"It's not the years, it's the leagues. "
"Leagues," Rasil chuckles, "Try planes."
The mausoleum you heads towards is made of green marble. If the entrance is crafted to remind of the maw of a ravenous lion, the old door is easily removed from the rusted hinges. Inside, the place is surprisingly small and empty. The only noteworthy detail is on the floor, a circular carving of the howling medusa crest of the Sardisi branch.
Give it a close search squinting the whole time.
Gabriel will also give a look around, checking for magical activity.
Gabriel's magic-seeing eyes notice a conjuration aura coming off the head carving. He moves to warn his companions, but it's too late as Vars moves to look at the carving. With a barely noticeable flash of light, the old warrior disappears.
"Now wait a cotton picking minute" he says to noone visible.
And he will inspect his new surroundings.
"Vars!" Gabriel shouts out, trying in vain to stop the warrior. When he vanishes, Gabriel's shoulders slump down, and he says with a sigh "Crap". To the others, he says "The carving has a conjuration aura, definitely magic. Conjuration isn't my speciality, but looks like a teleportation of some kind. What do you think Mahb?"
Mahb jumps when Duke vanishes. "Son-of-a..." She says with a tinge of humor, "Well, if that wasn't a teleport - we each get a larger share of the treasure." From a safe distance, the old woman examines the magic with eldritch eyes, trying to confirm it was indeed some teleport variant as opposed to an express trip to the 354th level of the Abyss.
As for Mahb, the circle appears to be a simple teleportation circle. Its destination is anyone's guess.
Rasil looks unimpressed. He sighs, "Now what?"
Mahb pokes the bird on her head until it squawks and leaps off, settling on the floor diffidently. "Now, I go through it. If I'm still close enough for Pye to sense me, he'll let you know. If I die, he'll probably know that as well." With that, she steps toward the medusa head to trigger the teleport.
Another dim flash of light, and Mahb disappears.
The rough-feathered bird hops to the left, cocks its head, then hops three times to the right. It croaks, "NeeARRRR HeeYYEERRE" before flying toward the face... and vanishing through it as well.
"Well, guess it's alright then" Gabriel says with a shrug. Invisibility still up and active, he'll hobble forward on foot, his cane making a faint, ghostly tap, tap, tap as he goes. "See you on the other side, Rasil." With that, he makes it to the medusa head.
Rasil sighs, frustrated at his own hesitation, "a shadow walker afraid to teleport... I'll never live this down." Rasil vanishes from view, then steps through to the other side.
Yura hustles into the room, and blinks a couple times as he sees no one. Then it occurs to him, "Master? Mister Gabriel?" No answer, so he walks further into the room, "Any-?" The boy teleports before he can finish his question.
The great, domed chamber you have teleported to is home to hundreds of funerary urns of every description, housed in niches along the walls. The domed ceiling thirty feet above is decorated with images of Taldan aristocrats engaged in passionate debate, locked in duels, or poring over great tomes together. A carving of a medusa’s face decorates the floor in the room’s center, flanked to the sides by two trios of stone sarcophagi. An archway to the north opens into a large pillared hall.
Vars is examining the stone carving on the ground, and Mahb is waiting in the middle of the circle.
derp
"-body? Whoa." Yura's mouth stands agape for a good minute before he's slapped on the back of the head by an invisible force.
"Don't just stand there, boy, tell me what you see."
After the scene and the urns are described to him in great detail, Rasil racks his brain for insight before inspecting the carving in the floor.
"Those names with the urns, they're not of any Taldane noble family ood which I'm aware, and trust me I'm very well versed. What do you think? Could this be the 'Empty Hole' we're supposed to fill? And what with?"
"Yeah, I knew that. " the Duke responds looking around rather self consciously.
"Probably something to do with the puzzle. We need 'keys' of a sort I expect. "
Mahb sweeps the area with eldritch vision, especially all the funeral urns in range.
The medusa carving is showing the now-familiar conjuration aura that seems to be shared by all the teleportation devices in this necropolis. Nothing else in the room appears to be magical, other than you folks.
Gabriel will examine the carving. "The face has four different weird things to it; a keyhole in the right eye, a starburst indentation in the left eye, a thin slot in the mouth, and an oval indentation in the chin. We also know four things are needed to get into Bartolomae’s crypt. Could this be related?"
Gabriel will take out the key they found earlier and see if it fits in the right eye.
"Maybe. Or it could be the only way out of this section of necropolis. It looks to be tied to the teleportation magic in that face."
The farm boy looks at the odd medusa head and says pensively, "A keyhole for the lockless key, a thin slot for a befouled dagger, I bet the 'voice' and the keepsake fit the other two depressions...but we haven't found them yet, have we?"
The key fits perfectly into the keyhole, and it clicks after making a half-turn. There are no changes in the carving, however, not even in its magic aura.
"Guess we still need to find more stuff. Now how do we get out of here and do that?"
Rasil feels for another way out.
As there is a way out of the room, the Duke leads the way in that direction.
"Gotta keep a move on so my legs don't fall asleep. I hate that tingly business. "
Gabriel pulls the key back out again and stores it. "At least we know now where to go when we get the other two. Let's go see if we can find them." Gabriel will fade from sight again and fly on further into the building.
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This massive hall hosts a vaulted ceiling fifty feet above, supported by huge pillars of marble running down its center. The walls are lined with vaults, stacked in columns of eight, twenty feet high. Lavish murals occupy the thirty-foot stretch of wall above the vaults, depicting naval confrontations between Taldan and Qadiran ships to the east, and Taldan ships and what appear to be ghost ships to the west. The dominant ship in the painting appears in both battle scenes, its mainsail proudly flaunting the mocking medusa; a handsome figure clad in archaic captain’s uniform grips the rigging in one hand while he rallies his sailors by waving a falcata over his head. The man has thick white hair and a long beard divided into three braids.
As Yura describes the scene to his master, Rasil laments the loss of his sight, as it appears to be quite the majestic one.
The scenes however, mean little else to the assassin, so he searches the pillars and paintings and vaults with his fingertips for anything unexpected.
Vars tries to recall some of his nobility studies.
nope
But he really didn't care much about families in shame, only ones which could profit him.
Mahb examines the mural. "Ah. That's the Harlot, Pasco Voxus Adella's flagship. I think these are his battles against Qadira as well as the Whispering Tyrant"
As you are examining the room, wisps of smoke rise from the captain's depiction, and coalesce into one spectral figure.
With a booming voice, he addresses you.
"It is apparent that none of your assembly is of the blood, so I must conclude you are thieves. To avert my righteous vengeance and leave in peace, answer me these three questions. First, what was the name of my flagship? Second, how did my first darling wife die? And third, why is my eldest son’s body not here with us? All the information you need is within this chamber. I give you ten minutes."
- Pasco Voxus Adella, 4112–4171
- Annavale, Beloved Wife, 4120–4138
- Eudocia, Beloved Wife, 4130–4192
- Pasco Voxus Adella II, 4138–4156, The Sea Reclaims Its Own
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"Your flagship was called the Harlot." The hag says matter-of-factly, wholly unimpressed with Cap'n MistyPants. She is tempted to speculate that his beloved first wife probably died of boredom due to marrying such a windbag. She refrains from sharing that opinion. Instead she finds some interesting urns and points them out to the others.
"Annavale was 18 when she died in 4138. Not a stretch to imagine she died in childbirth... but that's only a likely possibility. And men tend to be very attached to the woman who gave them an heir. O' course, his other wife is called 'Beloved' as well. Fickle."
He will squint again and look around the room.
After examining the pillars, the ninja speaks up, "Your son was lost at sea," he turns toward the point of origin of the booming voice, "That's why he is not here."
With the questions answered, Yura speaks up, "M'Lord, I promise ve're not theifs, ve vere sent here by a liffing descendant of yours to brink glory to the house Adella."
"Good!" the apparition booms. "One should know of those who came before, and tread reverently. Disturb not these three tombs before you and I shall not vex you further."
Pasco disappears as it came, returning to his slumber.
As the dust settles on the spot where Pasco disappears, you take a closer look at the three tombs containing the captain and his wives. You realize that Pasco's name on the sarcophagus is written in gold, unlike all the other tombs that you've seen until now.
As for exits, you can see three. A central flight of stairs descending deeper, and two corridors on the side.
Rasil goes to each of the available outlets (both corridors and the staircase) and listens for anything he can hear that might give a clue as to what's down them.
Not wanting to get stiff standing around Vars just goes down the central passage.
Mahb cautiously walks down the left-hand passage. "I'll yell if I get in trouble."
"Oh good. We're splitting up. That always works out well." Gabriel shrugs, and with invisibility still up, flies down the right-hand passage.
Rasil's sharp hearing doesn't pick up much, especially as Vars marches past him. The three companions each take a different path...
"Are you of the blood?" "Have you come to pay your respects, cousin?" "Is his name still spoken?" "Has night fallen over our family?"
On the fountain you see carved the word "Brotherhood".
On the fountain you see carved the word "Fellowship".