Completed Play-by-Post: In Search of the Sorcerer

[ERYFKRAD]

"Show us where, mayhap we can make the entry larger."

 

[Helly]

Ker brings everyone interested to the hole. "Maybe we ought to secure ourselves with rope ?"

 

[Grimgravy]

Rhenmyr checks the portico in his mirror's reflection. If nothing appears different, he follows Ker's lead without comment.

 

[L'ennui]

Urash stays with Marcán and Brule, to see if anything can be learned of the mysterious inscriptions.

 

[nikolokolus]

Rhenmyr checks the portico in his mirror's reflection. If nothing appears different, he follows Ker's lead without comment.

Rhenmyr holds his magic mirror aloft and looks at the reflection of the seal and the surrounding portico. Indeed, there is a hairline crack spanning the vertical length of the seal that wasn't visible to the naked eye, but appears as a faint nimbus of magical light. When you turn the mirror over the pool, you catch faint movment under the placid surface - no specific shapes, but you sense a presence lurking there.

 

[nikolokolus]

Fidach looks at the pictographs on the seal after Marcán points them out and shakes his head. "I don't think it's as literal as you make it out to be Kelt. These are Druids bearing gifts. Legend has it they bound a guardian to watch over Ulfheonar's tomb. These are sacrifices . . . but to what end I don't know."

 

[nikolokolus]

Borric, Ker, Cormac, Brule and finally Rhenmyr round the corner and come to the washout. Just as Ker describes it, there appears to be a hole amidst some tumbled masonry that jut out of the hillside. However, there is almost nothing on the denuded landscape large enough to serve as an anchor for a rope next to the trail, just some low scrubby heather. Looking up the hill to the reveals the landslide started about 100 feet above the trail and the hole in the hill. It would be a difficult climb to get there, but certain large boulders above might be usable for a belay.

 

[Siveon]

Marcán sighs. "Well, I'm out of ideas, then. At least we know for a fact we'll be dealing with more than just Ulfheonar. Let's see what the others have found Urash." He walks away from the the pictograph, looks toward the two. "This should only take a moment, but if you see the beast, run." he says in Keltic.

 

[L'ennui]

Urash grunts his agreement to Marcán and starts to make for the rest of the group. Upon finding them before the landslide, he comes up to Rhenmyr's side and, whilst feigning an assessment of the landscape, whispers to him:

"The Priestesses of Irkalla say every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow. The spiteful souls of the underworld look through it, judging, condemning, sharpening their stakes in the dread beyond.

What does that mirror of yours look at, I wonder?"

Urash turns and winks at Rhenmyr, smiling with a playful glee in his eye, and returns to his observation of their surroundings.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Borric takes out an iron spike from his backpack and looks for a spot to plant it, where it would serve as anchor for the rope.

 

[nikolokolus]

Borric removes a short iron spike from his pack and looks around for a suitable place to anchor it. Dubiously, you pound it into the soft earth of the hillside and it sinks in without any resistance.

 

[Grimgravy]

Quietly to Urash, "It seems you have guessed. This mirror reflects the truth. Sees through illusion. I believe the gate, here, is sealed with magic."

To the group as a whole, "I believe the Guardian you mention, Brule, still resides in this pool. Perhaps, if we can reason with or appease it, it will open the path. I would not want to anger an entity that has survived that long if possible. Maybe we could offer the same sacrifices?"

 

[L'ennui]

"Cormac, perhaps you are familiar with such funeral guardians?

In your own rites, how are they summoned, and how can we dispatch one, if need be? Can they be reasoned with?"

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Spoiler

Would Cormac have any knowledge of crypt keepers from his line of work?

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

FYI, I'll have a post up later today

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

Would Cormac have any knowledge of crypt keepers from his line of work?

Spoiler

I'm not sure I understand?

The area around the tomb. The 'X' is where the landslide occurred.

 

[Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Spoiler

Would Cormac have any knowledge of crypt keepers from his line of work?

Spoiler

I'm not sure I understand?

The area around the tomb. The 'X' is where the landslide occurred.

Spoiler

Funeral guardians as mentioned by Urash. Crypt keepers was a joke.

 

[L'ennui]

While the magical guardian is being discussed, Urash saunters about, looking to find small stones to throw.

 

[nikolokolus]

Spoiler

Funeral guardians as mentioned by Urash. Crypt keepers was a joke.

OOC

Ah, damn. Tired.

Nothing specific, but from time to time (particularly in the case of kings, nobles and great heroes) priests and/or druids will invoke guardian elemental spirits to safeguard a burial place. Such guardians serve as either gatekeeper or defender typically require some ritual of placation to bypass.

 

[Grimgravy]

"Coins, we have. I don't have a gem or torc. Does anyone else? I'd rather appease the guardian than fight it. The wolf is supernatural enemy enough for me."

 

[Helly]

"Why don't we try to find a way down first? I'm not sure that spike will hold my weight, let alone any of our armored comrades' one. Do we have enough rope to tie it to those boulders?"

 

[L'ennui]

"I have fifty feet of rope in my backpack, you can have it if it will help."

 

[Grimgravy]

"I think we have enough rope between us to get the job done."

 

[nikolokolus]

The steep, scree-covered slope looks climbable if treacherous.

 

[L'ennui]

"Is there a brave soul among us who would volunteer for the first climb?"