[CLOSED] DON'T DUMAT OPEN INSIDE

[katabasis]

WHO: Adrasteia, Laura, Ellis, Tony, Val & Holden
WHAT: Exploration of the Temple of Dumat
WHEN: Drakonis
WHERE: Northern Orlais, Ghislain, ...The Temple of Dumat
NOTES: Mild horror; content warn as necessary; OOC Plot Information; Original Investigation Report

Though the end of winter is hardly the most pleasant time to go trekking through old ruins, returning to the excavated Shrine of Dumat in the heart of the Ghislain region of Orlais is simple enough. Thanks to the collapse of the Venatori-Ander force's hold on the region, they face no opposition and will easily find their way there. While a small contingent of Exalter Marchers has been tasked with keeping tabs on the ruin to make sure no enemy return to it, they've been wary of digging too deep into the sanctum's lowest levels. So congrats: you all get to pick up right where the last group of Riftwatchers left off (or finish what you started in the first place, Tony).

The team has been tasked with two primary objectives:

• Follow up on the first team's work. Explore the ritual chamber of the shrine where the rumored "gate" is located; recover any artifacts or clues therein and retrieve as much data about the rift as possible. If anything isn't safe to bring back to the Gallows (like, say, a certain blighted Venatori mage's corpse), conduct a thorough study and then destroy whatever can't be recovered lest it fall into enemy hands. If you can figure out how to close the gate, then all the better.
  
  
• Thoroughly explore the remainder of the ruin. Verify that there are no ancillary shenanigans on site beyond those found in the ritual chamber. Collect any additional information or traces of Venatori activity on site.

How This Works:
Objective One, which features the exploration of the ritual chamber with its tainted rift and the miscellaneous clues which can be found there are a free-for-all mingle zone. The whole group can interact with that area.

Objective Two, the detailed exploration of the additional chambers, will consist of two branching paths. Look for the header with your character's name in it. These sections will consist of a series of dungeon rooms featuring good old fashioned traps, puzzles, with general exploration hi-jinks encouraged.

Each chamber will be described upon entry and have its own conditions for solving the area and allowing characters to progress through the dungeon, but don't worry if you're not big on puzzles. The ruins have seen better days and what may have once been problems with definitive solutions may now be a little less rigid.

As your characters explore and attempt to solve the puzzles they come across or wander across taps, I will interject here and there with relevant updates. If at any point you get stuck, you can attempt a Perception Check by bolding the relevant section of your tag (i.e. 'She studies the runes on the doors and [blah blah blah insert the rest of the tag here.]') and putting CHECK in the subject line of your comment. I will then roll to see how much information your character manages to glean in order to provide additional hints and clues.

These clues will be oocly visible to everyone, but icly known only to the character who made the check.

If the group as a whole at any point decides they're done playing with puzzles and want the cheat codes for the current room, have the next player put SKELETON KEY in the subject line of their comment and I'll provide you with the solution. I'd much rather we have a satisfying narrative adventure than trap anyone in rooms just because folks aren't feeling a particular puzzle.

If you have any questions, ASK ME HERE.

Comments

THE RITUAL CHAMBER ↠

[katabasis]

Following in the first exploration team's footsteps down into the belly of the Shrine, the team soon finds themselves subject to the same relentlessly oppressive atmosphere. Otherwise, Tony (and anyone who read the provided paperwork) will be able to confirm that the state of the temple is largely unchanged from the first incursion into it's densely dark, unnaturally quiet depths.

Following the (extremely rough) schematic provided will eventually find them travelling the faintly downward sloping 'bladed corridor.' The passage's elaborate images, depicting Dumat's legacy in all its blood stained glory, are writ in shapes so sharp-edged that they threaten to slash open anyone who makes the mistake of brushing too closely. Not to worry though; that blood won't go to waste. There are channels carved into the walls and floor to capture anything spilled.

About halfway down this chamber, the team will discover the grotesquely-twisted and tainted corpse of a Venatori mage where he was skewered on a particularly prominent series of carvings by the original exploration team as they made their hurried escape. The walls and channels have done as they were designed to do, and a great deal of the passage about and below the corpse are marred with tar-like black and blighted blood.

When they move past the corpse and eventually make their way to the great ritual chamber beyond, the team will find that void-dark rift waiting for them. With no one alive left to assault them, if they make a thorough search of the massive pitch-dark chamber they may also find:

• A stack of about a dozen bodies arranged so neatly to one side of the room they must have been put there by someone still living. Though several months old at least, they appear to be mummifying rather than decomposing naturally. Presumably this is some effect of the room's unnatural qualities. Several are in Venatori robes and appear to have died from injuries consistent with some sort of explosion. The rest are dressed in plain black robes and while they may also show signs of having been impacted by an explosion, they also appear to have suffered fatal deliberate cuts to various major arteries.
  
• Around the rift in the center of the room there are channels in the floor which appear to form patterns similar in concept to glyphs but not forming any glyphs anyone's seen before. The outermost channels begin at 8 curved depressions in the floor, essentially bowls. It will be easy to detect the remnants of dried blood in them.
  
• The rift is perfectly centered over the pattern in the floor, and directly beneath it is a sort of grating. Getting close would be ill-advised, but there appears to be a small pile of debris/sand/ashes sitting atop it. The scorch marks on the floor also appear to radiate outwards from this spot.
  
• A large chest against one wall of the room may be recognized as dwarven in design. A dwarven coat of arms is stamped into the metal bindings.
  
• There are some bits of burned papers here and there around the room and among the corpses. Most are quite damaged and in the extremely lightless state of the chamber it won't really be possible to effectively examine them on site. At most, it can be discerned that most seem to be in Tevene or possibly Ancient Tevene, and only a few in Trade.

tonyspark. ota.

[propulsion]

Tony is over there, taking a knee on the hard floor as he sets up the last of four tripod-looking devices, spindly and delicate and inscribed with little runic marks. These glow gold once the fourth is set in place, each at equal distance to one another, with the void-black rift at its centre. He works quietly, hands quick, by the struggling light of a lantern set down beside him.

If anything can put a damper on his regular energy, volume, and verbosity, it's ancient magics that suppress sound, mood, and light, but only those.

Still. He springs up once done, reaching for the satchel he has hanging from a shoulder to tug free the thaumoscope, a handheld device of similar brassy tone and runic markings, with little clockwork indicators and dials. It begins to click and activate, but after a glance, curiousity is given to snagging on the rest of the chamber that he didn't really get to absorb before the panic blur set in.

But rather than foreboding ash piles, mummified corpses, blood bowls, it's the dwarven chest that snags his attention. Out of place in an ancient Tevinter Indiana Jones movie set. Tony drifts that way, pronounces, "This seems like the least haunted thing here, right?" as loudly as he can raise his voice without ripping his throat raw.

[kantikoy]

Everything about this place is making Adrasteia want to crawl out of her skin. The first thing she's going to do, once she gets outside into the sunlight (or moonlight, as the case may be) is sing a little. She can't even muster the energy to hum right now or bounce about to the variety of tunes that are usually in her head at any given time.

She's been loathed to put her back to the black tear in the Fade at the center of the room, instead slowly circling the edges of the room. The corpses have garnered half her attention, the rest of it on the Rifter setting up his devices; she's figured out that the bodies entirely in black were probably ritually killed, if not suicides following whatever explosion took out the Venatori. There are also bits of paper she can't make out in the dark, and these get collected and wrapped in a clean handkerchief and placed within her Warden armor as she finds them.

Tony's movement and query, though difficult to hear, ping her attention immediately. With a gesture she casts a protective spell over him and the chest.

Just in case it's booby-trapped. Or something.

Look, this place has her on edge.

[propulsion]

He's pivoting around to see if anyone is paying attention just as the Morale Officer casts some magic. Well, that's nothing if not a sign.

Tony approaches the chest. He has on some tough leather gloves, scratched up and flexible, more something he would wear in a workshop than a battlefield, but it seems salient in a temple full of sharp things, Tainted things, and everythings in between. He feels along the edge of the chest lid, finds a grip, hefts it—

It flips backwards, heavy, thumps against stone wall. Tony leans to look, suddenly stiffens as if taking an electric shock to the spine, springs a step back.

And pivots. "Nothin'. All clear on the empty treasure chest."

[justashotaway]

Laura's kept her hand claws out since they lost what little light came from outside. In the oppressive darkness of the chamber, they don't make much difference, but it's something. Particularly when an attack might come at any moment.

She follows Tony, and pops the claw of one foot as he sets up his mechanical...things, holding it close in hopes that the the blue-white glow of it will give him more to work with. There'll be a hole in her boot after this, but that's frequently the case; she's grown used to cold toes.

"What is that?" Shouting feels unnatural to her normally, but especially when it results in so little sound.

[propulsion]

"Sensors," he shouts back.

And a glance at the spectral raptor claw doing the most over here, followed by a tipped look upwards. Sure, why not. From the leather satchel that house these things, Tony takes another brass prong and carefully slides it into the other, then twisting it to secure.

"Magic sensors. They'll feed back a reading on how much output this thing is giving off," a break to fill his lungs, continuing, "and what kind. Last time we were down here," breathe, "we picked up on a new signal. Usually it's just raw Fade energy. Also known as Fadeiation," with emphasis to ensure everyone's on the same page.

[heorte]

Of all the things that could draw Tony's attention, the chest is possibly the least anxiety-inducing option. Merciful, for Ellis, whose attention is split between their group moving around the chamber and the inescapable pressure dragging at the edges of his mind.

"Can it open?" Ellis asks in return, moving along in his wake.

Even existing in this chamber is impossible. It's Ellis' instinct to put himself between the most dangerous thing in the room and Tony. But there's no way to do that without interfering in Tony's work, and Ellis is harboring some quiet resentment over it.

The sooner they can accomplish what they came here to do, the better. (It occurs to him he will have to try and explain what he can feel in this room to Tony, but maybe not until they're on the way back to Kirkwall.)

Val de Foncé || OTA

[degenere]

"!!"

Even a room that muffles sound cannot entirely suppress Val de Foncé. He is ignoring the rift completely, preferring instead to collect the scraps of paper off of the floor to be pressed, carefully, into his commonplace book. This is after he has tried in vain to read any writing upon them. The scraps that are found on the corpses are likewise collected and carefully pressed into the book, in which--with this task done, or at least no longer very interesting--Val flips to a blank page, crouches down beside the stack of bodies, and begins to sketch.

An artful and accurate rendition of the mummified and withered face of one of the corpses begins to fill the page. In the margin, Val begins to note their wounds. He might as well be at an outdoor art seminar in high Orlesian summer, for all the lack of fear and attention he is giving their surroundings. And should anyone else approach the bodies--

"Don't!"

--loudly, and thus quietly, and harshly, and distinctly Orlesian, though he doesn't raise his head from his work.

"I am nearly finished."

[justashotaway]

Laura's hand pauses, half-outstretched, where she'd been about to touch one of the corpses' sleeves. They're as much curiosity as horror, smelling more of dust than rot to her. And in a room drenched in the odor of blood, that's something else to focus on.

"Something burnt them." This, too, in Orlesian. That's what the marks on them look like--to her, at least.

[degenere]

"Burnt? But the cuts," still in Orlesian, and he gestures to his own neck, here and here, "you note these, yes? Which has been burnt? Turn his face this way."

He turns a page, ready to draw what she reveals to him.

ellis | ota.

[heorte]

As they descend, the song comes rising up to meet him. Them. (Adrasteia is not in his sightline, but does she feel this too? She must.)

By the time they've reached the shrine itself, the melodious, hissing pressure of the Calling is beating like a second heartbeat in his ears.

It's not like the False Calling. It's bigger than that, all-consuming. The unwavering, disquieting rise and fall of it holds Ellis' attention as he moves along the edges of the room, taking in the rift in the center, one hand trailing very carefully against the slick, sharp stone walls. The familiar, eerie presence bears down on him like a physical force, something prying and pulsing in time with the rift in the center of the room. Nearly fifteen years of instinct turns his attention in towards it, steps slowing in his circuit around the rift. This is the same way he'd have turned his thoughts towards the humming presence of a hurlock tugging at the corners of his mind, but this is not a hurlock. What he receives in turn from the narrowing of his focus towards this is the sense of being clawed into, some vast, ancient consciousness winnowing it's focus down solely to him, sinking into his head and wringing forth—

Ellis wrenches away from that presence so violently that it becomes a physical movement. He staggers unsteadily backwards to collide with the unfortunate person who'd happened to step into place behind him. Oops.

[kantikoy]

It's Adrasteia who is behind Ellis at this moment, a hand up to steady him as he stumbles into her space. Her hand lands somewhere near his shoulder and she pats it once, twice, emitting a thin wave of spirit healing into the man in front of her. Should he turn to see who's behind him (if he can't tell from the buzzing sensation of spirit magic upon his person) he'll see that her eyes are wide, pupils blown even moreso than the dark calls for, and she isn't smiling.

She is sweating, however, and her brow is wrinkled in effort; clearly he's not the only one to feel/hear/sense the Calling emitting from the rip in the Fade.

"I suppose it would be preemptive to leave now." She isn't entirely serious, but some small part of her wishes it were an option, honestly.

[heorte]

There's no guesswork. The warm wash of spirit energy comes through; as skilled as Adrasteia is, what can her magic do against the lancing spear of that focus?

Instinctively, his hand comes up to grasp her elbow. The grip is just a shade tighter than it should be, hanging on to steady himself even as he recognizes a mirrored shock in her eyes.

"We should," Ellis yells back, wholly serious while knowing they won't. Can't. This is bigger than either of them.

They'll need to tell Vance. (Adrasteia will need to tell Vance.)

"Have you ever...?"

The trailing break in the question is more for lack of readily available description, for knowing the futility of the question. If any Warden felt this, wouldn't the word of it had spread as lightening fast as the False Calling.

[degenere]

"We are on a mission, monsieur."

Val generally does not bother to learn anyone's name until it interests him to do so. Rifthwatch, therefore, is made up of a great many people who he knows without knowing. One does not make camp without learning by what they are called, but when there are two Wardens who might both be called Warden (Apparently Possibly Human Warden, Elf Warden; Beardier Warden, Not-At-All-Beardy Warden; Rugged Warden, Pretty Warden; et ainsi de suite), and when one is otherwise engaged with notes and study and various activities far more interesting than socializing with Wardens--well, one might be forgiven for not yet learning the name of the man that has trod backwards and practically pushed into one's chest with an elbow.

Thus does Val not realize he is giving a genial and bracing slap on the back to his great rival.

"It is overwhelming, yes? This place? Such a," he waves a hand in the air, then grimaces a little and touches a hand to his throat. "Am I shouting? I feel as if I am shouting."

holden, ota.

[acreage]

This isn't so unfamiliar.

Descending into the deeper darkness of the temple, sounds and light fading out, not exactly knowing what's at the end of the journey —

("If I slip off, how long will I fall?"

"Mm...rest of your life. Watch your step.")

— and even once they're in the chamber, the tear in the Veil like a ribbon of void overhead, he wonders if some Theodosians a thousand years from now might stumble on this place as a remnant of a forgotten war. Then he shakes off the thought.

After a moment with the bodies, he spends some time circling the rift. His focus is on the barely visible patterns on the ground; he crouches whenever he finds a bowl carved into the earth, getting a closer look. With gloved hands, he feels around on the inside of them, comments,

"Someone poured blood into these."

[kantikoy]

"Probably theirs," Adrasteia replies, pointing in the direction of the bodies slowly mummifying and stacked along the wall. "The ones in black were cut to bleed." And it doesn't seem, upon first look, that they struggled much in the bleeding so she presumes they did it to themselves, or willingly at the very least.

Not the most pleasant of thoughts, really.

"Don't remove your gloves before we leave this place."

THE HORN (Adrasteia, Val & Tony) ↠

[katabasis]

Beyond the sprawling ritual room, the team will eventually discover a curved antechamber. Anyone familiar with Thedosian astronomy may recognize that the carving which spans the curving wall resembles the central 'figure' of the constellation Silentir.

The 'arm' curving to the left of the antechamber gestures to a long, obsidian dark corridor. 

Eventually, this corridor opens up into a circular room. While the ambient intensified darkness and oppressive muffled quality of noise which has been present throughout the temple's lower levels is consistent here as well, the walls of this room have been faceted and polished in such a way that they have a murky kaleidoscope quality. It isn't quite as dramatic as carrying a torch into an unlit hall of mirrors, but the rebounding of the light and the undulating black-on-blacker-blacker patterns in the stone give the room a fishbowl quality, or (for anyone familiar with the concept) evokes the sensation of being on the reflective side of a one way mirror with who-knows-what watching from the other side.

At the center of the room is a black stone pedestal. The surface of the pedestal features a circular depression inset with a razor sharp crescent; the combination makes the bowl resemble an especially unfriendly waxing moon. The side of the pedestal closest to the entrance to the room is marked by an etched bar parallel to the entrance's doorway.

Radiating outward from the pedestal, a series of concentric circles are set into the floor. They are all identical in color and texture and flush with their neighbors, however the inner three zones have distinct notches cut into them.



The only doorway is the one through which the party arrived.

[degenere]

"It must be," Val says, "something to do with the skies--"

Seated with his back to that central pedestal, he is sketching as he speaks, putting the finishing touches on Silentir in his commonplace book, starting on an approximate floorplan of the room that they have found themselves in. The fact that his voice is quieted by whatever dark and oppressive presence rules this space still does not deter him from speaking. Valentine de Foncé will speak whenever and wherever and however he pleases. He will also be comfortable whenever and wherever and however he pleases. The fact that the light is extremely poor by which to sketch--the fact that the very air in this room is unpleasant--neither bothers him. Nothing can bother a man who is assured that he is welcome in every space he has ever set foot in, and has never experienced any significant pushback against that assumption.

He takes a break to gesture overhead and behind him with the nub of charcoal pencil with which he sketches. The pedestal.

"She resembles a moon, does she not? And the constellation before. We might consider the phases through which the moons pass."

PERCEPTION CHECK

[propulsion]

Tony is staring down at the circles on the ground, following the path of the middle one by walking along it, his lantern dangled low to try and scope out whatever is there to see. The notches are noted, compared, and he silently points to one and the other as if to ask the question silently: do these line up?

Maybe.

He sets his right foot on the middle zone and his left against the inner, and kind of half-heartedly tries to deploy some friction to attempt to shift the circles or at all sense if they give from brute force alone, as Val speaks up.

"Well, watch your fingers."

THE WAND (Ellis, Laura, Holden) ↠

[katabasis]

Beyond the sprawling ritual room, the team will eventually discover a curved antechamber. Anyone familiar with Thedosian astronomy may recognize that the carving which spans the curving wall resembles the central 'figure' of the constellation Silentir.

The 'arm' curving to the right of the antechamber gestures to a long, obsidian dark corridor. 

Eventually, this corridor opens into a long, narrow askew chamber. While the ambient intensified darkness and oppressive muffled quality of noise which has been present throughout the temple's lower levels is consistent here too, the walls and floor of this room have been scuffed and scarred to a claustrophobic matte finish.

The entrance to the chamber is located in the upper left corner of the room. In the other corners stand three floor to ceiling columns. Depicted on one side of each column is a great coiled dragon. Two of the dragons face the center of the room; the dragon in the upper right corner faces the doorway through which the party entered.



The only way into the room is the doorway through which the party arrived.

[acreage]

In the antechamber —

he takes a moment to look at the carving on the wall. It's unfamiliar to him, unsurprisingly; so he beckons the other two closer, nodding towards the wall. The implicit question: any recognition?

PERCEPTION CHECK

[heorte]

It's easier to breathe in the antechamber, but the Calling is still pounding in the back of his head, sibilant whispers looping over and over. He'd parted from the others reluctantly, uneasy at the inability to hear any disaster occurring in the opposite antechamber.

His gaze moves from Laura to Holden, before he shakes his head in response. Ellis doesn't recognize the carving.

Even when he crosses the room to examine the dragon carving facing the door, running his hands carefully over the stone to check for any carved runes or cracks.

adrasteia.

[heorte]

In a few moments, they'll be going in. The patter of conversation is still somehow light, regardless of the details Tony's shared with them. As horses are tethered and preparations are made to descend, Ellis taps Adrasteia lightly on the shoulder and tips his head, drawing her away from the group to the edges of the ruins.

"I need to ask you to do something for me," he says, without preamble. There's no cause to hold up the group to dance around what he needs from her.

[kantikoy]

She follows without question or fanfare. There's a little knot in the pit of her stomach at what's been described to them so far, but otherwise, she feels... ready. Prepared, or at least as prepared as she is going to manage. It settles on her shoulders like a heavy cloak, a seriousness that isn't otherwise seen often.

Adrasteia is glad that they're not doing this alone. That someone who has been before is going in with them. That Ellis is here.

At his statement, she nods. "Ask it." Or tell her, really, but he'll do what he must.

[heorte]

"I know we're here to look out for all of them," Ellis begins, because it feels important to acknowledge. "But Tony..."

There's a beat of quiet. It's easier to ask this of Adrasteia. Ellis knows that's not an entirely fair thing, prevailing on her. As much as he'd thought they'd be better with a third Warden on hand, he knows he couldn't ask this same request of Vance.

"If you could keep him warded. Or just...an eye, should I be looking elsewhere."

The meaning is clear, even if Ellis isn't saying as much. Protect him.