Standing Stones

The Misfit Six and the Fellowship of the Key left Laxle Do'Ridd in his nook and set out for Standing Stones. When they made the turn off Statue Square, the tunnels and corridors opened up, making the passages seem more like streets with tall buildings on either side. Any "ceiling" was higher than the reach of torchlight or darkvision, and Myth Sveldin suddenly felt less like a dungeon and more like the city that it was. Safad felt a current in his blood, and had the strange sense that magic worked differently over here.

His suspicions were soon confirmed when they reached what must have been a former plaza, and the light spread out slowly revealing ten featureless menhirs, standing in a cluster. He could have sworn one of them moved shyly behind another. Rya clapped her hands excitedly--these were the famous Standing Stones of Myth Sveldin, that she had not yet seen herself! 

"Strangers in the city!" the chorus of stones announced, and then shifted around, backing away from the party. 

"Eyeballs now reign"

"Ruby is the key"

"Violet delights have violent ends"

"Play your part well"

"Hi, Safad." 

Zireael was intrigued and approached. As he reached out to touch one of the stones all ten of them formed a tight circle around him, blocking any chance of escape. 

"Hi, Zireael." They intoned, and then rearranged themselves back in a cluster away from the group. 

The group pressed on through a street at the end of the plaza. Po told them the plaza area used to be easy pickings for good loot, with all the old abandoned homes and shops off the plaza that have since been cleared out. As the street narrowed Po told them this was about as far as he thought anyone from Lakeville had been--no one knew what lay beyond. 

They emerged from the narrow street and it turned out to be a large amphitheater, with the stage set 5 to 10 feet below them and long rows carved into the cavern walls radiating out around 400 feet and extending 100 feet up. The stage was lit with red glowing stones and two strange creatures were arguing in a raspy, gravelly language on the stage. They creatures were living stone, around 10 feet tall each, in vaguely humanoid form, with craggy granite heads and gnarly rock fists. Standing guard by the stage was a larger stone figure, this one more delicately carved in the shape of a massive gnome reaching 15 or 20 feet tall with ruby eyes. Statue or something else it was hard to tell. 

The group did not have much time to ponder the scene when the raspy language turned into a smooth common tongue, with one of the creatures speaking at them: 

“Well, Quake we can stop our foolish bickering about this, here are the traveling thespians themselves! Please, please come join us, for the auditions. Let us see who is the most eloquent, dynamic, performer among you.” 

Excuse us? The group arched a collective eyebrow. Nancy sight-read some of the music Po had found in his book. It was a strange song, clearly from a different time, but the melody was moving on her violin. 

“Oh yes, that is one of my absolute favorites and so well played on that strange instrument. But of course, to introductions: I am Gravelle, the famous director, and this is my producer, Quake. Please show us your range and nuance… your method. A famous line from Ronthud and Julmarra will do."

The group looked at each other. Safad leaped eagerly to the stage. 

"O, that this too too solid flesh would melt thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter!" He rolled a 20.

Gravelle applauded his clunky rocks hands together and Quake furrowed its brow approvingly at Safad. "Oh lovely, just lovely my dear. Now that of course is from Hamloon, but such delivery!"

Ironica went next and performed a sleight of hand, making a pair of rubies appear behind the creatures. It was not what they asked for but they were delighted by the physicality. 

Dala'gse turned to Zireael and asked him to punch him in the face. Dala'gse performed passably and Gravelle and Quake took note. 

Nancy spoke a line from Ronthud and Julmarra and the pair were impressed. 

Prex got up and told the earth creatures that it was Ronthar and Julaz, and that it was originally a goblin play, oft imitated. His performance was not very practiced. Falz did wonderfully, however. Kargi was godawful. 

Po corrected Prex, saying no no Ronthud and Julmarra was its name, it was indeed a gnomish play, one he had done many times growing up. He flubbed his lines. 

Rya went next and even through the sfös haze, or perhaps aided by it, performed nearly as well as Safad. 

Zireael finally was called upon and reluctantly stood solid like a tree, but did it fairly well. He also examined the creatures to see what he could learn about them. He had an inkling they were earth elementals, and immune or resistant to many lesser attacks, while being vulnerable to sonic reverberations and thunder damage. 

Gravelle then asked everyone to audition for the narrator role. Ironica won the part with a beautiful cadence and intonation. 

Gravelle turned to Quake and shrugged. "Well, I suppose you lot will do. Now to assign the roles. Here then: Safad you will play the lead, our hero, Sveldin. Nancy will play Kainin, his best friend, and the villain! That's called foreshadowing what I did just then!" The other parts were doled out with Dala'gse playing the Drow Priestess; Zireael playing the Evereskan High Mage; Prex and Rya playing The Mob; Po and Falz playing the Drow; and Kargi and Dunny playing the Evereskan elves. 

The group was confused...what play was this--also, why are we doing it? Gravelle explained that it was The Handless Builder, his original take on the Myth Sveldin origin story. Since they knew the story so well it should help their performances go well. If they didn't he said not to worry, he was a very physical director and would help them with adjustments. 

The group was still confused, but these creatures were clearly deranged, and strong looking. And what was that hulking statue with the ruby eyes in the corner? Safad took a sip of sfös and thought nothing of it, eagerly holding out his hand for the script. 

Gravelle and Quake handed out a few stone tablets with etchings in common on them, that turned out to be an entire script, with stage directions and all, definitely not written at work. 

Safad let out a delighted expletive. One of his few fond memories of his time on the streets of Calimport was playing minor roles in the plays organized by his fellow urchins. Now he was the star! 

Ironica, the narrator, began. 

In the beginning, there was Sveldin. The legendary svirfneblin builder who envisioned this great city during a time of great strife, back when lawful civilizations were yet rare in the Underdark and dark menaces ever-present. Alongside Sveldin, there was also Kainin, his closest friend and a powerful enchanter. Together they built the majestic city of Sveldin...

The players then read their lines and performed under the watchful gaze of Gravelle and Quake...and that menacing statue with the red eyes. 

Safad quickly became the darling of the director and producer, throwing his soul into the performance. Nancy was also a starlet, in whom they saw enormous potential. 

During an early scene the elementals created a stone prop to simulate the building of the city and they saw it in all its miniature three dimensional glory. A few of the characters quickly made note of the the prop, which they realized was basically a map to the dungeon. 

Ironica's voice set the stage perfectly, though after a short while Gravelle stopped the reading for an adjustment. He touched Ironica, who turned to stone, and he shifted her around in that stone shape, before releasing her into her natural flesh. It was quite painful on her joints and she took some damage. 

Zireael did not like it. He did not like it at all. 

And so it went, with the actors performing, and Gravelle making adjustments here and there, and only rarely doling out praise. Sometimes when he was angry, the group could have sworn the statue's ruby eyes glowed briefly. 

Rya and Prex performed so poorly on one scene they were made to actually consume the poison they had mimed quaffing...and it was actually poison. 

Zireael did not like it. He did not like it at all. 

Nancy asked for less handsy adjustments saying it was hard to work under such duress, to which Gravelle replied it was hard for him to work with such amateurs. But he agreed to be a little more hands off and ask before adjusting. 

After a scene where Kainin (Nancy) went raving mad, she turned to Gravelle and Quake and cast a devastating thunderwave attack on them. The pair were clearly taken aback, but in their derangement thought it was part of the acting and applauded her for such a physical scene, involving the audience so viscerally! 

Safad encouraged the adjustments and as others grew more concerned about their treatment at the hands of these earth elementals, he threw himself more into the role. Clearly, a method actor, channeling the Great Sveldin himself. 

Dala'gse, it turned out, could not read and was slightly embarrassed by this. Safad, dutifully whispered him lines with his Message spell, and he performed them fairly well, with Gravelle noting sometimes an amateur take can convey so much nuance.

By the time they reached the end of the play, Safad was in tears uttering his final line: "I do not build with my hands, I build with my heart." 

Gravelle and Quake applauded thunderously, and Gravelle was so pleased he approached Safad and asked if he could bestow upon him a gift that would help him take on some of Sveldin's deep gnome sheen. Safad allowed it, and was rewarded with a granite-like subcutaneous layer that slowly spread all throughout his body, making his skin harder. 

While Safad was thrilled, suddenly, a heretofore hidden presence was not. Xorn the Xorn came flying out of the cavern wall, fastening some strange stone manacle across the statue's waist and performing his tripedal shamble to reach Gravelle. He did his normally happy spin move, but this time it was angry, punching Gravelle in its rocky face, yelling at it in that gravelly raspy language. "Arx roograldog!" 

Gravelle was shocked and outraged. "Is this your dog!? This thing that has tied up our Golem, and is blabbering at us in the primitive language of our unawakened selves. Saying you are his Ruby Friends, the best friends he has ever had! And that we have been abusing you! Well, little stone creature, it is them that have been abusing our sensibilities with their pathetic excuse of acting. AMATEURS I TELL YOU! Except for you my dear Safad. But this, this, stupid foolish gem hound I cann--" 

Xorn cut him off mid-sentence, slapping him in the face, and saying in a rough Common,“You are soft.” 

Those words might as well have been an anathema--the worst insult a person can lob at an earth elemental. Quake dove at Xorn pulling him away from Gravelle and into an epic battle, trading massive slams back and forth. Gravelle screamed a terrible scream and flung himself at his actors. But Zireael was faster--striking the elemental with his magical blade. Safad protested, but the battle was begun. 

Nancy used her thunder and shatter spells to massive effect, while Dala'gse, Ironica, and Zireael took on the creature in melee combat. Safad eventually sided with his friends and sent magic missiles at his beloved director. The goblins, Po, and Rya, tried their best to attack but it was immune to non-magical weapons. Safad passed Rook to Rya so she could join the fray. 

The stone golem writhed in its manacle. 

The battle wore on with Quake and Gravelle doing some heavy damage, but the party's magic proved too powerful. Xorn was wounded badly but managed to crush Quake to gravel. Gravelle met a similar fate from a crescendoing Thunderwave from Nancy that blasted him nearly to the mezzanine. 

But the stone golem broke free! And quickly smashed Prex and Falz, knocking them both unconscious, or killing them. The group turned on it while Xorn grabbed the fallen goblins and made for the exit. Everyone kept attacking, until they realized the attacks were barely scraping its stone skin. They turned and ran, with Dala'gse and Zireael both feeling the crushing blows of its fists. 

As they fled, Dunny's arthritic legs couldn't keep him out of the golem's range, and he was felled by a massive fist. 

Everyone was nearly through the exit by then, but Ironica turned and clicked her Boots of Speed together, slipping past the golem to grab Dunny. As she turned back, the creature waited, ready to take her on. 

That's when Dala'gse remembered that line from the play as Kainin was turning against his friend: 

"Damn Sveldin and your builders hands! Don't that rabble appreciate the fruits of my labor? Don't they know we built this city together, and I was the one who created all those enchantments they love so well?"

He recited the line to Ironica, who put two and two together, yelling out, "Kainin!" It was the golem's command word, and it stopped in its tracks, fist barely a foot above Ironica's head. 

The wisdom of island dwarves. 

With the golem under their command, but confined to the amphitheater it seemed, the group collected themselves. They stabilized Prex and Dunny, but nothing could be done for Falz, who had already passed on to wherever goblins go when they die. He was 82 years old. 

Zireael helped build the funeral pyre while Prex polished two gold coins and laid them on his companions eyes. He said a few words. 

"And so passes Lieutenant John Falz of the 47th Mountain Division, veteran of the Great Goblin Wars of the Greypeaks, guardian of the Great wood bridge, mastermind behind the Great raccoon rout during the Time of Troubles, slayer of twenty-nine hobgoblins and three worgs during the aftermath of that Great War, meatshield for the Fellowship during the Great Umber Hulk hypnosis, meatshield for the Fellowship during the Great Wererat infestation, meatshield for the Fellowship during the Great Gelatinous Cube Suffocation, meatshield for the Fellowship during the Great Rocky Horror Drama. Companion, friend...and brother." 

There wasn't a dry eye in the cavern. Safad threw a firebolt at the pyre and the Misfit Six and the Fellowship of the Key mourned.