Giustenal's ruins: A proper taste of the Hells on Athas

[DM Bob]

Niachi's dweomer reveals not only the hunter-killer's steps after the elf's murder, but the run prior. Large strides, bipedal... begin to the left of the egress over the wall.

Following this, you come to a large city gate. The gate's frame is of grey marble, perhaps once polished as they appear quite smooth. The tall walls nearby show no crenellation, not a soldier's design (yet high enough to deter most attackers anyways). Two giant stone dragons flank the gate's opening, the one on the right having it's visage broken into gigantic shards that lie nearby. The opened and long stuck gates themselves are made of ancient agafari wood. You are either lucky or unlucky that they are unbarred. We shall soon see.

The better conditioned dragon statue is terrible in it's detail and dread demeanor. It matches perfectly with the descriptions that those who have seen the awful beast - or at least those that claimed to have seen it.

Silt covers everything, and it it more so as you peer into the ruins proper. The dark tar smoke lets up here, allowing for a bit more detail, even thought the grey life sucking silt still blows about.

A large rift appears in the middle leading to a palace in the distance. Buildings are seen to the right and left, mimicking the living City-states of the Tablelands. Silt covers EVERYTHING, to the depths of six inches to a foot or more, and the ruined buildings each have the same covering on roof or wall.

To the rear of this facade, the world drops off in grey. You know the silt sea opens up beyond, but you honestly can't see it. Almost as if the ruins are half dream and half reality. Or maybe nightmare.

The tracks from both the arrival and hop down from the wall to your far right end up traveling towards the left, into an area where the ruined buildings look smaller than those on the right.

Map to follow tomorrow.

[Niachi]

Squinting under the rags covering his mouth and nose, Niachi admires the workmanship of legend.

"We have a name for this place: Naa'pok oga'Tee, 'We Do Not Dance Here.' Now I see. It would kick up too much dust.
It's almost like we are supposed to follow those footprints..."

[Quila Oris (John M.)]

”We may also try and find the tracks of that Silt Stalker, maybe together we get a better sense of what’s happened here. We might not want to follow the tracks of that killer, do we? We are here for something else.” Quila glances in the direction of Chat’cho to see how they are doing under the influence Aman’s geas.

She will cast a Footsteps of the Quarry upon the dead Silt Stalker elf to ascertain their path up to their death. Quila is unsure whether this particular prayer works the way she is trying to but feels now is as good a time as any to find that out.

As the group starts moving again she will cast Know Age both upon the marble frame of the city gates and upon the intact dragon statue flanking it. Even though the silt covers everything and makes the ruined city appear a cohesive whole in a temporal sense, her Chronicler’s instincts and experience make Quila feel that this might definitely not be the case given those parts of the history of the Tablelands she is familiar with. 

[DM Bob]

The dragon statue dates back some 2,016 years ago... towards the beginning of the Age of Sorcerer Monarchs.

The marble gate frame dates back to about two years prior to this, perhaps a replacement or modification to mount the gates upon in anticipation for the statue's completion.

Something tells you that there is further, older history behind this necropolis and the walls and gates were but additions to an ever growing stone beast, now slowly sinking into the silt.

The dead Silt Stalker's path runs up the forty foot wall and you guess away from the gate. It must be wide enough to travel upon up there. Since there is no rope, the elf must have climbed down using the crumbling edifice as a mountain climber treats a rock wall. Was she sent here to spy upon you? Or something else?

[AthasianLaborer]

'Muiko invisibly casts Polymorph Self, changing into an Aarakocra to take flight and scout the wall top and city layout from a reasonable altitude (maybe 200' above the highest rooftop?).  On his return he says in his most condescending tone "Sqwrack! You apes would be lost without my nosy meddling" then immediately in his own voice [Elven: "I only meant to think that, please don't let her know I said that"] spoken in the direction of Quila.

He will then shift back into his elf form and sketch out the view of the ruins from above (as best he can).  He will drop the drawn map next to Quila.

Artistic Ability rolled a 17 needing a 13 or less.  Fail.

[DM Bob]

The reason this does not work well is because of the wind and obscuring silt... especially from such a height.

If Muiko decides to fly lower and remap, another attempt may be made. But it will take time.

[Attilius]

Shield up, Attilius continues forward down the main street, using the long pole to continuously tap 12' in front of him (looking for silt covered tar pits, traps and quicksand areas)

[Skrye [AC3; 48/48HP]]

- Skrye looks around at the construction of the stone walls without separating an inch from the party. She then starts thinking of any bardic story that may predate or make reference to this place or the statues, but the antiquity of the place and its distance from Celik does not fit any of the legends she knows

[OOC: Failed Bardic knowledge roll, 70% out of 40%]

[Niachi]

Flanking Attilius, Niachi starts his divinations. First: Detect Undead.
1 turn casting. then scans in all directions.

[AthasianLaborer]

'Muiko will go for a second pass as an Aarakocra, at a lower altitude this time (maybe 100' off the rooftops), still invisible.

Artistic Ability rolled a 17 needing a 13 or less, failed again (womp, womp)

[Quila Oris (John M.)]

“So it would seem the elf came out of the ruins and was chased and finally offed here just outside the walls by something bipedal that came from within and was agile enough to also scale these ruined walls then. That’s no ordinary foe nor wildlife. Reeks of undead craziness or humanoid-like danger to me. Could those puncture wounds have been caused by a sort of pitchfork-like piercing weapon perhaps?”

[Niachi]

OOC: Bob, do the Footsteps show as humanoid footwear, barefoot, non-humanoid, or generic footprint marks?

[DM Bob]

Three clawed bipedal feet standing on the ball of the foot. The gait suggests something perhaps as tall as fifteen feet in height.

Attilius has to pass under an arch beyond the gates that have a singular Dragon's head where the arch stone would be. He has more than enough room underneath and it actually makes him feel small for once. Beyond that? A large building immediately before him, with blackened scorch marks upon the facade. Two obsidian dragon figures flank the entrance. The top is covered in silt, as everything you see. The air seems to grow thick here, oppressive even. Just walking forward kicks up plumes of the grey shit to rise up into the air causing you to be thankful for wearing damp scarves to cover your nose and mouth. The sound of your footfalls are muffled and lost to these dread ruins of a different time and age.

'Muiko has no luck and can't see much detail the way the silt is blowing. He can tell that a large palace to the north looks to be rent through the center with an earth shattering gap or crevasse. This was likely a plaza once, and large urns of black and grey ash are all that remain of their contents. The rear of that larger building is falling into the silt. To the west, smaller poorer buildings stand - to where the clawed footsteps lead.

The east buildings look bigger and there looks to be an arena further into the ruins there as well. These buildings are of various states of decay, from cracked and crumbling walls, to fallen or crushed roofs... Hell, some of them have fallen over completely. Wings and claws and dragon's heads are carved everywhere, lending an alien feel to the empty silt streets.

You swear you can hear faint screams upon the sharp, silt wafting wind. You feel the distinct feeling of being watched.

[Skrye [AC3; 48/48HP]]

- "These walls have seen eras past of glory and maybe raw events, the wind whispers silence to them by attempting to erase the memory of their surface, although the twisted feral faces that guarded the titanic entrance stand the whistling silt around.." - looking around

[Coden Rokos (Jesse H.)]

"Fifteen foot three-toed biped? That's... about the size of a b'rohg. I don't know if they have three toes per foot, though."