Prologue
Rude Awakenings
Time has no meaning...
Everything is quiet...
Everything is peaceful...
Everything is dark...
And then, all at once, it isn't.
A sound like thunder cracking the sky and a brilliant flash of white! You feel yourself adrift, water rushing into your lungs. a second crash and your swept aside, tumbling and falling, coming to rest of cold stone.
Four strangers kneel doubbled over on a cold cobblestone floor. Soaked to the bone in some sort of dark blue fluid that puddles along the floor. Their ears ringing, they each feel the world slowly spin into clarity around them.
A small square room with no windows, lit by three everburning lanterns mounted to three of the walls. Four shattered glass tubes, each larger than a human man lay in the room's four corners, leather tubes moving from their base and into the floor. A single door rests closed in the remaining wall. The ringing begins to stop and the vision begins to clear, One by one the strangers start to make out details of those around them. As things become clearer each realizes a startling fact, they don't remember anything.
What appears to be a woman on her hands and knees retches. Her form shifts with each second. Blonde hair. Red hair. Man. Lizard? Child. Her features solidify into a fair skinned, blond haired and blue eyed beauty.
"Armiarma," she whispers as her eyes solidify and focus. Where...who am I? Who are these others? "Armiarma, see what is beyond that door." A small common spider crawls out of her hair and scurries towards the door. It flattens underneath the door and looks beyond.
The woman slowly stands. She is dressed in ripped, dirty rags but her skin is untarnished and her face looks as if she has prepared for a ball. Her hair is immaculate, long and curled. She reaches her full height at five and a half feet, with a petite frame and delicate features. Her face though, is a mask of stern resolve.
Perception
As Klick's lethargy began to wear off, he suddenly remembered the falling, and his heart lurched into his throat. Where was he? Was he dead? Who were these other people?...Other People! Klick back-flipped to his feet, and hastily looked around for something to use as a weapon. Nothing seemed to be here but the shards of glass. Taking up a long shard in his hand he backed into a corner keeping a wary eye on the other folks here.
"Stay Back". "All of you". "Who are you and where are we"?
Klick also looks around for a quick means of escape.
Perception
"We're on a boat. Maybe an airship. I am..." Mani pauses for a second. "I don't know. Calm down, man."
She turns around and examines the tube that is nearest her. The fluid causes her clothes to cling to her slim body, outlining the curves of her breasts and the roundness of her rear.
The fourth stranger remains motionless on his back for a long time, staring up at nothing in a semi-catatonic state. All at once, he inhales sharply and blinks. His eyes flit around the room quickly, taking in the situation and assessing the threat.
Moving with the fluid grace of a predator, he stands. The first features you notice are his elven ones - sharply pointed ears, clear pale skin, large almond eyes of darkest blue. He is exceptionally tall, nearly seven feet in height. His hair is black, straight, and long enough to reach his lower back. He is not bulky but his musculature is pronouced, and when coupled with his tall, elven frame, gives an overall hard, angular look.
"I have no memory of this place," he says aloud in elven. He looks around for a few more moments, thinking. It appears as though he's misplaced something, but cannot remember what it was to begin with. The more time that passes, the more his frustration and despair grow visible.
He continues in common, "I have no memory at all. Just flashes, images, nothing that makes sense." He examines the blue liquid covering him and the shattered tubes, trying to comprehend their function.
"I am... Sihdrin."
Realizing that everyone here seems to be in the same predicament Klick lowers his guard a bit, and tries to find something to cushion the shard of glass in his hand. If he finds nothing he will remove his shirt, using it to make a wrap for the sharp object.
"I'm called Klick".
Then looking at the girl who spoke to him..."What do you mean we're on a ship or something". "How do you know that"?
"I feel the floor rolling and slight fluctuations in my proprioception, as if I am moving up and down. You don't feel it?"
The moment Mani brings it to attention, everyone can feel it. A slight swaying, almost imperceptible, But it's there. Focusing on your surroundings you pick out other details, a faint whistling, like wind howling through a distant canyon. A sharp and acrid smell on the air, like copper.
"Well I'm not sticking around here". "Anybody know whats behind that door"?
Perception searching door.
"It seems we were kept in these tubes, and for whatever unknown reason, they've broken open... freeing us in the process."
"I believe I am called Mani, but," she pauses while her eyes roll upwards. "I believe there is more to it than that. It's as if nothing has happened before today."
Ni'ko's search for both container and weapon prove to be fruitless, the small room only contains the remnants of the tubes that held each of them, for a moment he considers using the glass shards to cut into the leathery tubing, but the time and effort would probably be for nothing. He could rip a piece of his shirt, he thinks, though how effective it would be as a sling is hard to say...
Sihdrin and Klick find the door to be safe, with no wires or pressure plates or any other signs of danger. With that determined, Sihdrin grasps the knob, turns and (just as a common house spider runs back under the door) pushes it open.
The room is only slightly larger than the one before, maybe three paces wide and five paces long. The only light in the room comes from a single candle, mounted into a holder, it rests on a large desk that's strewn with papers across its surface. The chair to the desk is knocked to the other side of the room, and in the center of the room is a lifeless body, lying face down and dressed in a high knecked black and white coat that reaches to his ankles.
Mani follows Nik'o into the new room. "If we are in some kind of ship, it may have had some kind of accident. Or a battle that killed this....scientist? And destroyed those containers that we were in. Do you think we may be some kind of golem?"
"Like a warforged? I think not..." Sihdrin replies, disdain clear in his voice. His own vitriol gives him pause, and he stops to ponder the origins of his prejudice.
While the others search the body, and the rest of the room, Klick will focus on the papers on the desk.
Turning over the scientist's body, Sidhrin takes a closer look, the man wears the long coat, white with thick black stripes going from the neck down the shoulders and arms, as well as down the center of the chest. simple trousers and black leather boots. Not rugged by any means, but even still, the supple leather is quite inviting to everyone, all of whom are dressed in simple trousers and loose fitting shifts.
These details aside, the body shows no sign as to what killed it. No marks of strangulation, no wounds or cuts. None of the skin shows discoloration that would mark poison or anything else out of sorts. He is simply... dead.
The box stirs memories within your heart, has a sense of familiarity to it that you can't place, a feeling just on the edge of your perifiary, like when you see something from the corner of your eye that isn't there when you turn to face it.
"I do not recognize this mark, or my memory of it has faded," Sihdrin tells the others, pointing at a crest on the coat's right shoulder: downward facing sword that rests upon a circular cog that rests upon a shield.
"Er... Klick was it? Anything in the man's notes?"
Klick looks up from investigating the papers, and notices an inconsistency in the opposite wall. Rising he walks over to the area, and investigates it more closely.
"There seems to be an opening of some sort concealed here". "Please stand aside as I attempt to open it". "Sometimes if people go to the trouble to conceal things...they also might ward the opening somehow".
Perception
Knoweldge Engineering.
Mani takes a look at the mark that Sihdrin described.
His hands tracing along the stone of the wall, Klick comes to a smaller brick that presses in at his touch. He hears the clicks and whirs of a mechanism and a moment later the stone in front of him drops away, slotting itself into the shape of a small set of stairs. The stairs, maybe only three feet high, enter into the side of a hallway. Lying on either side of the newly found door in the hall are two men. Slumped over like discarded rag dolls they are clearly dead. Each is dressed in leather armor and wears a white tabbard. One has a short sword sheathed on his belt, the other a simple mace.
The hallway itself is simple enough, going off in either direction with a curve to it, everburning torches are mounted and bolted to the wall ever fifteen feet or so.
Klick takes a moment to quickly frisk the bodies for anything else they might be carrying, before calling the others over.
Perception
Perception
"Hey look what I found"!
If the armor looks like it would fit him, Klick begins to strip one of the corpses, first making sure to take the shortsword, sheath, and belt.
Heal check (To determine if/how they died)
"There are no wounds," Sihdrin replies to Nik'o. "I can only guess that magic struck them down." He shakes his head. "I feel we owe a debt of gratitude to the person, or thing, that set us free. But I would be wary of anything wielding such power!"
Sihdrin will take up the mace, swinging in lightly a few times to test its balance.
"We must pick a direction and stick with it, or certainly become lost. We go left. Always go left!"
Looking at Mani and Sihdrin: "Did you find what killed him?"
Mani shrugs her shoulders, then watches as the others take clothing from the bodies. She shrugs her shoulders again and makes her way to the man in the lab coat. She removes the coat and tries it on. It's a little big. Then she struggles as she works the boots off of the dead man.
A cute wrinkle crossers her face as she compares the size of the boots to her own diminutive feet. With a look of resignation, she slides the much to large boots onto her feet and stands. She then walks over the to Nik'o with confident steps and clear clicks of the boots, and no sign that she is having difficulty walking in overly sized boots.
She reaches a hand out and says to Nik'o "I suppose I could hold on to those." She will look through them and see if she can read them.
"We must pick a direction and stick with it, or certainly become lost. We go left. Always go left!"
"Left is as good as any direction. Do you all mind if I stick to the middle. I'm not much of the bruiser type, as you can see. But you lovely boys look like you can take care of your own if push comes to shove."
"Sidhrin, do you want to wear some armor? If not, I'll be happy to make use of it!"
Sihdrin looks somewhat insulted by the offer. "By all means, take them for yourself. I would rather go naked than wear the clothes off these humans' backs."
"We know not how they died. They might come looking for them later."
After bodies are looted and those who choose to change their clothes, keeping to themselves as best as the lack of privacy or time allows, () this ragtag group of souls sets off... left.
The hall is strangely quiet, not one sound of life echoes through the hall, except for those sounds that the party makes. As you round the hall, you come to a crossroads. To the group's left is a simple wooden door, directly in front of them is a set of stairs that winds down a level.
Mani places the items she found into the pockets of the lab coat, except for the locket, which she hangs about her neck....
...."I guess we should see what is behind door number one before heading down."
"Agreed." Sihdrin will stand guard at the stairs until the door is safely open.
As Nik'o takes his breath, Mani lifts her hand and makes a claw-like gesture.
Before Nik'o can open the door, Klick steps forward and puts a hand on the mans shoulder.
"Just a minute there". "Let me see if anyone has rigged this door with a trap of some sort, before we go blundering in". "I'm still a bit wary about what is going on here".
Perception
After finding no security measures, Nik'o lets the door swing open.
Inside is a simple and small room. On one side of the room is a round table with three chairs around it. A deck of cards lay scattered across it, and an unlit candle rests in the neck of an old bottle, wax dripping down the side.
On the other side of the room is a set of bunk beds, one stacked on top of each other, made of simple wood, each bunk with a simple straw stuffed mattress. At the foot of the beds are two simple lockboxes, neiher of which is actually locked.
Between the table and the beds, in the center of the far wall is another simple door.
Klick takes the time to check both chests before opening.
Perception
Perception
"Well if they were going to trap these things they'd probably lock them as well". Klick opens the chests and lays out the contents, taking particular note of the leather bag. Does he recognize the symbol. He will take a look inside the bag.
Sihdrin picks up the rope and coils it over his shoulder. He then takes the waterskin, pops the seal and sniffs.
Mani scoops up the cheese and takes a bite. Chewing slowly, she wishes there were some wine or beer in here.