{"id":809,"date":"2006-12-28T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2006-12-28T17:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=809"},"modified":"2006-12-28T13:41:46","modified_gmt":"2006-12-28T18:41:46","slug":"session-13-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=809","title":{"rendered":"Session 13, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The party rides away from the Dwarf camp, and heads around the southern side of Lake Emlin. By nightfall they reach Della Minera, where they freed the slaves a couple of weeks earlier. To the north is now a huge area of tents and soldiers. The last shreds of the Alidian army are here, defending the bridge nightly against attack. <\/p>\n

They rest here for the night and then head to Fol Thron.<\/p>\n

They head for the Citadel, but as they pass by the Mages Guild they see the place is surrounded by a crowd. Skeeve stops to see what is going on. The place is surrounded by town guards, who are keeping everyone at a distance.<\/p>\n

Skeeve asks a nearby guard what is going on. The guard begins to explain, but is cut off by a thunderous BOOM from the tower above. Another town guard comes sailing out of one of the second-story windows and lands with a thud nearby. Black smoke pours from the window.
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\nEnoch heals the still-smouldering guard, while Skeeve has the nearby captain explain.<\/p>\n

It seems that they located a secret chamber within the Mages Guild tower which was being used as a meeting place for some of Mordan’s followers, or the members of his cult, or whatever they are. They arrested these members, (who were mostly wizards) and are questioning the other guild members, trying to get a feel for how big this secret group is, who the members are, and how they remained hidden for so long. This has put the guild out of business for a couple of days, and has only added to the chaos of the two-headed invasion they are facing. <\/p>\n

His men are now trying to search the place, which tough going because the place is filled with traps. Without the help of a trusted wizard they are running into problems like the one everyone just witnessed. <\/p>\n

Skeeve offers to help out. As a member of the party who is (apparently) serving the Queen, as a newcomer to the island, and as someone who was already grilled under Zone of Truth a few weeks earlier, he is above suspicion. The captain takes him to the second floor, where there is a group of very nervous guards trying to search the room without getting crushed, incinerated, poisoned, or blown to bits. Skeeve has them clear out and goes to work.<\/p>\n

This was a slapdash sidequest I came up with on the spot. Pat (who plays Eomer, the party spokesman) was absent, and it seemed like not having him around would really mess up the meeting they were about to have with the Queen. <\/p>\n

Skeeve stopped at the Mages Guild and got dragged into a situation where someone had found a secret chamber in the guildhall. It was filled with magical traps of various kinds. Skeeve went in, dealt with the problem, solved some puzzles, and in return got a load of new books.<\/p>\n

One of these books contained THE SECRET TO CURING THE TORMENTING BLINDNESS OF THE QUEEN.<\/p>\n

Now, all of this was due to a screw-up on my part. This book should have been at the Mages Archives on the southeast tip of the island. A secret chamber here in the guildhall really doesn’t make a lot of sense, but this was a book I intended for them to find if they reached the Archives. They earned it, and I wanted them to have the chance to cure the queen if they chose to do so. <\/p>\n

The cure would take away her near-immortality, but would end her blindness and her suffering. She could go back to living a quasi-normal life. <\/p>\n

This was a crucial plot \/ quest item, and I managed to forget it. Sigh. It happens. I patched over it.<\/p>\n

Also, I neglected to detail some of the other books they found at the mages archives.<\/p>\n

They found a rather difficult book by Songmage Forwinol. It details the magic he added to<\/em> Mordan’s Phylactery in order to trap him. It details the steps needed to place the orb onto a container in order to turn it into a trap for the Lich. The orb magic is quite beyond Skeeve, but the trapping proceedure is easily understood. Using the book as a guide, they could return to Mordan’s tomb and (assuming they could get in and reach his original prison) affix it to his coffin once more. This book is no longer needed (since they used Fiore’s prison instead) so I neglected to mention it in Session 12. <\/p>\n

So, in the Mages Archives they found:<\/p>\n