An Adventurous Day Off

I never thought when I set out to return those books to the House of Learning yesterday that I would find myself on a bit of a whirlwind adventure outside of the city. I certainly hadn't expected to run into Master Wind-chaser who, as usual, was arguing with somebody over something. Turns out the mercenary he was embroiled with didn't think any higher of him than I do. I didn't get much more from him than the usual poorly veiled insults, but others around the plaza in front of the House were more than willing to share what had been discovered along the banks of the Rolling River after yestereve's downpour.

I confess, I half considered dropping my borrowed books right there on the steps when they spoke of an ancient structure peeking through the washed-out hillside, but I dutifully went to the library first. The regular librarian must have been away, but the guardian spirit of the collection was more than happy to assist me both with returning the books and directing me to someone who might know more about the new discovery. Though it is always quick to return to its business, I always want to bring it home with me...

With my only duty for the day discharged, I took some time to follow my fox friend's advice and speak with Master Lucifern, an endearing older Scholar in the Department of Archaeology I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting before. He was more than happy to share with me the fruits of his research, scant though they were, and bemoaned what a man like Wind-chaser might do in the pursuit of academic glory. Would you believe a professed archaeologist would even think of bringing blasting powders to an excavation? And without the Proctor's sanction no less. Well, I resolved then and there to do whatever I could to ensure that Wind-chaser never got near enough to the site to SEE the structure, much less organize any kind of expedition.

I was sure to thank Master Luciferns for his time before leaving him to his studies. The morning was pleasant, and I can't say I didn't enjoy my walk down through the city, I always find the quiet avenues between the warehouses in the South Quarter to be quite peaceful. By contrast, the Rolling River Wharfs beyond the city walls are always alive with the bustle of activity that permeates most of the city. I can almost taste the excitement in the air as ships unload new wares at the docks from places as far north as Linowan and Halta and as far south as the deserts of Chiaroscuro. Though I'd never had cause to visit them before, it didn't take me long to find the drydock emblazoned with the same coat of arms as the mercenary at the House that morning had borne.

I feel obliged to admit that I hadn't really expected to find the door guarded, nor had I considered how to get past any sentries. Unwilling to give up before I’d begun, I introduced myself to the guards, hoping there was a chance one of them might recognize The Sapphire Dream if not me specifically. The results I have to say, were... mixed. While the two men on duty showed not even a flicker of recognition between the two of them, I was shortly saved any embarrassment by another member of their company returning from further south along the Wharf.

After promptly dispatching the guards to announce me to the captain, he introduced himself as Lieutenant Monagan, Second Officer of the River Raiders, and incorrigible flirt if the two minutes I spent chatting with him are anything to go by. I dare say he would be most amusing company if I were to find myself with a free evening in one of the taverns. Captain Lafayette, on the other hand, was all polite cordiality, if rather direct and to the point, summarily sending his second off to oversee some repairs while he showed me to his office to hear my proposal.

Not that I had a proposal in mind exactly, though it became clear quite quickly that Captain Lafayette was no more impressed with Wind-chaser’s proposed expedition than Master Luciferns had been. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy our conversation became, and how closely our ideas and intentions aligned. I had but to suggest that there were other interested parties at the House of Learning, and he was more than eager to agree to meet with them, guessing in the process that I would not be opposed to Wind-chaser being delayed in his efforts for at least a day, if not more.

As thanks for his assistance and discretion on the matter, I bid him give my name at The Sapphire Dream for a complimentary stay. It was a pleasant surprise to learn he was not only familiar with The Sapphire Dream but was a regular client of the lower floors and could appreciate the generosity of the gift.

I thanked him for his time, declining his offer of an escort back to the city, as I had more mischief to get into on the docks, and then set out to find one of the ferrymen that plied the Rolling River. Now that Wind-chaser had been stymied, I was eager to use my day off to get a look at these ruins for myself, reasoning that I would be safe enough from the nearby shadowland on my own in the middle of the day.

It was relatively simple to sweet talk the old sailor I found on one of the ferry boats into taking me up-river, though he did warn me there was no where for him to come to shore at the location I described. Unperturbed, I assured him that would not be an issue for me, and he could return to Great Forks immediately, picking me up again on his evening trip up the river. It was only a few hours to the first bend, even sailing against the current, and despite his misgivings the old sailor was able to swing the stern close enough to shore for me to easily leap the gap to the riverbank.

After bidding farewell to the sailor, I turned to get my first good look at the structure I’d come all this way to see. From afar, it filled me with a sense of awe and curious wonder, the smooth glistening black dome arcing out from the washed-out hillside before plunging into the waters of the Rolling River. Where the bank remained intact, she could clumps of dirt and small stones left over from the collapse trailing out away from the wall with bits of vegetation hanging down from the earth above the collapsed section.

Without a second thought, though in hindsight I probably should have shown more caution given the proximity of the shadowland, I approached the structure and began a closer examination of the material. It was definitely obsidian, the way the volcanic stone refracts the light is unmistakable, though there were impossibly thin inlays of a golden material that traced unrecognizable runes all across the surface. Having approached as close to the river as I dared without risking more of the bank collapsing, I began moving inland along the wall, carefully taking note of every symbol and design I could see so that I could sketch them once I returned home.

It was only as I approached the place where the wall disappeared back under the hillside that I felt a rumble, though the ground itself appeared quite stable. I suppose, thinking back on it, I would call it more of a resonance within myself. Regardless, a small section of the hill above me crumbled away, showering me with dirt as a section of the obsidian silently dropped open in front of me, sinking straight down into the ground to leave a three-foot opening in the wall. Feeling a mix of curiosity and trepidation, I stepped through the opening, channeling the tiniest bit of essence into my caste mark to light my way forward through the six-foot thick wall.

I shortly came face to face with a massive wall of what could only be orichalcum, etched with the same strange symbols that I had seen on the exterior of the structure. The obsidian dome arched impossibly high over my head, vanishing out of sight, though the wall before me was only seven feet high at most. Checking in both directions, it appeared as if the wall extended into the darkness beyond the light from my caste mark. Choosing to continue heading away from the river as I had been outside, I set off to my right, carefully counting measured paces so I could accurately track my journey.

Only a dozen paces from the door, I felt that resonance again, and the meager daylight that had made it inside the structure vanished behind me. Though the Mistress would probably have some harsh criticism for my recklessness, I pressed on, undeterred by the fact that I was for the moment sealed inside this unknown edifice. A dozen paces further in, I found myself at a corner, where the gentle inner curve of the obsidian dome came within three feet of the orichalcum structure.

Noting that the corner was significantly larger than a right angle, I continued my explorations, finding a second corner four dozen paces beyond the first, and a third four dozen paces further. The symbols on the walls appeared identical on both sides, and a quick check around the third corner showed nothing drastically different. Curious as to the overall layout of the area under the dome, I lightly jumped up to catch the top edge of the wall and pulled myself up. The orichalcum was warm to the touch, which was a touch surprising given it hadn’t seen the sun in gods knew how long and discovered a solid stretch of the golden material stretching out before me.

Rather than return to the earthen floor, I continued following the wall from above, counting exactly four dozen paces between each corner until that resonance echoed through me once more and the door I originally entered through slid open on the wall to my right. Reassured that I had an exit at my disposal, I returned to the third corner of the pentagon and dropped back to the floor to finish my circuit of the edge, just to be sure all the walls were, in fact, uniform and that no additional entry points appeared.

Finding nothing upon my return to the door in the obsidian, I once more climbed atop the orichalcum, wondering if it was just some massive slab of the priceless material. Determined to explore as much as possible though, I set out in a straight line from the doorway towards the center of the structure. Having all but given up on finding anything other than this giant slab, I felt the first stirrings of uncertainty since initially entering the dome as I found a pentagonal hole in the exact center of the slab.

Finding no other entrances or structures on top of the slab, I quickly retrieved one of the small stones from outside and dropped it into the hole to gauge its depth. I had only counted to three when the resounding clatter of it hitting bottom reached my ears. Throwing aside any remaining caution, I lowered myself into the hole, propping myself in a corner of the shaft so that I could shimmy down until I could see the bottom. I’m still feeling the effort, even as I record my adventure, and I wonder if I didn’t lose track of how long I descended through that shaft, surrounded by the glow and warmth of orichalcum.

However long it was, I ran out of shaft before I reached solid ground, though I was able to make out an earthen floor some dozen feet below me. Knowing there was no way I could leap back up into the shaft from that distance but unwilling to abandon my exploration and return up the shaft, I braced myself and dropped to the floor. Come to think of it, why did the stone clatter as if landing on metal or stone when the floor was entirely dirt?

At any rate, essence lamps flared to life on either side of me and at the far end of the rectangular room I found myself in. The surge of excitement I felt as I caught a glimpse of a gleaming sarcophagus against the opposite wall was curtailed by a flood of dread as I noticed a silent figure in the middle of the room. I knew now that I was in a tomb, and tombs could house all manner of unpleasant things from the hungry ghosts of their occupants to powerful arcane constructs or bound demons set to guard them for all eternity.

I approached the figure tentatively, only somewhat relieved to find its appearance to be that of a woman shaped from the same earth as the floor. Despite that mildly reassuring observation, I couldn’t help but notice the gleaming orichalcum eyes set in the face that gave me the distinct impression someone or something could be watching. The statue itself showed no signs of life as I carefully moved past it, backing towards the sarcophagus so as to keep it in view at all times. Upon reaching the far wall, however, I had no choice but to turn away in order to examine the casket, finding the entire coffin to have been carved in orichalcum, inlaid with a variety of colored jade, moonsilver, and what must have been starmetal, though I’ve only read about that in books so I can’t be sure.

The visage on the cover was the same as that of the statue, though here she was depicted in the traditional method for burial in full articulated plate, though no apparent weapon was evident in the depiction. There was also a decorative plinth in front of the sarcophagus that, while bearing no markings or other identifying features, was the resting place for a pair of artifacts: a long orichalcum cylinder with intricate carvings and a glimmering light blue ovoid crystal roughly the size of my head.

Having satisfied my curiosity, I turned to look for a door, though that’s another thing I would most likely be berated for. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind though, then I felt that resonance rumble again and found to my surprise that the statue in the center of the room had silently rotated to face me, and beyond it, in the wall near where I had landed, a door yawned open where I swear there had been a solid wall before.

Uncertain of the statue’s intentions, I resolved to test how it would react to an attempt to leave. Sticking close to the wall, I made my way back across the chamber, watching the statue as it silently swiveled to keep me in its line of sight, until I reached the door. Taking one step into the doorway, I feel the resonance echo through me once more as the statue melts into the floor only to emerge inside the door, filling the space and blocking any exit. I hastily back away, and the statue once more melts away only to reemerge in the center of the room.

Now, I know the risks of disturbing a Solar’s tomb, but there didn’t seem to be any other option at the time. Carefully, and with a growing sense of dread as the statue continues to watch implacably from the center of the room, I returned to the sarcophagus. Keeping one eye on the statue for any signs of hostility, I picked up the cylinder from the plinth. Getting no reaction for that transgression, I examined it more closely, recognizing the similarity to pictures I’d seen of the essence lashes used by some Dragon-Blooded, though this one appeared to be far more intricate in its design. I waited another few minutes to see if any kind of trap or response at all would be triggered before putting the lash in my satchel and stepping around to the other side of the plinth so I could approach the crystal and still keep the statue in sight.

The orb seemed impossibly balanced on one end of the ovoid as I gingerly reached out to touch the glass-like surface, half-expecting some ghostly wrath to materialize and exact vengeance for my temerity. The only result however was a half-heard fuzzy hum that seemed to come from inside my own head, causing me to withdraw my hand in shock at the unexpected reaction. With still no sign of any physical danger forthcoming however, I pushed my luck further, picking the orb up with both hands. The hum intensified and grew clearer, and an image of a towering city swam briefly into view before both sight and sound vanished. A little in awe at the spectacle I had just been shown, it took me a few moments before I realized that the statue that had been watching me had crumbled away, leaving only the orbs of orichalcum that had been its eyes resting atop a small mound of dirt.

Stashing the crystal in my satchel as well and, reminding myself to thank the Mistress for the minor artifact next time I had the chance, walked over and examined the orbs that now lay inert. Each had one of the strange symbols I’d seen on the tomb walls above carved on the back of it but were otherwise unremarkable and also unresponsive to the touch. Stowing them in my satchel with the rest of my unexpected discoveries, I continued to the doorway, now unimpeded by any magical obstacles. The hall beyond quickly turned into a tunnel of orichalcum, gently sloping upwards.

Yet again, I’m not sure how long I walked, nor where exactly I emerged from the tunnel, for the next thing I knew I was standing on the hilltop overlooking the Rolling River with the ferry captain calling out to me. According to him, he’d called my name several times over before I’d given any indication I could hear him.

Now, as I think back on my adventure from the comfort of my rooms in The Sapphire Dream, I can’t help but dwell on the mysteries that loom as gaping holes in the tale. I wonder if Master Luciferns will find any answers on his expedition, or, as I theorize might be the case, if there could be something intrinsic to my exaltation that eased my way into the tomb. Needless to say I’ll be following his progress as close as I can, though I can’t risk participating in his expedition personally.

In the meantime, I plan on pulling every tome in the library on runes in the hopes of deciphering at least some of what I observed, and I should ask the Master of Books to find somewhere I can safely experiment with the essence lash I found, if it even still works. I wonder too where best to start researching the crystal I found. I certainly haven’t come across any references to it previously, and it’s far too large to be a hearthstone of any kind. I need to learn more about it before I go playing with it anymore.

I should get some sleep tonight however and take on these problems in the light of morning with a well-rested mind. I hope to hear the details of Wind-chaser’s reaction to the good Captain’s interference in his ambitions too. He seems the sort to have fun with that kind of mischief…