Session 9

The old lady's map
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Tallis had been given two items of interest at the Clancapaill Chapter House. One was a map of the first floor of the old Sabra Palace (right), drawn from memory by a very old woman in the Hospice of the order. She had been a maidservant in the household more than ninety years ago before being forced to flee along with anyone else who could get out when the Sabra were massacred in one of their vicious inter-house wars, and was now being cared for by the Sisters and waiting to die. The other was a children's skipping rhyme (left), chanted for generations by small girls as they jumped rope. Nobody is absolutely sure whether it is actually relevant, but the Order archivists believe it to have its origin in an oracular pronouncement made by one of the Sister's seers about two hundred years previously. The wording seems apposite, and who knows, it might prove to be useful.

The party elected to go first to the west-facing balcony, since that was where the flying demon was originally observed to alight. Justin remained stoic in the face of his crippling weakness (only slightly stronger than average, oh the humanity) but tended to hover in the background, having apparently lost all self-confidence.

Approaching the passage opposite the gates, Pandora noted what appeared to be daylight shining into the corridor further down and immediately flew off to investigate — she flew face-first into what felt like jelly-air; not sticky, but too dense for her to be able to push through with her puny strength. Tallis investigated the phenomenon by poking her finger into it; immediately the chainmail covering her finger glowed red and then white hot and melted, burning off the tip of her leather under-glove and blistering her finger unpleasantly.

Looking more closely (but not touching) they found that it appeared to the eye like a heavy heat-haze, with details beyond looking blurry and indistinct. It gave off no heat, and appeared to be safe to touch as long as it wasn't touched with anything metallic. Pandora thought to remove it by transforming it into something else, but as soon as she touched it with her wand it burst into flames, causing her to squeak and swear in a very cute fairy fashion. Tallis pushed a normal, non-magical piece of wood into it without any adverse result, so they assumed that it was the magical nature of the wand that reacted with the phenomenon.

Barsh, meanwhile, had been investigating the old guard-rooms to either side of the gates and found them dirty, dusty, and full of garbage and junk. He discovered that the two guard-rooms were connected by an arched passage passing over the vestibule, in the floor of which were traps (presumably for firing down on any invaders below), but otherwise found nothing of interest in there. They did discover that another similar phenomenon blocked the only other passage from the courtyard.

Tallis smashed up an old chair and whittled out a new wand for Pandora, which she took off to do whatever mysterious things it is that fairies do to turn a bit of wood into a magic wand. Everyone else began searching high and low for any signs of secret passages or helpful inscriptions, but found nothing: the ceilings and walls were all carved with intricate geometric decorations which could hide any number of things. Jim the Acolyte discovered that he could push his head right into the goo and still breathe, and amused himself by running flat-tack down the passage and hurling himself into it to see how far he could get.

Pandora, having taken half an hour or so to tune her stick as best she could, was persuaded to fly back out and around the mountain-side to see if she could get to the balcony that way. It took her some time (she only has little wings and doesn't fly very fast), but after one false start where she surprised a couple of children playing in another balcony garden, she found the right one and went to fly into it. Fortunately she noticed in time that one of the carved gargoyles on the balcony wall appeared to move its eyeball, and she fled just as the creature leaped at her with its great stony maw agape; it did not pursue and she flew all the way back to tell what she had seen.

Another plan evolved: this time Pandora was to burrow past the phenomenon, through the rock of the mountain by turning bits of it into something else, such as semolina pudding. The first attempt on the right-hand side of the doorway took out a lump of the corner, which the barrier promptly expanded into. The second attempt was made on the left-hand side, with the intention of burrowing through to one of the rooms off the balcony, and this time they left some stone between the gap and the magical air-gel. Little Pandora worked like a steel-drivin' man, coming up with all sorts of things to turn stone into: butterflies for one, kapok for another (which made everyone sneeze as it was shovelled out of the deepening tunnel). Somebody suggested treacle, but was shouted down by those who would have to get it out of the pipe.

The end of the tunnel came somewhat unexpectedly, tumbling out into the room in a shower of snow. Regrettably one of the gargoyles lurking in there was more alert than might have been expected, and leaped straight in to grab Tallis and drag her bodily out into the open where all three of them could gang up on her. She fought womanfully, but could make no headway until Kaelli came out shrieking and started doing her Dance Of The Cuisinart Of Death with her short swords. In moments she and Tallis between them had smashed all four gargoyles (another having come to investigate the ruckus) into gravel, and made their way out on to the balcony. They were not unscathed, but Pandora fixed them up in a jiffy.

Meanwhile, Barsh had forced his way through the air-gel and been confronted with yet another gargoyle, which he immediately engaged with his mighty Fists of Death. The first blow almost broke his hand, so he started using his Iron Hand Strikes and began knocking bits of stony gargoyle all over the place. The gargoyle in its turn clawed him viciously, and the combat rested in the balance until Kaelli and Tallis came up from behind and smashed the monster into bits.

Congratulating themselves on having triumphed, the group looked about themselves for some key to the magical air-gel and immediately found the 2-foot cube of rune-carved stone sitting in the middle of the passageway just a metre or two from the inner wall of the phenomenon. They shoved it up against the wall of the corridor, hoping to find a key in a hole underneath: no such luck, alas. Then somebody had the idea of pushing it towards the barrier, which they did. The barrier retreated before it; Jim and Justin (on the other side) reported that there was no change at their end, so they pushed the stone all the way down the passage and out past the doorway, whereupon the remaining gel disappeared, popping like a soap-bubble.