Lirrathan nods in approval at the way things turned out, despite the fact he missed when he did. "Unless you still have too delicate of a palate too survive on what may come, these are also good meat, and when cooked taste A LOT better than the maggots." He proceeds to try and drain the snake, before wrapping it the best he can for travel. No point in skinning it until they are ready to eat it.
You better let me see if I can treat that wound. Now what do I recall about snake bites. Hmm. Arcessentes draws his dagger as he looks at the wound and ponders. Can't be that hard to get the poison out...
Arcessentes' rough recall of the crash course in the physician's field proves fruitful and Mirel does not feel any weaker.
Mirel nods in thanks to Arcessentes. "Thank you, friend. I appreciate your help."
As Lirrathan is about to caution about the dangers of the venomous snake's potentially deadly bite, Arc moves in and treats the injury. Instead, he just shrugs and goes back to his place scouting ahead. He feels pleased with the amount of food they have found thus far, and is glad he doesn't have to give anyone any of his personal stock.
Terry checks on the civilians with the group while the others tend to the snake and Mirel. "We'll be moving again in a few moments. Unless something improves, you'll be thankful for the snake meat later. Heck, after the giant maggots, I'm thankful for the snake meat now!"
The path continues on for some way, but you think you see a very faint and pale green light reflecting off of some veins of quartz.
While following the path and noting the recently disturbed rocks you come to a junction. To the north, a 5 ft wide opening in the wall leads into a cave filled with soft but nasty-looking green light—the tunnel itself continues south beyond this.
A single sizable 20-foot-tall building remains in the center of this 30-foot-high cave, a bunker-like structure with no windows and walls of worked stone blocks. A 10 ft long carving of a hammer decorates the building’s facade. The ruins of collapsed outbuildings stand to either side.
The armor depicted in the figures are First Crusade soldiers.
Lirrathan, using the same logic and reasoning he used to choose between the last path split he came across, again decides he will follow the northern route.
Lirrathan moves north, and is relieved to see the edifice, and even more so the icon gracing its front.
Helping his blind charge along, and guiding his dancing lights, Arcessentes follows his fellow elf north. He sees the hammer rune on the large stone structure and immediately pronounces Torag. A fine drarven structure. I wonder how it came to be here.
"We are underground where the dwarves like to dwell... But why the lone building?" Muriel looks around the cavern, searching for signs of life. "Does anyone else hear that noise?
The wizard looks around at Mriel's query.
I hear it too. he says, increasing his level of alertness.
Lirrathan too notices the buzzing, but instead of saying anything he just nods, sheathes his blades and points to a corner of the cieling. He very slowly draws his bow, and prepares to fire at the area he pointed to indicate what he sees.
"What noise?"
Lirrathan, since you were scouting and successfully stealthed you can take your shot.
Lirrathan's silently drawn arrow proves to be accurate as it sinks deeply into one of the eye orbits of the giant fly. It buzzes angrily, falls off the ceiling, and starts to move forwards towards him.
The wizard moves to where he has a clear shot and tries to hit the big bug with acid.
"Giant maggots and then giant flies. Kinda makes sense . . .." As he's talking, Terry looses an arrow at the fly.
---
Terry's arrow plunks into the wing socket of the fly while Arcessentes' bolt of acid melts the protective chitin along its abdomen, spilling the entrails. It twitches a few times then lies still.
The building is absolutely quiet while the green glow seems to emanate more strongly from it.
That fly seemed to be related to the lava we encountered earlier. Perhaps their parent? Let us proceed and investigate this structure.
A single sizable 20-foot-tall building remains in the center of this 30-foot-high cave, a bunker-like structure with no windows and walls of worked stone blocks. A 10 ft long carving of a hammer decorates the building’s facade. The ruins of collapsed outbuildings stand to either side.
Mirel looks around the cavern for anything unusual. Once that has been done, she will further examine the hammer on the building. "That is the holy symbol of Torag," she says, pointing. "This must be a church, of sorts. Perhaps some dwarves once ventured down here?"
Lirrathan looks at the big nasty fly, putting away his bow and redrawing his two blades. "Don't worry, I won't suggest we eat that. You guys feel free to go up and knock, I'm gonna see if there's anything suspicious around the perimeter of the thing. Or you could come with me, makes no difference to me." With that, he sets off to encircle the small building, adopting his scouting posture once again.
The wizard will describe what he sees to his blind charge and ask him his opinion of the structure.
"Ah yes, there are many stories about forgotten shrines and temples to the various gods. When the dwarves were more populous in these regions before certain...events...Torag was quite popular. Stories abound in our legends of heroic individuals stumbling upon just such a structure and rededicating it to the original or their own god. Generally those stories tell of some fantastical power granted by these deeds."
The wizard looks over the structure trying to find a way in.
A doorway, there. the wizard points as he closes the distance. Looking in he continues, This is a lost shrine of Torag, obviously build by dwarves. I say it will belongs to them and stay dedicated to Torag. he looks to the drarven cleric in the group. Merck, I know you follow Gozreh, but if you could manage to ask for a blessing from Torag, in dwarves, I think it would be fitting.
Mirel continues in through the entrance and examines the basin. Once she determines if it is holy water or not , she will open the door into the next room. [/b] This could be a good place to rest. I vote we explore it a bit."[/b]
"You're right. This could be a pretty good hole to rest in. And that we'll need to check it out to make sure, first."
Emil takes a look at the temple. "Welll...S'not really something I'd feel comfortable doin'. I'm wondering if maybe I can rededicate the temple to Gorum. Maybe his favor will rain down on us."
"This water has been desecrated." With that, Mirel opens the next door.
That sounds reasonable to me. Proceed then.