[Notes for the run of April 26, 2000.] We find ourselves descending into a circular room. One of us is near a wall with a big metal lever. There is some light coming in from the holes where we descended. Four openings are evenly spaced around the perimeter; for convenience, we refer to them by the compass points. Except for us, the room is empty. Anton peers over the edge as we descend and sees that there is a pillar supporting the orange tile. (Presumably this is easily seen under each other's tiles, too.) Rhori looks at the dust on the floor and concludes nobody's been here for quite a while. Anton casts magic sight. Meanwhile, Calais examines the lever. It's metal, and though not weathered, does not appear to be in good shape. He figures it's still structurally sound, but he's never seen a piece of metal this old. He thinks it's connected in some way to the orange tile sections. Paris goes over to examine one of the doors, the western one as it happens. She asks if anyone minds if she draws her sword to get some light. Hearing no objection, she does so, giving Alessandro his first experience with its effects. The circular room is about 8 hexes in diameter. The west corridor goes about 4 hexes to a room. On the south side of the room are some bookcases; on the north side is rubble. On closer examination it looks like wood that burned incompletely due to lack of air. Anton looks around but doesn't notice anything magical. As he studies the place some more, he concludes that the place itself has no magic, and in particular the elevator mechanism isn't magical, but he's near a telluric (earth) current. It occurs to him to ask Jarvon about air currents; Jarvon corrects him, saying he means astral currents, currents of the magic of air. Jarvon launches into a lecture about them, and how to handle the flying boat if it gets caught in one, etc. (As usual, of course, only Anton can hear this. The rest of us are probably happier that way. :-) Paris describes what she sees. She steps into the room; Rhori starts to say something but she's already inside. Bits of charcoal crunch underfoot. She looks for tracks, but doesn't spot any but her own. The room is 8 hexes square, with openings to the north and south. The books all appear charred and smoke-damaged; unsalvageable. To the north of the original circular room, Rhori finds a square room full of rubble, with openings to the east and west. To the east of the central room is a room similar to the western one, except the books on the south side are in even worse shape. To the south is a room in which the shelves look less damaged, and there are openings in the east, west, AND south walls. Anton, having heard about the books in the western room, went off to have a look at them. They crumble at his touch, so he stops touching them, but tries to make out the names on their spines. Even those are barely readable. He can make out individual letters, which look like the alphabet he's familiar with, though here and there he sees what looks like a dwarven rune (i.e., similar to the letters in the underground city near the mine). Paris/Calais/Rhori/Hobbes head to the south room and go west. We come to a room with more books, some smoke damage, and exits east (how we arrived) and north. It looks like some books were grabbed in a hurry. We nead north, and come to where Anton is still examining the first room Paris entered. He joins us as we continue north, crunching through charcoal rubble. The northwest room is completely charcoal. We go east, east some more, then south, south some more, and west to the original southern room. So we've found a set of nine rooms with an opening to the south. Taking the southern exit from the southern room, we come to another square room, with exits east and west. There are fewer bookshelves here, again showing less damage than those further north. Each side passage leads to an apparently empty room. We sweep a bit in the western room, to see if we can uncover anything. The floor is not painted; it is stone, as are the walls. In the center of the south wall there's a set of stones arranged as though for a doorway, but there's no doorway. On the westmost wall, the stone has been plastered over. But it really does look like stone under the plaster, not an opening. Anton suggests checking the other rooms to see if there's a pattern. In the east room of this southern set of three rooms, the eastern wall is plastered over, and the southern wall again has the pattern for a door. We go back to the middle southern room (the one two rooms south of the round room) and check the southern wall. It has stones laid as though for a doorway, but plastered over. Calais runs his hand over it looking for magic, and finds none. Anton remarks that the overall pattern of rooms vaguely resembles a chalice: O--O--O | | | O--O--O | | | O--O--O | O--O--O (Apologies for the ASCII art.) Though some of us concede the resemblance, it does not seem to suggest a course of action. We check the books in the southern rooms, where there is less damage. In the room just south of the circular room, all the titles appear to start with T, U, or V. In the room south of that one (the center of the bottom row in the illustration), there is no apparent pattern to the titles. We check the room south and west of the original room, and find all the titles start with Q, R, or S. In the southeast room, we have to hunt a while to find a Z, but indeed all the titles start with W, X, Y, or Z. The current clue we're working with is "seven and nine". Calais suggests that, since the central room had no books, the 7th room of books was the T U V room, and the 9th might then be the one south of that, so we carefully search the corridor between them, but find nothing. Rhori meanwhile has found that the five non-northern rooms off of the round room have yellow floors. This seems appropriate, since yellow is the color of the god of learning. Rhori can't make out the color of the northern floors. He remarks that the T U V room seems somehow different from the one to the south, but he's not sure why. Calais checks the dimensions carefully, and finds the southernmost room is slightly smaller, but Rhori says that's not quite it. Alessandro notices that the southernmost room also uses slightly smaller stones in the walls. Finally we notice that the archway leading south from the T U V room seems to have been added on later. Calais suggests that perhaps it was added after Parsinius created the puzzle, and we should restrict ourselves to the original set of 9 rooms. Checking the southwest room more carefully, on the western wall we find a plastered-over section, with faint traces of yellow on the plaster showing an eight-foot-tall "7". Calais notices a place in the south wall where all the bricks line up, as though at the edge of a door. In the southeast room, the eastern wall has a faint "9", and a lined up crack in the southern wall. We decide to split up and try both "doors" simultaneously. Alessandro, Anton, Llyurylly'yl, and Paris take the 9; the rest of us take the 7. With Paris and Calais leading the coordination effort, we simultaneously push on the southern walls. There's a click, and the two doors open, revealing sets of stairs going down to the side. There are also landings (presumably to protect people from falling down the stairs if the doors opened too quickly). The stairs go down toward each other, and the two groups enter the next room from opposite sides. The room has four statues in the four corners. On the southmost wall is a huge iron door. Above its lintel is carved, "Treasures of Tarn". The floor is tiled in standard 1" square tiles. In the northwest corner, the statue is a man gesturing with his sword extended toward the vault door. Northeast is a woman with a cup in one hand and the other hand raised in benediction. Southwest is a man with a pentacle held by his thumbs and forefingers in front of his chest. Southeast is a woman with a staff held upward; she bears a passing resemblance to Alexis. The door looks like a sturdy metal door, but with no obvious lock or other mechanism. Since the next clue is "four and four", we select four of us, one of each symbol (Paris for Swords, Anton for Staves, Pyotr for Cups, Calais for Pentacles), and stand in front of the corresponding four statues. Nothing happens. The other four push on the door; still nothing. Looking at the statue he's in front of, Calais notices that the hands holding the pentacle can turn a bit. He examines the other statues for movable parts, and discovers that the cups statue's hand of benediction also turns. Someone observes that in each case the movable part has four digits. (Four upraised fingers on the benediction hand; two fingers and two thumbs holding the pentacle.) We turn both movable parts at the same time. There is a rumble, and we find that the door can be moved. Another four hex corridor takes us to a room 17 wide by 12 deep. There is a glint on the floor of various shiny bits, which turn out to be gold coins. There are 25 coins -- or were, before Calais finished looking around -- but they seem merely to be what's left after someone stripped the place. There are also some ironbound chests, which is where we find a couple of the gold coins. They are otherwise empty. There are several plinths, but the statues that might have stood on them are mostly gone. One statue remains, fallen from its plinth. It is made of a very light-colored, almost white stone, and depicts a man in a heroic pose. There are eleven plinths in all, only five of which are easily moved. Paris picks up the fallen statue and puts it on its plinth. In the center of the southmost wall, Rhori finds a spot that sounds funny. He calls Calais over to check it out. Calais doesn't spot anything at first, but when he tries having someone hold a light at an angle to highlight any irregularities, he spots two places that look a bit constructed. He and Paris poke the two places, and the door opens. Another four hex corridor leads to a stone door with the inscription, "Hall of Artifacts." The wall to the left has been smashed open, apparently as a result of something tunneling in from that side that also broke into the room. There are four niches in the hallway where we deduce one would've once placed four of the statues from the previous room ("and four again"), but there's no need now. We step through the broken rock into a room four hexes wide by three deep. There are two pedestals. The one on the left, which has been knocked over, is marked with a circle with a cross. The one on the right has just a circle, and is still standing. The rough-hewn tunnel enters nearer the left pedestal. Paris checks: the tunnel is not troll-shaped. Calais determines that, not surprisingly, the tunnel was made from outside. He also notices a mark on the floor that suggests that something gold fell off the pedestal and barely touched the ground before being scooped up. Hobbes sniffs, and says he smells something strange, sort of lizardlike, but not like snakemen. Pyotr casts his PD/ED blessing, and we file off down the tunnel. It winds quite a bit, and eventually opens up into a larger room, which appears to be a natural cavern. Rhori's dark-vision sees around the room, including a depression in the middle that looks like some sort of nest. He tells Hobbes to stay quiet, but of course Paris's sword is generating its usual choir, so we're not being especially stealthy. We start to spread out to the left and right, with Paris and Alessandro heading a bit more inward. Rhori notices a pile of soft dirt, which he points out to Calais. There are also two piles of rock near the middle of the cavern. Suddenly, two eight-eyed monstrosities pop up, one from the pile of dirt, one from one of the rockpiles. Rhori smacks the one from the dirt pile, stunning it, but it seems to have a very tough skin, damaging Rhori's axe. The other one runs toward Paris, making some weird screeching sound that bothers her and everyone else nearby, though Paris seems less affected. The white glow from her sword flares up. Anton and Alessandro find themselves teleported away, each appearing alone in a room full of the heavily armored creatures. Alessandro looks around wildly but sees no way to escape. He swings his sword at the nearest monster. Pyotr, on the other hand, sees Alessandro lunging at his chest, and notices also that Llyurylly'yl has dropped his bow and is drawing his sword as he too heads for Pyotr. Pyotr aborts his forthcoming action to dodge, and Alessandro and Llyurylly'yl both miss. To Alessandro, it seems that his sword clattered off the monster's hard shell. Calais swings at Rhori's target, which has unstunned. He hits reasonably well, but does not appear to affect it. At least he doesn't damage the sword, either. Anton, looking around at his room of monsters, remembers that he's still invisible. He doesn't think any of them have noticed him yet. His first inclination would be to try to sneak away, but like Alessandro he feels somehow trapped, with no way to escape. Seeing five of the monsters lined up perfectly for a lightning bolt, he fires one off. The spell succeeds, hitting four party members and one real umber hulk. Fortunately the bolt does relatively little damage (4, armor piercing), but it still hurts. Hobbes apparently is in the same state as Anton and Alessandro, but since he too is invisible even Rhori can't tell that Hobbes is really still in the same room with us. Rhori tells Hobbes to hold tight, then swings and hits his target again, knocking it unconscious. Paris swings at the other one, but misses. It crits her in the stomach, but for relatively little damage. Still, she's stunned. Alessandro swings again at Pyotr, but again his blow glances off. At least it seems to be keeping the monster at bay, thinks Alessandro. His vision blurs a bit, and he realises that the umber hulk he's been fighting has Pyotr's face. Segment 7, Jarvon finally gets a chance to act. Anton's been telling him about the room full of umber hulks. Jarvon starts instructing Anton for a spell to cast on Anton's next action, on segment 8. Segment 8, Calais resists going to help Paris, and pries his sword through a convenient opening to finish off the monster downed by Rhori. Pyotr moves out of the line of fire just as Anton lets loose with a third level air spell, filling the room with lightning. Only Pyotr and Hobbes (and Anton) are unaffected. Most of us go down to the 12 armor-piercing. One hulk, still standing, claws at Anton and damages his non-wand hand slightly. Rhori unstuns and tells Hobbes, whatever did that, make it not do it again. Luckily for Anton, Hobbes can't tell which of the apparent umber hulks did it. The real hulk turns to swing at Hobbes, who dodges out of the way. [When did Hobbes turn visible? Or did the hulk see him anyway?] Pyotr, having learned the combat heal somewhere along the way, lobs it at Paris. Rhori calls out to him, asking where the lightning is coming from. Pyotr says, "Anton!" "No, the monster lightning!" "Anton!" Rhori staggers toward Hobbes and falls over nearby. He stands up again and swings, hitting the hulk in the hand, and nearly finishing off the axe. The hulk swings back, and clobbers Rhori in the shoulder. Rhori is down 44 stun but is still conscious, and is not even stunned. Wow. Paris also gets back on her feet and whacks the hulk in the chest, but for wimpy damage, which pings off. Alessandro pants and takes a recovery. Anton sees three hulks converging, and tries to catch them all in a flash. Paris and Rhori are not affected, but Hobbes is, as is Anton himself. The screeching continues to fill the area, making it hard for flashed folks to locate the thing by sound. Pyotr tries to heal Rhori, but the gods do not deign to allow the spell this time. The hulk swings again at Rhori, who blocks. The axe is history, but the hulk's action is spent. Paris hits it again, even though it hurts (eating into her stun as her endurance is gone). She thinks it's stunned at last; several of its eyes are crossed. The screeching stops, and Hobbes is able to locate it and do some more damage. On segment 9, several folks finish off the hulk. On 12, as the flash clears, Anton finds himself back in the room with the rest of us. "Whew," he says, "If you guys think you had it bad HERE..." Rhori says Calais went down hard. Paris heads to look at Calais, as Pyotr heals the elf. As the party gradually heals itself, Alessandro checks the nest and finds a gold cup, which catches the light to show up the colors so it looks a bit orange. We also find 3 cards on each of the two monsters. We find some bits of bone and other remnants of food, including one piece that we don't recognise at first until it starts to grow back. Apparently these things eat trolls. Ick. We torch it. There is much argument before we're able to convince Anton that he was really fighting us, not a room full of monsters. But he still thinks it makes a great story. We make a mental note to ask Pierre about these things when we get back, since they looked like the statue in his home. We break off various bits like eyes and claws in case they're useful as magical components. Anton, holding the cup, knows how to use it. By putting pure water in it, and waving his hands over it properly, he can see anywhere on earth. Fortunately only the water needs to be pure, not his thoughts, as Anton promptly take a peek at what Cordelia is up to. It takes him only a moment, though for him it feels like quite some time passes. He barks, "To the boat!" We get him to explain. He says Cordelia's been captured by a Duke Sicil. We recognise the name as the one published in the banns as set to marry Princess Carline. That's weeks of travel, so we convince Anton that it won't help to rush out of here, and we can make further plans as we prepare to leave. Among other things, we figure we should swing back through Westmore and report the library to the Duke, so he can send people who are skilled at preserving books. Rhori also suggests to Calais that the two of them set some traps behind us as we leave, in case an unauthorised group finds this place before the Duke's men arrive. Anton also discovers that using the chalice draws on his own magic pool. Indeed, the reason he finally broke of from studying Cordelia's predicament was that he ran out of power for the day.