Dakkar doesn't care about heat or exposure, but is of the opinion that we should pack food and water. Mostly water, assuming there's something horrible in the desert that tries to kill us and ends up edible. Though maybe the rest of you should have more food.
Once your preparations are complete, you depart Trebelbet and head towards St. Albat's Monastery. The directions you were given point you towards a dried-out riverbed, which you follow for several days without incident, beyond the irritations of sun and dust.
Eventually you hear chanting up ahead. Coming around a bend in the canyon you see several people covered in drying mud, chanting with their hands raised to the skies. Each sits on a flat slab of stone.
"Those stones have patterns that are reminiscent of some we've seen on the parts of the Opus we already have."
"So does that mean that they are friendly or not?"
You know, I have found myself in the same position and doing the same thing after a night of carousing many times! Kit observes.
Iskender moves forward, his hands empty, palms out, in what he hopes is a universal sign that he isn't here to fight.
"I say, you chaps, I trust you are enjoying this wonderful day!"
"I guess that is a yes." Bishop will assist Iskender's friendly forray.
"how are things going with your chanting? good I hope?"
Dakkar eyes the people suspiciously. He wasn't sure what to think of people who worshipped rocks while covered in mud, beyond that it seemed cult-like and cultists were unpredictable.
The chanting people do their best to ignore you, though you can tell they've sneaked a couple looks at you. You do see a simple mud hut some distance behind them.
Well! If they don't want to talk to us, maybe we will find someone in the hut who will!
Kit starts making his way to the hut.
"Perhaps we could politely wait until they complete their devotions? I mean we don't want to get into a fight due to some misunderstanding, right?"
Kit will take a look inside the hut.
As Kit approaches the hut, some of the mud moves... oh wait, it's just more mud-covered people who were lying on the ground. One of them spreads their arms and says, "Welcome, travelers, to St. Albat's Monastery. What brings you to our sacred soil?"
Iskender pokes a thumb towards Kit, "well, this one was thinking of converting. I, however, am on a bit of a historical treasure hunt. Nonetheless, both quests have brought us to the same place."
Kit laughs, Now if you all wallow in a good ale, I would be your high priest!
The acolyte doesn't seem particularly amused by your jokes. "I trust you have not come to mock us," he says, crossly.
Oh! It is not mocking. I really would join a religion where the followers wallow in ale! Kit says in all seriousness.
"No of course not. this is how Kit always is. It is a general light heartedness that may not translate well to all types....as for our purpose, we are looking for clues about a strange stone or gem." Bishop will describe the travel stones as best as he knows them
"Know anything about these?"
The acolyte who seems to be spokesperson slowly relaxes at Fenwick's explanation, but his eyes go wide at the description of the codex page.
"You have seen a sacred text? You must see the abbot!"
The other acolytes crowd around you as he leads you into the mud hut, lifting up a dirty rug hung from two pegs that seems to serve as its door. Its interior is just as humble as its exterior, with no furniture beyond a large hole in the ground and a mat on the floor, on which sits another mud-covered person. She stands as you enter and extends her arms.
If none of you object, she embraces each of you and smears one mud-covered hand across your forehead before she speaks. "Welcome to the Monastery of St. Albat of the Soil. What brings you here, travelers from afar?"
Seeing how these monks have no sense of humor, Kit remains quiet and let's the strange mud woman embrace and smear him.
"Well apparently we have seen a sacred text. But I don't quite know what that means. We are looking for clues about this strange stone or gem in the area that we think permits travel from far distances. Know anything about them?"
He will make a description of the travel stones to the new mud person.
Dakkar quietly grumbles to himself in Draconic about the soft-skins' tendency to form a religion around any random object they don't understand, but otherwise leaves the actual diplomatic person to the talking thing.
"You've discovered something like the pane of glass St. Albat possessed?" The Abbess asks in clear delight. "Please, let me see it! Where did you discover it? Have you seen regrowth in the areas around where you found it?"
Kit will let Iskender tell most of the story in his usual dramatic, bard-like manner and he will offer input where needed.
Iskender will begin recounting their adventure, rhyming a bit, and with some musical accompaniment...
Iskender will elaborate their successes and minimize their failures.
The Abbess seems much more interested in the information Iskender brings than his performance. She asks a barrage of questions about every aspect of the pane of the codex you've found, but eventually she is satisfied.
"As you've seen, we have only copies of the images on the pane St. Albat possessed, passed down through the ages. That you have found one such youselves! It surely is a sign of great things to come! Now, travelers, I think I have asked enough of you. You say you came here seeking more like it?"
She pauses a long moment. "It is possible that the pane St. Albat possessed was buried with him."
Kit shrugged, I don't see why not. Have you tried digging the old boy up to check?
The Abbess gives Kit her Most Severe look but does not dignify his uncouth remark with a response.
No sense of humor! Kit mutters under his breath and lets Iskender keep doing the talking.
"Well, my uncouth friend," he gives Kit a stare,""has stated the obvious, but in a callous fashion. I don't suppose that such an archaeological effort could be conducted?"
The Abbess seems less than impressed. "Normally no one is allowed to go approach his sacred tomb..."
She holds the pause just long enough to be awkward. "But your brining that artifact here must be a sign. All of you--except for him" she points at Kit "...can go."
Iskender shrugs at Kit, "your wisdom in this matter is unmatchable milady."
As the group, minus Kit, goes to check out the tomb, Iskender brushes his knuckles against his chest, "it looks like I've still got it!"
When the Abbess is not looking, Kit sticks his tongue out at her. He will then doff off his clothes and find the nearest pit of mud and do what the others are doing. He will keep his axe close at hand.
"The tomb is this way," The Abbess says, waving at the hole in the middle of the hut. "Give me a moment."
She goes to the entrance of the hut and calls a couple of monks over, who come bearing ropes and a wooden platform.
"These brothers will lower you down," she states. If she noticed Kit slipping out, she makes no mention of it. "The tomb itself has been walled in to protect it, but likely that will not slow you too badly."
Dakkar eyes the rope-platform suspiciously, half-wondering if he was going to need to use his wings and claws to slow a descent.