Crystal Cave Adventure (RP)

Albert backs away from Asha. She's acting strangely and he needs a second opinion. As he gets to Deoring, he leans closer and talks quietly so Asha wouldn't be able to hear. "Deoring, there's something strange going on with Asha. I could not sense a connection between her and Raynor when I focused. For some reason, Raynor has left her side and I can't figure out why. What do you think that could mean?"

He looks over his shoulder to see if Asha noticed their conversation. Looks like Roald has her distracted with a question. When Albert feels it's safe, he continues. "She's also acting quite strangely when we talk about the crystals. Have you noticed anything?"

Deoring turns to Albert and says,

"Yes, I was just looking into the wall of crystals over there and saw Asha’s reflection but it wasn’t exactly her reflection. It didn’t quite match her movements… it was distorted… it seemed to be gesturing to me, to be reaching out to me. It was quite eerie.

I don’t understand what’s happening but this doesn’t feel right. Have you ever seen anything like this?"

Albert ponders for a bit and thinks back to his studies as an initiate at the temple. He did read some books there, but did any of them mention crystals? He's unsure about it.

After a bit of thinking, Albert calls Roald and the captain over, then he replies to Deoring.
"I remember reading about something that might be related in a book about religious law. Don't ask me where or when this happened, but there is record of a group of priests working together, long ago, to banish an otherworldly being from their lands. This being had been terrorizing cities for weeks and no military force had been able to stop it. The priests, who were disciples of different Gods, focused their conduit powers together to create chains of divine energy. After a long struggle, the being surrendered to the strength of the priests and their godly chains." He takes a small pause to breathe.

"It is written that Raynor himself came down and sentenced the being to imprisonment within a Gemstone-like crystal." He looks around to try and read the faces of his companions.

"Now I'm not saying that this is that being, but if this is the same type of imprisonment crystal, we should find out why this person is stuck in it and why Raynor wanted us to be here." He makes the face of a person weighing options. "Or we could assume the person in the crystal is bad and ignore it, like Asha wants us to."

Albert then waits to see what his companions think about all this.

''I'm with Deoring and, to be honest, I'm tired, thirsty and hungry. In my opinion, after what you've just told us, it's a bad thing to try and help the voice in the wall. A risk I'm not willing to take right now. Just look how it rattled Asha...''

Deoring has a bad feeling about these crystals. The reflection not matching what he could see with his own eyes can’t be good. And what good have we found in this temple so far? Only the fire of Raynor that Albert brought with him and shared with us.

He says in a quiet voice, "Albert and Roald, I have a bad feeling about these crystals. And have you noticed that Asha sounds different? She’s using old timey language all of a sudden. Do you… do you think she’s possessed?"

"Oh no! Do you think so?" Albert says in a worried voice. "Yes, she had been acting differently. Let me try something."After talking to Roald and Deoring, he walks over to Asha. "Say, Asha, I still have that bone you found in my backpack, do you want it back?" Trying to see if Asha is still terrified of bones or not. If she doesn't freak out, it's definitely a different Asha.

Albert tries to gauge Asha's reaction. She seems to be responding like the real Asha. Maybe she's not possessed, like Deoring seems to think. But why the disconnect with Raynor? "Oh no, I just remembered I did throw it into the water at the stairs. My apologies." He says to try and cover up his test.

Looking to the others, he offers "Shall we keep going then? Try and find some water somewhere."

"Yes, let’s keep moving. We need water and who knows how long that door will hold behind us."

"Maybe we all are, Roald. We've all been seeing and hearing things. What if it's all just the lack of water?" Albert replies, with worry in his voice, to Roald's remark.

"Who of us in the best navigator? We know we've seen water before at the stairs. One of these tunnels must head in that direction, right?" He looks around at the group, then starts to mumble a bit. "Let's see, we came in after a turn to the left, then we went through the door, .... Maybe it's roughly that way?" Albert points straight at a wall with no entrance and sighs deeply.

'' Down is the way to go in this situation Albert! That, or in the direction of daylight if we see some''

Albert blilnks. "Uhm... Is that another delusion?" He says, staring at the wall where Asha disappeared. "Asha? Where did you go?"

Roald, being in front of the party, is the first to reach the place where Asha disappeared. He starts probing the wall (gently) with his sword.
''ASHA! AH ah ah ah ah''