Alucard \\ Adrian F. Ţepeş (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cryptsleeper) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
usir2019-08-28 08:31 pm
cryptsleeper) wrote in usir2019-08-28 08:31 pm
LOG: THE ABANDONED TEMPLE OF ERODYN
Character(s): Whoever is along for the adventure
Status: Open
Location(s): An abandoned temple in the forest that is north of battlefield D
Date(s) 28 August-12 Septemer or so
About: Brief Summary
Warnings: Violence, other warnings to be added
🜙Mystery Inc.
For the past several months, the three cities have been unusually quiet. The flood season has come to pass, and with the long, lazy days of summer coming to an end, it seems that all kinds of activity has begun to pick up. There are preparations for harvests being made, people are beginning to think of pickling and canning the summer's fruit, and the masked cult has entered the rumor mill again.
The rumors surface on the cities' black markets, where there is always talk of treasure to be found in ruins. There are plenty of old temples out there with lost treasures and decaying libraries, and the cult's new activity hub is no exception. Just north of one of the battlefields is a thick forest that was once home to a Temple of Erodyn, the Ink Dipped Heron and a magnificent library. Even since the days of the three dragons it is said to have been lost to time, with libraries and temple treasures only befitting the goddess of writing and craftsmanship.
Those marketeers are fascinated by the promise of treasure and are offering top dollar for whatever can be taken. Those within the city governments? They murmur worriedly about the cult, but won't dare to put together any formal expedition.
Due to it's proximity, it is the Free City that has the most to be concerned about with the Cult operating so close, and it is some unofficial channels that quietly hire a centaur ranger who is familiar with the area. Roxanna is a centaur of great skill and slightly shorter height than many others of her race, but that only makes it easier for her to get into tricky-to-reach spots. In turn, she has put the call to action out to the three cities, and is ready to leave once a team that meets her satisfaction has been assembled.
🜙A trail barely blazed
The group will leave from the Outskirts Market with their guide, Roxanna, with the centaur expecting everyone to have bought their own equipment. (She has specified that this will be a 1.5 to 3 week excursion in her expedition postings.) Those who need last minute items are free to get them at the market itself.
From there, it will take two to three days to reach the edge of the forest depending on the weather. Once at the edge, it will take an additional two days. Along the route, the party is likely to encounter bear-sized rabbits that escaped some magician's lair, pumas, and carnivorous plants. Those with young dragons are likely to be targeted by willows of the wisps, tiny little flames that would love nothing more than to lead some fire breather down a dangerous path.
MAP
🜙The Abandoned Temple of Erodyn Part I
Deep in the forest, the expedition party eventually reaches the abandoned temple of Erodyn. What was once a magnificent plaza (1) with grand cobblestones, a fountain in the center, and great heron statues has since been reclaimed by the forest overgrowth, with greenery everywhere. From time to time, a piece of statue may stick out, but that is all.
The entrance to the temple itself features a long portico, held up by eleven columns. Each column, wide and fat, with palm engraved into the column’s top and bottom, bears a thin patina of paint. What was once brilliant blues, glittering golds, robust reds, and dark greens has since been worn away. The whole place is a shadow of what it once was.
There is a single grand entrance way under the shade of the portico, flanked by two herons who have lost their beaks, but have otherwise survived the ravages of time. Entering the structure will demand a light source - luckily, Roxana has brought torches as well as two skilled magic users in her party, all the better to illuminate the paths ahead. The rooms are all uniform in height - about ten feet.
Room 2
Walking through the grand entrance, the remaining daylight sheds light on the temple's antechamber (2). Upon the walls are engraved images on yellow colored stone of the goddess Erodyn and her multitude of attributes. One wall features a teifling creating a great piece of stonework, one shows a goblin engaged in forging, and the whole of the work seems to be a reminder to those entering this place what they might expect to encounter within its walls. There are no mysteries here, no strangeness, just a large gathering of dead leaves blown in from the entrance over the centuries. There is only one way to keep going, and that is forward.
Room 3
The next room (3) is a long corridor that leads to the next, but it's main purpose as an entry way doesn't mean that it is without purpose. Six statues - three on each side - line the hallway, larger than life three times over. Each heron is perched as if it is about to strike, and the walls feature carved praises of the great goddess. Walking past the statues though, one with keen ears might be convinced they're staying words that almost sound like, glide like a heron.
Room 4
Following the room of statues (that may or may not be whispering), there is a simple room of heron carvings with three potential pathways. One north, one to the east (which is blocked by some sort of cave in), and one to the south west. This is a great room to use as a base of operations while exploring.
🜙The Abandoned Temple of Erodyn Part II
Room 5
Going to the northern chamber (5) reveals a small, round room with a deep well at the center of the north end and a bronze bucket on the edge of the well. There are more carvings around the room, with herons in various stages of flight after a successful hunt. One heron looks extremely pleased with itself, perhaps because it has a fish in its mouth, perhaps because of the stone basin it sits near, eight feet up along the north wall.
The basin high up on the north wall is empty, with stone steps leading up to it, and a hole in the wall near it. There is also an ornate bronze lever next to it. Do you pull it?
On closer examination of the well itself, there are shiny, bright red mushrooms all around it. These are safe to consume, but they have the taste and texture of raw meat. Eating them, even a small amount, also has effects: you may choose one, or you may roll for it.
1 - Overwhelming sadness. The tears come and it's hard to summon the energy to move on for at least thirty minutes.
2 - Urge to confess something to someone in the vicinity. One confession ends the effect.
3 - Urge to hit someone in the vicinity. One strike ends the effect, or an hour of resisting it.
4 - Overwhelming happiness. A feeling of great well-being and contentment.
5 - Paranoia.
6 - Uncontrollable laughter for thirty minutes.
- The wall at the south end of the room, near the door, has the word SAFE written on it in chalk, and there are several bedrolls propped up against the southwest side. They don't look very old.
- You can haul water up from the well in the bronze bucket, and it's safe to drink, but weirdly, it evaporates within about one minute.
Room 6
Since going east isn't an option, the only other area to explore is the south west door. Going in that direction reveals a long hallway (6) that has a sharp incline, moving everyone deeper and deeper not only into the temple, but into the ground itself. It's a strange choice for a heron, but none can judge. Here, the walls are painted with the great feats of Erodyn
No hallway like this is without traps. About halfway through, a member of Roxana's group accidentally steps on a mechanical plate, triggering a rolling boulder. This boulder is about five feet in height, and liable to crush anyone who doesn't get out of it's way. It will stop on it's own by crashing into the wall of the next room, or someone can try and be clever to stop it.
Room 7
Regardless of how the boulder is stopped, the hallway eventually ends and opens up into a much larger work room (7.) Here, pottery shards, stone scraps, metal bits, all of them are thrown about into old piles. The pieces have been worked on as instruction tools, showing how to improve one's craftsmanship. As the group enters the room, those who heard the whispers of the statues earlier hear them again: GLIDE LIKE A HERON. They are louder here, more insistent.
Eventually, perhaps with some trial and error, a member of the party may work out that "gliding like a heron" involves flapping your arms like a bird. Party members not doing so cannot pass into Area 8; it will be as if they've walked into an invisible door even if the door at the end of the room is open. So, do your best heron dance.
Room 8
Going east reveals a room meant for offerings and worship, one of the most holy places of the entire temple. A statue of Erodyn, made of solid ivory, remains seated and undisturbed. A curiosity here is the fresh offerings of water and dried fish (which is starting to smell), suggesting that if the cult really is using this temple, they are being very careful with appealing the goddess the temple is dedicated to. From this room, there is a northern door and a western door in addition to the one the party entered from.
As the group enters the room, the statue swivels its head, fixing them with a golden eye. A remarkably beautiful female voice echoes through the room: TO SEEK THE WISDOM OF ERODYN, PLEASE HER WITH A GIFT. The statue is actually a kind of automaton or golem created centuries upon centuries ago with the aid of the dwarves.
Fortunately, this avatar of Erodyn is easy to please, if you know of her lore and domains. If no one offers any reasonably correct items (coins in low denominations, the aforementioned fish, etc), Roxana will sigh, take a feather pen from her pack, and place it in front of the statue. She wouldn't want the lot of you to get pecked to death for pushing your luck.
Room 9
Going to that second door in the west, a library will be revealed (9). Or well, what was once a library. Here, the shelves are emptied save for a few scraps of brittle paper that falls to dust when it's touched. There are old scroll holders too, made of bronze that is now so very green. For all the brokeness of the library though, there is a neatness here as well, almost fastidiously so.
In the furthest corner of the room looks to be a small blanket pile of some sort, clean smelling and not unlike something one would give a beloved pet (or animus) to snooze on. The blankets have no holes, just some fur.
Room 10
Going north means entering a great hall (10), that at one point served as a dining room for temple priests and visitors who were staying either to worship, as part of an apprenticeship, or asking for alms.
There is a single broken table of wood in the center of what, in comparison, is a plain room with simple decor. The walls are painted with tall grass, much like the mosaic room, but the artisanship is lesser - mostly because there’s the threat of getting food on the walls. Scrawled on the table, in dark red chalk though is a single word:
DANGER
What the danger is is unclear. Based on the rest of the dining hall - broken chairs, scratched walls (definitely animal paws), and burn marks from magic blasts, something has happened here very, very recently, and it may not only involve the masked cult.
Room 11
If you choose to go west out of the dining hall, be prepared! Steps lead down into this room, and the steps themselves are lined with small crates. Examining the crates shows that they are full of dozens of bottles of ink and sheafs of reed-paper. Examining them further shows that the dozens of bottles of ink is actually hundreds of bottles of ink, and that it is all the same type and color. It was made at a temple of Erodyn in Thalassa for about a decade in the recent past, along with a few other kinds of ink, but has become more rare in the last few years. The ink has a reputation for having especially good staying power in comparison to others. The papyrus is also less popular than it once was, as other kinds of paper have grown in popularity with relatively recent developments in technology.
At the bottom of the stairs is an archway guarded by a pair of crane statues similar to, but smaller than, the ones in the offering room. There's one on each side. They are impassable, barring the room with their wings if you try to step past them. Let us know if you try to get further, and how, but for now, assume that attempts to get through the archway are met with attacks by their metal, ivory, and wooden bills and wings.
You can see a little of the room from the stairs without actually attempting to pass the cranes, and it, too, seems to be full of crates. The ones that are open appear to be filled with only one thing:
Feathers. They are scattered everywhere in the room, primarily white, but also in any other color you'd associate with a crane or heron: here and there, you'll see a few black, red, yellow, or orange ones.
Room 12
Going to the east, a small corridor leads to a much bigger room with a divination pool (12). In this room though, there’s none of the calmness of before. This chamber recently bore witness to a bloody battle, if the broken arrows, bloodstains, and a dead cultist are strewn across the floor are anything to go by. The smell of death overpowers the chamber.
As to the divination pool itself: If someone pulled the bronze lever in Room 5, there is water in it (please make a note in the questions area letting people know whether or not you did). If not, it is empty except for several more dead bodies.
Examining the bodies reveals squashed masks, clumps of fur, feathers, and that there are no weapons on any of the dead. There is a single door to the right. Retreating is an option, just as going forward is.
Please let us know if you attempt to use the divination pool as a divination pool. Someone may make the connection between the lever and basin in Room 5 and go back and pull them, but it will quickly become evident that the pool no longer works as it should, even if there's water in it.
🜙The Abandoned Temple of Erodyn Part III
Coming Friday or Saturday!!
Credits: Temple exterior | Map | Temple II | Iniuia
Status: Open
Location(s): An abandoned temple in the forest that is north of battlefield D
Date(s) 28 August-12 Septemer or so
About: Brief Summary
Warnings: Violence, other warnings to be added
🜙Mystery Inc.
For the past several months, the three cities have been unusually quiet. The flood season has come to pass, and with the long, lazy days of summer coming to an end, it seems that all kinds of activity has begun to pick up. There are preparations for harvests being made, people are beginning to think of pickling and canning the summer's fruit, and the masked cult has entered the rumor mill again.
The rumors surface on the cities' black markets, where there is always talk of treasure to be found in ruins. There are plenty of old temples out there with lost treasures and decaying libraries, and the cult's new activity hub is no exception. Just north of one of the battlefields is a thick forest that was once home to a Temple of Erodyn, the Ink Dipped Heron and a magnificent library. Even since the days of the three dragons it is said to have been lost to time, with libraries and temple treasures only befitting the goddess of writing and craftsmanship.
Those marketeers are fascinated by the promise of treasure and are offering top dollar for whatever can be taken. Those within the city governments? They murmur worriedly about the cult, but won't dare to put together any formal expedition.
Due to it's proximity, it is the Free City that has the most to be concerned about with the Cult operating so close, and it is some unofficial channels that quietly hire a centaur ranger who is familiar with the area. Roxanna is a centaur of great skill and slightly shorter height than many others of her race, but that only makes it easier for her to get into tricky-to-reach spots. In turn, she has put the call to action out to the three cities, and is ready to leave once a team that meets her satisfaction has been assembled.
🜙A trail barely blazed
The group will leave from the Outskirts Market with their guide, Roxanna, with the centaur expecting everyone to have bought their own equipment. (She has specified that this will be a 1.5 to 3 week excursion in her expedition postings.) Those who need last minute items are free to get them at the market itself.
From there, it will take two to three days to reach the edge of the forest depending on the weather. Once at the edge, it will take an additional two days. Along the route, the party is likely to encounter bear-sized rabbits that escaped some magician's lair, pumas, and carnivorous plants. Those with young dragons are likely to be targeted by willows of the wisps, tiny little flames that would love nothing more than to lead some fire breather down a dangerous path.
MAP
🜙The Abandoned Temple of Erodyn Part I
Deep in the forest, the expedition party eventually reaches the abandoned temple of Erodyn. What was once a magnificent plaza (1) with grand cobblestones, a fountain in the center, and great heron statues has since been reclaimed by the forest overgrowth, with greenery everywhere. From time to time, a piece of statue may stick out, but that is all.
The entrance to the temple itself features a long portico, held up by eleven columns. Each column, wide and fat, with palm engraved into the column’s top and bottom, bears a thin patina of paint. What was once brilliant blues, glittering golds, robust reds, and dark greens has since been worn away. The whole place is a shadow of what it once was.
There is a single grand entrance way under the shade of the portico, flanked by two herons who have lost their beaks, but have otherwise survived the ravages of time. Entering the structure will demand a light source - luckily, Roxana has brought torches as well as two skilled magic users in her party, all the better to illuminate the paths ahead. The rooms are all uniform in height - about ten feet.
Room 2
Walking through the grand entrance, the remaining daylight sheds light on the temple's antechamber (2). Upon the walls are engraved images on yellow colored stone of the goddess Erodyn and her multitude of attributes. One wall features a teifling creating a great piece of stonework, one shows a goblin engaged in forging, and the whole of the work seems to be a reminder to those entering this place what they might expect to encounter within its walls. There are no mysteries here, no strangeness, just a large gathering of dead leaves blown in from the entrance over the centuries. There is only one way to keep going, and that is forward.
Room 3
The next room (3) is a long corridor that leads to the next, but it's main purpose as an entry way doesn't mean that it is without purpose. Six statues - three on each side - line the hallway, larger than life three times over. Each heron is perched as if it is about to strike, and the walls feature carved praises of the great goddess. Walking past the statues though, one with keen ears might be convinced they're staying words that almost sound like, glide like a heron.
Room 4
Following the room of statues (that may or may not be whispering), there is a simple room of heron carvings with three potential pathways. One north, one to the east (which is blocked by some sort of cave in), and one to the south west. This is a great room to use as a base of operations while exploring.
🜙The Abandoned Temple of Erodyn Part II
Room 5
Going to the northern chamber (5) reveals a small, round room with a deep well at the center of the north end and a bronze bucket on the edge of the well. There are more carvings around the room, with herons in various stages of flight after a successful hunt. One heron looks extremely pleased with itself, perhaps because it has a fish in its mouth, perhaps because of the stone basin it sits near, eight feet up along the north wall.
The basin high up on the north wall is empty, with stone steps leading up to it, and a hole in the wall near it. There is also an ornate bronze lever next to it. Do you pull it?
On closer examination of the well itself, there are shiny, bright red mushrooms all around it. These are safe to consume, but they have the taste and texture of raw meat. Eating them, even a small amount, also has effects: you may choose one, or you may roll for it.
1 - Overwhelming sadness. The tears come and it's hard to summon the energy to move on for at least thirty minutes.
2 - Urge to confess something to someone in the vicinity. One confession ends the effect.
3 - Urge to hit someone in the vicinity. One strike ends the effect, or an hour of resisting it.
4 - Overwhelming happiness. A feeling of great well-being and contentment.
5 - Paranoia.
6 - Uncontrollable laughter for thirty minutes.
- The wall at the south end of the room, near the door, has the word SAFE written on it in chalk, and there are several bedrolls propped up against the southwest side. They don't look very old.
- You can haul water up from the well in the bronze bucket, and it's safe to drink, but weirdly, it evaporates within about one minute.
Room 6
Since going east isn't an option, the only other area to explore is the south west door. Going in that direction reveals a long hallway (6) that has a sharp incline, moving everyone deeper and deeper not only into the temple, but into the ground itself. It's a strange choice for a heron, but none can judge. Here, the walls are painted with the great feats of Erodyn
No hallway like this is without traps. About halfway through, a member of Roxana's group accidentally steps on a mechanical plate, triggering a rolling boulder. This boulder is about five feet in height, and liable to crush anyone who doesn't get out of it's way. It will stop on it's own by crashing into the wall of the next room, or someone can try and be clever to stop it.
Room 7
Regardless of how the boulder is stopped, the hallway eventually ends and opens up into a much larger work room (7.) Here, pottery shards, stone scraps, metal bits, all of them are thrown about into old piles. The pieces have been worked on as instruction tools, showing how to improve one's craftsmanship. As the group enters the room, those who heard the whispers of the statues earlier hear them again: GLIDE LIKE A HERON. They are louder here, more insistent.
Eventually, perhaps with some trial and error, a member of the party may work out that "gliding like a heron" involves flapping your arms like a bird. Party members not doing so cannot pass into Area 8; it will be as if they've walked into an invisible door even if the door at the end of the room is open. So, do your best heron dance.
Room 8
Going east reveals a room meant for offerings and worship, one of the most holy places of the entire temple. A statue of Erodyn, made of solid ivory, remains seated and undisturbed. A curiosity here is the fresh offerings of water and dried fish (which is starting to smell), suggesting that if the cult really is using this temple, they are being very careful with appealing the goddess the temple is dedicated to. From this room, there is a northern door and a western door in addition to the one the party entered from.
As the group enters the room, the statue swivels its head, fixing them with a golden eye. A remarkably beautiful female voice echoes through the room: TO SEEK THE WISDOM OF ERODYN, PLEASE HER WITH A GIFT. The statue is actually a kind of automaton or golem created centuries upon centuries ago with the aid of the dwarves.
Fortunately, this avatar of Erodyn is easy to please, if you know of her lore and domains. If no one offers any reasonably correct items (coins in low denominations, the aforementioned fish, etc), Roxana will sigh, take a feather pen from her pack, and place it in front of the statue. She wouldn't want the lot of you to get pecked to death for pushing your luck.
Room 9
Going to that second door in the west, a library will be revealed (9). Or well, what was once a library. Here, the shelves are emptied save for a few scraps of brittle paper that falls to dust when it's touched. There are old scroll holders too, made of bronze that is now so very green. For all the brokeness of the library though, there is a neatness here as well, almost fastidiously so.
In the furthest corner of the room looks to be a small blanket pile of some sort, clean smelling and not unlike something one would give a beloved pet (or animus) to snooze on. The blankets have no holes, just some fur.
Room 10
Going north means entering a great hall (10), that at one point served as a dining room for temple priests and visitors who were staying either to worship, as part of an apprenticeship, or asking for alms.
There is a single broken table of wood in the center of what, in comparison, is a plain room with simple decor. The walls are painted with tall grass, much like the mosaic room, but the artisanship is lesser - mostly because there’s the threat of getting food on the walls. Scrawled on the table, in dark red chalk though is a single word:
What the danger is is unclear. Based on the rest of the dining hall - broken chairs, scratched walls (definitely animal paws), and burn marks from magic blasts, something has happened here very, very recently, and it may not only involve the masked cult.
Room 11
If you choose to go west out of the dining hall, be prepared! Steps lead down into this room, and the steps themselves are lined with small crates. Examining the crates shows that they are full of dozens of bottles of ink and sheafs of reed-paper. Examining them further shows that the dozens of bottles of ink is actually hundreds of bottles of ink, and that it is all the same type and color. It was made at a temple of Erodyn in Thalassa for about a decade in the recent past, along with a few other kinds of ink, but has become more rare in the last few years. The ink has a reputation for having especially good staying power in comparison to others. The papyrus is also less popular than it once was, as other kinds of paper have grown in popularity with relatively recent developments in technology.
At the bottom of the stairs is an archway guarded by a pair of crane statues similar to, but smaller than, the ones in the offering room. There's one on each side. They are impassable, barring the room with their wings if you try to step past them. Let us know if you try to get further, and how, but for now, assume that attempts to get through the archway are met with attacks by their metal, ivory, and wooden bills and wings.
You can see a little of the room from the stairs without actually attempting to pass the cranes, and it, too, seems to be full of crates. The ones that are open appear to be filled with only one thing:
Feathers. They are scattered everywhere in the room, primarily white, but also in any other color you'd associate with a crane or heron: here and there, you'll see a few black, red, yellow, or orange ones.
Room 12
Going to the east, a small corridor leads to a much bigger room with a divination pool (12). In this room though, there’s none of the calmness of before. This chamber recently bore witness to a bloody battle, if the broken arrows, bloodstains, and a dead cultist are strewn across the floor are anything to go by. The smell of death overpowers the chamber.
As to the divination pool itself: If someone pulled the bronze lever in Room 5, there is water in it (please make a note in the questions area letting people know whether or not you did). If not, it is empty except for several more dead bodies.
Examining the bodies reveals squashed masks, clumps of fur, feathers, and that there are no weapons on any of the dead. There is a single door to the right. Retreating is an option, just as going forward is.
Please let us know if you attempt to use the divination pool as a divination pool. Someone may make the connection between the lever and basin in Room 5 and go back and pull them, but it will quickly become evident that the pool no longer works as it should, even if there's water in it.
🜙The Abandoned Temple of Erodyn Part III
Coming Friday or Saturday!!
Credits: Temple exterior | Map | Temple II | Iniuia
QUESTIONS
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(ETA: Mainly, with the treasure room, we wanted a heads up if someone tries to get in by force. If so, something happens.)
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(no subject)
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Asking for a friend
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Are you gonna fight it? Because it’s pretty determined to fight you.
(Apologies for the confusing answers, we’re kind of... WINGING this.
But you can for sure demolish this thing if you think it’s a good idea.)
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Maybe not
Have you met him
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The broken, broken pool.
Taking a look at the dead cultist’s body in the room might give Strange a hint as to some of the other missing ingredients that people have, um, tried.
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[Alucard had only heard word about the expedition through the black market up in Krimnos. He's happy, being at home these days, coming into the city every so often to take advantage of the summer harvests and simply learning news without being there to witness it. The whole arrangement goes well with the quiet agreement the three of them (himself, Trevor, and Sypha) have made about what they owe to each other versus what they owe to the world.
And yet here, Alucard's interest comes of no particular sense of debt, only that of curiosity. In life, he remembers hearing of the temple and the library it once held. So an expedition to seek it out? It holds as much interest to him as Einjar did - a matter of pure personal intrigue.
It's madness to go and buy supplies and have to haul them, so instead Alucard is shopping now, gathering rations. To the current vendor, he's already handed coin over.]
Thank you kindly. What would be your recommendation for cured meats and sausages? And do you know if there are any blood sausage vendors in the area?
Whispering Willows
--They keep congregating around us.
[Alucard's eyes pierce out at the darkness. It has been impossible to miss how the willows of the whisp have crowded around the camp since the past night, the air not exactly thick with them, but definitely holding a greater concentration. Alucard does not quite lash out at the things either - how do you fight a small flame? - but his eyes remain fixated on them.]
I don't know that I've ever witnessed such behavior.
Within the Temple: Mosaic Room
[It's impossible to state how much this place is a joy for Alucard. It is a space that has been taken by time, and yet none of it's beauty has been lost. It has been transformed thanks to the presence of nature and it's attempt to reclaim the space. He's been polite enough for much of the trip, but it is here in the mosaic room that he has been stunned into silence.
Slowly, thin, pale fingers trace over the mosaic on the walls. It comes with a short, sharp gasp that betrays all the internal sense of wonder overtaking the dhampir.]
The tiles are so small. [He whispers the words, aware he's in a sacred space.] The craftmanship is nearly too much.
Within the Temple: Dining Hall
[Deeper and deeper. Worrisome and more worrisome. The more the temple has revealed, the more Alucard is certain of at least one fact: the place isn't abandoned.
When he walks over to examine the broken table, he tsks softly.]
Do we have a plan for combat or retreat if we're ambushed by the Cult or whoever else has made this temple their residence?
2. whispering willows
Were they fishwives' tales? Yes. Is he taking his chances? Absolutely not. ]
Don't the stories say these things are the ghosts of dead people? Maybe they're just attracted to their own kind.
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What a strange world to live in where that's the correction that must be made.]
Mm. You may be right. Do any of the stories give advice on how to ward them off?
[Alucard's animus, a very ridiculous white wolf, has mostly been hanging around Trevor and Sypha whenever possible. Alucard doesn't mind it, as it allows for closeness even if he's far away. Now though, Ellis is sniffing at Noctis, trying to angle for pets.]
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christine | ota, will match brackets or prose
"I can't imagine anything good will come from pulling that lever." Move aside, everyone; the voice of reason is here. "Besides, if the cult is here somewhere, it's possible that lever connects to something that can alert them somehow." Christine can't, of course, prevent anyone else from pulling the lever, but she's certainly going to have a vocal opinion about it.
"I'm more interested in these bed rolls, and who they might belong to."
{ room 9 ]
The library is a disappointment. After all, Christine isn't here to steal treasures, but to see if there is any truth to the rumor of this cult, and it would have been nice if along the way she could have delved into a well-stocked library.
"Do you think the cult moved out the books? Or was it done long ago?" As she speaks, she approaches the blanket in the corner. What a perfect sized bed for a pet.
{ room 10 }
The message on the dining table has Christine on alert, looking all around for what this danger might be. Ready to put a ward around herself, her animus, and whomever is closest, she whispers, "Could it be the room itself? The room with the basin and lever had "safe" written on the wall. This has "danger." Someone's already scouted this out and knows the danger."
9
Alucard has been examining the shelves carefully, his hands wearing gloves even though he is touching nothing. Hell, he has his hands firmly at his side, as if to ensure it.
"It's useful, if a bit ridiculous."
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5
Instead, he wanders towards the bedrolls. His animus is at his side as Bell tentatively sniffs the bedrolls.
"I suspect those bed rolls belong to one of the cultists. They seem...well, for lack of a better term, they seem newer compared to everything else. Less dusty."
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"I would wager we aren't far into the temple just yet. Someone is marking a safe place to sleep. Does this mean it's the only safe place, or are they sleeping spread out throughout the whole temple? I would think there would be safety in numbers, especially should some intrepid treasure seekers come in." Not that she's one of them, of course. She's the healer of this party.
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[ Noctis isn't stupid. He knows those statues don't want him passing into the next room; he figures it out pretty quickly when he makes one wrong step forward and the statue to his right nearly skewers him on the end of its spear, narrowly avoided by phasing backwards and then somersaulting out of reach. He drops into a crouch, palm to the floor, hissing between his teeth as he eyes the statues warily—but they don't seem interested in him so long as he keeps his distance.
Noctis is broke, and he's been surviving on his own cooking and what supplies he can scrape together through mercenary means for a couple of months, and the merchants back in the Free City have offered to pay for whatever he can recover here. Forgive him if he'd really like to know what's back in that room. ]
Why go to all this trouble to block off a room full of pillow stuffing? Are we sure there's not something important back there?
Room 12
[ He's not accustomed to the gruesome realities of battle—not the stench of blood and death, nor the casual violence of the bloodied remains strewn carelessly across the hall.
He presses a hand to his mouth, trying not to gag. His other grazes the hilt of his blade at his hip, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. He keeps his eyes up, straight ahead, and does not look at the bodies again. ]
There's no way they didn't fight back. It's too much of a mess in here. So who took their weapons?
room 11
Of course there's something important back there, [ Strange remarks, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. ] What we need to do is figure out what it is.
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[ He rocks back on his heels, considering the looming sentries. They've returned to their motionless vigil now that he's stepped back out of range, but he hasn't quite figured out how close he has to get to set them off again, so he's keeping both eyes on them just in case.
They haven't spoken much; only enough for Noctis to conclude that Strange is, well, strange. But if they both want in, regardless of their reasons, well... ]
They're statues. I'm faster. I can get past, but they'll be mad, and if it's booby-trapped in the back getting out will be harder.
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12
She glances at Noctis, trying to gauge the depth of his horror, noting the pointed way he keeps his gaze away from the gore. Shura sighs, hand hovering the seal on her stomach as she summons a small vile of liquid. The vial is shoved in Noctis's face, and Shura will wait for him to take it before kneeling beside one of the bodies to examine it closer.]
Hard to say. Whoever did this might be further in still.
[If he takes a closer look at the vial, Noctis will find that he now has a soft, floral perfume in his hands.]
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[ If nothing else, she's successfully managed to distract him—at least for the moment. He turns the glass vial in his fingers gingerly, staring at it like he's never seen anything like it before ( not like he's ever used perfume in his life, okay ).
He gives it a little puff and, sure enough, ends up with a faceful of heavily floral perfume. He coughs, blinking, more surprised than anything. Congrats, Noctis, now you smell like flowers in a room full of death. ]
Wh—what's this supposed to be for?
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[In a past life, right up until a month or two before her death, Shura had familiars. Shura knew how to handle magical familiars. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't too hard so long as she could figure out what the familiar wanted. A dragon, however, was something else. Sure, the theory was the same--figure out what Aconite wanted, determine if that was what she needed, and go from there. But in practice? Keeping a dragon under wraps and keeping said dragon happy while traveling was a giant pain.
Tonight, it was the damn willow of the wisps. Aconite had nearly escaped her twice that day trying to chase after them. Shura was doing her best to keep Aconite close, fashioning a little harness to keep her from wandering off, making a toy out of a long stick and some leaves. The harness is working, but the toy can't distract her from the wisps. For both of their sakes, Shura keeps close to the fire, dragon in her lap.]
Why can't you just sleep? It's been a long day, you should be tired.
[Whether or not the person nearby her knows about the true nature of the winged kitten in Shura's lap, Shura will just openly whine about the young creature's behavior. Even now at this late hour, Aconite is intently staring at the blips of light and making soft trilling sounds.]
room 5
[Shura had planned to make herself comfortable and take a break in this room. She wanted to sit, maybe eat a bite. But no, of course something had to happened. Aconite has nibbled on one of the mushrooms, and now she's desperate to tell Shura... something. It's hard to say what exactly is happening, only that what appears to be little kitten is making some weird noises in Shura's face. So much for relaxing!]
Hey, hey, calm down. You hungry?
ooc: feel free to handwave enough CR for your character to know about Aconite's true nature! She'll be in disguise as a winged kitten during the expedition, but dang that cat makes some weird noises.