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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra blinks in surprise as the whole room lights up with drawings. She bends down to examine the biggest drawing more closely as Eztra starts examining the rest of the room. The spots seemed purposefully spaced--else why not at least make the lines at even angles? Maybe...?
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Search, I guess, maybe? [roll0] The other thing I wanted to do was look at the maps you mentioned, and maybe see if one of them looks like it could overlay with the weird drawing, but I don't know if Sorra has the skill set for that.
Edit: spoiler tag failure; also apparently I previewed my roll by accident, so I'll roll in the OOC
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Samuel is taken aback by the sudden glow in the room once his rings light is removed from the room. His jaw dropped a little as he stared around the room in amazement. I'm not sure what all of this is off-hand, perhaps if I think about it for a few moments something may come to mind. It is certainly a unique way of keeping a record of things though. Rather brilliant even. with that, Samuel falls into deep contemplative thought, searching his memory to see if any of these symbols ring a bell.
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Knowledge Arcane roll: [roll0] and Knowledge History roll: [roll1]
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra
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There are no particular details that you notice that you didn't see before.
Samuel
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There are a lot of spells here. And they don't look like weak spells. Or the sort of spell that makes kittens and rainbows. For that matter, the glowing arcane writings don't resemble the sort of magic you learned as a warmage either.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Samuel gasps in sudden comprehension of some of the symbols in the room, stunned by the sheer power that is written all throughout the room. "These...These symbols, many of them are arcane, and they are VERY" he emphasized his last word very sharply and loudly "powerful. We're talking spells that make many things go boom. To be clear, these aren't your average mage's spells, these belong to a powerful spell-caster. Beyond that, they aren't even of any types of magic that I have been taught or might even learn. Whatever the owner of this room was doing, it involved some wickedly powerful forces. Which further reinforces my idea this might be a necromancer or the likes room. Perhaps a demonist? I'm not sure, and I pray we don't run into the owner of this room anytime soon, or we'll be in major trouble." Samuel shivers as a bolt of sudden fear and anxiety courses through his body. His breathing accelerates, and he starts to look around nervously, now very scared of going into the next room, but knowing he has to, and soon, as it is quite likely to hold further secrets that they have to know. "Sorra, Eztra, Magdi, when you are done studying these symbols, I think we need to explore that hidden room. I have a strong feeling it's going to hold something of importance, perhaps it will shed a bit more light on exactly what type of spell-caster this room belonged to. Be on your guard though, and ready for anything. Ever seeing those symbols, I fear we may run into something in the next room"
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Eztra nods. "They don't mean anything to me, so feel free to put your light back on whenever you're ready. I think I'll save my lamp oil for now; I don't want to run out. "
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
"It looks like he took a couple of notes, yeah..." Magdi muttered after a while. "Nice catch," she said patting Eztra on the elbow again and feeling a little sheepish for being stuffy about the ink in the first place.
The squiggles were pretty meaningless to her though, dazzling though they were and the sheer quantity of scribbles rather took her aback - where on earth would one start? Mr Casli would have known what to do with these and pulled out a few books on relevant subjects within seconds and Hywellen probably could have gleaned a thing or two about them quite smartly too, but Mr Casli was far beyond her reach now and Hywellen most likely was too.
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For the heck of it I'll roll a local knowledge check in case the symbol is notable locally (probably not) [roll0] and I suppose there's maybe something in the markings that look a little like written music? Maybe a Bardic Knowledge check for that? [roll1]
When Samuel had finished explaining why this room was bad and why the next room would almost definately be worse she said, "OK then. Ready when you are." By which she meant she would follow the others when they were ready: she was pretty sure she didn't want to go in at all, personally.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Magdi
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Well, no one mentioned glowing ink to you. It's not the sort of thing that is common anywhere. The structure of the musical notes looks a bit like the elven flute music someone was handing out a couple years back, but other than that, you've got nothing.
Ready to go into the next room, then?
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
With the agreement of the others, Samuel removes his ring from his pocket and places it back on his finger, bathing the room in light once again. Bracing himself, he walks up to the hidden door, and very cautiously, opens it, and immediately looks around the new room, looking for any sign of a threat.
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Spot check: [roll0]
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra nods in agreement about opening the door, frustrated to no end by the strange symbol She hates not knowing things, and not knowing this.... She clenches her fist in her pocket.
As Sam opens the door, she edges up behind him, sickle at the ready, trying to make out what might be behind it.
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[roll0] [roll1]
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Magdi trotted after him, one hand hovering over her whip and the other deep in her pocket, turning the river rock round and round.
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Spot check [roll0] worth a shot, yes?
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
The door swings open to reveal another room. Or rather, to reveal half of a room. The far wall has been torn off, giving you a good look at the thirty foot drop that awaits you if you go over the edge of the floor. Once you get past that, you see that this room seems to be the living quarters of the madman who drew charts.
There is a bed next to the wall. More like a pallet, really. It's covered in a blanket that looks far too thin, given the prevailing climate of 'really really cold'. The pillow is oversized and lumpy-looking, with a stain that looks suspiciously like blood on it. Parchment is scattered everywhere, covered in black scribbles. There is a desk a little ways away from you, surrounded by scattered books. A splatter of black ink graces the wall opposite the table. The ceiling is covered with a drape here as well. This one, at least, is devoid of embroidery.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Eztra entered with the others, looking around the room carefully. She carefully examined the desk, trying to see if the drawers had been booby-trapped. Her father had known a merchant who did that to his desk, in case anyone was snooping.
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First, my Spot for the room: [roll0]
Then, my feeble attempt to search the desk for traps: [roll1]
Also, when you say the room was "torn off" do you mean it opens to the outside? Or does it just open into a larger underground space?
EDIT: Natural 20?? Woooooooooo!
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
I mean part of the room was literally torn off in the giant's attack and you can see snow and sunlight.
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Magdi found herself drawn to the far edge of the room and the glaring sunlight. Her steps were slow but deliberate and stopped about a foot before the floor did. The goblin stared outwards. She had to take another look at the state of her poor city.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Samuel stared around the room, surprised yet thankful that there was nothing in there that was going to threaten them. Then his eyes settled on the far side of the room, or, where there should have been a far side of a room, but was instead a large, gaping hole that showed all the devastation of the Giants attack inside. "I pray that there was nothing in this room that the giants were looking for, as it appears that they managed to find it before us. Seems like they specifically targeted this room, there is only one wall missing, instead of it being completely devastated. Let's look around though, perhaps we can find a clue that they overlooked." Samuel, while disheartened, decided to heed his own advice and began looking around the room. Not wanting, but wanting to make sure, he walked over to the pillow which was strangely oversized and extremely lumpy, and examined it, taking his dagger and carefully slicing it open to look inside
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra steps into the room after the others, staring out through the destroyed wall as Sam starts stabbing at a pillow. Her fingers itch to find something to break herself, but instead she joins Eztra at the desk, watching her search it with interest.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
"I'm...sorry I'm not being much help" Magdi murmured. "It's just been... I didn't really slow down to think about... well, I didn't, don't, want to think about..." she spread her arms out then let them drop to her sides. She shook her head and tried to tear her eyes away from the scene.
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As well as general shell shock she's probably checking up on a few old haunts, maybe seeing where they are in relation to the rest of the city (e.g which way they're facing), probably checking on the resting place of her mother's remains and presumably the state of the Gilded Steeple if they're facing the right direction for that.
On an unrelated note: do most Sunpeak Spire homes have drapes on the ceiling?
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Fluff and rags spill all over the bed when Samuel slices into the pillow. The aforementioned fluff and rags are all that was within the unfortunate pillow, and they begin blowing away and scattering across the room, mixing with parchment and a thin layer of snow.
Magdi
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The Gilded Steeple looks like it has been quite literally run through by a whole mess of giants, if you are not mistaken. That being said, the fact the Gilded Steeple is also highly visible and slightly to your left at the moment means that you are facing roughly southeast. Topra's grave is not visible at the moment, but the graveyard itself seems to have been left, for the most part, well alone.
Eztra
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The table doesn't look like it is trapped at all.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Samuel clears his throat nervously, a bit embarrassed at having ripped an innocent pillow to shreds for no apparent reason. "Well, there was nothing in the pillow..." he trails off, unsure what else to say, blushing a bit at his error. He wanders around the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary or even mildly suspicious looking.
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Search check: [roll0]
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Convinced that the desk was safe, Eztra began rifling through its drawers. Her discovery of the inks led them to what she hoped would turn out to be an important clue, so she was as diligent as she could be in digging through the contents of the table.
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Taking 20 on Search, for a 22 total.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Eztra removes wind-up machines made of steel, copper, gold, little wheels, line after line of painstakingly written out scripting, a hundred or so little brown-black boxes covered in white runes, and at least as many dust bunnies from the many drawers in the desk. There are sketches of faces and hands, complex webs of lines and colored dots, tiny slips of paper in Erlisan and Hartali and at least three other languages that all seem to be orders for the most eclectic materials. The papers mention aranea webs from an eastern supplier, fine leathers, gears in sizes C3, C4, and D1, whatever that is supposed to mean, specially carved crystals from someone in Diugwe Dethryn, and even something that looks like an order for Hartali dyes.
Whoever lived here must have had an awful lot of contacts.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Out of the corner of his eye, Samuel notices Eztra beginning to rifle through the desk, pulling out a multitude of gears, notes, and other assorted gadgetry. He stops and stares though, when she pulls out a great many boxes covered in white runes. "I would suggest not opening those boxes just yet, they may be warded by those runes. Give me a moment and I'll try to discern if they are dangerous magical runes, or merely descriptive runes" he then begins to study the dozens of boxes and the runes covering them, again reaching into the recesses of his mind for information on the runes.
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Knowledge:Arcane check: [roll0]
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Eztra examined the papers carefully, particularly the one for Hartali dyes, looking for information about the person who lived here. In particular, she reasoned that this hidden room did not have a street address or a storefront, so there may be some sort of indication of another location at which the tinkerer received his packages. And if so, perhaps they could find more information there.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Reminding herself that she was no worse off than anyone else in the room and that there had been some survivors found already, Magdi attempted to busy herself with shuffling through the books that littered the floor. Her friends were quite busy with the desk already and she didn't want to overcrowd them.
"What are we going to do about Jory's family?" she asked as she wiped some snow from a cover. "aside from his grandmother, I mean. Do we ask him about them?" she tucked the volume under her arm and selected another. "I know there's not much hope that they survived but..." she sighed, not sure where she was going with the subject. "He'll want to know though he'll have his suspicions and she will certainly want to know."
She paused to tease a few bits of fluff from her hair, uncertain how they'd got there. "I wonder if they'll even believe us in Navek when we tell them what's happened...? I was here and it still all seems impossible to me..."
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra's jaw clenches briefly at the mention of family, so hard she can feel the knot of muscle moving under the skin of her face. She moves away from the desk and toward the middle of the room, staring out the torn-away wall. Her eyes slide off the ruin of the city unseeing, like rain on oilcloth. She stares anyway.
"Do you really think they're out there?" Sorra asks, voice carefully neutral. "I wouldn't want to get his hopes up." She tries not to think of Ama or her father. Shivering in the cold air, she swallows and looks away. She looks down at her hands, at her bloodied and dirt-smeared clothes. She's sure her face is worse, but she can't bring herself to care.
"They'd believe us, I think," she says dully. "Maybe not our suspicions, but on what happened at least. Look at us."
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Eztra
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It seems like most of this stuff would have been picked up at various shops, most of which have addresses outside the Spire. There is no one place the packages go to, and it is entirely too likely that the shops are nothing more than so much rubble now.
Magdi
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Out of all the leather-bound books and wet parchment, one bit of it catches your attention.
The title page of 'Of Mortals and Gods, Volume 4', by Celyni Niarhys. Written in 12443 CC, apparently.
Samuel
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The runes are likely of some sort of magical nature. You are not sure if it is harmful or protective though.
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"Those runes are definitely magical in nature, unfortunately I'm having trouble discerning whether they are harmful in nature, or just to stop someone from opening the boxes" Samuel sighs, frustrated that he's unable to be more helpful. Then, he has a bit of an idea, and turns toward Eztra "Perhaps you can use that power of yours, the one that lets you talk to the inanimate objects, and command the lid to remove itself. Take one, set it on the bed, then stand back at least 10 feet before you do it though, if the rune is harmful, it's best to be very safe." Samuel smiles, glad he could contribute at least something, even if it doesn't pan out.
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
"Come along Magdi, it's time to pick up your brothers and Eizre's young man."
Mother's face was leaden and nearly colourless again. Kander sat on a stool with his head hidden in his hands and a rat in his hair. Mother's hand was outstretched, waiting for her daughter to take it.
"Can't Kander go instead, Mother? I'm frightened..."
Kander shook a little where he sat, disturbing the rodent. A sound like a boiled kettle cut through the room. It seemed to have come from the stool.
"It's better if we go, pipistrelle" Mother said evenly, "Kander's tired now and the humans don't like to see our menfolk, remember?" She hid it pretty well but it was still obvious that Mother didn't want to go either. Magdi wondered if she would cry again.
"Mummy needs you, pipistrelle, please come along - for me?"
Magdi nodded and came quietly. She didn't want to go, but she would.
"I don't want to get his hopes up either," Magdi sighed, rifling through a particularly grim and incomprehensible text. "especially given the circumstances. But if the immediate danger's gone perhaps we ought to try and see if there's anything left of them to put to rest - or at least get a clearer idea of what he wants... it's... well, I..." she shook her head, frustrated at the lack of a solution. Ideas of what to say or do bobbed up then fizzled out in multiples in the little goblin's brain. The whole thing was much, much bigger than her feeble mind was built to sort out.
She returned to her search, half listening to Samuel's suggestion to Eztra.
Her gaze fell upon a particular page.
"Celyni..." she read. "Not related to poor Nohar's Celyni...?"
She held it out for Sorra to see.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ajadea
Out of all the leather-bound books and wet parchment, one bit of it catches your attention.
The title page of 'Of Mortals and Gods, Volume 4', by Celyni Niarhys. Written in 12443 CC, apparently.
For Sorra, specifically just because I'm assuming she's the nearest by.
The books must be what... 250 years at least apart?
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
Sorra takes out the scorched book cover and holds it up next to this new book to compare.
"It's older," she says. "By a lot--it's from before the Landing. The other was in the 200's. But maybe not a lot for an elf? Can you read any of it?"
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Re: Scatter the Pieces [IC]
"CC," Magdi replied, pointing at the date. "The elves use Cycle Count... it's something like..." she screwed up her face, trying to will the figures to her mind. "...landing was in the very late 12400s?" she closed her eyes and tried her best to focus on what Hywellen used to prattle about, not on the fact that, impossible though it seemed, he was dead.
"12493." Hywellen said huffily, rapping the front desk with the history book to emphasise every syllable. "landing happened in 12493. It's perfectly simple, Magdolna."
She paused, reflected on what she'd just said and what she'd just heard then smacked herself on the forehead.
"Yes, Sorra" she moaned, "Yes you're right of course. Of course - you're right, of course." She stood up, crossed the room diagonally, turned around and half crossed the room again. "You're right."
"I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore - sorry!" she laughed, somewhat too loudly. "It's a big jump, yes. Just like you said. Sorry, don't mind me - senior moment..."
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As for what she can read... is there a book behind the title page?