Kurat takes the item from Trickster, "Thank you, I'll see if this can work."

He'll move over with Trickster's mirror and try to look at the reverse of the cloak writing and cast Comprehend Languages to see if he can make sense out of it.

Kurat uses the crystal mirror that Trickster conjured to examine the writing on the Cloak painting. On the one hand, it's a little bit harder because the mirror isn't as precise as a normal one, but that also tends to facilitate un-distorting the writing in some places.

Casting Comprehend Languages on himself doesn't let him see past the distortion but it does let him understand the writing once the mirror works its magic.

The first thing he realizes is that the writing is in Sphinktor--the language of Sphinxes. That's a very rare and esoteric language, so it's not wonder that none of you knew it.

After a few minutes of work, Kurat has it completely deciphered and translated:


One of the monks comes over then and holds out Kurat's regular mirror.

"My apologies, sir. Ozrus gave it to me when he left because you were in meditation," the monk says. You can see that he's also holding the maps.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:00, Sun 15 Nov 2020.

"Oh thank you," Kurat told the Monk taking back his mirror, "Excellent some maps, is there a Old North Road on the map?"

"The Cloak is in the language of the Sphinxes, it appears it was the last of the items created. The inscription reads.

"I met Wildwind Silverheart in the Golden Lion one day, and after a bout of mutual lamenting and considerable drinking, I told her about my vision. To my great surprise, she offered to craft a magical cloak when I didn’t even know I needed one! She called it Ironwind. As it was the last Wonder that I needed, I struggled to find a place to hide it from the passing of years. I finally decided on the Old North Road."

So the cloak is named Ironwind and is at least when originally hidden on the Old North Road."



Kurat will move on to the Medallion and repeat the process, though he'll only cast another Comprehend Languages if needed, it lasts for a while, but I probably will need more than one to do them all not sure how long it's taking.

Trickster popped up on some perch, it didn't matter if it was a chair, table, stack of something. "So an iron wind cloak on a north road?"

"It may be worth relaying that we did identify that the lady who had the visions entertained the idea of having portals made and then spoke to a mage who could make portals. We are hoping that he was a mage to seek the immortality to age like most mages do or is an elf."

"You live in a strange world if you think wizards and Elves live forever," Tyrol comments.

"Portals?"

He glances around at the paintings speculatively.

"You don't suppose each of these paintings is a portal to where the Wonder is, do you?"

"That'd be so cool! How could we tell if there is? I suppose there has to be a way to activate the portal then, right?"

"Hey! Is that what Bash was talking about? Didn't she say something about these brackets in the corners?"

Trick shrugged, "I know first hand that a wizard can halt the aging process. And elves just age like dirt."

"The books mentioned making portals once and mentions a mage good with portals twice. So it is a hyper tiny lead but an unspoken lead is worthless." Trick shrugged again, "Dunno, didn't hear her. From the look of it, they have gone to an insane effort to be sure you cant just see it in one shot."

"I leave the research to smarter folk than I, a preference for brilliant ladies, I deal with change and tricks. Cant even detect magic."

Having figured out the secret of the writing, it's become a question of just spending the time and effort to decode the remaining ones.

Kurat is able to figure out the writing on the Medallion painting.


This message was last edited by the GM at 18:35, Fri 04 Dec 2020.

"The medallion is called Rimegar’s Eye and it enhances the senses of the wearer. It is made of green star metal. Perhaps all have that metal which might aid in finding them. It is at the Golden Lion, whatever and wherever that is," Kurat told the others.

Kurat moved over to the Sword painting and repeated the process, recasting Comprehend Languages if necessary.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:27, Fri 30 Oct 2020.

Trick looked at the painting that was passed away from and then tried to look behind it, more just out of pure morbid curiosity. "So she just made a bunch of green relics and set them out into the world then?" He was more looking at the wall shadow. Most big buildings cant have all magic lighting so some had to use oil and candles. It made ash shadows on the walls, a clean spot. If it was crisp then the painting hadn't been moved at all. If there were a number of edges over time, it was taken down over time.

ECT ECT. It wasn't massively important but it would be nice to know if they set this all up recently or if it's just been sitting here waiting.

Trickster once again examines the paintings, realizing that they are frescoes--they were painted in wet plaster, so they can't be readily removed from the wall. There is no indication of smoke stains on the wall or ceiling, but, then again, if they were painted by Esmeralda, she WAS an Oracle--probably could have painted it in the dark.

While she kept the Wonders a secret, her years of experience with being disbelieved, not to mention more visions, probably thought that knowledge of at least one Wonder might have gotten out, in which case, someone might have come looking for it. If it had been found here, it follows that the others might have been found as well. Scattering them away from the Citadel was merely a way to further protect them.


Once Kurat produces the mirror again, Tyrol is able to identify the writing on the Sword painting as pictographs showing Drow Sign Language. Just as he tries to decipher the writing, a stranger appears at the door, and he goes over to talk to him. Shortly after that, Chess, Vogh and Trickster rejoins them and can help with the translation.

Kurat doesn't need to cast Comprehend Languages again because the script on the Sword painting is in Drow Sign Language, which Chess, who just returned, knows.

This message was last edited by the GM at 18:39, Fri 04 Dec 2020.

Chess ala'riina walks in right next to Vogh and she looked at those that gathered into the chamber.  Seeing there might be a few new faces she allowed her eyes to scan over them for a moment each wondering who they might be or what they might be capable of.

If anyone asked for assistance she would gladly aid in deciphering Drow Sign Language.

Tyrol had ignored the thing with the straw hat because he had no idea what it was or what the thing was that grew into some of large creature and rode off. He wasn't even sure if it had four legs or just two, or maybe only one for all he knew.

He went back to examining the writings.

With the aid of the mirror, he'd been able to un-distort the script until he realized it wasn't lettering exactly, but some sort of pictograph. It took a few minutes to realize the mini-pictures were displaying a hand with fingers in various configurations. Then it dawned on him! It was a sign language.

Of course, he couldn't readily tell that it was Drow Sign Language, but that seemed to make sense to him. When he asked Chess if she recognized it, she readily identified it as Drow Sign Language, and the two of them set about deciphering it. It was odd, in a way... since Drow Sign Language didn't have any 'script' to it--it was just gestures made between two people.

But, he didn't see why it couldn't be used in a manner similar to trail signs. He wondered if Comprehend Languages would work with a sign language or with pictographs.

"Well, there we go. Another one deciphered. That only leaves two to go--the Gloves and the Bracers.:

"We've only got the one mirror, though. Anybody else want to take a turn? Kurat can cast his spell, and I can whip up another potion for the other one."

At Chess's quizzical glance around the room, Tyrol probably mistook her expression to mean 'where did everyone go?'

"Ozrus and Hsang went to where the old village of... Torbel? ...was to see if they could find the crypt of what's-his-name. Lucien, Vashon, and Aniyu went to reconnoiter the volcano. I should think they'd be all back by now, but give them a little longer. We can finish up these last two and if they aren't back by then..."

Kurat turned to Chess while holding his mirror, "So you going to tell us what it says?"

Looking at the Hobgoblin she smiled "Did you ask me to tell you? not liking how he was so boldly assuming that she didn't know he needed help without asking.

Moments later she looked at the sword and spoke to the group in whole, not anyone in particular.

As I was contemplating what would be needed to stop the Great Destruction, I was unexpectedly contacted by Kotokazei.

The wizard offered to craft a magical sword that he wound up calling Frostfire.

Did he, too, have some sort of vision of the destruction to come? Or did word leak out that I would need these things?

When Teljin the Ranger found the ruins of Kraal Kagarraak, that seemed like the perfect place to hide the sword.

Kurat will move over to the shield and work to decipher it and relate what it says to the others.

Vogh listened as Chess explained what she saw.  What the others had done while they were reading the journals was amazing and Vogh said so, "You all have done a wonderful job at figuring these paintings out.  I commend you all!  Does anyone know where Kraal Kagarraak is?"  Even as Vogh asked the question she tried to place the name for herself.

Taking 10 for a 23 on my knowledge check.

"Oh, they've done wonderful... only up to a point!" Bash responds to Vogh's comment.

She'd been just hanging around, watching the others do their thing.

"Kurat, dearie, you've already done the Shield. The only two left are the bracers and the gloves."

"And I still say there's something funny about those decorative brackets in the corners. Each painting has four, one in each corner. But only the one in the lower right is different. Why is that? The other three are solid, but that one has lines through it."

"If it was just on one painting, I could chalk it up to the vagaries of painting. But it's identical... well, mostly identical... on all of them. And there's no... 'mistakes' anywhere else on the paintings, right? Nothing that any of you have found, right?"

"Doesn't that just seem a bit strange to you?"

"We've already deciphered the Shield painting, Kurat," Tyrol tells Kurat a bit more tactfully than Bash.

"Do you want to go ahead and cast your spell or use one of my potions?"

While he waits for Kurat to decide, Tyrol turns to Vogh.

He points to the mark above the Sword painting as he says, "We think it's somewhere in the area but it's in that direction. Let's see... that'd be north-northwest. Sounds Dwarvish, so I'd guess it's up in the mountains."

"The only place we've found on the maps is the village. That's where Ozrus and Hsang went to see if it was really there."

"I think our drawback is none of us are from this area, so if these are all local landmarks, we ain't got a clue!"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:23, Thu 05 Nov 2020.

"Oh," Kurat said having missed that, "Thank you."

He moved on to examine the bracers then to see if he could decipher them. He smiled at Vogh's words, "Thank you friend, we still have a bit more work to do. We'll need probably s skilled bard to make sense of all these people and places mentioned in the writings. Someone that knows about legends and such."

OOC: so confused as to where to post and if we were all in the tunnel to see this

ooc: there are two threads in one here.  It is hard to follow.

Ozrus and Hsang are on a side adventure. Everyone else in this thread is at the monastery.

OOC: Thanks for clarifying that, Ozrus. But, yeah, maybe the GM should have spun you two off into a separate thread.


After Aniyu reorients himself from the teleport back, he walks back into the monastery. He sees that everyone is back there... until he notices Ozrus and Hsang are missing.

"You made any progress yet?" he asks. "And where is Hsang and Ozrus?"

After he gets a reply, he reports what he and Lucien and Vashon found at the volcano.

===== EVERYONE back at the MONASTERY ======


Tyrol hands his concocted potion of Comprehend Languages to Kurat so that he can use his mirror to decipher the writing on the Bracers painting.

With the help of the potion, he realizes the writing is in Gnolling--the language of Gnolls. Anyone else who knows it can assist--it makes the deciphering go a little faster.

After about 30 minutes, the translation is complete:

This message was last edited by the GM at 19:01, Fri 04 Dec 2020.

Lost Remson Mine.. Vogh tossed the name around in her head along with the name Meta Tox.  Though Vogh wasn't from the area it could be likely that she had come across either of the names in either the journals or in any of the many libraries she had visited in her time on Toril.

Taking 10 on her check Vogh gets a 23 for her knowledge check.