Turn 9 - Days 73 to 74 - The Temple of Sysyn

Who exactly is this god Sisyn ? If the Alderman's child is the Daughter of Sisyn, he is surely the principal deity of the Tidjits, but if so, where has he gone ?  There seems such a jarring contrast between the open, honest ways of the people of Tidjit, and the somber funerary cult that is folded within the gods's sinister tower.

 

Nobody was overly surprised when Godric announced that they were heading back to the Temple of Sisyn.  The Ranger had been expecting the Alderman to ask, and his company had joined the dots already.

Travel there was uneventful, and the path remembered well enough, with Ruairidh helping once or twice when they might have gone astray.

 

This time, they did pause to admire the ornate decoration around the temple door.  No-one was astonished to note the recurring presence of a female figure in flowing robes.  Partho had proven keen to decipher the images.  Godric caught a flash of something...unpleasant...on the chipmunk's face as he undertook his painstaking task.  Worry ? Fear ?  Or simply frustration ?

Then came the long howl that reminded everyone that in this god-forsaken place, discretion was definitely the better part of valour.  Too much time spent at one spot, time to move on.

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Scenario Parameters :

This is Depth 3 of the Delve, which implies +1 Enemy and +1 Exploration Marker.

I rolled up a very high level enemy, and decided to spend a Story Point :  Sisyn being pleased with the company for bringing back his Daughter, they would get to make three rolls and choose between them.

Foes are thus Giant Bugs [for which I will use Giant Spiders], p.180.  There are eleven of them, with no alpha.

The creatures are hungry for life and energy, hence the Lure of Magic (p.179).

This place is as Silent as the Grave (p.143), as Kehar, who takes the lead through the door, quickly finds out.  Add two additional Exploration Markers and 3 Skeletons, who begin the game as Unaware and Sentries.

Terrain is set up as per the generic rules (p.128-129).

This is a Site Battle, see p.142 for the rules concerning it.

Under Siege (p.219) is in effect, so should a Unique Foe appear during the battle, and is not slain, a roll must be made on the Enemy Plans Table (p.207).

Roll after this scenario to see if the Delve is cleared out.

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Around a huge room littered with tombs Sisyn's favourite decoration, it seemed - sheer walls rose.  In the gloom, strangely-shaped statues were visible in the distance, looking down on the advancing company as a cat waiting to pounce on a hapless mouse.

 

There was little room to manoeuvre, so Godric waited a little until most of the spiders that were chittering around were out of the way, and then challenged the skeletons, mostly so as to let Kehar through to explore as much as he could before the delvers had to bug out.  Fierce fighting broke out in which Krik, Ruairidh and Godric gave good account of themselves, and finally the piles of walking bones were reduced to inert piles of the same.

 

The to and fro of combat had, however, by now alerted the spiders, and the rumour of the company's presence shivered through the room, to the rhythm of vibrating silk threads.  The enemy's onrush was, however, disorganised and Godric, covered by his companions and protected by an Infuse spell from Partho, slaughtered waves of them.  On the other side of the wide space, Ruairidh had also bravely drawn off three giant spiders, and actually made quick work of them.

 

Kehar had been exploring, and found some interesting loot, but he also ran into dangerous ground.  Not far from where the skeletons had been standing, the floor suddenly gave way, revealing a fatal drop to the floor below; only the timely use of the hooks in their delver's kit allowed the tiger to pull himself up.  This delay also allowed the one spider that he had been unable to shake off, to catch up with him.  Kehar was not far from rejoining the shelter of the company when he stumbled, and the creature's fangs planted in his back.  Godric was there within bare seconds, and his spear ran the arachnoid through, but to his great dismay, his companion lay dying, from some rapid and fatal reaction to the bite.

 

A low-pitched, uncomforable sounding peal rang out at the very moment that Kehar draw his last breath.

"Sisyn thanks us for our sacrifice", Partho whispered, not sure how he knew that; but everyone was sure he was right.

Krik was trying to navigate the crumbling stonework to reach the two treasures that the skeletons had been guarding, which the others only noticed when he let out a high-pitched chittering.  His bow had fallen from its sling, to crash and splinter on the flagstones far below.  "Come back", said Godric gently, making the low ticking noise that he had noticed Krik used when he was pleased.  "We have lost one too many already, today".

The bounty was still quite plentiful : precious metals from a grave, a decent jerkin and a rather dapper metal cap from another, and some strange spices that made one dizzy when breathing in their aroma.  On yet another tomb had lain some thief's tools; impossible to say if they belonged to its occupant, or were from one of his victims.  Didn't much matter now, did it ?

When Partho was quite certain there was nothing more to be done for Kehar, and rolled him over to close his eyes for the last time, the tiger was tightly grasping two parchements in his massive paws.  The first one showed an unexplored location in the mountains south-east of Tidjit, with rows of symbols similar to those that decorated the present temple, and, oft repeated, the female figure in flowing robes, performing various ritualistic gestures.

The second one seemed at first to be a constellation, but closer examination showed it to be laid over a map of the local area.  A red dot at the extreme end of the constellation pointed to a place around three days march from the Temple of Sisyn.  Then...it moved.  The parchment became animated, showing a stag with a pelt as pale as snow, that everybody recognised and which drew an awed breath from Ruairidh.  On the animated parchment, they followed his path - watching it cross their own some two months or so ago - until the sublime and seemingly ethereal creature fell into a very real trap.  Stripped of all dignity, the thrashing beast was carried off by some sullen looking individuals to the location of the red dot [the company receives a Quest]

"Do we follow the evident will of this God", Godric asked Partho, taking care to use a tongue that Ruairidh was unlikely to follow.

"He is clearly our ally, not that of the Jungle Deep", replied the chipmunk, whose eyes looked hollow and tired.  "I am not however certain that his methods will allow us to walk the same road for much longer.  Not all darkness is evil, but it is darkness nonetheless".  Saying that he looked down thoughtfully, perhaps a little wistfully, at the beautifully polished onyx ring that he had picked off one of the skeletons fingers and which now graced his own.

Godric needed time to think about that.  They were down to only four, but Ruairidh was proving a staunch companion (a Flash of Insight led the Tidjit hedgehog to become a Hero) and Sisyn did seem determined to help them (once again, a Story Point allowed Sisyn, pleased by the death of Kehar within the walls of his temple, to offer them an easier foe).

"Let us keep climbing", said Godric, with an angry snap of his gills towards the towering mass ahead of them.  "Victory here will be peace for Kehar".

After this adventure, Godric reached Level 2 and gained Combat +2; during the following resting phase, Parthoghimeos did the same and gained Casting +1.