Attendance is good, consisting of the entire normal group: Paul (Marik), Tim (Antok Six-Hearted), Chuck (Galen), Chris (Gruul) and Bruce. Unfortunately, this is offset by a general lethargy that descends over us like an oppressive cloud.
Tim estimates that the total experience gained by all characters through the entire campaign amounts to 95 points.
The characters find themselves in Tettek's Ritual Chamber. They know that there are two mace-armed golems in the Guard Post below. There is a big, good-quality door with a big, good-quality lock on it in between them and the golems. It could be a lot of trouble to get through if they didn't already have the key. Antok Six-Hearted's plan is to run inside and get beat senseless. Galen says that he will follow Antok. Hoping to stop this plan before things go too far, Gruul points out that the door opens inwards towards the guard post, which is mostly to the golems' advantage. Marik, sensing what Gruul is up to, asks Antok, "Did you see any evidence of razor kites? This will be a lot easier without them." The characters note that the area is probably too small for the razor kites: the only time they were active was in the Main Hall, which was about four times as large.
The characters finally decide that they will use magic and Gruul to defeat the golems with little risk. Preparations for the attack include:
Gruul pushes open the door. Marik swiftly casts Hinder on the visible golem, giving it -4 to Move and Dodge. The golem steps forward at a glacial pace, directly towards Gruul. Marik backs off, while Gruul goes apeshit on the thing. So do Antok and Galen. The second golem rushes to help it's comrade, but they accomplish surprisingly little. The fight is drawn out somewhat as Galen and Antok get in a competition with each other on who can do the least damage to a golem. They are disappointed to tie at 3 points each. Marik bemoans his inability to really do anything to golems with magic. Gruul points out that this might explain why sorcerers use golems as defenses so much, all the while delivering smashingly devastating blows to the things with his mace.
As Galen and Antok make several more pathetic attacks on one golem, Gruul kills the other. The survivor responds by slamming Galen to the ground. Galen rises up to a crouch only to get smashed in the torso by the golem. Galen goes unconscious under the effects of 18 points of damage. Gruul steps in to disable the golem by smashing it's ankle, then dispatches it with a second quick blow. He leans over his fallen comrade and asks, "Galen, are you okay? He needs healing. Hey, Marik! Wake up! Time to heal!" Marik looks up from his book and responds, "Oh, right. I wasn't paying attention." Marik heals Galen.
There is only door leading out of the Guard Post. It is quite large, and locked. Except that the characters already have the key. Several large reptilian skulls are mounted on the walls. Gruul thinks from the looks of them that their original owners were probably aquatic. He complains rather loudly, "These things live in the water! I hate this place! We have to cross water to get home." The other furnishings are rather austere: two oil lamps, a simple table, some chairs, and a simple clay water-pipe on the table with burned nuf inside.
Marik looks at the door, but can detect no magic. Gruul unlocks it and steps inside, into Tettek's Quarters. The place is actually quite opulent, decorated with a number of large tapestries in shades of bronze and gray. The artisanship has the sort of obsessive detail that suggests local manufacture. The floor is covered with rugs, also locally made. There isn't much furniture, but it is all made to support substantial weight (the characters already know that Tettek was a fairly weighty guy).
The characters examine the tapestries, determining that they are worth 100, 100, 150 and 250 clavars. Each of them masses 15 kg. Marik dismisses the, noting that they are crudely made with a very large weave. However, he claims that one of them has something underneath it. Gruul rips it aside as everyone else hides. Some hide behind Antok, who is like unto a blast shield. They find a large stone block underneath, something that could be moved. Marik asks, "Is it moving now?" He is reassured to find that it is currently stationary, and shows no inclination to move under it's own power. Galen makes a lot of jokes about Tettek's first golem: "Sure, I forgot to give it arms and legs..."
Gruul pulls the block up with a variety of exciting sounds of muscle and sinew. Underneath is a stone shaft into darkness, with a series of ladder runs inset into the stone on one side. Galen asks the others, "Should we send the sparrow down?" Antok goes through a lot of drama about cutting himself to feed the sparrow. Gruul watches this and comments, "He's quite the drama queen, isn't he?"
Antok finally sends the Sparrow on it's way, then tells the other characters that he saw a simple vault at the bottom. It contained two visible chests.
The characters waste no time in sending Antok down to investigate, with Galen following closely along. Antok reaches the vault with all manner of haste, and swiftly finds the concealed alcove containing the Chel Auxur-Dau. Just about as Antok grabs the book, Galen steps upon a ladder rung that goes "click!" A foul blue smoke pours into the vault and then up into Tettek's quarters. Marik and Gruul swiftly hold their breaths and head back to the guard post, with Galen following in their wake. Antok, his unbelievable stamina sufficient guard against the effects of any toxin, heads up from the vault carrying the book.
The characters regroup in the guard post, happy to see that nobody inhaled enough of the gas to provoke any adverse reactions. Antok rather loudly denies that the smoke went off when he grabbed the book. Galen rather quietly comments, "I don't know what triggered the smoke." The characters notice that all of Tettek's quarters are now engulfed in blue smoke. They debate on how to clear the smoke, but their best ideas all involve spells like Purify Air and Shape Air, which nobody knows.
Antok recalls that Tettek kept all his nice things down in the vault. But he also points out that even though the blue gas is all over the place, the characters have nothing but time. The characters decide to go and see how Zhelk is doing, while Marik spends some time studying the Chel Auxur-Dau.
When the thrux virators ordered the city of Nircharstal to be cursed, the sorcerers knew that it would be a great project, and would require a blueprint. The Chel Auxur-Dau is the blueprint. It is a massive book, covered in iron and weighing almost 20 pounds. The pages are weathered and blue, with a strange slick feeling to them, and covered in incomprehensible thrux magical writing. Many of the pages are obviously missing, apparently burned out of the book.
Each page of the Chel Auxur-Dau describes one of the demons in Old Nircharstal. The page holds the key to the demon's life, even more than it's binding stone. If one of the demons of Old Nircharstal draws close to the Chel Auxur-Dau, it's page will become hot to the touch. The bearer of the book will be able to sense when a page first starts to become hot with a HT roll when the demon is within 100 meters. No roll is necessary to notice that a page is hot when the demon is within 10 meters, as the page will be almost too hot to touch.
If a demon has the contents of it's page read to it, it will be destroyed, either bursting into flames or dissolving into goo at a rate of 1d damage per second (DR or other defenses do not help against this damage). The bearer of the book does not need to understand thrux magical script to be able to read it: anyone with Magery can make an IQ roll to be drawn into the writing and recite it properly. A more significant problem is finding the proper page, as the effect only works if the demon is within earshot. With a successful DX roll, the bearer can find the proper page in 1d seconds. With a failed DX roll, the bearer can find the proper page in 2d+6 seconds. With a fumbled DX roll, the bearer suffers some sort of mishap that prevents them from finding the page at all; he can retry the DX roll after a delay of 2 minutes.
When a demon is permanently destroyed, it's page in the Chel Auxur-Dau bursts into flames. The flames will inflict 1d damage upon anyone who comes into contact with them, but avoiding them is rarely a problem. They burn out in 1d seconds.
The characters are somewhat relieved to find that Zhelk is still in her shackles up in the dungeons. Gruul brings out the Tongue-Twisting Circlets so he can talk to her and offers up a simple deal: Make some potions for the characters, and they'll go away. He points out that none of the characters really want to stick around here, whereas she considers the place to be home. He further explains that her trustworthiness will be ensured by random sampling: the characters will randomly select a potion from those she makes and feed it to her. She agrees to this deal.
Rather offhandedly, Galen asks her, "By the way, what do you know about a blue gas?" It turns out that she made the stuff. She explains the effects of the stuff, and points out that it is heavier than air and could persist for hours.
The characters end up spending quite a bit of time with Zhelk, both as they wait for the gas to dissipate and while she makes the potions they request. Marik is strangely considerate towards her, calling her a "lady" and insisting that she be treated properly. It develops that he has quite the chivalrous streak. Who knew?
Zhelk is able to make the following potions from the standard GURPS Magic list: Achilles, Aesculapius, Agni, Antaeus, Ares, Argus, Atalanta, Chiron, Daedalus, Delphi, Ephialtes, Eris, Heracles, Hermes, Hydra, Juno, Nemesis, Orion, Orpheus, and Poseidon. She can also make the Blue Smoke. Tettek's lab contains $5000 in materials available for her use and gives her +2 to skill.
The characters eventually settle upon a plan of manufacture nine weeks (63 days) long. Zhelk makes six Ephialtes potions ($900 in materials over 3 weeks) and four Achilles potions ($4000 in materials over 6 weeks), leaving her with $100 in remaining materials. During this time, the characters live in Tettek's fortress and keep a very close eye upon anyone approaching from the villages below.
While Gruul and Antok argue with Zhelk about which potions to make, Marik takes a look in the vault. The first chest contains five potions (2 Orpheus, 2 Vulcan, 1 Argus), and an amulet with a cloud carved on it. The second chest contains 8 White, 45 Green and 201 Yellow clavars, plus a book written in Old Namgen and a broadsword wrapped in cloth. Marik guesses that the book contains four spells but he doesn't know Old Namgen so he can't tell any more.
Marik finds that Zhelk can translate the book, but she doesn't know any languages except Old Namgen and Ur-Naska, so she can't write a translation that he can read. She says that it's title is Essences of Sensation and that it contains the spells Pain, Stun, Sensitize and Agonize. Marik groans, "I'm not spending four weeks learning this! Maybe we can sell it..."
Disappointed by the book, he turns towards the amulet. It takes him an hour to Identify it as a Rainmaking amulet enchanted with Rain-18, +1 Power and an 8 ST exclusive powerstone.
Finally, Marik identifies the sword on Galen's insistence. It is called Hiuld Hvor Hresfo. It is a fine thrusting broadsword with Shatterproof and +1 Penetrating Blade. Galen takes it.
Before the characters leave, they divide up their newfound goods. Gruul and Antok each take two Achilles potions. Everyone takes one Ephialtes potion, except for Marik, who gets two to make sure he doesn't drown if the situation comes to that. There are only three extra Chiron potions in circulation. Everyone but Gruul takes one (Gruul has some extras). Gruul takes a Vulcan potion. Antok takes an Orpheus potion because he's normally wildly unpopular and wishes that he weren't. Gruul agrees to carry the rest of the potions (a variety of Daedalus, Agni, Argus and some others) on behalf of the group.
The characters decide to leave the two archer golems alone. Gruul fools around with the golem bows during the nine weeks, figuring out that he has a little trouble using them (-1 to ACC), but could get them reshaped so he could use them normally. He also spends time tormenting his fellow adventurers with the ukulele. Whenever he starts playing, Antok does his best to lighten the mood by singing old Dost funeral dirges.
Galen learns Apportation and Thaumatology from Marik.
The characters find a nice boat waiting at the bottom of Tettek's escape route. They have nine weeks to prepare, so they can pick carefully their supplies. They pack food, water, and at least one tapestry. They also learn that there is a walking route to the base of Dassurbal's Flute through the Lesser Inwelling. Gruul suggests that the group go down to the villages about a week before they plan to depart and hire a guide, someone who can get them to the base of Dassurbal's Flute with a minimum of trouble. This is accomplished without too much trouble, at a cost of 200 clavars, plus 25 each for three more rowers. The characters agree that the guide and his companions can have the boat after the characters reach Dassurbal's Flute (it is big enough to carry eight people plus supplies).
The end of the session finds the characters at the base of Dassurbal's Flute with all their loot and three experience points. They know that at some point during their stay in Tettek's fortress the 3086th Stay ended, and the 3087th Voyage began.
Antok decides to spend many points to increase his DX to 14.