Bruce got to sleep rather later than normal on Saturday, so he ditches everyone else for lunch. Tim (Antok Six-Hearted) does one better by rather blearily indicating that he felt absolutely terrible, and wouldn't make it at all. Chris (Gruul), Chuck (Galen), Paul (Marik) and Mike (Kellin) all manage to make it with no unusual problems.
The session starts on the 20th day of the 3088th Voyage with the characters all hiding inside the old scullery building of the Urtef palace in Old Nircharstal. Galen and Kellin are the only characters still non-paralyzed, and neither of them is particularly happy about the possibility that they might need to repel yet another demonic assault before the others manage to recover. While he waits, Galen counts the remaining pages in the Chel Auxur-Dau. He comes up with 61 pages, meaning that he and Kellin might at any time be attacked by 61 demons all at once. He magelocks the three doors out.
Kellin demonstrates a deep fascination with the Chel Auxur-Dau and what it can do to the local demon population. He does his best to persuade Galen that they should engage in a bit of loud reading, since they're clearly not going anywhere for a few minutes. Galen is having none of this, and very firmly informs the enthusiastic Kellin that he would prefer to not draw attention to their position for a while. Kellin sulks, muttering, "But I only wanted to kill a few demons. And how much trouble would that be? None. Hmph..."
Six minutes later, Gruul starts to kick. He howls out in pain as his entire body becomes one large charley horse. Moments later, Marik starts making an alarming series of creaking, cracking and popping sounds. Gruul asks him, "Do your people get charley horses, or just fractures?" Marik answers, "I'm not make out of stone, you moron!" Gruul continues on, "When you go to the bathroom, do you expel pebbles?" Marik grumbles something about hydrocephalic monkeys with pituitary problems.
The characters think about sending Antok back to fetch some stuff from outside. They are able to see occasional glimpses of the gap in the city walls through the mist, so they have some confidence that he could be sent off to something other than certain death, especially if he runs fast. Besides, they feel highly confident that they would hear the screaming if something picked him off. They send him on his way.
Once everyone has recovered they head upstairs to look around and loot the place. They quickly determine that the local demons are not much for personal effects. On the plus side, they do manage to find the body of a local, wearing leather armor that is (per Galen) magical. Kellin packs it away. Galen suggests that the armor is probably enchanted with +10 Fortify, but is cursed to attract Redneck Trees. Kellin doesn't seem concerned.
The characters decide that the demons are unlikely to hear the characters from where they are, so the characters will need to go out and look for them. But they decide that they would rather not look for them without a bit of magical fortification. Everyone breaks out potions and spells for the occasion: Gruul chugs an Achilles potion, Galen drinks down a Hercules potion (+4 ST for an hour) and Marik casts Haste on both Gruul and Kellin. Galen boasts, "I'm as strong as Gruul!"
They set out into the Urtef grounds, relying upon Kellin to pick out warm pages in the Chel Auxur-Dau. Their first stop is a long, narrow building that they determine was once the servants' quarters. They find nothing interesting beyond a few old bodies. Proceeding into one of the main buildings, they continue to find nothing of great interest. Galen spots a slightly rusty dagger stuck into a canvas painting of an old Firstman on a wall. He takes both of them, happy to have something worth bringing home. The next building appears to have been a massive audience hall, long since converted into demon quarters. From the décor, the characters conclude that Gizzard-Eater liked using upturned human skulls as candle-holders, except he ran out of candles a long time ago. Gruul takes one as a souvenir.
Off to one side of the throne the characters find an ironwood box containing two very nice silver bracelets (350 clavars each). It is quickly obvious that the bracelets are magical, so the characters pack them away.
With the scent of loot in their nostrils, the characters set to securing the place and scouring it for valuables. They block off the doors and put Gruul on guard while everyone else searches. Kellin finds a nice box full of clavars. Marik finds a bottle of ancient Faian wine. Nobody else finds anything beyond spiders and dust. And one or two very nice-looking rocks.
The characters venture across Nircha's Plaza towards the Collegium. They manage to make it about halfway across the plaza before they meet a few more of the locals. Specifically, two burning men.
The burning men challenge the characters, as burning men are wont to do. This just serves to egg the characters on: Marik brings out the Chel Auxur-Dau and starts reading one of the burning men into oblivion. But by the time the burning man howls and falls it becomes clear to the characters that there are more participants in the combat. Six spitwings spiral in, horking up globs of corrosive phlegm as they flap.
Marik is the first to benefit from the spitwings' attentions. He finds himself burning alive. He finds this terribly, terribly inconvenient, at least until finds out that Apportation works very well at disposing of spitwing phlegm. Kellin practically vanishes underneath an ocean of spitwing phlegm. He finds himself in even more pain than Marik. To compound his problems, he doesn't know Apportation. The other characters are somewhat distracted by his howls of agony.
Determined that there must be some way to alleviate the situation, Kellin casts about for a tool to help him. To his amazement, he finds one right in his very hands. He nocks an arrow to his bow and sends it off to pluck a spitwing from the sky. A second arrow brings a second spitwing down. Kellin challenges the survivors, "Haha! I am Kellin the archer! Bringer of death and broken wings! Show me your worst!" The surviving spitwings redouble their attack, and the valiant Kellin is cast down.
Gruul likewise decides that he has had just about enough of this. He flings an axe at a spitwing and notes with satisfaction the bisected way that it tumbles towards the ground. He turns to notice that the two spitwings Kellin crippled are still in the fight, gamely struggling towards the characters with murder in their little twisted-monkey features. He charges one and punches it to death with a series of all-out jabs.
Marik decided that Things Had To Be Done long before Gruul did. He reads pages from the Chel Auxur-Dau as quickly as people can point them out to him, accounting for spitwings almost as quickly as Kellin and Gruul can knock them down.
At this point, the characters realize that Kellin is lying unmoving on the ground. And that he is covered with corrosive spit. Galen rushes over to zap him with a quick healing spell. Gruul goes one farther: he grabs the unconscious archer and hurls him into a nearby fountain. Full of horribly green water. Kellin comes to as Gruul forces a Chiron potion down his throat. He comes to neck-deep in filth, with open wounds all over his body. He is forced to conclude that someone is trying to kill him, probably Gruul.
The one remaining spitwing flies off before Marik can read its page out of the Chel Auxur-Dau. By the end of the battle, two spitwings and one burning man have been permanently destroyed. Three more spitwings and the other burning man have been temporarily neutralized.
Chuck suggests that Bruce should print out a Chel Auxur-Dau - one page for each demon. If this were done on index cards, it would be a neat way to keep track of the surviving demons.
Gruul examines the corroded ruins of Kellin's armor. He suggests, "Let's take that old armor back to the guy you bought it from and demand a refund." Kellin notices that it has five holes burned completely through it. He offers, "I wanted to look cool in front of the other warriors, so I acid-washed it."
The characters search the remains of the demons. They find that one burning man was wearing a magical pot-helm (+1 Fortify, PD 3, DR 4+1). The other had a ST 1 powerstone set in a necklace.
The characters make the easy deduction that the burning men were guarding the temple. This is enticing enough that they cannot help but head into the place.
The temple interior is dominated by a huge central hall, lined with carved pillars. The altar stands at the far end of the hall, in the midst of a large pool of surprisingly clear water. An apse to the side contains a broken fountain. A feeble trickle of water flows from the cracked bowl to puddle upon the floor. Galen explains to the others, "Faians like fountains." Marik nods. Slowly.
The characters look around for anything valuable. They find a fair number of skeletons and shrunken corpses, few of whom appear to have died of violence. And none of whom are carrying anything of tremendous value. They are on the verge of leaving when their way is blocked by the shining apparition of an old man in colored robes, backed up by a squad of equally-insubstantial Faian warriors with brilliant swords and shining breastplates.
The apparition introduces himself at Otanan, the last Seer of Nircharstal. Galen indicates to the other characters that he has heard of the fellow before, and that the apparition does resemble the old man when he was alive. Otanan tells the characters that they can shelter in the temple as long as they like, for the demons cannot enter. The Faians among them may also drink from the sacred pool (Gruul tries it anyway and takes a point of damage. He complains rather loudly, "That was not beer!"). However, Otanan cautions the characters that there is no food in the temple. He indicates the scattered bodies and explains that they were citizens of Nircharstal who sought refuge in the temple during the final days of the city. When the demons appeared many people elected to stay and hope for rescue, a rescue that never came. They died of starvation, trapped by the demons and the fell mist.
Galen and Kellin talk to Otanan. They tell him that the characters are seeking the Circlet and Saber of Nircha, and that they want to bring rebirth to Nircharstal and the Faian nation. Galen tells Otanan that he might still have descendents living in the New City, and asks if he might want to send a message to them. Otanan obliges very nicely, providing Galen with a dramatically patriotic message and urging him to take it to every member of Otanan's family he can find.
Confident that he will not need to deal with demon attacks for a while, Marik settles down for a long session of Analyze Magic. He studies every magical object the characters have found thus far, and learns:
Kellin examines the broken fountain in the apse. He determines that it is magical (not much of a surprise). There is a little magical trinket that is supposed to create water and place it into a reservoir underneath the fountain body. Kellin puts it back into place, and is quite happy to see that the fountain works the way is supposed to.
Otanan notices this good deed and thanks Kellin. Kellin asks for Otanan's blessing. Off to one side, Gruul mutters, "I don't think I'm going to be asking his Blessing." Kellin shoots back, "Well, you're not Faian." Gruul replies, "Nyah nyah... I'm not Faian... Drink this, it will heal you... unless you're a demek, in which case it will give you clutching stomach pains." Otanan ignores the bickering and bestows his blessing upon both Kellin and Galen. The next roll each of them makes will be at a +2 bonus.
It's getting near to dark out in the city, so the characters decide to make a series of sorties out to fry demons with the book. They spend ten hours at this project, and achieve fairly good success, accounting for one spitwing, one fell shadow, one twisted mouth, and three additional random demons. By the time they're done there are only 52 pages left in the Chel Auxur-Dau.
During one of these sorties, Gruul comes across an old wine shop. Inside, he is able to find an array of unsmashed pottery amphorae. He leaves them: he had been hoping to find usable wineskins.
The characters spend a bit more time resting in the Temple. They decide to head out to the new city for provisions once they are refreshed, and to establish the Temple as their local base of operations.
While everyone is sitting around, Kellin looks into the box of clavars he picked up in the Urtef. He finds 500 clavars and a small oval black stone with runes carved into it. He shows it to Marik, who says, "Oh, it's magical. Couldn't possibly be a demon binding-stone. It's worthless. Destroy it." Kellin puts it on the ground and hits it with a boulder. Crack! There is a horrible scream from outside. One page of the Chel Auxur-Dau burns into ash. There are only 51 pages left in the book.
The characters leave the city, then return the day after equipped with a week's food and waterskins, which they store in the Temple. Galen brings flowers as an offering. Otanan promises that if the characters cleanse the city, he will help them find the Circlet and the Saber of Nircha.
The characters leave their refuge in the Temple and head towards the Collegium. They are observing new precautions: Marik has Missile Shield running on everyone and Kellin has an arrow nocked. Nobody wants to meet up with more spitwings unprepared.
The characters do find another magical fountain. And seated on a nearby stone stairway is a twisted mouth. Antok points out (rather unnecessarily) that the book is warm.
The twisted mouth holds its hand up to the characters and says (in Old Namgen), "Talk. I am Chewing Molar." The characters refrain from laughing. Kellin announces "Page 32". Marik reads.
It takes the twisted mouth a long time to finish burning. During that time, it becomes clear that he has some friends: three fell shadows. They do their best to snipe at the characters, but things just don't work out well for them. Marik gets one of them with the book, while the rest of the group temporarily deals with two more. There are fifty pages left to go.
A quick search of the house Chewing Molar was guarding brings up several items:
The session ends with the characters returned to the Temple for a quick rest and healing stop. Each character gains four experience points, because the characters did things that were nonviolent and smart. Kellin burns five experience points because he's decided he would rather not have the Post-Combat Shakes.