Still The 21st Of Blessing
We see Archinemus at the shop and fill him in on what’s been going on the last two days. We’re a bit concerned that a bunch of evil skulks are so interested in the Swords of Ptolus that they are likely to come after Insight, so Diethan had better never be alone with it.
At dinner we decide to follow the map Calista bought a while back to a reputed cache of song magic deep underground. With all the vampires, skulk agents, and who knows who else after us, it would be good to boost her available magic resources. And Archinemus has Seanus make a sign for the shop saying “No Vampires Allowed.” Just in case.
22nd And 23rd Of Blessing
I work a couple days at the Delver’s Guild—gotta pay the rent, you know (the shop isn’t always guaranteed to do that, after all our expenses). Meanwhile, Calista goes to Alivia’s Conservatory to apologize to the headmaster for the whole runaway carriage incident. He offers to introduce her to some resident song mages. A couple different times as we’re making our way about town, we have the feeling that we’re being watched, but it never seems to amount to anything.
24th Of Blessing
We head over to the access point shown on Calista’s map. We venture down into the sewers to find a shaft about eighty feet deep. A hallway at the bottom leads us to a series of Undercity rooms of different construction than the previous sewer. One room has a mosaic floor depicting hideous women with brown-feathered wings and claws for hands: harpies. We try to pass through a magically locked door here—our attempts cause strange markings around the lock (musical notations?) to light up, and we each hear a strain of music repeated in our heads. I hear a suggestion in the music as well: “Free the satyrs.” But Calista heard “Ring the chimes” and Diethan heard “Unite the musicians.” We press on down a long hallway on whose walls is painted a procession of life-sized musicians. We reach a doorway enchanted with a compulsion that prevents us from going down the stairs. We have to withdraw.
We next enter a room of life-sized statues each depicting a different musician. Perhaps these are the ones Diethan is supposed to unite. They are all linked by cleverly concealed tracks. When he has moved them all together, he hears the strain of music again and receives no admonition when he returns to the staircase.
In the next room we see a pair of decorative stone pillars. Hanging from a wire suspended between them are a variety of different-sized chimes. When Calista picks out the tune she heard in her head before on the chimes, a secret door opens here and she is freed of the enchantment. Beyond the secret door is a hall and rooms with arrow slits and other traps. Some of them have been disabled already, as the map indicates. We find another secret door that leads to a three-way junction. Down one hall is a perfectly round room with a great drum, which Archinemus just has to strike. It deafens Diethan and creates a shimmer on the circular walls. Now we see paintings on the wall previously invisible, and the people in them are all screaming with their hands over their ears.
Where are my satyrs that need freeing? In another room we find broken ceramic shards. We think it was one solid large clay man, painted and carved with symbols like the musical notation we saw at the first door. Another chamber holds boxes and sacks (open and empty) and three chests behind a wall of flickering sonic energy. Wall of sound, it says on the map. The wall seems to be malfunctioning—perhaps it used to sweep the room. Calista cast a silent sheath spell on me to allow me to go back and forth beyond the wall to retrieve the three chests. Archinemus opens the chests (triggering a couple traps as he does) and discovers 2,000 Imperial gold coins, a couple of vials, and ten song magic scrolls. Hooray!
Opening another magically locked door, we see a swirling vortex of opaque violet energy that gives off a sonic pitch. Archinemus is keen to go in, and Diethan seems to think the sword suggests that he will be safe. We tie him to our winch, Calista casts her good ol’ silent sheath spell on him, and he ventures in. Archinemus says he can’t see anything in there and can feel solid walls all around him. As we attempt to winch him back in again, he feels a sense of displacement, as though he has just moved. Calista manages to dispel the vortex magically, but when we look into the tiny room now revealed, Archinemus is gone! In a few moments, the violet vortex returns and Calista cries out, “We have to go after him!” She rushes in and I follow her into the humming purpleness, leaving Diethan behind to go fetch Barbatos and see if they can follow us.
24th Of Blessing (Continued)
Calista and I find ourselves on a stone platform with Archinemus, a lantern lighting the area. The platform seems suspended above the floor, and there are bars all the way around the edges of the platform. There’s an iron ceiling above and a wall beyond the platform on all sides; we can’t see the floor. There’s no sign of violet energy, but we do see a small bamboo flute by Archinemus’ feet (no response when Calista plays it, but inscribed on the back of it is the message “Jazzix was here.”). It seems that we’re in a cage in a shaft. Calista uses a spell to burn one of the bars with acid, and Archinemus and I manage to break the bar. Enchanted with spider climb, Calista crawls out onto the top of the cage, then heads down to the floor. Two helmeted and armored figures—they seem to be simply empty suits of armor—confront her menacingly. She evades them and hears a slight hum emanating from them. (A musical connection?) At the same time, Archinemus and I bend another bar so we can climb out, too.
Meanwhile, still deaf from the mighty drumbeat, Diethan grabs the chest of coins I dropped and heads out to find Barbatos. On his way out he runs afoul of an acrid, many-legged, and many-eyed serpentine spiky creature, which was able to sneak up on him, since he’s deaf. After a short and furious battle, Diethan decapitates the monster! However, he feels as though the creature’s awful spikes may have poisoned him.
Archinemus and I climb out of our prison and join Calista down on the floor, where we immediately are engaged by the suits of armor. They seem only to be trying to subdue us, not really hurt us. We dispatch them and discover a chime that activates these musical spirits to inhabit the armor. Near a door leading out of the shaft we find a panel that slides down. There’s another chime. It makes the platform start to rise, and it goes all the way up to the ceiling. Hm. Another ring of the chime brings it down to the floor. We decide to ride up and see if there’s a door at the top of the shaft, so Calista and I return to the platform. Archinemus ties himself to us, then rings the chime. After a hairy moment or two with him swinging around as the platform ascends, he regains his position on the platform and we ascend through the ceiling. The bars drop down and we emerge into what appears to be some sort of arena. All the seats are empty.
Two lumbering creatures approach, accompanied by a piece of music that sounds like a march. They are nine or ten feet tall, and they appear to be made of clay, with musical writing all over them. As we attempt to flee, a blond woman appears, flanked by a destrachan. She calls out for us to stop, saying she won’t let us leave. She does halt the approach of the musical golems (they stand and wait, and their musical accompaniment changes to something that sounds like “waiting” music). The woman, who introduces herself as Chartrene, tells us we’re no longer in the place we started out from. When Calista explains that she came here hoping to meet other song mages or learn song magic lore, Chartrene informs us we are in the Cathedral of Harmony. Calista says she hopes to apply for membership some day (her mentor told her about this group). Admitting that the arena is not the best place to talk further, Chartrene casts healing spells on us (quite powerful) and offers us some tea. She sends Archinemus back up to the Nobles’ Quarter via another violet swirling vortex to find Diethan, then leads Calista and me further into the Cathedral.
Diethan finally makes it back up to the city with his burden of two hundred pounds of gold coins. On his way to the shop he runs into Jenna, the woman we released from the Temple of Destor. She offers to give him a hand with the chest. By the time the two of them make it back to Delver’s Square with their heavy load, Archinemus pulls up in a carriage. Diethan glares at him, then they all head off to the Temple of Asche to help Diethan regain his hearing. Afterward, they discuss our coming plans with Jenna and invite her to join us on our next mission. She explains that while she can hold her own in a battle, she’s more an “obtainer of things.”
“That works out well,” Diethan says, “since we are sellers of things.” She leaves them her calling card and departs, thanking them once more for sparing her life in the Dungeon.
Meanwhile, Chartrene offers Calista and me some tea and cake in a cozy room and interviews my friend. “Music contains the secrets of the universe,” she tells us, “it’s not just something pretty to listen to.” She offers to let Calista become an initiate, but she must start immediately and go through a two-week period of indoctrination. After some debate, Calista decides to stay. We bid each other farewell and I step through the vortex as Archinemus did.
After updating Diethan and Archinemus about Calista’s decision, I head over to the Pale Tower to inform Calista’s mentor, Ravena, that she was accepted to study at the Cathedral of Harmony. Diethan was kind enough to volunteer to take Calista’s message over to the Conservatory—I guess she won’t need to meet with the headmaster’s contacts now!
