruly mop of hair.. "The want a treat we may not have. Some fire? A bit of fuel? What does a shepherd give a fiery hound?"
"Well, there's plenty of coals in the last room. Maybe we can find a way to bring some in here without burning ourselves?"
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
You use a bowl from a mess kit to bring a large pile of coals back to the constructs, who spin about in circles under your feet when they see you with their favorite snack.
They happily begin eating the hot coals; they also gently warm you, making you perfectly comfortable again after getting sprayed with the icy-cold cooling gel.
Understanding you're bringers of treats, the constructs will not harm you, allowing you to pass this room at any time.
”What? That was all they wanted? Well, let’s move along then.”
"You're getting more reasonable by the minute, Gateau!" The boy gives a giggle as he passes by the embers.
The next hallway is 15 feet long and quite thin. The floor is covered, edge to edge, in traps that shoot jets of flame upwards at any walkers.
The walls and ceiling are covered in hundreds of clay hands that attempt to grasp onto you as you move through. Some would help a person climb along the wall, and others would cast them down onto the traps.
Luckily, Samen is here and can disarm the traps along floor. The creepy hands make sad faces as you proceed to the next room.
----
The center of this room is blasted out — there is nothing here but a deep pit in the center. You carefully make your way along the ledge.
A Boy and Samen see a body on the floor, hidden in the rubble. It has weirdly pulsating skin, as if there is a creature inhabiting it. The corpse's glassy eye rolls up to stare at you. The mouth silently mutters, … come … down … to … me …
You decide to move past quickly.
Beyond is another small, 5-foot-wide hallway.
Signs and symbols are scrawled on the walls in white ash; fetishes dangle from the ceiling.
At the end of the hallway is a strange door — if one could even call it a door. It's actually an intricate mechanism that contains an inner chamber sealed off from the rest of the hallway, as well as the room beyond.
The boy examines the various things as best he can.
"Ah, ash. For swifter passage through death's antechamber. Like as not a means to open yonder door."
He blinks at the door, unfamiliar with such complex mechanisms.
”Have we cone to a dead end then? We could go back the way we came and through the other door.”
The boy examines the weird door, but does not understand it. He puts his hand on what seems to be the latching mechanism...
The rest of the party crams into the strange mechanism with A Boy. The first door hisses shut behind them, and the other opens. There is no air movement whatsoever.
It's silent here; still as a grave. This relatively large room is dominated by two massive heaps of ash. As you look closer, you notice that these are just the tops of far deeper mounds, rising out of pits.
Now you understand the purpose of the strange doorway: it prevents the delicate ash from blowing about the room.
There are nine fiery skeletons here, standing with their feet hidden in the ash. They slowly turn to look at you.
A tenth skeleton is clad in golden vestments. Gradually he rises up out of the ash on a levitating disc made of obsidian; so slowly does he rise, in fact, that the ash is hardly disturbed. Above you, his bony appendages, with exquisite deliberation, make formal and unexpected sign: a welcome to a funeral.
The other burning skeletons do not move, or disturb the ash.
There is another door/airlock on the far side of the room, at the end of a thin trail that winds its way between the overflowing pits of ash. How do you plan on proceeding?
A eulogy. Not for a man but for a bear made of fleece. In attendance: A princely doll. A lollipop. A spider. And the bear’s best friend, a noble lass.
Of these does the boy sing, granting his friends the trickster’s step. He remains ready to change his tune, disappearing and ready to take the leap once they’ve gone.
The gold-clad skeleton bows his head in respect for A Boy's eulogy. The other skeletons do likewise, mourning for the fleece bear.
This boy...
Samen gives the boy a sidelong glance then, contemplating his words, steps through nothing to the far doorway.
”That’s a good one Jack. I’m not about to lose any more chest hair to this place.”
Gate also steps to the far doorway.
You can teleport one at a time; it lands you near the golden skeleton. His bony thumb is covered in ash, and he attempts to mark your forehead as you go by.
Do you let him do this to you? Each of you can choose.
The boy sees the skeleton do this and opts to be anointed.
Samen recoils, but then thinks better. Each of the creatures we've met in here could have been a threat, yet most have revealed themselves to be reasonably benign. Hm. With that, he allows himself to be anointed.
Gate, Klaytal? Let me know in Slack if it's easier. We'll be moving to the next room soon!
Seeing the boy and Samen accept, Gate lets the skeleton annoint his forehead as well.
Klaytal does too.
You pass through the airlock. This hallway turns ahead at a right angle. It ends at a dead-end. The wall here feels cold.
Gate: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18
Hucklepuck: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23
Klaytal: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (10) + 9 = 19
Samen: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26
A Boy and Samen note that the mortar in certain places seems to be eroded away… it's a secret door! You open it.
Convulsive shivers wrack your warm bodies when an arctic wind blasts into the hallway — it's cold as deep winter in this new room.
This entire room is sheathed in cold iron — walls, floor, ceiling, doors — everything.
The voice of a child from the left-hand side of the room: Hello; shut the door!
You step inside and close the door. Sitting upside-down in a tattered old club chair is a girl who looks to be the same age as A Boy. She's dressed in a puffy winter outfit that has a fox-fur-lined hood from which her auburn hair hangs to the floor; her brass-colored irises peer up at you when she smiles.
Across from her is a cell lined with cold iron bars.
Inside the cell lined with cold iron bars is a 9-foot tall humanoid figure whose wearing heavy plate armor made of black of ice; a cloak of frost is draped majestically over one shoulder. Its skeletal head is topped by a pair of jagged, crystal-blue antlers. It holds a glaive that seems to be made of solid ice.
The child kicks her feet in the air and smiles at you. I'm Vartiomies. She gestures at the being in the cell. This is Jaa-Isanta. At the mention of its name the being steps to the edge of the cell and stares menacingly; its cold eyes slide over each of you before suddenly fixating on a boy.
Its whisper is like ice groaning in a deep lake on a moonless night:
A ghastly grin splits the cadaverous face; from behind the bars it watches A Boy's every move.
Vartiomies makes a dismissive gesture. Jaa-Isanta is always mean. That's one reason why I have to keep it here. She sits up. Who are you? The girl looks closely at each of you. What are you?
The boy called Jack by some takes out his big-eared doll.
"You’ve heard about the Rabbit Prince perhaps. He thought to make a clever deal with me and now I hold him in my hands. But do go on. Do try to cheat me or my friends, oh rider in the cold."
The cadaverous creature takes a step back. It takes a moment to gather itself before crushing the butt of its glaive against the floor. Little fractals of ice spiderweb about. Its voice grinds on like hollow glaciers.
Old gullible Prince. I knew him well, and thank you. Did you hold him by the ears, and tear out his guts with a cold knife? Did you look into his bulging eyes, and listen to him scream while you stuffed his body with cotton? Consider letting me out — we share enemies in common; the whole forest could be ours!
The cadaverous grin widens.
Vartiomies frowns and says to A Boy, in common: Now now, friend. Don't fib to Jaa-Isanta. It's locked up here until it tells me the truth about its plans, after all! We must set a good example for it!
She flips right-side up. What's your names, anyway? Why are you here? Will you tell me the truth?
"A name’s a precious thing. And truth’s a zephyr in time’s flight. One will cost you dear. The other’s like as not to change."
The boy gives a little bow. "But that one there, he calls me Jack. I’m sure they’ll grant their names. The have no notion of the pow’r they lend."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
True names… part of how they trapped Jaa-Isanta, anyway. And if you are wondering, that's not its true name, either. She ponders Gate, Klaytal, and Samen. They sure are quiet, Jack! Are they your followers? Would you like to guess their true names with me?
Vartiomies hops up onto the arm of the chair and cogitates.
She bows to the open-shirted Gate: Floofy.
She bows to the lithe Klaytal : Shaghetti.
She bows to the pensive Samen: Garçon.
Gate snorts out a laugh.
”Floofy? That’s better than some of the names I’ve been called. We’re here on account of a princess who’s gotten herself kidnapped and put to sleep. Don’t suppose you’ve seen anyone like that come this way? Doubt she’s traveling alone either, mostly to do with the kidnapped and sleeping part. What is this place anyway?”
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The boy giggles clear as a clattering bell. "That’s perfect. Floofy. Peachick might just suit as well. And that one I would call Sir Fart. His silence doth belie his deadly, steely wit." He continues to laugh, smiling with good humor at his foils.
She giggles.
Floofy, the the only ones who come this way are my friends from the forest, like Phocce. And the huntsman. Oh, and the other one too, but she's too old to be a princess. Vartiomies leans in close: Did you know the huntsman is a female? Everyone upstairs just assumes she's a male! Why do you think she does that?
I will tell you what this place is, Floofy — but first one of you must tell me a story! I could command you now that I know your true names, but I will be polite and ask instead. I’m quite bored, you see. I am not allowed to leave Jaa-Isanta alone, not even to go down to my room for a snack... not even for a moment.