MOD PLOT ↠ BEFORE THE GATES | PUZZLE LOG

[faderifting]

WHO: Bastien, Byerly, Cosima, Derrica, Edgard, Ellis, Flint, Gwenaëlle, Josias, Loxley, Marcus, Mobius, Redvers, Sidony, Tiffany, Tony, Viktor
WHAT: Puzzles and sacrifice
WHEN: Mid Kingsway
WHERE: A temple in Arlathan Forest
NOTES: See also OOC post, open log.

The search pays off, after a few weeks, when a team—every team, independently, separated from the others by foliage and time, and unaware they aren't the only ones—stumbles upon a sizable contingent of Venatori and their allies making steady progress toward a ruined temple complex. It's too large a group for any four- or five-person team to combat directly. But they can outrun them. Whether they dash ahead of the enemy unseen or pause first to ambush or delay them, they'll beat them to the ruins. The forest is so densely grown up around and over its remnants that it's impossible to get a sense of the full scale, but something about the size of the walls and doorways arching high overhead, the opulence of the carvings and mosaics even encrusted by millenia of moss, suggests an important site. And there's a feeling, too, a spine-prickling sense of mingled excitement and foreboding, that whispers this must be the place.

That feeling is confirmed by the contents of the mosaics lining the walls, depicting a glowing golden city with a familiar arrangement of spires and towers. Looking at it causes a strangely powerful sense of deja vu until someone puts it together—these same towers now haunt the Fade, their blackened heights always visible, never reachable. The mosaic of the city circles what looks once to have been a great temple hall, perspective sloping to draw the eye to the only other doorway out of this space, an arched portal opposite, gilded to appear as if it's part of the mosaic, as if walking through it might take one through the walls of the golden city itself.

Each team will reach this temple alone and will travel through it alone. As far as they will be able to tell, they are the only ones to have made it here—perhaps the only people to set foot inside it in a thousand years or more—and the combination of time distortion and crystal lapses will make it impossible to determine otherwise. They can send all the messages they like while inside the complex, but will receive no replies until it's all over. As far as they know, they are the only people with this chance to investigate by far the most promising site Riftwatch has found in the forest. The enemy is going to arrive soon to take whatever is here, and if they leave here now who knows how long it might take to find it again.

Once they're inside, their passage through the temple will follow a linear path, with no opportunities to branch off or divide their party. There is a single route to follow, and the walls are still high and sheer and thick enough to stop them going over or under or through. Each room will present a new trial, a puzzle to be solved, feats of strength and cunning and bravery to be accomplished before the way forward is revealed. If they take the time to clear away some of the vines and study the statues and reliefs, they'll find that each room is dedicated to one or more of the Elvhen gods, which may provide clues if they know their pantheon.

Comments

can't fake their way out of this one.

[cozen]

They ought to have insisted on bringing a mage, is what Bastien thinks first, and for the first time in his life.

On its heels is don't you dare.

This is not thought at the demon in front of them, or around them, or wherever the it is. Not at himself, either. It's thought at Byerly. The thought stays unspoken, but he wraps his uninjured hand around By's arm at the elbow without subtlety. No adjustment of fingers to bard-sign anything more complicated. Just a firm grip that says don't you dare all on its own.

"Bullshit," does not come with a quaver. He stops gawking at the mosaic to look from face to face. Surely they are all in agreement that this is bullshit.

[bouchonne]

It does cross his mind. And it doesn't leave his mind, not entirely - because if the choice is him or Sidony, or him or Bastien, and there are no alternatives, then he knows what he will insist upon.

(Him or Josias...Well. That's - more complicated. Which is a thought he won't dwell upon.)

But it's also not an option that attracts him in the least. A mildly surprising thing, that realization - for there had been a time when a heroic sacrifice hadn't been an idea he'd disliked. But that was before he'd had what he has now. To die would be to lose it, and that thought is intolerable.

"Bullshit," Byerly agrees, and grips Bastien back. And he looks over to Sidony, trying to communicate as much to her: bullshit.

[dastardly]

The single word that immediately floods Josias' mind - though does not pass his lips - is a degree stronger. An emphatic, frustrated, disbelieving "fuck".

There's no need to look at the faces of the others. He already knows the odds. He is the outsider here, the tag-along to this party of husband and wife and what he strongly suspects to be husband's lover. On those scales, his life has the least worth.

He may pass himself off as a mediocre bookkeeper, but he knows how this account will balance.

The only chance that may spare him is some streak of stubborn heroism in any of his companions, but with the limited options, that route would likely lead to self-sacrifice. Which the other two were not likely to allow. Stalemate.

Fuck, he thinks again, and for lack of being able to properly express it outwardly, reverts to his persona's reaction to such a hideous prospect: cowering. Backing as far away from the demon as possible, attempting to make himself as small as possible. If, somewhere within that, he spends a good amount of time glaring at his anchor-shard afflicted hand, well, that would be understandable given his circumstances.