Mystery of Saromen Fro

As the chaos subsides, Gundus surveys the situation.

Thank Türas. They had all survived.

"Whether you meant it or not, your magic saved us all," Gundus tells Damanandros, his gratitude plain. He watches the bird scurry away. "Perhaps they have the minds of rats, still. Ought we to scatter them?" he wonders, recalling the horror of the horde.

Gundus listens with interest to Galopan and Mennic's tale. "It is the right and duty of my order to judge the living, as Türas judges the dead. I will not do so now – by my abuse of your trust, I have forfeited that privilege. An error that I bitterly regret.

But I will offer my opinion, one man to another: you have been betrayed by your superiors. Responsibility is a commander's burden, not a soldier's. Perhaps you could have done more – say, made report to Saromen Gen – but when the demands of duty are not clear, delay is wise, and may bring clarity and safety. When the time came, you put yourself in harm's way to stand with us. I thank you."

"Now we must decide what to do. There is time to act whilst Omander and the others are away."

After taking a moment to collect his equipment, Gennadius nudges one of the birds with his toe, observing the head loll on the relatively longer neck than a rats. Beaks, so different than the toothy bite marks he sees on the wounded. They really did change, this isn't just some glamour.

He stares at the slumbering vermin for a moment, just appreciating the spectacle of it. Then he snaps to action. Rags are soaked in spirits and his wounds washed. Not bothering to bandage himself, he moves to Galopan.

"Disease may set in if not washed immediately.", he says, nodding respectfully to the man's legs. He gets to work washing their wounds with the painful astringent soaked rags.


"Mennic!" he says, some surprise in his voice. He had fled the man when the crazed swordsman and swarm first attacked. In his haste, he had thought Mennic to be lost to the rats. He slaps Galopan on the shoulder, indicating the treatment is done and then moves to Mennic.

Before moving on to treat the others, Gennadius queries Mennic. "Why does the fire burn so strongly here? Is this part of some magic? What's in the tower? Who, really, has taken over your fort? So many questions he hopes the lowly cook can answer.

Gennadius works, quickly scrubbing bites and scratches on Mennic.
These are the right questions and and put forth in the right way. Gennadius nods to himself while the cleric speaks, a sense of respect for the man passing over him.

Mennic accepts Gennadius's treatment graciously. He explains his take on the source of the extreme heat, "It's not the fire. It's the gem," he points to the top of the tower, "...up there." He has a look of worry and contempt, if not suppressed fear.

"A huge emerald, larger than a man's fist," he describes.

"They brought it back from the Vault. It has a ... power. It's something terrible. Puts off this heat. Gives head aches. ... and makes that desert bitch! ....it's what has done all of this maybe..." , he hesitates and trails off, then begins again on a different line, "It's probably worth a fortune! - ought to be sold off back at The Harvest... but it needs to be taken out of here."

He looks a Gennadius and Gundus to give yet another detail. "But they couldn't move it. Not once they brought it here. Can't even move the table it sits on..."

He seems encouraged by a last idea, proposing it with curiosity to Gundus and Damanandros. "....but maybe you could."

Galopan agrees with Mennic. He has never seen what is in the tower, but he believes that there are terrible items of magic and dark foreign gods up there. Before Decanus Igolio went insane, he described a masterful green-bejeweled sword in the room as well. It was also seen that Annuba used an enchanted carpet that would lift up and down in the air, carried by the god Yamel.

Annuba Opelenean had stayed in the top level of the tower for the last month, taking over the former armory and converting it to her own personal chamber. Galopan believes that she was concocting a witch's brew to poison the men and was using the will of her Heshite god to curse everyone.

As for the heat, it began a month ago, when Eramus and the others first came back from the Vault. Galopan himself was not shown what had happened at the time, but it became clear in the weeks later that they had brought back some terrible treasures and stored them in the top of the tower. That is when Annuba began her spells on everyone Galopan believes.

The heat got worse and worse. Everyone began acting strange. Arguments festered up among the troops, and then a week ago Eramus and many of the others never returned from a trip to the Vault.

"I hope that you could purge this bad omen from our camp, Ius," he says to Gundus. "It has weakened us to the point of despair. Now we have no force to hold the fort.

I fear a bandit attack any night or day. We have heard that Brigand Tertulius Veruecco knows about the Vault and plots to gather a strong gang to sack Saromen Fro.

Or perhaps it will be goblins instead, or even the bird women who watch us now from the trees at night. Everyone dismisses my claim, but I have seen them."

Galopan had already cleared the obstruction in the chain room and closed the gate again previously. Now he sets his armor and checks his equipment. Recovering his resolve, he says to Gundus, "... this talk of doom reminds me that I must return to post. But before I do, Ius Tavius, can you help me venture down the hill a step to recover the Lusetem Türas?"

He explains that a bronze icon of Türas, commissioned by Castellan Eramus, was forged by the Dalagni smiths (OOC: remote Krysean town down in the valley). The statue sat here in Saromen Fro prominently until it was profaned, damaged, and discarded off a hilltop by the Opeleneans and their faction. They committed the iconoclasm on the night after returning from the Vault when Eramus and the others did not.

Danelus, Annuba's brother, said that Türas and the Emperyan Gods were weak even as they were treacherous - that Türas had placed a curse upon the Tower and all of the Aurans. Danelus and Annuba both said their Heshite god Yamel would strike Lusetem Türas and all of the Spen Land Spirits impotent, that Yamel would now be the god here - even though he would not stand here on site in icon.

"The foreigners speak constantly of their god Yamel. He reigned here for this terrible time I suppose - surely it has been disastrous for us. But I hope that now that you are here, my kyrazenus, that our God might return."

Steady now and set for action, he nods "I think it is worth the risk to forge out into the forest, even in the dark night under the Moon. It is only a short ways - but I cannot easily carry it the distance alone.

If I must redeem myself for shortcomings as you say, then let me make my best effort without delay - and under your witness.

I will restore Lusetem Türas back to his station!"

Baudecca confirms Xenophon's suspicions. She knows this equipment. "Aduorix...", she says when she inspects the rope and grapple.

Looking across the expanse at the tower balcony, the green glow gives her an unsettling feeling in her heart.

Baudecca speaks what she and Xenophon know must be true. "They are in the tower."

Holding Aduorix in her arms, Syrena casts an eye toward the bed. She wonders to whether she could entice the her lovely companion to it and if she could lessen the unwanted heat from the gem, by tossing the covers over it.

Xenophon reports back to the group with news of Syrena's disappearance. "We believe Syrena and Aduorix have entered the tower through a balcony on the north side of the tower." In his hands, he holds Aduorix's grapple and rope, which explains was likely hooked to the tower balcony and then cast loose.

Xenophon only heard the tail end of the story about the Vault and what was brought out of it, but the gist is clear. He speaks the obvious out loud: "Why would they cast the grapple loose? They could be in grave danger."

He climbs back up the stairs to the rampart walkway and makes his way back to the north side, leading any who will join him. Staring up at the balcony, he cups his hands to his mouth and calls out: "Syrena! Aduorix! Can you hear me?" He is confident that if noises of battle did not bring hell upon them, then his cries will not.

"We've got to get up there," she says to Xenophon. "Let's go around through the ladder entrance and up."

Without delay she descends the stair and loops around to the south entrance.

The others have taken note now, starting to realize that the two women are unaccounted for and perhaps inside the tower.

Without waiting for the others, Baudecca quickly scales the ladder and enters into the central port door that opens into the second floor of the tower.Xenophon is soon behind her and stages up on the ladder to observe and support.

The square room on the second floor has bunk beds and a sitting area. An open panel in the floor has a ladder that leads down to the storage basement. In the ceiling, there is a closed port door, with a ladder leading up to it - the route to the third floor above.

Baudecca tries the trap door leading through the ceiling. It is locked.

"Aduorix! Are you in there?", she shouts.

Again, "Aduorix! Syrena!"

With no answer, she bangs on the ceiling port door with her fists. The heavy wood rattles and shudders, but it is held fast - apparently locked from within from the floor above.

"We have to break it," she says to Xenophon.

There was an edge of worry in her voice, now turning into an open distress.

Mennic watches the developments of the entrance into the tower. He stands by with a look of anxiety, looking towards Gennadius first and then to Gundus.

"They shouldn't go up there," he says finally, quietly at first, perhaps reluctantly. "I don't think they should charge up there. It might get them too."

Building up his commitment, he moves over to Gundus and Damanandros, speaking back and forth between them. "You should do something. The gem, it's ... dangerous."