IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE
SESSION 1A: INVESTIGATING THE PAST
March 10th, 2007
The 15th Day of Amseyl in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty
Agnarr, emerging from one room, saw Tee emerging from another. They walked towards each other, both of them relieved to see a familiar face. Tee noticed that Agnarr’s familiar outfit has been replaced with a similar one made out of some sort of silky material. Tee herself was wearing a high quality pair of black breeches and a loose blue shirt.
“Strange happenings!” Agnarr said. “Let’s check these doors and see if we can find some answers.”
“Agnarr! How did we get here? Do you remember anything? Don’t worry about gear, I live not far from here, I’m not worried about that as much.” Tee started speaking even faster. “I’m going to head downstairs and try to find out where we are exactly, and see if there’s someone who can tell us how we got here, and then I need to go check in. Iridithil’s Home is probably closer if I’m right about this being Midtown, and I should probably hurry—How much time has passed, do you know?” She started to sound slightly panicked.
Agnarr stared blankly. “Ah, okay… I’ll follow you then…” (Maybe that old blind dwarf in his village had been right about how strange elves are…)
Agnarr turned to head down the hall, but as he did he noticed another door being opened. A man with light brown hair wearing simple clothing poked his head out with a slightly worried expression – his eyes glowed like two bright, silver orbs. “Ah, excuse me? Do you know where I’m supposed to be?”
This turned out to be Dominic, who was just as confused as they were about where he was and how he had gotten there. They all decided it would be best to try to find their way downstairs and demand some answers.
But on their way down the hallway, another door opened and another man with a confused expression on his face stepped out. He had a variety of bags and pouches with various items sticking out here and there. This turned out to be Ranthir, who seemed very concerned about finding a missing book.
There was actually some confusion over this point: Tee said that she had found a small book called The Dreaming Arts in her room. Ranthir said that wasn’t what he was looking for, but that he had found a copy of the same in his room – although his copy was a scroll.
Then Agnarr recounted the library that he and Tee had discovered – but not perused – shortly before entering a room of gold with a set of huge doors crafted from black ebony. This elicited Ranthir’s surprise, because he also remembered being in such a room. Agnarr asked him if he remembered fighting any black-scaled reptilians, and Ranthir, with a confused frown, said he didn’t remember anything like that.
During this confused discussion, Dominic’s eyes abruptly stopped glowing. (“Ah!” Agnarr exclaimed. “I had just gotten used to that!”)
Agnarr, now convinced that all of these rooms might have confused amnesiacs in them, started running around and trying to open the doors, but found them to be locked.
Tee eventually stopped him long enough to convince him that the best course of action would be to head downstairs, find someone to talk to, and try to get some answers. Agnarr enthusiastically endorsed that plan and headed off down the hall.
Two stories down, they emerged into the entrance hall of an inn. Off to the right there was a dining area; off to the left a tavern. Behind the desk near the bottom of the stairs was a pretty young woman with reddish-brown hair. Agnarr walked up to her.
“Good morning, master Agnarr!” she said cheerfully. This confused him, since he’d never met her before. “Where are we? What’s going on? How do you my name?”
She frowned slightly, “Had a bit too much to drink last night, master Agnarr? I’m Tellith, and this is the Ghostly Minstrel – the finest inn in all of Ptolus.”
Eventually the party managed to confusedly relate, in a mass of disjointed voices, that they actually had no memory of coming here and no memory of meeting her before. This, in turn, confused Tellith, “But you’ve been here for two weeks.”
Some hurried questioning revealed that all five of them had come in together and rented their room as a block, paying for ten weeks in advance… Wait? Did you say five? “Yes, all of you as well as Mistress Elestra.”
Agnarr demanded to know which room was “Mistress Elestra’s”. He was told it was one of the first he had actually tried to open before – inbetween Tee’s room and Ranthir’s room. Agnarr ran back upstairs, knocked loudly on the door, and – when there was no answer – threw himself against it and broke it open. Inside he found nothing of interest, although the bed was unmade and had clearly been slept in the night before. On the bedstand there was an empty bottle of wine along with a glass of dregs.
While Agnarr was doing that, the rest of the group continued questioning Tellith. But she didn’t know much: They came and went often, but were mindful about keeping to their own business. Tellith suggested that maybe the bartender, Zade, might know more – she knew they had been in the common room on many a night.
Zade, it turned out, was just coming on duty. The party went around the corner and headed over to the bar to speak with him. He at first assumed they were joking with him, or perhaps a bit too far in their cups – an impression furthered by the confusion they were feeling as a result of their own disorientation. But then someone thought to ask what day it was, “It’s the 15th of Amseyl.”
This led to a hurried comparison of notes: The last day Tee remembered was the 8th of Tahlal, she had lost a little more than two months. For Dominic, his last memory was the night of the 21st of Ulanseyl, he had lost almost three months.
But Ranthir was the most concerned. The last day he remembered was the 29th of Amseyl – fourteen days in the future. He couldn’t have been brought backwards in time could he…? “What year is it?”
It was the year 790. Tee and Dominic had thought it was 789 and had lost a year. Ranthir, on the other hand, had lost almost two, believing it to be 788.
Tee, realizing just how long she’d been gone, suddenly rushed for the door. Agnarr, coming back down the stairs after his fruitless search, saw her run past. “Wait, where are you going?”
“Home!” Tee shouted over her shoulder. “I’ll be right back! I’ve just got to… I just need to…” And she was gone.
Agnarr found the other amnesiacs still talking by the bar, and they quickly brought him up to speed on the lost time. Seized with a sudden depression, Agnarr ordered a drink and collapsed into a chair.
Zade, convinced by all of this heart-felt discussion that they weren’t kidding around, told them he didn’t really know much about them: They were friendly, but they didn’t discuss their business. He had seen them talking with some other people around the common room, and they might know more. Elestra, for one, had spoken with Sheva Callister one night last week. And he had also seen them speaking with Jevicca Nor. They were both regulars, and might even be here tonight.
The rest of the group, with the reality of their situation beginning to sink in, joined Agnarr for that drink.
How much at-table time did this take?
30-40 minutes? Something like that. Might be a little bit longer. Most of the group was using our electronic game table for the first time and some of the people involved were actually meeting each other for the first time.
Agnarr testing various doors was actually an involved process, IIRC. Like, stealthing up to them. Listening to them. Trying to convince Tee to pick the locks for him.
And there’s a chunk I just skipped over entirely where they investigated the second and third floors of the inn on their way down to the common room.