Episode 2

Curious to see how the black ops team down below moves along. As far as Kray and the Dream Theatre goes... just weird. Like some Alice in Wonderland shit going on, with the Seetan tea man playing the part of the smoking caterpillar.

Trece turns the group away from the darkened corridor, instead back tracking several rooms and shifting location over to a different section (it is nearly impossible at this point to know true cardinal directions now within the palace).

Through the passages, the brass piping with the periodic funnels runs along the high corners of the rooms and halls. The feature is sometimes barely visible, hidden in shadows and sometimes buried within the highly crafted wooden boards and stone carving panels that serve as trim work for the rooms' regal decor.

For a second time, a chime rings out.

"BBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiinnnnnggggg......"

Everyone stays alert, but nothing happens. It is confirmed now, the sound is coming from the funnels along the piping.

Passing into another series of unlit rooms, the group uses their light sources to maintain visibility in an otherwise darkened hallways and open chambers. After a few more turns down obscure openings and partially hidden archways, they come to a final staircase leading straight down to a rather stark hallway. It looks to be unused and has a more rugged, colder look of unpolished block granite, suggesting that it might be an older part of the building.

Trece brings the group to a final masonry trimmed archway and into a large chamber. As the group enters in the light casts from the two makeshift torches and the oil lamp shine through to show that the stone walled room is quite large with a high ceiling.

The room is somewhat irregular in shape, the walls curved in parts but then angular in others.

It is oblong on an axis from the entryway to the great fireplace, perhaps a distance of 60', with the shorter length across more like 50'.

To the rear corners, off to the left and right of the entranceway, are two additional fire hearths, built into the angled walls similarly facing out to the center of the room. These two fire places are large by normal standards, but not as grand as the primary hearth at the far wall that is bordered by the great gargoyle statues.

There are old trophy mounts on the wall, of known and unknown animals. Some of them look very old and decrepit. One has fallen from its wall mount and lies on its side, battered on the floor.

Wrought iron fire shield panels sit in front of the smaller fireplaces and large iron pokers and tongs are stacked to their sides.

Stone block shelves of unlit candles protrude from the walls here and there. Many of the candles are melted all the way down, now only piles of dirty sludge wax melded onto the old stone.

The large iron candelier above the chamber is suspended high, its chain going through a high eyelet and then back down to anchor in a wrap bracket and lock on the right side wall.

The lamp and torches cast an eerie light on the room. The faces of the stone gargoyles glare down in frozen expression of menace. The lifeless trophies stare forward as cold dead creatures with pitiless fake eyes of black beads and polished stone.

Thorn hears something. He cannot remember what though. A cry?

When he hears Ra u nak sit up, Thorn opens his eyes. The old Seetan sits on the cushioned bench, his knees together and legs squared to the floor. Arms evenly placed to his side, hands open and set on the corners of the bench. He is leaning forward, staring at the ground. His eyes are clenched, though only slightly. Maybe he is in concentration -- meditating or listening for something?

Thorn looks over to see Kray and Ivor fast asleep, Kray on a low mattress covered bench and Ivor tilted over in the same high back chair that he had sat in earlier.

Thorn feels so heavy. It is difficult to gather his thoughts. He had visions of his mother, her long hair falling around her face. The sun behind her, hiding her features in a glare.

Bryn steps into the great hearth, shining the light of his long-neck oil lamp onto the interior walls of the flue.

Trece is close behind him, also moving right up into the hearth space.

Sizhen assesses the room, with some focus on the iron chandelier and its hanging mechanism. He sees the simple clasp that is used to bolt the wrapped chain into place. Sizhen feels that he could release the clasp if he had a small pin or hook prod, or perhaps there is a key nearby. It makes sense that they would have been one on hand at some point in time in the past.

Sizhen begins to think that there are indeed some irregularities about this room. It looks ancient in some way, based on its decor, especially the gargoyle motif. It suggests a style taken from Zutar before its fatal conflict with Ancient Otessa. But at the same time, it is unlikely that the room is truly that old. The brick and mortar style used is much more in line with common age Alornic architecture, best perfected in the "structural renewal" buildings that have been constructed during this century in Kortella City, Sinacuse, and Elessa. This iron hanging system also is material and technology quite new, or at least far newer than Old Empire era architecture.

Sizhen surmises that this room, though it has the trappings and imagery of an older age, it must have certainly been updated at the very least. More likely, he feels, it was built within the last 2 centuries, but trying to capture a style from a thousand years earlier.

Bryn begins to scan through systematically, looking for irregularities in the masonry, chiseled markings or runes, steel brackets or anchor points, any telltale sign of a hidden strongbox built structurally inside of the chimney.

It doesn't take long before Bryn is interrupted though.

Sizhen is the first to see them walk in. Bryn and Trece quickly turn to see them in the entry way though when the leader speaks out....