Tide of Shadows

[rhoenix]

At first, Fehl was highly tempted to simply grab the weird statue and make his way topside - and then the wizard decided to get curious.

Fehl leaned impassively against the wall, watching the wizard carefully examine the object. He was just becoming very, very bored when the wizard straightened, and spoke up about his findings. Soon, Fehl looked more than a little concerned, darting little glances at the very odd statue, now one that could mess with his mind. This caused him to immediately rethink his plans. However, it didn't take him long to come to a decision.

"Yeah, I'll be right back," said Fehl, very matter-of-factly. He then turned on his heel, and marched back toward the entrance. Once he reached it, he immediately called upward.

"Hey, Father Bartel, Lady Cerdiwen, come down here! The new guy and I may have found whatever may be causing this. The new guy thinks it's a statue that messes with peoples' dreams, and that we probably shouldn't spend the night here."

Without waiting for a reply, Fehl began walking back toward the caverns.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Well, not necessarily because of the statue" the wizard called up

"Either the statue or the god it might represent has a bad side, or someone really doesnt want anyone to find this thing! I would recommend those of an ecclesiastic bent examine it, you might remember something from History of Religion seminary instruction that I do not! Either way I am not sure it is safe to transport! Plus, we need to exchange information! I Found the Priest's diary!" All that was at a good belt.

[Charon]

The construct watched impassively as the group passed by without a second glance, then continued on his way to the church. The golem brought it's attention to the two guards for only a brief moment before it passed through the doors of the church.

The construct paused for a few moments before it began searching meticulously through the church, moving bodies out of the way, or examining the bodies more closely, not certain what he was looking for, but if magic had been involved with this mass-death than there would be something out of the ordinary, perhaps any signs of a struggle among the dead, or an object that looked out of place in this type of house of worship. The construct didn't expect to find much, but without being distracted by smells he could keep at this for as long was needed.

[Academia Nut]

While the halflings worked on recovering the body of their comrade, their leader had entered the altar room and looked at what the tall folk were so interested in before he noted, "I am surprised and impressed by your conviction. Most adventurers I know of would figure out some way to recover something of jade and gold of ancient origin with magical properties. That statue has to easily be worth a large fortune and significant prestige to someone with enough money."

Musing for a while, he did say, "Although... you say that it is possibly somehow related to what has happened here? My people have travelled these plains for millennia, and we remember much. Our caravan was destroyed, but we still have our record wagon. It is the core of our caravan, it is our history, and we have made sure to recover it. Normally I would not allow big folk such as you to get near it, but if you think it might have some bearing on what has happened, we could bring it here."

Meanwhile, Eight continued to find absolutely nothing in the church. The people had just died, and however it had happened, it left no trace, no marks, and no evidence.

[Rogue 9]

Bartel walked down the cavern to the altar room and looked around. "Well, now. This is interesting. So, what have we got here?" He took a hard look at the statue and the altar.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Ophidia looked at the halfling
"That would be very beneficial yes. It would help a great deal to know who the people that lived in this area that long ago were. And you might have some record of what was going on here near the time that this place fell. But statues of ancient gods are almost always a bad idea to move unless you know the god you are working with and whether the statue itself has magical properties. And between it reflecting my Mage Sight and a lot of people dying...not a good plan"

When thew priest walked in, he sighed inwardly. Perhaps, just perhaps, he would be the sort of Cuthbertite priest without a quarter staff inserted firmly in his rectum.

"Possible statue of the god Noxeus, ancient god of dreams, travel and secrets and granter of mental protection. Also referred to as Two Faces, the multiple images you see depict the ambiguity of dream interpretation. It reflects mage sight, so I have no idea what properties it possessed beyond that ability, though I imagine that they are considerable. This was unearthed three days ago. The rough sequence of events is as such: After the village started digging a new well with St. Cuthberts blessing they started seeing a strange figure in the mists, then the halfling caravan was destroyed, the priest was driven insane and village was depopulated. The chamber was discovered sometime between the villagers seeing the strange figure, and the village being killed."

[rhoenix]

Fehl leaned over to the halfling, to feign being quiet. "I had a bad day earlier with one creature today that made no sense, I'm not going to go knocking on the same door twice without checking, if you know what I mean."

[Rogue 9]

Bartel frowned. "So either someone was trying to stop them from digging it up, or digging for it, even unawares, caused their madness. Either way, it's too important to just leave here. If someone doesn't want it found, then we can't let him have it, and if it caused this, then we can't leave it to be found by someone unawares. We should take it to the capital and have it locked in the cathedral's vaults until someone can figure this out."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"I was afraid you would suggest that. It will help to know more before we make a decision. So, I am going, with your permission my dear Halfling, to search through the records that date from this period when they arrive. You are welcome to join me Father. "

[Academia Nut]

The halfling leader looked at the two bickering tall folk before he said, "If you two are afraid of it that much, then bringing it to a big city doesn't sound smart, but neither does leaving it. You should either pick it up and accompany us to our record wagon or stand guard next to it until we bring it over here in two days. Nothing else makes sense to me."

[rhoenix]

At this point, Fehl was getting impatient. "Look, that allip thing already messed with my head. My ring here makes sure I don't need much sleep, so how about I carry it? If it's left here, it would still have a base of operations if it's somehow alive; if its with us, at least we know where it is."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"That does sound like a decent plan. We take it with us to the record wagon, examine it while we can and compare it with records that the halflings have. Once we have that information, what there is to be had. We take it to the the Capital and lock it either in a church vault, or an archeological archive in the library, and we start hitting the books there. Those of us who need little sleep guard the others during their rest, and should something happen... It is best that we are all present and centralized. I lack the spells necessary to peer back into time unfortunately. But it is best that if there is some sort of conflict, that it happen on our terms. And that is not here"

[rhoenix]

Shrugging, Fehl walked over to the strange object, and wordlessly grabbed it with both hands, lifting it carefully upward.

[rhoenix]

Shuddering as he picked it up, Fehl suddenly looked...exhausted, and not a little grumpy. "Nice, this thing's reminding me that I haven't slept for a full eight hours since I got this ring. Let's move, I don't want to stay much longer down here anyway."

With that, he began walking toward the bottom of the well, preparing to climb to the surface. Along the way, he called behind him to to the others. "Oh, I already searched the construction room, and I have all the nifty shit in my bag already - I'll show you when we get topside. Feel free to look for yourself, but I'm not going to be waiting long."

Fehl didn't admit it to anyone, but he felt far more tired than he'd felt in a very long time. He simply focused on one step, one action at a time - the sooner he finished, the sooner he could set the accursed thing down.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Ophidia looked at Naja, who looked back at him knowingly. The statue did more than reflect detect magic. It interacted with any magical effect that touched it, seeming to reflect them back on the user, or into space he couldnt say.

"Naja?" he asked, the snake of course having an empathic link with him knew what that ment

"Friend. Let my Naja take it. He does not carry magical items or wards that the statue could reflect back at him"

The snake was already on his way over and gently put his mouth, around a part of the statue that Fehl was not holding.

[rhoenix]

Feeling very tried already, Fehl didn't fight very hard - especially as the wizard's words sank in, and made him realize that his ring might be causing the problem. Nodding wordlessly, he gently handed the statue to the snake, carefully letting go once he was sure the snake had it.

Afterward, he shook himself vigorously to hopefully be less lethargic.

[Academia Nut]

There was absolutely no reaction as the statue was passed off to the snake Naja, other than for Fehl to feel somewhat less tired, but not enough that he did not feel the need for a good nap tugging at his eyelids.

In the entrance chamber, the halflings were already hoisting up the body of their dead comrade in silent exertion.

[Charon]

Finding nothing, the construct shrugged and began to prepare the church for burning. He'd burned a lot of homes in his time, and the basic concept here wasn't much different. He spread out the bodies so they would burn faster, smashing up some of the wood inside to create better kindling.

"I'd feel better if this whole place were being burned to the ground. With any luck the wind will catch it right." the construct muttered to itself as it finished it's work.

[Comrade Tortoise]

There was absolutely no reaction as the statue was passed off to the snake Naja, other than for Fehl to feel somewhat less tired, but not enough that he did not feel the need for a good nap tugging at his eyelids.

In the entrance chamber, the halflings were already hoisting up the body of their dead comrade in silent exertion.

Naja commenced climbing up the walls of the well to get to the outside, and Ophidia was close behind him, ascending the rope somewhat awkwardly.

[Rogue 9]

Bartel walked along behind the others and waited his turn to start climbing the well.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Ophidia got out of well and looked at Naja

"Are you alright guarding the artifact until I relieve you?" he asked the snake

"Yes Master, I will guard it like my mother guarded my egg"

This meant something, as Cobras are one of the few groups of snakes that do guard their eggs

"I will hold you to that" he said before leaning down and kissing the massive snake on the head like a south asian snake charmer.

[Academia Nut]

As everyone exitted the well, the halflings conferred for a moment before the leader said with a nod, "We've scouted the rest of the village and haven't found anything of interest. A few people seem to have died in their homes or in the streets before being dragged around back of the church, but by far the largest number were gathered in the church before whatever happened... happened."

[Charon]

The construct had had ample time to prepare the church for it's grand pyre. Needless to say, by the time he was done with the insides there was little left in the condition it had been, several of the beautiful tapestries had been torn down and turned to long strips, ready to act as a quick fuel for the fire. Many of the pews had been smashed to tinder to assist the flames growth, and the bodies had been laid out so as to burn faster. This wasn't a scare burn, meant to smolder for hours and spread the smell of burning flesh downwind, this was a demolition burn.

As the construct finished his preparations, he stepped outside again and looked at the halflings. "I require fire."

[Academia Nut]

The halflings looked at each other before one ran off and one asked, "Don't you need a priest or something to demolish a church?"

A short time later the halfling that ran off arrived at the group exitting from the well and said, "The construct thing wants to burn down the church, what should we do?"

[Charon]

The construct looked down at the halfling. "Never needed a priest before."

There was a deep rumbling noise that came from the depths of the construct for a moment. "But I suppose these circumstances are different."