The Seagate Guards Do Lower Orminthwaite

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: The Seagate Guards Do Lower Orminthwaite

• aka: Mysterious Disappearances to the north of Seagate
• aka: Tigers and Summoners in Orminthwaite

GM: Andrew W.
Season: Spring 797 WK
Level: Low-Med

Party

1. Orion, M Human Fighter Knight, (Party Leader and Mil Sci) - Stephen
2. Anathea, F Human Witch + Familiar Laslow, the Owl - Michael
3. Brutus, M Hobbit Warlock + Familiar Spot, the Magpie - Julia
4. Gideon, M Elf Earth - Michael
5. Kraft, M Hill Giant Fighter (Deputy party leader of hill giants) - Tracy
6. Razor, F Elf Fighter - Kelsie
7. Tixellanif, M Human E&E (Scribe) - Daryl

Time on adventure

1st Thaw 797 to 29th Seedtime 797 WK

Employer

Black Watch - Which does not exist.

Mission

Deputised into the Seagate guard to investigate disappearances at the coastal village Lower Orminthwaite.

Pay

3sp/day, plus food, board, weapons, and training.

Places

Lower Orminthwaite – the center of activity. Was populated by Shapechanger (Tigers) 6 family groups, now migrating south along the coast.

Stonesthro – Between Seagate and Lower Orminthwaite, 30 houses.

Berrenstone – just north of Lower Orminthwaite, 6 houses and an Inn.

Mystery House – Near, in, and around Lower Orminthwaite.

People

Sergeant Tarski – of the Duke’s Guards (Dragon Company) – now Senior Sgt.

Garth – local ranger for the Reeve of Stonesthro.

Israel, Jean-Paul, and Yvonne – Hobbits from the “King’s Rapiers”

Galiah – Elf E&E, worshipper of Belial, last seen starting her “Last Great Journey”.

Lilly – Witch of the Shapechanger (Tiger) villagers

Holly – Village airhead and fire mage, left behind when the Villagers moved on.

Villagers – Ben & Daisy, Tam, Luke, Frank, Gladys, Poppy, and Rose to name but a few.

Sgt. Jonathon Smith – leader of the 6 Phoenix Co. that got captured twice by Galiah.

Miscellaneous

Duke’s Guards – Intense rivalry between the Dragon Company (our employer Sgt. Tarski) and the Phoenix Company. Phoenix Co. first investigated the problem at Lower Orminthwaite. The rivalry has now become a full blooded feud.

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsp9701.zip

Scribe Notes

Duesday, 1st Thaw 797

We meet Sergeant Tarski of Seagate’s Guard, Dragon Company.

For this job, we all have to sign up to join the Dragon Company, as the re-formed Black Watch. As a “Nobel” Aryan is automatically assumed to be leader, and we swear allegiance for 3 months, or until dismissed whichever is earliest. For this we get 3p/day, plus food, board, weapons, and training. Before we go, we do 1 week’s training (which includes performing the afternoon watch around Seagate), before which we all get lesser enchantments. The elves train with Silver Watch, Kraft with Red, me with Blue, Anathea with the physikers, and Brutus in catering. During our week of Guard’s training and duty, Brutus gets bored, wanders off, gets caught AWOL and punished severely, it is some time before he recovers.

In a little village, Lower Orminthwaite, lights have appeared offshore, and people have disappeared. Six members of the Phoenix Company were dispatched to investigate several weeks ago, and all but one (Bill) have disappeared. The one that returned has been court-marshaled and released from the guards. When questioned, he was incoherent. But the following was learnt – the guards went north on the coast road, during the night, they saw lights out to sea and went out to investigate. When they were rowing out, they heard some weird singing and wanted to row towards the rocks. At this time, a storm appeared, capsizing the boat, only Bill was able to swim to safety. Since then a Tax Inspector went up, the Village Head said that there wasn’t a problem, and paid the taxes in full. The village of Lower Orminthwaite is small, 16 families. They make a living from smuggling with Ranke and the Western Kingdom. The smuggling goes out, not in, and is therefore ok by the navel service, who know about it.

Our job is to sort out the mysterious disappearance rumors, return missing people and smooth things over before we leave. Sgt. Tarski is to send a messenger in 1 week.

As Black Watch we get army backpacks, i.e. blanket, bedroll, 3’ x 6’ tarpaulin, repair kit, equipment etc. Due to Brutus’ punishment, he travels in Kraft’s backpack. At nightfall we stop at Stonesthrow for lodgings.

Wotansday, 9th Thaw

Uneventful except we had to break up a brawl. Coming up to nightfall, we come across a small hamlet (6 houses) and head for the biggest house. For some odd reason the occupants run away, so we set up camp in their hovel. Aryan comes up with a bright idea – to go into Lower Orminthwaite out of uniform.

In the early hours, Garth, a ranger for the local Reeve of Stotesthro comes to the hovel, and wakes up Aryan. He asks if the Reeve can help us, Lower Orminthwaite is part of the Reeve. We should also keep an eye out for some deputy reeves who are wanted dead or alive, last seen in Seagate on the 2-3rd. Garth warns us of Witches, and some bad migratory hobbits from up north. We ask about smuggling in these parts, and he says that it is accepted as it is good for the local economy.

Thunursday, 10th Thaw

Uneventful, camp in the wilderness.

Freyasday, 11th Thaw

Lunch at Berrenstone, and reach Lower Orminthwaite as it gets dark, we set up camp at a discrete distance from the village.

Reapsday, 12th Thaw

Very early in the morning Aryan and Razor meet Holly who was dancing on the beach. Holly says she is looking after the moon, and has done so ever since the plague. As a kid, she lost her parents at sea. A divination covering five weeks shows that Holly has been subjected to lots of Fire Mage Hellfire spells, as well as protections from magical and normal fire, and heal burns. The demons in the area were burnt by the villagers long ago. Lilly talks to angels during the day, sleeping at night.

As the sun rises we visit the villagers, meeting an old lady, Lilly, as spokeswoman. We discover that Luke and Tam are late returning. Children have gone missing before, but they soon turn up, within a moon or two.

Later we go to where Holly said that Lilly spent her day, to the south of the bay. We don’t find a hut, just a cave on the headland. We leave markings in the sand, I leave a handkerchief to tell of our visit. After lunch with Gladys, we go to the north spur. We see fishing boats to the southwest and one big boat out to sea, a 3-master heading south. We also see a small boat heading south towards the village.

Returning to the village we tell someone (Poppy) about the boat. Whilst we wait, Kraft violently attacks a small defenseless child citing “self-defense”. Before he can do more damage he suddenly does not fall asleep. As the village women sort themselves and their kids out, Anathea heals the injured child. The child says that the giant threw a stone first and he wasn’t doing anything, Lilly takes his side. However, she invites Anathea over for tea. Anathea, Gideon, and I go over later that afternoon. Tam and Luke re-appear, and stuff is off-loaded into a hut. They were blown way to the north by a storm on their recent trip.

We ponder on our next move. Razor reckons that we should get someone and hypnotise them to find out what is happening. Aryan says yes. Brutus thinks we should only sneak in and listen. Anathea points out that due to what has happened today, they will probably have a meeting tonight, and it would be a good time to sneak in and listen. So Aryan, Razor, and Brutus sneak in and listen outside the meeting hut. The women were upset, the men not bothered, Lilly sways the other woman. They decide to have four men keep an eye on us. After the meeting, four woman go to another hut for a good bitching session, but they are no threat to us.

Aryan, after much thought and consideration decides to abduct someone and hypnotise them, we do our best to add a bit of subtlety to his plan, i.e. we invite one round (say Ben) for lunch.

Sunday, 13th Thaw

During mine and Razor’s watch we see something move onto the beach from the water, everyone is woken up, and prepare for combat. Razor, Aryan and I shoot off to see what’s happening.

Five invisible men have come ashore from an invisible boat and have started searching the huts. We follow them around for a while, while the others get into position. Eventually the men start back up the beach towards the boat. Brutus was close enough to see that they were Seagate guardsmen, Phoenix Company.

Aryan decides to charge forward to command them to stop. Against my better judgement, I follow him. Razor sticks to cover, Anathea, Gideon, and Brutus prepare spells. Kraft is champing at the bit to hit something, and unlike the rest of us cannot see anyone. The fight is quick and furious, hands of earth slow one, Aryan tips the boat over, the hands slow down a second, who eventually gets free and rips Aryan open. Despite his injuries, Aryan stands fast demanding their surrender. Kraft has a whale of a time throwing one unfortunate around. I jump into close to disable one of the men, I didn’t fancy squaring up to his halberd, Razor rushes in to help. Razor is debilitated by a spell, but she and I subdue ours and demand that the rest surrender. After one last-ditch attempt they drop their weapons. Razor wants to shake Brutus warmly by the throat, suspecting he was responsible for her sudden and crippling pain.

Divinations reveal that the men have had Mass Charm, Invisibility, and Wytchsight cast on them recently, they also had mass charm on them a while ago as well. We discover that the mass charm has also affected their memory. They reckon that Lower Orminthwaite has only been here a year and that this lot are migrants.

When we got back to the camp, we find all our blankets are missing, we find large animal tracks, but we question the prisoners rather than track down the culprit.

In the morning, Kraft goes to apologise to the kid and give 3sp to the mother, I rest on the sandy beach. Aryan and Anathea go to interrogate a villager, namely Daisy, wife of Ben. Under hypnotism they find that children have been disappearing from a couple of years ago, 1 by 1 every month, when the moon is bountiful. The last time was 6 months ago, 8 are missing - we get their names and ages (6 months – 8 years old). A Sea Spirit has taken the children. But the villagers will get their revenge, once we have left they will follow the path of the guardsmen, north. If we don’t leave, the villagers will drive the party off. It is none of our business why the villagers are afraid. Lilly has been here since before the villagers arrived a few years ago. Holly is touched, she plays in the cave on the south point. The aura of the villagers turns out to be Shapechanger (Tiger), very disconcerting. Aryan goes to see if Lilly is a healer – he has sore ribs, very sore ribs, I as a novice healer couldn’t ease the pain, though I did try.

After Daisy said that the villagers will retrace the guard’s path, we have the idea to send the Phoenix guards back and follow them.

Garth appears, he was to give us a message, but I think the shock of being told that the villagers were Shapechanger (Tigers) made him forget. Eventually he remembered, a couple of Hobbits were looking for someone (Israel and Jean-Paul looking for Yvonne) that went missing 3 hours ago. We ask Garth to ask the villagers for our blankets back and then get two of the Phoenix guards back to Seagate.

In the meantime, we go back to the cave, passing by Holly on the way, where we find our blankets and chat. Lilly is into divine magic – talking to the angels, THE angels, Michaeline, Gabrial, Uriel, and Raphael. Holly reckons Demons took the children. There was a big demon (red, tall, with horns) in the cave but it was cleansed a couple of years ago. There were also smaller demons on the beach. The cave is Lilly’s chapel at dusk, dawn and low tides. Lilly taught Holly how to summon angels, but it requires cleansing by fire (Hellfire).

We get set to follow the Phoenix guards out to sea. We get Daisy to organise two boats. Ten minutes out, we get the guards to turn north, we notice that we are being followed by two villagers (Tam and Luke). 10 minutes after we turn a thick fog rolls in, the guards speed up and start to go out of sight, we have trouble with our oars. We keep Kraft in the middle of the boat so he doesn’t tip the thing over. Eventually we carefully move around so that Kraft can row, after a fashion.

The boat ahead is now barely at the limit of vision. Tam and Luke row ahead, then come back, apparently the phoenix crew screamed, and jumped overboard. We row up to the now empty boat and find it is striped bare. We reckon we are about two headlands to the north. I’m feeling very queasy. For want of anything else to do, we call it a night and head back. The camp has been ransacked, and the horses have been driven off. We check Holly – she doesn’t have anything.

Aryan, Razor, and Brutus go to the village and make a noise and complain about the missing stuff. Ben and Frank says he heard the horses whinnying. Frank and Aryan square up, Ben smoothes things over. Ben organises a search party after Aryan flips his lid and reveals that we are indeed guardsmen. A divination shows I have galloping senility, and me in the prime of my life!

Moonday, 14th Thaw

Aryan and Razor don plate armour and go to the village. Although Aryan was hot under the collar when he left camp, he stomped down to the village, and was polite, and stomped back. Almost as if he were hypnotised! Anathea flys me, then Aryan to Seagate for repairs. Gideon has a shopping list of ingredients.

Meanwhile back at the camp, Aryan gets himself worked up at the lack of any response about our missing stuff. He storms down to the village, and is polite again before storming back. Brutus and Gideon investigate a bunch of Ravens over a dead horse – it had claw marks down its back. Anathea returns mid afternoon for Aryan.

Duesday, 15th Thaw

Brutus, Razor, and Anathea visit Holly. The angels are bigger than Kraft, with big swords, sandals, robes, little horns, and big wings. Razor asks if Holly can turn into a Tiger, she cannot, but the villagers turn into Tigers, but only at night. Lilly is worried about the angels not talking any more. She usually takes someone (not a child) to help shout louder, Rose does not let children be taken.

Anathea talks to Lilly and spills her guts about our mission, and Lilly says there isn’t a problem. Back at Seagate, Aryan tells Tarski about the adventure so far. He blames Phoenix for attacking a lord, but Tarski wants a witness of Phoenix misdemeanors.

Wotansday, 16th Thaw

Aryan arrives back, and we travel overland to Glass Point to the north. Seeing 2 hobbits on a headland, we meet and greet with the usual “cross this line if you dare” bravado, so Razor draws a line around the hobbits.

Suddenly we see an island out to sea, we were quite sure that it wasn’t there before, very strange!, it has trees and grass, it is about 35 by 25 yards, and about 20 ft high. We didn’t notice it when we lost the men, but then we were probably a bit further out from land at the time.

After a fly-by reconnaissance, Anathea takes Aryan on her blanket to the island. We didn’t see them after they landed, although the vegetation didn’t seem that thick. Anathea comes back to report. The place is littered with bones and clothing. Aryan wants me to locate where the guard is. From the air, I point out that the guard appears to be in the island. Aryan waves us back, Anathea retrieves our leader, who comes back with some bones and a jumper. Auras of the bones show the following, 17 months since death, Shapechanger (Tiger), Telekinesis was the last spell to impact.

We (Aryan) decides to go in, Gideon goes to work immediately and says that the air above the island is an Enchanted Mist. The aura of a tree shows that it has been blessed by an E&E. Eventually we find 7 sets of bones, some scattered, some hidden under bushes. The scattered have marks on them – probably pecked at by birds.

With everyone on the island, Brutus keeps guard, Anathea keeps her blanket on idle, whilst the rest of us search the island thougherly, finding 8 sets of bones equaling the 8 missing children. We get the island divinated – enchanted island, bless crops, enchanted mist, and charm, all E&E, I’d certainly like to meet this person, I think.

We decide to go after the guard that I located, Gideon does a tunneling, and one of the other hobbits dives in attached to a rope, we hear fighting down below, Razor and Aryan follow. At the bottom, they find the 3 guards, now dispatched by the hobbit. The strange thing is that I didn’t notice their passing. With some more tunneling, we get our companions and the guards out. I try empathy, but they are dead, yet they try to sit up, curious. Their auras turn out to be non-sentient undead, GTN Human.

We ask one of the dead children some questions. It died in a cave, Lilly was there plus one other female (not an adult, and not another child). Lilly is a witch, the other is a cat that lives with Lilly and can use magic.

I do a locate on the missing hobbit, apparently Yvonne is in the direction of the village. We get off the island, Aryan is the last off, and reports strange happenings, stones were thrown at him, grass moved, burrows beneath the ground started to circle Aryan, who jumped out of the ever diminishing circle.

Back on land, Aryan picks a fight with one of the Hobbits (Isreal). Aryan keeps stunning him, asking him to yield, but Isreal refuses, saying it was a lucky shot, “didn’t even draw blood”. They carry on, Aryan must have been really cheesed off as, in the end he flattens Isreal, making his weapon arm totally useless.

Going back to the village, we leave the guards over the last hill guarded by the hobbits. The idea is that we then go back into the village and tell them that Lilly is behind all the disappearances. Kraft remains to look after the bones, wrapped in cloth.

Meeting Daisy, we wander through the village, the locate on Yvonne points to Holly’s lean-to, so we go in, and Yvonne is not there, very strange!!. We ask Daisy about Lilly. Lilly used to have a cat and was most upset when it disappeared during a storm 6 months ago. Disappearances stopped a few months before that. Aryan puts his mouth elegantly around his foot, “Lilly tortures and burns the children”. Holly says that everyone knows Lilly is a witch.

Razor quizzes Holly about what happens at the cave, does she have the hobbit – “no” (someone felt that Holly was lying). Does holly know what happened to the children – “no”. All Holly does is wait until Moonrise to see the angels.

We send for the hobbits and go round to Lilly’s cave, Aryan and Razor sneak (ha) up.

The hobbits are ensconced above the cave entrance. When Aryan and Razor get to be 15 feet away, Lilly says “Hello?”. Aryan whispers “1..2..3..charge”, and Aryan and Razor charge in on a defenseless old lady, Razor running her through. Aryan demands to know why Lilly stopped sacrificing children 6 months ago. We find Yvonne at the back of the cave tied up and wearing sack cloth.

Apparently Yvonne was on watch for the hobbits ….. and woke up to see Lilly. Lilly is very weak, suffering from her injuries, and tied up, so I tend to her. Aryan puts his helm on Lilly to stop her using magic, she is slept and laid out to be sure that she is above high tide.

A crack at the back of the cave is inspected, suspecting it to be a link to the island - no aura, and it went beyond the range of Gideon’s tunneling, I thought it might link up with a larger tunnel. None of the Hobbits find any secret doors.

Yvonne is divinated – Water Proofing (water) and Unseen in the last week. Prior to that, Wytchsight (Celestial), Unseen, Invisible, Telekinesis (all E&E).

Lilly is divinated - Charm is currently in effect!. In the last month – PMF, Hellfire (Fire), 3 charms (2wks ago, and 2 last week) 3 weeks ago – enchanted mist. The cave is divinated, several charms (E&E) in the last week!!??!!

We hit on the plan to disguise Brutus as Yvonne and tie him up (with quick release knot, of course). Then hypnotise Lilly into forgetting us and to go back into the cave and carry on what she was doing before we arrived. We spend some time getting everything sorted out. Anathea is to see through her owl’s eyes, and hear through it’s ears. Aryan is to be unseen and sit in wait. Lilly is hypnotised, Brutus is tied up…

Lilly goes about her shameful business, she is pacing around the cave, following the path of a pentagram. During which Brutus interupts her in falsetto voice, much to Lilly’s rising ire. “Why am I tied up” asks Brutus, “you deserve it, you shouldn’t have stolen my stuff and interfered with my plans, either you or that little guard. You people in the South, I’ve had enough of you. Got to get back to the good old days”.

Suddenly Anathea cannot see through the owl’s eyes, but can still hear.

The conversation continues…

“So you’re a Witch then?” asks Brutus.
Lilly moves towards him “You don’t know what you’re doing, I will have to wash you’re mouth out with soap, behave yourself and watch your tongue”.

Brutus continues to taunt Lilly. He gets restless and breaks his bonds whilst Lilly has her back turned. Time drags on, Brutus gets restless, but to his credit, stays put. It’s getting close to dark. Lilly sits down and gets five candles out and places them in a circle. Then a noise arises, and Lilly starts chanting, and music appears in the background. The music and chanting near a climax. Lilly moves towards Brutus, then grabs hold of Brutus, and then raises an old bronze dagger in the air to strike, and then…..

Outside Anathea alerted the party to the music and Razor moved forward. As everything reached a climax, Lilly stabs Brutus, Aryan strikes Lilly, and (true to form) Razor runs Lilly through with a halbard.

Lilly is thrown out of the cave whilst everyone sorts themselves out, prepared for action. I stabilise Lilly’s wounds, and with the help of Gideon and Anathea, her condition is made much better. Although Brutus only sustained a scratch in all this he acts as though he is mortally wounded, thus offsetting any kudos he may have gained for acting as bait.

We hypnotise Brutus to recount Lilly’s chant: O h thou who gave us sustenance

To the Universe
From whom all things proceed
To whom all things return
Unveil to us the face of the true spiritual son
Hidden by a disc of golden light
That we may know the truth As we do our whole duty
As we journey to thy sacred….

As we take our prisoner back to camp we see a fire on the hillside, on the hill behind our camp. I locate Holly over where the fire is, we investigate and see a figure silhouetted against the fire, Holly is dancing and singing, eventually she sits down in one of 3 circles of fire. Eventually the circles of fire go out one by one. Holly is lying on burnt grass. As is their foible, Aryan and Razor rush into close with Holly and subdue her. Holly was only “talking with the angels”.

We go back to camp, wait for the moon to come out and then we will go to Seagate. Lilly comes round, and so again wears Aryan’s helm. Holly chatters inanely about the angels. Brutus abuses Lilly. Holly is hypnotised, but cannot remember the words to her song, but they will come to her when she is allowed to do the dance as well, which she will do … if we want.

Thunursday, 17th Thaw

2 am in the morning and Aryan and Anathea are on watch. Laslow zooms in and says that there are big cats out there, prowling around. Anathea wakes everyone up. The cats get closer, Kraft bangs his weapons together and frightens them off. The hobbits are not to be seen.

The Tigers attack, and combat ensues. It goes badly for us, I am mortally wounded, Gideon gets stunned, Kraft cannot do anything, Brutus is ineffectual with his magic, but not as ineffectual as Aryan is with his weapons. Razor does the most damage. Eventually one of the villagers calls the Tigers off and demands Lilly and Holly back. Fortunately for me, the party save me from dying. Anathea returned the bones to villagers. We waited for dawn, there is no sign of the Hobbits. Sometime between the attack and dawn the Zombie’s became in-animate. We left towards the road.

Arrived Stonethrow late morning. Sir Aryon has decided to stay the day here and get drunk! An hour after noon, three rangers arrive, including Garth. They would like us to deal to the E&E. The rangers drink with us a bit and head off to watch the Lower Orminthwaite villagers leave. All but Gideon and Anathea get drunk, so I’m told. Holly turns up mid afternoon - the village has left without her, she says that Lilly wanted to train 13 people, but only Holly could learn. 3 am in the morning, Holly does her ring of fires, and upsets the locals, but Aryon sorted them out.

18th - 20th of Thaw

Ride south to Seagate with Holly in tow. Anathea talks to Tarski. One of the living guards and one dead guard are taken to the guild for magical investigation. The Guild divinates anything, everthing and everyone. Enchanted mist makes them forget and slowly loose willpower - 1WP per day (spec knowledge E&E) requiring Major curse removal, all but Anathea, Aryan and Kraft cannot remember the island. Holly is a novice Fire mage with a couple of special spells Protection from Magical Fire and Hellfire. Her mind is a mystical effect to do with an angel or demon?, and she has some knowledge of summoning, I think we guessed that!.

Moonday, 21st Thaw

We question the dead guard with the help of the Guild Mind mages. He was dragged by a non human (a Nixie, he says) from the boat. There is a portal of some sort that makes the back of cave open up. Lilly used some magic words – guild mages retrieve the words from his mind. He describes the Nixie’s cave tidal portion, kelp beds, dark, books, gold thongs - same as the cave we saw. We are told that we cannot get any more information without killing him – but he dies anyway.

We talk the Guild into a free resurrection. Mistress Jessica backfires, so the resurrection is delayed a day. Anathea spends the afternoon helping healers.

Aryan goes off to fight a phoenix guard - and wins, thus elevating the keen rivalry between the Phoenix and the Dragon Companies to a full blooded feud.

Duesday, 22nd Thaw

The guard is finally resurrected and now remembers the missing two weeks. They saw a light 1 mile to the north of the village out at sea. They took a boat out to investigate and reached an island where they saw children’s skeletons and then left. On the trip back, a female “Elf like person” (Nixie?) came out of the water and they were paralysed. She towed them to the cave where Bill escaped and swam away. Then he remembers nothing until they went back in the canoe seeing each other glowing blue. They were looking for children to kidnap, it seemed like a good idea.

The second time he was captured, he jumped into the water when he heard singing, and when he drowned, he heard a sound like wind chimes. We use hypnotism to get Bill to remember exactly what the Elf said. She spoke in common when she first met the guards. “I’m your friend, come with me”. Thereafter it was all in a foreign tongue, similar to Elvish, not Dryad. We work out that the cave opening magic is some sort of charm followed by opening (E&E).

We decide to wait three weeks for me to learn opening before going after the Elf. Brutus says no because the defenses will be stronger, Anathea says things will have calmed down, plus there will be fewer people to interfere.

23rd Thaw to 13th Seedtime

Training.

Moonday, 5th of Seedtime

We get purified (Hellfire) for the full moon so we can watch Holly summon her angels. She got a 12 ft angel (well it looked like one) with a sword, armour, and a lyre. The Guild say it was an unknown incorporeal avatar image. Holly thinks it is a demon and “purifies” it. Apparently for the last 7 months they keep turning up and preventing her summoning angels. She can also summon little fairy folk and once got a little fairy man (a salamander from her description). Guild security say that she casts only normal fire spells, the music and “angel” were not of her casting.

14th to 16th of Seedtime

Ride hard to Lower Orminthwaite. Arrive noon and go to Lilly’s cave. Charm and Opening work, leading us to the cave on the enchanted isle – it’s dark. Gideon finds a section of wall that last had charm to impact on it - we charm and open it. Leads to a corridor with 4 open doors off it. The entrance shuts after a few minutes.

First room to the left - storeroom

with wine casks (Elfheim red - 10 and 15 years vintage), chests, barrels, and boxes of fine clothing.

Second room to the left - Altar to Belial, and a pentagram on the floor

The alter has a blessing on this house, “May the one true King protect us all”. This is adorned with pictures of Fairies. Lilly’s prayer is carved on the wall, and stained glass windows show images of devils pulling people apart “those who turn from the path shall find their way strewn with sticks and stones”. Another window shows armies of elves worshipping a flaming elf lord, a homage to Belial at the last battle. The area a few feet around the alter (5ft radius) is magical – purification, not trapped warded or cursed. The wooden altar has a cloth draped over it, it is not trapped warded or cursed. Also in the room are 2 chairs (1 hard, 1 comfie), a bench, and an Oak pentangle. A divination shows that the altar is consecrated, and no spells have been cast on it in the last 6 weeks. Later we find there is an enchanted door to one of the storerooms.

First room to the right - cloakroom

Second room to the right - storeroom

wood, timber, grain

Seeing as no-one interrupts us, we look for charmed walls, and take time to divinate things. A charmed part of the wall is found at the end of corridor.

We go to the end of the corridor and I do my stuff, a door opens.

We are webbed!! Aryon cuts us out. The door leads into a large entrance hall, with 5 doors off it. We quickly investigate the rooms, finding an old lady Elf in the sitting room, whereupon Razor promptly skewers her. We then take a leisurely look around the dwelling.

First room to the left - Study

As befits a Study, there were plenty of books, parchments, and papers. The script is similar to, but not quite Elvish. There is a shell, a Scallop of Silence, and a penholder, (anything written with the pen will bring joy to those that read it). On a wall there is an enchanted door into a wooded glade, seemingly through a rock face. There is a stream nearby, and a very distinctive waterfall.

Second room to the left - Bedroom

The bed is magical – permanent enchanted sleep (for 8 hours), and a rocking chair that moves on its own. An enchanted door leads to a toilet.

First room to the right - Kitchen

Fine silverware, magical cupboard doors linked to a manor in Elfheim. Door for pots and pans, pull-down bin for flour/rice. The pots on the stove heat up without any fire, but they have to be on a stove. A pot of cold forms ice. A pot of scouring cleans itself when water is in it.

Second room to the right - Sunroom

On opening the windows, we find ourselves about 30 foot over the sea, with no apparent support.

Room straight ahead - Sitting Room

Rocking chair of indestructibility. The Elf had several rings, of charming/opening, growth, and an earring of glamour (a pearl stud) that makes someone look younger, taller, and glamorous (well at least “ancient elf” glamorous. There is an enchanted door to behind the altar. Throughout the “house” magical lamps never have to have their wick cut.

As befits an enterprise such as ours, we collect everything of value, or magical, and everything apparently without an aura into piles in the hallway.

Anathea flies out of the sun room window but cannot see the room from outside. We wave stuff outside the window to attract her attention. Then when we feel she has noticed us, we set two poles at the two bottom corners and duck out of the way as she comes in, making a rough landing against an upright, but we manage to haul her in.

Deciding to go back to Seagate, we go into the wooded glade, assuming it will be near to Lower Orminthwaite. We camp the night after checking it’s defensibility.

Reapsday, 17th of Seedtime

In the morning Anathea flies around to check that the sea is to the west. It is and so we set off after I memorise the entrance location. Heading due west, Aryan makes a sign on a tree at the edge of the forest. Eventually we come across the road and head north to Lower Orminthwaite. Arrive at the camp at noon, load horses and ride off to Seagate.

18th to 20th of Seedtime

Ride to Seagate. All the stuff we brought gets divinated. Galiah is recognised as the Nixie woman by the guards after she puts the Earring of Glamour on.

Galiah is divinated – rank 11 Greater Enchantment, casted on self. Linked to Belial but not pacted. In cold iron manacles she is woken hypnotised. She only sacrifices humans and midget humans for religious purposes, Lilly helped. She knows nonstandard E&E spells to a teaching standard - Blessing Crops, Enchanted Mist, Enchanted Isle. Galiah is from Elfheim, she left a few years ago on a pilgrimage – the “Last Great Journey”. She knows Holly, saying that she had something wrong with her mind – “green leaves red berries”!, but not caused by Galiah. Galiah inherited the house from her Great Uncle. The books are written in ancient Elvish (ie not used for 50,000 years) - The Teachings of Belial, Comparative Archaeology, poetry, history (War of Tears), scrolls etc of poems. The enchanted isle will last until taken down by an E&E. Apparently there is a tentacled monster in the area, a Kraken? Galiah has to leave by spring equinox, she’s a bit late, but the sooner the better.

Wotansday, 21st of Seedtime

Aryan sentences Galiah to community service in the guild. But, she says she wants the young elves to tidy-up loose ends and get a note to Belial, and tidy the house, then she will be off on her final trip across the water on a boat - an Elvish custom carried out by Elves coming to the end of their lives. Items Galiah wants to take with her on her trip:

• scallop shell – sleep well on a small boat
• staff – silvery-white ivory spirals – consecration
• box of pills - life extending
• dress – of glory
• navigation equipment – octant – divining
• leather satchel – of storage
• bottle of wine – un-immortality – holy water convert people to “good”

Galiah will give us all her worldly goods in exchange for delivering a message to Belial by the next millennium. I talk to the Guild librarian, there are no official altars to Belial around, but lots of unofficial one, and they will be hard to find. Apparently Bozo is the man to see, but he’s not around just yet!

Aryan goes to talk to Tarski, but he has been demoted to Corporal, having been held responsible for some destruction at the docks 3 weeks ago. He was seen at the start of fire, but did not catch any suspects – apparently some phoenix company uniforms were destroyed. Tarski has been replaced by a knight, so, Aryan sets off to see the knight. Who relates how Tarski fought a phoenix (actually it was Aryan). The knight says that we can’t hang Galiah as we have guests from Elfheim.

Finding Holly we prepare to go back to the House, getting a cart and four horses for the trip.

22nd – 25th of Seedtime

Travelling to Galiah’s house. At night we camp just off the road. In the morning, we notice that Galiah has gone. Holly said she left hours before the moon came up, saying she would see us in the morning. We get to the wooded glade, my ranger instincts working well, go to study, and announce our arrival.

Aryan has this idea to summon Belial so that we can give it the message straight away. I fear he has no idea of ecclesiastical protocol when he goes up to the alter, and bellows “Belial Belial Belial” to no effect apart from taking out the eardrums of those nearby. Aryan decides Holly can do her summoning. But the rest of us don’t like the idea of being cleansed.

We ask why Galiah is friendly with Belial, apparently she is just mixing socially, ie just like any group of old Elves meeting at various functions. Therefore we have to get the message to Belial before the next soiree is to take place, at the next millennium. We are all geased to deliver the note, and we plan to take a copy of it with each of us.

We say goodbye to Galiah, and she is last seen as a speck on the horizon heading west.

26th - 29th of Seedtime

Pack up the wagon and set off for Seagate. We seek out Bozo to discuss the Temple of Belial, but he is not around. In fact we are not sure if Belial is the right Demon to contact, especially as he now appears as the self styled Angel Beliel.

We count the mission a complete success. The mystery of the missing children was solved and ended. The perpetrator, Galiah has been dispatched, albeit of her own accord, on her Final Trip across the water. Galiah’s unwitting accomplice is also heading out of the Dukedom with the Shapechanger (Tiger) villagers - migrating south.

I helped Anathea to remove a curse one of the villagers had on an unborn baby.

Our rewards were modest, Guard’s pay for 3 months, some magical items from the enchanted house, and some income from renting the house out.