Sapphire:Sessions:20140621

Harvest Time 19, near sunset.

Rory picks up the sword of the guard who surrendered. Inside the room the guard came from, Rory finds a young woman, dazed or drugged, bound with leather straps to a bed. From the family resemblance, he guesses this is Ed Taylor's daughter. He calls to Gavin and instructs him to free the girl and take her downstairs to her father.

Chalker sizes up the guard, who says his name is Todd. "When are the other soldiers due back?" "Tomorrow, sunset." "If you're lying," Chalker growls, "I'll cut your thumb off and stick it up your ass."

Chalker searches the dead mage, finding a small symbol of Cor, a couple of rings (including a poisoner's ring), and a purse containing 10 silvers. He notes that the mage looks older that he did while alive. Going through the desk, Chalker loads up a sack with scrolls, maps, and a strongbox containing several bags of gold and silver coins as well as an assortment of gemstones of quality ranging from poor to excellent. He opens the strongbox's false bottom and finds a document, decorated with heraldic symbols, evidently linking the mage to the lineage of the local dukedom. "He was going to use this to legitimize his takeover," Chalker reasons.

Rory checks the bed and its immediate surroundings. Simply being near the bed causes an unpleasant tingling and a feeling of tiredness, perhaps caused by magic. A nearby chest contains an assortment of sex "toys." There are a few places around the room where a voyeur could observe any proceedings through peepholes. A hidden door opens onto a stairway leading down to the next level, the mage's room. Rory makes sure to retrieve his poofball arrow before heading downstairs.

Chalker directs Todd to carry the unconscious Torturer downstairs to the dungeon. In answer to Chalker's questions, Todd says there are six more guards assigned to this tower. He has been working here for about a year. Yes, he sometimes captured people for the mage. "I only signed on for six months, but he made me stay longer. I didn't know he was a necromancer at first. He said the guards were only in the torture room as a precaution. He would often draw blood from the prisoners. Some of them he would question."

Rory walks into the kitchen, startling the younger woman. The older woman merely looks up at him quizzically. "How long have you worked here?" Rory asks. "Been cooking for the tower for 'bout two years." "How much are you paid?" "Enough." "What's 'enough'?" "Couple o' coppers a week." Rory counts out two stacks of five silvers and sets them on the table. "Your employer no longer needs you." "But how will we get back to..." "Todd says there's a stable and a wagon." "It's a two-day journey. Is he going to drive?" "If you can vouch for him. Do you have a healer for the prisoners?" "I can gather bedding, try to keep them comfortable." The younger woman is her granddaughter, Adalene. When the older woman scoops up the ten silvers, Rory makes her give Adalene half. He instructs them to continue with their meal preparation, making a soup or stew that will be easier for the starved prisoners to eat.

Down in a dungeon cell, Chalker straps the Torturer to a table and renders just enough first aid to bring him back to consciousness. "Are you and Todd friends?" "No." "Hm, score one for Todd." Chalker turns his head. "If I leave you here, Todd, will you be tempted to turn him loose?" "No." Facing the Torturer again, Chalker asks, "You know what's coming?" "Yes." "I suggest you have a discussion with Dar and whichever of the First Chosen you choose."

Chalker beckons those of the freed prisoners who are ambulatory into the cell. "Would you like to do it, or me to do it for you?" Two women and a man step forward. Rory discreetly takes Gavin and the other prisoners upstairs to the dining area.

Chalker hands a sharp knife to one of the women. "Cut his thumb off." She takes her time about it, and the Torturer screams with pain. After cauterizing the stump, Chalker tells the woman to cut his other thumb off. He cauterizes that stump. "Here, let me show you how it's done." He brings over some shears, saying to the Torturer, "I'm gonna leave you like you left Ed -- two toes on each foot." After lopping off several more digits, Chalker says his final words to the Torturer, "I want you to go to Dar, and remember how it felt." Chalker drives a long dagger straight into the Torturer's heart. The Torturer screams one last time, and dies.

To the Torturer's victims, Chalker says, "I hope you feel better now." The three reply emphatically in the affirmative, the man adding, "He tortured so many." Chalker hands each of them five silvers and sends them upstairs. 'Leave me and Todd to talk."

Out of sight of the others, not trusting Grandma to play fair (and because he senses that the girl is intimidated by her grandmother), Rory gives Adalene two silver pieces and a dagger. "Relatives don't always do things in your best interest." Adalene straightens, looks Rory in the eyes, and replies in a low voice, "At the proper time, the world will be better off without Grandma."

Chalker leads Todd into Ed's former cell and shackles him next to the other guard. Todd bears up stoically. "If your friends return when you said they would," Chalker says, "you'll be here only for a day. If they return while I'm still here... you know what will happen. I seem to appear where bad mages are, and I usually kill the guards."

Rory tells Gavin, "Get everything you think these people will need." Rory goes down and rousts out the sleeping stableboy and helps him get the wagons ready. As they work, the stableboy says he's been working here about a month, having been recruited by his cousin (the man Rory shot through the heart). Those employed at the tower have a compulsion spell that forces them to return there. Rory gives him three silvers.

Using his penetrating vision, Chalker locates two thin volumes of the necromancer's journal, dating back five years. He returns to the necromancer's body and cuts off its head, hands, and feet.

Trace says to Malcom, "Chalker, Rory, and Striker have been gone too long. I'm going to poke my head through the hole, and I need you to stay here. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes, see these crystals? Pull one out." Entering the gate and passing through the junk room, Trace asks the men shackled to a wall, "Have you seen a couple of guys and a dog?" "Yeah," replies Todd, "They're upstairs feeding the prisoners."

Trace finds his way to the kitchen. Chalker is sitting at a table. Trace: "You guys are never gone this long." Chalker: "We had to kill the mage, torture the torturer, and free the prisoners."

Ten minutes later, having been brought up to date, Trace says "I have to go back now, or we'll have a long walk." Returning to the manor, he finds Malcolm contemplating the crystals. Trace: "This was a good trip. They killed a necromancer who was impeding our trip. You can go now."

Rory brings the wagons up close to the tower, and Chalker helps the prisoners get aboard. Gavin: "The night is young. How far should we go tonight?" Chalker: "If you find a road, three or four hours." Rory: "Where are the guards coming back from?" Stableboy, pointing down the road: "From village that way, about two days' ride." Chalker: "All right, after about four miles, pull off into the woods somewhere." Rory: "And cover your tracks." Chalker: "I figure you can avoid the guards." Rory: "Some of the guards might not come back."

The wagons roll out. Rory and Chalker close and lock the gates, then enter the tower and lock the doors behind them. Chalker visits Todd briefly and gives him some ale, then he and Rory pass through the gate and Rory pulls the crystals. Chalker hands Trace the rings and jewels to examine.

That night, Rory senses Solash and Jax watching over him.

Chalker thinks of Yasseph, who appears as a very beautiful elven woman dressed in ranger's garb, armed with a longbow and a quiver of five arrows. Yasseph: "Another uneventful night." Chalker: "Why are you so far away from me?" "I require a greater range of action." "I don't understand why Luck is so far from me. What side are you on?" "On the edge." "Why are you giving me to Asseraah?" "Not give, allow authority." "You should be closer to me than Chaos, Sickness, and Insanity." "Keep the name that expresses my Luck side closer to your lips. My watch over you and yours is strategic. You have been an observant and careful follower of the First Chosen." "I was concerned that you are so far away." "Roo and Mensep are extremely interested in you." "I'm concerned that Mensep is so close. Roo, I like her, but she throws my thinking off, she confuses me." "Roo is accorded strongly by all the First Chosen during the current discussion." "When I talk to Mensep, I feel that I've lost without knowing I was competing." "May the Luck flow for you and through you." Uttering those words, Yasseph touches Chalker's forehead, and he awakens.

Trace senses two groups: Cor, Mensep, Jax; Aaoo, Aup. Mensep says, "I have delivered your message. Dar appreciates your consideration for reality. It provided insight into his view of the discussion, so I thank you. The Godwalk is reaching the point of resolving issues around Erethel, but there is always room for us to help you, mage."

Chalker asks Malcolm, "Where is the nearest Venettian platform?" "I could find out, given time, but I will need to be active for a substantial time. This will not impede your gate work. I will have to stay in the power room."

Trace finds that one of the rings Chalker brought back is a 12-point powerstone which is at half-charge. The poisoner's ring is magical and can cast a permanent Drain Vitality, while the liquid poison contained in it is a paralysis drug. Another ring provides two levels of armor which does not layer with other armor.

Chalker reads the necromancer's journals. Several years ago, the mage committed himself to use necromantic powers to take over the duchy. He had occupied the tower for three years. Eventually, he planned to summon demons to aid him. He enjoyed making other people suffer, and he liked to bind their spirits and raise zombies. Chalker muses, "We did the world a favor, killing that one. I should get that duke to pay us for our work."

Rory continues to study the maps he has collected. He is getting a good idea of just how big Erethel is.

The afternoon's experimentation gets them an additional fourteen gates, all in the area of the north pole. One room contains a library of scientific works, from which they take a few books.

Rory asks Trace to send a Wizard Eye to the impression room. Trace verifies that the room is still exactly as it was. After twenty minutes, Rory shuts down the gate.

Towards morning, Chalker addresses Aaoo. "How did I do? I was in a hurry, but I knew you would approve." "I see that the luck flows through you. The pain was exquisite. He was treading the way." "I stopped him in your name." "It was very pleasurable, and it strengthened my followers." "If it pleased you, that is the important thing." "You eliminated one of my contingencies, however." "He didn't have that light in his eyes. I've seen it in mine, and it scares me. That was my brief observance to you." "The discussion remains in flux. Promises have been made which will play out in the time that follows." "Will you stay in your strategic position?" "It is not proper at this time to disturb Roo when she is in her aspect. It would be my honor, however, to step closer to you." "When you are closer, I am not in control." "For the inhabitants of Erethel, things were not always as they thought."

Rory senses three groups: Cor, Solash, Jax, Santash; Assaraah, Aaoo, Aup; Yasseph, Mensep. Jax greets him, "Good morning." In answer to Rory's question, he explains that the wooden mask had been given to some of his disciples until the Godwalk is done; "That artifact is fairly powerful. It is not wholly of this reality." Jax adds, "Cor is impressed with your work on the gates. Well done. Cor was quite fond of the Venettians."

Trace enters the secret room. He is interested in magic that will keep plants alive. He locates a tome of plant spells and learns one of the basic spells, Seek Plant.

Chalker, Rory, and Striker find several more gates, one of which opens on a sunroom on a mountain in the Alpina chain, 400 miles north of the city of Alpina.

That night, unable to sleep, Trace continues his plant research. He is visited by Cor along with one who hasn't appeared to him before. This one appears to be a youth in their 20s with androgynous features, dressed like a farmer. "That is quite a beautiful and interesting plant. I'm impressed with your research." "I am glad of the opportunity to learn freely. In the guilds they dole out learning a little at a time." The youth crushes a few leaves of the plant and touches Trace's forehead, and Trace feels in his mind the knowledge of two new spells, Seek Plant and Identify Plant.

Chalker says to Roo, "You're more important than people give you credit for. They're scared of you." "They flatter me. I give better honor to our basic responsibility than some, but they are starting to learn." "All I need is ten days." "You've found stability. They're waiting to see how fate will turn. You're one of several Catalyst groups. You have tweaked the noses of more of the First Chosen than any other group." "I want to know what you're doing to me. I haven't felt good luck. Yasseph is mad at me and won't tell me." "I can't tell you. Fate will respond as the choice is made. Yasseph thinks that as I control the aspect of Fate that I am leaning the other way." "What was Aaoo like before she went crazy?" "She was in love with Ven."

Rory's visitors are Cor, Solash, Santash, Asseraah, and Aup. Solash, glowing like sunlight, greets him, "Good morning, Aurora Borealis, who honors me when you sleep. The Sapphire Diamond is performing another task. What you have is a stand-in." "I could tell it wasn't acting the same." "It will rejoin you as a companion once the Godwalk is done. You have pushed him to limits he didn't realize he had, making him a more useful creation, for which I thank you." "What is it with these lights?!" "It's a distinction that makes you stand out among your peers. Some cannot sleep in the presence of beauty."

Trace borrows an assortment of different-colored inks from Rory and draws pictures with them in his journal, and finds that in the other journals the drawings are reproduced in the same exact colors. He writes in pictographs, "Aliana, keep an eye out for this plant."

Rory formulates a theory about where the next gates will lead. He predicts that the next 20 will be good (i.e., they will open on a destination), the following 50 will not be. The morning results are that the next 15 gates are good, and of the next 10 attempts, five lead nowhere and five are blocked.

That afternoon, the eighth gate that Rory, Chalker, and Striker step through leads into a bedroom. The temperature is shockingly cold, and one wall has been broken in, letting in the wintry elements from outdoors. Coiled on the icy floor are five translucent snakes, each about 5' long. They stir in reaction to the vibration of their footsteps. Chalker immediately whips out his sword and chops the first snake's head clean off. He and Rory attack the other snakes, which move much faster than one would think. Within a few seconds, all five snakes are dead. One of them had struck Chalker in the chest, but its fangs failed to pierce his armor.

Chalker throws one of the snakes back through the gate (for later identification). Chalker looks under the bed and finds a wooden club, broken and coated with ice.

From outside, something on two legs is approaching. Rory sees the tracks of a very tall humanoid. He realizes that they are very far north, within Erethel's arctic circle. He nocks an arrow and goes looking. He sees a creature, man-shaped but nearly twelve feet tall, unclothed; its ugly head is vaguely canine, like that of a husky with a "chopped-off" nose. It wields a large stalactite as a club. Two more of these creatures are running up behind the first.

Rory ducks back into the bedroom. "I think it's time to leave." Chalker looks out and waves at the creatures; they respond by running faster. "Let's go." They hurry through the gate and pull the crystals.

"Here's an ice snake," Chalker says as he presents its carcass to Trace. "We're not going back there." Rory speculates that the snakes and the humanoids were creatures of the Mother of Night, and Chalker concurs.

It is suppertime, the evening of the 22nd.

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