Ironhead

April 10th 2007

Players: ShadowHawk, Tikk, Amari, Alance, Heather, Jharrek

Nothing being quite as symbolic of strength and endurance as raw granite, it may not surprise the insightful traveler that this hall has been carved out of the raw bedrock, but left undressed after that excavation. Indeed, to the casual gaze of the avaricious, this is a rather sad temple to consider looting - no flashy gold statues, no glittering gem-encrusted bits, no obvious valuables at all. Mod is not a deity to judge a man by his wealth though, and for a priestly sort of place, the number of well-muscled men who come and go is disproportionately high. This may have something to do with the two large circles inscribed on the floor by means of inlaid copper and bronze respectively, and in which one can regularly find men and women, young and old, engaging in wrestling... The copper circle sees more use, appearing to be the general practice and instruction area, with classes held for followers at regular times by the Church itself. A priest is always here to oversee the proceedings and rule on winners. The bronze circle, by contrast, is almost always deserted, as it's use is more ritualized. This is the Temple's Challenge Circle, where matters of canon, legal disputes brought by Church members, and personal problems can be worked out in the only true divinely approved manner : a competition of strength and skill. It is said that Mod himself watches all Challenges in his Holy Circles and sometimes acts subtly to ensure justice. Behind the granite altar which itself is part of the floor at the back of the Hall, a vast bas-relief of a great axe has been carved into the wall. Lighting comes from a series of ever burning lanterns arrayed in sconces about the hall, and a number of rug-hung arches along the walls can be seen, presumably leading to priests quarters, kitchens and the usual amenities.

ShadowHawk snoops around looking as innocent as a small child trying to find the "Item" that was rumored to have been handed over to the priesthood. ShadowHawk grins over at Tikk "Hi, how have you been? Did you come here because of the rumors too? Do you think it may have been too much drinking and falling on his sword a few times?" he lowers his voice "I've heard humans do that every now and then." He then looks up at the human with a look of pure innocence "Oh Hi, I didn't see you there."

Jharrek arrives in his normal manner. that is to say, there is no Jharrek. And then with a rippling of shadows, there is a Jharrek slowly walking into the temple. He wasn't invisible. Just very difficult to see if one does not look very hard. He glances around, frowning. "Something about an attack..."

Tikk looks at the other gnome and shrugs slowly, "I heard that a blue man was here and I wanted to follow that. But what rumors, what guy." she lowers her voice and whispers to him, "I have -seen- it happen." she offers to the other gnome.

ShadowHawk grins over to Tikk He mutters to Tikk, "... I heard... dragging... town covered in... brought..." he looks around at everyone in the room "They say that he may have handed something to a priest before he died and said something a 'Ironhead'" (Tikk senses "ShadowHawk grins over to Tikk "Well the way I heard it some guy came dragging himself into town covered in blood and was brought here" he looks around at everyone in the room "They say that he may have handed something to a priest before he died and said something a 'Ironhead'"")

ShadowHawk senses Tikk kisses his cheek playfully before giggling, "Sounds fun...lets go see if we can figure it out."

Heather comes walking in the temple with Alance and Amari "I never been here before, very nice decor around here."

ShadowHawk nods to Tikk He mutters to Tikk, "... see... walk... the..." he says with an innocent grin. (Tikk senses "ShadowHawk nods to Tikk "and see if we can walk out with the item" he says with an innocent grin.")

Alance chuckles at Heather's comment "Wait till you see the inside of Aurinko's sometime, lots of gold and crystal"

Jharrek stands back for the moment, giving time for the lollygaggers and curious to filter around. He needs information, so keeps his mouth shut until he has more.

Tikk looks at Shadowhawk and giggles. "Perfect." she says and looks around before lowering her voice to a whisper again.

As the last trio of people come into the temple, a rather large man in cleric's accoutraments comes out of the private quarters. He doesn't seem to be very surprised at the gathering of adventurers both large and small here in the hall. He strides across the hall towards the group of you. As he nears, he slows to a halt and folds his arms into opposite sleeves and bows slightly in greeting. "I am brother Alastor, how may I help you this eve'n?"

Heather takes a look to the others in the room, as it seems every one she knows "Well I think its safe to say we are all here to ask you about the jungle out post watchman that just died." she starts to speak in her more serous type of speaking voice. "And has the government come to talk to you about this yet?"

Alance nods slightly toward Heather then turns to the Cleric "That and offer aid if it is needed to find out what happened"

Brother Alastor glances around and says, "Ah, yes, the young soldier...perhaps we should remove ourselves to a more comfortable area to discuss this." so saying, he turns on his heel and begins striding away to the far end of the hall, pulling open a door to a private alcove, he waits for the group to enter if they will.

ShadowHawk Looks over to Alastor, he then walks over to him and sticks out his little hand while drawing a deep breath "Hi my name is Shea Hamilton Alleyne Dunham Oberon Wendel Harken Aerynn Weylin Keegan of the Skyye Clan in Meloria it's nice to meet you. Did you see the guy when he came in? was he covered in blood? is there something out towards the outpost that we should look into? did that guy really give you some smaill item? If so can I have it? and who is this Ironhead I've been hearing rumors about?" he then stops to take a breath of air.

Jharrek lifts aside a grey tapestry with a black great axe on it, and steps through the arch behind it into an area beyond.

Amari bows her head respectfully to the fellow clergyman and awaits his reply. She is dressed in her armor and her shield hovers nearby. She remains quiet as she watches the priest and then slips a hand into the crook of Alance's arm and follows the group.

Heather follows Alastor and says to shadow "to make it easier lets all pick some one to do all the questions so the poor gentlemen is not over burned with questions."

Jharrek keeps his mouth shut for once. He follows at the back.

ShadowHawk follows along muttering to himself about how gnomes are always ignored by bigguns or told to be quite and let the big people do the talking.

Heather looks down and says "that doesn't mean you are not the one to ask the questions."

Brother Alastor pulls the door to behind himself after the group makes their way into a low-ceilinged, comfortable sitting room. Undoing his robes of office and stripping them off he reveals that underneath he wears a serviceable breastplate with beautiful scrolled etching upon the metal. Hanging at his right hip is a light mace along with several pouches. Reclining in one of the seats, he gestures to the others of you to make yourselves comfortable on the various seats and settees scattered about the room. "To your first questions, the king's men were here, they are the ones who found the poor boy half-frozen outside of the gates. The young man did indeed pass off something to the head of our order before his spirit passed away," he pauses here as he pours a small cup of water for himself.

Heather nods "do you know what that item is, and is it still here?"

ShadowHawk crosses his legs and sits down on the floor near Alastor looking up at him like a child that is ready for his lessons. His full attention on the Priest, and the others in the room, and the slight draft across the floor and um the ant that is walking through the room, but mostly on the priest.

Alance smiles slightly down at Amari as she tucks her hand into his arm, letting Heather do all the asking.

The priest nods and says, "I do. Actually I have it here in my possession, as the king has not yet sent someone 'round to collect it." his voice is deep and powerful, full with sorrow for the life lost, he digs through one of his pouches for a moment as he continues, "The boy was raving, out of his mind with terror and exhaustion. We could not make out most of what he said, and he quickly passed beyond even our abilities to help him. The one thing he did say over and over is 'It comes, Ironhead, it comes' and he mentioned something about a red beast."

Heather nods and waits for the item to be showed to the group "and I assume Ironhead and Red beast means about the same to you as it does me." said as she gets her note book out and takes some notes.

Jharrek listens with quiet focus.

ShadowHawk strains from his seat to see the item, one hand starts to reach towards it almost as if it was by it's own violation. He notices his hand and pulls it back down to his lap "what is it?" he asks quietly then quickly shuts his mouth as if remembering he wasn't supposed to be asking questions.

Alance frowns "A dragon? Perhaps one of the..." He doesn't say the rest.

Brother Alastor shrugs his shoulder and says, "I know not what the boy meant, it could've been anything." finally he takes the small item out of a pouch and, before handing it over says, "You may look at it, but I must have the keeping of this sigul until the king sends his men to take it." so saying he passes it over. Studying the item, you can tell at once that it is a small medallion fashioned of some sort of metal, about six inches in diameter. In the center of the medallion a raised device shows itself to be two interlocking letters, identical and curling, twin 'B's' stare blankly up at you from the center of the sigul.

ShadowHawk looks at the sigil his mouth forming a large O he turns to Heather "isn't this the device of Baron Buffalo that was marked on the Library?"

Heather does a quick sketch of the pendent "did you try the normal detection spells on it like detect magic on it." she looks to Shadow "I believe it is, but I think the lettering is a bit different."

The priest nods to Heather, "Aye, we did. We attempted to scry it, as well as performing several other tests to divine its properties and origins. It appears to be some sort of crude iron casting with no inherent magical spells or effects within it. Apparently it is some sort of sign or sigul, probably one of fealty."

Heather gives the priest a nods thankfully and looks thoughtful "I seen that outpost, its no small one. what ever attacked it had good numbers on there side most likely." she closes her book and puts it in her haversack. "I will need to commune with my Goddess on this... now all I need is the 14 right questions to ask."

Amari looks at the medallion for a moment but doesn't seem to know what it might be."Your attempts to scry were unsuccessful for what reason?" she asks with some interests,"I am capable of scrying in more difficult circumstances than most. If you think it might help."

ShadowHawk looks up at the bigguns "was it the outpost that was attacked or was it just this young human or a small group, I wasn't sure since the rumors are various? or does anyone know? has anyone scryed the outpost?"

The priest shakes his head and says, "It was not an attack at the outpost...apparently the guards were on their way back /from/ the outpost - changing of the guard. When they reached this side and made it out into the forest they were apparently attacked there, at least according to what we could make of the lad's ravings." he looks to Amari and says, "Our most talented brothers tried to scry its owner using it as a reference, a locator. We were completely unsuccessful - as if we were somehow blocked from the attempt." He looks to the small blue gnome and says, "Unfortunately our magics cannot penetrate the mistwall - none are able to to my knowledge - but we did send a runner to check. He should be back by tomorrow morning. Once again, according to what we were able to discern, it was not the outpost itself that was attacked, but the guardsmen on their return home."

Alance nods slowly "Then perhaps we should go out and find out what happened, perhaps look over the place the attack or whatever happened, and see what we might be able to find out."

Jharrek still listens.

ShadowHawk is almost bouncing with excitement looking over to to Alance "Oh can we that sounds like fun! and maybe we can find this red beast and then we could have some fun with it and and and" he then looks down taking deep breaths trying to get his thought process to catch up to his speaking.

The priest shrugs and, holding his hand out for the return of the medallion says, "I would urge you to leave it to the authorities, but if you are intent on pursuing the matter, I will let the king's men know that a group of adventurers is looking into the matter."

Jharrek idly fingers his ring that has the seal of the royal house on it.

Heather says "well I will look in to it until I hear royal word to stop."