Progress in The Temple Between hasn't quite ground to a halt, but it's glacial. The party has just started its confrontation with the berbalang in Nine Bells in Overlook while the local drunks and lunatics who are still conscious are hurling abuse, and the occasional empty bottle, at it.
I also did a little research on siege engines online mainly because I wanted to know what sort of range these things had. Even the most powerful pumpkin-hurling machine can only throw a missile 642m at most, and, in truth, no siege engine could possibly hit a house anywhere in Stonehammer. When Gunpowder and his companions have to rescue Itrika Mountainhome, the missile from some distant catapult can be replaced by a second berbalang, which has managed to penetrate deep inside the city.
It was after reading up about catapults and onangers and the like that I also wondered how General Zithiruun's army might come to have transported any with them at all. Everything is supposed to have been done with great secrecy. I've assumed that they come in kitset form, and they are, necessarily, fairly small things. A large siege engine could only be constructed on site and I can't imagine the general has a particularly large force at his disposal.
In fact, the whole attack is a bit pathetic because Overlook should be able to dispatch a force of sufficient size to have General Zithiruun scurrying back to the Astral Sea.
I also dealt with the time factor involved in the attack on Nine Bells by having lookouts posted on the roof of Caer Overlook. I had Great Elder Morgoff dispatch the heroes to Nine Bells rather than waste about an hour and a half of real time. That is, the messenger brings word from Nine Bells (travel time: c. 45 minutes) and the PCs go there (travel time: c. 45 minutes, not including the adventurers replenishing their supplies; actually, I sent them back to Elder Cadrick's palace where the butler, Mr Berendsson, warned them that the stonework around the West Gate may be in a state of ill-repair). Even so, I tacitly allowed the berbalang to happen to be back to cause more mischief and mayhem because by the time the PCs arrive, the attack has really been long over.
The other potential fly in the ointment was Megan Swiftblade because she and her band are already in Nine Bells guarding the Temple of Moradin. Since it's expected that heroes are always defending things whether anyone's asked them or not, it wasn't unreasonable to surmise that Ms Swiftblade and her ego might've dealt with the berbalang. Indeed, berbalang which the party is fighting may be a different one from the one which originally attacked Nine Bells.
We do have a holiday coming up, but I'm not going to have much opportunity to press on, and expect that there may not be a lot to report over the next few months.
