A man who can't tell his right from left has the audacity to insult me? Dear Ander, history will not remember you fondly. Virgil muses to himself. "Despite how mundane and disagreeable he may be, we should try our best to prevent him from getting himself killed." Virgil says with a sigh before quickening his pace to catch up.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Ura simply ignores the bickering behind her as she concentrates; she's holding the coins, after all, and it's no loss to her if the rest of their ragtag party wants to leave the ruins immediately. She does hope someone grabbed the rest of the unearthed treasure, though; there's no time to backtrack, and as Virgil had said, she's not interested in stopping and divvying up the goods in the middle of hostile territory. As for leaving? Ura knows she won't be going anywhere, not unless someone were to physically pick her up and drag her away, kicking and screaming.
Which... considering this party, could happen,she figures.
When Ander strikes up a conversation with her, Ura nearly jumps out of her skin. She shoots a sideways look at the man; he's been chattier than ever, which is strange, to say the least. "The proof's in the pudding,"she replies to his question. "We meet something nasty, either he's going to become an asset, or he's going to become pudding, that's all there is to it."She pauses, then squints at Ander. "Not a lot of love for a fellow noble, eh? Come on now, you had a manservant when you joined us. If you're not a noble yourself, you rubbed elbows with them before. You probably understand him better than I do."
When Ander leads the party to the next room and stands at the staircase, Ura squints. She doesn't doubt the knight has good intentions, but she remembers very clearly that the last time he had good intentions, he boxed the rest of the team into a corner in a burning building, and they all nearly died while trying to rescue his unconscious ass. "How do you know you're going the right way? We're following a trail of bodies that we probably made, not D'armes,"she says, squinting.
"Understanding is the problem. Nobility of character is a rare find among the nobles of title. I'm a knight through a life of servitude, I have no other claims. And the boy was a squire assigned to me when I joined the tournament in Cathaan."
At the top of the stairs, Ander simply pointed behind him with his thumb, in response to Ura. "One room. No D'armes. No Berosuss. No interest to me." Shifting his gaze from the bottom of the staircase to Ura. "Earlier, when you lot came shouting into the corridor because you thought I had run off, I had only gone to look in this direction. I lost him in the shadows, but I could have sworn, I saw the Arbitrator. He looked at me, before heading towards this section of the tunnels."
While Ura's attempt to uncover Ander's intentions yeilded nothing useful, he seemed to have an answer for everything. However, whether they were honest answers was unknown.
"So you ran off without calling for us, which admittedly seems to be in character for you, then when you return you're chattier than a maiden at a royal banquet, eager to see yourself deeper into the ruins. If I were writing this, I'd say we were walking right into an unfortunate reveal." Virgil eyes the others, "I mean the running theory is that there are tone deaf ghosts misting around now and if tales of ghosts are to be believed, they can do more than remove the legs of some patchwork cultists."
Although not physically rolling his eyes, or showing any ticks of the same, it was still in his tone. "Yes. Instead of wasting more time to explain my every action and knowingly lose him completely, I went the fifty feet to attempt to see what direction our whole reason for being here" Ander pointed to the members of the larger party (Anearis, Uthal, and Ura) "went."
"And I forget that you're so knowledgeable of everyone here, in the forty minutes since we picked up your boujee pompous ass. So anything uncharacteristic to yourself, I'd take as a compliment. But since you seem to know better, what is YOUR course of action?" Ander stood there, waiting for Virgil to open his mouth once again.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Virgil sighs as he walks the area looking for anything noteworthy. "When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. How much of what is going on do any of you know. I've gathered so far that Anton has a fascination with the arcane, specifically necromancy. He apparently has no problem kidnapping all sorts of people, including nobles, which can only suggest that his designs are grander than any potential diplomatic incident it would cause. Now we're hearing about doorways and accessing other planes of existence, and the gods only know what purpose these poor abominations serve. So unless you lot know exactly what he's up to and know exactly how to stop it I'd say perhaps tempering your urgency with prudence and a bit of a cooler head would be warranted, or do they not teach composure under pressure to knights anymore? All that being said, I agree with you, we should keep moving, but if we do, we should do so together, otherwise we risk failure of your mission and losing our lives. We are in hostile and uncharted territory and thus all actions should be expedient as possible but carefully considered. For instance, did it occur to you that perhaps you seeing your Arbitrator could be a ploy to pull us away from quite possibly the only person that could help us both discover and frustrate the plans of our enemy?" Virgil stops investigating the room to look at the rest of them.
As Virgil moves about the new room to the west of the party, he notices that while much of the floor is covered in large chunks of stone and rocky rubble, there are some areas where the placement seemed intentional. Not that the stone was put there after it crumbled or was smashed, but that some showed the original placement of stone constructs, bases and platforms of additional statues perhaps. The cracked and split stone around these bases are larger than the rest scattered around the room.
However, what they could have been representations of once, is now lost to time. The bases contained no markings of any kind, other than scratches of rough handling and contact. The statue at the far end with the two stone basins had freshly lit fires, likely by the figures on the ground. The figures of course indeed being two more cultists, and possibly dead, due to their positioning and blood splatter around them.
The statue itself was an odd construct, either a representation of some abstract art, or a horror of someone's imagination. Either way, one might hope that it was not something from reality. It was a large round mass with wrinkles and folds, held up by tentacles, extending from it, to the base below. The support tentacles were many in number and thinner compared to the thicker and fewer ones that extended from the mass's sides, stretching outward and wrapping back around, towards a much smaller part of the statue at the base. Immediately in front of the 'support' tentacles was a featureless humanoid figure, the only thing outside of the completely smooth form, was a hole bored into the side of its temple, aligned with the closest tip of the large tentacles.
The room itself, while worse for wear, was nothing more than what it appeared; a floor, a ceiling, and four solid walls. The only way in, was that where the party currently stood, and the room's purpose both originally, and currently seemed to be a mystery. Other than the two bodies, and the fires, there appeared to be nothing brought it that wasn't there to begin with.
"Well that's just downright unsettling, but consistent with the rest of this place. So we have a decision to make. Do we continue to press on into a ruin that we know contains murderous ghosts and likely the enemy you seek despite the apparent-" Virgil motions with his rapier at the group. "-wounded state and exhausted of your companions as well as leaving the only repository of knowledge on what's going on unattended. Or do we let your friends rest either in here or outside of the ruin and increase our chances of survival?" Virgil narrows his gaze at Ander. "What say you, proud honor bound knight?" Virgil nods towards the staircase. "Is the Arbitrator worth their lives?"
Following Virgil's crime scene investigation of the room, and turning back to the party, Ander speaks up again. "You are correct. It did occur that seeing the Arbitrator could be a rouse, designed to falter our attempts to rescue the Arbitrator and stop Anton. But what also occurred is that meeting a noble walking about these tunnels claiming to be a captive, but free from any restraints, who's complete kit was safely kept in a trunk guarded by the robed figures, AND is constantly throwing out reasons to not continue forth and slowing down every process. That, that could be a ploy to stop us, or at the very least buy Anton Berosuss enough time to accomplish whatever he intends to do."
Ander turns to Uthal and Anearis. "You two are injured, and there's no way about it, that you should recover before any further threats befall us. But I release you, and the rest of you from any obligation you may think you have towards me. If I may die, my death is not on any of you, but I'm not waiting and hoping that they come find us. I'm pressing on." Ander turned and drew his sword as he began to follow the staircase to whatever lay below.
Austin stands nearby, her rune-carved staff in hand, waiting for the group to decide what to do. She has finished trying to be sensible, since the group doesn't seem to want to be sensible at all. She is not tired herself, so will wait to see what those who are stumbling around decide to do.
Uthal looks at the stone statue, trying to determine if he has read about such a creature in the studies that Cedric gave him to try and broaden his understanding of the world.
History: 16
At Virgil's question he gives a grunt before looking to Ander. "Do not consider my life in your calculations, Knight. It was lost long ago up in the mountains. Now I am merely a pair of strong arms for the goddess to use as she wills."
He then follows along as Ander goes deeper, saying to Virgil as he passes, "Life is merely fleeting, it is what you do in the service of the greater picture. If the goddess has decided that I die today then so be it, it will be up to one of you to take up my torch and complete her work. I should have died a long time ago so everything I am doing now is stolen from my time with her anyways."
Virgil rolls his eyes. "Yes of course, I should have known that me repeatedly saying we should keep moving would be seen as a delay tactic!" Virgil begins storming off back towards the room his gear was found in. "You heard him, "he released us" from his stupidity. Let him die a pointless death as honor and duty demands!"
Uthal: While Cedric's teachings, when not about revolving around the temple itself, only went as far back as the governance of humans on Theviranne. Anything further was mention of other lands altogether. While of those in the party, Uthal is the most knowledgeable regarding the continent's history. Never did Cedric mention anything that remotely resembled the creature depicted by the statue. At most Uthal can only assume that if it were real, it was something lost to the annals of time, perhaps linked to the lost civilization that once inhabited the continent thousands of years prior to other races making their way here.
Ander looks over his shoulder, as Uthal joins him. Following Virgil's remarks and movements in the either direction, he comments to the goliath, "Bravery and stupidity may run a thin line, yes. But so does caution and cowardice."
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Everything was happening a bit all at once. The adventurers spearheading charges down lanes, former employers were leaving with hired muscle. The dragonborn decided to deal with things as they departed. Viilgahan escorted the elven scholar and the dwarves to the hall. "I have decided I will remain. There is no further need of my employment in your venture Herrpees." he turned to the dwarves. "Master Nik, Nack. May we find ourselves in agreeable company once again, with coin in our purse and ruins to plunder. Take care on the road." He would nod his head in farewell to any reply and return once more to the room. Now that it was settled for a moment Viilgahan sat on one of the beds, careful to avoid the bodies. "Might be prudent to burn those..." he muttered to himself. He was certain the rest of the larger party was nearby, scouring through on a warpath or skulking. He was also certain that he would cross paths with them again while in the ruins, but with a quantum of solace he planned on enjoying it.
For a brief moment he did nothing, clearing his mind of weight from previous entanglements and making a clearer path for the current endeavor. The ruin would need to be cleared and then his work could begin in earnest. He removed parchment, ink pen and ink from his satchel and began to draw an interior map of the castle. He let it dry as he stowed the pen and sealed the ink once more from his own flame. Satisfied with his work, sure that more would need to be added in due time, he rolled the parchment up and stowed that in his satchel.
He took in the room itself, now clear of standing bodies it made it easier to look around. He gave the room a fine once over, standing from the bed to move around quietly. Aware that others had done so, he instead forewent plundering and was intent on the room itself in case anything else was awry. Herrpees mentioned a creature coming from a wall and while Viilgahan did support ghosts being able to phase through matter it was also possible that an illusion of some kind was cast.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Ura watches the noble and the knight argue with some dismay. Still, she's only listening with half an ear as they argue, because the statue in the room between the two stone basins is too fascinating to tear herself away from. It drew her attention immediately, being so odd and twisted, as if vomited from the darkest imagination of a psychopath.
"This feels... familiar,"she says. Then she stifles another yawn. Ugh... I can't do this on my own. Leaving Ander and Virgil to argue, she made a quick exit to the hallway and scanned around for their newfound resident arcane expert. "Maybe I could learn a thing or two from this guy,"she mumbles to herself, chasing after him. Tapping him on the shoulder, she sighs. "Hey... I noticed you're good at this magic stuff. Well, except when you set that scroll on fire. That was kinda careless." She holds up her hands quickly to show she's not being judgemental about it. "What I'm saying is, I just woke up some latent power of that nature in myself, and I'm still not sure I've got a good handle on it. Anyway, I've got a funny feeling about a statue I saw in the room down the hallway, and I'd appreciate a second pair of eyes in trying to figure out if there's something... well, fishy about it. Do you think you can help?"
Leading the dragonborn back down the hallway, she nearly bumps into Virgil storming out. "Eh? What're you doing out here? It's dangerous to go anywhere alone in this place, Milton. Besides... you're better educated than me, so maybe you know something about that fishy statue in the other room."
Ura reenters the room with the statue, hoping the other two are still following her. She examines the statue with a puzzled look, trying to place why it's there, an why it's so creepily lifelike. "I wonder if this is really just a statue, or maybe some sort of... I don' t know... creature in the middle of killing an adventurer that got frozen in place by a petrifying spell, or something. It gives me the creeps."
Arcana check on the statue, with advantage: 14 (if Virgil wants to come in and make a history check on the statue, Ura would give the help action on that)
Viilgahan had just finished a rather dissatisfying search of the room when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to face the elf called Ura, his eyes narrowing at her comments but then widened with intrigue as she went on. "Fascinating, yes by all means..." he gestured for her to lead on.
Reaching the room, Viilgahan gave several pointers to Ura about sensing the arcane, offering his help. "Perhaps a creature of madness from the plain of the same intent that the elf scholar spoke of..." he offered while making a mental note to update his map when the time allowed.
With Viilgahan's assistance, he and Ura studied the statue of the creature. The bulbous wrinkly mass of winding and branching grooves, with series of tentacles protruding from it. The statue and the stone itself yielded no magical significance, but Viilgahan managed to see something in the grooves.
While the rest seemed to be random, or at least created to purely represent a physical sense of it, near the center, they made the shape of an eldritch symbol that Viilgahan had seen before. An eldritch symbol he had discovered on a scroll he had found in another ruin on this continent. The symbol denoting Xoriat, the plane of madness. If this statue was indeed a representation of an actual creature, it would be quite possible that it is one from this plane. The composition of the creature and the humanoid figure may very well be what happens when a creature of that plane interacts with a creature of this one.
Viilgahan 'hmmed' as he studied the statue. "Yes...yes it would appear so. This symbol denotes the plain of madness..." he pointed out the symbol for Ura to see. "It would appear there was some sort of interaction if these were actual creatures or at the least a representation of what could or has occured." the dragonborn glanced at the otherwise empty room. "Curious as to the lack of anything else...perhaps a place of worship or..." his maw twitched, grinding his teeth in thought. "...no, best not to dwell on that as of yet." he muttered.
A man who can't tell his right from left has the audacity to insult me? Dear Ander, history will not remember you fondly. Virgil muses to himself. "Despite how mundane and disagreeable he may be, we should try our best to prevent him from getting himself killed." Virgil says with a sigh before quickening his pace to catch up.
Ura simply ignores the bickering behind her as she concentrates; she's holding the coins, after all, and it's no loss to her if the rest of their ragtag party wants to leave the ruins immediately. She does hope someone grabbed the rest of the unearthed treasure, though; there's no time to backtrack, and as Virgil had said, she's not interested in stopping and divvying up the goods in the middle of hostile territory. As for leaving? Ura knows she won't be going anywhere, not unless someone were to physically pick her up and drag her away, kicking and screaming.
Which... considering this party, could happen, she figures.
When Ander strikes up a conversation with her, Ura nearly jumps out of her skin. She shoots a sideways look at the man; he's been chattier than ever, which is strange, to say the least. "The proof's in the pudding," she replies to his question. "We meet something nasty, either he's going to become an asset, or he's going to become pudding, that's all there is to it." She pauses, then squints at Ander. "Not a lot of love for a fellow noble, eh? Come on now, you had a manservant when you joined us. If you're not a noble yourself, you rubbed elbows with them before. You probably understand him better than I do."
When Ander leads the party to the next room and stands at the staircase, Ura squints. She doesn't doubt the knight has good intentions, but she remembers very clearly that the last time he had good intentions, he boxed the rest of the team into a corner in a burning building, and they all nearly died while trying to rescue his unconscious ass. "How do you know you're going the right way? We're following a trail of bodies that we probably made, not D'armes," she says, squinting.
Insight: 5
"Understanding is the problem. Nobility of character is a rare find among the nobles of title. I'm a knight through a life of servitude, I have no other claims. And the boy was a squire assigned to me when I joined the tournament in Cathaan."
At the top of the stairs, Ander simply pointed behind him with his thumb, in response to Ura. "One room. No D'armes. No Berosuss. No interest to me." Shifting his gaze from the bottom of the staircase to Ura. "Earlier, when you lot came shouting into the corridor because you thought I had run off, I had only gone to look in this direction. I lost him in the shadows, but I could have sworn, I saw the Arbitrator. He looked at me, before heading towards this section of the tunnels."
While Ura's attempt to uncover Ander's intentions yeilded nothing useful, he seemed to have an answer for everything. However, whether they were honest answers was unknown.
"So you ran off without calling for us, which admittedly seems to be in character for you, then when you return you're chattier than a maiden at a royal banquet, eager to see yourself deeper into the ruins. If I were writing this, I'd say we were walking right into an unfortunate reveal." Virgil eyes the others, "I mean the running theory is that there are tone deaf ghosts misting around now and if tales of ghosts are to be believed, they can do more than remove the legs of some patchwork cultists."
Although not physically rolling his eyes, or showing any ticks of the same, it was still in his tone. "Yes. Instead of wasting more time to explain my every action and knowingly lose him completely, I went the fifty feet to attempt to see what direction our whole reason for being here" Ander pointed to the members of the larger party (Anearis, Uthal, and Ura) "went."
"And I forget that you're so knowledgeable of everyone here, in the forty minutes since we picked up your boujee pompous ass. So anything uncharacteristic to yourself, I'd take as a compliment. But since you seem to know better, what is YOUR course of action?" Ander stood there, waiting for Virgil to open his mouth once again.
Virgil sighs as he walks the area looking for anything noteworthy. "When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. How much of what is going on do any of you know. I've gathered so far that Anton has a fascination with the arcane, specifically necromancy. He apparently has no problem kidnapping all sorts of people, including nobles, which can only suggest that his designs are grander than any potential diplomatic incident it would cause. Now we're hearing about doorways and accessing other planes of existence, and the gods only know what purpose these poor abominations serve. So unless you lot know exactly what he's up to and know exactly how to stop it I'd say perhaps tempering your urgency with prudence and a bit of a cooler head would be warranted, or do they not teach composure under pressure to knights anymore? All that being said, I agree with you, we should keep moving, but if we do, we should do so together, otherwise we risk failure of your mission and losing our lives. We are in hostile and uncharted territory and thus all actions should be expedient as possible but carefully considered. For instance, did it occur to you that perhaps you seeing your Arbitrator could be a ploy to pull us away from quite possibly the only person that could help us both discover and frustrate the plans of our enemy?" Virgil stops investigating the room to look at the rest of them.
Investigation 16
As Virgil moves about the new room to the west of the party, he notices that while much of the floor is covered in large chunks of stone and rocky rubble, there are some areas where the placement seemed intentional. Not that the stone was put there after it crumbled or was smashed, but that some showed the original placement of stone constructs, bases and platforms of additional statues perhaps. The cracked and split stone around these bases are larger than the rest scattered around the room.
However, what they could have been representations of once, is now lost to time. The bases contained no markings of any kind, other than scratches of rough handling and contact. The statue at the far end with the two stone basins had freshly lit fires, likely by the figures on the ground. The figures of course indeed being two more cultists, and possibly dead, due to their positioning and blood splatter around them.
The statue itself was an odd construct, either a representation of some abstract art, or a horror of someone's imagination. Either way, one might hope that it was not something from reality. It was a large round mass with wrinkles and folds, held up by tentacles, extending from it, to the base below. The support tentacles were many in number and thinner compared to the thicker and fewer ones that extended from the mass's sides, stretching outward and wrapping back around, towards a much smaller part of the statue at the base. Immediately in front of the 'support' tentacles was a featureless humanoid figure, the only thing outside of the completely smooth form, was a hole bored into the side of its temple, aligned with the closest tip of the large tentacles.
The room itself, while worse for wear, was nothing more than what it appeared; a floor, a ceiling, and four solid walls. The only way in, was that where the party currently stood, and the room's purpose both originally, and currently seemed to be a mystery. Other than the two bodies, and the fires, there appeared to be nothing brought it that wasn't there to begin with.
"Well that's just downright unsettling, but consistent with the rest of this place. So we have a decision to make. Do we continue to press on into a ruin that we know contains murderous ghosts and likely the enemy you seek despite the apparent-" Virgil motions with his rapier at the group. "-wounded state and exhausted of your companions as well as leaving the only repository of knowledge on what's going on unattended. Or do we let your friends rest either in here or outside of the ruin and increase our chances of survival?" Virgil narrows his gaze at Ander. "What say you, proud honor bound knight?" Virgil nods towards the staircase. "Is the Arbitrator worth their lives?"
Following Virgil's crime scene investigation of the room, and turning back to the party, Ander speaks up again. "You are correct. It did occur that seeing the Arbitrator could be a rouse, designed to falter our attempts to rescue the Arbitrator and stop Anton. But what also occurred is that meeting a noble walking about these tunnels claiming to be a captive, but free from any restraints, who's complete kit was safely kept in a trunk guarded by the robed figures, AND is constantly throwing out reasons to not continue forth and slowing down every process. That, that could be a ploy to stop us, or at the very least buy Anton Berosuss enough time to accomplish whatever he intends to do."
Ander turns to Uthal and Anearis. "You two are injured, and there's no way about it, that you should recover before any further threats befall us. But I release you, and the rest of you from any obligation you may think you have towards me. If I may die, my death is not on any of you, but I'm not waiting and hoping that they come find us. I'm pressing on." Ander turned and drew his sword as he began to follow the staircase to whatever lay below.
Austin stands nearby, her rune-carved staff in hand, waiting for the group to decide what to do. She has finished trying to be sensible, since the group doesn't seem to want to be sensible at all. She is not tired herself, so will wait to see what those who are stumbling around decide to do.
Uthal looks at the stone statue, trying to determine if he has read about such a creature in the studies that Cedric gave him to try and broaden his understanding of the world.
History: 16
At Virgil's question he gives a grunt before looking to Ander. "Do not consider my life in your calculations, Knight. It was lost long ago up in the mountains. Now I am merely a pair of strong arms for the goddess to use as she wills."
He then follows along as Ander goes deeper, saying to Virgil as he passes, "Life is merely fleeting, it is what you do in the service of the greater picture. If the goddess has decided that I die today then so be it, it will be up to one of you to take up my torch and complete her work. I should have died a long time ago so everything I am doing now is stolen from my time with her anyways."
Gronk in Bastion, Kingdom of Medrin Elixisys in Talaveroth (Team 2) Uthal in Lost Continent of Theviranne
Virgil rolls his eyes. "Yes of course, I should have known that me repeatedly saying we should keep moving would be seen as a delay tactic!" Virgil begins storming off back towards the room his gear was found in. "You heard him, "he released us" from his stupidity. Let him die a pointless death as honor and duty demands!"
Uthal: While Cedric's teachings, when not about revolving around the temple itself, only went as far back as the governance of humans on Theviranne. Anything further was mention of other lands altogether. While of those in the party, Uthal is the most knowledgeable regarding the continent's history. Never did Cedric mention anything that remotely resembled the creature depicted by the statue. At most Uthal can only assume that if it were real, it was something lost to the annals of time, perhaps linked to the lost civilization that once inhabited the continent thousands of years prior to other races making their way here.
Ander looks over his shoulder, as Uthal joins him. Following Virgil's remarks and movements in the either direction, he comments to the goliath, "Bravery and stupidity may run a thin line, yes. But so does caution and cowardice."
Everything was happening a bit all at once. The adventurers spearheading charges down lanes, former employers were leaving with hired muscle. The dragonborn decided to deal with things as they departed. Viilgahan escorted the elven scholar and the dwarves to the hall. "I have decided I will remain. There is no further need of my employment in your venture Herrpees." he turned to the dwarves. "Master Nik, Nack. May we find ourselves in agreeable company once again, with coin in our purse and ruins to plunder. Take care on the road." He would nod his head in farewell to any reply and return once more to the room. Now that it was settled for a moment Viilgahan sat on one of the beds, careful to avoid the bodies. "Might be prudent to burn those..." he muttered to himself. He was certain the rest of the larger party was nearby, scouring through on a warpath or skulking. He was also certain that he would cross paths with them again while in the ruins, but with a quantum of solace he planned on enjoying it.
For a brief moment he did nothing, clearing his mind of weight from previous entanglements and making a clearer path for the current endeavor. The ruin would need to be cleared and then his work could begin in earnest. He removed parchment, ink pen and ink from his satchel and began to draw an interior map of the castle. He let it dry as he stowed the pen and sealed the ink once more from his own flame. Satisfied with his work, sure that more would need to be added in due time, he rolled the parchment up and stowed that in his satchel.
He took in the room itself, now clear of standing bodies it made it easier to look around. He gave the room a fine once over, standing from the bed to move around quietly. Aware that others had done so, he instead forewent plundering and was intent on the room itself in case anything else was awry. Herrpees mentioned a creature coming from a wall and while Viilgahan did support ghosts being able to phase through matter it was also possible that an illusion of some kind was cast.
Perception (for secret doors if any): 4
Exitus Acta Probat
Viilgahan's attempt to identify any type of unseen entry provided no useful information.
Ura watches the noble and the knight argue with some dismay. Still, she's only listening with half an ear as they argue, because the statue in the room between the two stone basins is too fascinating to tear herself away from. It drew her attention immediately, being so odd and twisted, as if vomited from the darkest imagination of a psychopath.
"This feels... familiar," she says. Then she stifles another yawn. Ugh... I can't do this on my own. Leaving Ander and Virgil to argue, she made a quick exit to the hallway and scanned around for their newfound resident arcane expert. "Maybe I could learn a thing or two from this guy," she mumbles to herself, chasing after him. Tapping him on the shoulder, she sighs. "Hey... I noticed you're good at this magic stuff. Well, except when you set that scroll on fire. That was kinda careless." She holds up her hands quickly to show she's not being judgemental about it. "What I'm saying is, I just woke up some latent power of that nature in myself, and I'm still not sure I've got a good handle on it. Anyway, I've got a funny feeling about a statue I saw in the room down the hallway, and I'd appreciate a second pair of eyes in trying to figure out if there's something... well, fishy about it. Do you think you can help?"
Leading the dragonborn back down the hallway, she nearly bumps into Virgil storming out. "Eh? What're you doing out here? It's dangerous to go anywhere alone in this place, Milton. Besides... you're better educated than me, so maybe you know something about that fishy statue in the other room."
Ura reenters the room with the statue, hoping the other two are still following her. She examines the statue with a puzzled look, trying to place why it's there, an why it's so creepily lifelike. "I wonder if this is really just a statue, or maybe some sort of... I don' t know... creature in the middle of killing an adventurer that got frozen in place by a petrifying spell, or something. It gives me the creeps."
Arcana check on the statue, with advantage: 14
(if Virgil wants to come in and make a history check on the statue, Ura would give the help action on that)
Viilgahan had just finished a rather dissatisfying search of the room when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to face the elf called Ura, his eyes narrowing at her comments but then widened with intrigue as she went on. "Fascinating, yes by all means..." he gestured for her to lead on.
Reaching the room, Viilgahan gave several pointers to Ura about sensing the arcane, offering his help. "Perhaps a creature of madness from the plain of the same intent that the elf scholar spoke of..." he offered while making a mental note to update his map when the time allowed.
Exitus Acta Probat
With Viilgahan's assistance, he and Ura studied the statue of the creature. The bulbous wrinkly mass of winding and branching grooves, with series of tentacles protruding from it. The statue and the stone itself yielded no magical significance, but Viilgahan managed to see something in the grooves.
While the rest seemed to be random, or at least created to purely represent a physical sense of it, near the center, they made the shape of an eldritch symbol that Viilgahan had seen before. An eldritch symbol he had discovered on a scroll he had found in another ruin on this continent. The symbol denoting Xoriat, the plane of madness. If this statue was indeed a representation of an actual creature, it would be quite possible that it is one from this plane. The composition of the creature and the humanoid figure may very well be what happens when a creature of that plane interacts with a creature of this one.
Viilgahan 'hmmed' as he studied the statue. "Yes...yes it would appear so. This symbol denotes the plain of madness..." he pointed out the symbol for Ura to see. "It would appear there was some sort of interaction if these were actual creatures or at the least a representation of what could or has occured." the dragonborn glanced at the otherwise empty room. "Curious as to the lack of anything else...perhaps a place of worship or..." his maw twitched, grinding his teeth in thought. "...no, best not to dwell on that as of yet." he muttered.
Exitus Acta Probat
"Wha- I wasn't! Oh never mind! Yes yes I'll join you."
((After Viilgahan's assessment))
"Perhaps the madness is already spreading, given how things have been going. Plane of madness, plane of madness. Let me think."
History Check 13
"Yeah not ringing a bell- Wait! Wait!" Pointing at Viilgahan "Place of worship. Perhaps hymnal poems would be more appropriate."
Virgil begins to hum to himself quietly while waving his hands around like a conductor.
Religion 8