"Well, thanks for the answers." Frederick says, utterly cold.
He swings his falcata at the necromancer's neck.
Frederick cleans his falcata, then sheathes it.
"Should we move on or rest?"
Brother Cyrus blinks, coughs, then clears his throat.
"Eitylen is pretty beat up. Might be a good idea to rest in the ruins that place secure against the elements."
I'm...just going to forget that ever happened. Yep.
Jaazkara casually searches the orc's corpse for anything useful or of value, noting the direction he was headed.
Upon returning to the ruins, she takes a look at the rooms on the upper floor.
- - -
Jaazkara inspects the two non-collapsed rooms on the floor where you fought the skeletons. She crosses the first oversized door arc one, she finds a few weapon and armor stands fallen on the ground as if they had been abruptly thrown aside. There also a few wooden crates completely shattered.
As she raises her torch to take a closer look, Jaazkara sees what's left of a mural carved on the stonewall. It's heavily damaged and almost completely covered in dust... But it's impossible not the understand the image... It depicts a great battle, where humanoids donning alien-looking armor and wielding lightning spears and flaming swords strike down an army of four-armed insectoids.
Despite its age and poor state of conversation, the image is disturbingly detailed... With blood, guts and gore being not only depicted in full, but also highlighted and exalted.
Jaazkara takes one last look at the grotesque picture and decides to check the other room, which, just like every other hall and chamber in this place, has a very wide doorway and unusually high ceiling, but has human-sized objects and furniture...
This room has many more vines than the rest of the tilted temple, and there's more humidity in the air and surfaces... Jaazkara soon realizes why... A large, half-circle-shaped fountain composes the wall in front of her. The lizardfolk warrior notices the fountain is half covered in vines and almost completely dry, with just a very thin stream of swamp water running from one of its mouths...
Even so, the fountain is a impressive sight. On one of its sides, there's a half-broken but still massive statue of a scholar-looking woman raising a emerald staff... On the right side, Jaazkara sees an equally large statue of a serpentine dragon baring fangs at the stone woman. Although broken and gathering dust on a tilted temple, the statues still inspire awe in their eternal conflict.
Like the murals, the fountain and its statues are very detailed and imposing...
Mi-go are crustacean-like fungi. ;)
Frederick remembers hearing tales and seeing reports of insect-like races from far-away realms. However, it's difficult to know if the creatures in the mural are the ones he heard about. The carving shows them as more monstrous than he'd guess from the descriptions he was given back in Hermea. It's unclear if this is due to real differences or artistic licence.
Brother Cyrus stares at the strange murals.
There are no religious icons that Brother Cyrus can recognize... But he does notices a few images similar to funeral pyres and, more notable, designs that remind him of old charts representing the elemental planes. These designs are located at the edges of the mural, never interfering with the main picture.
There were reports of sightings of small bands of four-armed insectoids roaming through the wilds in far-off lands. These sightings are very few and far between, and actual interaction with these creatures is even rarer, as they tend to shy away from humanoids.
Back at the lowest room, Eitylen is still resting, trying to make himself as comfortable as he can... The overgrown vines make an almost acceptable pillow...
"We fought evil and saw something interesting... That's not too bad" he says, trying to cheer everyone (himself included) up.
"Yeah..." Frederick says, a little more shaken by the events and his actions now that his focus is spent.
Jaazkara casually searches the orc's corpse for anything useful or of value, noting the direction he was headed.
Jaazkara examines the bags and pouches she took from Yak'xariil's corpse. There she finds a spell component pouch, a ring, a sickle, an amulet, a wand and a couple scrolls... She also took his boots, because they looked really nice.
"I think I prefer the city to this swamp. Though there is a sort of...savage honesty in knowing everything is out to get you."
Jaazkara reaches into her sash as she sits with the gear from the orc spread on the ground before her, finding a soft patch of overgrown vines and mosses. She retrieves a small orange bead from the sash and places it on the ground a few feet in front of her, and whispers a hissing word in Lizardspeak.
"Ignite."
In a flash, the orange beads transforms into a blazing campfire, issuing a pleasant warmth and a warm light throughout the chilled ruins. She then produces a sizable hunk of what appears to be freshly cut meat, including appears to be a sizable heart, and goes about cooking it on the campfire. When it is roasted, she cuts into small pieces and eats it with her rations. She offers some to the others as well, blissfully unaware of the grievous morbid insult this may offer to her half-orc companion.
"Spoils from dee foe, who we defeated. His undead were no match for us, and dee world is better to see dem gone from it. I honor our battle, and dose to come."
Eitylen looks with a mix of disgust and fascination... Then calmly adds...
"I will stick with my rations..."
Frederick is caught between revulsion and fascination.
"Does...it taste good?"
Kaazkara shrugs at the Eitylen's words, then looks to Frederick.
"It does. It tastes like...victory."
"Oh gods..." Brother Cyrus whispers to himself. He subsequently loses his appetite and sets his traveling rations aside to retrieve his holy text to read.
With the day almost over, I had almost thought things couldn't get any stranger for me.
Jaazkara takes the last couple hours of day to perform a more thorough search of the temple before coming back to the makeshift camp to assign watch shifts.
When she returns, she gestures to the assorted items laid out on the ground and says to Brother Cyrus,
"Can you divine dee function of any of deez tings?"
There she finds a spell component pouch, a ring, a sickle, an amulet, a wand and a couple scrolls... She also took his boots, because they looked really nice.
"Ah...I'll give it a try." Brother Cyrus says happily to take the topic away from the eating of humanoid flesh.
"Gods grant me insight into these items of power..." He makes a hand sign and his eyes glow briefly.
Brother Cyrus focuses his mind and magic to successfully identify the orc's gear.
- An ordinary Spell component pouch.
- Ring of Sustenance.
- The amulet gives the wearer Fire Resistance 10
- The sickle is a non-magical masterwork cold iron sickle.
- Wand of Acid Arrow (18 charges) (CL 3)
- Scroll of Lesser Animate Dead (CL 6)
- Scroll of Fly (CL 6)
- Feather Step
Brother Cyrus smiles to himself over the value of the items but it fades away as he remembers the circumstances in which they were acquired.
"Well this ring will prove quite the boon in our camp tonight. With it, one only needs a few hours of rest and you will feel the need to eat less. I think Jaazkara should wear it. Her eyes are quite keen. If Frederick takes the first shift, she should be able to handle the rest.
"The amulet...well it's funner to show rather than tell." Brother Cyrus hooks the amulet around his neck and then sticks his hand into the campfire.
The scrolls and wand he places in his bag.
"Unfortunately, these are unlikely to be of use to us...unless one of you is talented in activating magic items."
"These boots allow one to move freely despite difficulties in short strides." Brother Cyrus adds.
"I wouldn't mind the boots myself. I could use new ones, and terrain has been an issue lately."
Jaazkara asks the others about their adventures and journey up until this point, seeming genuinely interested.
"Oh you wish to know our story? Well it all began when I arrived on a boat in Blue Shell..."
And Brother Cyrus begins to show off his oratory prowess to our recent party members.
He tells the story of the quest to rescue "Lord Richard" the Lady Elena's beloved...who turned out to be a Tiger! He keeps the party in suspense as he recalls the events of the murder mystery and of the pale robed man whom we were unable to apprehend that Cyrus believes to be the darker mastermind. He spoke of his friend, the incredible mage monk Tai Leng, who settled down to rest as an apprentice to an alchemist. He goes over the vow he made to find the cause of the murders to the woman who was almost a victim. In an almost reverent tone, he speaks of the mysterious Witch of the woods who spoke in cryptic words and seemed to see all there was in Blue Shell.
Brother Cyrus mentions the unearthly beauty of the Lady Hazel "whose image in a mirror would outshine any jewel." He seems unsatisfied by that description.
He embellishes the accomplishments of his friends whilst describing his own modestly.
"Our elf friend here is far more cunning that he looks! Without his quick thinking and quicker blade, surely we'd not be where we are today. And Frederick's skill at arms were all that stood between the caravan's destruction by the Sahuagin Hordes!"
Finally he finishes the tale with their noble quest to find the Moon Rose for Lord Pillowstone and of their visit to the Thriae Hive.
"And so here we rest amongst these forgotten ruins, to ready ourselves a'fore we plunge into the heart of the swamp to battle the horrors that lurk betwixt the shadows!"
"Wow! If your monk friend was so good, why'd he retire? He sounds great!"
"Ah well you know monks...they go off to train their minds and bodies or some such. I'm sure I'll see him again."
Jaazkara listens with rapt attention and enthusiasm, telling stories of glorious and daring adventures being the primary method of passing on tribal wisdom in her village, as well as the main form of entertainment for both young and old.
"That is quite dee tale. Speaking of dese ruins, do you not find it strange dat dey are so big, yet furnissed so small...?"
She indicates the size of the structure and it's rooms, in comparison to whatever human-sized items she noticed earlier. She then indicates her intentions to investigate the fountain closer before they leave.