Hero's Quest (Solo Eberron Campaign)

[Blackrat]

[ ah sorry, I should have been more clear ; ]

Whatever was in the room has been burned down. From the remains of what looks to have been a desk and few shelves you figured it might have been an office. But as you are about to make sure nothing remains in those piles of ash you hear the woman downstairs resign and order the men to head back to the camp.

"Okay we'll continue tomorrow. There has to be a way to interpret this map." She sighs and kicks one of the statues, a falcon, made of perfectly white stone, before heading out.

 

[Kaodi]

Once the Emerald Claw soldiers have left, Valsamath pokes his head back out of the door to take a good long look at the map on the ground. Perhaps, from this vantage point, something will be apparent to him that was not to them on the floor.

If he fails to find see anything useful, he looks around more closely at the various statues, and to see if there are any other rooms that he could get to along what is left of the balcony that those below could not.

If that fails as well, he quietly and carefully makes his way down to the floor, as long as he is sure that no one is coming back, and does a thorough search of statues, the fireplaces and whatever else seems prudent, but careful not to disturb anything in a way that would be... conspicuous, when they come back in the morning.

 

[Kaodi]

( Hey, if you look in the Talking the Talk forum, I am currently trying to recruit a player for a solo 4e game, if you are interested. )

 

[Blackrat]

( Thanks for the offer but I think I'm full on games right now Looks interesting though )

You take a good look around the large chamber from your vantage point. The fireplaces occupy the north, west and south walls, each made of different kind of stone. Red for the north, black for the west and white for the south. Before the fireplaces are Cannith seals, carved to the floor. Beside each fireplace is two statues, made of the same kind of stone as the fireplaces. Red dragon and lion, white wolf and falcon, and black knight and griffon. The map looks to be very detailed but from up there it reveals no secret to you.

As you get down you take a better look of the map. It seems to be very well made map with bas relief symbols marking cities, topographical features and even major mines. But there is no text identifying the locations.

Searching through the room seems to yeild no result and you are almost ready to give up when you start going through the statues. You can't see it because they are too high but running your hand accross each statue's head you notice there's something engraved to the back of each head. It feels like writing.

A crude map of the room. Definetly not to any kind of scale :D

..........FFRFF..........
.........2.....1.........
............S............
...-------------------...
.6.-------------------...
F..-------------------...
F..-------------------...
B.S-------------------...
F..-------------------...
F..-------------------...
.5.-------------------...
...-------------------...
............S............
.........4.....3.........
..........FFWFF..........

FFRFF= red fireplace
FFWFF= white fireplace
FFBFF= black fireplace
S= Cannith seal
dashed area= the mosaic map

1= Red Dragon
2= Red Lion
3= White Wolf
4= White Falcon
5= Black Knight
6= Black Griffon

 

[Kaodi]

As quietly and discreetly as he can, Valsamath tries to move to an angle where he can see the writing on the statues, or if that is impossible he tries to turn them to that he can see. If there is any sign that someone has heard him, he flees back up the wall and into the office, hopefully before anyone catches him.

 

[Blackrat]

It takes some effort and climbing to get on the statues so you can read what it says on the backs of their heads. It seems that the red ones are easiest to get on so you start from them. The first one, the Dragon has a phrase engraved. "Tallis, Black Seal, East 4". Encouraged by this you check the Lion and luck is with you, for it reads: "Whitehearth, White Seal, North East 9".

 

[Kaodi]

The kalashtar is not sure what exactly 9 is supposed to refer to: Nine feet, nine paces, nine miles? But regardless he moves down to the white seal and slowly moves to the northeast, carefully checking the distance he has moved.

But even if he figures out where Whitehearth is, he is not sure what this is supposed to tell him. Does it mean to go to Whitehearth and look for a Red Lion to denote the location of the workshop, or does he have to move the statues to the location on the map to unlock some secret? Hopefully, in time, the correct path will reveal itself...

 

[Blackrat]

Nine feet seems to hold no secret as it leaves Val standing on the map somewhere near Seawall mountains of Zilargo. But starting again and counting paces you end up on hills in southwestern Cyre. There is a faint symbol of crossed shovel and pickaxe next to your foot. The mine lies about 40 miles from Rose Quarry, inside what nowdays is covered by the mist of Mournland. You can easily mark the spot on your own map.

 

[Kaodi]

Rather than mark the place on his map, in the unfortunate case that he is captured, Valsamath makes use of his ability to autohypnotize himself to remember where the location is.

The kalashtar is carefully to set everything back the way he found it, and makes a hasty retreat the way he came in. When everything is clear, he carefully makes his retreat back to the landcart.

" I think I have what we came for, " says Valsamath once he gets back in with Failin. " But the folks who are camped here seem to be soldiers of the Emerald Claw. I just hope that we can get a good enough head start on them so that I can recover what I came here for without them interfering. "

 

[Blackrat]

As Failin sees you returning he transforms the carriage back to it's mobile form. "So back to Rhukaan Draal is it, or do you need me to take you someplace else also?"