Sapphire:Sessions:20170114

Chalker proposes searching for dark mithril starting on the island of Mistral, to which the group can travel via portal.

Spirit of Many is being laden with cargo and will soon sail for the Coastal Kingdoms.

Ahn-Lee asks Chalker to introduce him to the renowned dwarven blacksmith, Tron Ironsinger.

Branamin goes out and purchases a Robe of Protection +2 and a Bag of Carrying.

Short Days 3 at 7:30am - While walking to the temple of Asseraah, Chalker addresses his minions. He releases Sung from his service on one condition -- "Do not harm me or mine" or a woman named Aliana ("Strange woman, you'll recognize her"). Sung says she plans to return to the Troubled Lands.

Sybonne will be paid 1sp per week as Chalker's employee. She is permitted to open her own business in Sapphire, of which Chalker will claim 10%. Chalker wants her to learn healing, offense, and identify spells, and to identify the black sword being held by Trace.

Jeeves gets a raise to 1sp 2cp per week and will continue to manage Chalker's home in Sapphire.

Chalker leads an observance to Asseraah, then leaves Sybonne and Sung seated on a bench as he begins walking around the sanctuary. "Lord Father, we last spoke in anger, and I have come to speak in more normal terms. I came here because I have a question. I beseech you -- your child of Chaos has come home." During his 13th lap, a mid-level priest (who had silently observed him since his 8th lap) joins him.

Priest: "You have a question, or you wish conversation?" Chalker (speaking as though to Asseraah): "When did you lead the First Chosen? In what Age did you close your fist?" Priest: "He will not answer... You show wisdom." Chalker: "I am piecing together this puzzle. He was unduly upset last time we spoke." Priest: "He considers you an opportunity, and a problem. He will not manifest today." Chalker: "I will leave before I kill you. From one child of Chaos to another, goodbye."

Chalker approaches the altar, says "Thank you for your wisdom," then shoots the finger.

Chalker and Ahn-Lee rendezvous at Ironsinger's shop. Ahn-Lee requests that Ironsinger put off repairing his dagger in order to craft two new "fine daggers of dwarven craftsmanship." Ironsinger replies, "My production schedule is quite full, but I can make room for a friend of Shawna."

A young woman, the daughter of a merchant, catches Ahn-Lee's attention and gives a guild recognition sign. He remembers her from the recent vampire hunt. He follows her to a nearby tavern. "Your warning saved my life," she tells him, giving him 3gp "in gratitude from those you saved." "You could go far in the guild," she adds, while signalling that the two of them are being watched. Ahn-Lee mentions, "I'll be taking a little vacation."

As they separately leave the tavern, two people follow the woman and one tails Ahn-Lee. Ahn-Lee ducks into an alley and the tail stops following him.

Ahn-Lee visits a poison shop and buys five doses of powerful, fast-acting poison. He is assured that one dose will take down an animal the size of a bear in one or two seconds.

Shawna had spent the night visiting with her friend Lady Thire. The latter says that since the recent takedown of a "nest" that the city is being swept for vampires. Also, dark elves are discorporating and their souls are going "elsewhere," suggesting necromantic work. In the morning she visits the temple of Yasseph.

At noon Ahn-Lee, Branamin, Chalker, and Shawna meet Trace at the portal. Trace directs the placement of the crystals, and Shawna steps through into a small meeting room. Trace constructs a ramp to an opening at the surface that can be concealed with an earthen plug. Chalker peers through into a forest near a game trail; by the sun's angle it appears to be 9:00am.

The group walks two miles to the small town of Fisher Bay. Branamin casts Seek Earth and reports a mass of dark mithril some twenty miles directly to the west, over the sea.

Chalker approaches the harbormaster to charter a boat and crew to sail to the island to the west. The harbormaster avers that there is no such island. Nevertheless, Chalker rents the schooner Tam's Joy for two days. The captain agrees to sail due west as Chalker directs, but he too says there is no island there.

Around noon, Ahn-Lee's sense of direction lets him know that the ship is heading NNW instead of due west. Branamin casts his detection spell again but something is warding it slightly. Chalker checks the ship's compass and tells the captain to turn back to true west; the captain says they haven't changed course, but adjusts their heading as Chalker insists. Peering out at the horizon, Shawna says she can just make out land, and Chalker can see it through the ship's spyglass.

Branamin warns that they're changing course again. Chalker takes the wheel from the helmsman. Suddenly a couple of crewmen faint and others start to tremble. Branamin almost panics -- he's sure there's a sea monster below, about to capsize the ship -- and he casts Sense Life as he leans over the rail, searching frantically. Chalker uses his metal TK on Branamin's ring to bring the mage's hand up and smack his forehead.

Shawna describes the island to Chalker as he brings the schooner alongside a quay. The captain passes out. Shawna goes scouting while Chalker and Ahn-Lee secure the boat and its crew.

A half-mile inland, Shawna comes across a clearing with the ashes of a campfire and several sets of humanoid remains ["standard adventuring/exploring party of mixed races"] including a human who was likely the leader, a goblin (probably from the Troubled Lands), and a gnome. Shawna reckons from their clothing and high-quality equipment that they had come from Myretris, an island in the kingdom of Shadownesse. Four of the corpses have been skeletonized and three others have insects and rats clambering over them. Their weapons and most of their gear are lying in the dirt, but rings and other small ornaments and jewelry are gone. Obviously there was "a huge fight" but there are no other humanoid footprints in or out of the clearing. Shawna concludes that hordes of rats had dragged the corpses into their present positions.

The rats still gnawing at the remains eye Shawna boldly. She shouts and claps her hands loudly but they are not at all startled. Only after she skewers a few and flicks the corpses into the trees do the rats scatter. Deer browsing just outside the clearing and squirrels in the trees seem totally unafraid.

The rest of the group enters the clearing and Shawna outlines her observations. Branamin creates a dog to go looking about, observing that we are in a low-mana area. Chalker knows of Shadownesse because they trade with the Coastal Kingdoms. Ahn-Lee points out two squirrels watching them; he pulls out a throwing knife and kills one of them. Chalker peers through the dead squirrel's skull and finds a very tiny piece of dark mithril ("the size of a grain of salt") embedded in its brain. Some strong force prevents him from "hooking" it with his TK. He cuts open the skull and manages to get two grains of metal on the tip of his knife; still his TK barely affects them.

Branamin proposes that the island houses a gigantic mind that controls any creature that ingests dark mithril. Chalker, thoughtfully: "That is not a dumb theory."

Ahn-Lee loads his crossbow, shoots a deer, and drags its corpse over to Chalker. Chalker cannot "see" the dark mithril but senses it in the deer's brain.

Branamin turns into an owl and flies away to reconnoiter. Shawna sees two hawks spiral upward from the island's central mount, probably interested in the owl. Chalker sends a knife to intercept the hawk, stabbing one of them to death and causing the other to lose track of the owl.

Branamin flies over the ruins of a town. Its tallest building is a crumbling temple. Between two warehouse-type buildings he sees over a hundred large rats. He returns to the boat (mana is normal here), shifts back to his normal form, pulls up the gangplank, unties one of the ropes securing the boat to the quay, and swings that end of the boat away from the quay so that he has just the one rope to guard from rats. He shapes some earth to create a trench. He opens his journey book, draws a sketch of the island and its main landmarks, and writes, Rats preparing to attack -- I got this. Chalker writes back, How many rats? Branamin: I don't think you can count that high -- thousands. Chalker: Good luck.

The others enter the town. The ruined temple was once dedicated to Cor. Shawna says some of the buildings date back to the Dark Age (between 7000 and 2000 years before the present) but have been uninhabited for at least 2000 years.

Chalker peers through the temple doors but can see nothing. He pushes them open. Ahn-Lee becomes quite jittery and begins peering about, muttering "I hear animal noises... they're going to attack!"

Branamin writes hurriedly: Rats swarming -- might be a gate. A third of the rats rush toward town and the rest scramble toward the boat. He kills thousands of rats by collapsing his trench on them, but that still leaves four or five hundred starting to climb the rope. Branamin vibrates the rope, causing a couple of hundred rats to fall into the sea and drown, then he shapes water to sweep all but about 100 of the rats into the churning ocean.

Inside the temple, sunlight streams through the windows. In the rafters things stir; Chalker recognizes them as taddarita, evil spell-using bats. More taddarita emerge through a gate. Chalker shuts the door and the three head through town toward the mines.

There is a broad clearing in front of the mine entrance. The three realize that a broad swath of ground is covered in writhing snakes. Ahn-Lee declares, "Let me show you how it's done!" and leaps over the serpents, followed closely by Chalker and Shawna.

A blurry, grotesque humanoid figure emerges from the entrance, screaming, "Go away, it's mine! MINE!" A glittering, spectral blade appears in its clenched fist. Quickly Shawna and Chalker play roshambo; Shawna wins and leaps sword-first into the figure.

Off to the sides, Ahn-Lee sees things extruding from each side of the mine entrance, glowing with sickly light. He swings twice at the thing on the left and damages it; he hears an eerie wailing in his head and the thing tries to withdraw. Shawna slashes the creature and can also hear the screaming. In Chalker's vision he sees Shawna's sword carve out "a big chunk of light." Out of the corner of his eye he sees another figure to the right; he steps towards it and swings downward with his flaming sword but seems to have no effect. The creature strikes Shawna who feels slightly drained. Ahn-Lee ducks away from a spectral knife. Chalker is struck by a spectral sword and feels somewhat fatigued. (Branamin faces several rats, one of them glowing with a sickly hue. He casts Shape Air and knocks all but the glowing rat and two others into the water. The three rats leap at him; he Blinks three yards away from the glowing rat, while the other two land on the deck to his left and right.)

Ahn-Lee acrobatically dodges a shortsword stroke. Chalker and Shawna each dodge attacks. Ahn-Lee slashes twice. Shawna swings and hits. Chalker makes his flame sword vanish, fast-draws another sword, and chops the creature's neck. Loud screams fill their minds. (Branamin takes a step back and casts Glue on the three rats. Suddenly the glowing rat turns into a seven-foot-tall ghost.)

Each of the three dodges the next attacks. Shawna swings at the creature's sword arm; the light shimmers, contracts, then explodes; Shawna staggers back. Chalker runs his creature through, leaving his sword in its chest; the screaming intensifies even further. Ahn-Lee strikes twice and the screaming bruises and cuts his body and drains some of his energy. (A massive broadsword appears and the ghost swings at Branamin, who Blinks away. He realizes that the ghost is anchored to the glowing rat which is Glued to the deck, so cannot move. He casts Levitate on the glowing rat.)

Ahn-Lee spins into the mine corridor; he sees nothing in the darkness except patches of glowing moss. Shawna strikes Chalker's creature, which explodes and causes Chalker both physical damage and fatigue. Chalker looks around for snakes; they are slithering toward the mine entrance. (Branamin hears a pop and a high-pitched shriek; the glowing rat is dead, the ghost has shrunk to 5', and its broadsword becomes a shortsword; the ghost freed itself from its 'anchor' at the cost of weakening itself.)

Branamin Levitates upwards and backwards, then quickly kills the two stuck rats with Sunbolts. He continues to Levitate away from the ghost, which pursues him at a slower pace. Branamin figures that the farther the ghost gets from dark mithril, the weaker it will become. Sure enough, at fifty yards the ghost vaporizes. He turns into an owl and perches upon the ship's mast.

Branamin writes in his journey book: Most rats are gone. Something attaches to spectres. Ruin their senses and they can't follow you. Chalker writes: Thank you for the information. We killed three ghosts. We're going into the mine.

Ahn-Lee, Chalker, and Shawna pick up torches from a stack just inside the mine entrance and start downward single-file. Eventually Chalker senses a vein of dark mithril which connects to a vein of silver. Shawna studies the transition point and determines that the silver is being transformed into dark mithril by some unknown, slow process. She observes that it takes a minute and a half to turn a grain of silver into a grain of dark mithril. Chalker determines that there are three solid veins of dark mithil, comprising several tons of the stuff. This particular silver vein extends another ninety yards. The three speculate that the dark mithril itself has developed or been granted a low form of intelligence, enabling it to defend the island. Perhaps this "intelligence" is centered where the dark mithril is most dense, which would be deeper into the mine.

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