Lakia had, it seemed, become the unofficial leader of the group and in truth that was no bad thing. They needed someone to step up and so the Naerikk did. There was still a feeling of shock among them which was almost palpable, but they could not stay in that cavern, because to do so would be to die a slow death. Instead, they determined that they were going to continue in the direction the spider-snake had come from and follow Jackson's technique of map-circuit-explore. It had worked thus far, after all.
In the spider-snake room, Padraig took samples. It was the right thing to do, if they were going to continue with what Jackson had established. He also took the time to try and find something personal of Jackson's and he managed that, also. A plain but long-worn wedding ring, judging by the pale white indentation on his finger when Padraig removed it, and a small, plain silver locket.
That done, they made their way together the three of them with the sleeping Tunawa in Padraig's pocket, leaving behind the body of their fallen guide.
In the new room, with the cages, Lakia just tested the door of the cage with the humanoids in it, and there they discovered something interesting. The bars were warm to the touch, and whilst the bars themselves were in a state of very good repair, like they were immune to the elements, the lock mechanisms in the cages were
not and with just a little pressure from Lakia, the cage door swung open, and then fell off as the hinges, too, crumbled away.
Should they try the same with the keys, they would find that they, too, crumbled.
However, what that meant was that there were now four cages which they could access.It also meant that they had four metal bar doors which were warm, if they could think of any use for them. If they followed Amaris' suggestion of doing so one cage at a time, then they would start at the cage with the humanoids in there. Since it was, by its very nature, open.
In there were huddled together a group of six adults and two children. They ranged in age and in race ~ there were two Biqaj, two Humans and two mixed-race adults, the children were both Human, it seemed. They were four females, two males for the adults and both female children.
Padraig recognised one of the children. He'd seen her twice already down here, after all. Once, he'd smiled at her as he held her hand. She was wearing the same dress as she had been when he'd seen her and her feet were bare.
Everyone recognised one of the human women. Especially Lakia~ she'd been close to that face which had been (and still was) hung in the ceiling of the room behind them in the split trill before being submerged in freezing water, after all. They also recognised the
other child ~ from a statue in a different room, where there had been a table and frozen food. Come to which, she was held in the embrace of a woman and the two of them were in exactly the pose the statues had been in.
Yet these were, without a doubt, the corpses of people who had been flesh and blood. They were all perfectly preserved, like they might have died just breaks ago, yet judging by everything else, they had been here a long, long time. They were, indeed, frozen in the way that the corpses had been in the first room. Of course, when Lakia had punched
them they had shattered.
There was nothing which was directly and immediately useful to the group. It was more than possible that the corpses here also had trinkets on them, but that would require a more purposeful searching and moving of the bodies.
If they went to the next cage, in there they would find corpses of four legged animals. It was here that things started to get slightly more weird, or at least weird in a different way. In there were wolves. Again, frozen in perfect form, like they had just died, but these were not whole. Precisely, they were frozen
together in one very strange, very unnerving wolf-statue. Amaris, who was a student of zoology, after all, would be able to ascertain that this was a sort of mish-mash golem-like construct of maybe ten, but probably eight wolves. Chopped up and smooshed together, but for what purpose was not clear.
The
third cage was more odd. Again, it contained a strange construct of pieces of animal, but this time it would take Amaris to identify this. In
this cage there were spiders and they were spliced up and mixed in with snakes. Amaris would have to work hard to identify number, but as an estimate, there were about eight there, too.
Then, the final cage and here, they could all recognise the animal, although it was in the same state of being in parts that the others were. Beautiful white tigers were the inhabitants of the final cage.
One thing that they saw in each of the caves was that each of the humanoids and each construct of animal had a number of large (about the palm of your hand sized, roughly) apparently crystalline snowflakes around them. Each person had one, either in their hand, on their lap or so on. The constructions had them dotted around, also.
That was all they could find by simply looking. Did they draw, did they take samples? And once they were done ~ where did they go? Continuing on in this direction would lead them to where the spider-snake came from, presumably, since the tracks led out of the exit opposite where they had come in.
| ! | Message from: Pegasus |
| I will post again on the 5th June or sooner if everyone has posted by then. |
|
| This thread, and this adventure, is closed to new players. |
|
| In your next post please let me know: |
| What samples (if any) you are taking from the previous room. |
| Whether you are continuing to map / sample etc. As previously, if you don't tell me, I'm going to assume not. |
|
Samples
Padraig has taken samples of:
3 x yellow goo
3 x purple goo
5 x small purple spider bits
5 x small white spider bits
5 x spider snake pieces
3 x black sound-stealing ice
He has also found:
1 x wedding ring
1 x small silver locket
