In Dreams - Session 04
General Summary
After a short rest, the party turns back to the last portal. The stone slab which covers it is carved with images of the moons and stars. The three moons are almost in alignment but not quite. Karsus recognizes the constellations but they look slightly off.
Recalling the cryptic words of the "boy" Abel, Karsus warns the others that an evil presence might await them beyond the portal, citing his own occult knowledge as justification.
In preparation for opening the portal, Eric speaks words of bardic inspiration to the other three. For Sylman he invokes the legendary willpower of the folk hero John Barleycorn, who survived the deadly fungi of the Jewel Caves during the Trials of the Giants. To inspire Mungo, he recalls the fighting spirit of Bishop Markus Galorn, who struck down 99 undead with his warhammer at the doors of his cathedral during the Shadow War. And to Karsus he speaks of the power of the wizard Zenopus, who conjured a thousand weasels to defend his town from an invasion of plague-rats.
Prepared for battle, Mungo and Karsus stand ready, while Sylman and Eric, with great effort, manage to lift the stone slab. The portal opens on a 10' corridor opening into a large square room, 30' across. In the centre of the room is a bier holding a lizardman skeleton, dressed in a feathered headdress and ceremonial robes similar to those carved on the large sandstone statue in the central room. An alcove with wooden shelving is set into the wall on the far side of the room.
The party places lit torches in the wall sconces and investigates further. The shelves hold 13 scrolls as well as three other objects wrapped in cloth: a torc of beaten gold, covered with glyphs and symbols, and a pair of bone flutes or pipes, each with a bird or lizard skull on its end. Karsus unrolls one of the scrolls to find it two or three feet long, made of some kind of wood fibre, and densely packed with glyphs.
Standing guard near the bier, Mungo suddenly hears a voice. "What manner of creature are you?" it asks him, in the language of the lizardfolk. Overcoming his shock, he answers, "I am Mungo." The ghostly figure of a lizardman appears a few feet away from him, dressed in the same manner as the skeleton on the bier. "What is a 'Mungo'?" the figure asks curiously. "That is my name," Mungo answers. "We are explorers." The other party members now spot the apparition as well, but cannot understand its speech; Mungo is required to translate.
"You must free me from this place," it says. It introduces itself as Sinzil, "Fifth Ward of the Sanguine Scale"; the skeleton on the bier are its remains. "I have been cursed by my wardbrothers for refusing their demands." It points to the gold circlet the skeleton wears underneath the headdress. "Their final gift, preventing me from passing to the Dreamlands. Destroy the circlet, I beg of you."
Karsus and Sylman first load their sacks with the artifacts from the shelves and then the party gathers at the bier. After much discussion, it's agreed to respond to the ghost's plea.
Sylman removes the headdress, placing it in a sack, and then picks up the circlet. "Is that it? Destroy it?" he asks, as the apparition looks on expectantly. Sylman looks at the circlet more closely. The golden surface is smooth, without inscription, but adorned with a black gem in the centre—onyx, perhaps. He abruptly sprints for the exit, but Mungo casually reaches out to grab him by the collar before he can escape. "Okay, okay," Sylman says, and gives up the circlet to Karsus.
The circlet is placed on the stone bier. Mungo takes a mighty swing at it with his sword, cleaving it in two; but then the halves rejoin, fusing together with no sign of damage. "Nooooo!" the apparition wails. “I never considered this possibility." Karsus attacks the circlet with an eldritch blast; it bends but then repairs itself. "You are tainted by the outside," the ghostly figure tells him.
"Why did your brothers curse you?" Karsus asks it. "Pazoh and the rest of my ward-brothers have succumbed to the Frozen Flame. They wished to bring back Atsah," whose spirit has "long been in the Dreamlands." The name of Atsah is familiar to Sylman and Mungo; another tomb they visited was said to hold Atsah's Talon, a dark relic that would bind one's spirit to the wielder. As they relate to the ghost, a hostile tribe of orcs have obtained the Talon. "What is an orc?" the spirit of Sinzil asks. "Hostile humanoids from the west," Sylman answers. "That does not bode well," it replies. Turning to Mungo and Sylman, it tells them, "You also bear the taint. I smell the lingering power of a creature from beyond the veil."
After some experimentation, they find that the apparition can leave the tomb, and can also travel some thirty feet from the circlet, but no further. "I feel weak," the spirit finally announces. "It takes much effort to remain in the physical realm. I shall return once my strength is renewed." The ghost vanishes. Deciding to call it a night, the party performs a few final tasks. Sylman collects the skeleton's robes in a sack, along with the circlet, while Karsus sketches the bier and makes a rubbing of the inscription engraved on its sides. He notes that the three moons appear seven times in the inscription, always aligned.
The party emerges from the tomb under a night sky, but with a sudden shock they see light from a fire in the direction of their camp. They stash their sacks of loot in the underbrush nearby and cautiously move towards the flame. No-one is visible at the camp, and the tents, wagon, and horses all appear undisturbed. Only the lit campfire indicates an intrusion.
Puzzled by these circumstances, the party decides that Mungo will remain on guard at the camp while the others cautiously search the forest, Sylman circling the camp to the right and Eric and Karsus to the left.
Eric and Karsus keep a distance from each other in the dark forest, and thus it is Karsus alone who comes upon a very large armoured man casually leaning against a tree, smoking a cigar and with a two-handed maul at his side. Karsus recognizes him as the rude man from The Glass Flute. "It's about time you boys showed up," the man says. Karsus asks if the man wants to talk to the group. "We can talk all you like as long as it ends with you giving us everything you found in there. So what's it going to be?"
Elsewhere in the forest, Sylman has spotted a person in a red robe, evidently on the lookout but facing away from him. Sneaking to close range, he draws his bow and fires. The woman cries out in pain and vanishes. She reappears in front of Karsus next to the large man, the arrow still sticking out of her. "Marcus, what did you get us into?" she says.
At the camp, Mungo hears the cry of pain but is startled further when his friend Phinneas suddenly appears, running across the camp towards the sound but stopping when he sees Mungo. "Phinneas, what are you doing here?" Mungo asks. "Mister Findlay took a job from Mister Borgen and we're here to get lizardman artifacts," Phinneas answers. "Did you hear that scream?" Mungo asks impatiently, and runs towards it. Phinneas follows him. "Mungo, nobody was supposed to get hurt!"
Meanwhile, the woman has vanished once more, and the big man seizes his maul and charges. Karsus gets off a single eldritch blast before the man smashes him twice in the chest with full force. Karsus drops to the forest floor, his life quickly ebbing away. Eric, seeing Karsus felled so quickly, flees towards the camp. "Mungo! Big trouble! They're trying to kill us!"
Sylman dashes through the forest towards the sound of the blast. Quickly coming into range, he fires one arrow after another into the big man, using the trees for cover. "Is that the best you got?" the man calls out after the third hit, and advances even as Sylman retreats.
Back on the forest floor, Karsus stares sightlessly at the stars above. The illusion which concealed his eyes vanishes, revealing their eerie blue glow, but no-one is there to see it. The glow fades to darkness, and Karsus breathes his last.
Sylman continues his mobile archery attack. Unable to catch him, the big man unslings a light crossbow himself and fires at Sylman, wounding him.
Having found Mungo, Eric leads him towards the scene of the battle. Hearing them approach, the big man retreats. But he is not fast enough to flee from Sylman, who hits him repeatedly, calling out, "surrender and we will spare your life." Finally the man drops to his knees and holds out his hands. "Alright," he says, "I give up."
The others catch up, and Sylman instructs Mungo to tie up the man and take his weapons. Mungo complies, leaving the man face down on the ground. "His name is Marcus Findlay," Phinneas says. "Where's Karsus?" Mungo asks. "He's dead," Sylman snarls, "this bastard killed him." Filled with a sudden rage, he draws his sword and advances towards the captive: "a life for a life." Mungo reaches out to stop him; Eric tries to block Mungo's grasp in turn, but neither he nor Sylman is a match for Mungo's raw strength. "Let me finish him!" Sylman cries. "Not like this," Mungo says, "not in cold blood." The moment passes, and Sylman sheathes his weapon.
"Talk," Sylman says to Phinneas. "Who is the woman? What does she do?" "Kyra," he answers, "she's a wizard. She's here with her husband to help us find the artifacts." Marcus speaks up: "She's gone. Ran off with that sissy of a husband." Gideon Hawthorne is the husband's name. Sylman recognizes the name of their employer: Alcar Borgen, a wealthy citizen of Redwall to whom he once sold fake artifacts.
It's the middle of the night, and the party is exhausted. They decide to rest back at the camp until morning, leaving Marcus tied to a nearby tree. Sylman volunteers to take the first watch. Before turning in, Eric says quietly to him: "it seems wrong. That Karsus is dead, and that one," nodding at Marcus, "is still alive."
After an hour or so, as the others sleep, Sylman stabs Marcus repeatedly with his dagger until he dies, covering his mouth to stifle his screams. Afterwards Sylman feels the same cold wind he felt in the Tomb of Blood Overflowing. A familiar voice whispers to him, "You will be alone in the end."
Sylman makes a token effort to conceal the fresh wounds on Marcus's corpse. In the morning, he tells the others that Marcus died in the night of his injuries. Mungo, still disturbed at the blood lust Sylman displayed earlier, is not sure what to think.
The whole party buries Karsus in the forest. Mungo leads the burial rite and speaks the holy words he learned as a child, while Eric sings a funeral song. Only Phinneas and Mungo participate in Marcus' burial.
Returning to the tomb to recover their loot, the party is unpleasantly surprised to find it gone. Sylman discovers a track of footprints—presumably left by Gideon—leading down from above the tomb entrance, directly to the spot where the loot was originally concealed and then away into the forest. Phinneas suggests that he would have made for their camp. He leads them there, but they find the site empty.
Taking only their horses, the party rides in the direction of Redwall for a day, hoping to pick up the trail of the thieves, but they find no sign of them. After a cold night in the rain, they head back to the tomb.
Determined not to return empty-handed, they resolve to haul back the giant stone disc, using a simple pulley to lower it from its dais onto rollers fashioned from logs, and then the carthorses—and their ample supply of rope—to haul the disc through the tomb and onto the wagon. After much effort, they succeed. The disc, two Coptic jars, the desiccated organ, and various rubbings from the tomb constitute their treasure.
The next day, they begin the long journey back to Redwall. En route, Eric composes a song in memory of their dead companion:
I had a friend, a man whose name was Karsus,
A scholar and a starwatcher was he;
A friend in hardship, and a good companion;
I wish that he could share this song with me. To western plains we ventured out together;
We weathered storms, fought orcs amid the trees,
We plundered tombs, and battled living statues;
He shattered one that would have finished me. Alas, this world has no respect for friendship,
And wisdom's no shield from an evil blade;
'Twas in the forest that the thieves attacked him;
His noble spirit bled out in the glade. And now my friend is dead, he's gone forever;
His once warm heart pale Death has rendered cold;
I'll never fight again with him beside me;
I'll never know the tales he would have told. And so I sing this song for my friend Karsus,
The wise man, mage, and scholar I once knew;
His memory I'll still keep bright within me;
My friend, I raise this lonely glass to you.