The New Remnant

The flight is glorious and takes about half the day to get where you are going. You fly northwest, heading up along the edge of the swamp and runoff streams to the large river that runs along the north of the swamp. If you were to head east on the river, it would take you to the infinite tower that many of you have visited before. Instead, you turn west along the river, crossing the river and then flying along the northern shore.

After a couple hours, you see a castle emerge from the horizon on the south side of the river. Magian will tell you that the castle used to be the main residence of the Lord whose holdings included Paphos back in the day, and it was one of the few locations associated with Paphos that survived mostly intact. However, despite this, the occupants were wiped out completely. A large tribe of orcs had claimed the castle many years ago and had long ruled it undisputed, but rumors said that a group of giants had recently taken it over. What that means for the orcs (or anyone else) is unknown. Fortunately, Magian says that their objective is firmly on the north side of the river, so there would be little chance of interacting with the occupants of the castle.

You finally come to a landing uncomfortably close to the castle, but on the north side of the river. (The river is pretty wide, so a boat of some sort is likely needed to cross it, and there doesn't seem to be any docks around where you are. Magian helps anyone needing help off, and gathers you all together. "We landed a short distance from where you'll need to start because I wanted to keep the griffons away from the anomaly. It's right over here." He leads you to a spot that you couldn't easily see from the air because, but is completely obvious from the ground. It looks similar to a walled remnant some of you have visited before, but it looks to be in much rougher shape and there are no well-worn paths or roads into the gate you can see. "It looks unoccupied, but there are occupants, though I don't know what they are."

Magian pauses and says, "The issue is that this didn't exist a month ago. This was a fairly open clearing. Now this new remnant exists. We have not seen anything just 'appearing' like this for a long time. The other problem is that this has a fairly strong magical emanation that doesn't seem to exist on the other remnants. Basically, this is very unusual, and anything this unusual is likely not a good thing. Your task is to explore it and see if you can find out why it has appeared. Since we don't know how long that may or may not take you, we don't have a planned time to come back to pick you up. I have seen that you," he nods to Oliver, "were being trained to give you an easier route back. In addition, I will be regularly sending a griffon to do scouting along the north river back. If you are seen, they will call out and come back for more to carry you the rest of the way back. But, for the most part, you will be on your own out here."

Magian sticks around for a few minutes to answer any questions. When done (or if there are no questions), he heads back to the griffons and heads out, back to the Carriage House.

Any questions for Magian? How do you want to approach this remnant. From your vantage point, you can see one gate on the facing wall. You likely assume there is likely one gate per side like the others, but you don't know that. It is obviously surrounded by a Barrier like the other remnants.

"My, my, who would have thought learning to bend space in an arcane node of old could be so tiring. And sleeping while riding griffon didn't sound like a fine idea either." Oliver yawns and stretches, tired.

He then shakes his body off to freshen up a bit and looks around at the renmant gate.

"Do you reckon we should knock, or find a way to peek inside first? Knocking would be the most polite, of course, but might conflict with out interest in surviving."

Having thoroughly enjoyed most of the ride on the griffons, after initial panic because the griffons looked like they could devour him in a single bite, Aizashi thanks the griffon carrying him and steps up to Oliver with a giant grin on his face. This has been amazing. We should do this again some time. It might be a good idea to have a look first?

Stee dismounts the Griffin with a silly grin on his face. He has never experienced anything so exhilarating in life. As soon as he hits the though he is all business. He will start scouring the ground for tracks or sign of any kind and to also get a feel for the place.

Arc pet the griffon's neck, thanking him the ride, then stretched his wings and jumped out of the griffon. It looks like a good decision to ride instead of flying by himself after all. Such a long flight would have been too tiring for him.

Then Arc checked if anyone needed help to dismount, and looked around to the new place.

Traveling Cords has mix feelings about the griffon trip. There was shock and surprise as he never even considered such a notion. Still, he carried on with this as something new. He is receiving lots of something new. These lands and ways are very foreign to him and take a bit to adjust.

He dismounted with aid and not sure if he wants to do that again. He quietly moves on as ready as he can me.

The ride on the griffon was a little better this time. Maybe Blornvid is getting used to it. Still, he's glad to be back on solid ground.

But passing through one of these "Barriers" was a different unpleasant experience in its own right.

Blornvid sighed and walked several feet away from the others to see what he could glean by studying at the remnant and the barrier.

You look over the area. It is fairly open terrain with only an occasional tree or clump of wild shrubs. You cannot see the river from where this new remnant is, but it is still close by.

The remnant is basically rectangular or square. It has a wall about it like the other remnants, and outside the walls you can clearly see the sheen of a barrier. The walls look to be around ten feet tall, and the only thing you see protruding above the view of the walls is a roof spire that looks to be pretty impressive and seems to be roughly in the center of the remnant. Nothing else is protruding above the walls. You can't see what it looks like clearly, though, as the barrier makes the view unclear. The walls themselves appear to be complete, at least on this side, but are also not in good repair, with several cracks and other evidences of damage seen. None of it appears to be from an attack or violence from the outside. All of it is either from aging or maybe something done on the inside. Blornvid is able to see enough of the door on this side to realize that it appears to be slightly open, but there is no one visible.

You scout around the area and Stee finds what looks like a trail that leads from the south (and the river) up to the remnant. It is not something that has been used repeatedly; rather it is a path that was cut not too long ago, but hasn't been used much, or at all, since. As Stee checks out the path something glints a reflection of sunlight. He quickly closes to investigate and finds a few items, including a helm. He shows them to the group and Blornvid says, "These be orcish!" It would appear that a group of orcs has made it here before you, but you don't know how many or how few ...

Stee looking at the others."Do we want to keep this stuff? Does anyone want it?" He turns and looks to the barrier. "Oliver are we going to be able to pass through this barrier? I have never encountered this before."

"I'll be right back"
Arc jumps up and flies a couple of meters or so outside the barrier, circling around the top of the walls. He won't touch the barrier even with his wings.
He sees inside and only flies higher if he finds nobody inside (he won't risk being seen). If he still finds nobody, he wil get to enough altitude, and do a whole circle around it, to have enough of a visual image to draft the whole place's map from the sky.
When he is back, he will share all findings with his friends. He would even draw in the dirt a draft of map with a talon.

While Arc is flying about Elyse asks the group: Have some of you explored other remnants? If so, what did you encounter. What can we expect inside?

Aizashi thinks back to his adventure with the other remnant before explaining 'The last remnant I have visited was like maybe a small crumbling city. But it was much smellier. It was home to bugbears, goblins, lizardmen and hobgoblins. I think I remember a few orcs as well. They were living in gangs and all of them tried to control the most of it.

"I think we will be able to pass this barrier if we just push through, but if we find another barrier deeper in the remnant, we might need to use some of our tools at hand."

"The magic in here is this strong." Oliver lifts a finger and produces a ball of light attuned to the surrounding magic, to make it shine with proportional brightness to the barrier's strength.

"... aand the closest alcoholic beverage is in that direction." He focuses on his circlet and points with the same finger in the direction whispered to him.

"Not going to find any Orcs out here." He seems to be ready to enter.

Arc circles the Remnant as finds it difficult to look through the barrier. You are able to get a general idea of how things are situated and laid out, it's all a bit out of focus because of the visual distortion that the barrier is creating. What you see is that the Remnant looks like a big square (similar to the others you have visited), but it seems to have a simpler structure to it. The center is occupied by a large structure that seems to be about three or four stories tall. It isn't a square, but isn't a circle, either. It occupies the entire center. Inside the walls are lots of structures that are attached to the walls and open up away from the walls. In between is a big ring-like open area that goes all around the center structure. There doesn't appear to be the normal roads and alleys and passageways you have seen before. Instead, the open area ring is a combination courtyard/walkway/road. The only spurs off of the ring are to the four gates in the walls. (There does appear to be one gate per wall, as with the others.)

Arc does see figures moving around in the Remnant. You can't get a good description of them, because of the blurring effect of the barrier, but they are obviously humaniod (can easily be orcs), and the majority of them seem to be concentrated in the buildings attached to the wall to the left of the door you are currently facing. (So, if you went into the door of the Remnant and turned left, most would be there. If you turned right, you might or might not run into anyone.) Some do appear to be in the central building, too. You can't get a good count, but there are several (at least a couple dozen, you figure). As you fly around, they do not seem to pay any mind to you. (Most likely because of the distortion, they have no way of knowing what you are, so they don't consider it anything unless you make too big of a show of your presence.) As you fly around, they really are concentrated at that corner, so if you entered from a different gate, they might not even know you are there immediately.The magic of the area is pretty minimal, but the barrier is indeed quite magical. It is, however, no more magical than any other barrier, so the orb glows with a medium intensity. It also obviously prevents you from detecting anything past the barrier. Your alcohol sense says that there is alcohol somewhere in the Remnant.

Arc come back to the group, and uses one of his talons to draw in the dirt a draft of what he saw. Since they seem to be minding their own business, they don't seem a violent crowd, but can't be sure their race, nor their intentions.

Just to be on the safe side, he recommends to enter through the door opposite to the people concentration.

Stee takes in the info and looking at the map agrees"Yes going in from a different gate makes sense. Try to avoid a possible confrontation right off the rip." Also he has his trusty bow out and ready just in case.

"Aye. No need to start a battle on unfamiliar ground if we can get some sense of the place first."

"Yes, I agree with the lateral approach as well. Seems the safest."

Oliver scratches his chin. "Now now, regarding on whether they are orcs or something more supernatural, they seem to have alcohol on them, so my bet would be orcs... Except the last time I assumed something like this, we found a phantom pirate ship with cursed alcohol... So, I don't know this time, har har!"

Is that barrier work both ways in obfuscating vision? If so, we don't really have to sneak around, we can just head over to the other gate. Hiding in plain sight essentially.

Cords draws out his handaxe and is ready to follow in line to enter.

Aizashi absorbs the information and gets ready to go.
I don't know too much about magic. But I guess we shouldn't assume that is obscures both ways. I think we ought to be cautious.

For those with experience with such barriers, yes, the view is obscured both ways. As long as they don't have guards posted outside the doors (and they don't), their view would be as obscured as your view. Do note that Arc noticed differences in how clear or obscured the view was. There might theoretically be a usable point where the view is pretty clear that they could use. But, while theoretically possible, it is highly unlikely for several reasons. (He never found a clear view he noticed, but he kept moving, not wanting to stop and draw attention to himself.)

There is no door exactly opposite where they are, but the doors on the wall to the right of your position, or the doors on the opposite side of the Remnant are as good as you can get. Choosing the easier option, at least initially, you trudge on over to the door on the adjacent wall to your right. You take a moderately wide berth to keep distance with from the Remnant so that you will be less likely to be seen. When you reach a good position, you move in to check on the door on this wall and find that it is completely closed with no obvious way to open it. It does look like you could try to pry it open, but you don't know if it is reinforced on the inside or if it is magically locked. Or how much noise such an attempt would make.

"Hmm. Forcing that door sure doesn't look to be the best of way to enter this place."

"No, it doesn't. Not only will it alert anyone on the other side, but they'll assume that we're here to wreck the place."

"Agreed. Let's continue to the next doors." Arc refers to the doors opposite the one they originally approached from, the 2nd best option away from the crowd.

Choosing not to force the doors, you move around to the doors opposite of the one you intially faced. (You started with the southern doors, went to the eastern doors, and are now at the northern doors.) The trip around the corner continues to be uneventful. In fact, you seem to see even less wildlife than you would have expected. Perhaps the Remnant was still new enough that the local critters haven't yet normalized it.

As you approach the northern doors, you see that they are not only open, but are destroyed. They look like they have practically been blown out from the inside. As you approach, it looks like much of the area behind it is also in absolute ruins. However, you don't have a very good look at what's on the other side.

Stee will look at the group "Shall we proceed?"

I'd wager we should. Aizashi says while trying to see what he can see

"Aye."

"In we go, then" whispers Oliver to the communication crystal, testing it.

Arc sees that Oliver has a similar crystal, seems we are all now very much communicated. That's good.

"Yes, let's go"
And without waiting further, Arc crosses the middle of the doors' archway. Not fast nor slow, just natural walk trusting the rest of his friend will walk with him... And stops a couple of meters inside the remnant to look around and see if someone inside comes to greet the team. Also to have a better look at the local population... What people do they see? How are they dressed? Do they have visible weapons?

You approach the door carefully, but as you do so, you can see that the damage to the door and the doorway appears to be old. It is not recent. Still not letting your guard down despite that, you continue your careful approach. You get along the wall, and start to carefully look into the Remnant from this vantage point. The barrier does not appear to very strong at the doorway, and you can see through it pretty clearly. What you see is some devastated buildings on either side of the doorway, an large open area past those building on either side, and a large building past the open area. (It matches how Arc described it earlier.) The large building across the open area is not so damaged. You can see that there are some recent indications of movement through this area, but it isn't heavy and isn't well-trodden.

You carefully enter the Remnant and get a much better view. The entire inside of the wall is lined with buildings and other structures. The damage is mostly focused around the doorway and the buildings on either side of it. Past those, the buildings just look rundown and neglected, as opposed to destroyed. (To you the player it would look like it was hit with high explosive artillery. To the characters, it just looks like some very nasty magic was used to cause explosions.) The open area is pretty wide between the buildings along the wall and the central building structure, and it runs the entire length you can see, from the bend by the east wall corner, all the way to the bend by the west wall corner. Again, it matches Arc's descriptions of going completely around the central structure. Currently, you do not see anyone, though you can hear that activity (nothing alarming, just the normal movement of people and what they do during a day) is happening a ways from where you currently are. As long as you stay relatively quiet, they should be far enough away to not hear you. Make a loud noise, and all bets are off. Also, you don't know if they have regular patrols going on or not, either. They might, since they know this door is currently open.

Of special note is the central structure. It is very large, and really does take up the whole center section of the Remnant. It looks to be a good four stories tall, but there might be another level stuck in there somehow. (For whatever reason, Arc's guess on the height of the central structure ended up being too short. The obscured view probably messed with his perception.) It is also very impressive and fairly ornate. It is also in surprisingly good condition, considering the state of the buildings along the wall. Even the non-damaged buildings show the passage of time and effects of neglect and weather. The main structure seems to just be in better repair. Not that it has been well tended; just that it didn't deteriorate as fast.

Taking in the sight Aizashi let's out a breath he didn't realize he was holding when he walked through the barrier.
Should we perhaps scout some of these buildings and see if we can set up some kind of rally point, just in case things don't go out way?

When you enter the Remnant, you feel a bit of nausea, but nothing too serious, and less than what those of you who've done this before remember. (No rolls needed for being unaffected by this one.)

Exploring Cords is less happy about the feeling he receives walking through the outside shield. He doesn't let matters of the shield bother him too much and keeps rather alert as he perceives that there are Orcs about even if we don't see them just now. And there are enough to make a fight rather painful.

He keeps a tight grip on his handaxe and eyes peeled. Says in a low volume voice, "We are in luck. No Orcs." It is obvious what is in his mind.

Elyse enters the remnant with the others. She is especially interested in the crystals and wonders what the range is. She wonders if she could ship one to her family and keep in touch and keep them informed about her adventures. As the party begins to explore she keeps close to Blornvid as he is her oldest companion in the group.

Arc is happy to confirm what he sew before, now without the blurry wall, and very curious about the central building... Is there any clue on its use?
And he is relieved that there is no aggressive "welcome party" nor mafia-minded orcs as in other remnants he had visited before.
"If you agree, I suggest we approach slowly and unarmed to the central building's door. And knock politely.
If there are guards, they should see our approach and salute us. Otherwise, we just get there a knock.
If things go wrong, everyone run to the remnant's door while I distract them. Ok?."

"I'd prefer to make sure that we're not walking into a trap. So I'll give these place a quick look see to make sure no one's hidin'. I'll bring up the rear."

Since you are trying to take a look to everything cautiously, I am assuming you actually enter just into the ruined area to the left of the doorway (from the perspective of the outside) for cover. From your vantage point, you have a good look around you and can see a "side view" of the buildings on either side of the ruined buildings, and a very good view of the central structure.

The ruined area you are in is, just that, ruined. It has been that way for quite a while and seems to have been crushed by something coming from the direction of the main building towards the door. It would seem odd that such damage would have been created by someone inside the Remnant, but that is what the evidence shows. A quick look around doesn't show anything of value, and it appears to have also been cleaned out a long time ago, too. Double-checking the open area shows that no one is present and you are sure you don't hear anyone coming anywhere nearby, either. Looking at the nearest unruined structure, you can see that it is still run-down and it was obviously a storefront of some kind. It is full of unusual items. It has a section that included what once held some small, live animals. It has another section that once kept foodstuff, but not supplies, but unusual things like sweet wafer cakes, choice cuts of meats, ornate breads, and other things like that. There are even the remnants of what they once had, including a pretty nice nearly fossilized loaf of bread shaped like a bird. There is also another section that has things that look like they were pretty much spell components of some kind.While you look in it, Arc takes a better look at the central structure. It is surprisingly open. As mentioned before, it is very ornate and well decorated, and it seems to be in better condition than the non-ruined areas along the walls. It appears to have at least four floors to it, and it is quite impressively sized for its girth, in addition to its height. You can easily go into the main floor area as there are no obvious doors blocking the openings. It is quite evident that the whole point of this remnant is the main building, and everything else is simply in support of it.

"That's a fine idea, Aizashi. Once we find a proper rally point we want to return to, I have just the thing. It's like a compass, but it involves alcoholi..."

He stops mid sentence, and smells around. "There is this funny arcane feeling floating around here... What is it?"

As Oliver looks around for a bit, he feels like all of these items that were for sale seem to be for something like spell components or alchemical components. But, they don't make sense for that. Then it dawns on him: these are items for sacrifices or used in divine magic, not arcane or alchemical magic. Then it fully hits him. The building across the way is some kind of temple!

Oliver shares his findings with the team, excitedly speculating on what the use for each ingredient could have been, and most likely missing the mark.

"I am totally sure those roots, leaves and flowers would have been squeezed to make a holy ointment which they applied on their face."

"And those pedestals with thin channels running through them would definitely have been to collect any excess ointment that dripped off their faces. Thing must have been expensive, you see."

"And those worn ornated daggers... I'm... sure they were to -uh- gently spread the holy ointment on their faces, yes."

He paused briefly.

"That's how divine magic works, right?"

Listening to Oliver, Aizashi wonders out loud
'It might depend on the particular deity?
Realizing what he was implying a cold shover ran down his spine.
'But I don't know much about magic, so I don't know'

Stee looking around has a hard time believing Oliver depiction of what these implements were used for.[b]"So we will use this as our rally point then?"

Slightly worried Cords with apprehension about the place has his handaxe well gripped. He is quiet as he looks on.

A deity that submits his followers to face ailments, on top of channeled pedestals, with daggers... not even in his time as a merchant's help have he seen anything remotely close. But again, Arc is far from knowledgeable on how holy magic works within this places.

Out of curiosity, he checks on the daggers. How many are there?

There aren't very many daggers, and they are not in great condition. Besides, they are more like long-edged razors, than proper daggers.

since we seem to be alone in the area, should we move on to the big structure? .... Carefully?

Arc quickly digs a small hole in the ground, throw the daggers inside, covers it again with dirt and puts something available (a chair or a basket) on top to make it difficult to spot the change of the ground. He doesn't want potential enemies to use this weapons against them.

"Yes Aizashi, let's go."

"Oh, alright, since we're going in, let's set this as rally point in case something goes bad."

Oliver retrieves two vials from his backpack and mixes them, obtaining a purple substance.

"There! Instant wine. I should be able to detect the direction back to this if need calls for it."

He proceeds to leave the wine vial in the hole dug by Arc, to make it hard to find to any enemy.

"Okay, ready to go!"

Stee will nod to Oliver and the others"No time like the present." Bow in hand with arrow nocked he shows he is ready to proceed."Wreak come, easy now boy we are keeping quiet."

Blornvid nods. "Aye, let's go."

You all take a careful look and listen before really entering the open area. You can still hear the distant activities of the group of (you assume) orcs on the far corner. But, you also haven't see any activity coming around and you haven't seen any patrols. Figuring this wasn't going to change in the immediate future, you quickly move through the wide open area without making much noise and make it to the outside of the temple. It is now that Oliver really feels the magic of the location. It isn't overpowering or even all that distracting, but it is persistent and pervasive.

The temple is even more imposing up close. All around the temple there are a few steps to bring you up to the ground floor of the building. All around the building are cylindrical columns that end at the ceiling of the ground level. Ten feet behind the columns are the walls of the ground floor, with four archways regularly spaced along this wall. None of the archways have doors; initial access to the temple is unimpeded. Centered between each of the archways, and between the outside archways and the edges of the wall, are five arched alcoves, each of which contains the statue of what you presume are some of some significant people or divine beings important to the builders of the temple. You don't know if they are heroes, demigods, or gods, but they probably aren't the main deities, as the statues are all sized the same as normal humans. On the flat wall spaces between the alcoves are covered in carvings of various scenes and events that are presumably related to the characters represented by the statues. The statues, from left to right (while facing the building) appear to be a human-sized tree-person, a young boy, a man in the prime of his life, a young woman, and an anthropomorphic dog or wolf. You don't want to be seen, so you don't do more than just take the scene in and head for the nearest entrance.

You enter the archway that is second from the left since it is the closest to you after cutting across the open area. When you enter, you see a very large room. You are on the left side, and the next archway to the right can be seen on the right side of the room. (You don't know where the two outer doors lead right now.) You quickly move toward the center of the outside wall between the two archways so that if there is ever a patrol, you won't be easily seen from outside. From this relative cover, you look around the room. It is large and rectangular. On the center of the opposing wall are two statues. They are of humans, one male and one female, standing side-by-side. These are twice as tall as a human, which causes you to notice how high the ceiling actually are in this room. Again, all through the room, it is very ornate and well decorated. The floors are marble, as are the insides of the inner wall, not just behind the statues, but for the entire length of that wall. On the midpoint of the sections of the far wall between the statues and the far corners of the room is a large cloth hanging that, contrary to any textiles you saw in the old merchant's shop, looks to be in surprisingly good shape. In the midsections of the end walls to either side is another open archway to the rooms that the outer outside archways lead to.

For the most part, outside the statues, the room is fairly bare. The base of the statues are design to allow items to be deposited, and along the outer wall (where you current are) are several tables. Otherwise there doesn't appear to be any furniture, cabinets, storage, or anything like that. However, taking a good look at that outer wall, you can see many more carvings of scenes and events that are presumably related to the two statues in the room.

Arc feels the team should move fast: we need intel on how these people think and how they communicate, and we can't risk patrols surprising us...

"Stee, Cords, please guard the northern area within the temple. If any patrol come, do not show yourselves, do not engage, come to us and we all hide. Aizashi, you and I shall do the same to the southern area.
Blornvid, please guard the mages. The rest, go and try to understand this please the best you can... believes come in very different shapes and any move we do can be misunderstood easily by these people. And we will need common ground to communicate effectively... please go and find some. We all agree?"

Curious Cords asks, "What do you suppose is in those two rooms. We see the doors. Those rooms could be a fine spots to drop out of site too instead of this open area."

Stee will nod to Arc"Sounds good to me. And the good thing with these communicators is we can hear each other no problem from anywhere." Stee will stow his bow and pull his sword as he makes his way to the northern portion of the temple."Wreak to me. On guard boy." It has been a pleasure training Wreak. He is the smartest dog Stee has ever encountered. He usually only has to be shown things once to learn it. Wreak also has great instincts about when to be quiet.

"That sounds like a riverflowing plan!"

Oliver approaches the carvings near the statues to see if he can understand the scenes they're depicting. He then speaks in their communicator.

"Come to think of it, whoever is lurking these areas is not necessarily a follower of this temple. They might be scouting orcs pillaging and making camp in this newfound remnant too."

Through his Drunkard Circlet, Oliver keeps an "eye" for the current direction to the closest alcoholic beverage. Any sudden change might mean that a storage is nearby (nearer than the vial they left behind at least), or that someone carrying some supplies is getting close.

On the move Cords steps up with checking Oliver while saying, "Considering the previous damages to front entranceway, I would surely perceive that the offending orcs to violent and not invited guest." He still has his trusty handaxe handy.

sounds like a solid plan. I'll be ready.

"Good, let's go!"
Arc walks with Aizashi to the southern area, and checks the place for anything that may be of interest, starting with any living being.

After 'hearing' Oliver and Cords voices over the comm, with his Talking-crystal in one hand and his bow ready in the other, he silently replies "You are right, we may assume there are several different parties, the temple one, the invaders one, and maybe more. Do not take anything for granted."

Elyse hears the plan and let's everyone go in the different directions. She however lingers near the walls with the reliefs and tries to follow the story depicted on the walls about the two statues in the room.

She uses her talents in story telling and puts her merchant mind to use to draw the story out...

Blornvid alertly keeps watch over the Elyse and Oliver.

I will work on some crude drawings tomorrow to better draw out the room you are in. Note that I made it sound like there is only one cloth covering on the far wall with the statues. There are two total; one on each side of the statues. Also, the tables on the outside wall are empty, with nothing on them. Also, while you did hear the distant activity while outside, that becomes somewhat muffled once you enter the temple, and in the temple itself, it is quiet with no signs of current activity.

The pictures and scenes on the wall show the stories of the two figures, as they each seemed to have simple lives to start, grow to prominence, became powerful and leaders, then met, fell in love, joined together, died in glory, and finally ascended. The end is with them elevating their joined kingdom with them.

Also, there are two archways, one on either side/end wall, and the two cloth coverings on the opposing/statue wall. Which one or ones is Arc and Aizashi checking out?

Arc and Aizashi cross the archway to the left (East) of the room. They see another rectangular room that has a corner staircase going up to a second floor along the outer wall, and another archway in the top (South) wall. All over the inner walls (top and right) of this new room are writings in a language you don't recognize. The room is fairly bare. It appears it was intended for movement up and down the stairs, and for people to mingle. There are a lot of wear marks on the floors indicating that there may have been tables or carts used in here in the distant past.

Arc reports telepathically by comm-crystal about the stairs, and then climbs it silently.
Bow in one hand, and an arrow ready in the other.

OK, I flipped everything around so that North is now UP and South is now DOWN.



This is what Arc (and Aizashi) see when they get to the top of the stairs.



They are at the top of the stairs, just to the south (where the "d" is shown for the north-east corner). It appears that the perimeter of the second* floor is just a long corridor around the entire floor, with open archways along the exterior walls mirroring the placements from the bottom floor. The interior walls also have open archways, but there are only two per wall, not four. In both corners you can see, there are also more stairs, but those go up, not down like the one you just came up. Presumably, there is a fourth set of stairs on the opposite corner of the building matching this one. As below, there are lots of cool architectural details present and it is in better condition that it probably should be, but it is pretty empty. You can see that it used to be used a lot as the corridor it obviously is, but that hasn't been for a long, long time.

And Arc was silent in his ascent.

"How's the upper-level looking, Arc and Aizashi? We're still trying to make sense of the story depicted in the statues, but this place is huge!"

Oliver runs around to check the remaining three alcoves, and tries not to miss any detail.

"We are in a long corridor running around the building..." Arc reports to the rest what he sees.

Then, to Aizashi "We should go back down. We can climb back latter, together, to inspect the other floor, but if enemies find our friends, we should be together." And so they go back to guard their end.

Stee will report back "No movement on the north side." He will reach down and give Wreak a good scratch between the ears.

yes, let us go back.

Which three alcoves? Didn't follow this exactly. In the downstairs room you are in, there is only one alcove with the two statues on the inner wall. On either side of it are two tapestries, not additional alcoves. Sorry if my explanation wasn't clear!

Oliver walks around the inner walls, trying to grasp any detail that he might have missed, and reporting any new scene depicted in the statues and carvings to his companions.

Quite Cords moves along with Oliver.

If I have followed everything correctly, the group is now back in the initial room you entered. You will need to figure out which direction you want to go explore.

The carvings and pictures described what I detailed earlier about these two individuals. Yes, the potentially "bad" reading is definitely possible and I wrote it that way on purpose. They were obviously great leaders that were celebrated and memorialized. Whether they were actually *good* is an open question you might never get an answer to. While those reliefs are extensive, that's all they contain. No secret hidden clues or discoveries to make with those. The tapestries start very high and reach all the way to the floor. They are very intricate, but they just seem to be patterns; no stories or hidden meanings. Oliver does notice that the tapestries don't seem to hang quite right, however.

So, where do you want to go? You have not heard or seen anything alarming yet, so you are not under any known time pressure.

Oliver talks into the communication device, while everyone is spread around the temple. "I reckon we need to make a choice."

By then he was close enough to most of his companions, so they could hear without the device.

"We either try to identify these scavengers and see what they're up to, or we go deeper into the temple, and explore it before them, to find out how this remnant came to be here. What do you say?"

I'm not keen on having scavengers at our back without knowing if they are hostile or not. If we go deeper in the temple we might get caught between two enemies. That just maybe paranoia talking but I can't imagine meeting friendly ancestors to the builders of the temple deeper in.

"Considering the damage that the Orcs made to get in this place. I highly expect they will not be friendly and we expose ourselves to them then you we had be ready Kill."

"Yeah, true, I think it might be best to..."

Progressively lowering his voice, Oliver stops mid sentence, and then tilts his head looking at the wall.

"Huh... The tapestries are hanging slightly funny there, are they not?"

"Aye. The orcs won't hesitate to attack if they catch wind of us."

Stee will pull some arrows and ready himself to shoot orcs. You're getting ready to taste orc Wreak. On guard."

Nothing pops out of the tapestry. Do you actually check it in any way?

EDIT: To be clear the tapestry seems to be pulling into the wall in a way it shouldn't. You do not hear anything moving behind it, nor do you see any real movement. It is just that the tapestry should be hanging more straight down, and yet it seems to be pushing into the wall in a way it shouldn't.

Blornvid turns to Oliver. "Is it possible that there's a hole on the other side of the tapestry and some kind of breeze is blowing it closer to the wall?"

"That or something else special. This is kinda the place for such. That and secrets." He isn't giving up his grip upon his favored hand axe.

Oliver stares at Blornvid and Cords, and then at the tapestry.

"Well, that is a fine hypothesis, and I would gladly ponder theoretically about it... but the darn thing is right there, so let's just ruin the fun right now, shall we?"

He approaches the tapestry and wiggles it around to see if there's anything behind it.

Arc nods at Oliver, curious about the tapestry. But doesn't approach more because he is focusing more on keeping an eye out... is orcs or anyone else approaches, he will notice them beforehand.

Aizashi is watching Oliver and the others but remains with Arc on guard.

Elyse will cast a spell moving the air in the area near the odd tapestry and push it to one side attempting to reveal what lies behind.

Oliver reaches to push the tapestry to see behind it, but Elyse instead magically moves it to the side just enough for him to get a look. There is an open archway behind it, with the heavy tapestry serving as a door of sorts. It looks to be large, but the opening currently is not large enough to permit enough light in to see well. It would take a concerted effort to either pull down the tapestry to see inside, or someone to pull it to one side for a better look. Alternatively, you can slip into the room with a light source and take a look around.You do not hear movement, but with the tapestry opened just a little, you do hear a disconcerting noise that appears to be far in the distance. Which is odd, as the room is not *that* large and you can only hear it in the archway, not in the exterior room. There doesn't seem to be any immediate threat, but that noise ... just doesn't feel right.

"Well there is a passageway." Seeing that it is touch dark beyond, Cords retrieves his lantern and fires it up with the obvious intent to start exploring.

"If we enter right now, these other scavengers will take a while to find the entrance and follow through. That would give us a nice and long head-start... to encounter first whatever eerie thing is inside."

Oliver snaps his fingers and invokes a small orb of light, to accompany that of Cords.

"But hey, I'm all in for us having dibs on the discovery."

"Sure, let's go!"

Blornvid nods, his axe at the ready.

"So we are going in then and not taking care of the orcs first?" Stee is thinking wish they would make up my mind.

You enter in behind the tapestry with your lights and you see a large square room with its corners cut out. There are two archways on each side wall that are completely blocked, presumably by their own tapestries. (So you see that the other tapestry in the room you were in also had an archway behind it.) There are four support posts as shown by the black dots in the center room.



In each corner along each side wall, there is an altar (eight total). Each is incredibly well decorated, and most are heavily decorated with gold, jewels, and other finery. Both Elyse and Oliver can feel the magic radiating from each of them. Before you all can really focus on any of them, the noise gets momentarily louder, and it sounds like a pained wail, still very much in the distance, that then trails off. You can see it is emanating from where the altar in the southern corner of the west wall should be. It is now that you realize that only the husk of that altar is there, as there is a three foot diameter hole crudely pushed through it that goes down farther than your eyes can trace. It goes down a LONG way. Blornvid, using his past knowledge of living in underground places, can see that the hole has continuous walls going down, which should be impossible if there is a dungeon below this floor (and there probably is). You can feel heat radiating out of the hole, when you get very close it.

Taking a look around the ruined altar, you can see that there has been some activity showing that something did indeed come up out of the hole at some point. You cannot tell how long ago that was, just that you haven't heard anything moving in the room at this time.

Blornvid tries to figure out what made such a hole behind the altar.

The hole is drilled straight up through the altar. It doesn't look chiseled or worked. It looks like a underground great worm dug up through the altar to create it. However, there are two odd things about it. First, it is way too small for one of those worms to have done it. Second, it really looks/feels like it is "wrong". Blornvid doesn't think it goes down underground. He thinks it is more like a kind of gateway that a true tunnel. He feels like it is something they probably ought to figure out a way to close.

As he looks at the surviving parts of the altar, he can see that it was dedicated to a god of tyranny. In the background surrounding the altar, you can now see that the main figure is an obvious leader/warlord standing on a pile of skulls. He doesn't look like it was a lot of fun to be around.

As the group looks around, they can see that the eight altars present display a broad selection of gods. This includes the god of tyranny of the damaged altar, to a goddess of civilization, to a god of justice, to a goddess of family, to a god of music and art, to a goddess of weather and water, to a god of destruction, to a goddess of death, finally, completing the circle back to the god of tyranny.

Each of the altars has a backdrop with an abstract depiction of the god/goddess in question, with some kind of symbolic object prominently displayed. The goddess of civilization has a scroll case, the god of justice has scales, the goddess of family has a small house figure, the goddess of weather has a stylized lightning bolt, the god of destruction has a mace, and the goddess of death has a skull. All items are made of gold and look like they can be moved. The exceptions are for the gods of tyranny and music/art. The tyranny object is flat out missing and the music/art object is damaged, smashed against the floor near its altar. You can also see some damage to the music/art altar, too, though that is just superficial.

Wondering Cords as he moved up with inspecting Blornvid to look over the damaged tyranny alter. "I don't want to run into what did this." he explains as he looks over the artificial hole.

"Aye. We shouldn't linger here too long." To the group, he says, "Explore for clues if you must, but be quick about it."

Elyse will take a closer look at the broken object from the god of music/art.

"Let's see how far down this goes."

Oliver approaches the hole in the tyranny-god altar, and retrieves and mixes two vials from his backpack, producing a vial of wine. He drops the vial in the hole, and focuses with his diadem how far it falls until it breaks, or until it is farther away than the hole that Arc dug.

When you drop the flask, your detection switches to the hole after it drops about five feet or so. (I.e. almost immediately.) However, you can clearly see it continuing to drop for many more feet before you loose track of it. You hear it tap against the sides of the hole a few times, the it stops after one last tap. It didn't sound like it broke or shattered, but you're not sure. The noise it was making just stopped. However, the disconcerting moans you hear from the hole have not stopped, though the intensity ebbs and flows, wanes and waxes.Elyse can see that the object is in the form of a small harp, but it's been bent and broken, though still in one piece. As you reach out to it, you can feel it still has strong magic (like everything else in this room) and is gold like the other items.

"There's definitely a portal in this hole. The flask travelled a very long distance with just a very short fall. Any other findings from your side?"

Elyse tentatively reaches out with her hands to pick up the small harp. Looking at it carefully, through her jewelers eye, she inspects the item and ponders if she might be able to repair it. Bringing up her other hand, she grasps the other side of the harps and channels a little magic to enhance her grip and gives the harp a tentative twist attempting to unbend it.

As Elyse attempts to repair the harp, she finds that the attempt doesn't seem to have an effect. Her eye also says that it is exquisitely made by someone with a ridiculously high skill. However, she does feel a sense that it should be placed back on the platform where it came from.

Elyse will move the harp back to the pedestals as best as she can. The Looks to the group, Are we going down the tunnel?

Cords says, "No something I'm interested in doing."

Stee will shrug "You only live once. Already survived the underdark so I am game." He will look at Wreak and scratch his head"Ain't that right boy."

When the small harp is placed back on its pedestal, you are surprised to see it slowly start to repair itself. It is a slow process, but it does happen. As you step back, you can see that the scarring on the altar itself is also healing itself. It occurs to Elyse that if they can find the other missing object (of tyranny), perhaps that altar could heal itself, too.

After watching the harp and altar repair itself for a couple of minutes, the serenity is shattered by a semi-loud plaintive wail that again emanates from the tunnel. Looking back at it, you can see it is very narrow and doesn't look like it would be very conducive to climbing down. It really doesn't seem like a good idea.

"We've got plenty to deal with up here without having to drop into some hole that might be a portal to some dark place. Let's wrap up this room and see about eliminating those orcs."

Elyse shares her observations about the self repairing alter pointing out the slow progress so everyone can see. Alright, not down the hole. But if we can find the golden object of Tyranny we might be able to fix the alter and that hole may repair itself once all the alters are back to full strength. I'm thinking those orcs might have been the ones to have pilfered the Tyrannical object.Oliver, what do you think the object might be that we are looking for?

Arc follows his friends action supportively, amazed by Elyse's solution on the harp and Oliver's method to measure the hole.
Now he tries to help to find the tyrant object. He tries both to remember if he have seen some tyranny god in the past, during his travels, and also looking intently around this area.

"We have a lot of temple yet to investigate before the Orcs do."

Based on looking at the drawings behind the altar to the God of Tyranny, Elyse things a long sword is likely what shape it has. Arc tends to concur with that conclusion.

Arc is absolutely convinced (and correct) that the object is not in this room at all. It must lie somewhere else.

"A longsword you say! Makes sense for a God of Tyranny. However, that still doesn't answer why there's a hole with a portal in the altar... I'm going to poke a magical nose and see how it smells on the other side. Maybe we can learn a thing or two."

Oliver retrieves a red rope and a round flask with a wavy rune from his backpack, and politely asks the rope to hold the flask and go down the hole. The red rope springs to life and holds the flask with one end, while Oliver holds the other.Oliver speaks a command word once the flask is at the other side for it to capture surrounding scents, and then issues another command word to release them once the rope has returned. He sniffs around and tries to identify anything of use.

It smells slightly of brimstone. With hints of pain.

Oliver shares this new information with his teammates.

"Hmm, sounds a little like hell. Maybe we should handle the orcs first then we have all the time we need to search."

"There is much of this temple to explore before risking life."

"Incredible! I never knew it to be more than a myth. And yeah, I agree, an infernal realm is more than we can chew right now."

"...though smelling it seemed to be ok. I should lick a meteorite next."

"Aye. I don't relish the idea of jumping down a hellhole. If ye be ready, let's be off. Maybe we'll find the tyranny relic to close this godsforsaken pit."

If we cannot find the relic anywhere here, we might should deal with the orcs either way, they might have taken the relic?

"I think the sooner we deal with them the easier the searching will be. Orcs ain't good for anything but killing anyway." Stee still has bow in hand and at the ready. He will look at Wreak."Ain't that right boy?" Wreak will give a low growl.

Oliver returns the rope and flask to his backpack, and retrieves his Sling.

"But how many of them are there? Can we really afford a direct confrontation?"

"Arc? Were you able to more or less count them?"

Arc remembers that there were at least a dozen or so, but those were just the ones in the open. There could easily be an equal number that were in doors.

You have seen that there are at least two more levels of the temple to check. Perhaps you can get a better view from higher. Also, you have seen no evidence of the orcs having investigated the temple, at least in the areas you have seen. In fact, the damaged altars is the only real evidence of activity in the temple you have seen.

Blornvid mulls it over. "If we get the high ground on them, we'll be able to pick them off at a distance. Even the odds up a bit."

Wonder Cords says "Check this out." as he lead the way to move up a level on temple.

Stee will look at the group and lift his bow"I am very good with this. Just to let y'all know."

Going up the stairs, you see a very wide corridor that goes all around the outside of the building. There are open archways along the outer wall that correspond to those on the lower floor. This will offer you a good view all around. In the two corners you can see, there are stairs going up. You corner only goes back down. Along the inner two walls you can see are two open archways into another area you can't see from your vantage point.

So, you move around to see in one of the inner archways, while keeping away from the outer archways, and see a very large room. The room is 180 feet each way, but in the center is a 60x60 inner room with a door in the center of the north wall and, once you check, another door in the center of the south wall. Along the outer walls of this 180x180 room are more niche/alcoves you had seen in the foyer area. There are five along each wall. Each has one figure (a couple have two; one has three) in it, and it is surrounded with carvings depicting major events about the figure in the alcove. You get the feeling that these are many of the minor gods in the pantheon that either had minor portfolios or simply server more major gods.

As before, despite being opulent and still in surprisingly good condition, there don't seem to be any real treasures here. Also, unlike the altars below, there does not appear to be any damage to the alcoves here. You also do not see any real evidence of activity through here, either. You do go check the outside ring, and that does show evidence of activity from multiple people or creatures that have gone through the halls in the very recent past.

As before, when you go around towards the south side, you can hear activity more clearly, but it is still hard to make out anything anyone might be saying.

It is also obvious that it was intended for there to be various activities in this big room, too. This must have been a bustling beehive of activity, back when it was an active temple!

Taking in all the space with it's nooks and crannies on the second level Aizashi suggests: 'It might be wise to make sure we are alone in this floor before we investigate the next floor. And umm... Is anyone of us any good at setting up some kind of trap? We could trap the stairs so we don't get surprised by anyone coming up or down the stairs?'

"I've got two ideas: one messy and one subtle. Since we, as a team, appear to be the sneaky kind, here's the latter."

Oliver takes out a small flask of pink moving goo and holds it between two fingers.

"This pink slime can eat anything, but VERY slowly. They are a lot of orcs, and must eat a lot too. The plan is to plant this into their supplies and wait for a day or so. We'll need to be extra sneaky, as we need to wait for quite some time for it to take effect... If it works at all, that is."

"I really don't understand this want to mess with the Orc that can only be bad news. Why not just continue to avoid them and check out the temple which is what we want to do anyway."

"Maybe you're right, Cords. Perhaps we should go with Aizashi's idea and make sure we have control of this floor, instead of going on the offensive."

"I agree, let's finish checking the temple, floor by floor. The orcs don't expect anyone here. Once we have control of the temple we can plan something for them... If we want to"

After some debate, you go to the stairs in the south east corner and go up to the third (I am using the US system for floors) level. Just like the two levels below, there is a 30 foot wide corridor around the outside of the whole building with four open archways allow each outer wall. You can see the stairs in either visible corner (SW and NE) allow for going up to an additional level. Along each inner wall there are two doorways. They are located in the same spot as the archways in the previous level, but these have doors. Unlike the previous floors, this level appears to be more functional and less decorated. It is, however, still in unexpectedly good condition.

Cat's resistance NOT. Cords will go for the doors.

Putting his inventory back in his backpack (except for the Sling), Oliver intensely watches Cords open the door, filled with curiosity about this new chamber.

Arc, bow in hand, follows Cords

Aizashi keeps an eye on the back of the group.

Blornvid stands ready, prepared to shield the two mages.

Cord opens the eastern door on the southern inner wall. As he opens it and takes a look inside he sees ... not a whole lot as it is pretty dark in there. However, with the light that comes in because of the archways from the outer wall, he can see that there is a wall immediately to the left of the door, another wall off to the right, and a third wall straight ahead. The wall straight ahead has a normal sized double door in it. He steps in a couple steps and sees that there is an inner corridor that runs to the left (as there is an opening between the wall on the left and the wall straight ahead). He can see that there are several single doors down this corridor. There is also an opening between the wall on the right and the one straight ahead, but it just opens to a relatively open area past the two walls.

It appears that there are many corridors and rooms in this large area. You surmise it might be the living quarters of the temple staff back when it was in operation ...

(There seems to be three sizes of doors here. The door you came through is a large set of double doors that fill an opening as big as the open archways you see on the exterior wall. Inside this large double door, you can see a set of normal sized double doors immediately ahead, and he can see normal sized single doors along the corridor to the left.)

"Seems to a lot of doors to rooms here. I don't expect any troubles lets search them all. I will take the ones dead ahead." He moves to that door to open and see what is beyond.

You will need to do something about light, as you aren't going to get any real light into the rooms to your left. And even the room directly ahead won't have good light in it.

Elyse cast a spell calling forth a dozen floating candles and spreads out them along the corridors. Not a bright light but enough so you don't trip over a table or something.

Stee will pull out his Autums Glory and attach it to the top of his boot as he did in the underdark for light.

Being that Cords wants to explore further. He owns a hooded lantern and can be considered using it.

Oliver takes out three round flasks of shiny lichen and hangs them around his belt pouch, so as to have his hands free.

The party spreads out a little to get a better look at the area.

Cord lights his lantern and moves to the door straight across from the door they entered and opens it. Inside, he can see a well-appointed living quarters. It has a bed, dresser, washbin, and chamberpot. There are also a couple small tables and a chair. None seem to have been touched in quite a while, but nothing has decayed, either.Elyse creates some small ephemeral candles and spreads them out around her. She says in the immediate open area for the moment to facilitate with the light. Taking a look at the open area, she can see that there is a painting hanging on the wall to the right of the door they entered, with a sofa and a pair of small tables under it. There is an opening to the left that leads to a corridor with a lot of doors, and in the far right, there is an opening between the far wall and the wall with the painting on it. She can see that there is another open area past the latter opening, but can't see into it yet.

Stee uses his Autums Glory to get additional light and moves towards the corridor on the left. As he enters the corridor, he can see there is an opening to his (now) right, but there are several doors down both sides of the corridor he is standing at the entrance of. There are three doors on his left, an opening (presumably to the second door that was like the one they used into this area), and another three doors after that. On his right, after the opening, he sees another four doors. Oliver ventures towards the opening to the far right to get a better look. Since he doesn't have a light source of his own at the moment, his vision. He sees an irregularly shaped open area. The wall that was on their right turns to make a square-ish room and he can see a door on the second wall. He sees another big double-door into the overall area from the east, and he thinks he sees a set of three doors on the far side of the new open area.Blornvid keeps vigilant, trying to keep his eyes and ears open to danger while his friends take a look around.

Cords moves in and check out the dresser as it looks to be the only stuff could be store at.

Stee will move down the corridor opening each door and getting a quick glance in the rooms to make a report to the others. He has shouldered his bow and has his sword out. Just in case any boogey men jump out at him.

This is a tiny map of this floor of the temple as you see it now. Elyse and Blornvid are at the red X. Cords is in the isolated room directly north of the X. Stee is going down the corridor to the west of the X. Oliver is checking out the area to the northeast of the X The map shows what you assume the exterior walkway (with the stairs) looks like, and what you have seen of the inner area. Again, the main blocks are 30x30 feet square.

Cord checks the dresser, but all you find are some very nice, but otherwise non-descript clothes. They are in surprisingly good shape. They might even have some value due to their condition, age, material, and worksmanship. They look very comfortable and, while not actually underwear, look to have been worn underneath any ceremonial robes. (Which, BTW, you do not see any of.) However, as you look around, you do see a small booklet on one of the small tables by the chair.

Stee first checks the three doors you immediately see on the southern side of the corridor. Each of them opens up into rooms that were obvious residences. They each have a bed, wash table, chest, chamber pot, and chair. It is a fairly tight fit to get all of that in there. The rooms do look comfortable, however, despite being somewhat cramped. You move on to the next group of four and the first two reveal rooms that are basically the same as the first three.

Oliver is checking out the open area and can see a door to the northwest, a corridor heading north with some small doors on the eastern side, and you can see the door to what is a comparatively larger room in the southeastern corner of the inner area. You contemplates opening the door on the southeastern room.

However, before Oliver can open the door, Stee can get to the next door, or Cord can pick up the booklet, you all hear a sudden sound. Cord can't tell the direction because he is in an enclosed room. Stee thinks it sounds like it is directly north. Oliver thinks it is northwest. Elyse and Blornvid don't have a good sense because of the angles to their position. You all freeze for a moment to make sure you actually heard something. Then, you hear something starting to move around. After a couple moments, you can't tell if it is just one thing making the sounds, or if it is more than one. But you definitely are hearing something.

Cords has snached up a book and is heading out to investigate the noise.

Stee will move back to the others."Wreak on guard!"

Elyse draws her short sword as quietly as she can...

Blornvid's axe is at the ready, listening and looking for the source of the sounds.

Aizashi tries to see if he can locate the source of the noise and tries to make sure to stay close to the others (or get back to them).

Oliver stays alert, tensing up his sling and looking around northwest, where he heard the sound. He does not dare to say anything.

You all pull back to the first location of the inner room. You can now hear shuffling sounds and a separate scraping sound. The scraping sound seems to be coming from due north of you, but the shufflling sounds seem to come from both north and west. You can't tell if it is just some kind of sound distortion, or if there are multiples.

With his ears twitching Aizashi turns and looks around trying to locate the source of the sounds. When he can't find it he asks "Should we investigate? I think the noise night be coming from over there." as he points north.

Oliver breaths in deep to try to identify the scent of whatever is around the corner.

"If it's an orc —or any scavenger really, myself included— I should be able to smell... something", he whispers.

You are much more confident that the shuffling sounds are from more than one source and more than one place. As you get ready, you hear a sharp, loud sound that can only be described as cackling, which sends uncontrollable shivers down your spine. As whatever it is gets closer, Oliver gets the unmistakable smell of ... rotting. It is not pleasant and he instinctively wrinkles his nose in disgust.

"I... uh, I really don't like the smell of this... or the sounds or the looks, for that matter. And I literally smelled hell earlier."

We might still have time to leave, if we choose to do so now.
Aizashi points out while he prepares himself for a confrontation.

"Then let's be off."

Haven't heard back on this.

As a group, you pull back out of the inner room and gently close the door. However, the shuffling doesn't stop and it continues to get closer. Once the door closes, you hear another cackle. You are back in the outer ring corridor on this floor.

"All right then. Where to now?"

"No one knows we are there. Let's go up one level and see if that can avoid & explore more." Cords will lead off to doing just that.

"No one, except for that cackling thing, that is."

Oliver's senses feel overwhelmed and he opts to tag along sheepishly.

With Cords leading, Aizashi will bring up the rear.

Arc still walks behind Cords, his bow at hand and an arrow ready

You all make your way to the stairs up and take them.


At the top of the stairs you see that you have reached the top of the temple. Where the main walls are on the lower levels, there are four separate, unattached walls with two archways in each. Further towards the center of the floor are four free standing pillars that each end with spectacular finials. The entire floor is covered with beautiful neutral-toned granite, but inside the partial walls there is an amazing garden with an fountain in the center. Initially it appears that the fountain is not working, but when you get closer you see that there is water flowing down the sides of the center structure, so, while there is no spray, there is still movement to the water. The water within the basin is clear, though there are still some water lilies and some small fishes in it. The garden consists of flowering plants and vines that drape over the partial walls. All of the plants are based in very large pots arranged seemingly randomly, but still very tastefully, around the area within the partial walls. It is amazingly beautiful and surprisingly peaceful.

At the far corner of the level, you can see another set of stairs going down, but the other two corners have no stairs. For the moment, you do not hear any shuffling or cackling.

Blornvid asks Oliver and Elyse, "Sensing any magic?"

Forgetting his previous worries, Oliver delightedly walks around the garden. He checks for traces of magic and looks around for interesting botanical specimens which might serve as alchemical ingredients.

"I like this place. Such a contrast to the lower levels."

"Much nicer than some places and rather amazing to be way it is." Cords too looks over the plants but no professionally.

Aizashi lingers at the stairs for a moment to make sure they are not being followed. Once he is convinced (and only if he is convinced of it) he will try to check if he can see anything by looking over the outer walls.

"Don't forget the mushrooms that attacked us in the underdark Oliver." Stee will move to the fountain and take a handful of water and smell it.

Elyse will move about the room and see if anything draws her attention. If she senses any Magic or anything else noteworthy she will share with the group.

Again, the whole temple radiates magic. Nothing is currently radiating "more magic" than anything else. And, contrary to Stee's concerns, the plants appear to be just plants.

As Oliver looks through them, two of the plants look particularly interesting, as you knows they are ancient plants that are not known to exist anymore. You take a couple seedpods from each of the plants. One other plant has interesting leaves that you think might be useful for some alchemical efforts.

While Oliver walks directly into the garden area, Cords keeps a more considered approach and does not enter it, so much as walk around the perimeter to see what surprises you can hopefully not find.

Aizashi does not hear anyone or anything heading up the stairs. You do still hear shambling on the floor below, but they are not following up the stairs. More confident that you have not been followed up the stairs, you creep up to the edge and carefully take a look over the edge. You realize with dismay that you have accidentally worked your way around to the southern side of the temple and you can directly look down to where the orcs are! However, you are all being relatively quiet and the orcs are apparently not used to looking up frequently. As a result, you are confident you have not been seen. You do see several orcs working in their corner of the remnant. They are going into and out of the doors and buildings in that corner, but you can't see what they are doing, and the activity is not giving any obvious hints as to what they are doing.

Stee approaches the fountain. As you look into the fountain, you can confirm that the central pillar is covered in flowing water, so that the whole fountain has movement to the water, which has apparently prevented it from clouding up or getting stagnant. Inside the fountain, you see several water lilies floating on the top, and there are some small ornamental fishes swimming within. Despite the water's movement, the surface is remarkably still. You reach your cupped hand into the water to take a handful up to smell it. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, other than the ripples created by your hand and the drips from the water falling from your hand are always quickly quieted, which does not appear to be quite natural. That said, it appears to be nothing more than ordinary water to your senses.

Elyse joins Oliver in wandering through the garden, but instead of looking specifically at the plants, you are more focused on the area as a whole. Moving counter to Oliver, to cover more ground, your investigation comes to a quick halt when you trip over something unexpected. Quickly righting yourself, you see that you tripped on an arm that is lying on the ground behind a large planter.

Oliver merrily takes samples of the leaves and seeds right as Elyse stumbles with the arm.

Stee will take another handful and take a sip.

Blornvid keeps watch on the orcs below, trying to figure out what they're doing.

Elyse moves around the pot to get a better view and see the body (quite dead) of an orc in ornate robes. Despite being quite ornate, the skulls and other such patterns on it are a bit off-putting. You can see that the orc appears to have bled out from multiple puncture wounds in its torso. You can also see that the orc has not been dead for very long. As you do a cursory scan, you sense that there is something noticeably "more magic" in its other hand.Stee takes a drink of the water and ... you feel strangely rejuvenated and are not hungry at all.

While the commotion is going on at the center of the garden, Blornvid joins Aizashi at the edge overlooking the orcs moving around. While watching their movements for a bit, Blornvid sees that they are spending a lot of time in one of the stables building. They seem to be going into other buildings, bringing things out, and going into the stables building. You can't see what they are doing in that building, but their activity seems focused there.

Cords with little interest in floral and such withdraws out a block of wood that he will make into a boat with no sail. Leaving wood clippings on the ground, he will take the boat and let it sail in the water.

Stee will look to the others"Hey this water I believe has healing properties. If not it has a boosting quality. I took a drink and feel really good and not the least bit hungry." Stee will dump his waterskin and refill it with this water.

Elyse will bend down closer to the body and see if there any sign of life. Stee, would you bring a cup of that water over here? If there is any sign of life Elyse will try to give the orc some of the liquid. Speaking a little louder so her voice will carry out to everyone but not necessarily loud enough to carry out over the walls:Folks, There is a body over here. From the look of it, it might be an Orc Shaman. Oliver, there might be some magic items that can be salvaged, if it's truly dead.

Elyse keeps a warry eye on the plant life near the body looking for spikes or thorns...

Stee will bring his waterskin over and hand to Elyse"Here you go pour some of this on it. I will refill."

Hearing Elyse call out about the body Aizashi looks at Blornvid before starting to move over to the rest of the group now feeling a little on edge.

Blornvid nods at Aizashi. "Go ahead. I'll keep watch."

Elyse will carefully remove any obvious weapons from the Orc, then release a few droplets of water in the orc's mouth and a few drops in each of the visible puncture wounds, then step back and observe.

Stee and Aizashi join Elyse as she removes the orc's staff and a dagger attached at his waist.

As you remove the dagger, you "feel" the presence of something in a pouch at his waist. (Its as if you were attempting to detect for magic, but you didn't do that on purpose.) The water has no effect on the orc (for good or ill). The orc is still quite dead.

"Wellp, I'm half relieved this water does not raise the dead. Just imagine figuring out what to do with it. That would have been a horrible political mess."

Oliver walks in next to Elyse and the dead orc.

"Now, why did you die, fella'?"

The multiple puncture wounds in the torso are the probable cause. However, what caused this is currently unknown.

Stee will go back and refill his waterskin.

"Let us check out the level below and finish exploring it. Be watchful of orcs."

'I... Maybe we we ought to regroup and plan how to advance? I feel like we are running back and forth without any decent plan. We have a dead Orc right here. I'm sure there is a reason. And we might want to figure out what has happened on the floor below as well?' Aizashi is slightly reluctant to speak up but he also doesn't want to keep running from place to place when there seem to be mysteries to be solved beforehand.

Stee nods "I agree with you Aizashi. Back and forth is getting us no where."

"There nothing up here and down is the only way. We might have explored half the level below us."

Blornvid takes a break from watching the orcs to see what the others are doing. He hears what Aizashi has to say and nods. "You want to know why he was stabbed to death. Figuring out who did it, could explain the why. If it was a beast, it would've eaten him. If it was a rival, why not take that staff you found? If it was a guardian for the fountain, why leave the body here? As a warning?

"If you've searched his body and this room and have not found any other clues, then it may be a mystery we can not solve here and now. We will have to find the answers." He smirks and gives a nod towards Cords. "Perhaps, we need to confront the cackler down below."

A few clarifications:

- The orc was not stabbed to death. The holes are round, as if caused by a head-less arrow. They were not caused by arrows, blades, or spears. Based on his experience around Skeeve, Blornvid is pretty confident these are made by magic force attacks.

- The staff is well constructed and likely has some ceremonial purpose, but it isn't magic. The dagger wasn't magic, either.

- You have not fully searched the orc. Only his weapons were removed. He was not searched after the revival failed. Elyse did detect some magic on the orc's person, but no one has followed up on that, either.

- Your current mysteries are: the shuffling and cackling on the floor below, finding the small golden sword token, and what the orcs are up to. Also, there is a basement you haven't checked yet.

Keeping an ear open to the exchange on what to do next, Elyse will explore the Shaman further and retrieve anything she believes is of value or has some magical property. The later she will share with the other magic sensitive party members. But not keeping anything secret.

Oliver squats next to the orc, and checks its temperatute to roughly estimate how long ago it died. He also tries to find out where the orc was standing when it received the fatal blow, based on the position of its feet.

The orc died within the last day or so. It isn't spring fresh or anything, but it hasn't had much of a chance to start rotting. Looking around, and being deliberate in your search, you can see that he probably came up the stairs opposite the ones you used. He likely was mortally wounded, but was still able to retreat to the top floor, where he expired.

Elyse searches the orcs body and sees that he is dressed in ceremonial robes for some infernal power. However, the ceremonial gear (the robes, staff, and unholy symbol) are not magically imbued. However, you find three interesting things. First, he has a coin purse containing 59 gp, a magic scroll, and, much to your surprise, a small golden sword! As with the other token, it seems to "want" to be returned to its pedestal.

"Let's return the golden sword."

"Aye. One piece of the puzzle that is this place."

OK, taking the gold sword down to the broken altar is a great idea. However, your on the fourth floor, and the altar is all the way down on the first floor. Plus, you can be sure that the cackling and shuffling have stopped. So, when going down:
- Which stairs are you going to use: the one you came up on, or the one on the opposite side?
- Which stairs will you use to get to the next floor (three -> two and two -> one)?
- If you have to fight on the third floor, is it total, or are you just trying to get by? (Assuming that is what you are confronted with.)

Or, if you want to approach this differently, that can work, too!

Stee isn't one for running so he is up for clearing this building so the group has no worries about what might come at them."Let's go hunt down this cackler and be done with it."

"A better plan would be to lead it somehow to the Orcs and let them deal with it." Cords isn't thrilled with doing mortal combat with the crackler.

"Right now. Let's hope we don't have to deal with passing near it to return the golden sword."

But if they for what ever reason don't fight each other, we might have to fight 2 foes at once. I think we ought to deal with the problem here before returning the sword.

And we didn't actually see what was making the cackling and shuffling noises. I vote we take care of that first, then explore the rest of that floor, then the sword can be returned when we are done.

"Alright then. Let's get to it."

Simple Cords lets someone else lead off for hunting the 'Crackler'. He has no interest in this.

Here Cords, you can take the sword back... If you get in trouble circle back to us. Elyse offers the golden sword to Cords pummel first.

Currently all going down. I know Cords is in the thoughts to avoid mortal combat as he would put it. But do need to go down to return the golden sword.

Blornvid will take the lead down the stairs.

Stee with bow in hand and arrow nocked with move with the group "Wreak on guard. Come."

Blornvid leads the team down the stairs, with the archers behind Blornvid and Aizashi. When you reach the bottom of the stairs, you can hear shuffling behind the closed door, but it is mostly muffled and you do not hear any cackling currently.

Blornvid looks to the others to see if they're ready to quiet the cackler for good.

Thumbs up from Elyse...

Stee gives a nod he is ready.

Aizashi nods agreement as well.

Oliver grins nervously and nods.

Blornvid opens the door with one hand, his axe in the other...

Blornvid opens the door to the same darkness they left. No noise, but the quiet sound of the door opening. As the group sets into the initial room again, you hear nothing at first, but then you start hearing the shuffling sounds again ...The group decides to wait in the room by the door so you have a potential escape route, but both Elyse and Oliver summon light, and Stee activates his so you can all have the best chance to see what is going on. After a couple tense minutes, the shuffling finally gets closer and you see figures emerging from both the path Stee went down, and the upper path that Oliver looked down. And what you see are ... orc zombies! Fortunately, these aren't "runners", but rather more traditional "shamblers". However, you see at least six (three at each opening) with the shuffling sounds implying there are more behind them.They are slow enough that you get to act first. How do you position yourselves and who is doing what?

Aizashi will move a little towards the zombies to give his ranged companions some room to move at try to keep the zombies at a bit of a distance. Well, they... Stink. Watch out!

Stee will stay to the back and fire his trusty bow. Pull, aim, exhale, loose and repeat. "Wreak attack!"

Careful Cords holds back and doesn't rush forward. He awaits to see where he is more needed with his handaxe ready.

Blornvid shouts, "Zombies don't cackle! They have a master!" He's up front, so he starts swinging his axe.