The Land of Neng: The Rose Tower Campaign
Cast
Jacob, a Theinorran adventurer.
Esau, an Andorran forrester.
Merath eal Yahar, a Theinorran witch.
Lemoni, a Darbi, property of Bastriel.
Bastriel, a member of the Pride.
1st of Ryam, 31st year of the Reign of Joam
Unlucky at Love....
Bastriel, a member of the feline race called the Pride, found himself at
loose ends after his engagement with Li So's Carnival of Wonders ends in
a misunderstanding (Bastriel misunderstood exactly when Ringmaster Li So
would be returning from arranging the Carnival's permits to continue camping
outside of Tynody for another week, and so was caught dallying with the
lovely snake lady Ping Fan, wife of the aforementioned Ringmaster.)
With nothing more to his name than the clothes he wasn't quite wearing
and his severance package (that is, the package containing the day's receipts
that he managed to snag on his way out the window), he decided to try his
luck at the cards. Lady Luck was smiling on him that evening, and
he ended up the big winner for the evening, with a pot of nearly 100 silver,
and a marker from the Silver Ebsioch the Seer, which Ebsioch pledged to
redeem in Tynody the next day at noon after the money-changers' opened.
2nd of Ryam
Oracular Revelations...
The next day, Bastriel decided to head into Tynody fairly early, and found
himself standing in line waiting for the gates to open. He struck
up an aquaintance with his two neighbors, a Theinorran adventurer named
Jacob, and an Andorran Forester named Esau. Jacob was on his way
to Tynody to ask the Oracle how he could best protect the people of Theinorra,
while Esau was carrying a package that the Elders of his tribe had instructed
him to deliver to a certain Silver Ebsioch in Tynody. Bastriel and
Esau agreed to seek out Ebsioch's dwelling together, and meet with Jacob
at a hostelry they had spotted just within the gates of the city.
Once the waters of the canal had parted, they had filed across the
long bridge and performed the ceremony of mingling their breath with the
water of Lake Tyn (cascading from a basin held by a statue of the Goddess
Tyn), they proceeded on their errands.
Jacob made his way to the ferry to the Oracle's
island, and crossed over. There he entered the cave and descended
the spiral stairs to the cavern deep under the lake to present his question
to the Oracle. How, he asked, could he protect Theinorra when some
day his sword and shield might be broken. The Oracle answered:
Seek ye the Rose in the Thorn.
...And a Lemoni fresh pledge
Meanwhile, Bastriel and Esau made their way to the Street of the Small
Seers--people who help to interpret the cryptic revelations of the Oracle,
or answer questions that the Oracle will not (such as is my wife seeing
another man?)--looking for Silver Ebsioch. They found his run-down,
third floor office/apartment, but he and all of his valuable possessions,
assuming that he had any, were gone. Instead they were greeted
by his Darbi, Lemoni. Lemoni explained that Ebsioch showed up late
the prior night, still damp from having swum the canal, packed and departed,
leaving no forwarding address. Lemoni further explained that Ebsioch
wasn't called "Silver" because of his wealth, or even his hair-color, but
because thirty years prior, the Oracle had predicted for him "When Ebsioch
leaves, check your silver." Bastriel argued with Esau that the package
that Esau was delivering to Ebsioch by rights ought to belong to him now,
but Esau wasn't having any of it. Bastriel did, however, succeed in claiming
Lemoni as his property (Lemoni being just as glad to have a new master).
While they were arguing, a young Loiborran man came in and offered 120
silver for Ebsioch to help find his missing sister, Mezynah. Bastriel
tried to pretend to be Ebsioch, but Esau blew the gaffe. Lemoni explained
that Ebsioch wasn't likely to be coming back any time soon; the young man
was aghast, since the Oracle had been quite clear:
Down, down in the dark guarded by thorn Seek the Silver Seer to
bring her clear up, up to the light
Bastriel convinced the young man--Jabyn, eldest son
of the Chieftain of RedHill--that the Oracle merely said to "seek" the
Silver Seer, not that he had to find him; furthermore, since what he found
when seeking Ebsioch was himself, Bastriel, as well as Esau and Lemoni,
they must have been what he was supposed to find. Jabyn gave them
more details of the situation: to whit, that his sister had been out picking
mushrooms in the woods eight days before. They had found her basket
near the wall of thorn that surrounded the mysterious Nefari Tower of Thorn.
There in the wall was an opening, where there had never been one before
in living memory. Several of the Chieftains men had ventured into
the opening, only to emerge again hours later, scratched and bedraggled,
to report that within the wall of thorn seemed to be a gigantic hedge maze,
but try as they might they were unable to find any route to the center.
After several fruitless days of attempting to either plumb the maze or
chop or burn through the thorn (the vines blunted axes and the smoke given
off by burning them was highly toxic), the Chieftain Tedmyr sent Jabyn
to Tynody to consult the Oracle.
Moved by his plight, Esau agreed to help, and the
group decided to see if the Theinorran fighter that they were supposed
to be lunching with would also be interested.
Jacob was indeed interested in rescuing the fair
maiden (it was part of his self-professed job title, after all), and the
party set out immediately for RedHill--about four days' journey north and
west towards the Loiborra/Fericope border. That night the stayed
at a wayside in, and met with a short and somewhat stout Theinorran woman
named Merath eal Yahar who nonetheless was wearing the traditional red
cape and hood of a witch; thinking that a witch might be extremely useful
for the task ahead of them, they persuaded Merath to join their expedition.
Evening of the 6th of Ryam
The party arrived at RedHill, and stayed the night at RedHill Manor.
There they met Chieftain Tedmyn, his wife Zeshyi, the other sons Gephy
and Elyel, and the elder daughter Nomdyrai..
7th of Ryam
Into the Labyrinth...
Esau the Forrester scouted out the location of the Thorn Tower, while the
rest of the party made its way more carefully through the wood. The
wall of thorn was over sixty feet tall, and surrounded by a hundred foot
circle of barren dirt, where not so much as a blade of grass grew.
Once within the circle, Esau lost his sense of conectedness with the forest,
but pressed on. Despite the dirt being much trampled, he was able
to make out faint traces of the passage of a small person, presumably the
missing Mezynah. The tracks went straight into the archway in the
thorn, which appeared to have always been there (no trace of newly cut-back
branches). Satisfied for the nonce, Esau returned to the edge of
the circle and waited for the rest to catch up.
Once they did, they decided to head directly into
the maze, since the thorns seemed unscalable. The pathway in the
hedge went straight in for about ten feet, and then curved off to the right.
At this point, Esau's sharp ears noted a faint humming sound coming from
the package he was carrying for delivery to Ebsioch. Praying to his
anscestors for forgiveness, he opened the package, and found a single long-stemmed
rose made out of gray stone. When he held it toward the wall of thorn,
the thorns writhed and twisted out of the way, opening a passageway directly
toward the center of the maze. The party headed in immediately, only
slightly dismayed that the thorns closed in behind them again.
When they reached the inner edge of the thorn wall,
it opened up onto a courtyard, covered in vari-colored marble flagstones,
with a repeating rose-and-thorn motif. Equidistant around a central
tower were a group of twelve trees made entirely of silver, with marble
benches around the trees. The tower itself was of the same grey stone
as Esau's rose, and was itself in the shape of a rose, with a long thorned
stem, and the top a tightly-furled bud. There was a door to the tower,
but no visible handle or keyhole; there was, however, a rose shaped pattern
in the center of the door. Esau touched the rose to the picture,
and somewhat to his consternation the rose immediately melted out of his
grip and melded with the picture. The door swung open, revealing
a marble hallway, with silver mirrors along the walls, and suffused with
a rosy pink light. Just as Esau stepped over the threshold, there
was a sudden flash of silver, and a six-foot long silver serpent buried
its fangs in his arm. Jacob swang at the serpent, but his sword bounced
off with a dull clank. He easily blocked the snake's counter-blow
with his shield, and Merath quickly unleashed a potent curse, rendering
the snake's fangs brittle and harmless. Bastriel, who had some training
as a Sorceror, finished it off by casting a Break spell through his sword.