[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

PERCEPTION CHECK

[kantikoy]

Of course Val does not seem to keep in mind that splitting up in this room means he is allowing for venom-spitting, skittering, angry spiders to stand in the spaces between them. She doesn't sigh, this time; instead her nostrils flare, and she looks up, half expecting to see the great bulbous body of a giant spider lying in wait.

She doesn't. Instead she sees a great crack and runes in the ceiling. She peers at them in the dark, trying to see if she can discern any recognizable... anything from the runes. If they're all fire based, they may well be fucked.

A spider appears between herself and Val in the next instant and Adrasteia doesn't give Tony much chance to respond to the new threat before she's raising her staff over her head and bringing it down on the ground in front of her, striking the spider with lightning and stunning it for a moment.

[katabasis]

Though it's difficult to parse at a distance and while on the move in the dark, there are distantly recognizable shapes among the more archaic rune forms which do suggest fire and heat. That said, while dominant features of the etchings, it's impossible to tell whether the arcane element is a product of the valves or used in their activation. Futher, the damage from the crack is extensive enough to cause problems, though the extent—whether the seals have simply been rendered nonfunctional or id their reaction has merely been made unpredictable—remains a mystery.

[propulsion]

The chamber flashes with green light when another spider comes skittering down, and out of the corner of Adrasteia's eye is a mushrooming blast of Fade energy that throws up a wall for the spider to bounce off. It drops on its back, before a leg or two along with a spatter of black gore goes flying as a more direct punch of energy slices through it.

"Any ideas?" he says, glancing at them, at the leaking ceiling, at the twitchy shapes of giant arachnids crawling down walls and descending on thick ropes of silken web. "'Cause I got, uh. One."

It's a bad idea, so, he's open to suggestions.