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Acher pants heavily as she lowers her massive club and picks up her dropped sling. She smiles as she grabs hold of one of the flea before her's legs, and begins to rock it back and forth. "All set here Janira. Big buggers these. Are insects usually this large down south?"
"Still, ugh," She grunts as she starts tugging more firmly. "These are nothing. On the way back, erggh, I'll tell you about when my brothers and I had to, *pant*, outrun a bul..."
SCRACKK. The limb she's been working on finally snaps off and the warrior pulls it upwards. She brushes her hair to the side as she looks at her prize, then sighs and drops the piece in disappointment.
"Figures, not even enough meat on it to make a meal. Ah well, sure there'll be something a bit more meaty and a bit less exoskeletony on up ahead if we need."
Acher glances around to observe the halfling scurrying about, then turns back towards the woods. "So, the caves you found were this way, yes?"
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Dinuci looks around and points in a direction.
" 'T be that'a way."
He starts off in the direction the group came from. Waving for Riri to follow him.
Thanks for the advice! Wolves tend to automatically flank but after this scenario I will switch some things around to make it fit a little bit better.
As for his CMD it should be +2, I made a mistake in the sheet!
Do you want me to make checks every time I order Riri to do something? I think the tricks are a bit weird if you need to make him do the thing every time. If I for example attack a monster and order Riri to do the same and we have done that a 100 times before then normally an animal would automatically attack the creature also. But it is up to you ^^
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Well, crud . Harry calls out in a loud, not-quite panicky voice " Umm, guys. We're all going off in different directions. Janira, do you know which way is the fastest to the caves? Maybe if we all talked it over? Acher seemed like she may have the best idea, so maybe if we help her make sure of it?"
"Wait! Stop! No!" Janira calls out, running after each of you and pulling you back to where you started. "You're each going a different way!"
"And, uhm, not all insects, Acher. Some are huge, like these. Some bigger. Most are small though, like normal insects."
"Dinuci, no!" For the second time, Janira pulls the druid back to the party.
With the aid of Acher and Chilly you make it to your destination. The dense forest opens to a wide clearing at the base of a sheer cliff. Thick vines cover the surface of the cliff stretching 30 feet overhead. "Here! The cave entrance is behind those vines," Janira says with a broad smile as she walks to the cliff’s face. She pulls back several layers of vegetation to reveal a narrow crack in the cliff’s surface. "This is where I saw the gillmen enter."
As she motions toward the aperture, the surrounding woods come alive with the sound of small animals fleeing some unseen danger and a large creature crashing through the undergrowth. The halfling worriedly remarks, "Quick, take cover before whatever it is spots us!" As if she’d summoned the creature with her words, a massive horned monstrosity emerges from the trees. Standing eight feet tall on a pair of cloven hooves and wielding a tremendous axe, the bull-headed creature roars with unbridled anger when it spots the group.
Wisely assessing that a minotaur is beyond her charges’ capabilities, Janira screams, "A minotaur! There’s little chance we can stand against it. Take this bag," she continues, pulling off her backpack, "and head deeper into the caves. Finish your mission. I’ll lead it away from the caves, lose it in the forest, and join you as soon as I can. Now go! GO!" She heaves her backpack into the cave, casts a spell, and darts off toward the minotaur before turning to lure it away.
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Dinuci grumples as he is being pulled back again.
"If yer that sure of yerself lead the way then!"
He follows the group grudgingly.
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"Oooh me bad! Culd've sworn 't was the other way!"
He says with a happy air. They walk to the cave and discover that the creature is following them.
"Wha's tha?!"
He exclaims as the creature emerges from the forest.
"Ah'm not staying round here. Quickly!"
He runs for the cave with Riri on his tial.
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"Hope the lass makes 't! Now what be in the bag she tossed 's?"
He rummages through the pack to see what the contents are. Afterwards he will take in his surroundings.
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Harry looks around confused... he feels like he lost an entire day on that hike up to the caves. Hmm. Too much thinking maybe. It's like power just faded out of the world for a little while there.
It's a great sight when they finally reach the cave. Finally! My feet aren't used to this, and I didn't expect my shoulders to hurt. If there's any valuables that may come loose in these caves, or maybe on the gillmen, I really need to get some better footwear and a better pack. One of those sweet ones I saw over in the Grand Bazaar maybe - I swear that guy was pulling items out of it that were bigger than the bag itself!
The crashing through the brush doesn't disturb Harry too much. Probably just another murder of fleas... "Zohls! That's no flea!" Harry stares wide-eyed at the bull-headed humanoid lumbering through the woods at them. He knew from their briefing that there were some up here, but he never expected to see a minotaur!
Harry isn't quite sure what to do. On the one hand, cooperate would mean helping Janira, right? But it could also mean doing what she says, since she's the boss. Harry reluctantly heads towards the caves, to explore and report, glancing back frequently to see if he could get a clean shot with his bow.
He doesn't.
Harry steps into the cave, looks at Diniri, and mutters "Come on, we should probably head just a little bit deeper before we see what resources we have in case that thing turns around. Man, I hope that little half-pint knows what's she's doing."
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"But Janira..!" Acher calls out as the halfling tries to taunt the hulking bovine. Her grip tghtens on her weapon as she takes two steps towards the beast.Never leave a man behind.
Then she stops. She is your instructor. She understands this region, these risks, better than you. And she thinks we should retreat. Acher's teeth grit as she glares at the lumbering beast, trying to stare it to death as she notices the dwarf and the scholar pass her towards the cave mouth. Then, with an "Errrgggh!", she wheels to follow them into the crack in the cliffside.
As soon as she moves past the caven's entrance, Acher turns quickly and tries to spot the minotaur. She whispers sternly to her fellows. "Quick, look ahead to see if there's a wind in the path or some narrows ahead. Don't go too far, but we may need a barricade soon if this plan doesn't work." As she says this she hefts her earthbreaker as she braces her stance. If the worst happens, at least she can give the monster a good hit or two before she goes down.
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"Nah me think she be a'right on her own."
He says as he is rummaging through the pack.
"There be a whole treasure 'n this thing!"
He exclaims after a minute. He shakes the contents out of the bag on the floor.
"Will ye look at this!"
He soon looses interest and starts searching the cave for what to do. He walks about a bit and finds some footprints. As the others are hunched over the contents of the bag he comments.
"Oi laddies me found some tracks! They be headin' in the cave. Been couple a hours most."
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"Well then," Acher says to the dwarf as she glances at the opened pack. "We should keep pushing ahead then. We're one down already, but might as well do what we came here to do."
She pulls out the Burning Hands wnad and the barkskin potion from the pack and slides them into her pack, then moves next to Dinucci. With a half-courtseying flourish of her hands, "Lead on."
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Harry smiles happily at the alchemist's fire in the bag - it was one of the first recipes he figured out, back when that bully Melkor threatened to beat him to death the next time he saw him. Tough to do that when your family has to move away after their shop's courtyard kept catching fire each night. Funny old thing how that didn't happen to the buyer.... The other items - tanglefoot bag, thunderstone, smokestick, are all great as well. It takes a little bit to figure out the holy water is HOLY water. It looks and tastes just like regular water, and it's not like the half-pint carved a holy symbol into the vial or anything.
Holding up the wand of cure light wounds, Harry tells everyone "Hey! I can use this to heal you if you get hurt. But there's not much energy left to it, so we can only use it a few times. Actually there's a lot of really useful stuff in here, more than in my own pack for sure. Though, man, is it heavy. I can help carry it some, but I'm going to get tired fast."
Harry looks at the prints Dinuci found. Hmm, this is getting a bit more real. I wonder what's in here to attract these gillyflappers so far away from their water? Imitating Acher, Harry gives Dinuci a half-bow " Lead on master dwarf, these seem to be more your realms than ours!"
You see the minotaur chasing after Janira through the trees, fighting its way through the dense undergrowth. Soon the cacophony of the chase fades and the sounds of the forest slowly return to normal.
The narrow tunnel you ended up in twists and turns for several hundred feet before slowly opening to a wider passage. A large hole spans the cave’s width and stretches ten feet down the path. At the bottom of the pit lies a small bundle of cloth.
The tunnel here is 10 feet wide and 10 feet tall with a ceiling mostly devoid of stalactites. The pit is 10 by 10 feet, with no way around it, and it's 10 feet deep. If you'd take a look into the pit, you'd see many spikes pointing up.
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Harry stares at the pit. A pit. Of course. Why wouldn't a cave have a giant hole in the middle of it. He starts thinking about ways to get around the pit, but doesn't have much in the way of ideas
"Huh. Yeah, someone dug that - that's not natural. I mean, look at those straight lines there, and there. Nature doesn't do that. I guess this is maybe where all that rope we've talked about may come in handy?"
Harry looks around to see if maybe there's something on this side of the pit that we could tie a rope onto.
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"Actually... n'ver 'v been in a cave or mine before."
He looks down the pit and whistles.
"That be a'big hole th're."
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Acher steps up and peers down at the pit.
"Of course. That figures with our luck." she says with a smirk. The Shoanti looks around around. [i] Lack of stalactites means not as much of a risk of hitting them on a leap. Still, this is too smooth, too uniform. Someone (or something) ahead sure isn't fond of visitors.
"Well, we could climb down. Carefully of course, no one wants to be skewered. But then again..." She turns towards Dinucci, then her gaze drops to his wolf. "How good's your friend at jumping?"
Acher kneels down to get one more glimpse at the pit's bottom as she rummages through her, and Janira's pack.
"First things first though: I want to see if there's anything in that pile down there. If one of you has some rope," she looks up, disappointed there wasn't one in her gear, "then hold onto it. I'd prefer an anchor when I climb."
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"Riri be good 't jumpin' "
He says as he pets the wolf. Harry grabs the rope and he offers to help.
"could help ya know. Also g't a hook."
He adds with a wide grin.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Harry's able to find a sturdy rock to tie the rope to on your side of the pit. Though, without the rope fastened on the other side, it's not yet possible to cross the pit with it.
And so Acher decides to climb down, to inspect the pit a bit better. She successfully does this, and finds something the party didn't notice earlier in between the spikes: a bundle of cloth, which looks like a cloak on closer inspection.
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Acher descends, holding onto the rope tightly as she goes. Touching down on the ground, she loops the end of the rope around her hand, then carefully moves through the stalagmites on the ground towards the bundle of cloth.
"Ground's solid at least." she calls up to Dinucci, Harry and Chilly. "These spikes look nasty though. And there's something down here. Looks like," she tugs at the garment to unwedge it from the rocks, "a cloak. Must've fallen off someone when they tried to cross."
Seeing nothing else down below, Acher makes her way towards the opposite end of the pit, making sure not to let the rope become tangled amidst the stalagmites. "I'm gonna move up to the other side, see if there's something we can tie this off to." she yells back as she begins to make her ascent.
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Harry doesn't have the ability to detect magic, but he's pretty good at recognizing spellcraft - he's seen enough finger twiddlers, and likes to read their books. He'll try to examine that cloak, and asks if someone else could assist him perhaps? Ideally, perhaps, someone with the ability to detect magic?
Harry will wait to see what the Gods make of his work on that one.
In the meanwhile, he's keeping an eye on Acher climbing up that far wall. If he can, he'll call out advice based on what he can see by standing back on the far side, and getting the big picture, as it were. Mostly, as it turns out, it's really useless advice like "Put your feet on the wall" or " Reach higher!", and but he hopes it's helpful instead of distracting. It'd be awful if she fell. I'd never be able to help carry her and keep an eye out for loose goodies in here!
Harry waits, hoping that Acher makes it safely to the top without a problem.
It costs Acher some effort, but she manages to maneuver her way to the other side of the pit without getting stabbed by the spikes. Scaling the wall on the other side proves equally challenging with Harry's advice, but Acher's fine as soon as she blocks it out.
Under cover of Chilly, Acher reaches the pit's other side. Chilly points out a sturdy rock, and Acher ties the rope to it.
Meanwhile, Harry's trying to identify the cloak Acher found. He has no idea what it is, but he's sure he's seen it before. Dinuci's able to tell it's a magical cloak, but that's all the dwarf can tell.
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Harry, I appreciate the effort, *gasp*, but the yelling, *grunt*, isn't helping *ergh*!"
With a final pull Acher drags herself up over the edge of the pit.She takes a moment to catch her breath, adjusting her mail slightly and setting the discovered cloak down against the cave wall. She follows Chilly' gaze to a sturdy stone near the edge of the hole and ties her end of the rope around it. Acher gives it a couple of tugs to make sure it stays steady, then calls back across.
"Ropes all set. Hope you guys like shimmying across!" Hearing Dinucci's last question she turns around, her back to the pit, and peers down the passage before her. "Nothing just yet. I can poke around a bit ahead, see if there's anything more useful if you'd like."
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"Sorry, Acher, I was just really worried about you falling!"
Harry looks down into the pit, and gulps - but just a little. He'll climb across the rope, because he doesn't want to be left alone. Alone in the dark. Alone in the dark with an angry minotaur. Alone, in the dark, with an angry minotaur, and a big pit at his back.
Yeah, he'll climb. () Zohls, this rope is swinging side to side. I've got to be one of the lightest of us though, so it'll hold. It'll hold, right? It'll hold! I wonder how often I'll have to dangle above a pit full of spikes as a Pathfinder. They didn't warn me about this part.
When he gets to the other side, Harry will watch Acher's back if she decides to poke ahead a little. He may be able to spot a trap she's about to step into, after all!
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"Oooooh it really be a'long bit do'n."
He calls out as Harry descends.
" 'nd the spikes be lookin' quite sharp."
As Harry is almost at the bottom Dinuci slides down the rope landing right next to him.
"Did ye fin' anythin' yet Acher?"
He follows Harry closely with the climb on the other side of the pit. On the other side he whistles for Riri to follow him, who jump the gap easily.
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Harry goes a bit pale when Chilly comments on the distance to the bottom, but it's hopefully hard to see that in this lighting. On the other hand, the surprisingly shrill eep sound he makes when Dinuci pops up can be clearly heard.
Harry read a book once that explains certain animals can hear noises that are higher than what a human could hear. He hopes that is not true of minotaurs, or, he my have just reminded one where they went!
Dinuci seems confused, as he hasn't yet realized Acher went to the other side of the pit to tie the other end of the rope to a rock there. There's no longer a rope going down into the the pit, and there was never a rope going up the other side. Going up was something Acher managed to do with just her own strength.
The others warn Dinuci just in time, before he climbs into a pit without a rope to climb up. When Dinuci's climbed from one side of the pit to the other, Riri jumps over the pit to join him. The party then moves forward.
The tunnels continue on, leading deeper beneath the Kortos Mounts until they eventually open into a large cavern. What must have once been beautifully carved reliefs and inscriptions have since weathered heavily, their features dulled and softened to the point that it is hard to distinguish what each once depicted. A wide tunnel exits the cavern on its far side, and blue-burning torches line the passageway’s walls.
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Harry requests some help from the others, but he also pointedly mentions he knows Aquan (along with Auran, Celestial, Common, Daemonic, Draconic, Ignan, Infernal, Osiriani, and Terran). He has read extensively and trained himself in both history and religion, but this seems to be maybe more like history? .
He stares at the reliefs for a while, and mutters occasionally to his companions, asking them to move a light, or "Hey, does that look more like the cuniform version of ox or the classical version of money to you?" At one point he looks up and asks " Can anyone can help me with this glyph? I think it's an old holy symbol but it may have been their symbol for baking?". Harry seems completely ready to get a paper and pen out from his pack to start copying everything down. These look ancient! I may be the first human to have read these in thousands of years. Zohls! That's so awesome! How do I convince the others we need to spend more time studying these?
Eventually, he think's maybe he has an idea of what may be going on.
At one point, Harry also looks around and realizes there are blue-burning torches. Blue would mean those are pretty hot, or they're magic! He asks "Diniri, are those torches regular, or are they magic? Man I hope they're magic. I mean, if not, well, we thought we may have company in here anyhow, but who lights torches and leaves them burning behind them? Armies do that kind of stuff, that's who! Did anyone see an armies' worth of footprints? I thought there were only a few recent prints? Diniri, are those magic? I've got to figure out a way to identify magic! I hope it isn't an army!"
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"An easy mistake to make though Dinucci: you're about as hairy as your friend!" Acher jokes at the dwarf as she walks through the tunnel. "And Harry, if you're worried about an army, a good step one to avoiding them?" She leans in towards the overactive scholar and whispers. "Keeping quiet so they never notice you're there."
With that said, she turns to look at one the the carvings herself. Faintly tracing a much-eroded mark with her fingers, Acher lets out a small whistle. These things are OLD. So this is why everyone seems to be interested in a random stretch of earth.
The carvings focus on parables that feature Aroden’s twelve guises, meant to illustrate his hopes for humanity. Harry is able to decipher three of these parables, and Acher is able to decipher a fourth. The other parables are too unclear to be deciphered.
The Craftsman is depicted creating shoes, pots, jewelry, and other moveable goods, referencing Aroden’s delight at seeing his people express their ingenuity in creating new products from raw materials.
The Farmer is depicted plowing four lines in a field, retelling Aroden’s prophecy that humankind would prepare the rocky earth for planting and over generations wear the pebbles down into fertile soil.
The Merchant is depicted weighing and trading coins of different sizes, a reference to the holy text’s proverb that peace brings trade and prosperity to all people.
The Thief is depicted stealing a gem from a shop while whispering a prayer, an allusion to a passage saying that larceny—though illegal—is a form of praise, for anything worth stealing is also worthy of praise for its craftsmanship.
Harry and Acher also identify that the sections of the holy text depicted are slightly different than those that appear in the known
version of the History and Future of Humanity, the principle holy text of Aroden, suggesting that the carvings might represent an earlier version of the work.
Meanwhile, Dinuci inspects both the torches and the area itself. He's able to identify a magical aura from the torches on the walls.
Dinuci's inspection leads him to a new part of the cave.
The soft light of the surrounding fungus mixes with the flickering glow of the nearby torches to reveal a grand chamber. A large pool of water along the chamber’s southern edge reflects the blue and green radiance to illuminate the massive stalactites that cling to the ceiling overhead. Two other tunnels branch off from this area, leading to the east and west.
Rising up from the pool is a column of rock with steeply sloped sides and a flat top, as if someone had sawn off the top of a massive stalagmite. A miniature city carved from this same stone occupies nearly the entire surface. Tiny trinkets such as ancient coins, polished semiprecious stones, and ornately braided loops of string are scattered throughout the diorama, and pale cave frogs clamber atop it. The smooth cavern floor is covered in gravel and pebbles along the edge of the pool, and several foot-long centipedes prowl among the gravel in their search for prey.
Kneeling in the water is a lone gillman, with his back toward you.
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"Dinuci, I am so very very sorry. I'm clearly just worrying and not thinking clearly. A humanoid so short and stout as your should be quite memorable, really." ()
Harry is absolutely enthralled by the carvings along the walls, and proceeds to go into lecture mode, pointing out the relevant glyphs and practically bouncing with excitement at how it differs from the traditional text. The more he reads, the less worried he becomes about his surroundings. Eventually, he notices that his audience has shrunk by one, and looks around to see what's become of Dinuci. Harry wanders up to see what has the dwarf's attention - what could possibly be more interesting than ancient Azlanti carvings after all? He easily ( ) identifies the city. Harry says "Hey, that's home! That's Absalom!", with the homesickness easily heard in his voice. Zohls, Harry, it's only been a few days. You'll get home soon enough, but in the meanwhile, you don't want to make a bad impression on your fellow pathfinders, now do you?
Harry calls out, "Hail, Fellow" loudly, in Aquan, hoping that someone as aquatically oriented as a gillman may speak the language, as he moves forward to join Dinuci.
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"Nah be no Probl'm mate. You're not the first one! These be no special lights if yer want to know.
He moves through the chamber past the torches and into the next cavern.
"Hellloooooo. Who are you me friend?"
If the gillman doesn't respond he will tap him on the shoulder.
"What be ya doin' here mate?"
Dinuci seems unafraid of the man definitely with Riri by his side.
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"Huh, odd thing for a god to brag about, thievery. Not exactly the part of humanity you'd want to highlight." Acher muses.
Turning to follow Dinucci further into the cave, she sees the dwarf stop, peering at something ahead. Advancing, Acher sees a figure keeling in the shallow water before the rock-like plinth. [i]So, guess there's the gillmen we've been searching for.
She steps past Dinucci, open arms slightly upraised. "Ho! How are you today?"
While Harry rants about the carvings, Dinuci proceeds toward the gillman. Just to be sure, Chilly draws his dagger.
The gillman doesn't respond to anything said, until Dinuci taps him onto the shoulder. Acher then joins in, and greets the gillman.
The gillman gives those who've approached him a surprised look, then looks past them as he notices the others in the cave. When he speaks, it's with a voice much like the croaking of a frog. "I am fine. Thank you, strangers."
"My name is Uori. This place is a site sacred to my people. I think you refer to us as gillmen? I'm here to listen to the whispers of the sacred water."
It's quiet for a moment, but Uori then asks "What are you here for, and may I know your names?"
You can tell Uori's paying close attention to the lips of those next to him. Either he's got a thing for lips, or there's some practical reason for this behavior.
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"Hello Uori," Acher says with a nod of her head. She crouches slightly, resting her weight on a knee as she tries to lower herself to the same level as the kneeling gillman. "I'm Acher. From Varisia, way to the West of here. We were exploring this region when a minotaur drove us into these tunnels. Have you or your people had to deal with such a beast around here?"
Her gaze looks past the gillman towards the facsimile city behind him.
"That carving, my friend seems to think it's in the shape of Absalom, the city we departed from. Is that city sacred to your people as well?"
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Dinuci smiles.
"Why hello! Ah'm Dinuci. Pleased to meet you."
He holds out his hand for a shake.
"We be 'ere to explore these caverns! Boss saw some of ye enter the cavern and was a wonderin' wat was happenin'."
He looks at his cape and notices the similarities.
"We foun' a cape like tha earlier in the pit a the entrance."
It looks like Uori feels a bit uncomfortable, as he's giving you a hesitant look nefore he speaks.
"By angry bullman you mean a minotaur...? No, I was lucky to not have met any on my way here..."
Uori looks over to the miniature Absalom when it's mentioned. "This cave was once sacred to Aroden, the dead god of humanity, as well. Over the past century, the carvings in the nearby room have weathered and melted. Soon, Aroden’s influence will have faded completely."
"What is this cape you speak of?" Urori asks Dinuci. Despite the hesitation in his voice, you notice a hint of curiosity as well.