Stone Soules Summary: After the Defeat of the Lesser Ones at the Barnaire Theatre
[The adventure this past weekend went as follows (beginning Oct. 24th 2172)]
We travelled back to the transporter in Tan-El (The Greate Olde City as we now know it), specifically in the "Tan-El Constable Dispatch." We moved through the section of wall upwards until we reached the bedroom of what we conjecture must be Brogarra, the most snake-like of the 'Spawn. Over some time we discovered that both Silence and Dispel Magic would _sometimes_ stop the bell, though it would restart when one broke the plane of the doorway. There was a construct of hooks below and around the bell though that suggested there was some item of slightly greater than magnet-size that would in all likelihood stop the bell until reactivated. Through some experimentation (and some damage to Snag and others, unfortunately) we located the item on the bookshelf that would release the bell but the invisible creature tried to recover it. Luckily, Eli's clever use of a spell [the contraband Forget] sent it back into the room and we quickly left the city with it.
When we returned we could take anything we wanted from the room with no hastle, since all the other traps had been removed. We loaded the fire-retardant bookshelves, warm/clean cushions, perpetually clean rug, and books ("Subconscious repurcutions of pyromancy," "Improve yourself through cloning," and "Gertov's Psychology" to name a few) and headed out. The Sphinx, annoying guy that he is, (as we expected) stopped us on the way out. He wanted one of the bookshelves "and he wasn't leaving without it." Eventually, I bargained him into giving us about 1750 g.p. in information and about 1000 g.p.
The information is as follows:
About golems and automata, the residents of Tan-El didn't know much but they were ambitious AND lazy. The first were governmental, but then everybody wanted them (wood at first, too). Residents of Estwurl helped them with magic knowledge of elemental forces [Side note: Eli's specialty]. In the end, the golems failed more and more often as menial jobs were replaced by golems. Some still run today under and around the city. 1 institution, the chief research establishment, was allowed to build a fighting machine (the Clockwork Monster that protected me from the Behir) as an experiment. Also: Should not speak name of Behir, because he can hear it if he is in Tan-El.
Information from the sage in End is as follows: Tan-El predates End ruins by several? thousand years and it was a human civilization with a fascination for electricity and magnetism (what exactly is that?). Eventually they became unstable and caused lightning elementals to be released in the streets and the ultimate destruction of the civilization, which brought the Behir, named Rosaroc. The Tan-El people were separatists from an empire to the north, which it was somehow connected to through the mountain, to a city of gold and jewels, stories verified by a Giant Eagle (a true message from Phaulkon!). 4-5 adventuring reserve parties and some specialist wizards perished here (before New World really settled) fighting Rosaroc (3000+ years old) who was considered dangerous when it moved to Tan-El. Rosaroc travels more and more these days and never interferes with nearby civilization. SMART did some research but neither interfered with the Sphinx nor the Behir. They were driven out by Demon Worshippers.
[Note that this info. about the Behir "coming to Tan-El" is blatantly wrong and is later disproven. Read on for more information, especially on the fourth page of log summaries. --Kyle]
The rest of the haul of treasure included a bottle containing a paraelemental ooze monster that Eli is doing research on (is this right? but the sage says they are probably neutral--). We thought it was a vampire bottle at first! Another bottle we have is of a similar vein, but smaller, and appears to have been designed to fall apart. We will have to keep an eye on this one and keep it far away from people!. We also recoved the bell, using Dari's Stone Shape spell. Other things include skulls (yuck!), some tokens, and more books.
Soon I will be travelling to pick up Star in Teft and leaving Aria here with our fellow Churchman for the Lanthalassa-té celebration (or perhaps take her home to train? but leaving our Brother alone on the High Holy Day is not my wish either! I must seek Phaulkon's will on this one). A letter to Gram is also in order as soon as we settle down for a moment, as well.
---Ended November 10, 2172
Alegra Falconer