Category: Stone Soules

The First Step in the Inevitable Defeat of the Great Ones
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PART ONE
The Stone Soules returned to base camp on 17 August 2173 bearing a heavy
burden. The mashed body of Cantstin, the elven archer who joined the S.S.
after we defeated the killer of his parents, Molehill, was sadly deposited
at the campsite while the party discussed important strategy for dealing
with the Great Ones in the wake of the panther-beast’s attack. At long
last, tactics discarded and discussed, the Men-at-Arms rode away towards
Middle with Xavier, the treasure recovered from the panther-beast, and
Cantstin’s body for Reincarnation.
Before daybreak 18 August 2173, the Men-at-Arms arrived, with Ceydric
arrayed in full armor and Henry bearing his banners and Tesla at his side.
As camp was struck, the Behir-scouters set out ahead, and the S.S.-at-large
headed towards Tan-El, while discussing final strategy points and hand
signals. Nym and Henry were left in charge of the Men-at-Arms at base camp.
The scouters decided that the Behir had not recently passed. They returned
to the main force outside of Tan-El, near the archway. The S.S., in force,
entered Tan-El via the cutbacks and, lead by Ceydric and Faranyn, approached
the transporter, or Tan-El Constable Dispatch. With a usual flurry of
attack-and-defense movements, Faranyn and Ceydric cleared the way for the
party and checked the side rooms. Ludo did the trasporter routine, and
before long we were in the room facing the castle bailey. We exchanged our
last loud remarks and headed silently (or at least not loudly) into the
bailey and approached the large bronze doors….

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OK… So this is the full extended version, for party members, so we all
know what happened.
First let’s review… It was midnight, and we had just finished the
commune. We had a ton of questions, namely what to do about the LE force
and how to take them on. So we talked for about another hour and finally
decided on a course of action. We decided that we would launch a recon
mission of invisible characters (or darn close to invisible characters) to
find the best way to get into the castle. Everyone agreed with the idea,
so we decided who this party would consist of. After a short time we
finally decided that it would consist of Ludo, Dari, Canstin, Duke Charles,
Eli, and myself. We figured that these people could hide pretty well (Eli
and Canstin could be invisible in the shrubbery surrounding the castle, and
Dari is a thief… the other three of us would be invisible. Finally we
turned Duke Charles invisible, and we all went to bed.

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[note that summaries are hereafter numbered according to their order from the beginning of the great SSOULES listserv, though there are obviously many adventures that occurred before the listserv, given previously and in the old Stone Soules “logs”. –Kyle]
2173
August 9th: (cont’d) We went to the Temple of Kor in Tan-El.
Letier observed that the South and West windows were still
intact, a fact he was not expecting after 3500 years.
We discusses plans for their recovery but agreed that since this
was the best place to cast divination from, the Temple could not
yet be decommisioned. Letier cast a ceremony to look at the Scroll
Library, which had been removed safely, showing that the
inhabitants had left relatively slowly, since they had time to
remove it. 2 pock-marked metal boxes were removed.
We travelled until nightfall to reach Middle, so we could sleep in
our beds once again.
10th: Copper coins inside boxes bore this legend: “Tan-El
(symbol of the city)
Hail Khahoatep”
We agreed to purchase the coins for their possible
interest. Scrying revealed bugbears in nice armor
(‘Spawn servants) in the Theatre. We looked in the next
couple of days to see the door we had entered through to
get to the Theatre in our ambush was boarded up crudely. I
took a sketch of the board placement.
We sent Eli & company (with Star) to Bec the sage in End.
Eli purchased _Feather Fall_.
[sketch]

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[This message contains materials mailed 4 August 2173, Middle. The date of arrival at the New World Repository and subsequent forwarding or pickup will be decided by Edwin. –Kyle]
Dear friend, 4 August 2173
Less than a week after your departure from Middle-of-the-Road, several new adventurers came to the area seeking help in exploring the ruined city of Tan-El and we agreed to take them on as helpers and fellow adventurers for a trial period. Perhaps you remember the exploration of Tyner’s tower and the very interesting things that were encountered there. We decided that there were loose ends that needed to be tied up, and for that reason we entered the city.
Foremost on my mind, was the fact that the high-magic stain on the rug had in fact never been analyzed to make a determination of its contents — or whether it had in fact dripped through the ceiling!! We crept into the city with our new comrades, and convinced the doorknob once again to let us in. After various explorations my concerns panned out. Indeed, the black stain originated from the inaccessible floor above us. The addition of a continual light bead to the floor above through means of Ludo’s great dexterity proved the existence of a room above but little else, other than that a space below the stairs above was where it originated from. After no secret doors were revealed, we thought maybe it might be machinery leaking or whatever, and took a sample for the alchemist to examine. He determined that it was the pure essence of a being of “vast evil” contained in some sort of tar or paste. We have not determined further what it may be, since our time has been limited in other ways.

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The game on 29 September 1995, proceeded as follows:
Info. on location of the Capital City of the ‘Spawn is determined to be “Southest of Port Elizabeth, beyond the “Great Rock.””
Info. on lesser spawn tactics are much as we have seen them, though it is worth noting that at the height of SMART’s interference in Tan-El, there were about 15 ‘Spawn. In the “final battle,” both sides admitted defeat and withdrew. SMART left the area.
Also, apparently, Tabor’s barony ideas (Tabor was a young, powerful knight with a magic lance) ended when he went to the GOC, with many helpers, and was never heard from again. Two days later, the settlement was destroyed in explosions, flames, flashes of light, etc. that were witnessed by children thrown into a latrine. Nothing but the Tower remained. The town looked as if it had been “crushed.” Bec’s (the Sage’s) personal opinion is that Tabor attacked or provoked the Behir and thus caused the destruction of city, though remember the Sphinx’s commented that the old guy hadn’t been scratched in over 100 years…. (20 years ago, after the attack, there was a corridor stretching from Tan-El to the site of Middle, ala Behir).
The Alchemist said the sample from Tyner’s tower contained the “pure essence of a being of vast evil, contained in some sort of tar or paste.” He gave it back to us in a lead box.

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This adventure was mostly information gathering, with one exciting incident to end off things.
Scrying — We were concerned with the encounter we had had in the city and not knowing what exactly we had run into, we decided that information gathering would be our next best step. To this end Dari agreed to do several scrying’s at different locations in the city. During the course of the adventure she scryed on:
the Barnaire Theatre — nothing unusual
the bell room in the castle — nothing seemed changed
the altar room in castle — nothing changed/altar still broken
the stairs and arch to city — nothing
the hexagonal area — swinging around saw two dead bugbear bodies which looked half burnt and at least one had two holes pierced through the chest. The head of one was bitten or ripped off. (mmm.. yumm!)

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Ern (dog) ran around the room excitedly. He seemed quite cheerful that morning and eager to play, though he did not linger long to “talk” with any one person. Finally, everyone from the party was gathered in the hall. Everyone was present except the one who had called the meeting. Even Gerald’s hawk Craig was there, since Alegra had been asked to take care of him for the morning. Several party members began to wonder where Gerald could be and why he would be rude enough to show up late to his own meeting.
Suddenly Dog grew silent. As the last echoes of his barking died away, he sat down and turned to face the entryway. Just then the door to the hall opened and a cloaked figure entered. Though he walked hunched over and his hooded cloak was drawn close enough to cover his features, the brown cloak and the walking staff revealed the man to be Gerald. He walked slowly down the aisle, leaning on his staff in an uncharacteristic manner. He ignored comments from the party members and advanced into the chamber.
When Gerald reached the centre of the gathered party, he stopped and addressed the group. His face remained tilted down and much of his weight was on his staff as he spoke. “Thank you for gathering together this day.” His voice revealed a hint of weariness but held an inner strength. “Before the Stone Soules embark on further actions, there is an important story I must tell you. I invite you all to sit and make yourselves comfortable and to listen well.” Gerald gently sat down on the floor and lay his staff before him. He kept his cloak drawn around him, and it formed a circle on the ground as he sat. Dog came closer to his master and sat facing him.

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Sphinx met us, told us he was moving south. Asked Snag to come with him to be his front-man, said he’d pay 10,000 gp to load his wagons and move him. We agreed Snag & Quick would leave and would get this money as their share. We also talked him into giving us good rates on a few questions-in particular, we asked him to tell us about the major forces in the city.
Then we decided to attack the pagoda (the one with the force field around it).

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The party made plans to attack the sphinx. They began making extensive plans, even contacting Duntill & Illic for assistance. There was much debate over attacking the sphinx, with Snag and Quick presenting the most resistance and Gerald and Alegra being uncertain. Most others agreed to kill him.
These plans turned out to be for naught when the sphinx approached the Stone Soules one day to address the party.

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After my attempt to bury the poor bones lost to the troll shaman’s evil lusts turned out to be unsuccessful (their souls were lost, used by some foul god as building material and I could not save even one), we packed up and headed to Middle. We soon discovered that Eli’s clean spell had somehow managed to transport all of the sewage we cleaned off from the trolls’ lair, to the Sphinx’s library. Ceydric informed us of this (he wasn’t in a good mood, mind you) and said that he had had to pay the Sphinx in cows for his stonegoyles. I hear that the townspeople were (rightfully so) not too excited about this either. The Church needed some work, and I concentrated on that for awhile. The keeper of the Church, Star, Aria, and I all worked at some sort of a midsummers welcoming celebration, to try to draw people of all sorts into visiting. Star also began some work on composing a poem about Gerald getting his sword. In a few months, he will unveil it.

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