Adventure Summaries Sessions 38 to 43

Federigo uses his Thousand League Boots to return to Kaxos with his four apprentices, Theresa, Jack, Roberta and Piero. Jack, Roberta and Piero begin their journey back to Navyn while the others go to the headquarters of the Tirynian Circle. Luxian sits his examinations and is certified a journeyman of the Tirynian Circle. Federigo gives Luxian the candles made by Edarad Prinn as a gift to celebrate his promotion, and takes Luxian and Theresa back to the others at the villa in Tion. Luxian tells Theresa he plans to use the candles to summon Dormita that evening, and asks for her help completing the summoning ritual.

Hermione gives Fierce a short letter to deliver secretly to Wesley, while she separately prepares a letter for Armand to take back with him to Kevland.

Late that evening, Luxian and Theresa sneak out of their rooms. Hermione notices their departure and follows them into the ruined front half of the villa, where she watches as they set up the candles in one of the abandoned rooms around the impluvium. After lighting the candles and completing the ritual, Dormita appears out of the shadows. Dormita mentions the watcher outside the room, alerting the others to Hermione's presence. Hermione remains silent and doesn't interfere while Luxian talks with Dormita about how she recognised him as one of "The Five".

Dormita tells Luxian about her past encounters with other members of "The Five", starting decades ago with Tikaru, "the one left on top of the highest mountain for either the cold or the thin air to take them", and more recently with Mayauel, "the one set into the river and allowed to sink or be carried out to sea". In both cases, Dormita was drawn to their nightmarish dreams: Tikaru was high in the Thanagost Mountains overlooking the Desert of Songs, while Mayauel had washed up on the shore of the Grey Rock in the Sea of Lament.

Luxian bargains with Dormita, offering her two portions of the arcane liquid he was given by Lonni Longshanks, one now and one on her return, in exchange for more information about the current whereabouts of the other four of "The Five". Luxian doesn't want Dormita to visit him in his dreams, so Dormita takes the offered portion and promises to return with news.

Phocas of Elea introduces Zeno to his cousin Martina, who he hasn't seen since they were both children. Martina wishes to become a knight, and pledges to serve Zeno as his squire. Martina has sufficient funds to cover her living costs while she is in Zeno's service, as Phocas has provided her with a loan, secured by the revenues generated by her inheritance. Theresa (to Phocas): "You'd make a fine elf."

Zeno gives Martina his chain mail to wear, as he plans to wear the full plate awarded to him by Baron Dekanos. They take both suits of armour into the city for fitting and adjustment.

That evening, Dormita visits Luxian while he is alone in his room. Tikaru is long gone from the Thanagost Mountains and the Desert of Songs, while Mayauel is still at the Grey Rock. The volcano in the Thanagost Mountains overlooking the Mungodan jungle where Ishankoi was "the one placed into a stream of lava to burn" erupted around twenty years ago, and Ishankoi was nowhere to be found. Dormita found Goduku, "the one buried under the base of a tree", still dreaming in the Mungodan jungle, and woke him from his slumber. Luxian gives Dormita the second portion as promised, then asks her to continue to search for Tikaru and Ishankoi, giving her the third and final portion in exchange for her continued assistance.

Sir Makarios arrives with his squire Selentos, his groom Arion, two warhorses, four riding horses, and a dwarf named Gromlar Bronze-Arm who he met on the way to Tion. Gromlar is a recent convert to the Selentine True Faith who, like Sir Makarios, has taken the cross and is going north on crusade. The adventurers spend the day making their final purchases of equipment for their upcoming travels. Hermione finishes her letter for Wesley and gives it to Armand to deliver. Theresa gives Armand a letter to deliver as well.

Luxian stays at the villa while the others attend church with Gromlar and Sir Makarios.

The adventurers share a final dinner with Phocas of Elea and Armand. Martina talks about her ambition to become a knight, and Theresa is surprised to learn that Selentos doesn't aspire to knighthood, as he feels it is unlikely he will ever have the means to live as a knight should.

Gromlar shares a room with Luxian to reduce their travel expenses during the journey. Hermione summons Fierce to meet Gromlar, who is cautious about meeting even a small land dragon. Hermione (defending Fierce): "He's not a monster." Fierce: "No, he's a dwarf."

Theresa and Hermione talk about their families, including their mothers. Hermione "I killed her. She died when I was born." Theresa checks that Hermione wasn't "precociously stabby", and Hermione confirms that her mother died giving birth to her.

Luxian stays at the inn while the others attend church with Gromlar and Sir Makarios.

The adventurers ask around for advice about the best route to take to the Crusades, and are warned to skirt around the forest north of Megov, and not cut through the elf-woods. They are encouraged to consider travelling through the village of Kupil, famed as the home of the part-elven tapestry weaver Klea.

Theresa tells the others about her meeting with Molkos, and shows them the pan pipes, which she plays throughout the day of travel northwards around the edge of the forest. That evening, Luxian accompanies Theresa to "go stargazing", telling Gromlar before he goes that "I'm going to see something fantastic! I'll be back!" Gromlar: "Take protection! A sword, or something!" Theresa introduces Molkos to Luxian when he arrives to check on her progress.

The adventurers continue north, arriving at the village of Kupil shortly after leaving the forest edge behind them to the southwest. The village is empty except for a crippled boy named Amar. Amar tells the adventurers how a strange woman came to the village and played her flute, making everyone dance and follow her away, but he couldn't keep with them and lost them in the nearby hills - even his mother Klea, who threw down and stomped on her spindle when she started dancing.

The adventurers kill the spider-people, who Luxian identifies as ettercaps, and their large spiders. Continuing on, they pass a sinkhole that stinks of rot but fortunately only contains trash and waste, and arrive at the top of a deep shaft. On the far side they see a wooden structure, where a rope bridge is coiled up. Hermione summons Fierce, who flies over and returns carrying the end of the rope bridge.

The adventurers tie off the rope bridge and begin to make their way across, drawing the attention of the red-haired elves guarding the structure, who attack the intruders. One of the guards is unusually large, and has the lower body and legs of a spider: none of the guards speaks Low Bacchile, so Theresa is the only one who can negotiate with them in Cabbandari while the fight progresses. Luxian uses arcane magic to overcome the darkness created by the guards, while Zeno calls on the power of the True God for illumination. The holy light forces the elves to reveal their true forms, which are human-sized spiders with an additional pair of human arms and hands. With the battle turning against them, the elf who was negotiating with Theresa escapes to take word to their master, while the others are killed.

The adventurers take a wooden ladder down to a landing, from where they lower coiled, knotted ropes and climb down to the bottom of the shaft. Rather than pursue the escaping elf further into the caves, the adventurers heed Hermione's directions and burn through a curtain of thick webbing to a spider's larder, where dozens of villagers are hanging upside-down, suspended from the ceiling in spider-silk cocoons. They quickly find Klea by her bright red hair, but are interrupted by the arrival of Thekla, the queen of the spiders, accompanied by four unusually large spider-elves and at least double that number of human-sized spiders with human arms and hands.

Thekla doesn't care about the other villagers, but is furious that the intruders are trying to rescue Klea before she has had the opportunity to force Klea to acknowledge her superiority as a weaver. Thekla is easily persuaded to allow Zeno and Gromlar to escort the other villagers back to the surface while Hermione, Luxian, Makarios and Theresa escort Klea to Thekla's weaving room. Theresa whispers to Klea, "Let her win," and Klea seems genuinely impressed by the quality of Thekla's work. Mollified, Thekla allows Klea to leave with her tapestry, which she is to place in the most prominent part of her home and tell any guest who asks that it was made by her, and not Klea.

Martina and Selentos meet up with Zeno, Gromlar and the villagers at the rope bridge and help escort the villagers back to Kupil. Some time later, Hermione, Luxian, Makarios and Theresa return with Klea and Thekla's tapestry. Amar and Klea are delighted to be reunited with each other, while the mood of the villagers is both relieved and sombre, as they are grateful to have been rescued but saddened at the deaths of the two villagers who fell outside the cave entrance. Theresa prepares cooked spiders she collected from the caves for the celebratory feast.

Klea invites the adventurers to stay at her house that evening, and they accept. Makarios and Zeno help Klea put up Thekla's tapestry in her house, next to her own tapestries, which are also of outstanding quality. Theresa is disappointed that the villagers cannot provide a reward, and Makarios explains that their lord would be the person to approach for a reward, "if glory is not reward enough". Martina quietly talks with Klea, who happily gifts the adventurers one of her tapestries in gratitude for their assistance.

After everyone retires for the night, Theresa goes outside for several hours.

While travelling along a narrow hill road, an earthquake causes an avalanche that destroys part of the road and splits the adventurers into two groups. Marakios, Selentos and Zeno backtrack with four of the horses, including Paketo, to find a way to catch up with the others, who continue on with plans to wait at the next village for them to catch up.

The adventurers come across a side path through a clift in the hills, and go to investigate the buildings they see in the distance. Along the way they find a derelict and abandoned church surrounded by a small graveyard. Inside, they find a ledger stone for a man named Alteo marked with the inscription, "In expectation of the future return, 1139 AUC". Apart from the strange inscription, everything about the church seems in keeping with the True Faith. Theresa leaves a note for Zeno and the others to let them know that they continued along to the village.

The path continues on past the church towards the village. At the end of the path is an arched bridge over a deep chasm, with a herd of horses grazing on the other side. A man dressed in archaic Emphidian clothing waves to them from the other side of the bridge. The man introduces himself as Eraclios, and offers them small bread rolls with honey. Eraclio welcomes them to the village of Volikos, and the adventurers quickly realise each of them hears him in their first language. When questioned, Eraclios explains that the priestess Medeia uses a spell taught to her by the goddess Atana so he can talk with any visitors from across the bridge and guide them to the village to tell them about the outside world - especially the True Faith.

Eraclios leads the adventurers to the village after they leave Theresa and Martina's horses to graze with the rest of the herd, as the basilinos (village chieftain) has decreed that no horse may cross the demos (the sacred boundary of the settlement). Volikos looks like an ancient Emphidian settlement, complete with painted pillars and statues. Eraclios leads the adventurers to the agora, where curious villagers come to look at the visitors. The priestess Medeia is called down from the acropolis to use her magic so the basilinos Aeson can talk to the adventurers.

The adventurers learn that the village is cursed, and appears for one day every century. For the rest of the time, the villagers "slumber" while they are entombed underground. The "Earthshaker", one of the Emphidian Twelve, cursed the village because Andromede, daughter of Dyaus, the king of the gods, didn't marry his son, the ipotane (horse-man) Chyrsdor. Instead, Andromede turned Chrysdor to stone by showing him his reflection in a special mirror that Atana gave her a fortnight ago. The mirror is being stored at Atana's temple, along a pot of ointment that can turn someone back from stone to flesh, and a pottery shard on which Atana wrote down the spell Medeia uses to communicate with them. Theresa gives Medeia her silvered mirror in exchange for being able to copy the spell into her book of shadows.

The adventurers are introduced to Andromede, a superhumanly beautiful woman who partially conceals her stunning beauty with a head scarf, her parents Ammon and Kalliope, and her guard Thalles. Thalles pays close attention to Arion, who is expelled from the demos by Aeson when he learns that Arion can speak the language of horses, as Atana warned them not to trust any horse or to let them stay in the village. Martina goes with Arion so he's not alone with the herd.

The villagers are keen to learn about the True Faith, as they first heard about it from Alteo when he visited three days ago and are hopeful that the power of the True God may free them from the curse. Gromlar and Theresa share what they know about the True Faith, but neither has deep knowledge of the Selentine understanding and cannot teach the villagers how to convert.

Theresa goes to the temple of Atana with Medeia and her slave Iphianassa, and starts copying the spell from the pottery shard into her book of shadows. She gives the others a second message to leave at the church for Zeno that reads, "Village is ensorceled, keep waking each day, earthquake happens anew and wakes them (from death?? enchanted sleep??). Don't accept food, don't stay longer than lunchtime. Proceeding in to see if we can help."

Hermione, Gromlar and Luxian return to the abandoned church. They lift the ledger stone to see if there's anything important buried with Alteo, but there isn't. The newest tombstones in the graveyard outside the church are from 1167 AUC, and include references to a plague or pestilence. Luxian has Grund stay at the abandoned church with the messages, in case Zeno, Makario and Selentos come looking for them.

When they return to Volikos, Hermione notices Luxian is increasingly uncomfortable and on edge, and privately checks what's bothering him. Luxian explains that the village's curse reminds him of what happened to him when he was a child, and Hermione promises they will leave early enough tomorrow that they aren't captured and entombed with the villagers.

In the evening, Theresa pauses her work to join the others and the villagers for dinner in the agora. During the meal, Hermione notices Martina quietly making her way around the agora to the acropolis. The adventurers intercept Martina, who is not herself, and Luxian dispels the enchantment on her while she struggles to break free of Hermione and Gromlar. Martina immediately warns the others that a black pegasus flew down to her and Arion and commanded her to go fetch the pot of ointment from Atana's temple.

The adventurers quickly prepare for trouble, then leave the demos to rescue Arion. Martina leads the others back to his location, where Arion is nervously waiting under the watchful gaze of a black pegasus whose hooves drip with poison. Oinops: "Who have you brought back with you and where is my ointment?"

Oinops battles the adventurers, who quickly start a fighting retreat with Arion to get back to Volikos. Oinops attempts to enchant Gromlar and command him to fetch the ointment, but the other trip the horse Gromlar is riding and free him from Oinop's control. Oinops leaves, frustrated in his efforts to have the ointment brought to him, and the adventurers quickly return to Volikos, where Aeson allows Arion to stay within the demos for the night.

The adventurers talk and make plans for what they will do tomorrow. Gromlar is confident that faith in the True God will let them defeat Oinops tomorrow. Theresa: "Zeno has the power of the True God, you have the power to be mind controlled and put on a horse." Theresa starts using her arcane powers to make herself look average, rather than beautiful.

Theresa returns to the temple with Hermione to finish copying the spell into her book of shadows. Theresa and Hermione stay with Medeia and Iphianassa for the night, while the others stay in the peristyle of Ammon's house. Theresa talks with both Medeia and Iphianassa about leaving Volikos with them tomorrow to see if they can escape the curse and learn more about the True Faith.

Concerned that the others never reached the next village, Zeno, Marakios and Selentos set out to find the other adventurers.

The adventurers get Andromede's permission to take the pot of ointment and Atana's mirror with them while they investigate Chrysdor's lair, and Medeia convinces her father Aeson to let her leave Volikos with the adventurers. Arion and Martina escort Medeia and Iphianassa to collect their horses from the herd, while Eraclios drives Gromlar, Hermione, Luxian and Theresa to Chrysdor's lair in a chariot.

Zeno, Makarios and Selentos find the abandoned church, Grund, and Theresa's letters, while the other adventurers make their way into the cave. Theresa uses Atana's mirror to safely guide the others, who keep their eyes closed just in case they catch a glimpse of Chrysdor's statue, and they find several statues, including a man in armour who looks puzzled, a man in a tunic clenching his fist and looking angry, a woman sitting on the ground and tied to a pole next to a large sack containing gold and silver goblets and plates, and finally the hideous statue of Chrysdor himself.

Zeno's group cross the bridge, encounter Martina's group, and are given directions to Chrysdor's cave. Theresa summons an unseen servant to cover Chrysdor with stitched-together sheets and blankets, and Oinops arrives to take the ointment in order to use it to free Chrysdor. Zeno's group arrives outside, where Eraclios is not himself after being enchanted by Oinops, and Zeno goes inside with Makarios while Selentos holds the horses and keeps an eye on Eraclios.

Oinops makes great efforts to take the pot of ointment from the adventurers, at first magically commanding Luxian to apply it to Chyrsdor, taking it from the adventurers with his mouth, and finally throwing the pot at the partially-covered statue before Theresa magically drives Oinops away through the World of Spirits. Makarios briefly glimpses Chrysdor while checking to see if the others are alright, but Zeno's presence nearby helps him resist the petrifying dread of Chrysdor's hideous appearance.

The adventurers take the ointment-drenched sheets off Chrysdor's statue before it drips onto his stone body, and apply them to the statue of the tied-up woman, turning her back from stone to flesh. Agafya is Andromede's slave, and was sent to Chrysdor's lair with Andromede's dowry in the hope that he would be fooled into thinking she was Andromede. The adventurers escort Agafya and the sack of treasure out to Eraclios, then carry out the two remaining statues and load them in the chariot. Eraclios sets off for Volikos with Agafya, the dowry and the two statues while the adventurers rush to cross the bridge before Potaidaon's curse traps them with the villagers.

Shortly after they join Arion, Martina, Medeia and Iphianassa at the abandoned church, there is another earthquake. The way back to the bridge closes up as if it was never there, and Luxian passes out at the sight. Zeno is concerned for Luxian, but Hermione and Theresa both cover for him, claiming that he overtaxed his arcane powers.

The adventurers leave for the main road with their new travelling companions, Medeia and Iphianassa.