[Last Time, oh so long ago, on El WHAT?!: The group performed a... somewhat promising infiltration of the goblin camp, aided in large part by Tiffany's absolutely disgusting seduction of a pair of goblin guards. They nearly pulled off ending this all without a fight, but Tiffany slipped up and they had to kill the leader anyway.] [Tiffany found a rather large and interesting clue that she promptly slipped into her pack and forgot about, and now all that really remains is the examination of the cave in the hillside that practically screams out "EXPLORE ME!". Of course, Our Heroes _could_ always opt NOT to explore it.] [Session... START!] * The house shakes mightily as a massive explosion sounds rather closer than you'd expected. * Fadi shifts his weight, the new scale mail shifting as well to accomidate. "So, we killed the punk-ass bitch. What're we doing now?" We need to inform our mentors! And then there's the matter of the cave... * Fadi steadies himself. "First, get out of the house under attack... I think we should check that cave out." * Emmet looks around the interior, especially at the ceiling overhead. "Hopefully leaving here, whatever we do." ..Whoa, what did I miss? The maiming and gnashing of many teeth. * Emmet wrinkles his nose in distaste as he scoops the warhammer into his hands. What with the sword in his belt, the axe on his back, and the shield in his left hand, he is loaded with metal. -- oh, Nick, you're back. Here, help us carry some things. Cool. Didja loot the place yet? ..Eh, okay. What needs carrying? While the big guys might be pretty cool, I don't trust them as far as I can... Well, as Tiff can throw them. * Tiffany looks nervously around. "I'd feel better if we could get out of here quickly, but this may be our only opportunity to look over the cave." She then glares silently at Fadi for his remark. * Fadi smirks at Tiff. "No offense, of course." * Harold gestures at the store of weapons and armor at the rear of the room. "Whatever you can carry. The rest we'll have to leave behind." Harold has added a shortsword or two to his pack, for his park. * Tiffany grunts. "None taken." It doesn't sound like the truth, the way she says it. Tiffany, do our mentors know that we've done the deed? Yep. Draghmal thinks the cave may be a good place to investigate before we head out. Alright, then, let's get going. Fadi, take point, if you would? 'cuz ya look at these things. They look just like the ones we got from Alfred... Anyways, let's check that cave out. Sure thing. * Tiffany glances through the drawers of the desk that she recently pilfered some sheets off of. "Ooh, what have we here? Looks like there's a strongbox in one of these drawers." * Emmet glances at Tiffany, and then more expectantly at Nick, since the latter had been asking for something to carry. Then he turns back toward the front of the building, clearly eager to head out as soon as possible. * Fadi walks around, getting accustomed to the armor. He goes to the door. "Whenever you're ready." * Tiffany also finds her gaze on Nick, as she steps out of the way to allow him access to the strongbox. Nick, get the box! ..Dwah? * Nick shakes the cobwebs out, nods, and grabs the box. Any of ya got a light? ... I will in a moment! * Nick pulls up and the box doesn't come. It budges a little, but it's pretty friggin' heavy. Hm, why..? Oh, right. Cave. * Harold grabs one of the torches from the wall. * Now that Harold actually has ahold of one, he's somewhat mystified when it seems to emit no heat. Ah... hmm. Odd, must be magical. Here, Fadi, take this... * Harold hands a torch off to Fadi from one of the sconces. * Fadi grabs it. "Man, now that's just fucked up." ..Mmph. Should I just open this damned thing? Is it too heavy to carry? ..Yeah, it's gotta be about thirty pounds. Are you _sure_ it's too heavy to carry? Well, I *can*, but if it's full of crap that we don't need.. Well, we either should carry it, smash it, or try to pick it here. * Nick wiggles his fingers. "Blind Edward taught me a few things about picking locks.." ..Not that much, though. * Fadi sighs. "How about we move it *outside* and then break the box in? Here.. If you'd rather... I'd just want us to do it with the least chance of being seen. We're already dallying longer than we should. * Emmet looks up at the ceiling again. "Yeah." Yes! Whatever you do, be quick about it! * Nick kneels down next to the box and pulls out a small case, opening it to reveal assorted tools. This takes time. * Fadi draws his sword and holds it at the ready if someone decides to come in that's not invited. * Emmet takes a position near the door (and Fadi), newly acquired warhammer and shield at the ready. Then hurry up. * Harold sighs heavily. "Tiffany, in the meantime, come over here and get a torch if you would." * Tiffany moves over to Harold and reaches for a torch. * Nick inspects the box carefully. * Harold passes it over to her, then works another one loose for himself. He'll probably ask Nick to get the last one once he's done with the box. Hmm.. * The box appears to be untrapped. Well, it doesn't *look* like it'll blow me up.. * Nick shrugs and pulls out his lockpick. * The lock opens easily. Nick fails to be incinerated or poisoned. Whew. * Nick puts his tools away, checking the inside of the box. * The box opens easily, the hinges being well greased, revealing row upon row upon row of gold, silver, and copper coins. A small fortune to anybody but an adventurer. Hello. What'cha find? About.. * Tiffany peeks over Nick's shoulder. *gasp* * Nick scowls slightly as Tiffany moves closer, snapping his fingers. "Two hundred gold or so." ... ahh! Pouch it up and take it with you, then we don't have to worry about the box. ... Well, that's a good thing. But if yer gonna be taking it, either pouch it or keep it in the box. We gotta get going. * Nick nods and pulls out his ample money pouch, scooping the coins into it. Get the last torch when you're done, if you would. Gotcha. * Nick oofs and tosses the pouch into his pack, taking the torch. Alright! Fadi, _now_ take point. Tiffany, do stay close... Emmet, would you mind going behind us? Not at all. I'll be the last one out. Finally. * Fadi opens the door and leads them out of the camp, trying to AVOID attention. * Tiffany nodds and stays within a few feet of Harold. * Fadi opens the door and is immediately confronted with the vision of the massive temple facade set into the side of the hill. * The Auryn carved into the peak of the temple facade almost seems to move for a moment, but that could just be a trick of the light. Yeeeup. We're checkin' that out. ..Huh, I missed a lot. Wonder if that guy who carved Rushmore knows about this. You certainly did. * Fadi takes point like a good meat shie- I mean barbarian and leads the way to the temple/mountain/whathaveyou. * Emmet blinks and shakes his head a little bit before turning his attention away from the temple and back to the surrounding camp. Rearguard is often quite dull... * Rearguard proves to be quite dull this time around. The scurrying servants seem to be quite content to ignore the humans in favor of not getting beaten when the soldiers return. * The temple facade LOOMS over Fadi as he approaches, but there is no sense of danger at the moment, in spite of the broken doors leading inside. * Fadi would loom back, but he ain't Lazar. Instead he looks up quickly, then continues. "Just checkin' it out..." He mutters to himself as he gets to the doors (assuming the GM doesn't stop him). * The interior is mostly dark, though in the filtered light Fadi can see a soft glow coming from the back of the room. The distance makes it difficult to see what precisely is glowing, though. * Tiffany glances at the broken doors and the gloom inside before huddling closer to Harold. "Eerie," she says quietly. * Fadi speaks softly. "There's somethin' in here..." * The floor is littered with quite a number of broken mining tools, but strangely enough, the walls as far as anybody can see are totally unmarred. * Nick pulls out his mace, hefting it silently while switching the torch to his left hand. ... hmm. This part of the cavern is natural. * Fadi takes the torch, and since it emits no heat, tucks it into his belt so he can weild his sword in both hands. * Harold watches Fadi's feat, narrowly evades smacking himself as he realizes that is perfectly reasonable with a heatless torch, and tries to wedge his into his pack so that he'll just have to adjust it a little as it burns down, while keeping both of his hands free. * Nick does like Harold does, grinning slightly and keeping his mace in a two-handed grip. * Emmet turns his head slowly as he tries to keep an eye on the area around the group as well as the path behind, without sacrificing what 'night vision' he has. * Tiffany continues to grip her torch with both hands. "Is there someone inside, or just a light?" She quietly asks. * As far as you can see inside, there appear to be no living persons. Nor dead ones, for that matter. Undead are just right out, too. I don't think we tell just yet... Fadi, can we go in any deeper? * The doors pose no apparent threat to Fadi. Stepping through should be no problem. The door's say 'You may enter.' * Fadi smiles back and walks through. * Harold follows. * As Fadi steps in past the doors and sets his foot on the floor, the floor in a circle under his foot lights up. * The light shines brightly upward, and only upward, illuminating Fadi eerily. So, anyone else feel like this is the 'twilight' zone? * The circle slowly begins expanding. Ever since I got here, man. Um... Fadi, you might want to get back... I don't suppose anyone's training covered this sort of thing...? * Fadi gets back. "Not a clue." * Tiffany appears somewhat suprised, but not afraid. "This spell shouldn't be harmful." * Emmet looks forward. "Are you sure that's safe, Fadi?" He looks back again, ever the dutiful rearguard. * The circle keeps growing even after Fadi removes his foot, eventually expanding until it is no longer a circle, but a very well defined square. Not a fuckin' clue. I've heard of a few spells like this. And let's just say you'd be hurting already if the spell could hurt you. What sort of spell is it, Tiffany? Doesn't look like any trap *I've* ever seen. * Emmet doesn't look forward, this time. "Well," he asks over his shoulder. "Now what?" I don't know... exactly. What I do know is that spells of this type tend to have a 'take no prisioners' attitude if they are meant to be harmful. So it's pretty safe to say it won't hurt. Keep going. Duh. Ah... well, alright, in we go, then. * Fadi steps in again and looks around. * Nick shrugs and keeps moving. * The light from the floor, strangely, doesn't seem to illuminate much of anywhere except up. * Fadi looks up then! * As Fadi steps out past the square of light, another circle appears under his foot and quickly expands, almost as if whatever was doing the lighting has been warmed back up, and there is now a second square adjoined to the first. * Fadi looks up, and up, and up, and there doesn't appear to be much of anything there. Not even ceiling. I wonder if it's going to be some sort of puzzle... If it is, then I'm glad I got rearguard duty. If it is, let's keep going. If it isn't, let's keep going. * Fadi keeps going forward. * The lighting easily keeps up with Fadi as he walks forward, and the glow at the end of the cave grows rapidly in intensity. * Emmet smirks and just pace with the back of the group. * Tiffany continues to shadow Harold, her grip turning white-knuckled on the torch she is carrying. * Nick stays somewhere in front of Emmet, mace held ready. * Before long, Fadi rounds a bend and is confronted with a large set of double doors. Each door is emblazoned with three small Auryns in a horizontal line about chest height. ... do we go forward? Do we have a good alternative? Well, we could leave. I'm not sure that's a good alternative. It may be imperitave that we find out what's in this cave. Well. Forward, then. Fadi, if you would? * Fadi nods. "I think checking it out is the best thing we can do right now. Can always go back." * Fadi tries pushing the door/using a handle if one is available. * There is no handle, and the door steadfastly refuses to move. ..Huh. Does it have a lock? Maybe we can try doin' what we did at the cottage. * There is no lock apparent on the door. There are only those six Auryns emblazoned on the door, at chest height. * Fadi puts his hand with the Auryn on it up to one of the Auryns on the door. * Tiffany moves forward and does the same. * The section of the door above Fadi's hand lights up the same color as the floor, as does Tiffany's section. * Harold puts a hand up to the door. "... I'm not sure this will work." * Harold's section lights up. I hope this works... we're not all here. Come on, men! * Nick shrugs and puts his hand up too. * Nick's section lights up. * Emmet pins the warhammer under his shield arm and puts his hand against one of the open symbols. Wonder if we get a boobie prize. * Emmet's piece of the door lights up, but there's still one section left unlit. ..Where's Sophie? It's that inconvenient disappearing trick we all do, I think. * Harold tries putting his auryn over the sixth section, just to see what happens. He's expecting nothing, of course. * When Harold removes his hand, his section dims, and the other section lights up. * Footsteps begin to echo down the hall behind you. A single set of steps, echoing loudly. * Fadi laughs. "Maybe if you move ti back and forth fast enough..." * A cloaked and hooded, definitely bipedal being walks around the bend and up to the door. ... who's there?! * Tiffany removes her arm from the door and cowers behind Harold. * Nick turns as well, but doesn't make any move to act. * A manly voice issues from beneath the hood. "A friend." He raises one arm from beneath the cloak and reveals the Auryn imprinted on his palm. * Fadi turns around his sword at the ready. At the sign of the Auryn, he lowers it *juuust* slightly. * The man sighs audibly as Sophie appears in a burst of nothing. "Aaaah, good, you're here." If you'll kindly all slap your hands onto the symbols there, everything will work out, I'm sure. I am. Where the bloody hell is here? * Emmet pulls the hammer from where he'd tucked it under his shield arm, and looks from the cloaked man to Sophie, and back. Then he turns toward Harold and Tiffany, one eyebrow arched inquisitively. The temple further out. * Fadi glances at all of the assmebled party for signs of 'what the fuck to do'. I've been asking that for a little while, but they aren't exactly helping. We're in a cave near the goblin camp. ..Well. * Tiffany turns somewhat timidly to the masked man. He appears to frighten her a lot. "Wh... Who *are* you?" * Harold does as the hooded man says, but seems perplexed. "And why are you trying to help us?" Just a friend from the past, who wants to see you all get home. * Sophie doesn't say much of anything, trying to figure out what's going on. * The man gestures to the door again. "Your hands, please?" * Nick re-places his hand. * Tiffany doesn't make any move to replace her hand. "Why is your Auryn on the opposite hand as ours?" Because I'm from an age long past, and I want you to find the Answer. I'm thinkin' it's like a bad episode of Power Rangers or some shit like that. * Emmet tucks his hammer back under his shield arm, though he hasn't yet put his hand on the symbol. He's merely watching the exchange curiously, for now. Ugh. I'll never understand what you Americans were thinking when you came up with that show. Not like there was ever a *good* episode of the Power Rangers. Simple. Fighting and explosions equals good entertainment. * Tiffany nodds slowly. Probably toward the man, and not about the Power Rangers. She then puts her hand on the symbol, without moving from behind Harold. * Sophie rolls her eyes. And we didn't come up with the Power Rangers. It was the Japanese. Oh. Well that bloody well figures. Those wacky Japanese. What'll they think of next? Probably a talk show hosted by a bloody ferret. And how do you know about the Japanese? * The man gestures at the door. "...well?" Water. What're you wanting us to do this for? Let's just open the doors, shall we? * Harold seems nonplussed by Sophie's arrival. * Emmet takes the prompts and puts his hand back on the symbol. * Fadi sighs. "Alright, but if this guy caps us when we're not lookin', I'm gonna never let you hear the end of it." * Fadi puts his hand up to the symbol. * Sophie takes the hint and walks up to the symbol, putting her hand on it. "I don't know what this is about, so you folkes had best be right." * Segment by segment, the doors light up again, and when the last segment lights up, a seventh Auryn is revealed, straddling the dividing line between the doors. The man quickly slaps his hand onto it, and all the lights go out. The doors begin to slowly open inward. Well. Hm. Wow... * Once the doors have fully opened, you're fairly blinded as the lights come on, revealing a massive library, as both walls that you can see are lined with books as far up and forward as you can see. Hoooly shit. * Emmet squints and turns his head away from the light for a moment. "Did I just see a whole lot of books?" ..Huh. Yeah. Books about what? * A voice booms from the distance. "EVERYTHING." * Oddly enough, you can't help but compare the voice to Sean Connery. Huh. Sounds like me dad. ..It sounds like Sean Connery. * Fadi calls out to the voice. "So, are you the Cock of the Rock?!" ... why were goblins interested in this?... * Tiffany pulls out the couplet sheet and the neverending story sheet from her shirt and glances at them once again. Come now, everyone's interested in the British. * Emmet gives Fadi a look of blank confusion. * A head at least a dozen times the size of Fadi lowers from above, attached to an equally massive, serpentine neck. The head gets all up in Fadi's personal space, golden scales gleaming brightly in the light. "WHAT did you call me, mortal?" * Fadi smiles sheepishly (for a change). "Eh... How are you doing?" Quick subject change PLEASE? I'm feeling a mite peckish. Would you like to help with that? * Nick reaches over and smacks Fadi on the back of the head. * Tiffany drops the items and shrieks, falling to the ground and pulling herself away from the doorway, her eyes fixed on the scaly creature before her. ... Geez, I thought *I* was thick. * Harold has no reaction to the dragon, aside from his eyes going wide. He's been getting more used to odd things, but what reaction can you have to a dragon that doesn't completely fail to express what a dragon's presence feels like? * Sophie is surprised, but oddly not particularly bothered by the dragon. * Nick doesn't quite seem to understand that he's being confronted with a giant, presumably fire-breathing lizard. * Emmet lets his arms drop to his sides in shock. Unfortunately, this action releases the warhammer from underneath his shield arm, and the weapon clatters loudly on the ground beside him. He jumps in surprise, and clumsily grabs the weapon from the floor. * Fadi hmmms... "I'm not exactly a psychiatrist, so I don't think I could help with that." * The dragon's simply massive body floats easily down from above, and the whole body shivers as if it were a mirage and then vanishes, leaving a wonderfully near-perfect specimen of beefcake looming over Fadi. Why have you come here, adventurers? ... Ask them, I have *no* idea. ... yes, I don't actually know. Please don't kill us? * Fadi blinks, then thinks really fast and... "We're exploring a location that the goblins had been 'mining' and came upon the double-doors." He shoots a glare at Harold. D..D...Draghmal says you're a good f.. flavored D... Dragon. I... Is that t... true? ... well, _he_ knows! I... just... don't. ... because I'm no one important, pay me no mind! Well, I certainly wouldn't know how I taste, but I've no intention of killing you. Unless you're here to appropriate some portion of my hoard. You're not THIEVES, are you? * Nick shoots a glance at Harold. We weren't planning on taking anything. * Tiffany vehemently shakes her head NO. Right guys? I should hope not! * Fadi looks back at the others. Well then, you must have some reason for being here. Tell me, and I'll happily let you go. You got past the doors, so you're obviously supposed to be here. * Sophie looks to the man that was there with them. "Say, why are we here?" I thought we were just exploring.. Well... we want to go home, I guess. We're not sure why we're here, and we saw the temple and thought we should explore it... * Tiffany *nodnods* Harold's explanation. * Fadi looks at Tiffany, then back at the Beefcake, stepping back one little bit so he can look up at the 'man' a little more easily. "What Harold just said." To go home, hmm? You know, they say you can never go home. I used to go home all the time... We've heard that a few times, yes. But... well, I guess we still want to try. Who's this they? * Tiffany's hand falls on the pieces of paper she'd dropped earlier. you know, "They." The ones who make up all those old sayings. Oh. That they. What other 'they' is there? * Tiffany picks up the papers and holds them out toward the beefcake. "W... We found these papers earlier. D... Do you know what the 'Neverending Story' is?" Of course I know what the Neverending Story is! W... What is it and w... what does it have to do with us? * Fadi nods. What do you think it has to do with you? * Fadi shrugs and shows the Dragon his Auryn. * The dragon rolls his eyes. "I know how you got in, fool." W... well, we've heard a little about the story before, but I was hoping you'd know more. Like what is 'Couplet 1' and why does this sheet we found say it's here somewhere? * Sophie snickers, then says, "Well, it must have something to do with us, because everyone keeps bringing it up." I am inclinded to think it's what we've all gotten ourselves lost in. Because the first couplet IS here. ...? ... Huh? The first couplet that you need to find the Answer. The song should have told you all about that. Okay, you got me in the dark there. What song? What do you mean, "what song"? The song that puts you on the trail of the Answer, of course! * Sophie looks at the others. "Was there a song?" One of the sheets we found in the boss's office mentioned the couplet.. but we're not at all sure what that means. * Nick puts his hand to his temples. "Oy, my head." * Emmet nods when Harold speaks, but any comment he might have made is cut short by the dragon's response. "And the Answer will help us go home?" He seems to be reacting a bit slowly. The Answer is the ONLY way to leave, of course. It's why you're here! * Sophie shakes her head. "Why can't we just find a book that has the answer? Bloody songs and couplets and..." I'd guess the song has something to do with the other sheets we found. It was written in verse... on sheet music. I missed so much. A very popular song, He made it that way so it wouldn't be forgotten. And the song will tell us how to find the Answer? Maybe it's some sort of ritual. The act of assembling the song is what will lead us home. * Tiffany looks around hurridly. "Wait... What happened to that guy with the opposite Auryn that was here...?" Of course it will! The whole story's in the song. Who you're seeking, and how to get there! Can I see that song-thing? * The man is gone. * Tiffany hands over the 'song-thing'. * Nick looks down at it, brows furrowing. * Fadi nods. .oO(Well... Ooookay.) * The dragon opens his mouth and begins singing, quite well, in spite of sounding like Sean Connery. o/~ Turn around, look at what you see, in her face, the mirror of your dreams.o/~ ... catchy! Very. o/~ Make believe I'm everywhere, living in the lines. The vision on the pages is the answer to a never ending story. o/~ o/~ Reach the stars, fly a fantasy, dream a dream, and what you see will be. o/~ o/~ Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds, and there upon a rainbow is the answer to a neverending story. o/~ o/~ Show no fear, or she may fade away, in your hands, the birth of a new day... o/~ o/~ Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds, and there upon a rainbow is the answer to a neverending story! o/~ * The dragon lets his voice trail off slowly, then snaps, "There. THAT song, damnit." Th... thanks for the clarification. Well, that clerifies things. Oh. Uhm. Thank you, sir. Yes, it was lovely. Yes, quite. It also tells you everything you need to know to find the Answer, and thereby go home. ..So, we're stuck here until we figure it out? Looks like. I guess we have to start at the beginning of the song, then. * Fadi nods. ... waht are we seeing, then? I see dragon and a bunch of books. I don't know. I was never very good at interpreting lyrics or poems or things like that. Mirror of your dreams.. Don't look at me. I slept through music 101. I'm better at interpreting artwork... Gah, this is confusing. Does this have something to do with love stuff? * Sophie slaps her forehead. What's love got to do with it!? * Emmet chokes back a laugh despite himself. I dunno, I just saw 'of your dreams'.. Bah, someone take this 'fore I burn out my brain. * Fadi scratches his head. Maybe there's a book in here that'll interpret it for us. There's not. Something tells m- Yeah. So this library doesn't have books on everything. [Session... end.]