The hall with the door did seem quite old, Roman perhaps. Still, what you seek borders on antedeluvian. Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the dawn of recorded civilization.
The stairs seem wuite ancient, crudly hewn into the stone by some primative means. Still, it must have required metal tools. Or Magic.
Plus knowledge of stairs.
:mrgreen:
Felecia notices that you are crossing a Regio boundary.
The descent takes an hour, and at the bottom you find yourself in a vast chamber. The walls and roof are an indefinate distance away, and the cave feels infinite. The stairs behind you spiral up endlessly and dissapear in the distance.
And there is light!
Giant fireflys hum to and fro high above, and one flutters down to hover thirty paces overhead and illuminate your path.
Looking around, you notice numerous fenced lots scattered endlessly about. They appear to be gardens overgown with different vegitation. A giant spider wanders between them, watering here and pruning there. There goes another, and again. Then one approaches you...
"Be prepared, not aggressive." Fleur says quietly as it approaches, then more loudly "Hail, what place is this? We are seekers of knowledge come in exploration!"
The spider has a face like a giant muppet, seems friendly, and can speak quite well.
[color=green]This is the Garden of Chaos, where we incubate and generate creatures to stock the dungeons and caverns with. If you are looking for an adventure, I will be glad to set you up in a maze of your choosing. Tower of Inversness? Tomb of Horror? White Plume Mountain? Temple of Syrinx? House of the Rising Sun? What would please you most?
"I was looking more for information than to wander around killing things. I don't suppose you can do an authentic birthing cave from the ancient fertility rites?"
[color=green]You don't just kill things. You get to take their stuff! That's how the game works. It's how the story goes. Whence killed, the faerie's essence is recycled into a new creature. The dungeons continue on and on endlessly forever.
If you are looking for things that are of Magic, and Ancient, then there are a few options. There is an ancient dragon or two that wanders around the caverns. Some ogres have taken over caves at the west end of the valley. They are magic, not ancient, but those caves are stable and consistant. They don't shift and change behind you like these do.
Or I can direct you to the Troglodytes. They are faerie, but they are resonant of an ancient past. Very ancient.
Fleur considers- she had come to seek information, not vis or other faerie stuff. She had magic to support an army rather than for direct fighting, and while she had men at arms with her it was definitely not an army. However, as educational experiences go, faerie wouldn't have an answer but, from what little she understood they were keepers of stories and might provide some kind of hint to where the caves she was really looking for might be, with the right setting. "Okay, we'll try the troglodytes".
You are led around one of the gardens, and behold! There was a wall right there the whole time. And a cave opening.
[color=green]This way leads to the caves and warrens of the Troglodites of ancient lore, remnants of those who dwelled here before the coming of the giants and the sons of Adam. Countless generations of subterranean life have rendered them albinos with an aversion to light. Or were they this way to begin with and thus why they choose underground life? Beware, for though they seem weak and small, they are strong in numbers and their women weild strange magic.
Fleur proceeds inwards, looking over the walls to see how the stone looks, the texture of the path, trying to keep in mind that Faerie is more about inspiration than information, keeping the guards in front in case there are any troglodyte ambushes. Perhaps if she can recognize the real cave this story is spun around it will lead to the cave drawings of fertility rituals, or perhaps the story will lead to some special resonance... it is important to be open to the possibilities in faerie...
The caverns are ancient and convoluted, twisting and splitting into multiple paths. You try to apply some methodology to your exploration (I would presume). Hours of endless searching make you start to question about the wisdom of your decision.
And wonder about the extent of your supplies.
A day goes by?
Periodically you hear a strange noise in the distance, sonds of something moving.
Chanting?
Eventually though, you find something. A pile of bones. Small humanoid bones, stacked neatly, no skulls.
Slightly gnawed on.
Fleur remembers something about not eating food from Faerie and decides that applies double here. "Okay, let's see if we can find where that chanting is coming from, and keep in mind, whatever is down here probably sees us as food, so assume a very low probability of friendly intentions, unless they are tied onto a cooking spit or something." She also backtracks a bit and checks if the caves still match her notes or if they are changing behind them.
They are changing behind you and have been all along. Consistency exists in Observation.
One of the grogs has located the source of the chanting. The one passage leads to a wide hall, partially hewn and chipped away at to make it wider. The chanting grows loud from that direction.
We head in the direction of the chanting, with the lights lit. It will assuredly give away our position, but compared to being ambushed in the dark by creatures accustomed to darkness it seems the better course.
The congragations turns and stares at you and your light as you enter their temple. Troglodytes. They appear (using modern terms) as short albino cavemen. This large chamber is where they worship their strange ancient gods. Against the back wall there is a sort of stage on a large stone step. On the left side is an idol that appears to be a pregnant woman. On the right is a crude stone man with an obnoxious phallus. in the midst are several Troglodytes in the midst of procreative activity. Against the back wall is a giant inscribed sigil, identical to the drawing Felecia had made of the serpent earlier.
Felicia waves, pretending to be oblivious of the guards who are ready for the possibility of an attack while she gestures for the lights to be dimmed (though not enough to give up any tactical advantage, enough so that if they are not hostile it will look like she is trying to be accommodating) and begins taking notes. How large are the statues?
The statues are twent feet tall, give or take. The people turn to stare in amazement at you, and some fall to their knees. You are all invited up by the high priestess, and in particular it is Felecia they are amazed by.
The blatant and bestial sexuality of it all would concern, nay, horrify most anyone else. But not Fleur or Felecia. The grogs hang back. The high priestess clears the stage and invites the Cat and her Hooman on up. She shrieks and chants and shakes her feathered staff.
[color=red]meYOWLLLLLArrraraaggggg!!! What the $+@&? $+-&=% you!!! YYEEoooooWWWWW!!! OWOWOW!!!L!!L!
Sorry. It, it was a red cat I met near the covenant not long ago. Said he was Vibria's cousin....
ooowwwwwwww!!!!
Fleur waits a second to see if the priestess is going to do anything with the snakes, if not she will try and catch one for study, mindfull that they might be poisonous. "I wonder if this might be the doing of our friend from the pool."