Imela: The Adventure Begins

Theo: You find a document regarding this mysterious New Morning. It appears to be a journal entry from one of the acolytes. The name on the document appears to be human and it is written in common:

Praise Corellon! The New Morning is at hand! Our astronomers have predicted His arrival. The stars shall align and summon the creator in one-hundred and sixteen years from now. The rest of the temple must prepare. There is much to do to prepare for the dawn of the New Morning. We must be there to greet the god Himself. Father Elajor prepares a sacred ritual to ensure we shall all see the blessed Morning.

Ruggero: You manage to find an early document from when the temple was first being constructed. It appears to be a letter sent from a stone quarry.

Hail Father Elajor,

I have arrived at the stone quarry just this morning and have spoken with its owner. I have shown him the plans for the temple and he seems to think he can provide us with the materials. However, he is not so certain he can adhere to the projected schedule. We will need to be able to provide housing for our followers at least until the dormitories can be built. There are some inns nearby, however, they are probably not used to human visitors. I will leave those decisions to you. I shall return in a fortnight with the first part of our stone order.

Aeris

Zakon: You find what appears to be a roster of names, likely the acolytes who lived in this temple. Oddly, there appears to be a mix of human and elvish names, indicating this may have been one of the first cross-race orders in the area. A few notes are scribbled by each name. One in particular seems to be of interest:

Yelfir: I worry about him. His faith is questionable and he seems a little too focused on personal desires. Recommended he spend some time in the scriptorium with Bren transcribing sacred texts. Perhaps time with scripture will help reorient his focus.

Kelvin: You find perhaps the last document written before...whatever happened here happened. These are personal notes from Father Elajor, the head abbot of the temple. As the only member of the four of you who can read elvish, this is a fortuitous find. 

Everything is prepared for the ritual. It has taken many months to get the potion just right as elves do not sleep. But we are ready. I must still check with Hol down in the cellar to ensure all of the preventative measures are in order. I wouldn't want any of those traps going off on our own after we awaken. I must also make sure the awakening feast is ready and that Gren has placed a preservation spell on it. So much to do, but the New Morning waits for no one.

You also find four scrolls covered with rare and beautiful calligraphy. These scrolls only contain praises of Corellon and the coming of the New Morning. They offer no other important information, but the craftsmanship means that they may be worth something to elven religious scholars.

Viaya: You find three scrolls which are kept in individual ivory cases, kept hidden from all the dust and decay.

Ruggero squints at the parchment paper, his lips moving along with each word as he words it. "Aye, lads, I found something of interest for us... I think." He looks up at the party and waves the document in the air and says "seems like they were building dis here temple as a place to house their believers. It mentions dormitories, which gots me to suspect that there must have been o' bunch of them, which makes me to believe dat this might have been some loony cult." Ruggero puts the paper down and walks over to the door and peeks through to make sure they're still in the clear and waits to listen to what the others have to report. 

Kelvin's eyes widen and his forehead wrinkles with concern as he reads the words this 'Father Elajor' wrote. "Uhh...friends I don't want to alarm anybody but you should all read this." He gestures forward towards the party with the journal entry in an outstretched hand. "I think I've found a clue. It seems whomever build this temple, these acolytes of this so-called 'new morning', were preparing some sort of ritual involving sleep, apparently in preparation to awaken after the New Morning. I wonder..." Kelvin's brow furrows further. "Might the child have stumbled upon this spell of sleep? More concerningly, has this New Morning already come to pass? Have the acolytes awoken? I fear for what me might find ahead, especially if Ruggero has found mention of dormitories..."

Theo

Theo looks to see if any of the documents are dated.

"You are right. They spoke of a potion. Was it to 'sleep' until their good returned? If they boy is under the effect of it ... We must find an antidote."

"Unless we find anything else up here we might find answers in the basement, but the writings mention traps and we haven't even found a way down."

Zakon shares what he found with the group.  “It seems there was at least one acolyte who was a cause for concern.  Perhaps he caused something to go wrong with their sleep ritual?  Or did something after they were all asleep?  All these questions and again no answers,” he says with frustration.  “And if Vall is somehow affected by this spell or potion or whatever, why haven’t we fallen victim to it?”  He pauses, thinking.  “I agree that we should explore the cellar.  And be careful - we’ve already encountered traps, I am sure there are more. I am willing to go first and scout for traps,” he says.  

Looking at Theo, Kelvin says "That's a good thought, I'd like to know exactly when "116 years from now" is. Viaya! That's an interesting find, what's in those scroll cases?" he asks, turning to the elf. "There are clues abound friends, we should keep exploring. As to the magical pit," Kelvin begins thoughtfully, "does any among us have a rope? And have any of us had a peek through the floor? The must be some way to do so relatively safely."

Kelvin takes a look a Zakon's clue, muttering, "A bad egg even among a cult? This keeps getting more and more concerning..."

Theo tells Kelvin

"I looked through the illusionary floor.  What I was was a 10 foot pit. But it was not investigated. There could be a way into the basement from the pit. And we have the rest of this temple to search."

"Have we checked all of these desks? Perhaps the acolyte left behind a clue regarding his state of mind?" 

"Alright then, let'smake a last minute scouring of this room and then search elsewhere in the temple," Kelvin says, turning to the cleric. "If it's as you say, the pit is just there to waylay intruders. There were other doors, were there not?"

Ruggero nods at Theo's thinking. "Aye, ya may be right." Ruggero then gets on his hands and knees and starts to examine the floor and then goes over to the desks to see if there are any springs that might unlock something.

Investigation: 18

Theo

"Perhaps we should try the main hallway? There could be access to the basement from there."

"Aye, we could, what's this passageway north lead to though?" Kelvin replies. "In my opinion, our top priority here should be finding the dormitories. If indeed these humans and elves were preparing some sort of ritual of sleep and were preparing resting places, it seems clear that Voll [?] stumbled upon some sort of enchantment, and I think it's likely to rest wherever these cult members were preparing to rest." 

He looks around. "If it seems we think the best place to start our exploration is back in the main hall then so be it, but it seems this door north is of intrigue."

Ooc: I read it as the north door goes into the hallway. The other option was to go back to the area with the false floor.

Viaya listens to her fellows recount their findings with interest as she carefully lifts the hidden scrolls from their place, turning them over in her hands one at a time before looking up at Kelvin's question. "Not quite sure. Spells perhaps. A recipe for whatever potion they were trying to brew. Anything is possible." Is wondering if one of these might be the answer to whatever ails Vall so after a moment of hesitation she slips two into her pack and gestures Kelvin closer. "Let's take a look shall we?" Being as careful as she can given how old these seem, the elf opens the case. 

"To the main hall it is Theo, pause for a moment while Viaya and I examine this." Kelvin takes a cautious step forward, peering toward the spell case.