faderift | Player Plot: The Mysterious Ruin

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Player Plot: The Mysterious Ruin

WHO: Ellana Ashara, Korrin Ataash, Vasran Thelassin, Thranduil, Felix Alexius, Sam Gareth, Kallian Endris, Velanna, Merrick Ashara, Eirlys Ancarrow
WHAT: A trip to an elven ruin in search of the Sulevin Blade leads to some surprises.
WHEN: October/Harvestmere 1-5 (mostly travel time to and from)
WHERE: the Dales
NOTES: OOC post is here.

The clues have led them to this spot in the Dales, hidden behind thick vegetation far from the eyes of Orlesian soldiers, Red Templars, or Venatori. As they enter, Ellana throws down a barrier on those closest to her, sure that the other mages will do the same. Korrin and Sam have done this with her before, but she's thrilled at the response she's had this time to inviting others along. There is strength in numbers and she hopes that together they can face whatever is standing in their way to the Sulevin Blade.

The first room spreads out before them, and simple entranceway with statues of harts flanking the door way into the next area. Ellana turns in a small circle, eyes gazing up towards the ceiling before she smiles and pulls out a notebook, making quick notes on what she sees with her charcoal. It looks like this ruin will be like the last, with nature reclaiming it after so long without inhabitants. She likes that if anything has to live here, it's trees and grass.

She steps up to the doorway, checking it for any sort of trap before renewing her barrier and stepping through. As leader of this exploration, she's willing to take the risk of being hurt so someone else doesn't have to. And now that she's in here, this room seems a little unusual. On the floor are four slightly raised tiles, each bearing a symbol. In the middle of the floor is a large, raised circular tile that bears all four symbols in a row. And there seems to be no door other than the door way they walked through. Surely this can't be it.

Anyone care to explore?

[ ooc: one thread, all hop in, I provide the clues, you guys react, I provide plot progression! hit me up in the OOC post linked above if anything is unclear, and have fun! ]

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Felix is one of the mages who can't cast barriers himself, at least not with any sort of efficiency, so he benefits from being near Ellana. Instead of a staff he has a sword as this mission seemed like a good chance for him to get some real world experience with it, if they encounter any beasts or monsters.

While he stays near Ellana, anyone paying attention will realize that he is very careful not to take the lead in anything that they do. The last thing he wants, especially when he's around elves, is to be a Tevinter barging through the remnants of elven culture.

That said, a part of him does itch to get a closer look at the puzzle but for now he lets the others take a closer look while he keeps watch for what is around them.

Vasran is not highly skilled at barriers herself, so she remains at the ready to draw her staff in the probable event of demons. Or, perhaps, snakes. She's itching for more of a fight than they've faced already — some chance to test out her newly honed battle abilities.

For now, though, she's scanning the ceiling and walls, looking for some mark of a trap, or another door — though she's hardly trained to spot any of that.

"Any sign it might be a trap?"

On closer inspection, the large circular tile displays these four symbols: an arrow, a flame, a dagger, and a shield. The points of the arrow and dagger, the tips of the flame, and the wide top part of the shield are all facing the same direction, which pretty much means this way up. Velanna's and Vasran's gazes over the floor will reveal nothing beyond the circular tile and the four square tiles that each bear one of the four symbols. But looking at the wall, she may now be able to make out a worn archway cut into the rock, with the entryway beneath it bricked up tight.

"From my previous experience," Ellana says, "Gates or a door open when the puzzle is complete. It's a simple security system, and there's usually more than one in an elven building."

It's hard for Eirlys to concentrate on the puzzle in front of them when even the entrance into the ruin is beyond incredible to her. She's awestruck by the sheer size of the place, the effort that's been put into its creation, and knowing that elves could build something like this leaves her feeling a little giddy. Nevertheless she stays close to Ellana and Korrin, having treated the injuries resultant from straying too far from a barrier spell too many times to do so herself.

"Is there any way of knowing how to complete it, or is it a matter of trial and error?"

"If we fuck up and the floor falls out from under us, I'm guessing that will be a sign." Korrin catches herself and looks apologetic, not wanting to unsettle Eirlys or any others with her random thought. She turns her attention to the symbols on the large circular tile again. "Arrow, flame, dagger, shield. Is that the proper order to press them, or would that be too easy?"

She doesn't want to be right about the trap-floor, after all.

Finishing up with casting barriers on the rest of those without, Sam carefully follows the rest of them. "Well in that case should we consider spreading out just a bit... Do you think we need to press them at all? Maybe they're directions?" he says off-handly at the comment about floors opening up under them, eyes focused on the carved symbols.

"Think there are corpses in this place, too?" He says, looking mostly to Korrin and Ellana considering they've done something similar in another elven ruin.

"It might be," Ellana says in response to Korrin's question. "Remember last time we just needed to walk in an unbroken line across those floor tiles to light them up?" Though the thought that it might be that easy is followed by the thought that maybe it's not that.

"It could represent different classes of combat? Flame for mage, archery and daggers for rogue, shield for warrior? Do we have one of each?" She looks at the group and winces. "I don't think we have a warrior, unless... Felix counts? Oh, but we don't have an archer either. I hope that's not it."

She moves to examine the tile with the shield more closely, getting down on her haunches beside it. It would be awful if they were stuck on this room because they didn't bring certain people. Letting out a sigh, she looks up at Sam. "I sure hope not, but you never know. As for this... do we want to try in order left to right and then right to left if the first doesn't work?" Maybe the simplest answer is the right one and she's overthinking this.

"We'll have to see if someone has to stay standing on them, or if one person can do it. Any volunteers?"

"I'll do it," Felix offers and then moves to get into position. If it turned out to be dangerous he didn't want to risk any of the more powerful individuals who could yank him out or heal him quickly.

"Well, let's see what can be done first before assuming we're stuck. And yeah, it never hurts to assume there are corpses in ruins. Be ready, when we activate things." With spirit blade in one hand and staff in the other, Korrin nods to Felix to begin whenever he's ready. If there's trouble, they'll have his back.

Security system means they still might be attacked if they get it wrong. Vasran draws her staff as Felix approaches the puzzle, at the ready for whatever should happen.

Ellana moves around to Felix's side to give his hand a brief squeeze. She obviously doesn't want anything horrible to happen to him, but she isn't going to coddle him here either.

"Okay, start with the arrow, then the flame, dagger, and shield, like Korrin said. I'll barrier you." With that said she moves back and lays a barrier down across Felix, trying not to look too worried.

When Felix begins, they'll see the tile he steps on sink down level to the floor. On the big circular tile, the arrow symbol will light up from some form of magic. However, if Felix steps off to go to the next, the tile he was on will raise back up and the light on the arrow symbol will go out.

Merrick has been progressing in his usual fashion, finding the highest possible spot and perching there to keep a look out. It's good that he decided to come; a bunch of mages wouldn't be able to disarm any traps they might run into, and he can sneak up on any potential enemies if need be.

As for this thing, he finds it incredibly stupid. He supposes the elves that built the place wanted to keep the shems out, but he's still impatient.

"Don't drag your ass," he tells Felix as his sharp eyes keep on the lookout for anything that might stir in the darkness.

Felix does step off for a moment but as soon as it starts to raise, he moves back onto it to try and push it back down. He glances towards Merrick and then back to Ellana.

"Do we want all of these down? Or just some of them?" Then, after a moment, he adds. "If this were a Tevinter puzzle, I'd assume the goal would be the raise the mage platform as high as possible. Would your people want them all equal?"

Upon observing the results, Korrin frowns in thought. Puzzles aren't exactly her forte, due to her typical lack of patience. That doesn't mean she won't try to contribute, though. "Hm...remain on that tile and then the rest of us each pick one in order, instead of personally heading to the next? It might require them all being down at the same time as well as the order pressed. Or I'm just talking out of my ass. I'd be willing to step on the next one in order, unless someone really wants to jump on that instead."

She cares less about getting credit than she does is moving this along. So, time to alter the plan and see if that works.

Edited 2016-10-07 17:28 (UTC)

"I'm not sure," Ellana says in response to Felix's question. Now that he's back on the arrow tile, the large circle tile in the middle shows the arrow lit up with some magical energy yet again. "There is still so much unknown about Elvhenan. It's clear they used magic a great deal, but they may have valued rogues and warriors just as much."

She moves around to the next tile, shaking her head to Korrin. "No, it's all right. I'll get this one." It's the flame, and when she steps down on it, the circular tile now has the arrow and flame lit up with magical light. "I think this is working? Let's just have two more people for the dagger and shield. Might as well do it in order since the symbols are still lit up. Dagger first."

"Well standing on them is certainly doing something." They're lighting up clearly. They all were probably having similar ideas at this point on the puzzle, but it was anyone's guess as to what the proper way of handling it was.

"How bout you stand on 'dagger', Korrin. I'll move onto 'shield' after it's lit up." He moves to stand next to the symbol but doesn't move onto it just yet. During this time he looks around at everyone. "I'd say be prepared for anything to happen." After all something could get released.

Nodding, Korrin heads over and looks over the dagger tile before taking that next step over to stand upon it. If nothing particularly unexpected happens after that, she then glances over to Sam. "Your turn." Time to see what this yields, if anything.

Velanna is standing by in the event that this activates a trap, though from what she knows of these things it seems like they're doing everything correctly. All the same, she is very obviously standing in a spot that looks less likely to get hit by any kind of backfire from doing the puzzle incorrectly. They'll need people still alive to try and do it right if it goes wrong, after all.

Standing on the tiles in order seems too simple to Vasran, but it isn't as if she has a better idea. If nothing disastrous happens, they'll have a chance to reassess and try something different.

She's listening even closer now for the skitter of spider legs or the rattle of a walking corpse, taking up a position in relation to Velanna so that she can cover the other mage's blind spots.

As expected, the symbol of the dagger lights up when Korrin stands on the corresponding tile. Now Sam only needs to step on the shield to have all four tiles pressed down. The wariness each person in the party has is well placed, because elven ruins often hold traps or some type of guardian trying to keep others away from these mysteries.

Felix's hand is on his sword, ready to draw it at a moment's notice. He glances over at Ellana and then brings his attention back to what is happening around them. waiting for one of those traps.

When Korrin steps on her plate, Sam finds himself holding his breath. When nothing happens he releases it slowly, eyeing the symbol in front of him. At this point he grabs the empty hilt at his side, and glances around once before stepping forward onto the shield.

And finally, the shield joins the other symbols in lighting up. This appears to be the right order too, because the large, circular tile slowly starts to spin and lowers itself down level to the floor. Once there, a blinding white light appears from floor to ceiling on the tile, and when it dissipates there is a large creature standing on the tile. For those who have brushed up on their biology, they may recognize the shape as that of a wyvern. It's huge, pure white, and sort of... see through?

Before anyone can properly process that they're looking at a full skeleton of a wyvern, the magic surrounding it wears off and it collapses under its own weight into a pile of dust and bone fragments.

Look, you can't expect a guardian wyvern to wait hundreds of years for people to step on tiles, can you? This guy died a long time ago.

At least the group will be able to see that there's now a doorway leading to the next room. So... onward?

That blinding white light has Korrin on her guard...and then she's staring at the wyvern skeleton, awed and a little wistful. Damn. That would have been an interesting encounter, if had been alive. Shaking her head at the dust and bone fragment pile with a soft sigh, she looks ahead to the doorway.

"I can take point." Renewing Barrier, the Vashoth mage then steps forward with her spirit blade hilt still drawn. At that first sign of trouble, it will be activated.

Despite the seriousness, Felix can't help but make a softly amused sound. He still draws his sword though, just in case.

"Serpentine creatures that are falling apart by just being looked at? Are we sure we're not at my home?" Probably not the best joke to make around elves, he'll apologize for teasing about Tevinter later.

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