Summary 89: Shrinkage! (2013-02-02)
You borrowed horses from the Baron and rode home through the drizzle on the second day of Sea Season in the new year 1622. Arriving home to a lovely blossoming of spring flowers around you, and a swampland full of life, you gave hellos the peasants and received gifts from them in good will (and owed taxation) to the Baronet- simple gifts like eggs, fish, beer and meats. Arriving back at the manor laden with these offerings, you reunited with the predictably grouchy Cyroosta and joyous Inyana. The Captain was waiting with the Shadow to return that night via the night-channel. Maugis got to meet the inquisitive, diverse peasantry, the more probing gaze of Cyroosta, and the blissful naivete of the gorgeous Inyana (although her pagan nature and obvious magical power frightened him).
You endured Cyroosta's ironic lunch of honeyed eels and learned a bit of local happenings- there was competition between the increasingly successful Evracian monks nearby, the Brown Vadeli (at times; though they'd been scarce), and Cyroosta for providing herbs and other health assistance to the local peasants in your and nearby lands. Your covert struggles against the Rokari Church had been successful at first, but the return of the Deacon, strengthening of the Evracians, and resulting surge in influence of the Rokari had reversed this, and was leading toward the island's people being starkly divided into two camps: those for Big Ron's inclusiveness, and those frightened by Rokari warnings of damnation for not suffering like good peasants (which, for a positive spin, came with a lot of profound, ancient tradition and ritual that some said made the Rokari faith attractive).
Cyroosta reminded you that she would try again to restore your health from the mud-hag Seshgallah's depredations, when you wanted, but chided that you needed to stay around the manor for this. Meanwhile, the Captain set about thinking of ways to get back on the high seas and please his increasingly demanding saint.
The next morning, the Captain had returned (his crew joining in a simple, but later raucous, party that night, leaving many moaning in hung over regret), and Omen showed up, with the great young Ouori warrior Puijila-Ool, and with the missing aluminium bowl! (He said the bowl had turned up in the ocean, perhaps lost with the Longfin's destruction off the coast of Barehook?) Omen explained to the Captain that he now understood you'd been on two quests: one helping with Bar'ran's quest to slay the Vomiter, then the Captain's own quest (with the rest of you as helpers), to survive Magasta's wrath and prove your mettle. Boamund overheard this and was not amused. The Ouori talked monosyllabically with Ahappi and agreed to look for Wolf Pirate, Vadeli, seal-hunter or Rokari ships, although there were communication problems in explaining what ships to look for. Then the warrior exchanged a “flipper slap” of respect with Ahappi, leaving awkwardly as he found the Captain's strength in that slap quite impressive.
Later that morning, the resting Captain was interrupted by news that the peasants had uncovered a doorway in the small ruins on your lands' eastern edge and the Baronet was eager to investigate it. So Boamund, the Baronet and Captain went to the ruin site and found a pair of odd, opaque, large glass doors surrounded by an odd dryness (for this muddy region) and dearth of life close to the doors. The farmers had not dared disturb the closed doors, and cleared away the last rubble and mud around them so you could try to open them. The doors were stuck, but with some rope and some strong backs you pulled them open with a whoosh and a sparkle of tinkling magic inside. Stairs led down into a stone-bricked corridor, all of the stone surfaces sparkling now with magic that sounded like breaking, falling glass. The peasants swiftly made themselves scarce. You went in.
The scintillating magic began to spread onto you as you walked in, starting from your feet upwards. A corridor led to a crossroads and you turned left (north), opening a stuck door that led into a half-collapsed square chamber that seemed to have been a library. Boamund noticed some runes carved into stones along the top of the walls of the corridors: Magic, Law, Water, Stasis and Change were most common, among others (Life, Death were also notable, you later reflected). Amidst the ruined shelves the Captain found a glass scroll tube that he secured away and did not speak of again. The Baronet probed some of the collapsed end of the room and was convinced it was too unstable to bother with further.
So you went to the opposite, southern end of the corridor. There, you forced open another glass door and held your breath as nasty, stinging fumes were released. The fumes seemed to come from a pool of clear liquid in a giant (~6m diameter) stone bowl or crucible set into the square chamber's floor, and surrounded with a diversity of glass bottles. You did not find anything else here of interest, and feeling the magic begin to spread above your necks, the Baronet and Captain made haste to leave, while Boamund kept watch in the room.
This is when the trouble started. The two departing heroes broke into a run as they realized the magic was spreading too fast, and there was a violent “pop” as its power burst forth on Lord Shaven. As the Captain blinked, he saw the Baronet's clothes and other belongings settling empty on the floor near the bottom of the exit stairs, and then saw movement inside them. Hurrying, he grabbed everything there and ran, but the magic on him then manifested as it covered his body… but he gritted his teeth and overcame its shrinking powers. Shouting to Boamund, he ran, and so did Boamund, who fortunately also resisted the sorcerous spell. Boamund came and put the tiny (SIZ 1; fist-sized) naked Lord Shaven into his pocket for safety.
As you departed safely, the Captain looked back, hearing doors (at the far end of the entry corridor, which you hadn't explored yet) opening and a multitude strange tinking sounds like glass-on-stone. He went back down the stairs, feeling the magic grow upon him again, and saw a strange sight: numerous figures made of coloured glass, like bottles with spindly arms and legs and no heads, but an open bottle-neck instead. He ran up the stairs and out as they pursued, and you forced the doors shut just as they arrived, shoving at them. Securing the door handles with Boamund's sword and some nearby tools, you found that the pushing had subsided, and you breathed sighs of relief. A minute later, some fluid sloshed against the doors and seeped underneath the crack at the bottom, and you smelled acrid fumes again.
Then the situation fell silent, and you called a curious farmer over- he'd been hiding behind a tree watching the action from a safe distance. He ran for help at your urging, and Boamund soon followed him while the Captain kept watch and formulated a plan. Directing the local farmers, Ahappi designed an earthen wall surrounding the doorway, and secured timber to hold the doors shut. Meanwhile the farmers were armed with what weapons they could procure, like flails and cudgels, and you instructed them of the plan for the next morning: the doors would be opened, letting the bottle-automatons come within the walled enclosure, then you'd bash them to pieces.
Meanwhile Boamund explained the “little problem” of the Baronet to a bemused Cyroosta, who knew it was strong sorcery but no way to overcome it. She cooed over her tiny son, reminiscing over his infancy, and instructed Boamund to tell Inyana of his fate before nightfall. That did not go well; Inyana saw her tiny love and ran away disturbed, distraught and repulsed. Cyroosta had asked to see this strange place with bottles and fluids and diminutive sorcery, so you met with her the next morning.
What happened next, after the doors opened and nothing was there, is a mystery. Those watching, including Cyroosta and some armed farmers, saw the two full-sized heroes (with the tiny Baronet hidden in Boamund's pocket again) enter the sparkling corridor again, heard them walk down the corridor and open the two doors at the far end, then heard them running out… and there was a splash, shouting, sounds of a struggle, then a loud explosion and puff of acrid smoke issuing from the outer doorway… then more struggling, and silence. Cyroosta and others called inside, but there was no reply. And so word came to the manor area, reaching the Shadow and Ciddar, and soon enough Maugis and others too, that Cyroosta was organizing what could only be presumed to be a rescue of her family and the Shadow's captain. What would they find inside this sinister ruin?
© Copyright - 2000-2024 - John Hutchinson, Tim Evans, Pete Nash, Colin Driver and Gordon Alford
