January 15, 2005

Hook

Explorers to chase Legends! Contact cefo Embarr on the Blue Lady

Plot Synopsis

Embarr had information about an island that hasn't been heard from in a while. It used to be a large exporter of textiles and rugs, but no one has received word or goods from them in quite some time.

They leave Rougtero for the Portal Farm, where they take a ship portal elsewhere on Jaern. Two days travel north from that portal was the island of Praegon. They saw a blue-green light coming from the island that evening, so they decided to wait until dawn before approaching the island. The island is the eastern-most island in an archipelago of about 45 islands of various sizes. The group only visited this one.

They reach the island without too much excitement. They meet an old man at the only pier on the island, where he gets the ship's name for the dock log and he advises them to behave. They thank him for his advice and move on.

As they approach, all of the fields are overgrown. There are no animals grazing, no evidence of work.

They search the city, and find no inhabitants. The first tier of buildings they reach are warehouses, and they are all empty and boarded up. The next tier of buildings appears to be businesses, and they are all empty and boarded up. The third and fourth tiers are all residential in nature. Most of the homes are empty and boarded up. One home they found that wasn't boarded up, the front door had been torn from its hinges and all the furniture had been moved to block the entryway. They found no evidence that the people left in any hurry.

The fifth tier, nearest the center of the city, was the temple district. They found large temples to Isis and to Anubis, and shrines to T'or, Rudri, Ra, Orus, Tarus, At'ena, Osiris, and Neptune.

In the center of the town they found a tower, three stories tall and with five doors. Each door opens in front of one of the five roads that lead away from it and into the city. ( Only three of these roads extend beyond the city limits, they find. )

The top of the tower is open to the air, like an observatory, so they enter that way. On the top floor is a statue, slightly bigger than life-size, with one hand upraised. In the statue's hand is an amulet, which is the source of the blue-green light they saw before.

They enter the tower through the trap-door entryway and search. They find offices and storage before locating a stairway to some underground levels.

Later, they survey the rest of the island. They find a tree with a small box hidden within: it contains a piece of clay with a child's hand print, and a picture that was obviously drawn by a child.

Near the beach in a secluded area, they find a stone cairn. They remove some rocks to discover that there is indeed a body buried inside, and it had been there for quite some time.

They also find a tunnel near the beach, with metal rails along the bottom, and brick walls. Some of them follow it, and end up in one of the ceremony rooms of the Sepulcher. At the mouth of the tunnel is a large stone slab, also with rails. The top of slab seems to pivot so that the rails on the table connect with the rails of the tunnel when a lever on the floor is pulled. Also in that room, they find a large plank with metal wheels, spaced to fit the rails. They Mend the plank, and it painted red with scripture in black around the edges. The place the plank on the rails, Stickum to it, and take a ride down to the beach. The stops built into the bottom of the rails nearly knock them silly(er), and they realize that if they weren't stuck to the plank, they would have been launched into the ocean.

Then they decide it's time to go down the tower stairs. Beneath the tower more than fifty feet is the records storage from the town. The group begins to assess more about the town, but do not want to be in the city at night. They decide to return to the ship for the night and return at dawn.

On they way down, they look at the stairs as they go down into the storage areas. They notice scrapes and scratches in the stones of the walls, at heights ranging from three to five feet. They get less and less frequent, and of smaller size as they descend. By the half-way point, there are no more scrapes. They guess the newest might be over fifty years old.

The storage area is three levels deep. The first two are full of books, scrolls, and other such records. The third level is not full, and is not completely finished. They determine the system of sorting in one area, and begin Renew Object efforts on the latest records. They determine that they are business records, and that the city was booming during the last twenty recorded months, but the last recorded date was over one hundred years ago.

They left the tower, and kept an armload of records for cefo Embarr to study further. It was near evening, so they returned to the ship for the night.

The four explorers returned to the island in daylight, hoping to find the man at the dock office, but he was not there. They did find is floppy hat, very dusty and obviously not worn for ages.

They devise a plan to go get the amulet. It works. Long story short, they remove the amulet from the statue, and they begin to hear zombies emerging from the very cobblestones. Hundreds of them. D'utta is hit a few times, but otherwise they are unhurt. They take their loot and return home by various means. They are paid 400 sp each.

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