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Mia is going over the lines of the pottery, studying it carefully.
"It's certainly ancient....narrow thin lines, double finger application.....it's definitely Taldan, but the clay's color, it doesn't match anything of this area. So it's not made locally."
As Solstice tells her about the dagger, Mia nods.
"I can try identifying it, but i won't be able to properly identify it at a sizeable distance."
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Seeing that there is something that needs to be retrieved at the bottom of the well he comes up with the brilliant but obvious idea of climbing down the well. But seeing no reason to take an unnecessary risk he reaches into his pack and pulls at the silk rope he carries and then attaches the grappling hook to it.
Felli makes sure the rope is secured by wrapping it around the base of the well, taking up about 15' to 20' before securing the grappling hook. He smiles at his handy work before grapping onto the rope and propelling himself down the well.
At the bottom of the well, he picks up the dagger and stores it away before he starts to probe around for anything with both sight and his hands.
After searching he climbs back up the well, then retrieves his rope and grappling hook.
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Fundir collects his lighted stone from the ground before he moves about the rooms while Felli retrieves the dagger. He pokes his head around the ancient home first, intrigued that humans would build their homes below ground. However, the roar of the wind and the hissing of shifting sand that precipitated his quick retreat from higher levels reveals the genius behind the idea to him as he considers the situation.
Next, he moves over to collapsed tunnel and then the breach. He peers closely at the breach, trying to determine if any danger reside within.
Felli anchors his grappling hook onto the sturdy stone rim of the well and then carefully climbs down into it. At the bottom the rogue retrieves the dagger, stows it away and begins searching the confined area. Within minutes the rogue realizes that the well has little else to offer and climbs back out of the well with the small weapon. With the dagger now in hand, Felli, Mia, and Solstice are now able to take a closer look at the item.
The dagger appears to be well crafted out of a dark looking metal and has a raven-headed pommel. It is extremely well balanced and ornately designed.
Fundir and Serge take a few minutes to examine the old house. Outside of the structure itself, there doesn’t seem to be much left to inspect. Still curious about the old building, Fundir takes a closer look at the buildings design.
After inspecting the old house, Fundir and Serge move over to the collapsed floor. About 10’ of the floor has collapsed in this area allowing access to another room below. The breach itself is approximately 10’ wide and 10’ deep. The room below looks to be approximately 20’ below the breach for a total of 30’ to the ground floor, where debris from the breach lay across the ground along with a large slab of stone that was obviously part of the lower chamber's ceiling. Fundir’s sharp eyes pick up shards of bone laying in close proximity to the stone slab.
Mia examines the dagger a little more closely now that she has it in her position and notes a few odd details about the weapon.
As Felli continues his search of the room, he notes that most of the existing building is void of anything of interest. Just before entering the archway, he glances over at a set of stairs to the northeast that leads down.
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"This place is quite a find. Yet the items are so odd, they don't match the area at all. The dagger isn't Taldan at all.
From what i remember from history books, this bears markings of Jistkan craft...but, that's an imperium long destroyed."
Mia is slightly puzzled.
"What it is doing here, i don't know, but given the pottery's clay isn't from around here, i can only speculate it's been 'collected', maybe as a private collection?"
Mia takes 10 on every Kn. History item/scenery we come across. :)
"Coming!"
Mia moves over to the ancient Taldan home and begins looking over the building’s exterior, while Fundir starts pointing out the flaws that he discovered earlier.
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Fundir looks at his companions as they decide which way to go next. He shrugs his shoulders, then heads for the pit. His form changes to that of an owl, and he easily melts into the darkness around him after he tosses the light enspelled rock to Mia. He moves forward about 30 feet, then stops to peer ahead. His form changes again to that of a bat, enabling him to see through the darkness.
Seeing Fundir begin to show interest in descending down into the pit, Serge ties off his knotted rope to the nearby well and lowers the rope down into the pit.
Fundir easily climbs down Serges knotted rope and into the darkness below. The Hunter’s newest form has allowed him the gift of darkvision, which reveals the contents of a large room. Fundir’s vision allows him to see fine detail in the contrast of the stonework, but has left him without the ability to discern color. The floor in the room is made of a rough worked cobblestone with the ceiling reaching 20’ above the floor. The room smells of century’s old dirt mixed with the scent of stale air.
To the north, a winding stairway ascends upwards at a 45 degree angle. Four alcoves hold marble statues of grim soldiers from ages past, two on either side of a faintly glowing statue of a regally appointed man who towers in front of the southern wall. Two golden lion statues stand at guard in front of the god. The roof has collapsed at the northwest corner, where a large stone slab lies on the floor below the opening.
The golden lions stand tall and menacing, yet are motionless and give a presence of majesty.
Finally, to the south stands the large statue of a regal man. He stands looking out over the room with a menacing and powerful expression.
Felli takes a look at the stone slab and determines that it is part of the roof. It looks to have fallen when the upper level was breached. The slab looks heavy, but it appears that someone couldn't lift it with a moderate amount of effort.
After looking over the fallen slab, the rogue moves over to the Golden lions. With the addition of the magical light, that is now in the room, the golden figures glisten with a radiant gold texture. The statues appear to be made of gold and Felli is guessing that they may be quite valuable.
After looking over the lions, Felli moves over to the large statue of a regal man. Although Felli isn’t to verse with gods, or religion, he has seen this man before in some of the churches of Abadar.
Solstice follows Felli around and documents as much as she can of the historical room.
Mia joins the group after navigating down the stairs, while Serge retrieves his knotted rope. Soon the entire group is present in the newly discovered room. Magical light illuminates most of the room, making the 4 statues a little more visible. Mia glances over at all (4) and recognizes all four of them.
Each statue represents a noteworthy military leaders who served in Taldor’s Third Army of Exploration under General Coren. Unfortunately, all four died before the founding of Corentyn, which supposedly served as a launching point for the group that founded this colony. do to the minimal wear and discoloration, Mia feels the statues have been carved in the last century.
After taking a good look at the (4) statues, Mia moves over to the lions. It doesn’t take the witch long to determine that something is off with the figures.
The Lions have been altered and don’t look to be lions at all. These where statues of some other kind of beast that have been altered with newer looking plaster that could easily be removed.
Once Mia finishes examining the statues, she moves over to the large statue.
Mia recognizes the statue as being Abadar the god of cities, law, merchants, and wealth, and although she is having a difficult time putting her finger on it, the statue seems off. Something about it just doesn’t feel right.
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The slab looks heavy, but it appears that someone couldn't lift it with a moderate amount of effort.
Felli moves back over to the stone slab. "I think we might be able to lift this slab. Maybe something important is on the other side of it."
He looks to the others, "There is no way I can do it on my own though. So lets work together to prop the slap up against the wall."
: Felli strains with all his might to help lift the slab up.
Serge heads over and attempts to help Felli lift the slab.
Crushed beneath the slab the broken skeleton of someone long dead lays in pieces. Within moments of removing the heavy stone slab, Felli notices the glint of a platinum ring that it attached to one of the skeleton's fingers.
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Fundir moves about as his companions join him, casting detect magic on the different statues just to be sure they hold no surprises for his friends. Now that he has light to work with, he allows his bat form to slip away, replacing the scrunched nose and webbed ears with the feathered beak of a falcon.
"I hate wearing the bat form.." the reptilian man proclaims, wrinkling his nose and twitching it back and forth before his beak comes in. "Ssssuch an uncomfortable nossssse, it hasss.."
As Serge and Filli lift the slab, Fundir rushes over, and grabs the skeleton to slide it out where its contents can be examined safely and easily. He casts detect magic on the items that they find here as well.
Fundir begins examining the statues with detect magic when Serge and Felli manage to lift the heavy slab of stone. Seeing the remnants of the skeleton laying loosely in the rubble beneath the stone, the hunter rushes over and successfully pulls what bones he can grab out from under the slab before Serge and Felli release the heavy stone, sending it to the ground with a thud.
With the glint of the platinum ring so obviously reflecting the magical light in the room, Fundire is quick to notice the small object. Curious about the ring's properties, he casts another detect magic and begins concentrating on the ring.
While Fundir is magically focused on the ring, Felli notices that there is an embossed image on the top of the ring that looks like some sort of dog or something resembling a dog.
2nd round: He can tell that there is only a single aura of magic.
3rd round: He senses that the aura is faint.
After examining the ring, Fundir continues to magically examine the statues.
1st round: Fundir detects the presence of a magical aura.
2nd round: He can tell that there is only a single aura of magic.
3rd round: He senses that the aura is faint.
Solstice manages to document an accurate account of the room and the statues within, while Fundir unsuccessfully attempts to discern the nature of the magic radiating off both the ring as well as the large statue to the south.
Felli gets closer to the ring and takes a better look at the embossed image on the top of the ring.
Mia casts a detect magic and begins to concentrate on the ring.
Spell Craft: The ring appears to be part of a larger enchantment. It doesn't provide any personal enchantment benefit, but it feels like it is a piece to a larger puzzle. The dagger had a similar feel to it.
After evaluating the platinum ring, Mia moves over to the large statue, casts another detect magic, and begins concentrating on the statue.
Time begins to pass as the group continues to document the different aspects of the ancient room. Before long Fundir’s torch sputters out, leaving only the light from the magical stone to see by. During this time Fundir casts his light spell 3 times with each lasting 20 minutes in order to maintain the light consistently over the same length of time.
The storm continues to rage on causing a heavy amount of granny silt to cover most the floor as well as the statues. It soon becomes apparent that staying the night will become necessary in order to wait the storm out. The shadows caused by the light spell sends silhouettes cascading off the sandstone walls, which makes every corner of the room seem like it’s alive. The cold of the night begins to roll in leaving a long night ahead of the group.
Fortunately, three members of the group had the insight to bring bedrolls, resulting in an exchange of beds throughout the night as each takes a turn standing watch. Food and water are available in the packed provisions supplied by the society. This results in a palatable meal, which is cold and poorly prepared. Fundir’s light spell continues to keep a small amount of light available, but continues to cause silhouettes of shadow moving around the room. This results in Fundir having to cast his spell every 20 minutes.
The uncomfortable night eventually passes . The new day is embraced by the continuation of the storm, which hasn’t let up. The sand continues to poor into the building, followed by a renewed battery of wind.
Those that can, may prepare spells and everyone heals 1 HP per level if they are injured. Outside of an increase in the gritty silt that has covered most everything in the room, everything is as you left it the night before.
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Felli rises from his resting position, dusting some of the sand off of him that has built up. "If we run out of torches, we can probably go back up and get those old crates we passed up. With this sand storm, they should be more than dry enough to burn. They could at least be used as kindle for a campfire."
With Solstice reminding everyone about the lion statues, Felli heads over to them.
"Maybe these guys can be moved in some way." With that said, Felli examines them and tries to push, pull, and spin then around.
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The next morning, Fundir awakes and rolls the kinks out of his shoulders. "Thissss ssssand, although comfortable enough.. issss nothing like the soft foresssst and sssswamp I am ussssed to." He then takes another look at the magic items they found, unused to being stymied in such a manner.
Fundir shrugs his shoulders at Solstice's suggestion. "We may assss well. I do not believe we will be leaving here any time ssssoon.." With that, he assists the woman as he is able.
"It issss odd that thissss room is here.. with nothing more than sssstatuesssss. Wassss thissss a temple or did it hold another purpossssse?"
After Solstice suggests the lions hold a secret of some sort, Felli, Fundir, and Solstice, move over to the two gold statues and begin to push and pull on the sculptures in an attempt to move them. Even with all three putting all they have into the process, the statues don't budge. During the process Felli notices a small piece of plaster brake off of one of them. A careful examination reveals that plaster has been added to the sculpture recently to manipulate it to look like a lion. After removing a little more of the plaster, Felli is able to identify the two sculptures.
Using Detect magic, Fundir begins examining the dagger, ring, and the large statue that radiated magic the night before. All three still have the same magical aura about them, so the hunter begins concentrating on each item in an attempt to understand the magic.
Fundir feels the statue is defiantly magical in some way. That being said he isn’t quite sure what kind of magic. After taking a little time to understand the nature of the magic, Fundir finds himself frustrated. Finally, he comes to the conclusion that is complicated and he just can’t seem to understand it.
Upon inspection of the old crates above, Felli decides his evaluation of the material is correct. They would provide adequate fire wood for about six nights. He also finds that the rotted packing hay would provide an easy ignitable substance for kindling.
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"Interesting. One must keep an open mind when working for the Pathfinders you know. The society will be terribly interested in the historical significance of this site. So why would someone do that do you think? I mean was it meat to deface the idols or disguise them? There also seems to be two forces at work in this place - a recent one that assumedly put the plaster on and an old one that assumedly worshiped something evil - though I hat to use the term evil. If the lions are actually hell hounds I'd love to know who the original was for the middle statue. Asmodeus, do you think? Isn't he big on hell hounds?"
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Serge stands after his rest and dons his heavy armor once again. "My apologies for my silence, friends. The sights of these statues and the storm that has been raging has had me consumed with inner thought."
He moves up to one of them and examines it curiously. "A lion is a majestic animal, unlikely to be related to anything evil. However, I believe there was an ancient god whose worship was associated with lions." He paces around the statue, looking for anything unusual.
On the second day, the group continues to log and pack away what items they deem suitable for the return trip home. During this time, Serge takes a closer look at the (7) statues.
While admiring the statue's craftsmanship, Serge catches a shimmy in the statue. The left hand of the object begins to fade in a way that it shouldn’t. After concentrating on the object, he realizes he is able to see through the statue.
Behind the state stands a large set of double doors that appear to be made out of metal. Etched in the center of the door is an unusual looking serpent's head. Below the etching, a heavy chain binds the door and is held tight by a large, rusted, padlock.
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Serge focuses intensely on the statue to the south - the one he recognizes as Abadar. "Fundir, Mia, look here. It's almost as if this statue isn't real at all." He passes both hands through the statue, and it becomes immediately apparent that it's simply an image as his hand fades into it and back out. "Behind this statue lies a set of doors made of metal. They appear to be etched with an unusual looking serpent's head, but I do not recognize this carving." He grabs the rusty padlock. "Felli may have some luck with this lock, but let's be cautious should we decide to enter."