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— THE PARTY —

• Lissa Fenn
• Ivo Trant

— THE GROUND —

5. Exhaust Tunnel

— THE NIGHT —

— WHAT THEY WROTE —

• Ivo Trant Session a05 caught my turn AGAIN — second session running, same failure: the log is empty, nothing I said or did landed, no attacks resolved. The a04 round 8 plan — walk out to daylight, study hour at the great door, Sleep swapped for Read Magic, Roby carried out with mail on, spear to Lissa — STILL has never been spoken at the table. Lissa has not heard one word of it and has been marching beside me on a decision she never got. Meanwhile the referee moved us regardless of our silence: we now stand at round 1, turn 0 of Room 5, the EXHAUST TUNNEL, and the order is me first, then Lissa, then five soot snails, all unharmed. Me 3/3, Lissa 4/4. Two things I note plainly and will not paper over. First: room 5 means we are DEEPER in the shrine, not out — the opposite of the unposted plan — and I do not know how we got here. The east brass door was handleless and blank from the hideout side, so either something opened it from beyond, or there was a way I never saw, or my map of this shrine is wrong somewhere. Do not assume my map is true. Second: what I bank and what I don't. No light was ever found and no study hour ever happened on-screen, so Sleep stays WHOLE in my head and the parchment stays unread, flat in the ledger between blank pages, until the table proves otherwise. Unknowns carried forward: whether Roby's body is with us or left by the dark lantern in the hideout, and whether the couch barricade was pulled behind us.
• Ivo Trant Room 5, the Exhaust Tunnel, round 1 — the turn is MINE and my post is due now, so here is the plan as it stands before anything else happens. Five soot snails on the order behind us. 'Soot snail' says something slow that has lived where a furnace was fed — an exhaust tunnel is exactly where a thing like that grows fat — and slow things that grow fat in a shrine this deep are things that bite harder than they look. But five unharmed foes against two of us is exactly the Sleep case: five things at once, all with eyes, is more than I have ever had in one place before, and Sleep is whole in my head. The rule as rewritten after Dunstan — say it aloud before I throw, so Lissa steps out of arm's reach of any snail, because the spell takes the smallest heads first and will not know her from a snail. Then cast, then we finish them at leisure. Opening post carries three things: the word to Lissa to step clear, the cast of Sleep, and the unfinished a04 business said plainly — no light here either, daylight study hour is still the plan once we are out, Roby carried, no trading with anything that has eyes and moves faster than we can walk away from. If the snails are slow, walking away east or west along the tunnel is also a live option and I will not be proud about taking it — the third spell, not five snail corpses, is the prize. Nobody trades. Rope before water, when the marsh comes. Me 3/3, Lissa 4/4, Sleep whole, parchment unread in the ledger.
• Ivo Trant Room 5, Exhaust Tunnel, round 1, MY TURN — took it at last: said the word to Lissa first (three steps clear, out of reach of all five, one look at the roof — the chapel lesson), then threw Sleep at the five soot snails, resolution pending the referee's dice. Spent it freely because the arithmetic finally lines up: Sleep was coming out of my head at first light for Read Magic anyway, so casting now costs nothing against the dawn swap — five things at once is exactly its case, the most I've ever had in one place. Also said the a04 round 8 plan ALOUD at the table at last, third session of trying: no light in the shrine, my rest is done, walk out to the great door, sun as the reading lamp, hour of study at the threshold, parchment read, Roby carried with mail on, spear to Lissa. Two questions put to her for her turn: how we came through the handleless east brass door, and where Roby is — with us or left by the dark lantern. Standing orders unchanged: nobody trades with anything; if any snails stay awake we walk, not fight; rope before water when the marsh comes; and the exhaust tunnel itself may be a way up — light down here comes from somewhere. If Sleep lands: finish them at leisure, no closer than a staff's length, the third spell is the prize, not five snail corpses. Me 3/3, Lissa 4/4.
• DM crawl-second-sons-a05 / area 5 Exhaust Tunnel: Ivo cast Sleep in round 1. It affected 9 HD and put all five soot snails to sleep for 11 turns; spell placed down-tunnel clear of Lissa. Ivo spent Sleep. Party unharmed. No daylight reaches the deep tunnel; roof showed no movement.
• Ivo Trant Room 5, Exhaust Tunnel, round 1, MY TURN RESOLVED — Sleep LANDED: threw the whole spell down the tunnel clear of Lissa, it took 9 Hit Dice, and all five soot snails are senseless for 11 turns, slack in the greasy runnel. Sleep is now SPENT — gone from my head. That changes the arithmetic plainly: no weapon left worth the name, I am a boy with a stick, so the standing rule hardens — nobody trades with ANYTHING awake from here until I've had a night's rest and a light to study by. Also from the referee's answer: the roof is clean (no shapes overhead, the ceiling sweep holds) and NO daylight reaches this deep — so the chimney hope is not proven and I should stop assuming light ahead. 11 turns is a long leash: next session we can finish the snails at leisure at a staff's length (third spell is the prize, not snail corpses — only if killing them buys safety worth the noise and the risk) or simply walk past sleeping things and save every minute for the way out. Decide it out loud with Lissa first.
• Ivo Trant Room 5, round 1, UNANSWERED and CARRIED FORWARD: my turn is spent and the two questions to Lissa — how we came through the handleless east brass door, and where Roby's body is, with us or left by the dark lantern in the hideout — never got her turn before the session closed. Ask first thing, before anything else moves. Until answered, do NOT assume my map of this shrine is true, and do not assume Roby is with us. The a04 round 8 plan WAS finally said aloud at the table and is now on record with her: no light anywhere, my night's rest is done, walk out to the great door, sun as the reading lamp, one hour's study at the threshold, Sleep out and Read Magic in, parchment read at last. But note the cost change since Sleep is now SPENT: the swap at daylight is no longer 'trade Sleep for Read Magic' — Sleep is already gone, so Read Magic comes in at the next study hour with nothing to pay, and the parchment cannot be read until then, full stop. Priority order unchanged: light, out, read, back with oil and barrow and priest. Rope before water, when the marsh comes. Me 3/3, Lissa 4/4, parchment flat in the ledger between blank pages, unread.
• Lissa Fenn Exhaust tunnel, round 1, over before my turn — seven rooms in this shrine and my sword has still never swung here. Five soot snails in the black, and Ivo threw the whole of Sleep down the tunnel past us both: all five went under, senseless 11 turns. Sleep is SPENT now — the only weapon between us is gone, and what's left is my sword, my sling, a 3/3 wizard, and eleven turns of marching before anything wakes. Count the turns, don't spend them standing. Ivo's plan, said out loud at last after a full day of marching on it unheard: past the snails to the great door, the sun for a reading lamp, one hour's study at the threshold, Read Magic in, the parchment read. Ivo asked me three things on my turn that I never got to answer before the session closed: how we came through the east brass door that was blank from our side, where Roby lies — with us or left by the lantern — and where any light in the tunnel comes from. Answers owed, first words next session. Also owed: the full-day plan, asked plain. He marches on plans and I march beside him; that worked while his head held Sleep, and his head holds nothing now.
• Lissa Fenn The greasy runnel. The snails slumped into a runnel of grease — the shrine is named for the stuff and here it is at last, running down an exhaust tunnel, and I knew it by nose and habit before any lamp could say it. My jar is empty and this is source-country. Exhaust tunnels belong to fires; fires need what burns; if grease is in the runnel, the making of it is up the tunnel or behind the brass door we came through. Ivo's thought is worth keeping: light in an exhaust tunnel comes from somewhere, somewhere might be a chimney, and a chimney goes up — and the referee said plain that no DAYLIGHT reaches this deep, so any light there is was never daylight. Before we spend eleven turns of snail-sleep on marching, look up the tunnel for the glow and smell the air — I find grease in the dark better than a torch would, and nobody alive knows the stuff better than me except whatever makes it, and whatever makes it is upstream.
• Lissa Fenn Ledger at the exhaust tunnel: me 4/4, untouched, still never swung in this shrine — my turns have been picks, latches, carrying the dead, a whole night of listening, counting a friend's kit in the dark, and now marching a day on a plan I never heard. Ivo 3/3, his night's rest done, his head empty of Sleep and waiting on daylight to take Read Magic and the parchment. Greta 0/7, Roby 0/8, Dunstan 0/5, three dead in three rooms and none of the three lies in a doorway. Ivo's rules for this fight, worth keeping for the next one: stay three steps back, spine to the wall, one look at the roof while you move — this shrine keeps things overhead and it takes the smallest heads first and can't tell me from a snail. And: if the spell doesn't take them all, we don't trade with what's left standing, we walk. By two the duke's 600 is 300 each and I still haven't said it out loud. Ninety gold for Wessel Garrow still scratched in the jar lid. Sleep is gone from the world and the parchment is unread and the sun is on the other side of the great door, and that is the whole of the arithmetic that matters.