[off-topic] can anyone read this?

Sorry but I don't know who to ask about this medallion. I am pretty sure you are supposed to wear it around the neck. The thing is I have no idea what it says. I don't remember exactly where I found this. It must have been about 5 years ago, just after we had moved into the new house. I either found it while I was mowing the yard or in some old furniture. I remember looking at, wondering what the heck it was, then putting it away and promptly forgetting about it. I have only just recently found it again because I moved into a new apartment.

The reason I am asking here is because I know that a lot of smart people read these boards so one of them might be able to help.

It says "If you can read this, you don't need glasses, sanity or much of anything else. Signed Cthulthu."

PS I am kidding.

Nightfall said:

It says "If you can read this, you don't need glasses, sanity or much of anything else. Signed Cthulthu."

PS I am kidding.

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Heh, I guess this would make a good adventure. That would make me the NPC whose sole purpose in creation is to give the party a quest.

I'm reasonably certain it's a (fairly poor) replica of the Phaestos Disc. Possibly a tourist item from a museum gift shop.

For everyone's edification, the Phaestos Disc is a circular tablet found in the ruins of the Minoan Palce (think minotaur) on Crete. It is covered on both sides with a spiral text in a script called Linear A.

Linear A remains undeciphered, though a lot of scholarly thought goes into it. Its cousin, Linear B, which is found in slightly newer ruins in the area, has been deciphered and found to be a very primitive form of Greek. However, it is also believed that the Linear B script was not originally made for the Greek language, so it is entirely possible that its predecessor, Linear A, does not represent Greek at all, but some other ancient language we have little or no knowledge of.

Here's some images of it for those interested:
http://www.ou.edu/finearts/art/ahi4913/aegeanhtml/minoansculpture5.html

Either that, or you now hold an artifact, and over the course of...months or years, you will slowly be corrupted, until who you show other people is merely a construct of evil, and inside you will be screaming for release, and sooner or later, someone will give it to you!
MUAHAHAHAHAHA!


Calrin Alshaw

I like my idea of a translation better.

Thank you resistor.

The Goblin King said:

Heh, I guess this would make a good adventure. That would make me the NPC whose sole purpose in creation is to give the party a quest.

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Yeah, either the one who dies before the end of chapter I, or the one who is found to actually be the insane cultist leader near the end.

Zappo said:

Yeah, either the one who dies before the end of chapter I, or the one who is found to actually be the insane cultist leader near the end.

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Precisely.

resistor said:

For everyone's edification, the Phaestos Disc is a circular tablet found in the ruins of the Minoan Palce (think minotaur) on Crete. It is covered on both sides with a spiral text in a script called Linear A.

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It's not Linear A. The script, if it is properly a script, which people still argue about to some degree, is often called the "Phaistos script" because there aren't any other known inscriptions that are indisputably from the same writing system. It could be related to the sequence of Minoan scripts (Minoan Hieroglyphics/Linear A/Linear B) but the relationship is unclear. Some scholars think it may be of Anatolian origin, which could explain why it doesn't fit so well into the Minoan script tradition.