The Hermeroskopeion Mystery
This covers some events in the eighth month of the eighteenth year of the reign of Pharaoh Ptolomy, son of Ptolomy.
This covers some events in the eighth month of the eighteenth year of the reign of Pharaoh Ptolomy, son of Ptolomy.
From Sammus’s Boast:
Kallicrates had already bought supplies and so we set sail soon after the coins were carried on board. Agripinus shared out the coins – 300gp in silver minted coins to each of us and then gave 200gp worth to Kallicrates to pay for the ship and crew for the next period. There were 10 of these Emporion silver coins to a Carthaginian gold coin, rather than 20 as there would have been in Carthage as they were double the weight.
We left in fine weather and the wind strengthened from north on the second day, which was a good direction to sail along the coast and we drifted each night. On the afternoon of the third day there was a shout from the lookout as he spotted the watch tower that gave Hemeroskopeion its name. Odysseus yelled Port ho! and as the afternoon wore on, we rounded the point where the watch tower stood and then rowed northeast to enter the harbour late in the afternoon.
Everything was very quiet as we approached the harbour, and we could just hear the screeches of gulls and the lapping of waves on the shore. Despite our hails there was no response. There were fragments of boats up on the beach and posts pushed into the sand as a landing point, but everything seemed deserted, and the harbour was eerily silent. Everyone felt that something must be wrong.
The harbour was formed by a spit of sand made up of small islets with rock piled in between. To the right or south as we approached the shore, was the watch tower, which was well over 50 feet tall and to the left or North was the settlement, which had a palisade but no sign of any fires burning within. Kallicrates knew that the colony had been struggling, but had no knowledge that it had fallen so it seemed very strange that no-one seemed to be here. Agripinus gave an authoritative shout of “Show yourselves!” in Greek, which echoed around us, but no-one responded.
Kallicrates pulled the ship in close to shore and my comrades and I leapt into the surf and waded ashore. Once we were on land, the Greek kept the ship close by, but ready to leave. Amphius and Toxoanassa headed to the right to investigate the watch tower and I followed them, while Agripinus led Mago and Si'aspiqo to investigate the settlement.
It took a little time for me to catch up to the two lightly armed skirmishers by the watch tower. When I arrived, Amphius reported that there was no sign of any occupants, and more surprisingly there was no entrance and if there were any windows, they must have been very high up. The tower was perhaps 80 or 90 feet high with some sort of roof at the top, just above the battlements. It might be a shelter from the rain or maybe it housed some sort of engine to raise supplies and people to the top. There were signs of digging around the base but whoever had dug seemed to have found nothing. Amphius had seen similar towers used as a harbour light in Alexandria and one or two other large harbours in the eastern Mediterranean, but this seemed too large for such a small settlement.
We headed north towards the settlement to rejoin the others. There was an entrance through the palisade, but the gates were broken and once I went through, I could see burnt buildings within. There were weeds and some bleached bones which Si'aspiqo was examining. Obviously Hemeroskopeion had fallen but what had caused this was not evident.
Four of us searched the town for a short while before dusk fell while Agripinus and Si'aspiqo stood watch. The small town had been sacked and burnt quickly. There were corpses, some suggesting death by violence, but not that many compared to the size of the town. This had evidently happened some months ago but well within the last year. We found lots of dressed stone and roof tiles and a bronze fitting and thought that a thorough search would find much more. There were the ruins of a temple in the centre of the settlement, but it was not clear to which God the temple was dedicated. There was a second gate on the far side, which was much less damaged but had been left open. Both sets of gates had metal fittings. Far away across the fields of the settlement Amphius spotted movement. He saw maybe one or two people disappearing into an overgrown orchard a couple of hundred yards away.
The sun was now starting to set, and we headed back to the ship to report our findings to Kallicrates. We thought the settlement had probably been attacked from the sea and the inhabitants had been killed or had fled or maybe been taken to sell as slaves. This was a daughter settlement to Emporion but no-one there seemed to know of the fall. It seemed strange that report had not reached Emporion of events here.
Kallicrates decided to move the away from the shore and anchor for the night in slightly deeper water, but before then Amphius slipped back over the side and headed ashore to scout out the area in the darkness.
He returned to the shore at dawn and Kallicrates beached the once more. Amphius clambered aboard to report. He had seen evidence of lots of dead adults. He had found a variety of bronze and iron artifacts from which Mago could fashion a couple of dozen spikes to aid in climbing the tower. He had perhaps 8 pounds of bronze and 3½ pounds of iron from a burnt spearhead, cleaver, and shovel.
Si'aspiqo said that this was a place of unquiet spirits which had been unpleasant enough to keep him awake during the night. Amphius agreed that the place had indeed seemed quite spooky but nothing particular had disturbed him. At the mention of the bodies, Kallicrates suggested that we should dig a mass grave for them and Agripinus added that he would say a few words over the victim.
From Sammus’s Boast:
Kallicrates organised a work party from the crew to search the ruins of the town for dressed stones, tiles and metal fittings. He passed out weapons and tools to them and then sent them into the town where we were already searching.
Amphius and I wanted to check for possible entrances to the watch tower. The path to the tower from the harbour was no more than an overgrown rabbit track, whereas the path to the town was wider but still overgrown. We searched the buildings nearest the watch tower for a cellar which might serve as a concealed entrance to a tunnel to the tower. Amphius found bleached bones in a fishermen’s hut with a basement for nets but nothing else of interest.
Meanwhile the others searched the rest of the town. Si'aspiqo was using his arts to search for metal or arcane things and soon found one or two burnt spearheads in a ruined building. There were about four dozen houses in all with the ruins of a temple in centre. One or two of the other buildings were larger than rest but all were in the typical style of the area. All had been burnt out or badly damaged by being roughly searched. There was evidence that one building has been a tannery, another a leather workshop and then a few others whose use or purpose was unclear.
My comrades moved on to search the area of the temple ruins, where Amphius and I rejoined them. Si'aspiqo had an uncomfortable feeling about one area, and Agripinus suspected there were a lot of freshly burnt bones under the temple. He thought perhaps people had stayed here as it had burnt and then collapsed around them. He carried out a religious ceremony, inviting any spirits to leave or be at peace.
By mid-morning Mago and the sailors found the remains of some workshops, including a burnt-out blacksmithy, close to the land gate. They started tidying it up and Mago began work there in the afternoon.
We looked at some of the other buildings and found the ruins of a bakery and a butcher, and then a larger house, which had been smashed but not burnt. There was a small workshop which made roof tiles and another workshop with broken pottery. Si'aspiqo sensed traces of iron in the ashes, and we found bits and pieces that might have been for use on a ship; the shop had been thoroughly looted and then set on fire, but we did manage to retrieve some iron. Half to two thirds of the buildings seemed to have been active and thriving before the attack, but the rest must already have been in disuse. Agripinus thought there must have been two or three dozen households and a population of a couple of hundred people all told. We could not understand how this event had not yet been reported – for no survivors had managed to walk to Emporion and no ships going up and down the coast had reported this calamity either.
Kallicrates thought the place had been well looted and most of the remains smashed, but there were still many things of trade value such as building stone, and a lot of undamaged roof tiles. His men would gather them ready to be loaded on the ship. Kallicrates had posted someone to keep watch from the land gate. They had seen birds flying from the nearby orchards but had seen no sign of people, although it was possible we were under observation.
In the afternoon Toxoanassa and I helped Agripinus investigate the temple while Si'aspiqo helped Mago make some iron spikes and Amphius slept back on the ship. It was clear that there were many bones and crushed skulls, from eight or ten bodies of various sizes, in the first small area we investigated. When I levered aside a pillar of stone it looked like there was a pile of bodies beneath, which had already been dead before they were burnt to ashes. For some bones showed signs of shearing with a blade and there were also marks of spear injuries. There must have been several dozen bodies piled up here; then combustible material had been added and all had been set on fire. It looked like this had been a well organised raid in substantial force. The spearheads we had found seemed to be of typical hoplite pattern and would have been those of the local militia. It didn’t seem likely that the raiders had been Carthaginian, perhaps they were pirates?
Meanwhile Si'aspiqo used his arts to help Mago get a good fire going in the old forge, which quickly burned hot enough to forge iron. Mago hammered hot metal skilfully and started producing iron spikes to the shape desired by Amphius. By the end of the afternoon Mago had completed about 16 spikes and had metal roughly shaped to make 16 more.
We continued with our investigations until the sun set. Agripinus thought the temple was likely sacred to many Greek gods, including the worship of Zeus or Apollo. As we continued to dig, we found many burnt bones, from at least two dozen bodies, with still more waiting to be uncovered from the rubble.
Kallicrates and his men made a pile of roof tiles and some more scrap metal not far from the ruins of the temple. He and his crew returned to sleep on the ship while we set up camp in a larger house as dusk fell.
By the early evening Mago had completed and hardened two dozen iron spikes. As the darkness of night became established, Amphius started bashing them into the watch tower, but after a short while Kallicrates arrived with a torch to complain about the noise, so the Greek stopped and returned to our camp. He kept watch all night, while the rest of us took turns to assist. Si'aspiqo did not join the watch as he set his mind to wander and tried to dream about the events that had taken place here.
Mago and I both slept well after our day of manual labour. Agripinus slept fitfully, dreaming of voices, although he could not make out the words while Toxoanassa had nightmares of fire and people burning and screaming.
Si'aspiqo looked pale and drained in the morning after a night of vivid dreams. He thought the attackers had been Carthaginians – in his dreams they had spoken in Arma, were organised, and looked military. He made a finger drawing in ash of a devise that had been marked on some of their shields. Agripinus recognised it as representing Melkart. It had been a common infantry sign but had been replaced in the modern Carthaginian army by signs aligned to Tanit. He wondered whether the unit had been renegades.
In his dream of the raid, Si'aspiqo had seen people being extorted, men murdered, and women and children taken to ships. He had heard people pleading for freedom or for their loved ones, and others complaining that had paid a ransom or given all they had. It had not ended well for them. Come the dawn the women and children had been taken away, the masts were out at sea and the temple and town were burning. It had looked to Si'aspiqo as though there had been some significance to the tower, but he was unsure what and it may just have been because it was the only building left intact.
There was one other thing, which may have been a sign to Si'aspiqo personally or a part of the raid. His dream ended with something of the scent of the desert in which he had met a vision of Astarte – the wasteland of burning sand and ash. It didn’t seem to be the smell of the burning town.
As the sun rose, we gathered around the campfire and ate some breakfast in the cool morning air. Si'aspiqo suspected that what he saw was a dissident group rather than the regular army: maybe the Baal-Melkart axis was more powerful than we had believed and was running their own operations, or perhaps this was an ex-army unit that had gone freelance.
For now, none could know for certain.
From Sammus’s Boast:
Agripinus concluded that the attack had most likely been a pillage and raid by a force of a couple of hundred Carthaginian soldiers operating as either a rogue unit or as mercenaries for some other paymaster. He told us that although Tanit’s followers were in the majority in Carthage, that had meant that followers of Baal and Melkart had been lured by Iberian riches and were looking to make a name for themselves in these western provinces. He added that we had been fortunate that this attack (or even word of it) didn’t arrive in Emporion as we would have been have been in the wrong place at the wrong time (with the exception of Amphius perhaps). It’s likely that any knowledge of this attack would have been prevented from leaking out by the use of an encircling force inland, and that probably meant that anyone who had seen anything and lived would view another group of Carthaginian mercenaries in a similarly bad light.
He thought that it wouldn’t be too long before a band of Iberians showed up and wanted to extract some revenge for the destruction of its local harbour and closest trade route to the rest of the Mediterranean. Given that we’ve not exactly hidden our presence here, he suggested that we pack up, take what bits we could, and make haste out to sea. Even trading the stone from here too locally might cause suspicion, so he suggested we go far enough that it would not be an issue.
We discussed whether we should leave immediately or maybe send scouts to gather more information and try to ascend the tower before leaving. We decided on the latter course of action and so in the pre-dawn Amphius started hammering in the completed spikes and working his way up the tower, while Mago with assistance from Si'aspiqo finished the remaining ones. I went to assist an armed working party of the crew in gathering up any tiles and stones ready to be carried back to the ship where Agripinus was busy helping prepare the ship for departure at short notice. Toxoanassa kept watch with a sailor looking out from the main gate.
Once the sun had fully risen Amphius climbed back down and went to sleep in the shade. Having completed the spikes Mago joined Toxoanassa, and they left by the main gate to scout inland.
After an hour or so Mago returned to request Agripinus’s presence for a parley. He told us that they had been surprised by a party of Iberians and he had been sent back to the town to request the presence of our leader, while Toxoanassa remained as a hostage. Agripinus, Si'aspiqo and I woke Amphius to join us, and we made our way to the main gate. The lookout here pointed out a couple of light cavalry who had ridden through the fields and circled around orchard and had been watching from there since Mago had returned.
We marched 800 yards through to the furthest part of the orchard, where we could see at least a dozen Iberian tribal warriors and suspected that more were hidden nearby. There was a Spanish man standing in conversation with Toxoanassa. He looked us over and greeted us in Arma, introducing himself as Escas of the Editane. He spoke Arma in a similar way to Mago. His gaze settled on Agripinus, who returned his greeting with an army salute and said, “well met, Escas! I am Agripinus of the Sacred Band of Carthage.”
Escas had good quality leather armour and a helmet which he had donned for the parley. He was armed with a falcata and a spear and wore an ornate silver bracelet covering his right forearm. His men were similarly equipped but with gear of lesser quality.
Agripinus explained that we had landed here as a suitable stop on our way further West and South and had been investigating the widespread destruction, which we had had no part of. He then asked if we could help in any way. Escas replied that it was too late now. He thought that the force that attacked was probably Punic and from South of here and had destroyed the colony and killed all his friends. He added that the attackers had killed or taken as slaves all the Greeks from the town and that we were the first ship since the raid.
Agripinus said that he was horrified to hear that the attack had been the work of Carthaginians but added that there was bad in all races. He asked if Escas had any descriptions of the raiders and the Spaniard responded that some shepherds had heard them as they came inland and formed a line to prevent any escapees. They had recognised the language as Arma but did not understand what had been said. Escas explained that he had served as mercenary for Carthage, where he had learnt Arma.
Escas also told us that everything had been destroyed and ruined and the town was now haunted, and he and his men did not go into the ruins. Maybe the dead would quieten but it was still too soon. He told us that there had been a seer living in the tower, but he did not know what had happened to him — they had shouted up but there had been no response. Agripinus explained that we were trying to get in and might be able to find him. Euripides, the seer, had been able to heal and do other useful things Escas added.
Agripinus asked how long ago the attack had been and we were told that several ships, maybe half a dozen in all, had appeared during the night during the first fair weather after the winter, around three months ago. They had attacked at first light.
After a nudge from Si'aspiqo, Agripinus explained that he had helped with the haunting and that he could also heal. Escas replied that that would help as no-one would return while the town was haunted. Si'aspiqo told the Spaniard that although this was a place of unquiet spirits, nothing had walked when he slept there, although it was an uneasy place. Agripinus promised that he would take on the settling of the unquiet dead and discover the fate of Euripides and report back to Escas and it was agreed that we would meet again in three days’ time. The Spaniard muttered something in Iberian and his men stood up in unison, he saluted and then he and his men marched off.
We returned to the town and the cavalry watched us pass by. Toxoanassa told us that they had been talented scouts and had completely surprised her and Mago.
We explained what had happened to Kallicrates and that we had committed to two tasks and would meet again in three days’ time. He ordered his men to continue making piles of tiles and stone but not to load anything on the ship. He thought the Iberians would be keen to recommence trading — this was probably the trading port for a large area, and it would be inconvenient to take their goods elsewhere.
Amphius slept until the late afternoon when he returned to the tower in the purple twilight with all the remaining spikes. He did an excellent job of hammering them in and ascending the tower. There was a parapet at the top which he peered over before he clambered over and disappeared. After a few seconds he leant over to shout down that there was a hut up there and more to explore so Mago climbed up with a lantern to join him. The slinger had more difficulty, but eventually was able to join the Greek at the top. He yelled down that there was a winch there but also it looked like there were plenty of spiders too…
From Sammus’s Boast:
I removed my armour and wrapped it into a bundle with my shield to be hoisted up. Meanwhile Toxoanassa began climbing up the spikes with the help of a safety rope. She safely reached halfway but then as she ascended further, she slipped, and the safety rope went taut. Amphius clung on and braced himself, and she recovered and climbed safely to the top where Amphius helped her over the parapet. I tied her equipment in a bundle and attached the rope to it when it was dropped down and it was hauled up and then the process was repeated with my own gear. Meanwhile Mago kept watch for spiders.
Toxoanassa and Amphius braced the rope around some sturdy timbers supporting a roof and I stood in a loop in the rope when it was dropped down to me. Amphius and Toxoanassa hauled me up despite Mago stumbling over the rope as they pulled. I put my armour on and looking around I could see there were cut pine logs piled around and there was a plinth and a small roof with a dish suspended down – it looked like it was for a signal fire. There was also a mirror to reflect the light out to sea.
Mago held a lantern and was watching down through a hole leading to the level below. He could see a ladder to one side and where it should be set, to enable someone to climb up onto the parapet. There seemed to be steps leading down into the darkness to the next level down from that. There was a cylinder on a stand with a handle which looked like a hand winch.
Amphius and I hauled up Si'aspiqo who had been back to the ship to collect some more torches. It took him a little time to compose himself, but he then cast a cantrip to feel for spiders. He thought there were three spiders on the level below, but more beyond. He cast protection from evil on myself, Mago and Toxoanassa and I stepped onto the cylinder for the winch which was about five feet down and Si'aspiqo handed me a torch. I then jumped down to the floor another five feet and started burning the webs.
Mago followed me down and a spider landed on him, but it leapt straight off. I tripped and a spider jumped on me, but again immediately scuttled off. The protections seemed to be working! Toxoanassa joined us and cleared some web, but she was attacked by a spider that bit her. I cleared more web and squashed and burnt two of the spiders. Toxoanassa was bitten once more.
Mago’s torch set light to some of the debris, and he tried to extinguish the flames. He fell over but he did put out the flames. Toxoanassa and I cleared some more web, and she spotted a square hole to the next level. The last spider was trying to escape that way and she singed it with the torch but it escaped to the level below.
Looking around there were stacks of wood with waxed leather covers around the wall, presumably ready to feed the fire for the light. It was lucky Mago had quickly extinguished the fire as there was the fuel for a large conflagration. Toxoanassa started to feel a lot of pain from the bites in her arm and leg and evidently been poisoned.
Si'aspiqo cast his protection on Amphius, who joined us and then used his sword to cut his way through the web down the steps to the next level, while the rest of us kept the torches away from him. He got about halfway down the steps before becoming entangled in the web. He could see there was a lot of web on this level and the movement of multiple spiders. He became entangled in the web and a couple of spiders dropped onto his legs but leapt off immediately. He was forced to leave his sword behind as I helped to drag him out of the web and back to the top of the steps. He was bitten by a spider but did not seem to be affected by the poison.
I cleared some web and retrieved the sword, and then burnt the web off the steps before returning to the level above to keep watch. Mago and Amphius set up ladder and then helped Toxoanassa up to the top as the pain worsened. The two men then used the winch to lower the rope down to Agripinus and were able to raise the remaining equipment and then Agripinus. While Agripinus looked at Toxoanassa’s wounds, I put out my torch and Amphius kept watch on the steps down to the second level. I stayed close by in the dark. There was a strong smell of pine resin.
After half an hour Agripinus had cleaned the Scythian’s wounds and stopped the poison spreading any further, but she was still restricted in her movements and would take a few hours to recover. The priest donned his armour and cast the light of Tanit to drive any spiders further down the tower. I relit my torch to clear the webs. Si'aspiqo checked on the spiders in the next level down, while Amphius retreated to the darkness of the parapet.
As I cleared the webs I saw an alcove with wooden doors, but I left them unopened and continued on. The spiders were shrinking away from the holy light, four or five gathered together and then moved down to the next level through another opening. As I cleared the room of webs, I noticed a table, a desk, and a chair. There was a shadow in the corner where the spiders had disappeared. One section of the wall had a grid of vertical and horizontal wooden struts and as I cleared the webs something in one of the spaces between started to smoulder. I quickly and carefully extinguished it and then moved away. It looked like there were parchments or papyrus in most of the spaces in a ten-by-ten grid. I left them for the magician to investigate. There was nothing else here.
Agripinus with the light of Tanit led the way down the steps to the next level driving the spiders before us. There were around 8 spiders on this level, Si'aspiqo thought – they again gathered together and headed down through a darkened hole to another level. Again this level had doors in an alcove, which I left untouched. I swept the webs away with the burning torch and found a table. I spotted a barrel with sticky black stuff around it and thought it was probably a barrel of tar, I was careful not to set it alight. There was another barrel smelling strongly of pine resin and two large amphora. There were many small bottles and boxes on a large table along with other materials. There was an oil lantern suspended from ceiling and two more amphora lying down.
Agripinus shone the light to the level below and Amphius came down to join us. We wanted to block the entrance down to that level, but there was too much on the table that we did not wish to disturb, so we retreated to the level above. Here we used the smaller table to block the entrance down to that lower level, using some of the logs piled on the first level to weigh the table down. Si'aspiqo checked the rack on this level and there were 87 scrolls. This was the largest repository of scrolls he had seen since the library at Alexandria and he seemed impressed.
Amphius checked the pair of doors in the alcove and then opened them. They were storm shutters revealing starlight and a breath of air through the window. The wooden desk was nicely made with writing materials and there was a bronze mirror.
From Sammus’s Boast:
During the night Amphius checked out the rack of scrolls and found nothing suspicious or any hidden compartments or traps. Meanwhile the rest of us took the opportunity to rest. After an hour Si'aspiqo used his cantrip to check on the presence of the spiders and they had now returned to the level below us, but they did not get past the table with which we had covered the entrance to our level. Si'aspiqo wanted to check out the scrolls to see if any shed some light on the tower and the spiders and any connection with the underworld. He decided it was best to wait for the first rays of the sun before commencing.
At midnight the magician went into a dream sleep and twitched for half an hour. On awakening he looked disturbed. He reported nightmares springing from a sense of underlying evil, and felt the spiders were some sort of kin to those we had met in Kaskator.
It remained quiet until dawn, when Si'aspiqo opened the wooden shutters which faced directly towards the morning sun. By this light he started to look at the scrolls, checking the titles in search of any working notes the seer might have left. Over the next few hours Si'aspiqo checked all 87 scrolls and reported that he had found:
Si'aspiqo thought that someone had spent a lot of time transcribing arcane lore from Egyptian to Greek – the Greek was in a single hand, but the Egyptian scrolls were a range of ages and hands. The other scrolls seemed like a library of Greek literature assembled over time. The seer, if it was indeed he, had spent years of work translating from Egyptian. Si'aspiqo suspected that maybe he had mistranslated something, which had opened the way to the underworld for the spiders.
As he worked his way through the scrolls, he carefully placed them in my bag and once it was full, I lowered Agripinus down the tower and he took the sack to the ship to find Kallicrates and ask him to have the scrolls sealed in a watertight barrel. Kallicrates was in town collecting roof tiles with the crew, but Agripinus found him and left Kallicrates to the task. He then returned to the tower with more sacks and the makings of more torches, and I used the winch to hoist him back up to the top.
By mid-morning all the scrolls had all been checked and taken back to the ship for safe storage and we had made some torches. Dawn had restored Agripinus’ powers to full capacity and after some food and drink Toxoanassa was feeling much better. Si'aspiqo meditated for a few hours to rest his mind and recover his mana. Soon we were all ready to strive again against the shadow in the tower beneath us.
Agripinus called for the blessing of Tanit and then immediately brought forth the holy light of Tanit and, as I pulled aside the table, he shone that light before him and led the way down the steps into the next chamber. I had a lit torch in one hand and my sword in the other and I was close behind him. Si'aspiqo held a torch ready to be lit and Toxoanassa held her dagger, both ready to follow.
As the priest started down the steps his light revealed the shadows of spiders scuttling away, heading to the exit down to the next level. This level was still clear of webs, so we headed to the next steps, pausing briefly to open the shutters, and spread some more light. Agripinus used his sword to cut the web that covered the steps, and I used my torch to burn them away and we began to descend. Agripinus heard buzzing down amongst the web and then saw a swirling shadow as a swarm of locusts, flies or beetles rushed past his light and my torch was extinguished as they swept by. Behind me I heard Si'aspiqo start to mutter, but he was prevented from completing his incantation by the swarm. Most of them carried on, heading higher up the tower, where Amphius waved his sword narrowly missing Mago’s head. A few of the insects landed on Toxoanassa and bit her, but she crushed them with her hand.
Agripinus climbed back up to the next level and waved his light and the remaining insects here collapsed to the floor and Si'aspiqo cast protection from evil on himself. The main cloud of insects headed up away from the light of Tanit and then dissipated to dust as they reached the light of the sun.
Si'aspiqo relit my torch and we continued.
From Sammus’s Boast:
Agripinus led the way back down the steps. As we descended, he cut through the web with his sword, while I burnt the remnants with a torch. A spider landed on the priest and leapt off. It was struck by his sword but scuttled off back into the web. We reached the bottom of the stairs and saw there were no windows on this level, but there did seem to be furniture in the web in one corner.
Two more spiders leapt at us but then scuttled away as my sword narrowly missed. There were a couple of fitted wooden cupboards on one wall and stairs in the far corner. As we cleared the web from the room, we found a mouldering pallet bed with a corpse upon it. The corpse was extremely dried out, almost desiccated. I spotted a roll of parchment under my feet and pointed it out to Si'aspiqo as he followed me into the room. Toxoanassa took his torch when she joined us and by its light the magician checked the parchment for magic and then read it. He recognised the same hand as on many of the parchments he had already seen. It was a poem:
They came,
Apollo answered not.
The play ended,
With fire and lamentation.
So passes knowledge,
And the laughter of life,
Like tears in rain
Agripinus noticed an overturned cup nearby with some residue, which seemed to have rolled off the bed. The corpse was lying as though it had just gone to sleep. Amphius came down to check the cupboards for traps, while Agripinus said a few words over the corpse and shielded the light of Tanit so that the Greek was not dazzled. The first cupboard had clothes in boxes in a grid and the second had a stone bowl, a steel razor, a brush, some soap, an empty commode, and a jug that looked as though it probably once held water but was now empty. Agripinus thought the corpse looked as though it had been dead for a decade or more. There were no obvious signs of bites or wounds.
Si'aspiqo tried to cast protection from evil on me, but he failed to cast the spell successfully and gave himself a headache. He waited ten minutes and tried again once his headache had subsided. He failed once more and this time he ended with a splitting headache and was now unable to cast magic for a period. He retreated to the top of the tower to recover, and Toxoanassa took the torches off him. I relit my torch and followed Agripinus down the steps in the corner. I was bitten by a spider and could feel the wound was poisoned. I swung my sword wildly and it got caught in the web – I had to use my torch to burn it free. I was bitten again but this time I shrugged off the poison. My right arm felt cold from the first bite and was starting to weaken. Toxoanassa stabbed and killed one of the spiders.
We retreated to the bed chamber above and Agripinus extinguished the light of Tanit and washed out my wound with holy water. He cast a cure light wound spell and after ten minutes my arm felt fine. The priest recast his holy light and we descended again. Agripinus killed a spider, but I was bitten again although I did not sense any poison in the wound. The remaining spiders scuttled away to the corner where there were more stairs down. On this level as we cleared the web, we saw six amphorae and six stone storage urns. There was also a grid or rack along one wall, with some jars.
We were now about 50 feet down from the top, so getting towards the bottom of the tower. We descended the next set of steps and there seemed to be less web in the next chamber. There was something dark moving in the shadows. It looked like a very large snake as it struck at the descending Agripinus.
Agripinus hit it with his sword, but it wrapped itself around his torso – maybe it was a tentacle rather than a snake. The shadows here didn’t seem to be fully penetrated by the light of Tanit and there was an odd mixture of light and shadow. I leapt down the steps past Agripinus and landed safely on the floor. I struck at the tentacle, which was still wrapped around Agripinus, severing it. Blots of darkness sprayed in all directions and the light of Tanit penetrated more thoroughly into the room. The tentacle writhed and shrank back into a corner, and I noticed there were many chalk marks covering the wall and floor. There were spiders at my feet; one bit me on the leg and I felt poison seeping into my blood once again. There seemed to be more of the tentacle emerging from the wall.
Agripinus and I attacked the tentacle and it recoiled. I hit it hard and was bitten again by a spider but felt no more poison. Toxoanassa got to the bottom of the steps and stabbed a spider, but it scuttled away. Mago followed the Scythian down the steps. He impaled a spider with a throwing knife and Toxoanassa killed the last one.
I stepped forward to deal with the tentacle and was struck by the flailing tentacle, but then Agripinus struck it and I cut through it and the stump disappeared through a crevice between wall and floor. There were two large wriggling sections left and they turned to smoke, and the darkness dissipated as the light of Tanit shone on them. My leg started to go cold from the poisonous spider bite.
The chamber seemed empty apart from the chalk marks on all the walls and floor, so we ascended to the chamber above and again Agripinus washed my wound with holy water and cast cure light wounds. Amphius passed us and investigated the chamber with the chalk marks. He reported that it was still unnaturally dark in one corner, which might be steps down. Having treated me, Agripinus went to investigate. The dark area was where the wall met the floor and the stump of the tentacle had disappeared. The priest cast a glyph of ward against evil. There were no more stairs down.
We rested for half an hour and Si'aspiqo’s headache had faded somewhat, so he was able to descend and investigate the chalk marks. He concluded that it was a connection with another world, and a physical crack had been opened. There was a protection which had been messed up by footprints. There were also mathematical doodles. He thought he might be able to disarm the connection by erasing some marks, but he would need to be vigilant not to remove the protection.
It was now mid to late morning. I went to the roof with Agripinus to recover from the poison. Amphius checked the racks, amphorae, and urns. There had been a large amount of food stored at one time but there was virtually nothing left. The amphorae were empty but had probably contained water. There were a few grains in the urns, and a few herbs remained in the racks. We concluded that when the town had fallen the seer was unable to descend from the tower or have his provisions resupplied. Once his supplies had been exhausted, he had taken hemlock rather than die of thirst or hunger. Agripinus speculated that maybe the body seemed so old because the seer’s life had been magically extended in some way.
Si'aspiqo found Greek letters on some of the jars and with help from Amphius was able to decipher that two said Hemlock. Others said something like sleep or dream. In the workshop they also found a barrel of tar and another of pine resin. There was an amphora which might have had wine, they found traces of something very aromatic, a honeycomb with a strange smell, and a very heavy liquid. There was also an oil lantern and one or two smaller amphorae that had once held olive oil or vegetable oil.
We spent the afternoon clearing the tower and then wrapped the corpse in a blanket and lowered it down to the ground to be cremated and then buried. With some of the logs stored at the top of the tower, Agripinus created a small pyre nearby at set it alight at dusk. He carried out a short ceremony as the sun set and then buried the ashes. We left the rope hanging down from the tower and returned to the ship for the night, where we had a meal and related what we had found to Kallicrates.
From Sammus’s Boast:
The night passed without incident. Everyone had a reasonably peaceful sleep, although Si'aspiqo was disturbed by unsettled dreams at one point. By the morning Toxoanassa and I were recovered from our spider bites and Si'aspiqo was again able to use magic. We returned to the tower and Amphius climbed the rope back up the tower. Mago followed him and then they used the winch to haul up everyone else. Agripinus and Toxoanassa were safely raised to the top of the tower, but when it came to my turn, just as I approached the top, the handle on the winch broke and the rope ran away. I grabbed for a spike and managed to cling on. Amphius and Mago secured the rope, and I climbed up the remaining few feet to where Agripinus was able to grasp my hands and help me clamber over the parapet to safety. Mago started work on repairing the winch handle, while Amphius and I passed down a rope with a loop and safely hauled Si'aspiqo up the tower to join the rest of us.
Mago continued to work on the winch handle, while Agripinus cast the light of Tanit, and led the rest of us down to the bottom of the tower for Si'aspiqo to investigate the gate to the underworld. As soon as we reached the next to bottom chamber, Si'aspiqo cast a cantrip and told us there were two spiders on the bottom level. Agripinus descended cautiously and saw a spider scuttle away from the light. On the stairs Si'aspiqo recast his cantrip and reported that there were no spiders left so we assumed they had gone through the crack into the underworld.
Si'aspiqo worked up and cast a protection against evil on the crack which we thought was the gate to the underworld and told us it would last the rest of the day. He studied the markings by the light of Tanit but was unable to make sense of them. Agripinus prayed to Tanit for guidance and had the feeling we had done all we could do and should leave the tower.
We returned to the top of the tower, where Mago had fashioned a replacement handle for the winch. I was safely lowered to the ground, but when Agripinus began his descent, his foot slipped from the loop in the rope. He managed to cling on and was lowered down to the bottom. Toxoanassa, Mago and Si'aspiqo all descended safely and leaving just Amphius in the tower, we went to fetch supplies from the town. Kallicrates and the crew had piled up a substantial quantity of tiles and some stone in the town but had not transferred it to the ship.
We planned to fashion covers to block off the entrances to the two lower levels and to weigh the covers down with rocks or stone. The supplies were hoisted up the tower and then Mago supervised the work while Si'aspiqo wrote elaborate warnings in Egyptian and Greek and Agripinus supplied a briefer warning in Punic. The copper mirror was salvaged and lowered to the ground.
Everyone else descended safely via the rope and then leaving the rope for the winch at the top, Amphius used his own rope and spikes to climb down. After halfway he removed all the spikes as he descended. He then released his rope and recovered it. We returned to the ship for another quiet night with only one or two unsettling dreams between us.
After breakfast the next morning we headed straight to the orchard. Late in the morning we heard horses and a few light horsemen appeared close to the city gate. Soon about two dozen cavalry led by Escas arrived. These were better armed and equipped than the first time. We suspected that there might be more, lighter armed troops in the orchard.
Escas approached and greeted us and said he was here for the parley as agreed. He had spoken to his chief and would report back to him. Agripinus returned his greeting and complimented him on his troops. He told Escas that we had carried out what had been agreed to. In the tower we had found a doorway to the underworld. The tower had been cleared and we had blocked the portal as best we could and left warnings not to disturb. The temple had been reconsecrated and as much as possible any evil removed. Agripinus explained that the seer was dead.
Si'aspiqo who had been hiding in the shadows, stepped forward and explained that there was a problem here. He suspected that the seer had worked for many years to control a small access to the underworld, from which small evil could enter. He had died and we had given him the best rites we could. The tower was a cursed place, he added, and we would strongly advise against going there. We had made it difficult to access physically but didn’t have the power to close the crack of evil. Unquiet spirits were still there, he told Escas, but the local ones we had dealt with as best we could by our rites. The tower would be unquiet until someone able to close it was found.
Escas replied that he would bear messages to his chief and Si'aspiqo told him that we would take an oath that we had done all that was in our power. Escas believed us as he thought we seemed earnest people. He told us that the Editane were happy, and we would be welcome to return. He would report what we said to his chief and he was sure the chief would call the tower taboo, a forbidden place. Maybe Greeks would return, or his people live here at some point in future, but he was grateful for our warnings and would wait and see whether the spirits are quiet. He bade us fair voyage. We noticed that we hadn’t been asked into the interior, but we hadn’t requested to go there. It had been a cautious meeting and maybe they were hoping for better news.
We returned to the colony around midday. Kallicrates had set watchmen at the gate and the rest of the crew were on board the ship awaiting our return. Agripinus told Kallicrates he could start loading the ship. The rest of the day was spent loading the tiles, and we left on the high tide a little before dusk leaving some of the tiles behind.
We talked with Kallicrates and Odysus and the pilot explained that Akre Leuke was the next port along the Iberian coast and the start of the Carthaginian world. Then there is Carthago Nova, which was a new port, followed by Baria, Sexi, Malakka and Kart. The last being the closest port to the Pillars of Hercules. Odysus had even sailed through the Pillars once to get to Gadir, on the shores of the Demon Sea. From this point onwards we would be in Carthaginian waters and Kallicrates felt that Agripinus would make the best spokesman from now on.
We agreed on Carthago Nova as our next destination as a city being built ought to be a good place to sell the roof tiles.