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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2817141" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred Eighty-NinthIn which: another day, another island.The islands in this part of the archipelago are somewhat closer, and the party can in fact see two from the hues’ island.  There is a small island not too far away, and then in the distance, they can make out a piece of a larger one.Thatch, as the party’s chief rower, puts in a strong vote for heading for the near island.As they approach, Kiara notices something.“There’s a building on that island!”This is cause for some excitement among her fellow travelers.“Really?”“Are you sure?”“It isn’t just another dock?”“I think I see it too!”“I don’t see anything.”“Are you sure your eyes are open?”Kiara’s bounces up and down in her seat.  “Can I go look at it?  Can I, Annika?  Can I?”  Anvil discretely grips the side of the boat, currently rocking with some vigor under Kiara’s excitement.  “Perhaps,” he observes through clenched teeth, “that would be a wise plan.”“Okay, okay,” Annika relents.  “But be…”Kiara shifts to swallow form and is gone in seconds.“…careful.”Lira pats Annika on the arm sympathetically.  “She knows.”###Sure enough, Kiara is back—safe and sound—a few minutes later, brimming with even more enthusiasm than before.“There are a whole bunch of buildings.  They were kind of back in the trees, but there were definitely a bunch of them… Oh, and there’s a dock, too.”“Excellent,” Anvil proclaims before anyone else can respond.  “Thatch, proceed.” Thatch puts his back into it, and everyone else in the boat concentrates on courteously ignoring the delicate shade of green creeping up Anvil’s skin.###Although the soil of the island is rather rocky, Reyu is able to discern the tracks of four humans (or humanoids), leading away from the dock into the island’s wooded interior and then back out again.“How long ago?”  Eva asks.“No more than a week.”“Well,” says Lira, “let’s see where they went.”###Past three forks on the twisting wooded trail the party comes around a bend to find themselves standing before a most curious artifact.It’s an Ebisite ziggurat. Although it looks extremely old, it appears to be in good-repair and otherwise well-maintained.  Lira casts comprehend languages to read the inscriptions, and finds that it is the tomb of “His Holiness Azad al Gazi.”“If he’s so holy,” Thatch asks, “what’s his tomb doing all the way out here?”“Maybe he was trying to avoid Gemil,” Eva suggests.Although the party has to allow that Ebis seems to have more than its share of necromancers, it doesn’t seem like the most likely explanation.Plus, on the door is the same sigil that was tattooed on the hues, carved in the stone by the acid pond, and branded onto the killer plant.The party is beginning to sense a theme.Although there are no obvious magical auras anywhere on the building, the sigil itself radiates abjuration, and sure enough, the door is locked.  After a quick vote, the party members decide not to break in.  Instead, they backtrack to a previous fork in the trail.###A tower rises out of the trees.  This must be what Kiara spotted from the boat.  As the party approaches, a high stone wall with a single set of iron gates comes into view.  Surprisingly enough, there is no sigil in view.After Eva checks the gates for traps and a loud knock receives no response, Eva tries the handle.  To her surprise, the latch turns easily, and the gate swings silently back on its hinges.The group enters and finds themselves in the courtyard of an old-fashioned keep.  Surrounding the yard are various doorways, some unmarked and open.  Most have sigils on them, and are locked.Anvil considers.  “Do you think the sigils are tied to the door locks in some manner?”“Umm…  Given the abjuration auras they’re all giving off, I’m thinking yes.”Thatch digs through his pack.  “Didn’t you say that this one from the acid pond radiated enchantment?”Lira nods.“Why the difference?”The sorcerer shrugs.  “You can't lock a pond?”###One of the unmarked doors leads to a smithy, which to Annika’s not entirely unexperienced eye, looks as though it is regularly cleaned, but has not been in use for some time.  Other unmarked doors lead to a set of equally vacant stables.As the marked doors are all magically sealed, and since Annika does not have a second knock prepared that day, Eva borrows Kiara’s tools and unlocks a shuttered window.“What have you found?” Anvil asks.“Looks like some kind of barracks,” Eva reports back from the window.  “But there’s a door, it might lead to the rest of the building.”  Except for Thatch, the rest of the party follows her through, where they find sleeping quarters for twelve.  They also find storage where monastic robes still hang, clean and undisturbed.With Thatch following their progress as he keeps watch outside, the rest of the party leaves the barracks room.  The door leads to a great hall, with huge stone fireplace, and a table still set with wooden plates.After passing a kitchen, the party finally finds a narrow twisting staircase leading up to the top of the tower.###They emerge into a domed room with a massive telescope and movable roof controlled by an intricate pulley system.“It’s an observatory,” Annika whispers, voice tinged with wonder.“Wow,” Kiara echoes.  Then a pause.  “Why are we whispering?”A small dark passage leads from the observatory to another room containing row upon row of scribe’s desks.  On one wall is a massive mural painted with an intricate star chart in the familiar patterns of the night sky.  The other walls are lined with honeycomb like shelves, each niche filled to the brim with scrolls. The next room is a more conventional library, filled with books on astrology and the stars.  Anvil takes one from its place and opens it.Inside the front cover, a bookplate declares the volume to be part of the collection of Cosmia Astrologica Darine, written by Brother Anekitos in the year 163.“One-sixty three…” Annika starts to do the math in her head.  “So if this is 153 that would make the book… from ten years in the future?”  She frowns.Kiara’s eyes go wide.  “Wow!”“Umm… I hate to sound like Thatch here,” Eva begins, “but isn’t that impossible?”“It is some kind of trickery,” Anvil announces.“Or they’re using a different calendar.”All eyes turn to Lira.“This is the year 385 in the Hennan calendar.  Plus it would explain why the reference is to the Cosmia Astrologica Darine, not the Cosmia Astrologica Dar Darine.”“So how old would that make the book?”Lira shrugs.  “Old.”Annika brings the conversation around to the more germane question. “But what is it doing way out here?  Not even Dar Darine claims to have been exploring this far out in the Halmae during that era.”  She turns to Eva, who is from the city.  “Have you ever heard of this place?”Eva wracks her brain, but can’t come up with much.  “I think I heard something… once… a story about some monastery, or some monks… somewhere.”  She gestures helplessly.  “But I don’t know if this was them.” The party looks through some more of the books, but can find no clue as to how the monastery came to be in its present location, or any mention of Barnabus’s name.  Ultimately, they leave the archmage another note on the table of the main hall downstairs, and resume their exploration of the island.Their wanderings next lead them to a Sovereign-style house, built overlooking a running brook.After that, they find a Temple to Alirria.  Built of pure white stone and covered in heraldic and decorative carvings.  Lira takes one look at it, and its distinctive Dar Hennan decoration, and makes a decision.  “This was definitely built somewhere else and moved here,” she pronounces with nearly Anvil-like certainty.“And how do you know that?” Anvil asks, unimpressed.“Because,” Lira points out details of the ornate façade as she explains, “this temple was built and dedicated by the di Scallini family.  The di Scallinis are one of the oldest, most powerful families in the city and there is no way they would build a temple out here where no one could see it.”“Alirria can see it,” Thatch mutters in a low voice to Eva.“I don’t think it was Alirria they were trying to impress with all that gold leaf,” she replies.“Do you know when it was built?” Reyu asks.Lira shakes her head.  “There isn’t a date that I can see, but it must have been a while ago.”“What makes you say that?”“Rumor has it these days the di Scalinis are living on credit.  My brother Pascal was engaged to a daughter from the family for a little while, but Papa called off the wedding.”“Because they didn’t have money?” Reyu asks, puzzled.Lira shrugs.  “He didn’t exactly share his reasoning with me, but that would have done it.”  She gestures to the building. “This must have been done back when they still had money.”Although Reyu is somewhat puzzled over the intersection of marriage and commerce, she decides she will probably be happier not knowing the details. ###That night, the party gathers around their fire, a merrily crackling circle of light on yet another empty beach.  Although no one says anything directly, they are all too aware that it has been five days since they left The Fool’s Errand, almost half of their allotted time before Captain Elsuki will declare them lost and abandon them.They’ve learned much.  Unfortunately, they are no closer to locating Barnabus than they were the week before.“But why would he bring the building here?”  “Maybe Barnabus collects buildings.”“Not just buildings,” Lira points out.  “First there was the island full of killer plants, then there was the island full of water and watery things…”“You suspect he…” Reyu searches for an appropriate word, and settles for one that reflects her disgust, “…collected… the hues as well?”“They got there somehow, and someone watches from that burrow and brings them sheep.”“Are we even sure we want to find this guy?” Annika asks.  “We’ve got four candidates already.”“We were charged with delivering the invitations to all candidates,” Anvil reminds her, “even if we found them wanting.”“Besides,” Lira argues, “it’s not like this is the first archmage we’ve found with strange hobbies.”“It might not be Barnabus doing the collecting,” Thatch suggests.He is met with puzzled silence.“Well, it’s true,” Thatch repeats, a tad defensive.  “We know that he lives somewhere here.  We don’t know that he’s the only one.”“He’s an archmage,” Eva argues.  “Even if he doesn’t keep this collection himself, he condones whoever does.”“Well,” says Reyu, getting off and brushing the sand off her hands.  “It will be another thing to ask when we find him.”“And hey,” Lira says brightly as the party settles down to sleep.  “Look on the bright side.  We’ve been all over this island and nothing’s tried to kill us.”Miraculously, in spite of that pronouncement, the night passes quietly.</blockquote>

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