Closed Antique's Society Dig - Excavation

[Daekos Volundur]

"Bah. That was unpleasant." Daekos returned to full consciousness at roughly the same time as Lysel did. He groaned; his awkward landing had not broken any bones - thank the Gods for that - but he was made aware of the bruises he would have developing all over his body as he tried moving his limbs. Particularly the side of his body and his legs, since they took the brunt of the impact. "Yes, I'm fine. No broken bones, thankfully. Looks like Dust's an avian Kelvic. Never could have told that." He looked around, his eyes having already adapted to the darkness. Thank Isur for his cave-vision. If there was any sign of danger, he would see it much faster than Lysel or Dust. A few carvings, sharper than any he had seen, were present on one side of the chamber they were in. As he focused on them, he released Res from his hands, allowing them to move upwards and towards the dust and dirt that had accumulated on him. Once he felt the Res seep into the debris, separating them from his body, he transmuted them into water, using it to provide a rough bath. He only had a few cuts here and there, but since he was already washing them to minimise the risk of infection, he decided to clean himself as best as he could. Can't understand that, so no point in looking at it. His head turned sharply towards what Lysel was pointing at, noting the green glow. Moving towards it, he stopped a few feet from it, noting that it was a glyph of some sort. He knelt on the floor, picking up a rock and letting the remaining Res he used to clean himself saturate the rock, before moving it slowly towards the glowing sigil, tapping it gently twice before letting the rock drop to the ground. "Looks like a sigil of some sort. It's not a trap, as far as I can tell." He moved even closer, ignoring the pain from his bruises, examining it closely and noting down the individual glyphs. There's a Focus there - it's not storing anything as far as I can tell, but it appears to be a Trigger of some sort. Barrier's undamaged, so no magic will be escaping. Let me see... Oh. It's a simple trigger. It'll... Is that Nader Canoch? Let's see... Yomi? Gold? Yellow? And there's another word. Ah. Light. This will light this place up, methinks. But what will activate the sigil? Hea? What word is that? Approach? Perhaps touch? So I touch the focus to activate it? Perhaps it only activates when a living being touches it. Well, let's try it. He lifted his left arm, aware that it could take more damage than his other could ever take, and tapped the centre of the focus.

[Dust]

The Akalak shoved away clothing and the raven who stood upon it; Dust squawked at the impolite abruptness of it, and found herself more secure footing on the table in his wake. She peered upwards at the featureless silhouette blocking the hole they'd fallen through; after an exchange with Lysel, that one went off to find a means for getting them out. The Kelvic, of course, could leave at any time... but things were much more interesting down here, so she didn't give that more than the most fleeting of thoughts. The Isur commented on her Kelvic nature, to which the white-feathered raven chortled, a sound which generally suggested amusement even to non-raven ears. The Isur did something with lifting his arms upwards; Dust wasn't sure quite what. Then Lysel drew everyone's attention to the faint green glow. The raven chirped and cocked her head to peer at it -- how had she missed that? In truth, of course, her eyes were still adjusting to the darkness down here. She considered the glow, the space the two men walked through, and deduced the intervening area must be clear; a brief flutter of wings took her out of the light column which marked their landing point and into the darkness to join the Akalak and the Isur beside the gleaming sigil. Dust hesitated just briefly before landing beside the Isur; since he was kneeling, he at least couldn't step on the bird. She got there only just after he poked at the glyph with a rock: nothing happened. Certainly nothing to give the Kelvic a reason to be cautious of the design. Just that steady green glow, swirled into lines entirely meaningless to her. Not a trap, Daekos said, but he shared no other conclusions -- if he even had any. The raven cocked her head and studied the patterns around him, right up until he leaned forward to touch it with his special arm, blocking her view.

[Magpie]

At the revelation about Dust, Lysel turned to look at her in surprise, her clear noise of humor further proof. It made sense - the sudden appearance of the raven when he'd fallen attempting to shield her from the impact. He hadn't noticed her arrive specifically with anyone though, begging the question who her keeper was, being kelvic. "Ahem, my apologies, Miss Dust. I hadn't realized."

The Isur surprised again by giving himself an impromptu bath, something Lysel attempted not to stare at. Magic was an extraordinarily handy thing, but something he'd never looked into himself. It seemed to give the man more confidence about approaching the sigil, and Lysel couldn't help but hold his breath as the glyph was pressed.

Light burst into view in the underground room, temporarily blinding Lysel and his hands jumped instinctively to shield his face, spurring another jolt of pain in his shoulder. After a moment where the only noise were further exclamations of surprise from above, he cracked open his eyes and allowed his eyes to adjust to the light. When the details around them started to come into focus, his jaw dropped and he drew in a reverent breath. "I...I never..."

They stood in a circular room, stone walls and floor with holes and various debris scattered about the floor. The pile of wood they'd fallen on was now clearly a table, as there was a similar one, intact, on the other side of the room. The walls were cut inwards at chest height around the room, creating a shelf that housed primarily broken pots of varying size. On opposite sides of the room were a pair of great stone door with glyph panels next to them. The sigils said 'Open', for any who could read it. High on the domed ceiling were three lanterns suspended from the apex, now alit with fire.

What drew the eye however, was not the doors, or the broken floor, or the collection of pots. It was a massive mosaic against the section of the wall opposite them, starting above the shelf and easily as high as a full grown Akalak. The stones were intricate and precise, showing excellent craftsmanship and detail. His breath stolen, Lysel approached the mural, stumbling on the debris.

The scene showed a small city on the edge of a cliff, with a river running through it from an expanse of grass to the right. Out on the grass was a great gray beast, standing on massive back legs and showing long white teeth as it roared. Two figures, smaller than the beast, but still almost as large as the city, held their hands up as though in battle. One, to the south of the beast, was of deep blue skin and rippled with muscle. Long, dark hair streamed down his back and in his hands, he held a javelin pointed at the beast's chest. To the north of the best was a woman, equally dark, but made up of glittering precious stones inset into the mosaic. She was half embedded in the ground, the grass around her turned to the dark brown of upturned earth. Her hands were also upturned, mirroring twin spikes of earth next to them. A third figure was included as well, large as the beast, and dark as the man to the south. She knelt next to the city, herself placed between the collection of buildings and the battle out on the grass. She was beautiful, her face picked out in painstaking detail, and ringed in obsidian and sapphire stones. Though her face was turned to the beast, her hands were raised to the city on her left side, resting on a dark dome over the city, displayed in a ring of dark stones. Small people, the color of gemstones, could be seen in the city.

Lysel's breath came shallow and quick as he approached the mosaic, the rest of the room forgotten. "This is... This... Riverfall, this has to be." One shaking hand indicated the city on the cliff, much smaller than the current city. "And-and Akajia. What is she doing... I'd bet my life that's Wysar. And, could it be? Semele?" Shaking hands moved slowly, indicating the three figures. He didn't dare touch it. He seemed to remember the others in the room and whipped around to face them. "This! Do you... This..." Turning slowly back to the mosaic, he seemed to take his first deep breath since discovering it. "This must be some great event of Riverfall's past... We've never discovered anything so incredible, certainly didn't expect to way out here. This might have been a temple, or some place of worship, maybe even specific to this event." Blinking in shock, he fell silent and stared up at the mosaic, the sounds of frenzied movement above echoing through the chamber.

Room Layout :

[Matthew]

Dust

Experience Points:

• +2 Archaeology
• +1 Observation
• +1 Socialization

Lores:

• Archaeology: Basic Tools of Excavation
• Archaeology: Basic Techniques of Excavation
• Archaeology: Identifying Pockets of Air
• Isur: General Appearance
• Riverfall: Hidden Temple?

Additional Notes :

This looked like it would have been something very exciting if it would have continued. If you feel I missed anything, please let me know.

If you have any questions or concerns relevant to your grade, don't be afraid to send me a private message so that we can work it all out! Please remember to mark your Grading Request as Graded.

A shout-out to Ollic Rimesage, who was kind enough to make this template for me.