Revonoss's drone doesn't find any openings, which makes sense. Not only would even a small opening let in animals or insects, it would also let in the weather. The interior may not be airtight, but it probably is watertight.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 81):

Anything of interest from Sonaeu's perimeter check?

Sonaeu didn't see anything different from the drone's scans. The climb to the top was long enough for everyone to acclimatize themselves to the slightly thinner atmosphere due to altitude.

Sonaeu could feel the warm southern wind that blew across the mountain top, which helped explain the presence of the sparse vegetation on the mountain. It's about midday, so there's no thermals going on at the moment. In a couple of hours, though, a strong downdraft will come off the mountains as the cold upper air rushes down to fill the void left by the hotter rising air of the ground below.

She's also able to realize that the top of the mountain had probably been leveled off to provide a flat area to build the temple on.

Other than that, she can't see anything of significant. There are no writings on the outside of the temple... not even any decorative carvings. All the decoration is the architecture.

Revonoss decides to just try the door.

"Well nothing to see on the outside. Lets see if this is as easy as i hope."

Taking one other opinion about the lack of value in waiting outside Saia steps up to the big central door and gives it a hefty shove or tug depending on which way the hinges go, or how they appear designed to open.

”Only one way to find out.”

The doors appear to be solid and heavy and there are no hinges visible which probably means the doors are meant to swing inward away from you. Also, there are no handles visible.

However, there does appear to be a keyhole set into the door.

When Saia pushes on the doors, they don't budge. Even though they don't open, her effort does tell her that the doors aren't unlocked and that the locking mechanism anchors them at the sill and lintel. There's also a small possibility that the doors are barred from the inside; this doesn't seem likely unless whoever put the bar in place had another way out, such as magic. Or else died in there. Also, there probably would have been a bit of give to the doors if there was just a bar.

Again, this all makes sense since exposed hinges would be subject to the weather, and something has to secure the doors from blowing inward with a strong wind.

"So far for the easy way. Lets see if i can convince it to let us in."

And with that he kneels in front of the key hole and takes out his tools to see if its compliant to him forcing it open.

ooc: Engi and computer are the same. So open sesame? Bad roll though. :-(

12:17, Today: Revonoss rolled 17 using 1d20+12.  Open lock.

Revonoss could also have used Engineering to determine the difficulty of the lock, which he could also use if he'd failed the initial effort, but, as it turns out, the difficulty was only 15, so he manages to disengage the lock. Although the lock itself was not electronic, there does seem to be some sort of electromechanical component to the mechanism within the door for he can clearly hear the bolts disengaging.

Just as clearly, the lock was never meant to keep a skilled or intelligent person out of the temple.

Once the bolts are disengaged, the doors swing open easily, obviously well-balanced to facilitate an ordinary person being able to open them, although how an ordinary person would have ever gotten here is debatable.

As the doors swing open, you all can see that the interior appears to be one large room. It is well lit, which he realize is because of a dozen or so 'deck prisms' set into the ceiling along the edge.

There is a single bench set crosswise in the middle of the room; otherwise, it appears to be empty. However, the walls are carved with vertical script... that is, letters/words/symbols that are intended to be read in columns. The two side walls and the back wall have writing on them, but the front walls do not. Not that there was much room for it anyway what with the three sets of double doors.

Offering Revonoss a nod of her helmet Saia pushes the doors wide open and strides on into the big mostly empty room.

Rather than focus on the writing she first looks around for other doors that may lead into deeper chambers, then failing that attempts to move the off bench into a closer alignment to the walls of the room.

Upon hearing the door unlock and begin to open, the ysoki sighed in relief.  After all, the steps weren't the most comfortable thing to sit on.  As he moseyed into the temple, he glanced at the door and the mechanism and assumed he could have figured it out.  He did have to break into the bathroom that one time Pip had locked herself in due to some existential teen drama.  This couldn't have been any harder.

While Saia and any others wandered the room searching for dust bunnies or whatnot, Socket parked his furry little arse on the bench and took in the grandeur of the room.  This must have been some final point of relaxation and meditation.  He didn't want to dishonor the builders by not doing that.

When the big oaf came over to try and move the bench, he complained "Hey!  I'm sitting here.  You're disturbing the cosmic peace and harmony."  He stubbornly refused to get off the bench if she persisted.

As everyone was focusing on different things about the interior of the temple, Culhayn took his time to observe the writings on the wall. He doubt it, but maybe there was a chance he could divine something out of it. He had heard stories of different and unrelated cultures having by a matter of chance or whim of the gods the use of some identical symbol or another, and there are theories that say that the discovery/gift of the drift beacons were bestowed by the deities to more than one star system at the same time.

If evolution could, by different means, get to the same solutions, maybe linguistics could also - specially when the will of deities was on the line.

He had a tendency to take the long view of things, so rushing into a new experience wasn't something he was prone to do.

One of the reasons he traveled with others was his own shortcomings, which is why he left it to the others to get the doors open.

Now, as he brought up the rear, he was instantly fascinated by the interior of the temple and immediately began assessing its culture significance. At the same time, he was evaluating all the physical properties. His attention was first grabbed by the light source. The dozen equally-spaced crystals around the edge of the ceiling provided plenty of light for the interior and yet kept out any of the harmful rays of the  sun.

On the other hand, they'd be pretty useless at night... unless they somehow amplified moonlight and starlight.

Likewise, he wondered if there was some significance to the position of the bench, other than a convenient place to sit while one read the writing on the walls.

12:34, Today: Solsantharis rolled 17 using 1d20+7 ((10)). Perception check for the prisms specifically but also in general for the whole interior.

Revonoss gestures the others inside with a small smile and enters last making a recording of the text on the wall with his drone just in case it might be important later and to make a scan of the room to see if there are any hidden areas and if the interior size matches the exterior.

There do not appear to be any other doors out of the room other than the three main double doors at the front.

Saia doesn't really see any significant misalignment of the bench; in fact, she suspects that the bench (and possibly the room itself) were built to exact specifications such that there is precisely the same distance between the bench and the walls regardless of where you sat on the bench.

Both Saia and Culhayn have no trouble reading the writing on the walls. The left-hand wall is religious doctrine for Epoch. The back wall is religious doctrine for Casandalee and the right-hand wall is the same for Brigh.


Solsantharis can't really see anything about the prisms that would indicate they have special abilities, but, as he's looking up at them, he realizes that the ceiling of the room is black. It's 20 feet above and the light from the prisms tends to obscure viewing the ceiling, but he can see that the ceiling also seems to have dozens, perhaps hundreds, of little pinpoints of light set into it.


Revonoss's drone records all the writings on the wall, and confirms that the interior dimensions are consistent with the outside dimensions, allowing for very thick walls (confirmed simply by examining the door frame).

The drone, using its equivalent of lidar, detects a secret compartment on the back wall. While the walls appear to be made of marble (or at least the inside walls are covered in it), it was built in large blocks. At the back, however, one of the blocks has a much deeper outline. From the floor to a height of about 3 feet and 7 feet long, that block has deeper crevasses along all four edges.

Although there does not appear to be any machinery in the place, this could be some sort of access panel to that machinery. At the very least, there might be life support to the place... particularly temperature regulators.

"I might got something here."

He says as he taps the wall part he scanned out and expecting it to hold the rooms machinery looks for a way to access it.

"What is it, Revonoss?" Culhayn approach the mechanic.


OOC: In what language(s) are the writings on the wall written?

The text on the wall has been written in Akitonian, as far as Culhayn can tell.


On the back wall, there are 10 columns of text, each about 3 feet wide. The compartment is centered across the 4 center columns.

He also notices that the last word in the fourth column is Epoch, the last word in the sixth column is Casandalee, and the last word in the seventh column is Brigh.

When the stern woman who had drawn on him sat down on the bench, Socket figured it was time to find something else of interest and moved over to the panel that was attracting attention.

"Need a screw driver?"  He helpfully offered as he poked his head around to see what they were looking at.

He leaned back on the 5th column and crossed his arms. "Wow, 12 feet wide?  They certainly didn't build small did they?  Did you figure out how to open it?"

As Socket decides to levitate his behind from the bench and try to be useful Revonoss looks at him and shakes his head.

"Not yet. Just found this area is not solid like the rest. Looking for a way to access it now but if you feel like making yourself useful for a change don't let us keep you from it."

There's no big red button, but the fact that each wall was dedicated to one of the component gods of the Triune, mention of all their names at the bottom of the columns over the compartment seems highly suspicious. There might be some sort of code or sequence to them, but simply touching the symbols in the order presented causes the compartment to start sliding open.

It slides out about 4 feet. At first, it looks like a coffin that has just slid out, but both Revonoss and Socket readily identify the 'coffin' as a 'medical' stasis unit.

There is clearly a body inside it.

Mere coincidence?  Of course not.  Socket looked triumphantly at Revonoss.  Obviously it was his effort of leaning against the wall while others poked around that opened the compartment.

His look of victory changed to confusion as the treasure he was hoping to find proved to be just a body.  "Well that's disappointing.  Does this thing even work?  Is that guy dead?"

He leaned in and poked the body on the cheek to check for a reaction.

Culhayn had let the two mechanics to their own devices, and it seems like they had found the way to open up the compartment. He saw the "coffin" - which wouldn't exactly be something all that strange in a temple, but the names of the deities on the wall hinted at a different story. If there was a body into it, it could well be a...

And the Ysoki just decided to put his hands on it!

"Don't! Oh, damn, be curious, but be careful as well. It could be trapped, or a plague bearer!" Culhayn doubted these assumptions, but even then, he would prefer if Socket bear the possibilities of danger in mind than not. He approached to have a better look and to try to assess the situation. "There are means to ascertain life statues without getting all touchy, you know?"

22:32, Today: Culhayn rolled 15 using 1d20+11.  Medicine Check to assess the "corpse" situation.

”Touching it shouldn't be a problem, unless you expect some kind of contagion that can penetrate the seal on your suit, in which case we are probably already dead and physical contact shouldn't matter.”

Saia doesn't touch the thing herself, but then again she doesn't come within arms reach of it either, staying out of the way of those more suited to investigation, instead keeping her attention on a wider scope of the room.

As Culhayn investigates the body Revonoss as surprised by a body in stasis as any other inspects the corpse maintaining machinery. If there where any readings or any information on their new charge. Why he was there and if they could thaw him out. Not that he was going to now.

"Did these wall say anything about a frozen relic? Not that i expect this will be some ancient criminal who destroys worlds for a living but well you know."

"Plague?"  Socket almost jumped at the comment as he obviously hadn't thought that possible.  He nonchalantly wiped his hand on Culhayn's suit to get any infection off.

He then circled around to the other side of the coffin away from the scholar and busied himself with seeing if he could get into the space the coffin had vacated inside the wall.  If the guy had been rich, he'd have to leave some sort of wealth for when he woke up.