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faderift2022-09-05 11:21 am
faderifting) wrote in faderift2022-09-05 11:21 am
MOD PLOT ↠ BEFORE THE GATES | PUZZLE LOG
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.
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.
gwenaëlle. ota for me mateys.
It's darker here, now that they've solved two of the temple's tricky obstacles and spilled into the third— dimmer, harder to see, but still all these fucking mosaics. You'd think that after some years and several ruins now, she'd have a knack for this, which is the sort of thinking that saw her trudging through a ruin on Flint's island now lodged somewhere at the bottom of the ocean, and—
wait.
Her eyes narrow, and she slides her hand along the wall.
Wait,
“No, I know this one,” she says, frowning at the design, trying to dredge up the memory.
no subject
And it's true—to look over at Loxley would be to see the dull gleam of night-seeing eyes, where light reflects off the backs of his eyeballs. The absence of colour is a hindrance, however, as is the absence of any knowledge as to what this bullshit means.
He prefers a puzzle you can trick when need be. So far, none of these are that. "What should I be looking for? And also, how do you know this one?"
no subject
A nose wrinkle,
“Ex-husband, of dubious legality. I had to strip half-naked and wade through blood, which is a lot like some Orlesian marriages,”
Gwenaëlle.
“—it was Falon'Din, I remember Solas banging on about the blood. That Falon'Din bled those who wouldn't bow. The blood of those who wouldn't bow filled oceans. Charming lot, Fen'Harel's old knitting circle.”
no subject
Loxley moves up towards one of the patterned walls, begins feeling his hands over it—and only lightly, attentively and sensitively. The kind of feeling around that one does when familiar with dark, dusty places that can and will spring traps, whether designed into its architecture or installed there later.
He tips his head and pauses his hand against one tile, applying no pressure save to see if it shifts in place at all. Blows away dust.
"Do me a favour and go back about ten feet?"
no subject
she backs up when he asks, though, does it backwards so she can keep him roughly in as much view as the dim light offers her less lamp-like eyes, gauge the remaining distance.
“Here. What are you thinking?”
no subject
And as soon as he senses her having backed up, Loxley likewise steps back, if only to the length of his arm before pressing the tile with the tips of his fingers. It clicks, sinking deeper into the wall with an audible click that has him tense—but nothing terrible happens, no explosions or clouds of acid or poison darts.
His hand drops. "Alright," he murmurs, then says, louder, "Some of these can be pressed. I don't trust that all of them are the right ones to press, though."
no subject
doesn't actually sound like someone who doesn't intend to keep trying things. Cautiously. Her hands slide along the wall, careful, not pressing yet — studying. “I thought these were mirror images,” she says, after a moment of it, “but I don't think they're exact.”
no subject
How nice it would be, to have a man (or woman!) of faith amongst them. Or at least someone a little more studied in these elements. "Here, see this," and he points out where two identical figures are facing each other, posed as if reaching, but a few tiles form up two ravens flying together from one to the other. "Everything has a double."
no subject
“The symbols aren't identical,” she says, “so it must be two, mustn't it? All I remember about Falon'Din is the blood thing, but the differences must mean something significant.”
no subject
says the long suffering rogue, in the midst of a dungeon crawl,
"I suggest letting me take a look at anything we want to press or play with before we press or play with it. I've done this sort of thing before and I can probably get out of harm's way pretty well if harm is imminent."
Loxley, still staring at the wall, gives a rolling gesture with his hand as he adds, "Just due to how we don't know what we're doing or what any of this shit means."