Session 6
29 July 1999, 6:30pm
Attended by: Jason, Scott, Chris, Merwin, Steve, Ken
StoryGuide: Ken
Logged by: Jason
Game
It is the morning of the day when the group who, in session #2, were arrested on charges of wizardry, must discharge their parole with the man whom the group now knows to be the Emperor himself.
At sunrise, Aurelia came to Iseus to propose a bargain. She said, "I want to give you my problems," and promised him that her problems here were more pleasant than what he faced elsewhere. Besides, she explained, she wanted to free herself of them so she could join a covenant in Novgorod.
Iseus told Aurelia that he accepted her logic, and would wait for her call some time prior to noon.
The entire group met briefly for breakfast, and Aurelia announced that she would be bringing a surprise with her. Marcus raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.
Claudius experimented with Ophelia, following her. When she realized this, she started walking in circles, frustrating his purpose. He soon stopped, and moved on to some other Criamon task.
At the appointed time, the group gathered at the gate of the covenant. Aurelia brought Iseus, to the surprise of some of the magi. Aurelia dismissed their concerns by stating that "he will take my place."
Iseus received a note from a small child, a street urchin, who claimed to be delivering it from "grandmother."
Aurelia borrowed from Kurpat the sealed document that they had been given to gain admittance to the palace, and tore a very small piece from it. She deposited this piece in a ceramic vial.
When the group reached the steps of the palace, the papers were presented to the guard who thought at first that only five persons were to be admitted. When Aurelia corrected him, he confirmed that yes, the paper in fact said six people were to gain admittance.
The magi were led into a great palace, and met by an old man, Alexandros, dressed in absolutely superb splendor, and very knowledgeable in matters of protocol. He admitted that this was a somewhat unusual case, saying that this matter is to be dealt with by "not quite typical protocol."
The group was led into an absolutely vast-seeming courtyard, the walls of which were far-off and very difficult to spot. The noise of the city was similarly far-sounding, and barely audible. Everywhere is the motif of red--but never used as the primary color. Here too were apiaries with their beekeepers, and buildings of wonderful, though uncertain purpose.
Finally, the group was led into a building which seemed both somewhat old and disused. Alexandros opened the door to this place and instructed them to walk the passage to the first left, and then take it until they passed through the gate.
The magi then entered the corridor, which was quite dim. After they had turned left, the surroundings started getting larger, as if by optical illusion. There was a light at the end of the corridor, quite bright, and it seemed to grow larger. But closer? It was difficult to say.
Claudius found a door, which also seemed as large as if to match the scale of the expanding corridor. He opened it to reveal a dark room. He cast a spell and gave his report in riddles that the group did not care to disentangle.
Marcus then experimented by traveling backward through the corridor to trace the way back. However, he did not find such a way--the other doors that had lined the corridor thus far did not reappear, and the original passage from which they turned was similarly missing. Puzzled, Marcus returned.
Purros lost patience and announced in large voice that he would not continue. When the rest of the group went on without him, he stood his ground. Finally someone noted his absence and encouraged him to join. He cast a spell--to what end, the group was uncertain--and rejoined them, grudgingly.
After some further time, another halt was called, as the gate seemed to grow larger but, perhaps, not closer. Marcus cast a spell. He reported that the place was not illusory.
Marcus launched another investigation, by attempting to determine the distance from his location to the gate. His attempts in this matter failed.
Iseus placed a hand to a stone, and cast a spell. And there he stood.
Kurpat cast a spell which investigated the magical nature of the place, and discovered that the entire surroundings were highly magical.
Some half an hour passed as the group waited for Iseus to emerge from the apparent trance. Finally, after Kurpat agreed that it would not inflict against the Code, Marcus levitated the magus in an attempt to disrupt his connection to the stone.
Still levitating, Iseus broke away and was furious--for to him mere seconds had passed, and this disruption came just as the stone was about to commune with him and give him its wise, old secrets. He stumbled to the ground, and sneered at the Merinita for his daring.
The group, now intact, resolved to march to the gate. And this they did, for some time.
Kurpat experimented on the passage of time by creating an oak leaf at duration diameter. Some considerable time later, the spell had not expired.
Finally, they made it. By the time they were there, the corridor had grown far beyond cavernous. The gate itself was pure light, and opaque.
Claudius led the way into the light...
...And it was a beautiful day outside. The forest was dense, though strange, made of huge plants which are...
...Grass. Behind the magi was a vast stone cliff, rough and perhaps 60 feet high--much bigger than the walls of Constantinople.
Claudius climbed to the top of one of the "spiny trees" which the group suspected were blades of grass, and saw at the top an unclear view of a dense jungle. He descended and reported his findings as best he could.
Some moments later, a rusting of noise found a creature, a very large insect (although, one supposed, about right for the scale) approached the group. It is about as tall, in PC scale, as a Pringles brand potato chips can, and much longer.
Kurpat attempting to communicate with it exchanged fluids with it in some sort of friendship ritual. It led him away, and he was joined by Aurelia and Marcus to see where they would go.
Purros levitated himself up along the cliff face to obtain a superior vantage. It seemed to him that the cliff leveled out and seemed to make, perhaps, a porch or something similar. To the grass side, only lawn as far as the eye could see. And the sun did not seem too far moved from the place it occupied when the group entered the disused building some hours earlier.
Purros descended and reported his findings to Iseus and Claudius who both nodded thoughtfully, when a great regular thudding beat against their ears...
...And a great flying thing--perhaps a wasp?--emerged from one side of the grass, and focused its large pincer-shaped maw on Purros, and a combat ensued.
Purros let lose a spell, but it did not faze the beast, and it knocked him him down. Then Purros' two sodales, Claudius and Iseus, joined in the battle, Claudius first with dagger and Iseus with spears of flame.
Then Claudius disarmed the creature's poison while Iseus continued to let loose one pilium of fire after another. The beast still focused its attack on Purros, who must have seemed very attractive for some reason... Purros, however, in close quarters, dodged further attacks from the giant insect, until the Elementalist's fire caused it to screech and flee.
But Iseus, as if proving a point, threw a final javelin of fire, even as the wasp was retreating. This shot set its wings ablaze and it dove, buzzing and hissing, into the earth some small distance away.
Claudius approached the creature to examine it, perchance to find vis, but he found none, for this was a single, mere, bug.
Updated on 4 August 1999
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