"I would relish the opportunity to delve ancient ruins. There is much to learn."
"As would I..."
"unfortunately even the powers of an inquisitor cannot penetrate such mind wards. But I too am willing to venture to some ruins."
Three days walk from here lies the ruins of an ancient fortress from the age of giants, it fell to invaders from the black ocean and then served as the headquarters of those invaders for millennia. After the invaders returned to the black ocean the ruins have been a death trap for all... Legends say that deep in the bowels of the fortress the invaders left behind an ancient device called in your tongue the "Ravager". According to myth it possesses the ability to pierce any mindward and override any will, with it the invaders pried the secrets of the giants from their leaders. By doing this they overwhelmed every foe they encountered, until dragonfire scorched all of Xen'drik....
"Remarkable."
Go speak with the shaman and he will see to it that you have a pack scorpion, I believe Drask also wants to have a word with you.
You all go over to the "stables" and see that your host wasn't kidding, a massive four foot long scorpion in the clan's colors skitters before you. The scorpion is chattering madly with the shaman, it seems he is talking to the pack scorpion...
Ormak smiles slightly at the sight of the scorpion and the Shaman communicating. He then speaks to the shaman in the ancient tongue of those who serve nature.
"Good morning, honored Elder. I am Ormak." He says politely, and with a touch of formality as a way of greeting.
"of all the unnatural beasts, I never thought I would see one as ugly as that. I guess it has the advantage that it can defend itself, but who can trust a beast of burden that can easily kill them?" artor stands behind the druid. His weapon planted upright beside him, held in his left hand.
Ormak bows deeply to the Drow "I would be most honored to learn anything you have to teach me, and gladly will I accept any request in return for such knowledge, revered Elder"
The shaman turns his head in annoyance at the Dwarf, while he can't tell what the dwarf is seeing it seems pretty obvious that the shaman gets the general gist of it from the dwarf's body posture.
"Gladly shall I do my best to recover such an important artifact to your peoples and do not worry about the scorpion, I will be able to handle her. Does she have a name?"
Artor is ready for whatever this forsaken wasteland has to offer
Your journey through the desert in uneventful, the scorpion faithfully follows you and as your first day in the journey begins to end you see a series of building in the distance...
peel those eyes! roll perception checks.
Ormak has been leading Shalista, often pausing briefly to chat with the scorpion. Shortly after the last break, he spots some buildings in the distance.
Perception
Kyrso has trouble seeing the buildings due to the bulk of the party being in front of him, the others however see that the village is clearly drow... Who else has so many banners with scorpions emblazoned upon them, yet the village seems empty and the docent unmarked received is shimmering lightly...
Unmarked will try to see what's up with the docent. If he has not installed it, he will try to do so.
while you can't detect the reason why the orb is glowing it does seem to want to get closer to the village...
"We should go there" Ormak says, pointing at the village ahead.
"I concur"
"is this entire region infested with these people. Let us get this over with."
Artor has his halberd out ready to respond to any threat including that unnatural beast of burden with the shifter.
Ormak shoots the dwarf a dark look "Its their homeland"
As you all walk in you see that the village is deserted, then the docent begins to glow a dark purple and Unmarked is lifted into the air...
As the vision fades you fall to the ground and orb reverts back to it's normal color...
do i get a sense of what they were to ascend to?
do i get a sense of what part the docent plays in this ascension?
"Care to enlighten the rest of us, forged one?"
"Something happened to the drow here, probably a long time ago. Involving big crystals, some sort of 'ascension'."
"What an Ash-sen-shun?" The shifter asks.
"I will look around"
"Something happened to the drow here, probably a long time ago. Involving big crystals, some sort of 'ascension'."
"So there may be unguarded treasures within? why are we standing here when there are riches to be found."