"Hmm." Triel squints at Cian as she walks alongside him. "It's not as foolish as it sounds, trust me."
Gorum knows I've done worse.
Her curiosity tripped by talk of ruins, Vanya excuses herself from Aldern, "Dinner, tomorrow?" She waves adieu and follows her friends out of the Rusty Dragon.
Listening to Cian talk of awakened power and ancient blood the waif knows his words are not so foolish. "Cian, you're not being foolish at all, trust me. I think we all walk Desna's path so we can discover the truth of who we are." She smiles broadly and seems very pleased to have found something in common with one of her new friends.
"At least you have a good idea of where your power comes from, Cian." Triel shrugs (*clank*). "It comes from your blood. From you."
She looks at the ground as she walks. "Part of me wonders where my power comes from..."
"Are they close enough to walk or? Jack and I received mounts for Aldern, so.." Artemis' voice trails off as he looks over at the mounts.
"They seem close enough--just a couple of streets down from the Cathedral." Triel replies.
"I'm pretty sure we can get by without taking horses for a bit."
"We're in a city and not in a hurry, so it's not like we'd need horses anyway. If anything, with all the people, they'd slow us down a bit."
Ithylia headed out with the others, "It's why I travel! To learn more about who I am and where I'm from. Plus, we all have two feet and they were made for walking." ^^ "Oh! And Dancing!"
As the group arrive on at the ruins, the sun lowers, it's reflection shining against the waters of the sea, it's reflection growing in length, as darkness is being shown as a sign to follow. Upon first glance, the ruins are just a pile of rubble, with a wall behind the piles. However, upon a better gaze, it's easier to see that this was once a building that resembled a tower, furthering the rest of the town's belief that it was an ancient light house.
"A lighthouse, or a wizard's tower?" Suddenly an idea jumps to her mind, "Maybe a docking pillar for sky-craft? Can you imagine? Ships flying along with the clouds! Stars so close you could almost touch them..." Vanya's voice trails into a wondering whisper as she feels the ground shift subtly under her feet, rolling like the deck of a ship. Or did it? Still, the waif seems happy in her own visions.
Artemis looks around some.
Jack climbs to the top of the rubble to see the view from it.
Such a waste of good rocks now
Triel glares at the sun as it falls behind the horizon. A small victory, of sorts... she's faced the day head-on and survived, despite the sun's efforts.
She walks to the edge of the cliff the ruins are perched on and sits down, looking pensive.
Artemis says, "Do these look like words to you?" as he points out the scratches.
Ithylia looked around curiously at the ruins, thinking about anything she might know about them.
When Artemis mentioned something looking like words, she bounced over his way. Following his point, she looked at the scratches.
Triel gets up and takes a closer look at the scratches Artemis points out.
"This place is amazing..." Cian says in awe as he just stands there and looks at it.
As soon as Cian finishes his words, a voice comes from almost nowhere in agreement. "Yes, it very much is! So many secrets to be had within these stones..." From behind you all, an elderly man approaches and makes his presence know.
S**T!
Triel's heart speeds up in surprise as she reflexively adjusts her helmet. She tries to ensure her face is completely concealed when the old man comes by. The old man's voice briefly slips into gibberish to her ears...
Once she's confident that she's in no danger of a wardrobe malfunction, she takes a few breaths and addresses the old man.
"It's... *ahem* it's a fascinating place, certainly. What is it, anyway?" She asks, turning to him with a hand over her holy symbol.
Artemis almost jumps out of his skin and his hand goes toward his bow as he turns on the old man.
"Hi mister!" Ithylia waved and smiled as she bounced in an excited greeting as she turned to look at the old man. "I've heard that this place used to be a lighthouse! That it was extremely tall! Taller than anything around!" She bounced over to the old man. "Is that true? Do you know any of its secrets?" She bounced some in place with curious excitment waiting for his answers.
"I'm not quite as enthusiastic as my friend here, but I'd like to know of anything you can share about this giant relic."
Vanya nods, "Yes, quite interested! Was it a lighthouse, or something else? I think it was a mooring tower for sky-ships!"
The man looks at the ruins and squints, his hand stroking his chin. "Well if you ask anyone in this town, it's an old lighthouse. But why would a light house have these Thassilonian inscriptions all of the walls? I do not believe that this could have been a lighthouse in the slightest..."
Vanya just grins in the half light, feeling justified in her flight of fancy.
Triel turns back to the lighthouse, slightly relieved that the old thing is blocking the sun.
"So, what was it then? Some sort of landmark?"
2 questions scarily stealthy old man. Who are you, and what is Thassaloin?
Jack sits atop his place on the rocks, one hand on his slingstaff just incase. You would have to be brave, or crazy to wander up to a strange group like us. I don't know which he is but I don't like it, plus he's making up words.
"Thassilonian inscriptions... Can you read them Mister? What do they say? What do you think it is? It had to be really tall right?" Her questions came quickly and one right after another.
The man looks at Jack and responds to him. "Brodert Quink young man. That is who I am, and Thassilonia is what Varisa used to be a long time ago." Shifting his gaze, he stares at Ithylia. "Well there young miss, aren't you quite the inquisitive thing now? I wish I could, but Thassilonian is a tough language to crack, and it's even taken me years to make sense of it. Even then, the writings on these walls still hardly make sense as they're so old and decayed. However, I do not believe that this was a light house."
"Oh..." A contemplative look crossed her face. "So... if it wasn't a light house... But what would they build so tall here, a tower? Just... a tower? Hm..." Eyes lighting up as she got an idea she bounced some as she turned to look at Triel. "Triel, Triel, think we could make a dance about this place? We could take ideas from the runes! We could pass on the story of this place through all of Varisia!" Her bouncing increased as she got really really excited at the thought of making a story dance.
"This is a Thassilonian ruin? I never would have guessed. From all I've read, I kind of expected... more."
Triel shrugs (*clank*). "That would require us to have more knowledge of this place, Ithylia. Perhaps we should wait to find out more about it before we try to make dances or songs out of it."
She looks more closely at the runes on the tower. "Because you KNOW there's going to be that one fool who won't hesitate to call you out on getting something wrong in your song or dance because you didn't do enough research on it."
Brodert looks at Ithylia with a quizzical expression on his face. "I'm not entirely sure as to how a dance about the Old Light would go, but I somehow think that you would be able to create a bizarre enough spectacle indeed." Shifting his gaze to Cian, he continues. "Just because it is not a castle, does not mean that it is in fact a ruin. Sometimes just a simple home can be a ruin, even if it has no obvious appearance that there was some sort of historical significance that occurred with that home. Not every thing is as grand and extravagant as one would seem it to be young man."
think Ithyllia should make up her dance," Vanya states. "Dance is about how you feel, not the details, right?" She looks a bit sideways at Brodert, Does he know more than he is saying or is he just feeding us what we want to hear?
Triel shrugs (*clinky clank*). "I suppose."
"It's a combination! It's both about feeling and those little details that make it all the more special!" With a hum of a tune and a dancer's twirl, four wispy balls of light appeared and bobbed in a circle above Ithylia. "Can't have a dance about Old Light without some lights."
Triel sighs in response to Ithylia's magic.
...she's really serious about this.
"Or music. Ithylia, would you kindly play a tune to my dancing? I'm just going to wing it and see what works..." She says, her feet already beginning to shuffle.
Her steps are in tune to a beat only she can hear, but if her steps are any indication, it's one hell of a catchy beat. Her steps take her across the floor of the Old Light, making her look at the symbols on its walls for inspiration.
"You ladies never fail to impress me." Cian says as he watches them. "And to be able to dance like that in armor is truly wonderful...
'I just wanted to mess with lights... wasn't planning right at this moment... Oh well ^^ I'm not one to pass up an opportunity to perform!'
A large grin on her face and a flourish of motion, she commanded her lights to move and dance to the music. She pulled out her fiddle and performed a quick tuning check. Satisfied with it's tuning she began to play, starting with something simple and flowing, but upbeat. Soon though she was embellishing and improvising as she went, taking inspiration from not only the remains of Old Light but Triel's movements as well. Runs and reels filled the air.
Watching the show unfold, Brodert seems to smile a little through his aged wrinkles. "Well I must say, if there was a song and dance to the Old Light, I wouldn't disagree to this being it. So tell me, for those who aren't expressing our history through song and dance, what brings you out here this evening? You are the so called "heros" of our town, are you not? Why come out to this crumbled heap of history when you could be celebrating?"
"I actually came here to see Old Light. I've got a fascination with ruins, you see, and I love exploring them. I even have a little magic to help me read anything runes I might find, as long as I know what language it is."
"I really don't know. I just came here because everyone else wanted to." Vanya smiles and adds, "I'm glad I did, though!"
Once the music is finished, Triel's dancing comes to an end. She leans against the Old Light, panting, her hands on her mailed knees.
"Had some... *pant*... time to kill... *pant*... before dinner. Decided 'why not spend it here?" Triel straightens up.
Artemis smirks at the mention of heroes.
"You can only drink so much, sir. Although, my friend Jack here, tries to disprove that theory, so far, I think he's found there's a limit to what even he can drink. I don't know about the others but I just did what needed to be done and we work well together. This seemed a place a few wanted to visit and well, I am just here because I enjoy the company."
Artemis realizes he's talked a lot and blushes a bit and looks out over the water at the sunset.
The song finish, Ithylia dismissed her lights. Sitting her fiddle in it's case, she ran over to give Triel a hug. ^^ "That was awesome!" She pulled away to look at her, a huge smile on her face. "I should teach you to scarf dance! You'd be really good at it." ^^
Why is there dancing again?
Jack enjoys the show for a few moments before turning his attention back to Brodert. His hand still on his sling staff.
How did this nation fall? You don't just build stuff like this and then disappear without a trace.
Who says we aren't celebrating. Maybe we're the most boring heroes ever? We always go to bed early, eat our vegetables, say please lot, and always obey the law.
As jack finishes that sentence he begins to snicker, trying to keep a straight face, but doing a poor job of it.
Triel lets Ithylia hug her. "Thanks." I know it's silly, but... you know, it feels kind of fun when you get down to it.
The mention of scarf dancing makes her look down at her armour. "I'm not entirely sure long strips of cloth and armour with lots of individual sharp bits would mesh well..."
Brodert chuckles at the remark. "I am quite sure that you lot are the most uninteresting group around. As entertaining as that was however, I must retire for the night back to my study. I bid you "heroes" a fair night, and do enjoy Sandpoint." And with that, Brodert turns around and begins to walk away.
Exhausted and hungry, Triel simply nods at Brodert as he turns to leave.
She pushes herself off the wall and starts walking back down the road to the Rusty Dragon. "Come on--I think I've had enough excitement for one day..."