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?