Ptolus: The Legend of Longcoat

[Cthulhudrew]

Fearing that their hesitation may cost them, and seeing that the half-orc at least is prepared, Vanden rushes into the room, praying that he is ready for whatever might confront them... and that it is caught unawares!

[sblock=ooc]Vanden will move into the room, and ready himself for total defense against a possible attack as he gets his bearings on the situation he finds himself in.[/sblock]

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

[sblock=Garnet]The spells rearrange themselves before Garnet's eyes. They're chill touch and detect undead.[/sblock]
Vanden and Garn plunge into the mist. The visibility is poor -- they can only see about five feet away at any one time -- but other than that, and the unpleasant smell, it appears to be harmless. There seems to be something, perhaps an object, to the south or southeast of them.

 

[Voadam]

Garn will rush south, orcish ears straining to pick up a target he can orient on.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Vanden, too, blunders off towards the southeast, seeking the sounds he heard earlier.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The pair stumble on the source of the red mist: a very grim fountain.

The mist pours forth from a skeletal dragon-shaped fountain that stands in the midst of pool located in the center of the room. The pool is full of blood, with bits of viscera floating lazily in it. An inscription in Elvish is written around the fountain's base.
[sblock=The inscription, in Elvish]The mist that surrounds you shrouds the vision. Prove now that your perception is true, and all will become clear. As the sun rises and falls so too must the dragon's horn be turned, a number of times equal to the characters in the alphabet.[/sblock]

 

[Cthulhudrew]

The gory sight, combined with the mist and the slaughter that greeted them earlier proves too much for the young eunuch, and he vomits forth the meal he'd had earlier in the Savage Shark.

Composing himself, Vanden forces himself to read the inscription on the fountain, trying to ignore the image before him.

[sblock=ooc]A riddle. Hm, good thing Vanden speaks Elvish. How many characters are in the Elvish alphabet? Also, I presume there is a horn or something on the dragon skull on the fountain? Does it appear as if it can be moved/manipulated, and in which direction (or can I tell)?[/sblock]

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

[sblock=Elvish and the dragon skull]There are 20 characters in the Elvish alphabet.

It's a blue dragon skull -- not that the characters necessarily recognize this -- so yeah, there's a big old horn in the middle of the forehead. You'll have to try it to see if it can be turned.[/sblock]

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Brow furrowed in concentration, Vanden muses aloud. "The elvish alphabet has twenty characters. Turn the dragon's horn twenty times "as the sun rises and falls." East to west. Does that mean counterclockwise, or towards the east?"

Turning to Garn, he asks, "What direction is east relative to us?"

 

[Erekose13]

Maugra joins the others in the blood mist, weary of such a strange sensation. When she sees the pool she averts her eyes and her lunch joins Vanden's with what little was left after seeing the body of the watchman earlier.

"ugh, that way, I think." she says pointing to where she figures the bay would be from their position.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The direction Maugra points is back along the dragon's spine, if this was a real dragon skeleton.