A Thousand Ships

9th of the Moon Darkening.

Spent the night in Taelcard. Horen think they’re on the way to finding the mage prince we spoke to in Tomin. They think it’s Nahech, one of the brothers. There seems to be some mental trap around the information he got in Tomin that is related to why they can’t find him. Theory is that the dwarven implements, or something close to them, have a spell laid that if you come close to discovering what it is, you forget it, and perhaps a lot of other things. They think he went away thinking about what we told him, and in thinking about that stumbled across some truth he wasn’t wanted to.

We’ll be punted to Arkoda, and our boat will be punted to Port Alabar. An agent of the mage princes will be waiting for us in Port Alabar. We’re to ask for the agent of the princes at the Harbourmaster’s office. Vasco and Nanda both get new black silk outfits from the guy we believe to be the Mage King.

Horen gestures, and we’re standing outside the gates of a big, big Taji city. We’re in a small square off to one side from the road in, and we’re being stared at by the gate guards. “Excuse me please. Can you tell me where you have come from, and your business please?” Nanda: “We are here to pay our respects at the temple of Shelim. We are on a pilgrimage.” “And from where have you come?” “We come from Akbana.” “Forgive my further intrusion but which of the mage princes transported you?” “Horem.” “Very well. Pass on there.” “Can you tell us where the temple is please?” “It is in the older party of this city, so if you will follow this road to the great square then turn away to the north and follow in under the wide arch on the northern side of the square, you will come to a narrower street. Follow that until it narrows to the width of one cart, and very shortly thereafter you will see a turning away to the right which will lead directly to the temple.”

There’s an air here of watchfulness, more than other Taji places we’ve seen. Small children sit on windows watching us instead of running after us. As we come toward the main square, we approach a crossroads through which hundreds of troops are marching, all in desert uniform. They’re armed and carrying well loaded backpacks, and look like they’ve just left barracks. They assemble in the square, where baggage wagons and trains of mules are being loaded up. The “stand ready” call goes out and they drop into combat crouch.

There’s a flash of light, and a mage prince, once we’ve not seen before, appears. He raises his hand and they all disappear.

We eventually cross the square, and moving north the streets quickly begin to narrow and start to close in overhead. We eventually find the temple of the church of spires, looking quite, quite out of place. The door is firmly shut. Arcvanin reminds us that the Herald this temple is named for is one of rocks and mountains, the one the boat was named for, and associated more with stubbornness that anything else.

As we approach, a large Taji man carrying a scimitar steps out. “Hold. This building is not for strangers. Please turn back the way you came.” Um, we have priests. “It is no longer a temple?” What happened here? “That is not for me to say.” Who can we speak to? “Such a person is not available.” The priests are under obligation to report if the place has been deconsecrated. “That is no concern of mine.” Can we speak to anyone? “There is no such person available here.” Perhaps we can help. “Your assistance is appreciated but not needed. Please turn and go away.”

Vasco, in isles, “what is wrong?” No indication of understanding. Nanda tries the travel token on him, but it doesn’t mean anything to him.

“Brother. You are here because someone has asked you to be here or you have vowed to do so.” “Someone to whom I bear some responsibility has asked.” “We are following an oath we have made and we bear a lot f responsibility if this oath is not carried out. We wish to cause you no trouble, however we appear to have reached somewhat of an impasse. That person for whom you are doing this, if they said we could go into the temple, would you let us?” “Yes. But they would not.” “They may not but I ask you for the opportunity to speak to them.” “That is not possible, but come back in six days time. We will then be gone.”

Too long.

“We cannot wait six days.” “And I cannot let you pass here before six days have passed. And if I am not here, someone else will be.” “And if I were to say to you that sometime within the next day or so we will enter this temple?” “Then it will have to be over my body or the body of whoever guards this place at that time. I do not know who will be guarding this place later tonight. It may be that they will have the authority to pass you to someone else. But I do not know.”

Nanda: “Would you object if we return then?” “No. That at least, by my orders, would be acceptable.” “When would that be?” “After sunset.”

Vasco strops. Nanda lets rip at him. Vasco storms off.

We stop at a tavern from which we can see the temple. We seated with a lot more fussing around and welcome than we’d normally expect.

Nanda: “I wasn’t expecting the temple to be closed.”
Barlady: “It is no longer a temple. We’re not certain what happened, but the fire lord has declared it’s not longer a temple and set his men about it to guard its entrances.”
Khalid: “The fire lord? We are new here.”
“He is a man who is to be greatly respected in this area.”
Nanda: “Is he a man perhaps who prevents buildings from going on fire?”
“This has been known to happen. It is said in fact that no building under his care has ever burnt down.”
Nanda: “If there is a building he hasn’t got under his care, bad things are likely to fall upon it?”
“I have no evidence to go on for that, for every building in this area is under his care.”

Vasco’s stomping around being angry. He’s most of the way back after an hour or so when he recognises that someone’s been following (shadowing) him for a few minutes. He buys an apple and quarters it meaningfully. The guy shadowing him is a bit of an amateur and keeps glancing at him. He walks quickly away. Now Vasco follows him. He walks quicker, and disappears into a door. Vasco eventually gives up and heads back to the tavern. There’s a conciliatory exchange of food.

Impression of the fire lord is that there’s a certain degree of respect for him, though also some sympathy for the people who cross him. A middle aged man at another table approaches us. “For a price I can put you in touch with the fire lord more quickly.” Price? “That is open to negotiation.” Um, how can you when others can’t? “Because in my wisdom I have determined a sure fire and certain way to bring him here?” Set the building on fire? “If you have determined it so then there is no need for my intervention.” He walks off.

We decide to wait a while. It gets busier as the day goes on. Eventually, as it’s gotten dark, we see the man who was blocking our way pass by the window. We head back toward the temple. We’re confronted by a small man with a scimitar.

Nanda: “Good evening. Did your predecessor warn you about us?”
“he said that there had been a party seeking to enter the temple”
Nanda: “We are the awkward people who wouldn’t leave immediately. We understand that you are here at the behest of the fire lord, is that correct?”
“it is”
“is it possible, in some way, to make contact with him?”
“I have that authority. All you need do is convince me that I need to”
Nanda: “We have no interest in what you are doing here or what is happening in the city. All we want is to negotiate a moment’s visit in the building. If there is something there we should not see, we will not see it, and if there is something we should not speak about we will not speak about it. But we are conducting a pilgrimage that we at least step inside for a moment. That is all we request.”
He glances across at the rest of us.
Khalid: “How familiar ware you with pilgrimage?”
“It is a strazi thing”
“Yes, but it is an oath. An oath taken by one or many to achieve a goal, for themselves or others. In this case it is a goal for others, and a binding oath that we have taken. We will step in, if required, blindfolded, we will step in without weapons, we will step in, give or take, within any requirements that you give us, but we must not break this oath.”
Nanda: “It could be said that what we are trying to do,w e are trying to prevent a fire the kind of which these isles have not ever seen.”

He straightens up, takes out a candle stub from his pocket, a spark leaves from the end of his finger and lights the candle. “Very well. You have convinced me. But it is not by any rule of mine you are not passing, it is that that place is dangerous. I will show you what is beyond the door, but if you wish to enter it will be entirely at your own risk. You will see inside the door the bodies of those who have passed the threshold in the last few days.”

He opens the door. A blast of unbelievably cold air hits us. Ice is already creeping out. There’s a long, thick candle just inside the door used to measure time, with 5.5 days still to burn on it. There are three bodies immediately below. The bottom one appears to have shattered on impact.

“This is why no one is entering until that candle burns down. Whatever is happening in there, I trust that it will end when that candle ends.” It was at nine days when this was first discovered.

He throws a blob of something across the threshold. By the time it hits the ground and shatters, it’s developed a fine fur of frost crystals.

Jess asks Nanda to translate, then he says (in Strazi) “I speak your tongue.” Jess asks to see around the temple. “There are two other entrances. I will bring you there.” He whistles, and another man appears walking up the alley. They have a brief exchange in slangy Taji - “if I’m not back in an hour, cry havoc” - and we’re led around the maze of streets - no kidding - to the other entrances. At one point we step through a hallway, courtyard and another hallway to another street.

Jess speculates that this could be a reaction to defilement of the temple.

Vasco asks the fire lord if it was one of his minions that followed him. “I did not send anyone to follow you, but it’s possible that somebody working for me might have taken it into their own mind to do so. The fact that you saw them, however - I would be displeased with any of my staff who were so obvious. You did not happen to see any symbol on the door into which he stepped?” The one used across the isles to indicate a tobacconist. “I know that door, and no man on my staff would have taken refuge in that one, so therefore it is someone else.” He turns to one of the men guarding this door, and asks them to find out what happened with this.

Vasco, Khalid and Jess climbs on the roof. It grows that much colder as we approach the spire, which is directly above the altar. Vasco climbs the spire. It is cold. He doesn’t lick it. City’s big, though, bigger than Kalmadiz.

Khalid pokes the spire with his sword. No flash of light or electricity or something.

Jess drops back down just as it starts to rain. He casts Endure Elements and tries to step in. There’s a definite feeling of a threshold, something’s different. But he makes it through. Between Jess and Arcvanin we manage to buff everyone in the party.

Jess, Vasco and Khalid decide to go back in to see if they can see what’s causing the disturbance. OH GOD it’s cold. There are practically walls of ice covering the altar. We just go out of sight around the ice pillars when, outside, an arrow comes out from the darkness and ricochets around the door. The fire lord calls the guards. Nanda shouts “ATTACK!” Khalid returns outside. Nanda reveals her new catwoman costume just in time for Khalid to spend a moment appreciating the view. She parries arrows in her path finding where the attack has come from, and covering the fire lord. Khalid skids out of the temple just in time to meet the onrushing charge of three large men with scimitars.

There’s combat.

Khalid tries to entangle one in a cloak, but gets caught by him and a friend. A man is meeting Nanda scimitar point first - which means he’s not that well trained with a scimitar. She tries to knock him off balance, and manages to bat his blade aside, then kicks him firmly in the crotch. He drops his sword and goes sideways.

Khalid deflect a stab, and beheads one of them. The other turns to run. Khalid grabs him by the scruff of the neck and knocks him out.

A fourth man who was lurking in the back of it is running screaming on fire, having just been on the receiving end of a gout of flame from the fire lord’s hand.

Inside, Vasco picks up the pace and drags Jess with him.

The guy who got kicked in the balls is going for a dagger. Nanda makes him go squelch.

Vasco and Jess come through more of the ice pillars, a tunnel toward the altar, and appear in a chamber of intense, silent cold. On the altar is a partly shattered, very fine looking, porcelain jug. It’s frozen in mid shatter, and flames are erupting out of it in every direction. It looks like something forming itself from flame. It looks like it was thrown onto the altar from the direction of the first door we encountered. The candleflame there is just visible. Around the base of the candle are some scattered bits of clothing and a pair of boots, encased in ice.

Outside - no pendants to be found on any of the bodies. Nanda wishes she’d left one guy alive, the one who was hiding would have known more. Fire lord: “Let’s see if we can get anything then.” He runs a finger down the body and it parts. There’s perhaps some fire around his eyes as he stares. Nods, covers it again with clothing, and says “he was hired for an obscene sum of money by a Strazi man to attack your party in particular. To wait until such time as you were separated, because they could not take you all on at once, then kill first one separated part and then the other. I am almost inclined to think that the sum of money must - if the rest of it were not so clear and accurate I would say I misread it. Ten Strazi royals each. I do not know if they ever saw the money, but that’s what they were promised and they were convinced by it.”

He gestures, and the corpse bursts into flame.

Jess goes to get the other priests while Vasco stays inside. Vasco notices the candle is a fleshy looking colour. Defile the temple, you get to be the countdown clock. The flames have the shape of two hands coming out of the jug. Maybe the countdown clock is how long the temple can keep it frozen for. Jess goes outside to tell the fire lord.

“This one was instructed to ‘kill the other three, then he could have their money.’ The man who instructed them on this was tall, fair haired, sunburnt and commanding is the best that I can read from there.”

Khalid is sitting on the guy he knocked out. He’s still knocked out. And his breathing is slowing down, which is wrong. Arcvanin comes over to look. “His heartbeat is dropping away too.” Arcvanin pumps magic into him, and the guy coughs and opens his eyes.

Khalid talks the heavy talk.

“There was a man. He promised us… ungh. ungh.” Ah shite. His tongue is physically swelling up. Arcvanin fires more spells in. “There’s something else wrong here.” Poison? “I don’t know. Something magical. Khalid, take a couple of steps back.” Arcvanin lays down a dispel, and there is a gout of blue flame out of the man’s mouth, and he deflates, dead.

Jess tells the fire lord what’s in there. He asks him to take it out. Vasco beats him to it. His hands pass through the flame, a little bit more heat in there than the surrounding air but not much. “Is there a clear path? I don’t intend stopping.” He walks as fast as he can back out to the door.

As he approaches the door, he can feel the pieces expanding in his hands. Outside the door is the fire lord standing, his hands balls of flame. The court outside has been evacuated.

“How do you want to do this?”
“Throw it toward me.”

Gently Vasco throws it through the threshold. He draws the cheese grater. It clears the threshold with a pop and starts to expand outward. It turns over in mid air, a humanoid form emerging from it. The fire lord holds out one hand and the whole thing freezes in mid air. The shards of the jug drop away, and a flaming humanoid form is left hanging in mid air. He beckons it, it slowly moves toward him, stops in front of him and expands. When it stops, it’s maybe 17 feet tall, roughly humanoid, made entirely of flame with big, big wings. He speaks to it, not in any language we recognise, full of hisses and spitting sounds. It answers back in the same language with a very deep voice. Gesturing a little as if to reach for a building. The fire lord gestures with a single finger and it doesn’t reach any further.

Then in isles, “what do you want done with this thing?”
“What are the options?”
“I can contain it, banish it, or send it back to find those who summoned it.”
“We like the banish idea.”

He nods, looks up, says a couple of short words in that hissing language, and it collapses in on itself. Inside the icicles come crashing down from the ceiling. The candle has vanished, only the clothes left.

Rannon pokes in around the clothes. He comes up with a pouch and a pendant.

Hmm, if only we had some fire. The blue flame comes out in a ball, and a little bit of ash drifts down.

Rannon grins and hands the pouch to Vasco. Forty royals. Khalid brings Vasco up to date on the terms of employment of the assassins.

It’s starting to cloud over.

Vasco: “Are you a mage prince?”
“I could be. I just don’t want to. Where are you going next?”
“Port Alabar.”
“You will not reach there before that storm fully breaks upon us and then you will not be going anywhere. I suggest you stay here a day or two and let it pass over.”
“We’ll need somewhere to stay.”
“I can provide that. In return for a fairly full explanation of what the hell has been going on here.”

Vasco makes a point of straightening up the temple a bit. We head back to the fire lord’s place as it starts to rain heavily.