Leaf sighs and admits to the Prince, "Not much. But that does not give me any comfort." She leans back behind their cover and looks gravely at Doron. "I believe we must fear what we do not see."


Leaf slunk across the open area with the others, once Deise and Aphail gave the all clear. She looked into the temple and screwed up her face, disgusted at the creeper on the walls.

She turned to the rest of the group and asked quietly, "I was confident that I would not need one... but do any of you have a spare dagger or knife that I could carry with me? Mine is with the great dragon now."

Caith sighs very quietly indeed, and looks to Osric as she murmurs "That would be ruffled feathers speaking, nay careful thinking." She grimaces as she adds "Nay that I'm any better at keeping one from flaring up under provocation. Takes one to know one." before plotting an intercept course to a burning flame of a different kind.

The softness of the words she speaks to her cousin Colm are deceptively gentle as she suggests "I'm nay complaining about ye enthusiasm for battle. However, perhaps ye might wait a moment, listen and get yer arse into cover? Those birdies are watching, and we need to know what that smoke is coming from, in case it's the flame that we seek."

The expression on her face is curiously serene, like the calm before a storm, her words soft spoken, but there is a force to be reckoned with, a wildness barely constrained by civility about the hedgewitch that hangs in the air like a cat  waiting patiently by a mousehole.

She puts one hand up, stretching to reach his shoulder with it, places it there gently on the shining mail he wears into battle, gazes square into his eyes, four bright emeralds in mirrored rage and loss, and whispers fiercely "Nay let those blackhearted fekers get to ye, Colm, or we're lost already. Ye're the Hearth Father, remember? I'm just the country cousin healer..."



"Birdies are watching..." is all Caith says to this sensibleness, but she does give the handsome knight a grateful glance as she turns to Alphail and Deise and asks quietly "Ye had me worried, ye pair of rascals. Now yer back, quiet look this pile of stone about afore Captain starts chewing his sheild?"

OOC: I doubt the Hearth flame is on the roof, but that smoke has to come from something, and unless anyone wants to climb up and check, Caith needs cover to cast PEER to take a quick look about without drawing birdies attention.

Caith casts PEER once she is in cover and within range.



Caith silently offers a dagger, old beyond words but still serviceable, bearing a darkened bronze Selinite style hilt with a wild haired and snaggletoothed woman's head adorning the pommel. Sigils of some kind are engraved down its blade.

If it is accepted, Caith explains wryly "Named blade. Called 'Trust'." then grins as she adds "I am nay the only person to have had a dark sense of humour, for it is as I first laid eyes upon it."

Brannon frowns unhappily. "What is it about the Temple that the snows do not set on it? Something of the stone itself, or is it the Hearthflame that is melting it? I had thought that they wanted the Hearthflame to dent our morale - a symbolic victory. But if there were anything capable of thawing a frozen city... I cannot decide whether the dark forces here are causing the ice, or constrained by it... whether they remove the Hearthflame so Glissom can be frozen, or whether they wish to use it for somethign else..."

In reply to Brannon Darrow (msg # 985):

As Aphail notes the lack of snow, Deise looks over the structure. He reomves a glove and places a  are hand against the outside wall.

INNER SENSE

In reply to Brannon Darrow (msg # 985):

"The stone isn't shimmering with heat. 'Tis odd though. Why only that building?" the hunter agrees, scratching his beard as he thinks on it "The snow around it is untouched."

Alphail also notes "Those plants are like none I have ever seen. I would have thought nothing much could grow in this place. Are they newsprung with the Hearthfire's arrival, or simply hidden before by the snow?"

There is a strange almost imperceptible hum through the stone, but Deise feels no immediate danger...though the strangeness of the pulsing vegetation on his hand leads him to snatch it away soon.

In reply to Aphail MacRoach (msg # 987):

“You sense that too, Aphail. Feels as is the building is .... ALIVE. Wonder what your missus or our holy men sense this?”

Brannon nods thoughtfully at the comments from Aphail and Deise. "Aye, you're right, Aphail. No melting around it, no sign of a thaw above it. It's more as if the snow didn't want to land on it - or that it is causing it. Something unnatural, at any rate."

Caith snaps out of her trancelike state, and returns to the group under cover.

Her report is a swift one as she recounts "Open to the sky by the look of it, a roof of grey clouds." as she looks upward to the sky above her to compare the two.

She continues to describe her vision "Passageways and an intersection of them, tall featureless walls, same stone as the outside. Nay snow or ice in there though, nor any plants. Nay sign of inhabitants or guards where I glanced within either."

OOC: Caith cancels PEER for the MP back before speaking.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:49, Mon 14 Sept 2020.

“Could we get up on top like then and follow on top on the walls rather than down between em?” Osric says rubbing his stubbled chin with a giant shovel like hand as he digests the intelligence from Caith.

Colm rubbed his chin, " We could....though I don't fancy our chances balancing on narrow walls above a drop exposed to our 'feathered friends'.

Osric grinned “Where’s your sense of adventure Laird?”

“I suppose then we get as close as we can and then rush the entrance then.”

Osric readies himself for battle, checking weapons and muttering what probably passes for a prayer to the old gods of battle, his finely honed Combat Instincts alert to all dangers.

Caith looks pensive, and mutters "Maybe. Let me think a moment..." as she trails off, thoughts of something akin swift flight through dark canyons on her mind as she stares into the frozen lake's surface.



Caith nods absent mindedly in agreement, but does not yet speak, still thinking.



There is a very quiet but high pitched squeaking in the icy silence that follows this quip. Caith silently maintains an air of utter innocence as the apparently shivering mouse curled up in her warcoat's lupine ear puts a tiny paw over it's face. The odd sound ceases as the mouse does so.



The hedgewitch cautions him "Give us a moment more to look. Any place that can hold off the winter snow, and has the strangest vines I've ever laid eyes on, and growing in a frozen climate is nay a natural one."

Caith looks to Giles and asks "Is that glowering edifice enchanted? It may seem so, indeed, must be to do what it does, but beware of making assumptions, and look careful like."

She looks to Usopi, grins thankfully again, then turns to Brannon and Giles as she reasons further on Usopi's point "If that Selinite General ran in here from the lake in a panic, then odds are he ran in the front door, nay dived around looking for other ways in. If he found a way in through a maze of passages, then the path to the center lies through that doorway. And the left way..."

The hand she points at the doorway in question with is her left one.

Caith looks to Leaf and asks "Can ye work stone already worked by others, or enchanted stone at all? If we can nay go over swiftly, there's always through, but ye'd need to make a fair sized hole in a hurry, and a fair few of them too. Lot of walls to go through..."

She frowns at the issues involved at that plan then offers "If there's nay other way than a mad dash in, then so be it. If those birdies come plummeting down towards us in there, then we meet them with a forest of blades."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:14, Tue 15 Sept 2020.

As Caith starts rummaging in her pack for her additional knife, Diese swiftly offers his selection of daggers. As he names them off, Leaf and Caith seem to glance at each other as "Thorn" was mentioned. Smiling, Leaf takes the small knife. "Thank you Deise, I think this knife would be quite fitting."

She affixes her staff to her back, and holds the knife tightly in her hand.


Leofwyn nods along with Caith as she makes her suggestions. "Yes, as long as it is stone, I should be able to make some form of doorway or hole... but not too many."

Deise reaches behind his left boot and pulls a small curved blade with a plain wooden handle. The blade is aptly named given its resemblance to a rose bush thorn. He casually flips the knife in the air before catching it blade side becore handing the handle to Leaf.

"Smart choice Leaf. I've had this lady a long time but have lost her sister, Ivy. Welcome to her. Use her well, but if gods luck shines on us maybe you won't have to use it at all. Though I doubt that. Anyway, pointy end out, eh?"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:40, Thu 17 Sept 2020.

The remainder of the companions braced themselves then raced across the open ground toward the temple and up the steps of the ziggurat to join the others....the winged forms continued to circle above but made no stoop or dive and seemed to pay the companions no heed at all...

The companions stood beneath the columms and stared at the strange black basalt walls and their accompanying foliage.

Osric pointed to the slit like entrance in the centre of the wall and headed towards it.

Ducking within he found himself in a narrow space between two like walls that headed off to the left.  After some 50m or so it seemed to turn right....

Javelin poised overhead, Sir Turren shadows Osric.

In reply to Sir Turren Uvedale (msg # 1000):

Picking up the rear with Giles, Deise has knives in hand and easy access to flash pellets.
The paranoid assassin keeps glancing behind and up as if expecting and ambush.

Following the centuries dead Selentines advice the companions trace their hands along the left wall and after many turns find themselves deep within the twisted passageways.

Turren keeps his place in the march as they proceed.

OOC: Leaf casts Candle for 1MP.

msg #1004. This might be a good time to start in a new thread? You know, moments before getting slaughtered?

Caith keeps a hand to the left wall from the moment she passes beyond the doorway, and lets her eyes adjust to the gloomier light of the passageways, watching where she puts her feet, and listening for the sound of descending wings over the rush of feet.

The sight of Alphail in front of her keeps her own feet moving forward, as Caith reluctantly admits to herself that this is the truth of what he told her before the wedding, that clan and country come before one couple's wishes.

He is enough though, enough for me, and that is more worth fighting for... she thinks to herself, and keeps moving, counting intersections and turns as she goes, a trail of greasy deer fat streaks and handprints on the wall behind her.

OOC: Is it that time again already? Fair enough, we're due a new thread, boss.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:42, Fri 18 Sept 2020.

Alphail murmurs softly up and down the line to the others "Beware. Not alone in here." as he looks about slowly, matching his eyes direction to his ears inquiry.

HEAD ACROSS TO:

' Ancient Darkness and Old Blood'