The Silver Stars of the Eclipsing Moon

[Maryring]

"Correct ... correct." The statue answers as the essence of the staff and the coin begins to flow into the key.

Seeing that three of the riddles have been answered correctly, Mia nods her head towards the statue. "Justice. Justice without compassion is brutal. Justice without insight cannot be true. And though it may not always be understanded, true Justice always brings more good with time than what your emotions decide in the heat of the moment. The answer has to be Justice."

"Correct." The statue answers. The sword releases its essence into the key, making the key almost fully charged. The statue then turns towards Varek, awaiting his answer.

[Lycar]

Varek pauses, letting the other answer before him.

(Doubt that the rich fear 'nothing' though. What with all them guards and alarms they have, one would think they are the most afraid of all... stupid riddle.)

Now that the eyes of all the others are resting upon him, he doesn't exactly feel comfortable. They all answered their riddles correctly. And without having to think much about it too it would seem....

He shifts about nervously, licking his lips and eyes darting to and fro the others. But then he calms down.

(So what if i'm wrong. I'm just not good with riddles. But i can as well give it my best shot. After all, even if it is not eternal, it ought to well be...)

Pulling himself together, Varek straightens up, looks the statue squarely in the eye and utters but one word: "Love."

Lycar

[Maryring]

"Correct." The final relic lose its essence to the key, and they all fall down into the hands of those underneath. The statue then walks over to Mia and place the key in her free hand. "You have done well. I wish you luck in your quest." The statue smiles gently to Mia, closing two of her eyes and leaving her third eye staring at Mia. Slowly, a gentle smile passes across Mia's face. "Now, you must hurry. I have fulfilled my duty and will pass on now." The statue slowly begins to fade. "As will this realm. If you do not leave quickly, you may be caught in the collapse, and I do not know what will happen then. Now... hurry." And with that, the statue fades completely. Mia, firmly grasping the key and the sword, then turn to the rest of the group. "She is right. We must hurry. Run quickly." She commands as the surroundings begin to crumble into nothingness. The group turns and all six of them begin to run back towards the real world. After running through the watery realms, Mia, Bronsk, Varek, Lisaa and Karl all manage to return to the real world safely, however, Tyrgen slows down for some reason, and the portal closes before he manages to get through it. The last the other five can see of him is that he is desperately leaping towards the portal, just as it evaporates.

[Lycar]

Varek is actually the first to reach the portal. He sure can run fast...

Outside the icy gate he anxiously waits for the rest of the group to make it through the gate too.

Just as Tyrgen aproaches, the gate begins to close.

"Come on Tyrgen ! You'll make it !" he cheers him on. But to no avail. Varek has to watch horrified as Tyrgen is cut of from this world, his cheer frozen into a rictus of terror for a few moments before he can regain his composure.

".... at least he still has the rabbit-thief to keep him company ?"

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Bronsk
Running for his life, the lanky shaman exhales loudly in relief as he feels solid wood beneath his boots once more.
He's robbed of the moment by the harsh cry of Tyrgen, and he wheels around in time to see the portal gone.
"no..." he whispers, staring at the blank wood floor.
Vakri...is there any hope for them?

[Amiria]

Lisaa

"Tyrgen ! No !", screams Lisaa as she turns around just to see the portal close in his face. She tries to clutch the portal but it already gone.

[Maryring]

"No... not. I should have waited for him." Mia utters in shock and exhaustion. "I hope he is okay..."

Spoiler

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Those who want may attempt a DC 15 knowledge check.

[Ozzy_G]

Karl turns, shocked, as Tyrgen dissapears. Um, that doesn't mean he's dead, he says. He's probably just in another plane for a while. I'm sure Ami and her friends wouldn't make a death trap. He tries to look positive, but it doesn't look like he entirely believes it himself.

[The Great Skenardo]

Bronsk
Bronsk crouches down and runs his fingers across the smooth wood, distantly.
"Yes...hyu are right, maybe. I wonder if we will find him when we open the door?"

[Maryring]

"Perhaps..." Mia answers. "There's nothing we can do for him here though. We've got the key, so we should return to Sapphire port and see if it fits. But what should we do about the relics?"

[Lycar]

"The relics ? Give them back to the museum guy. They did fulfill their purpose to lead us to this key you found. Although.. probably won't hurt to ask if he could lend them to us."

Varek sighs.

"Okay, that reminds me... i better wait here for you to finish your buisiness in town. 'cause i kinda can't afford to be seen there anymore. Just... what exactly was it your ... spirit friends wanted again in return for protecting my folks Bronsk ?"

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Bronsk
Bronsk taps a finger on the wood of the floor.
"Give each child a small wood or stone carving of a wolf or crow. Then the spirits will watch out for them."

[Maryring]

"Well..." Mia turns to Varek. "You're right in that we can't take you back to the city. It would be too risky, but I don't think we can leave you out here all alone." She then adress the whole group. "I think we should split up in two groups. Some of us should go with Varek and begin moving towards Sapphire Port. The rest should finish up our unfinished business here and then teleport back to Sapphire Port. That is my suggestion at least."

[Lycar]

Varek shakes his head "No, i may no longer be able to live in the city but i must at least say goodbye to some people. And i must instruct them to the deal with the spirits. They just won't believe some stranger."

Lycar

[Ozzy_G]

Karl shrugs. I don't mind what we do right now, but which Key are we going to go after first?

[The Great Skenardo]

Bronsk
Bronsk scratches his head.
"uuhm. Well, how about a deep green forest? or the plains? Those sound pleasant."

[Lycar]

"Actually," varek says, "i think we just found the key of the plain of fields. Look around Sotonia. It's a big city. Takes lots of farms to feed that many hungry mouths."

"So. There are 6 more keys to find then ? He... except we don't really know much about how to find them, now do we ?"

Lycar

[Maryring]

"Yeah... I think you're right in that Varek." Mia answers. "Between Sotonia, Miklagard and Nephreitos, Sotonia has by far the greatest number of fields, and no we don't have any clues other than what was given us by the statue. And those were ambigous at best. She sighs. "But let us help Varek first, and then return to Sapphire Port. Perhaps I can find something more in the library there."

[Ozzy_G]

Karl nods. Okay, let's get going then.

[Lycar]

"Yeah, lets..." Varek said, adding (.. get over the ugly part already) in his mind. He didn't really look foreward to facing his friends again. Did they see what happened ? Or were they long gone, trusting him to catch up with them like so many times before... and even if they were still blissfully unaware of his .. 'problem', how could he just tell them that he would leave, probably to never return.

But either way, he would have to face this situation and deal with it. He would just have to hope that the deal the spirit shaman had worked out would be honoured. By both sides.

And yet, he could not shake a strange feeling that he was just now beginning to embark on a journey he was meant to undertake from the very beginning.

Lycar

[Amiria]

Lisaa

"Then let's go. Maybe the old man from the museum can also shed some light on those vague locations."

[Maryring]

Mia nods in agreement and moves on to untie her horse, before they all make their way back to the grand city. Mia manages to keep the guards at the main gate from asking any questions and allows them to enter the city without diverting any attention to themselves. It wasn't that hard either, seeing that the news of the werewolf attack has not yet gotten a chance to spread. Once inside the bustling city, Mia turns to the others. "So what do we first? Should we go notify Vareks friends, or should we return the relics first?"

Spoiler

Show

In case someone wonders, it is currently midday, somewhere between 13:00 and 15:00

[The Great Skenardo]

Bronsk
The young shaman grunts.
"Let us return these relics. I feel a fool carrying this mirror down the the streets."

[Lycar]

Varek shrugs "I'm fine either way.".

Although inwardly he hoped they would opt to return the relics first.

Lycar

[Ozzy_G]

Karl nods. We ought to take these back as soon as possible.

[Amiria]

Lisaa

"Then let's go to the museum first."

[Maryring]

The group walks through the streets to the museum. When they arrive, they find that it is closed, for obvious reasons. But Nina, the curator's daughter, must have spotted them, because before any of them even have a chance to knock, the door is unlocked and Nina opens up the door to greet them. "Hey, good ta see ya." She says with a smile as she beckons for them to enter.

[Lycar]

Varek waits for the others to go inside, then follows. He's still carrying the cup and smiles slightly at Nina as he walks past her.

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Bronsk
Bronsk leads the way, carefully keeping the mirror pointing away from himself.
He smiles. "Hello Nina! How is the curator doing today?"

[Maryring]

Nina throws a friendly smile at Varek as she closes the door behind them and locks it. She then turns to Bronsk. "Grandpa's good. He's resting in his bed at tha moment. We ain't gonna open tha museum today, seein that he needs ta rest. Aneway, who's the boy and girl?"