Nikolai takes a kneeling position and he closes his eyes as he begins to blindly draw the Tarot and lay them out... he drowns out the cursing of Caio and the murmuring of Alaris, focusing on his task at hand... One card, two cards, three--- His eyes pop open when Caio shouts another expletive. With an angry sigh he turns toward the young man. "Caio, please keep your voice d---" his eyes widen with surprise at the scene before him. "Goddammit, Alaris! What are you doing?!"
Dagon laughs delightedly into the kiss as Alaris throws themselves upon him, and returns it passionately. Literal sparks of golden light flow from the shadowhunter into the angel and he flexes his muscles with the new-found energy. The same crackle of radiance that danced across Alaris's lips now flickers up and down his arms.
The effort leaves his partner drained, yet wired. Thoroughly satisfied, yet hungry for more. However, before Alaris can react, Dagon has stepped back into the middle of the circle.
"Thanks for the recharge, babe," he quips, before donning a pair of black Ray-Bans, and spreading his enormous raven wings wide. He twirls on the spot theatrically and vanishes in a flurry of feathers.
Just as Ling is about to leap into the unknown pool, she feels an unexpected hand suddenly catch her wrist with a vice-like grip.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Dagon admonishes. "We might never get you back."
Alaris staggers backward a bit, eyes glazed and knees loose.
"Oh shut up. I made a deal and Ling will be back shortly," they reply to Nik and Caio both, with rather less vigor than they're accustomed to hearing in such replies from the flamboyant Shadowhunter.
Eshuvenniel Kazander Ravid,Valor Bard and Acolyte of the Goddess of Luck Caradoc Langham, Halfling Rogue - Lost Magics - Epic of Pre-made Proportions! I'm not looking for heaven or hell... just someone to listen to stories I tell...
Nikolai stares at Alaris in disbelief when Dagon disappears as well. "For your sake, Alaris, I hope that's true. I don't think we can trust this 'Dagon'. He is serving his own ends by helping us. There is no other explanation."
"A-agreed... and I hope I served ours by helping him. That was the gamble anyway - plus, he's one hell of a kisser."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Eshuvenniel Kazander Ravid,Valor Bard and Acolyte of the Goddess of Luck Caradoc Langham, Halfling Rogue - Lost Magics - Epic of Pre-made Proportions! I'm not looking for heaven or hell... just someone to listen to stories I tell...
Nikolai nods. "I do hope this works. We need Ling back here. Does she seem off to either of you? I feel like she's acting strangely, but I cannot figure out what it is."
Ling whips around, her instincts kicking in. She draws a dagger and holds it to Dagon's throat as she turns around, all in a split second. When she recognises him, she lowers her weapon. "What in Raziel's name - what are you doing here? I was just going to find out where the other pools go, no risk no fun!" She pouts, stashing her weapon again. "So what, here to bring me home? What brought on that bout of good behaviour? Feeling your angelic roots today?"
"Nothing so grand, I'm afraid. I made a deal with your handsome young friend. They gave me what I wanted, so hear I am, saving you from your own recklessness. I tell you what. You want to see another world? I'll show you one."
"Handsome? Which one? I suppose 'young' rules out Nikolai, but then, from your perspective..." Ling lifts her eyebrows and shrugs, "well, don't take this the wrong way, but you're kinda ancient." Ling approaches and peers into the pool that Dagon pointed out, but it looks the same as all the others. Dark water, too deep to see the bottom. "I guess asking you what's down there would be spoiling the fun, right? Then here we go!" Without looking back, Ling jumps. Please be Cotton Candy Land! Or at least a place with breathable atmosphere!
As Ling touches the surface of the pool, there is no doubt about the strong sensation of magic. The water feels thick to the touch and seems to swallow the young shadowhunter up, as though it's sucking her inside. Down and down she rushes, first through darkness and then through a mass of vague and whirling shapes that could be almost anything. It grows lighter. Then suddenly Ling feels that she is standing on something solid. A moment later everything comes into focus and she is able to look about her.
What she notices first is the light. It's not like sunlight, or electric light, or candlelight, or any other light she has ever seen. It's a dull, rather red light. Steady and unwavering and not at all cheerful. She's standing on a flat paved surface and buildings rise all around her. There's no roof overhead. In fact, she seems to be in some sort of courtyard. The sky is extraordinarily dark - a blue that is almost black. A sky to make you wonder if there was any light at all.
The walls rise very high all around the courtyard. They have many great windows in them, windows without glass, through which she can see nothing but black darkness. Lower down there are great pillared arches, yawning blackly like the mouths of tunnels. It's quite cold.
The stone from which everything is built seems to be red, although that could simply be due to the light. The buildings are obviously very old. Many of the flat stones that pave the courtyard have cracks across them. None of them fit closely together and the sharp corners are all worn off. One of the arched doorways is half filled up with rubble.
"Welcome to Charn!" Dagon announces from behind Ling, spreading his arms wide and turning in a circle, as though taking it all in. "I expect you rather preferred the Garden."
One hand on her jian, Ling looks around the unfamiliar place. A courtyard, it seems, perhaps an old castle? The sky is an inky blue, very dark, without a visible sun. But it's lighter over here, so that is where the sun sets. Or rises, who knows what time of day it is, could be morning or evening I guess. The stonework looks old and worn, but definitely human-made. No glass in the windows though, odd. She smells the air. The air is thin, but not refreshing like the mountains, just... cold. No sulphur, so hopefully not a demonic realm. That is something. And that light, something is very wrong about that. While the sky is a dark blue, the building looks as if cast in an orange-reddish glow.
"Charn? And where the hell is that?" Never heard of this place. Now is that good or bad? Probably bad. Feeling uneasy out in the open, Ling moves to the side of the building and ducks into the archway which surrounds the courtyard. She waits for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.
As Ling stands and listens, all she can hear is the thumping of her own heart. This place is as quiet as the wood between the worlds, but it's a different kind of quiet. The silence of the wood had been so rich, and warm, and full of life that you could almost hear the trees growing. This is a dead, cold, empty silence. You couldn't imagine anything growing in it.
"Hah!" Dagon barks in entertainment at Ling's choice of words. "Nowhere good, that's for sure..." he muses, peering over his shades as he looks the ragged walls up and down.
As she quietly approaches one of the big arches, Ling sees that it is, in fact, a doorway leading inside the building. Standing on the threshold and looking in, it no longer seems as dark as she had first thought. Inside is a vast, shadowy hall, which appears to be empty, but on the far side there is a row of pillars with arches between them, and through those arches there streams in some more of the same tired-looking light.
Meanwhile, back in Kuzno's old house, Nikolai draws...
Ling rolls her eyes at Dagon. "Very helpful. Can you even see anything with those shades? It's not exactly bright daylight here." Ling walks up to the arches, hoping to be able to get a view of the outside. "Anything else you want to share besides 'nowhere good'?"
On the far side of the hall, Ling emerges from between the arches and finds herself in another, larger courtyard. On one side, the wall bulges inwards, as if ready to collapse. In another place, a pillar is missing between two arches and the springing hangs with nothing to support it. Clearly, the place has been deserted for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.
"Old," Dagon notes, in response to Ling's questioning. He kicks a loose rock across the flagstones, sauntering along with his hands in his pockets.
Another doorway leads out of this courtyard and up a great flight of steps. Ever more doors and arches trail a path through vast rooms, each one opening out of the last, until Ling is dizzy with the sheer size of the place. Every now and then it seems like they are going to come out into the open and see what sort of land lies around this enormous palace, but each time they find yet another courtyard.
They must have been magnificent places when people were still living here. In one of them stands a fountain in the shape of a great stone monster with wide-spread wings. It's stood with its mouth open and Ling can just about make out a bit of piping at the back of its mouth, out of which the water used to pour. Under it is a wide stone basin, but it's as dry as a bone. Elsewhere, the dry sticks of some sort of climbing plant remain where it once wound itself about the pillars and helped to pull some of them down, but everything is long dead. There are no ants, or spiders, or any of the other living things that might be seen in a ruin, and where the dry earth shows between the broken flagstones there is no grass or moss.
Eventually, they come across to two huge doors of golden metal. One stands slightly ajar.
"Have you seen enough?" Dagon finally asks. "We shouldn't linger too long in a place like this."
"It's like there's nothing alive left here!" Ling exclaims. She is beginning to feel like the only living thing in this world. "Almost, what's behind this door?" She moves past Dagon and peeks through the open gate.
For a moment, the room appears to be full of people - hundreds of people, all seated and perfectly still. However, it quickly becomes apparent that they cannot be real. There isn't a movement or a breath among them. They're frozen like waxworks.
All of the figures are wearing magnificent clothes, and the blaze of their colours makes this room look rich and majestic after the dust and emptiness of the others. Each person is sat upon one of a row of stone chairs running along each side of the chamber, and the floor down the middle is free. There are also more windows here than in the other rooms, one high above each seat, letting a good deal more light into this hall than those Ling has seen up to now.
Every figure wears a crown upon their head, and is dressed in robes of crimson, silvery grey, deep purple, and vivid green. The fabrics are patterned and adorned with needlework pictures of flowers and strange beasts all over them. Precious stones of enormous size and brightness stare from the crowns and hang in neck chains, peeking out from wherever anything is fastened.
At first, the faces all appear kind and wise. They're a handsome race, much taller than the humans of Ling's own world. However, after she walks a few steps further down the room, their expressions grow solemn. By the time Ling has reached the middle of the room, the faces are strong and proud - happy, yet cruel. The figures appear ever crueller as she goes further, until there is no happiness left at all, giving way to despair, as though those towards the end of the chamber had both done and suffered terrible things.
Beyond the last of them, the rows of chairs continue empty to the end of the hall. It seems that the room was intended for a much larger collection of images.
In the centre of the room stands a square pillar, about four feet high, with a golden arch atop it. A little golden bell hangs from the arch, but is cracked right down the middle. Besides the arch lies a small golden hammer.
"Behold the great House of Charn," Dagon drawls, as though he can't quite decide whether he wants to sound sarcastic or simply bored. "Kings and Queens of their world, for a time."
Nikolai opens his eyes and stares at the cards for several moments as his hackles rise and a shiver runs up his forearms as the hairs stand on end. He looks up at Caio and Alaris standing nearby as they wait for Ling. "This... I..." He stammers a moment as his eyes go back to the still glowing, though now empty runes. "We need Ling back. I hope she is okay." He thinks back to his early days before the terrible time as his fingers absently rub along the old tattoo beneath his sleeves... thinking back to that ancient Romani woman who taught him the art of tarot divination. 'Guide my reading, Vadoma.'
He spent several moments letting the cards guide his reading and understanding. He could hear her raspy voice going over the varied meanings of the cards and how they can change as the cards interacted with each other and their positioning within the reading. Despite the feeling that this reading gave him, Nikolai couldn't help but smile a little as the memories came rushing back to him and the wonderful times he had spent with that caravan. After a time he looks up at Caio and Alaris once more. "We will need all our strength. Something about this makes me feel that we are not going to have the success for which we are hoping. Dagon's prediction of sealing that portal seems to contain more than what he has told us. Perhaps he will be willing to provide more information should we return."
Caio’s arms arc over his head as he stares up at the ceiling. “Remind me again why we shouldn’t tell the Institute? I’ve been looking forward to the fight because all of this investigation shit isn’t my forte but now all of this is seeming out of our depths.”
"Woa, this is SO COOL. Kinda creepy, but awesome, wow!" Ling takes out her phone and starts snapping pictures. "Nikolai will be so jealous he wasn't here to see this!" She walks around and takes more pictures, finishing up with a close up of the bell. "You realise this bell and hammer are like a giant red button that says 'don't push'? It's an invitation." She picks up the hammer as if to strike the bell, watching for Dagon's reaction. "But I'm not a total idiot. Who were these people? Why are they... frozen? What's up with them? What happened to them? Come on, give a girl a break? You must have been so bored down in that cellar, and I happen to know I'm very entertaining, so don't spoil the fun. You could be like... my tour guide from hell?" Ling gives him a mischievous grin.
Nikolai takes a kneeling position and he closes his eyes as he begins to blindly draw the Tarot and lay them out... he drowns out the cursing of Caio and the murmuring of Alaris, focusing on his task at hand... One card, two cards, three--- His eyes pop open when Caio shouts another expletive. With an angry sigh he turns toward the young man. "Caio, please keep your voice d---" his eyes widen with surprise at the scene before him. "Goddammit, Alaris! What are you doing?!"
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
Dagon laughs delightedly into the kiss as Alaris throws themselves upon him, and returns it passionately. Literal sparks of golden light flow from the shadowhunter into the angel and he flexes his muscles with the new-found energy. The same crackle of radiance that danced across Alaris's lips now flickers up and down his arms.
The effort leaves his partner drained, yet wired. Thoroughly satisfied, yet hungry for more. However, before Alaris can react, Dagon has stepped back into the middle of the circle.
"Thanks for the recharge, babe," he quips, before donning a pair of black Ray-Bans, and spreading his enormous raven wings wide. He twirls on the spot theatrically and vanishes in a flurry of feathers.
Just as Ling is about to leap into the unknown pool, she feels an unexpected hand suddenly catch her wrist with a vice-like grip.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Dagon admonishes. "We might never get you back."
The Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - DM for Aiden, Bründir, Jex, Thurston, Valaith and Vark
The Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - DM for Alaris, Astrid, Caio and Shiva
Alaris staggers backward a bit, eyes glazed and knees loose.
"Oh shut up. I made a deal and Ling will be back shortly," they reply to Nik and Caio both, with rather less vigor than they're accustomed to hearing in such replies from the flamboyant Shadowhunter.
Eshuvenniel Kazander Ravid, Valor Bard and Acolyte of the Goddess of Luck
Caradoc Langham, Halfling Rogue - Lost Magics - Epic of Pre-made Proportions!
I'm not looking for heaven or hell... just someone to listen to stories I tell...
Nikolai stares at Alaris in disbelief when Dagon disappears as well. "For your sake, Alaris, I hope that's true. I don't think we can trust this 'Dagon'. He is serving his own ends by helping us. There is no other explanation."
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
"A-agreed... and I hope I served ours by helping him. That was the gamble anyway - plus, he's one hell of a kisser."
Eshuvenniel Kazander Ravid, Valor Bard and Acolyte of the Goddess of Luck
Caradoc Langham, Halfling Rogue - Lost Magics - Epic of Pre-made Proportions!
I'm not looking for heaven or hell... just someone to listen to stories I tell...
Nikolai nods. "I do hope this works. We need Ling back here. Does she seem off to either of you? I feel like she's acting strangely, but I cannot figure out what it is."
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
Ling whips around, her instincts kicking in. She draws a dagger and holds it to Dagon's throat as she turns around, all in a split second. When she recognises him, she lowers her weapon. "What in Raziel's name - what are you doing here? I was just going to find out where the other pools go, no risk no fun!" She pouts, stashing her weapon again. "So what, here to bring me home? What brought on that bout of good behaviour? Feeling your angelic roots today?"
Dagon scoffs dismissively.
"Nothing so grand, I'm afraid. I made a deal with your handsome young friend. They gave me what I wanted, so hear I am, saving you from your own recklessness. I tell you what. You want to see another world? I'll show you one."
He gestures to an alternative pool nearby.
"Ladies first."
The Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - DM for Aiden, Bründir, Jex, Thurston, Valaith and Vark
The Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - DM for Alaris, Astrid, Caio and Shiva
"Handsome? Which one? I suppose 'young' rules out Nikolai, but then, from your perspective..." Ling lifts her eyebrows and shrugs, "well, don't take this the wrong way, but you're kinda ancient." Ling approaches and peers into the pool that Dagon pointed out, but it looks the same as all the others. Dark water, too deep to see the bottom. "I guess asking you what's down there would be spoiling the fun, right? Then here we go!" Without looking back, Ling jumps. Please be Cotton Candy Land! Or at least a place with breathable atmosphere!
As Ling touches the surface of the pool, there is no doubt about the strong sensation of magic. The water feels thick to the touch and seems to swallow the young shadowhunter up, as though it's sucking her inside. Down and down she rushes, first through darkness and then through a mass of vague and whirling shapes that could be almost anything. It grows lighter. Then suddenly Ling feels that she is standing on something solid. A moment later everything comes into focus and she is able to look about her.
What she notices first is the light. It's not like sunlight, or electric light, or candlelight, or any other light she has ever seen. It's a dull, rather red light. Steady and unwavering and not at all cheerful. She's standing on a flat paved surface and buildings rise all around her. There's no roof overhead. In fact, she seems to be in some sort of courtyard. The sky is extraordinarily dark - a blue that is almost black. A sky to make you wonder if there was any light at all.
The walls rise very high all around the courtyard. They have many great windows in them, windows without glass, through which she can see nothing but black darkness. Lower down there are great pillared arches, yawning blackly like the mouths of tunnels. It's quite cold.
The stone from which everything is built seems to be red, although that could simply be due to the light. The buildings are obviously very old. Many of the flat stones that pave the courtyard have cracks across them. None of them fit closely together and the sharp corners are all worn off. One of the arched doorways is half filled up with rubble.
"Welcome to Charn!" Dagon announces from behind Ling, spreading his arms wide and turning in a circle, as though taking it all in. "I expect you rather preferred the Garden."
The Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - DM for Aiden, Bründir, Jex, Thurston, Valaith and Vark
The Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - DM for Alaris, Astrid, Caio and Shiva
One hand on her jian, Ling looks around the unfamiliar place. A courtyard, it seems, perhaps an old castle? The sky is an inky blue, very dark, without a visible sun. But it's lighter over here, so that is where the sun sets. Or rises, who knows what time of day it is, could be morning or evening I guess. The stonework looks old and worn, but definitely human-made. No glass in the windows though, odd. She smells the air. The air is thin, but not refreshing like the mountains, just... cold. No sulphur, so hopefully not a demonic realm. That is something. And that light, something is very wrong about that. While the sky is a dark blue, the building looks as if cast in an orange-reddish glow.
"Charn? And where the hell is that?" Never heard of this place. Now is that good or bad? Probably bad. Feeling uneasy out in the open, Ling moves to the side of the building and ducks into the archway which surrounds the courtyard. She waits for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.
As Ling stands and listens, all she can hear is the thumping of her own heart. This place is as quiet as the wood between the worlds, but it's a different kind of quiet. The silence of the wood had been so rich, and warm, and full of life that you could almost hear the trees growing. This is a dead, cold, empty silence. You couldn't imagine anything growing in it.
"Hah!" Dagon barks in entertainment at Ling's choice of words. "Nowhere good, that's for sure..." he muses, peering over his shades as he looks the ragged walls up and down.
As she quietly approaches one of the big arches, Ling sees that it is, in fact, a doorway leading inside the building. Standing on the threshold and looking in, it no longer seems as dark as she had first thought. Inside is a vast, shadowy hall, which appears to be empty, but on the far side there is a row of pillars with arches between them, and through those arches there streams in some more of the same tired-looking light.
Meanwhile, back in Kuzno's old house, Nikolai draws...
The Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - DM for Aiden, Bründir, Jex, Thurston, Valaith and Vark
The Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - DM for Alaris, Astrid, Caio and Shiva
Ling rolls her eyes at Dagon. "Very helpful. Can you even see anything with those shades? It's not exactly bright daylight here." Ling walks up to the arches, hoping to be able to get a view of the outside. "Anything else you want to share besides 'nowhere good'?"
On the far side of the hall, Ling emerges from between the arches and finds herself in another, larger courtyard. On one side, the wall bulges inwards, as if ready to collapse. In another place, a pillar is missing between two arches and the springing hangs with nothing to support it. Clearly, the place has been deserted for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.
"Old," Dagon notes, in response to Ling's questioning. He kicks a loose rock across the flagstones, sauntering along with his hands in his pockets.
Another doorway leads out of this courtyard and up a great flight of steps. Ever more doors and arches trail a path through vast rooms, each one opening out of the last, until Ling is dizzy with the sheer size of the place. Every now and then it seems like they are going to come out into the open and see what sort of land lies around this enormous palace, but each time they find yet another courtyard.
They must have been magnificent places when people were still living here. In one of them stands a fountain in the shape of a great stone monster with wide-spread wings. It's stood with its mouth open and Ling can just about make out a bit of piping at the back of its mouth, out of which the water used to pour. Under it is a wide stone basin, but it's as dry as a bone. Elsewhere, the dry sticks of some sort of climbing plant remain where it once wound itself about the pillars and helped to pull some of them down, but everything is long dead. There are no ants, or spiders, or any of the other living things that might be seen in a ruin, and where the dry earth shows between the broken flagstones there is no grass or moss.
Eventually, they come across to two huge doors of golden metal. One stands slightly ajar.
"Have you seen enough?" Dagon finally asks. "We shouldn't linger too long in a place like this."
The Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - DM for Aiden, Bründir, Jex, Thurston, Valaith and Vark
The Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - DM for Alaris, Astrid, Caio and Shiva
"It's like there's nothing alive left here!" Ling exclaims. She is beginning to feel like the only living thing in this world. "Almost, what's behind this door?" She moves past Dagon and peeks through the open gate.
For a moment, the room appears to be full of people - hundreds of people, all seated and perfectly still. However, it quickly becomes apparent that they cannot be real. There isn't a movement or a breath among them. They're frozen like waxworks.
All of the figures are wearing magnificent clothes, and the blaze of their colours makes this room look rich and majestic after the dust and emptiness of the others. Each person is sat upon one of a row of stone chairs running along each side of the chamber, and the floor down the middle is free. There are also more windows here than in the other rooms, one high above each seat, letting a good deal more light into this hall than those Ling has seen up to now.
Every figure wears a crown upon their head, and is dressed in robes of crimson, silvery grey, deep purple, and vivid green. The fabrics are patterned and adorned with needlework pictures of flowers and strange beasts all over them. Precious stones of enormous size and brightness stare from the crowns and hang in neck chains, peeking out from wherever anything is fastened.
At first, the faces all appear kind and wise. They're a handsome race, much taller than the humans of Ling's own world. However, after she walks a few steps further down the room, their expressions grow solemn. By the time Ling has reached the middle of the room, the faces are strong and proud - happy, yet cruel. The figures appear ever crueller as she goes further, until there is no happiness left at all, giving way to despair, as though those towards the end of the chamber had both done and suffered terrible things.
Beyond the last of them, the rows of chairs continue empty to the end of the hall. It seems that the room was intended for a much larger collection of images.
In the centre of the room stands a square pillar, about four feet high, with a golden arch atop it. A little golden bell hangs from the arch, but is cracked right down the middle. Besides the arch lies a small golden hammer.
"Behold the great House of Charn," Dagon drawls, as though he can't quite decide whether he wants to sound sarcastic or simply bored. "Kings and Queens of their world, for a time."
The Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - DM for Aiden, Bründir, Jex, Thurston, Valaith and Vark
The Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - DM for Alaris, Astrid, Caio and Shiva
Nikolai opens his eyes and stares at the cards for several moments as his hackles rise and a shiver runs up his forearms as the hairs stand on end. He looks up at Caio and Alaris standing nearby as they wait for Ling. "This... I..." He stammers a moment as his eyes go back to the still glowing, though now empty runes. "We need Ling back. I hope she is okay." He thinks back to his early days before the terrible time as his fingers absently rub along the old tattoo beneath his sleeves... thinking back to that ancient Romani woman who taught him the art of tarot divination. 'Guide my reading, Vadoma.'
He spent several moments letting the cards guide his reading and understanding. He could hear her raspy voice going over the varied meanings of the cards and how they can change as the cards interacted with each other and their positioning within the reading. Despite the feeling that this reading gave him, Nikolai couldn't help but smile a little as the memories came rushing back to him and the wonderful times he had spent with that caravan. After a time he looks up at Caio and Alaris once more. "We will need all our strength. Something about this makes me feel that we are not going to have the success for which we are hoping. Dagon's prediction of sealing that portal seems to contain more than what he has told us. Perhaps he will be willing to provide more information should we return."
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
Caio’s arms arc over his head as he stares up at the ceiling. “Remind me again why we shouldn’t tell the Institute? I’ve been looking forward to the fight because all of this investigation shit isn’t my forte but now all of this is seeming out of our depths.”
Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - Vark Galestone | Half-Orc | Storm Sorcerer
Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - Caio Cypherien | Shadar-Kai | Inquisitor Ranger
"Woa, this is SO COOL. Kinda creepy, but awesome, wow!" Ling takes out her phone and starts snapping pictures. "Nikolai will be so jealous he wasn't here to see this!" She walks around and takes more pictures, finishing up with a close up of the bell. "You realise this bell and hammer are like a giant red button that says 'don't push'? It's an invitation." She picks up the hammer as if to strike the bell, watching for Dagon's reaction. "But I'm not a total idiot. Who were these people? Why are they... frozen? What's up with them? What happened to them? Come on, give a girl a break? You must have been so bored down in that cellar, and I happen to know I'm very entertaining, so don't spoil the fun. You could be like... my tour guide from hell?" Ling gives him a mischievous grin.
"...you want to ring a broken bell? Be my guest." Dagon scoffs, sauntering up and down the line as he peers at the different faces.
"It won't do you any good. The magic's gone from here. There's almost nothing left."
As Ling looks closer she spots letters cut into the stone on the side of pillar. Bizarrely, they seem to be written in English.
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger,
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.
"Come," he beckons, standing at a door the leads out of the Hall of Images and into a long corridor. "I will show you what became of this city."
The Chronicles of Arden: Sheercleft - DM for Aiden, Bründir, Jex, Thurston, Valaith and Vark
The Chronicles of Arden: Hunters - DM for Alaris, Astrid, Caio and Shiva