Ruins & Riches [ME1]

[Sharn]

"They tend to." He agreed, finding the view of Runi's posterior more interesting for a brief moment than the eerie, Dark Side-imbued ruins. While fear didn't get him he was less insulated from other emotions the place could maliciously stir. "What's your reception of this place?"

[Runi Vizsla]

"I wish I could read the inscriptions. I can feel the fear of this place, but I'm also very curious about it," she said, turning her head so she could look back at him, but not so far that she interrupted the view. "What about you?"

[Sharn]

"Any script is a code with its recurrences and as such can be pattern-traced and ultimately broken." He kept looking. "The will to know and be able to explain everything is my primary drive."

[Ender]

During the passage, Sharn nevertheless looked back at Runi and when she decided to grab his coat to not get separated, he didn't comment. He remained largely silent throughout, making just some loose comment on the estimated age of the ruins. But when the green flame flared up, he pouted.

"This may be hallucination, Vizsla. What unfuelled fire would last 3 thousand years. Unless we're not alone." He knelt to check if there were traces of dried blood in the central channel as it looked like a seat of some old evil cult. Whatever was on the altar could be a bait.

Within the rings, it looked as if it had been carved by some liquid ages past, but here, it was dry as bone, the only moisture now came from the condensation of the stone, as snow melted and eroded little channels in the ceiling above, a slow crawl towards entropy.

The altar beckoned.

[Sharn]

Sharn got up from his knee, dusted it off and raised a brow pointing toward the altered that beckoned with dark energies. "Shall we, Vizsla?" The palpable Force both fascinated him and was making him wary as he disliked the unscientific decor and the underlying argument that there was something inherently magical about the Force. He crinkled his nose a little as he watched the greenlit phenomenon.

[Ender]

The light flickered, dancing in the air. From the angle you are at now, something sits atop the dais, but you can't tell what.

[Runi Vizsla]

"Let's," she agreed, waiting for Sharn and then heading up to the altar with him.

[Sharn]

They approached the dais together.

[Ender]

More clearly now. An ancient tome. Or what may have been considered a tome. Perhaps only because of the conditions in the ruin, it hasn't been lost to the ages.

The script is... unfamiliar. A breeze unnatural tore through the room, blowing out all the sconces, save for the massive one in front of you both

The book flips open. More unfamiliar script, and something that could be called... a map.

[Sharn]

Deprived of awe of anything mystical, Sharn irreverently started to scan and analyse the content, both the map - for coordinates, and the script - for patterns.

[Ender]

The first page doesn't crumble at your touch. But it is clear that perhaps something can be gleaned. While the script does have patterns, it is an unfamiliar language.

This is an Impossible (5eD) Knowledge (Lore) to try and decipher the writing here. To attempt the check, you must spend a Destiny Point first. This will not upgrade your check.

[Sharn]

After cursory study Sharn concluded he could not do it right away, but he would do so in more favourable conditions. For him there were no final failures, merely delays.

ME1. Superior deciphering of ancient tomes. Destiny spent because impossible is Tuesday. Prior setback, Runi's assist.: 5eA+5eD+1eS+1eB 3 failures, 5 advantage


[Advantages to preserve and grab the tome and to facilitate next attempts]

"These are not the right conditions to break the script." He blurted, unsatisfied.

[Ender]

After cursory study Sharn concluded he could not do it right away, but he would do so in more favourable conditions. For him there were no final failures, merely delays.

ME1. Superior deciphering of ancient tomes. Destiny spent because impossible is Tuesday. Prior setback, Runi's assist.: 5eA+5eD+1eS+1eB 3 failures, 5 advantage


[Advantages to preserve and grab the tome and to facilitate next attempts]

"These are not the right conditions to break the script." He blurted, unsatisfied.

Absolutely. With all those advantages, you definitely have the means to preserve it, and remove it for further study.

When you grab the tome, the final light burns out. The room is bathed in darkness. The cold seems to creep back into the ruin. As if the only thing keeping the elements outside was the connection of this tome to the Force.

[Sharn]

"Looks like I blew a fuse." Sharn chuckled, securing the tome. "Come near. It would be silly to lose way in darkness separately."

[Runi Vizsla]

Her laugh at that echoes in the room, seeming much emptier now, and she comes up next to him, her hand returning to the elbow of his coat. "I hear you. You'll have to tell me when you have the text sorted out. My skills tend more toward the mechanical than linguistic."

[Sharn]

"I'm not a linguist either, but I'll crack it." He adapted infrared vision to the dark so they could go back by the path they had found earlier. "Your call on what it could be?"

[Runi Vizsla]

"Welp, it's pretty thick with the Force, and it had a map. It was probably the focal text of whatever group lived here before. Maybe a combination of history and whatever philosophy or religion they held," she mused thoughtfully. "In a room like this, and with its resonance, it probably was used in ritual, as well. Without much to go on, I'm just throwing out wild guesses, though."

[Sharn]

"They are reasonably plausible. Most of them at least. I'll keep that in mind." It didn't sound like a compliment, but in Sharn's specific word of meaning that was a praise. "Did the Force here have a flavour for you?"

[Runi Vizsla]

"Mmm... I felt a lot of fear, and a lot of it was tied to the book as far as I can tell," she said with a shrug. "So just that, I suppose."

[Sharn]

"Any particular kind of fear? Of dying?" He inquired matter-of-factly, having not experienced it.