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Author Topic: IC - Tales of the Golden Idol  (Read 13321 times)

One Horse Town

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IC - Tales of the Golden Idol
« Reply #15 on: February 06, 2007, 04:33:59 PM »
There are some fleshy sacks at the base of the monstrosities fangs, but you don't really know how to extract them other than to cut around them. This soon reveals that they are more delicate than you though and that you don't have the necessary skills to remove them.

After a brief rest, you continue on into the woods, hopeful that you will exit them soon.

It is after another hours travel that Orlok stumbles over a buried impediment. He catches himself on a nearby branch before he falls, but barks his shin painfully.

Looking down, you see a grey arm in the pine needles. A piece of statuary knocked free from it's body. Looking around, you find the low remains of a stone wall in a semi-circle around your position. Clearing more of the needles reveals a dirty mosaic in what would have been the building's floor.

It depicts a red serpent devouring a bound maiden. She clutches a bouquet of red roses in her hands.

Ian Absentia

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IC - Tales of the Golden Idol
« Reply #16 on: February 06, 2007, 05:21:46 PM »
Luludha snickers quietly at Orlok, then sets to clearing the forest floor about the impediment and examining the features of the wall and mosiac, cooing gently to herself from time to time.

!i!

Werekoala

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IC - Tales of the Golden Idol
« Reply #17 on: February 06, 2007, 05:35:31 PM »
Garren help Luludha, keep an eye out around them as he does so.

"I never have understood permanent buildings. See, this is why - if whoever lived here had a good tent and sturdy horse, they might have been able to avoid whatever evil befell them."

He stands and dusts his hands off while studying the mosaic.
Lan Astaslem


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Ian Absentia

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IC - Tales of the Golden Idol
« Reply #18 on: February 06, 2007, 05:46:00 PM »
Luludha continues to focus her attention on poking and prying at the ruins, muttering absent-mindedly to Garren, "Even if it took a couple of centuries for the evil to befall them?  That said, yes -- it's good to not let one's roots sink too deep in any one place."

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One Horse Town

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IC - Tales of the Golden Idol
« Reply #19 on: February 06, 2007, 06:03:28 PM »
Your investigations uncover more of the mosaic. Off to one side of the ruin of the buildings floor, a golden radiance is revealed. This light shines upon a giant fish that is leaping from a choppy sea.

To the south, Luludha's questing hands also find a sodden hole in the forest floor. After some clearing, it appears to some kind of culvert; perhaps designed to divert water away from the building when it was still standing. The narrow channel continues past the point that the halfling's arm can reach and her fingers brush something hard at the extent of her reach. However, no matter how hard she strains, she cannot release whatever is held in the narrow channel's depths.

Ian Absentia

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« Reply #20 on: February 06, 2007, 06:27:43 PM »
Luludha squeals with excitement, then grunts in exertion.  Extracting her arm and shaking away bits of debris and muck, she brushes away the stray strands of hair from her face with her clean hand and looks at the giant mitts her companions call hands.

"There's something down the hole," she puffs.  "I can't quite get at whatever it is, but there's something stuck in there."  Casting her glance at Garren, then settling on Orlok's considerably-less-beefy-looking hands, Luludha suggests, "Care to have a go at it?"

!i!

Abyssal Maw

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« Reply #21 on: February 06, 2007, 06:49:38 PM »
"Alright, gimme a second...."
Orlok sets down his pack and get's down in the dirt. He tries to reach down into the hole as well.

"I feel like I'm helping a cow give birth."

He wipes the sweat away.

"This place is definitely interesting though.. I wonder if anyone else knows about it. There might be ancient things just laying around here, untouched."

His mind goes to that golden radiance illuminating a giant fish.

"..might be worth taking a look around..."
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One Horse Town

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« Reply #22 on: February 06, 2007, 07:04:03 PM »
Orlok's longer reach enables him to extract his prize after a couple of minutes of sweaty reaching.

Eventually, his grasping hands withdraw with a handful of mud. Cleaning the mud away reveals a turqoise stone the size of a small bird's egg. Tiny veins of a black mineral crawl around the stone. Maybe it is of some value.

Werekoala

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« Reply #23 on: February 06, 2007, 07:54:06 PM »
Garren's eyes go wide.

"Ah, now THAT'S more like it! A stone worthy of a chieftan!"

He pauses, then looks around.

"Of course, it would probably fetch a fair sum in a market somewhere as well."
Lan Astaslem


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Ian Absentia

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« Reply #24 on: February 06, 2007, 08:37:25 PM »
Luludha sniffs with interest at the stone Orlok produces, then levels a dubious look upward at Garren.

"Yes, food is good, as is the money to pay for it."

Returning her gaze to the stone, she adds, "Looks...I don't know...a little unusual, doesn't it?"

Luludha wanders over to the portion of the mosaic that suggests a light shining on a leaping fish and tilts her head to one side.  Looking up and around their surroundings, she asks the other two, "Have either of you an idea of how close we are to the sea?"  Puzzling upon the mosaic and the surrounding ruined walls, she adds, "This used to be...a tower?"

Luludha takes in the surrounding lay of the land with more careful interest.  Then she turns to the statuary arm that Orlok discovered so acutely, looking for the body to which it attaches.

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Abyssal Maw

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« Reply #25 on: February 07, 2007, 07:53:40 AM »
Orlok hands off the gemstone to Garren and starts wiping his arm off. He gets up.

"There might be more stuff like that around here. The treasure's nice.. but I'm looking for something kind of particular. Maybe there's a way inside?"

Orlok goes and joins Luludha and tries to search the area around the ruined walls.
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One Horse Town

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« Reply #26 on: February 07, 2007, 11:01:38 AM »
The ruins could easily have once been a tower, however, on further examination you don't find any more evidence of stonework. There are no fallen or crumbling blocks of stone other than those burried foundations.

The stone arm is pointing up from the ground at a shallow angle, it's forefinger pointing into the wood's dark and cloaked interior. It's  open palm is age-pitted and rust-coloured, suggesting that in the depths of time the moss covered hand once held something.

Luludha racks her memory of the geography hereabouts and seems to recall that in the hamlet of Fairlea it was mentioned that the woods parallel the coastline. So you are probably only a few miles from the sea.

Short of digging things up, you have searched quite intensively and found nothing more of interest.

Abyssal Maw

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« Reply #27 on: February 07, 2007, 12:14:37 PM »
Orlok looks in the direction the statue arm was poiting "perhaps it's a sign we should go that way..."
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Ian Absentia

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« Reply #28 on: February 07, 2007, 01:19:14 PM »
Luludha stares at the statue's arm for a moment, then says, "So long as the statue hasn't been moved from its original position."

Inspecting the open palm of the statue more closely, she looks up and says, "Orlok.  May I see the stone?"

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Werekoala

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« Reply #29 on: February 07, 2007, 02:00:46 PM »
Garren smiles, tossing the stone from hand to hand.

"You mean THIS stone?"

He twirls it in his hand, finally cupping it in his fingertips and presenting it to Luludha.
Lan Astaslem


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