[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

[katabasis]

There's no sound to underscore it, but the feeling of the column beginning to shift and then resisting or hitting against some kind of locking mechanism is obvious.

[heorte]

From his corner, Ellis gestures questioningly with one hand, eyebrows raised. He comes a few steps forward, towards the center, as if that's going to make any difference in the way sound carries in the room.

[justashotaway]

Laura, still focused on convincing her dragon to move, glances up to find Ellis a few steps closer.

"It stuck," she yells, as explanation.

[acreage]

"There's a lock," he adds, taking a few steps closer to the two of them, shrugging.

PERCEPTION CHECK?

[heorte]

Rather than head further towards the center, Ellis retreats back to his dragon. Setting his hands carefully into place, he pulls the dragon the rest of the way towards the wall, facing Holden's dragon then waves a hand towards Holden.

Just to see.

[katabasis]

The pillar happily obliges Ellis' bloody hand, turning to face its sibling with a soundless grind. It has no effect on the locked state of the other pillars.

[heorte]

Obligingly, Ellis angles his dragon back from the wall to face Laura's, as instructed.

Perception check

[justashotaway]

Laura watches Ellis' dragon move with ease, frowns at her own. They're identical in every way, except --

She shoves one sleeve up and slices open her forearm with one claw and a long-familiar lack of hesitation and lets the blood drip onto the statue. Then she tries to move it again, pushing it to face Holden's.

[katabasis]

And thus, with a faint rasp that is felt under the hand rather than heard, the column pivots from facing the center of the room to face its neighbor.

Dragon one faces two, two faces three, and three faces—the center of the room where the faint tinge of fresher (or at least different) air is strongest—one.

There is no discernable effect save for having unlocked the second pillar. It's possible it's only a matter of 'unlocking' the third. But more likely, the orientation isn't yet quite right.

CHECK

[acreage]

Christ, goes unheard, as Laura cuts her arm open. But there's some sense to it all, if he thinks about it — he's heard, seen, enough about blood sacrifices and this place.

Despite Adrasteia's earlier warning, he pulls off a glove, reaches out slowly and lets his hand catch on the sharp edges of the column. This time, he tries to move his dragon to face Laura's column, and gestures with his free hand to suggest they try switching orientation (three, to two, to one).

[katabasis]

With the touch of blood, the pillar is induced to turn. As the line re-orients into the opposite direction—

Nothing happens.

But equally true: all this time, they've been pivoting the dragons along angles which face into the room. Each column has an away facing arc which has yet to be explored.

PERCEPTION CHECK

[heorte]

Across the room, Ellis' wince is still easily seen. But he can't exactly argue with the results. (Somewhere, Vance is angry and isn't sure why.)

For lack of better option, Ellis spins his dragon in the opposite direction, as far as the track will allow.

[justashotaway]

Laura watches, and she waits, looking for...something. Anything that might say that they managed to change the dark, empty room.

When it comes, though, it's invisible. She sniffs, and her brow furrows.

"Holden - " She's already turning her own dragon, careful not to cut her palms on its sharp edges. "It smells like lyrium."

[acreage]

He pauses from going to move his own dragon, straightening.

"It what?"

[justashotaway]

"Turn your dragon."

CHECK

[acreage]

Honestly it's so goddamn hard to hear that maybe that was what she said before!! But no, he just frowns, makes a note of what he needs to ask agAIN, and turns the last dragon to face away from the room.

[katabasis]

The moment all three statues are turned away into their respective corners, they're rewarded a flare of reddish light sparking with shocking brightness up from the floor at the center of the room. It comes with the raw ozone tang of lyrium as some old enchantment triggers, though any noise which might accompany the flash is swallowed by the muffled effect which blankets the whole of the temple.

The flash of light immediately subsides to a dull glow. Upon inspection, the glow is being emitted from a band of ancient runes which circle the mouth of an extraordinarily dark hole which has opened in the floor. From above, there's no telling how deep it is or what might be lurking in that ominous dark. Unpleasantly, the opening is distinctly 'reach in and touch something' in dimension.

It's probably fine. Nothing bad ever came from a gross dark hole in a cursed temple.

CHECK

[heorte]

Great.

Immediately, instinctively, Ellis begins moving around the edges of the room towards Holden and Laura and he stretches his focus outward, trying to sense the familiar rot of darkspawn, or the searing spear of attention he'd felt in the main ritual chamber.

[katabasis]

Good news, everybody: neither of those things are present. —Or rather, the lingering sensation of the Taint isn't intensified by the opening of the spooky hand hole.

CHECK, sweating

[acreage]

Holden approaches the hole, crouching to get a closer look at it and the runes. They're meaningless to him, of course. There's a long moment where he considers the size of the dark hole, the room, Ellis and Laura.

And then he sticks his hand in the hole.

[katabasis]

Surely there are people in Riftwatch who can build him a replacement hand, right?

Right?




Luckily, for the moment it's a moot point. Elbow deep into the bizarrely cool chasm which waits in the darkness below, Holden's hand comes into contact with what feels for all the world like the hilt of a sword. From the faint vertical give at his touch, it must be something that he might draw free.

Assuming, of course, that nothing happens on the way out.

[acreage]

His hand closes around — something. And he frowns.

"There's something in here."

Leaning forward, he makes as if to pull at whatever it is, taking a couple of tries before he starts pulling directly up, getting some traction. What starts to emerge is long and dark, sharpened along its squared edges beneath the hilt. There's enough of it that the length starts to get awkward from his crouched position, and he's clearly going to need help to keep pulling. No other end is, yet, visible.

[heorte]

Ellis marks the appearance of the thing with an intense sense of dread.

It's not too late to leave it. To take the two of them from this room and come back with Wardens, however many Wardens can be trusted or contacted. (Who can be picky, these days?) He looks up at the sharp end, grits his teeth, and reaches in himself to start pulling.

His misgivings can wait. For the moment.

[justashotaway]

As soon as Holden started to plunge his hand into the hole, Laura was coming over. She's crouched there beside him now, standing as he pulls out the...pike? It doesn't register as a staff to her, too sharp-edged and cleanly planed.

Whatever it is, it looks like the same material as everything else they've encountered, brutal and dangerous. She holds a pair of claws up to it, unable to do much more than observe.

[acreage]

He has to pull himself up to standing soon enough. There seems to be no end to the staff, for all that only a short portion of it is blunt enough to touch. And that's quickly becoming a problem, as that portion goes up higher and higher...

he looks to the other two.

"Any thoughts?"