Saeri threw another card, but was really off of her form today, and goodness that was vexing. "All right, time to stick with curses..." she muttered. At least she could be certain that was going to work, even if nothing else really managed to do so.
Circling past the tangle of man and wolf as fast as her limp would carry her, Chaïa called up another acid cantrip in an attempt to catch the last wolf of the group, hoping it would be an easier shot. She then hissed her disgust as her acid just missed the snout of the beast in last place. "Almost!"
Haytham stepped forward, leading with blade this time, and went for a rising slash. Finding purchase, he pulled the strike through and forced forward with his shield once more. The wolf fell dead to the floor.
"You hurt Janus?"
"Uugh...they are fast!", Janus muttered as he struggled to fend off the assault, scrambling to get back up before the wolves could take advantage of his state.
"But distracted!" Lu called out in reply. With a swift motion she stepped up and raised her sword over her head in a two handed grip. With the wolves seemingly still focused on nibbling on Janus it was then simply a matter of bringing the blade down over their exposed backs. A spray of red and a crash of cut bone quickly followed!
Except for panting breath and the ever-present whispering, the chamber fell silent again.
"It's nothing...thanks for the help", Janus answers, as he stands up again, then touches his ankle, where the wolf had taken hold, watching the bite wound close up swiftly.
Taking a moment to smile at Lu, then falling in place besides Haytham again,Janus muses: "Nasty beasts...but I don't think they took out a whole expedition-"
"Yeah, noh, probably not." Lu replies and winks at Janus, then focuses on cleaning her sword. She wiped most of the gore on one of the wolves pelts and then finished the job with a small piece of cloth from her backpack. As she laid the finishing touches she looked around in the room. "But whatever killed the expedition didn't kill ze wolves; so let's hope it was ze cave-in or an expended trap! At ze very least, zis area seems safe-ish. But do you zink ze wolves crawled down ze same way as us - or is zere another entrance?"
In response to Lu's question, Saeri simply put a finger into her mouth for a moment, then held it up. It was a surprisingly good way of checking for flowing air - and if the air was moving, that usually means there was another exit somewhere. It wasn't foolproof, but it was a good basic test, and this far in it ought to be fairly accurate.
In response to Lu's question, Saeri simply put a finger into her mouth for a moment, then held it up. It was a surprisingly good way of checking for flowing air - and if the air was moving, that usually means there was another exit somewhere. It wasn't foolproof, but it was a good basic test, and this far in it ought to be fairly accurate.
Saeri felt a strange tangle of air currents, but none of them seemed substantial enough to account for a separate exit. They also seemed to blow mostly down and toward the center of the tunnels, as though they emanated from the walls themselves.
Yellowknife's explorers turned to the west and proceeded down toward the dais, which spanned the back half of the wing. Faded frescoes on the three walls, executed with cunning prospective, made those standing in the center of the platform feel as though they stood in a vast chamber, with seven short hallways stretching away. Each ended in a gleaming lantern hanging from a fine chain, each a different color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
“I apologize,” Chaïa said as the more martially-inclined members of the group caught their breath and cleaned the worst of the mess off their weapons before pressing on. “I’m afraid the spells I have prepared today do not lend themselves to being directed through a melee. Hopefully, if there are any more surprises in this place, they won’t be so hairy and toothy.”
Examining the view from the dais, she puzzled over its implications for a minute. Air, before, and now light. The full spectrum? She thought about what she knew about such magic, and came up with only old stories about worryingly great powers. She thought briefly about walking over to take a closer look at the frescoes, but even as the impulse passed over her, Chaïa felt the weight of the shadows behind her and the mysterious gap in the rubble to the east. “Does anyone else hear – whispers? Didn’t that note say something about a space large enough for a wolf, and sending someone in first who reported about strange noises? I think we’d better check that gap” “before we poke about here any more, and then we can decide if we want to come back to what might be beyond or see what’s casting that light up ahead.”
With that, Chaïa advanced warily, half-expecting something else to jump out at her, and looking around to see if she could figure out if this had been the wolves’ den proper.
Chaïa found no sign of traps about the gap in the rubble. Like the one that admitted the explorers into the area, she would have to bend double or crawl to get through it. Her examination revealed frequent signs of wolf passage: bits of fur, bones, and the like.
Turning to the frescoes, she believed them so precisely made that the artist must have drawn from life or employed powerful magic in their creation.
"Yeah, something like zat." Lu replied to the wizard and followed her toward the dais. When she stepped up on the platform and looked around, she let out an impressed whistle. "Wow. Zis is pretty - and it has ze full rainbow! Pity we can't take it with us; I'm sure plenty spoiled nobles would pay good gold to show it off in zer backroom..."
As she pondered the feasibility of hiring an excavator team to appropriate the whole artwork Lu scanned the room with an Detect Magic spell - just in case! Then, assuming nothing too interesting, she headed over to the gap in the wall to see what Chaïa found. "Hrmh. Doesn't look too inviting; I'd loathe to find another wolf crawling in zere ..."
After his turn of admiring the artwork, Janus returned to the others already checking out the gap in the rubble: "Better to find one in that enclosed space than realize we got a whole pack in our back once we move on", Janus responded pragmatically: "I'll take a look"
With that, he pressed into the gap, swordhand to the front.
"Yeah, something like zat." Lu replied to the wizard and followed her toward the dais. When she stepped up on the platform and looked around, she let out an impressed whistle. "Wow. Zis is pretty - and it has ze full rainbow! Pity we can't take it with us; I'm sure plenty spoiled nobles would pay good gold to show it off in zer backroom..."
As she pondered the feasibility of hiring an excavator team to appropriate the whole artwork Lu scanned the room with an Detect Magic spell - just in case! Then, assuming nothing too interesting, she headed over to the gap in the wall to see what Chaïa found. "Hrmh. Doesn't look too inviting; I'd loathe to find another wolf crawling in zere ..."
Lu found no traces of spellcraft about the frescoes.
After his turn of admiring the artwork, Janus returned to the others already checking out the gap in the rubble: "Better to find one in that enclosed space than realize we got a whole pack in our back once we move on", Janus responded pragmatically: "I'll take a look"
With that, he pressed into the gap, swordhand to the front.
Janus pressed through the low gap, nearly crawling and having to take care to keep from cutting himself on his blade in the tight space. He came through after about ten feet to a space where he could stand his full height. The form of the alcove here mirrored the shape of the dais' alcove, but the walls bore many cracks and fissures. The floor held the animals copious leavings, chiefly scat and bones. Some of the latter appeared to be human.
The explorer was ready to turn away and give up the area as a complete loss when he spotted the end of an old leather backpack sticking out from beneath a pile of bones. Within, he found the moldy remains of long-spoiled rations, a few empty vials and other now worthless oddments, and an elaborate lantern of indigo-enameled metal inset with like-colored glass.
Inspired to further diligence, he elsewhere found an intricately carved armband with a repeating leaf motif and a slender, marble index figure broken off just past the first knuckle.
Saeri listened as the findings were reported. "Huh. Another indigo lantern... where's the second set from?" she mused thoughtfully. The first set seemed to be more-or-less complete, after all, but locating any other lanterns might prove to be useful in helping them understand what the important parts of this area were.
Saeri listened as the findings were reported. "Huh. Another indigo lantern... where's the second set from?" she mused thoughtfully. The first set seemed to be more-or-less complete, after all, but locating any other lanterns might prove to be useful in helping them understand what the important parts of this area were.
Saeri listened as the findings were reported. "Huh. Another indigo lantern... where's the second set from?" she mused thoughtfully. The first set seemed to be more-or-less complete, after all, but locating any other lanterns might prove to be useful in helping them understand what the important parts of this area were.
"So it is a dead end? Zat's good!" Lu stops pacing back and forth and instead calls back into the tunnel as Janus eventually shares his findings . "Now just don't get stuck crawling back yeah?"
Janus does his best to communicate his findings back to the others, verbally. At first glance, it didn't seem like that could cause trouble of any sort.
Remembering to be careful with objects found in ancient tombs, he also casts detect magic to screen his surroundings, and especially the vials, lantern and armband.
Then he looked around for human skulls, to get a rough estimate of the number of people the wolves had eaten...and look for any signs of weapons or armor on or near those.
Nobody simply wanders into ancient tombs by mistake, and most likely, not alone. So it's doubtful that they manage to gang up on single travllers...and if there's too many bones, then the wolves should not have stood a chance against armed guards - unless they simply fetched the bodies after something else killed them - and if that's the case, there'll be no weapons here...
Once back with the others, on a whim, Janus headed back to the Fresco, comparing the indigo lantern he retrieved with the one displayed there:"Shall we light it?"
Chaïa shrugged, “I don’t see why not. It does seem like an odd way to make a lantern, though, unless there was a huge crowd of them originally, to give light in all the colours. I’m afraid I can’t easily imagine what it might mean, either for this place in particular, or more generally.”
She rummaged in her pack for a few moments before extracting a flask of oil, upon which she filled the lantern Janus was so patiently holding, and struck a spark to light it, carefully closing the lantern’s door as lurid indigo light leaped across the room.
Then he looked around for human skulls, to get a rough estimate of the number of people the wolves had eaten...and look for any signs of weapons or armor on or near those.
Janus found no more than five human skulls, two of them quite small, and another that looked to have belonged to an orc. A thorough search revealed no armor or weapons in evidence, though there were bits of leather and buckles that might have once been attached to armor.
The indigo lantern in his hand precisely matched the one in the fresco.
Chaïa shrugged, “I don’t see why not. It does seem like an odd way to make a lantern, though, unless there was a huge crowd of them originally, to give light in all the colours. I’m afraid I can’t easily imagine what it might mean, either for this place in particular, or more generally.”
She rummaged in her pack for a few moments before extracting a flask of oil, upon which she filled the lantern Janus was so patiently holding, and struck a spark to light it, carefully closing the lantern’s door as lurid indigo light leaped across the room.
The lantern lit as easily as any, taking oil and fire with ease and casting flickering indigo across everything it touched.
"Eh. Is pretty I suppose? Maybe it is for signalling, like an heliograph? Zat would explain why it is useful to have many and odd colours!" Lu offers on the topic of the lantern, idly brushing away any visible dirt from Janus. "Oooh! Or for ze fancy ball! Zey had some coloured fires at ze big one in Waterdeep last year I heard; with zis lantern you wouldn't even need a wizard or alchemist! Imagine ze raves ..."
"5 dead people in there. No weapons though, so they must have pulled them in from elsewhere. No idea if they killed them or simply didn't intend to pass up a free meal.", Janus adds to his report while walking over to the the fresco.
Comparing the lanterns, he focuses on some minor details:"Exactly the same. I don't think that is a coincidence."
Returning to the Dais, and looking on at the Fresco to remember where the Indigo one goes, he adds:"The architecture in there mirrored this side. I want to try and check over there, with the lit lantern. There certainly is some meaning to this. Maybe it was only an interesting kind of entertainment, but that, along with this work of art, would seem out of place in a place supposed to be buried and forgotten."
Shining the Lanterns light at the Indigo Fresco one last time, Janus heads on over through the rubble, taking note of Lu's efforts at brushing dirt off, and bows with a wink:"Mylady, I apologize for crawling through the dirt again, but know that I much appreciate the gesture, and would gladly return it if you were to accompany me."
Saeri's mouth twitched in amusement, and she lightly began to flip a card through her fingers in a long-practiced motion as she thought about what the lights might have meant. The lanterns certainly seemed interesting, but they needed to have more information... and she kept close to Janus, just in case he needed some more help.
"5 dead people in there. No weapons though, so they must have pulled them in from elsewhere. No idea if they killed them or simply didn't intend to pass up a free meal.", Janus adds to his report while walking over to the the fresco.
Comparing the lanterns, he focuses on some minor details:"Exactly the same. I don't think that is a coincidence."
Returning to the Dais, and looking on at the Fresco to remember where the Indigo one goes, he adds:"The architecture in there mirrored this side. I want to try and check over there, with the lit lantern. There certainly is some meaning to this. Maybe it was only an interesting kind of entertainment, but that, along with this work of art, would seem out of place in a place supposed to be buried and forgotten."Shining the Lanterns light at the Indigo Fresco one last time, Janus heads on over through the rubble, taking note of Lu's efforts at brushing dirt off, and bows with a wink:"Mylady, I apologize for crawling through the dirt again, but know that I much appreciate the gesture, and would gladly return it if you were to accompany me."
The indigo light revealed nothing that Janus hadn't seen last time.
"Hm...seems it only works like that in the stories.", Janus mumbles, trying to conceal his slight disappointment, when nothing happens as he waves the lantern around where the Fresco mirrored it on the other side.
"I guess that only leaves the way straight ahead, towards the green light. Thanks for indulging me."
"Patience helps when you're examining old things." Saeri answered with a faint smile. "It's rushing that tends to cause problems - especially if there's any old, weird magic involved."
"Still," Chaïa chimed in, and one could just almost imagine that the slightest hint of a pout played on her lips, "wouldn't it have been thrilling if, oh, I don't know, there had been some subtle layer to the frescoes that revealed some sort of text in the right light? Just hypothetically."
Recollecting herself, once a bit more steadily on her dignity again, she nodded at Janus to lead on.
"How chivalrous..." Lu replied, faintly smiling, and did away with the last of the dirt thanks to an Prestidigitation spell. "Zough a lady would hope to be taken somewhere fancier zen a wolf-den, you know!" she quipped and turned her attention to the light playing over the indigo fresco, but with a quick glance at the harrower first.
Nothing really seemed to come of this further attention and she joined in the small choir of disappointment. "Hmhm. A pity. Let's continue - and see what is casting zat green light! Could it even be another lantern...?"
"Well, I am certain there is a meaning to this. We may find out more, later, but I had hoped for something like that", Janus responds to Chaia, then smiling at Lu:"And I think these relics would be worth quite a bit by themselves...so I'll take you someplace fancy, once we're back home, if you're up for that! For now, I agree, lets advance and see about the green light."
Falling in beside Haytham once more, Janus is ready to advance deeper into the underground structure.
The wide tunnel continued on, descending in even stairs to an immense domed chamber. Seven short tunnels reached out from it, one in each direction. They each ended in a round alcove after thirty feet, where a thick chain dangled from ceilings lost in the darkness above. Five chains bore colorful lanterns, the one opposite the entry shining green. Chips of glass and metal threw the torchlight in strange shadows off the dome, giving the sense of starlight and falling snow. Beneath the dome's peak stood a long dais holding a marble sarcophagus.
Unlike the rest of the complex, the chamber waited in perfect silence.
"Well-" Lu breaks the revered silence. "-zis does seem familiar, noh?" This was undoubtedly the strangest tomb she had ever seen. And the more she looked around the more the sense of otherworldliness grew, almost to dizzying proportions. Like standing inside an aurora! Somewhat torn between unease and wonder she reaffirmed the grip of her sword and squinted against the strange light into the empty alcoves. "If ze scavenging wolf zeory is correct; zen zis seems like a good place for zem to find ze bodies. I mean, someone managed to steal at least one lantern, but not ze rest! Makes sense something horrible happened just zen right?"
"Seven tunnels...5 lanterns, plus the one we have. One is missing. If they are part of some puzzle, then that seems unfortunate."
Janus carefully advances into the domed chamber, staying well away from the dais and marble sarcophagus for now, checking the surroundings, trying to find the origin of the green light.
After all, they had to fill the indigo one with lamp oil and light it...so if the green one was shining..."Think that is a trap, Lu?"
Haytham raised an eyebrow upon seeing the sarcophagus and adjusted his grip on his blade, "Well, not to break with my usual stoicism," he smirked slightly, "but I'm willing to bet something nasty is about to jump us."
"Of course it's a trap." Saeri noted, pointing towards the Sarcophagus. "If I had to guess, that would be the Tangled Briar - old triumphs returning. That might be the lanterns being returned to their proper place - or perhaps the unquiet dead." Regardless, this wasn't a place to let their guard down... and she'd probably remain towards the back, just to be a little safer.
“At least now we know that, whatever else this place might have been,” Chaïa observed cheerily, thinking back to the ruined apparatus a couple of alcoves ago, “it really was a cairn in the usual sense too.”
Without further ado, she started poking about the sarcophagus for anything interesting or, more immediately importantly, dangerous, before joining Lucrecia and Janus in their search of the alcoves.
Chaïa gave the sarcophagus a cursory glance, but it was clear that she was enthralled with the green lantern's effects. "See?" she asked Janus, referring to their ideas about appropriate lantern use, as she drew her arm languidly through the lights and shadows. "A bit more of this in the other colours, and it would be really lovely. Lady Goldheart would approve..."
"Well-" Lu breaks the revered silence. "-zis does seem familiar, noh?" This was undoubtedly the strangest tomb she had ever seen. And the more she looked around the more the sense of otherworldliness grew, almost to dizzying proportions. Like standing inside an aurora! Somewhat torn between unease and wonder she reaffirmed the grip of her sword and squinted against the strange light into the empty alcoves. "If ze scavenging wolf zeory is correct; zen zis seems like a good place for zem to find ze bodies. I mean, someone managed to steal at least one lantern, but not ze rest! Makes sense something horrible happened just zen right?"
[dice=Perception]1d20+4
Lu searched the tunnels, walking attentively over the even stones. Beneath the lanterns, where they hung, or the chains where they were missing, the pattern of the flooring changed. The right angles gave way to circles in each spot, five feet across and smooth.
At the blue lantern, which hung dark but shone in the light she brought with her, Lu found that the ceiling reached up into darkness instead of coming in plain sight as it had in the other tunnels. A skeleton lay in a heap on the floor.
"Seven tunnels...5 lanterns, plus the one we have. One is missing. If they are part of some puzzle, then that seems unfortunate."
Janus carefully advances into the domed chamber, staying well away from the dais and marble sarcophagus for now, checking the surroundings, trying to find the origin of the green light.
After all, they had to fill the indigo one with lamp oil and light it...so if the green one was shining..."Think that is a trap, Lu?"1d20+4
Janus took the long way around the sarcophagus, but came to the green tunnel ahead of Lu all the same as she started with the nearer branches. There he found a green lantern hanging, just like the indigo one, with what looked to be a bobbing orb of light inside.
Without further ado, she started poking about the sarcophagus for anything interesting or, more immediately importantly, dangerous, before joining Lucrecia and Janus in their search of the alcoves.
[dice=Perception, examining the sarcophagus]1d20+1
[dice=Perception, examining the alcoves, especially the one with the green light]1d20+1
Approaching the dais, Chaïa found that the sarcophagus bore a bas-relief carving of a tall figure garbed in simple, flowing cloth. It looked at first blush like a human: round ears, muscular build. But few humans stood seven feet tall, most had some kind of hair, and she couldn't quite tell if it was male or female. Usually humans had that problem with elves; they never looked at the angle of the ears. Its left hand curled in a fist, but its right lay palm up, thumb turned in and all but the index finger held in line with the arm. That finger was missing; only a broken stump remained. The figure wore a scarab-shaped amulet about the neck, inscribed with another of those strange glyphs.
Stepping back a moment, Chaïa noticed that the daius was cut in the shape of a wide arrow. Its tip aligned with the head of the figure and pointed toward the unlit orange lantern's tunnel.
"Lu, I'm placing the Lantern here and checking out that green one.", Janus commented his action at the entrance of the branch, staying focused on the bobbing orb ahead. Carefully, he kneeled down and placed the Indigo Lantern on the floor to get his Buckler Arm free again, then, once more, approached his goal with blade drawn, doing his best to shield his face from any surprises.
A dais that pointed down the hallway... idly, Saeri wondered if it could be moved to point at different hallways, and what might happen if it did so. Sometimes these old ruins could be fiendishly complex, as if their creators had been very bored and gone to do far more than necessary simply because they could.
"Somethings a trap all-right. Just a question of what yeah?" Lu muttered and pointed down the blue hallway at the skeleton. Now seemed to be one of those times where trying to figure out exactly how the building would try to kill them would really pay off!"Hmm. Zis one seems to be missing it's roof. But no signs of anything falling down - so maybe ze person itself fell down from an higher level? And zose circles underneath ze lanterns - I bet zey mean something."
"All-right." She nodded at Janus as he decided to go deeper. "Just be careful! And don't get too close - mind the floor!" Lu called out after him.
"Lu, I'm placing the Lantern here and checking out that green one.", Janus commented his action at the entrance of the branch, staying focused on the bobbing orb ahead. Carefully, he kneeled down and placed the Indigo Lantern on the floor to get his Buckler Arm free again, then, once more, approached his goal with blade drawn, doing his best to shield his face from any surprises.
The green lantern looked, aside from the hue of its glass, just the same as the indigo. Taking it down proved easy enough, though Janus did have to reach up a mite more than was comfortable. It gave off no heat to go with its light. Within, he found the glowing orb to be a simple sphere of iron that danced with cold flame. It bore the sign of a white hand upraised, fingers together in chipped and faded paint.
Returning closer to the present as Janus started experimenting with the lanterns, Chaïa pointed out the detail she did notice about the sarcophagus. “Hmm. This whole thing is pointing toward the orange alcove. Between that, the green being lit, and the indigo having been tampered with, is there some sort of pattern that makes sense to anyone? Red's missing, but otherwise every other lantern would be singled out.”
Saeri wasted no time in joining Chaia, checking her memories to see if the hand there was a familiar symbol. If they could actually identify a few things, they might be able to figure out what was actually going on here...
Saeri wasted no time in joining Chaia, checking her memories to see if the hand there was a familiar symbol. If they could actually identify a few things, they might be able to figure out what was actually going on here...
[dice=Know Arcane - Trying to identify that hand]1d20 + 8
Saeri believes it might be the mark of Azuth, the High One, Lord of Spells, Hand of Sorcery, and Lord of Spellcraft, save that all the fingers are extended and none bears an aura. However, thinking of the Patron of Wizards reminds her that the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors, the mage guild of the City of Splendors uses such a mark and does a brisk trade in spell components and minor works of Art. Just the sort of thing that a glowing sphere would be, if it does no more than glow or perhaps float a bit.
The Watchful Order has a reputation for meddling in the affairs of wizards of middling power who come to call in Waterdeep, ostensibly to preserve good order and ensure the Art does not fall into disrepute. The city's most powerful mages seem immune to such scrutiny, which causes no shortage of resentment. That they work with the city watch only makes things worse.
Returning closer to the present as Janus started experimenting with the lanterns, Chaïa pointed out the detail she did notice about the sarcophagus. “Hmm. This whole thing is pointing toward the orange alcove. Between that, the green being lit, and the indigo having been tampered with, is there some sort of pattern that makes sense to anyone? Red's missing, but otherwise every other lantern would be singled out.”
Chaïa believes that the dais can probably rotate, though she doesn't see a mechanism for it to do so easily. Unless there's some magic involved, it would require muscle.
She thinks that the glyph on the figure is a personal name, like the one found at the broken apparatus. The figure itself is so stylized that she can't be sure. There's a chance it could be a god, but the name would argue against that. An angel is possible, but a tomb for an angel would be strange indeed and she would expect inscriptions in Celestial were that the case. Given the Auran connection with the rest of the complex, she suspects it may be a djinn.
"I'm trying to take that orb out of there...maybe stand back a bit, Saeri?", Janus calmly stated as she sheated his Falcata and reached for the sphere.