Hi guys - apologies for the lapse, I'll update by end of this weekend.
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You continue to follow the tracks to the north along the overgrown trail, and soon a hill looms ahead of you. A crumbling stone wall can be seen running around the top of the hill, and the scorched remains of the upper floor of a tall stone building can be glimpsed behind it. There seems little doubt where the tracks lead; indeed, they follow the disused path as it circles the base of the hill and leads up its northeastern face to the remains of the Helorus Catholicon. The path leads to a metal gate set between a pair of square stone columns in the crumbling, ivy-covered wall which encircles the hilltop. The wall itself is 10 feet high and crowned with wrought iron spikes. The gate hangs open, creaking softly in what wind touches the ruined bars, through which you can see a three-story stone building loom in the center of the grounds. Ivy and moss cling tenaciously to the walls, the shingles of the roof often missing entirely to expose the charred wooden rafters of the upper structure to the sky. Here and there, beatific stone cherubs perch on the eaves, once functioning drain spouts and decorations now standing silent vigil over the sanitarium's decay. Many of these stone decorations have crumbled away and lie in ruined piles on the soggy ground below. Windows in the building’s facade are narrow and blocked by grills of rusty iron bars. Stone columns support a slumping wooden balcony over the building’s wooden front doors, both of which hang askew and reveal dark glimpses of chambers within. An unnatural quiet surrounds this place, the sounds of chirping birds and buzzing insects having faded away to leave only the faint rustle of the breeze through the ivy.
Sorry, was down with a fever all weekend. Fever broke last night, home from work today, will post by tonight.
Gameplay updated.
Led by Oukonunaka the trio heads east along the rocky shore. Unfortunately he loses the trail after 100 yards, even with Luther's attempts to help. The two men set to scrutinizing the shore for any signs of passage while Amaya patiently waits, and after an hour they hit upon success, following the trail along the lake for the better part of a mile before it veers onto the dirt road. From there the trail continues eastwards along the road. Little more than a dirt track at this point, the road runs northeast/southwest at a rough parallel to the lake for another mile before it splits. The beaten track continues due east, while a disused and overgrown path heads due north. The tracks continue along the northern branch... Tracking Rolls:
There are tracks in multiple directions. My understanding is that Oukonunaka wishes to follow the tracks back to the east, which is in the opposite direction of Karl.
Shultz is in fact suggesting that everyone go to dinner together, he's just talking to Amaya rather than Luther.
Apologies for the delay, will have a gameplay post up today/tonight. Karl has in fact walked off already, though he's still in view about 100 yards down the shore.
Gameplay's all set. Pardon my attempts at George's accent.
I forgot about Luther's questions - I'm editing the latest gameplay post now to get them answered, as now would be a good time for those to be asked.
Oukonunaka surveys the stony ground around the Honin Stone carefully, moving around and between people as needed without a second thought. Oukonunaka: The stones attempt to hide their recent past, but your eyes are too keen to be fooled by their stoic silence. The rains have washed them clean of any activity before two nights ago, but since then two animals have been killed in front of the stone where Ernest now scrubs, one each day. From the contents of his bucket you can tell today's animal was a chicken. Since Sunday night six people have tread near the Honin Stone, not counting you and your companions. One visited the stone four times, three of them visited twice, and two of them visited once. The farmer Karl visited four times. Both yesterday and today he arrived from the western shore, departed along the road, returned from the road, then departed along the western shore. Constable Schultz and Ernest have both visited twice: once yesterday and once today. Both times they arrived and departed along the road. Yesterday they arrived separately, and today they arrived together. Given the arrangement of tracks, you believe that a scene similar to today's between these three men played out yesterday as well. The fourth individual to visit the stone more than once came once yesterday and once today, likely in the wee (pre-dawn) hours on both occasions. Both times they arrived along the eastern shore and departed along the western shore. Whomever this was most likely killed the animals. The other two visitors came yesterday, arriving and departing by the road. There are no signs of any (living) animals passing near the Honin Stone; whomever killed the animals must have brought them on their person. There aren't even any droppings or other signs that birds have been on the Honin Stone itself since the rains. The Honin Stone is unfamiliar to you - you have never seen anything like it among the Iroquois people.
I'll have the results of Oukonunaka's tracking posted up later tonight.
Cool that we've already got 2 people posting. We'll give Luther 'til Thursday before revealing the results of the Survival check, per the general every-other-weekday posting goal. I may add a conversation post between George and Amaya, as looking for tracks will take a minute or two in-game; if I do, feel free to respond :) Not gonna get much better that that! Indeed. I'd say at most it's gonna get 7.69% better.
You can make a gameplay post for your tracking attempt and include a Survival roll. I'll give Amaya and Luther until Thursday 5/31 to post. If Luther wants to assist you he can include his roll in his post. If we haven't heard from Luther by Thursday evening I'll assume he assists you and include the relevant results/reactions in my gameplay update at that time.
As we discussed, Taking 20 to find tracks takes 20 hours. If you and Luther want to assist each other, you can either Take 10 for the total of 18, or you can both roll and the lower check will assist the higher check. If you do search for tracks around the Honin Stone, you're going to be up in George and Ernest's business.
Upon seeing the Honin Stone, Amaya suddenly realizes the likely origin of the town's name. At her greeting the two men stop their argument and look to her and Ernest throws her a smile over his shoulder, but doesn't stop his work. GM Rolls:
Their disposition agreed upon, Stanislav stays behind with Katherine while Amaya, Luther, and Oukonunaka go out to explore the town, heading first for the Honin Stone. Walking north along the road from the cobbles soon give way to packed earth. The Pallaver house is the first of several farmhouses north of town, and folks can be seen hard at work in the fields that line the road. After another two miles the kept fields give way to brush and light woods, the trees bright green with their new leaves. The road also develops a notable decline, and a half mile later it evens out just as the woods on the west side of the road end, revealing Lake Honin. The lake stretches 5 miles long roughly north/south and 2 miles wide, with Helorus nestled between it's eastern shore and the mountains. Despite the recent storm the water appears quite clear, and several small boats dot the smooth water: fishermen out for the day. It appears that most of the shore is wooded, though directly ahead is a stretch of clear, pebbled shore some 100 yards long. Three townsfolk are gathered in front of some sort of stone monument on the shore that stands nearly six feet tall - no doubt the Honin Stone. Two of the men you don't recognize - one is obviously a farmer and the other is dressed in more professional attire. These two are engaged in a debate of some sort, the farmer visibly upset. The third person is Ernest, the young gravedigger from the doctor's funeral; he's on his hands and knees with a brush and bucket scrubbing at a large, flat rock on the ground in front of the Honin Stone. Luther & Oukonunaka: Ernest is scrubbing away what appears to a letter "A" messily written is some dark medium.
The night passes uneventfully, or so it seems until after breakfast the next morning...
Feel free to finish up any roleplaying at the dinner table, and then I'll move the action forward. You've all been in town long enough to know that "downtown" Helorus is a north-south stretch of cobbled road less than a mile in length, with the church and graveyard at its south end and the Pallaver residence at its north end. In between are various residences and public buildings such as the town hall, jail, post office, livery, general store, feed store, pub, the Lakeside Inn, carpentry shop, school house, etc. The Honin Stone is 2.5 miles north of the Pallaver house, so all three locations you've mentioned (The Honin Stone, post office, and mausoleum) lie along the same 3.5 mile stretch of road; easily visited on the same trip.
All the points on Amaya's to-do list seem feasible. I'd prefer if the group didn't split up. Also, the "hunt" is something Stanislav just now suggested based on his own theory of a rabid animal, not something he's heard about being planned. Also also, sorry for the delay on the gameplay post.
Update coming this afternoon.
More to the point, this "source" is something to investigate. The notes reference other books of the Disciplina. They don't contain much extra information, simply directing the reader to other texts (ie similar to reading entrails of frog; see Libri Haruspicini, page 6). Amaya infers that the French notater had access to multiple books of the Disciplina, possibly even a complete set, that were all Latin translations done by the same translator.
My understanding is that the last report of extant copies being seen was from the 6th century AD. Also you can't, in real life, currently obtain a translation of them, just information about them.
Sorry, should have included a roll for that in the original book description.
Current scholarly belief is that all copies of the Etrusca Disciplina were destroyed by the middle of the first millenium A.D.; only allusions and brief quotes in Latin made by Roman scholars remain. The Etruscan religion eventually fell out of favor with the Romans, discredited as mere superstition and purposefully purged from Roman culture. Even so, it is assumed that some of the rituals and practices of the Etruscans survived in the Roman religions, though specifically what those practices may be is unknown. Pallaver's copy of the Libri Fulgurales is seemingly complete.
Amaya / Etrusca Disciplina: This a Latin translation of the Libri Fulgurales, a single volume of the larger set of the Etrusca Disciplina. It instructs how one may perform divinations by observing lightning strikes, and is notated in both archaic French and modern English; the French notes allude to the Latin translations of more books of the Disciplina from the same source, and this mention has been circled and notated in English - "Not present in the archives; transferred to another preceptory? Must find!!!" Otherwise the notes either question or provide clarification on the divination methods described.
This text states that lightning is generally caused by the collision of clouds, with these collisions being the gods' method of announcing their intentions to mortals through the lightning they produce. The method of divination via lightning involves a "cartography of the sky," wherein the horizon is divided into 16 sections assigned to various deities, with each section is further divided into 4 subsections; the viewer then notes which section the lightning originated from. Also important is the nature of the lighting, which is broken down into three major categories: lightning which pierces through cloud cover, lightning which is forked, and lightning that burns; there are further minor categories of lightning, such as lighting which springs from the earth or lightning accompanied by earth tremors. Furthermore, the specific effect of the lightning is considered, with such factors as the lightning's effect on men, animals, landscape, architecture, etc. It is presumed that thunder is produced by lightning, such that the origin of thunder with no visible lightning must be guessed at to the best of the diviner's ability. The volume of divinatory signs and their interactions with one another is impressive; to actually memorize the divinatory system would take weeks of effort and practice, but Amaya is fairly sure she could note the important aspects of any lightning/thunder she witnesses and later refer to the text to determine it's supposed meaning, if she was so inclined.
Amaya can read the Etruscan papers over the course of the Afternoon (2:30p - 6:30p). Would Luther/Oukonunaka like to do anything in this time slot? I'll have the Etruscan post up sometime today or tonight.
Luther begins searching some of the house's many stacks of books when, on a hunch, he checks the drawer of Katherine's bedside table and finds a copy of the King james Bible. Upon reviewing it for comparison, however, he finds her copy doesn't contain the Book of Tobit, and its Book of Daniel doesn't include mention of Bel or the dragon. Katherine's copy was printed in 1849.
While Amaya studies the Latin cypher, Luther reads the ribboned sections found in the antique King James Bible.
KJB / Book of Tobit, pages from Chapter 6:
Summary: A young man, Tobiah, travels in the company of a disguised angel; a strange fish bites his foot, and the angel instructs him to kill it and remove certain organs that are useful for exorcising spirits and healing the blind.
Text:
KJB / Book of Tobit, pages from Chapter 8:
Summary: Tobiah is wed to Sarah, whose previous husbands have all been killed by a demon on their wedding night. On the night of her wedding to Tobiah, he burns the fish organs as instructed by the disguised angel. This causes the demon to flee, whereupon the angel binds it beneath the earth.
Text:
KJB / Book of Tobit, pages from Chapter 11:
Summary: Tobiah returns home with his wife Sarah and the angel, and uses the fish organs to cure his father Tobit of blindness at the angel's instruction. Tobit can see again, but can see all manner of spirits and angels as well, and laments his condition. The angel wipes Tobit's eyes and returns Tobit's sight to normal.
Text:
KJB / Book of Tobit, page from Chapter 12:
Summary: There is a feast for Tobiah and Sarah at Tobit's home, where the angel Raphael reveals himself to Tobit and Tobiah, who are awed and afraid of him.
Text:
KJB / Book of Daniel, pages from Chapter 14: Summary: Daniel proves to the King of Babylon that the priests of the god-statue Bel have tricked him, and the King slays them all save one that could not be found. Daniel then slays a dragon the Babylonians also worship as a god. Before dying the dragon tells Daniel that it was also Bel, and that it wears many masks; while it's body may be destroyed, it is eternal. Daniel is then thrown to the lions by the Babylonians, who are angry at him and at their King.
Text:
What next, intrepid investigators?
Not so long a post after all; was thinking of the wrong book :P
Miss Harvey spends several hours in study of the book which bears the same cross as was found on the mausoleum. Amaya / Book with Cross on Cover: While written in Latin, the book at first seems to be nonsense - it is random words separated by punctuation which she is sure is some sort of cypher. Unfortunately, without any reference or clue as to the nature of the code she is unable to decipher it, despite her best efforts. She can however study the book's illuminations. They are quite beautiful and detailed: the first page is an illustration which depicts some sort of daytime feast or celebration presided over by four kings on thrones; thirteen large, half-page illuminations are spread throughout the book, each incorporating the first letter of text on the page; and on the back of the final page of the book is another full-page illustration, this time depicting the same setting as the first, but at night without any kings/celebrants and with spiders and cobwebs hanging down. Much smaller embellishments and designs are also present throughout.
Assuming there's nothing to indicate that Oukonunaka intervenes, I'll assume that Amaya begins reading the cross-cover book and post the results in gameplay either tonight or tomorrow (it's gonna be a bit of a long one).
In general please work under the following assumptions: 1. When someone posts that they share info on a topic, everyone in the vicinity learns it. This way there's no confusion/backtracking over who knows what. If you want to omit any information when you share with the party, please make it clear in your posts. Preferably both in character and with an at the end of the post. 2. When you read a book, I will post all relevant information in that book. I may not explain the significance of the information (depending on skill checks), but all the information will be presented so that you may draw your own conclusions. If there's something in a book you can't translate or properly read, I will make that clear in the book's summary.
As I understand it, Amaya is going to read the book with the cross next? Would either of the gentlemen care to review one of the books?
I'd prefer to keep the PC party together for now. Futzing with books takes only a single update and may reveal points of interest/investigation. While it may be mildly incredulous not to, splitting up again and poking around will inevitably leave the researchers with one or two posts while others go out and get into much lengthier adventures, which I'd like to avoid.
Gameplay update complete.
Luther and Stanislav walk back through town, stopping in at the General Store for some fresh meat and eggs where the locals give them some curious looks. The pair then return to the Pallaver residence with their bounty. Amaya and Oukonunaka see them from the veranda as they walk up the road towards the house.
Gameplay update within the next 10 hours, seriously this time.
I'll update to get everyone back together at the Pallaver Residence tonight as well. Sorry for the delay, but I've been slammed at work the past few days.
Luther and Stanislav make their way to the graveyard where they inspect the mausoleum, a squat limestone building overgrown with moss and ivy. It features blocks with relief carvings of crosses matching the design of the cross on the cover of Pallaver's book of Latin text. The door is made of iron, with a plate in the center which may be swung aside to reveal a small keyhole; the door features neither handle nor hinges. Overall, the structure looks quite old, probably dating from the colonial era. After a thorough examination Luther finds a single footprint on a patch of bare ground beneath the brush behind the mausoleum. It's age is hard to tell given the recent rains, as are it's particulars - it has been reduced to little more than an oblong shallow. He is certain, however, that it was made by a boot, shoe, or other piece of footwear. Behind the Scene:
I'll have mausoleum post up tonight.
"I'm sorry to ask about this, but it may be important. Did Albert work with August? Do you know what happened? Or who might know?" Father Grimsby's mouth pulls downwards into grim frown and his eyes smolder. "Albert renounced the Christian faith, disavowed any good in mankind, and branded August's works and ideals as worthless. The works and ideals of his father." *** "I think we've imposed enough -- it's been very helpful. Thank you very much for taking the time, Father. And for your sermon this morning -- our friend will be missed." Grimsby gives Luther a curt handshake. "Indeed he will. Good day, gentlemen."
Sorry for the delay guys. Grimsby conversation has been updated. Luther, post any substantive follow-up questions you might have. No need to quote Grimsby's responses, I assume any question topics will be fairly self-evident from context. (I want to avoid giant repetitive blocks of text) Oukonunaka, if you want to interact w/Amaya at all before the men return now's your chance. I'll check back in tomorrow night.
Wow, nice Perception roll! Did I recognize my own reflection when I walked past a mirror? Should have waited until after the coffee to check out the house... Yeah, that's a rough one. To be clear for everyone from a rules standpoint, I only roll a reflexive skill check (Sense Motive, Perception, etc) when taking 10 won't succeed. So, basically, you auto-succeed on any reflexive check you could've taken 10 on and made.
Alright, Grimsby conversation start is gonna have to wait 'til tomorrow.
After Stanislav heads out to the church Amaya peruses the Pallaver residence. In the sitting room and the room adjacent, amidst the items that Dr. Pallaver acquired in his travels, she finds a shrunken ape's head, a forked ceremonial dagger which appears covered in dried blood, and a necklace strung with scores of human teeth. She's soon able to discern a simple system to the arrangement of the books, as they are divided into broad categories by room: history in the sitting room, newspapers and maps in the room adjacent, anthropology in the dining room, art in the main hall, etc. The books themselves vary in size, age, and condition; it would appear Dr. Pallaver was quite a bibliophile. The exterior of the Pallaver residence seems to be in good repair. It sits at the front of a parcel of land perhaps five acres in size; the property is bordered by a simple wooden fence and grows more overgrown the farther from the house one goes, until the far fence is hidden behind waist-high grass and a copse of wild apple trees. Behind the Scene:
Luther does indeed still have the key on his person. As such, I'll start the conversation with Father Grimsby tonight. If Amaya and Oukonunaka want to fast forward to his awakening and RP, that's cool - Luther and Stanislav won't be back until after he's woken up anyway. Just don't decide to take off anywhere before they return.
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