next day:
- we head back into the keep, and find only a couple of spiders
- three back rooms were hollowed out for dragon weirs
- the back entrance is fairly substantial, and was probably in active
use by dragons
- along the way, we collect treasure (recorded by parna)
- we also find a long spear w/tassels and a serpent design
- also magical and with the blue dye is a magical whip
- cor's figurine is not magical, but it is of a seated dondar; when
you shift one of the legs forward, it opens up, and inside is a small
vial of a clear liquid, also not magical
- i've never seen the blue dye before
- some elven magicsmiths can make the blue dye; it might be related
to water or air, or might not
- jarun's party is preparing to go towards the high valley
- btw, we found some bones which were probably the rest of romeric's
scout party
- the party has a lot of supplies, and it doesn't look like we can
talk them out of going to the high valley
- jarun's party wants to wait a day, but a bowman (denar), and two
pikemen (rosta and marist) want to come along
- it's a half hour's walk up to the mouth of the valley
- the valley is quite narrow, at most 30-40 feet across
- this was once a road, and it is guarded by two stone figures, a
siarran and an anghiel, each of whom is holding a stone tablet
- i recognize the writing enough to notice that this is a warning,
i.e. i saw it from one of my memories (post-cataclysm), but can't
read it and never could
- parna read this as "unless you belong here, do not pass"
- parna passes this on to qs, who fails to tell us, but parna tells
me
- we walk up near the gate, and feel a tingling of sorts
- we throw a rock through, and then some of parna's hair tied to a
rock, and nothing happens
- parna figures out (more or less) how to disarm it, and we don't
want to have her talk in illendi around
- we head up with two pikemen, a bowman, and a mage
- he comes up with a bunch of the information than we had before,
including the idea that it's spoken
- the mage things they'll just send someone through
- we consider going across overnight, but decide not to do so
- overnight, i mull over the illendi word "belong", and decide i can
pronounce it
- we head out in the morning with the illendi group
- they send through one of the pikemen
- after he passes through the gate, we see a flash of light, and
something moving at him
- he is being chased by a large white bison; qs thinks this was a
summoning spell
- they kill the bison handily
- the same guy goes through, and he gets another bison
- qs is going to fly over
- i spend about 10 arrows in the bison fight, and i'm pretty sure the
word i memorized didn't work
- we proceed into the valley with the elites
- after another mile, we can see a circular valley below us
- it contains ruins of illendi architecture, i.e. the city
- it's divided into districts; there is the large keep with the cliff
behind it (and presumably the cave); there is a dome, there are
several avenues, one leading down to the lake
- we walk through an arch between towers like caer aneurech
- as we're about 3/4 of the way around, we begin to get a prickly
feeling like before; there's a glow coming from the tunnel
- the glow rises over the next minute, and we get a sense of
presences around us; it begins to subside again, but the presences
don't entirely fade
- the colour of the glow is like gate magic
- there are welcomes written on the entrance between the keeps, but
no further warnings
- we head towards the dome, while jarun's gang goes directly to the
glowing keep
- the dome is in the dondar quarter of the city, according to our map
(remember that)
- we find a label towards a peak that says "first ones' home" (maybe
dragons)
- qs tells us there are over 100 orcs in the keep, led by an
anghiel
- as far as i knew, the orcs flying under that banner don't exist in
the present time
- we head back to meet with jarun's gang, and two scaly humanoids
meet us in the street
- they are arcane magic devourers, and we get into battle with
them
- they steal spells; i don't like it
- i take down one of the guys, and the other one vanishes
- we detach the shell from the remaining guy, and take it with us
- the orcs are not moving en masse yet; the other party is
high-tailing it back towards us
- we meet up with the party; as we flee, we see another flash, and
feel another sense of presence
- qs flies up to check it out, goes up about 50 feet, and then heads
off towards the keep; he comes back a few minutes later, and says the
orcs are gone
- jarun's folk want to go back towards the keep, so we go with
them
- cor describes our experience with the portals, and how we were
trying to figure out how the key worked, and that the tall-mouth came
through and it broke
- it's a half-hour walk to the keep
- it's a two-tower keep built out of the cliff wall, heavily
fortified, gate ajar, magically hardened wood
- on the archway is the circle diagram we've seen before, some
magical symbols and writing
- there are writings in dwarven, which identify it as part of the
long delving
- one of the branches cor recognizes as the symbol for this valley,
while i notice that one is the place where i was in the past
- we find some of the orc equipment; it is present-day weaponry,
equipment, and food
- we find one locked wagon, which appears to be trapped
- parna is going to take a crack at opening the chest, and he
disables it; it would have set off a mild poison
- there are some weapons, and some junk; the walls are lined with
metal, and there's a box on the inside which is also metal
- magical things, some of the junk, some of the walls, some of the
weapons, but not the box
- jarun notices that the light dims when parna and i go into the box;
he starts asking what's up
- big confrontation with qs
- two magical helms; another angreal
- three orc double-axes; ten weird metal things which are strangely
heavy, and have metal bars on one end and are wrapped in fabric on
the other end
- we all head out of the building, and we approach jarun
- qs walks up and starts insulting romeric
- i slap qs, but it has no effect
- we talk to jarun and try to leave, but he won't let us,so we pick a
camp a ways away, such that we could flee unless they set an explicit
sentry
- we talk in our tent, and agree that qs has to fly parna out of
there
- parna and i look at the box; parna eventually opens it
- it's radiating slight magic of the weird type (like the packs), and
it contains more packs, padded in sponge; we also find what looks
like metal driftwood, but is clearly the weapon which fires the
packs
- i give parna one of the packs and the whip
- cor claims that this thing is an energy weapon, and the things are
the charges; she never saw it used
- parna is going to take the weapon, and i'll keep all the ammo
- cor takes first watch
- an alarm spell goes off; we all wake and go outside, and parna
tries to head off
- we find more magic-eaters
- i try throwing an energy-ball at them, but fail
- the magic-eater picks it up and starts to drain it
- he explodes, causing blindness and damage
- i get vision back eventually, but one of jarun's men is killed
- jarun questions us and accepts our apology for the death of his
guy
- we tell him not to look for parna at the expense of his guys
- qs & parna fly away