Session 8:
Confronting the Roach School

Gogrun caught one of the students by the arm and while grappled we could that the student’s had tattoos of blocks and walls and the roaches seemed to be confined to these tattoos. There were some white roaches amongst the black and these seemed to have some significance, although we have no idea what it might be. Finally the students have a thumb-sized impression in their foreheads.

Quick thinking Yarold uses the butt of their dagger to put in a hard but not lethal attack on the forehead impression of the student and too our relief he seems to waken from his giddy mood and react with horror to the roaches that are swarming over him. He seems to have no memory of his recent behaviour.

Ye Sing tries to snatch the white roaches from the body of the other student and eat them. He is not very successful but when he touches the white roaches he has a vision of them swarming in a large cave. He feels this might be a vision of the caves where the guardian spider is missing.

Between us all we are able to also bring the other student to their senses through an undignified brawl and another blow to mysterious indentation in their forehead.

Both try to free themselves from the roaches but have no memory of what happened while they were under the influence of them. This seems odd, perhaps the roaches were actually controlling their bodies or perhaps people have no idea of what happens when under roach control.

Work and no pray

We enter the monastery which seems empty and abandoned, presumably the other monks have all lost their minds like the students we encountered. The prayer cells we pass have marital guides which are out of place but far too mild to titillate a worldly man like Gogrun. This is a form of decadence being enacted by those with no real knack for it.

Roach idol

Deeper within the temple is a workshop with a stone guardian (missing an arm) and doorway decorations that have been abandoned during their construction. Construction of the decorations and the guardians must be part of the Boulder School’s normal responsibilities.

The guardian has been crudely reshaped to bring in cockroach motifs and appearances. Clearly the guardians are being corrupted to serve the roaches. Someone also seems to have been making roaches of stone and metal but fortunately these are not life-size but perhaps the size of a large melon.

There is also a statue of a roach that has been adorned with the symbols of sainthood. It is a blasphemous thing and when we look at it properly it is entrancing and makes us utter the name of Odiyock.

Gogrun and Ye Sing are outraged, the former by the violation of his will, the latter by the reminder that he is not as omnipotent as he likes to think. Outraged the pair try to smash the statue to bits with the masonry tools that are present. Yarold and Tahleela join in but are able to see the guardian and the small roaches stirring and see that a trap has been sprung.

Using the lump hammers, some magic and with Master Atta’s powerful technique (he has after all already torn off the guardian’s arm in a previous bout) we are able to defeat the animated stone before anyone is too badly hurt. Ye Sing has been buffeted by the stone roaches but fortunately no-one was struck by the guardian and we defeated it before it could arm itself.

At the pinnacle

Having climbed to the top of the school we can see that Sister Boulder is a rock person, like Blind Elephant, sitting on a pillar with a golden band around her middle. At her base swarms a mass of cockroaches hiding in her shadow.

Also nearby we can a man whose head is covered with roaches, Atta identifies this disturbing person as Topka, once master of the Boulder School.