Enjoy the next step in life? Borun wondered. She has got to be joking. As if there was any "enjoyment" to be had from teleporting to a potentially dangerous location during wartime. Nevertheless, Borun volunteered to travel.

"I should go with the first group." Borun declared solemnly. "There may be unforeseen danger at the destination."

"Of course, Borun. That is sensible," Radagast agreed, trying to keep the smirk out of his voice that implied none of the others could fight.

"I, too, shall go with Lady Isile. This city of the undead might have other dangers."

"Anira, that just leaves Grimfast and Saxon for you to bring along. We are in murky waters here, perhaps more so than in Mordor, for this is unknown, whereas Mordor was just evil through and through. Thus, I shall let you decide how soon to follow us. Woman's intuition may well serve you better than magic or logic."

Those crossing the broken terrain have climbed to the top of the stairs, while the other group headed north along the base of the cliff.

Lady Isile has no problem flying up high enough to spot the distant city... now that she knows what it is. It wouldn't have been wise to teleport into an unknown place anyway, but it was good to know what was there just the same.

She'd been able to pick a spot that looked like it would be hidden from the city proper... an upturned boulder. Landing again, she explained what she saw and where she was planning on teleporting. Not knowing what else might be in the area, it was a good thing Borun was going with her.

When everyone was gathered around, Lady Isile teleported herself, Radagast, Tilaleria, and Borun to the spot she'd selected.

Anira waited for a few moments before she also teleported--to Lady Isile--with Grimfast and Saxon.


The two teleporters arrive just where they intended... behind a large somewhat-flattened stone seemingly thrusting up from the ground. It's about 30 feet high, half that across and maybe 10 feet thick. It appears to be much like an iceberg, with a large part of it buried underground, so there's no chance of it toppling over even though it is up-thrust at a 60-degree angle.

There is no signs of life in the area. Lady Isile's landing spot was another slab of rock, tilted at only a slight angle. Similar rocks of varying size surround them, haphazardly scattered about at dissimilar angles.

The rocks form numerous crevasses and nooks and crannies, but nothing comes crawling out of them. To those use to the green, this place is eerily silent.

As the closest thing to a scout that the group has, Tilaleria cautiously peers around the edge of the upturned stone. More jagged rocks lead up to the city wall about 300 feet away, but they get smaller and less jumbled as they get closer to the city wall.

The city wall soars around 120 feet into the sky, seemingly made of the same stone as that scattered all around them. Some of the jumble at the base of the wall appears to have come from the wall itself, as there are gouges in it, and the once pristine parapet has gaps in it.

The oddest part of the wall, however, is the symbols and runes both carved and painted on it. The few black-painted runes hurt Tilaleria's eyes when she looks at them. Other than those, she recognizes warding runes, defensive runes, and protection runes, plus dozens that she can't identify.

Teleporting Saxon was an easy enough thing to do as he didn't have his wagon till later. Once on the other side, however, his skin had taken on a slightly darker tone and his eyes burned even brighter. The closer he got, the brighter he burned internally.

He was quiet but followed the casters. He did have a number of languages that others either wouldn't or couldn't know.

Who keen if his up bringing would pay a minor stipend of lore and luck with the runes.

"Thank you" Tilaleria said as they arrived at their destination. As Lady Isile went back for the others she took another look at the runes. They were unpleasant to look at, and hurt a litle, but there were ways of dealing with that taught to her by one of the finest Loremasters in the world.

"I wonder what caused this destruction" she thought aloud as she took in how the blocks were laid out and looked at the edges of the stone"

Curiosity satisfied she turned to Radagast. "Do we need to go through the city or around it. If the the magic to detect the entwives points onwards, let's do the same again... jumping tens of miles a time. If we zig zag then the triangulation of the detection magic's direction will allow us to make some estimate of range"


I have to admit I feel very scouty.
I'll take 10 on stealth (not feeling pressured) 31
07:38, Today: Tilaleria rolled 47 using 1d20+28 with rolls of 19.  Perception.
07:29, Today: Tilaleria rolled 40 using 1d20+21 with rolls of 19.  Knowledge Arcana.
07:35, Today: Tilaleria rolled 32 using 1d20+17 with rolls of 15.  Knowledge Engineering.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:34, Tue 07 Mar 2017.

Saxon moved behind and to the other side of Tilaleria, "Although I don't cherish the idea of going through... The shortest distance between two points is a line." He frowned, Tila was a cheering presence for him, but the idea of the city was a downer through and through.

"Such places carry the weight of emotion that had lingered. Like the Bree Barrows back home. The weight of presence holds for a very long time. Kinda why I stuck with a home one can pick up and go. Best to save a house for the positive feelings of family." He smiled then, nothing did good for an area like the feeling of home and community.

"We discussed this before," Radagast replied to Tilaleria.

"We simply don't have enough knowledge of this amulet, nor of these lands, to say what will work and what won't work. Something created the amulet, and not so long ago, so using it may lead us right into a trap."

"It seems passing strange that we can use it in the way that we are. I would have anticipated that had I created the amulet; I don't think we can afford to say that the enemy is any less perspicacious. It may turn out that there are wards that make the amulet less effective... less accurate... the closer we get. We could wind up teleporting into some place that we cannot then teleport out of."

"The runes you saw on this city's walls are dark and dangerous ones, lending credence to that hypothesis."

"I'm not saying we shouldn't use it, but the more often we use it, the more likely it is to draw attention to ourselves. We still know that the Ent-wives are to be found farther east, beyond The Drift that we are now crossing."

"As for entering this city, the Dwarven words on the steps said that making peace with this city will give us a way into the next city, and that one may have answers we seek."

"We are using it often" Tilaleria pointed out. "If we move at an angle to the direction of travel we have a reasonable chance of getting more information" it seemed pretty simple to her, but she wasn't one of the Wise, so she decided not to push it any further.

She nodded at the summary of why they were here

"Do we try and sneak in or should we announce ourselves" she asked. It was obvious from her body language that she preferred announced herself, but she was waiting to see what the others wanted

The walls of the city were made of great slabs of stone set upright--nothing that Dwarves couldn't do, but these were clearly not of Dwarven construction. Tilaleria has no way of knowing--just from observation--whether the stones were put into place by physical effort or by magic.

The broken terrain was most likely created by powerful magicks wielded by more than one wizard probably causing massive earthquakes. Such magic would have been directed at the city to bring down the walls. That it survived is astounding. The runes carved into the walls may have had something to do with that.

Those runes are protection wards; the size of them indicates powerful magic was needed just to activate them, further explaining why the earthquakes were brought into play.

Some of the other runes on the walls were 'bastion runes'--painted on the surface to reinforce the material itself, making it stronger and less brittle.

The black runes Tilaleria was having trouble with are Symbols spells. Symbol of Pain, Symbol of Insanity and Symbol of Death were the three she could readily identify... all three of which were painful to her.

It seems probable that the distance at which she was viewing them is what kept them from being fully effective. She is perplexed at how they could still be active after so long of a time.

Finally, Tilaleria did spot... 'something' moving atop the walls. She could not readily identify them as people, nor as undead, and they did not seem to be performing some sort of ongoing patrol. The seven Keepers behind the rock slab would not have been visible to any of those on the wall had they been looking.

Borun peered closely at the worked stone of the city's walls. "No dwarf raised these walls." He shook his head. "Indeed I don't recognize the architecture at all."

When Tilaleria pointed out the seven "Keepers", Borun replied, "Well spotted! I think we should take a closer look." With that, he crept towards the figures, using the rocks and slabs as cover.

OOC: Stealth roll 22.

OOC: Yes, I know it's been a loooong time since the Keeper threads were in play, but... you guys and gals are the Keepers! No one from the city walls can see you there behind the upturned slab of stone. Lady Isile had chosen her spot well.

"The Dwarven riddle on the stairs told us how to get inside, didn't it?" Grimfast asked the others in a subdued voice.

He'd never been in a land like this, and had no idea how well sound would carry, though, presumably, voices could echo off the rocks. Whether it would reach those on the city wall was unclear, as was whether they could even hear, being undead.

He'd copied down the words from the steps, as had several others, but he pulled out the paper and repeated them now.

"This is what it said:

'Where the cold wind blows and the bright stars shine,
Where darkness abides and the fat rats dine
Let Naethrul’s path revealed with summer wine
Count the wings for flying nine'

"Now that we're here, does it make any more sense?"

He glances up at the slightly overcast morning sky, but did not see any stars, bright or otherwise.

"Where the bright stars shine... wouldn't that be night?"

Anira was relieved when they teleported correctly, letting out the breath she'd held as they'd winked through the ether.  She took a little bit to study their surroundings from their hiding place and listened to Grimfast recite part of the runes they'd seen before.  "I wonder if they mean the top of a tower ... where the cold wind blows and the bright starts shine," she said thoughtfully, her voice kept low as well to prevent it from carrying.  She wasn't great with riddles a lot of times but was trying as sometimes even the most innocent of statements could help.

Saxon smiled and looked at the wizard with a knowing glittering his eyes. Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! Ring a dong! hop along! Fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo! He chucked to himself remembering the man prancing about and singing when it was time to learn what herbs did what.

"The cold wind and starts bright may likely talk about the location as you can only see all the starts so far from fire and candle light. The sing of the dancing dead brings shadow and darkness, yet rats still feast even as the dead do dance. "

"Not sure about the summer wine though... If you want wine for the first day of summer you need to store it the third week of the eleventh month. Otherwise it wont be settled, it will be like drinking sand."

"Tom is better at riddles than me, I am far to literal."

Tilaleria informed the others about the symbols, making sure that she didn't look at them again

"Riddles can have a million interpretations, and which ever one is correct will look obvious afterwards, even though it has nothing to differentiate it from other equally valid interpretations." she observed "We should probably try all of them. Waiting for nightfall seems sensible. I have a little Laketown wine in my bag that I have kept for a special occasion, and we could perhaps sip that at midnight tonight. The top of a tower is as good as many places, and perhaps better then most"

"I've never heard of 'summer wine' before," Radagast said then. "Winter wine, yes, but not summer wine. Perhaps the riddle was merely referencing that winter wine wouldn't do."

"'Where the bright stars shine'... Why would the emphasis be on 'bright stars'? I can think of two explanations for that. They could have been referring to particular bright stars from a constellation that passes through the night sky at limited times or elevation. For example, the star Mizar is in the constellation of the wolf, which is only visible at certain times of the year on the southern horizon. That could mean that it is the south wall that we must examine."

"The two brightest stars in the sky are the Morning Star and the Evening Star. While they appear across the entire sky at various times, there are also times when they only appear in the morning or evening, and don't rise very high in the sky. The only time they appear together is to the east."

"I'm inclined to go with the latter. Otherwise, it might mean that we can only gain access to the city at certain times of the year. While that could be the case, it doesn't seem very... practical. 'Come back in six months and we'll talk to you.'"

He stops there to see what everyone else had to say. As Tilaleria said, more than one way to interpret a riddle.

"Most wine is made from grapes collected in mid summer" Tilaleria said thoughtfully. "A rare few are left to rot on the vine and perhaps could quantify as 'autumn wine'. As always the answer will be obvious afterwards, but equally likely the use of the word summer wine is to imply 'normal wine'" she shrugged "I'll take a sip anyway and perhaps other people have other alcoholic beverages to test too. I suspect you are right, but we can try"

She liked the explanation of the bright stars. Simple and obvious. She thought back to her knowledge of astronomy for when the next conjunction took place.



OOC thabks for telling us about the stars: would never have guessed that. In real world the morning star and evening star are the same thing of course! Venus

Knowledge geography: 34

Saxon tilted his side to side, "I have a potion that is either a hallucinogenic or fire belly liquor, depends on what I add to it... I work alchemy so I can pretty much make it do whatever I want." He tapped his foot a bit, "I can only make a few of them. But the option is there if anyone wants them." When it came to everything else he was at an absolute loss. He was use to his little spot in the old forest, not the open wide world... it was scary out here!

Borun had little to add to the riddle discussion. His mind was far too literal to take such leaps of interpretation. Instead Borun proposed a practical approach.

"Let's go to the east part of the city and find the highest point - perhaps a tower? Then we camp there overnight. I suppose those who want to indulge in ... beverages could do so."

"Climbing up onto a tower... isn't that the same as entering the city?" Grimfast said.

"Telling us to enter the city to get permission to enter the city seems... well, absurd."

"Cold winds don't always blow up high. Hot air rises, so it will always be colder near the ground. And there are valleys where the cold wind comes down off the mountain that can freeze your blood!"

"It sounds like we should explore the east part of the wall. If we find a cold wind there, that's where we look. If not, then I guess we climb."

The group had been approaching the city from the west, and the teleports had taken you a bit to the north on the west side, so now you need to move around to the east side. Climbing over the rocks near the base of the city isn't as hard as they aren't as large as the ones out on the 'plain'. It's almost as if some powerful magic had kept the upheaval from affecting the city--perhaps those very runes and symbols on the walls.

The east side of the city appears just like the rest of the walls. Some runes have been carved into the stone, but other runes and all the symbols have been painted on. They do not seem faded from the elements.

There was a large set of double doors on the west side, and you pass another similar set along the north. There is yet a third set on the east side. Not surprisingly, the doors are also made of stone. However, they are also bound with iron straps crisscrossing each door diagonally. In the center diamond formed by these straps is carved the name of the city: Naethrul.

There is no remaining trace of any road that might have once led to or from the doors, but the ground slopes down and away from the city to the southeast. The jumbled boulders make it hard to tell, but there might once have been a north-south valley off to the east.

Presumably the clue indicated your efforts will be more fruitful at night.

Will you make camp and wait for nightfall? Or will you explore a bit?

"We should go inside and have a look around now, in the daytime," Borun suggested. "We might find something useful or relevant in there."

"I would wait for nightfall and try the ideas we just had" Tilaleria said slowly thinking about Borun's words "That view is amplified by the fact that there is no obvious way in, and the place has clearly been magically warded. I'll remind you of the symbols of death and other dire effects that are still active although weaker. I suspect it's only because we had distance on our side that we were not affected. This isn't something to be assayed lightly: the magical defences on this place are on a level that make the Valley of Singing Gold look like a child's playground"

"As opposed to waiting for six months, nightfall doesn't seem to be too long," Radagast concurs with Tilaleria.

"Although the riddle didn't actually imply that we needed to look when the two stars were evening stars, it can't hurt to wait till then."

"Besides, I don't think there's any danger out here. I think the danger is within the city walls. However, I am a creature of the Green. I cannot get an accurate reading on this stone-tossed land."

Tilaleria took the lack of enthusiasm for conversation or entering the city as a sign that they were going to wait. She found a nice place to rest and entered that semi-awake, semi-asleep mode of thought that she could keep up almost forever. She clearly thought that following Radagast's advice was a good idea and having spent so long traveling a few hours meant nothing