Episode 1 Scene 2b : Life On the Fringe

This is Philips current story line will be posting to it soon just getting it set up

The path to where Philip currently found himself had been long and arduous as well as ironic. He would at times think back upon the events that led him here. The actions to bring him closer to his love, had instead forced him far away without the ability to safely return or contact her. Was it a dark destiny, an ill fated venture, or just a series of unfortunate events. It was impossible to tell for sure. Still here he was in Far Reach within Southbridge village. The experience of becoming a member of the city had been most unsettling but he got through it. Then came the need to further his studies as well as gain a measure of protection in case he was ever recognized and bounty hunters or worse assassins were sent to finish what had been almost completed once before. To this end he joined the Order of Mages and began doing mundane magic and assisted with magical experiments being conducted by others while working on projects of his own in his free time.

There was a knock on the door to Philip's rooms, another fairly phenomenal aspect of this seemingly normal wooden appearing tower inn. The dimensional magic that was used to create the place's interior was fairly impressive. The primary wizard responsible for this place he had not met but considering the fact that he was a fairly insignificant mage that did not surprise him all that much. Still he could help but hope some day that he might get that chance, but hopefully on good terms. Till then it was just a day after day venture of fairly simple tasks.

Kumo, I will set of in three hours I thank you for calling me to complete this Investigation. Philip will leave the room head up to his desk and study the scroll.

The trek is probably one of the longer ones that he has made since coming to Southbridge village as he has to go out the south gate and then head east until he has walked a short distance past the garrison fort that extends out off the east side of the village. Upon arriving it does not take him long to locate the site as the recent piles of raw earth and woodland debris make for an easy indicator of where it stands. Of course he can see that the excavation of the site had been less than professional as much of it is still covered in dirt and a good rain storm, which the plateau gets periodically, will most like bury much of it again. Still lucky enough he does have a spell for that as he can conjure an unseen servant to get started on that while he goes to work on cleaning up and investigating the actual large stone... octagon with its eight short pillars.

Examining the dirty stones is not the easiest of things to do but some of the runes have been cleared somewhat of dirt there appear to be eight symbols adorning each of the pillars arranged in a vertical column on all eight of its sides. The arrangement of these eight symbols is the same on all eight sides but they differ slightly from pillar to pillar such that no pattern is the same on any of the eight individual pillars. Further there seems to be a large rune inset into the flat surface of the some 20 foot across octagonal stone upon which the pillars are attached to. All the symbols appear to be draconic in nature but not a dialect that Philip has seen before. He sees no real divine indicators although does remember that eight is a number favored by chaos but then again it is used in non-chaotic magic as well. The entire stone configuration seems to minutely glow with magic.

The magical aura pervading the entire object seems to be of a deep translucent blue indicating the Conjuration School and once Philip actually begins touching the various surfaces and getting the translations, the the large symbol etched into the flat floor surface reinforces what his Detect Magic spell had revealed in that it is interpreted to read "Portal" the other symbols strangely do not translate. It is as if whatever they represent is either untranslatable or that they simply have no meaning beyond the basic symbol that they appear to be. Philip has never encountered something a Comprehend Language spell could not translate so it is most likely the latter which then does not make it clear what these other 8 symbols are for. However, he is pretty sure they have some use or purpose.

When examining the short octagonal pillars he does notice that each one has an octagonal depression upon its flat topped surface which is about 3 inches in diameter and about an inch deep. Further the stone resembles the stone that the Keep and the great bridge are made of.

While the orb does seem to rest nicely atop the pillar as it rests partially within the depression nothing seems to occur either with the orb or any of the structure he has been investigating.

Philip ponders the planes of Chaos for while and remembers the names but not much beyond that, he would have to spend time in the library to look them all up. Still there is the Abyss, Arborea, Drelmadna, Limbo, Pandemonia, Xiclotl, Ysgard, and Yuggoth and if he did not miss any that means eight of them.