Reynard and the Fox check out the Petroglyphs. They look to be some kind of marking left by visitors, but they don't seem to have any meaning. What they do indicate is a steady stream of visitors, as there are a good many of them.
The trail of petroglyph continued, and the number of the little pictures increased, growing ever denser until the covered almost the entire wall. Then a tunnel, with something completely different. No petroglyph, but a set of carvings over head, almost completely faded. Blue-burning torches lit the place, but it was still hard to make out anything.
Whilst the party is investigating the tunnel carvings, a figure clad in a yellow robe, its fingers and hands wrapped in bandages, and its face obscured by a faintly luminescent mask fringed with tentacles which seem to writhe in the flickering light, approaches the group, and bows.
"Good day,", it says in a rich, and surprisingly cultured voice. "Would you happen to have anything to do with the man who ran through here a few minutes ago? He seemed to be in an awful hurry. The name's Hastur..."
When it notices the group studying the carvings, it nods with approval.
"Ah, yes! Fascinating, aren't they? I have been trying to tease out what they are myself..."
Almost as an afterthought, it adds: "By the way, the running man dropped this." it says, holding up Janira's pack.
Hastur's mask is, unsurprisingly, unreadable, but his voice is utterly guileless.
"By all means, you could say that. Had any luck with the carvings?"
Reynard tries to make sense of the carvings, but she has a hard time reading them in the flickering torchlight.
"Isn't this supposed to be a Confirmation? 'Explore, Report, Cooperate', and all that? Learning what you can about the area that you are passing through seems reasonable..."
Darkwing just barely makes out a carving of a craftsman, and Hastur fills the party on the details: this is a carving of the History and Future of Humanity, the supreme holy text of Aroden, albeit in an early version. The carvings focus on parables that feature Aroden’s 12 guises, meant to illustrate his hopes for humanity: still slightly readable are those of the farmer, the tailor, the hunter and the craftsman.
The Craftsman is depicted creating shoes, pots, jewelry, and other moveable goods, referencing Aroden’s delight at seeing his people express their ingenuity in creating new products from raw materials.
The Farmer is depicted plowing four lines in a field, retelling Aroden’s prophecy that humankind would prepare the rocky earth for planting and over generations wear the pebbles down into fertile soil.
The Hunter is depicted slaying a giant serpentine creature and then parading a trophy through the city streets—a sign to all humanity that the wilds are safe to inhabit once the monsters are slain.
The Tailor is depicted sewing together a long cloth of featuring many patterns that wraps around a city like a moat, referencing Aroden’s proclamation that when the fate of all peoples is woven together, it shall be humanity’s greatest strength.
"Fascinating. They appear to be depicting some of the guises or Aroden, and rituals pertaining to each."
Hastur makes an effort to try and copy down some of the designs, making copious notes.
It was the soft light of the glowing fungus, mixed with the flickering glow of the torches that gave the grand hall behind the cave tunnel the eerie glow it had. The large water pool reflected the light onto the stalactices clinging to the ceiling overhead. The light only barely penetrated into the tunnel that branched off east and west.
Rising up from the pool was a column of rock with steeply sloped sides and a flat top, as if someone had sawn off the top of a massive stalagmite. A miniature city carved from this same stone, occupying nearly the entire surface. Tiny trinkets such as ancient coins, polished semiprecious stones, and ornately braided loops of string were scattered throughout the diorama, and pale cave frogs clambered atop it. The smooth cavern floor was covered in gravel and pebbles along the edge of the pool, and several foot-long centipedes prowled among the gravel in their search for prey.
Kneeled in the water, this was the glimpse of the Gillman Uori. In the water, he was performing some kind of prayer, and did not notice the pathfinders at first.
Hastur glided forward, taking in the enigmatic and above all, ancient accoutrements of the underwater grotto. He moved up to the pool, respectfully waiting for the Gillman to finish his prayer, before trying to get his attention.
"Hello! What brings you here? Fascinating place, isn't it? You can practically feel the history..."
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Upon seeing a new face, Darkwing swirls his cape around himself with a dramatic flourish.
"I am the terror...that quacks in the night..."
Then he realises that Hastur was trying to be friendly with the stranger.
"... but it's not night right now, so you have nothing to fear as long as you are not an evil-doer. Salutations!"
It took a while to get the gillman's attention, but in the end he turned around. When he finally answered with a question Are you holy pilgrims as well? it became clear why: the tell-tale nasal sound of a deaf man. He was looking intently as Hastur's lips as they moved, reading the text off his face, and occasional remarks out of his view never arrived at their destination. Still, the gillman turned out to be among the friendlier creatures in the Kortos mounts.
He is eyeing the cloak that was recovered from the watery pit, with interest. He has a similar cloak, neatly folded at the waterside.
The name is Uori, he spoke, I am a pilgrim myself. This is a sacred place to my race
"This place is a long way from the ocean; why do you hold it sacred?"
In this place I listen to the water rushing the gillman says, though he is most assuredly deaf, and commune with the flow. You must be here because this was once a holy place of Aroden? Those inscriptions there, he says, as he points to the tunnel they have almost faded, and soon the last piece of magic that is stored there will be gone. Aroden's influence will no longer be felt here. Already, creatures are invading these caves...
Hastur pokes Lee with a bony, bandage-wrapped finger.
"Wake up! Our host has said that there are creatures invading these caverns!"
He then turns back to the Gillman.
"Where are these invaders? We might be able to help you with your problem..."
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...Huh? What? INVADERS? In Absalom!? Bloody hells, in my lifetime... You! Fish-man! Tell us where we can find the invaders! It is my duty as a city guard to protect Absalom's citizens, even if it means fighting on the front lines! What are we waiting for people, there's innocent lives at stake here!
The gillman points at the passages east and west, saying Many of my fellow travellers have not returned...
"Well then, sounds like we have a job for a bunch of HEROES!"
Hastur then charges off down the Eastern tunnel.