The Prototype Creation

After the gut wrenching pull of the planar shift you all find yourself near the middle of a large hallway. For those interested in taking a head count it would seem that everyone made it safely through the portal, people and animals including Sorno. Everyone seems to be a little green around the gills but otherwise unharmed.

The hall is about twenty feet wide by 100 feet long and make of a variety of carved stone blocks. Placed along the walls aproximately every ten feet or so are the remains of everbright crystals, enough of which still function to provide dim illlumination for the hallway. THe walls themselves seem to have sustained some kind of damage, likely from a combination of natural decay and lack of maintenance. There are a number of cracks and in a couple of places water is dripping through the cracks. The entire area is covered in a layer of dust, with no traces of traffic aside from the marks that your group is leaving now. It would seem that the place has been abandoned for quite some time.

The only exit is a large circular doorway at the opposite end of the hall. The door itself is about ten feet in diameter and covered in arcane runes. Standing on either side of the door are two large iron golems, currently inert. These golems are older ones, chunky and less refined than the ones that you have seen in the past. They appear also to be covered in a think layer of dust indicating that they have not moved in quite some time. On the right hand side of the doorway you can see an intricately carved stone face, about two feet tall. The face appears to be that of a man, his mouth open in an almost startled 'O' expression. Many of you will recognise this as one of the fairly common speaking stones, built mainly by house Orien.

Other than yourselves and the sound of dripping water, you appear to be the only people in this place.

Rima, Praetorious, Gerbill: You recognise many of the arcane symbols that adorn the door without needing to make any sort of check. From this distance some of the symbols appear to warn against magical tampering. Imagine the cultural equivalant of a warning label, a large single symbol. The rest of the writings are too small to read from this distance. In addition if the golem's magical enchanments are as old as the golems appear to be, it is unlikely that they are built to respond to motion. They would need to be voice activated and the presence of the speaking stone attests to how they were most likely commanded.

Ghalin: Something about this place just feels... right. It takes a moment or two to recall where youve felt this before and realise that it hasnt been since you left the caverns of your home. And then you stomach jumps as you know that the only way for anywhere to feel like that is if you are deep underground.

Elves: Something about this place has you dancing on your very toes. You feel enclosed, trapped, penned in even though the room is actually quite spacious. Not enough to interfere, but certainly a nagging irritation in the back of your mind

::Jaynna takes several deep breaths, her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to calm her panic. What was that screaming, who had shouted. She cracked open one eye and glanced about, squinting to make out everyone in the group. She gave a sigh of relief, and opened her other eye, glancing about with a bit of growing curiosity at their surroundings. She released her deathgrip on the loose skin around Hope's neck and straightened up a bit.

Moving up beside Bulwark, cocking her head this way and that, she glanced with concern at the large metal figures, then with a more intense look, she glances at the ceilings and the floors, scanning for any of the less mundane dangers, spoors or molds that might cause breathing problems, insects that might affect her companions health, anything that might live in the abandoned, moist atmosphere of this hallway.

"Um.. are we all okay?" She speaks up softly, "I feel a bit.. tossed, but other than a dry mouth, I am okay. How about the rest of you?" She turns back to the group, going over each person with a practiced eye, what she can see of them. Trying to do her best to be helpful.::

"I am still functioning. . ." Bulwark mumbled, slightly more curious to the surroundings than Jaynna's question. His eyes fell on the iron golems, and he stared. His leg jerked, like he wanted to move towards them, but he held his ground upon noticing Jaynna had moved towards him. Curiosity could wait.

He still couldn't shake them from his vision, though. "I do not recognize our new location, though that is not saying much, considering our last was on another plane. It is any guess as to where we are now. . . Though the iron golems are a bit of a relief. . . At least, to myself," Bulwark added. "And the rest of you? You are well?

Gerbill calmly takes a deep breath in and out and steps through the doorway with the rest of his companions. Maybe due to his shorter stature or his smaller disposition he feels very disoriented. When he exits he wobbles briefly and seems very green about the gills. He attempts to hide his state at first not wanting to seem weak to his companions. He bravely fights the nausea. For those looking in his direction he seems about to lose the fine meal from camp. In fact those nearest might worry about their boots. Just when it seems inevitable that he will spew, he closes his eyes and swallows. Then with obvious effort his face strains and his body stills.

Gerbill removes his glasses and rubs his eyes, kind of pinching them and his nose. There are tears, which he quickly wipes away. After a few head shakes, he replaces his glasses and looks around. Noting a look or too from those around him, he says, “Now that is not something I should like to do every day.”

Only then do Gerbill’s eyes take in their surroundings. He notes the thick dust, and poor lighting. The Iron Giants flanking the door are intimidating until he realizes they are not moving and equally coated with dust. The speaking stone then mesmerizes him. Glyphs easily recognized as warnings to mages, to keep their magic to themselves practically scream at him. “Here now is something interesting…” He tries to make out more of the writing and seems drawn across the room but resists its siren’s call.

He realizes at that point he has been staring at the stone head and he looks to his companions. “Um…” he clears his throat. “Does anyone have some water?” He stalls hoping someone else will speak up about the glyphs and their meaning.

Ghalin smiles wide with out knowing it. And breathes deeply with a loud exhale. As he sees Gerbal's control over his stomach he begins to rummage through his bag. He produces one of the many loaves of bread he stuffed in his pack and rips a good chunk off. As Gerbil requests water he grabs a skin as well and walks over to the tiny bard. "Ther bread will help calm your stomach." He says in the friendliest tone any of you have heard him speak in. With that he hurries over to the walls and begins to run his hands over them. He sniffs the stone, and takes it all in. As you watch him you are almost surprised to not see him kiss the wall. As an after thought he turns his head and speaks in the same friendly tone, though his voice now sounds more guttural. As though being here had reawakened the Dwarf inside him. "Ah am good Metal Man, though I am worried about the leak in the walls."

Mirae leans against the wall, eyes shut tight, fighting down her nausea and feeling very glad she didn't bother to eat at the camp. After a moment she opens her eyes and looks around, sniffling and wiping ineffectively at the tears that still trickle down her cheeks.

"The forest..." she murmurs, unaware she's still speaking Sylvan in her distress, remembering that glimpse of the living trees withering at the approach of the army of dead things. "The destruction... Sorno's people... Oh no!" She looks around anxiously for the little man, happy to see him safe, then looks for her companion. "Denni?" She remembers calling to him to follow, but had he escaped in time? A pitiful mew sounds from near her feet, and she drops to her knees and hugs the cat tightly, reassuring him that everything will be all right. "Sorno? Your forest... I... I am so sorry..."

She glances around at the others, relieved to see that everyone seems to have made it through the gate, and nods to Jaynna and Bulwark. "Fine... I am fine," she responds unthinkingly in Sylvan. Still holding Denni close as though scared of losing him, she gets to her feet and looks up and down the hallway. Curious, she moves towards the big round door to take a closer look.


((edit: everything she said here, apart from the names, was in Sylvan.))

::Jaynna frowns as she listens to Mirae.. cocking her head.. she recognizes the musical tones of the fae's language, even if she cant understand the words.. and smiles as Mirae continues.. her eyes look to the others.. her mind putting away Grrbill, Bulwark, Ghalin and Mirae's responses as being okay..

She glances to the others.. her eyes intent.. as she waits their status""

After a brief look around and a moment of relief that he escaped safely, the realisation of something terrible hits Sorno...

... and he faints

Waking from a darkness for a second time in less than a day is something Val is starting to hate. He begins to curses in Elven as he looks around the room and finishes the curse in goblin.

The sickening feeling of entrapment runs through Val as if it were ice water. He's been deep in the halls of Cannith Forges but this looks like Dwarven architecture.

Val calmly mutters "Dwarves...Fantastic."

Val'murss secures his Scimitar to his harness and looks around at the others waiting to see what the next move shall be.

Gerbill looks at Mirae. "Wait... you mean the undead, the battle horns, all of that was real?"

Rima falls to her knees and hands, panting furiously. Through ragged gasps she breathes, "What was-huff-that-huff huff-stygian nightmare??? . . . . . . .Where are we?" Slowly she stands. She staggers a bit, then steadies herself.
She assesses her surroundings, taking in the runes, golems, and dust. After seeing Ghalin's reaction, she deems it to be dwarfish handy work. "Ghalin, since we're in your neck of the woods, what would you guess those golems would do if we approached them? From what I've heard of dwarven engineering, they're the least of what we have to be worried about, but still. . . ."

Kree was lying passed out on the floor. Rima scooped her up and cradled her gently. Then she looked from face to face, trying to figure out what to do next.

Mirae pauses en route to the door, and glances at Gerbill. "I... thought so..." she replies, remembering to speak in Common this time. "I cannot be sure, but it looked real enough. Perhaps Sorno..." She looks around for her tiny friend in confusion... he was there a moment ago...

"Oh, ogre's eyes! What happened?" She hurries over, putting Denni down and gently scooping up the unconscious fae before he can get stepped on. "Sorno?"

She brushes off some of the dust and very gently prods him, trying to wake him, and speaks softly in Sylvan. "Wake up, my little knight. It is all right, we will be out of here soon..." She looks at Jaynna in concern, wondering if Sorno needs her healing touch again, as Denni tries to sniff at the limp figure in Mirae's hand.

"It may not be Dwarven engineering, Madam Rima. . . It may be from House Cannith as well," Bulwark said, idly rubbing at the mark etched in his back. "However, given that Ghalin seems comfortable, I will assume that you are correct in your assumption. . ."

Bulwark looked to Mirae and Sorno. The small creature had fainted -- Bulwark wasn't sure how to react. He was concerned for Sorno, but. . . A construct of his size? How would he be able to help something so small? That thought complete, he looked down to Jaynna, and then to the iron golems again.

Bulwark took a few hesitant steps forward towards the golems. He stared at them, trying to piece together the knowledge that he had read from books with his own knowledge to figure out exactly what the golems were. ((So, basically, GM: Bulwark's trying to figure out the size of them, the threat they might pose. . . Etc, etc. Basically, a more thorough description, in case they've got any more details for the group to be aware of. Being a construct himself, I figure he might also be able to tell, or at least roughly estimate, how long it's been since they've moved. . . Or at the very least, a rough guess of age.))

He turned his head, looking back to the group over his spikes and shouder. "I do believe what occurred before actually happened." He turned to face the group fully, and walked back to where he was standing near Jaynna. "We are still together, are we not? Our small friend, Sir Sorno, is still with us. . . I have no reason to doubt what happened was reality.

"I believe, though, we can dwell on if it was real or not later. At the moment, it seems that we are still trying to get our bearings straight. Perhaps once we figure out where we are. . ."

Bulwark wrote:

((So, basically, GM: Bulwark's trying to figure out the size of them, the threat they might pose. . . Etc, etc. Basically, a more thorough description, in case they've got any more details for the group to be aware of. Being a construct himself, I figure he might also be able to tell, or at least roughly estimate, how long it's been since they've moved. . . Or at the very least, a rough guess of age.))

((No problem. I didnt give one earlier since they were roughly fifty or sixty feet from you, but as you step closer more details will be revealed))


Bulwark: A you move closer to the golems to get a better look at them, you recognise from a variety of sigils on them that they are a fairly standard sentry golem. Created with limited verbal responses and no automatic ones, these golems would have to have been commanded into action before they would become a threat. They stand about ten feet tall and are armed with only their fists as weapons. They appear to be about 20 years old and dont seem to have moved for at least three to four years given the level of dust that has collected upon them. Given their position it is most likely that they would have been commanded throught he speaking stone placed on the wall just behind them. As you get a little closer you can see a mark on their foreheads identifying the house that they were created for.




You scratch you head mentally. Certainly you have seen this very same setup in many times before. The speaking stone would lead to a security station, those seeking entry woud state their business and be admitted. If trouble arose the security guards could command the golems from safety inside the building. But the hallway doesnt match, and the door's intricate carvings are far more elaborate and detailed then any you can recall. You are certain that you stand in the main entrance hall of a House Cannith Forge.... But which one?

((EDIT: sorry meant to mention that any arcane gets the stuff above the symbol as soon as they take a look... sorry))

((Alright. Sounds good. :3 Sorry for the double post [technically], but just gonna relay that to the party. ;P))

"While I may not understand stone as well as Sir Ghalin. . ." Bulwark turned back to the golems, "I do know the iron golems are Cannith-made. Their ghulars mark them to House Cannith. They don't appear to have weapons, but. . . If my arm is any indication, it is also possible to imagine weapons, perhaps, beneath the plating as well. Rather standard golem, however. . . At least two decades of age to them, though given the collection of dust, I would say they have stood inert for three or four years. . ." Anyone could easily pinpoint what almost sounded like a trace of sadness in Bulwark's voice at the idea of their age and the time they had been standing idle. The black construct bowed his head to the sentries, as if paying some sort of respect.

After a few seconds, almost awkward at that, of silence, Bulwark continued. He had been thinking. "It almost seems to be the entrance hall to a House Cannith forge, if my crystal eyes do not deceive me. However. . . As of which one, I do not know. The sentries were guardians, if you will. But. . . Something is not correct. This seems too. . . High standard of a forge. The markings, for example. . . I have visited many various forges since my creation. But I do not recall this. . . I am sorry."

He said the last sentence as if everything he had just rambled out amounted to nothing, just because he didn't know where they were. It even came complete with a bow of the head to the group, and Bulwark's eyes remaining focused on the floor.

Ghalin stops rubbing the stones and turns "Dwarven construction is the finest you may ever see if you manage to live o' hundered lives lass. Though the machines there ain't it. My eyes tell meh it is Dwarven designed, but all my senses know it is not built by a Dwarf." He sighs. "I can hear the stones cryin' under the strain, as they were not made to lay like this. I can feel the pressure they are under, causing the fissures in the rock." He smacks his lips a little "And I think I can still taste human hands puttin' it together."

He takes a step away from the wall and scans hi companions. "No one would by chance have some mortar so I could repai...." He breaks off realizing he companions probably would not be patient enough to let him repair the walls.


"Ma question is why someone would pay a Dwarf ter design a place, or try an steel plans from em.... and not let 'im build it! Gold weren't the issue I'd say lookin' around."

Val inspects the walls and heads forward towards where the others are looking.

"I've been someplace like this before. A while back I entered a place much like this, death and horrors beyond comprehension waited for us in the dark corners of the facility. I suggest we do not wander." He looks over to the dwarf. "I suggest you take point, you should be right at home in this sort of environment."

"Bulwark, have you ever heard of Cannith Forges built underground?"

::Jaynna hurries over to Mirae, her hands already unfastening her rucksack's flap. She reaches in and pulls out several bound together bamboo tubes, glancing at the colored tops she picks one sealed with a vibrant green cork. Popping the cork, she dips her small finger into the opening and pulls it out coverd in a greenish white paste. Carefully, she waves the tip of her finger under the pixie's nose. Even from such a tiny smear of the ointment, a sharp acrid scent wafts up to those near by.

When the fae revives she places the cork back in the tube and the tubes in their place in her bag, she glances over to Rima, smileing softly, "Need some assistance with your friend?"

She cocks her head as Bulwark and the others discuss the room, listening carefully though some of what they are discussing goes over her head a bit.::

Gerbill accepts the bread and water from Ghalin. "Thank you, sir." He takes a few swallows and chews on some bread.

Finally he can no longer resist the call of the glyphs. He moves to the speaking stone and begins to read, careful not to touch it. He thoroughly examines the writing and layout of the speaking stone and its surroundings, mindlessly gnawing on the hunk of bread and taking occassional sips from the waterskin.

Sorno's head snaps back and his eyes flutter open when the foul smelling paste is wafted under his nose. He stumbles to his feet wobbling for a moment. Then the realisation that everything is real hits him again. His eyes widen, his wings droop and his face goes white as a sheet, but this time he swallows hard and stays in control.

He jumps up to Mirae's shoulder and settles himself there, his wide eyes darting around the room in a desperate search for an exit of some kind. His eyes whirling through a hundred different colors

As Gerbill's examination of the door takes him closer to the right side, the eyes of the speaking stone open to reveal glowing blue crystals.

A hollow male voice intones, "Identification please?"

Rima starts at Jaynna's offer for assistance, "Wha? Oh, yes! If you could. . . ." She holds out Kree.

With her other hand, she takes out her metal staff and extends it again just in case. "I should think we have to wander around. If we don't, how will we ever get out of this place? Judging by the dust, no one's been here for quite a while and no one will just come along and find us and guide us out."

::Jaynna examines the bird.. wondering if Kree is just passed out or worse.. knowing it wont harm the bird, she wafts her finger over the top of the birds beak, knowing the acrid smell should wake it up if its just passed out from the stress of the portal travel. Looks for other signs if that is not the case. Finges gentle as they caress the delicate bones under the feathers.::

Gerbill wanders to the doorway absent mindedly chewing the bread his eyes intent on the glyphs. It looks like he recognizes something and he slows his approach becoming much more cautious. When the eyes open and the speaking stone speaks he freezes.

After a heartbeat he turns and motions for Bulwark to come forward and he points him at the speaking stone. Mouthing the words "Talk to it." Gerbill slowly backs away...

Bulwark walked up to Gerbill, already intent on helping his companion before Gerbill asked him to approach. The construct stood to his full height and width. He placed his sword arm across his chest in the form of a salute -- even if the speaking stone may not have been able to see him, and he nodded.

When he spoke, his voice had a strange soldier-like tone to it, and he spoke louder; almost at a thunderous level. "I am designation A001-017. Delta. Red. Named, Bulwark. . ."

Bulwark held his position for a few seconds before relaxing and looking back to the group. When he spoke, his voice had returned to the quieter, emotionless state. "My apologies if I was too loud -- it was how I was instructed on how to respond to a Cannith official. . ." He looked to Rima. "I do not believe the staff will be needed, Madam. If you wish to keep it out, you may, but they may ask you to put it away -- some forges do not allow weapons to be carried unless clearance is given. I do not know how this one operates, however. . . I gave my clearance level, just to be safe. Perhaps my level of access will spread to the rest of you as well." He nodded, not exactly explaining what his clearance was or what it meant.

Bulwark turned to Val'murss. "Of the forges I have visited, some have been on ground level, while others have been, at the most, in a basement. None has been truly 'underground'. . . So I am rather curious as to where we are. . ."