Chess ala'riina looked to Cassandra and listened to the words she was spelling out and did her best to see if she was able to understand it and determine what Language it was, so that she could share with the rest of the party.

OOC: Waiting for DM input.

"No, I don't think so, Kurat," says Aniyu. "Although Cassandra didn't say they were in different scripts, she did imply that they were all the same script. If they are magical command words, then how would you say it if it's in Drow sign language?"

"I'm not sure Tongues would do the trick anyway. A magical command word could just be gibberish... and I'm not talking about the language gibbers speak. So it doesn't necessarily have any 'translation' into any language."

Chess ala'riina can't figure out the language from Cassandra's spelling, but when Lucien says the word out loud, she understands it. It's probably Common, but it could also be Draconic or Elvish. Of course, neither of those languages use the Common script.

It has no translation, no meaning in any language Chess ala'riina knows, which, of course, is all of them. Although she hasn't run across any of them yet, she is aware that there are certain languages spoken by insect-like humanoids that she can understand but still can't speak. Fortunately, this doesn't appear to be one of them.

As Aniyu said, it's gibberish. That one word is a made up word used simply as a command word. She can't say yet whether that's true of all of them.

Vogh thought about the word given as well.  When the others said it could possibly be a command word, that made sense.  Not all magic items needed a command word as they just were magical but if they held other abilities that could be triggered by a command then this would seem to fit.  "Yes, normally command words are words that are uncommon so that they aren't accidentally triggered.  I think as long as you pronounce it properly it shouldn't matter if you understand what it means."

"That's a good point, Vogh," the newcomer agreed. "In fact, if it's a made up word or phrase, it doesn't have to have any meaning at all, because that's not the point of a command word or magical phrase. It's the actual sound that triggers the magic, which is why you have to say it precisely, though I've heard that if you mispronounce a command word, sometimes bad things can happen."

"So, the question now is... does the command word pertain to the item in the painting? Or to the painting itself? I suppose, either way, does it pertain to the painting it's on, to the painting across from it, or to the painting to either side?"

"I certainly can't see any connection between incantato and any of the paintings or objects in the paintings."

"Should we try it on the painting of the armor?"

"Writing does not denote pronunciation though, which could lead to a number of alternatives.

""In can to" where no syllable is emphasized
""IN CAN TO" where all syllables are emphaized
""IN can to" where the first syllable is emphasized
""IN CAN to" where the first two syllables are emphasized
""In CAN to" where the second syllable is emphasized
""In CAN TO" where the second and third syllables are emphasized
""In can TO" where the last syllable is emphasized
""IN can TO" where the first and last syllables are emphasized.

"Thus I do not think a made up word would be used, it would have to be a word at least in her time that the user would be expected to know how to pronounce. Though given the years between then and now it is possible such a word fell out of the lexicon and is no longer in use. There might be a pronunciation guide in the library here that might could explain how to pronounce them properly, of course one could also use experimentation but if different pronunciations do different things that could be a problem." Kurat said.

"Besides that you left out a syllable," Bash tells Kurat, "I don't think it's that complicated. Esmeralda would have known we'd try to pronounce it different ways until we got it right. That being the case, only the right way would produce a result."

"I'm not saying that different pronunciations might not have different results in other places, but we're talking right here, right now. It would defeat the whole purpose if mispronouncing it caused something disastrous. We could all have different accents--would any of them make it wrong?"

"If it pertains to the item in the painting, then nothing's going to happen. And we can worry about what effect it might produce when we find the item."

"So, if no one else wants to say the magic word, then I will."

 "You do realize we said it several times and nothing happened right?" the paladin points out. "And no I tend to think each Wonder can only be used by one person. That's plate mail and the command word is Incanto. Not very common to have a spellcasting paladin, but with that being said I could be terribly wrong.  So let's argue about 500 year old inscriptions correct pronunciation. Not like we have better things to be doing. Fact is guys that languages change, but intent and passphrases don't. Incanto!" he says with emphasis directing his will at the painting.

The plat-clink sound of someone stepping in march into the building announces the arrival of Steiner, his knees raise high as he steps, his cloak bellows from the airy wake of his passage. As they come into sight, Stein's hazel eyes scans the room to take in those gathered.

Without a word, he will then move to join Tim where they are perched, upon reaching them he will greet them with a shoulder smack "AH! still stuffing your face eh?" Without waiting for a reply, though it is clear Timmy did not intend to offer one, "What have we learned?"

Tim gives a low glance to those gathered before responding "Not the most friendly lot, a bit rude and intrusive, but no surprise there. We have 10 artifacts yet pursued and there are about 12 in total... 12 of those with the green star as well, leading some here to think it will be an artifact to each of us. They believe they just uncovered the command word, spelled I-n-c-a-n-t-a-t-o but the pronunciation is undetermined, and each artifact seems to be in a direction of the compass except the four cardinal directions and each seems tied to a language each... two of which are secret languages. The two pursued currently, the boots and the armor, can be ignored and use the languages stiefel and steelheart."

Stein scanned the ground beneath him pensively as he listened, looking back to tim as they finished and offered them a nod and then spoke in turn as if prompted. Just as he begins to speak, an insect crawls across his face, from under the top of his helm to into the side of it. "There is a small army gathered about and in the volcano, there may be more too, even deeper as the volcano houses a path to the underdark. The magma can be drained down into it, as well, it seems. As the magma is being supported by walls of force within the caverns to prevent just that. the many fire creatures use wands of magic to reinforce these walls and the same prevented me from getting a better read of what fuels the magic in the magma. Though, A well armed fire giant and a contingent of other fiery creatures stand guard of these walls and tunnels." Giving Tim's shoulder another smack, he we then turn to the group, but still directs his words towards tim "Is there a plan?"

cleaning his fingernails, tim answers "splitting up, either as individuals or as small groups, to gather the artifacts."

Since no one else was stepping forward to volunteer to say the magic word, nor was anyone discouraging Bash, Tyrol spoke up.

"I don't see an alternative," he says. "We could stand here for weeks debating what the word triggers... and still be wrong."

"Personally, I don't think anything bad is going to happen. Not here in the monastery. It just seems... wrong, somehow."

"Go ahead, Bash! If you're still up to it, say the magic word."

In reply to Tyrol Halverschlagen (msg # 167):

OOC:Lucien already said it

OOC: I'm not sure you did say the word. It looks like it has four syllables, but Lucien and Kurat only ever said three. Bash even pointed that out to you at the time and you ignored her.


"Thanks, Tyrol. I think," Bash responds. "I've been considering this. I figure it's like if you had a magic wand sitting on a table across the room that's activated by a command word. You can say the command word all you want and nothing will happen... until you actually pick up the wand!"

"So, if this magic word has something to do with that painting, it follows, don't it, that you have to be touching it. Or at least standing in front of it. I doubt if the painting has anyway of knowing we're here otherwise."


Actually, she'd just thought of that as she was talking. But that had been her intent anyway. She moved over and stood in front of the painting of the armor. That was all she was going to do, but her own argument convinced her that something more was needed. She stepped forward and placed both her hands on the painting.

Then she said: "Inn-can-tah-toe."

She figured she had as much chance of saying it correctly as the next Cycle.

In reply to Ki'nae Bashemath (msg # 169):

OOC: Ki'nae is correct, the word is incantato but incato was what was said in every variation.

IC: Stein Watches the exchange, an eyebrow quirked. After Ki'nae's explanation was finished, "AH! GOOD PRACTICE!" His quirked eyebrow melted into the joyous expression he now offered. a few wiggly and grubby white things fall from his armor as he pats the belly of it with his hand, "Now we can be ready, throats good and trained, when we have the items! Speaking of, unless we want to make a fight to give ourselves more time, by disabling some fire elementals to disjunct some force walls, then I'd like to make on for the hat. WHOS WITH ME!?" His voices bellows a bit in an act of bravado and passion when speaking the last few words.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 09:09, Sun 29 Nov 2020.

As soon as Bash says the magic word, a pinpoint of blue light begins to glow on the upper right of the painting. The light then starts moving downward in a straight line. Near the bottom, it makes a left turn, traces a line across the bottom, then turns upward, reaching the top and making a right turn to connect back with where it started.

As it moved, it left a line in the painting. When it reached the starting point, the large rectangle suddenly swung open to the right, revealing a passage, dark but with a light at the other end of the passage.

Vashon moves over to where he can look into the opening. After studying it for a minute, he backs away and turns to the others.

"Good work, Bash," he compliments the Gunslinger. "If I'm reading this correctly, that should be a passage of some sort to where the Armor was hidden... the same place Hsang and Ozrus went to."

"The ruins of the village was some miles away, so this is clearly some form of magical tunnel. It's anyone's guess whether we can communicate with them through here. We could try shouting to them, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work."

"So, anyone else want to try stepping into the tunnel? Not you, Bash! You already took your risk. If no one else is willing, I'll give it a whirl."

A strange sound can suddenly be heard which you quickly realize is coming from Tyrol who is rolling on the floor and laughing his ass off!

"Ha-ha-ha-ha, ho-ho-ho-ho, hee-hee-hee-hee!" he laughs.

"You have to admit that's pretty funny!" he manages to say when his laughing finally stops.

"There's a hard way to find the Wonders, and an easy way!  Well, I suppose one could have tried using Locate Object or Contact Other Plane or some such spell. That might have been harder."

"I'm not that brave, Vashon! You want to step into this tunnel, be my guest!"

Cassandra goes over to the tunnel and examines it more closely. She wasn't familiar with any spell that would produce such an effect, but she was well aware that there were hundreds of spells out there that she didn't know. Wizards, more so than sorcerers, had a tendency to modify a known spell into something new that was slightly different. It could be a spell of lesser power that didn't need to be quite as effective as the normal spell, or it might be more powerful as the wizard wanted it to do something extra.

"I like Tyrol's idea. If you didn't discover the magic word, which, you have to admit, is pretty hard to find, you could always travel the distance to the places mentioned. In theory, you don't have to know where these places are--you just had to go in that direction until you found it," Cassandra offers.

"This tunnel kind of looks like a Passwall spell, but clearly it goes through more than just earth and stone and walls. If it does, indeed, go to the village, then it's got the range of a Dimension Door spell, if not an outright teleport. But it's clearly not that, or else Bash would already have vanished and gone there."

"Did anyone try to detect magic on these paintings? I suspect that this door wouldn't have registered. Hmmmm. I wonder... could there be a magic circle carved into the wall beneath the fresco?"

"I'm guessing the tunnel is two-way... that you can go through it to the Wonder, get the Wonder, and then come back. I wonder, though, if there's a time limit? These tunnels might only be a one-time function. After all, if you've fetched the Wonder that it leads to, why would you need to go through it again?"

"I think it's safe, Vashon, for you to try it. I'm hardly going to steal your thunder by offering to go through instead of you."

"I say, go for it!"

Seeing as no one else wants to go through the tunnel, Vashon goes ahead and steps into it. If he can, he'll walk down to the light. As he goes, he glances back every few feet to make sure he can still see the others and the citadel's paintings chamber.

If, as expected, he sees some sort of crypt and/or Ozrus and Hsang at the end, he'll call out to them.

"Yo! Ozrus! Hsang! Can you hear me?"

So what are the rest of us doing while they are off wherever they are?

"As near as I've been able to see, there's only two of us that can wear full plate armor," Aniyu mentions to the others. "Of course, we don't know what the armor's powers are, so it may not be as limited as it appears."

"Also, since it looks like there might be a magical passage to each of the other Wonders, maybe we should decide which one to go for next. Then Cassandra can see if there's another magic word on that painting."

At the sound of the voice, Ozrus's eyes shot toward Hsang. He met the man's gaze and used their shared mental link to express his surprise. "I'm guessing that wasn't you, right Hsang? I'm going to try replying."

Loudly, he replied to the disembodied voice, "I can hear you! This is Ozrus. Are we speaking with Kaballah Kabar? We mean you no disrespect by disturbing your resting place. We only wish to obtain the magical armor the oracle Esmerelda hid upon your body." He kept his eyes trained on the 500 year old deceased body before him, expecting it to move at any moment. Although now that he thought about it, the voice did sound vaguely familiar...

"No, it's Vashon!" he calls back as he pushes against the light. It feels like a wall, and a door like at the beginning swings outward into the crypt.

"Hey! We found a secret word on the painting that when we said it, this passage appeared in the painting."

"I see you found the armor."

Stein would stare as vashon engaged with the tunnel and made way into it and onward. As vash called out, regardless of whether stein heard it, was about the he stopped his stare and turned back to the walls and images left "well, ever forward!"

A few quick, brisk, steps placed him at the painting for the hat, a few buzzing insects danced in and out from under his cloak. In the 'north eastern' painting. There, he quickly drew his own lens out and scanned the painting in an about area for where the incantation was found on the armor's painting

Tim would yawn lazily from their perch and watch the proceedings with a casual, almost disinterested expression.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:02, Thu 03 Dec 2020.

Stein could only make out that there was a squiggly line through the bracket; it was still too tiny to read. He'd need two magnifying glasses to enlarge it enough to make out the individual letters.

Cassandra offers him one of hers, though, and that does the trick.

It appears to be three words: O-A-K-E-E  F-A  N-O-A-K-E-E

 "Need to find the other command words for these other doors if they have them. Didn't another group head out to get another set of the Wonders? If so that one should be priority #1. Then we start running the wheel." he says relatively out of nowhere. "Suggestions are welcome. But arguing the value of lava vs magma or some other silliness can be shelved until we aren't trying to save the entire Prime."