Ford blinks and looks back at Lurel.

"Don't look at me. I have no idea what she's talking about either... I'm having problems just understanding this dimension! I mean... why did they behead all those guards on the way here if they're friendly with the queen? And why do it with that bizarre piece of string!? No doubt this all has something to do with that 'keeper' thingy you guys were arguing about..."

"The only way to truly say how it was defiled is to show you." She motions with a wing, urging the others toward the way to the tombs. "Please, if you will follow Tallian, we can alleviate your misgivings, and our mutual purposes can be met."

Tallian murmurs. "Strigid will not let you approach the tombs without his agreement, Princess. Not even your father has that authority. I hope he will listen to you. I hope he will let you reach him."

The dying cadence of her voice shows that she doubts this.

A gondola arrives at the window and Siffli ushers her guests into it. Tallian and her to companions do not join the party.

Access to the 'sacred' necropolis of Xetcherin is by hot air balloon. The balloon is huge and a dull red with the word NEVERMORE on the side. Apart from the faint hiss from the mechanism the balloon moves in total silence.

Xetcherin is cloud covered. As you break through the cloud the surface appears like cracked ice, though stained yellowish. Two bedraggled wolves watch your progress and mark it with a mournful howl.

The balloon touches down a little way from a dwelling shaped like a screaming face. There is nothing but flat yellowish-white ground between you and the door.

As you step out you find that it is not ice but a kind of rock.

There is no sound but perhaps the remembered echo of the wolf's howl. The place is very exposed.

"I don't like this place at all," Lurel murmurs. "It's too open - especially when we might be attacked from the air by those others.... like the ones on the beach. I suppose we'd better get it over with and head for that door."


He sets off cautiously towards the door, but can't rid himself of the feeling that he is nothing more than an insignificant piece on someone else's gaming board.

"I wish I knew what the rules are," he thinks to himself, and shrugs, reminding himself that so far everything he and his friends have done has had a purpose - even when they had not been able to see it at the time.

The silence is disconcerting, and Lurel does his best not to break it - he takes care where he puts his feet, trying to avoid any unnecessary noises.

Before you have progressed more than a few steps a tall man emerges. He is dressed in pale brown. He has enormous spectacles. They would be comical but for the expression of intense anger in the man's face.

Lurel and his companions find themselves unable to move, though they can speak. The man addresses himself exclusively to the princess.

"Siffli, you have overstepped the bounds of propriety. Leave immediately or I will activate the Guardians."

Princess or not, she clearly has no standing here.

The tall man glares at the others. "What are these - things - doing here? Give me a good reason for not vaporising them where they stand?"

"Down, Strigid" the princess laughs. "I know the rules, but the fact taht I am here with these..." She fans her wing indicating the others. "perhaps will give you pause and hear me out. We need to see the tomb, and figure out what happened. Please, feel free to put whatever escort you deem necessary on us, but if you don't it could me the end of all of us. As I said, the fact that I am here should give you a clue as to the dire need we are in."

The tall man scowls.

"Princess, I am sure you mean what you say, but you are ignorant of the way Xetcherin works. You would need part of the key. No doubt you can get that from your father but it is only one of many problems. You would be confronted with madmen, and would need a fighter, you will find mazes of such complexity that you would need one with an eidetic memory, you would need a way from beneath the ground to enter the tomb and there is Mara's spirit dog. Only one who had been imprisoned unjustly would be able to pass that dog.

Where can you expect to find such a group? Certainly not here!"

He shakes his head then nods towards Lisette. "Well, perhaps you have your warrior. Come back - if you are serious - with those who can help!"

He turns to leave.

"Then you have found your group," Lurel says firmly. "Do you judge people by their looks alone? You know nothing about us, or our skills, yet you dismiss us without hearing us. I tell you, nothing that has happened to my friends and me has been coincidence since we embarked upon our journey - and so we have been brought here. The very people you need to enter this tomb. Dare you call it a coincidence?"

He uses his empathy skill, to see what it will tell him about the tall man.

"So, unless what you say is not entirely true, such a group has already existed, correct? I mean, the alternative is the unthinkable; that you or one of your guardians is responsible." She looks hard at him with her green eyes. "I am sure that working together, we can determine what happened and clear your guardians of any undue criticism and pain that they might suffer however unjustly when others determine that it is impossible for anyone else to get there."

"Children? How can one of you have been wrongfully imprisoned? Which has the eidetic memory?"

Strigid turns to the princess. "Perhaps you do not know. The defilement of the tomb is known only because certain items were found outside. The door is sealed, the walls unbreached. Whatever agency caused it, it was not human. Neither I nor the Guardians have such skills. I would like an explanation as much as any. But a party of children?"

Although Lurel cannot read the man, he hears an odd undertone in the voice. The tall man would like them to be the right party

"You clearly haven't ever been to Dayone. I was the one wrongfully imprisoned, but I prefer not to talk about it..."

Ford looks around awkwardly at the bizarre structure before them.

Siffli laughs out loud. "HUMAN???" she shrieks at the guardian, trying to draw attention to herself to show the idiocy of narrow thinking by the guardian. Then she settles herself. "Why would you make a statement like that? The prophecy states simply that a series of conditions must be met. I feel these 'children' as you call them fulfill the conditions of the prophecy. Ford has already shown which he fulfills. The others can do the same if they wish."

She calms herself some more. "If they are not the ones, they will fail and die. What is it to you? If you ask me, the upside is an awfully lot higher than teh downside here as far as everything is concerned. Let them pass."

Strigid eyes Siffli coolly. "I have no interest in these pathetic creatures but I am not so callous as to send them into Xetcherin if they have no hope. You must needs go with them Siffli and if they die so will you. Think on that. Now. We require a warrior." He nods at Lisette, to Ford he adds. "You were wrongly imprisoned. That is two of the four requirements." He glances at Lurel and Midge. "Can one of you open the earth from below ground, does one of you have a perfect memory?"

Midge after being silent for so long replies with

"Yes, i suppose, we posess such skills, whether or not we will need to put them to use is our own buisness, you have already stated that you care little for us... you care only that we had better fulfill your "requirements" or else we will not survive."

Lurel looks at Strigid.

"I do have the skill to open up the earth," he says softly, and hopes that his earth magic works in this place.

Having failed to contact the earth elementals in this dimension so far, his hope rests with the prophecy - everything in it points towards them. He is not afraid of the challenge, certain that they are destined to meet it.

But he is not happy to hear that the Swan Princess is to accompany them. She is an unknown, someone he cannot yet trust.

For the first time Strigid appears uncertain. "If this is true..." He peers at Midge. "I take it that your gnomic utterance means you have the kind of memory needed. This is very odd indeed but I must accept your word. If you lie you are facing certain death so none but fools would lie. You do not look like fools."

He glares at Siffli. "If you have the key, come with me. I will explain what little I know of Xetcherin to the others. If not, please return to your father and fetch it. You will not be missing more than you already know. Now follow me."

OOC> Siffli, it matters not whether you have the key or not, you will be back by the time they are ready to leave.

Strigid takes you inside the strange dwelling. Inside is one chamber filled with swirling balls of light. Stairs lead around the walls to a walk way above them. As you look down you notice that the balls are of four colours.

"This is Avelyssia. The pale green spheres are the colonies, those of dark red the Cathedrals and those of yellow the necropoleis. Xetcherin, however is the black sphere."

It is in the exact centre of the swirling lights.

Strigid touches a lever and the black sphere, hugely magnified replaces the swirling mass of light. Only three areas on the sphere are visible, the rest is black.

"This is what I and the ruler, and for reasons of expediency owing to the ruler's indisposition Princess Siffli also, know of Xetcherin. It was constructed long before any here was alive. This small white area is the landing stage for the balloon, my office and dwelling. On the other opposite side, the large area with the apparent boxes is the cemetery. This model is used to plan interments."

He points to an area close to his dwelling that comprises two small white peaks and a narrow black ribbon against a slightly broader, pale brown background.

"You start beside the guardians. I will deactivate them. The journey begins by boat along the river of night. Before the falls of eternal damnation you will have to take to the land. Were this to be an authorised interment, the path would appear to you. As it is, you will need to find your way. I cannot tell you what you will find."

He looks at you carefully.

"Mara's tomb is 6738. Is there anything else you would know before I set you off on this perilous mission?"

"Well....yes," Lurel says. "We have been brought here, because our aid is required. Or so we are told. Yet we have not been told what actually happened here that you should need us. Who is this Mara you mentioned?"

He pause briefly.

"And I would know what dangers we can expect. You mentioned guardians. What other creatures might we encounter - wild animals? The undead?"

He takes a deep breath, and hesitates for a few long seconds before he asks the last question.

"A name came to me in a dream. I do not believe that it was coincidence, as little as I do believe that our being here is coincidence. So the answer might be important - perhaps more important than anything else you would tell us. Who is the Keeper?"

He tenses, as he waits for the reply. Will Strigid react in a hostile fashion, too?

Strigid looks at Lurel emotionlessly. "I believe the Princess can enlighten you on the question of Mara. She may feel that her father's behaviour shows him in an unflattering light but none would blame him. Ask her to tell you the story."

He moves towards the black sphere.

"Young people come here because they think it is clever. They get lost and go slowly insane. Something in the atmosphere keeps them alive but they ache with fear, hunger, thirst - many things. They will attack you because they do not know what they are doing. As to what else moves and lives within Xetcherin, I do not know. I have never been to look. I do not believe it to be lifeless."

He turns away. "I do not think you will face the undead in the sacred area but - on the way there - who knows?"

There is a long silence. "I cannot see why the Keeper should concern you. If he is part of the puzzle then I pity you. Should Princess Siffli choose to enlighten you that is her affair."

After another long silence, he adds: "When you are ready walk through the door at the far end of this room, opposite the way you came in. I will answer any other questions you may have, if I know the answers and feel the Princess Siffli may not. Otherwise I wish you luck."

The door is some way off, small, circular and black.

Ford shivers slightly.

"This place is too spooky... I just hope we don't have to face more undead creatures like that one back at the farm..."

Lurel grimaces. "I hope not," he says with an involuntary shiver.

Then he turns back to Strigid.

"There are some things I'd like to know, yes. You said the princess didn't know about the way this place works. Is there anything you can tell us about it? And you both mentioned a prophecy - would you tell us more about it? When was this prophecy made, and by whom?"

He pauses, briefly, before he continues.

"Is there anything else you would tell us which might aid us within?"

Strigid shakes his head. "Not even I know what the guardians are, though I control them. The whole place has been specifically designed to prevent desecration of the tombs. That is what is so strange about what has happened.

Did I say prophesy? It is just that to get to Mara's tomb you would need the specific skills I have stated and you have them. How strange that is. But it makes me hopeful that something can be done.

Please go through the door. The guardians will not attack."

He thinks for a moment. "I have no knowledge of what you will find, I am sorry. But take care."

For a moment he seems almost human.

Lurel looks at Strigid gravely, and bows.
"We will do what we must," he says softly. "I hope that whatever happens in there it will be for the best of all of Zorlon."

He looks at the others and shrugs.

"I suppose hanging around here isn't going to achieve anything. Let's go."

He glances at the princess, wonders what her part in this venture is. Can they trust her - can they trust any of the Avelyssians?


"Princess," he addresses her, "we were told that there are things you would be able to tell us, about this Mara, and the Keeper. Will you tell us what you know while we make our way towards the tomb?"

He begins to walk towards the door.

Ford follows Lurel towards the door, somewhat hesitently, and watching his footing.

"'We will do what we must'... why do I get the feeling something bad is going to happen?"

Walking through the door you are teleported instantly away. You find youself on a boat travelling in total silence along a black oily river. Behind you the river emerges from a high cliff face. To either side colossal statues of frowning men point away from the direction in which you are going.

The high sides of the valley press in on you. They seem to be made up of gaping tombs and mausoleums. At times, perhaps a trick of the light, there seem to be tumbling hordes of skeletons rising from the earth and stretching their hands towards you. When you blink, they disappear.

In front of you in the distance are two further colossi pointing back. The river disappears over a waterfall but without any sound. The boat pulls up at the left bank at a narrow jetty. As you round the first corner the path splits. You are currently in the bottom of a narrow gorge. To your left, a staircase cut precariously in the side of the rock leads upwards. To your right is a cave. The gorge continues for a few paces in front of you and then bends to the left and out of sight.

"AAHHH!!"

Ford blinks.

"Er... what? I could have sworn I saw a bunch of skeletons... nevermind..."

He follows closely behind Lurel, not wanting to be the one at the back of the group. He looks from left to right.

"So... which way?"

"Good question," Lurel says. "I don't like leaving unexplored caves at our back, and I don't trust that staircase, but then again we're the strangers here and don't know what we're meant to do. Princess, do you know the way, and what we might find in that cave?"

He waits for the Princess to say something, but is already half determined to explore that cave at any rate.

"I guess it is about time I told you what I know," the princess says. "I didn't want to say much in front of Strigid because of the degrading way he talks back about things that some of us hold dear." She takes what appears to be a great breath, then continues.

"Mara was a warrior who comforted my father after my mother died. He entered into a great melancholy that affected his health adversely. Mara helped him, and he regained his former self. Unfortunately, she died about a year ago, and was put into the crypt. Since it's been discovered that it's been defiled, my father's health has once again greatly deteriorated. Also, I worry about the impregnability of Shaura's prison. If they can get into here....." she trails off, then recovers. "Shaura is the evil one who is brought forth every year to remind Avelyssia to remind them of what has gone before. I am worried that someone is practicing to see if they can get the pieces fo the key to lower the force that keeps him from psychicly affecting the minds of my fellow Avelyssians."

"I think your answer contains yet more questions, Princess," Lurel replies thoughtfully, trying to take in any possible implications for their mission. "First of all, did Mara have any enemies who would do this to her grave? Or does your father have enemies who would use this way to get at him?."

He pauses briefly.

"And then you mentioned an evil called Shaura. I think we need to know more about this. What form did this evil take, and how was it banished? You mentioned a key - what does it consist of? And what connection could there be between Shaura, and Mara's tomb?"

Glancing at the steps leading up he mutters: "And we still don't know which way to go."

Lurel waits for a bit longer, but when no one volunteers an opinion, he sighs.

"Did I ever actually ask to be leader? If so, I must have been temporarily insne," he mumbles with a grin. "Very well then, let's have a look at that cave - and let's hope we don't walk straight on to some monster's dinner plate."

You take a few paces into the cave. The light is dimming rapidly although there is a weird phosphorescence that bathes you alternately in green and purple light. The tunnel bends to the right and branches into three directions. Faint noises can be heard but it is impossible to say from which direction or whether it may be all three.

OOC> I am away until 12/7 and Theta for the following week. I will reopen the thread when Theta returns.

As Theta is now back too I am opening the rpg again. Those still interested, please post.

"Where's that green and purple light coming from?"

Ford looks around the cave in confusion.

"This dimension is too wierd."

Lurel peers at the wall closest to him, trying to find out what is causing this phosphorescence.

"Weirder than some of the others we've travelled through," Lurel agrees, though he wonders what the Avelyssians would make of his home dimension. He turns back to address the princess.

"Princess, can you tell us anything about this strange light, or anything about these caves at all?"

The noise is making him uneasy, and he clears his throat audibly. "Midge, do you have that spoon with you? Is there danger nearby?"

OOC> I am trying to get a couple more to join in. In the meantime I'll PM hose still in reminding them where the story is at (since new members will have to start at the same place and we'd better all be using the same script.)

Midge's spoon glows dully as if there were a generic danger in the caves but not a specific threat. The light seems to be within the stones themselves. There is no obvious enchantment so perhaps they are a natural phenomenon. Nobody who has entered the off-limit world of Xetcherin has ever returned to talk about it.

As you listen, certain noises isolate themselves, sighing, the noise of running water, laughter? There is also a rhythmical swishing. But there is no evidence as to which sound comes from where!

Lurel frowns and pulls a face.

"Anyone's guess is as good as mine," he grimaces, and pulls 2 Levdian coins from his pocket. "Two heads - we go left. One of each - we take the path in the middle. Anything else, we go right. Or does anyone have a preference for a particular path?"

He throws the 2 coins up into the air....

"No preferences here. Each one looks just as dangerous..."

Ford looks on uneasily as the coins flip in the air...

Midge replies "Doesn't bother me any which way we go, i followed you in i'll follow you out"

OOC: Hello there everybody. I'm your new Lisette. I can't speak French but I can do RPing.

IC:

Lisette returned to reality from her day-dream. She sighed and had a dreamy look in her eyes for a moment before the familiar coldness reappeared in her eyes. She turned to look at, more accurately inspected, the members of her party. "Alright then" she said in a loud authorititave voice, "the shortest distance between two points is straight. We should try to keep straight going through this maze. For every left we take, we should take a right. That should keep us on a straight course". She peered ahead at the gloomy tunnels and closed her eyes to concentrate. She was trying to ignite a fire that would light the tunnels and guide their way. Not before gesturing for everyone else however, to follow her.

OOC: If i've been too liberal with her character and this is not at all how she was like before, please tell me lol

OOC> Lurel's the leader, so you advise him rather than choose yourself. But otherwise the post is fine. You recommend straight on. Over to Lurel.

Lisette's fire flickers feebly as if something dampens the effect of the magic. It illuminates little more than the phosphorescence. But it makes the place seem friendlier and less alien.

It does not show anything to distinguish which of the three tunnels they should take.

Lurel snaps out of his contemplation of the two coins, and smiles - for a moment the frown that has been on his face for much of the time since they entered Avelyssia disappears.

"If it turns out to be a maze, that would be a good plan," he agrees. "But we don't know that yet - the side tunnels might just be dead ends. But it's two heads, so let's go left."

The left passage continues for some twenty paces and turns sharp right presumably now parallel to the route you began on. You arrive at another junction, a passageway off to the left. There is the sound of splashing coming from it.

Ahead of you, Lisette's flame gives enough light to let you see a passage going off to the right. Every turn and junction you have seen so far is a right angle.

The other odd noises continue. The tunnels are otherwise featureless.

OOC: lol sorry. Perhaps she's just a bossy person lol.

IC:

Lisette crept throught the tunnels with her flame infront of her. The weak flame was barely able to light the way ahead. The right angles and the strange material of the wall was beginning to confuse her and she became tense and gritted her teeth. She looked over her shoulder and the rest of the party looked as if they were proceeding as normal but she felt strange, she did not feel the iminent presence of danger as she had thought but she felt something else, something as of yet untangible.

She reached another junction and looked to Lurel.

"Another two passageways... no middle one this time though. Shall we try Lisette's idea of left and right then? I don't plan on getting lost in here."

Ford looks to Lurel.

"Sounds like as good a strategy as any," Lurel agrees. "If we had something to mark the tunnels we've tried....so we don't end up walking around in a circle..."

He takes out his dagger and tries to scratch a mark into the wall next to the right hand tunnel.

Lurel's dagger does not mark the walls, though he has better luck on the floor*.

Taking a left turn brings you to a dead end. A fountain of clear, cold, fresh water burbles gently. There are small pewter cups attached to the sides of the fountain on long chains, as if it had been put there to refresh thirsty travellers.

Midge's spoon shows no obvious danger.

*OOC> What mark have you made, I need to record it on my map.

OOC: I must have missed this bit but what exactly does Midge's spoon do?

IC:

Lisette stepped up to the fountain and peered at it. Its water was clear and clean and the cups looked clean also. She dipped a finger into the fountain, half-expecting to lose it, but she found the coolness of the water refreshing after crawling through the humid tunnels. She picked up a cup and scooped some water from the fountain and gulped down the water.

OOC: Tomorrow, I leave on holiday. I may or may not have internet access while I'm away (I'll be gone 3 weeks). Even if I do, I will not be able to post as regularly as now (practically every day).

OOC> Midge's spoon glows when danger is near.

As Lisette drinks, she hears a voice in her head.

"You need instructions to activate the switches before you reach the control panel. You need to activate the control panel to exit from the maze. There are forty junctions and some twenty three blind passages of which this is one. There are no hidden or illusory walls or doors. Not every passage is safe. Good luck."

Having refreshed yourselves, you are obliged to turn back .

Reaching the original passage, you turn left, effectively ignoring the blind passage, and reach the next junction. This is a single passageway opening to the right.

Lisette's flame flares brightly for a moment. Ahead, a light of some kind is visible. To the right, you can see the passage leads to a crossroads. There is something on the floor in the middle of the crossroads.

Midge's spoon has become brighter.

*Lurels mark is an angled arrow, indicating the turn they took .... <¬ is the closest approximation my keyboard can furnish*

After returning from the blind passage, Lurel scratches a | in front of the arrow leading into it, to mark it as a dead end. He leaves another arrow, angled the other way, on the floor before he proceeds.

He looks up sharply as Lisette's flame flares, and Midge's spoon reflects the light.

"Careful," he says softly. "There's danger here. Lisette, can you give us more light to see what that thing lying on the floor is?"


So far they have not encountered any hostility - but Lurel can't help feeling that they are walking into a trap. The eerie lighting emanating from the walls is beginning to affect him.... he feels as though the walls are starting to close in on him.

There is something in the stone that dampens the effect of magic but you are able to see that the light ahead comes from something that must be on the walls of a crossing passageway. To the right the object is revealed to be a gold-coloured metal box with what appear to be gemstones inlaid into it.

"Let's see what that box is," Lurel suggests and marks the floor with the corresponding arrow. "But careful - it could well be the bait in a trap."