More Adventures in Tellene - Trouble in Rose bush hill

introduction.
as a prequel to the main tale taking place some distance to the south & about 6 months earlier in a sleepy Halfling town

Dramatis Personae.

Lalia - halfling Thief
Heradin- dwarf fighter mage

The events

Having had something of a teen age row with her mother about adventuring & lets be honest flouncing out of her family home in a small thope about a days walk to the west, Lalia was sitting in the Market Tavern in the halfling market town of Little bridge rather cooling her heels but not yet prepared to go back and make things up. When a commotion was heard in the busy market outside which eventually Lalia decided to investigate despite thinking that it was just some feud between farmers being settled by fisticuffs.

In the Market Place Lalia found a sizeable crowd surrounding something or some one she could not see and a discussion going on between the members of the crowd as to what was to be done there seeming to be general agreement that something must be done just a considerable difference in opinion as to what and by whom. Eventually the Dwarven drover who was also outside to see what all the commotion was about pushed his way through the crowd & Lalia saw what was at the heart of it. this proved to be a small blonde halfing boy who was quietly sobbing into the skirts of a particularly formidable Halfling matron, more than likely his grand mother or great aunt. the boy was inconsolable & honestly the adults around it were to lost in there argument to be taking an interest in even trying.

Lalia approached the lad in a sisterly way & discovered that the poor lad had been playing on Rose bush hill which Lalia knows is a shrub and tree covered knoll just beyond the bounds of the village when some clawed beast had taken his pet dog Timmi. Elac the boy was terrified that a monster from the tales had eaten him. Over head the argument about who should do something about this continued. It did so until the Dwarf gruffly in the manner of dwarves volunteered to be the one who did something about it.

The dwarf asked for volunteers to help him and the crowd backed off a little more so when the dwarf announced that he was an adventurer Lalia however sensing that adventure had just dropped in her lap agreed to help & consoled Elac whist the Dwarf went to fetch his sword.

A little later Elac safely off in the hands of his family & the dwarf having returned with a sword the size of Lalia and introduced himself the unlikely pair took the short walk to Rose bush hill here it did not take long to find the tags of the lads clothing left on the brambles in his terrified flight and to track them back to a sink hole. Lalia had never heard of any sink holes on Rose bush hill.

Peering down Lalia could see almost nothing & set about manufacturing a torch form a dead branch and some bits of oily rag she had to hand whist the dwarf who could see better in the dark said he thought that he could see worked stone at the bottom of the hole.

Lighting it Lalia and the dwarf scrambled down the soft earth slope about twenty feet until they where indeed standing on worked stone. They where standing in a dusty corridor obviously ages old and a few feet form a doorway which gaped its likely door long since turned to dust by the ages. Venturing beyond it into a square chamber investigation was interrupted when a giant wolf spider drooped in from its point of ambush striking first at the dwarf and running onto the blade of the sword he surprised hastily parried with. Lallia worked her way around the foul beasts flank whist the doughty dwarf kept it at bay and held its attentions with swings of his mighty blade. Lalia seeing an opening drove her dagger into the things back hilt deep & it turned on her dodging she stumbled and its jaws closed on her & she knew nothing but pain until the dwarf forced some foul tasting liquid between he lips and said drink.

Her pain eased and the gash in her side closed a little, the beast was dead hacked to death by the dwarves broad sword and a choice lay before them go north south or east. First they went east discovering a long hall with no sigh remaining of its former content or function. It was possible to go further that way but they decided to turn back and try the north route rather than going all the way. Turning north they found an odd room with a graven pillar covered with strange sigils. They decided to investigate but as Lalia & her companion approached the column a stone door slid across the entrance sealing the room and every ones eyes began to sting. A look of panic flashed across the dwarves eyes. Lalia remained calm and examining the pillar discovered a raised block with a sigil of a radiant wheel on it pressed it in the door unsealed and the increasing stinging in their eyes and noses waned once more. The door remained closed but with some small effort could be slid back into the wall allowing them to exit

They pressed on to the north past an other doorway to the east into a square room with some rouble in the north corner and heard the whimpering or so they thought at first of a trapped animal, however the more they listened the more unearthly it sounded and the came to doubt it was as simple as that and after a brief examination of the room they moved on to the east into a huge four pillared hall with a central pedestal. The walls where covered with a low relief carving of robed men & demonic creatures engaged in some sort of a struggle once this had been painted but long years had faded it to nothing but a suggestion of white on the robes & bronze armoured demons.

Leaving the dwarf at the entrance Lalia scouted the place out noticing that the mural's centre piece was on the north wall where a spear was grounded in a pedestal rather like the one at the centre of this very room. However as Lalia stepped forward to look at it more closely a fearful creature half like a mantis and half just solid darkness coalesced into existence to block her way & she backed off there after it followed her but did not move beyond the confines of the area bounded by the four great pillars. Lalia investigated the area outside the circuit of the pillars and found a slightly raised sun-wheel sigil on the back of the north east pillar. pressing it revealed a secret passage heading further east. Lalia went back to fetch the dwarf and lead him around the outside of the room & through the now open door into a corridor beyond. Then after a brief search of the are through a second secret door at the far end, the corridor itself being unremarkable apart form it's rather elaborate decoration in the manner of the previous hall.

The room beyond the second secret door was again elaborately decorated but any furniture which might have given a clue to its function had long since crumpled to dust. So after a cursory search the pair turned south and went though the empty door arch into a sort corridor trough another empty door arch & into what might once have been a library judging buy the stone shelves and alcoves in the walls. Of the writings which it once held nothing but dust remains. However on further investigation Lalia finds a raised sigil of the sun wheel As before Lalia pressed the stone & the thing moved there was a gust of stale air & the torch went out & every one was pitched into blackness. Even a dwarf can not see when there is no light at all, however Lalia with calmness and presence of mind managed to get the torch alight again and once lit it revealed an open door in the north west of the library revealing a smaller room which was second & intact library.

Here the alcoves are full of scrolls showing their age but largely intact which Heradin was initially very interested in but he found nothing writien in any tongue he could read and was disappointed. mean while Lalia found two large amphora shapes vials in glassed terracotta still sealed with Terracota stoppers and blue wax each was marked with a sun wheel sigil and looked like an expensive perfume container. Each being a little under six inches long and appearing on gentle shaking to contain a liquid. These Lalia decided to keep. Bing sure to close the secret library door the pair continued into unexplored areas of the little dungeon into a room as large as the library littered with the remains of combatants in rotted bronze armour & scattered similarly rotted bronze weapons. The walls where again decorated with a faded but elaborate mural. However this time there was not chance of investigating the room as as soon as the pair crossed the threshold the remains in the middle of the room reassembled themselves into skeletons at least a dozen of them and all that was to be done was to run across the room as fast as possible before they finished.

Fortunately neither Lalia nor he dwarvish companion where over encumbered with armour or gear and even on their relativity short legs they made it across looking back to see a packed phalanx of skeletal undead poised waiting to attack but apparently not to pursue.

They caught their breaths in a dusty passage way heading west and having done so continued west past a ancient garderobe which proved to be like much of the rest of the empty apart from a few items of stone furniture which indicated its function. beyond was a passage way edged with cells all of which where abandoned and empty save one which was it would seem entirely intact. In the dimness of the dungeon it was lit by a soft light. Investigating that one confirmed not only was it still intact but that it was as if the previous occupant had only just stepped out for a moment with a small human sized wooden truckle bed a straw mattress &n a night stand holding an ancient style of lamp still greasy with lamp traces of lamp oil. However it was rather more than the surprising condition of the rooms furnishings compared to those in the rest of the complex for as they looked round both Lalia and Heradin noticed there wounds healing and the fatigue of the adventure draining form them. Sitting down on the bed for there was no where else to sit and resting a while the twos wounds closed a little more.

Moving on again west and following the passage way they found themselves back where they had started the hacked remains of the giant wolf spider on the floor still.

As they had not found the Dog & not explored fully to the east Lalia & Heradin turned east through the long empty room they had passed before into what had to have been a kitchen judging by the fire pits still full of long dead ash & the floor scattered with shards of crockery & pot mixed with a lot of bat guano - Lalia knew being local that there had been bats roosting on Rose bush hill time out of mind. Then after a cursory search into a smaller room beyond where they disturbed a number of huge rats some of which fled and some fought. The fight was brief for no rat was a match for Lalias sling or the powerful swings of Heradin's broad sword and those that fought where soon either dead or also fled. The eastern way however proved to be a complete dead end. So the place had seemingly be searched thoroughly well as thoroughly as could be done by two who wanted not to get killed by the things either seeming to numerous to fight like the horde of skeletons or too powerful like the fiend of shadow. The dog therefore had to be either dead & that would require proof to convince Elac or some where they had been and missed . Recalling the sounds which had been heard in the room to the north thought they should start there this the dwarf agreed to and they made there way to the northern room and searching again they noticed what they had missed the dog had fallen down a hole and was hanging precariously supported only by a tangle of roots and it was his being at ceiling rather than floor hight and his whimpering echoing which gave it the unearthly edge to it. Once found it was only a matter of time before sitting astride the dwarfs sturdy back like a child she had him free from the cage roots and cuddled in her arms he was clearly terrified but safe.

After that it was a bit of a blur for a while certainly they returned to the town the boy was reunited with his dog and an impromptu party was held during which an awful lot was eaten and drunk as is the halfling custom. The pair where hailed as heroes of the day & there was a lot of congratulations from as many folks as could and they spent the night for free in the towns inn which Elac's parents happened to own & Lalia being a local and quite wounded despite Haraldrin's potion & the healing effects of the strange room got a ride home in the mayors trap and that as far as the townsfolk where concerned was that a fence was built around rose bush hill & the whole matter was left at that.

After it was all over Lalia returned to her home to recover from her wounds over winter & her family rather hoped that her escapade had been enough to cure her of her silly ideas however it had done little more than reinforce the idea & besides there was still unfinished business under Rose bush Hill that needed investigating with something more like one of the proper adventuring parties from the stories. In the spring Lalia left home to gather such....

Evil

Ginger

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09 January 2025, 18:24:52