Choose your path to greatness, obscurity or death. A multiple choice LP

[Hoodoo]

Telling people about the shard will get us into all sorts of trouble. Lets keep it quiet about it and study it ourselves.

 

[Anabanana]

Now, now, let's not be overly paranoid here. What's the worst that could happen if the scholar knows that we have a metal shard? All I can think of is that he'll want to take it with him to study it further. In that case, we agree it let him study it while we supervise. Result: we both learn more about the thing. It's a win-win, I would say.

In any case, we're not smart or knowledgeable enough to get usable information by ourselves. Researching it ourselves would take up lots of time, time that we don't have if we want to secure the courtyard anytime soon. I'm just thinking of the shard as a clue as to the nature of the fountains and halo of flames. Enlisting the scholar's help will most probably give us more information on the shard AND on the weird lights in the courtyard. The benefits far outweigh any potential risks, I would say. You can tell the scholar that the shard's existence has to be kept secret, even from the others in the group, because Lord Medah has ordered it to be so, if you're worried. It'll just be one other insignificant thing that the scholar has to keep secret, along with all the other things he has to keep secret, like the fact that they're exploring the central courtyard, for instance. If we do that though, I wouldn't let Irene in on the whole shard business.

Of course, we should do all this in private after pulling everybody out of the central courtyard. I'm not saying that we should tell the scholar about it in front of everybody else.

 

[newcomer]

+1 for giving the shard to the scholar in secret

 

[Anabanana]

^I'd call it a temporary loan instead of "giving". Make sure that Kyoss is there at all times when the scholar is investigating the shard in case anything happens.

Another thing we should do before - or maybe during the secret meeting with the scholar, if that goes through - plunge the metal shard into a bowl of ice cold water into a fire and see if anything happens. Repeat the same thing with a fire. Because (alternate theory incoming) the last time it activated, it was when the entire land turned cold and dark. In that case, it turned warm. And now it's cold as ice. Maybe it's just a sign that the white/yellow/red flames are just extremely hot. Maybe it just turns cold when it gets close to hot things, and hot when it gets close to cold things - and the temperature, in turn, affects the holder. It might just be a portable air conditioning unit. And we won't know unless we do some experimenting.

 

[Hoodoo]

I wanna keep the shard as our ace in the hole, or summin like that. Why reveal our stone if we can just ask about all this other similar stuff we have just stumbled into? Im sure we can make the connexions ourselves once the scholar starts to fill us in on what he knows about magic, runes and all the other phenomenon; "oh btw guys I got this secret magic stone here that might help us solve this riddle" is unnecessary. "pls dont tell medah" isnt much of a preventative measure either, and I dont see us killing him, although I would fully support that if it did come to sharing what we have with him. The only person I would reveal the stone to is Thomas.


tldr dont reveal stone pls

 

[Monty]

I'm not too keen to hand over the shard to anyone - for all we know our parents were killed by someone trying to get hold of it. We still don't know how they came into possession of it or who we can trust. I think the scholar should be asked about the patterns of the lights which are similar to those on our shard. If he knows nothing about those then he is unlikely to add much to our knowledge of our shard and there's little reason to reveal it to him.

I agree we should check the effects of the lights/flames on the others, an important clue as to their nature and the reaction of our shard. Then check the buildings and grove for more clues. If we want to experiment with the shard we should come back alone later on.

 

[Anabanana]

I think the scholar should be asked about the patterns of the lights which are similar to those on our shard. If he knows nothing about those then he is unlikely to add much to our knowledge of our shard and there's little reason to reveal it to him.

Yeah, this sounds reasonable. The reason I wanted to do the experiments with the scholar in tow is that our shard is interacting with the fountains of light, and just investigating the fountains without looking into the shard interaction is just seeing one side of the picture. All right - we will probably need to talk to somebody about the shard at some point, but it makes sense that we just ask about the similar features on the fountains of light for now. My stance might chance depending on how much information, if any, the scholar can give us.

I'm just worried because we don't know how the shard will interact with the large halo of light - will the cold from the shard spread, killing us all? Or is it the only thing preventing the fountains from killing us right now? Vernydar, are the fountains of light radiating an intense heat, or something of the sort?

If we're not going to use the scholar, we should definitely do some experimenting with the shard and the light. After asking the other people about the flames' effects and exploring the grove and low buildings, I'm thinking that we should all move back to just outside the entrance. Then have a horseman grab a corpse, chuck it into one of the fountains, and run back to the entrance. After that, have the hunter trap some kind of mammal and let it run loose in the courtyard - hopefully it'll cross one of the fountains at some point and then we'll get to see what happens. If it doesn't, tell the other horseman to grab it, throw it in, and run back to the entrance.

 

[Vernydar]

I'm just worried because we don't know how the shard will interact with the large halo of light - will the cold from the shard spread, killing us all? Or is it the only thing preventing the fountains from killing us right now? Vernydar, are the fountains of light radiating an intense heat, or something of the sort?.

Seems like I need to make some clarifications. I always said you can ask me questions about the situation if you want. I see here a few speculations in various posts that should just be questions instead. You are allowed to ask me if there are heat waves, or cold or such. Facts you can know I will always tell you.

There is no heat radiating from the fountains of light. Not that you can feel it at least. But the other people are not looking hot, sweating or anything like that. Just awed by these flaming patterns. You know, nobody here likely saw magic before, how would YOU react in such a situation?

You are feeling like I said:
"Rather you feel somewhat cool, comfortable. Also, you do not know why but you feel rather... calm. Relaxed even. At ease. It is a strange, strange sensation...."

Whether this is due to the lights, to the metal shard, or to something else entirely I will not tell. The others with you seem agitated, but it could very well be due to them being awed by this sight. Or it could not.

As for the possibility of the shard protecting you, it could be or it could not. You have no way to know now. What you do know about the shard is that:
- The shard right now is painfully cold.
- Back then at Nokos, I will quote, "You do feel warm, in fact almost too warm, you're starting to sweat a little bit."
- And back then you were feeling afraid, while now you are feeling calm. Quoting from Nokos again: "These flames seem to ward off the cold, but they also scare you"

So, these are the facts. Now, whether or not you would burn if you did not have the shard I will not say of course. Why all this is happening I will not say either

 

[Anabanana]

Now, whether or not you would burn if you did not have the shard I will not say of course.

That's perfectly fine, Vernydar. We can figure that out by ourselves with the simple animal experiment I proposed earlier. Thanks for the clarifications!

Right now, I'm going to scratch the portable air-conditioner theory and "douse shard in ice/fire" experiment since it doesn't fit with the facts. The "white/yellow/red flames are inversing the effects of other artefacts with the same kind of markings" theory still stands, however. Therefore, we need to investigate those corpses as proposed earlier. Unfortunately, I don't think we can avoid touching them altogether if we want to do a thorough search. Let's have the other men do it while we stand off to the side and keep watch. The soldiers ARE equipped with leather gloves and the like, I assume?

Also, it looks like we're the only ones having the calm, cool sensation. I say we report this to the scholar and see if he has any theories about why.

 

[Vernydar]

Trying to sum up what emerged from the conversation so far. kind of hard to identify a "winner".

These are the suggestions that up to now had enough votes.
- You are going to ask the others and especially Irene if they feel anything strange or not.
- You are going to ask the scholar if he knows about these flaming patterns, but without telling him anything about your metal artifact for now
- You do not think you can learn something else directly from here, and so you should distance yourself from the flaming patterns

Instead these are the ones that are still undecided but had some votes
- Before you had voted to go and investigate the halo behind the keep.
- Now we have a few votes to inspect the grove and the low buildings instead
- Some have voted for searching the corpses for possibly similar artifacts

I'm asking for more votes, and maybe more preferences from those who only voted for some of these things. As things are now, I am not sure on how to proceed, the vote is too close. Feel free to chain many preferences.

Since I made this post, please if adding preferences do a new post instead of editing older ones, I don't want to read it all over again.

 

[Smashing Axe]

I have a preference for going to the low-buildings.

 

[Anabanana]

Guys, we need more votes on these:

Instead these are the ones that are still undecided but had some votes
- Before you had voted to go and investigate the halo behind the keep.
- Now we have a few votes to inspect the grove and the low buildings instead

Let's not investigate the halo. Seriously. If the smaller fountains of light are already causing our artefact to freeze up, who knows what will happen if we get it close to the bigger halo of light. We will die. Horribly. Frozen like a popsicle. I know we will.

- Some have voted for searching the corpses for possibly similar artifacts

This might be our chance to figure out the nature of the markings without relying on the scholar, and it's not a huge risk if we let other people search while we see what they find. Also I really want to know if my theory is right.

 

[Vernydar]

Just a note to those that do not want to investigate the halo.

If you do not want to investigate it now, that is a perfectly legitimate choice

If you think you can avoid going near it altogether, well, Irene might have something against that. Just saying. Your missions is to explore and investigate in detail the entire courtyard after all.

Back in 4 hours or so, hopefully there will be enough votes.

 

[Anabanana]

To clarify, I meant that we should hold off on investigating the weird halo thing until we have more information on the weird white/yellow/red lights. Like I said in an earlier post, I'd prefer us investigating the low buildings and the grove, and then sending everybody off to take a break and come back later (maybe the next day? in a few hours?) while we do our own private investigations on the interaction of the shards with the lights. If all goes well and we find out that the lights are harmless, we bring the team back in and start investigating the halo and keep. But of course it all depends on what happens in the following update...

 

[ScubaV]

To clarify, I meant that we should hold off on investigating the weird halo thing until we have more information on the weird white/yellow/red lights. Like I said in an earlier post, I'd prefer us investigating the low buildings and the grove, and then sending everybody off to take a break and come back later (maybe the next day? in a few hours?) while we do our own private investigations on the interaction of the shards with the lights. If all goes well and we find out that the lights are harmless, we bring the team back in and start investigating the halo and keep. But of course it all depends on what happens in the following update...

This sounds reasonable.

 

[TOME]

To clarify, I meant that we should hold off on investigating the weird halo thing until we have more information on the weird white/yellow/red lights. Like I said in an earlier post, I'd prefer us investigating the low buildings and the grove, and then sending everybody off to take a break and come back later (maybe the next day? in a few hours?) while we do our own private investigations on the interaction of the shards with the lights. If all goes well and we find out that the lights are harmless, we bring the team back in and start investigating the halo and keep. But of course it all depends on what happens in the following update...

+1 to this.

- You are going to ask the others and especially Irene if they feel anything strange or not.
- You are going to ask the scholar if he knows about these flaming patterns, but without telling him anything about your metal artifact for now
- Some have voted for searching the corpses for possibly similar artifacts.

+1 to these.

 

[Kz3r0]

Get out of there, and tell nothing of the shard, only ask the scholar about the flame patterns.

 

[Vernydar]

Hmm very well I think this will do. Update in 1-2 hours as usual. More unsettling details will be uncovered. Maybe

 

[Vernydar]

So, what passed is:
- You are going to ask the others and especially Irene if they feel anything strange or not.
- You are going to ask the scholar if he knows about these flaming patterns, but without telling him anything about your metal artifact for now
- You do not think you can learn something else directly from here, and so you should distance yourself from the flaming patterns
- You are going to inspect the low buildings
- You would like to search the corpses for possibly similar artifacts

71 – Death in the night

You quickly retreat a couple of steps, and try to shake your men out of their stupor. Irene joins your efforts, and quickly soldiers and civilians alike retreat a bit. They seem shaken, but unhurt. Wanting to check whether or not anyone is feeling as you do, you ask every single person if they are feeling fine or not. Everyone down to the last person is not really feeling any different from before. They were just unable to keep their composure when faced with such a blatant display of magic. Most of them seem afraid, but they are not feeling unwell. And most assuredly they are not feeling calm, relaxed and at ease like you do. This is a very interesting detail, could it be due to the metal shard you are carrying with you? Or maybe something else?

Anyway you do feel reassured by the fact they all seem fine, and join Irene in asking the scholar what he thinks about these flaming patterns.

"Interesting, very interesting indeed. I never saw or heard of anything like this. It is said that Avarlos was a kingdom gifted with unparalleled magical powers, but I mostly considered that to be the result of legends being passed down century after century. And now this. I have no idea what this is, nor what it does. But the fact it is etched in a depression of the pavement, and that there are other similar places all around the courtyard laid in a regular pattern indicates it is something planned. If only I could know more...."

Well, you were hoping for some more information, but evidently you're not going to find it here. Irene looks a bit disappointed as well, but she turns to you and speaks:
"Well, guess I will never make fun anymore of the old women who used to tell me tales when I was a child. Still it does not seem that there's anything else we can learn here right now. And this place is still quite big. That halo behind the keep could be something similar to this maybe? But maybe exploring the low buildings and the grove should come first. Personally I think we should leave the keep for last. What do you think Kyoss?"

You agree with her, endorsing the exploration of the low buildings as your first priority. The grove you can do afterwards, as it seems less likely to hold some clues. But you cannot help but wonder whether or not these dead people possessed something similar to the metal artifact you have. You would like to search the bodies, but without telling anyone about your shard. You do have an advantage though, you're the only one who knows what to look for. You try to suggest Irene that the bodies seems safe, so maybe you could search them.

Irene shakes her head : "No Kyoss, I really don't think so. We know little of this place, we cannot be completely sure the bodies are safe. And also, the men would be really afraid if we did something like that. Disturbing the dead is, in their mind, a good way to provoke their wrath. Let's keep that for later, when we know more. For now, the low buildings and the grove will do, then we will see what to do about the other places."

You can't really insist without telling her of your metal artifact, so you agree and slowly the group makes its way to the low buildings on the west side, trying to avoid passing too close to other flaming symbols on the ground. You notice that your metal artifact returns to normal temperature as you walk away from the flaming patterns.... You approach the buildings, which seems quite unremarkable from the outside, and ask the spy to search for traps. The spy carefully searches for about twenty minutes, before telling you that there's nothing here he can find. Hesitantly, you open the door and enter.

The scene you find inside is not a pretty one. Bodies everywhere, wearing those two different decorations on their armor. They obviously killed each other even here. In the next hour you explore these buildings, which you find out to be barracks, kitchens, baths and warehouses. Seems like quite a few soldiers were stationed here, outside of the keep. And they didn't die easy. You find rows after rows of dead soldiers on beds. They are unarmed and unarmored, their clothes and shattered bones showing signs of incredibly hard hits. Other lay disorderly on the floor of the sleeping quarters. It seems that these people were attacked in their sleep and mostly killed inside their beds. This lends more credibility to the theory of a revolt or a betrayal. You notice that all these dead people belong to the same unit, considering the decorations on their unused armors in the closets.

The men are actually somewhat reassured by these sights. Horrible as they are, they are also mundane. These people were betrayed and killed, nothing supernatural caused this. Very disturbing, but much less so that not knowing how they died. It makes these ancient soldiers of Avarlos more... human, in their eyes.

You discuss with Irene what you should do next. The scholar can't wait to go and inspect the halo behind the keep, or maybe the keep itself. He's not really interested in an overgrown garden. Irene however makes it very clear that he has no say in the matter, so he retreats grumbling a bit. The soldiers do seem more calm now.

What are you going to suggest Kyoss? (You can chain more than one preference, choose up to three)
A) Since the soldiers are calmer now, you could inspect the bodies outside and try to search for more clues. And you personally want to search for metal artifacts...
B) You could inspect these buildings more in depth. Who knows what clues you could find....
C) The grove interests you. It seems just an overgrown garden, but appearances can be deceiving...
D) You could go and take a look at the keep, from the outside at least. You could find something interesting
E) Since the soldiers are calmer now, you should go and inspect the halo behind the keep. Better do this while they are not afraid.
F) Other, choose a letter and make proposals.

 

[Monty]

C > B > E

 

[m4davis]

C
B
E

 

[Stygian Lurker]

C > B > E

 

[GameOver]

B, C, E

I just want to make sure the building is completely safe and inspect it a little further to see if there is any details we may have missed. I think with the character we have, additional inspection is never bad and we might find something of note. I would like to clear the grove before we go hit up that halo. Also, I think it would be best if we just stuck with Irene's suggestion to search the bodies later. There is no reason to keep pushing that topic with her when she made it clear that we should do so later. The fact the men are more calm means nothing when they think that disturbing the dead will bring their wrath. Save the keep for last.

 

[TOME]

So how far away from the first bodies and the flaming patterns are the grove and low buildings? Would it be possible to send the men to explore them, and then sneak back to inspect the bodies and play with the metal shard/flaming patterns without anyone seeing?

Send the men to C and B while Kyoss stays behind and starts with A.

 

[Anabanana]

Hmm... even though I want to search the corpses in the way TOME suggests, I really think that we should be personally involved in any investigations. We can leave the corpse looting for later, after we send the team away to take a break while we do our own personal investigation into lights. (And hey! Now we have the perfect excuse to send everybody away! We don't want to freak them out while we check out the corpses! The only thing that worries me about this is that Irene will want to tag along...) On the same note, I would like us to not go to the halo while the effects of it on our shard are still unconfirmed. In that light, I will be voting for B and C. If we do end up going to check out the halo, I'd like Kyoss to stay as far away as possible. It won't seem too strange seeing as everybody's pissed scared of the lights.

Actually, what the heck, let's do D too. If we just look at it from a distance, it should be safer. We might find markings etched on the walls or some other clues as to the nature of this place.