Flash and the Pan

August 12-16, Albanus 1

The next morning, the band headed out for Noricus, in Altania Inferior.  Phillipus and Dah stayed behind to guard the horses and make sure that any incoming correspondence got put in the safebox immediately.  Tem, the Altanian hunter who had contacted the party, led them down to the docks where a longboat was waiting.

The trip to Noricus took four days, and the band was blessed with good weather.  Hot, sunny days with a good wind which drove the small boat south-east across the Viridian Sea, past the island of the Barony of Haratus and to the shores of Altania Inferior.  The only problem was the boat's complete lack of privacy and, for women, the joys of learning to relieve yourself over the side of the ship.

Noricus was a typical Altanian village, tucked in a small bay.  Dozens of round hide boats bobbed in the water, as men, women, and children dove for oysters.  All of them... stark naked, the party noted with some reserve.  The village itself was a collection of palm-roofed huts with woven grass "tapestries" for walls (rolled up, because of the day's warmth).  A pallisade of sharpened logs surrounded the houses, and Corvina noted that even in broad daylight, a half-dozen teens with bows kept watch from the heights.  Looking about, Marius say no signs of the worship of the Pentad.  Merely some poles decorated with carvings of various animals -- perhaps dedicated to the spirits of Altanian animism.

Tem led them to the village, where they were warmly greeted by the new riganta (chief) Meera.  Dennek, the missing hunter, was her man and Meera's tatooed cheeks bore recent knife scars -- a sign of mourning in Altania.  Despite their grief and worry, the villagers welcomed the band warmly, overjoyed to see Corvina back.  And to see that she'd brought "luck" (a padeena, or paladin) with her.  As Corvina introduced her relatives, Meera kissed each one somberly and announced that, through Corvina, they were of one family and tribe.  Upon hearing that Leyna was a warrior, Meera recommended that she be marked (tatooed) with the sign of Bear.  Severus coolly reminded her that they were Rostillans, and Rostillan customs were different from Altania's.

After the formalities, Noricus threw a feast for their guests.  Oyster stew, baked lobsters, roast tubers, friend bananas... all accompanied by pepper sauces hot enough to burn your tongue off.  To wash it down there was poh, a sweet fermented milky drink made from the sap of the apoa tree.  Halfway through the dinner eight young women scampered to their huts and emerged a few minutes later wearing their best silk dresses (scandalously transparent, by Rostillan mores).  They performed a number of traditional Altanian dances and, as the meal ended, hurried over to Corvina and asked her to inquire of her brother, the padeena, which of them he liked best.  Titus, mindful of the Precepts of the Order, told Corvina to tell them that he liked them all equally in the sight of the Gods.  This caused a bit of confusion but Corvina managed to convinced them that Titus was like Lucellus -- celibate.  Through a miscommunication, she also made them believe that Marius was some odd kind of squire.  And while the women were clearly disappointed that they'd be getting no luck for the village that night, no one pushed too hard.  Severus, meanwhile, deflected the advances by announcing he was in mourning.  Gaius, on the other hand, felt no urge to dodge the bullet.  In fact, to the Altanians' amusement and delight, he announced that he couldn't choose just one.  As so, as the evening ended, Gaius and a couple young women wandered off to a nearby hut.  And with that, the camera panned across the ocean waves to the moon.

Breakfast was baked whitefish (served with chile dipping sauce, which most people passed this morning).  Then Tem and a couple men sailed the band south, towards the Dead City of Hakarim.

Rising out of the waters of the Viridian Sea, Hakarim lay about 10 miles down the coast south of Noricus.  Tall stone spires rose out of the sea's dark waters.  The buildings on land were covered by a dense growth of vines and grass.  Dark green vines with white flowers grew everywhere, exuding a cloying, sickly sweet odor that clung to everything.  Tem took them to shore, then he and the others retreated to wait off-shore -- far enough into the water that nothing could get them.  Hopefully.

The party began to pick its way through the forest-wrapped buildings.  Nothing moved.  Even the wind died down as they headed towards the central plaza, where Tem had spotted an enormous hole.  The only living creatures they saw were fat-bodied flies that buzzed around the corpse-flowers.  Leyna squashed one... then watched as, a moment later, it began to crawl weakly along the ground.  The second time it was swatted, however, it stayed dead.

Gaius saw some faint tracks.  Booted footprints -- some heavy, as if the wearer wore platemail.  One pair of sandalled footprints, which they guessed were Dennek's.  The sandalled steps were occasionally irregular, as if the walker staggered or was pushed.

The tracks headed directly towards the excavation Tem had noted.  In the center of Hakarim, in front of a tall domed building, the party found fresh dirt thrown up in a circle about sixty feet across.  Nothing had had time to grow on the soil yet.  Though, oddly, a pair of thick grape vines snaked their way across the earth.  Peering over, the party saw that at the center of the circle a flight of broad stairs descended into the dark earth.  The grapevines made them uneasy, however, and so Gaius put an arrow into one of them.

As soon as he did, the plants surrounding them whipped to life and tried to wrap themselves around the party.  Most people managed to yank themselves free, but Leyna and Sir Marcus were grabbed.  Corvina darted onto the bare soil, to get away from the entangling grasses, but as she did the grapevines snapped to life.  One wrapped itself around the sorceress' waist and squeezed, hard enough to crack a rib.  The other wove itself around Sir Marcus, but could do little through his platemail.  Before the vine could snip Corvina in half, Gaius and Titus cut it apart.  The second vine found a nice gap in Marcus' platemail, right between the shoulders and helm.  Titus and Leyna severed it, too, before it could hurt the old knight too much.

After Marius patched up Corvina, the band descended the steps cautiously.  Periodically they passed odd writings on the walls, brief signs in a language no one understood.  (Hakarim was rumored to be one of the old cities of Vestrix, the ancient kingdom whose Fall shattered the sky and allowed the Witch Lights into this world.)

At about 30 feet below the surface, the stairs opened into a large room.  Three skeletal hounds lay there.  As the party approached, they leaped to their feet.  And, with a breathy moan, four zombies shambled out of the shadows to join them.  The front row fighters -- Titus, Leyna, and Marcus -- braced for impact.  However at the last moment, Marius stepped forward.  Holding the holy symbol his father had given him, he ordered the creatures to be gone.  Golden light poured over the undead.  The hounds crumbled into small piles of bones which clattered to the ground;  the zombies' flesh melted away, and they too fell.  There was a moment of shocked silence... and then everyone pounded Marius on the back and congratulated him.

Several minutes of searching revealed that the first level of the excavation was completely empty.  The band guessed that this was a dormitory of some sort, meant to house troops in the distant past.  They followed the tracks south, to a corridor whose cracked roof let in a curtain of thick plant roots.  (The tracks, incidentally, never wandered.  Whoever had come here had a definite destination in mind, and didn't bother searching any side-passages.)  With a grimace, Titus began to hack his way through that mess with his new flaming sword.  And, as he'd expected, troubles did pop up.  For a moment it looked like the paladin through two shadows... and then the shadows stood up, and attacked.  Leyna and Marcus charged up to help him -- and Leyna nearly severed a shadow with her first blow.  It feebly swatted at Titus, missing.  The second shadow, however, touched Sir Marcus, and the old man grew a bit faint.  He grew paler still when he discovered that his sword couldn't harm them, but Marius hurried up and traded weapons with him.  Corvina dispatched the wounded shadow with a spell and a barrage of attacks wounded the second one.  But as it collapsed, it managed to grasp Sir Marcus one last time.  At that, the old man dropped to his knees, too weak to stand in his armor.  Titus prayed over him, and he recovered enough to stand.  But he was in no shape to fight, and so the party escorted him back to Tem.  Marcus was terribly embarassed to be too weak to help, but Corvina assured him that he had nothing to be ashamed of.

Returning to Hakarim, the band descended to the second level -- passing more of the incomprehensible signs.  The stairs ended in a large room, opposite an enormous pair of rune-carved doors.  Cracks ran from the ceiling down through the doors, ruining any spells that might have been placed upon them.  One door leaned at an awkward angle, having broken off its lower hinge.  As the party stepped in, they spotted three creatures:  a pair of (live) rats to their left, and a grey-skinned Altanian girl to their right.  Titus charged the girl, whose lips curled back to reveal a large pair of fangs.  "Vampire!" he shouted.  Gaius stepped around the corner and promptly sank two arrows into the creature.  Her body disintegrated into dust and ashes -- a clear sign that she was a mere spawn, not a true vampire.  And implying that she had a Master lurking somewhere about...  Meanwhile Leyna killed one of the rats.  The other charged for the crack in the door, but Severus managed to kill it before it could pass through.

No doors led out -- except for the sealed ones.  Gaius checked the tracks again and found that the people they were following had not actually opened the doors:  they'd gotten down and slid through the crack.  One, apparently, had walked back and forth a bit on the other side of the door.  Suspicions roused, Severus checked the door at length until he found that on the other side there was some kind of magical stone (an alarm stone, perhaps) above the lintel.  They opened the door and then Marius managed to dispel the stone's magic for a few seconds, giving the party a chance to slip past.

Another flight of stairs lay on the far side, and the party followed it down to the third level.  This, like the others, ended in a large room.  However there was one difference:  a large mosaic arrow lay in the floor, pointing to a broad corridor running east.  The arrow didn't hold the band's interest long, though.  Because as they entered this floor they heard a dog growl to their right, and a man say something in a harsh, gutteral language.

(To be continued...)